On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. I realize that everybody's gonna bet on something the next 10 years. That's right. Why not bet on yourself? To really 10x or 100x what your vision is and trust that you can get it done. 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 assess 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 keys like today's guest. Grab your pen and notebook because we're about to dive in. Being recorded. What's up, everybody? Chaz Wolfe Gathering the Kings. I've got a king, Chris Castanza here on the King stage.
My brother, how you doing? Hey, Chaz. Doing well. Doing well. It's beautiful day outside. How are you doing? How can we how can we sit and complain, especially when it's beautiful? I mean, even when it's not beautiful, I still can't complain, but but it makes it really hard if it's beautiful. Right? A 100%. 100%. People are hungry. People are working more. Hey. We're excited about the day when it's blue skies. So we're that's right. We're excited. That's right. You know, I had I had a guest.
I don't know. Probably a couple weeks ago, say that if you didn't if you didn't live with expectation. If you weren't after something or or if you were living a brother with expectation, if you are after something, that that alarm clock, when it goes, like, you you even beat it. Like, you're it you it goes off with, like, oh, yes. Now I get to go at it again rather than the, you know, You know, I gotta wake up, you know, so that it that was a good one.
Anyway, neither here nor there, Chris, what kind of business do you have, man? I wanna know. Love it. Love it. Yes. So I agree with the expectation. So we actually run an insurance brokerage with I got a partnership with Farmers Insurance. Also have a Medicare business also run a real estate company.
We have a buying world real estate company, property management in house, and so we've spent a lot of time last 5 years buying to stress properties, renovating them, renting them out, and then managing it in house, and try to do some, you know, ways to benefit those clients, those tenants, if you will. Yeah. And that's kind of the main in playing those 2 or 3 verticals and just trying to grow the heck out of both of those and loving it.
You know, we really, the business of it is really developing trying to develop leaders to help help them grow and developing who they're called to be. And so we've got a lot of young people on my team. Got some older people as well, but that's kind of my our focus for our businesses. Yeah. You know, what you just said and I wanna dig more into it, but when you when you're helping someone reach their potential, like you said, younger, older, it doesn't really matter.
Because it it it's this it's this never stopping journey of reaching. Right? Oh, a 100%. It's it's it's it's We're in the coaching business. Being able to coach people, help them find their potential. That's right. I had to tell my guys my team, you know, a good coach can save you 20 years. You know, it can say it can cut 20 years off your journey. And instead of being your head against the wall over and over and over again, it's like just align yourself to wise people.
There's a proverb that says, He that walks with the wise will become wise, you know, but a companion of fuel of fools runs into ruin. And it's like, I've just kinda tried to spend my life trying to figure out how to avoid pitfalls and finding wise people to learn from. Yeah. Chaz is not a real brainiac solution to life. It's like, let me just find people wiser than me smarter than me. And can I find the cheat code how to move faster forward? Right? Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And you're right.
It doesn't always have to be super complicated. It can be fairly simple to make sure. It it just You get it, and then you then you can take action. Right? Oh, 100%. 100%. It's good stuff. I I can appreciate the the angle of a real estate sounds like they're all vertically integrated, especially since insurance or, you know, the insurance is needed in the real estate world and and and real estate brings you the clients, obviously, for the for the management side.
Sounds like you've been burning quite a few properties, which is fantastic. And Yep. Excited to hear about some of that. But before before we do any of that, you were kinda happen a little bit on other people reaching their potential. I I wanna know, like, what's yours? What's your potential? What what why are you doing this? What Why are you still doing it even at this very successful level that you're at? Yeah. So I enjoy doing what I get to do.
You know, it's like I I kinda cover a mindset of I already get to do every day of my life when I want to do. I just wanna do more of it. I just wanna go bigger. I just wanna 10 x what we're already doing. Like, I wanna help more people. Wanna serve more people. Well, I I feel like a we only have one life to live. You know? And so sometimes I put on that, like, That grandpa parrot. I'm a being like ninety five years old. What did I do with my life? What did I accomplish?
Did am I satisfied with how I stewarded my time and life at? I've seen some people pitch young people. Hey. Like, hey. Make it of money. You'll sit on the beach, drink margaritas, relax, and just kinda veg out. But, like, that's not what people like, they're gonna be fulfilled by. Right? Right. So for me, it's a I feel like it's a calling and a purpose to coach and help people find the potential that's my motivation.
You know, it's like when your inward motivation, is is stronger than the outward challenges, you keep moving. You don't get burned out. Like, you don't get tired. Right? So, you know, some people get tired, burn out, wanna retire. Like, that's not even part of my paradigm, like, of of I need to make x amount that I'm done. It's like, there's never a done for me. It's the I guess it's like, hey. We're trying to bring reformation to Citi.
