On today's episode of Gathering The Kings. If doing whatever it is that you did led to some some sort of success, maybe it wasn't as high as you thought it was gonna be, but they were still it moved the needle in life. Like, don't do that again. Don't do it exactly like that again. Take what you learn from it. Right? Refine your process, refine your vision, and how you're viewing certain Kings, and then do it again.
You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz Wolfe Gathering 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 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, everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe, your host, Gathering the Kings podcast today. I've got Seth Teagle on the Kings stage.
Seth, how are you, man? Oh, doing great. It'll be on the show with you this morning. Yeah. You know, I appreciate that. We were just talking off air about it's Monday morning as we're recording this, and we just got off our kiddos off to the to the bus for you and and out the door for me. Give him a give him a swift Kings in the heiney out the door. No. Not really. Fed him fed him well. Spent some time with him.
But, man, we're in the same stage of life, business building businesses, and got young kiddos. What kind of business are you in, Seth? So primarily, we do real estate We do development and syndication. So we kinda have a investment firm that that helps other people invest in real estate, and we don't wanna do it directly. And then You know, when did we start developing last year or so? That's incredible. What kind of developments are you a part of?
Mainland, we do apartments We've got some mixed use, but but we've got one going on right now that's kind of a condo apartment and some residential stuff, and we're doing all the entitlements and kind of horizontal construction on Chaz. We'll sell that part off, but strictly, you know, 99% of our stuff is all commercial. Yeah. That's con that's great. We've got to have had several Other guests on the show that are in the same space. That's fantastic.
I'm sure we'll get to some great conversation. Before we get into your story, entrepreneurialism, Lane, Let's let's talk about why you're here, like, in general, big picture. You're still fighting. You're still pushing. You've got young kiddos. Like, What makes you tick? Why are you doing this? You you've had some success already. Yeah. I mean, that's really I think the big thing is is, you know, everybody has to figure out what their why is. I know that I feel like it's kind of stated.
But for me, you know, it started in 2012, and I when I read my first when my daughter was born, and I realized that I could not there wasn't enough hours in the day for me to work to provide the life that I wanted to for her, you know, and and and that's when I started looking into what What else could I do that would monetize my time better at a higher level than just being paid hourly?
And, you know, really, I I The year that I got involved in, it happened to be real estate, but in business and in kind of branching on my own was that I had worked a 1000 hours of overtime that year and you know, my normal schedule, the fire, I was a firefighter paramedic. The normal schedule I have The the firehouse plus the all the overtime, the equivalent of me being gone for 6 months, day and night like a deployment.
And, you know, it was really just wearing on the marriage on having the kids on everything. So that was That was the why they got me started, but it's also the why that drives me is have time freedom so that I can spend it with the family. Yeah. And I guess I guess I love how you tied those things together because a lot of people say freedom. Right? Like, freedom of choice, whether that's time, money, you know, effort, whatever we're we're choosing, I guess.
But for you specifically, it's, hey, man. I've got some really special things going on in my life, my marriage, my kids, And I wanna make sure that I'm not only just providing for them, but being able to be with them when they're enjoying these things that I'm providing. And I think that that's like, another level of, you know, like, as a warrior, as a man, we go out and we fight for these things, but then we realize eventually that we're like, they're enjoying it and and we're busy.
Yeah. Yep. And I'm gonna tell me about the The side. Tell me about that morning or that day that that that that flashing your head where you're like, Kings. They're they're over there. I'm over here. That 6 month deployment realization. What? Tell me about Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, it really came down to the fact that it's it's interesting.
So one specific experience, I remember my wife and I fighting about money and fighting about just everything that was going on because, you know, up until you Chaz sort of having kids, like, you think everything's great. It's only the The of you. And as soon as you start introducing kids and diapers, v formula and all the other things that come along with it and and inflation. And I can't imagine doing it now. Right? What we were Kings, especially when we we had twins.
So I've got a a daughter, and then we had Kings. Shortly thereafter that, you know, just the amount of diapers that we were buying a month, you know, and how much it eats into your income. And at the time, all I knew was to put my head down, work hard work longer. And not only was I missing things because our schedule at the firehouse was 24 on 48 off. So, I mean, I'm every 3rd day forever, I'm Kings.
You know, there's all kinds of birthdays, holidays, all those things I'm missing, but then I'm also compounding that with being gone to work overtime because the only thing I was specialized in or trained in was to be a firefighter, be a paramedic. So if I wasn't at my firehouse Kings or working overtime, I had a second job, which most firemen do, and I would go to another firehouse and work.
And, you know, so it was just it was it's a it's a wear on your body, a wear on your brain, a wear on The stressors on the family, you know, firemen are, like, the number one killer of firemen now is suicide. The number one, you know, the the divorce rate for firefighters or first responders in general is way higher than it is for the normal population. And a lot of that is because, like you said, not only does the job do you harm, but you're also gone all the time.
And You know, I didn't really it didn't affect me in my twenties. Right? I didn't like, it was great. I'm a great job in the world. I loved it, but as I started getting older, when I started having kids, you know, My dad was gone a lot when I was growing up and missed a lot of things like that. And so I never wanted to have that for my kids, but I my hands were tied. I didn't know what to do. You know, he said, put your head down and working harder.
It worked for a little while, but it was not gonna be the long term answer. Yeah. And I think that that's where a lot of entrepreneurs find themselves is, like, in that stuck of, like, and so they start a business or start real estate investing or whatever. Which is great, but but at the beginning or at least for a while at the beginning, it throws us in even further into working more, being gone more, I'm I'm okay with that. Like, I think that there's a period of time.
You know, we're breaking down the stages of of a an entrepreneur's life and and the warrior stage proceeds the Kings stage every single time, and that that's a you gotta go to battle. You gotta you gotta fight for it. You gotta work. You gotta put your head down. So that there can be systems and and teams and investments, compounding interest.
What all these words that we can use that eventually when you get to the The stage start paying off, But I think that you have to have that realization somewhere in the warrior stage of what you're just talking about. Like, I can't do this forever. And if and if If you never have that, then you're just, like, always stuck there. Never thinking about passive income or building something bigger than yourself or legacy for your kids or whatever it might be.
