On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. We just had this perfect storm. You know, my own money was depleting. You know, I Chaz run up too much debt and things like that too in the process thinking it was just a temporary thing I had to solve. And the next thing I know, I'm over a $1,000,000 in debt, and I'm in the whole 16,000 bucks a month.
You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz Wolfe featuring fellow 78 and even 9 figure business owners who have real battle scars from business and life, but have prevailed as the king that they are designed to be We welcome high performing entrepreneurs to the stage in order to reveal the real of the real on what it takes to build a successful business today.
We dissect good and bad decisions they've made along the way Chaz give a true and accurate picture of the journey of success and how you too can get there. Through this dialogue, you will learn the value of growing your network and surrounding yourself with power players and kings like today's guest. Grab your pen and notebook because we're about to dive in. Alright, everybody. Chaz Wolf Gathering the Kings. We're back today. Chris Miles on the stage today, brother. How are you?
Doing awesome, man. I'm glad to be on. Good, man. Yeah. I'm just for the listeners' sake here, you know, just giving them a little bit of our our off camera talk here. We going through some some tech stuff and all kinds of really cool things that you've got set up on your end that I I would love to get to here, very, very soon as far as my my setup goes, but What kind of business are you in, Chris? Tell us what you bring to the table today. Yeah. I'm in the money business. Right?
I mean, who who doesn't like money? You know, specifically cash flow. If you ever read rich dad poor dad, Robert Kiyosaki, what we teach is kinda like rich dad poor dad applied. I love that. It's a great book. And you're like, okay. I should do this stuff, but how do I start? How do I do it? I mean, that's what we really do. I I work as really as an anti financial advisor. Right? Love it. Oops. If you think about financial advisors, they're really just salespeople in suits.
I mean, they they're well they're well meaning good people. Sure. But they're trained by financial institutions to teach you how to sell their crap. Right? That's really all they're doing. They're just selling crap and really they really are not paid to make you more money. They they make money, but you don't. And that's the ironic thing about a financial advisor. And so I was actually started there.
You know, 20 years ago, I actually started in that business I dropped out of college 1 class to go before my bachelor's hoping. Okay. You know, hoping that I would, you know, find some way to, you know, get some business experience but I end up really liking teaching about money, but I did it for 4 years. And as time went on, I start I I like evidence. I like to know that things work. And as time went on, I realized, wait a minute, My my clients really aren't financially free.
And it took one of my friends, Doug, you know, I was calling him one day, and he said he went to go to stuff called real estate investing. Right? And and and I'm talking to him, and he's saying, like, man, my life is awesome. Oh, dad and I have partnered on some deals, and we've doubled his income. As a professor at the local university. Wow. I said, oh, come on. That's too good to be true. No way you could have done that. You know, this should take you decades become financially free.
Besides real estate only goes up 3%. It's like inflation. You know? Right. All the kind of junk that I threw out. And he finally just asked me. He said, Chris, well, how many of your clients are financially free? Where they really don't worry about money. Yeah. I said, well, none. Because if you watch CNN, you're worrying about everything. Sky is falling if you watch those kind of news stations. Right? Sure. You said, alright, Chris. Well, how about this?
How many of you guys Chaz financial advisors are financially free not off the commissions you're earning, but actually investing in the things you've been recommending. Yeah. And as I thought about it, I realized there was guys working in my office since the late 1970s Chaz still could not retire. Yeah. I said, well, none. Maybe this one guy could, and I found out he couldn't either. And and that kinda got me the place of humility, right, because I was like, okay. He caught me.
You know, if I'm really truly being honest with myself, I'm gonna stay in integrity, I have to admit it. Okay. Evidence does not look good on my side as a financial advisor. So he said, alright. Well, you know, Chris, you know, because I was like, well, tell me the He's like, I'm not gonna tell you the answer. You just got done arguing with me. I said, listen. I'm open. Give me something. And so yeah.
I mean, let's do this AM Talk Radio Show here locally in Utah and then, you know, read books by Saki other books besides rich dad poor dad. And and it did take long for me to realize that, you know what? I was a salesman in a suit. I was teaching stuff that hadn't worked for anybody else, Why would it work for me, which is what I wanted, of course? Right. So I gotta find something better.
And and I started to see that there's this whole other world, these guys investing in real estate and alternative investments, They were in their twenties and thirties, and they were financially independent. They were totally free. And so I had to know what they knew and and long story short, I start to apply what they taught, might as well retire right before the recession hit. I was twenty eight years old, financially independent, wondering what to do with my life.
I decided to coach people how to do it. The recession hit. I got my butt kicked. I went to I went from millionaire to upside down millionaire where I was over a $1,000,000 in debt. Wow. And, how to dig out of that hole slowly and eventually had to become financially dependent. The second time in 2016. And that from that point onward, it's been a lot more stable, certain.