We're trying to change people to financial trying to change their, you know, spiritual futures in some ways too. So it's like, we're just trying to make an impact with the short life we have. And then how do we multiply another people as well? Give them a vision for you know, the next 60 years, the way they we want it to be. Right? Yeah. Yeah. That's huge, man. We your full of quotes already today. I love it. We're my my quote gal is gonna be really busy with this, it's gonna be fantastic.
You're a quote machine. Okay. So you you're you're after it. There's never gonna be a day of burnout. I mean, obviously, there's days of struggle. Right? We'll get to that here in a little bit. Wanna know some some detail on some on some struggle or some difficulty that you've had, but what I hear you say is that, gosh, there's so much more ahead. Why why slow down? Why stop? Is that what I'm is that I aligning with you on that? Yeah. Abs absolutely.
Like, let's just go after Chaz much as we possibly can. You know, it's Yeah. And when you run out of time, you gotta find out people that have more time. You gotta leverage on people's strengths, their skill sets, build a team around you. You know? So for me, it's like, hey. I've only got so many hours I can work in a day. I gotta leverage other people's time, their assets, their skill sets. There's people that are have different strengths than I do.
So it's kinda the the the focus I mean right now is like, hey. How do I develop the most amount of people to help accomplish the mission of the vision that We believe we have. Yeah. 100%. Love it. K. Let's go into into how you got started. I wanna know. I mean, obviously, there's several different things going on here. What what came first? How did you get involved in it? Did you already do you always know you're gonna be an entrepreneur? Kinda give us, like, the beginnings.
Yeah. So it may it it goes back a long time ago. I think, you know, whenever I was ten years old, you know, my I had a vision of, like, hey. I like to really make some money. You know, Chaz hasn't my family has some finite hardships. We had some challenges. My folks had gotten divorced. And we grew up in New Orleans. I remember being in a place where another two story house and the slept at the very top of the two two story house. And we're in the summertime right but it was it was hot at night.
I remember thinking about something, man. I loved it and make it real hot. You never have to worry about not being able to pay for the AC again. You know? And so I ended up reading the book, reached Chaz port ad, being reading the book, and just saying, Hey. I wanna vision not just to save money, but to invest it back into building full stream to income. Chaz I started then, sixty and seventeen years old got more involved with, you know, a church, got involved with ministry.
So I took, like, a 10 year detour actually working at churches, nonprofits, but, really, it was a good time to gain wisdom and mentoring, but I didn't really make that. It was more giving giving money away and giving time away versus accumulating. And so in 2014, I Chaz worked for a guy that had the similar pathway. I have a name of Bob Hartley, you know, and so he was in a entrepreneur. He was a speaker.
Worked with him for a few years, and he was, you know, I had the benefit of being able to work underneath him and get mentored and and run run his kind of business slash ministry, but I ended up getting divorced in 2014 and put me really at a place where financially, it was a big hit. Right? I was losing my house. I went the only thing I had was ready to lose my house, had around rooms in my house, And so and then Bob was basically about to go on sabbatical. So I was losing the house.
My brother's moved back to New Orleans. You know, I lost my kids for half the time. I had a real dark night of the soul, in that season that said, man, it just feels like it was everything like the heavens were brass. You know, everything that could go wrong went wrong. And so at that point in my life, I thought to myself, k. Well, my job's transitioning. My brother who lived Chaz was moving back home. One of my buddies who lived me was getting married.
You know, lost my kids for part of the time. Right? I lost all my money. The house had some equity, and I was losing. Right? So Wow. I thought to myself, how can I make money? And I thought it was, like, well, I talked to some of the people. I was like, well, I've always been decent sales and driving revenue. I need to get into a position where I could make I Chaz have a little more control of my income. And when you work in a business, don't matter what your business is in.
You're generally gonna have unless you're in a sales business, you're generally gonna have a Chaz. Know? And so that's why some of my guys are working underneath me. If you're in the sales business, you could really make as much money as you wanna make as long as you grow in revenue. Right? Long as you bring value to the bottom line and top line. Right? And so I Right. Got involved with the insurance business, and it's been fantastic for me now. It was it was a grind.
I used to work 2015 to 2018 worked, you know, 8 AM, 7 AM, really 7, 6 AM. If I if I told you the amount of hours I worked from 2015 to 2018, most people wouldn't believe it, but I worked 7 days a week around the clock. It it was probably unhealthy. In some ways, I had to slow down because I was running for poverty. Was running for my challenges.
Like, at twenty seven years old, I found myself in the same position I was at 10, where I just felt like, oh, man, I might have options I feel like I hit poverty hit me again. And I was trying to run so hard out of that ditch that I had to say, you know what? There's a better by the time 2018 came, I haven't worked in 100 hour weeks for 4 straight years. I said, I gotta learn how to build with team. I gotta learn how to build not just on hustle, but how do I build on wisdom?