You wanna add anything there before we Well, I would just say that The that I think you're exactly right, but you have, like, as an entrepreneur or a business owner, it makes sense in that Warrior stage because you're building something. Right? If you're just stuck in that Warrior stage forever because you're at a job Chaz maybe you love, maybe you don't love, but you're you're you're about the value of your time is being determined by somebody else.
And so you may be going through that warrior phase. Like, I was but there's no end in sight. There's no light at the end of the tunnel. It's forever. And I think that's what really wears people out or wears marriages out or wears families out, you know, where At least even for me now, right, when I bought my first property, I worked 12 hour days.
I went from the firehouse, left there at 7 AM in the morning, drove to the property, and I was working 12 hour days down And I did that for, you know, a year and a half. But I knew that if I executed that that specific deal properly, it was going to change my life forever in my families.
And so, you know, there's I think if you're, like you said, an entrepreneur building a business, you know Chaz, hey, if I grind it out for the 1st couple years, At some point, you're gonna get big enough where you're gonna it's gonna take off where you're gonna hire some people and you're gonna get some help. And so there's light at the end of the tunnel, but, you know, like I said, for me, I was grinding it out at the firehouse, and you're you're doing a 25 year term.
There's no there's no light. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, exactly. So it's a little bit different. You know, it was if you're in Chaz, but that's why I could say why I do it like this. I was talking about this today. It's amazing. Yeah. You know, it's so funny that it seems so easy in your conversation of, like, well, if you're an entrepreneur, then there's a light at the end of the tunnel you have something to work for.
But how many entrepreneurs are listening today who, by their own choice, have kept themselves right there. They've kept themselves small. They haven't hired out. They haven't created the systems, they just basically now own their own job, which, again, there's a there's a there's a moment in time for that. I I had that. You just described that period of time where you had that. But if it always stays the same, it's no different than working at the firehouse. For 20, 30, 40, 50 years. Yep. 100%.
Let's talk about your story, how you got into this. Obviously, you said you were a firefighter. Let's get give me the backdrop. Were you always an entrepreneur? Were you always thinking creative, how did you come to investing? Give us give us the backdrop. Yeah. So I think that I was always an entrepreneur. I just didn't know it. You know, when I was a kid, you know, I was with my brother and I we both we grew up in North Dakota. Like, we played hockey.
I mean, it's like breathing air in North Dakota, Minnesota, Canada, lower Canada area that we traveled in. And so, you know, even back when you were kids, would have to go out and sell candy bars for the hockey boosters. And I always remember he was always afraid to go and sell these candy, you know, go door to door. So I would always go sell all of mine, and then back and get his and go sell all of his The, and he would just kinda stand there in the on the sidewalk and watch.
And and I just loved it. I The the interaction with people. My dad was a great salesman. And and he was an entrepreneur for a while. It you know, I never I just Chaz that's what was inside me talking to me. Right? Even in the fire service, You know, I I did 22 years when I got promoted while I was The. When I was never like, I loved the job, and I loved helping people, but I was never I always feel like there's more. I should be doing more.
I wasn't using all of my my talents, if you Wolfe, or Sure. Yeah. You know? And I but I was limited by what what options were available to The. And it wasn't until I got into real estate and I and I really saw a path to entrepreneurship where I thought, man, I could really take all of my energy and put it into something that can grow, not grow something for me, for my legacy, for my family. And, you know, once I realized that Chaz that was they were kind of awoken that hunger.
You know, it was it was off for the races. Yeah. I I appreciate that perspective of of having it always been inside, but something changed, you know, that that, you know, woke that up. I think that we every entrepreneur listening can relate to that. Right? We always have that moment or that jump that we took. You know?
Do you think that Entrepreneur entrepreneurialism would have found you, regardless, maybe a lot of firemen go into the trades or you know, or or was it specifically something about real estate that jumped out and was like, oh my goodness. This is this specifically is what I've always been thinking or dreaming or what was inside. Yeah. I think it so it's kind of interesting.
So I've, I mean, like you said, firemen, we all anybody that's a full time career fireman, you know, has a pretty, you know, where there's about 4 different schedules throughout the country that people keep, but mine was always 24 on 40 And a lot of guys would have jobs in the trades, so they'd be roofers, concrete guys, bricklayers, whatever floor installers. Again, they would always have their little side gig it was always Chaz, a side gig, come to to the actual real job of being a fireman.
And for me, the real job just wasn't panning out Like, I was I still love the job, but, like I said, financially, my lifestyle and and, again, we were very conservative and and try to do all the right things, but it was just see my salary. And so it puts you in a rock in a hard place. And, you know, I it wasn't until well, two things. I reconnected with a guy that I went to college with. I went The the fire service. He went to real estate. He became a realtor.
And when I reconnected with him, he was a multimillionaire. You know, he was doing hard money lending. He was into flipping. He was into some small multifamily stuff. And I reached out to him because I was like, Matt, how did you did you go from the guy that I knew? You know, sharing an an apartment in college to this guy Right. Who, like, again, a $1,000,000 to me back then just just like this pie in the sky number.
And he was like, you need to read the book, Rich Ted Portab, which, you know, anybody that's a real estate person or even an entrepreneur in general, if you've never read that book, you should read it, but It was the first time that my eyes have been open to the difference of assets and liabilities and buying something or putting money towards something that in turn pays me. I had never really heard that before. And, you know, I had filled up the per personal financial statements.
If you're going to get a car loan or whatever, and I was always kinda like, what what I mean, not, like, it was like a foreign language. Yeah. Right. But that was it. I mean, he I saw the success that he had. I knew that he was a normal normal guy, and he pointed me into that book. Then after that, he told me to get a to go, like, a local meet up and meet other people that were already farther ahead of me in that arena. And then get a mentor. And that's exactly what I did.
And, you know, I realized that a sky was the limit. And when I when I kinda get to the end of those Kings things, and I kinda teamed up with a guy to work with for a year. You know, I realized The sky was a limit Chaz much as I wanted to work Chaz hard as I wanted to work. I had a a true path to legacy wealth to financial freedom. Like, that was the real thing.
