In this adrenaline-pumping episode of Gathering The Kings Podcast, Chaz Wolfe interviews the fearless CEO of BattlBox, John Roman. From his early days as a professional poker player to climbing the corporate ladder in sales, John's relentless ambition led him to invest in BattlBox – a survival monthly subscription box and much more. His dedication to the company transformed a side gig into a full-time pursuit, skyrocketing BattlBox to multi-million-dollar success, all while embracing the power of content and community building.
Throughout the conversation, John shares vulnerable insights into his journey, including the importance of creating quality content to intentionally grow a business and the value of fostering strong relationships with consumers. He candidly discusses the need for patience in the face of failure and the dangers of dependency on a single vendor or customer source. With BattlBox's thriving online community and their Netflix debut in Southern Survival, John's innovative approach to business has led to the company's recent acquisition by a Canadian "spack," making BattlBox a publicly traded powerhouse. Ready for a wild ride? Listen to episode 225 now and unlock the secrets to John Roman's unstoppable success!
Transcription from video:
0:00 on today's episode of gathering the Kings it's a commitment and to truly
0:06 attack it and be successful with it you have to go down that path and see a lot
0:12 of rejection and zero success and truly have the vision
0:17 that you're doing it correctly and that it's going to take a while you are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz wolf featuring fellow seven eight
0:25 and even nine figure business owners who have real battle scars from business and
0:30 life but have prevailed as the king that they are designed to be we welcome High
0:35 performing entrepreneurs to the stage in order to reveal the real of the real on what it takes to build a successful
0:42 business today we dissect the good and bad decisions they've made along the way that give a true and accurate picture of
0:49 the Journey of success and how you too can get there through this dialogue you will learn the value of growing your
0:56 network and surrounding yourself with power players and Kings like today's guest grab your pen and notebook because
1:03 we're about to dive in what's up everybody I'm Chaz Wolf
1:08 gathering the king's podcast today I've got John Roman here on the king stage my
1:13 brother John how we doing good good to be here you know man I'm excited about this conversation your brand I think is
1:20 just so fun no no worry no wonder you're a kind of a marketing guy but uh you got
1:26 a really just awesome fun brand I'm super interested in learning more about your story as well but tell us what kind
1:32 of business that you have Sean sure thank you so Battlbox is a Adventure
1:37 Outdoor survival gear brand to think from tents and knives to fire starters
1:45 to anything under the sun when it comes to you know getting getting in the outdoors yeah yeah and you guys help us
1:53 prepare for all those things right from just from just you know a day hike uh
1:58 you know hopefully knock on wood not needed but something more more extreme yeah yeah I love I love the the range
2:06 there that you kind of just hinted at because there's all different types of consumers in that in that range as well
2:11 you've got the the folks that maybe have have never thought about the end of the world but but have gone on a Day hike and they
2:18 need a they need some some Essentials and then you've got the ones that have been prepping for generations for for a
2:24 mass War you know yeah and we have we in our our customer makeup is is everything you described
2:31 all under the sun right from weekend weekend warrior weekend hiker to someone that's preparing for you know uh the fan
2:39 scenario yeah yeah well I think you'll give some some interesting perspective when it comes to to business from that
2:45 angle but obviously you guys have an incredible brand and I want to get into some of that but before we do like the
2:52 story piece of it for John for for for Mr Roman what's the Deep burning desire
2:57 on the inside like why are you doing this what's the bigger picture world domination
3:03 okay okay accumulate accumulate all the chips I love that answer yeah just I
3:10 see how big we can take this and take everything yeah what do you think drives you to collect
3:18 all the chips if if I can do something day in day out Battlbox being the the current example
3:25 where where I I get a feeling that I'm making a difference whether it's in the
3:30 lives of our team members whether it's in the lives of our customers just getting that satisfaction
3:36 for meat that checks the box and what I've found is if I kind of treat that as
3:43 the North Star the the money and the success thing kind of just follows
3:48 automatically sure yeah give us just a little bit of a picture I mean have you
3:53 always been like that or did it start off as I got to collect some chips and along the way you've realized that those
3:58 kind of come secondary it's a good question I mean I think I'm always becoming a a better stronger faster
