On today's episode of gathering the Kings. As much as at the end of the day, sometimes things are not going your way. I have figured out how to enjoy the process. A journey is really everything. And if you just things are just handed to you, if you, you know, if you could think about anything where you didn't actually pay for it or didn't invest or didn't have some blood, sweat, and tears, there's something about the journey.
You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz Wolfe fellow 7, 8, and even 9 figure business owners who have real battle scars from business and life but have prevailed as the king that they are designed to be. We welcome high performing entrepreneurs to the stage in order to reveal the reel of the reel. On what it takes to build a successful business today. We dissect the good and bad decisions they've made along and how you too can get there.
Through this dialogue, you will learn the value of growing your network and surrounding yourself with power players and keys like today's guest. Grab your pen and notebook because we're about to dive in. Alright. And welcome to the stage. Good friend of mine, as I probably just mentioned, but Anthony Klirby, thank you so much for for coming on to, the the show here today and, joining us at the Kings table for, gathering the Kings today. Of course. Good morning. Glad to be here. Awesome, man.
Well, obviously, the audience doesn't know this, but but you and I go way back. And so we've known each other for a real long time. And it's actually been not only just a pleasure to be your friend, but a pleasure to be a business acquaintance, and we've done business together and done also of different things along the way. But today, I really want to just focus in on a couple things of your journey specifically. And Do it. One of the show is to to bring some value to our listeners.
So that's what we're hoping to do today, and I know that you're gonna bring it. So I'm excited. Awesome. Let's do it. Cool. Okay. So let's start with your current position. Obviously, you are an owner, but tell us what industry you're in, like, the workings of your business. What is it that you do right now? So official title, president and CEO of a company called Unna, and we are a group purchasing organization, which I say is a little bit unique.
Not many folks are familiar with that, but we have organizations. So we serve a private business community, usually midsized to a larger business. 1000 of employees, it's been ideal. We say private business, some of the Fortune 1000, and then there's health care as well mixed in there. But what we do on the simplest term is we have negotiated contracts with big box suppliers and manufacturers.
We have negotiated contracts and members in the private space, health care space come to us or future members and say, we need help with spend and certain items, whether it's shipping supplies, travel when there was excessive travel. That's coming back. There's furniture. There's all kinds of different supplies and products that we have negotiated contracts on that members can't get on their own.
So some will, an analogy or it's like Costco for business, but there's no membership, and you don't have to buy in bulk. But so it's a really unique model where we're able to help businesses buy out the really big dogs or health care organizations because we're leveraging 1,000,000,000 and 1,000,000 of spend. And helping organizations on average save anywhere between 10 15 if not 20% on certain categories that we help them manage and look at. So It's been a unique.
I didn't even grow up one day and say I wanna be in the group purchasing space or understand or get a, you know, general understanding of procurement or sourcing, but It is a nice big, I would say. It's not a lake. It's an ocean. So there's a lot of opportunity, and it genesis back for, like, a 100 years, the concept of group purchasing. So hospitals were getting together and saying, hey. This stuff really costs a lot of money. May we excuse me.
May we need to band together and figure out a way to to drive costs out of the system. Yep. Buy it together. Very good. Now and, obviously, I've known each other long enough to know the ins and outs some of your contracts and and even some of our franchises have used, some of those contracts. And On the Janshan stuff, some of the others, like, It's crazy how far the rabbit hole extends.
A portfolio, there's thousands of contracts, which actually can be somewhat of a distraction as we've grown to try to figure out, alright, what market we really serve? What suppliers are really good partners in the portfolio? And so, again, power and focus. Absolutely. And I know you're a big focus guy. So we'll probably get more into that here in a little bit because I know that you've been a key factor for Chaz.
And even as we've been friends and and master mining back and forth over the years. It's been something that you've always, toothed the horn of as focus, and so we'll definitely get into that here shortly. Obviously, the point of this this show, specifically, this podcast is from a a mutual 7 plus figure table. We're we're talking back a couple of years to our old cell.
So the listener today is When we were sophomores and gym class old cell, we do know each other back from sophomore and gym class. That's right. But maybe not quite back that far. It wasn't too much after that when you and I started our businesses, but there's guys in gals listening today that better you know, mid six figures, and they're trying to figure out how to get to the 7 figure table. And so I want I really wanna dive into a couple of things that are gonna be super helpful for them.
