493 | How To Set Your Business Up For Success This Year!

Jan 6

[00:00:00] Jake I saacs: Is your dream life waiting for your plan? Chaz and I give you the framework for a successful 2025. Grab your pens. Let's dive in.
[00:00:08] Chaz Wolfe: Boom shaka laka. Heyo!
[00:00:10] Jake Isaacs: First podcast of 2025 Chaz.
[00:00:12] Chaz Wolfe: You know, I was thinking we've been doing this for a minute and it feels like a lot longer than we have just finished up our third year, 22, 23, 24. About to, I guess, technically in February, it'll be the end of the third year, but it feels like we've been podcasting for a long time.
[00:00:33] Jake Isaacs: Yeah. You're a grizzled veteran. Like we're we'll, we'll release episode 500 here in a couple of,~ uh,~ in February.
[00:00:42] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. Crazy and amazing
[00:00:47] Jake Isaacs: Yeah.
[00:00:47] Chaz Wolfe: at the same time.
[00:00:49] Jake I saacs: 500 episodes and three years.
[00:00:52] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. You know, ~uh, ~something to be proud of when you said, when you said chiseled chiseled. Well, I don't [00:01:00] know what you said, but it made me think of all the, all the grays that have come into my beard. Has it been because of all the podcasts,
[00:01:07] Jake Isaacs: You've talked with a lot of people. You've met a lot of really interesting people. You've also met some people where you're like, how are you succeeding in life?
[00:01:18] Chaz Wolfe: you know, some of those conversations are my favorite. I had, I had one of these conversations the other day. I don't know if you're, if you're listening right now, if you would relate to this, but there's been several moments in my life where, you know, someone is on stage of sorts. And I'm like, I shake, I like scratch my head and I'm like, You have whatever, whatever business it is, whatever success, whatever achievement, and there's a part of me that's like super happy.
[00:01:45] Cause I don't really have like a, like, Oh, they're successful. So I need to hate them or because they were successful. I can't be nothing like that. ~Um, ~but there are times where I'm like, how, how, and then immediately it switches [00:02:00] to, okay, if you can do that,
[00:02:03] Jake I saacs: So much hope.
[00:02:04] Chaz Wolfe: there's so much hope. ~Um, ~but then, but then, but then I think the third element to that is a very quick, like humbling.
[00:02:09] Okay. So if I. If they've experienced something that I haven't yet, then what do I think that I have that I don't
[00:02:20] Jake I saacs: good.
[00:02:20] Chaz Wolfe: take a whole like trifecta of emotions. ~Um, ~so always good to see someone succeeding, especially one that you think possibly that you're maybe more skilled or qualified. And, and that's a, it's a good humbling experience.
[00:02:34] Jake I saacs: Yeah, I agree with that.~ Uh, ~it's exciting. Those environments are always exciting for me. Maybe it's because I have more,~ uh,~ self confidence or I'm just arrogant. I'm not really sure which one it is, but I love those experiences.
[00:02:49] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, it's like I was talking to somebody, well, we had a guest,~ um,~ the golf expert and,~ uh,~ you know, golf, I, I haven't played in many years because as soon as I, when I picked it up for the first [00:03:00] time,~ um,~ you know, it was not easy, but like I had was having fun, but then as soon as I started just the second that I thought I had it.
[00:03:08] I was, you know, you know, and I immediately became pissed and I couldn't handle it anymore. And,~ uh,~ Eric,~ um,~ the guy I was just referring to,~ um,~ he was just like, yeah, dude, it's a, it's. It's a, the ultimate humbler, you know, that's how I feel about success. You know, like if there are, there are people doing it, there are people, there are people winning at things and it's like, man, I, okay, I've got some work to do apparently somewhere.
[00:03:35] Somehow you've got something that I don't, or, or potentially they just got lucky, which does happen, you know, the right time, right place. Okay, fine. And so I don't try to like hold my. necessarily, but,~ um,~ it does give me hope. Like you said, just like, okay, well, if they can do it, I can do it.
[00:03:50] Jake I saacs: The other side of that is it's kind of a razor's edge, right? We've interviewed a couple of people on this podcast that had huge businesses that now have nothing because of COVID. [00:04:00] Bad decisions or market environment or whatever it is that have, you know, gone from hero to zero very quickly. Okay.
[00:04:08] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. We've had a few of those where we've had to, you know, remove them off the, off the, off the channel because. People that have been hurt. ~Um, ~we're, we're reaching out and saying, Hey, this is not cool that this,~ uh,~ person's up here talking about success and it's,~ uh,~ it doesn't work like that. So, yeah, you're right.
[00:04:26] Cause it can come and go,~ um,~ if, if right things, systems,~ um,~ people, you know, and I think, I think that at least for the few that I'm thinking of, you know, it's not like, it's not like they were malicious or bad people. ~Um, ~You know, they just had, they had,~ uh,~ probably in both circumstances I can think of, they just grew too fast, you know, and so there's, there's that,~ uh,~ kind of newer entrepreneur that, and I think I probably did it too, you know, ~um, ~I, when I went, you know, I went from zero to seven locations of edible arrangements in four years in my twenties and I, you know, and it felt a lot of times like the train was off the track, you know.[00:05:00]
[00:05:00] And pulling up, going up my hair and, and really the only thing I was telling Julie, this actually to,~ um,~ really the only thing in those moments that, you know, the, the problem that those folks created, the problem that I created can only be sustained by money because you've dug yourself into a hole, most likely, cause you've grown and just mismanaged it.
[00:05:21] But, but really the key factor is time because money, you can, you can make the money over a long enough period of time. And so really it's the ability to hang in there and just. Hang on and hang tight because if you don't, if it doesn't take you out, as long as you keep going and taking, you know, steps towards the thing, all it really is is time.
[00:05:48] Even if you amount yourself in this huge amount of debt,~ um,~ as long as the business is viable and you, and you take concerted efforts to like make and correct things and make changes and correct things [00:06:00] and, you know, continue to drive forward. But in a way, that's, Different than how you got into the mess.
