481 | 6 Mistakes Almost Every Entrepreneur Makes in Their Personal Life

Oct 14

00:00
Speaker 1
Number one on our list is thinking about the future versus now. And if you're an entrepreneur, I know that you're thinking about the future you're planning and you're scheming, you're thinking about your business, and you're thinking about your team, and you're thinking about money, and you're thinking about your community and in your family, all the things. The only problem with that, at least it was for me, is that I was living constantly, 510, even 20 years out, spending, like, deep time there. And I think that you should do that. I still do that, actually. I have time on my calendar. We're going to get to time management here in a second. But I've got time on my calendar where I just think about the. And I imagine those things as if they already are because there's power there.
00:36
Speaker 1
But if that's the only place that I exist is five and ten and 20 years from now, you know what happens is you forget about the now. This is driven to win the show that helps you, the entrepreneur who wants to win in all areas and isn't afraid to do the work to get there. My name is Chaz Wolf. I'm a serial entrepreneur in multiple industries. And in this episode, not only am I going to break down these six mistakes, I'm going to give you personal references on each so that you can stop doing them. Never do them if you haven't even started. I want you to grab a pen and a paper, and I want you to level up. Let's go. What's up, guys?
01:13
Speaker 1
Today's episode is going to be about the six mistakes that every entrepreneur, almost every entrepreneur makes in their personal life. And I'm no exception. I have made these same mistakes, which basically makes me an expert. But in all seriousness, we talk about these mistakes fairly regularly inside of the gathering, the Kings community. We've built time where we're talking about these things and even some tools to help people overcome failure in these mistakes. But I think it's important that you should know them. So the number one, maybe not the number one, but the number one on our list is thinking about the future versus now.
01:54
Speaker 1
And if you're an entrepreneur, I know that you're thinking about the future you're planning and you're scheming, you're thinking about your business and you're thinking about your team and you're thinking about money, and you're thinking about your community and your family, all the things. The only problem with that, at least it was for me. Is that I was living constantly, 510, even 20 years out, and spending, like, deep time there. And I think that you should do that. I still do that. I have actually, I have time on my calendar. We're going to get to time management here in a second. But I've got time on my calendar where I just think about the future and I imagine those things as if they already are because there's power there.
02:33
Speaker 1
But if that's the only place that I exist is five and ten and 20 years from now, you know, what happens is you forget about the now. And you know who's more likely probably wired for the now is your spouse and your kids. And if your situation is anything like mine, because I was so future oriented, so goal driven and ambitious around the things that I was trying to achieve then, the things that are happening right now, think about it right now. Just pause for a second while you're listening to this podcast, what's happening? Like, right now? I know that my kids are being picked up from a little co op thing that they do with other homeschool kids, and I'm not there right this second because my wife's picking them up, because I'm here with you.
03:19
Speaker 1
I could have chosen to be there, and so was I. So, so future focused today that I organized this podcast at this specific time? Well, I chose for that. Okay, fine. How many times are we doing that where we're so future focused in our actions that we're literally missing the now? And if your family is anything like mine, of course they're gonna be flexible, right? They appreciate you providing for them and creating this life. Like, there's oftentimes where we just sit down and go, wow, look at. Look at all the things that we've created. Obviously, for us. We believe that God has been a big part of that, and he's orchestrated our steps and all the things that we're creating.
03:59
Speaker 1
But sometimes, actually, more than often, there's major value in you as the entrepreneur, just going to just being with your spouse, with your family, maybe with your team member in that moment of something that they're working through in your business. Maybe it's a community event, maybe it's a fundraiser at your church or whatever, and you just need to just be in the moment, be present. And so that's the number one. Maybe not the number one, but one of the first mistake that we're gonna list here is that because you're so future oriented, you're missing the now. So you need to have the capability somehow, some way to do both.
04:38
Speaker 1
You got to have quarterly planning, and you got to have your think sessions, and you got to have the dreaming that probably comes more naturally to you where you're thinking about the future, but you also have to know how to regulate the moments of the now. And thank goodness for you for thinking for the future because your spouse probably isn't as future oriented. Or if you're like us, where you've kind of got two spouses that are future oriented, we collectively together have to be like, okay, let's slow down for the moment and take advantage of this thing that we're never gonna get back again right now. And oftentimes, those are the sweetest moments, especially with our kids, especially with our family, especially with the things that we're reflecting on and being grateful for.