And so Before we do that, I wanna know one thing. At this level in the game, multi 7 figures, you got a great team, You got a great family. You get you just just all intents and purposes. A lot of things working for you. What drives you at this moment to still be at it. Yeah. So there's a handful of things. I would say Chaz much as at the end of the day, sometimes things are not going your way. Have figured out how to enjoy the process. The journey is really everything.
And if you just things are just handed to you, if you, you know, if you could think about anything where you didn't actually pay for it or didn't or didn't have some blood, sweat, and tears, there is something about the journey. I would say motivated by, faith and family faith just, hey, every day I'm gonna get up. Like, I do my very best as possible, but looking at me and be honest with myself, hey. Did I give it my best today? What was that? Whether it I tried to eat well.
I tried to I got some exercise in. Just be a person. Hey. This is what I'm doing today. And one day at a time is as boring as it may sound. And the other thing I would alert is you're not I'm not massively motivated. Like, you get up. It's really just a discipline of making decisions. And then the family piece is, a, I have a responsibility as a guardian to protect, take care of, make sure there's heat in the house as we're recording this in the winter, make sure your family has options.
The kids have options. And I think go back to using your talents and we're in America. And you have a, I think, an extraordinary, if not one of the best opportunities to be born at this time in America on this fall of mud. And I also don't believe you're gonna come back as, like, a tree or I think you get one shot or a butterfly or a shark or a whale or something. So I think there's just that reality of perspective at 50 your hundred thousand foot, feet Chaz you're like, wow.
This is a great opportunity. I'm thirty six years old. Let's make the most of it in every day counts. Yeah. I I love the let's make the most of it. I I'm hearing, use my talents, be excellent, fall in love with the journey, enjoy the process. I'm hearing all of these things that we hear on a regular basis from very successful people, including you. And one follow-up question to that would be did you arrive there to that that simplicity of desire where you're at? I would say maturity.
So either books that I've read, or I would say marrying up some of the some of the biggest decisions you can make in your life, in my opinion, would be a faith decision wherever you are on that journey. I'll say that boldly. I'll also say just as a business owner or entrepreneur or whatever hat and title you wanna wear, who you marry is probably a top 3 decision you'll make in your life. Maybe really matters.
And so, Michelle, my wife has been a very blessed person for myself Chaz a partner and as a guide. So it's a it's a nice healthy tension of a yin and yang. If if I wanna shoot for something or go for something, not that there's a hold me back of let's think that through. Let's talk that out.
So I have a very good burns and healthy relationship with my partner and Wolfe, and I think the transparency there of letting her into everything to be frank with you is has been phenomenal for me personally and for any of the businesses that I touch. Yeah. And I'll say this too. So the as far as, like, how do you keep going? I look at it as a game, and I just wanna win. I actually hate losing more than I like to win. But I think there's important things to learn while losing.
I'm still learning that. I think it's also important to understand, you know, you think about income and a business and networks and all these, I think, overemphasized terms. We all talk about the unicorns, the same five people, Cuban Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, etcetera. We're talking basis points of the 1%. 1% of companies do over $10,000,000 in top line revenue. I hope your audience knows this. You can look that up in a book called Scale Up by Vern Gee. Can't remember.
I always mess up his last name. 5% of companies do over a 1,000,000. So that's your 7 figure mark. So 5% of companies. So where are the rest? They're obviously less. So I think just understanding and 1% on an income standpoint is roughly 400,000. It's probably increased with a little bit inflation. Yeah. But let's just say 450. Okay? In the grand scheme of things, that's not that much money as you start to look at things and see costs and where things are going.
But it's you think you have to I have to make a 1,000,000 a year. I have to do this or I have to do this. There's just and I'm an impatient person, but just understanding the process and the game and you're able to look back. I just cannot emphasize that enough as you're as you're either starting or thinking about starting or you have a nice business and wanna go to the next level second seven figure, even eight figure mark.
Sure. I'd love to already be there, but there are clearly things that I need to know and learn and invest in to get to that next level. So that's the exciting part of what's to come. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm hearing patiently urgent. So you gotta be urgent about right now and going after it. I wanna win. I don't wanna lose. But at the same time, you're also playing a long game. You're 36, as you said. You've got a family. You've got kids.
You're trying to leave legacy all the top of the second inning. That's right. Exactly. Oh. Lots of time to play. Let's go. Alright. So, Anthony, take me back. We're gonna go back. Maybe it's to back when we first met back in high school or maybe even sooner, but I'm curious to know for you. When did you first know that entrepreneurship was for you? I'll probably so I'll use college Chaz an example.
