Next Level Pros - #13: Family + Fortune: The Secrets of Growing a 9-Figure Business & A Family

Episode Date: June 26, 2023

Welcome to "The Founders Podcast" with your host, Chris Lee. In this captivating episode, Chris shares his personal journey of building a thriving business while navigating the challenges of raising a family. Join us as we delve into his unique approach and gain valuable insights on how to strike a harmonious balance between entrepreneurial success and family life. In this episode, Chris emphasizes the significance of placing family as the top priority, drawing from his own experiences of marrying his high school sweetheart and starting a family with limited financial resources. He reveals the profound impact of having a partner who believes in your dreams even before achieving success. As a father, Chris proudly showcases his children's accomplishments and interests, illustrating the pride and joy they bring to his life. However, he also shares his unconventional views on parenting and inheritance, highlighting his belief that his children should work diligently to achieve their own success rather than solely relying on inherited wealth. Listeners will be captivated as Chris unveils his unique parenting techniques, such as involving his children in a sales event during the 4th of July. He explains how this experience instills discipline, work ethic, and essential skills like inventory management, pricing, and resilience in his children. Additionally, he provides invaluable guidance on teaching children the importance of investing their earnings wisely, equipping them with lifelong financial literacy. "The Founders Podcast" invites you to join Chris Lee on this inspiring journey of entrepreneurship and family. Gain firsthand insights into Chris's remarkable approach, where he molds his children into well-rounded individuals while building a successful business empire. Prepare to be motivated, challenged, and inspired to strike a harmonious balance between your own pursuits and the cherished moments with your loved ones. HIGHLIGHTS “Family has always been my top priority. They are the driving force behind my entrepreneurial journey."
 "Finding the right balance between entrepreneurship and family life is an ongoing challenge, but it's crucial for long-term happiness and fulfillment." "I want my children to work hard and achieve their own success, rather than relying solely on inherited wealth." TIMESTAMPS
 00:00: Introduction 00:32: My Priorities 02:13: Raising Children 05:28: Disipline 08:10: The 4th Of July 12:49: The Opportunities Of Covid 16:05: Molding The Future 24:00: ROI On Your Time 29:39: Family Over Everything 🚀 Join my community - Founder Acceleration https://www.founderacceleration.com 🤯 Apply for our next Mastermind https://www.thefoundermastermind.com ⛳️ Golf with Chris https://www.golfwithchris.com 🎤 Watch my latest Podcast Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-founder-podcast/id1687030281 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1e0cL2vI1JAtQrojSOA7D2?si=dc252f8540ee4b05 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@thefounderspodcast

Welcome to the Founder Podcast, where we explore the journeys of some of the most successful and inspiring entrepreneurs from around the world. I'm your host, Chris Lee, a serial entrepreneur with a passion for building and growing businesses. Throughout my career, I founded multiple nine-figure businesses and learned a thing or two about what it takes to succeed in the world of business. I want to share those lessons with you by searching out the coolest guests on planet earth and have them share their own incredible stories. But this podcast, it's not just for entrepreneurs. It's for anyone that's

looking to be inspired by these stories of people who have overcome incredible odds and create something truly remarkable. So join me on this journey as we explore the fascinating world of entrepreneurship and meet the founders that are shaping it today. Let's dive in. Hey guys, welcome to another solo episode with myself, Chris Lee. So we're going to be talking about something that's near and dear to my heart today, talking about building a nine-figure business while raising a family. So a lot of entrepreneurs, they've chosen to forego on the family to go and build a business, or they put it off until later in their life, and then they try building a family, and it's really difficult. One of the theories that I've always lived by

throughout my career is that, one, I got to put God first. And then, two, my family comes second and then comes building the business. You know, a lot of entrepreneurs, they go and they try to build the business. Then they go and try to find a wife or a husband and then build a family from there. The thing that I've found that has always worked the best was focusing on building the family and then building a business around that. So some of you guys may or may not know, but I married my high school sweetheart at the age of 21. She had just turned 20 years old. We were young, dumb and broke. And we are talking about like, I had a thousand dollars in my bank account. I was driving a 1991 Ford Thunderbird that was

worth a thousand dollars that a guy named Daryl Lookabill, a friend of my dad's had given to me as soon as I came home off of my LDS mission. And he said, pay me whenever you can. So essentially my net worth was virtually zero. I had, I had nothing but a hope and a dream. And I got a woman that believed in me well before I was able to go and build it. You know, it's easy to get somebody to believe in you after the fact, right? After you've built wealth financially, physically, emotionally, all these different things, it's really easy to get somebody. And the problem is, is those type of believers, you know, you never really know. Is it a gold digger? Is it?

