131 | Family Legacy, Accountability, and Team Work With Business Owner Matthew McReynolds

Jan 30

[00:01:24] Chaz Wolfe: What's up everybody? I'm Chaz Wolf, your host Gathering the Kings podcast, and I've got Matthew McReynolds here on the King stage, my brother. How

[00:01:33] Matthew McReynolds: you doing? Yep, yep. What's up man? It's great to be here. Appreciate you and I'm humbled to be on your show.

[00:01:40] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, dude, we appreciate you being here. just off air, we were, I had to, I had to curb our conversation because we were getting into some really good stuff.

I'm like, dude, we gotta hit the recording button , so all these other people listening can get the benefit. cuz you're growing, you're making great moves in your business and and I think that, the listener is gonna learn something here today, so I want them to pay attention, get their notebooks and all that fun stuff.

So, Matthew, tell us what kind of business you got.

[00:02:05] Matthew McReynolds: And so I am in the home services sector. We have two businesses. We have a Mosquito Joe franchise out here in the D F W area, and we also have our second Business Hero Home Services that we actually started as a spinoff company. but we've been growing that and building out two separate teams, and it's been great, man.

We're having a lot of fun working really.

[00:02:27] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, man, I, I love what you said, a little bit before we hit the recording button, and just that, you've been, you've been growing, you've been trying to get, in, in certain situations to be able to make higher and higher quality decisions.

And, and you're doing a lot of this with, with teams. I know you got some family involved in the business. lot of dynamics that we might get into here Oh yeah. Today, that I think that would be beneficial. But before we do, as because. Heard a lot of the shows. My first question's always the same.

My question is why, right? You've, you've, you've been crushing it, dude. Why are you at the office right now? I can see you in the office chair grinding away. What's the bigger picture? Man?

[00:03:06] Matthew McReynolds: Man, yo know the late great Kobe Bryant man. After they won that big game and the reporter asked, why are you not smiling?

his answer classic. I love it. Think about it Every day, man at the end, job's not finished. Job's not finished. Yeah, we are at the cusp. We're at the beginning of, what we're building here. I, I didn't come from a lot. I, middle class, my dad, my mom, they did not have college degrees coming up.

My dad is gone back to school, has been able to provide, every opportu. I've been extremely blessed in that sense. And, I want to provide for my family. I want to be able to create a platform that can be used to change lives for not just my family, for the people that are on my team, for my community at large, and, and to be an impact.

I just have a big desire to build something that lasts longer than me. Yeah. And like I said, man, we're barely at the beginning. I love

[00:04:08] Chaz Wolfe: it. You've, you've just recently hit on two things, and I ha I have to take just a quick second and commend you, number one, but then also just talk about this mindset of a king because, in, in our purpose statement as gathering the kings, of course the podcast is part of that, but it, the whole thing started as this mastermind group and part of our purpose statement is that we are, we are gathering a fellowship of successful entrepreneurs who are grateful.

But not done. Hmm. And like that sentence right there Yeah. Is exactly what you just said, which is like, dude, how can I be done? There's so much more potential to go. And then the second thing you just said, which we, we kind of talked about, a few minutes ago before we hit the recording button. Is that you, you transition in the business, you transition from a perspective of being in the business and then to working on the business, and we talked about that and some of the moves that you've been making recently.

But the mindset behind that turns from warrior to king, which is the language that we use. You went from thinking about yourself. So thinking about you, your family, your kids, your team, their family, their kids, your community, as you said, like that is straight king mindset. And so I just wanna encourage you, man, that, that you're making the right moves and, and the people that are in your influence, your kingdom, if you will.

and they're counting on you. And so why, why would we not, did you feel

[00:05:28] Matthew McReynolds: the same? Oh, absolutely. we recently had, our very first, first of many, exits. we had built up a couple territories and we just transitioned it to a new owner and oh, it felt nice. That money in the bank, the transition of funds, and you see it and it's like, wow, I did it.

And that feeling last. For a couple days, , and the money is there and it's like, it just, it just, it sits there. You know what? I've never had it before and now I do. And it's like, no, that's, that's not it though. That's not it. There's so much more. It's just a small fraction of the equation. . And so I I agree 100%, man.

Appreciate that. That you said that.

[00:06:12] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, dude. All right. Well, let's get into the practicality here. Tell me about your story. Yeah. Like tell me, tell me how, how did you guys start the business? what was the beginning like, what have you always been entrepreneurial, that type of

[00:06:22] Matthew McReynolds: stuff? So, yeah, no, good question.

So I, I have always been entrepreneurial. It was more of a hustler mindset. I was always the type, like you just said, that warrior, in the emit, the, the technician. Somebody that could, I could always wear a lot of hats. I could always navigate through an organization, and if you weren't careful, I'm gonna stack up your responsibilities onto mine as a highly capable, highly hungry individual.

As Pat Lynch talks about it in the ideal team player, know, I love you. Extremely hungry man. Yes, extremely hungry. . And so every organization that I've been in, I've always been the type of person to wear multiple hats. as a kid, I was always, I was always a hustler. I was always had the lawnmower pushing it up and down the street, knocking on doors, trying to get people to, 10 bucks, 15 bucks.

I cut you grass. I, I was told this story, I don't remember this, but as a kid, I would used to trade the wrappers on, fruit rollups. Okay. And also cereal boxes that had the promo codes. , I would trade those for kids toys. now I do remember this in elementary school, I would, my first, my first product that I would sell, I would make, I would create Nerf air quotes, Nerf footballs out of, brown paper bags.