But, you know, it was an interesting time, you know, going through all of and and really understanding Chaz what I do actually works. Not only did it work once, but it worked twice. It wasn't just a fluke.
It's something that actually works, and now I've helped, you know, we've helped 100 of clients do the same thing, helping them create financial freedom for themselves and their families, And really, that's my money ripple is is creating that ripple effect in not just in your life, in the lives of your families and the community around you, be able to be a bigger, powerful force in this world. Yeah. I I mean, bro, like, uh-uh, thank you. You know, thank you for being you.
Thank you for bringing the value that you do to the marketplace. Thank you for teaching other people. Thank you for being humble in that moment to, like, realize that maybe there was a better way. Like, all of those little touch points along the way has obviously made you within the effect of all of those decisions on other people, even people who are listening here today, just incredible just good decision after good decision after good decision.
So I wanna get into some of that here in a second. Yeah. It's interesting that you bring up that, you know, as a financial advisor Chaz it wasn't working for them. You know? And and I I had this one little small interaction. I don't I don't normally tell stories on on the show, but I wanna give you one little one that'll I think it'll make you laugh. I'm, like, 25 or 6. I I own maybe 1 or 2 business at this point. I'm doing, you know, pretty well.
You know, we're we're over a $1,000,000 in revenue, maybe even over 2 at that remember, but and there's a financial advisor that had reached out to me, part of a group I was a part of. And I I just simply said, hey, man. I'm willing to share. I'm willing to sit down with you. Chaz you show me what you've done with your money? And he just thought I was unbelievably rude for asking to see his stuff. And I was like, uh-huh. What?
Okay. May maybe that is a little, like, forward of me, but, like, if you want to take my money and put it into something, and you're gonna tell me that's gonna grow. I wanna know how you're gonna do it. And so what better way to see what you've done with other with other people or maybe with your money? You know, like, why would I invest in something that that's a you wouldn't invest in?
So I I love the fact that you can bring that full circle and say not only do I suggest that you invest in real estate, but here's how you do it. And then Oh, by the way, I've done it too. I just that's just huge for me as a consumer. You know? So love that angle. Okay. Let's jump in here.
So along the way, did you know that, like, being a business owner, not necessarily real estate, because you kinda gave gave us that story, but did you know that you were just gonna, do your own thing, or did that, like, develop along the way as well? You know, it kinda it kinda developed along the way. You know, it was from watching my dad growing up. I mean, My dad was the the stereotypical Dave Ramsey fan. Right?
I mean, he wasn't a Dave Ramsey fan because he was pre Dave Ramsey, but, I mean, he was the guy that's saying, save everything. Spend nothing, pay off all your debt. He paid off his house early. He was so proud of that. He was saving his 401 k and everything, and he was even hoping that by about the year 2000, he's like, if this keeps going the way the market's going, I'll be retired in a few years. And he'd be in his fifties, right, his mid fifties by that point. And Of course, y 2 k hits.
And then his portfolio tanks. And then it starts to climb up again, and then, bam, the recession hits in his portfolio tanks again. What he thought would be retiring in his fifties end up retiring in his really early to mid seventies because it postponed everything. Right? The markets kept tanking just like we're seeing happen today. Same thing. I've been predicting this for several years saying, you're gonna watch it happen again. People are gonna think they're right there.
And then, bam, they get hit. And then they're realizing they're gonna have to wait another 10, 15, 20 years before they can actually be retired, quote, unquote. Right. And so I watched Chaz. And and I realized that he always said things grown up saying like, well, hey, money doesn't grow in trees. Do you think I have made money? All these scarcity things, right? Totally. Yep. And, you know, can't afford it.
And and he even said that he's like, I'm gonna work and tell him which he just about fulfilled on that promise. He's still alive today, but he's only been retired for a few years. Yeah. I didn't want that life. I wanna control my own money, my own destiny, my own freedom. And I knew the best we could do that is in business. And and at first, I was gonna become a business consultant. That was my goal.
That's why I went to drop out of college just took a it was supposed to be a sabbatical, 1 year break, go try to start up some business. Came a financial advisor, because that was the first business that they would let me into because they don't care. They'll take anybody who has a heartbeat and a suit. And, you could pass a test of the 70% and you're in. And so that's what I did. And and because I liked being an entrepreneur so much, I stayed dropped out of college and and it kept going.
Even though From the outside, it looked horrible, especially where it Chaz, like, ups and downs, you know, that whole journey, entrepreneurial journey, where you have these good times and lean times, Heck, even during the last recession, when I was digging out Chaz $1,000,000 dead hole, there was family members saying, can't you just go back and finish your degree? Come on. Just just to finish it. Like, why?