05:20
Speaker 1
We've got a phrase inside of gathering the kings that says grateful but not done. It really describes the humility or the spirit that we carry as entrepreneurs that are in membership together through gathering the kings is that we want to be grateful for what we have. You can't be grateful if you're not right here in the moment, right now and just going, I'm so grateful for my wife, my kids, the struggles, the victories, even right now, being alive, the fact that I've got two eyeballs and two arms and two legs and the fact that I have food today. Like, all the things that we can be grateful for, but. Right. That phrase continues with a but I'm not done. I know that you're not done. As an entrepreneur, I'm for sure not done.
06:05
Speaker 1
I'm not going to be done until I'm in the grave, you know? And even then, gosh, in the next phase, in the next age, I'm going to be busy doing something, I'm sure. But for right now, I'm grateful but not done. I can be grateful in the moment. I can pause, I can be present, but I can also then have plans for still going up the mountain, achieving more things, more potential to be reached, all the things that light us up as entrepreneurs. Okay. All right. So, number two, the next mistake that almost every single entrepreneur makes in their personal life is that we sacrifice again for that forward thinking goals and ambitions and plans. We sacrifice our health. And I'm going to get to this from a different scenario. You might be thinking, oh, yeah, I haven't worked out. That's an obvious piece.
06:51
Speaker 1
If you're not working out, if you're not paying attention to exercise, if you're not paying attention to your health in your body, then take this as your next sign. You just got to get right in that regard. But the angle I'm going to take on this mistake isn't just not working out or running or whatever you consider exercise. I'm going to take it as you, as an entrepreneur, probably feel stressed at times, and some of us have developed a capacity for stress. And so you might be listening right now going like, oh, yeah, jaz, I feel super overwhelmed. I can feel the weight of stress in my life and my business and my marriage, my family. And first off, that's okay. Recognize that. But really, it's the ones that have developed a capacity for that I want to talk to.
07:38
Speaker 1
I'm going to talk to both of you, but I'm going to pause on the ones that already have that acknowledgement of, like, yeah, I feel the weight, I feel the stress, I feel the drowning effect. Cool. Like, I'm going to come back to you, but for just a half second. For all the entrepreneurs that don't feel stressed, right. My trainer asks me every single week, how did you feel stressed this week? And I think for some of us, especially ones that have been entrepreneurs for a long time, is that we've developed a capacity or maybe a callous, rather, for stress. And so I might say to you, like, oh, no, it was a good day.
08:08
Speaker 1
But actually, when I broke down, the day, I went through several stressful, whether it be decisions, whether it be sticky moments on calls with clients, or even moments with my family, like, when I walk out of here, I've got four kids under the age of 1010 and under. My oldest would correct you because I've said four under ten. She's like, dad, I'm ten. I'm not under ten. So anybody else got a firstborn like that? And so 410 and under. And look, when I step out of the office, when I step out of the studio here, there's going to be a little bit of kind of like organized chaos going on. That's just kind of how it rolls with kids that age. And so I might be used to it. I might have developed a palace to it.
08:49
Speaker 1
But does it bring stress to my body without even me knowing it? That's the question I want you to ask yourself. For those of you that maybe have developed the callus, you might be experiencing a ten on the stress level or maybe an eight, but in your mind, it's a three. For the others that we address first, you know, you're an eight or nine or a ten. Okay, fine. So now that we've got everybody kind of associated to like you're probably, if you're an entrepreneur experiencing like seven and above level stress every day, right now, you can do things to mitigate stress, right? You can be part of gathering the kings, right?
09:28
Speaker 1
Like being in a mastermind community, a real mastermind community where other entrepreneurs, where you can shoot a message and say, hey, this is what I'm dealing with, and they can kind of help you work through it, or maybe you just need a friend, right? Like, I can't tell you how many business owners have joined gathering the kings for knowledge and, you know, actionable steps to grow their business and their family and really what they've come out of it. Not just what they've come out of it, but one of the most valuable things has been just friendship, where they could just call another king or queen and be like, dude, and just have someone to hear them on the other side. You can do things like that to cope, right, to work through the stress.
