On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. Overnight success, 8 years in the making. I would love to see somebody that cares much about their businesses I do. I I I'll go head to head with them all day long. I was out there working for free to get a 5 star review. Hey. I'll come mount your TV. All I need is a 5 star It takes 5 to 6 years of just building that solid base. Great businesses are built off of ethical success. I would never price gouge somebody.
Like, I tell my on change orders, stuff like Chaz. Put yourself in their shoes. How would you feel if you're getting this off? What's up, everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe, gathering the king's podcast, coming back to you here today with another king on the stage. I got another Kansas City in. My brother, Dylan Bettinger. Dylan, how are we doing this morning? Good, man. How are you doing? I'm wonderful. We were just kinda going back and forth here.
And I didn't tell you this, but It's funny over the course of, like, you know, 450 shows now. We've had several Kansas Cityans, and I always just like, man, it's just so cool to, like, man, we've never met, but we should beat. We're not that far away from each other. But I appreciate you being here, Dylan. I know you just got back in town from a family event, and it's Monday morning. And I appreciate you being here, man. Yeah, man. Thanks for having me.
Course, tell us what kind of business that you got doing. So my business is all pro renovations. And then we also have an exterior division and then, you know, we'll being buy and hold stuff like that. So we have another division for that. But we do construction. So we do rehabs. We do homeowners, kitchens, you know, all the stuff that, is typically beyond anybody be able to do themselves. So Yeah. Yeah. There's a there's a major value there. That you bring to the Kansas City market.
Is there is there hope that to expand past Kansas City one day, or are you are you just making the best of of what we call, our home our home city. Man, you know, something I've flirted with, but, you know, the more and more I I guess the older I get, the more I just care about finding ways to be able to have more time and less energy having to be spent. You know, I I don't think the money is my ultimate goal anymore. It's just time. So No. I mean Kansas City based.
I think I'm gonna stick around here and, you know, just getting, you know, highest quality out, but we can't. I love your answer there around time. I think that there's a lot of people listening here today that probably feel the same. Even if they're in the early stages, but we've got a lot of really big business owners that listen to the show as Wolfe, and I'm sure that they're nod their head going. Yep. Time is is the most precious.
We're definitely gonna get into some of that and how you maybe made some decisions. Or, tell us Before we kind of get rolling, before we start business stuff, you, Dylan, like, why renovations, why business, why why are you who you are? What what what's beating down deep inside of you that wakes you up every morning to do a podcast like this or go build your business? Yeah, man. I mean, I'd say I think built a little differently. I was fourteen, I was working 40 hours a week.
I just love business and, I don't know, success. In the beginning, I was working for the man. You know, I was working in distribution, manufacturing, doing management and stuff like that. And and I loved it. The thing was Wolfe haven't kids. The income just wasn't gonna suffice her to stay at home. So, really, what came to entrepreneurship was just a not more of a desire, but a need. It was more, you know, my alpha personality. Needing to be able to provide protect. It was the provide part.
I knew that the only way I was gonna make the money that, you know, was required for my family to I felt like survivor at the time. I'm kind of a worst case guy. It was for me to kinda put myself out there and say, you know, I'm gonna do what maybe I can or cannot do. That's kinda what put you into it.
Yeah. And so, like, in that moment, I I think that there's different types of personalities that respond differently in those moments, but what I'm hearing you say is that it was a little bit of the backs against the ropes scenario. Like, kinda all things were, like, I either continued the way I am, and I can see that going that super great. So I have to make a change, kinda backs up against the ropes. My family's counting on me.
Is that is that kind of the moment that you hit you're describing here? Yeah, man. It's, it I it's kinda like backed up in the corner and, you know, having to fight your way out of it. It's kinda how I felt at the time just because you know, it's, yeah, you know, life isn't cheap. So I just grinded and, you know, did that while working 2 jobs. I mean, you know, just made it happen. You know, it's kind of what I'm built for, I guess. Yeah. Well, and you and you say that lightly.
And, obviously, I've got some notes here that I know a little bit, but I want you to tell the audience, like, You say, like, I was grinding and we're in a couple of jobs at the same time, but, like, you really mean that. Like, you were building your business at the beginning in the first, how many years while you were still working? Other jobs? So I had 3 jobs for my 1st 5 years in business. I worked at All Pro on the weekends at night. I picked my service call at 2 o'clock the morning.
I just did whatever it took. Right? And then at the date of time, I'm doing my 9 to 5, hard time stuff. Really just doing everything it takes because business you know, it's expensive. You gotta make sure you have a backlog. You don't wanna have a bunch of money borrowed. So for me, it was, you know, I want cash money. I wanna have a lot of money to be able to spending grow, and you can't do that unless you're just working nonstop or you're spending it.
So it was, you know, just work work work and and grind grind grind. I mean, yeah, I mean, You know, to say it lightly, you know, is, 18 hour days were my short days, and that was for 4 or 5 years, every single day of the week. When people are partying and having a good time and living life, I'm taking sacrifice and, you know, spending the 1 hour or 2 hours a day I have with my family, and that's about it. You know? It was tough to have friends at the time.