Like, a bachelor's in sociology is gonna give me anything more than what I have as an entrepreneur? No. Not of course. You know? And I understand if whenever you get you try to put floor underneath you by having that set wage, right, that salary, just know you're always gonna have a ceiling too. You're trapped. In order to get rid of that ceiling for unlimited potential, you gotta get rid of the Unfortunately, that's so good. So good. But that's where freedom is.
That's the difference between security and freedom. Security, everyone wants those 3 square meals a day. They want that that certain paycheck. The truth is life is never certain. It's never secure, and that's the lie. Right? And that's where freedom is. Freedom comes by taking control of your own destiny. Yeah. I love that. I think every entrepreneur, like you said, relates to that to a degree.
And so I wanna use that as a segue here because you said there was ups and downs lean and good times, which we all know. But Yeah. For you to be able to really press in, everything that you're just mentioning is all mindset.
So before I first ask you about, you know, good and bad decisions, I wanna know, was it through the ups and downs that you were able to acquire some a strong mindset, or was there something specific that you can point to that Chaz, because of this, I have a strong mindset today. It's both. Yeah. I mean, definitely studying out and learning those things, having good mentors or being surrounded by good people that get it. That abundance mindset is essential.
You know, not being in scarcity, not being the victim, taking personal responsibility, owning up to those things. Right? Have you a attitude of gratitude versus an attitude of pessimism, you know. I mean, all those things apply to that abundance mindset. You gotta have that first if you want to accelerate things. You could do it with a scarcity mindset. You could be successful quote, unquote, but the thing is it's gonna be limited. Right?
You're gonna have a cap on it and be able to remove that lid, right, to be able to say, hey, I have an I have limitless potential why not? Why couldn't I do this? And and and when I was an entrepreneur at first, I had no clue what difference was between scarcity and abundance, as a financial advisor. I I didn't realize I was trained in scarcity. I was trained to do business scarcity. I was trained to teach people out of scarcity. That's right. That's right. And it doesn't work.
It it really it was it was a miserable existence, right, because everything was about, like, for example, if I wanted to succeed in business from a scarcity mindset, I would have to believe that there was a 0 sum game involved. I have to believe that someone would have to win or if someone would have to lose for me to win or vice versa, if I'm a good benevolent person, I would have to sacrifice and lose myself for somebody else to win. So, you know, I was a mortgage broker for part of that too.
Right? And I remember a mortgage broker, I could adjust my origination costs if I wanted to. The standard is 1%. That's typically what we're all used to. Well, how about you lower it to a half percent? I would say, hey. I'll be cheaper for you guys. I'll sacrifice myself for you. Right. But the truth is is that a lot of people still shop me around. They end up going to the with their local bank, even though that bank even were worse than interest rate. Because Right.
Again, it wasn't just the scarcity of thinking I had to, you know, lose for them to win, but there's also scarcity in believing that, you know, that I needed business. I had that business breath that or a commission breath if you're on commission. Right? But Right. Are you, your reek of desperation? It's like the person at the networking event that's throwing the business cards at you left and right. You don't even have a relationship, but they're like, call me. Call me. Call me. Right?
They're desperate. They're just trying to hustle and they might think they're excited, but in truth, they're just operating at a complete scarcity, complete desperation, And it gives us this disgusting feeling inside when we interact with those people, and we don't wanna be around them. We don't wanna do business with them. Yeah. Versus. Someone who relaxes. They're patient. Right? And they say, you know what? There's more than enough business and a spare. I'm good.
I can take this person or not, but it's not worth my and attention this person's gonna be a pain in the butt. I don't want it. I don't need it. You know, I'm gonna only help the people. I know I can help. And that's Funny enough, that's what reversed for me by the time I quit being a financial advisor is I I relax. I stop trying to make things happen. I realize that when wins, creating value for people, solving problems, serving people, was the true answer creating more money in business?
And it always will be no matter what recessions or depressions you go through, good times, bad times, and anywhere in between, the one principle that's always the same is that dollars follow the value you create for other people.
And once I understood those principles and that they were tied to abundance, then it made it easier even when I went to scarcely in times, like, you know, in the last recession where I got my butt kicked, right, our business was was tanking because we were focused on real estate investors that were also losing money. You know, we we just had this perfect storm. You know, my own money was depleting.
You know, I Chaz run up too much debt and things like that too in the process thinking it was just a temporary thing I had to solve. And the next thing I know, I'm over a $1,000,000 in debt, And and I'm I'm in the whole 16,000 bucks a month. Right. And so, obviously, I'll tell you this. So it'd go through your question. Right? Yeah. There's the mindset that helps too.
But also the practice because the best way to become an abundant person is when you're faced with scarcity and still choose abundance. It's when you choose abundance and when you have every other excuse not to. Because I could have blamed market conditions. I could have blamed the fact that Lehman Brothers was screwing me on my mortgage. It wouldn't let me sell that property. Even though I had offers, they wouldn't take it. So they would foreclose on it 18 months later.