10:04
Speaker 1
But the fact of the matter is, as an entrepreneur, you are dealing with hard situations, and I'm not even talking about the ones that we purposely put ourselves into to kind of develop that hard, do hard things. Calluse regardless, your body is going to experience stress, your mind, and so you have to do things like having people around you in a mastermind community. You need to be doing exercise, you need to be watching your nutrition, you should probably be paying attention to your sleep. You might even be doing things like cold plunges and whatnot. But there's a whole list of health things that you should be focused on.
10:38
Speaker 1
My thing here, number two mistake that almost every entrepreneur makes is that not only are the ones that arent aware of the stress, but even for the ones that are aware of the stress, we dont deal with it. First off, you have to acknowledge that youre probably operating at a seven or above stress level almost every single day. Then what do I do with that information? I now need to take action towards either mitigating or coping to be able to bring stress, which is typically a heightened vibration of emotion. When I don't either understand something or I don't have an outcome that I'm sure about. I'm not confident. It might be a money related decision. It might be, maybe I need to let someone go or I don't even know. You might be under litigation.
11:24
Speaker 1
There's all kinds of things that might be causing stress. You might have a team member that wants more, they're a fantastic team member, and you don't have the next level position for them. I've been there. Whatever that stress is, you need to be able to have people around you to mitigate it, and you need to be doing some of these health things that I've mentioned to work through that stress in your body, because it's taking a toll. You eventually will feel it in your body, in your mind, and then eventually, you won't be here anymore. And your loved ones, your spouse, your kids, your community, your team members, their family members, all your clients from your business, they're all worth you paying attention to that stuff right now. Okay. All right. Number three.
12:09
Speaker 1
Number three reason or number three mistake that almost every single entrepreneur makes is time management. I'm sure you've heard lots of podcasts on this. I'm sure you've heard lots of, you know, checklists and you've been on Zoom calls, and who knows, right? But the reality of it is that 98% of you listening right now have zero time management. You've maybe heard about it, you've maybe talked about it, but you're not doing anything towards it. Okay. Even for the ones that have heard about it and taken some action towards it, my guess is that you're probably not sticking to a system because follow through and persistence is one of the key things to success, which keeps most people from actually succeeding is because you just don't do it right.
12:54
Speaker 1
You thought about it, you maybe put it on your calendar, but then you're not sticking to it. Like I just mentioned a few minutes ago, I have think time on my calendar. And so ive predetermined whats important to me, and then ive designed my calendar in a way to where I dont think about what I need to do next. I just do the next thing that ive already predetermined thats important. And so time management doesnt just look like, what does my business day look like? It looks like what does my whole personal life look like? And so maybe youre even one of those that has a business calendar. And then when you get off, you kind of just check out, and then you kind of don't have any time management process or skills in your personal life.
13:33
Speaker 1
And this is where I see a lot of just mistakes made with entrepreneurs around time management. So you want to be able to sit down. So, like, what I do is I sit down on Sundays and I think about my week, right? My week is a part of the month. And so what are my monthly targets? What am I after this month? Where am I at on those? And what should I be doing this week? What are the top three things to move the needle on those monthly targets? Obviously, those monthly targets are kind of coinciding with my quarterly rocks because we use the EOS system. And so where am I on those things? Am I tracking? What do I need to do this week and when should I do it this week, right? Do I have my workout time?
14:11
Speaker 1
Do I have my time with the family? Do I have the time with my spouse? Do I have a little sexy time on there? Right? Look, I got kids, little kids. We got to schedule that stuff, okay? And we're still spontaneous on some of those other things, too. But you get what I'm saying is that I have freedom. When Sunday I sit down and I determine what's important to me and I put it on the calendar and then I follow it. Right. I don't let people deviate me from what I've already predetermined is important. I don't take a phone call unless you're my wife. You could call me right now, and I'm not going to answer. And oftentimes, even when Julie calls me, she's got to call me a couple times because I'm probably doing something.