I don't know. And, you know, I'm not advocating that if you get married later in life, that you're only getting married to a gold digger. But the fact of the reality is, is when somebody believes in you before you built anything, you know, you found and hit the right jackpot. And my wife, Andrea, she's absolutely a jackpot of a gal when it comes to supporting me and building my business. So today I want to talk about something, like I said, that is near and dear to me is raising children while building a business and just some of the things that have really worked in building amazing kids. So for anybody that's ever met any of my children, my oldest is Addison.

She's 16 years old. And then my son, Caden, 14, he'll turn 15 in August. Then I have Jocelyn, who's 11, Dylan, who's nine, and Bruin, who just turned five. And anybody that's ever met any of my kids, they're not perfect by any means, but they are pretty dang cool. So I got a lot of really cool things going on. My oldest, Addison, she is becoming a woman, really independent. She has a job at Panera. She dances for a couple of different sports seasons there at the local high school. She's going into her junior year. She's really passionate about dance, about beauty. She

plans on being an esthetician. And then my son, Caden, he's really into football, but also get this speed cubing. Speed cubing is absolutely crazy. So if you guys have never seen like the Netflix documentary or whatnot, it's these guys. They have the Rubik's Cubes and they go really fast. In fact, my son, he's recorded several different five-second solves on a Rubik's Cube. He's top 100 in the world. Caden, if you guys aren't following him, Cuber Caden on YouTube. He's really passionate. He's got like 1100 subscribers, building a really cool community,

but really an exceptional young man. My daughter, exceptional young woman, believers in Christ. They exemplars of so many great things, really respectful. You know, my other ones are coming into their own and whatnot. But I want to share with you guys some of the things that have, I've seen that have really worked as raising children while building a business and some of the disciplines and whatnot that I've taught my, now I have a really extreme view on parenting and a lot of people don't, uh, don't quite agree with it. And some of you guys may be wondering, why does your daughter have a job at the age of 16 with Panera? You've had these big exits, you have all this money and all the different things. Why are you making them work?

Why shouldn't they be focusing on their education or those type of things? And so once again, I have an extreme view on inheritance and those type of things. I come from the camp of I'm rich. You guys just so happen to get to partake of it while you're at home, but you ain't getting nothing. In fact, I have been teaching my children since they were, you know, this tall. And since they were, you know, four or five years old, look, you ain't going to inherit anything. And I always knew that I would be wealthy and that there would be a lot. And so like I was training them from a young age that you cannot expect a handout from me. I'm going to take care of your every need while you're here at home.

But once you leave the nest, it's going to be up to you. It's going to be on you. If you want to go to college, you're going to have to either pay for it by working for it up front or you're going to have to take out debt or whatnot. Daddy ain't floating that bill. OK. And so the reason why this has been the mentality that I've created is I've tried to look at it like, OK, what are some of the foundational principles that have made me into the person that I am today? And I think about the different disciplines, the work ethics and everything that have been instilled into me by my parents. For example, if you guys remember in episode one, I talk about how at the age of 12 years old, the rule in the household growing up was that we had to pay for

everything but underwear or food on the table. So if we wanted anything, clothes, if we want to go on dates, if we wanted to go to college, if we wanted to go on a mission, whatever it was, we were paying for it. And so we were making these sacrifices early on in our lives and being very disciplined in our savings, in our investing, in our work ethic that ultimately led to what I attribute as much of my foundational principles and my foundation that I've been able to build my business base off of. And so the question is, is like, if that's what I want for my kids, if I want them to have a similar work ethic, if I want them to have a similar discipline or whatnot, why would I want to change the way that they are raised compared to me? Now, granted,

