Nov. 9, 2023

The Hack to Your Success: Unlocking the Builder Within with Chaz Wolfe

The Hack to Your Success: Unlocking the Builder Within with Chaz Wolfe

Our guest, Chaz Wolfe is a successful business owner who has transitioned from startup to success, achieving passive income and reaching his own Freedom Day. Chaz shares his journey, highlighting the importance of building businesses, teams, and assets, not just for financial freedom but also for the freedom of thought and creativity. He emphasizes the role of persistence, fortitude, and the mindset of perseverance learned through sales in shaping his journey.

The conversation touches upon the pivotal decision to go back to work for others temporarily to generate active income for investing in real estate assets, ultimately contributing to Chaz's financial success. Jeff and Chaz delve into the concept of "Freedom Day" and how it evolves beyond just financial freedom, encompassing freedom of thought and the ability to create. Chaz shares his philosophy of being a builder and the satisfaction derived from creating successful businesses, teams, and family life.

The episode concludes with a discussion on work-life integration versus balance and the importance of involving family in the entrepreneurial journey. Chaz shares insights on the analogy of blazing a trail in a combine, highlighting the gradual process of involving children in business responsibilities, leading to a seamless transition. Listen and gain valuable insights into the mindset of a successful entrepreneur, the evolution of Freedom Day, and the significance of integrating work, family, and life to achieve holistic success.

About the Guest:

​Chaz Wolfe is a high performing, serial entrepreneur who's on a mission to ignite entrepreneurs to create & live The Exceptional Life.

He has built, purchased & sold multiple 7 figure ventures in franchising, home service, real estate and consulting. Chaz is a studied and accomplished professional who values discipline & integrity. He's an operations & process maximizer and an award winning sales and business mind.  Chaz is known to push the limits of excellence, mindset and results.  As a dynamic leader, facilitator & speaker he has helped both domestic and international organizations achieve massive levels of growth in all areas of life!

Chaz has a unique combination of genius, where discernment meets galvanizing. This is what truly propels Chaz to gather kings and make the complex simple.  Good decisions lead kings to win in all areas!

Fast Five Questions

  1. If you woke up and your business was gone, you have $500, a laptop, a place to live, and food, what would you do first? "I reach into my network and find out who I can serve"
  2. What is the biggest mistake that you have made in business? "Loss about $600,000 on a deal that I did, and my wife told me not to do it...the greater mistake, though, is thinking small, for too long"
  3. What is a book that you would recommend? "Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill"
  4. What is a tool that you use everyday that you would recommend? "Chat GPT"
  5. What is your definition of freedom? "Freedom is winning"


About Jeff: 

Jeff spent the early part of his career working for others. Jeff had started 5 businesses that failed before he had his first success. Since that time he has learned the principles of a successful business and has been able to build and grow multiple seven-figure businesses. Jeff lives in the Austin area and is actively working in his community and supporting the growth of small businesses. He is a board member of the Incubator.Edu program at Vista Ridge High School and is on the board of directors of the Leander Educational Excellence Foundation

Connect with the Freedom Nation podcast at https://freedom-nation-podcast.captivate.fm/

Connect with Jeff:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freedomnationpodcast/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeffKikel

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffkikel/


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Transcript
Speaker:

FN Intro/Outro: Welcome to the Freedom Nation podcast with Jeff Kikel. On this show, Jeff shares his expertise in financial and retirement planning from a different perspective. Planning for Your Freedom Day, which is the first day that you wake up and have enough income or assets and do not have to go to work that day. Learn how to calculate what you need, how to generate income sources, and listen to interviews from others who've done it themselves, get ready to experience your own Freedom Day.

Jeff Kikel:

Hey, Freedom Nation. It's Jeff here. And I have another wonderful interview today with Chaz Wolf. Chaz is a business owner who has worked for several years to go from startup to success to getting himself some passive income to where he can basically do whatever he wants. So basically, he's already at his Freedom Day, jazz. Welcome to the show, my friend.

Chaz Wolfe:

Thanks, Jeff. Man, I appreciate that. Thanks for the opportunity to serve you and your audience here today. Hopefully, we'll do both.

Jeff Kikel:

I appreciate it. Man. I'm looking forward to the interview here. So let's kick us off. Why don't you tell us your story? How did you get to where you're at today?

