Escaping the Drift with John Gafford - From Humble Beginnings to Nine-Figure Success: Chris Lee's Entrepreneurial Journey

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

Entrepreneurial powerhouse Chris Lee joins us to share his incredible journey from a humble childhood in Washington State to achieving multiple nine-figure business exits in the home services industry. Chris opens up about the foundational lessons learned from his schoolteacher father and growing up in a competitive sports environment that have shaped his exceptional work ethic and values. Throughout the conversation, he paints a vivid picture of how these early influences have driven his passion for instilling similar values in his own family, illustrating the profound impact of his upbringing on his path to success.   We also explore the complex dynamics of entrepreneurship within high-trust religious communities, particularly among the LDS population in Utah, and the delicate balance between ambition and transparency. Chris candidly shares personal stories, including lessons learned from a former business partner's involvement in a Ponzi scheme, shedding light on how good intentions can sometimes spiral into deceit. Through discussions on mastering sales via understanding personality profiles and the emotional rollercoaster of financial setbacks and recoveries, listeners gain insights into the resilience and adaptability that are crucial for navigating the entrepreneurial journey.   In a thrilling narrative of risk-taking and success, Chris recounts how embracing new opportunities and betting on oneself can lead to extraordinary achievements. He reflects on his experiences under industry titans like Todd Peterson and credits strategic foresight and innovative approaches, such as leveraging Facebook marketing and Zoom sales, for propelling his company's growth to $233 million in revenue. The episode concludes with a powerful message on the importance of self-investment and a fearless approach to entrepreneurship, leaving listeners inspired to pursue their own paths with courage and determination.   CHAPTERS    (00:00) - Success Stories (08:25) - Trust, Ambition, and Entrepreneurship in Utah (15:37) - Mastering Sales Through Personality Profiles (27:22) - Lessons From Failed Entrepreneurial Partnership (33:24) - Overcoming Financial Loss and Building Wealth (37:59) - Journey to Entrepreneurial Success (51:09) - The Power of Risk-Taking Entrepreneurship   💬 Did you enjoy this podcast episode? Tell us all about it in the comment section below!    ☑️  If you liked this video, consider subscribing to Escaping The Drift with John Gafford  ************* 💯 About John Gafford: After appearing on NBC's "The Apprentice", John relocated to the Las Vegas Valley and founded several successful companies in the real estate space.   ➡️ The Gafford Group at Simply Vegas, top 1% of all REALTORS nationwide in terms of production. Simply Vegas, a 500 agent brokerage with billions in annual sales Clear Title, a 7-figure full-service title and escrow company.   ➡️ Streamline Home Loans - An independent mortgage bank with more than 100 loan officers. The Simply Group, A national expansion vehicle partnering with large brokers across the country to vertically integrate their real estate brokerages.   *************   ✅ Follow John Gafford on social media:   Instagram ▶️ / thejohngafford   Facebook ▶️ / gafford2   🎧 Stream The Escaping The Drift Podcast with John Gafford Episode here: Listen On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7cWN80gtZ4m4wl3DqQoJmK?si=2d60fd72329d44a9 Listen On Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/escaping-the-drift-with-john-gafford/id1582927283    *************   #escapingthedrift #chrislee #entrepreneurship #success #utah #trust #ambition #sales #personalityprofiles #financialloss #wealth #risktaking #resilience #adaptability #facebookmarketing #zoomsales #strategicforesight #businessgrowth #risk #selfinvestment #vegas #mailinglist

And so I got introduced to door to door sales and went and did this summer program. First year, I go out, sell for three, three months and I make 65 grand. I'm like, what are we selling? Test control. And now Escaping the Drift, the show designed to get you from where you are to where you want to be. I'm Jon Gafford and I have a knack for getting extraordinary achievers to drop their secrets to help you on a path to greatness. So stop drifting along, escape the drift, and it's time to start right now. Welcome back to the program everybody. This week in studio, it's one of the advantages of being in Vegas. I've said it a million times because when you have an event like

right now, ClickFunnels Live is going on down at the strip and just bring it all the ballers in. And when the ballers roll in, it's kind of easy for us to book. Not going to lie. If we were to peak at Kansas, this kind of thing wouldn't happen. And today for you live in the studio, if you are somebody that you're interested in sales, you're interested in home service businesses, you're interested in getting better, man, getting your life to the next level. I have a dude in

studio today. He is a graduate alumnus, if you will, of Harvard University. He has multiple six figure exits, not six, seven, no, nine. What am I talking about? The math is wrong. Yeah, no multiple nine. It's like everybody just turned off. They just seriously just shut this off. Multiple nine figure exits in the home services industry. And he's here today to share that wealth of knowledge with you guys, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the program. This is Chris Lee. Chris. What's up? Excited to be here. Yeah, dude. Glad, glad we could swing you through.

Yeah, this is great, man. I love Vegas for the same exact reason, man. I've been able to do so many great podcasts. Yeah. It's incredible. The only problem, the only challenges is like you're going to be like omnipresent everywhere like a week and a half because I'm going to have you out. Brad's going to have you out. I mean, every, you're just going to be out. You could be everywhere. Great. I love it. Yeah. It's going to be getting like launched in the stratosphere, which is awesome.

So let's start a little bit, man. Let's go back. Cause I always like to start these things with the nature versus nurture, man. Like let's, let's start there. Tell me about how did Chris Lee grow up? Were you made? Were you crafted? Tell me that you did the hero story or the villain like story, dude, I would definitely say made, you know, I, I, I grew up in a great household. Uh, no money. My dad was a school teacher,

mom was a stay at home mom, seven kids. Seven. Seven, yep. Where do you rank on the- So right in the middle. So six that were from my parents and then we raised my cousin as well. And so, we didn't have a lot, but because of it,

we had very strict rules around money and how we created it and everything else in the house. My dad was a very disciplined investor, believe it or not. He was able to put away half of his $65,000 a year check into investments. Wow. Yeah. And so with it, we had rules in the house.

When you're 12, underwear and food on the table was all you got. Everything else, you had to pay for. So what was the first hustle as a kid? So nine years old, delivering newspapers. Okay, solid. Every 365 days a year, you know, had to wake up early. And so did that.