4:05 version of myself sure so I'm constantly not the same person I was a year ago yeah so I'm not the exact same version
4:12 but I don't know I've had a I've had a an interesting past so this is my
4:17 technically my third career so the first career was to the surprise uh my peers
4:25 and friends and family after getting done with college I decided I was going to be a professional poker player so did
4:33 that for four and a half years conclusion I was good maybe a b b plus
4:38 player wasn't an a player and if you're not an a player it's not a good game to be in you look at people maybe 10 15
4:45 years older than you that that aren't a players and you're like man I really don't want to become them so that was
4:52 that was the end of that chapter I then tucked my tail between my legs and got
4:57 an entry level sales job at 26. and you know coming on boarding with a bunch of
5:03 21 22 year olds and uh I I had I had to prove myself right and
5:10 I I did that so I had a lot of success in in B2B sales ended up building
5:17 sales teams and and really targeting the the higher end of businesses so
5:23 started off in the SMB world but then started really targeting that call it Fortune 2000 Brands and selling selling
5:30 to them and knowing how to speak to those decision makers a lot of the success from there just
5:37 becoming a better version of myself was from that four and a half years playing poker professionally where I I was
5:43 putting in a 12 13 14 hour day sometimes and at the end of the day
5:48 call it 70 of its skill set but that 30 luck in poker meant that I could put in
5:54 that grind session and really work hard and not only not have anything to show for it but I could be negative which
6:02 sucks so I think taking that mindset of grinding into the sales world yeah
6:07 allowed me to kind of maybe out out work and not think and outsmart others and my
6:13 peers and then fast forwarding towards the end of that career I was investing in startups and so I had worked for a
6:20 publicly traded company we had gotten bought and taken private it's not a decent little payday there and I was
6:27 making a decent amount of money where I wasn't spending all of it by any means so I started investing in in companies
6:33 predominantly in the e-commerce space and that's kind of where Battlbox came
6:39 into the mix and somehow pause career number two and jumped into
6:46 career number three which is which is Battle box yeah and direct to Consumer Brands right right yeah which is
6:53 different than B2B completely actually right okay well I mean you gave you gave quite
7:00 a bit of information there I love the love the the the journey if you will Building Sales teams for me also has has been a
7:07 huge you know building block of of my career I think that you learn not only just from the sales and sales process of
7:14 doing it as a sales rep but then being able to get other people to to do that almost like herding cats especially if
7:20 we're talking 21 22 23 100 it's a little bit of a unique
7:25 environment let's just leave it at that yeah so what give us give us a little bit more of the story the jump from B2B
7:32 sales to to battle box I mean it was a company you've been investing you obviously took interest I mean how did
7:38 you end up where you are sure so so we had so Battlbox we founded Battlbox in
7:45 February 2015. so myself two other technically I guess three other
7:51 gentlemen there were four of us originally and I went to school with all
7:57 with the other three guys we had all stayed in touch two of them had were
8:02 entrepreneurs had a business that they had been running that was I don't want to call it Uber successful moderately it
8:09 was paying the bills sure and they were looking for the next next idea next thing and in our friend circle at the
8:16 time I had probably been on the higher tier of of of success with among my
8:22 peers so I I became kind of that that person people always talk to about the ideas and pitched the ideas too and get
8:29 your opinion and I loved it and I I said hey I want to be a part of this wrote it
8:35 Shack the original idea was advisement very limited capacity maybe a
8:43 few hours a month yeah and you know next thing we knew in in 2015 I think we did
8:49 right at four and a half million dollars wow and we go into 2016 and I make a job
8:56 change and I went to this startup that was I think doing 11 12 million in top
9:02 line revenue and I had great compensation and a plan where I would
9:07 have had a decent Equity position should we exit get acquired but the reality is
9:13 those are Phantom shares they're not real it's not real Equity right I'm not I'm getting a K1 or some kind of
9:19 distribution check and I jumped into that new role
9:25 and it was not I don't want to say I was sold because it wasn't malicious a bill
9:30 of goods but I think their leadership thought their Tech was a little bit further along my assessment was we need
9:38 to to get to where we need to be it's going to take us two years to build or we can probably get there in a year
9:44 through acquisition and I told them this and they were like okay well which one do you want to do
9:50 and I'm not I have nothing on my resume at that point to suggest I can deal with Acquisitions or or or managing a Dev