How do I build where it's sustainable beyond my own strength? Cause I got the place in the business where My own strength in my own hustle wasn't gonna go to the next level. You know what I'm saying? Right. It could only give me maybe 2 x or 3 x. It wasn't gonna give me the 10 x I'd need it. Right? Yeah. So that's a little bit of how I got to where I'm at now in 2022, but just in different you know, obviously, once you start making money, you started thinking about where do I put it.
And so the time, I was driving around Kansas City selling insurance. Going home to home, and I would go to every home, 8 AM, 10 AM, noon, 2, 4, 6. I'd be home 8 PMs sometimes and until 10 PM. They had me over. Right? 6 days a week. Sometime they try to rest on Sunday at a church, but I started making money. And by the time it was 27, 2018, I said, well, now I've got a little bit of money.
Let me go invest in property so I can kind of not have to go, again, sell all all all the time the rest of my life. Right? Yeah. So I think that's the natural byproduct of sales is once you get good and you start making money, say, I either gotta build a team or I gotta invest in real estate or something that's gonna help me maximize that cash flow.
Yep. And so the benefit I had was in the insurance business was driving around 60 square miles of Kansas City inside and out, I could see where there was distress properties. I was running quotes on homes figuring out their reconstruction cost all the time, and Chaz started looking at property saying, oh, this one's valued at this, but the reconstruction's this.
It should be this, and I can start to just play the games in my mind about, like, and then you see properties for, like, sometimes 40 or $50 and you're like, well, I Chaz kinda estimate the work. It doesn't seem like it'll take a much to put the work into it. Right? And so that's kinda how I got my start. And it's just been, hey. Let's keep reinvesting. Keep going. You know? I love it. I I yes. You're right. The progression. I love what you said about the hustle.
You know, I think every entrepreneur has to go through that stage. If you didn't already have a sales job before, you definitely gotta do it in your own business. There has to be a certain level of sales made. Let's just be honest. Like, you don't have a business if you don't have sales. So there's gotta be that grind. But then you're right at some point. So, you know, normally, you know, the listener here on this show is is 6 figure. They're trying to get to the 7 figure marks.
They're in that hustle. They're in that grind where they gotta go get the sale, but they gotta repeat it. Right? But in in the Gathering of the King's 7 figure mastermind, are three things are this. Ref or, leveraging time, leveraging resources, and leveraging key relationships and everything that you just said specifically around time. It's building your team and leveraging resources as you start making some money. What do I do with it?
And and sometimes those are in deals, sometimes those deals in yourself, passive investing in something else in the mar I mean, there's I mean, you name it. There's the countless ways to leverage your resources, but to be able to but to be able to have have that that perspective of I know I gotta do something, but what am I gonna do? I love that you that you you just took some action. Not knowing even necessarily what to do. You took some action and it turned into another business for you.
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Absolutely. So Everybody, you're right. That's stage 1. You gotta work your tail off. You gotta sell. You gotta drive revenue. Then you gotta figure out at a certain point, your time becomes more valuable Chaz Yep. You're just grinding all this. And once that once that metric hits where you you actually hit that mark, then you have to move it to, like you said, you know, those 3 different things get a leverage.
So That's kinda what we're in the process of doing the last 4 years is is beginning to think that way. Yeah. You know? It's good. It's good, man. It's it's a good perspective. You're gonna have a lot to to share here. I wanna know. So going back to that same moment, maybe not like when you got started, but 1st couple of years when you're grinding, when you're hustling, right where the listener is right now.
Tell me about a good decision that you made Chaz you can look back on, and you know that moment. Tell me the story. Yes. So I remember being in 2015, and I was starting to sell, and I started to make a little bit of extra money. And and at this time, trust me, it wasn't that much money. It was like, I was starting to bring home, like, 4 or 5 1000 a month. And for a guy that was working in the church making, like, 15,021,000. You have the lottery. Yeah. Hang on a minute.
I was like, we can eat I I don't have to split a burrito now. I can get Chaz. Eat COBRA. Chipotle. I can do it all in one meal. 2nd. I wouldn't have to go to Buffalo Wild Wings on the 25 cent wing that I don't wanna do. You know? That's right. Yeah. I used to do that Tuesday, Thursday. It's going, you know, cheap wing night, but it was like, no. We we can we can go Wednesday or something. Right? That's right. I made the decision at that point to talk to my tour.
I said, what can I what can I do to what should I do? I'm in this situation. I'm making a little more money. How do I do? How do I grow? And he said to me, he goes, I got him in Josh Sharp. He goes, you know, Chris, everybody I know that went big. Chaz bet on themselves, and you need to decide to bet on yourself. You could put the money in the stock market that mutual funds, you could put it into some real estate, It was too immature for that. You guys, you need to bet on yourself.
