On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. If you get that gut feeling like, hey. Does it make sense monetarily? Does it make sense for my direction of where I'm trying to go? If you can honestly say, does this make sense for me right now, do it. And if not, be okay with saying, you know, not now, You don't have to say no, but just say, hey. Not now. There might be a time for it in the future, but once you make that decision, Don't think about it again.
You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz Wolfe featuring fellow 78 and even 9 figure business owners who have real battle scars from business and life, but have prevailed as the king that they are designed to be We welcome high performing entrepreneurs to the stage in order to reveal the real of the real on what it takes to build a successful business today.
We dissect the good and bad decisions they've made along the way Chaz give a true and accurate picture of the journey of success and how you too can get the Through this dialogue, you will learn the value of growing your network and surrounding yourself with power players and kings like today's guest. Grab your pen and notebook because we're about to dive in. What's up, gathering the Kings, nation, Chaz Wolfe, bringing to you a guest this week, incredibly honored to have this guy on my show.
Matt Pridemore. He is a franchisee for a furniture brand, and, he's got 14 freaking locations I'll tell you what this guy is young. He's fiery. He's ready to grow. He's always looking for the next deal. And, man, I think that he brings a ton of value, not only to the show, but just to just the outlook that he has on business and where he comes from, and he shares it all in this show. Grab that pen and paper. It's coming at you. Alright, everybody. Gathering the Kings, I'm your host.
Chaz Wolfe. I've got Matt. I'm so glad that you're here, man. This has been a a a a well awaited, appointment, and so I'm just thankful that you're here, man. Thanks for being with us. Hey. Glad to be here. Thank you for inviting me, and, thanks for using Facebook. Yeah. Yeah. We've we've got a fun story here for the listeners today on how we met, but because the listeners can't see us, until this video gets released later, we're rocking the Royal Blue memo today.
Both of us rocking the Royal Blue. And, and both workout shirts too, like both, you know, super fit over here. So there's gotta be something to Chaz, you know, success and and blue shirts. I don't know. Right? I'll I'll take it. I I've I'll I'll love the color blue. It, seems to to roll with the eyes and and, have fun with it. Yeah. There you go. Alright, Matt. Tell us what kind of business that you have or businesses? Yeah. So I currently own and operate 14 Badcock Furniture locations.
They are franchises. There are 400 of those franchises across the southeast. In the 7 Southeastern States. I have 14 of those, and, that's where I'm at at this current moment. And I'm in basically Georgia and Alabama and adding on Mississippi. So Yeah. I love it. And and most of the times, we've talked here offline. You've been in a location and looking at new locations and always growth minded.
I I just have totally appreciated that about you, but I'm curious before we kinda go back into the history and maybe about how we met and stuff, but why at this stage? You have 14 locations. Like, and you're looking to add on another state. Why are you just nuts, or, like, is this something inside of you? What is this?
Yeah. It's kinda funny Chaz I have listened to some of the other guys that coming on and talking on your podcast, it it really kind of resonates very closely with me in this, this mindset of you know, for for me, it's it's the challenge part of it. I like I love the challenge. Like, I I get bored really easily. And so I I love to go in. You know, my favorite thing to do is go into a store that is underperforming or even failing or going bankrupt. And and seeing the good that's in that store.
And if I can if there's just one little avenue that I see that I can get in there and I'm like, okay. We can fix this. Chaz fix this. We can fix this. And it'll run its go time. Like, everything starts clicking back to back to back. So being at 14 now and, you know, when I first got into this whole thing, I kept thinking like, hey.
If I go buy some of these that and and get them going in the right direction and start making money and do all these big things that, you know, the employees will, you know, the team members will want to be business owners and it's kind of funny. That's really not what's happening, but they are growing.
They're growing exponentially because because they're around you know, the guys like me and the the leadership team and and all these people that are that are part of this, the opportunities just continue to, you know, kinda snowball out Yeah. And then, you know, a lot of them are not going to be business owners, and I'm okay with that now. You know, obviously, you know, a couple years ago, I was thinking, hey.
Let's Let's get them to be business owners and they're they're they're they're not going to be, but they're going to be store managers and regional managers and district managers and You know? Yep. I was I was talking to one of my girls yesterday that is a, she's a she's a sales associate in one of my my existing stores. And she came to me and she said, hey.
I actually got a degree in accounting, and I want to use that accounting degree and I've had another one that said, she, you know, she's she she got a degree in international business. I wanna use that. I wanna use that. Great. Let's let's figure out ways to use that. But if I was that single unit owner and only stayed single unit, Number 1, I'm not going to attract that level of talent, but number 2, they're gonna leave pretty quickly because they they have no opportunity to grow themselves.
And so Yeah. You know, I'm just on that that growth mind, the the that mindset, just just a constant challenge type thing. Yeah. I heard you say several things, and I think, most listeners, today resonate with at least one of them, but I heard you say growth mindset for yourself, like, why not? It's a challenge. Like, let's just go. Let's let's just go. Let's just figure it out. Take the risk. It there's always more. It's no longer about money. It's just the game.