You know, Dave Ramsey wasn't the answer to just continue to cut back and save and all The, you know, we had I tried all Chaz, and it never worked. So, you know, that was the that was kind of, I think, the the pivotal moment for me was You know, it it happened to be real estate, but to me, it was like I needed The sure guarantee in real estate creates more millionaires than anything else in the country.
Yeah. I think there's just you have such a unique opportunity to have belief and and really you seeing your buddy, right, because you saw him as a regular guy. You shared you shared the apartment together. You saw how he didn't clean or, you know, skip brushing his teeth or whatever. You know, like, he was a real person to you. Who wasn't successful then and then and then became successful. And so what that did inside of you is like, well, jeez, he can do it. I can do it, which is belief.
Yep. And if you have belief, man, like you said, sky's the limit. If I if I genuinely think that something is is beyond me, then There's no chance I'm gonna go after him. I gotta take any action towards it. I'm dead. But what that's exactly what he did for you. He he blew off the cap of what's possible and, and Kings gave you a couple of the pointers there. I love what you said that you were coachable.
He he said, go do these three Kings, and you said, when I went and did these three things, Basically, this guy was a limit. It's like, wow. How many people how many well, first off, how many people do you and I both know in our own circles? Who probably should reach out and say, hey, dude. I knew you in high school or I knew you wherever. And Wolfe you've become extremely successful, how'd you do it? Right? But they never do.
And then the second time, if they do, how many times have you and I got on a quick call and said x, y, or z? And then they just don't. Right? So my encouragement to the listener through all of this is that you're here. You're listening. You've chosen to say, I need some help. You're here listening today. You made the phone call. Percent. You're here on the podcast.
And so what Seth has given to you right now is you have to be able to figure out some things he just gave you three steps to be able to blow off belief and then be able to have some steps that you can actually go, you know, take into action in your specific industry. Regardless of the industry, though, mentorship, belief, all these things that you were just talking about Chaz can a 100% apply. Would you like to add anything to that specifically? No. I think that's it.
I mean, whatever industry you're in, find somebody that's in that industry doing better than you or do or or farther down the road than you are, and connect with The because I I mean, I do it today. I just got back from an event over the weekend, you know, where you're connecting with other people that are farther down the road than you because there's so many things you can learn from them. If nothing else, you're just getting inspired.
You know, you sit down with with somebody that's, you know, if you're a car wash owner and you got The car wash, let's say, or you're whatever your business is, your ecommerce, or whatever, and you go and meet with other people that are doing, you know, you're doing a 100,000. They're doing a 1,000,000 or you're doing 500,000 or and they're doing 5,000,000.
Whatever it is, like, go and talk to those people and realize how normal they are, but then ask them, like, how did you go from like because they were at where you were at at one point in time. And what was the what was the where's the breadcrumbs at? Right? Where do they how did they get from where you're at today to where they're at. There's usually a path that they took.
And if you can learn where that path is and Kings of The and just reimplement or reimplement it, you know, I would say that success leaves breadcrumbs, and so you just gotta be looking, you know, and you gotta be hungry. You gotta track down those people and do whatever it takes to get in the room with them. And and you'll be successful. Yeah. Do you find or have you found maybe at this stage in the game? First off, I agree with everything you just said.
Seeking out that individual or or people who are in your industry. They can give you specifics. I remember when I purchased my first couple of edible arrangements franchises, I did the same Kings. Called up corporate was like, okay. Who are the who are the top doves? Right? And I just get I just started calling. Hey. This is who I am. This is this is my situation. I'm new. I'm twenty four years old. Tell me how you run your Valentine's Day. Tell me how you do this.
Tell me how and just start taking notes. Right? But eventually, what I have found, and maybe you'll agree, is that Once you get the X's and the o's down, right, the how do you actually go find the The or in in edible ranges? How do you how do you either dip the fruit or how do you organize the team? Beyond that, then it was building a business or building wealth or building a a legacy. Like, it's another level, which isn't necessarily industry specific. Wolfe you agree with Chaz?
And what would you suggest that the anybody listening would do in that case? Yeah. I think that that that's exactly right. You know, for me, it was like, okay. I got the deal done. Great. And I don't wanna do another one. Or, like, you got your first franchise done, and then you wanna go out and get another one because you recognize the fact that, man, this first one was successful. Look what it's doing.
If I can go do this ten more times, but, you know, you're Your ability to scale comes down to the team. And I always tell people, you know, if you wanna be in control, then you're gonna stay small. But if you wanna be if you wanna grow, you gotta let go of that control. And I think that plugging in key players, you know, and you you know, there's always growing pains and and there's always there's always fears and, like, I can't really afford this person right now.
You know, like, for us, You know, there's parts of our business where I make zero money on the the everything gets reinvested. It gets reinvested in the team in salaries and bringing the right players but hiring the a players always makes us money and hiring the c players for who maybe we can afford at the time.
You know, I feel like always has costed us money The The know, I mean, I for me, if I was, like, if I was you and I'm doing edible arrangements or something similar to that, I'm going to go and, like, bug the the somebody in my local area, maybe if you've if you're starting 1 and there's somebody else in another city over or state over that has got 10, you know, I will do whatever have to do to get in the room with that person and and bug them
enough because it's at some point, they're gonna share with you. And I think that that is is You know, how did you build out your team or getting with people that, like, I I go to mastermind. So I pay to go to events where I was just in one with a room of 200 entrepreneurs The you know, not everybody in there is doing what I'm doing, but there's a lot of people in there that are either farther ahead than me or maybe doing things just a little bit differently.
And being in those rooms and talking with The of those folks. It just allows you to see things from a different lens. And I think that sometimes, you know, when we're working in our business or, like, it was one of the guys said this this weekend and, you know, you're in the The, you can't see the frame. And we get in the weeds sometimes, and we we can't see you know, the best path.
And so you just, you know, like, so getting in rooms with other folks that are not, you know, obviously, if you're you're doing editable arrangements and you go to a guy that's in the same market as you. He may not wanna share all the secrets. Right? But Right. Somebody who else is a successful business owner, like, I attend to meet up It's a kind of a club for entrepreneurs here locally, and The are, I mean, all kinds of different businesses, but Yep.