You gotta bet bet on your skill sets. Bet on your ability to buy leads and drive more revenue. And it really just whenever I heard that bet on yourself yeah. I realized that everybody's gonna bet on something the next 10 years. That's right. Why not bet on your cell to really 10 x your 100 x what your vision is and trust that you can get it done. You can accomplish what you set forward. Now you have to have some confidence that you trust yourself. You know, you keep commitments to yourself.
You know, you have integrity. You know Chaz the market's responding to you. You can't you can't bet on yourself if you don't have those key ingredients of hustle and stewardship and and wisdom and and being able to put the client first. Right? So that was the big moment that I said, hey. That's what I need to do. It's better myself. And so I just began to double and triple and quadruple my marketing and my buying, acquiring leads and acquire more clients.
And it just I do ahead of decision to make. I wasn't gonna be content to just invest my money in the stock market or mutual fund to make 10% a year the rest of my life. It just wasn't what I was gonna do. Because I watched the people in my family do that. They just worked for 40 years, dying for the day they retire, and then once they retire, they don't know what they're gonna do. So that that was kind of the game changer. I mean, 2015 was better myself. Yeah. I I I so resonate.
Yeah. Resignate with that, dude. But here's what here's the here's the thing I wanna point out in addition to a listener because there's a lot of 6 figure guys, and this comes up because I'm a serial entrepreneur as well just like you. Is that, you know, the, oh, you got a lot going on, or you got multiple businesses, here's what happens is that usually when something gets going, pretty good, like you in that exact moment.
Get a little bit of money, you get excited about what you're doing, and then we go, oh, Let me go over here. And and really the the the advice that that this guy gave to you was yes. Investing yourself, but Stay right here. Yes. Don't go anywhere. Double down. Don't get distracted. And and it doesn't mean that you can't do other things because eventually it has grown into other things, and I'm a huge fan. I'm I have 8 companies. I love lots of things. I love it. It gets me gets me energized.
But I'll tell you, it didn't happen all at once. And a lot of people get that confused. They get they get distracted. And then with the thing that they had going really well It's like a water pump that take your hand off, and then it stops. Yes. You're absolutely right. It's exciting to hear that because it's like you're right. You can't stop your primary flow.
You gotta take out your primary flow and try to build these, what I call, symbiotic flows, things that kind of aren't, like, a total distraction. You know? Like, for me, when I was selling home and auto insurance, we might add a life insurance line. Might add some health insurance. I Chaz some financial services. We did some mortgage broker stuff. So just find the things that actually or symbiotic Chaz don't take extra time away, and they can multiply your streams.
But, yeah, for sure, like, don't don't get the ADHD mode would be like trying to go do all of it in all the place. And those people don't have the roots deep. The you know, you gotta have your roots deep. You gotta stay focused. And and it's it's more about when when you lose your focus, it can become about or you're just trying to entertain yourself. Are you trying to grow business? Right? You have to stay focused on You know, your primary just you just can't collect your primary flow.
I've watched it too many times. People get good, and it's almost like they're like, oh, I can check the box. Yeah. I'm done. I can relax, and I'm ready to go do something else. Right. And that's when you put your eyes back on you, serving you versus serving the market. Right? The market. Oh, good. You know? So good.
You you just said where I'm gonna I'm saying this out loud, so my production team will will make sure that they quote it, but you you said you can either entertain yourself or you can run a business. And it's like, man, you're so right because the ADHD or the the, like, I mean, we all have it. We all have it. I'm raising I'm raising both my hands. I love it. I love going project to project and new idea to new idea.
But that's not how sustainability comes, and that's definitely not how you build a 7 bigger business. Hold a 100%. Yeah. A 100%. It's it's you gotta stay focused. You know? Some some of the, you know, some of the rich people in the Wolfe, just stay focused on 1 or 2 things. It's like, you know, even Michael Jordan, we try to play baseball.
It didn't work out so You know, you have some people that just if you just stay focused on being a specialist sometimes, some people have the gift to do the aid companies. Right? But some people just need to be specialist at 1 or things for a while, maybe a decade, maybe 5 years. And I see it with my team too. It's easy to get distracted. You gotta keep in focus, folks like focus, you know, fight for focus. Hey, Kings and Queens. Chaz Wolf.
I wanna talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort. We, meaning myself and my team, into this podcast, into the content that goes out every single day. And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too. So we would love if you would like, comment, share, leave a review, post, share again, all of the things.
On social media, on all the different platforms, or even on the podcast mediums of Apple and Spotify. We would love to be able to get our content into more hands more entrepreneurs so they can grow their business as quick as possible. Together, we are building a community of like minded entrepreneurs who are committed to growing their businesses to new heights. So Let's do this. Let's help each other. Let's help each other grow. Exactly. Alright. Well, so let's flip the coin here.