Like, let's just let's just play the game. Let's play the game well. I also heard you say that you're starting to tap into raising up leaders because every business owner, especially at the 7 bigger plus, Right? And and you've gotta develop a team, but then a lot of owners kinda get stuck even in that. And that's where a lot of even seven figure folks are stuck, which is, like, I've built a team but I don't have any leaders on my team.
I'm not raising up any new individuals, inside of the team to then take over areas like what you're saying, I love too also from the multiple location perspective just because, obviously, that's a little bit of my background is that if you can have multiple things going on, then you can basically offer a different opportunity. And so I love your mindset. I love the growth opportunity.
What that's done is it's spilled over to your team, to your people, to you know, the people that you call family. And so Exactly. Okay. So let's talk about, you know, the journey because I know you've done this all pretty quickly, and you didn't you didn't, like, you know, start out with a store. You had to buy your first one, or you had to buy the second one. So tell us the journey of kinda like where you were before. And how this whole thing kinda started dominoing for you.
Yeah. And and feel free to step in because I can probably get kinda wordy on this this whole part of the story. So I I I grew up. My parents owned, one location of Badcock, small, South Georgia, town for, for 35 years. They they they added on a second location right when they were getting ready to retire, and we can talk about that as well. But for the majority of my life, They owned one location, and I saw them working inside their store 247. They were operators.
Yep. And they did a real did a really good job of that through the eighties nineties. Like, I give them tons of credit for the job they did. But when I was sixteen years old, I to my dad. And I said, I never wanna be a part of that. I see what you're doing. That looks like really hard work, and I'm gonna exit stage left. I'm going somewhere else. But so was it because you were afraid of work, or was it because you had a different idea of what success looked like?
I had a complete different of what success looked like. Great point there. But but also, you know, I just had other dreams. You know, I had dreams in in professional baseball from an umpiring standpoint. And I wanted I wanted to realize those dreams. And so, you know, at at 18, my dad said, well, it's time to go to college. You're graduating high school. And I said, woah woah. The breaks, I'm gonna go to professional baseball umpire school down in Florida. And he's like, what? No way.
There's no way you're doing that. And I said, Hey. I'm 18. What do I have to lose? If I go down there and I don't make it, hey. There's there's a million other things I can do in life. Seriously. And so I did. I I left and and went down to Empire School and, you know, busted my butt, and I made it.
And, you know, there were 400 students down there and out of those 400, I think the 25 guys made it into minor league baseball, and we start rising up through the ranks, like the players, that whole thing. So I did that. I did that, until 2009 was my last season in baseball. And in 2009, I I I got some injuries. Got some concussions, medically released, all that. So right at the end of baseball, the the corporate arm of Badcock called me and said, hey.
We would like for you to come work for corporate. We see a lot of potential in you. You've got a little bit of a background. You helped your parents a little, you know, when you were younger and I said, you know what? Yes. I'm I'm twenty 627 at the time. Yeah. Let let's do that. And, so I I went and worked for the corporate side. I managed to store Now, you know, then they bumped me up to being a regional manager, so I did that. And, you know, for a couple of years kinda milled around in that.
But Yeah. You know, that was my development stage 27 to 31, 32. And, and I was living an amazing life in Pensacola, Florida right on the water, beautiful beach town, And I'm like, dude, life can't get any better. Like, this is great. And my parents call in 2 thou the end of 2015, And they said, hey, if you're thinking of buying our store from us, you need to go ahead and come do it now. And I said, well, yeah, And so I had been saving my money and thinking that might be a possibility.
So, you know, everything kind of came full circle. And I I let the corporate side. No. I'm gonna go buy my first store. I had saved up just enough money to get through. I I looked at the bank account, and I'm like, oh my god. $50,000. You know, I'm rich. And, so, you know, I I'll kinda So, like, SBA process, like, normal, like, you went to the bank, or how'd that go? How'd that look? So my my parents did do a a note for me on that first store. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So seller finance. 4 years?
Yeah. Seller Finance. So I I did that. So I got in there and realized really quickly I was kind of in over my head as far as expenses went. I probably should have gone the route of SBA loan or something like Chaz. You know, the people like you that are having podcasts now to kinda give that give those nuggets out. Yeah. Either either it didn't exist or I didn't know where to find it. And, so the only thing I knew to do was to grind. I was the store manager. I was a delivery guy.
I was a sales associate. I was I was everything. And about 6 months in, I called, a guy who, he and I had worked together up in New York, And we knew one day that we wanted to kind of own stores together, and I called him. And I said, dude, I need you to get here quick. If you can just sell then I will go be delivery guy. I'll go do all these other things, but I I'm being pulled in too many directions. Yeah. And, so he did. He moved from, from Oklahoma to, to Georgia.
Corey did an amazing job, with that transition. But you know, we we didn't have the money to do a whole lot. So we literally lived inside our store. There there's a shower there. There's a there's a break room that, you know, we we would sneak out pretend like we weren't living there, so nobody would really know. But, you know, so, so we we went through that whole thing for about a year and a half And then, you know, and and about the year and a half mark, we we were like, okay.