I use some sand, some leaves, wrap it up in duct tape and you could get one solid throw outta that thing. That thing could get some distance. Yeah, if it touched the ground though, no. It probably busted, but no refund side sells for, five bucks a pop after school. that's awesome. So I always been a hustler.

Always had a lot of jobs when I was in college. I worked for the career services department. For the university and so I would be the one, people, there was a platform where it was kinda like TaskRabbit, but a little bit before Task Rabbit, around the same time. Sure. Where you know, people would need jobs done.

I would be the one that would schedule and post the jobs. Yeah. But on the side I would be taking the jobs and I also played football and ran track. I would take the jobs for myself to facilitate, but I would also. Offer the jobs up to my peers. Yeah. To give first dip. So if there was a way that I could be the, to be the source of a product or service, yeah.

I figured out a way to do that. And it wasn't always, above board. I've gotten my, my hand, my hand slapped and nearly escaped. Nearly escaped. some, some significant trouble in my life. Yes, sir. learned. Learned from the streets. Yeah. The school of hard knocks man, but was able to transition into an actual entrepreneur.

In 2016. Before that, I was working in the nonprofit sector down in South Dallas. My whole background is working in the inner city. in school I studied criminal justice, sociology. Wow. I wanted to go in and, my favorite book Growing up in, growing up, I mean, through, through school, through college.

Sure. Was gang leader. Gang leader for a day. It was written by a sociologist, that went. Did life with a gang leader in the inner city of Chicago. Learned the business of what it meant to be in the gang, and actually got the opportunity cuz of his friendship with the gang leader to make the decisions.

For the gang for a brief amount of time. I loved the book, I loved the concept. Yeah. As soon as I graduated, I went to school in Chicago, so as soon as I graduated, I went right into the inner city. Yeah. worked on the west side. Very rough neighborhood I was in, I was an athletic administrator, but I wore, again, a lot of hats.

I moved to Dallas in 2014 and then 2014 through 2016, kind of worked in the inner city before we started our franchise in 2016 and became an official above board entrepreneur of, representing the Mosquito Joe brand. Yeah. And yeah, I've been rocking it ever.

[00:10:22] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, man, I just, I appreciate how articulate that you are through that because I think a lot of people can relate not only just to the wearing of many hats, I think every entrepreneur, if they didn't, if they didn't understand that language before now being in business, they a hundred percent understand that language now.

Yeah, no doubt. but I just appreciate the, the ability, like I said, for you to be able to articulate problem solving. Cuz everything that you just described in my opinion was you people came to. and you solved problems, whether that was with the mower or whether that was with a football or whether that was, you taking other responsibilities that weren't even yours in a job.

The reality is, is that we're problem solvers, and so I see that in you. I see that as a, as a superpower even where you can come, you can, articulate and calculate and make a decision solve problems, which is probably why you guys are growing so fast. Appreciate that backdrop. I wanna know, so I know Mosquito Joe, you started with the franchise originally and obviously that brand just in general is growing.

And then of course you've done your own spinoff and all that fun stuff practically in the business. What was a singular good decision that you made that you can look back on and go because of this thing and we would do it over and over and over again. It's helped us grow.

[00:11:34] Matthew McReynolds: Wow. I've made so many. It's so many bad decisions on this journey.

Yeah. a good one would have to be the concept of, I gotta give it to you in two parts. A, educating myself, educating myself, and, and putting more investing in me has been probably the number one thing that has helped my business and my. To grow. Again, like I said, I mean I studied sociology, like I was right.

I was a kid that came from not much and was a knucklehead and just had this hustler energy and I wanted more and I was hungry and I just, I was talking with my wife the other day about how silly it was, how little vision I had growing up. And now I'm running this business, bleeding money the first couple years.

Yeah. Bleeding. I mean, they all do. It's poking, poking holes in the cup, man. Losing fast. That's right. But the ability to pick up a book and not just go through it, but to study it and to, yeah. Stamp it on into, into my mind. Nobody can take that from me. That's right. And to do that over and over and over, it compounds on itself.

Yeah. And so even in the last eight months, the what I know and what I can do is exponentially different than what it was before that time. So taking the time to, to a, grow myself intellectually, invest in myself, put myself in the right rooms, and then continue to push myself physically and spiritually Has, changed the game because not only does it affect me, it affects my circle.

It creates a vibe and a energy for the people around me. And so people know now it's very clear when they enter into my space what is okay and what is not okay and what's not accepted. and it took me a long time to, to build. Yeah. So that, that's kind of a generic, but you know, I gotta throw that in there.

And then, secondly, promoting people, and being willing to invest into others. Not being afraid to, yeah. Delegate. I've, I've made the mistake of, there's a very key difference between delegating and abdicating. Mm. And I flirted with that line. More aggressively than I'm comfortable saying.

Sure.

[00:14:02] Chaz Wolfe: give it for the listener's sake. What, what, what do you, what's the difference there? How, how did you do that? How did you flirt? What shouldn't they be doing? So,

[00:14:09] Matthew McReynolds: man, delegate. If I delegate to somebody, I don't necessarily have to do the thing, right? I can give somebody a role that they can do better than me, but that doesn't mean that I no longer have responsibility for that role getting done at a high.

Right. So we were operating our business. It was around year two that my first, my son was born and, I had people in place, I had technicians going out and doing treatments and for context, my first year as a Mosquito Joe owner and operator, we did 996 treatments. Okay. we opened up in late April and we went through the mosquito season that year.

Mid-December in, in the Dallas Fort Worth area. for those of you who don't know, mosquitoes are active if it's, if the temperatures are higher than 50 degrees. Right. So in US, that's, that's as long as our season went. So 996 treatments, and I did every single one of them. Wow. , every single one of 'em, man.