Tell me about the the bad decision. Tell me about the dark the dark moment where you could you would change it if you could type of a thing. In business. Let's see. I think sometimes in business, It's always people. You know what I mean? Like, so the the the the the wealth and the the prosperity business is in your people. You know, there's a there's a saying that, you know, people are the promised land. Right? And people have been my biggest asset but people have also been my biggest challenge.
You know what I mean? And and you can work with people that you think are good people. You can work with people who think are even, you know, upstanding people, and then you find out you don't underwrite the deal as Wolfe. And you get into a situation where it falls apart, right, or you go hire somebody and you think they're gonna work well You trust them a lot, and then you get burned. So the are those bad decisions?
No. I just think that when you're young and starting out, you take a lot more risk than when get older, you get a little bit wiser and you bet your process a little better, or you learn how to, require people to earn trust. You learn how to require people to earn earn their spot more than just giving away the keys. You know?
Sure. And so do I have a specific story mean, I think that's been a con probably a pattern over the years is sometimes you just gotta you gotta be careful in business to not under hire then you gotta make sure you cut ties when it's time to cut ties soon as well. It's like it's and I think that Wolfe be my my my I I'd probably be a lot larger. Now I would say a lot larger, but I'd say it would probably be larger if we would cut ties faster with certain people. Right?
Sure. Yeah. I wouldn't say it would be larger, but I could have saved Let's save it between 50 to a $100,000 just cutting ties sooner with certain situations. Maybe even more. Yeah. So that's just me looking back the last 8 years and saying, you know, you always wanna give people the benefit of the doubt, but then sometimes it's like you gotta cut ties when you know it's not a good fit. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. And and you and you it's tough to know that moment.
Until you had the moment and you go, well, you either didn't you didn't learn it, and then it burned you, or you executed in the moment and you're and and it worked, Usually, it's the burning that that you remember. Right. Exact. So it keeps you on your toes. So in that moment, you're like, okay. No. No. No. No. This is, like, it's this is the break point this contractor's got to go or this this client or this, you know, team member, whatever. It's it's this is the breaking point.
You gotta know that. It's it's it's you don't expect everybody to do it, but some people lack integrity when they take cash. Owe any money. And so it's it's a challenging thing to kinda navigate, you know, where you're trying to keep things moving and Yeah. There's an discernment. It takes some discernment to know, hey. When's the time to be patient? And when's the time to, you know, make the call? I I like it too.
Like, if you're a coach of a football team or a basketball team, you don't even want to pull somebody off the, you know, off the off the field and put them on the bench for a while. Right? You gotta figure out the the time frame. And so I I could say three or four times when I just waited too long. My tendency is to wait too long and give people the benefit of the doubt versus, yeah, to fire quickly or to cut the partnership quickly. That's that's kinda my tendency.
And so in some ways, you could benefit by being gracious first. Yep. But it's better to have truth and grace. It's better to have a little bit of both and find a way to kinda keep yourself from your weaknesses. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I know you said it perfectly because you're right. Whether you lean naturally more towards the truth or the gray side, both have a place. And to be able to utilize both is is is the mastering, I guess, of of the of both sides of the sword. You know?
So what you you kinda you you hinted at when I asked you that question around, like, as you get older, you you experience more things, you know, you have this more discernment. You become wiser. A better process. What what is that process now, or do you have a discipline of sorts when a a decision comes to your desk and you gotta make a decision? In regards to hiring, firing, developing people? Yeah. All the above.
Yeah. So so I think hiring, when I'm bringing some of my team, Now I'm in a place in life where I'm like, I wanna see who I wanna work with. I wanna make sure I like them. Right? So in my culture, my office, I want somebody that's it's very positive. Right? I want somebody that values community, that values, like, our culture, the values the cause that we're about. Hey. We're about you can't see for the better. Like, we're about champions of future.
We're about, you know, going out there and serving and and give them back. Right? Like, that that's a certain aspect of our culture. Right? We want positive people. We don't people that complain or defend themselves when they're getting you chose. Maybe they're coachable. We want people that value excellence as much as they value fund. You know, we don't wanna be uptight and super wound up. Super stressed out or uptight or, you know, too rigid.
But we don't want them to be so fun that they don't value excellence. And so now I have a process of saying, hey. Let somebody else my team kind of interview 1st round. Right? And maybe only take a third of those into the 2nd round, right, where then I'm like, okay. Let me sit down with him. And the key thing for me is do I do I wanna work with him? It's kinda like going to 100 blind dates to find out who wants to go into the 2nd date. Right?
So it it takes I am it takes time and a good system, but, you know, as your business grows, you have more money to be able to set up those processes. You know, when I first got started, I was just trying to hire anybody that could, you know, speak. I had a good person out. Right? That was my Right. Chaz was my, 2 qualifiers. Exactly. You know, you'll you'll listen. You'll take some orders. You you make some calls.