[00:06:06] ~Um, ~it just is time. That's, that's the only factor. As long as you have enough time, you can get out of it. And I think that that you've seen that. And a lot of times we don't even hear about some of these big issues because they figured it out and that they got to figure out the money thing, but it's just a time thing.
[00:06:21] So some people are able to figure it out faster. And if you don't, you gotta, you gotta be able to hang on, you know, and make the changes inside the business to, in order to be able to hang on.
[00:06:29] Jake I saacs: Yeah. You know, you don't have to, you don't have to experience what you're talking about and have poor, poor money management skills. I remember I did a pre interview for one of our guests who was,~ uh,~ running a SAS product And his like third contract, he hit big with a government,~ uh,~ agency, and he had to scale his business from himself and his home garage to 75 employees in order to fill this contract.
[00:06:57] In the matter of two months,
[00:06:59] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah.[00:07:00]
[00:07:00] Jake I saacs: you just don't realize what type of cash success takes to build.
[00:07:07] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Because you've got this, you know, huge contract in front of you. You're it's, it's, it's payday. It's also like a, wow, like here's my moment. Here's my opportunity. Last thing you want to do is turn it down. ~Um, ~you know, and I probably thought that too, I can remember, you know, coming across, you know, different entrepreneurs along the way in my earlier years who I would watch.
[00:07:26] You know, for in essence, turn things down, you know, turn opportunities down, turn jobs down, turn, you know, contracts, projects, whatever you want to say. And,~ um,~ and it's like, you know, cause, cause, cause what I learned back then, certain gurus, it's just like, no, you say yes, figure out the rest later. And there's an element to that.
[00:07:42] That's true. And I think that I still live my life by a lot of that, but prudence has to be part of the equation. You know?~ Um, ~I don't know if it was prudent for that guy. Cause I, you know, I don't remember the exact situation, but to go hire 75 people in 60 days is nuts. You know, [00:08:00] I can't imagine that the attrition was great.
[00:08:02] And so now you just have chaos. You can't imagine completing anything for your client at all, let alone with any sort of excellence.
[00:08:10] Jake I saacs: yeah. Yeah. I was having this conversation with an employee of ours who had or not employee of ours, a client of ours, who's looking to grow in some substantial ways in the next year. And he's like, I need to hire 60 people in the next year. I was like, bro, if you need to hire 60 people in the next year, your first hire is like a full time person.
[00:08:30] That's going to onboard people. You need a full time recruiter and your target isn't 60, Your, your target is probably 90. You need to hire 90 people in the next year with the understanding that you're going to lose about a third of them. If you don't get the system of onboarding set up, right. You know, if you just throw them in for self preservation because you're growing quickly and don't give them the tools to be successful when they start, it's just a matter of time before they leave.
[00:08:59] Chaz Wolfe: [00:09:00] Yeah. And I think that that's a great approach that you took with them, right? Like it's not, don't do the contract and maybe, maybe, or, or whatever the, whatever they're doing to, to plan for growth, but, and maybe they shouldn't. But. Let's say, assume, yeah, we are going to grow like that. We are going to have to do this.
[00:09:16] We are going to take the contract or the project, whatever. Okay. Finally, let's, let's use some wisdom here and some, some prudence and decision making and go, okay, let's not just, because this is what entrepreneurs do. We just skimp. We just go, ah, it'll be, you know, I'm gonna hire 60 people. There's like a map to that, you know?
[00:09:35] And I think the reverse engineering it down to like, okay, well, what actually needs to happen? And in order for that to happen, what has to happen in order for that to happen? What has to be true, you know? And. You know, there's just a lot of building blocks that make that either successful or very, very not successful.
[00:09:50] Very, very quickly.
[00:09:54] Jake I saacs: You know, this planning that we're talking about this, this map roadmap or, [00:10:00] or being prudent around some decision making. It's kind of what I want to talk about here today. I know that we've. I've done a little reminiscing, you know, it's the end of 2024 as we're recording this, this episode will be released the beginning of 2025.
[00:10:15] Would love to talk about what annual planning looks like. How does an entrepreneur set themselves up for success now for next year,
[00:10:26] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. And I think that,~ um,~ you know, for, for folks that are maybe just hearing this type of language for the 1st time.~ Um, ~I hope that this I hope that you. Take what Jake and I are going to give back, give to you back and forth here and, and actually take action on it. I think you've got some stats around, you know, less than 3 percent of people that set goals actually write them down.
[00:10:45] And, you know, like 95 percent of the people that write them down, never do it, never even pull it out of the drawer or something crazy, you know? And so the action is of course listening and then, and then writing some stuff down, but then taking action. And [00:11:00] tracking and continuing to take action. And we'll get to that here in a minute.
[00:11:02] But the reason why I want to say that that's kind of step one is that you've got to take action. Okay, fine. But for me and probably for you too, and many of our other members of GTK, what's what makes it so much easier for us to be able to see success is because we get ourself in a room where there's other people doing the same stuff.
[00:11:21] And I know that Jake's got goals and he's got them written down and he's reading himself. He's reading them out loud every morning. Okay, great. I should too. And that community aspect of. Yearly planning or anything that we're talking about is just so much easier with not just accountability, but with association, right?
[00:11:38] The people that are around you and what they're doing, what they're excited about and the energy that they're bringing,~ um,~ is just so important. We know this, we, we talk about it, but then, you know, listener right now. Who's around you. And,~ um,~ and if you don't have people around you that are talking like this and your, your outlet is a podcast, cool, that's good.
[00:11:55] That that's better than not, but you need people in your actual life. You know, we just [00:12:00] had a guy sign up for GTK just a couple of weeks ago. He's been listening to the podcast for a couple of years and he's like, I decided that I was, I needed to be off the sideline and I needed to be in the game. And so he'd come to, he'd went to the website, you know, gathering the kings.
[00:12:15] com book deployment. And he was so shocked because he was like, dude, I had to wait like three weeks to meet you. Like, yeah, man. I mean, first off, this thing's really curated, right? Like I'm, I'm very particular on who's who's on the inside. Because I see it through the lens that I'm talking about. Like this is my circle too, you know, it's not like just a group that I've got.