Building out systems is the same no matter what your business is. Right. And I think that's The big thing is, again, for me, Chaz always been getting in the room with folks in our farther ahead than I am real estate or not.
And learning how they did it Kings advice, giving them, hey, here's the biggest pain points that I am having right now in my growth, and then listening Listening to what they tell me, listening to what maybe their their scenario was that they've overcome, that they've worked through, how they did it, how they, you know, things they learned, and then reflecting on those things and then implementing them into my growth strategy, I think, has been, has allowed us to explode with what we're Kings.
Yeah. 100%. I'd agree. Alright. Let's talk about practically. Let's go into your story a little bit. I wanna know a good decision that you made. When you Chaz look back and go, okay. This one decision is something that I would repeat over and over and over again, and we can learn from it. What is I think that the the the one decision I made was to battle myself. You know, I mean, people at least if I Wolfe have been scared or had analysis paralysis or been fearful of Right.
You know, can I make it happen? I would have you'd never be talking to me right now. I'd still be doing the same thing that I was doing. I'd probably be divorced. I'd probably be, you know, you know, completely different life path right now.
But I I I knew because of experiences I had as a Kings, and because of that candy bar experience, because of other things that, you know, my mom always called me scrappy, quote, unquote, You know, I knew that no matter what, once my decision was made on something that I was I would grind it out, and I would dig in, that I would do whatever it took to for that to be successful, And, you know, I just knew or bet like I said, betting on myself, I did Chaz.
And I was like, kinda like you, they always say burn the The. You know, I had no backup plan. It was The was it. All in Chaz to be successful. Right? So, you know, that was, I think, trusting myself to know that that I could do it. No matter what came, I was gonna push through to be successful. That was the probably the best decision I ever made. Yeah. And I think that we all have that inside of us, to a degree.
Some stronger than others, And so for the guy listening right now Chaz that maybe maybe he knows that he has that in him, to to, like, be scrappy, to go all in, to commit to himself, bed on himself. However, you wanna phrase that. But for some reason, maybe he hasn't yet, or maybe he's just had the recognition that, man, maybe I haven't gone all in yet. Maybe I've just been Kings tiptoeing around this Gathering, and maybe that's why I'm not at the The figure mark yet.
What would you say to that guy listening? Who isn't there yet, or maybe he hasn't he he he believes it's in there, but he hasn't tapped into it yet. I think I would I would try to figure out what what what do you believe you haven't? You know, for me, it was it was it was obviously fear. I had you know, I had a a good job. I was making 6 figures. I mean, I was doing well with The over over over time I was working Kings The. And I couldn't just give that up. Right?
If, I mean, don't agree with the thought of, like, just burn the bridges. Put your w 2. Like, go all in. You have to have a plan. And I think that that's Kings. You know, I I I sat down and said, okay. Here's where I'm at today. Here's where I wanna be at in 3 years or even 12 months or whatever. And then what are the steps I need to take to get The?
And like I said, for me, when I started attending real estate meetups and I started seeing all these other normal people and how well they were doing and what they were doing and the strategies they were using it gave me confidence to think, man, all these these are, like, normal folks. If they can do it, I can do it. Like, we talked about it. And then Yeah. It was like, okay. Well, how do I go Like, I only had one chance to make it The successful. My first deal had to be a success.
Otherwise, it Wolfe bankrupt me or put me in an even worse position The I'm in today. So I went to a guy that was a general contractor in one of the meetings that I met. He was flipping houses, and I said, look. You know, let's meet. So we met. We had coffee. And I just talked to him and I listened. And what I heard him say multiple times when he didn't come right out and say it was Chaz he was struggling. One of his pain points was that he needed a project manager that he could trust.
And I thought, man, I've got I'm working 24 hours. 2 days off. I've got a history of an experience with the building codes and fire codes and and doing all these Kings. And I knew enough about the trades to know you know, if you're doing the correct work or if it was looking right. So I just offered him. I said, look. Let me let me be a solution to you. I'll work for free.
Like, just teach me what you know, like, on the downtime, but I'll run your projects, and I'll manage some of your properties for you because those were the biggest, like, headaches that he had. And I did that for a year. I made no money. But the thing Chaz the point made a ton of money. Yeah. But the point being is that I got an education. Right? And for me, I knew that I I didn't wanna just, like, Oh, I heard this the guy talking on podcast about real estate.
I went to a meetup, and I'm gonna go buy this this house or this apartment building or whatever it is. Right. I had to have some kind of plan and that was it. I basically went through training for a year, and it all of it led to my very first deal I did. And and from that deal, it The one deal changed my life. So, you know, that's what I would say is, again, it comes back to networking. It comes back to finding somebody that's a little bit farther ahead of you and asking for help.
You know, you don't know all the answers. You maybe you've been successful, but you keep hitting a you keep hitting us a glass ceiling in your business or what you're Kings. Like, To me, the best thing is to take a step back, get with other folks that maybe are not the same lane as you, but they're but they're clearly successful in business or investing or whatever it is. And then, you know, ask their opinion, you know, take a look at this and see what I'm doing.
And and sometimes you may have to pay for The. You know, I mean, that's the other thing is you can't be afraid of that if If you're going to something that's super successful, their time is money. They've got a ton of things going on in order to get their attention. I have always found if you solve a problem, You know, you don't create more of a headache. You solve a problem for them, which I did for the gentleman that trained me for a year, or you're willing to pay The.
You know, if they're if they're hourly rate, protocol, they're earning potential for an hour's 500 bucks, go give, you know, offer a $1000 for 2 hours. Yeah. Because in those 2 hours, if you get, you know, 1, 2, maybe 3 nuggets that could change the path of your business or change the path of your growth, I mean, it's Wolfe worth it. Best money you never spent. Hey, Kings and Queens. Jazz 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 Gathering, 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. Oh, a 100%. Yeah. You're dropping you're dropping the nuggets for sure. Even right now, I wanna encourage listener just to to pause and go back. It it's stuff that we've heard before. Right? Like, I don't think any entrepreneur hasn't heard this. Or if they haven't, then then welcome. But I think that most people have heard this. The reality of it is is that they've probably just haven't put in an action yet.