Grinding out there. Yeah. But you know, now that we built out this business, I, I've got some technicians, I've got somebody answering my phones, and I got a son and I wanna be there because I've always wanted to be a dad and I've a father and to be there and I, Houdini, I vanished. Yeah, I was at home every day.

I didn't, they didn't see me at the shop. Right. This was before, my dad and I co-owned this business, so this was before he moved to Dallas. I'm from the Austin area, Pflugerville, Texas. My parents still lived down there. this was before we acquired some additional territories, and my parents were not, my dad wasn't involved in the day-to-day yet.

Right. But leaving the business to kind of my people to operate. Self, over. You don't notice those things instantly. That's right. You come in and you check in every once in a while. Okay. You guys are good. All right, cool. I'll be, I'll be over here. You got my phone number? oh. You guys, we need some more product.

All right, cool. Let me put that order in real quick. but then six months goes by and you see your, your net promoter score, right? It was a 86, now it's a 50. Oof. What just happened, right? How, how did we get here? Yeah. now I've got our cancellations, our retention rate is down. Your trucks are what's broken, right?

How long has it been broken? these things when you don't have that accountability chart in place and you don't have a true system and you just leave it. Yep. it causes issues. And so, I, you can delegate. And on the flip side, that concept is what scares a lot of small business owners into promoting people and investing in people because nobody will do as good of a job.

A job as I will. Nobody will care as much. Nobody can sell as good as me. Nobody can da, da da, da da and all those, you could argue for that. Yeah, 100%. If you remain in that technician role Yeah. For an extended amount of time, and you don't move into the manager, into the entrepreneur, you will forever be stuck beating your head against a wall.

And so it definitely, it's, it's a delicate balance. And so when I say I flirted with it, I mean, we were, we were buds when we, we shouldn't have been .

[00:17:28] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Well I think the reality there that you're, that you're describing. When people think of entrepreneurship, right, they think of the dream, right? Having the, the cash coming in and me sitting there on the beach and someone else doing my work and me chilling.

and, and not to say that there isn't freedom because there is, I just think that there's a distorted view of what that, that freedom actually is. And I loved how you said the word accountability. Just because you delegate something doesn't mean that it's completely gone from your responsibility, but the level of accountability is gonna be based on a level of person also that you're delegating to, and so that accountability sometimes can be done.

From a beach or from another city or whatever. But the reality is still the same, is that there has to be a system in place. There has to be accountability checks, there has to be things getting done. And then going back to the very first thing that you said, which is not being afraid to pour into other people.

You didn't say promote, only, and like just get 'em into the right place and delegate 'em. You said to pour into them. What

[00:18:32] Matthew McReynolds: do you mean by. that Gotta invest in them. I, I have a, I'm very clear when I bring people on that, when you transition out of our organization, when that day comes, I wanna make sure you leave in a better place than you were when you came in.

Cuz if that's the case, I did, I did a good, significant part of my job. yeah, you can't, you, there's no staying the same. Either you're getting better or you're getting worse. Did we gain from this time or did we waste time? I need you, if you're gonna level up with me, I need to be pouring into you.

There's the, there's the adage of,what happens if I invest in my people and then they just leave, I wasted all this time. Well, what happens if you don't invest in them and they stay, stay . Right. True. Which one is which one is worse? And I can tell you Yeah. Having somebody who doesn't have a growth mindset that you're not investing in, that is lingering in your organization.

Yeah. Is much. Much worse than investing in them and then they leave and find something and they level up. I mean, I can, I can give you an example. I had some. this was a good lesson for that. I learned very recently, I had some very key players. They were my top performing individuals, top performers. I mean, these guys were, they changed the game and I wouldn't have been able to, if Covid hadn't happened, they wouldn't even have been on my team because they had lost jobs and I was able to secure them.

And we grew so much in 20 19, 20 20, 20 21. And I promoted them all to manager level. roles and I was, feeding into 'em. And actually very recently, they, all of 'em, all three of 'em took other jobs and left where these guys came in and they were making, maybe 10, 12 bucks an hour when they started with me.

Right. And now they're making. So much 60 k a year plus benefits, plus stock options, plus all the, all the things that they could be provided by an employer. And you think like, oh, but these were your, your key leaders. Yeah. A that's a proof of concept to the type of platform that I'm building and y people wanna work for me.

That's right. But also a key distinction too that I, I recently realized is not all your top performers are gonna. Excellent managers to help you grow your business. What I did, I created a glass ceiling in my company to where we didn't grow, to the extent that we had seen. and there are a lot of reasons for that.

There's a lot of things that I've learned, through this process, but sometimes you, you need to be okay with investing and then helping people transition into a better. A role that better suits them, where they can continue to be highly functioning and high performers, if that new role doesn't necessarily fit into their skillset if they don't get it wanted or have the capacity for it.

[00:21:34] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Well, you, you said a couple of things, or you said a lot of things. I hope people are paying attention to taking notes. you, you are a sharp, sharp business owner. you, you said. You know when someone joins your team, you set an expectation of when you exit. What that tells me is that you already have the mindset of that you're not gonna be here forever.

And I think that's step number one. I wanna point that out for the listener, is that you, not to say that you don't pour into people so that they leave or you pour into them so that they stay you. You just pour into people you just the realization of this person's probably not gonna be with me until the end, unless they have ownership They're probably not gonna be there. And that's okay. There's going to be something else at some point that's maybe a better fit for them. And so there's like this realization of like, okay, I have them for a period of time. How can I be a good steward of the resources that I've been given? Wow. Which is part of that is them, right?

