On today's episode of Gathering The Kings. You gotta be learning every single day if you want to. Even stay where you're at. As a entrepreneur or if you wanna grow, it's a must. If you don't learn, if I would have just graduated from college and never picked up a book, I would be definitely nowhere near as successful as I am now.
You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz Wolfe, featuring fellow 7, 8, 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 reel of the reel. 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 there. 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. Gathering the Kings podcast today. I've got Omar Figuuto here on the king stage.
My brother, how you doing? Very good, Chaz. Very good. Happy to be here. Very excited about providing some real value to your audience. Yeah, dude. I'm excited about that. And and I love when guys start with that perspective, man. You know, that's because that's what it's about. We you and me together today just get to give out of the kindness, really, but it's really out of, like, battle scars. Like, like, dude, I've been through some stuff. Let me tell you. Don't do it this way. Right?
It's pain. It's it's hard. You know? That's I just appreciate that perspective. Tell us what kind of business that you got, brother. So I help run our family business 3rd generation We do aluminum railings and architectural metals, meaning we manufacture the soft from scratch and we do contract work to have it installed in projects. So our clients are general contractors, big general contractors, and they are doing large multifamily buildings.
So think about, like, netarized building, a high rise building, even a commune entire community, where they need our railings to protect people from falling over an edge. But that's all we do. You know, we do focus in on that aluminum railing rail co Kings. Is the name of our company. Yeah. Very obvious, but a lot of cyber railings, we do handrails, gates, fences. We also can sort sort of Kings neat architectural stuff.
Some of it borders on the on art, but wouldn't you be as pergolas pretty much anything that these projects need The not only beautify their building, but to make them safe and habitable for anybody who's living in them. Yeah. I love I love the dynamic there that you just described of beauty and and safety or or design and function, right, like these These worlds collide all the time, especially in construction.
We just went through building a home last year, and and that was a lot of our, like, is this functional, or is this design? Is this preference, or is this half too. You know? And so those worlds meet a lot. That sounds really cool that you guys get to do that at a pretty high level commercial. We've probably walked along one of your hand Kings before, so it sounds like. It sounds like there's a good chance that you've seen some of my work around town. That's us.
We operate here out of Miami, Florida. I have been doing so since the early eighties. When my father started up this company with his late grand his late Gathering. After a few years, my dad was a business with his dad and his dad passed away. And so my dad in his early twenties, mid twenties, Chaz to take on this burden of of making this business grow. And that's how I grew up.
I I grew up in that environment of watching my dad go through the the pain and the struggle, but it seems him slowly success succeed in his his business. And that was an inspiration to me growing up. Yeah. That's really cool. I I have a different story of of not knowing my dad, but for you to have that in your perspective, as you grew up. Do you think that you would be in this type of business or even in business at all if if that wasn't the upbringing that you had? Chaz, not gonna lie.
There's a great chance that I would not. I mean, it was so influential. I'm very blessed. And and I still work with my father to this day, Lava, there's definitely that day in, day out. I would go to, work with him on Saturdays just to hang out with my dad and I would sweep up around the shop floor and and see exactly what he was doing, but that was such a big influence. And and I know not everybody had that experience, that positive experience.
And, you know, that's something I'm hoping to pass along to the next generation, to my son, and my future gets. Yeah. I love that perspective as well. I just hope to do the exact same thing.
I think there's a lot of entrepreneurs out there that maybe had or didn't have Chaz opportunity with the father, but but have the same desire, right, to pass it on or to be able to, you know, teach or coach or or influence the next internet, the next generation I think that there's a lot of, especially high performers. Like, you and I, it's just like, man, if I'm doing this, I gotta be doing it for something. So that kinda leaves me in my next question.
Yeah. Is it is it legacy or, like, what's the big why for you? I mean, your 2nd generation potentially looking to hand it off to a 3rd, you know, decades to come, Is it more than that? Is it different than that? Is that it? What's your big why? You know, my big why has been evolving over time. Oh, yeah. But right now, I think we're in a once in a lifetime moment in construction. You see a lot of the old guard Gathering. They're leaving fields.
Yep. And, you know, they are taking a lot of knowledge with them, but they're also taking a lot of The old school mentality positive and negative with The. And so I see a big opportunity for construction to be transformed from the ground up. And you look at construction productivity over the last 20 years and Chaz flat line. I mean, it's Kings scary. Any other industry, every other industry, has been having increases in productivity.