[00:12:35] And like I make the money and, and then, and then I've got other people. Now this is my group too. Like this is my community too. And,~ uh,~ and I'm trying to make sure that I'm getting value. So I want to make sure that there's amazing people who also can hold their own. You know, it's called gathering the kings for a reason.
[00:12:51] ~Um, ~because I didn't want other people to be my students, you know, I wanted, I wanted members to, to, you know, come to the table [00:13:00] and bring value, bring ideas, bring energy, bring momentum, you know, because that stuff is contagious. And so. All that in a container of annual planning. Cool. Listening to the podcast.
[00:13:12] Great. We're going to give you some good stuff, but make sure that you're around people. And if you don't have people go to gathering, the kings. com, fill out an application, I'd be, I'd be personally meeting with you and I'd be happy to chat with you, see if it's a good fit. Don't know if it will be, but we'll talk about it.
[00:13:26] Okay. You need people around you, whether it's us or someone else, period, end of story. Like there's not like, well, I can do it on my own. No, I did that for many years and I was successful. Quote unquote. But when I look back now, knowing and understanding the power of community and the power of people around me and association and accountability, I was not nearly the success that I could have been if I had had people around me, period.
[00:13:49] All right, so an annual planning.~ Um, ~it's a zoomed out look, right, Jake? We talked about this yesterday briefly. And when I say zoomed out, what does that mean to [00:14:00] you?
[00:14:01] Jake I saacs: it It means that you're picking your head up and you're not less, not, not looking necessarily at the day to day or week to week or what you're accomplishing this month. But really we're looking at what needs to happen over the course of the next 12, 14, 16 months in our business. And how can we strategically start putting pieces in place today?
[00:14:23] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, so we got to pull our head out of the sand out of the current day to day. Now, most business owners,~ um,~ typically don't have a problem pulling their heads out of the day to day. They, they need to probably put their head into the day to day.~ Um, ~you know, get, get down in the, not necessarily into the nitty gritty of their business, but at least to be able to understand it so that they can, you know, get it right.
[00:14:41] Create a roadmap, but, and so, so, so we're kind of dealing with, you know, kind of two different versions here, right? You got somebody that maybe thinks more naturally in the future. And then you got somebody who maybe thinks more naturally in the present. Okay, great. So if you're one of the folks that thinks more naturally in the future, this zoomed out look is going to be just kind of naturally how you think anyway, [00:15:00] for the folks that are more present minded, you're going to have to probably work at.
[00:15:05] What does it mean to zoom out? And so I had given actually somebody on this other call, we were just doing this kind of word picture. And when I say zoom out, like, go ahead and close your eyes and just imagine yourself like rising up, you know, out of your seat, up above your house into the sky and high enough to where you're starting to get a little nervous.
[00:15:25] Right. And you see your, the neighborhood that you're in, or you start to see the, the, you know, the school and the, and the convenience store down the road. And now you can see the whole city that you're in. Maybe go up a little bit more. You see the whole Metro and just land, you know, some of you guys are like Kansas city.
[00:15:42] If you get up high enough, like there's farm ground and cows. So I got this zoomed out thing. I can see the whole thing. Right. I'm not zoomed in on one particular place like my desk, right? Or my computer screen. I'm up above and I can kind of see the whole picture. [00:16:00] That's what we want you to do for this next year for 2025.
[00:16:04] Jake I saacs: Transcripts provided by
[00:16:12] Chaz Wolfe: Q3, Q4. And we're December of 2025 now. And I want you to write some things down that are true. They're not true right this minute, but they're true a year from now where you are in your mind. We're writing down things that are true about our business, writing down things that are true about our family, our marriage.
[00:16:35] You can do, you can be really, really practical here. Like what I would write down is that, you know, cause like right now I'm 37, I would write down that I'm 38. That's, that's true. I'm going to be 38 December of 2025. Some of that is good for your brain, because what we're going to be doing is building a belief around what is going to happen in the next year.
[00:16:57] So I need to put some elements down that I [00:17:00] know, that I know, that I know, that I know, that my subconscious won't argue with me, that it's true. I'm going to be 38. I'm going to have been married 17 years. I'm going to have four children. Not having any more. At least not that I'm aware of. Okay. ~Uh, ~I'm going to be operating these businesses, right?
[00:17:20] So I want you to write down some actual truths.
[00:17:26] Now we're going to, now we're going to write down some things that will be true. Maybe they're not true today, or we don't know for sure that they're going to be true, but we're planning for them, I guess is what I'm trying to say. And that might be a certain revenue in your business. That might be a certain amount of team members on your, on your, your team.
[00:17:44] That might be,~ um,~ you know, maybe, maybe a, a certain feeling that you have about your marriage. You know, maybe right now you feel a little strained or stressed, maybe even broken, but by December 2025, you want it to feel whole. You want it to feel connected or renewed. [00:18:00] Okay. ~Um, ~you can write down for that about your kids.
[00:18:04] You can write down thoughts around your health,
[00:18:07] around your faith.~ Uh, ~and the last category that we use is lifestyle. The things that bring you joy. What are the things that are true in December of 2025,~ uh,~ where you get joy.
[00:18:20] And so as you're thinking about those things, you can live in this place for a minute, and I want you to, I want you to dream, but I want you to take a look at the things that you wrote down. And if you need to pause the podcast, great. Fill out your list a little bit more, but I want you to take it, excuse me, take a look at the list that you've created.
[00:18:38] And I want to, I want you to understand. Or, or think through a filter of, was this, is this, is it, can I get this done in 12 months because that's what we're dealing with, right? Cause so some entrepreneurs immediately go to like, when they think of future planning, whatever they think, they think,~ um,~ you [00:19:00] know, I'm going to double my business.
[00:19:01] I'm going to, you know, fill in the blank. Right. And. And if you can double your business this year, go for it. I'm not saying don't do that. And I'm not saying lower any targets. What I am saying though, is that most entrepreneurs, when they think about their annual plan, they're probably thinking about a three year picture, right?
[00:19:16] We go to that dream state pretty easily.