Yeah. And you pour into them and and when their time. comes You let it go. But on the reverse side, when you said that some of your top performers aren't always manager material, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're not capable. It comes down to personality or just high performance traits and a lot of, a lot of times, The traits that are good at keeping people accountable or managing or bringing energy to leadership in a room is completely different than selling a deal or, doing the tech role of an actual project.

And so, that, that level of thinking, I wanna point out to the listeners at some point when they're growing their business on the way to seven figures or even eight figures for that matter, because it becomes even more important eventually, is that you have to put the right people. In the right seat, you might have the right person, but if he or she is on the wrong seat, the it's not gonna make sense for them or for the business.

For very long I've seen this it be absolutely times in my history in sales. Yeah, exactly. Absolutely. So what, what else do you wanna say around that? I, I didn't mean to cut you off there, but,you kind of transitioned this good decision into several really, really helpful things, good and bad.

It's been phenomenal. What else do you wanna say there before we transition? Well, and,

[00:23:45] Matthew McReynolds: yeah. And that's, and that's why it's, it's so good, a feeding into yourself, but also feeding into your people because as you feed into them, you find out who you have and who you need because you're constantly growing.

Cuz at the end of the day, No one stays the same. You're either getting better or you're getting worse. And obviously I would love it if I bring somebody on and they're just amazing and they last and they stick forever, right? But at the end of the day, relationships are all about timing and there's so many things that go on in life and it's, yeah, it would be foolish to expect that everybody that walks into your door, As perfect as they may seem is A, gonna be perfect forever, but then B is gonna wanna stick around in their life, isn't gonna alter whatever.

And even operating a business. Yeah, you go in, so many people go into businesses thinking that this is your precious, this is my precious little baby, and I just have to steward this thing and this is gonna be with me forever. Right. That's a dangerous mindset when you start a business. You need to have.

The wherewithal and the mindset to, even if you don't do this next step, you still have to build it in order to sell it. Yeah. And you have to prepare it in order to be sold. That's right. You never know what happens with the economy, yada, yada, yada. But at the end of the day, in order to be a successful business owner, you have to build it in order to sell it.

Great book too. Yeah.

[00:25:15] Chaz Wolfe: And you can't, sell it if you're selling.

[00:25:18] Matthew McReynolds: Whew. Right. .

[00:25:20] Chaz Wolfe: You know what I mean? Yeah. So if you're in the day to day right. Like if you're literally the guy, there's nothing really to sell, unfortunately. And, and that's, that's where we're gonna find ourselves in the next 5, 10, 20 years, is that there's gonna be boomers selling their businesses.

There already are. Yeah. Right? And, and they can't find buyers because they're trying to sell a business. That's

[00:25:44] Matthew McReynolds: them. It's just. It's just them. And the reason they're selling is cuz they wanna be out of it in the first place. Yeah. And that's why franchising is, is so hot right now because you're buying a proven system and a blueprint that all I gotta do is plug and play and I can be successful.

[00:26:00] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Ab we both know that it's, there's a, there's some layers, deeper than that, but yes, you're right, . Absolutely. You still gotta, you still gotta have a good mindset, and build a good team. There's absolutely, there's some work that comes around with that. But I wanna flip the coin here real quick. we, we actually talked about some of your bad decisions already, but I wanna give you the opportunity to answer the actual question of what's that one bad decision that you learned so much from that you can help us stick far,

[00:26:25] Matthew McReynolds: far away from.

back in 2018 we acquired, two additional territories in Mosquito Joe in the brand. And it was due to a relationship that I fostered and,got close with the owner. And, he decided that he wanted to, he wanted to sell us his two territories cuz he wanted to exit. And the idea of having this beautiful.

Territory, that was just so perfect. And the mindset behind it was if we could just have these two territories Right, everything would be great. Yeah. We didn't do the due diligence. Mm-hmm. of actually looking at, I mean, we did, we did our, in the process of acquiring a business, new air quotes, you do your due diligence.

There's a face titled the due diligence phase. Right. . but you know, and we kind of, we. And I was young, I, I took the, it's not an excuse, but, I took the relationship at Face Value. Yeah. and we acquired that company for, it took us about three years to build that company back up to the value that we had purchased it for.

Yeah. we took, we took word on what the, what the current worth was, and. he wanted to make it quick. He didn't want to cause a, a scene with some of the other owners in the area, so we didn't reach out to some of the people around and talk about kind of, and to compare other territories. At the time, all I knew was what I had to work with, with these two kind of small, cute little areas that we were building up.

And, we went from servicing 180 customers to. Almost 700 customers overnight. Wow. And our business boomed and expanded, and we paid a lot of. my dad calls it idiot tax . paid a lot of idiot tax in that process, and if we were to, even if we were to sell that portion of the business today, we wouldn't get, we would get a fraction of the value that we would've had if we would've been more diligent on, on the front.

And so, yeah. be careful of the, the thing that's shiny. Yeah. that's also been a trend. we've, we've kind of tried to do too many things at once without building out the systems, in place. Yep. Mike Mcal, ITZ in Profit First Man talks a lot about. The guy who gets up on his roof and then he gets up on his roof and starts selling him a whole bunch of other services at once.

The first time I heard him say that in the auto, the audiobook, I got mad at him cuz he calls the guy an idiot. And I was like, whoa, whoa, that's aggressive. I'm, I'm literally doing that exact thing right now. , you're calling me. I'm offended. Yeah, I'm, I'm, this is a major offense. Yeah. but it, but you know, But it's true.