We just pretty much done the same thing over and over and over again because Hey. That's how it's always been done. And, you know, if an ain't broke, don't fix it. But right now, it is broke. So I show you're looking at America. Having a lack of housing, you know, you you look at the real estate market over the last couple of years, it's insane. You can't really find affordable housing.
So we gotta build in America, and I see now being the opportunity for, especially younger guys like me and the next generation The come in, and infused some construction technology into the mix.
And that's my big why, because I I see a big opportunity to transform an entire industry and really have an outsized impact where it that's been pretty tough to do over the last, you know, 50 years now is really that moment where I see a huge opportunity, not only for the entire industry, but, you know, obviously for myself and my company and the next generation. Of course. Yeah. It's so cool. I'm gonna give this to the listeners.
This is a little a little nugget for the listener because they might be like you where you what you just described is that you're an industry disruptor. Like, what you get you, like, really fueled up inside is literally changing something that's been the same. For decades, 100 years even. That's right. That seems really big to some people. Right? But then there's other people, more like myself who are legacy driven, where it's like, My family's never been like this. Right?
And so, again, that sounds really big to change the trajectory of generations Right? That sounds really big, but it's just they're the same, but different. And we've got these deep motivations, and I've met a lot of disruptors like you have met a lot of legacy people like me. And and, really, they're the same thing. It's a it's about it's about using what we've got to make an influence or an impact. Right? Like, that's what Kings do. That's what that's what we're doing right now.
It's just maybe who the influence is being most directed towards. And so I just love that, man. Thanks and I really appreciate that. I think that should encourage the listeners. It doesn't always have to be about the the the family. Although the family is a big deal, I'm not saying that you you already mentioned your son. For you, though, industry disruption. Like, that's that's a very unique, like, you gotta you gotta be an agitator. You gotta have a chip on your shoulder.
You said Kings what you got. And, you know, I did not come from a background in technology. I did not I wish I would have studied computer science and college I studied business. You know, that was how I grew up, and and I knew I wanted to always be in business. That is my hobby. It's it's a weird hobby, but I am always looking into business and reading business books, and that's just We all know. That's right. Focused in all the time, but, ultimately, it's about solving problems.
Solving the problems that you have. Yeah. So everything that I'm doing, everything that I'm looking at is trying to solve a problem in my business. You know, my dad was old school. Right? So he comes from that old guard. When I joined his the company up 2014, he was doing payroll by hands. Right. Every other Friday, he was taking that Friday to sit there, calculate stuff, you know, literally a calculator and do all this stuff by hand. And I said, you know, first thing I did was, hey.
Let's get this in quickbooks. So it's all about solving those problems using the technology you have presently. And as technology is evolving and it's evolving so quickly. It's head spin. You have more and more opportunities. So anybody that's out The, to stay tuned, or what's going on out there. Don't disconnect. You really have to look around because, you know, those that do well in business, ultimately, have a a really good grasp on reality.
Yeah. And since Chaz reality is constantly changing, you really have to be in tune with what's going on. That's a lot of these technologies. Artificial intelligence is a huge one. There's that chat GPT. They've been able to know what that is. They need to go Google this because it is definitely disrupting entire industries that you Yeah. So it's it's it's not a matter of just Kings, like, you know, no one's necessarily a genius. It's just apply what's out there to problems that you already have.
Yeah. Well, I love that. It it I say this all the time, this phrase. Simple, but yet pro so profound. And that's exactly what you just gave to us is, like, Okay. We know that. We know that things are gonna change. We know that technology specifically are going to change it, but it's a matter of do we embrace embrace it? Do we get nervous about it? Do we get do we do we get standoffish about it? I remember listening to a podcast or a video or something from Gary V talking about his his Kings.
And, obviously, we've got young Kings. You and I both.
And there's this idea of screen time or or helping them understand, like, technology versus, like, what is doing to their brain because we know the negative effects of their that it happens on their brain, but it what his point was is that, look, if my kids don't understand how to operate an iPhone or an iPad or a computer, now, what am I robbing them of in 20 years when they're when they're when they're my age or or in 30 years when they're my age?
And it's like, I need to be able to put parameters, obviously, in place. I'm their parent. However, I need to be able to to help them understand how to use the technology, not not be afraid of it. And so, again, similar to what you just said, even if it's technology for construction or if it's for my children, we we need to be able to utilize what's in front of us so that we can solve problems and even problems that are gonna come in the next 20, 30, 50, a 100 years. Right?
