78 | The Enchilada Ride W/ Dave Forster

Oct 7

[00:01:17] Chaz Wolfe: What's up everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe gathering the King's podcast. All of my shows are special, but this one has an extra layer of specialness. , I got Dave Forster here on the show and Dave and I have known each other for decades. That's tough to say when you're only in your thirties.

But in all seriousness, Dave is a great friend of mine. Dave is also a part of the gathering The King's mastermind and his wife and my wife are great friends, and that it's just such an honor to not only have you here Dave, as a friend, but dude, your mind, the way that your brain works. I just appreciate it and I know that you're gonna bring a ton of value.

So welcome and thank you for being here.

[00:01:52] Dave Forster: Yeah, thanks for having me on. I Absolutely honored to to be a part of the group and to be invited on

[00:01:57] Chaz Wolfe: yeah. Yeah, dude you're you're a serial entrepreneur like me. So I think some of these guys and gals listening today are gonna get an extra added benefit from you because you've been in multiple industries you've started and even, and had multiple exits, and so I'm excited for you to be able to tell some of that story.

But what kind of business are you in now?

[00:02:14] Dave Forster: So my wife and I own a local community bike shop. We operate in the Kansas City area, really focusing on family and freedom. We do that through events and educational clinics for our customers and clients to understand really that a bicycle is so much more than workout equipment that you can use it as a networking tool.

You can use it as Really just a tool to free yourself from the everyday stresses and anxieties of life. And just go back to being a kid I, I like to ask people, when's the last time you just went out and played? Yeah. You didn't measure it. You didn't, So yeah,

[00:02:50] Chaz Wolfe: It's funny because obviously not all of your clients are business owners but most of the people listening here today are gonna be entrepreneurs.

And they're gonna try to extract things from this conversation to help 'em grow their business, which I'm sure they'll get. . But one thing that you just said there that I think a lot of entrepreneurs overlook, it's when was the last time you played, When was the last time you took a breath? And so I know mental health like you mentioned, stressed, even anxiety, like all of those things, go like super thick and deep when you're talking about being a business owner.

Yeah. How for you personally and maybe you could even speak for some of your clients that are business owners, but how is a bike. Changed or helped you, grow another

[00:03:26] Dave Forster: business. Yeah. So I've been riding since I was a kid. I did BMX stuff as a, I tried to do BMX stuff as a kid. I wouldn't work

No

[00:03:33] Chaz Wolfe: clarification there. Yeah.

[00:03:34] Dave Forster: Loved watching stuff on tv, the movie Rad and all that stuff, and trying to do, flat land tricks and all that. And so that was just how we went around and just had fun together as kids. Yeah. And then, I got into that season where I didn't have a bike for a while and just got into , doing the routine of life and going to school and getting a job and doing all this stuff, starting a business and ran across it again when I was riding with my brother-in-law.

Okay. After I got a little bit of a break in between businesses Yeah. And was like, you know what? I'm gonna get back at this thing. My brother races, road bikes. I'm gonna go try that. Cause I love the competition and stuff and yeah, what I actually found, More than the competition, the alone time, the quiet, the solace of just me and my bike and what's ahead of me.

And no one asked me questions and no stress, no strategy, no none of that. It was just fresh air and freedom. Yeah, and the stress and anxiety of what was normally weighing on me just melted away. And so that's really why we started the shop was I would, when I had that realization, Oh man, I gotta share this with as many people as possible.

How do I do that? Yeah. And it seemed like the best vehicle.

[00:04:41] Chaz Wolfe: That's awesome, man. I think if I hadn't had experienced exactly what you just said, I would think it was a really nice thought, Oh, that's cool. I hope that you're doing that for people, but I can actually speak from experience.

Last summer I came over and I got a bike and I had this thought of just doing something a little different with my fitness. , us tall, skinny people I have to work at at gaining weight. But for me, I I needed a little mix up and so you encouraged me to look at some bikes and.

What I found is exactly what you just described. It was all of the stress of multiple businesses and lots of employees and lots of big money decisions and family and kids and all this stuff just. Was gone the second I was on my bike. It was just me, the cool air maybe a couple cows I was passing, for the, for anybody listening in the city.

I'm sorry. I was just outside of the city when I was riding it. But the reality is still the same whether you're in a downtown Manhattan area or in Miami there's a lot of bikes. Bike rider when I was in Miami or if you're in the country It was freedom, like you said.

And so I think the reason why I press into this, I'm not I hope that your business gets some great promotion out of what we're talking about, but I'm pressing into freedom on purpose because isn't that what we want as business owners? Yep. That's usually why we started, right?

Is because we felt like there was something better that we could do. We wanted freedom away from the man, or, whatever we had in our brain, right? Just real quick here before we jump into your history and your story, stuff like that. How. How is that portion for you? Like now that you understand the freedom that the bike offers that maybe you hadn't experienced before?