And, yeah, I got my $300 settlement check from them, right, you know, I could I could claim to be a victim to, you know, the step 1 on the market and with banks and with the the marketplace and everything else. But in truth, it happened exactly the way it should have happened for me. Right? It was for my own growth. And and that's what made me stronger from an abundance perspective you know, even when I face scarcity, it doesn't rile me as much. It doesn't knock me off course.
I can stay the course and get better and better results. Yeah. I love that. If you are listening right now, you should you should pause. You should go backwards in the podcast to 3 minutes and listen to that little section. 17 times. Not only was it mindset in all seriousness, but it was the just the difference of abundance and scarcity, but everybody Not not everybody.
I don't wanna I don't wanna categorize everybody, but most people listening to the show right now because you're not at the 7 figure mark, you can't get there in the scarcity. Or if you do, it's gonna be so stressful and so Mhmm. Tight on everything. You're not even gonna want it So You worked 3, 4, 5 times harder for that. That's the success. Exactly. That even brings up. It's like, is 7 figures even the point? It's like that's the take home, the freedom, and pushing to all these things.
The mindset or building a business or having assets that pay you, all of these things that we're trying to get after as an entrepreneur, it it it, like, that's the purpose is to have the freedom or the peace, really, is what you were saying. They'll have a mindset so that you can have peace because otherwise, the flip coin is like, it it's not even really worth it. I remember even being in sales. Chaz same mindset.
If you if you had zero sales on the board, man, it was gonna be a rough week for you on Friday because everybody else knew and the customer knew you had zero sales on the board. That's right. Because that's just the way that the commission breath works, like you said. So tell us about, like, let's just transition here. Like, this is such a great topic. And maybe in one of your ups and downs, like, Give me a good decision that you made.
Maybe it's associated with this or not, but that just, like, changed the trajectory for your business. You know, I think I would say that I mean, there's always been the little ones, but I'll say the biggest one beside why I just mentioned about scarcity abundance. I'm that was huge. Right? Yeah. Yep. I think the biggest one was happened during my divorce in 2015. You know, I if it was ever a time that was harder than going over a $1,000,000 in debt, it was going through a divorce. Right?
I mean, getting to the point where emotionally, I'd I didn't have the energy or even want to focus or wanna look at anything business related because I was wanting to almost quit on life. I was a debate about shutting down my business altogether, you know, even though I was doing well up to that point, I had an upward trajectory. I was like, man, am I done? Know, there's all this crap going on. I didn't have my kids anymore. I mean, I've worked at home since before it was cool to work from home.
Right? I was doing things virtually long before Chaz. And then no longer have my kids around me. It was hard. So what happened at that point is I kind of burned it. You know, nobody from the outside sought. But internally, I was kinda redefining who I was and then also with who my what my business was. And, I read a book called called the pumpkin plan by Mike Michalowitz. He's the same guy that wrote the book profit first. If you've heard of Chaz, both great books.
Yep. In the pumpkin plan, he talks about how those prize winning humongous pumpkins you see about in the news, how they're grown, and how they're created. And, they have to buy the right seeds. They usually get them from Nova Scotia, right, and it could cost up to a 100,000 bucks to buy these seeds They go, they plant them.
And then as they grow on the vine, you start immediately chopping off the smallest pumpkins until eventually Chaz time goes on, you're just feeding that one vine's feeding just one big prize winning pumpkin. And and what I was starting to apply in my business was I was starting to do that with time, my relationships, my business, everything. I remember I was doing so many networking events. I was networking, like, 10 hours a week, you know, locally in this area. Such a waste of time for me.
I mean, I'm not saying it is for everybody, but for me, I realized that wasn't productive. And so I wanted to look at it's that Pareto's principle, right, the 80, 20 principle you hear about, that 20% of your business or of your activities create 80 percent of your sales. Yep. Right? Well, what if you pareto the crap out of the pareto's principle? You know, what if you take the top 20% of the top 20%, which is the top 4% that drives 96% of your sales.
Mhmm. And I started really laser zoning on Chaz. That's actually why I started doing more podcasts like this, you know, and even my own podcast. I started focusing on that instead of speaking all on all these different stages that were great for my ego, but they weren't always filling my bank account. Right? I mean, I don't need to fill my ego anymore. I need to fill my bank account, you know, especially when you're going through a divorce.
You know, you need Chaz, especially when you try to, you know, pay for 2 homes. Right? And so I started to just cutting stuff off, cutting it all, and to the point where I was operating on 5 hours a week instead of 50 or 60 hours a week. Yeah. The crazy thing is at 5 or 10 hours a week, I was able to double my revenue from the previous year. And so it wasn't just about being busy and active and all that kind of stuff and feeling good because I was I felt like I was being busy.