they're going to have a lot of other things, just, just living in my home and whatnot. But if I can keep those same work ethic, discipline, developing out skill sets, very extreme compared to most is like, we've always tried to have our kids make their own money and not only make their own money, but invest their own money. So one of the things that I have my kids participate in ever since they're five years old is an annual sales event during the 4th of July. And so most people are looking at the 4th of July as a great time to barbecue, watch fireworks, hang with family and friends. We do all those things, but this is also our time to shine and my kids' opportunity to be able to learn sales. I think sales is a foundational skill that anybody that wants to be successful in life, that they have to learn some aspect of. And sales applies to everything,

right? It applies to being a doctor. It applies to being a lawyer. It applies to being any participant in society. If you want to convince your spouse to marry you, to date you, to participate in any activity with you, right? Like this has to be done through some form of sales, setting proper expectations, going through clarity, getting commitment, pushing and growing, developing, helping somebody see things from your point of view. You want to develop this level of skill set. And so with my children, I've tried to figure out, okay, how can I teach them sales at a very young age that is going to give them a foundation to be able to go and be successful the rest of their lives. Once again, 4th of July is it. So one thing that we have always done is we will go to the dollar store and we load up on glow sticks. You get these big packs.

They're like 10 to 20 glow sticks for a dollar. And then we go and we have them sell them around the fireworks. And this is their opportunity to be able to go and experience a few different things. So what I do is they'll get like a sign that they put around their neck. They're going to make the sign. They're going to do all these different things. They go and they go from little picnic blanket to picnic blanket of different families. And they ask them, hey, I'm wanting or we're selling these glow sticks.

They're five5. We bought them for a dollar. What, you know, and, and from this, what they do is they learn discipline. They, they learn the ability to put up with rejection because they definitely don't get, don't know. And it's so fun to like, see my kids come back. Like Dad, they told me, no, they don't want me. They don't want to buy these clothes. And then I get the opportunity to motivate them and tell them, like, hey, you got to keep pushing through. This is a numbers game. You're going to up your skill. The more the more experiences, the more interactions that you have. And so this is something that I've done with Addison and Caden since they were little.

And Jocelyn and Dylan have also taken on it. And this year, Bruin is going to be participating at the age of five, his first time. And so they go out, they make a great markup and everything. But here's a few things that I teach them that are absolutely imperative to their education. One, inventory management. They have to purchase their inventory before they go out and they sell the product. And I will not buy back any unused inventory. It's up to them to be able to sell the inventory.

And so, two, they have to purchase the inventory with their own money. If they do not have the money to be able to purchase the inventory, they have to take out a loan from the bank, a.k.a. dad, and for which I give them a one time loan for a one time payment of 10 percent interest. This is we're talking hard money, you know, because typically they're going to be paying it back within the week. We buy the we buy the inventory right beforehand. We sell it and then they pay me the inventory based off the week. We buy the inventory right beforehand. We sell it. And then they pay me the inventory based off of the loan. So if they took out and they bought 20 packs of glow sticks, they're going to be paying me $22 back. And a lot of you guys are thinking, man, that is harsh or whatnot. But it is teaching them the value of finance, helping them really understand how the real world works. Nobody ever gets a freebie,

free money from the bank. You're always going to have to pay for it. You understand inventory. Do I want to manage more inventory? You want to manage less. And then they understand the value of pricing and markup and hard work. And so when they go out and they're able to turn $1 into $5 purely based off of a skill of going to face rejection, going, working when other kids are having fun, right? Like, like it's really easy for these kids to see, for my kids to look around and be like, man, they're playing Frisbee. They're doing all this. And meanwhile, we are slave driving, getting them from, from a blanket to blanket. And, uh, the one thing that I do is I will follow them from blanket to blanket, but I'm going to watch them. So this is when they're little, as they get older,

I let them go out completely on their own. And then they come back after they sell their inventory, get some more inventory and then go back out and, and sell it. But the reason I, the whole back is I want them to have all the interactions. I don't want these people to transact because daddy is watching. Right. I want them to be able to learn and grow and develop. And then what they do is they take their money and we allow them to buy a few consumables with their profits if they want to go buy a toy or candy or whatnot. But then I heavily encourage them to start investing their money. One of the things I can do as a parent is teach them a skill set that they're going to be able to use for the rest of their life.