Yeah. Did that give you like a picture of what freedom looked like for you in business even, or have those correlated at all? Like just speak openly

[00:06:14] Dave Forster: on that. Yeah, so Knowing that real freedom is an existence without the weight of those things. However that comes about for me, it was on the bike when I discovered it, that lack of stress and anxiety that comes with, decision making and responsibility and authority and leadership and customers and project management and all of those things, the freedom that you pursue as a business owner also being, That the freedom from that just on a day to day basis, not just during that bike ride, but during building, building something, a system and a team of people who you don't want them to bear the bear, You want them to be free as well, but creating something in a system in place that allows them to operate and you to operate, but yeah.

Just doesn't bury you in that feeling.

[00:07:02] Chaz Wolfe: I love what you just said cause I think a lot of business owners and maybe some listening today had. That fear, which is, Oh the gurus tell me just to hire and delegate and just give it to somebody else. And there is a reality.

What you just said is that some of us feel like if we delegate or give things away, then it's just passing the burden. Passing the buck, right? And so for extreme ownership, guys like you and I know that we're similar in this way, where we're like, No, I'm not gonna pass the buck. I'll just take care of it myself.

Really the answer is creating a system, like you said, or a process or a culture or a team to where it's, there's no burden on anyone. Of course it's gonna be hard work, right? Nothing worth achieving is easy, right? So like we know it's gonna be hard, but if we can create something processes within the team culture, within the team, hiring the right people, if we can melt this thing all together, then it's like enjoyable freedom.

The same feelings that you just described, the cool air in front of my face. I'm not thinking about much. I'm enjoying myself. Business can be like that is what you're saying. If the system is built correctly. Is that what I'm hearing you? Yes, absolutely. So let's dive in. Tell us a little bit how you got started in business.

I know you're a serial entrepreneur. This is not your first business. Tell us how you got started originally. .

[00:08:11] Dave Forster: So I read a book when I was very young. That was like, 10 different ways a kid can make money or something like that. Love

[00:08:18] Chaz Wolfe: it. Have one of those actually JC my oldest is in the process of reading.

It's probably like a 12 year old read, but she's eight and we're working through it. ,

[00:08:25] Dave Forster: and, I don't know, I can't remember what level. I looked at my parents' house numerous times trying to find it. Cause I'm like, I gotta find this thing I can't find. I love it. But garage sales and lemonade stands and all this stuff's listed in there and I tried 'em all.

And we lived in the middle of nowhere. I grew up on a cattle farm. My closest neighbor was my great grandparents that lived on the, they had the original house on the property. So Uhhuh, lemonade stands didn't do so hot. And yeah, garage sales did. Okay. And I know, I remember multiple times my brother and I.

Not getting in trouble, but getting like a, Wait, what did you guys sell today? Oh. Like we just gather stuff around the house that didn't seem like, you know, and put a sign at the end of the driveway and somebody pulled in and, gave us some whatever, couple or something. My parents really didn't discourage it, but they, clarified some things.

There you go. That's good. But I would say my first actual taste of entrepreneurship, the neighboring farmer asked my dad to have one of his boys, which was me and my brother. To clear the cedar trees from his pasture. Yeah. He said they were just starting to, proliferate a little too much and there's, little ones, medium size, whatever.

Just take the ones that you can get and a lot of the weed sized ones and just clear 'em out and he'd pay a dollar a tree. Oh. And I like, Light just ding. I'm like, Oh, like this is an hourly, which I, I'm 10 years old. I didn't really think deeply about that, but yeah. Yeah. I'm like a dollar a tree.

All right. So I grabbed an ax and I started swinging, man. I was taking out, you know, pinky

[00:09:52] Chaz Wolfe: stuff. Some people are dialing for dollars. You're quacking for dollars.

[00:09:55] Dave Forster: That's right. And I think the bill ended up being, the invoice that I sent him handwritten out on a piece of notebook paper or something.

I think it was. 230 bucks or something. But I think he about had a, a conniption fit when he saw wait a minute, $230, this is 30 years ago. Yeah. And my dad, I'm sure my dad, was on the phone just clarifying whatever, my son's 10, whatever. That was my first real taste of what?

Wait a minute. I just spent, a few hours. But, and I helped my neighbor cuz I was like, just going to town with kid, kid energy clearing this thing out and I made really good money. Yeah. So I didn't really have a whole lot of excitement about going and doing anything different.

[00:10:32] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I, it's like you got ruined, for the trade of value.

And I think that's, even for the listener, they're not clearing trees for a dollar. They, they apply the same principle in their business of, working with, better clients, that are willing to pay or willing to pay more, or ones that just fit what they do best.

There's a lot of ways to correlate that. That same mentality. Okay. So you jump from whacking trees from a dollar to a bike shop, or was there anything in between?

[00:10:54] Dave Forster: Yeah, no that's a wild journey of mountaintops and valleys and all kinds of stuff. Right after that, I loved working out.