The truth was I wasn't being efficient. My profitability went through the roof because I started focusing on efficiency. Right? Yeah. And that made the difference in everything. And combining that with course knowing from the previous experiences, choosing abundance in the face of scarcity, right, and knowing how to reach out to relationships. I didn't I didn't hide.
Cause the scarcity you wanna hide when you're going through problems, you wanna keep them to yourself because you don't wanna spread it like a sudden disease. Right. Well, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna be open. I'm gonna actually start talking to people and and be open about what's going on. If it's just a few core people and really just get in that space, but then know that there's a way out. And and and the way out is always the same as I just mentioned.
It's just how do I keep serving and solving problems? Heck, I'll tell you. Even events, I used to I was doing live events. I did 6 that year in 2015 when I was going through that divorce. Burned me out. And then my my business coach I hired at the time said, hey, Chris. You want more leads? You gotta double that number. Now you need to do 12 a year instead of 6. And I said, you know what? That doesn't feel right.
I started with my intuition, which has always been right versus going with just my brain. Yeah. Yeah. And my intuition said, nope. Do less. Do 3. And instead of just trying to put butts in seats, just invite people you actually want there, the right people. Like, get the right people. And then again, that top 4% of the right people get in there, even means you have less. That first event I did had four people in there. It really was two couples and a helper. I had five people and attendants.
That was it. I was used to, at least, 40 or 50 for every event I did. Yeah. And I was like, that's what it is. And I and I remember an hour into the event, I paused I turned around and I faced them. I said, listen. You and I both know that this this makes sense. Like, I can serve you. I can actually get you guys awesome results because you're the right people here. Let me just is it okay if I spend the rest of the weekend and just serve you and just deliver on a bunch of value?
And then we could figure out how to work together. Is that cool? They're like, yeah. And both of those couples signed up. I actually made more money revenue that I had from some events. I had 30, 40, 50 people in. And a lot more profit because I wasn't feeding everybody. You know? So it was awesome. And it probably was a super easy conversation for you. Like, it was a conversation. It wasn't pitch. It was natural. Right?
Yeah. It's like, again, you have to force anything because there's power and there's force. Force is like when you're trying to, you're trying to unscrew that screw and you strip it because you're pissed off. Right? When you just have power, you're just really easing into it and you know you're being efficient with it. It works every time, and it's less painful. And and that's and that's what really happened. That's what transformed my business.
I was making steadily 6 figures a year up into that point But just a few years later after that, I've surpassed 7 figures a year. That's that's really where the secret happened for me. Yeah. That's incredible. I just wanna kinda a couple of things here for the listener on on your behalf, really, but the nuggets that I got were not necessarily worry about not doing. Like, don't do less out of the out of a bad to, like, oh, I I don't want to work hard. That's not what I heard you say.
What I heard you say is dial in. What I heard you say is take a look at what you're doing, figure out where the results are coming from, and cut away the things that don't actually bring your result, but potentially what they're doing is feeding your ego. So cut away the things that feed your ego, keep the things that feed the business, double down, triple down, 96% double down, whatever whatever that number is. On the on the 4% the things Chaz are actually getting you the results.
Anything you wanna add there? Yeah. I can do that. And then the one way to know I mean, besides just the data. Right? And that's the left brain. Go into the right brain or your it really go to your gut. It's follow your intuition in your gut. You think intellectually, I should do more events. That would be the thing that drives more leads. Right? But there was something deep down aside, and I and that's one thing I'd stopped doing in business.
You know, before that divorce was I stopped listening to what felt right. I started listening instead to other people. And that's fine. It's good to take people's advice and ideas and whatnot. Yeah. Of course. Then you gotta run it through your own filters, say, does this feel right? Is this for me? Or is this more for them? They're just projecting their they're crap on to me. Right? Yeah. And that's why I said, no. I'm gonna go down to 3 events. And and even now, like, I do events.
I don't even do events for the public anymore. I know only do events for people that actually hired us. And, and keep it so easy, so simple. Let my podcast do all the the marketing for us because people will know if they listen to our podcast now whether they're for us or not. And the great thing is I don't have to screen them out. They'll screen themselves out. You know, if they're they love financial advisors, great. They're not for me. You know? Great. Keep doing that. Good luck.
You'll probably live a life if that sucks. But, you know, if you actually want something different, that's what we have. And and that's what makes it awesome is that it's just so natural. I didn't have to you know, force anything. It was really just going with that right flow. Yeah. The heavy piece of what you just said is that you can take ideas listen other people, of course, mentors, coaches, you know, people in groups, whatever, or too many voices literally giving them a 1, 2, 3. Right?