Like, you gotta use technology and not allow technology to use you. Right? So Yeah. That's good. There's a spectrum on The, and you gotta find that happy medium for yourself. Look. If it wasn't for my mom busting out this old Mac computer from the early eighties Right. Me tinkering around with it when I was about four or five years old. I don't know if I would have the same love of technology that I do today because I was I was definitely exposed to that at a very young age.
But definitely they're parameter set, and that's on every parent to do. And I think Gary V is a great example of of, you know, finding that sweet spot and that balance Yeah. For the next generation. Yeah. Love that. My next question for you, Omar, is Who inspires you? I'm inspired by a lot of the stuff that I read. You know? You know, I I didn't mention my father. That's that's been a big inspiration in my life. But I am an avid reader. And by reader, I mean, audiobooks.
So one of the best things I could've done is get a audible subscription years ago. But even before The, I was into audio books, and and that's really inspired me. So who are the guys that inspire me and who are who are the people that inspire me? Yeah. I look at guys more, you know, more recently, guys like Alex Or Mozy Yeah. Who is really crushing it. Guys like Grant Cardone, you know, guys who are in the trenches, people who some of them come from nothing and really made a name for themselves.
By by really just, you know, working their teal off and and then exposing and and teaching others teach people, me, what they've done to help the next cohort of people come up and and if, you know, The if he's successful and I'm successful and I can teach somebody else, we could all be successful and our country could be successful. And I think that's really Yeah. Well, I could tell you this.
If you figure out a way to disrupt an entire construction industry, you, my friend, will be an inspiration to millions. I'm sure you already are too many, but the reality of it is is that those guys are disruptors and just like you. So I look forward to being able to interview someone one day and they say your name. That's kinda cool. Cool. I want you to take us back. You you give us a little bit of The story, you know, how your dad got rolling and how you kinda joined up.
Give us just a little bit of more of that story. Just just maybe the day to day, like, how to why did you join up with your dad? Was it always assumed? Like, just give us a little bit of the the beginning. Sure. So, like, a lot of people who are brought up in a family business The there was it's always implied like, hey. You're gonna work here one day. And as a teenager, you know, I knew I wanna study business, but not necessarily the join up the family business.
Yeah. So in college, I was actually a realtor. So Okay. At the age of twenty. I worked for Prudential, real estate, and I bought and sold homes, help people buy us and sell homes, Wolfe in college. College is really where my entrepreneurship journey began. When I came down here back to South Florida, back The, it was 2004,005. Florida had been hit by a series of hurricanes. So hurricane shutters were huge.
Yeah. You Chaz you know, re you really couldn't find The because they were just selling like hotcakes. Right. So I decided to get into that game with my father. That's a separate venture from what he had. So I I set up shop right next door to him, and I used some of his contacts, and I basically launched this hurricane shutters business That's where I learned a lot of the lessons that entrepreneurs have to learn.
A lot of lessons, and a lot of them, I learned the hard way that is the the genesis of my story of my entrepreneurial story and how I got into the building materials industry. Yeah. Eventually, I mean, pretty much by the time I got set up Chaz 2007, I don't have to tell you Chaz, the economy was quickly sinking Yeah.
It seemed like from one day to the next, all those hurricane shutter orders, all those all that man that had been pent up over the last couple of years before The, just just went away overnight. Gone. And I was left with Kings of a quiet warehouse all set up, ready to go, and no customers. Yeah. And I had some really tough years. 2008 was tough Chaz we all know. Chaz was tough. 20 10th. I stuck with it. I just It's really difficult to make me quits.
So if I keep going, at least I, you know, can't lose Yeah. I went through it 2008, 9, 10, 11, 12. Really 13 was the year that I figured out how to piece this thing back Gathering. And I just kinda went full throttle and got burnt out. By the end of that year, I was just really burnt out. I I just went too hard, too fast, So 2014, I took a step back, and I decided to shut the whole thing down and Why? Gathering And ever since then, we've been on the same venture, rolling in the same direction.
So that's that's pretty much a story of how I ended up joining you up with my father and ended up doing the railings and the rail coat. What do you think he was thinking that whole time? Like, he just kinda letting you flounder, just let you do your Kings, let you figure it out, let you finally finally realize that maybe It wasn't easy for him either. Yeah. Exactly. Kings. He was, you know, he was on some of these projects. The only difference is that he was doing commercial.