We always, obviously we had chores and learned a lot of stuff outdoors on the farm. Yeah, my After my great grandma sold the house and moved out. The couple that moved in was an awesome couple that had kids a little older than us and she had diabetes so she couldn't really get around very well.

Cuz of the circulation in her feet. So gardening was difficult, but they had a garden and she wanted to use it to cook. Cuz they cooked a lot. So yeah, I basically just, she hired me on as a caretaker. Weed the garden and clean things up and do all that, which snowballed into, and I was probably, in that, still in that 10, 12 range, whatever.

Yeah. Snowballed into mowing lawns. And then got a job working for a buddy's dad as I got into later high school into college as a worth a stone mason business. So I was just their tender which meant I tended to what they needed. I mixed up the mortar and took 'em, cut stones and all this stuff.

And yeah learned learned work ethic there cuz you had to hustle. Cause if mortar sets up it's not good. So you had to get that stuff done and get it to 'em. That rolled into me starting my own landscape construction business. Which then ended when I got more serious in college. Did some weekends and summer stuff.

Sure. Later turning into, Oh, starting a actual business once I moved to Kansas City and met my wife. Yeah. That's a funny story, like slight side. Three weeks before we got married, I was like, Hey, I need you to co-sign on this so I can have a truck to start this landscape business.

And she was like, What? Uhhuh And her dad loved that idea, obviously, but we've all, yeah, proved that it was okay and I can still take care of her, blah, blah, blah. That's good. Did that for a few years. Just had a great realization that I wasn't putting enough focus on my family at the time.

Yeah. And so I needed to look at a different path. We sold that business. Really awesome deep story in that one, that for another time. But God is good and yeah. Took about a year off doing some project property management for a. And spending a lot of time with people like you and other friends and just really working on what was it that was keeping me from focusing on my family and just diving into business and being a self jerk.

Yeah. And that turned into her being totally willing to jump into doing another landscape business again which we thought we wouldn't do. Yeah. And that one for. Four or five years just really thrived. Had awesome community. Did that again, built a really good team and came to another season where God had a change for us.

When I just dove in deep and realizing the anxiety relief of the riding and. More than anything. I probably, I think I just got so enthralled with the idea of sharing that with people. Yeah. That I lost my passion on the construction side. Yeah. And so we, I just kept, started knocking on doors and seeing where that led doors kept opening.

I told Tabitha, I'm like, Let's just see, maybe a two, three year plan. See what it would look like to open a bike shop, see what that even entails, what kind of capital it needs, what kind of right. Inventory, where does it come from? Who are the suppliers? I don't even know what this looks like yet.

And over a course of about four to six weeks, like all of that just opened up together. Yeah. The location opened up, like everything just started falling into place. And three months later, not three years later, We were having a grand opening

[00:14:20] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I wanna pull out a couple of things here, because you're, you're a man of many projects.

You're obviously moving fast. We've talked about this as far as our personalities we're very similar in this way. Yeah. We gotta be moving fast with a lot going on to keep my attention and so there, there's good and bad to that . For the guy listening right now, Probably the biggest thing I can give to him is that what you just said was, Hey, let me go see what happens.

And you didn't have fear around it. It was something brand new. You'd never done any sort of retail shop. You obviously were very good in the landscape. Plant mowing, install construction business cuz you had done it multiple times, sold multiple times. It would've made sense for you to keep doing that.

But here in Eliza's new passion and and you just you. Worked the angle to see what happens and three months later you're seeing you have a grand opening. So I think that there's just a lot of belief that you have in you. Which obviously then your wife has been a huge supporter in that as well.

Maybe you can talk about that here in a little bit. But yeah, you know that, that's the biggest thing I could pick up from your store so far is just that no matter what direction or what way the wind is blown, whether it was, , heavenly inspiration or just something that kicked up inside of your.

I think that you've just trusted yourself and you've been able to press in with whatever was in front of you because you've got some confidence. I wanna know, at this level, in the game, I held onto this question. Usually it's one of my first questions but I held onto this question on purpose.

At this level in the game, you've got multiple businesses that you've built, sold, built, sold and now you're in a completely different industry. You're years in, you've got an incredible team, you've done something in the bike industry that you know most don't even get to half of where you are, type of a impact and influence and community involvement and just stuff.

What makes you.

[00:15:54] Dave Forster: Why are you still doing it? ?

It, I ask myself to go deeper on that every day. Cuz I know, but I think I know, but I just, every day it opens up a little more. But I would say the bulk of it is every time somebody comes in that hasn't ridden a bike, whether it's been.

A two years or 25 years or whatever it's been, and seeing those the change in their life, whether they're it's a fitness thing and they wanna lose some weight or blood pressure, or if it's depression, anxiety, that stuff we get to see, like when we did landscaping, we could improve somebody's backyard and give them a beautiful space where they could entertain family and friends and do all this stuff.