We we kinda see we we kinda see a bigger light here. And And that's when the wheels just kinda started turning at a higher level. We started making some money, and we were like, hey. Let's just reinvest everything we have. Let's go out and get a get another store. And then, you know, 4 months later, let's go out and get another store. Store. And we just kind of you know, it literally just kind of snowballed from there that Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. So let me let me break this down a little bit because you've given us I mean, what an incredible story, but so many practicals already. So what I heard you say, number 1, is you were being precise or, smart with your money before you decided to purchase. So you weren't buying dumb stuff. You know, now you said you lived in a nice area of Pensacola. I love Pensacola. One of my franchises is there.
Chaz no idea that you lived there, but, beautiful town, but you weren't blowing your money. And so what that enabled you to do when opportunity came to knock when luck, quote, unquote, came to knock. You were ready. It wasn't luck. It was something that you had been preparing for. And so you purchased your first location. And then I heard you say, holy smokes. I bit off more than you. And isn't it so as most entrepreneurs think it's it's gonna be easier than it is. It's gonna take less money.
It just is always gonna take longer be harder. It's gonna take more money than we ever think. And you got to experience that firsthand, which is probably was a little bit of a humble pie, you know, a little bit. It definitely was. Yes. When when you're the owner because I've been in the same shoe.
When you're the owner and everybody's looking at you thinking that you're making all the money and literally everybody on the team is making even if they're making only $10 an hour, they're making more than you. Dude, and it it was so crazy. Like, I was writing the checks out payroll, and I'm biting my fingernails. And I'm like, I hope this check goes through. You know, those type those type things, and I wasn't paying myself. I'm still kind of living off a little bit of those savings.
And thank goodness, I had a wife that, you know, was an officer in the navy. And, you know, she she's doing things on on her side, and and we're, you know, we're kinda balancing balance in life. Totally. We're balancing life. We're balancing business. We're we're we're we're trying to, you know, achieve this big dream. And then once those wheels, you know, the traction kinda caught, and I'm like, Okay.
So once I got to the the 3rd location, you know, 2 years in or whatever, I I started realizing, hey. I've got to put processes into place because I can't be in all three of these locations at once, and I can't just field phone calls 247. Like, we have to write down some of these processes And Yeah. And so we did, and we got better because of it. Yeah. I love I love that you're saying the process. I also think it's unique that you said at 3.
Because most humans would think you can't be in two places at once, but you and I both know that you can be in two places at once. You have to be. Of Yeah. Because there's not enough revenue usually with two locations to where you you can't. And so, literally, you just split your time. You become a a workaholic and and 2 is way worse than 1 or 5 for that matter. Exactly.
But on that note, what I heard you say is that you realize that I needed to bring in somebody to to help me in essence, get out of my way. This ties back to what you said about your parents. Like, you saw them work as an operator in the business, as the delivery, as the sales, all this stuff. You didn't want that, and that's what you were stuck doing. So you had to make some shifts. You called in your buddy, to be a sales guy.
Eventually, it sounds like you guys, went ahead and partnered in the in the future deals. But then you realize that at some point, it got big enough where it's like, holy smokes. Wolfe, also what that means is that you didn't have to have it all figured out first. Right? So you took action. You took a ton of action. Yeah. I the very very good point there. And, you know, so many people stand around and just, you know, they they overthink their issues. They overthink everything. And I Yeah.
It's so funny. I've I've got some friends that are in the business, you know, in other states, and and they're always saying like, Matt, you're just a doer. You you you don't overthink things. You just do it. And I'm like Yeah. Yeah. Because we we always hear like, hey. Go make mistakes. Go make small mistakes and and make sure they don't become big mistakes and I'm I'm okay with that. I I have made plenty of those, but, you know, I I've overcome them and and but I have always taken action.
Well, the action comes with decision. Right? So you gotta be able to decide because the action comes right after it. And if you get stuck in the decision process, which you had had a little bit of time, but you have making good decisions along the way. And, obviously, you can see where I'm transitioning here, but even in the way that you reached out to me. So some of you guys don't know this, but I run ads.
I run ads for lots of parts of my businesses, but I run ads to get guests on this show because I value the audience. I wanna bring good guests. I value good content. I don't know if me and Matt are ever gonna do anything together. I think kinda cool, sweet partner on some deals. So maybe we do. I don't know, but I don't know if we're gonna do anything together or not, but, man, this, like, now that I know you, there's people in your network that I need to know.
There's people in my network that you need to know, like, all because I took the risk, quote, unquote, of putting out an ad. And then you took the risk of going, let me see what this guy is about. Again, it's decision and then an action. And let's just see what happens. You know?
Like, there's just so much value in that, but quickly followed by, okay, if you're gonna have growth and and and scale, there's gonna have to be teams and process, and and this can't be just by the hip of our, you know, by the hip anymore. You know? So I'm gonna transition over to decisions because we've clearly outlined that you are a pretty good decision maker or at least fast decision maker that follows up with action.
And if it was a bad decision, you'd probably just, you know, wiggle to figure it out. Yeah. Yeah. So give me a quick example of one of those bad decisions that you made that was just you know, potentially catastrophic, but you figured it out. You learned a bunch. Share with us what that was. Sure. I would say Chaz, you know, once I got to three locations, you know, I kinda started patting myself on the back and being proud for what I had accomplished.