14:51
Speaker 1
Probably doing something that is important that I predetermined. So, time management, that's the number three, number four. And actually, I'm going to pause here in the recording. Sorry, guys, I am burning hot. I'm going to turn the fan on. The number four mistake that most entrepreneurs make is that they have no personal budget. Well, first off, let's be honest. Most entrepreneurs don't operate on a budget inside of their business. And what do I mean by budget? I mean by a forward projecting understanding of where the money goes? Right. Have I sat down ahead just like I talked about with my calendar? Have I sat down ahead of time and determined, okay, here's what we think our revenue is going to be. And when we achieve that, where is it going to go? I'm going to predetermine where it's going to go.
15:36
Speaker 1
We got labor, we got materials, we got cost of goods, we've got softwares, we've got whatever it is, whatever the overhead costs are, I'm going to project those things out in my business. You know, these things probably not doing it very well, which I would highly recommend. But even if you are, the next level of that is, are you doing it in your personal life? Do you sit down with your spouse and go through your personal finances? Right. Julie and I have a weekly financial review of the Wolf House financials okay. And we go. We literally bookkeep. We are putting in line items into every single. From every single transaction that happened that weekend into our budget. And so we're predetermining ahead of time. Okay. Here's generally the revenue.
16:23
Speaker 1
We think we're going to bring in the income, and here's where we've preset it going to go, which then gives us, at the end, not just a net profit, but an investing target. We're typically trying to save or save for an investment, 40% of our income, and we don't do that every single month. But. But a lot of them we do, right. Because I learned a long time ago that saving unto investing is how you become wealthy. And there's a book called the richest man in Babylon that you can get that talks about a 10% rule. Pay yourself the 10% 1st. That's the beginning of it. Then you go to 20, then you go to 30, then you go to 40.
17:02
Speaker 1
I heard from a pretty big name that if you can save and invest 40% of your income, then you're guaranteed to be wealthy. I think that has been a discipline of ours for many years now, and we will continue to do that. But the function of that is, on a weekly basis, Julie and I sit down and we talk about each line item, and we're just putting it into our little p and l spreadsheet. That's got to predetermine. Here's what we think we're going to spend on these things. And are we on track? Did we overspend? Why did we overspend? What came up? And we're having these types of conversations in our household between Julie and I, and then being able to plan out what those things are.
17:39
Speaker 1
Once we've got some accumulation, we talk about what investments we want to make, whether that be in real estate or. I've made a lot of investments recently in equipment and maybe even new businesses or whatever it is that you're interested in. Okay. The point there is that most entrepreneurs make the mistake of a not knowing the numbers in their business, but then that trickles down to the numbers in their personal finance. Okay. You should look at your bank accounts every single day. Right. Why? I'm just going to look at it. Well, first off, you have to get into a relationship with your money. I've got a relationship with my wife. I want to see her every single day. I'd like to see her naked every single day. But that doesn't always happen. I see my kids every day.
18:18
Speaker 1
I see God, every day, every morning, I have a constant relationship with the things that are important to me. I don't want to paint a picture that money is more important than those things, but I think money is important, especially as an entrepreneur. Right. Money is the flow of how a business works and how investments work, how my team members are going to support their families. So I kind of need to know what's coming and going. And I don't just need to know it, I need to, like, know it. And I believe the same trickles all the way down to the personal family finances. Okay. All right. Number five mistake on that most entrepreneurs make is that they waste time with the wrong people. They waste time with people who don't bring them value. And that might sound a little harsh.
19:06
Speaker 1
I want you to think about your circle, the other entrepreneurs that you circle up with. If you even circle up with other entrepreneurs, I want you to think about the people in your family. I want you to think about people at your church or the softball team or whatever you're a part of. And I want you to think about whether that relationship brings you value. Now, I don't want you to misconstrued what I'm saying in regard to that person has to bring me money. Money isn't equivalent to value, although money can be what that value is. I have a client relationship, or one of my clients. He's a real estate agent, and his son started doing BMX.