I wasn't like an entrepreneur by trade at all growing up because I didn't know any better, right? Like as a school teacher, like he knew the system. He knew, you know, 401k invest as much as possible, right? Real estate was out of the picture. All these things are out of the picture. And so, but my dad, he was a football and wrestling coach at the high school. And so grew up in a very sports competitive environment.

What part of the world is this? We're Washington state. Washington state. Okay. Yep. I actually live about 30 minutes from where I grew up because I have like so much love for the way that I was raised that I wanted to raise my kids. Similarly. Yep. And I, I've moved all over. I've lived in Vegas before. I've lived in San Diego, Arkansas, North Carolina, Minnesota, Chicago. Like I've, I've, me and my wife have, North Carolina, Minnesota, Chicago.

Like I've, I've, me and my wife have moved 14 different times over her career. Bro. It's, it's so funny, man, because as a kid, all I wanted to do was get out of the 8,000 person town I grew up in. Right. All I wanted to do was get out. And now when I go somewhere, it's like kitschy like that. Right. Like there's a little town that I love called Franklin, Tennessee, which is just south of Nashville. I love that little town that I love called Franklin, Tennessee, which is just south of Nashville. I love that little town. Yeah. And every time I'm like, man, this just reminds me so much of the place I grew up. That's why I love it.

I'm like, dude, I'll never move back to where I grew up. But, but I get it, dude. You long for that nostalgia of, of your youth because it was a much simpler time then, man. It was. And it wasn't even just like the simplicity. Like I was taught to work hard and I wanted to raise my kids on a farm. So I didn't grow up on a farm, but I grew up working on farms.

So I was delivering newspapers, driving tractor, you know, working odds and ends jobs, just finding ways to make a buck. And it was when I was 18 years old, I was attending the local community college, Wallstone High School. was 18 years old, I was attending the local community college, wallstone high school, saw a little ad that said, make at least $13 an hour. The little words at least changed my life. Okay. Nobody's telling me how much I can make, but they're definitely tell me how little I can. But the, at least was, so what it was, it was an ad for cutco

knives. Yeah. Okay. And so sells. And then I quickly realized that I had the gift of gab and the ability to go and sell products. So let's talk about, so you went to work for cutco knives at 18 years old. Yep. So if I'm between my junior and senior year, I'm old for my grade and I go into farmhouse wives home and I could walk out with a thousand dollar check and making 25% of that. So let's talk about the training program for Koko knives. Cause I've heard it like when I got to sales, right? When I first got into it out of the bar business, a million years ago,

my buddy said, you got a choice. You can sell Kirby vacuum cleaners, or you can sell cars. Either way you'll have a PhD in 90 days. I was like, all right. But I've always heard that Koko knives had a great like sales training program. Is there anything that you learned then or no? You're shaking your head like, no. No, they, Kucko's always had a great recruiting program in my mind and they sucked at the follow-up. Like they teach you how to like go sell

all your friends and family. And then there was like no follow-up, at least from the area where I was at, as far as like, what do I do next? And so I went through all my networks, selling them all the knives I could. And then far as like, what do I do next? Yeah. And so I went through all my networks, selling them all the knives I could, and then nobody told me what else next to do. And so I ended up quitting just because like my manager was like

no show or whatever else. But like I said, it changed my life realizing that I could bring value to an hour rather than just trade hours for dollars. Yeah. And so like that, that was where it all kind of started. So you're set, you so cut go, where do you go after that? So graduate high school and I go on a mission for my church, serve a two year mission, knocking doors for free, paying to be there.

See, that's the see the Mormon church. That's, that's the sales. That's the sales training, dude. Cause do you have any, like, I mean, how can you go on a mission and have any resistance knocking on a door after that? Yeah, right. Right. I mean, yeah, that's, that's tough. So that, yeah, that, I mean, that's, that's tough. And I was good at it. You know, I was, I was a really good missionary, but like, I think what made me get a lot out of my mission was, like my parents made us pay to go, like they didn't help us on our missions. We had to save 10 grand, $10,000 was a lot of money

back then, and that's what I paid to go on my mission and take care of me while I was gone. And so like, I was out there for all the right reasons, knocking on doors, doing all the work, but yeah, it was, it was a great training program. Learned a lot from it. Are you still active in the church? All right. Let me ask you a question, because I saw this not too long ago and I'm sure running in the circles that you run and you run in some of the same circles. I am. Yep.

You've heard about recently some issues in Utah with some people getting arrested. Uh, and the, I want to say the, the attorney general, the state of Utah said, said, Salt Lake city is ground zero for Ponzi schemes. So my question is, right, as a member of that church, why, why, you know, it's, I don't think it's be, or really well, I guess you'd say it has something to do with the church. In the church, we teach that there's this strive for perfection type mentality. So, because of it, a lot of people take on this entrepreneurial personification. So, And so they're very ambitious. And as you know, when ambition is mixed with any little bit of like greed, it can turn south quick.

And on top of that, Utah, so I'm not from Utah. I've lived in Utah a couple different times, and obviously it's a high, high LDS population. You know, there's, there's this like leverage that starts happening of trust because, hey, you're a member, I'm a member. We're all a member. We're all a member. You can trust me because we believe in the same things. It's not even necessarily said, but maybe even implied. You can really see the guys that have gotten in trouble that ran these big Ponzi schemes. In fact, I had a business partner, this is interesting. I haven't talked

about this, I don't think ever on a podcast. I had a business, and from my first business, we ended up losing everything, going bankrupt and everything like that. He went on to run a $26 million Ponzi scheme. And he took a lot of my friends and family and personal connections that I had made with him took their money, including me. Um, and so like that, that little Ponzi thing is very close to home. Like I've seen it happen in real time. Like what path those guys go down. And, and essentially you, usually Ponzi schemes never

start off as Ponzi schemes. No, they're all, they're always good intentioned. Yeah. Ponzi schemes happen when somebody will not own the truth, right? Like you, like they say, Hey, we're going to get you a guaranteed 15% return. And then maybe they return negative money. And instead of owning the fact that a return to negative money, and it was made, it was a legit investment, right? And it lost money or whatever else. Instead of owning that, they say,

no, it returned 15%. Where do they get that 15%? They go and they take it from somebody else to give it to them. Right? And so I've seen, like I said, several of these go and become what they become as we've seen recently. Well, that's how it's like in real estate, man. That's how I know instantly like a flippers in trouble when it's like, well, I'm going to refi this house and pull out the equity to then cover the, you know, finish the repairs on this one. You're like, Oh dude, you know, you gotta look at those projects as singular insulated things.