So Yeah. Yeah. I I I wanna press into this a little bit because your your story, you know, just the little bits that I know of it are pretty similar to mine. And all the things that you just said that you were willing to give up in order to be able to have the success, you know, the success that you have now. A lot of people and and Alex Ramosi talks about this. He they'd they look at you now and go, well, he values time.
And, you know, all the other things that now that you've kind of achieved those things, it's like, oh, I wanna emulate that. You know, maybe he went to the gym today. Maybe he spent some a good morning routine. You know, like, he values time. He just took his kids to, you know, Disney World. Like, okay. Cool. Like, I'll go do those things. It's like, well, wait a You're immulating the wrong stage of the journey. Right?
The part of the journey for you that they should be immulating is more of, like, like, the grind and the hustle. So talk about this for a second. Yeah. You know what? There must be nice type of people. Right? You know, they see what it is now, and they think, man, he just makes it look so easy. It's like, if you just would have seen random nights and the weekends, the stress and the anxiety.
You know, I used to not understand what mental health issues were because I thought it was, not as serious as a thing as it is because I never endured it myself. But I can tell you when you grind and work yourself, you know, to death, it's it's not an easy road. It's definitely an achievable road, but it is grinding. The other 99% aren't gonna wake up in the morning at 4 AM. They're not gonna go to service calls at 2 in the morning.
They're not gonna sacrifice their weekends and their nights, and they're, I mean, every hour of the day, it's like, you know, you're sleeping waking up at the middle of night thinking of business. Well, it's it's you have to become it. Well, like I told my wife, it was when the kids are five years old, I wanna grind as much as I hate not being there full time. These are the years they won't remember as much as as much as I might regret not in there as often as I should be.
It's gonna give us the opportunity for me to be there when I really need to be there, at least in, you know, my opinion, you know, we can't do an agreement. I was gonna grind real like, just religiously for 5, 7, 8 years. And I was gonna make it happen. And, you know, we're starting to see the fruits of our labor. And it's it's a great feeling, but, wasn't, It wasn't easy. If, you know, it, yeah, wasn't easy through that time. We can hear the emotion in the story.
Like, when you're just, like, you know, I had it lost for words. Like, it just it wasn't easy. And I think everybody listening to a degree understands that because it none of it is is easy. But I think what I wanna hit home for the listener is that you you said, first off, you came into an agreement with your wife. That's huge. That's a whole another subject that maybe we'll have time to get to. But, you said I'm gonna grind for 5 to 8 years, and you're in year 8 or 9 of your business now.
You're starting to you know, re some of those rewards you're talking about, but I I heard I heard something over the weekend that made like, when I was kinda reviewing everything, getting ready for the show, it made me think of your story. And because you've been in business 7, 8, 9 years. Right? Am I right on that? I can't remember exactly.
And so in my mind because because you've got this hockey stick growth in your in your history, maybe you wanna talk about that here in a second, but It was like a 8 year success or an overnight that's what it is. Hold on. Overnight success, 8 years in the making, is was what the phrase was that I applied to your timeline. You know what I mean? Does that does that feel right? Like, overnight success? What people don't understand? And one thing that, you know, so I'm a black belt 6 Sigma.
I'm all about process improvement. I'm all about lean, gamification. Like, everything it does improve a business. It if you can if It takes 5 to 6 years of just building that solid base. I mean, I was out there working for free to get a 5 star review. Hey. I'll come mount your TV. All I need is a 5 star review. I mean, that's what I did. Those are the sacrifices I took. I I mean, my 1st year in business, I I I was the I I did the most revenue as a non prom No.
I mean, you know, it's just like, we didn't make any money. I just I worked for free. I mean, I legit worked for free for reviews. I worked for free for building the brand and people to understand that's the stuff you have to do. It'd be how much losses you take in business really make you into a a successful business, having good ethics and stuff.
And then back in the day, when it was every day, I was doing something for, I mean, next to free just to be able to build the brand it wasn't profitable. That's why I had to take a second job to get it there. But if you try to build based off of just profit, you're never gonna have that hockey approach, right, where you can just skyrocket. Yeah. I just probably spent 20 hours a week working on website, TSR systems, operations, SOPs, finding the right subs. Like, all this stuff that nobody sees.
That is the most hard part of all this is all just the things you don't really see, but once I set that all up and I spent all that time developing these things, it made it so easy to scale. But I had to do that due diligence and that leg work in those 16 hours in front of a computer where I don't look away for a single second. You know, I mean, that was just what it takes to to get there.
Yeah. One thing that you're that you're hinting at that I I wanna maybe dig into, a lot of especially contract But, really, I could apply that to anything. If if they're a service provider online, they're a marketing person or a graphic designer or whatever, this this applies to kinda everybody in that way, but the the technician, Emith, talks about this.
We had Michael Gerber here on the show, but the technician starts the business, right, the guy that does the project, and he's good at doing the work. But what I heard you say, even though you were doing that because you had to at the beginning, you were thinking like an entrepreneur, you were thinking about the brand, you were thinking about, I don't wanna take the money. I don't wanna exchange, like, mounting the TV for money, Although, yes, that is how business works.
And I'm not saying do it for free, and I don't think Dylan is either, at least for very long. But but what I'm hearing you say though is that you were thinking 23 and maybe 8, 9 years in advance, even in those moments. Can you talk about this for a second? So contracting's a really easy thing to successful and if you are a business minded person and not so focused on just being able to swing a hammer.