So I wanna encourage them to like, take what you're saying seriously because they probably haven't found that person that they can go serve. They probably haven't called up and asked some questions. They've they've just been busy. Kings the business. Yep. And and and sometimes that's that's good, but it doesn't it doesn't get us to the next level. What would you say? Let's flip The coin.
Let's say a bad decision that you made or maybe something that didn't work out so well that we can learn from as well. I mean, I would say Not knowing what you don't know. You know, like, I got it my very first deal I got into, I thought I was I mean, I knew I didn't know a lot, but I knew I I knew enough to be dangerous. And I realized I went in undercapitalized, and I recognized it fairly quickly. But again, I phoned a friend.
I got another fireman that was in Cleveland that had got out of the fire service was doing apartment Kings. And I called him and I'm just like, look, here's my scenario. What do I do? Like, I I don't I don't know. Like, I, you know, I had to reach out for help, and he's like, you are a 100 capital. He's like, you gotta go raise private money. And, you know, again, I think it's just another example of taking action.
You know, I I ask for help I listened to what the person said, and then I did what he told me to do. And that was, you know, I think that any bad decision, it's only bad or it's a bad decision or mistake if you do it twice. You know, and so if you sometimes we just find ourselves, especially in entrepreneurship, there's no clearly defined path.
You know, you're in the jungle Kings bushwhacking and cutting your way through and Sometimes you're the The person that's ever, you know, been on this path or or at least in your in your world. Yeah. You're the only one. Right? And like I said, so if you can find somebody else that's that's maybe been on a similar path and ask The. And then when they tell you, do what they tell you or listen, You know, that's the I don't know.
I I I know I've said it probably a ton already, but that that is by far the number one thing that has helped me grow to the size and the level that we're at today. The short amount of time that we've done it is because I I do exactly what I'm telling you. And that would probably be the biggest mistake, but it also came with The solution and actionable items, and I just I followed the path and and it led to success.
Yeah. I mean, I think you can you can delineate that same situation to any business listening today. There's been something that they jumped into quickly, maybe, or maybe not. But either way, once they got in, it was kinda like Yeah. And Yeah. And a lot of times it has to do with money. Well, and it's always right. I mean, it's, like, the idea, like, it always sounds great. And then you get in it and you never realize, like, exactly how tough it is.
And I don't know all of the I heard of, quote one time or, I don't remember what I was listening to, but they said there was, like, 5 phases of business where you think it's a great idea. The you jump in. And then, like, the third one, you're, like, trying to figure out, like, oh my gosh. This is way more than I thought, and it's super. Right. You know, you get almost like anxiety because you can't figure out how to get to where you wanna go, but you know it's there.
You just gotta keep grinding every day. And a lot of days, you don't feel like you're making any headway and you're not seeing anything change, but you know, the there's little things along the way that you are. And eventually, again, that 4th stage, you start to see the The, and then 5th is the success, and you can enjoy the fruits of your labor, but a lot of people give up on that third step. Yeah. You know, I I told him about quotes that we've recently read and stuff.
I I heard one maybe yesterday. And it basically said something about, like, I I wish I I wish I wasn't as smart because then I wouldn't I I would I would have jumped in I wouldn't have been smart enough to doubt myself in essence. Right? Like Yeah. Sometimes we can be prepared is what, you know, some would say and done all the analysis and realized that this was a maybe maybe not a deal that maybe you should have gotten into. But the problem is is that that it wouldn't have been your first deal.
And you would have delayed, and you and you would have kept Kings. And and maybe waiting and waiting and waiting and maybe so much analysis paralysis like you had mentioned earlier, that nothing ever actually gets done. You don't take the risk. You don't learn the lesson. And so, you know, you kinda just hang it up and go, maybe it's not for me.
Or we wait so long that it it just never materializes into something that that that should have been, like in stage 5 that you were just talking about, you look back and you go, oh, man, even though that was difficult, it was worth it.
And so there's, like, this blind, a little bit almost, like, a benefit that an entrepreneur has where we jump in, you know, not not knowing everything like, what you said about the deal, a little bit half baked, and I I'm a pretty good, like, I'm pretty good at, and, you know, analyzing. I can I can run numbers? I can get in the weeds with the best of them, and I can tell you all the reasons we shouldn't do this.
And so I find myself even at this stage in the game where, yes, need to be maybe a little bit more particular about the investments that I'm making Kings maybe a little bit more stringent about the buy box. But the reality of it is is that I try to stay away from the perfectionist in me because then it just keeps me from taking action. It keeps me from jumping in and going, Chaz. Now I gotta figure it out. Right?
Because every time, like, said I've jumped in and realized, uh-oh, even though maybe some of those have worked out, some of those haven't worked out, quote, unquote, in the air quotes, I still learned, which has then helped me in other areas of my life or other businesses or other investments, which has then eventually collectively moved me forward. Would you add anything to No. 100%. I think that that's really it. Right?
Is is is even as, you know, maybe you jump in and you weren't as experienced and you go you get through something, but don't let those those negative experiences or that that grind, like, scare you to keep growing because it shouldn't you shouldn't you know, I always hate The people, like, go through something. They're like, oh, man, I'll never do that again.
Well, if doing whatever it is that you did led to some some sort of success, maybe it wasn't as high as you thought it was gonna be, but they were still it moved the needle in your life. Like, don't do that again. Don't do it exactly like that again. Take what you learn from it. Right? Refine your process, refine your vision, and how you're viewing certain things and then do it again. Right?
I mean, for me, like, I loaned a ton on my first real estate transaction, and I refined my process, and I jumped right into the second And in the second one, I learned even more things or better things or maybe a little bit higher level, and it helped me to refine it again to where I did my third The. One that we do, we always are learning something. There's always something that comes up. It's never, like, you know, the the boat's always rocking. It's never smooth. Right?