I remember when I started interviewing from my junior year, senior year, I played a baseball, I have a small school in McHenry. I'll give them a shout out. McHenry University. You can look up my stats. It's a little bit how I do life. Too many outs too aggressive at the plate. It was either like a double home run or a strike count.
But when I was doing some interviews, I had I started to interview from insurance some insurance firms and some other opportunities that I I don't have all the details because it's a little bit of a minute ago, but I've I realized that I cannot go down this traditional path where I go make at that time. Let's try to get in at 35 or $40,000 and then work your way up. It it didn't make any sense to me. And I went the insurance trial that didn't work.
And frankly, I've been fired, like, three times from past employment, which I'm not gloating about, it wouldn't recommend that path. But I think just like being con conformist and being stuck. And if you Chaz was after college and probably like a a 5 year track of career. And then Chaz led me to, I would say, almost the 10 years of turning Luna around, which wasn't called, you know, but it was probably that college doing some of those initial interviews.
And then being asked to leave or leaving in my career over the last 15 years on the front end of 5 years in the last decade. I haven't interviewed in the last 10 plus years but it was through that process, which was bumpy, but that instant moment in college. Wow. So what is it that you're not interested in? Is it just to the expectation of the boomers. Like, you get in and work somewhere for 30 years and have your 401 k and not that I'm against that.
It just the model just did not make sense to me. Didn't resonate. Yeah. And for the personal assessment here, they're they feel very similar, I'm sure, writing their own story, helping their own path that's an entrepreneur's thing. And so His gig economy. Yeah. It's just to jump in with you. Like, it's a new expectation. Like, everybody's rambling on the Millennials. You've seen here in November. I think it was roughly, like, four and a half million people have resigned. Right.
Because either they're looking for better options or gross or companies are stupid and not letting their employees go remote. They're just stuck in their ways, or there's better growth opportunities. Our companies are not paying at market rates or or insert x reason why. They are just like, you know what? If I hate it, I'm not gonna do it. And honestly, I think that's great.
Yeah. Yeah. And, 2, on the on the backside Chaz you're building a team, those things that you mentioned, you have to keep it, in mind Chaz you're building that team because things are changing for sure. Okay. So tell me this real quick. How do you think your childhood or how you were raised?
Obviously, I know your parents and a little bit of your upbringing, but how do you think that affected either you wanting to be in business or today as you groan and been through the struggles and the victories of a business to become successful. How do you think how you were raised played a role in that? I think, again, being born in America, I'll say it just as a as an individual who I didn't have to I didn't have to deal with divorce growing up.
I didn't have 2 parents that were awesome, loving. We had dinner at the table, TV off. We talked about things Both sides of my family have entrepreneurs, so I was very blessed and fortunate. So my uncles on my mom's side, so her 2 brothers, built a a very successful in in Minneapolis called Highway 55 Rental outside of Minneapolis, Medina. So I was around Chaz. Didn't even understand it. My brother's built a very honest partners and team built a very successful business called Fresh ideas.
It's gonna do over $50,000,000 or has this past year and growing. So it's been it's been a I think it's been ingrained in me. My our grandfather had restaurants on my dad's side, my grandfather, on my mom's side, who I probably spent the most time with growing up, taught me how to shoot, and a different you know, he never had by the time I was able to he had retired. He had bought land. He had a successful construction company. He had helped invest in his boys' rental business.
So I think just that reality in those conversations, I was very fortunate to be around that. So it was really, I was ingrained with an expectation. Now my parents were both teachers at the collegiate level Yeah. Which was wonderful. And I think there was a grounded groundedness and that. That was very good for me. A huge fan of education, whether that be, through the institutional route, or I think better.
It's more of just being a and so that's a lot of what we look at when we're hiring folks is are you a natural learner? And if so, can you get to be specific on that? So those are, you know, some of the things that I think helped in grain. You know, I did some of this stuff. Like, I had lemonade stands. I would buy and sell bikes when I was really young and but I I wasn't trying to hustle baseball cards, any of that. I don't for a better for worse, I just I've I went the sports route.
So I think the competitive Nature was always building and grinding at me. And baseball was really good, really good for me because goodness gracious. Did I fail a lot? Whether it's at the plate or in the field, And you don't you it's actually expected. Right? If you go 3 for 10 at the major league level, you're hall of fame. Obviously, I never made it to that level, but there is a natural expectation of that sport. How do you deal with an overcome failure? Exactly.