And so even in some of the client relationships that I have, I've drawn that line. I've said, look, I'm not here to give you a 123. In fact, if you wanted me to give you a 123, Chaz that would be maybe be bad. Like, why don't you and I bounce some things off of each other? Let's use each other's strategic ideas and experiences to kinda collaborate but then your filter is what needs to create whatever it is that you do. You shouldn't do what I do. You should do what you do. You know?
And that that's hard for people to grasp because they want just want somebody to do it for them. I don't know whenever that's responsibility. Exactly. Right? Yeah. You you screw up. It's not my fault. It was my mentor's fault. Right? No. It's It's ultimately you you're the boss. You know, that's that's why you got into business in the first place to be your boss, but you gotta make sure you're you're doing what's really right for you and your business.
What feels natural to your natural gifts, talents, and passions. It's gotta align with that. If it doesn't align with with your real core purpose and who you are, it's not worth doing. Yep. Exactly. Okay. Let's flip the coin here. And, Chris, I want you to tell me about a time that you made a just a a bad decision that just created ripples across every everything. Yeah. It was actually not listening to my gut. Right?
You know, going with that the recession previously, you know, I had little anticipation or nervousness going into it. Like, for example, when so I came out of, you know, came out of retirement, quote, unquote, right? Sure. It was kind of in a 6 month period of trying to figure out what I'm gonna do with my life after I got out of the rat race. And and finally, I aligned myself with certain guys that we started a company together.
And these guys were all kinda like me Chaz we'd all been financially successful. You know, a lot of us were out of the rat race, you know, where we didn't have to work. And that was kind of the prerequisite. It's like, hey. You should have to rely on this money, but we're gonna kill it. You know, we're gonna really educate and just change the Wolfe. And I was on board. You know? Now when I was there, ironically, they said, hey, Chris.
Like, I know you've got a lot of these different income streams coming in. You need to cut those off and be all in and focused with what we're doing here, which is interesting because we were teaching people how to get out of the rat race. Yeah. They were telling me to cancel the streams of income that got me out of the rat race. Wolfe, and get back into the race with them. It sounds like.
Yeah. And and and, of course, they Chaz accused me of not being a team player because I am kind of the guy's charts his own force a little bit. I am kinda I like to be my own boss that way. And so I said, alright. I'll I'll be a team player. I'll do it. And it was a dumbest decision ever because I'm like, wait a minute. Where where was my head? You know, what was I thinking? I was trying to appease them. I was trying to listen to them. Versus listening to what I knew was right.
I should have just said, no. Like, I'm gonna keep doing this. Yes. I'm gonna do I'm gonna rock it in in our business. But you know what? These streams of income, and they weren't like they were taking up all my time. You know, it wasn't like it was taking me off course or anything. And honest truth, I probably had a lot more time.
You know, I was probably killing time and wasting time more than anything because I was trying to, you know, be there, you know, be physically there for them because they they felt better when I was around them. Versus just doing my work, you know, doing what I'm supposed to do. Yeah. And so, of course, right when the recession hit, we felt the first because the people we were teaching were real estate investors that were flipping properties.
They weren't like the the ones I talk about now are becoming where you get paid every month. It's cash flow positive, things like that. You guys were, like, cash flow negative, but they were so quickly selling and flipping properties. They couldn't tell. Right? They're they're transactionally wealthy, not passively wealthy. Big difference. Big difference. And so when they got hit, it started hurting our company. The guys started dropping off and quitting.
They thought I'd be the first one to quit. I was actually the last one to quit. My it's actually weathered the whole storm with them, and and we came out on the other side. It came out okay, but it took a few years. And it took pretty much almost the entire business burn to the ground and rebuilding, that wave. Wolfe. I mean, you actually gave more than one in there. The listening to your gut is obviously a huge one, but then a lot of people realize like, well, what does that mean?
You know, like, Chris, what does that mean? And so you gave a greater example there of of being able to know what you should have done felt it in the moment, went against it, probably thought to yourself maybe that, okay. Well, I'm giving up my little pie for a piece of a bigger pie to a degree. And so anything in there that you would maybe add to, like, working with partners or that, you know, the either the relationship piece or why it didn't work maybe that piece really did work.
Like, anything that you wanna share about just working inside of a business with partners that maybe would be helpful? I mean, I'll tell you, I remember 2008. I was in the middle of it, and I remember my my wife at the time. She was giving me a lot of pressure to leave. She's like, you could do this on your own. Why are you with these partners? And for me, I I I actually went to prayer. You know, I went to god. I was like, okay. What should I do?
I remember it was it was April 1st weekend of April of 2008. You know, I'm praying that whole weekend. Like, what should I do? Should I stay or should I go? And it finally wasn't till that Saturday night. And I remember it vividly, I remember at that point, a voice just said, hang in there a little bit longer. You know, you're gonna be glad you did. Now, again, rationally, I wouldn't have stuck around. There was no reason to be there. They weren't giving me leads.