Chaz Wolfe:

Yeah, well, to your point, Freedom Day has come. But I think a lot of a lot of guys or gals, that once you quote unquote, get to Freedom Day, you realize your potential is just so much more. And so that's the cool work that you get to do after you're not concerned about the basics any longer, you get the nut covered. And then you start having freedom, not just of that day to yours to your point, but freedom of thought freedom of freedom of mind, freedom, to be able to go and create. And I just really believe that I'm a builder, here to build amazing businesses and teams and assets and my family, my marriage, you know, all that. So really, I guess my story is, is all of that me coming to realize how I am that a builder. And so yeah, growing up single mom family definitely gave me some some important pieces to the toolbox that I need as a builder. Playing basketball competitively, all the way up through early stages in college, also gave me tools to be a builder. You know, starting in sales, dropping out of college and starting in sales, and getting my teeth kicked in multiple times, hundreds of times a day, gave me tools to be calm a builder, starting my first business at 24 Did it getting married at 21, having kids at 25. Now having four kids under the age of nine, like all of those things really have, I guess, a part of my story, but they've really been able to make me the builder that I am today. That's awesome.

Jeff Kikel:

Fantastic. Well, let's talk a little bit about that. You know, so you built built businesses? What was that? You know, I mean, you started working for other people, I'm assuming in the sales world, but then you kind of went out there on your own started businesses. What was that first kind of impetus? What what you know, what did you do to begin with kind of getting yourself out of the working for other others world?

Chaz Wolfe:

Yeah, yeah, it's an interesting story, actually, Jeff, because I did both my work for other people. And then I left. And I started my own company, and I expanded that company. And then I actually went back to work for other people, which was a little bit insane. So I'll kind of get take down the road. But from 16 to 24. I was in sales, and everything from selling shoes to advertising to insurance. The I mean, you name it, I'm sure there's probably a few other things in there that I that I household. Yeah, really, what that gave me was not only just the persistence or fortitude of just like, oh, geez like this, this thing called success or money or life doesn't happen easily. I already knew that growing up single family, but it was like, you know, there's nothing special about you, but like, you got to put in the work, make it make it make it work for you. And so I learned system, I learned language, I learned communication, I learned, you know, all of really the things that come from, you know, a mindset of perseverance through sales. And so as I was working in sales in different industries, I began to grow my income. And as I grew my income, the itch for doing my own thing is what began to, you know, manifest, I guess, really. So at the age of 24. I'm already making six figures in a sales management, leadership role, and I leave completely benefits 100 plus 1000. I'm 24. My family literally thinks I'm crazy. And I purchased I purchase a franchise, I ended up growing that franchise from 24 to 29, from one location to seven locations across three states, 65 plus employees. And then because I just felt like I had an awesome system and great team, which I did, I went back to work in sales. And really the main reason here and this all kind of comes back full circle for our listener here because for me, Freedom Day was not about necessarily the amount of income it was the amount of passive income to me that mattered to where I could wake up every single day, no matter what, and no, like I said earlier to begin to show that the nuts covered and I could go create go built. And so for me, real estate was a big part of that. So I was already learning sales, even teaching other people how to do sales, growing my own business, you know, growing locations, building teams, like I was doing the thing, making a lot of money, you know, I became a millionaire when I was 29. And in the process of that it wasn't so much necessarily making money like income, although I was, but I was putting it back into the businesses, one after the other one after the other one after the other. And this is, you know, maybe some of your listeners aren't business owners, and they don't understand kind of how this works. I'm sure if anybody that worked, worked or works for me, now, this might be a little bit of a shock. But yeah, it's not like business owners just take home gobs of money every single year, especially in the early years. So for me, a lot of it was investing like literally everything back in, you know that my wife is a dental hygienist. And so I'm like, cool, like the nuts covered over there, still with active income. But it gave me just, you know, I could just push it, push it, push it, push it, push it, which allowed me to grow fast, but I wasn't, I was growing my net worth, I was not growing my income necessarily at that in the business building stage. So I went back to work in sales. So I could have income, active income, so that I could buy real estate assets. Because I was taking all my money from business and putting it back into business growth. And so this is a really big piece here. I don't want I don't want your listeners to to to misstep is that I'm always going to be a business builder. I love businesses, and I can get a bigger return in business than I can in in real estate. However, in the real estate companies, its passive or generally speaking.