Most most people in my industry, man, they're really good at doing the work, but that you can't you can't, you can't grow when you have to do it all yourself. You gotta really create those systems and processes. Right. I think a lot of what I try to bring to the table when I'm doing a job is, okay, 5 years out, where's gonna have me. Right? I I never look like for short money.
You know, it's, it's always been, man, like, from this scenario, you know, 5 feet looking in, what is the where's this gonna bring me in the next 5 years with the with the reaction I make? Like, do I just take care of this customer that is wrong Chaz isn't in their right to give them a happy end result even though I know it's wrong? But do I do that for them to be happy? Yep. Or or do I ruin my reputation? Right?
So there's all those little things that, man, and it hurt I mean, when when you're when you're sitting there and you have to eat $10,000 for something, you shouldn't be having to eat, but you're doing it just because of someone's feelings. It can be a strong hit to you mentally, but you just have to do what you have to do.
You know, you always gotta put yourself in their shoes, and that's what I try to always do is You know, I always tell my people what would Jesus do, but but because I just think if you look at every single approach based off of doing it ethically, you're never gonna make the wrong decision. I'm gonna keep I'm gonna stay on this vein here. It's so good. The so you we've got kinda 2 things working. I'm hearing you talk about. 1 ethics.
1 is like, mindset or the strength to be able to carry something. Like, you're saying just a $10,000 blip, like, you know, for most entrepreneurs until you can kinda get to the space where you're like, oh, it's just oh, it's 10 k. That's it? Oh, okay. Oh, it's a 100 k? Oh, shit. Yeah. No big deal. Chaz you you gave us along a little bit of the track record there for ethics for you has to do with faith. And for your people, it's like, okay. Give me a give me a reference here. What should I do?
I should do the right thing. And then if you can back that up with, you know, a a faith belief, then then great. On the mindset side, though, how do you how do you work the mindset where you're just, like, Yeah. Yeah. A $10,000 that we're paying for that we shouldn't, but we're gonna do it with joy because that's what Jesus says. Woah. That's a strong mindset. How do you get there? So, I think at at one point, man, it's like it's it's just like with making money. Right?
At one point, you want all this money. And then once you have it, you're like, what do I want it for? It's kind of the same thing with business. I don't wanna have a business that's just profitable. I want a business that is almost legacy. I wanna be the best in the business. You know, I always say the day my business makes me cry is the day I'll be the it's as proud as possible because it's hard for me to do that. If I want a business, I can be proud of that way.
So I tell all my people, we're we're not in this business for just profitability. Great businesses are built off of, like, ethical success. I would never price gouge somebody. Like, I tell my people on change order stuff like that. Put yourself in their shoes. How would you feel if you're getting this cost? You know, I've had a guy, you know, come in once. So I I've made 25100 bucks on this change order. It's, 200% markup. Oh, blah. I said, well, okay.
So you're gonna go in there immediately and you're gonna adjust that down to 25, 30%. That's what we're gonna because I don't like that you think greed is, in it, again, some people can call it business. I don't. You know, I think, We all need to make a fair day's wage, but I think if you make it the honest way, I think that's why we've been successful. I think people at least know at the end of the day, even if we make mistakes, We let them down.
No matter what, we're gonna stand behind what we do, and I'm always gonna do the right thing. And I think that means them. You know? A lot of people don't understand that that hurts. Gonna lose a lot of money having my mindset. You probably wouldn't lose, if you didn't, but, also, you're going to limit your success because for me, I'm growing this empire because we do take care of our bees.
I mean, I have people that we do a bad job on and still come back for a second job because at least we did it right. We made it right. We were there for them. We, you know Yeah. You made it right. We everyone makes mistakes. I mean, we're all we're all gonna let somebody down from time to time. But at the end of the day, how you come back and how you come after it. It's like I had a guy from 2 years ago say, hey.
There was a raccoon that got an addict Chaz you said you guys seal at the chimney, and they were still small hole. I told them to send me the bills for 500 for fifty bucks. I paid them. I went out there. I mean, this was last week. We went out there and we fixed it. We made it right. And he was just appreciative and said, hey. He's gonna call me in the future. As much as he was upset, he was really happy about how we handled it. How we just, you know, owned it and just moved on.
And that's what you have to do. You have to do what's right. When we know we don't make when we know we don't do what's right, you have to just own it, and you have to do what's right, in in my opinion. I don't know. It's a it's a good business to be in when you're happy No. There's pow there's power here. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. There there's power, in in being resolute. That's what probably the deepest piece of what I'm hearing you say is that you're given tactics here.
You're given some mindset, which is all super great. Below that is that you're resolute. You believe what you're saying, and I hope that the audience can pick that up because It doesn't actually matter if you're right or wrong. You believe it. So therefore, it is. And this is this is how it works. Like you said a few minutes ago, you're if you believe what I believe, you're gonna possibly lose money. You're gonna do this, but you're also gonna have room for expansion.
You're, like, you just have to be all in. That's what I'm hearing you say is that you're just resolute. This is how I do it. This is why we're gonna do it, and we're gonna do it like this until something dramatically changes. You know? And, especially especially in in home service, you know, there's probably a lot of contractors listening, but home service remodeling. Like, you just you can you can You can have a particular client. Let's just say it like that.