And then, you know, we we'd eventually get rid of them pretty quickly if they they couldn't pick up the phone, but it was so that that's kinda my process is, hey. Couple rounds of interviews, make sure I like them. We look at the 4 c's. Hey. They gotta be a good fit for our compensation plan. We're looking for humble people. People wanna work hard, value excellence. We look at our cause. Hey. What's our mission? What are we about as a community as a company? Right?
Here's what we're trying to accomplish in the city. Right? Right? We look at our community. We want people to value community. We don't just want people to go home, read books, and isolate, and stay at the house, and aren't involved. Right? Want people if we have a company party. Those are people that are excited about coming. Right? And it's not saying they have to, but you you want people that like being there. We want people that value our culture.
Wolfe if you very you bring somebody that's negative or blames other people or defends themselves or complains a lot into a positive culture, it'll never mix well. And so those are the 4 c's we we we really focus on all the time. And that's what I'm looking I'm looking for that right now as we speak. There's never enough people we can hire. Like, that's like, if you if you ask me, what's the normal thing I need?
Like, I am looking for people Chaz wanna be paid Wolfe, that wanna be worked for a company that has a cause, they want to work their tail off. They wanna have unlimited income potential. That's what I'm looking for. And are willing to pay their dues to get there, you know, Chaz they actually pay their dues, not come there with an entitlement, trying to avoid the hard work. Come in there one wanting to work for a company that's positive, but also a a diligent atmosphere. Like, hey.
We're gonna hold you accountable to excellence. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. I love the I love the the balance there that you gave, especially the descriptor of it, you know, between fun and and excellence. Both are needed, obviously, in a culture, but, man, excellence is just so important for customer experience and and for the business to be done right and money to be tracked properly. Like, you have to have excellence. There's just no wavering from Chaz.
But but the culture, the fun, the human perspective, really, makes or breaks whether the excellence is worth it. Right? Because we there's a lot of businesses that do excellent. You know, there's a lot of businesses that track things properly. They got good equipment. They got good offices, you know, all the all the excellent things, you know, on the outside. But the the fun piece or or the human element gets lost. Right?
And that's why that's why people switch jobs or they their discontent or what, you know, whatever it is. So I wanna I wanna transition to our speed round. I'm gonna come at you a couple different angles here with those some different questions. My first one is this. Obviously, you're in 3 different industries, but they're kinda linked. I want you to take all those businesses, and I want you to dwindle them down.
Into one trackable metric that if you could only pick this one metric to track forever and ever, what would it be? Yeah. So I like to say we're in the people business. You know, it's like we're selling happiness to people. We're protecting their homes. We're protecting themselves. What measure are track. For me, I'm looking at, hey. I wanna track people that are aligned and bought in and on my leadership track inside of my company.
So I'm looking at about 2 offices, 2 commercial buildings we own. Look at how many leaders do I have underneath my vision and then how many leaders do they have underneath the theirs? So because I know if I take care like, I look at I look at my leaders as my chief clients. Yeah. Right? Those are the people I serve the most. Those people I spend the most time with. Those are the people that bring the most value to my company.
And so the one metric I would have is how many leaders do I have that are aligned in my vision, my values, that are bought in and how many people do they have underneath them doing the same thing. Right? That's the one metric. If we do if I have that, My my business will grow for eternity. Yeah. I love I love that. Even it's it's not just the people.
The way that you described leadership, building leaders, even leaders within leaders, and how that's an indicator, that comes from a trained perspective. For sure. So, I'm I'm pointing that out to the listener here because, I mean, I I don't know of any home or child. I mean, unless I guess unless, you know, John Maxwell's your dad, you know, I don't know how you just, like, you just you just you you have to you have to learn leadership. You have to press into it.
You have to you have to learn it, write it down, and then you have to apply it. And then you gotta kinda, like, work stuff out. And then to be able to then raise up leaders is, like, another level of Chaz, And so I'm I'm saying all that to encourage the listener because they're in the process right now of most likely pressing into being a leader. Right? They haven't hit that 7 figure mark. Partly because they they they can't fully lead a 100% Wolfe, or maybe they have gotten that down.
And now they're in the process trying to duplicate themselves in in leadership form. So everything that you just said makes beautiful sense, but I wanna highlight that to them that that it's for real. Like, they're you're not gonna move on. You cannot move on without this without this angle. Oh, I love what you're saying, and I love what you're doing with both the podcast and the gather of the Kings mastermind, because you're giving people an on ramp to acceleration.
You know, we used to say, hey. There's acceleration through association. Right? I love that. Yeah. Exactly. I'm I'm thinking about writing a book with that title on it, but, you know, yeah. Hey. We'll do it together. No. I like that. I like I love that. Absolutely. And that's what I I love what you're doing with both the podcast and with the mastermind.