And a lot of it, to your point. Okay. So let's get into the nitty gritty here. Appreciate the upbringing. I think a lot of folks can relate to that. Of course, our story here, like me and you running together, like, totally 2 different stories of upbringing and education. But yet, but both seven figure owners, multiple seven figure owners, and we've come to a place where we've got family and employees and all this stuff that we're responsible for.
But along the way, you and I have had to make decisions. And that's really what being successful entrepreneurs about. Sometimes we make good decisions. Sometimes we make bad decisions. I can attest to both very good and very bad decisions. That's where I wanna go. I wanna get some really real raw stuff on the table so that the person listening today can go, you know what? I can relate to Chaz, or maybe I can stay away from that. Let's start with the good.
Tell me a good decision that you've made along the way that has enabled you to be able to get to the level that you've made. I'll just speak to Oona at the time. It was almost it's just under 10 years, but let's just say a decade because it sounds better. And I was work I was doing contract work for sears because I just been fired prior to that at my 3rd or 4th seat. And I was like, you know what? I'm done. Like, why am I doing this? I'm obviously not a good employee.
And I still have a lot to learn, but I saw an opportunity. So my brother is one of the partners in Una with a few others. And there was a president leader at the time. I did some contract work. I set up we set up a contract relationship where I would under learn the business, understand it, and and go sell. And that has led to where that it didn't work out for that president.
I would argue good, good person good leader, wrong seat, and phenomenal opportunity for me because the organization was failing. And so that created the the growth equity Chaz a turnaround, which has been interesting just as an investor and what I've done turned around a few other things. So it's just that has been something that for over the last 10 years has led to a lot of the fruit. It's my steak and potatoes right now. Where it was at the time, I took a leap But I was able to take a leap.
Right? I was living on my own. Adapt, you know, 600 square foot apartment. I didn't have family. I didn't have all these expenses. I didn't have any debt. Which I would encourage. I wasn't buying crap. I didn't need and made that leap. And and I didn't quite understand it. I didn't quite understand the group purchasing space at that time. Right. We had some few other relationships that were serving restaurants, and it just it was a risk, but I was risking my time.
I wasn't risking capital at that. It has led to where I am today in short. Yeah. No. I love it. So the good decisions that you actually said several there. So I just wanna pull them out here for the not only did you take the risk of saying, you know what? I'm done with the working the 9 to 5 clock in clock out. I just I'm done there. So I think everybody listening can can relate to that. And then you said, okay. Fine. Let me I gotta go sell something.
And it wasn't that you had this background in sales, although we both know that you're a very good sales now, but it's not Chaz you had this extensive background of sales. That even in itself was a risk. And and so you just decided to say, hey. Let's just Right. Let me just see what happens here. You didn't you weren't given a bunch of, blue sky of, like, promise. It was more blue sky. Let's just see what happened. Might happen which I would argue, that's how it works in the real world.
It's how it works in the real world. A 100%. Yeah. There's it let's see what you could do, kid. Essentially, the partner said, let's see what you can do, Kidding. They maybe didn't say that, but that's how it felt. That well, and I'm sure that's to a degree how what they were thinking, even if they didn't say it. So decision to take the risk to jump in to something that you had no clue how to do, and you literally figured it out along the way.
Obviously, I know the story because I was there, but I know that your customer base has changed over time. Your focus has changed over time. The general feel of the business obviously has changed dramatically over the last 10 years. It went from literally you figuring out everything too. Now you have a team and and you're doing the thing. And obviously, a lot of good choices there. So thank you for sharing that. I think we can relate to those. What about a bad choice?
Maybe 1 or 2 that just, man, I I did this. Obviously, I'm sure you learned from him because as I said, I know how to say you think, but tell us about a bad decision and how you learn from it. You know, I I wanna talk about some of the employment decisions I was asked to leave. I think there were some bad decisions in there. I'll just share a few that I think I was just too aggressive by nature and not managing some of my aggressiveness and and coloring outside the lines.
And so there were some good learning lessons I personally needed to learn. There's where you got into business. You're working for somebody else. You're being too aggressive, which end up setting you to get fired. Yeah. There you go. There it is. Good clarification. They're, and I think the ones that would help, there's a saying, like, you, you know, learn from your mistakes or that gets thrown around. There's no law or rule that says you can't learn from other people's mistakes.