Yeah. And we, we done lost a lot of money trying to do a lot of things at one time, last September we acquired a lawn care company and merged it into our hero home services business. And it was from the, from a boomer who no longer wanted, to operate the business. And, so we bought it, we merged it in with our systems, with the idea.

Okay. We're gonna modernize this thing. We're gonna add some technology to it, and we're gonna make this thing, make this thing rock. Yeah. Well, . instead we used it as an opportunity to add a plethora of additional services that we weren't, and we didn't have, we didn't have the systems to support. and so the first six months of operating that new business, we created a lot of stress for ourselves that wasn't necessary.

And, the last you. Year. So we've had to kind of fight back from those mistakes and learn and, and just getting that jump, we've had to take a step back and, and re and build a better foundation. Yeah. if we would've just been a little bit more patient in the process.

[00:30:21] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. And I, I'm glad you said that at the very end there, because both the.

Shiny object syndrome as well as the, kind of not doing the due diligence in the due diligence phase are both from an angle of urgency. I wanna get it done now. I want to be successful now. I don't wanna put in the work, even though necessarily you weren't saying those things. That's what causes us to maybe skip over some of those things or make some of those decision.

And, and, and there's a, there's a point in order to be able to grow much, much bigger, that you have to really, really, really dial into those things and saying no actually becomes the regular word, as opposed to, yes, there is a phase there. And I've talked about this many, many times and even in my own history, there was, it was yes, you just say yes, figure out the rest later.

But that, that becomes harmful at some point if the yes is not in, in the right lane. and so there, there's a, there's a transition there that happens as you have just described, that you can say yes, it just needs to be a very, very calculated yes no is probably more often what, what needs to be said, at least at this Oh

[00:31:27] Matthew McReynolds: man.

100%. Man. we, we literally had that phase in our business, so I can remember a time where in team meetings, we were, we were pumped about, we don't say no to anybody, we'll figure out how to do it. And oh, it just created so much pain points in that process where now I take pride for telling people no or a.

Add context around my, no, that's something that we can, we can touch up on that. It depends on the scale. I definitely have people that I can refer to you to get that done at a higher level, at a better price point. Right. I, I make a joke, regarding things like this of, I'm definitely not the best, but I, I'm gonna be around the most expensive.

If you want me to do that service, to just give people, like, there's people out there that can do that better than me, that can do it quicker and can do it cheaper. Therefore, I'm gonna point you in that direction. And I feel pride in, in, in doing that. I love to be able to, that was our core value.

That was what, why we started. Zero home services was to bridge the gap for homeowners that, that were in need of something. Mm-hmm. But in order to do that, we don't necessarily have to do all of it in house. That's right. And that concept has actually given us an opportunity to kind of spin off and do some additional sales oriented business platforms that we're working on now around that same idea.

that's right. Without having to do everything in. Man. Yeah. Cause you still, you

[00:32:59] Chaz Wolfe: still win with the core, the core value of, of serving and, and bridging the gap. but without literally being, the builder of the bridge, you can still be the bridge. yeah. Love that perspective. Okay. What, what about, decisions come to your desk today?

You've kind of made yourself through this long transition of growth and frustration and good decisions. How do you make a decision today? Right now, the sharp, successful individual that you are today?

[00:33:23] Matthew McReynolds: Yeah, so, we've been self implementing e o s,Gina Wickman's whole platform that he's, they, that team has built out e o s worldwide.

Yeah. we've been doing that and so we have our level 10 meetings every Thursday, 6:00 AM where I've got my team of leaders sitting around and every single thing that we have to. To talk about from headlines on the team to issues to our 90 day rocks, things that we wanna have accomplished in the next 90 days.

Things that, are we on track for those things or are we not? it has to be involved in that conversation. Also, learning to be more open with my, my greater circle in my family. wife being open with what we have going on in the business. Something about women, they ain't got some great intuition, man.

And sometimes it, it hurts to hear the hard because they don't have afil. Nobody talks to me the way that my beautiful, loving wife feels. The ability, I love what you said, bushy feels . She, know, she could talk to me in a certain type of way. That's right. With full, vigor and, and energy and, Nobody else is gonna gimme that clarity.

And so having people in place that you can just talk to, the circle, the peer group concept, going to people that are not necessarily in your business as well, but they. Are in a similar situation as you. It's crazy when you go around small other small business owners, they might not be in your industry, but they go through the same things.

I mean, that's why Yeah. This platform that you're building is so as great as it is, that's why it exists, because we don't have to be in the same industry to learn from one another. Exactly. And so building that around myself, understanding that I don't have all the answers that I, that I can add value.

A mentor, a coach, a peer group, my circle, people that love me, my in-house team, right building. We're currently building that out now, and the e o s process has definitely been a huge benefit. Yeah. but we have a long way to go. I, I, we're working towards having an implementer actually come and, and guide us through that.

I think that's huge and highly necessary. Self implementing. It's harder than it looks on paper. Gets you, it gets you so far , right? It gets you there, but again, there's that ceiling that you hit that you need somebody to come in and guide you along the process as well.

[00:35:47] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I think it's funny that you, that you're talking about that in this way because it's obviously the, the difference between visionary integrator.

the integrator goes to doing as opposed to putting systems and peoples and things in place. and so I think that that's applicable for the listener is even just listening to you. Cuz before we even hit the record button, you and I were talking about how we, we, we have the ability to do both. We can be a visionary.

Yeah. We can also be an integrator. We can get dirty in the weeds, but we can also see the 30,000 foot view and. You can get stuck in the weeds, and especially for entrepreneurs listening right now, potentially why they're not at a million in, in revenue or more is because they're in the weeds every single day and they, they, they haven't come up for air to be able to make bigger decisions.