And when you start pulling dollars out of one to chase another one, the whole thing is going to tumble. And I've taken some big losses on investments that went like that. Yeah. You know, as a believer, you know, in the scriptures it talks about the truth shall set you free. Yeah.

Right, like when you own the truth, good or bad, you live free. You don't have to remember as much. Yeah, you don't gotta remember as much or whatnot. And so, yeah, so when guys don't own the truth, then this kind of crazy stuff happens. And again, because that population is high level of believers and high trusting people, they're easily duped. And what's probably, it's probably of all of the, if you call it American type religions where, you know, Baptist, Catholic, whatever, Bob bother,

a lot of the people, you know, go to this church, that church, I would say that's the most connected like a families and whatnot. Like they're like, they all know each other. They go to each other's houses. They hang out. I mean, they're very, I mean, do you look at, uh, I don't know, I couldn't tell anybody. Recent statistics just came out, right? Like Utah is very strong in family, right? 76% of families stay, stay married. Like, I mean, they, they got a lot of really good things going on in Utah, but the negative things be from the, like the, basically you get polar opposites.'s such a tough thing, man. And again, you have all these incredibly trained salespeople. All these guys have learned the art of persuasion.

Oh man, they spent two years learning how to do this. They spent two years, this whole population. And so for all the, there's still a lot of good. Utah is ground zero also for entrepreneurship. Like if you go up there, man, they're like, I never wanted to launch a business in Utah, because it's gonna be immediately stolen. Right? Like people are, it's highly competitive. Yeah. And dude, like, it's getting to the point now where it's like, okay,

who's this dude from Utah? Yeah, I'm out. It's like, proceed with caution. It's so funny. People come up to me that follow me on Instagram. Oh, you're from Utah again. No, no, no, no, no, Washington, Washington state. Come on, man. No, that's where I'm from. All right. So you spent two years on your mission. You learned how to close like a mother, like a mother trucker. And then what do you do with that skills when you get it? Because after the mission, you're just, do you go

to college right away? So when I get home, I do the number one close, which is I get married, married my high school sweetheart two and a half months after I got home off my right away. Yeah, right away. And that's also a very Mormon thing to do. I think yes and no. Like I, I think Mormons get married fast, but I got married faster. Right? Like I, I've been very goal driven from a very early age. I still have this yellow piece of paper that I wrote my two goals on, on, uh,

when I was like six years old, when a state championship and get married in the temple. Like those, those were the goals. Those are the, that was it, man. I still have it. It's in my, it's in my, uh, safe. And it drove me a lot with sports and, and like, either way you're getting a ring. Got them both. And so I accomplished them both. And like you're getting a ring. See what I did there? Yeah, I like it, I like it. Got them both. And so I accomplished them both.

And like, for me, I've always been, like I saw the way that I was raised and how good it was to have family values. And I wanted that for myself. And so got married, went to college. I was studying to be a doctor. While I was doing that. Where'd you go to school?

BYU. Okay. So just typical Mormon story, you know? But while I was doing that. Where'd you go to school? BYU. Okay. So just typical Mormon story, you know? Yeah. But while I was doing that, I was paying for school, paying to be married, like living, I didn't have anyone support me. And so I got introduced to door-to-door sales. And went and did this summer program. First year, I go out, sell for three months and I make 65 grand. I'm like, oh. What are we selling? Pest control.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, Orkin Pest Control out in North Carolina. Me and my wife move out there. We stay there from the summer and make this great money. I'm like, oh, this is good.

Then I keep going to school. Next summer I make six figures. I'm like, and this is good. Same deal with Orkin? No, I was selling alarm systems the next year. So you were just free aging like crazy. Okay. So what was the best conversation you ever had with one of your bosses to try to get you to stay when you just were up and quitting after three months? So like I was, I was never like up and quitting.

I was always looking for more ambition. Like I would have stayed. No, I don't see up and quitting like a bad thing, but you're going back to college. You can't stay in North Carolina. Right. Right. Well, it was, so we did these summer programs. It was expected. They knew you were there for three months. Right. That's the way that the dude, you would not believe. So these Utah door to door programs, like they're all centered in Utah and they contract with these different companies because they just have this never ending wealth of people. Oh man. Dude, and it is the big leagues of sales.

Like there's guys, like in the height of my career in door to door sales, I was making a half million dollars a summer. And there's a summer. A summer. And there's guys that make seven figures a summer running teams and like doing all this stuff. I mean you got a company like Vivint that has spun off two multi-billion dollar IPOs,

you know, it like, and this is all based off of door-to-door sales. Well, you probably know Sam out of Utah. Sam Taggart, right? Yeah, we're homies. So when I first met Sam, I thought he was kidding and this is before door-to-door con and like I didn't realize how big door-to-door in Utah was. I didn't was kidding. And this is before door to door con. And like, I didn't realize how big door to door in Utah was. I didn't, I didn't understand this thing. And he's like, Oh, I'm going to start this thing called door to door con. And I was like, I mean, does that, is that, I don't know if that's a good name for an event. Con man door to door door to con. Like, I don't know if it's good and dude,

he's blown it up. Crushed it. Blown it up. Killed it. Crushed it. In fact, me and Sam, I was actually just reminiscing with, do you know who Myron Golden is? I don't know Myron. So Myron, one of the best guys to sell from stage or whatnot. Me and Sam and a handful of highly successful people were all part of this program.