And so I would say something someone going from a six figure or 7 figures. So, hopefully, this is helpful for your audience. You know, you kind of think about entrepreneur and kind of this solo premier. If you're a solo premier and you've got a couple $100,000 running through like, you're not really an entrepreneur because you're doing everything. Right? And there's a certain amount of that. That's how it starts.
But I would recommend and what I've learned is through through that place, when I was in. I just I didn't have I didn't have a team. I didn't have the revenue. I didn't really truly understand what it meant to build a team that would be successful in that space or really for just universally. And I I don't wanna say you can't hire friends, but here's the point. I started to hire friends because I trusted friends. Right.
And you get to a point where is that the best decision for the friend and the organization? And so here was the mistake. And saying this publicly. The mistake was I was fed up for things for a long time and didn't communicate that clearly to those friends. And had to off board those friends, and it was bumpy as hell. And it was disruptive. And now those friends are no longer friends. And so there's 2 things. I would be really cautious at hiring friends, not saying you can't.
And I wanna also say, which is actually, I'll give a highlight to Gary B. Which I'm sure most of your audience know who Gary B is at this point. Yep. He just wrote a book called 12a half. It's a good book, and all of his stuff is good. And one of his things, in which I'm a pretty canderous person, but I lacked the candor in those conversations just to give everybody give those 2 individuals a heads up of Hey. You're not meeting expectations. Here's why.
And if this doesn't change, here's what's going to happen. And we had a kind of a a little bit of that conversation. And I don't have a problem doing that with anybody else, but with friends, it kinda came this extra layer. And so I would say be very cautious about hiring friends. And then if you get to a point where you're beyond a solar entrepreneur, and the way to do that is Think about what is it you're doing that you don't wanna do.
Figure out how much it cost to do that for real, right, lay it out. Look at that for your budget for that year. And then go hire that person. You realize it's probably not that much, and then you can go do what you're good at. Now I was doing Chaz. But the process in which I did it, I've shortchanged a few things. And so your mindset changes. I'm not saying you can't hire friends. I know a lot of people that do it. I'm in business with with family.
Yep. I think it's just if you're going to do that and the business starts to outgrow whoever it is, you've gotta make sure that if the person can move with the business or not, how you're having those conversations, they need to be just as gracious and professional on the onboarding as they are in the exporting. Wolfe porting, I should say. So Yeah. Yeah. Those are some poor decisions that hurt me personally.
It was disrupted through the organization because we don't have a thousand people, and we have than fifteen people. And so I would say it was it was a it was a turning point. I still reflect on that as we go through the process because not everybody can come with you. Right? You're not building a club. You're building a an organization, and they always wanna go with the theme of what is in the best interest of the organization.
And sometimes that is you have to ask people to leave, but it's important how you do it. 100%. I love how you said that is that you have to stay true to the business. The business doesn't exist. If business principles aren't followed, and that is the lifeblood of the business. You have to get sales. You have to take care of clients. You have to meet the expectations of the business. And whoever is in or on the team, not meeting expectations, can't be there anymore.
And it doesn't mean that that they're a bad person or that they're that shouldn't be your friend anymore. Yeah. You've gotta you've gotta be aware of those things to be able to be steadfast to yourself, not like to yourself individually, but to the business. Otherwise, there is no business. And so to your point, hiring close friends, relatives, is easy on the front. In fact, it's a level, I would say. I would argue it's a I would cautiously argue it's a false comfort.
It can be if you don't really have the seat defined. And the other thing to think about too is if you don't make those tough calls as the leader, entrepreneur, or whatever title you wanna give you, give yourself if if you've got other players on the bus, they players will sniff it out and say, if that's gonna be, that's gonna be tolerated. I'm out. Right? Yeah. Because they desire excellence. They're our players. Right. You guys It's not just about the pay.
It's also about the environment, and they don't want they don't want anybody slowing down the ship either. Okay. So if you're hope that you're taking notes right now, but Anthony is spitting all kinds of a fire at you right now. I'm gonna recap just for, you know, just 10 seconds. The hiring, number 1, pay attention. When you hire. Don't hire just anybody. That's what I heard. K? And in addition to that Can I recommend called the who? The who? The who, not how? Gone that in there.
Really good book. The who, not how? Or is it the who? I think it it's called who. I wish I could get the if you type in who for hiring on Amazon or any of the it should come out. Yeah. There you go. Good. Okay. So the who for hiring, and you wanna be purposeful in how you hire is what he's really saying.