Jeff Kikel:

Right? Yeah. Yeah,

Chaz Wolfe:

exactly exact. There's all types of real estate, and I'm in several different verticals. But that's the main thing. I went back to work, I became a, again, another top salesperson making a great income. And I just dumped all of that into real estate assets. And so a lot of that has built up what I have today, when I look at my portfolio, I have real estate assets, business assets, teams of people, you know, all working in conjunction with each other on to bigger targets even Yes, still. But a lot of the a lot of the basics are covered Freedom Day has come as you said,

Jeff Kikel:

nice, wonderful. Well, you know, when you were building that, So what got you what made you go, Hey, this is what I'm going to do. I know building businesses and all that. But you know, as you started to build your plan of attack there, what was the what was the guideposts that you use to do that?

Chaz Wolfe:

As far as like, Why was I going after it? You mean? Yeah. What

Jeff Kikel:

was that driving force for you?

Chaz Wolfe:

Yeah, for me, it's more like I want more, I want more out of life. I want more out of myself. I want more out of my marriage. I want more out of my money, you know. And so really, I guess the other side of that is a discontentment. You know, a gratefulness but a discontentment. And so I have a mastermind group now of successful entrepreneurs. And I have a phrase that I've taught them that they also relate to, but it's grateful, not done. And so I can look back at different moments in my life. And I can go I'm so grateful for fill in the blank, the money that I've made, the family that I have, the things that I've accomplished, because there's a difference here between, I'm never satisfied from like, I can't look back, I have no contentment, I can't be grateful. Nothing's ever good enough, right? I still have some of those things. But when I stopped for a second, and I look back at those things, I have to be able to be grateful and go like this powerful. I've done a lot of work. And I have to be able to be grateful for the view that I've created. But in that same moment, what you're asking about what drives me is like, what, bro the top is that way? Let's go. Yeah, I love it.

Jeff Kikel:

That's fantastic. So you now you, you've built these businesses up, but you also have got kind of your world of helping other entrepreneurs. So tell me a little bit about that.

Chaz Wolfe:

Yeah, I gathered the king started just about two years ago. And it was because I genuinely believe you're gonna get to one of the questions, hopefully is a is a book that I recommend, and it's thinking grow rich, and we can talk about that in more in depth. But one of the chapters in thinking Grow Rich is on the mastermind principle. And the very purpose of that principle is to get people that are like minded together, that are working in harmony unto a specific and definite purpose. And so today right now, you and Jeff are masterminding because we are working towards the definite purpose together of solving problems for your audience and helping them get to their freedom day. Well, that's great. Yeah, but I wanted to do that in a format that was bigger and heavier like a more leverage lift, right? I wanted to run and do life with other successful people, selfishly for me, but also I didn't know that I could add value to them. And when I look around the marketplace, there's a lot of coaching programs, they call themselves masterminds, which is fine. I've been a part of several spent tons of money and gotten tons of value. But that's not what a mastermind is a mastermind is not where a guru sells, you know, his particular specialized knowledge or her it's it's a call elective, it's when I can bring people to the table. And then there's maybe a facilitator or there's an opportunity for kings, again, we call it taking off the crown. And we come to the table kind of in humility, you're successful, he's successful, she's successful. But maybe he's got a problem, or she's got a situation and we're all going to kind of discuss it, our singular purpose inside of gathering the kings is to live the exceptional life, the exceptional life is simply just winning in all areas, we got business and finance, we got marriage and family, we got faith, we got health, we got lifestyle, like, if you're winning in all of those areas, you're living the exceptional life. And that's what everybody that I've kind of started to gather around the table believes is that if I can just become the best version of myself, it's gonna impact all these areas around me, and I'm gonna be winning, right? So if I could just gather more people like that together, then we have a more impactful circle.