There's only 10 of us, seven years ago. This is right when Sam was launching Door to Door Con. And Myron taught us all how to sell from stage. And Sam since then has just crushed it. and all these other guys have crushed it. It's been fun. That's great. Yeah. So you're, you're, you're, you're a mercenary.

You went from missionary to mercenary. So what we did might be the Titleist podcast. Come on, come on. So, so here's, here's the thing. I'm a firm believer, like you don't need high pressure sales. You actually just know how to properly identify pain and solve pain. Sure. Right? Like, and so yeah, you can call me, I'm a closer, right? Like I know how to get

people to do a decision, but yeah, I want to put myself in the same camp as like a slimy car salesman. No, no, God, no, that's not what I meant To me the key especially in those fast in those fast interaction sales like door-to-door is man It's quick and it's fast is you've got to have a very high understanding or a natural ability to be likable Yep, so I'm gonna talk about that right? You got to break preoccupation quick. Yeah, you gotta be super likable. So is that something that you just always kind of had or is that something you studied?

I studied for sure. And, but I was natural at it too. Like I've always had a really good high energy that had been able to suck people in. And so like my key knocking on doors is always like causing question. Like what's going on? Who's this guy? right and like and then as soon as they

Question sucking them in and getting them to like my energy So if you had to coach somebody on being likable, how would you say this is how you become more likable? This is what you need to do. You need to really understand like the four different buying profiles, right? Like understanding that there's people that are going to be very high energy and you need to match it and be challenging to those type of people, right? Like we call it the aggressive personality, right? Like somebody like you, I'd probably put in the camp of aggressive, uh, mind personality. I'm aggressive. Yeah.

And so a guy like you, what I would do is I would match your, I would match your energy and I would challenge you. Right. Because I guarantee you respond well to challenges. And what you want with your personality, just looking at your face, I know that you want to be challenged and I know you want quick things that make sense, like just numbers that add up, not like super complex details, but like quick, like mathematical, like, oh, that makes sense. Let's go. You're not wrong. Yeah, you're not wrong. And so like understanding like the social,

the social buyer, what are the, what are the, what are the other? So you have the aggressive, you have the social, you have- What's the social? You're looking to social proof that person or? So the social buyer is somebody that is usually like the fat funny person, okay? And they want to do what the crowd's doing, right? I appreciate you not going fat and funny. Thank you so much.

I appreciate that. So typically you can actually see it in their face. And the reason why they're fat and funny is because they like hanging around people eating food. That's cool. Like they're the social person. They do what the crowd does. They want to keep up with the Joneses.

Uh, they want to do things for approval from others, everything like that. And so like those are, uh, that that's like highly, uh, highly important to them. And so like reviews and, uh, you know, like this is what everybody else is doing, be a part of the crowd. All the cool kids are doing it. Just give it a try. Come on, just try it. And the cool thing is for like a social buyer, they don't even, it doesn't have to add up, right? Like if the price is 97 bucks, you'd be like, yeah, it's around a hundred bucks. Let's go. Well, you're selling status. You're not selling product. Right, right. So they're not looking for things to add up necessarily. It's just like, does it feel

good? Yeah. Yeah. And so that's your social buyer. And then you have your analytical buyer, which is like one of the more difficult that most people suck at, right? And those people, they usually have like little beady eyes, a little bit skinny of a face. They usually are in the sciences, the engineers, like those types of things. They spend a lot of time diving. Thinking. Thinking. And the thing is you can close those guys same day. It's just going to take a little bit longer and a little bit more information. Yeah. Right.

And so like everything has to add up for that person, right? Like deep dives, like pluses and minus you screw up one number, you're done. Yeah. Right. Like, and, and so just like understanding that that profile is, uh, and then, and then you have, and then you have the grandma, the name of the profile is not coming to me, but essentially what I liken it to is like if you're selling grandma, right? Like grandma just needs to have trust, right? And so your social and aggressive buyers, your high energy, your analytical and your grandma's your low energy. So if I'm talking to grandma, but grandma. Drop down, easy peasy. How you doing? Have you, have you talked to the

neighbors about what's going on? No? Okay. My name's Chris. You probably heard about me. I'm in the area. I'm knocking on your door. Have you, have you been able to see what's going on? No, I don't know what's going on. Grandma responds really good to guarantees. And to have a grandma personality, again, for whatever reason, it's not coming to me. It's not grandma, but I best see it with grandma. You could be any, like, you could be a young, young grandma type personality, right?

Like somebody that's a little bit more timid, right? Like is unsure. Needs you to hold that hand. They're looking for reassurance. They need that trust, that reassurance. They need the guarantees, right? Like more socially driven, like the social person, but way less energy, right?

And then so like, if you understand those four different types of profiles and how to identify them, target them, and whatnot, you can sell anybody. Yeah, so it's like grandma, it's like, hey, it's okay for you to think this is a good idea. Yes. For analytical guy, it's what do you think?

For social person, it's how does this feel to you? Yep. And then for the aggressive, it's I know what you're thinking already, we're doing this. Yeah, yeah, so like an aggressive guy, knock on your door, and you come to the door, like, hey dude, I know you're busy, you give me 30 seconds, I'll go off your door, if you don't like what I'm hearing in 30 seconds, go ahead and slam the door like, Hey dude, I know you're busy. You give me 30 seconds. I'll, I'll go off your door.

If you don't like what I'm hearing in 30 seconds, go ahead and slam the door. Cool. Yeah. Right. Challenge. Yeah. Hit you straight. Right.

Like I'm, I'm giving you a timeline. They like, it makes sense. Like, dude, I can kick this guy out in 30 seconds. Yeah. I'll give him 30 seconds because he understands my personality. What? So I think for what door to door is like, man, that's, that is ninja stuff. And in our ages, you know,

being in the real estate business agents all the time ask me like, Oh, what about knocking on doors? And I have some agents that just knock on doors and they just do great. I was never a door knocker for me. I'm great on the phone, but I was never a door knocker unless it, cause I was hot, man, like I gotta have a reason to knock on that door. And sometimes in real estate, there are a reason to knock on that door. And sometimes in real estate, there are great reasons to knock on the door.