Because reminding you that they are not going to get my money at the end of my life, but they can have my knowledge, my skills. And as long as they are under my roof or they reach out to me through the phone, I'm going to share with them everything possible to help them become more successful and set them up for their rest of their lives. And so it's interesting is each of my kids, they have began investing and they've been able to see the power of investing. And I'll give you an example. During COVID, there was an incredible opportunity to invest, right? Stocks were way down. Oil was literally trading at negative money per barrel and different things. And so I found several different stocks in which they were very opportunistic. One stock being a company called Cosmos Energy, KOS. And my kids, I identified it, right?

Once again, dad's willing to share all the knowledge that he knows. And I said, hey, kids, this is an incredible opportunity. They had some money that they had earned through different things. A lot of it coming from this sales event and then other things that they've done. I've had kids sell candy at school. I've had them go and sell products to neighbors or whatever it is. So they take some of that money, also birthday money or those different things, and they bring it and they're able to start investing in. So this particular stock

went down to 60 cents a share. And I remember my son, he brought me $98. Dylan, he was, I don't know, six years old at the time. And he says, Dad, you know, I want to put this in the stock. And because I was like, touting like, hey, kids, right now is a great time to invest. And like even my six year old and, and they understand the very basics. Like if I own stock, it means I have ownership in a company. Dad has ownership in Solgen and other stocks and different things. And so he went and put $98 today, that same, that's, so he got, you know, it was like close to a hundred shares today. That stock is trading around, around $6. His 60 or his original, sorry, it was, what was it? Yeah, it was like, anyways, he got 98 shares at 60 cents a share. It was like 60, 60, some dollars that he paid now is worth $600. He's

been able to see a 10X return. And each of my kids have been able to participate in different things. Like my oldest, she bought a half a Bitcoin back when it was about $1,500 a share through some of the money that she had earned through selling. And they've been able to compound and do these different things. And then on top of that, I have tried to teach my kids levels of discipline. I pay them for books. You go and you read a certain book and write a one-page paper. I will pay you $20. My two oldest, they participated in a no sugar challenge in which I paid them $100 not to eat sugar for one year. And they did this at the age of like six and eight, my two oldest. Can you imagine any six-year-old or eight-year-old in the world that's willing to give up sugar for a whole year? And we did this like right after Halloween because we just kind of got sick of all the sugar in the house and everything like that.

But it was incredible to see the level of discipline. I think so often with kids, we just don't think that they are able to comprehend complex things. They're not able to comprehend discipline or investing or math or anything like that. And so we hold back, right? We teach them very little through the education system. We don't spend a lot of time with them at home. We may just interact here and there and just kind of talk really small and low to them. But what I found is the complete opposite is when you treat your child like an adult,

as far as information that they can consume that will be educational and beneficial to them, they will wow you 99 times out of a hundred, what they're able to retain, what they're able to comprehend and compute. It is mind boggling. My kids continue to amaze me as they make. And one thing I do like with their investment portfolios is I make them make the decision when to buy and when to sell. I will make recommendations. I'll be like, hey, this thing's going good or this thing's going bad. This is what I'm doing. But my kids don't always follow me, right? Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. But I let them learn based off of their own intuition and their own decision

making skills and doing their own research, reading the articles, reading the books. You know, you look at my son, Caden, he's very entrepreneurial, very driven. The kid has read a personal development library larger than most adults that I know. And he can quote books. It is, it's no wonder he is such a star when it, when it comes to like speed cubing and all these different things, his football coach, he, so he's an eighth grader now going into high school and they just did finish spring football. The high school football coach referred to him as the most intelligent kid in the whole high school. And he's not even in high school yet. And, and I would not say that

this is DNA, right? Like, sure. We're, you know, I'm smart. He's smart, all those different things, but it's because he's put in the time, the effort, the work, this kid is more disciplined than like I said, 99.9% of adults. It's because we have taught him from a very early on, like the importance of a variety of different things, right? Exercising discipline, being rewarded for it. It's interesting to note, so Caden, he went and he invested or he made $100 for giving up sugar for a year. I allowed him, I said, hey, if you guys go and do another year, I'll pay you $200.