And I said, Okay. I'm getting pretty good at this. The team is the team's kinda figuring out how I'm leading and instead of going deeper in furniture, I'm gonna go wider. I'm gonna go off into, you know, a a new sector. I'm gonna I'm gonna go figure something out. And, I made the extremely unwise choice of opening a car dealership. And You didn't say some little mom and pop. No. You said a car dealership. Wow. Okay. Keep going. We're we are on the edge of our seat over here.
Yeah. So, so I had never sold cars, I'd never been on the finance side of cars. I had never Right. I'd never done anything having to do with automobiles at all other than buying trucks for my businesses. And so I, you know, I I recruited a guy that, you know, I thought was good in in in sales and car sales and And I said, hey. Let's go just, you know, jump into this venture. Let's just start a car dealership from scratch, and and we did. And we we lost our ass.
But, you know, tons of decisions after that were were made, Chaz that, you know, pulled me back on track. But I think you know, in my mind, you you asked why was that a bad decision because I, you know, I I felt like because I'm good at this, I was able to just go wider instead of deeper. And probably the reason that, you know, I've got 14 furniture locations now, and I'm still out looking for more is you know, why not go with what you're good at? Like, I really feel like I'm good at this thing.
Like, I understand furniture. I understand marketing. I understand sales. I understand leadership. Like, I understand a lot of these things having to do with furniture. Why go get wide? Like, go I'm I'm fine with going deep. It's good. I I love that perspective. Obviously, there's entrepreneurs on both sides of of that coin, but you're so right about at the certain level, you started reading your press clippings.
And because of that, it gave you the false sense of pride, really, where you could go try something new or spend money. Like, you you can fill in the blank. Like, the listener right now knows this moment for them because even at the 6 figure mark, here's probably what more likely it feels for them.
They don't maybe have three locations of something or they're not doing 1,000,000 of dollars yet, but probably what happened is that they they signed 3 new clients They got really, really excited about those 3 new clients or those 3 new decks or those 3 new whatevers. And it's like a good chunk change for them. Like, they're like, oh, this is awesome. And then they went to Mexico for 2 weeks, or they, you know, went and bought a a sports car, or whatever.
And it's just like, the press clippings because you felt good about what you had done wasn't followed with continued good action or good decisions. In this case, you're just your decision was just to go a different direction. For you that didn't work out, but that same principle that you're showing us is so incredibly valuable. And so tell me now, like, how that obviously, you said that Chaz that means is that you've gone deeper.
But the principle that I'm kind that we're kind of kicking back and forth here, which is repeat what's already worked whether that's you staying, you're in the same lane or you Well, there's a there's a lot that I could break down from that. Great to bring that point up. Is one of the things now is I took a step back after I after that whole miserable failure as far as car dealership went. And I said, Okay. Actually, you know, what part of business am I good at? Like, what am I best at?
And so, you know, I'm I'm really good at networking. I'm really good at figuring out how I can bring value to the people that are around me that, you know, that, like, that type of get getting in with business.
And and I think that the whole partner thing is kinda where I'm at now, as far as business goes is you know, I wanna find people either within my network or close to my network that I can bring enough value to them, and they can bring enough value to me Chaz it makes sense to go do something else Chaz I would never open, you know, another car dealership by myself now.
But, if somebody came along that had a, you know, had a a really rich deep history in cars that maybe didn't understand marketing or maybe didn't understand how to train leaders or how to network all these different things. So, you know, the business partner side of it now is probably where, you know, where I'm at and why those decisions are better now and and Yeah. I I hope that makes sense.
Oh, absolutely. And I and I I'm gonna second what you're saying is that not only in the business partnership level, I'm gonna bring it down just a quick notch because you've done this same exact process inside of your teams. You haven't set it a whole bunch yet, but based on what you're saying, I know that you have as well as the fact that you have fourteen locations, you're obviously know how to build teams. And so that's where the 6 figure owner is right now that's listening.
They're thinking, oh, man, I'm terrified to hire my first person or maybe my second or my third or my maybe my 5th person and maybe that one crew leader or that one team leader or that one manager level, And it's the same thing.
Like, when they're looking at that manager level or even there's their new team member, ideally, they've already been honest with themselves enough as an on an entrepreneur Chaz an owner of what it is that they're good at and what it is that they need on their team to help propel them forward or propel the business. So the same principle is, Matt, that you're that you're saying apply even at a low level because they have to be able to mix those things together. Does that make sense?
Yeah. You can scale those. I think the the term scale is is so relevant here of just saying no matter where you're at in your life, whether you're at a store manager level, trying to get to be an owner, or at an owner level trying to get to, you know, multi location, whatever it is that you're at, and these principles are are so scalable up and down. Yeah. I love I'm gonna go back to real quick here.
I don't share usually a ton about my businesses, but, I'm I'm I have a a couple of different real estate arms. And I'm merging and or building a team right now, in one of them. And and I don't know if I would have done what I'm doing now you know, 5 or 6 or 10 years ago, especially when you're when you're trying to raise up and scale, like you're saying, a lot of it's like, how can I muster my own? Right? And that's usually the problem with the 6 figure mark is that what can I do?