Like for example, like I love, like when you sell a house to somebody and the day before they move in, like you hit all of the neighbors and you're just like, Hey, like, you know, I just want to let you know, you're gonna see a moving truck here tomorrow. Just want to make sure my clients feel very welcome. Could you walk over and just say, hi, I'm, you know,

make them feel welcome, right? Their name are Mary and Sam, and they're moving in just if you could do that, it'd be great. Oh yeah. By the way, if you ever need real estate, let me know. Now they always shut the door thinking the same thing. Man, my agent was terrible. Right. They didn't do this for me. I still don't know what my neighbors, this person is going out on a limb, but how important, I mean, in the door, it's easy, man. The door opens, you're there. It's showtime. You know, so much of what we do is on the phone. And I find that pattern interrupting people

on the phone is so important. Because the biggest mistake, and I can't believe this still happens, right? To me, the biggest mistake that salespeople make is they call you up, they call anybody up, and they go, hey, it's John there, blah, blah, blah. Hey, John, it's John, and so and so. How you doing today?

And everybody's so programmed that you're a telemarketer, like they don't even hear anything else after that. It just shuts down. And I can't believe people still call it that. Right. It's terrible. So what is your best pattern interrupt to people to make them skip a beat and actually think about what you're saying before they categorize you instantly

as a salesperson? So, I mean, like I shared, like if I, if you're an aggressive buyer, that's what I'm gonna lead with. Hey look, I mean, like I shared, like if you're an aggressive buyer, that's what I'm going to lead with. Hey, look, I'm Chris. I know you probably want me off your door. You're thinking I'm selling you something.

Give me 30 seconds and you will not regret it. Like, hit up like what? Nobody's ever been approached with something similar to that. But also, so usually the way, like if I don't know the buyer profile or whatnot, if I knock on a door, I'm actually just facing away looking at a binder and I'm sitting there and waiting for them to talk. Oh, you want, you want them to say, can I help you first? Yeah. Can I help you? Hey, uh, yeah.

Are you the homeowner? No. Oh, you are. Okay. Cool. Uh, is it John? Cause usually I'll have like a public record. Yeah. So John, okay. John, Hey, real quick. Let me show you what's going on. And I take off. Yeah. I love that move. And, and immediately if they follow me, you got it. Now we're through the battle zone. Now we can have a conversation pattern has been interrupted, right? They're, they're wondering what's going on, whatever else. They don't follow me next door. Yeah, dude, when I went to sell cars, right? When I learned, that's where I decided,

I didn't go sell curvy vacuum cleaners, I went and sold cars for 90 days. And one of the first things they said was, man, when you walk up to somebody in the lot, no matter what they say, you say, hey, hey, doing blah, blah, welcome out, and someone said blah, blah, no matter what they say, you just say, follow me,

and you turn around and walk to the dealership. And you can walk 300 yards. If you turn around at yard 100, halfway to the dealership, they'll stop. But if you get all the way to the door and open it, they'll be right behind you. And they don't even know why they did it. Cause they just will.

I mean, as COVID proved, everybody loves to follow. Yeah, no kidding. No kidding. Speaking of which, man, Robert F. Kenny got confirmed today. I didn't not see that one coming, man. My wife was beside herself happy this morning. It was like, she's like, she's like,

she's like, big pharma is gonna get it now. I'm like, yep, let's go. It's kind of crazy. It's a wild time out there, man. It's exciting, but let's get back to you. So you're doing all of these, you're crushing, you're crushing doing, you know, your higher gun, higher gun for

door to door. So 24 years old, I'm like, I know how to do all this crap. I'm going to go do my own. I'm going to, I'm going to start my own business. See all these guys making millions of dollars in my eyes, right? Like why don't I go get a piece of that? So launched my first business in 2008. Okay.

Best, best time. Best time. Unless it was foreclosure prevention, that might not have been the best time to launch launched my first business in 2008. Okay. Best time. Best time. Unless it was foreclosure prevention, that might not have been the best time to launch a business. So yeah, obviously looking back, terrible time economically from macro environment, but man, I was blind to everything.

Like I was just blindly ambitious and thought I knew everything and very egotistical. Had never, like up until that point, I had no reason not to believe I wasn't gonna be so successful. You just knew it and very egotistical. I'd never, like up until that point, I had no reason not to believe I wasn't gonna be so successful. You just knew it. I just knew it. Yeah, of course.

I'm awesome. Yeah. Love me some meat. I love me some meat. And so, man, I went and I raised a million bucks from my father-in-law to build this business. And I took half my dad's life savings and went

and I made terrible decisions, bad partnerships, bad like did things egotistically driven, didn't ask for help. What was the business? So it was a home security business. Okay, well, let's talk about, let's break each one of those down. So first thing, bad partner,

you know, without giving names or say, or throwing, why was it a bad partnership? So not just bad partnership, but even structure of partnership, right? Like structure is so important in a partnership, like making sure that guys that are in it are in it. And second of all, who brings the money and everything else should have more control

and decision making power. None of that was true, right? Like, so I had money and everything else should have more control and decision-making power. None of that was true. Right. Like, so I had me and two other business partners. We were 25, 25, 25. And then my father-in-law was 20%. And then my dad was like 5%.

Right. And so like no decision-making authority for me for bringing the money to the table. My name is on everything. Right. Because I got the best credit. I the money to the table. My name is on everything, right? Because I got the best credit. I've got all the things. And so that's terrible. On top of that, like the only experience I had working with these guys was at a previous door-to-door company and like, we were all good. So we just thought, oh, we're going to run a great business together. Sounds like, so you were all, but you hired two more of you. You partnered with two more.

Exactly. Partnered like at classic mistake classic mistake Right, like you you definitely don't want to work with yourself Yeah, if you've got if if your partner is you one of you is not required Yeah, that partnership you better you better bring people to table to have Definitively different skill sets. Yeah, then you have and so man just just so many things went wrong Paying salaries early and all just all kinds of crap, dude. Just- Real quick, when you structured this partnership,

did you also structure the exit? Did you start- No, no, like dude, I was 24 years old. I was 20, 24, no outside help. My dad was a school teacher. Nobody was teaching me jack about any of this stuff. I was just like, oh, you own a business? I want to own a business.