And so it's funny that you say even in the process of learning how to do that better, you've been self implementing, which is kind of like, oh, this is like totally what? We do

[00:36:41] Matthew McReynolds: in the weeds not quite there. Yeah. .

[00:36:43] Chaz Wolfe: so anyway, it's just funny that, that you would correlate that. I think it's super applicable for the listener, like you said, whether that's a coach, whether that's a peer group.

Obviously Gathering the Kings is a mastermind group, but there were so many other things that I was a part of, conferences and industry specific groups, non-industry specific groups, in other people that I just grabbed lunch with, like, having those perspectives is really what you Yeah.

Said to help you make the decisions.

[00:37:06] Matthew McReynolds: Absolutely. I'm

[00:37:07] Chaz Wolfe: wanna go, to our speed round here, Matthew. I wanna come at you with a K P I question. If you could only pick one, one thing to track forever and ever, what would it be?

[00:37:19] Matthew McReynolds: Okay. it's gotta be profitability per service. Hmm. if I would've known profitability per service two years ago.

Man, I'd be sitting in a, in a nicer office than . I'll tell you what, I tell you what man, because this does for, we try to do so many things, but if I know profitability per service, I know I. Is this a service that will bring me profit? Right? And if not, is it worth? Cuz some things are, you do things to retain people.

Sure. Right. Is this a service that will bring me profit or is it a service that's gonna help me retain this customer because I want to have a holistic approach to their experience. With me, I wanna guide them through a process and doing this thing over here, it doesn't bring me a lot of profit, but there might be another reason for it.

There might be things that are, that are bleeding me though, that I, I am losing money with equipment with people because I don't have the right systems or training in place. . And I have an idea in my mind, as a visionary wanting to create this big, huge thing that, this looks pretty, but if I don't understand the profitability behind, because then I have to know what, how much does it cost?

how much time is it gonna take? What training do I have to implement? What people can I put in this space? Do I have those people? And if not, I shouldn't just start running with it. Because then what happens is me as the owner, Convinces myself that I need to be one, the one to go and facilitate that service Right.

In order to make it happen. Yeah. so yeah, that's how I use that.

[00:38:53] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I love, I love that. it goes back to what you already talked about, which is that information empowers you to say no,

[00:39:01] Matthew McReynolds: man. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. What book

[00:39:06] Chaz Wolfe: or resource would you recommend for a business owner trying to grow their.

[00:39:11] Matthew McReynolds: Whew, man. Now book. I've got a list, man. and resource. Wow, those are two different .

[00:39:21] Chaz Wolfe: Oh, oh man. Include the resource. I'll tell this, this is the first time I've actually said this on the, on the show, but I had to, I started to include the, the word resource because I've had, not a bunch, but some people would be like, well, I don't read.

Well, but you still learn. I mean, what we're talking about here is as a business owner, you gotta freaking be coachable. You gotta learn, you gotta be the dumbest guy in the room. Like always like put yourself in the position to learn, learn, learn. And whether that's Audible, whether it's a paper book, whether it's a conference, whether it's a whatever, what's been the most

[00:39:51] Matthew McReynolds: helpful for you?

Well, you saying resource opens it up because gosh, book Audible has been, has just been. Absolutely outstanding for my growth. you talk about a single book I probably gotta put out, rocket Fuel by Gino and, mark, Mark Winters. rocket Fuel is what taught me that. I'm in the role of integrator.

I've always done it. I can do it. I'm good at it. But in my heart, I am a visionary. And the reason why I'm frustrated with what's going on and why I find myself literally tripping over all these things and dropping, know, all these balls I'm juggling is because my integrator, or no, my visionary is kicking the feet out from under my integr.

and I'm not allowing myself to operate at a high level. So I need to either empower my people or I need to come find one and put that in place. And that's the only way that I'll be successful. So reading that book and listening to it a bajillion times, yeah. Has man, not only invigorated, Kind of my energy around what we're building, but it's allowed me to realize, I need to put people in the right seats.

we have transitioned so much of our organization after reading that one book. Yeah. it's been a game changer, but, and I say Audible cuz there's so many book. You talk about a six figure becoming a seven figure. I would challenge them to read the book. Prophet First. Yeah. And just study. Study Mike Malowitz and everything that he puts out because So what if you go from 900 to a million?

If you're still taking home the same, or if you're taking home less, or if you hadn't have been taking home anything, I mean, wouldn't it be better to, for your business to make 500? If I could take home two 50 of that? Yeah. Rather than have a business where, sure, on paper, it produces a million, but I only get one 50 and I gotta split that with my business partners at the end of the.

Man, I'm sitting here. I got a million dollar business, but I'm struggling. Yeah. So what exactly, so love that. Oh man. Emitt though. But if your people haven't read the Emitts, I mean, why are you even listening to the podcast? I mean, come on. Seriously. Come on, come on. Seriously. So a part of, now, I don't want to jump ahead, but putting in your mind resources using, I mean, I'm a, I am a mentee of Mike Mcow.

I have never. I mean, mentee Robert, Robert Green, and he doesn't even know i I exist. Ryan Holliday, all these great people and thought leaders. Yep. You have access at your fingertips, literally. that's been huge for me. But the one book, I've wrestled with this, this is a hard. Because I, yeah, I listened to your show, man.

I knew this was coming and I, this morning I woke up. What am I gonna say of the question? Gotta

[00:42:46] Chaz Wolfe: rock you. You just put our seatbelt on, tight because man, you ran us through three, three, books there fast and with, with, with great, tidbits on each one. I think that, both of that, both of those, or all three of those recommendations are, are incredible.