And it's like, no. No. No. I need a who. Well, who are the who's around me? You know? And so now knowing these things, even myself, like, what you're saying is that my mindset is who do I know that's really good on the acquisition side? Who do I know on the project management side? Who do I know on this side of the Bengal? I I can see the whole business, and I can see where we're gonna go and the vision of what we're gonna accomplish. But now I just now I need puzzle pieces.
And it doesn't mean that I'm the only owner and they're just on my team. Although Chaz could be, these guys are gonna be owners. You know? So from, like, what you're saying, that partnership perspective of bringing in the right key players of just a team that can work together is is crucial. And and clearly, it's been for you as well.
Yeah. And I I think one big mistake that people that might be at a six figure level, some of them will make is they go into the looking at those partnerships of saying, how can they bring value to my organization? You know, extracting that value, extracting the value, extracting the value, And I think one of the big things that has helped me is the day that I realized, you know, that it's got to be me.
What you know, I go into every every single one of these partnerships of saying, you know, how Chaz I add value to this deal and make sure that it's gonna work from that side because if if all it is is you're pulling that value out, that that cup's gonna run dry pretty quick? And and so, you know, I'm I'm very, very particular, and I'm I'm sure you are too, but you know, of of making sure that I'm gonna be adding as much value to this whole thing as as the people that I'm going out to talk to.
Totally. You know, it's funny. It makes me think of I was having a lunch with 2 guys, that I've, you know, circled up with here in the last couple of months and we've done some business strategy. It's just a couple meetings and stuff. It's been really fun. But we had a lunch together and it was like an argument on who was gonna pay. You know?
Yeah. Yeah. And I loved it because, it was like an argument, as you know, but, man, I dreamed, especially coming from a single mom house and, you know, having literally nothing given to me. I just dreamed of the moment where I was gonna have friends at a high level to where it wasn't like I was the only person taking care of it, or you were the only person taking care of it, but that it was like, we could take care of it ten times over, and it would be no problem.
But that, like, I wanted to honor you or I wanted to bring value to you is what you're saying. Right? And so it's funny because the one guy that ended up winning the ticket, if you will, he was like, he said one he said one phrase. He said, excuse me. You guys are my guest today. And I literally just, hey. Great. Sounds good. You know, like, it wasn't even an argument because that was his value that he was bringing to the deal. He was hosting us. We were in his city. Had gone to his office.
And you had you would have already thought that he had already provided so much value, but no. No. No. All the way down to the, you know, $12 lunch that we had, you know, And it was amazing to have that experience even at this high level. It's just like, when you bring value, everything else falls into place. I love it. That's what, you know, I I I don't talk about it a whole often, a whole lot, but, you know, I do have a plane.
I do fly, and one one of the cool things, couple weeks ago, I'm flying the plane. We land at the airport, and I immediately get out and start filling up the tanks with the fuel and before I can even get finished filling up the guy that was flying next to me, he'd already gone inside and paid for all the fuel. And I'm like, dude, I'll I'll take care of that It's okay. It, you know, it's my plane, and he's like, no. No. No. You flew the plane. That's that's plenty of value.
You actually flew this thing. You know, we're we're we're landing for a we're landing for a hamburger and to have a good time. I'll take care of the fuel and and, yeah, it same exact type thing. I I love that where, you know, I I knew I brought value. He knew he brought value. We had fun and nobody argued. Like, What? Let's let's go. Exactly. Exactly. And and, unfortunately, you have, so many small thinkers that were thinking, well, jeez, that was a really expensive cheeseburger.
It's like, woah. Woah. Woah. No. No. No. No. No. No. The time. The time and what you learned and and just the the who you're gonna meet through that person. Like, money doesn't even matter at this point. And it's so difficult. I'm I'm trying to correlate this back to the 6 figure mark because I just remember being scared to make investments. Not not just necessarily in the business. I always wanted to pour into myself.
I was a big reader, like, education was not big for me, but, like, I was a big educator to myself. Like, I wanted to listen to audios and YouTube, you know, YouTube videos and books and and stuff, but wanted to be risk everything for the business, but I just got nervous around meeting people or, you know, the the things that you're just, like, there an ROI there? Marketing sometimes is a big one. Like, where you're just like, Oh, yeah. Can I see the ROI on that?
Like, I don't know, but I need to be known. You know? So, like, you haven't been known on this podcast. Like, I don't know I if how it directly helps me, but but now we know each other. You know? So Exactly. How would you say with your experience given this topic that we're kinda just talking about here? The 6 figure mark when they're just like, oh, so terrified.
Sometimes there isn't much money, but sometimes there is, and they need to make a bigger decision that makes them super uncomfortable like you and I do all the time now. It's we're used to it. But how do you suggest that they do that at that level? To me, I I'm such a doer that I'm like, it's so cool than the last 3 or 4 years. That I Chaz I've been able to, you know, to to look at a situation literally just say, does it make sense? And, you know, if you get that gut feeling, like, hey.