Yeah, well, we're talking, somebody out there right now is listening to this and they're thinking about starting a business. And let me tell you oh, you own a business? I want to own a business. Yeah, well, we're talking, somebody out there right now is listening to this and they're thinking about starting a business. And let me tell you, if you take a partner, it's like a marriage. You better have a prenup that goes along with it. What I mean by is you need to have a,

if this doesn't work out, every single thing that's going to go in dissolving this business, from you get the website to you get this and I get that, and this is how we close the bank accounts, it needs to be spelled out before you start day one. So later in businesses, so obviously this business failed, but later in businesses, I realized like, if I'm gonna form a partnership,

we actually start with less ownership and then we have like an earn out period, right? Like there, what I know about partners is that there is a six month honeymoon stage, right? And no matter how good or you think you know this person or whatnot, in six months, you will know everything about them to make a good decision, right? And so the way I structure like earnouts, equity earnouts, anything like that, it's always has to have a six-month honeymoon. And then you make a decision of like, where to go from there. And you have like a pre six month and a post six month like definition of the partnership equity structure, everything like that. And

that served me really well. I have such a great partner in our business here. And we've, here's again, something that's super simple and stupid, but I think is clutching this. My partner in this business, we've been partners for 14 years. And I And outside of work functions, I can count the number of times that he and I have been out or at dinner in 14 years on two hands, less than two hands. We don't hang out as friends, we're business partners, which I think is definitely a huge success. Everybody wants to do business with their friends, makes it very difficult.

So do business with the best player you can find, not necessarily the best friend you can find. I agree a hundred percent with that. So I've, I've been business partners with a guy for a long time now and we're, we're fantastic. And we've, we've become friends over the years, but like, we're definitely not naturally like, we don't have the same interests. Right? Like he's out, we're out of motorbikes. I'm playing football, you know, like whatever. whatever. But over the years,

we've become really good friends and been able to hang out. But similarly, we hang out a lot more at work than we ever do outside of work. I want to talk about this because that first business failed. It did. So here you are 24 and a half years in, but hang on. You lost your dad's money. Yeah, lost it. Yeah, dude, I'll talk all about it. Yeah. So two and a half years in, we scaled too fast, too quick. I got debtors and collections calling me off the hook. Money's gone, right?

I'm literally taking personal credit cards, going to my buddy and say, can you process this and rebate me back the cash so I can make payroll? Like, I mean, that, my buddy and say, can you process this and rebate me back the cash so I can make payroll? Like, I mean, that bad, right? And it's just that's how I'm living. I'm liquidating every asset I know to make payroll to keep this thing alive. And I'm getting no fight or help from these other partners, right?

Like to the point where like I relocated to be outside of a contractual zone so we could sell to another alarm company to be able to a contractual zone so we could sell to another alarm company to be able to generate more revenue, just all kinds of crap. Tanner Iskra So yeah, dude, end up filing bankruptcy and I have to go and I gotta address it with my father and I'm like, dude, your money's gone. Seven figures gone, right? I know I told you we're going to take that one and make it to 10, but it's zero. I know I told you we're going to take that one and make it to 10, but it's zero. It was like, still remember the day, very like emotional experience for me.

And, uh, he didn't take it well at all. Like, um, he was terrible. Like our relationship was destroyed for about six or seven years. And, uh, so this was January, 2011 that I 2011 that I lose everything when I end up filing bankruptcy. Went to my dad and he was an all-star. Yeah. Yeah, so like, I mean, dude, he just said, Chris, I know you'll make it right.

And that's all I needed. That's all I needed. I want to take it. I want to take it. I wanted to take it to make it right. Fine. So, you know, over the years, so this is what I was told, like my father-in-law was in my ear all the time and like, Hey, we need a payment plan. We need like, and like legally I owed them nothing. Right? Like bankruptcy, it was wiped clean. But I told them I was going to make it right.

And my father-in-law was always like, hey, I need a payment plan, dude. I'm like, look, Carl, I cannot pay you off $1,000 at a time. I have to accumulate cash, make investments, do different things so that I can just cut you a check. That's the only way you, when you're starting from things so that I can just cut you a check. That's the only way you, when you're starting from zero, that you can pay off a million dollar debt, that there's no assets backing. And so over the years, I gave them token stuff, like gave them both cars. And then I told my dad, I said, look, dad, I'm trying to build up money.

I said, invest alongside me, like, do some real estate deals. I will get you involved in some real estate deals that I am certain will pay off. And so like over the years, I made my dad seven figures in real estate. Nice. Did really well. And then ultimately I cut him a check plus interest for what he had gotten into. That's a good day. And that was fantastic. And did the same thing for my father-in-law, except for the real estate thing. Like frankly, like for my father-in-law, it was like transactional and love him now, but like there was times that I didn't feel like I loved him. now, but like there was times that I didn't feel like I loved him. And cause he, he made it, he made it pretty miserable.

Yeah. Money's so weird, dude. And I get it. It's, it's huge loss. And it's hard when you take private money from people that you know, love and trust in and out of a situation where 2017 did a house flipping fund with a guy that was best man at my wedding. Right. I raised all the private, I raised all the money, shouldn't have done it. He ended up splitting town to move to Houston with the money and left me with a bunch of lawsuits and a bunch of unfinished projects.

And it was a mess. And yeah, I had to make all those people whole and it hurt. It was a lot of money and it hurt. And it makes me to this day, you know, I try not to, you know, if you haven't lost seven figures, at least once you're not entrepreneurial hard enough, just got how it is. And, but yeah, that risk aversion,

I wish I could say that it raised it from that experience. Just didn't. I think like, I'm still like, I'm gonna see something I want. I'm like, yeah, let's do that. That looks good. My wife is now my risk aversion. She's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, slow down.

Well, I think when you go through something like that, you realize it's not as bad as what you had a nightmare about. Yeah. Like every entrepreneur's nightmare or potential entrepreneur's nightmare I lived, right? Like $2.2 million bankruptcy, car repo, less than a thousand dollars in my bank account, owed money to both of my fathers. And you're still here. Right, right $2.2 million bankruptcy, car repo, less than a thousand dollars in my bank account, owed money to both of my fathers. Right?