You can have a particular client who at the end of a project isn't super happy, but Huddly enough, they call you back. Yeah. Mhmm. You know, and and a lot of that that you're talking about is is how you handle those moments when you know, when maybe other people would just walk away. I mean, that's like it's the black eye of the business. How many times do you do you does someone call you guys going, someone left. They took all my money. It's half done.
You know, it's just it's unfortunate, but, doing the right thing like you're talking about makes a big difference. So I hear you on that. How do you think other than maybe your faith? And and if you wanna press into that, I'm totally cool with that. How how do you feel like that came to be so resolute for you? Like, why why are you so definitive? In doing the right thing.
Through business, I've got, you know, I've I've had traumatic experiences in my past, and, you know, I don't come from much, when it comes to, you know, was I handed anything? Did I go to college? Did I, you know, I I kind of just a grinder. I'm a grinder that just knew he had to do whatever But, I wasn't a really deep negative state of mind at one point in business because it was just so much. Had me, like, bedridden and almost you know, just the the stress and the anxiety.
I mean, when you're trying to grow at 300% a year, year over year, it's it's a lot. A a healthy growth is 20%. Not 300. Yeah. Yeah. 20 would be a lot for some. Yeah. And that might be a lot for some. Right? So if we're trying to grow 300, it's a lot. Man, my my my stress got so bad. And just everything overall is one day I was like, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna go into church and I'm gonna see, you know, what maybe this Chaz do for me.
And, man, I remember I left there in my chest, like, I had such bad anxiety. I've never felt for. It was like, like I said, bedridden. I left there and felt real. I mean, once I felt that power and and went back and kind of repetitively got into it. It it I I saw I was missing something that was vital for me because a lot of us don't know what we need, and you really just Yeah.
You take things for granted, your health, your this or Chaz, and, you know, your business is going okay, whatever, and, you know, then feast or famine comes and you're you know, crap. Well, how do we stay in business? We didn't have good ethics. Well, when you had good ethics, you know, like, right now, a lot of people are seeing slowdowns. I mean, we're healthy. We're healthy because we do it as right. And at least we're gonna stay we not we might not make profit barges.
It's like, you know, Apple, but you know, or somebody else, we definitely are gonna weather the storm no matter the storm because we do act in good nature. And I think that's important. I think a lot of business owners, they get so trapped in with the money, and money can blind you from the big picture very easily. I've seen it with a lot of people that were just taking taking out competition wise, that had the wrong focus.
I think there's a lot of folks, kinda going back to the technician mindset for a second, versus entrepreneur. To your point earlier, you said you you're always in it for the long money. And and really what that means is that you've made decisions on a longer time horizon.
You've made that decision to hang the TV or to do that $500 replacement on that chimney because you can see 2 5 20 years even out for your brand, as opposed to the technician or the guy who's in it, who's probably not even gonna be in business in 2 years. He doesn't even think he's gonna be in business. He hasn't even thought about 2 years, let alone 20 years. He's just there doing the work for the $200 it takes to install the TV.
And so it's it's just very, like, either stagnant or a growth mindset. And when you're in growth mindset, your point trying to go 300 percent a year. I mean, that's that's incredible. You have to think differently. Sometimes it sucks in the moment. In fact, most times, Growth like that sucks in the moment. Hey, Kings and Queens. Chaz Wolf. I wanna talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort.
We, meaning myself and my team, into this podcast, into the content that goes out every single day. And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too. So we would love if you would like, comment, share, leave a review, post, share again all of the things on social media, on all the different platforms, or even on the podcast mediums of Apple and Spotify.
We would love to be able to get our content into more hands, more entrepreneurs so they can grow their business as quick as possible. Together, we are building a community of like minded entrepreneurs who are committed to growing their businesses to new heights. So let's do this. Let's help each other. Let's help each other grow. Yeah. You gotta endure this endure this suck till it's too much. And and one thing I will say that I I found to help me with the suck.
But there's always good that comes from anything that you do. At the end of the day, that suck much. It might it might be bad, but if I time block and I put it in front of me and I get this done at this point of time, I can get through it all. You just gotta figure out what works for you and and, you know, and I think I figured out what works for me. Because I feel better than ever, and that's a great thing because, you know, at one point, I didn't feel so hot.
So, you know, we all struggle to get there. Yeah. If you've ever said a true statement, that's it. You know? I mean, it's actually this podcast came after I started gathering the Kings as a pure master micro for entrepreneurs because of that right there because I had been through the same journey that you did and realized that Wow.
It is just really, really isolating is really what it comes down to is that all those moments, that dark moment that you're talking about before you went into the church, You were by herself. Yeah. Now I know you were married and and that in I'm sure she's a supportive wife and you guys have a great family, mine is as well. But I can't tell you the hours I've spent in this office. Making big decisions that affect a lot of people all by myself, and that wears on a dude after a while.
And Again, that's what I mean, our our phrase of sit with kings, the conversation is different. This conversation that Dylan and I are having right now can only happen when you've been through the suck a little bit. And you recognize it like, yeah. I don't I don't really wanna ever do that again. And and which is why it was led us here to have this conversation so that people listening maybe Chaz avoid some of that stuff. You can never avoid it all. In fact, I wouldn't want to avoid it all.