Addison opted out. Caden continued. He made it two years, age six and age seven, without sugar. He learned the ultimate discipline in delaying gratification and being able to get paid for it. He has since taken that same money and multiplied it in the stock market, that original $300 is now worth $10,000. I kid you not. And it is absolutely amazing. And a couple other like cool things that we've been able to do is like, so one thing that's very important to us in our religion is serving missions, because we believe that serving missions is our way to give back, to serve God, to share the

gospel of Jesus Christ. But also it teaches a level of discipline that will set a child up for the rest of their life and experiences that they'll be able to draw on for the rest of their life. So, and some people in our religion choose to go on missions and some people choose not to go on missions. And so one thing that I learned from my mom is that if you really want a kid to make a sacrifice and go and serve a mission or go and do anything, you got to tie their heart to it, right? They got to be totally bought into it. And so like, for example, my son Caden right now, he has a nursery in which we combined, invested into me. I co-invested with him. I make 50, I make 50% of the return. He has to do all the work,

but that is his mission project. And he knows at the age of, he started this at the age of 12, that, hey, this effort, when I am going, I am working on these trees every single day. This is putting God first in my life and showing that I am committed to going and serving a mission. And whether you're religious or you're LDS or anything like, none of this really matters. It's what is the principle. It's tying a child to something that a vision, a strategy, a purpose that is greater than them and greater than their own ego, right? Like the important thing is that we keep our kids not thinking only about themselves. Sure, it's important to think about themselves every once in a while.

How can I improve? But get them outside of themselves. And one thing that myself and my wife, my wife and Andrea and I have tried to do is be an example of charitable giving. Even when we had nothing, we were always looking for families during Christmas time, Thanksgiving, ones that we could go and provide a Thanksgiving meal or presents or whatnot. And we have been very intentional in making sure that our children see this, right? They see how important it is to us to give back, to take care of those that are in need, that aren't nearly as blessed as us. You know, when we get together and we have family prayer every single night. We pray about opportunities to be

able to go and serve, opportunities to be able to give back, opportunities to be examples of the believers. Because one thing I want my kids to know more than anything is how much I value my relationship with God and these other things, how important that I'm going to ask my father in heaven to bless me with these opportunities to be outside of myself, to not focus on just the materialistic, right? It's so easy when you're building wealth to be caught up in the materialistic, but I promise you, if you can focus on the spirituality, the things that are outside of the materials, it's the giving back, value creation, building a community. This is what is going to,

this is what we are missing as a society in the family unit and raising incredible children. And once again, I am not claiming that I have it all figured out. In fact, I am so far off what, you know, being the perfect parent. But there are a few things, like I said, that I have learned along the way. Another thing is working alongside my children, right?

Creating a work ethic that rewards them and that they understand, like, what do I get? What do I need to contribute just to be a part of, uh, be a part of the Lee family? And where can I actually create some additional value? So one thing is like, I've been able to, I've been able to pay for things to have be done. A lot of my, a lot of my career, a lot of the time I've chosen to do the work myself so that my kids can see that their dad knows how to work, that I am not above doing construction, doing projects, getting my hands dirty, working in the tractor, whatever, whatever it may be. Now, granted, I do have a full-time employee because I have 23 acres and we have nine acres of orchard and we're doing, we do a lot of projects and whatnot, but he is not the only

person that works around the Lee household. My wife, this is one of the most hardest, like anybody that knows what Andrea knows, this woman knows how to work. She is such a remarkable example of work. She wakes up 6am. She's out. She's got her son hat on. She's out working in the field. She's mowing, she's weeding. She's spraying. She's doing whatever it takes. Like that is a perfect example. And then whenever I have the opportunity to drive in and get my hands dirty, I'm doing the same. And a lot of people look at it like, why would you not leverage your time and go do the thing that you make the most money? Guys, here's the thing. Life ain't just about money. It's not just about efficiency, efficiency, efficiency. And one thing, so I talked about this in one of my podcasts with