[00:19:19] Jake I saacs: Okay. you
[00:19:19] Chaz Wolfe: if you're on the present thinking side, you're maybe you don't go to the dream state as easily. And you're wondering if, you know, What's going to happen next week. And it's hard to think about the year. So you might have to expand that out a little bit, but for the entrepreneurs that are kind of, you know, thinking forward, you, you might be thinking in the three year picture and you might need to dial some of these things back because you're going to be asking yourself, okay, in order for that to happen in December, you know, in Q4, at the end of Q4, what's got to happen along the way, and we're going to reverse engineer those things back Q3, Q2, Q1.
[00:19:51] We're going to go to Q1, month 3, month 2, month 1, now we're back to January, which is just here in a few weeks. And in order [00:20:00] for that to be true in December, and that, that means this has to happen in Q3, and this has to happen in Q2, and this has to happen in Q1, and in order for Q1 to be a checkmark, this has to happen in January.
[00:20:10] Is that even possible? I'm going to pause here. Jake, why don't you chime in here and,~ uh,~ give some context or some color based on some of the things that you've done in this way.
[00:20:21] Jake I saacs: Yeah, I think the first thing that I want to comment on is I love how you're talking about this zoomed out perspective, not only from business. But the other areas of life and holistically trying to figure out what the picture looks like that you want to live in 12 months from now, because sometimes we get so focused on the financial success or the metrics that we want inside of the business that other things in our life suffer because we're not focused on them. And so setting goals and taking a look at, at planning what you want to do and accomplishing in [00:21:00] these five dimensions of kingship that we call them is so important.
[00:21:05] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I agree with you. And I think that probably the biggest difference there, probably most people listening, is that maybe they have never made those types of targets in their other areas of life. Or if they do, they're trying to They're trying to become, you know, we have, we have a wheel that we use. It kind of measures all these aspects of life, business and finance,~ um,~ family and marriage health, which is mental and physical,~ um,~ faith, which is spiritual and self confidence and then lifestyle, the material and immaterial things that bring us joy.
[00:21:39] And you can grade yourself one to zero to 10 on all of those. And it creates a little wheel and it shows you where you're off and all kinds of fun stuff.
[00:21:45] You know, a lot of times people don't, they haven't done that with themselves. So it's pretty eyeopening to be like, Oh, okay. That's interesting. And I'm really low in that area. But then the second thing is that, well, I'm going to be a 10 in all of them tomorrow. It's like, Oh, [00:22:00] okay. ~Um, ~why don't we take an approach of, Okay, so if you're a two here, and a six here, and an eight here, what would it look like to take this one to a four, this one to a seven, and that eight to a nine?
[00:22:17] Right, like what's the, what's the next thing you got to do in your marriage, or in your, in your faith, or in your lifestyle,~ uh,~ to bring you more joy? Okay, and rather than, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna, it's like the, it's like the weight I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to be the best shape ever this year.
[00:22:33] It's like, well, why don't we just define that a little bit? What, what is the best shape ever look like? Does it mean, you know, that Jake, you lose 200 pounds this year. Could you lose 200 pounds this year? know of some ways that you probably could, but is that what's going to happen in 2025? You know, and then, so if it's not, then does that mean you're not winning?
[00:22:53] No, no, you're, you would absolutely be winning because you get to define what winning looks [00:23:00] like.
[00:23:01] Jake I saacs: Yeah, it's, you know, specifically around this topic, I just appreciate your friendship because you've mentioned it a couple of times on the podcast. I am on this health journey. I am trying to lose a lot of weight. You're trying to find the weight that I'm losing and I'm trying to lose it, but my expectation is that it happens today.
[00:23:24] Now I started doing the thing. Why is it not happening? Why is, you know, and we had a conversation together. And you're like, what if it takes twice as long or what if you do half as much, are you still in a better, a better place today than you were yesterday? Just don't stop. Just don't stop doing the thing.
[00:23:49] Right. And I think sometimes we get so frustrated. That we're not seeing the results that we expect to see. And so we stopped doing the thing [00:24:00] because what's the point. And so many times when, when I talk with entrepreneurs and they're like, Oh, I goal set once. And I was like, well, once, what do you mean what happened?
[00:24:11] Like, well, I didn't accomplish my goal. So I just stopped, I stopped goal setting that to me is like that bag blowing in the wind, just aimlessly with no direction.
[00:24:23] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, you said, I mean, ~uh, ~this morning, so, ~uh, ~Jake and I worked out this morning and,~ um,~ it was right about 5 a. m. and I looked at Jake and said, how are you doing? How are you feeling? You sleep okay? He's like, yeah, how are you doing? Kind of threw up my shoulders and said, well, I'm here. And the truth is, is that I don't want to get up at five o'clock in the morning or four, four, something to be at the gym by five.
[00:24:48] I don't. There's, I don't really get excited about that. I just, I just kind of don't, and I'm okay to say that, but I've, but I've done that for a long [00:25:00] time and I'm in better shape than I was last year. And last year I was in better shape the year than the year before that. And,
[00:25:08] Jake I saacs: ~Um,~
[00:25:08] Chaz Wolfe: that? Look, you're talking about one of the most urgent individuals, you know, in this world, you know, Jake can attest, like I want everything done.
[00:25:15] Now, yesterday, actually,~ um,~ but sometimes when you can grasp what reality is, it gives you this, this confidence just to keep going. And I think keeping, keeping going is a way more powerful skill set as a. As an entrepreneur, then the hurry up, push, hurry up, push is necessary. And I'm going to hurry up, push probably every day of my life.
[00:25:43] And, and that's okay, but I think the staying power is actually better. Right. And so I'm linking that back to the discipline of goal setting, not just to do it right now. We're at the top of the year. It's easy to think about, you know, setting a weight goal and working out and eating better and all the things that you're going to [00:26:00] set your goals for.
[00:26:02] But what about in two weeks? What about in two months? What about in seven months? You know,~ um, ~I had, I had,~ uh,~ I've given up sugar. That was like 18, 19, 20 months ago. And I recently gave up caffeine. And my barber asked me the other day, I told him, yeah, he was cut my hair. And he was like, so are you, are you still on that?