And, but then rarely did we really get to see. Come to fruition, like the actual enjoyment of it. We get to see people come back in like on a daily or weekly or monthly basis and watch their life change. And watch that smile, return to their face and the joy come back and see the pounds melt off, or them come in and tell us about the doctor visit, that now they don't have to take medication.

One of the guys on our team has an amazing story about that. Wow. That, losing weight, cutting blood pressure, fixing this cholesterol. Anyway, so that's incredible that, that helps me jump out of bed. Pretty excited knowing that the next person on the door could be another story like,

[00:17:11] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I love, and it obviously transcends is not just mental health, like what we started about, like with entrepreneurs.

Man, if I can protect my mind, if I can give myself an opportunity to breathe fresh air without having to think about the stresses of the business, that prolongs my life. I feel like . Yeah. But it goes beyond that, into the physical, whether that's with Staying in fitness, losing weight getting regular when it comes to just our bodily function.

So that way, medication isn't necessary. Whatever it is. I think that, your reach transcends, which is pretty, pretty powerful. We don't always have that opportunity, in a business. Alright, so I wanna know, like in the bike shop specifically, you've been doing this for years now, what was a good decision that you made?

That has, you can look back and you go, Okay, Yep. That one decision right there was the pillar of what, got us to where we are today.

[00:17:57] Dave Forster: Gosh. Or through having events, hosting events, I think would be the foundation of that. But yeah even a little deeper than that, like adding a meal to the events.

All of our events are somehow focused around a meal gathering, either at the end or at some point in the event. And there's just so much community and connection that happens over the table.

[00:18:17] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, that

[00:18:18] Dave Forster: it's really created. Awesome connection points

[00:18:21] Chaz Wolfe: yeah.

Yeah. I don't think anybody that just heard you say that was like, Rocket science Dave , but if they're like me, they were like, Okay, I knew that. But that was a really powerful reminder of what breaking bread between people can do for relationship. Okay, so how many. How did you figure that out?

Did you just started doing this and it was a realization or the events were happening and then you added food later? Give us the practical on this. Yeah, so we

[00:18:47] Dave Forster: started a ride on Thursday evenings. I honestly, I, I'm a competitive guy, but I also, I'd rather compete with myself than somebody else.

Yep. And so there's a handful of shops in the Kansas City area and I respect all of them and they all have their own kind of identity. And so I wanted to choose a night that didn't, Step on the toes of where our customers might go for another ride in the week. So we just chose Thursday night as that's the night there's not a lot of other rides.

And we just did a ride and I started with four or five people, whatever. We just went out and had fun and rode together. And as that started to grow, and we started to actually make other connections in the community. Met the owners of the local Mexican restaurant that's just right next to us, or right at that time it was a couple blocks over.

Yeah. And on Thursday nights they have 99 cent che autos, and I'm a huge Mexican food guy. And I was like we're gonna go ride. And then I told, I'm like, Hey, I'm gonna go have enchiladas. We're going over there for dinner if you guys won't come. And so we just stumbled into it. And the following season of cycling, I said, Why don't we start the ride from there and end there and then anybody wants to stay for Angelos with us?

We'll just go in and everybody can have Angelos. Just wanted to promote another local business and help my friends that own that. Yeah. Just by bringing in as much business as I could with my community and So we stumbled into it, but it just turned into this amazing culture

shift.

[00:20:07] Chaz Wolfe: So the ride wouldn't be what you're saying that it is now today without the food specifically?

[00:20:13] Dave Forster: Correct. Yeah. I We call it the enchilada ride. And we joke, we have a T-shirt that says I ride for the Ench lots. Yeah. And we joke there's always ench lots. There's usually a ride.

[00:20:24] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. . If it's raining, whatever.

We're still eating. It's I'm just trying to correlate this to, to, a landscaping business or, guys listening today and he's a digital marketer. I don't know what the gal listening right now, or the guy. But the reality of it is that you are bringing clients into an experience with you, with other clients, it's community and people long for community.

And so what would you say on this kind of like piece here, cuz really what I'm taking away is your number one Yes. Food yes. Events, but you've created an opportunity for people to find a home or a community or a feel or a family, something to be part of. Is that important for every business? Is this just because you're on in bikes?

What would you say to the guy listening?

[00:21:05] Dave Forster: It is for me. I've got. Several other ideas of businesses that we hope to one day help come to fruition. And they're all gonna be based around community and they're all going to compliment each other. So regardless of what widget or whatever would be in the shop, I don't care if they outlaw bikes we're still gonna be having community events and bringing people together around a table in some way, and.

When I think back to what we could have done with our landscaping business, now that I've experienced this. Yeah. There are landscape businesses out there that do you know, Hey, we just built you this amazing, patio and outdoor living area. We're gonna throw you a party, we're gonna cater the party, invite your closest friends and they could be potential clients or it's just, you know what, We just want to enjoy this with you and celebrate this with you so that you can, There are companies that do that, and I wish, not wish, but looking back, if we would've been able to do that resource wise, we may have found a little.