There's there's There's periods of smooth. But like I said, when you're in those those kind of tumultuous times, like, refine your process and and make as long as you're getting better every time or your process is getting cleaner, getting more streamlined. You're writing things down. That's a big one is documenting the process.
So that way, when you look back or you get to the next one, like, I'm sure for you, like, when you bought your first Franchise, you know, and then you went into your second one. You learned so much in your first one that you probably operated the second one a little bit different. And then your third one was even more different than The yep. And it's the same thing with everybody. You know, I think that that that's that's what you should be doing. That that just energizes me.
I get so Excited about talking like that stuff because the the worst thing you can do is look back and think, oh, I'll never do that again, and then you just and it stops you. Yeah. Yeah. 100%.
I think that that's it should be inspiring to each person because whether that's in the trades or whether it's in marketing or whether it's in edible arrangements, or the investment deals that I've done or the mastermind group or the whatever it is that you and I are the listener are part of, There's a there's always another level. I was talking about this with my wife last night.
We were, you know, doing some we're we're working through, like, a marriage course and talking through stuff, which is really cool. Just another another area of life that we're always trying to level up in. You know? Yep. And and and the question, it it came down to just like her and I both Kings, we we both critique Not only ourselves, but each other, which obviously, you know, can cause conflict. And but the the the root of Chaz, for me, at least, for both of us, is we wanna be better.
We wanna we wanna go to the next level, not only with each other, but individually in our businesses, in our, as parents, as husband, wife, like all of that. And so I think that to your point, how how can you progress if you don't just jump and then learn? And I think that that should fire you even though they're struggling, even when I look back, you know, I don't have 7 locations available arrangements anymore. I've moved on.
I still have a few, but it's like, Man, I all those lessons I learned in my twenties of of putting together 60 plus employees in in 3 states, it's like, Yeah. I could we could we could talk about some struggle if you wanna talk about some struggle. You know? Yeah. Okay. I wanna know that we have a process We're talking about decisions, so nowadays Kings fast forward now. What process do you take yourself through in a decision? Is there a mindset? Are there you know, 7 steps to success.
You know, what what's your process around decision making today? Well, I mean, I think we, you know, I'm going back it's a kind of old school. They're just pros and cons. You know, we look at, like, what's the what's the vision now or what's the what's the where we at think we we try to always figure out what's our long term goal. And, I mean, again, I don't set up goals for, like, 5 years, 10 years because things are just always shifting.
You know, we might have something kind of like, Kings of a umbrella goal for 5 years. But, I mean, with things the way that are are going right now, and especially in the real estate market, you know, we're we're always maneuvering But we, you know, we try to figure out, like, what's one goal that solves the all the other goals. You know, we will we'll put, you know, we'll do, like, I it's kinda like between Christmas New Year's we're Kings getting ready for it this year.
I'll kinda lay out the plan for 2023 and maybe, you know, a little bit into 2024, but really beyond that, and it's just too far out to really know where we're gonna be at because, you know, where I'm at, the way that I always try to operate is where I'm today, I shouldn't be in the same place next year. So to say in 5 years, we're gonna be here. Well, I'm I mean, it's just too hard. So we do, you know, 12 months. We do some, you know, kind of obtainable goals.
We do we break it down in orderly, we do the annual stuff. But ultimately, we try to say, okay. Is there one goal that we can shoot for as a company as a team that will solve a lot of these other goals? And, like, that's the the big one that we shoot for because if we can get to that goal, all the other ones get solved. And we Kings leave that one for last. Right?
Like, what's the What are the current, like, the quarterly metrics, the KPIs that we set for within the business, within the management company, within our construction company? Like, what do we What do those look like?
And then as we kind of add those up, then we kinda give ourselves, like, a big one at the top of if we can just get that, then all these other problems go away, or they or they're achievable, And it gives us, like, obtainable things because I hate saying, like, oh, I got one big goal, but it's gonna take me 2 years to hit it. Like, I wanna have something, like, every quarter. I'm just thinking, if I get, like, January 1, we just get to April. Here's where, you know, here's the goal.
And then we get to April. Okay. Great. Here's here's the next one, and we Kings of do it that way. It seems to have really helped out. It, you know, everything that you just went through is is so simple, but yet so profound. Even within Gathering the Kings Chaz created what I call the Kings scroll. And I do this very similar to what you just talked about, basically, allowing you to dream. Just a just a smidge. 5 years is far enough out to where it's a little bit of a dream.
But it's not so far where it's like, okay, bro. We both know. Looking back, you got a ten year old. I got a nine year old. It's like 5 years. It's They're gonna be 15 here in a few minutes. Yeah. K. So 5 years really isn't that far out, but it's far enough to your point where it's like, okay. Let me let me let myself dream a little bit, but then we gotta immediately go, okay. Well, if that were to actually happen, what needs to be done in the next 12 months?
Then, okay, so if that's gonna happen, what needs to be done this quarter so that I can be on pace? And what I have found is that if you can create this pace, for yourself. And, basically, what you just said is, like, okay. I'm a set this target, but in order to hit this, I gotta reverse engineer the process back to, okay. So this quarter, which then, okay. Well, what about this month? What about this week. What about today? And and, it Kings us a pace.
That way we know if we're on pace to hit the target. If we're not, then we pick up the pace. If we're If we are, then we're it's good. We're making good decisions, or we have to make it an adjustment. We have to do a different type of deal, or we have to do 2 deals instead of 1. Whatever the adjustments are, but you can't make adjustments. If you're not if you're not laying these things out, so I I just love the simplicity of what you're sharing there.
I think it I think it's applicable across all industry. You wanna add anything before I move on? No. I would just say it probably comes to the fire and fire in me. You know, we always call it, you know, keeping it simple. And there's, like, The are several different analogies that you can find out there about that. But, I mean, you know, that's the thing is if it's not simple, I'm gonna not follow it or the staff isn't gonna follow it.
You know, if we give him a bonus program and we make it super aided that they don't understand it. It it just kind of get falls on deaf ears. So we try to always keep things simple, you know, and I think that that's the That's the big thing, you know, is is try not to overthink it. Yeah. It's good. K. Let's go to the speed round here. First question in the speed round. Is around Kings.