Does it make sense monetarily? Does it make sense for my direction of where I'm trying to go? If you can honestly say does this make sense for me right now? Do it. And if not, be okay with saying, you know, not now. You don't have to say no. But just say, hey. Not now. There might be a time for it in the future. But once you make that decision, don't think about it again. Like, don't agonize over and over of Damn it.
Maybe I maybe I shouldn't have made that or maybe I should have or maybe this or maybe that. Like, you made the decision. Once you make it, keep moving. There's so much out needs your attention besides continuing to look in the rearview mirror saying, should I have made that decision? Does it make sense for me now? If not, move on. Yeah. I love Chaz, that that just way of thinking. I think it's super valuable at all levels.
In fact, I would venture to say that that's how you and I have gotten to where we are. So just love that. I wanna go back. I want a good decision. We kinda talked about the bad decision. Did we did we sneak in a good decision in there? Give me a good decision that you've made along the way. That's just super impact. Decision. Yeah. Yeah. Single single good decision. Yeah. Wow. Probably the the first was the the very first time I took over a bankrupt store.
You know, that that was really agonizing for me because I I saw all the possibilities of this is what it could be. But, you know, I I was sitting in that six figure mark. It was my 4th location, and, you know, they called me on a on a Tuesday, and they said, hey. We really want you to have this location. This is how the deal could be structured. You let us know you know, how how it would work out in your head. And I'm like, yeah, but the store is not making any money.
And I'm at the 6 I'm at the 6 figure level, and I'm gonna have to pour a lot of money into this thing. You know, I don't know if I have the resources. I don't know if I have the money. I don't know if I have all this. I'm I'm at the 6 figure level. I'm busting my butt. I'm doing all that I can. Right. And I said and it it that was probably that first big decision. Like, we just talked about where I I kinda sent my fingers and said, does it make sense?
Yes. It makes sense because I want a good challenge. I've always said I wanted a good challenge. This is probably my biggest challenge so far of, you know, going into a store that's not making money. And 2 months later, from 50, $60,000 into the whole thing. You know, my CPA sent me that first paper saying we're cash flowing, and I'm like, Yeah. Dude, we're 2 months in. We're we're literally like, this worked out exactly like like my head played it out to be.
And I'm like, oh, dude, we're Let's roll. If I if I can now if I can just do this a few more times, I'm into the 7 figures. Yep. And and that that's where we were. So you know, so 4 comes in, 2017. And, you know, so I had I've been in that game for 2 solid years and And then, you know, 4 months later, they called me back and said, we've got another one. And I said, let me analyze it. And, you know, a day later, I called back and I'm I said, yes. I'll do it.
And they're like, usually, it takes people like a month. I said Yeah. Either either it's a good deal or it's not. And so I I said, I made the decision And that that was it. That was kind of what got me from 6 to 7 figures. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. Good decisions on analyzing but not too much, taking action. And then once you found something that worked, man, you did it again and again and a couple more times since then.
Like, that's how that's how businesses work, especially at the 6 figure mark. You kinda you you said something you need to even realize it, but at the 6 figure mark, what you have to do is you have to find a repeatable process. Marketing, sales, fulfill your product finance, like, repeat. You know, like, you gotta do that enough times to get to the mark where you can just have enough resources to, to climb out. Okay. Now we're ready for the speed round.
I wanna know, Matt, if in all of your locations, if you could only pick 1 metric, to track in all of your teams, sales, marketing, the whole, like, across all boards, what would you track? One metric? I would track the, the customer's response to the follow-up call after the sale Interesting. And you guys are doing a follow-up call to get a review or, like, how did it go? How'd the installation go?
If you got if if you got a delivery yesterday or furniture, our sales associates are gonna call and and say, you know, hey, hey, Chaz, you got that bedroom suit, earlier this week. How's the mattress sleeping? How's the bedroom looking? How's the missus thinking about? How's it looking? Like, is everything perfect? And you've got a short window in there where they're they're gonna tell you the truth. I mean, if something's not working out right Yeah.
The the wife knows it quick, the husband's feeling it quick quick, you know, those type of things that are going back and forth. And, you know, all of those calls are recorded. I go in and listen to those calls. And I think that's a very important, you know, you you wanna get the truth. You wanna get the feedback. And, you know, if if it has lingered on for 3 or 4 weeks, you're probably not gonna get the truth because the husband at that point has said, ah, we're we're okay. We're good.
We'll just keep this thing. We'll just not be happy. But if you can catch it in that 1st 2, you know, that 1st day, that 1st 3 days, really. Yeah. So I love the the truth you know, but it it's like an interview. Like, if you're trying to hire somebody in an interview, they're gonna put up put their best foot forward. They're gonna you know, probably say a few things that really aren't true. And so a big metric for me is the the the reply to our follow-up. I I love how you broke it down.
You broke if someone just listened to that one answer and they didn't listen to any of our conversation leading up, they listen to that one answer and then they stop the show right now, that in itself, I think, is something that will grow your business because what you're checking on is your experience.
And then even in, you know, like, our franchise world edible ranges, we do something similar, but a lot of a lot of people shy away from that because they're like, well, what if we find out that it wasn't right? Well Didn't make it when you get a chance to fix it? Yes. And that's the that's the that's the biggest issue in, like, sales. People get so scared. They're like, Oh, and and even as far you we talked about Facebook. Let let's talk about this for just a minute.