And still here. Right. Right. Right. Like going through that is everybody's nightmare. But when I went through it, I like, it was like a gut check, but I'm like, dude, this isn't as bad as I actually thought it would be. Right? Like still have my God, still have my family and still have all the experience that I had up until this point. And so if it's not that bad, should I ever fear getting back to here? Yeah. No. And so I think it actually creates that, like you're willing to keep going risk because you realize, and most people are willing to go to zero. And so they always fear zero and it keeps them playing small.

Yeah. And so like, but once you get there, then you're like, dude, this is it. Like, cool, man. Let's freaking go to the moon. I'm good. I'm not dead. Yeah. No, it's good. I couldn't agree more. So security fails and you move on to something, obviously, that became very successful, which was- Not right away. Not right away. No, I immediately started another security business. Because I learned a lot. And I started back with my now partner, right? So I knew who I wanted to do business with and it was this guy.

And so we both started and we were both like fresh and we tried to scale and we did it. We built like a nice little nest egg, but like nothing. And then like, we tried everything. Freaking dude, anything to make a buck, I've done it. Flipped houses, cars, farms, cattle, like- Everything. Dude, I had a coupon book,

a search engine optimization business. Like, dude, if there was a way to drop ship and make a buck, I was trying to. And so I came to the realization, I'm like, dude, I don't know how to grow a business. I suck. And so I actually, like one of the most pivotal moments in my life is I decided to swell my pride and go work for somebody else. And so because I knew there was something I needed to learn, so then I spent the next four and a half years working for some of the greatest entrepreneurs

that I could find. And I moved to Utah and I went and I worked for Todd Peterson. Do you know who Todd is? I don't know Todd. One of the greatest that'll ever do the game. And so Todd is the founder of Vivint, two multi- Obviously know what Vivint is, yeah. I have Vivint in my house, I think.

Two multi-billion dollar IPOs. And I had the opportunity to like sit down, study that guy and take notes. And I, during that time, I made really good money. Well, let's talk about that real quick. Cause I think this is a mistake that a lot of people make as well, is they think those doors are closed to them.

They don't understand how to get in somewhere where it's like, listen, I just want to, I just want to watch. I just want to learn. Like I'm going to do my job, but in the, in the, in the spare time, help me. How do you have that conversation with somebody? So it wasn't even necessarily that, but I would just put myself in positions to like be in the room. I like, uh, whether it was in management meetings or whatever else, or like just networking, like inside the company to like learn and grow,

like why is he doing this? What was the decision making process? All that thing. People love people that are willing to learn. Right. And so I spent, I worked for three different businesses over four and a half years and each very intentional, taking notes, designing what I was going to do next. And so ultimately, at the end of 2016, I walked away at top of my game was making a half million bucks a year, uh, had like the dream job. I'm like, all right, it's ready. I'm, I'm ready to go figure out what I want to do next. And then, um, during this time I've spent a lot of money on personal development, coaches, masterminds, everything like that. And ultimately in 2017,

so I went after a couple of big things and failed actually. Like I chased this magic generator thing, I call it magic because it never came to fruition, but we sold $2 billion worth of contracts in six months. Whoa. It was wild. And didn't fulfill any of them, couldn't fulfill any of them. Made $0. months. Whoa. It was wild. And then fulfilling it couldn't fulfill the, and made $0. Yeah. And that is magic. That was magic.

That's voodoo generators. That's not good. But what I learned from that experience was it wasn't the generator. So I networked to like the highest level and grew so faster in those six months. And I realized it wasn't the generator that made me do it. It was my belief in the generator. And I'm like, man, if I can have this much belief in something that actually works, life will be incredible. Yeah, you'll kill it. And, and so like, that was like a big aha moment.

I go and I take an online drop shipping course to learn Facebook marketing that summer of 2017. I came to this realization, holy crap, Facebook marketing is online door knocking. And I like up until that point, it never made sense. It just clicked. My biggest pain point in door doors is self-replication. I couldn't replicate myself across 10,000 doors at one point. Online, I couldn't replicate 10,000 screens at one time.

So figured that out, launched my company fall of 2017 out of my garage and just everything dialed in like our exact strategy, exactly how we're going to do it. I'm road mapping five years. I got this perfect map. I'm like, we're in five years, we're going to have 500 employees, a million bucks. This is exactly what the 500 employee structure is going to look like. This is how we're going to get there. Like I had it all dialed in. This is our culture, core values, our mission, do, do, do, do, do. What I, what I call the, the eight pillars for growth I had completely dialed in. And so we launched on my garage fall of 2017, no money, no outside cash. Year one, we do 16 million. Year two, we do 32. Year three, we do 34. Year four, we do 89. Year five, we do 233 million. And-

So you, and you were all from Facebook ads, booking appointments, you were sending salesmen out to an initial, you're sending salesmen, sales. And this is like one of the miracles that happened. Initially it was that fall of 2019. I get this bright idea that we should start selling over zoom. Yeah. I was just going to say we should start selling over zoom. So we start that by the time COVID hits, I got a 25% sales floor already built.

We scale that teams with 300 people on zoom, on zoom. And so I build this, I build this 1100 person organization where the six, fastest growing company in the nation, all privately held, have any company, any industry, like we are just, and we're making 24% net margin. And here comes private equity. Private equity. Knock, knock, knock.

Yeah. So meanwhile, during that same time, I was consulting another business and I told them I would only do it for equity. I had about 10% equity in this business. Three years, I give them the same roadmap that I built my business off of. They build and sell for 120 million in three years.