Right? No. It's part of the journey, man. I mean, I I feel like I wanna be the person I am today without that journey. Would I wanna redo that journey? I don't know. I don't know if I'm volunteering for it, but, because it was a it was a rough one. But at the end of the day, I, you know, you become a different person. Once you go through that suck and you go through that pain, you know, it's like people like going to the military and go through special ops training.
They're a different person when they come out of there. Same thing with business. I feel Yeah. You know, every year I can look, you know, I feel the same, but you look a year back and, like, man, I was but or, you know, man, I didn't know much or whatever. You just heard how much you learn as you grow and go through that, you know, suffering. You're supposed to suffer, in my opinion. That's part of it's part of the getting the reward. So you gotta get tested. No. I 100% agree with you.
The it's the proving through the fire. Mean, we can go we can go back to the topic of faith, but that that is that is what faith is. Whether whether we're talking about faith religiously or we're talking about faith and that I believe that my brand's gonna be around for 20 years, like, being able to to see something without it without it being, is crazy slash power flood, depending on how you look at it. You know? Yep. Alright.
So inside of this, we very philosophical here, obviously, you know, great mindset and and tenacity and all the things that have gotten you to hear. Give us one really practical decision that you've made because you've because you have grown. It wasn't just like a target of growing 300% a year. I don't know the exact numbers. Maybe you wanna share them with us, but it's like, you, like, or especially over the last, like, probably 3 or 4 years, you've really hockey stick.
So I what I wanna know is what was one particular, maybe practical decision that's helped you do that that you can share with the audience. I think probably the I think the largest thing that I've done help my business grow is eating out of my business. I have I was a control freak. Going from hustler to business owner, you know, because the hustler is always trying to do everything help. So no one can do it as good as I can. I I can do everything.
But then when I look back and actually look at, like, me trying to manage a job, I have no time to manage a job. So as much as I have probably the most good intent to do the best job, I have no time to do it. I think I found myself finally saying, hey. I'm gonna give off some of this responsibility and, take a step back and and and just try to do more to work on the business and and give people power instead of hold that power in my hands and say, here, you can you can I'll loan this to you.
You know, I think that's one thing that's helped me tremendously from a growth standpoint. You can't grow when you try to do it all yourself. You gotta start Encouraging others and believing in others and and putting the right people in the right spots, and growing a good team. I mean, you're only as good as your team. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I agree with you on all those things.
You said something super interesting there that you used to loan power, but now you give What's the difference between loaning and giving? I feel like it'd be situational. Like, hey. I'm gonna give you the power to do your job today, but I almost I kinda not micromanage, but I still wanna be the not giving people complete control. It's like, hey. Here's a little bit. Yeah. But here's I'm not gonna give you the whole ball. I'm just gonna give you a little bit from it.
And Right. Because I still wanna control it. You know? And and now, I mean, We'll have job. I I used to know every job. I could tell you every job, back of my hand, you know, I could tell you every detail. I mean, I I mean, every detail. I could tell you how much one thing costs. I mean, it's crazy. Now I have jobs that we're working on, and I don't even know who these people are. I don't know what's going on.
I you know, and it it once scared me to do that because I was like, well, then I don't have control. I don't know what's going on. I you know, so That's the part that I'd say was hardest for me is because I care so much. Really, at the end of the day, I I would love to see somebody that cares much about their businesses I do. I I I'll go head to head with them all day long, but it was a hard thing for me to do is getting that break break away from Complete Control.
You kinda just answered this a little bit. As far as being able to give it away or in those past times you were loaning it at brief moments, do you think that the limitation there was that you cared a lot, or was it a mixture of you carrying a lot, and then you weren't quite sure if they cared a lot so there was maybe a lack of trust or maybe a mixture of both, or was it something else that that I'm not picking up on? Like, our team really, really cares.
I use Trello now for, like, organizational systems. So, you know, I will have a board that I can now go on to another person's board. Like, before I had that, my thought was I can ask them to do this task. But then I have to follow-up anyways to make sure it got done because we didn't have a way to hold them accountable to do it. Well, when that's the case, I'm like, I'm just gonna do it my dang cell. And I know it'll get done. Yep. But then I'd work a 120 hours a week to do that.
So it wasn't really, like, trust as Well, I guess it is somewhat trust that I had an issue with, but not because I didn't trust the person. It's more my cell. I it's like my own demon that's, like, No. You have to do it, Dylan. You will do it right. You will not make you will not fail. But then I'm, you know, customers waiting a week for a bid because Dylan doesn't have time. And he's trying to get to it, but it's just one man.
And, you know, and so and then the other guy gets it out in 24 hours. He makes one mistake, but he got it out in 24 hours, not a week. So, you know, is that so, you know, it's pretty much the, you know, one person told me, you know, if they can do it 80% as well as you can or some people say 70 you should give off the responsibility. That's kinda what I'm trying to do. No. That's good, man. I think that you're giving really, really good stuff.
I like I like you calling it out as a your own individual problem. Because, yeah, you're right. It's probably, I mean, we all entrepreneurs, especially the control freak ones like you, like me, we have that innate ability to not only do it, but have a desire to do it, but we probably did it pretty well. Like you said, I knew every detail. I knew this. Like, all of that's pretty high capacity mental processing that you were just sharing when you were in that seat.