I think that just your vigor. As you, as you used that word earlier for just learning the fact that you know these guys names, not first names, but first and last names, that you know who they are, that you're a student of them. Yeah. I think that's what I hope that the listener takes away. Of course, we'll put all the book recommendations in the show notes and all that fun stuff so they can just easily click and purchase and become a student.

But I want them to walk away with what you just struggled with, which was, oh my gosh. I've gotten so much value from books and podcasts and, and learning. That's what I want them to walk away with is being like, you, man. Yeah. Gino, yeah. Mark all those guys, but I want 'em to be like, Matthew,

[00:43:42] Matthew McReynolds: hey, let's go. I appreciate that.

what are your

[00:43:45] Chaz Wolfe: thoughts on intentionally masterminding or networking with other entrepreneurs?

[00:43:51] Matthew McReynolds: 100% gotta do it. I have businesses and concepts that, concepts for businesses that would not exist if it were not for the people that I've met, the rooms that I've been in, the things that I've learned from people in peer groups and networking circle.

back in 2018, I talked about Christmas lights. cuz mosquito mosquitoes is a seasonal service, Sure. We wanna do something in the off season. And this was as, we were, the first service that actually helped us to start Hero Home Services was Christmas lights. Yeah. And give us something to do when it was colder and, all the reasons.

But I didn't, I've done Christmas lights at my house, I never. I had talked about it, I talked about it for years, and there was a guy that was in my group out in Rockwall. He owned a, that one painter? No. A a Wow. One day painting franchise. Wow. One day painting. And he, he was sitting next to me and we were just talking.

Yeah, man. One of these days, one of these days. One of these days. One of these days. And I get a call on my phone that afternoon, and it was this lady that she represented an h o. And so she had, the entryway and all these things that she wanted. Christmas lights and, Mr. Ron, I referred you actually Dave referred, and I'm sitting here and I'm like, oh man, I gotta figure out how to do Christmas lights.

So I got my measuring stick. I got, I had my laptop with the, with the hotspot on wifi so I could start looking up prices for all the different products. Yeah. And I quoted it all out. I sent it in and I didn't get the. But that year I did 11 Christmas light installs that year. And yeah, I was the, I was the foot soldier, I was going out there, I was the warrior as you put it, going out there doing the work, the technician.

Yep. But now, we're however many years later, and I've made however many thousands of dollars doing Christmas lights and yeah, that in and of itself will be a spinoff business one day that will operate and support itself with its. I've trained a number of people. I've got Christmas lights going up right now, and I'm sitting here talking to you cuz of that.

Referral that I got from that networking group sitting next to another business owner that didn't do what I did, but Right. Honestly, he did because it's still home services and we're really not that different. And, it's crucial, man. I mean, the whole, the whole concept of abdi advocating versus delegating.

I got called out from a guy that, he owned a foundation company and I was like, Matthew, you know what? I hear you talking, but you know what you did. No, Mr. Roger, I don't know what I did. He abdicated and then he went on the whole thing and I got to thinking, wow. So it's pivotal and I need it more in my life.

Thomas Tremendous Jones. In five, 10 years, you're gonna be the same person unless the books you read, the people you meet and the places that you go. So I, that's right, the books you. The people you meet, the places you go, I, in my mind, the rooms that I sit in, yeah, the rooms that I sit in, I wanna be the person that can earn that phone call, that can get invited into that room.

That's who I'm building myself to be. And it can't happen unless you're putting yourself around people that. at your level or above. So I highly recommend it. And I would argue that, you could be the best in the game at what, at what you think you're doing, but there's still rooms that you should be in, And if, if you're not, if you're not, if you're comfortable, yeah. And if there's not really a place for that in your life, then you know, that's different. some people, take a step back. But if you want to grow, you've gotta.

[00:47:37] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I loved your last little comment there about already making it, I'll say two things to that.

in the book, atomic Habits, he talks about,curating your culture basically. And, and you join a group of people that have Yeah, a normal habit that you want to develop, right? And then you also join a group of people who are like, Who have that habit as normal. And so if you wanna win in business, you get around business owners who are winning.

And for gathering the kings, it's more than just in business, it's family, it's community, it's the whole king mindset. But. You have to be able to get around that specific group who then have that, that, that same, trajectory, because then now it becomes a, a shared identity, which is what you're talking about.

Even he ref quote unquote referred business to, he called you out is what he did. Yeah. . He said, oh, one day, one day, one day is today my friend today,

[00:48:27] Matthew McReynolds: son .

[00:48:28] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, exactly. And he did you a favor is really what he did. Absolutely, man.

[00:48:32] Matthew McReynolds: I love that.

[00:48:33] Chaz Wolfe: And to be, and, and the last little comment in, in, atomic Habits on that, on that chapter, he talks about even after you've achieved the desired result, you stay in the group because it's the camaraderie, it's the relationships, it's the, it's the rising tide that raises all ships, even though you've already achieved it, is what keeps the momentum moving forward.

And I'll point out one guy. I had him on here, on the show, but he's,come to several of our events. Obviously he is part of the Gathering the King's Mastermind now, but he has hundreds of millions of dollars. We did a little q and a session with him here at my house a couple weeks ago at an event and his perspective, even though he was the one we were all trying to like, Hey, like, let me get a little nuggets from you

He was like, Hey, I'm here to learn from you guys. And it was like just an incredible humble perspective of even at this stage, you've got so much to learn, which is a hundred percent accurate. Thank you for that. One last question for you, Matthew. If you could whisper in the younger Matthew's ear.