He was always focusing on that commercial client, where I was more on that residential client. So I felt the brunt of it much worse and heated. Yeah. So by 2013 or so, I saw that he had too much work. And although I had a lot of work as well, it wasn't as profitable as what he was doing, and he needed help getting a lot of his orders fulfilled. So that's when we decided, look, hey. Set up you rowing For The left and me rolling towards the right, we're on the same boat.
We're literally right next to each other. That's just both bro in the same direction. So I hopped on his venture, rail go, and just try to automate everything, try to make the entire process easier so we could get more and more business done And ever since then, you know, our our the size of our contracts have increased dramatically, and the amount of work that we could do has increased dramatically. Yeah. Incredibly. It was a tough moment.
I would have to say, you know, he wasn't I know he Chaz, like I did, a lot of negative feelings about me shutting down a hurricane shutters company. Sure. Mostly, I know for a fact, it was the right choice because the entire market has shifted, and it was just Ultimately, I could look back. It was tough, but we made the right choice. Yeah. That's good stuff, man. I just you just dropped so many nuggets there.
Not only just the the dynamic of you going through The, like you said, the, in just the battle of of a business and learning those things even on your own, I think, was super important, probably, for your relationship with him, almost like a proving ground a little bit. And probably, I'm sure he respected you already just because you're his son, but I'm sure that gave you a little bit of a an an an elevated stance when you came into the company for him to be able to to trust, like, hey.
Here, here, here, here, here, and then you you could run fast. And then, obviously, the dynamic of you guys running together is just so empowering to know that 2 minds coming together actually can do quite a bit more. It's it's it's The people Chaz do partnerships, and a lot of people stay away, but it's like, man, you are, not only in a partnership, but a partnership with family. And so, a lot of dynamics, I'm sure, but there's power there is the point.
And so I think that's there's a lot of lone wolves I guess, on on the other side, there's a lot of people out there doing it themselves. And the encouragement there that I've even learned over the last about 2 or 3 years myself is that you can actually get a whole lot more done with strategic partnerships. In this case, it was your pop, so which is pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. And and we have we're very lucky at.
We do have a great working relationship where we've always been able to work well with each other. That doesn't happen in every family business. Right. But it it speaks to just having, you know, whether it's family or not, having a good partner, having somebody The, who compliment your skills. My father's geospatial skills are crazy. He's able to map stuff out and measure stuff out in ways that I'm still just trying to pick up. Right.
I look at things in a more business aspect, and I look at things in in with automation and processes He just doesn't see it that way. And but we're able to make it work and the entire company as a whole does better because of it. Yeah. Super cool, man. I wanna switch over to asking you about yourself here, a little bit about your journey. I wanna know of a habit or a personality trait that you have that Kings back actually kept you from success longer than maybe if you didn't have it.
You know, I'm looking back at my schooling, and I was always a great student. K. So, you know, it's because with it in school, you have a teacher. They teach you something. You go read the book. You do the homework. Right. Come back and take the test. And it's very rigid in its its structure. Yeah. So thinking back of when I started The hurricane shutters company and had just graduated from college with The. This is a street.
Yeah. You know, read the books, study, take the test, get The good grades, graduate, and that was one of my biggest mistakes and and I think that hindered me because in business, you need creativity. Yeah. You do, you know, shake things up. And what I did was I set up the company exactly how everybody else set up their hurricane shutters company. And I inadvertently became another me too, but I don't mean a a a commodity option. Right.
So it became a race of the bottom, ultimately, because I was no different than everybody else because I was checking off the boxes and getting the a's. And, yeah, sure. I did. Right? Like the teacher said, like everybody else is doing, but it did not help me out at all. So I think once I learned that lesson, obviously, the hard way I realized, hey. You know, you got to do something different. You got to disrupt. You can't be that.
You can be the ace student, but you gotta also be the class clown. You gotta disrupt and you gotta shake things up a little bit in order to have ultimate success in order to stand out from the rest of the crowd. Right. And that's something that so many business owners especially small business owners struggle. They just set themselves up like everybody else, and then it's tough to see. You're competing ultimately a price Right.