[00:26:21] No caffeine thing. Are you going to, are you going to have one every once in a while? You know, cause I was drinking early bird or, you know, sugar energy drink or something. I was like, no, man, I made a decision. I made a decision that caffeine doesn't serve me. And, and so, yeah, it's done. Like, I don't even, I'm not even considering it.
[00:26:40] It's just like, I made the decision and it's over. He was like, man, that's great. I love that for you. I don't know if I can do that. It's like, well, of course you could, but it's the staying power. And for me, I'm again, now I'm linking something is that staying power for me has just been so much easier when I've just.
[00:26:59] [00:27:00] When I make the decision, I'm just that. That's it. I made the decision. I'm not going to waffle on it. I'm not going to be like, oh, well, you know, one time, you know, I'd have a nice little piece of cake or this idea. And I could, I could totally have a piece of cake today and it would be just fine. It's not going to throw me out of any sort of mix.
[00:27:14] But for me, I made the decision that sugar doesn't serve me. So why would I eat it? I know that's kind of crazy and extreme, but for me, it's about the staying power. I'm just going to stay on this journey. I'm going to keep doing the things that, that brought me the success that I'm looking for. Not just in my body, but also in my business and also in my marriage.
[00:27:35] And you know, the 5am text message that I sent to Julie, she probably, you know, like probably just likes it sometimes. I'm hoping every day it fills her cup, but maybe she just likes it sometimes. Cause I sent another one, you know, the staying power is powerful.
[00:27:52] Jake I saacs: I agree a hundred percent. And for someone that's listening and they hear Chaz talking about, well, I just made the [00:28:00] decision that caffeine no longer serves me. So I'm not consuming it. And that seems extreme to you. It's because it is. And it's okay. It's okay for him to be extreme in his thought process around that.
[00:28:16] And it's also okay for you to maybe drink one Red Bull a week, as opposed to the five you drank last week.
[00:28:27] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. And that can be winning. It's not lowering the target. Just be, you're not, you're not comparing yourself, right? I'm not comparing myself to you. You're not comparing yourself to me. We, we, we get to define our own targets, our own success. And,~ uh,~ and I think that winning is the, is the target and,~ uh,~ and, and winning for you is just going to look a little different than it is for me, you know, ~um, ~our workouts this morning looked different because winning for me and winning for you in our workouts today is just a different, and that's okay.
[00:28:58] I think the, the, the [00:29:00] concern there, you know, as we're, as we're saying, Hey, listener, it's okay if you X is that you have to define that. And you just got to be honest. You've got to be honest because you can't, you can't, can't trick yourself. You can't, I mean, you could, you could lie to yourself. I guess you could, you could, you could say, okay, fine.
[00:29:18] I'm going to do just one.~ Um, ~but then eventually then what, right? Then does it go to zero? Does it go to, you know, whatever, like you got to keep making progress. You got to keep making moves. It's like the other day I was, I was,~ um,~ you know, it was you and me and someone else, we were talking about, you know, my early years of marriage.
[00:29:33] And, and we've kind of, ~uh, ~we've got an event coming up, you know, the entrepreneur,~ um,~ You know, kind of family entrepreneur event that we're doing. We're going to give people a blueprint for their business and their family. And, and. I was reminiscing on some of my early years in marriage, how I was just all in on business, you know, completely obsessed as I still am today.
[00:29:50] But back then I wasn't as obsessed, you know, with, with my family, with my marriage, with my health. And it's not like I was a bad husband. I mean, [00:30:00] We had a great, we had a good marriage. We, we weren't considering divorce or anything like that. ~Um, ~we still much, you know, spent time together. ~Um, ~you know, had great intimacy.
[00:30:09] Like there was nothing bad, quote unquote, but when I look back on it, it wasn't nearly where I needed to be. Chaz. And that was the detriment. You know, I've had a couple people ask me since I've kind of been more vocal about this and be like, man, I didn't, I mean, I knew you back then. Like, I mean, you put your kids down every night for bed.
[00:30:29] You pray, read the Bible. Like you were, you're a good dad. I'm like, I'm not saying I was a bad dad. I was a two on a scale of Chaz's 10. And that's, that's the sad part is that I, I stayed, I stayed the two for too long. Right. I was a 10 in business all in, but it wasn't a 10 in my marriage. Now my two or my four, maybe in comparison to, you know, the average person was better or something.
[00:30:54] I don't know, but I'm not saying that necessarily for me, I don't compare. I'm just. It was a four, it was a three, whatever that, you know, [00:31:00] whatever the scale was. And, and if it stays there, shame on me, that's not winning.
[00:31:07] Jake I saacs: It's not growth.
[00:31:08] Chaz Wolfe: It's not growth.
[00:31:10] Jake I saacs: And I think we would both agree that regardless of how you define winning, growing needs to be a part of the definition. There needs to be progress. There needs to be forward movement. You need to be taking ground.
[00:31:24] Hey Kings and Queens, Chaz Wolf. I want to talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort, we meaning myself and my team into this podcast, into the content that goes out every single day. And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too.
[00:31:42] So we would love if you would like comment, share, leave a review, post, share again, all of the things. On social media, on all the different platforms, or even on the podcast mediums of Apple and Spotify. We would love to be able to get our content into more hands, more entrepreneurs, so [00:32:00] they can grow their business as quick as possible.
[00:32:01] Together, we are building a community of like minded entrepreneurs who are committed to growing their businesses to new heights. So let's do this. Let's help each other grow.
[00:32:10] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. So back to this annual planning stuff, you're thinking about your 2025 year. Right. And we're going to reverse engineer these things. I want you to consider. You know, what needs to happen along the way. Now, you can mark these, you know, Q, Q4, Q3, Q2, Q1. Then you can break down the quarters into months, and, and months into weeks, and daily,~ uh,~ habits.
[00:32:33] We've got a tool that we give all of our members. It's called the King Scroll. That helps them do this. It just, page by page by page, helps them walk through the entire year. You're going to think about those things that you wrote down and, and I want you to say in order for this to be true, what needs to happen, right?