And so you've got, obviously, several different you Kings just mentioned this a few seconds ago, several different, maybe, divisions of this main real estate company that you have, but all tracking all of that together. If you can only pick one thing to track, maybe it's that high level goal that you were just Kings talking about. What would be the one thing that you would track if you could only pick 1? I mean, I it's hard to Chaz a hard one.
I think ultimately like, would be probably our budgeting, you know, like, you know, if if you run out of money, then you got lots of problems. Right?
But the more money that you have coming in The, you know, the The problems go away, whether it's salaries or benefits or buying another project or doing whatever, like, you know, and so for us, You know, one of the big things that my partner's great at and and that I've gotten good at it on a high level is just The budging in and accounting, and it's also become one of the The where It has really slowed us down at times. We were we weren't able to figure that out really.
So, you know, because we outgrew, I think, 3 or 4 accounting groups that were doing bookkeeping and accounting, we crushed with our volume and Yeah. And we would just scale faster than they could scale. And Yep. You know, you could do all these other amazing things, but if you don't know how much money you actually have in the bank, Chaz you make payroll? Can you can you do this? Can you do that?
You know, and and I've had to really learn The, right, is is I get I get all charged up with the vision and and taking action and doing these different things. And then I've got a great partner, which is another successful part of strategic partnerships, but he is great at monitoring those things and making sure that we're, you know, that we are successful, I guess.
You know, he he can he keeps track of that stuff, and and I think that that's the One big thing if I had to take away from anything else is is, you know, do we have more coming in Chaz we have going out? And as long as that is, you know, we're in the black, then we're doing good. Yeah. No. I love that. I think that's, again, very simple, but you gave several little key things in there that make a big difference.
I would say The the listener today If they don't have an accounting group, step 1, go go make sure you have someone keeping track of your expenses And your income, that's called your P and L, your balance sheet, all that fun stuff. CPA can take care of that for you, but I love what you said there for maybe some of the more advanced listeners. It's okay that you move on past the The, whether it's been a buddy or a friend or or someone associated in your church. Or your or yourself? Or yourself?
Yeah. No. You know? Thank you. Yes. You can't it's it's interesting because The person keeping track of the money doesn't necessarily grow the business, but they will keep it limited. That's for sure. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And I would I mean, I'm not you may ask me this later, but I, you know, I real quick wanna throw in a a book that changed my life. One of them I do my first deal was, who not how?
By Dan Sullivan. And I can't talk about that book enough when I talk to people because understanding that, you know, the things that you and The today, even with goal setting, you can't do that properly when you're stuck in the business. And, you know, maybe you don't pay yourself for a year too, or maybe you take very little from it, but you get the right people in place.
That's the real way that you grow and and you can expand and you can, you know, achieve the lifestyle that you want The the life that you want, which is for you and I would be time for The to have with their families and and whatnot. And and, you know, you just have to Kings let go. And and that's why we use like, that's a vendor that we The.
A third party person is all our payroll, our keeping accounting, and then we just monitor those things, you know, and the and make sure that things are doing great. But if I had to sit down and try to do it or Tim did, We would never get anything else done because it just it takes up that set of eyes, and and that's just one aspect of of what we do, but Yeah. Such a higher level opportunity for you guys to be able to to push into if you're not if you're not doing those little things.
It I heard you say not pay yourself for a year or 2. I think that's great. Think I missed the boat on that one. I think I went, like, 7 years. I think I just grind and grind. Well, yeah. I mean, it it pouring it in. I I missed the memo. I should have paid myself early. But, like, you know, Chaz, I mean, building anything.
I mean, it take, like, for us, like, you know, we we we inadvertently integrated last year, and we joked because The, the property may there's some of the staff think that we're just, you know, we're a millionaire, billionaires. Just crushing it. And we're like, no. You don't understand. Like, the guy that's our groundskeeper over there, you know, the guy making fifteen 16 bucks an hour.
Like, he made more than I did last year when it comes to this specific business because we just are pouring everything back into the business for salaries, getting the right people in place, and and building that out. And so, you know, there's a there's definitely a time where that has to happen. That's what I said. You need to have a plan.
Don't just don't just quit your job if you're a w two person looking to get out You know, you just wanna make sure you have a plan The understand what you're taking on. Yeah. Yeah. There's there's there's strategy in that, especially if you're gonna be in real estate at being bankable and having a w two. There's that it seems so dumb. So stupid, really, but it's it's it's actually pretty strategic. It's funny I had just off of that story of your groundskeeper I had I had a a store manager.
This was years ago. I probably had maybe 3 or 4 locations. You know, I'm probably 26 or 27. And this manager at that time, he was probably making 15, 16, $17, something like Chaz. 30, 35,000, something like that. And, I can't remember exactly how the conversation had come up, but we talked about me. I was like, hey. I'll switch you. You know, like, well, you you take my salary outside yours. You know? And he was like, bet. And I go, whoo. Thank goodness. I just gotta raise.
And he was so confused. I had to literally break it down to him. I'm like, bro, you don't even have a clue. I'm I'm running around here twice as many hours, and and that's okay because eventually, like you said, there was there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I knew why I was doing it. And although it was much longer than I had anticipated originally, I was willing to do it, and I'm thankful that I did it. But in those moments, man, it's it's it can get it can get thin.
Yeah. Well, and especially if you're, you know, I mean, like I said, you go, like, you if if you're around other people and they're and they're driving nice cars and live in these big houses. And you know what I mean? They there's a lot of people out there that are, I would call them rich or they're The want to showcase that they're rich, but you really don't know what's in their bank account. You really don't know, like, what that looks like.
And so while you're grinding in a way, trying to be smart and build something, you know, again, delaying that gratification. Someday you'll get there. Someday you'll have Chaz, but it doesn't decide to mean right now. And and, you know, I talked to a lot of young guys that wanna to get into what I'm doing or in business in general, and they just think that that they, you know, after 2 or 3 years, they should be able to do those Kings.