Not bad. Not bad. So I experienced these two different, one as the founder, creator, and the other one as a consultant equity shareholder. So I have two nine figure exits in a five year period. And yeah, I mean, it was a phenomenal ride. And, uh, yeah, I mean, it was, it was a phenomenal ride. Dude, that's awesome. So now that this is obviously, look,

you don't have to do anything at this point of view. I want to. So it's, it's so funny. You know, somebody asked me like, what's your definition of success? And it's like, dude, I just don't want to have to be anywhere. I just want to go only where I want to go and not have to be anywhere. And I think you're already there. So obviously you're doing exactly what you want to do. So what are you doing now? Yeah. So we're running next level pros, which is a,

it's a training and a coaching platform. So I have like the most incredible team I have. So I have these eight pillars that we help companies use to scale, to grow, right? The majority of our clients are home service, home product, but it applies to any industry. I got medical professionals, I got restaurants, I got all different types of business owners in this platform.

And the cool thing is like, I've created this program where I have coaches that come in, they implement, I teach, we do workshops, everything like that. But like, I've like attracted some of the most incredible coaches in the world. I have a three-time Olympic gold medalist on my team that teaches mindset. He's a 400-meter Olympic gold medalist. Awesome. Like just absolute studs across the board. Like my magic and my like ability to like grow teams and like build culture is transforming over into

this. And like it just gives me a ton of purpose. Like we have a, we have a five-year roadmap to get to where our community is generating an additional, from where they come in to where they're at in our community, additional 125 billion a year. And that's our, that's our, that's our goal. So we call it Impact 125. It's on my wrist. Our mission is designing lives that impact the world. I truly believe that the best way to change the world is through entrepreneurship. That's interesting you say that, because one of the things that we're big on here

is purpose driven business. We always try to attach our business to different causes and build in that giving as part of our business models. That's something you always... 100%. So we have two KPIs that we track within our community, how much additional revenue we're generating and how many hours of community service that they give as a, as a organization. So we have a goal of 3 million,

3 million hours a year to give as a, within our, the next level community. Dude, that's such a bigger challenge, man. Cause the money's easy. It's the hours that are hard. Absolutely. Dude, it is. It is. It's hard. Absolutely. And so, like, the way I've always built, like, not always, but when I built on purpose and when I've had success building organizations, it's always when I focus on developing the employees whole human, physically, economically, their associations, their spirituality. Like people don't understand that. Like most, most employers are like, Hey, get them a paycheck, make sure they're

taking care of that way. Like good, no help them lose weight, help them be a better father, mother, better contributor to society, help them grow closer to God. And they will never ever want to leave you because they're getting paid so many different ways and they will take care of your customer. You know, I had Cameron Hurled on here, the hero, vivid vision, brilliant guy on here not too long ago when he was talking about the number one KPI he looks at is employee, not sales, not customer satisfaction,

nothing, employee satisfaction. He says, that is my number one metric we look at because if your employees are super happy and they love you, they will go to the end of the earth for your clients. And I was like, whoa. And so many people think of that differently. I mean, how many times have, you know, you go to some random place and there's a problem

and then the manager, you know, they don't back their people at all. They just, the Karens of the world want to raise a ruckus. So think about this, the way you do business with your end user and the way that you do business with your employer the exact same way. If you think you're going to solve things with price with your customer, you're so terribly wrong. If you think you're going to solve something with pay, you're so wrong. Right. Like those are ancillary aspects to everything that you do. Like solve their physical problems, solve their relationship problems, solve their way that they're connected with God. And you will have a loyal Salesforce.

Because you create value. And the same thing with your end user. It's never about the dollars, ever, ever, ever. That is just a derivative. Sure, it has to be somewhere in line, but so many business owners make that mistake on their offer to their customers. They make it all about price. They try selling better by lowering their price

or whatever else instead of bringing value. Same thing with your. Well, Neil Patel posted something I thought was really interesting not too long ago as well. It was talking about, it was a chart and it was showing the most search words on the internet. And up until 2017, when you're attaching it to any product or service,

the most searched adjective was free, right? It was really really high and down here was best and it was really low. And in 2017, for some reason, those lines converged and split. And now best is so much higher than free and free continues to go down. So people stop searching for free. This they're searching for. What is the best this? Yeah. Which tells me that it is a society. Currently, we're always looking for the best value and best equals value. All right. One more question.

If you could go back and talk to your 23 year old self and you could give yourself one piece of advice, what is it? You know, I, I would, I wouldn't change my path whatsoever. And, and you know, so one, I just say, Hey, keep going. When times are tough, you're going to be fine. Um, but if I could go back to just any random old 23 year old, it's like, look, you're only in competition with yourself. Find your path and don't compare yourself to anyone else. Be your best version of you and you will accomplish incredible things.

I gotta tell you, I never thought about it. It's odd that I never thought about it until today, but dude, the number one skill that I think is going out the window with these young kids is the ability to connect personally with somebody individually, personally. And look at the Mormon church, dude, they're teaching him two years at a time exactly how to do that. And that is a skill that I think will take people further than ever. So if you're not Mormon, go knock a door, learn how to talk to somebody. If they want to find you, Chris, how they find you. You know, the best way, if you have any questions about anything, is it right if I drop my phone? Yeah, please go ahead. Yeah. You

can just go ahead and text me 509-374-7554. You can just shoot me a text, ask me any questions about things that we've talked about, or if you're looking at scaling your business or whatnot. You can just shoot me a text, ask me any questions about things that we've talked about, or if you're looking at scaling your business or whatnot, you can also find me on Instagram, chrisleaqb. Yup. Love it. Okay. Cool. Well, awesome, man. Well, thanks for coming by. I appreciate it, man. And look, dude, if you're listening to this, I think the lessons you should take away from it are number one, risk is what makes the world go round. And it's not always going to go your way. And if it doesn't go your way, you've got to have the cojones or the fortitude or whatever

it is to keep going and try something different. And if you're going to bet on something, we're in Vegas, man, bet on yourself. Looks like Chris did that and worked out pretty well. We'll see you next week. What's up everybody? Thanks for joining us for another episode of Escaping the Drift. Hope you got a bunch out of it, or at least as much as I did out of it.

Anyway, if you wanna learn more about the show, you can always go over to escapingthedrift.com. You can join our mailing list, but do me a favor. If you wouldn't mind, throw up that five star review, give us a share, do something, man. We're here for you. Hopefully you'll be here for us. But anyway, in the meantime, we will see you in the next episode.