Love in what we were

[00:21:58] Chaz Wolfe: doing. A hundred percent. Yeah. Anything. Yeah. Even what you just said there of obviously just doing it for the community effect, but you cater some food as a landscaping company or a remodel company or whatever. Yeah. And you have them invite their friends over to celebrate the completion of the project.

All the questions and the attentions are gonna be on the project, which inevitably is gonna be good for the business. And so I just think that, again, using what you're saying, if you're community driven, if you're people driven, if you're authentic, you're trying to help people, like really Yeah. Business circles back fast if you do it in that way.

Would you agree

[00:22:35] Dave Forster: with that? Absolutely. Yeah. That's, and it's one of those areas that is not necessarily missing, but is less. Involved these days with so much online business and brick and mortar businesses like ours and. Several other industries. It's hard to figure out what, how am I gonna compete and what, And we really just don't, you don't compete.

You just, that's the gravy that makes everything different is the connection, the people, the

[00:23:02] Chaz Wolfe: community. So yeah, make it rather than compete to make a difference. I think that you've already given so much value. I wanna flip the coin. I wanna talk about a bad decision that you've made that is you.

Face palm. What would you go back and change if maybe you would change it at all? What was that bad decision?

[00:23:16] Dave Forster: Stop trusting myself. Get too wrapped up in thinking about, processes are good, but getting too wrapped up in the process and thinking about, how would somebody else do this?

And that's, am I thinking properly or whatever? Just not trusting myself

[00:23:32] Chaz Wolfe: to just almost like analysis paralysis. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Okay. So for the guy that's maybe like you who likes detail, who likes to be accurate, who likes to know what other people are doing, and conjure up their plan, who's in their head is what I'm hearing you say.

Yep. How, like why would you change that? What is that or what decision in the business practically has that, held you back on? Or what negative effect has that had?

[00:23:57] Dave Forster: And it took, it robbed me of my energy of the forward progress. And I think a lot of guys that are detail oriented and whatnot are energy and our like momentum.

And our fuel comes from progress. We wanna see progress. And when we're not seeing progress, then we. Not, We get confused, we get tired, we get frustrated, we start looking for other things to do, and you know that your gut tells you which way to go. Your gut's gonna tell you what's right.

And if you just, if you squash that down and say I don't know. That's different than what the book I read said to do. Maybe I shouldn't do that. You start questioning yourself. Yeah. Then you start back peddling and hitting the brakes too much and that momentum is lost and it takes a long time to get it back.

Yeah. And so if you look back at your own history, And think about the times that you just went with it, it felt right. Yeah. The vision was there, the excitement was there, the energy was there and you just trusted yourself and did it. Yeah. Most of those times it probably worked out well and even if it didn't, it probably got you quicker to a thing that did.

Yeah. And just carrying that forward.

[00:25:02] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I guess the the perfectionism right, that's in folks that are detailed like you and I is we want it to be right, we want it to be accurate. We want it to be right. And so we toggle back and forth before ever even taking action sometimes.

And so what I'm hearing you say is take the action, work it. It doesn't have to be that, that you don't provide something excellent, whether the service you're working for somebody, the business that you're doing, it doesn't have to not be excellent. It just doesn't have to be perfect.

Version one. Just go, just get started. Just go with it, is what I'm hearing you say. Would you like to add anything to that?

[00:25:34] Dave Forster: Yeah, it just as another, maybe using, The example I used earlier was opening the bike shop. Like I didn't, I had no idea I'd worked in a bike shop part-time. At one point, I spent a lot of my time in bike shops.

All I knew was what I didn't want it to be. That's good. There were a lot of things that I didn't like about these other shops, which were

[00:25:53] Chaz Wolfe: What were those?

[00:25:53] Dave Forster: Just the, and not every shop is like this, but the kind of the cliche thought of a bike shop is, it's a bunch of Yeah.

Bra like. Concrete metal grease smells like rubber tires and you're probably gonna get somebody talking over your head about, parts and gadgets of a bike that you're like, I don't even know what that is. Just the experience of overwhelm. Yeah. And most people like that. Most people get when they see hundreds of bikes in front of them and they don't know what any of 'em actually do and Right.

What's one, what's carbon fiber and aluminum and I don't even know. So we just wanted it to be like coming into a friend's family room and. Chatting about solutions.

[00:26:29] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. What do you think that mindset, cuz obviously you were limited in your ability, right? I know that you're a technical guy, you've learned all of those things.

Like you could go fit in with the hey bra community now if you wanted to. Yeah. But the reality of it is at the beginning, no, but you still started the bike shop because you wanted it to be different than that. So what I'm hearing, like I see a lot of business owners. Like, even, Even me, bro, I know that I knew you when, before I was a business owner, years and years ago, and I remember thinking I can't do that business because I don't know how to do that specific thing, right?