They weren't giving me anything I couldn't done on my own and make more money. Not to mention they were actually we found out later, they were overcharging me on rent that they shouldn't have been. They were charging me $3000 a month on rent when they should be charging me 400, but they were overbilling it in the partnerships. So I was actually getting screwed there too.
You know, I mean, that's why I had months where I wasn't even getting paid because everything I was making was going right back to paying for the office expenses and such. Yeah. But I remember that feeling. It's like, just stick it out. You'll be glad you did. And so I did. Now I thought it would be a short time, like, maybe a matter of months. And so there's little glimpses of hope, and then, bam, it would crash. It would just it went on until the fall of 2009.
And it got to a point where, again, My wife at that time was saying, what are you doing? Like, how long do we have to suffer? This has been now almost 2 years. We've been suffering. Now what? And and I just told her I said, you know, I just know my gut. I feel it. Like, I feel it Chaz something's just around the corner is gonna shift. And in the process of that too, like, I started refining things.
Like, I started to get better at being creative because when you're in that place, it's like, I I was trying to create more. Like, how can I serve and add value? Again, it always came back to creating value. What do people want? At that time, people were saying, Chris, I would love to pay you. I just can't find the money. I remember I'm like, I'm over a $1,000,000 in debt. I bet you could find the money in your situation because it's way better than mine. I wouldn't say that verbally to them.
Right? I didn't wanna freak them out. Right. But I remember I was in that place. And so I said, well, if I can help you find the money, because that was was getting really good, I was being resourceful. I'm like, Wolfe you pay me? And they said, of course, yeah, if you can find the money, I'll pay you. And so I would.
I would get really creative on finding money and helping them improve their cash flow so that they can, you know, have at least another 2, 3000 plus dollars a month in their situation. Yeah. And the funny thing is is as that process and I started perfect as it developed, All sudden at that point, the right relationships came in, and then bam. Everything exploded, like, end of 2009 into 2010.
Went from almost bankrupt to, like, over 5,000,000 the next year, you know, and and and just kept going up from there. And so I think that's the biggest thing. It was just know, with working with partners and such, like, you know, you gotta, again, follow your intuition. Right? You gotta make sure it's right for you. But was glad because it gave me a laboratory of success that eventually in 2012, when we broke off and I launched money ripples, I was set. Like, I knew exactly. I was dialed in.
I knew exactly how I could serve people. I knew where I was best. What I had is a unique niche in the marketplace where most people kind of flounder and try to figure that out. I knew exactly what I did awesome, and and I was gonna deliver it. And it was just a matter of developing the right relationships again, starting from scratch, but you know, built up money ripples again to, you know, let it grow and and explode. I love it, dude. You've given so much value already so far.
Thank you for Chaz. But the the the the good and bad here, I just love how you've given, like, very specific examples of of each and how that you walk through that. I think super helpful for the listener. So I hope that they're paying attention, taking good notes. We're gonna transition to the speed round. Are you ready for some Let's do it. Quick answers. I'm I'm notorious for digging in. So am I am I asking for some more some more juice?
First question is, if you could only pick one metric, in your business to track forever and ever. What would it be? Profit. K. And why? Well, that's that's the lifeblood of the business. Right? I mean, it's everything. You know, it I don't give a crap how much revenue I make. I don't care about the leads and everything else. What really means is how much profit do we have? Like, that's where the real Lifeblood of the business is. Revenue can mean nothing.
We've we've seen that in the crypto space. We've seen companies tank making tons of revenue, but then they're bankrupt, you know, Chaz that kind of stuff you gotta be aware of. So profit always should be the focus. Yep. I love that. K. What book would you recommend? I know you gave one earlier, but maybe a a book that you'd recommend for a 6 figure owner trying to get to that 7 figure mark. I would recommend the book Traction.
Traction is a great book, especially if you're more that visionary Wolfe, that EO type of role often to get Chaz 7 figure or even when you get to that, that that 7 figure is to keep it growing. You gotta get that number 2 person on board Chaz, that integrator Chaz kind of thing. And knowing whether you're the the visionary, the integrator is key to know how you can create and start building that team. Yep. Love it. Great book.
And you had mentioned earlier that networking specifically wasn't a good use of your time at some point. Can you tell me about a time where networking or master mining was beneficial to you and tell me because you said you kinda made a distinction there of like, well, it might be for some, but it at that time, it wasn't for me. Do you intentionally network with other entrepreneurs or mastermind with them and why is the question? Absolutely. That just last weekend, I was doing it.