[00:32:51] So there has to be an indicator. You're going to know that you're on track to hit that in December if blank, right? If X. [00:33:00] I want you to write that down and do that for all of the categories that you wrote down for what you want to be true and what will be true December of 2025. And then I want you to do that a couple more times, right?
[00:33:13] Think about maybe 3, indicators along the way. Maybe not for every single category. It may not be applicable. You know, for example, if I'm going to,~ uh,~ well, I'll, I'll, I'll tell you,~ uh,~ I'll use my, my construction company as an example. So we just, we just wrapped up our second year. We'll do just a little over 2 million in revenue.
[00:33:35] And next year,~ um,~ we are projecting for,~ um,~ 5 million. Now that's more than double, but in order for that to be true, what has to happen is a couple things is one we're acquiring another company, right? I already know the revenue of that company and then. Then, then the things need to happen inside of that company.
[00:33:56] And then this company in order for the year to be panned out. So I can [00:34:00] break down number of leads that we need in order for that to be true. I can break down,~ um,~ number of contracts that need to be sold in order for that to be true. I can break down how many new employees that we need to hire and specific roles in order for that to be true.
[00:34:15] And I can reverse engineer these back all the way throughout the year of 2025. And then I can sit down with that team and we can go, okay, great. So in January, here's when the acquisition happens. ~Uh, ~here's our plan to bring on these three projects. ~Um, ~we're going to do this around marketing to generate this amount of leads,~ uh,~ over on this side, we're going to do X, Y, Z.
[00:34:34] That's going to happen in Q2. And when that happens, then this is going to happen. And then that's going to happen in Q3. And I can, and I can, project out the year, right? And I just did it forward motion. But what I just taught you to do from a reverse engineer process is to start from the end, right? Start from the 5 million and then reverse engineer all the way back to, to January where we are right now.
[00:34:56] Okay. And you can do this for every single category. Jake, you want to add some color here?
[00:34:59] Jake I saacs: [00:35:00] No, I was just going to say, I was walking through this process this morning with one of our members. And it blew their mind because most people don't approach problem solving this way. Now we were specifically talking about a revenue target that this person wanted inside of their business in the new year.
[00:35:19] And they felt like the revenue target was really daunting. That's a big number. I don't know if I can get that. And by reverse engineering the process, really what we learned is they need to increase their lead flow by 80 leads a month. And if they can increase by 80 leads a month, they know that they'll close 50 percent of those, which is an additional 40 jobs at their average job costs.
[00:35:48] And now they're at their revenue target. And he's like, Oh my gosh, I'm so worried about making this number. I just got to go get 80 leads. I can do that. That's [00:36:00] easy.
[00:36:00] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. And what happened in that moment that you deposited in him? belief he already knew the number. Now he may not have been able to articulate it because it was convoluted in this big target, right? This, Oh my gosh, this daunting thing. Chaz, how are you going to go from 2 million to 5 million?
[00:36:17] Well, actually it's going to be rather easy and I'll tell you exactly how we're going to do it. Now, if I just told you, well, we're going to shoot for it. It's probably not going to happen. Right.
[00:36:29] Jake I saacs: Yeah. I think the belief thing there is really important because what happens is we set these big, you know, we call them B hags, right? Big hairy, audacious goals. We set these behags for ourself and then we miss them because there's no plan. Like we throw out this ridiculous number. We, we throw out this ridiculous goal.
[00:36:49] And then because we don't hit it, we're like, Oh man, that hurt. And I feel like I got egg on my face. I embarrassed myself. So I'm not going to set these big goals moving forward. I think over [00:37:00] time, as we age as adults, that's why people stop planning. That's why people stop setting goals because they've let themselves down too many times.
[00:37:10] That they don't want to plant their flag in the ground and say, I'm, I'm stinking doing something this year. Okay,
[00:37:42] Chaz Wolfe: is that a real 12 month target or were you thinking of the three year picture?
[00:37:47] Right. So a lot of times, you know, that, that be hag potentially is the three year picture. And it doesn't mean that we don't hold onto it. It doesn't mean that you have it. You can have a kind of like, Oh my gosh, if everything goes [00:38:00] perfect, this is where we're going to be type of goal. And I think that we should have that because it's going to make a stretch.
[00:38:06] It's going to make us reach, you know, but then you've also got to be like, okay, well, so most likely what's going to happen is, is something like this. And, you know, there's, you know, we might get some criticism on, you know, like that's lowering the target or, or whatever. But. I just think there's prudence in what you're talking about right there.
[00:38:25] That person that feels. The egg on the face or last year I said this and I didn't, I didn't even come close. Well, it's probably because you didn't set a proper target. You know, you can't just, you can't just make up some number and then like try your hardest. I'm all about setting a number that scares you.
[00:38:43] Make sure, you know, sphincter pucker a little bit.
[00:38:47] Jake I saacs: let me tell you, I don't know if you remember this, but I'm going to tell you This story, I'm going to remind you of this story, the very first annual planning meeting that we had for gathering the Kings, we were setting five year targets [00:39:00] and one of the team members in the room started crying because she was so uncomfortable with the number that we were setting.
[00:39:11] She didn't understand how we could get there. She didn't think it was realistic. And she just had this little mini emotional breakdown in that moment. Cause it's scared her. And I think it's okay to be in an environment where you're scared. That's part of growth.
[00:39:33] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. If you never, if you never stretch it, you never get scared. Then, then you'll always just be the same, I guess in my opinion. ~Um, ~yeah, I think, I think that there's a, there's a delicate balance here. You know, you, you want to You want to set the target out far enough, right? But then you, then you also have to understand like the indicators along the way, right?
[00:39:54] And so in order for that to be true, what has to happen? And you start, if you just do that all the [00:40:00] way back to today, now you've got your roadmap and now you can ask yourself. Does this actually make sense, right? Does it make sense that I can double the business this year? Or does it make sense that I can, you know, ~um, ~send my, send my white flowers every Friday.
[00:40:16] This was something I brought up the other day on the call, but,~ um,~ this was a real, a real target that I had. This was back in shoot 2020. I think it, what, what, what it was year of COVID I think is no, it was 21. It was the year after. And,~ uh,~ you know, I wanted to, I wanted to show some appreciation to Julie.