I don't know how to do landscaping, or I don't know how to do roofing, or I don't know how to do marketing, or whatever the technical widget was at that time that limited my thinking or my ability to move forward because I was like I can't do. Or I don't know how to do that yet. And so even though there's, I think there's importance in knowing how to do it right?

Like you've eventually grown yourself into a bike expert, obviously. But at the beginning you just said you just knew what you didn't want. You didn't, You wanted it community. You wanted it to be like a friend's family room. And so I think that piece right there, the listener can take and go, Okay, maybe you.

The technical best at whatever it is that your service or product offers. Obviously we're trying to become that, but what is it that you can have now or what is it that you don't want your company to be that maybe allows you to stand out? Cause that's the way I see your brand now. I see your brand now is something that nobody has.

Not even other types of community event companies, right? You're a bike company, You're the only bike company that I know that's family and freedom and all these other things, community driven. So it's literally, even though you're the bike expert now it's built your dna, right?

, the person listening right now who's the owner of the company. Yeah. They don't have to be the technical expert. Oh

[00:28:15] Dave Forster: yeah.

So again, it circles back to the community side. You don't have to be, we're, I would even say now we don't have the best mechanics in the industry. We don't have the best technical experts in the industry. But what we do have, and I guarantee you we are better than any other bike shop is, we care more about you.

And what your goals are, what the solution finding for you to solve that what? So that we can get you on the bike that you are going to ride. We don't care if it's a $10,000 bike or a $500 bike, if it's the right bike that's not gonna sit in the garage and collect dust and you're gonna get on it and ride and feel free and feel happy and just overcome whatever struggle you're.

having Then we want to help. And when it comes to then fixing your bike, we may not be the best technical experts yet, but we know the resources to get all the answers we need, and you don't have to worry about it. We're gonna take care of all of that right on the back end. Our customers don't need to worry about that but me and my team know we can go.

To get the answers we need, the customers just need to come to us.

[00:29:22] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. I love that approach. Obviously you're years in, we know that you've got, team members now that are solid and certified or however you guys do that now. But the reality of it is it wasn't always like that.

And that's the point that I'm hearing you make is Yeah if you make it about people, if you make it about the solution, If you make it about authenticity then that's how business survives. I think that you can just snap that, put it in a statement. If anybody business owner just follows those things, they'll eventually figure out the technical the SOPs, the process, the hiring, the, all of those other things that of course are important.

But these are, this is like the meat potatoes.

[00:29:56] Dave Forster: Yeah. And those are the things that to me are like a whole nother language. Like I've always worked for myself other than a few stints I didn't have any comparison or understanding of another bigger company's like SOPs and that, all those acronyms to me, I was like, Oh, what you talking about?

This is how we This is how I do it. It's all in

[00:30:14] Chaz Wolfe: here. Uhhuh

[00:30:16] Dave Forster: trying to get it outta here and on here so that other people can, duplicate.

[00:30:19] Chaz Wolfe: But that's right. Takes time and diligence. But it happens if you're focused Before we go to the speed round, I wanna know when we're talking about decisions now that you're, years and years into multiple businesses, how do you make decisions now?

Or what process maybe do you follow, trying to make good decisions?

[00:30:34] Dave Forster: So I really do, the process starts in my morning routine every day. Okay. So I do my morning routine. I get up I work out. . And then my next step is just prayer and time in the Bible. And every day I asked, a friend of mine several years ago told me, every time God gives him something, he gives it back.

Every time God gives him a blessing, he glorifies God. And when God gives it back, it's even better. And he gives it back and just, it's like playing catch. Yeah. So every morning I ask God, how are we playing catch today? Oh, lovely. And so it helps me filter the day and it helps me really run things through a trusting my gut and listening deep, like just quiet time to listen.

Yeah. And in, in every interaction I have, I'm filtering it through, Okay. Are you tossing me something that I need to toss back? What is, how is this working out?

[00:31:24] Chaz Wolfe: Love that. I love that. The morning routine obviously is no, no surprise, but I love the analogy of playing catch. It's good man.

Super deep. Okay. Speed round. Ready? Yep. You can only pick one metric in your bike shop to track forever and ever. Just the one, what would it be?

[00:31:40] Dave Forster: Add-ons. Ooh.

[00:31:41] Chaz Wolfe: Okay. And why would you track just that?

[00:31:44] Dave Forster: So it's, it tells me are we actually serving our customer properly? Do we have true hospitality?

Cuz sometimes you get a little locked up and scared on asking for more. Sure. When it comes to sales and that kind of stuff. Yeah. But really what we focus on is we want you to have the best experience. When you go out to ride that bike. Yeah. And if you go on your first ride with a friend, and the first thing that happens is that friend says hey, how come you don't have this and this?