Jeff Kikel:

That is awesome. Well, and I think, you know, that's the, I think the challenge that I found, and it's, it's been kind of moving up the scale, I guess, the more you spend a lot of times the higher the caliber the people are, but you know, so many masterminds that I found, and and I have done the same thing. I've been involved with a lot of masterminds. I always hate being the one who's the most motivated of the group. Yeah. When when you come to the group, and everybody's like, wow, well, I didn't have time to do this. Why didn't either but I got it done. Yeah. And I'm moving forward. Fast. So I think, you know, it's, it's, there's a value in spending a little bit more money on things, and sometimes where it feels like, it's a little bit beyond my reach. That's probably the thing you need most to get you to that next level. Yeah,

Chaz Wolfe:

Yeah, there's a lot of people even like, a lot of times, health coaches, or fitness coaches, it's an easy, it's an easy comparison. Because sometimes when you're talking about a mastermind, or a business executive coach, you know, spending money in that it there is there's, there's a huge ROI we can get into that. But sometimes it's hard to see from the beginning, when you hire a fitness coach, you're like, okay, they're gonna help me lose weight, or they're going to help me, you know, fill in the blank, fitness wise, okay, cool, I can easily get that. But to your point that you just made when I spend a little bit limited money, like more than I'm maybe a little bit comfortable with, and it's like right here, like you talked about, if I'm going to show up to those, those training sessions, I'm gonna definitely follow that plan, I'm gonna definitely make sure that I get my money's worth, which aka all that that really means is that there's a hack. Literally, right now, if you're listening, there is a hack to your success. It's called, put yourself around other people who are gonna hold you accountable and pay for it. And guess what? You'll win?

Jeff Kikel:

Yeah, the old adage you are the product of the five people you're most closest to. So if you hang out with exactly, I end up as a loser. And if you hang out with winners, you're probably going to be a winner because they're gonna force you to

Chaz Wolfe:

Yeah, yeah. And if you pay to do it, then there's a mutual respect in the room and also to like, don't be the goober that pays for something that doesn't use it. Like, you're gonna hold yourself accountable. And then on top of that, if you're putting yourself in the right room, they're gonna hold you hold you accountable as well. Which is not like, I need dad checking on me. Right? What I need is, is I need a peer going Hey, dude, you're right. You good? Hey, did you hit Did you hit? Did you hit that thing? You told me you're gonna hit? You didn't? Why? Okay, what can I do to help? Okay, cool. And next month? Did you hit it? You did freakin job, dude. Let's go. What's the next target? Yeah, you know?

Jeff Kikel:

Yeah. I love that. So let's talk a little bit about the structure your masterminds? How does it work? What do you do with them? And all that? Yeah,

Chaz Wolfe:

Good question. We've kind of got it broken down into a couple of pillars. We do a monthly roundtable. So we've got members all across the country. And so we get together on Zoom and a monthly roundtable. And that's a two and a half hour business event. I tell people, it's their one opportunity every single month to work on the business as opposed to in the business. Now we've got some pretty big business owners, we got owners doing over 300 million. Some of those guys don't need additional time to work on the business. But I'll tell you what, those guys love to work on the business. So they're there, that's for sure. It's usually typically the smaller guys. They're like, wait a second, I gotta work on the business too. It's like, yeah, that's where that's where you start winning. That's where freedom is. So we encourage people by creating the facilitation, but inside of that we're doing hot seats, we're doing accountability, super great event. Most people walk away from that every month going, my mind is blown with new ideas, new connections, new possibilities, situations and problem solved. It's it's an incredible thing that we do every single month. We do some tactical stuff as well on a weekly basis. You know, talking about sales, talking about marketing, talking about budgeting. We I mean we're at we just finished October, October is budgeting season should have you should already have your budget outline for 2024. If you don't, you're behind. Some people are listening going. I'm sorry, what is a budget? It's like, okay, well, that's okay. Everybody starts somewhere, and I'm supposed to

Jeff Kikel:

Come on. What is

Chaz Wolfe:

It first? All right, like First off, let me just give you some encouragement on that. I was doing millions of dollars in sales as a 20 Earl and I had no idea what a budget was. Yeah, so it's, it's okay. But But, but you do need to figure it out, you do need to you do need to make sure that

Jeff Kikel:

The sooner you get that under control, the faster you can end up growing your business because you realize how much is leaking out of it. In most instances, I mean, it you can get, I always say you can get 495 to death, with all the little tools and toys and tweaks that you've got out there that you never use. Yeah,

Chaz Wolfe:

That's right. 100%. Yeah, so we do quarterly speakers, I bring in really big business owners or experts in their field, I brought in guys around neuroscience and burnout and Chrono types, I brought in guys that have done hundreds of millions of dollars. And they come in and implement a certain method that they've taught us in depth, how to sell companies, marketing strategies, I mean, just really, really high level stuff. And then of course, we do in person events. And those are, let me just say like this, when you when you mastermind with people, first off, you're getting to know them, you're building relationships, you're getting to know them as individual and then also as a business owner. And especially when you do that virtually like I'm talking right here, right now, at the time, when we're done here, we're going to know each other a little bit better. But if we did it again next week, and again, the week after, and again, the week after, and then Yeah, a couple months from now, we got together in person, we know each other, but we've never seen each other and it is so powerful. Yeah, it's just a really kind of almost odd dynamic of like, I know this person, but I've never, I've never put my bear claws around them. And it's just an incredible moment. We do like experience plus Matt mastermind events where we're doing, of course, the business, network talk strategy, solving problems, but then we just like to play hard also. And so we've done, you know, UTVs in the sand dunes, we've done deep sea fishing, we've done the Kansas City Chiefs and Jaguars 40 yard line with a VIP tailgate party. You know, we just really try to work and play hard because that's what successful people want to do, man, they want to want to be more successful, but they also want to win in their marriage. They want to win in fun, they want to live in their lifestyle, they want to win in, you know, their health they did, were just freaking winners, you know. That's awesome. That

Jeff Kikel:

That is so cool. What's what's new in your world coming up, that you want to share?

Chaz Wolfe:

Yeah, man, what's new, you know, this next year, we're going to be doing our second family mastermind, which is kind of fun. We did our first one this last year, went to Bermuda. And it was a little bit of a test to kind of see really how it would go, what we would do and what kind of value we would bring. But we're gonna go to Cancun next year, we've already got probably 30, or 40 families kind of pre registered for that. So if you're listening to this, it's going to be in June of 2024. And if you're a entrepreneur, and you want to get around other entrepreneurs at the same time doing a family vacation at the same time, I bring in marriage experts. And you know, the kids play with each other at the kid center. And we're doing intentional marriage work for 90 minutes each day. The rest of the time we're on the beach, hanging out, doing the networking, fun vacation thing with, of course, your family, but also with other awesome entrepreneur families. And so we've just gotten so much response from that. And so we're excited to take our little test from last year and really do a big in 2024.

Jeff Kikel:

Now that we're past the pandemic, and we can actually go with big groups of people places, it's a beautiful thing.

Chaz Wolfe:

Absolutely, man, it's a blast. That

Jeff Kikel:

is awesome. I love that idea. So I mean, you know, you're doing like family stuff and all that. I mean, is it you're also kind of doing how to how to work with business and have a family at the same time to hit training as well.

Chaz Wolfe:

And oh, yeah, yeah, we call it work life obsession. Balance doesn't exist. And I think most entrepreneurs actually understand that I think that there are people out there that that try to say that work life balance exists, and maybe that does for people who have nine to five jobs. But as an entrepreneur, it's it's it's integration, your business, actually, I'll say, like this, I had a guy on my podcast, and I asked about this stuff all the time, like you do. And so he said, you know, if your business is like a mistress, then your wife doesn't know about her. She knows you're sneaking around, you know, but she doesn't know what you're up to. You're doing things in the dark over here. But then when you come home, you're a different person. You know, like, you make decisions separately, everything's over here and kind of in the shade, right? It's like but if your business is just another part of it, another person in the family it sits at the dinner table with you. Everybody knows his name. Everybody's involved like when when the business has a when everybody cheers. Just like for your kids. Everybody's involved in integrated, it's like, oh, that's how it's supposed to know this for business owner. Yeah, like it's not supposed to be hidden or something that I do over here. And then when I come home, I'm a different person here. No, like, if anything, it's the actual opposite. Because I want my kids to learn what's made me successful, who better to teach them than me? Why would I wouldn't want them to do anything other than with their life to be successful? I mean, now we're not talking about just money wise, we're talking about Yeah, winning in all areas. How do they win in all areas? Well, if I'm winning all areas, guess what? I want to teach them they're

Jeff Kikel:

Gonna learn well, and I think you know, there's a lot of I work with a lot of business owners on the exit planning strategy side I think that's the biggest thing that I will say the most successful business owners I know, it's integrated into their life. You know, their kids are involved in the business, their spouse is involved in the business. It's the ones that, you know, they're literally it's like having a mistress. You know, the that's the ones where there's a ton of resentfulness. You know, I remember, you're working with a business owner, that is the president of a company and his dad had, actually, his grandfather had started it, Dad took it over, and then basically dumped it in his son's lap after his business partner guide. And he was like, No, I'm done with this. I'm going enjoying life. And I remember the son, we were talking with him, and he's like, dude, he goes, I hate this business. And I was like, Well, why? I mean, he's just the business you're in. And he's like, No, because this business kept me away from my dad, because he was here working here his whole life. When I grew up, he was always at work. And I was never with him. And he's like, I hated this business because of it. And then, you know, to add insult to injury, he dumps it in his lap and says, Okay, you go run it at this point. Yeah, yeah. And I think

Chaz Wolfe:

probably what the dad thought he was doing was given him a blessing. Like, here, I'm giving you this thing that I've devoted my whole life to, it means a whole bunch to me, here you go. And obviously, that's, that wasn't what it was reserved to be, you know, it's funny, I had this, this, this word picture, in my mind, I'll share it with your audience, because I think it's really, really helpful for entrepreneurs, especially ones that have kids. It's like, you know, I'm in the Midwest, we have we have cornfields we have bean fields. And so I imagine myself on a combine, right, and we're blazing a trail. And the idea, I think, would be rather than the two only options that I have, or that I see now that entrepreneurs do, they either give their children everything silver spoon and try to, you know, give them a life that they never had. And what that ends up doing is that it cripples them, right? We know this to be true. But yet still people do it. Okay. Well, the opposite is don't give them anything. They today have to learn everything themselves, they have to suffer. You know, and and how I see that second option being if I don't give them anything is that they have to then like I blazed my trail. And they have to start in their own combine right next to me and blaze the same ground as like, Well, wait a second. That's, that's not leverage. That's not, that's not that's not good systems, like what would I ever want to repeat the same thing over and over if it didn't produce? You know, like, I wouldn't do that in my own businesses. Now with my employees? Have we had them same do the same thing over if it's already done? So why would I do that with my children? So really, the tactic here is how do I get them to take over, but without giving them the silver spoon? It's like, okay, well, using that combine analogy is like, well, for a while there, it's going to be me and I'm blazing the trail, fine. But then they get in there with me. And they're just kind of poking around, and they're looking around, and then they're learning and they're kids, then they get them, they get a little older, and I start giving them responsibilities, and they start doing little things. And then we're running the combine together. And then it's there running the combine. I'm just there being dad hanging around, right. And then eventually, guess what? I get out of the combine, like, and we

Jeff Kikel:

Go, Yep, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And that mean, the the interesting thing is, I think people with their kids, especially they don't give them the credit that they can figure this stuff out. You know, it's a Yeah, it's like, well, they, they're, you know, they're not old enough to really understand this. They're actually very smart. And they will find this out, I work with a local incubator program that's in high school. And, you know, I mean, these kids are going from absolutely no business knowledge, to more business knowledge than I had after 10 years of running a business in less than a year. And, you know, they've got mentors coming in teaching and everything else. But you know, I mean, the life lessons that they learn and how they grow so fast, because they're like a ginormous sponge, the ones that are open, or they're just a ginormous sponge, and they figure stuff out really fast. And, you know, I think if you if you got your kids involved, and I say the same, you know, a big part of my life going forward is really teaching families, how to, you know, talk finance, because I didn't grow up in a family to talk finance, my parents didn't grow up in families to talk finance. And, you know, I mean, that hampered me early on in life. And it wasn't until I got into the finance business, that I actually learned all these things, and I want people to have these conversations with kids. Help them to make decisions that way.

Chaz Wolfe:

Yeah, yeah, it's powerful man. And I think that that piece, not only just the understanding or the literacy of it, but just the ability then to communicate it down. Obviously never too early to start and and kids will be better off for it.