[00:40:35] And so I set up this auto shipment, I said, called the local flower shop every Friday. And you know what I didn't think about was, you know, after four, five, six weeks of this, like, there would still be multiple bouquets on the counter. And you would think like, that would be like the shock factor, the awe factor, like, wow, boom. For her, it got really annoying because then there were just flowers everywhere. And it [00:41:00] was like, okay, that kind of backfired. Not that she was unappreciative, by no means. Don't, don't hear me wrong. Julie was. You know, shocked and loved every moment of it, you know, after about five or six weeks of roses showing up on Friday or flowers, it was, you know, it had worn off.
[00:41:16] It wasn't new anymore. It wasn't like it wasn't thoughtful anymore. It wasn't intentional anymore. It was on auto shipment autopilot. And so what I hadn't done is I hadn't thought about like, is this even a realistic target? Like, does it really make sense to send 52 bouquets of flowers this year? No, I just set some random target and I went after it.
[00:41:37] Okay, fine. So I adjusted and I pivoted along the way, but this is a good example is what I'm trying to say of if we set up a wrong target,~ um,~ either, either we don't hit it and then we either are going to feel bad about it or we need to adjust along the way. And that's the healthy approach is go, you know, five or six weeks in.
[00:41:54] I was like, okay, great. I have to find a different way to be able to show, you know, Julie,~ um,~ you know, that I appreciate her. ~Uh, ~I have to be more [00:42:00] intentional. Can't be that easy.
[00:42:04] Jake I saacs: Yeah, it's, it's so interesting to me. As someone, you know, I don't know where I learned it, but I've, I've always been a goal setter. I've always been a planner. You know, we do a lot of stuff with the predictive index. ~Uh, ~it's a personality profiling for the listener. Who's not ever heard us talk about it. One of my characteristics or one of my traits is I like things to be in order. I like them to have their own special place. I like to have a plan. I don't like to move forward if there's not a real well thought out plan. So I've always been a planner in my life. And it's. Interesting to me that there are people that fly by the seat of their pants and don't have a plan and just show up and do the things because that is just not the way that I'm wired. And so as we have like gotten into [00:43:00] talking about annual planning more with people to see light bulbs go off in their brains, when they realize like, Oh, I can reverse engineer everything in my life and break this down.
[00:43:14] Chaz Wolfe: It's powerful.
[00:43:16] Jake I saacs: And so we've zoomed out, we've looked at our neighborhood. We're in the clouds. We've set those targets of where we want to be in December of 2025. We've set some benchmarks up along the way, quarters throughout the year. We now need to talk to our team, tell our family, get other people involved, and then we need to start implementing things. And so you mentioned before, if you don't have community, you know, you need people around you, it's, it's easy to be chasing a goal when you're around other people who are chasing goals, but talk to the importance about publicizing [00:44:00] this, talking to someone about this, you know, having an accountability partner.
[00:44:06] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, well, first off, you, you said something really, really powerful. You said to share it with your family and specifically your wife, your husband, your kids sit down as a family,~ um,~ and, and show, show them what that means for them. ~Um, ~that's exciting because then they, then they hold onto that. ~Um, ~I used to teach sales people a long, long time ago that they should tell their sales targets to their kids and ask their kids to ask them.
[00:44:32] So, you know, daddy walks in the door, daddy, did you get a sale today? Which is exactly what my kids would say. And man, if I didn't, it would be like, Hmm, you know, I don't want to let my kids down, you know? So use that power. It's powerful. And then,~ uh,~ and then to your point,~ um,~ around the community,~ um,~ you know, And even making it public, because you said, you said two things there, community is great, if, [00:45:00] if you need one of those, we talked about that, go to GatheringTheKings.
[00:45:02] com, fill out an application there, but having people that are like minded, like you, that, that want growth, that are family oriented, that are down to earth, that, that want to win in all areas, having those types of people around you, Regularly, we host different types of calls throughout the week and month and quarter, a couple of events every single year, just that sheer fact alone, not even considering what you're going to learn, not even considering what you're going to experience or how you're going to think different or whatever, because all those things are going to happen to not going to experience any of the results that you're going to get from, you know, just being a better person or a better business owner or having a better business.
[00:45:43] I'm talking about just the simple fact of being in a room where there's other people that operate at an energy level that is. And when there's a bunch of them in the same room, it doesn't feel like anything else you've ever experienced. Okay. The public thing is interesting because that can be done in a group that can be done [00:46:00] with your family.
[00:46:01] Just what, 15 minutes ago here on this podcast, what did I say? I gave up not that long ago. Caffeine. So I, I reiterated to the public, I don't know how many thousands of people are going to hear me say that, but guess what you know would be weird. Jake is if someone heard me. Say on this podcast that I gave up caffeine and that I quote unquote made a decision and it's just behind me and I don't waffle with it.
[00:46:22] And then see me at fill in the blank drinking a Red Bull. Wouldn't that be weird? So, you know, it's pretty interesting. My brain knows that. And so what I do to myself constantly is put myself on blast like I just did, because. One, I'm a man of integrity, not necessarily saying that I'm saying this because of integrity.
[00:46:44] I said it because I know that now I've got to act on it. I'm already acting on it, but I want to continue to act on it. And so you, the listener, you'll never catch me. You'll never catch me anywhere with [00:47:00] a sugary thing in my hand because you've heard me say I've decided that doesn't serve me and I've moved on from it.
[00:47:07] then that's it. It's like, Oh, is it going to be a man of his word? Is he going to do what he says he's going to do? What's a, one of the top things that I value in this world. And so I say things like this publicly because guess what? I just did makes it makes it really, really hard to be a man of integrity when you say things and they don't do them.
[00:47:30] Jake I saacs: Yeah, I think most people are just fine with not living in integrity because of that Chaz
[00:47:36] Chaz Wolfe: Exactly. Exactly. And that's a different problem, right? But, but for the ones listening that are a woman of integrity or that are a man of integrity or a business or a parent,~ uh,~ a business owner or a parent of integrity, if that's actually the case, What that means is that what, so what that means is that you do what you say you're going to do and none of us are perfect. Don't get me wrong. None of us are perfect. It's not about [00:48:00] being perfect to the best of my ability, to Beth, to the best of my conscious awareness, you're going to see me making good choices based on the things that I've said that I want, because that's the only way I'm going to get what I want.