And so when you have a high performer, it's tough to give it away to somebody else who maybe is also a high performer, but you're like, well, but I can do it. I I'm good. Yeah. So you're right. You're you ran your own way. That's the message for the for the listener. Just get out of the your own way. It I'm gonna throw something at you because I had a guy with a podcast probably a year or so ago.
And he was like, you know, a lot of people say Chaz he's fined somebody who's 70%, 80%, and and just be good with it, which has always been a philosophy that I've you know, applied, but he gave it in a different way. He was like, look, man, if you're doing 10 different things, you can't even be 70%. Now singularly, you might be a 100%. You might be the actual best. Right? But you're doing 10 things. You're you're 20%, maybe 15% on all of them.
And when the guy comes into a 70%, he's he crushes your 25% or whatever you're putting in. Even though maybe singularly, stacked up next to each other, you're you're better, quote, unquote, than he is because it's your business and you love it more and you care or whatever. I don't know. Whatever our mindset is gets twisted sometimes as entrepreneurs, but it's like, no. Actually, you aren't putting a 100%. Wolfe you does this apply to your history as you kinda look back?
Yeah. I got another way I was told about it was, you know, there was a gentleman that was a scholar in a I can't remember what the, topic was, but he's a scholar in the topic. They took 3 different people that have never learned it. They're not scholars. They're average students, and they had them in 6 months, they had to go head to head against each other. The scholar versus 3 people with, you know, average education.
And when that when that 6 months was up, the three people destroy that single individual when it came time to do the debate because it's, you know, 3 average people beat 1 mastermind because you're one person. So, you know, that kinda, you know, helped break it down for me, of, like, you know, there's power and numbers. You you can't do it all yourself.
And I also had a lot of great mentors that kinda helped me really understand the power of team and the power of culture, in creating a community. Because, man, I'll I'll you'll you'll say, you know, you'll I'll bring up an idea, and I'll have somebody chime in. And I'm like, well, I mean, just mind blown by something I how did I not think of that? You know? And it's Just because you didn't. Yep. There's power in it. There's power in that. So Just didn't.
Yeah. You're referencing the actual mastermind principle Napoleon Hill talks about in thinking grow rich or laws of success, or in the Bible, 2 or more gathered. There I am. Like, this is where the power of multiple people coming together, agitating thought, there is power, like, literal power that comes out of that. And you did a great job of expressing Chaz.
It's awesome to be able to communicate that through different language to the audience because part of the mission of Gathering the Kings like, I've been a part of coaching programs and, you know, there's gurus out there that that I actually really enjoy, and I follow them, or or I've paid for their stuff. And all that's good.
But the value of coming together like minded, even in our own businesses, we that's what we're doing in essence Chaz we're creating our own little mastermind inside of our business with our team, so that way when I come to the table with an idea or they come to the table to the table, the idea, it can be this agitation of thought so that something better arises. In essence, everything you just said. So congratulations, man.
It's a principle that most people hear and talk about, but never actually implement into their own businesses. It's pretty powerful. I wanna flip the script here, and I wanna I wanna give you a opportunity to tell us a bad decision. So, I mean, yeah, you're still growing. And, yeah, it's been hard, but What was one thing that you did that you would just if you had an opportunity, I mean, I'm sure you learned from it, but it was just not your greatest hour. Let's say it like that.
I've had to really get so I'm a very nice I try to see everything I can people, and I'm always the I hate hard conversations. Not really a fan of them. I know none of us do, but Some of us are, you know, better about having hard conversations than others, and that's not my strong suit. We probably could have grown a lot quicker if I would have made those decisions on staff, like, hiring the wrong person, not asking enough questions. I Chaz I was like, hey.
I'll just bring you on You may not be perfectly qualified, but I'll give you 90 days to see how, you know, if you can figure this out or what have you, and I hired a lot of people that were probably not the correct individuals for the job because I was being weak. I I I wanted, like I I wanted to see the best in somebody that I obviously knew wasn't the right fit. Or, and it held me back. I mean, I wasted. I I can't tell you how much.
You know, I had probably hit three or four people on team at a time that we're the wrong fit Chaz I'm wasting, you know, anywhere between 60 and a 120,000, you know, in cost on each person. At a time and and and just Yeah.
You gotta be able to just make the decision and and and just do what's necessary and don't let a motion hold you back because That's probably been my I mean, even in just business dealings, like, some things I've done for people because I think with my head and I don't wanna have hard conversations. Has costed me a lot of money. So what I did was I don't do the hard conversations anymore. I'm not in charge of it. I'm out of that. That's not me anymore, because I'll give it away.
You know, I'm just that's the guy I am. I I really do care about other bull part of the reason why I got into business was because I, you know, cared a lot about my family and and providing, but my second thing once I got into business was I mean, we're we're, you know, we got a 150 people working a day, and those 150 people have three to four people in their family. So at the end of the day, I got 600 people's mouths to feed, and it's on Dillon to make sure those mouths get fed.