And it's like, you know, If you wanna last in any in any form of business, I think, you know, that that's something that you have to delay. I mean, it it's Can it come? Yes. But if it comes too early or you you push it too early, it's gonna be your downfall. Yeah. 100%. I definitely appreciate the book recommendation. That was gonna be my question. Who now has a phenomenal book? We'll put it in the show notes as Wolfe.
And, the folks can listen or click purchase, whatever, The, but, yeah, phenomenal book changed changed a lot of things for me as well. I've got I've got one small question that we're gonna end with my last question here. We talked a lot about, you know, getting getting around other entrepreneurs, master mining, networking, Usually, my question is, what do you think about it? You've given us plenty about what you think about it.
What would you suggest to the listener today who has never done anything like that. What would you say a good action step for them would be? Oh, man. I I would I mean, you know, my my primary thing is real estate, but if you're in any business, it would just be Google, you know, like, or look up, like, what what's in your area. You know, I think that There's something to be said about congregating with other folks that are in your the industry that you're in or you wanna be in.
And, you know, there's a lot of, like, we do, we are we we do stuff through Firehouse Pros. That's our education brand. And, I mean, we basically teach people like, hey. Here's what we here's what I wish I would have known in my first couple apartment deals, but it's also created a community where people can get in that they wanna get into real estate, but they don't know maybe they don't have a local meetup.
They can get in to be around some other high level players, and it doesn't matter if you're you know, multimillionaire, you know, $50,000,000 of assets under management or you own that money or, you know, you're you're buying your first 10 houses or 5 houses or 1. You know, your first house, you know, being around other people is is super important.
And, you know, if as far as, like, business owners, like I said, I would strategically track down the people that are in your local area that are doing what you wanna be doing. You know, if you're trying to open a a franchise, like, Go go find somebody. I'll go track down the franchise owners in your area and and maybe, you know, if you're opening up a Subway, maybe you don't go track down the other subway owner. Right?
Like, I wouldn't feel like competition because there's enough miles to feed that, you know 100%. Yep. But there are people out there that are like, heck, no. Get away from me. Like, I'm not gonna teach you, you know, what I'm doing, but If you you know, any no matter what it is, anybody that's doing that, I think that that, you know, getting in rooms of people like that.
And if there isn't one that create The, you know, maybe you're the first person in your area that that realizes that there's a need for this or you're looking for that and then start advertising it. Maybe you start with one person, maybe you start with two people, you know, whatever, but It that environment to me has been life changing and, you know, entrepreneurship can be like an island.
You know, I can't go talk to the guy across the street from me who works for bank about what I do or the neighbor to the left of me or the right of me. And the only people that understand my headaches or my struggles or my frustrations We're talking to you, talking to other people with your, you know, your listeners and getting in other rooms of people that are doing the same thing or or something similar, you know, than what I'm doing. I can go talk to a business owner.
It doesn't have to be a real estate person. And we all kind of have been to the same struggles. And I really feel like that is it just re energizes you, recharges your battery, and it helps you to kinda keep dredging through some of those those struggles. So 100%. Man, I I couldn't agree more, and I think it took me too long to figure that one out. Took me a lot a long time to figure out a lot of things, but that one specifically took me too long. Last question here for you, Seth.
I wanna know if you had the opportunity to whisper. In the younger sets here. What would what what would you say? Oh, I would probably try to get him to understand assets and liabilities, you know, taking, you know, rather than working for somebody else for 22 years, you know, even though I love the job is like you work for yourself. And even though, again, 22 years ago, there weren't masterminds. There wasn't social media.
There wasn't all the connection that you could have with people throughout the country. So it was different, but, I mean, That's what I would try to get them to understand is that, you know, I owe all I ever knew was the value of my time because somebody else told me that that's when it was worth. And I would probably tell my younger Wolfe, like, look, that's that's that's a a false story. You know, you don't Your time is not worth 17 bucks an hour.
It's actually worth 250 bucks an hour or 500 bucks an hour or whatever it is, but you're you just don't owe any better. And you know, we can go down the whole rabbit hole of my parents and blue collar and how they grew up and what you're trained and what you're learning taught about money and all of that different stuff. But I would You know, that I think is the big thing for me is is that you're worth more than maybe what you think you are. That's what I'd probably tell myself.
Yeah. Yeah. Changing the time or or even not even charging per time. Right? Like, not associating your value directly with time, but more so with result or value, I think, is even even another clear way to say that as well. So, Seth, you've been incredible. How can the list find you. Maybe they wanna reach out. They wanna learn about real estate. Maybe they're a firefighter. They're like, dude, this is my guy. How do how how can they connect with you? Yeah. So we have a couple.
We two websites, the stream groups.com, it's pluralstreamgroups.com if you're interested in investing, getting into bigger apartment complex deals. So we do syndications. So We do that. And then, you know, if if it's somebody that wants to get into our network or our circle, the firehouse bros.com, we'll take you to our group. And like I said, we're all entrepreneurs Real Estate business owners, you know, whatever.
And it's a lot of them a lot of it's firemen, but there's a ton of other people that aren't firemen that are in there. They can find me that way. Or they can check me out on all social media platforms. So I'm on Facebook, which is under Seth Tiegle. I'm on Instagram, Seth Tiegle, and I think we're on TikTok now as well. So Yeah. Making his way. I'm an old guy getting in line with some stuff. Right?
When I was a fireman, it was everybody was anti social media, and so I was very, very Not active, but as I've gotten out and branched out, realized that I need to be putting more things out there. We're we're we're all in, so we're putting stuff out regularly. So you can find us on any of those platforms. That's awesome. Well, we'll put all that in the show notes as well. We just so appreciate you being here. You've been incredible. Great insights. Great energy, man.
Selfishly, I'm glad that I've had a chance to meet you. And wish you nothing but blessing on your on your business, your team that you've been building, your your children that we got to talk about, all of that. We just thank you for being here. Appreciate it. Yeah. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you to listeners too. Thank you for listening to Gathering the Kings today. I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away.
More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself. What I have realized, not only in my own journey from multiple businesses and multiple different industries and now interviewing over 2 or 300 The very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is that it's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the Kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs.
In fact, we are putting together 1000 Kings specifically who are grateful, but not done. We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and community 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. I want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 kings. Talk soon.