Jeff Kikel:

Yeah, absolutely. Well, cool. So I'm really excited to hear as that starts to go, let's trends Listen to the Fast Five questions now. Ready to go? I'm ready. All right, here we go. So first question, you wake up in the morning business is totally gone, you have 500 bucks in your pocket a laptop computer, place to live food and clothing. What do you do first?

Chaz Wolfe:

Reach into my network and find out who I can serve. I love it

Jeff Kikel:

Simple and straightforward. Make some make.

Chaz Wolfe:

Yeah, make some phone calls. Or you said I didn't. I didn't lose any of my skill set or my knowledge of the things that I've learned. I mean, obviously, in that scenario, I wouldn't. And so I have built up skill sets around sales around hiring around personality assessments around building teams around scaling businesses around revenue generation round relationships. I mean, you name it, I can just go down the list on skill sets and go okay, yeah, who in my network needs this? I mean, that's kind of what we do, right? Like, we just provide value to people in our network. That's kind of what businesses

Jeff Kikel:

Love it. What's the biggest business mistake you've ever made?

Chaz Wolfe:

Ooh, good question. I'm gonna answer this in two parts. One is financial, because that's probably what you're meaning underneath that loss about $600,000 on a deal that I did, and my wife told me not to do it. I did it anyway, it was a business that I started really moreso out of defense, as opposed to offense, and ended up shutting it down years later, and never not once made me money. In fact, it cost me all but here really, the greater mistake, though, is thinking small, for too long, like I always wanted more. And I always wanted to achieve and grow and succeed. However, my very tactical mindset was always in the weeds. Never thinking big enough. And so for me, when I started thinking bigger, hiring better people, I was always a systems guy, but like thinking systems on systems, like the whole thing is a machine and how do I get each piece of the machine to work together as opposed to little systems along the way? And and just straight mindset, like the information that me to be able to think differently, the capability to think differently? I just wish I would have done it sooner. I've probably lost more money that way than I did in the $600,000. I lost in that business. Okay,

Jeff Kikel:

Well, you made a million dollars by the time you were 29. So I think you're okay. Not done? Well. Yeah. It takes a lot of people have made a lot more mistakes for a lot longer and taken to do that. So yeah, don't beat yourself up, too. It's

Chaz Wolfe:

All relative, right?

Jeff Kikel:

What's a good book that you'd recommend for our audience?

Chaz Wolfe:

Yeah, every day all day thinking Grow Rich, there's tons of great books. But thinking Grow Rich, is the only book I've ever read every single year for the past decade. And this multiple years where I read it, I probably read it four or five times this year. It's tough, because it's like the most read book, the immune, everybody knows it. Everybody thinks oh, yeah, good, I read that. It's just so much deeper than that. If you didn't have any other books in life, on the outside the Bible, like we're talking about business books, so that's the only book you ever had, you could reread it like literally read it, and then start and then read it and start over, read it and start over. And every time you read it, there would be a deeper level of growth for you individually, and your business and your marriage. It is just an incredible resource. And every time I touch it, I make more money, I get better relationships. I apply myself at a whole nother level. So I would highly recommend that they not only just grab it, but like, you know swim

Jeff Kikel:

i Yeah, your process of reading it multiple times. Yeah, that's the same thing I've done with the 40 hour workweek. I mean, you know, the book hasn't been updated since Oh, nine. But I still reread it every single year. Because I just, you know, every time I read it, I find something new, or it's something new at a different time in my life, or in a way it's more applicable. And I found the same thing with thinking grow rich, you know, it's you go back and you read and you're like, oh, okay, well, I see how that fits in my world now that it didn't you know, a year or two ago, but it now it fits in my world. That's right. Plus an easy read. Read it in a weekend.

Chaz Wolfe:

Oh, well, your book. Yes. I mean, thank you very much. I don't know every weekend. But when I read the first one, I was 19. I was like, this is the dumbest book ever. Like who even understands this language. I don't even like I read it just because I'm a finisher, like literally, like I understood it. And I put it away and I didn't even read it again for another couple years. But once you can, once you can just get past that. Just really just give yourself some space to like really understand concepts. Game Changer.

Jeff Kikel:

Yeah, it was the same thing with Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. I actually amazing. I did this as part of the podcast one year where I did. I took one concept from that book every week, for two weeks at a time because there's 26 concepts in the book. I did that for an entire year. I just lived those concepts. And yeah, that was amazing. That was one of the best years of my life just from just the growth personal growth stuff. endpoint, same kind of thing. I think you can do a lot of the same things with thinking grow rich as well. Yeah,

Chaz Wolfe:

Absolutely cool.