As much as my team has to help and everything else. But at the end of the day, it's my decision. It's it's it's what I ultimately do Chaz makes that happen or not. My worst trait as a business owner of where I've been weakest, and it's been my only You know, I've been, like, the most positive feedback. I mean, I was, like, best that Amazon had. I was the best at car hurt they've ever had.
I mean, like, I I'm really good at what I do, because I I care a lot, and I Wolfe do everything that Chaz it takes. But, I'm weak. I don't like, when it comes to hard conversations and, you know, having to do the things that don't make me happy. You know, I'm a positive guy. So, I'd say that's my weakness. Yeah. I don't I I think I mean, obviously, you don't yeah. I was gonna say you don't you don't need me to to encourage you per se, but It's it's a it's not weakness.
It's a it's a a strong suit that you can give to someone else on your team. So I think you've done everything actually that you're supposed to do. And I really just wanted to highlight that because that's what the listener possibly might be thinking is maybe they're like like you, where it's just that that conflict that back and forth is is, you know, they don't look don't they don't go looking for it. They don't look I don't I don't see you as a drama person.
I don't see you as a you know, creating hard times for her, you know, for for people, it's like, I I wanna do what's right. And sometimes that can get the better of your decision making, and sometimes you gotta put somebody else in between that. And this is actually for every entrepreneur listening, for every CEO listening, is that there has to be people between you and the thing because It's our it's like, you know, get on a get on a a sales call.
You're way more likely to give away that project or do it for free. Like you said earlier, then then the sales guy, you need the sales guy because you need margin. You thank goodness for the sales guy who who wants to make a little bit of money because he's gonna sell it and persuade at the level that it makes sense for business. You know, otherwise, there wouldn't be a 150 people, you know, Chaz good is for those guys.
Yeah. We, I I I get I get that told to me a lot, Dylan, you're just gonna give it away. So, you know, for my sales team. You're just gonna give it away. I can't I can't have you there. I can't, you know, because I I am the guy. I I just yep. You know, I I don't, a big heart, man. You got a big heart. I got a big heart, and I, say, like, we're the we're the biggest nonprofit There is.
No. I mean, it's like, you know, we're, accountant's like, man, you guys do a lot of revenue for how little you try to make in return. There's a lot of money on the table, but I tell him I'm just At the end of the day, like I said, my first priority is not to be the most profitable business. If it I I don't ever there's no great I EOS. Right? So we have, like, metrics and everything. There's no metric at the top of my list that says profitability or revenue generated.
It's it's quality experiences. It's reviews. It's, you know, customers that give good surveys. Like, that's that that's always been my priority because, again, When I first started and I wanted to make money and I had to have enough money to survive to to be able to afford the mortgage, Once I stopped living paycheck to paycheck, money stopped mattering near as much, and it actually became more personal where it was, like, I want I just wanna be the best at what I do.
And that's what my focus is now Chaz being the best at it, not the most profitable My goals are different than some peoples. You know, I just, I think the afterlife, they're gonna care a lot more about me doing the right thing my whole life than me making the most amount of money. So that's what I focus on. Appreciate your, your honesty there, man. I think it matters you know, good decision making. Profit matters. We can't we can't we can't paint the picture here today.
So if you're listening and you're hearing Dylan, and you're just like, oh, I'm just gonna give it away. Don't don't do that. Do what Dylan did and hire the sales guy. Don't do that. Don't give it away. Exactly. But but the but the principle here remains the same that Dylan wants to do the right thing. I think this is incredible. Okay. I wanna ask you a question about family. We we briefed on it. A second ago, and we were rapping about it before we hit the record button.
But you just got back from Disney World. You've got a a a wife and 2 kids and all the Wolfe, you just got to tell us that you were working a 120 hours a week for the for the years coming up in the business. Give us an idea of what that looks like. I I call it obsession. Like, I just don't believe in balance. 1, I don't I don't think it exists, especially for entrepreneurs. I think it's a fallacy. So inside of that, tell me, how have you been able to obsess over the business?
We clearly have seen that but your marriage, your wife, and your kids, all at the same time, and other things too. I'm sure there's probably health in there. There's probably your faith has been in there. Like, there's all these other areas of life that clearly you're an obsessive guy. Tell us how you're doing it. So, I mean, what I'd say is there's you can't have dull moments. You I mean, there's I've never had a, you know, I don't binge watch TV.
I might watch TV while I'm writing, you know, an emails and and getting back people and everything else. There's no downtime. I'm either completely, you know, nag deep in my business. Or and and one thing I did was I set up my desk. I set up a desk where my kids like to hang Right. So as much as I'm not fully there, which is, you know, not great, but when they were younger, I was still there. I was always around the family. Even though I was still grinding all the time, I was still there.
Which that could be hard for some people because some people need to be able to focus And it's hard to focus with two two year olds running around and a wife and, you know, but that was one way I did it, and and trying to make, like, time slots Chaz much as at kinda sucks. It's, you know, as a parent, it shouldn't be like, okay. You get your hour. But when you're grinding and you're obsessed, you that's what you have to do. So it was trying to find those time slots of like, okay.
From this time to this time, I'm gonna be present. And that was and and also, like I said, having that conversation with my wife from the get go, not just going in there, blind, like, you know, not telling her what I what my plan was. Hey. This is gonna take 5 years. If you tell someone that's straight up, they're gonna be okay with it a lot more than if you just kinda throw them around and don't put them as part of the picture.