You don't have to if you're able just to really think outside the The. I don't know if it's a cliche, but just be creative here. Infuse your own creativity, infuse everything you've learned Yeah. Into your business, into your venture, and definitely don't be afraid to stand out. Don't be afraid to ruffle some some feathers. It's gonna help you out. 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 Together, we are building a community of like minded entrepreneurs who are committed to growing their businesses to new heights. So let's do this. Let's help each other. Let's have each other grow. Yeah. I think it it's a differentiator. Right?
And and I think a lot of guys don't realize that even though you're saying creative thinking, I think that that's I mean, I couldn't agree with you more. Like, literally, I live for conversations like this about creative thinking and problem solving. But most guys don't even realize that Honestly, some of the things that differentiates differentiate yourself are wearing a a a a logo or carry yourself with The, having a sales process.
Like, you know, like, just treating your business like a business, you know, and so I I don't want the listener to overthink it too much, because it doesn't have to be too colorful, really. It's just because, like you're saying, most guys don't, whether they're in the trades and construction like you or something completely different, most people just don't. And so on time. Right. Like, it's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. Okay. Let's flip the script. What about a good habit?
What Kings back, what what do you have that led you right where you are? I have it or a a trait. Sure. So ever since 2019, and and I'll actually I'll pick it up so the viewers can see it. I started writing everything down. So I have one of these per quarter. And in it, I write down all my major goals for the year, And I plan on my week ahead of time, and I plan on my day every morning. So that habit has been powerful in getting me to the next level as an executive.
Yeah. So where I would, you know, try to keep everything in my head before that didn't work because it's so much when you're running a company, are so many little things you gotta do. All the details that that you have to constantly keep on top of in order to just keep your clients happy. If you have that on your head, you're gonna forget something. So I said, you know what? I gotta come up with a plan ahead. That's why I have this full focus planner, people could pick up online.
I'm not affiliated with them at all, but it's been huge in keeping me focused, keeping me organized, and keeping me successful, ultimately, because Nothing really slips by the wayside when I'm writing it down. 100%. Love that. Let's talk about decisions. What about a good decision that you made particularly early on. Maybe right when you joined over with your pop or maybe even in your previous venture, what was a a decision that you can look back on?
And this one thing has led to a bunch of your success that you have today. Well, you know, I had touched on it before. I think that that really difficult decision to shut down my baby, my company, ultimately help me out tremendously. But, you know, to to give me the the the listener something, The decision to constantly improve. K. The constantly automate to write down processes to come up with a way to make your business easier for you. So you're not working in the business.
You're working on the business. Right. So I am constantly looking around at ways that I can improve processes just make it Kings easier for everybody. And that was a a very conscious decision The I decided to do. That was perhaps different than when I was doing it before. I joined up with railco and then with my Gathering. Chaz decision, I think, is something that any view or any listener or viewer should take seriously and constantly improving their processes and automating. Yeah. 100%.
Couldn't agree more. I'm all about personal development. Obviously, whole point of the podcast is to help others develop and and grow. But just to just to add another layer to that for the for the listener here, You know, I was watching a video, again, probably a podcast or something. This is what we do as entrepreneurs.
We've we fill ourselves with with good education, but The were talking about, you know, raising their children and helping them Kings lean towards personal development and all these things. And and The this guy was talking Chaz an eighteen year old son or a twenty year old son, something like Chaz.
And he was he was talking about how he had set this this reading plan up, and he was gonna read, you know, 12 or 15 something something in the teens, books Chaz year on business, personal development, and he was really excited about his son doing The. And I was like, yes. Absolutely. Chaz I thought about my own story. Like, I didn't have a dad telling me those things, but I got connected to a a multilevel marketing business when I was eighteen.
And although I don't I'm not involved with that industry anymore, I read, like, a 100 books in 3 years. Probably a 120. Like, like, so many books. It was in it was in it was insane. And so I looked back on that Kings especially watching this video.
And then even what you just said, how important it is, it's like, man, that was my college education because I didn't go to college, but I read so much knowledge on business and communication and personal development and and personalities and habits and, like, all this stuff, and you're like, woah. That's The it matters. It matters. And that's what I'm just picking up from what you just said is that you get smart. Got something better than a college education. Oh, yeah.
Help by doing you were surrounded by people that were all trying to come up, and they were all trying to be successful. Some were more successful than others, but they were all in the journey And they were more most importantly, they had a growth mindset, obviously, right, to reading from The books. You have to have that openness Right? Knowing that you're not where you're you're at where you're at because it's of where you've been, but you don't have to necessarily stay there.