And whether that's a friend family or someone that you don't know, you wanna be purposeful in hiring, and then specifically along the way, within the employee relationship or partner relationship for that matter. Expectations have to be clear. Communication has to be even clearer, and then you have to be able to operate in that fully. You can't hold back gotta be on the same page and you gotta be going after it or not. And it's okay to be not, but it's not okay inside the business. Right?
You gotta If you wanna be successful short term and long term. Right. And so the the person listening today is a figure owner, as we've mentioned, and they're wanting to get to that 7 figure mark. And one thing that you said at the beginning of this little question was you didn't say it like this, but that's what I'm hearing is in order to really go to 7 figures, you can't do it yourself. You gotta have a team. So what would you say to the entrepreneur who's there.
And we've gotta determine this a little bit of our language of the gathering of the Kings is that at a six figure mark, you're in the grind. If you're doing the deal, like, you and I both have been there. And to a degree, obviously, see, we're both still there. We still wanna build and grow and push and all this stuff. But at at some point, you see things from a higher You cut you said maturity earlier. You start thinking about your team, your community, your family, buying back your time.
But, like, right now, these guys are they're in the grind. What would you give to them right now as a you're still in the grind, but you gotta get to the place where you can see the bigger picture. I would say you have patience. Right? If you've set this expectation, I have to do X 1,000,000 of dollars in a certain amount of time or else or if there's some kind of ultimatum, I'm a failure. That's just a false paradigm. I would encourage against that dramatically.
Like, there have been a lot of things and setbacks where I should probably already be at 8 figures with a few organizations, but I should or could, but didn't happen. Right? Things happen. Things change. We had a pandemic, etcetera. What I would say is stay true. To who you are and what you're good at and trust the process. Hopefully, you're in a you're in a lane or business that allows for you to have you know, some incremental or even extra extra exponential tough one, exponential growth.
Don't worry. You got it. And if you if you do, Hopefully, people that that pick up your trash and recycling, like, they're really working hard. So I think just hoping and ditch diggers and bricklayers and guys on the roof and gals, whatever. So just, hopefully, you're in an organization and a and a swim lane in the market that actually for your product and service has a demand at that level. Again, I can't speak to that, but let's assume it does.
There's some really phenomenal books out there that talk about you as a CEO and leader. You're gonna be the king chief salesperson all the way to a 1,000,000 and beyond. And so if you've developed a product and you can't sell, I would argue either figure out to or hire a salesperson.
If you're in a service place business and you've got enough processes in place, hopefully enough, to where you're out there selling the business so that the service can be brought, you're gonna have to be kind of that chief salesperson, especially to a 1,000,000. Because if you don't have the cash and really understand it, how to lift that to 7 figures, it's gonna be really hard to hire people, and it's easier once it gets bigger.
Once you start having some healthy EBITDA and you've got some reserves, you've got retained earnings, if you had to bring on some debt to to pay that down. So A lot of these things may or may not make sense or fairly standard within the market. I would recommend I've done some peer to peer groups, get around folks that are farther along than you are, and don't be afraid to ask for help. That would be the other thing. So there's I'm stuck. And I would think, you know, there's a great book.
It's called What is it? It's the ownership book. I'm terrible with Tyler, but the extreme ownership. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And just embracing that the business is where it is all because of me, all the good things and all the bad things. And I'm not saying don't focus on the good things, but if it's not where it is, where you want it to be, just recognize, okay. It's my fault. That's great. Don't don't you don't need to spend a lot of time there. But you've contributed to that.
What can you do to change? You know, like, well, I don't know what to do. Then I think you need to be humble enough to ask and have some real peer to peer review, have a third party, take it some that have hire a consultant, invest, because of the law, the lid is real, and the lid is you, your capacity as the leader. And if you're not in if you're not increasing your capacity, the organization can't grow. Yeah. It's 100%. Uh-huh. Chaz I'm gonna I'm gonna reiterate Chaz.
Your organization cannot grow and especially Chaz I get some figures if you personally don't grow, but then more than that, the individual skill sets that Anthony has highlighted here, number 1, being sales, number 2, being able to duplicate yourself you cannot do it all? And I'm speaking from the original choir of do it yourself, and this more than anybody, Anthony, in my walk or a business, is just that I'm capable.