And I just think it's so it's so crucial to get out from comparing yourself to people you went to high school with or college with or sit across from you in the office. When you Chaz pay yourself amongst yourselves, it, like, like, if I just compare myself to just, like, let's say it brokers down the street, well, I don't know what they're doing. I don't know their value is not another vision. I'm trying to compare myself to my potential.
Yeah. And if you have a bunch of people in the room, they're looking at where our potential with a car that's been there and done it. And, you know, it just makes it so much easier to accelerate. Right? And so I I never looked at it as a cost. I looked at it as an investment in myself, my future. I've been a part of different masterminds before in the past, but it's Sure. It's always expanding my vision and my mindset of like, hey.
These things I need to tweak, these things I learned, and it's challenging. You gotta you gotta be able to say, hey. I wanna grow. I wanna grow. In that atmosphere, I'm gonna grow. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. You're spot on, dude. It's it's the it's the reach. If you can acknowledge that you haven't reached it, Then the next progression is, well, let me reach. I if I haven't reached the end, that means there's something more. Let's go.
I mean, that that there's obviously a lot a lot more that goes into the journey, but that should fuel fuel the tank for a long time. Okay. So I got I got a question for you around book. What book would you recommend that 6 figure business owner read who's, you know, trying to scale, trying to get to that spot? Yeah. I think one that I read recently was the power of 1 more by Ed My Latt. Yeah. It's a great book. So just so I speak recently, I love his podcast. Love what his book he's doing.
The power of 1 more. Just basically the story of, like, maxing out your potential. Yeah. Obviously, most people say, you know, he at the rich dad poor dad, there's a bunch of books on habits or, you know, or disciplines, things like Chaz, but that's a big one for me. I'm trying to think of what else I've read recently. But, you know, that's the the power 1 more at my left. Perfect. We'll put it in the show notes as Wolfe, but, yeah, a great recommendation.
Okay. What you kind of already talked about Master Mining a little bit. You said you were part of some other ones. Do you intentionally network and or Mastermind, is there a difference? Do you do these things with other entrepreneurs? Yeah. Absolutely. So for me, you know, with different carriers that are up in the insurance field. I make it one of my goals over here to make it to all the achievement clubs that I can possibly get into. Why? Not not because I want the free trip.
That's important to me. In my family, I love that. Right? But it's really like when you get around the top forty people in maybe a carrier, you're industry. Right? When I get around the top 10%. Right? It does something for me. Right? When I'm hanging around, people on my team, or maybe even people that are my employees below my team. Right?
I spend most of the time elevating their thinking, but when I go into a place where there's continual elevated thinking, It begins to normalize and codify my brain that I'm not just pioneering. This is normal. Right. Yeah. The pioneer can run into all these different things where they feel like, am I, insane? Am I doing this Like, everybody tells me, like, this is crazy. What am I doing? But then you get around people that have an elevated mindset and mastermind.
Like, Gavin the Kings when I like, all of a sudden you realize, oh, this is normal. We're we're just trying to reach our attention. What's what's abnormal? Most people that are settling for less than their best. Right? Right. Yep. 100%. Exactly. Good. Well, I think that your your perspective is fresh, but it's so good. I wanna I wanna take that a layer deeper, though. Everything that you just said logically makes sense.
Even I'm thinking back to me, when I only had one edible arrangement, location, twenty five years old, We're not doing a $1,000,000 yet. And if you had told me that, I've been like, yeah. That makes sense.
But then if you had presented me with an opportunity to join a group or or go to a conference or whatever, like, the when it came time to actually do it, put my money where my mouth was, I would have been like, and I probably would have been full of excuses because I was scared, scared to spend the money, you know, all these things. Right? I put myself in that position because that's literally where I was. I remember thinking, spending money on a conference Chaz I didn't I wanted to go.
I was like, I can't believe I'm so what would you say to that person who was me years years ago, but they're listening right now? Yeah. I I I think you can't afford not to. Right? There's the cost of going, but there's the cost of not going. Right? I think people don't write the cost down of what if I don't grow? What if I don't invest? What is the cost? People don't wanna look at that. They do not wanna look at the lead measures to what if I don't? Those type of people. Right?
So for me, it's like when I got to place in business, I had to write down myself. Okay. I could spend this much money on marketing, or I could not. K? The cost of not is I save money today. Yep. The cost of of not the cost of doing is I lose money today. The cost of not doing is I'll lose money the rest of my life. Right? And so we started to write, like, the opportunity cost. Like, what's the opportunity cost to not doing something or doing something?