You know, I'm actually in for mastermind currently, and we're trying to figure out how to keep it to only 4. You know? I've actually loved mastermind groups and those kind of those relationships. I mean, it's the one on one that's really important. It's not just a big group. Right? Totally. Yep. But it's those one on one relationships.
You know, for example, like, this last mastermind group, I'm at, you know, I'm one of those trusted advisors for this this dental group for these guys, these doctors that are trying to get out of the rat race in the next 3 to 5 years. And and I'm one of of several of those advisors. A lot of those guys have different investments and whatnot.
But the cool thing is, I mean, it wasn't just the people there, like the dentists and the orthodontists that we're working with, but even the other members, the other trust advisors of the group, A lot of them are saying, Chris, like, I think my clients need what you have. Right? And vice versa, I refer a lot of business to them too. Right. And so there's a huge exchange that goes on. Not and that's just business.
I would tell you the number one thing I get, though, is not just the business interaction, which is awesome. But it's the exchange of ideas because if if you wanna re remain elevated or keep elevating, you gotta elevate the people around you. You know, we'll hear the common adage about, you know, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. There's a lot of truth to that.
I mean, it I know that when I come back from a mastermind event, that's a, like, high level mastermind, I feel of it. I feel like I come back a different person and my business will reflect it in the numbers too. Oh, yeah. 100%. Yeah. I love what you said there. I think that that's great. If you had, 1 hour only per week to operate your business. What would you do in that 1 hour to successfully operate the business? I would teach. I would do what I do best.
And that could be different for everybody that's listening to this. Right? Whatever your genius is, that's what you should do. And so for me, teaching and producing content is the biggest thing. I can get a whole team to support me and and work around all that. But that has to be my genius is be able to really teach and then really see the big picture of how I can lead and inspire my team Chaz well as other people. Love it. K. Last question, Chris, you ready?
Yep. If you lost it all, what would you do? Same damn thing I did the last couple of times. Right? Yep. You've you've been through it once before. I did. You know, and even when that that during that divorce, you know, because the business almost went down to nothing. You know, I remember that quarter for 3 months, I made, like, 65100 bucks. And remember, this is the guy that's used to make at least 10 to $20 a month at that time. Going down to 65100 over 3 months was not fun.
But I'll tell you the same thing that got me out of that, and I knew it would get me out of Chaz. And it did was finding those key relationships, right? You know, like, I remember somebody asked me if you had 500 bucks, what would you do? I would find probably ten people take them all out to breakfast, lunch, dinner, whatever, and just talk to them. And instead of focus on me and my problems, focus on how I can serve them first.
Yeah. Because I'll tell you I did that even when I launched money ripples. That was the first thing I did breaking into this. I was starting with women entrepreneurs when I first started, broken that space and Man, I I broke in so easily because I just went in saying, how can I serve them, whether I have some knowledge that I could give them, or can I tie them in with a key relationship? Some of that they need to help solve the problem they have.
It's always about trying to solve whatever problem they've Chaz. And that alone, even if they even might heck, even when they asked me about my business, I would give them a pretty short answer and then move back to them. Right? Yeah. I would still tell them, of course, what I want. That's the thing you gotta ask to. But I would focus more on how I could serve them and that naturally came back, you know, 100 fold. Yeah. Exactly. So good. Such good value.
Okay. Chris, if someone is just wanting to connect with you on a level of just to get to know you, they wanna wanna jump into some of your products. Like, how do they find you? How can they connect with you? Yep. Two easy ways you can do it. Alright. 1, you can go to moneyripples.com in our website, got all kinds of information and stuff on there, or you can even follow my podcast, the Chris Miles Money Show, whether you listen to iTunes, YouTube, whatever you use to. Consume these podcasts.
Yep. I love it, dude. Okay. So this has been incredible. Meeting fun and energetic and storyteller folks like you is just it's such a learning opportunity, not only just for the listeners, but for me, we've got we've got a lot of the same same history, but so different too. And it just it just agitates in enough of a way to make sure you wanna get better. And so that's part of why I love doing this, kinda like what you said earlier. So I'm just so thankful that you're here.
Thank you for all that the value that you gave to us today, even that you took. That's probably the most important thing. So we just really appreciate that. Wish you absolutely nothing but success. Oh, it's been such an honor. I really appreciate it. Thanks for listening to Gathering the Kings. We hope you got a ton of value today and learned a thing or 2 about taking your business to 7 figures and beyond.
If you desire more and want a community around you to help you get there, I want you to go to gathering the king's dot com. That's gathering the king's dotcom, and I want you to apply for our next becoming a king 90 day intensive. We are extremely exclusive by nature as a group. What that means that we're really wanting only the entrepreneurs who take their business and targets super serious to apply. So if that's you, you think you got what it takes to level up your business.
I want you to go to gathering the king's dot com and apply. And we will see you on the other side.