So let me just get it done because I could probably get it done better and faster than any of my people anyway. And and that limiting mindset will keep you small. You have to be able to grow the team. You have to have someone else do it. You have to be okay with their 100% looking different than your 100%. Doesn't mean And it's also not fair to expect your employees to have the same level of commitment or drive when the economics are very different. Very different. 100%. Yep. Exactly.
No. That's very good perspective. And so as you grow, you've gotta be able to, determine what that looks like. So as that you take purposeful motion in in hiring, you know exactly who you're looking for, but then also what the opportunities that you're given to them, clear expectations and communication, all of these things that Anthony have shared with us. Okay. So we're we're gonna go speed round. We're gonna wrap up here. Speed round.
We got a couple questions here that I'm just gonna fire a 1 to 2, maybe 3 word answer. And really for for the listener right now, if you haven't been taking notes, I want you to take notes because these next couple of things are gonna be the takeaways from today, if you haven't gotten anything, there's already been, a lot of good stuff here, but here's a couple of really good things.
Number 1, Anthony, if there was only one metric that you could track in your business from now going until forever, what metric would you track? So I'm gonna use I know it's more words, but in this, like, construct of 6 figures, 7 figures. Yep. So I'll just say sales pipeline. Sales pipeline. You've got to learn sales. You gotta fill your sales pipeline, and you gotta freaking get it done. You gotta sell jobs. Help me. You gotta product or service people give a hoot about.
Good. Okay. Number 2, what book you've already given us a couple, but what book comes to your mind specifically when I'm thinking I'm a six figure owner and I'm trying to go to 7 figures What do I read right now? It would be a sales book. I Wolfe I would say it was probably a dreaming aspect. I really like this early on. It's called the Magic of Thinking Big. Which I think ties in with its capacity. It's an oldie, buddy, a goodie. Yep. Love it.
And if you're just, like, a really analytical nerd intro, which is okay, by the way, those people usually, like, Bill Gates is on the spectrum. I think he did okay and developed some great products and had some great people around him. The how to win friends and influence people may seem cheesy and kind of pop psychology, but, honestly, there's some tried and true things in there.
Which I think will help you not only to from the sales perspective externally, but then figure out how to be an effective human internally with people. Yeah. You said in order to go to 7 figures, you gotta grow your revenue, which is sales, and you gotta have a team. So figuring out how to sell and and your mindset behind that Chaz well as then how deal with people. I think both of those are great recommendations.
Okay. Number 3, you've already mentioned this, but do you intentionally network or mastermind with business owners And do you have a budget to do so, or do you spend money to do so? Yes. Yes. And yes. So I've done peer groups. I'm very I would say as a you're gonna go the five people around you is a very critical measurement of where you're going and the values that you allow and values that you share around you.
So, I have, yes, I would say tens of 1000 of dollars dedicated towards whether it be trips or conferences, or people that I meet with or invite to dinner or get invited to dinner or travel? Absolutely. I think I think you you need to be consistently thinking about that. I've had some active mentorships that I Chaz well just reaching out, asking for help, whether it be business, whether it be personal, or the mix.
And I Wolfe also argue too, if you're the first person you need to lead, right, is yourself. And so get back to marriage or whoever you're dating. And if you don't have a positive environment around you, I would say it's such a critical decision to really make sure that you know how to lead yourself. Who are you dating or married to? And Chaz is that are you guys aligned as from a value perspective. And there was another point that I was trying to emphasize, but I'd forgotten it. All good.
Last point here on the speed round. Is if you lost it all today, boom. Oom is gone. What do you do? And I have no liquidity. I just I can't borrow money from anybody. Nothing. Wolfe, you could. You could. You could borrow money. But Most likely, what I would do in this to go along with with the fun is I don't know if I would start a business. I would probably get into a high level sales position and put a bunch of cash aside and buy a business. By an existing business.
That's probably exactly what I would do because and do something during the day, and then you're doing the twilight hours to to get something spun up. So Right? You've heard it here from the man himself, Anthony Klirby, multiple 7 figure owner. He's given you so much value today on how you can take your business, not only just from six figure 7 figures, but you individually, how you level up, because that's also part of the journey. And so thank you, Anthony, for sharing your story.
We so appreciate you being here. And we Wolfe bless you, your family, and your us. And we'll talk to you next time. Thank you. Glad to be here, Chaz. Appreciate you, brother. Absolutely. 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, but want you to go to gathering the king's dot com.
That's gathering the king's dot com 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 gatheringthekings.com and apply. And we will see you on the other side.