[00:49:30] Matthew McReynolds: Oh wow.

What would you say? Wow. Don't waste time. Don't waste time. The minute that you are sitting in right now, you will never get it. Time is fleeting. It is the ultimate resource. man, if you want something, you have the time to achieve it. Whatever is important to you, whatever is valuable to you. There is no, there is no, I can't.

Sit with my kids for breakfast in the morning because I'm so busy. It's no, you won't sit with your kids for breakfast because you're prioritizing something else. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. You can do whatever it is that you prioritize and that you value. If I'm gonna go and I'm gonna. a marathon under, X amount of time I can go do that.

I have to sacrifice a whole bunch of other things in order to achieve that goal. Time is everything. It's more valuable than money. It's more valuable than any other resource that we got on this planet. So much of my time was wasted and squandered because I was. Emotionally, back in my college football and track days, yeah.

I, pulled my, pulled my hamstring or, I suffered so many injuries. I broke my, broke my, broke my leg and, I wasn't gonna play. And so instead of staying in the weight room, instead of really focusing on my studies, I. Messed around. I got on academic probation because I was too worried about partying or.

Hustling, as I said earlier, that I wasn't focused, there were other parts of my body that I could have been working out, getting stronger, getting better, and I didn't do it because I was emotionally upset. I felt wronged by a situation where I look back now. Think about how much farther ahead I could be if I wouldn't have wasted so much time.

so I wouldn't only whisper that into young Matthew . I would, I would bring, I would bring all my brother-in-laws now, and we'd jump that dude. I'd beat it into him, man. , I would, we stomping into him, man. And aggressively with some vigor. Yeah. but yeah, man, I, I, That's really important to me now, time and, my kids are still young, five, two and, and six months, but you know, especially with my five year old, I want him to understand.

how important time is. Yeah. And, enjoy it. Yeah. Enjoy the process. This, this chapter of our lives is, is fleeting. That's right. And even though it might not look like what we want today, we'll look back on this time right now. And this will be the good old days. That's right. our pro life doesn't get easier.

It gets, gets different. And as we level up it gets harder because we can do harder things cuz we're better. Yeah. And we're more capable a year, 18, 24 months from now than we were today. So the problems that you have now, you'll solve them and move on. That's right. Right. You'll just have new problems. So you gotta keep working on yourself.

Appreciate the time that you have and Don. Waste it.

[00:53:01] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Well, I don't if, if the listener isn't inspired, convicted. ready to beat their chest and run through a wall. Holy, oh my goodness. cuz I am, I'm gonna hang up with you here and I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go downstairs. I'm gonna snuggle my three year old and then I'm gonna run through a wall.

Let's go , but in all seriousness, wow, wow, wow. You've been incredible. How can the listener find you, whether they're in your area, they're in the Dallas Fort Worth area, they need mosquitoes gone. They need to call and hire you and they need to home service, call you for all the stuff around their house and their Christmas lights cuz it's going up here soon.

how can they find you? But even if they're an entrepreneur and they just wanna

[00:53:35] Matthew McReynolds: pick your brain, Man, I, I love what you are doing. I, I aspire to be like you with a platform that you have. when I grow up, man, , just kidding. Appreciate that. But no, in all seriousness, I, I, I want to be able to provide value to other people, and I've learned.

So much and I've messed up so much. but we're all growing. I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook, I'm on LinkedIn. Matthew McReynolds. It'll be in the show notes, I'm sure. But yeah, reach out to me. let's link up, man, a part of my, a part of my, the love. The best part about what I get to do is to feed into other people, develop other people, but then also network and talk and speak with and learn from other entrepreneurs and business owners.

This has been such. An honor and such a humbling experience cuz you got some big, some big players on this thing man. And to be a part of this platform is amazing. So anything on social media, please reach out. I would love to connect because there's so much that I can continue to learn. cuz man, I want it all and I'm only just.

[00:54:48] Chaz Wolfe: That's right. We're, we're gathering a fellowship of successful entrepreneurs who are grateful but not done, I think is, how we phrase it. Yeah. And how you just confirm that. So it's just thank you so much for being here. Blessings upon, blessings on your family, your business, your partnership with your pop, the whole deal.

Man. Thank you so much for being

[00:55:05] Matthew McReynolds: here. Absolutely appreciate it.

Host Chaz Wolfe welcomes business expert and entrepreneur Matthew McReynolds. Matthew is the owner of Mosquito Joe franchise. He started his journey in 2016 by buying into the Mosquito Joe Franchise and forming a 50/50 partnership with his dad, who had previously worked for Apple for over 20 years. The franchise generates 85-90% of their revenue, and they did $1.2 million last year. In 2018, he also started a home service business specializing in Christmas lights and indoor pest control, and later in 2020, he bought a lawn care company and added that to their business. Matthew is highly invested in people and culture. During the episode, Matthew and Chaz discuss the importance of recognizing that entrepreneurs are problem solvers, and how investing in yourself and others can lead to success. They also talk about the importance of delegating tasks to build a strong team and the importance of accountability for driving progress in your business, as well as the dangers of creating a glass ceiling for yourself. Matthew concludes the episode by highlighting the importance of constantly learning and growing as a business owner. Listen to the episode to gain valuable insights and strategies for growing your business and becoming a successful entrepreneur.

Matthew McReynolds:

LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/matthew.a.mcreynolds

Website: https://www.herohomeservices.net/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-mcreynolds-28151b4a/

Chaz's favorite morning drink to fuel him for his day

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