You know, there's so much more so much extra potential, but you have to have that knowledge in order to actually make it happen. Yep. Time to get it. Okay. Bad decision. What'd you do? It just didn't work out at all. Tell us what what what should we stay away from? Definitely bad decision is trying to be like everybody else. You know, I grew up. I was I was in the room of a shy kid. You know, I I had a group of friends and every I was a little bit of a shy.
I was kinda like the the quiet guy sometimes, and and I am more of a on the introvert side, but maybe I was afraid Gathering out, and that does not really work in business. You really have to figure out a way that you don't have to wear a purple suit in order to stand out, you could do it through your business and your processes. But I think the big mistake big decision was trying to be like everybody else and and really trying to play safe. This is you can't play that safe.
It's all about risks. And you have to be willing to to acknowledge take a risk, but to put yourself out there in ways that are gonna make you uncomfortable. You know, a lot of growth is on the other side of discomfort, and you just have to be real comfortable with discomfort. That's right. So good.
I mean, we could probably have a whole podcast just on that and and your experiences, but you're a 100% right, being discomforted is a regular occasion as a as an entrepreneur, but It's funny because my wife has reminded me of this many times. She goes, you know, you know, you did this to yourself. Yes. Whatever whatever it is, you know, that we're feeling of discomfort. And it's like, you know, you're right. A 100%. I agree with you, I do not deny it. But, man, would I have it any other way?
Would I because it look. We go we go searching for areas to solve problems. That's what you said at the beginning. We we intentionally are looking for areas to solve or make better. Well, what that what that brings is problems. Like, I'm literally and intentionally looking for problems. Wow. New problems. Yeah. Exactly. Hopefully, Dick. You don't know how to solve yet. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Love that. Okay. I wanna know we're gonna switch over to our speed round here.
I wanna know in the KPI world, in your business, if you Chaz only pick The to track what would you track if you can only pick 1? What's the most important? Very good question. I would say for me, in my particular business since we are constantly bidding on jobs, I am getting new plans in on a constant basis, and I'm having to do the takeoffs and put out estimates for you. So there's one thing I would have to track.
And one thing that I am aware of is the amount dollar amount of bids potential business that's out there because I know if I could keep that high. Ultimately, I'm going to get a certain percentage of those projects. Right. But if that number starts coming down quarter over quarter, I need to be looking out for for something and something is wrong. And, luckily, over the last 5 years, that number keeps going up.
And a lot of it has Chaz do with the economy doing well and And I know where we may be going to recession. We're kinda lucky down here in South Florida. Our real estate market continues to boom, and these projects continue to come online. But it also has a lot to do with just delivering on business. You know, if you do a good job, if you keep your client happy, if you know, you'll if you make their project successful, they're gonna call you back.
And they're gonna want you to be on that next project because not everybody can deliver, like Right. Like, I can deliver or how we can deliver, and not everybody can deliver, a job in a successful manner and professional way. And that takes just being in the game, that takes tenacity, that takes perseverance, that takes not quitting. So a lot of that has Yeah. I love that. The the the pipeline perspective, obviously, is what, like, literally breathes life into the business.
I've got a I've got a guy. Actually, he's a he's a really big GC. He's in my group. I need to introduce you. I just put this together in my brain. But I had him on the show months ago, and he said this. He said every single year, he tries to go out and get a single project that equates the same revenue as last year's whole revenue. Wolfe. Like, you it like, if you just think about that first There's no way you're not growing, bro.
There's just no way if you're if you if that is a focus of yours to get a singular project that equates to as much as you did last year all year. It it forces you to hit another circle of people to get into a different room of projects being done or connections to be had. Right? And so when you start thinking about the next level, I love what you just said. It's keeping the pipeline full.
Just wanted to add that in there because I remember him saying that he said it several times in some of our roundtables as well Chaz Wolfe. Excuse me. And it blows my mind every time I hear it, I'm like, Super powerful. Alright. What book would you recommend Omar for a person listening right now who's like, I gotta grow my business in 2023. What is it? Sure. So one of the bugs that has completely blown my mind over the last 6 months or so is $100,000,000 offers by Alex Hormozzi.
Yeah. This guy has an incredible way of breaking down business in general, something that you did take years of of a college education or years in the trenches, they're able to break it down in a very easy to digest format. And as I was listening to that book, I listened to it a few times. I bought the the Kings version so I Chaz listen to it while I'm reading it, which is something he recommended. Yep. This book is absolutely blown Kings my mind.