Oh, they didn't tell me about that. Then all of a sudden mud's on our face and we didn't serve that person properly, so they feel somewhat humiliated. And then they come back to us frustrated. If they come back to us, they may say, Where did you go? Cuz they obviously educated you properly, , right?

So that tells me, you know what are the add-ons in either units or in dollars? Either way. Are we getting them the proper helmet? Are we getting them a flat repair kit so that if they have trouble on the trail, even if they're not gonna fix it themselves, If I rode by and they had it, I'd help 'em teach 'em how to do it.

Yeah. Are they, do they have a pump at home to make sure that their tires are at the right pressure before they leave? Do they Yeah. Lights to be visible and be seen during the day even not just at night. Yeah. There's all kinds of traffic. Craziness with bicycles on whether you're in a bike lane or a path or on the road or, yeah.

You want to

[00:33:06] Chaz Wolfe: be seen. Yeah, I I love the heart there that you said that you, because of the add-ons, if you're serving properly. And so I think that I think a lot of business owners, we've talked about this on the show plenty of times, and of course through my sales career we've talked about this with many people, if the idea around getting a sale is literally just to make money, then that's all it is.

It's if I can just turn it out quicker, I'll just sell 'em the bike, move on. Or maybe I do try to sell 'em the helmet, but it's out of selfish ambition because I'm making a split or I get a spiff from the manufacturer or whatever. Obviously those things are important for a business to grow.

We gotta make money, we gotta have sales, we gotta have add-ons. But if you can position it to where, no, I get to serve them. Like I get to keep them safe because they bought lights and a helmet. Like how dare I not do those things? It's now my obligation, , then it's way more about the person.

And so we come back to the same principles that we've been talking about, which is, it's about the person. Okay. Dave, what book would you recommend for a six figure business owner trying to get to that million dollar mark?

[00:33:58] Dave Forster: The Myths Revisited. Michael Gruber, I think. Mind shift for me, understanding the difference between a technician, a manager, and an entrepreneur, and what percentages of each of those live inside of you.

Yeah. Found out that I'm almost 0% manager and I'm a bull in a China closet. I know what I want done and I know the vision to get it done and the management part of it I frustrate,

[00:34:24] Chaz Wolfe: I frustrated with people a lot, , That's good. I think awareness, acknowledgement. And then change, obviously it, it happens in that order.

Alright. What do you think? I'm gonna, I'm gonna twist this question a little bit. Most of my guests cause we do this show with people who we meet all over the place, not just with guys that are in the mastermind. Yeah. And so I always ask, what do you think about networking or masterminding for you specifically?

I'm gonna, I'm gonna selfishly. Ask for a little bit of detail here. . But what do you think about gathering the Kings as a Mastermind group? Obviously for the folks listening today, their six figure, we have a group, for them, which obviously you're a part of the Seven Figure Plus, but just, give us 15 seconds on your experience so far, or what you've gotten from it, or what's the value of networking and or Mastermind with other folks inside of Gavin, The Kings?

Yeah.

[00:35:08] Dave Forster: Let me preface with this isn't the only one that. I've had experience with. So this isn't just a blind one experience, You're my friend and it's the only one I've been in. Yeah. And just amazing being able to sit in a group where initially I was a little bit nervous and didn't know how the relationship and, that Oh, am I gonna, are these guys gonna get the way I think, Are they gonna understand my industry?

Does that matter? All that and. The creativity, the openness, the it's not all guys but the brotherhood. Sure. , the family orientedness of the whole group. Everybody cares about seeing the other succeed and it has zero attachment to financial right success of everybody else.

We just wanna see them overcome. What's in front of them, the mountain in front of them, And if we have experience with that mountain, it's gonna be a great conversation.

[00:36:00] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. What would you say to the guy listening right now who's maybe never done one or done one, had a bad experience, didn't get value, that type of thing?

Yeah. What would you say to that person? Listening.

[00:36:10] Dave Forster: So my description I gave to several people when I was looking at different groups and trying different groups was that, I felt like I was on an island. I was isolated. The only people that I really had around me all the time were my customers and my team.

I'm trying to lead those people and I needed somebody that could see things the way I did, or maybe even from above and giving me guidance and just a third set of eyes, third party looking in rather than, trying to look

[00:36:34] Chaz Wolfe: out through the weeds.

Yeah. And

[00:36:36] Dave Forster: That is I think what a lot of us are looking for. And there's no better place than guys that not only have experienced what you have, they're not just commiserating with you. Oh yeah, I have the same problems and I don't have a solution either. And making you feel, at least not alone , but they're over the island with a helicopter and a ladder saying, Hey bro, I got what this guy, or know, I'm over here doing this, right?

Just jump on real quick and let me haul you over here and you'll be able to see it better.

[00:37:06] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. The vision. I've heard you say vision. Community accountability, strategy yeah. Community from an angle of , Being there, done that or connection. Yeah. Yeah, just appreciate that obviously.