We can we can pause speed round for just a minute. But if you are thinking about doing Facebook marketing or social media marketing in general, and your your biggest fear has anything to do with, well, what if somebody puts a negative comment on one of my ads? Chaz should tell you, like, that's your chance to overcome an issue. That's your chance to overcome a problem. Go hard after that stuff. But the, you know, fix the problem. If they are saying, hey. I had an issue with this. Yep. Fix it.
Like, why not? The minute you fix a problem for a customer or potential customer is the minute you've gained a customer for life. If somebody told you, hey. I got a couple of strawberries and edible arrangements, that weren't actually very good, and you send them 6 more and say, hey. This one's on me. Guess where they're going next time. Edible arrangements. A 100%. Yep. And and and it's funny too because as an owner, you have to realize that.
And that can that can translate into any trade, any retail store, any any anything, but then communicating that to a team. Right? And so Right. Getting even my teams in multiple locations to understand that, like, no. No. I don't wanna be combative. I, like, okay. Is someone lying about the strawberries? Yes. Gonna be some people who want a free arrangement. You know what? But the ones who aren't, we need to take care of them.
We need to take care of all of them to make sure that the ones that aren't lying aren't they're the ones that are gonna come back. So it's just funny in a in a super fast paced environment that we live in in today's Wolfe. That a lot of people missed that. So thank you for giving that to us. That in itself was worth the entire show. So thank you. What book would you recommend the 6 figure owner read to get to the 7 figure mark. Oh, great question.
One that I have read three times, and I actually turned it on again last night as I drove is it's your ship by Michael Abraham. Oh, okay. I've I've never heard of this. So give me give me your give me your, high level. Oh, dude. The basis of it's your shift is that, Mike was, he he went to the naval academy all, you know, all all obviously true leadership book. He was a naval academy. He graduated at the bottom of of, his class, which meant he got sent to a really Chaz ship.
Because all the top guys got sent to the very newest ships and, you know, they started training on those. And what happened was he went to a ship that, the the sailors were leaving it. Like, they they they only had, like, a 20% retention rate the sailors were leaving at a 80% rate. So the team was not engaged. Nobody wanted to be there. You know, the team that he had on that ship was not functioning well.
But he started to see how he could he could do a few things differently, and he had to push through all this government red tape to to kind of get the shit where it needed to be. But the biggest he was he let his people run the ship. Like, he he got on the ground level and went and just kind of started asking them, like, Hey. What what could we do better that would make you stick around? And what could we do better to make this shit run?
Things like, you know, they they had they had to replace the rust on the ship, twice a year. They had to completely paint the entire ship because the screws on one side of the ship that they used, would rust out and they it would drip all the way down the ship, and they had to repaint the entire ship every year. Because the screws, so he went and asked this one guy. He's like, hey. I've told him many times. Like, If we change these screws, we wouldn't have to paint the ship.
Wow. And they and they change the screws and then guess what? They say, $600,000 by not having to paint the ship. And so it's just a book full of here's how I jumped through the red tape Here's how I allowed my people to, I I gave them the ability to run the ship, and they ran the ship, and they ran it very well. And I just oversaw it. And Yeah. Just a an amazing amazing book.
Lots of books come to mind Chaz, have similar, stories, but, man, so good to empower your team, especially the 6 figure mark, because the 6 figure owner doesn't think that anybody else can do it as well as they can. And So, getting out of their own way, as we call it, usually looks like giving things away. And and and in this case, it's Hey. What are you thinking? He says try a new try a new ship or try a new screw. So love it.
Okay. Do you intentionally network and mastermind with other owners and why? Yes. I intentionally, I I do intentionally do that. And because, you know, at the 6th year mark, It's really or or I'm sorry. The 7 figure mark, it's really not about, you know, is there enough money there to do this project? It's like, you know, yes, I could probably do the project, but, you know, I I I need the people around me to make sure that Chaz things are right.
And so the whole premise of expanding mine, I could make one phone call. If you had any issue right now of I mean, literally think of any issue you could possibly have. I can't fix that issue for you, but because I have brought lots of value to the people around me, could pick up one of these phones here next to me right now. And because of the network I'm involved in, because of the people I'm around, I can get that taken care of for you in a matter of probably 10 or 15 minutes.
And so I want to continue to expand that network. I wanna bring that of value to the people around me, and I also want to just be a I wanna be a part of those bigger things. I I wanna be at that eight figure level or what, you know, I I don't even know. I'd I'd like to to know, you know, quick question for you going back. When you say 7 figure level, 8 figure level Sure. What what do you mean by that? Like, do do you mean So I have a lot of entrepreneurs that ask me this.
And and for for simplicity purposes, we keep it at business revenue. And and so for that, I can only imagine that probably not at the 7 figure mark, but, much, much, much more. But the reality of it is is that what you're saying is that that 7 figure mark when when whether you are earning a million bucks or whether you're controlling a million bucks. Because even if I'm doing 7 figures in my business, that it still comes through my account. Right? I'm still the one deciding where it goes.