I think anybody, whether they are just starting adventure, or had been in business for 15, 20 years. There you go. It definitely picked something up from that book because Again, a lot of it has to do with differentiating yourself. A lot of it has to do with just thinking about things in a different way.
A lot of growth also comes from just switching up and mixing up your perspective Chaz and getting away from the stuff that you always listen The, and seeing it from a different way, and and that's pretty powerful. Yeah. Yeah. I love the way his brain works and the way he communicates. I think it's pretty spot on. What would you say about intentionally networking and or master mining with other entrepreneurs specifically? Wolfe, networking is huge.
2011 2012. I joined business networking international BNI, Yeah. That was pretty cool experience. It was the first time I ever did that. We're networking. I learned a lot in that group over the 3 or 4 years I was in it. It was transformational for me because ever since then, I've taken a lot of those skills and parlayed it into The these other ventures. Chaz was a cool thing because it's very category exclusive. I wasn't competing with other people in my group, and I, you know, learned a lot.
I learned how to niche down in a time where I was trying to do everything Wolfe be everything to everybody. I learned how to focus in on one particular niche, and I did pretty well off of it. Networking is huge, not only in person, but also online. I am on LinkedIn every single day posting, feeding people, getting to know people who are just like me Yeah. Who people who are in front of me and ahead of me and and meeting people that are trying to come up. Right. And that's huge.
You don't necessarily if you live in a small town, you don't have to feel like you're you're left out of networking. There's this huge thing called LinkedIn, and I guarantee you, if you put the work in, it's gonna open up doors that you could have never imagined. It's happened for me. Oh, yeah. 100%. Love that. I love The, which you said, the openness. I think a lot of entrepreneurs get stuck. Just in ways. Like, you already mentioned earlier, just the old guard, getting stuck in certain things.
We do this. Right? We we create habits. We create you know, process and some things are good, and then we just stay there because it works. But then things change. The environments change, networking styles change, people change, The rooms change, whatever it is.
And so I just that was the one thing that you just said that stuck out to me, which is you have to have an openness, or really what it is is humility to understand that you don't have all the answers yet, even though we've been super successful? Man. And we're giving advice today, maybe, but, like, when's the next time I can get into a room and learn something. And I think you have to have that perspective of of being a learner, not necessarily always someone who's I gotta figure it out. Right?
That's Wolfe you agree with that? 100%. You gotta be learning every single day if you want to. Even stay where you're at as a entrepreneur or if you wanna grow It's Right. A bus. If you don't learn, if I would have just graduated from college and never picked up a book, I would be definitely snowhere near as successful Chaz I am now.
I would not have been able to provide value to anybody because I would have kept up with the knowledge of, you know, the nineties and and early 2000 Chaz opposed to everything that's going on today. And and everything is changing so quickly Yep. Now that you have to have your fingers on the pulse or you will be left behind. That's right. Yeah. I'll I'll that that breeds just urgency in me. It's just like, oh my goodness. Like, I don't wanna be left behind. We gotta freaking figure it out.
We gotta go solve problems. If that doesn't fire you up, I don't know if you're an entrepreneur. Alright. Question about family before we kinda wrap things up here in a minute. Wanna know how you've implemented. You said you mentioned, you know, your your son is young and you've been married for a little bit, but you have this booming business. And this is an entrepreneurial conundrum for for all business owners out there everywhere is how how do we obsess over our business and our family.
So give us some things that you've done over the years that maybe has led you to some success in that. Sure. So, you know, obviously, I work with my family. The older generation, but I think communication with your partner, your spouse, is essential. I am so blessed to have someone who I could speak to her and let her know, hey. Look. This is what's going on. It's Saturday, and I have to go into work tomorrow. In order to make these things happen, but let's make it up on Sunday.
And and even if you're getting home late, If you could at least spend some sort of quality time with kids or your spouse, even a few moments, and make those moments count for a lot, put down the phone, you know, look them in the eye and really focus in on them because our life passes by so quickly It does. And ultimately, you know, you you're not gonna be eighty, eighty five years old, you know, on your deathbed and say, man, I wish I Wolfe wore more Saturdays.