So that's one thing that I tried to do to help make the balance work. Yeah. I think that you gave some early practicals there. You know, the The distraction piece is difficult for for folks that maybe can't work at home, but for those that can, it is an incredible flexibility, but you're right. You you it's a trade off. You got you trade some mental focus in those. You're you're time blocking, you know, I'll I'll say it like this because you're right.
It does feel odd that I would schedule my family or schedule my wife. But I'll tell you what. All the other things that are important to me, I schedule, because I wanna make sure I get them done because they're important to me. And so it's a it's a switch of mindset. Like, actually, when I looked at my calendar, I want my calendar to reflect what is important to me. And for me, for a long time, like you said, I was grinding. I was after it.
I was in the midst of my family, but I really wasn't, like, making them as big of a priority. As as you're describing. And so when I realized even just that calendar slot of going like, no. This isn't me just checking the box. No. This is me saying they are important. So then, therefore, I'm going to put it on there. Therefore, nothing else can take that time. That's actually what I'm saying. I'm saying note everything else in that hour. Right?
Yep. Yeah. That's why I think time blocking has been effective for sure. Yeah. Well, it's it's a thing for every area of the business, not just life, but there's a there's a disconnect there for some. Where it's like, I'll I'll time block my entire day for for work, but but then I miss it, you know, for for the rest, for for my for the gym, for for you know, time, you know, reading my bible in the morning or date night with my wife or putting the kids down.
Like, all of that can just be really systematic. In fact, We are systematic beings, and we do way better when there's just a system. And we just do do do do do do do. Like, our our subconscious is demanding it. They want it badly from us. And when we say, oh, no. I don't wanna do that because it it feels like a checklist. It's like, no. Your that's your mind saying, please give it to me this way. I do better like this. Yeah. I got one last question here for you, Dylan.
The opportunity sits in in front of you, let's say, to where you can roll back the clock. You go back to the younger Dylan, whatever age you pick. Tap him on the shoulder and you whisper in his ear. What do you tell him? Great question. I really thought of it. I would tell I would probably tell myself to have faith that you will get through it. Chaz it it is as much as those big barriers and walls that you're gonna find come ahead of you, they are going you're gonna get over them.
Because, you know, you're so lost. That's why a lot of business fail, I feel like, is because they hit that Wolfe, and they don't believe they can through it or they don't understand a way to get over it. And believing in yourself is probably where the doubt is where most people fail. So just understanding that, you know, there you're gonna make it through it, and there's gonna be obstacles. You're gonna have losses.
But hearing myself say that from where I actually and they're opposed to, you know, me trying to tell myself that when I don't know what the hell I was doing. You know, I'd say that's probably my thing is to have faith and and and you're gonna get there. And as long as you stick to it and you work hard and you keep up that work ethic, you're you're gonna make it through this. And there's a brighter day. Yeah. It's powerful, man. I I mentioned this.
Not not very often live on the show, but, obviously, I did with you before I hit the record button because it generally is our mission with the show is to be able to transfer courage. And everything that you have done here today for the listeners to transfer encourage, telling your story, because if they can look at you now, very similar to how you just described, being able to go back to your younger self and go, Look. Look at me. Mhmm. Not perfect. But, like, I made it to a degree.
Like, I I I'm not done. Grateful, but not done as a phrase that we use inside of Gathering kings, but but it's okay. You're it's okay. You're gonna be you're gonna you like, I'm gonna I'm you're transferring courage. Belief. And so I just think it's super powerful, that that you would circle that up, the that that message to yourself. I think mine would be pretty similar to mine. It's like, keep going. You got it. Yeah. Dylan, you've been incredible here on the show.
If someone is listening here in Kansas City and they need mean, you have multiple different divisions in your company. Tell us real quick what maybe what those are, if they're needing home renovations, how can they reach you, Or if they're not and they know somebody in Kansas City, they obviously need to reach out to you. How can they find you? We're on Google, you know, perfect reputation. So look us up. But, all hyphen pro renovations is our parent company.
So you can look us up there, and you can find us, w w dotallyphenproserviceskc.com is our website. And, yeah, we'd love to help out with anything that's home related. Large projects additions, basements, anything that requires a general contractor, somebody that's gonna be able to put, you know, everyone together and get it done. And that goes for rehabs. Mean, we do 20 to 30 rehabs at a time for customers.
So investors, entrepreneurs that are trying to get into real estate, you know, we, we're a great asset to your tribe. Love that. Yeah. We've had several. We've probably done, I don't know, maybe about a 100 different shows with real estate investors across the country. Few here in KC, so I'll have to try to connect you with a few of those folks. I just appreciate your time, man. You got a you got a real story. This is exactly what this show is meant for.
Just guys like you that can come in and just be honest, authentic, give it to us in the real way. And so I just really appreciate that. Appreciate your time. And I wish you nothing but success, your family, your your boys, all of that. Thank you for being here. Blessings to you. Yeah. Likewise, man. Have a great day. For having me. Thank you for listening to gathering the Kings today. I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away.
More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself. What I have realized, not only in my own journey from multiple businesses and multiple different industries and now interviewing over 2 or 300 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. You take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 kings. Talk soon.