So, you know, that's how I'm in Kansas City now. That's how I came to Kansas City that started going to conference started going to the one thing covered years years ago, but I wanna be inspired. I wanna have a a vision for my life, a cause to be part of. Right? And so for me, it was just part of my lifestyle from seventeen, eighteen years old, going to young adults conferences, been inspired. But I do understand. I do understand the cost, but you can reward yourself. Make it into a vacation.
Make it into a business expense. Right? That's what I try to do. Add an extra day on the end that that you go explore the city you're going to. We just got back from Dallas, Boston, West Virginia this summer, but I'm getting around people that You know, we probably spent $20,030,000 a year on personal development, and then a lot of times we get trips given to us for free. They probably work that much also.
Yeah. So as long as we're making a return, like, if we can get 1 or 2 pieces of information that change your game, It's so worth it. It doesn't matter if it costs a few thousand dollars. Like, I'll have people come by my office for coaching, mentoring, and I always try at the end. It'll bring similar teammates by. I'll just try at the end to go pick their brain. And that's why I encourage the listener to do is, like, you gotta be a giver. You gotta be a mentor to others.
And then at the end, Sometimes it opens door. Wolfe, givers get. Right? So if you can give, then at the end, you can just ask it opens door if you ask a question, say, hey. And I was able to mentor this lady, probably an hour this past week. And then I asked her a question about her process, and, man, it gave me open my mind Chaz one little nugget And frankly, had I would've just called her and asked her? She may not pick up the phone. Right. But, you know, it wouldn't have had the same reach.
You know? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, I'm gonna leave that one there. We we we we beat that horse. You you're incredible. Your your mindset. You're a studied individual. That's what I'll say. If you only had a 1 week or, sorry, 1 hour each week, to operate your business successfully like you do now. What would you do with that 1 hour to successfully run your business if you were limited to 1 hour That's a great question.
So if I Chaz 1 hour, I would have tremendous power points, tremendous slides and make it a tremendous staff meeting like you would not believe. Inspire, dream, recruit, teach, power packed 1 hour, like, just I've got 20 people listening to me in my office every every week. So I would, like, really put Hey, our staff, and he might be 15 minutes, 30 minutes, sometimes, some weeks. I put a full hour into coaching, inspiring, Wolfe people accountable going through results. Right?
Talking to my key leaders, maybe the latter part of the meeting, and seeing how they're buying. And then just check on the results week to week. Check on it the next week. Check on the next week. And and let him know, hey. We'll be talking about next week. Someone's gonna be tracking. Makes me upset. That's good. Yep. K. Last question here for you. Chris, if you lost it all, What would you do? I'd probably cry a little bit. I can't believe it. I appreciate the honesty.
I'd probably go, like, grieve for a good couple days, you know, nurse my Wolfe And then and then eventually, you know, you kinda kinda come out of it, you know, because I've lost it all before. And so if I lost it all again, I guess the key is don't lose it all again. Right? Everybody lives in something once, but you don't wanna lose it all again. But if I did lose it all, I'd be like, oh, man. I gotta get back to selling. I gotta get resourceful.
I'd probably be a lot more resourceful than I am right now. And when you got resources, you don't have to be as resourceful. Right? That's right. You could just make things happen with money. Right? Moneytime team, but I'd get back to just being reselling. I'd do the same thing I did over again. I just get back to selling faster. I have a little more experience. What was the more know how And I wouldn't care. Like, hey. Just go borrow money if I can borrow money to go do it.
And it'd be you know, we'd be I'd be where I'm at today and probably a quarter of the time. Sure. Yep. 100%. I agree. How can the listener find you, Chris? Like, they wanna connect with you. They wanna take you up on your little mentorship call. They wanna they wanna get insurance from you. That's How can they find you? Yeah. Shoot shoot me a well, you know, I'm not as I'm probably not as social media friendly as I should be.
Like, I don't have a great I'm on Instagram, but I don't really use it. Yeah. I don't have a TikTok. So you got LinkedIn on LinkedIn, Facebook, You can send me a a a message on email.cpcastansa@gmail.com. Chrispcastansa@gmail.com. But feel free to reach out. You know, we're always looking to work people that are looking for opportunity, hungry, ready to grow, ready to be coached, and that's how I reached out, but I've I've thoroughly enjoyed meeting with you, Chad.
It's been a it's been a real, you know, sharpening conversation. I'm glad to see people out here doing what you're doing. Yeah, man. Appreciate that. We we are excited that we get to road shoulders with entrepreneurs, teams like yours. And so thank you for doing what you're doing in the marketplace. We wish you nothing, but a success blessing on all that you have your hand too. So thank you for being here. Thank you too, bud. I appreciate you guys.
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 doing it all on your industries and now interviewing over 2 or 300 other very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is that It's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the Kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs.
In fact, we are putting together 1 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done. We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities. And here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy.
So if that relates and and resonates with you, and you know that you need people around you sharp qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gatheringthekings.com. 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.