Dan Locke. If that hasn't dropped yet, you have something to look forward to. But it's not just ROI when it comes to your time. Okay. It's not, the return isn't only financial. There are so many other ways to receive a return on your investment of time and building great character, building great children. This is one of the incredible ways to do it. And so something that we recently rolled out, which I'm really excited at the Lee household. So is the way that we pay our kids. So some people are like big, like don't pay your kids for chores. And other people are like, only pay your kids for chores. Like you got to teach them that, you know, there's, there's incentive attached. We fall right in the middle. And this is what I mean. So we have our basic chores, the essentials to be a part of the Lee household, what is required from you. And it's like the basics, right? Clean the

house, make your bed, brush your teeth, pick up after yourself, do your laundry, clean around the home, right? We do not pay for those basic chores, but then we have additional chores that you can make money for. And all of these are because there's a financial benefit to the Lee household. For example, our nine acres of cherries. So if you go on, you work out in the orchard, you're able to participate at an hourly rate. Okay. And so now this hourly rate ranges based off of your age starts out of a dollar an hour, it goes to two, four, eight, 12, and later, uh16 an hour once you're 16 years of age or older. And so the way that works, in order to get paid that money, you have had to accomplish and completed all your other chores. And you have to do a minimum of five hours a week of this work in order for it to be commissionable or payable.

And so what this does is it teaches my kids, hey, there's things that I have to participate and do just to be a member of the household, to participate in all the blessings that dad and mom provide for us, food on the table, roof over the head, vacations, all these different fun things that we do for them, those aren't free. Those require payment. You just pay for it by being a participant of the household. Outside of that, you have ability to go and make additional money. And so what I've done just to like break it out is there's a sheet and it goes through. It's like, hey, look, if you're mad that you have to go and do these chores for free and just to participate in the household, no problem. We will pay you. We will actually pay you.

But in turn, you're actually going to pay for all these things that you view as like you're right or, you know, something as a member of the Lee household that you're just supposed to be given. We're going to start charging for that. And so I have written out like how much rent would be, how much rent would be on the lake house, how much a car and gas and this, that, and the other, like food, boom, boom, boom. If you want to go on vacation, this is how much it's going to start costing you. And so these are, these are just some of the very different ways in which we have taught our kids and they have been able to really buy in. Now, the reality is, is like all these things are great and grand, but at the end of the day, the most important thing that you can do as a parent is speak through actions, right? You can have the greatest plan. You can

teach the greatest things. You can tell your kid what to do, this, that, and the other. But if you are not being an example of taking risk, investing, putting God first, putting family first, doing these different principle things, guess what? Those, whatever you're doing will speak way louder than anything that you say to your kids. And that's the one thing that I've, that I've realized is like, I haven't always been the best at teaching by word to my kids, but over time they have seen that dad really believes this because this is what he does on a regular basis. And it's so amazing when you do something good and your child sees it, and then you see them later mimicking doing what you do. And you realize like there is no better experience as a parent than when you see

a kid emulate great actions that you didn't even realize that they were part, that they were paying attention of. And so I, that is probably my favorite thing about teenagers is whenever they mimic the good things. And the thing that I hate the worst about as a parent is when they mimic the bad things. I'm like, Oh no, don't say that. Like you shouldn't be saying that. Like, well, dad, you say that. Oh, dang it. Gosh, do as I say, not as I do. And and it's it's so interesting. These these kids, they are our greatest mimics. And it's the only way that we are going to change society for the better is we have to start at home. One of the best advice that I ever received was don't put off having kids. It is the greatest blessing and joy that could ever take place. And like for me, having a posterity, someone that I can pass my knowledge, my joy, experience things, teach things to like, there is nothing, nothing better than that and being being as a parent. And so with that, I'm just going to

take a look at my notes, making sure I covered everything. At the end of the day, family, once again, family is the way that we're going to change as a society. We live in a day and age, which is just crazy, right? Like, which we are questioning gender. We are questioning, like, do we even need families? Do we ever even need kids? We should just be me, me, me, I, I, I, I. Get a family. Get outside of yourself.

Be charitable. Give back. Build your community. This is the way that we can go and have it. Until next time.