19:46
Speaker 1
What he turned that into was something that was not just valuable for him and his son to be able to do on a regular basis, him and his wife and his daughter and his son, to support his son, but he turned that into an opportunity for his business. He created even more value because it was already valuable to his family, but he wanted to create more value. And so he created a team. Nobody has teams. He just created a team. He said, hey, if you want to join the team, I'll give you a helmet and a jersey. And you know what he's done? He's grown this little BMX team because he's a real estate agent, and he has all these kids that he's provided jerseys and helmets for, and they all wear his logo.
20:21
Speaker 1
And guess who is going to buy and sell homes with his team, with his real estate team? The parents of those kids. He's created additional value. So he turned a scenario that was valuable, but into more value for his business. What I'm talking about, in addition to that maybe slightly different view, is the person that's maybe negative or the person that walks in and steals your joy. The person that is always asking for something and never giving. Right. Like we know these people, some of them are your closest relatives, unfortunately. And the, you know, one of these top mistakes that most entrepreneurs make is that they just hang around these people too long. You can still love them, you can still love them, you can still be their family member.
21:09
Speaker 1
But you as the entrepreneur have to recognize that basically the result of what you do is going to be based a large amount on who you spend time with. Okay. And so again, kind of going back to gathering the kings, I spend time with other entrepreneurs now. They're clients of mine. But there's some really high performing entrepreneurs inside of gathering kings. Some folks that have achieved revenue that I have not even come close to. And that's fantastic for me. It's also fantastic for them because I've created an environment that stretches them regardless of revenue amount. But there's ideas and all kinds of fun stuff that come out of that. But you get what I'm saying is that, you know, your net worth is your network. Okay? So take a look at your current network. Are you being intentional about the time that you're spending?
21:55
Speaker 1
I can still spend time with those people in my life that maybe aren't as valuable, but I'm very intentional about the amount of time that I allocate towards that. Okay. And I don't think that there's anything wrong with that. You might be hesitant in that because they're close friends or family or whatever, but at the end of the day, what life are you trying to build? Right? And im trying to build the exceptional life. We talk about that inside of gathering the kings as the end result of being in the mastermind and winning in all areas is to live the exceptional life. And I just dont know how you live the exceptional life if you spend an enormous amount of time around negative, non productive, non valuable people in your life.
22:38
Speaker 1
And number six, probably not the last one, but the last one for this video, is that the mistake that most entrepreneurs make is that they're not generous. And immediately when I said that you thought of money and you're like, oh no, I give my church or whatever. And maybe you don't. Generosity is not just money. First off, you should be generous with your money, right? Are you giving, you should sit down. Also the principle I gave to you from a few minutes ago and the richest man on Babylon, paying yourself 10% and also then giving away charitable or tithing if you're a christian, 10% or more is like a standard, right where I want to posture my heart in a way to where that goes to someone else. Now I've got some. A whole nother episode, maybe.
23:25
Speaker 1
Or maybe if you can catch me in a mastermind event one time we're sitting a hot tub or by the fire, you can ask me what I really think about church and tithing, but we give an amazing amount in comparison to our income. I just like to really be intentional on where it goes. Go figure. Me being intentional. The point here being is that, are you generous? And so we've talked about this money piece. You need to be generous with your money. Not only is it a success principle, but even inside of your religious faith, potentially, that it's just part of what you do, which is the tithing piece that I kind of mentioned that Julie and I do. But it's got to be more than that. It's time, it's effort, right?
24:06
Speaker 1
All the resources that you have access to, you need to be generous because you've got a wife and kids or maybe a husband and kids. You've got team members employed by your business. You've got their families. You've got the clients and their families. You've got community. You've got your church. You've got whatever you're involved with. There's a lot of people counting on you. Counting on you. King Queenden. Like, this is the responsibility of power that we carry. And it's okay. Actually, it's not weighty for us. It is weighty, but when we carry it together, it's not. And so people like you and me were made for this.
24:43
Speaker 1
And so I don't mean to add to your stress, but what I am calling you up is in your position as a king or queen is to make sure that you're generous because there's people around you that are taking, that are waiting and needing you, not that they're waiting for a handout. That's always interesting. That's a whole other topic. But there are people who are in need, and the need might just be a team member that is going through a challenging time. Or like right now, we've got one of our clients who's in Georgia who was hit by the recent hurricane, and there was immediate action taken by myself and probably six or seven others in the mastermind to help this guy's, one of his businesses get back up with power and to help his team members and his family and be generous.