I wish I would've lowered more hours. You're gonna be saying, man, I wish I had that time back. And so especially for for young parents, You don't get that time back. Right? I see my fifteen month old growing so quickly. And I'm saying, how did this kid? How did this little baby become, you know, this toddler walking around? I know it's just gonna continue to happen so fast that it really gotta sink in and let those moments sink in and really enjoy every single moment you can.
And then, you know, work will take care of itself. If it means Gathering up a little earlier or or focusing in a little bit harder, you know, you gotta do it. You gotta make it work, but, ultimately, why are we doing everything Chaz we're doing? Why are we in businesses? Because of our families, because of our loved ones. Ultimately, we wanna spend more time with Yeah.
Yeah. It's it's the ultimate act of of doing what we say is important, but it's so tough because one serves the other and the other gets either the benefit or or the negative may be a result. And so I just love a love your approach there. I love how you talked about the I've had this re revelation recently as well. I was talking to a buddy of mine. He has a young son as well. I think he's two and a half, and they went through Christmas.
Really the first time where know, it sounds old enough to, like, just engage with the spirit of Christmas, you know, and have joy and all that fun stuff. And and so I was encouraging my buddy that He was he was telling me how wonderful it was, and I was and I had this thought that came into my mind of, like, wow, those moments, his son's not gonna remember. And then, of course, quickly, as I'm saying it to him, I'm remembering these things for for me and my kids. It's like, wow.
I have I have a couple kids under the age of, let's say, 6 where they're not gonna really remember The moments. And so they're actually The for us. They're gifts, literally, for us. And it's like, Wow. I need to I need to start banking these things and pay more. I need to I need to start putting these in my memory, like, for real for real. Like, really put them in there because they're for me. Yeah. Yeah. Take a mental snapshot of that moment.
You know, we're always on our phones and trying to capture moments on our phones, but I'm not sure if we're gonna have that in 50, 60 years. Right. Ultimately, it's those memories that that last a lifetime. 100%. Alright. Omar, I got my last question here for you, brother. If you could whisper in the younger Omar's ear, what would you say? Say b difference, stand out, and continue to educate yourself. Never soft learning. Wolfe, concise message.
You've been you've been saying to your yourself this already, it sounds like. Do you feel like things would be different today? If you had told yourself that you had 100%. Yeah. Absolutely. Abs absolutely. And, you know, it's some of these lessons, you're just learning on a daily basis. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Your younger self could have used it. Would your younger self have listened necessarily? I don't know. Right? A lot of it. Experience. And and I I learned best through the hard knocks.
That's why I try to educate myself so I could be aware of them. But, ultimately, yeah, it it's it's a lot of it's a it's almost like a practice, you know, daily soft reminders of be different, stand out, continue to educate yourself. Yeah. It's like a it's like a permission. I'm hearing you give yourself. Even now today, it sounds like a a regular permission just to just to go for it to to step out, be different. I've just loved that, man.
I think that you and I, a personality wise, probably, are fairly similar. Being, you know, just high drivers pretty pretty organized. And and you're right. For the guy listening like us, it's like, man, it's alright. Be a disruptor. Be different. Everything that Chaz to line up as as everyone else, the proverbial day says it should. Right? Right. Yeah. Do you. Like, seriously, do you. And and have the passion behind it, man, and and that's what makes all the difference.
So Omar, you have given us so many gold nuggets. How can the listener find you? Whether they they are connected to a big GC or maybe they are a big GC and they need to get your railings in their new project or maybe there's an entrepreneur. They wanna pick your brain. How can I find you? Sure. And I encourage anybody to reach out to me on LinkedIn. I post on daily basis. You Drop a comment. I will reply. If you ask me to follow you, I will follow you. And for me, it's powerful.
That's where I'm at right now. You know, I'm looking up you know, parlay the daily riding habits into daily videos sometime this year, maybe on some other platform, but LinkedIn right now is is is where to find me. Omar Figundo. Very cool, man. Well, we appreciate you being here. You've been nothing shy of incredible. We wish you nothing blessing you, your family, your business, all of 2023. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening to Gathering the Kings today.
I hope that you 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 Kings it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself. What I have realized, not only in my own journey from multiple businesses and multiple different industries and now interviewing over 2 or 300 other very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is that it's tough to do it alone.
And so gathering the Kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs. In fact, we are putting together 1000 Kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done. We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, communities, and here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us The responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy.
So if that relates and and resonates with you and you know that you need people around you sharp qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to Gathering the Kings dot com. I want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 kings. Talk soon.