Little bit of selfish promotion there but I also know that there are people listening who need help. There are people listening who are on an island that don't have anybody around them that can help 'em see the bigger picture that can help 'em implement, hold 'em accountable stretch 'em, help 'em reach for their potential.

So I think it's incredible. Yeah. If you only had one hour each week, Oh, work on the bike. What would you do in that one hour to successfully run the business like you do now?

[00:37:42] Dave Forster: That is a great question, , for one hour, honestly, we, I would dive into our planning software that we use and just make an absolute clear plan for everybody.

Not that I have to make their plans for them, but just seeing, , looking through those tabs in our software and making sure that I have communicated to the team updates and to the, to-do lists and to the service hours and stuff like that. And in an hour I could orchestrate.

Everybody's weak. And help them prioritize based on the options they're giving me. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:38:20] Chaz Wolfe: I love that. Yeah. Good stuff. Okay, last question here for you, Dave. Okay. If you lost it all, what would you do?

[00:38:26] Dave Forster: Same and the problem, I don't know if it'd be the same industry or not, but I've done it a few times over now, and I, we never sold anything worth enough to just, retire and walk away at young age or anything.

And I love the startup phase. Yeah. I absolutely love it. I think honestly, if I could just, build businesses for two to three years and. Go do another one. Hand it off. Yeah. ,

I would probably just live like a kid in a candy store doing that. Yeah. So I would just definitely a startup, a launch of some type or find somebody else that's hungry to do something and use my experience to help them launch in a stronger way.

[00:39:01] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Exactly. I love it. Yeah, I think that once you get the idea of putting someone in place you can go be the idea guy, right? Like you can go be the startup guy and then you put somebody in place. Cuz there are people on the other side of that coin who don't wanna deal with that.

They're the manager that you talked about, right? They wanna manage what's already built. And so I think that when that comes together, it can be a beautiful thing. How can the listener find you, whether they're in Kansas City, they've never heard of Dave's bike shop. They need to bring their family, whole kids, Everybody come over and get a bike helmet.

Set up kit or maybe they're across the country and they wanna just chat with you about business or potentially maybe you can ship 'em a bike, cuz I know you guys maybe do that too. So how can they find you?

[00:39:39] Dave Forster: Yeah. So the shop is on either Facebook or Instagram. Dave's bike shop, Casey is the.

Underscore or the title on Facebook, on Instagram, It's actually Dave's Underscore Bike Underscore Shop. You can check us out either place there. You can also look for the Bike It Out community. That's another place to really connect with other people who are riding. If you wanna just get involved in our community side.

And then business wise, myself on Instagram at together per Tabitha and I have a passion for helping other couples who are entrepreneurs and maybe one is, and one isn't, depending on, I either whatever, spouse, it doesn't matter. Just helping encourage them through showing a little bit of our daily life and stuff like that.

[00:40:17] Chaz Wolfe: And yeah, happy to. That's awesome man. I really appreciate you obviously from a, just a value perspective cuz you're just a valuable individual. But thanks for your time just your history, your journey, the story of all the things you've been up and down with over the years. It hasn't culminated yet.

There's the best is yet to come. I'm excited to be with you on the journey, but. Man, you've had some good stuff happen. And you've shared it. So I think that you've helped a lot of people here today. So thank you again for being here. Blessings.

[00:40:40] Dave Forster: And let me do, Can I say one more thing? Yeah. Just jump.

You said it was a selfless plug for you earlier. I think if anybody who's actually interested in gathering the Kings or in any part of that community just listening to how you host this podcast, And just taking that into perspective of the way that you were able to pull. out My, sometimes over energetic, rambling, and to find those key points, having other people that have those skill sets in a group of people where, you know, you could just, you're right.

You know what you're struggling with, and somebody can pull out those little nuggets and help direct that. Just all the different skill sets together. That's a great example of what is the value

[00:41:19] Chaz Wolfe: there. I appreciate that. No, thank you very much. Yeah we, there's a lot of entrepreneurs that, that, that need help.

So we're on a mission and if you're one of them you can go to gatheringthekings.com take a look at that and apply to one of our groups. Dave, we appreciate you being here and nothing but blessings to you, Tabitha, and your soon to be family. Thanks.

Host Chaz Wolfe brings Dave Forster to the king’s table. Dave is a 7+ figure king in the retail biking industry. He’s been an entrepreneur through multiple industries for over 20 years including nutrition, construction, landscape maintenance, book sales, and packaging . Dave is passionate about entrepreneurship, community and finding joy. In this episode, Chaz and Dave discuss the importance of experiencing joy, Dave’s transition through his multiple industries, and why building community matters in business. Tune in today to learn more about finding your freedom to grow your business!

Dave Forster:

Website: https://www.davesbikeshop.us/

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

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

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davesbikeshopkc/

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