[00:48:19] Jake I saacs: So we've written down our goals. And, and like you quoted at the beginning of the podcast, only 3 percent of people who set goals, write the goals down. So please listener be in the top 3%, write these goals down, writing them down, doesn't mean that they're going to come true though, so you have to do something with them now that you've written them down and for us, that's a practice of visualization.
[00:48:48] That may be a practice of, of having them posted on the mirror so you can see it every single day when you're brushing your teeth. It can be part of your team meetings where you remind [00:49:00] everyone what the company goals are for the year. So you're solidifying the base around what you're trying to accomplish, making them public.
[00:49:10] We're getting some accountability. We're getting in community, letting people know what those goals are. And then we're tactically putting a plan in place. What we know is,~ uh,~ you can go faster alone, but you can go farther together. And so how can you bring in people Resources to help you accomplish the things that you want to accomplish.
[00:49:35] You know, one of the big things for me was with my fitness goals. I, I knew that I had to have a coach. I had to go get a coach in order to help me on my fitness goals. I already have community. I already have people winning, but I needed specialized knowledge that I didn't have, that I went and found in order to help me with my goal.[00:50:00]
[00:50:00] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, that's cool.
[00:50:03] Jake I saacs: That may look like investing in a coach like I have, it may look like learning a new skill. It may look like finding a friend who has that skill side notes. Why I'll never own a pickup truck again,
[00:50:21] Chaz Wolfe: You've got too many skills.
[00:50:23] Jake I saacs: because when you're the guy with the pickup truck, you have to help move everything.
[00:50:28] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I, I had the first circumstance happen just a couple months ago. I told myself. That the next person that asked me to move, depending upon who they were, of course,~ uh,~ I mean, it, it, depending on who they were, they were just going to get a no, you know, but depending upon who they were, if I liked them, loved them, you know, really wanted to help them, but didn't want to give them my time.
[00:50:52] ~Um, ~and ended up being my mom. ~Um, ~you know, she asked me to help her move and I was like, you know, ~um, ~that's not the greatest leverage for me right now, but [00:51:00] if you will tell me how much it costs to have a movie company come out and movie,~ uh,~ I'd be happy to, you know, Be happy to pay for it or help you help, you know, help, help pay for it, whatever, whatever that looks like.
[00:51:09] And she was like, Oh no, you don't have to do that. I'm like, no, no, no. It's not, it's not, I'm not trying to just throw money at you. What I'm saying is that you're valuable to me, but my time, I'm not willing to use it on this specific thing. I still love you. Still want to help you. So I'm happy to, to use the resource that I have more of.
[00:51:30] And, and I think she understood. I ended up paying for some stuff, which was great. And I think that it's a win win.
[00:51:36] Jake I saacs: That's awesome. It's there's, there's a lot of cool things with that story. One that you have figured out what levers are valuable for you. And two, that you've built a life with resources that you can help the people that you love the most in that area. So kudos for that.
[00:51:54] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Appreciate it, man.
[00:51:56] Jake I saacs: As, as we're wrapping up this conversation about annual planning, [00:52:00] what's the last thing that you want the listener to take with them before we end this recording?
[00:52:07] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. ~Um, ~I would say to finish out the example here, so finish writing down what, what, what you want to be true in 2025,~ um,~ for every area. Complete the indicators along the way and then you're going to like Jake said put put that in some sort of a written document that you can ideally you would read it out loud.
[00:52:29] Maybe you write it every single day if it's not too long, but at least you're going to read it out loud every day and and just make a decision. ~Um, ~I didn't say commitment. I said, make a decision, right? Because,~ uh,~ the root word of decide is to, to cut off. ~Um, ~I can't remember the exact root word, but when you make a decision, I'm choosing this one thing and nothing else.
[00:52:53] Okay. So I'm cutting off all of the other options when I make a decision. So I want you to make a decision [00:53:00] to read these out loud every single day and to believe. That they're yours, that, that they already are. And that might feel a little bit,~ um,~ you know, funny at first, but just to spend time reading them and imagining them in your mind already to be.
[00:53:18] And,~ um,~ and, and, and decided to do that for a year and at the end of 2025, you can write me and tell me you're an idiot and this doesn't work. And, and I'd be happy to,~ uh,~ buy you a cup of coffee or I'll pay for your move. But that won't happen because for the people that actually hold to it. You'll see this next year 2025 become something that you have never even been able to dream of.
[00:53:48] You'll be able to experience life,~ um,~ in a way that, You didn't even know it was possible and it starts just with those intentions in the morning of reading that thing out loud. And so what you've just created, it [00:54:00] could be the very thing that changes everything if you take it seriously. And if you make that decision to just go all in every morning, read this out loud, envisioning and feeling as if they already are.
[00:54:15] And then at the end of 2025, I want to hear your successes. Ideally, maybe you're already part of gathering the Kings. ~Uh, ~and, and we'll, we'll get on a call and you, well, I've already known all your wins, but,~ uh,~ if not,~ uh,~ still want you to reach out to us and, and if it didn't work and you actually did it.
[00:54:31] Well, it, that's not, that won't be the case if, if you quit along the way and it didn't work. ~Uh, ~you can give me a call and maybe we can help you reset the targets.
[00:54:40] Thank you for listening to driven to win. I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away. More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself, doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself.
[00:54:57] What I have realized, not only in my own journey [00:55:00] from multiple businesses and multiple different industries, and now interviewing over two or 300. Other very successful seven, eight and nine figure business owners is that it's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the Kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs.
[00:55:15] In fact, we are putting together 1000 Kings specifically who are grateful, but not done. We're intentionally assembling Kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities. And here's what we believe that in the pursuit of excellence in those areas. That it ignites within us, the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy.
[00:55:39] So if that relates and resonates with you, and you know, that you need people around you, sharp, qualified, other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gatheringthekings. com. I want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 Kings talk [00:56:00] soon.