Jeff Kikel:

What's a tool that you use in your business every day that you might recommend?

Chaz Wolfe:

It might be overplayed. Now we use a ton of them. But you know, open AI is probably the most fun that we use, you know, Jaggi Beatty, as it's known, but I mean, we use that for show notes for our podcasts we use it for, you know, social media content, we use it for, you know, my wife's writing a book right now currently, and she just needed some language for the front and back cover, or sorry, the back cover, she had written some stuff that was good. And I'm like, Hey, let's just let's just, let's just enhance it a little bit. Let's get some let's get some other thoughts here. And so I guess the thing about the tool is, if you know how to use it, you don't just ask it to write a book for you. That's dumb. Don't do that. Know how to use the tool to enhance your current skill set. Whether that's coding or whether that's writing a social media post, don't blindly use it, because then you like people just know. So don't do that.

Jeff Kikel:

Yeah, totally. Yeah. But I mean, it's, it's an app, I have a course that I taught on that, that, you know, it's it teaches you, okay, utilize the information. It's, it's the ability to gather information quickly into a cod, a good cogent thought, at that point, and then you add it, you know, it's but it's getting that the thought to paper, a lot of times that if you can do that, it's yeah, that gets you over the hump, and it makes it much easier to finish that book that you're trying. Okay, last question, jazz? What is your definition of freedom?

Chaz Wolfe:

Yeah, freedom is winning. Although they're not the same, they are the same. And what I mean by that is, you can be free. Let me sorry, you can be winning without free being free. But I don't think that you can be free without truly winning. And so I guess for for me too, on on like a practical state. That looks like the nuts covered. We already talked about that at the beginning. Financially, I need to be able to move and operate and make decisions and create for my family that looks like security for the people that are in my covering employees, friends, connections, anybody that's in my network. That's depending upon me that looks like enough. It looks like flow. It looks like abundance. It's not just for me, I guess is what I'm doing.

Jeff Kikel:

I like it. Love it. Love it. Love it. Well, somebody is interested in learning more about you learning about the programs you offer, what's the best place to look?

Chaz Wolfe:

Yeah, gathering the kings.com is a great place to take a look at information about me individually, or the mastermind. But we really truly are. We're a movement, we're a movement of down to earth. Humble entrepreneurs that want more out of life. We're grateful but not done, as we say. And we just find value in doing life and winning at the highest level in all areas with other people. That's you check us out.

Jeff Kikel:

Fantastic love it. Well, we'll put that link in the show notes section. So if you're interested, check it out, go on to gathering the kings.com and learn more about what Chas is doing and the movement there.

Chaz Wolfe:

I was gonna say, Jeff, let me let me want one more thing here. I apologize. I should have said it before gathering the kings. But for the listeners, if they can find me on gathering the kings. That's great. But what I would love for them to do before that is to rate this show on Apple, Spotify YouTube, they need to subscribe and give a five star review. I just want to encourage the the audience that this this is real work that Jeff does for you guys bringing great content every single week or however often. So I just want to encourage you guys to hit the like button subscribe. Of course, a five star review on any podcast channel is just an incredible way for Jeff to know that he's doing the right stuff. I mean, I like to think I'm a pretty good content guy. I like to think I gave you guys some pretty good stuff here today. And Jeff made that happen. So give him a review. If you thought so as well.

Jeff Kikel:

Boom, drop the mic. Hey, we do these shows twice a week for you guys. So make sure wherever you're listening to us, whether it's on YouTube, whether it's on the podcast channels, make sure you subscribe to these suckers. And give us a comment. I'd love to hear from you. And let you know that or let me know that you're out there and what questions or comments you have. Thanks a lot. And thanks Chaz for being on today. And we will see you guys here that next time.

Jeff Kikel:

FN Intro/Outro: Thank you for listening to the Freedom Nation podcast. You can find this on Apple podcasts and all the major channels wherever you're listening. Please subscribe to the channel and leave a rating and review. If you have friends and family that could benefit from their own Freedom Day. Please share with them. Finally, join freedom nation by following us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.