25:30
Speaker 1
Time, money, resources. One of the guys just give you a little effect on resources. Always just money. One of the guys at the mastermind group who's helping this other client, he's a generator dealer. He lives about seven or 8 hours from this other client who has no power to one of his businesses. It's a retail coffee shop and a vibrant community that's just been absolutely destroyed. And the second that he heard that this other guy didn't have power, he sourced three generators and was in the vehicle himself. This is an entrepreneur for a couple of decades, has tons of success, millions and millions in sales, lots of employees. He could have easily just had someone drive it up, which would have been fine and amazing, but he himself personally drove these up, I think, yesterday and dropped them off.
26:21
Speaker 1
So this other guy's business could be up and running and safe and serving the community. Because this other guy, the other client who's out of business, he's not even actually trying to sell coffee right now. What he's trying to do is give coffee away for free to the linemen and all the support that come down to the area to take care of all the damage. And so in order for this guy to be generous and serve, this other guy had to be generous and serve. And so if you just develop a way about you, it's just generous. It's an abundant mentality, is what it is. There's always going to be enough. And really what that stems down to is your confidence in your ability. Because if I run out, guess what, I'll just go get some more.
27:02
Speaker 1
And what if these are the last three generators? Okay, I'm going to give them to this guy and then I'll go figure out the rest. Right? The difference, the balance. And as kings and queens, that's where it lies. Like, just put it right here, I'll take care of it. And that then allows us to be uber generous. And so the six mistakes in summary, number one mistake, not the number one, but the first one on the list mistake that most entrepreneurs make is that you're thinking in the future versus now. You're missing the moment with your spouse, with your family, with your community, with your team members potentially in your business. It's okay to take a deep breath, be right here, right now, be grateful, but not done. Okay.
27:46
Speaker 1
Number two mistake that most entrepreneur make, most entrepreneurs make is that they're so future focused that they're sacrificing their health currently. And went really deep in on how stress, whether you recognize it or not, is killing your body and your mind. Number three mistake that most entrepreneurs make is that they don't use time management process or skills, not just in their business. Yes, it's really important, but in their personal life. Is your family on your calendar? Is your workout stuff on your calendar? Are you holding to it? Do you have think time on your calendar? Okay. Number four mistake that most entrepreneurs make is that they don't have a personal budget. Most entrepreneurs don't even know how to budget and know their numbers inside their business, let alone they're personal. But you need to trickle all that way down to your personal finances.
28:33
Speaker 1
Meet with your family on a weekly basis. Number five mistake that most entrepreneurs make is that they waste time around the wrong people. Evaluate your circle. If you need to level up your circle, go to gatheringthekings.com and apply for our mastermind community. It might be a good fit, maybe it's not. But you need to level up the people, constantly leveling up the people that are around you to grow your belief and to support you and all the things that you're after. The intentionality of what you're trying to do inside the life that you're trying to build. The number six mistake that most entrepreneurs make is that they're not generous. They're scared. They don't give their time, their money, their resources, because they have scarcity mentality. If you had an abundant mentality, if you were confident in your abilities, then you would just give.
29:21
Speaker 1
Give for the sake of giving. Be a giver, don't be a taker. Giving will always return. The Bible talks about good seeds being planted. Always bring up a good harvest in due time. And so you should give generously. Okay. Unto the next episode. Kings and queens. I'll talk to you soon.

A common idea among entrepreneurs is that business and personal life shouldn’t mix. And while that makes sense, there are some personal habits (or lack thereof) that can seriously impact your success in business. In fact, they could be unknowingly sabotaging your growth. If you're an entrepreneur, chances are you're making a few of these mistakes that keep you from winning in all aspects of life. I’ve been there myself, and I’m here to help you avoid them. In this episode, I break down the six major mistakes that nearly every entrepreneur makes in their personal lives. Based on my own experiences, I also share how to tackle these issues head-on before they derail your success.

Chaz Wolfe:

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