Now I might have a bunch of things to pay for, and I don't get to take it all home in in maybe my my construction business or my whatever type of business I have, but I'm still the decider, like you said, of where those funds go. And the conversation at that point is now very different. It's not I can't do it myself. About my team. It's about community. It's about networking. It's about bigger projects. It's about my purpose. You know?
And so Really, I just I didn't even appreciate the question because there's so many guys, even at the 6 figure mark, they were just like, oh, like, I just making a million bucks, even in revenue, let alone them taking it home, just seems so far away and impossible. I mean, stat say that only 9% of businesses do seven figures in revenue or more. So it's like, based on the stats, they don't have much of a chance. But you and I both know that it's not it's not that hard. It's really, really not.
I mean, you know, especially you you get to that that multilevel or, I I guess, once you hit that seven figure level, it it seems to just kinda take off from there of Yeah. You know, you you you start getting recognized, you know, and and, you know, people start talking and and, you know, people start, you know, they start asking about you and you know, I have people approach me now and asking, hey. You wanna do it's not just me having to go out and look for people to do deals with.
People are approaching me now saying, Hey. I wanna do this deal with you. I wanna do this deal with you, and that's a really cool place to be in. And and, you know, an eight eight figures. And, I'm I'm having a lot of fun. Yeah, man. I I, I appreciate the just, even just humility that you carry and all that. I think that the the word fun is just a place that a lot of people wanna get to in business, but have no systems or structure on how to do so. Last question for you, Matt. You ready?
Sure. If you lost it all. All fourteen locations burned down. Nobody gets hurt, of course. Sure. It's all gone as the point. What do you do? What do you do? Wolfe. I would start building again. But, you know, I believe that sales of sales of sales, and I've I really enjoyed the sales side. I would I would find a way to fix other people's problems to to get back to the level that I'm at today. And that that's really what the basis of businesses, the basis of sales is.
And, I'd go out go out and fix people's problems and and figure fig figure out a way because if all that happened today, it's gonna look one way if it if it happens 6 months from now, it's probably gonna look a lot different than in the way that all that goes down. And Exactly. So what what whatever the biggest issue is, like, right now, you know, we're we're kind of starting to come out of the supply chain issues.
But we're we're neck deep in, you know, how to hire, how to keep your people engaged, and all that type of stuff. So I think I've got a pretty you know, a pretty good handle on that side of business. And I think I could I could bring massive value to to somebody else and help fix their problem on that type of thing. So that's that's probably where I would go. Yeah. I heard you say first off, you wouldn't be, afraid to take another risk.
Just because these went away that you it's not like you wouldn't do it again. But then specifically, I heard you say you'd reach into the skillsets that you've learned and that you've grown yourself in over time and replicate. Just do it all over again. Yeah. And and use the network, that that I've built. I mean, I think that's something that you're really big on is network.
And you know, those people are gonna wanna, you know, if you have brought them enough value, it's kind of like that reciprocity, value of You you if if I have brought you massive value and something happens to me and I come to you, I'm gonna wanna bring massive value directly to you. And if you have seen me be legit on other fronts. I'm sure you can you can help me back. And, 100%. Yeah. 100%. I love it. Matt, you've been incredible today.
Thank you for just going out and taking a chance and opening well, buying your parents' location and and even though you didn't wanna do that initially, you turned it into everything that you desired it for, you know, to be. And And so as another entrepreneur, just thank you for pushing into the marketplace and making things happen because, man, you've made a way, and you've shared with us today, so much value. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
We wish you absolutely nothing but success in in your furniture and then future deals. I sincerely appreciate it. Thanks for having me. And, holler at me on social media if you need to get you gotta see me. How are me? Matt Pridemore, the franchise builder. I've got us I've got a podcast as well. So Yep. Come let let's let's go back and forth and have some fun Yeah.
To say say that out loud again, because I was I was getting ready to ask you, where do they find you if they want to connect with you? Social media? I know you got a podcast. You're looking for other franchisees. Like, give give him a give him a quick spiel. Yeah. Matt Pridemore, p r I d e m o r e. I'm on all the major you know, Instagram, Facebook, all that type of stuff. The franchise builder is my podcast. I enjoy talking to other other franchise, type people.
I've had Chaz as a, as a guest on mine as well. Just going back and forth. So, I'm out there. Find me, connect with me, talk to me, any way that I can bring you value, would love to make that happen. So holler at me. Absolutely. Yes. Thank you for, just offering that Chaz well as just, being being a a man of value. So you, like I said, you've you've brought us a ton today. Thank you for being here. Thank you so much, Jess. Thank you. Thanks for listening to gathering the Kings.
We hope you got a ton of value today and learned a thing or 2 about taking your business to 7 figures and beyond. If you desire more and want a community around you to help you get there, I want you to go to gathering the king's dot com. That's gathering the kings.com, and I want you to apply for our next becoming a king 90 day intensive. We are extremely exclusive by nature as a group.
What that means that we're really wanting only the entrepreneurs who take their business and targets super serious to apply. So if that's you, you think you got what it takes to level up your business. Want you to go to gatheringthekings.com and apply, and we will see you on the other side.