9:57 team right and I'm looking at it and I'm like okay a big decision here and we're
10:04 at about 11 million in revenue and I I don't have I'm I think technically I had a VP title
10:11 but it wasn't right meanwhile we have battle box which looking at the last couple of months
10:17 same run rate it's a bigger company and I have actual large amount of equity for
10:23 it and I'm already kind of burning from both ends putting in call it 50 60 hours
10:29 at both a week so I'm already not sleeping it's already causing causing an
10:34 issue I was like okay well this is this is the opportunity so I went in there and I was
10:39 like recommendation three terminate me they wouldn't do that but then I I put
10:45 in a resignation and by April I joined Battlbox full time yeah well so a lot
10:51 of a lot of story there to to dissect but so do you still have the partners at Battlbox or is it is it mostly you yeah
10:58 so yeah so so there were four of us initially when I came on my first task
11:03 is being full-time was to navigate purchasing out buying out one of the
11:10 partners they weren't bringing any value to the table it was it was just a free lunch at that
11:16 point so if I was gonna jump in full time and try to grow this and and give
11:21 my full attention I mean let's get the guy out with the free lunch now so we
11:26 quickly within a few months came to a deal and then it became the three of us myself Daniel and Patrick and the three
11:33 of us ran it together until 2021 So Daniel was getting at a point
11:40 where he didn't necessarily have the the drive anymore that Patrick and I had and
11:47 kind of just wanted to retire and be done yeah we had we had had some success that saw exponential graduated TV show
11:55 on Netflix and that kind of just shot up the the revenue that at the same time as
12:00 kovid which was great for direct to Consumer Brands so we had a weird thing
12:07 we we were agreeing on this valuation it's a multiplier offibita and okay
12:13 let's call it we're all comfortable with the six Saxy but I will I don't want to take my ball and go home
12:19 yet I needed Patrick but it didn't make sense for us to sell to us to buy Daniel
12:24 out at a 6X it just didn't it didn't make sense yeah
12:30 personally so we found a buyer that we thought aligned with us and and we were
12:36 acquired in October 2021 Daniel got to retire like he wanted and Patrick and
12:42 myself got to got to stay on full time yeah I love that in that example thank you for sharing that and and just being
12:48 vulnerable there I think that that's super helpful for some listeners to be able to kind of hear the inner workings of a deal like that
12:53 but really what it the end result is that it doesn't like there's so many different ways to split the pie and you
13:00 can really figure out whatever sort of deal you need to whatever exit or continuation
13:05 and even even though you're still there it was an exit of sorts for you as well you know so yeah Pig got to pay off the
13:12 house and pay off any any bills we had so I mean it was a win yeah yeah
13:17 absolutely okay so so now we're we're operating you know at a whole different
13:22 level we're no longer a startup phase we've got a little bit of a backing now and and some more you know procedures
13:29 and things in place I'm excited to hear what you would look back and go this this one decision
13:36 what is that one decision that you can look back on and say because we did this one thing a lot of other dominoes fell
13:42 what was that for you so for us it was it was in 2017 where
13:50 we we wanted to be more than just this subscription box I mean at the end of
13:57 the day 90 of our revenue is from the subscription box but when you asked about Battlbox I didn't say we were a
14:03 subscription box because yes it's a product we offer but we made this cognizant decision in 2017 where
14:10 we were going to lead with content we're going to lead with content and community building that was kind of our
14:18 focus and decisions we were going to make around the business we were always going to take those two things content
14:23 and Community into the decision making process how is this going to affect those yeah and making that change and
14:30 always just leading with content and becoming content Centric it started opening up
14:36 doors our traffic and following count started growing which of course led to
14:42 more organic sales and then it started opening this whole new world where Production Studio reached out to us and
14:49 said hey we want to shoot uh Sizzle reel and try to get you on a TV show and it
14:55 was just a whole new world that that you know most brands are not seeing because you're just not leading and focusing so
15:03 much on content everybody knows content is important right right you know content is King you see it every day
15:08 somewhere but actually executing on it as opposed to just talking about it I
15:14 think it was that that was a pivotal moment for us yeah yeah the I loved I loved how your you
15:21 know content Community they kind of go together like you're creating content but what it does is it creates a community right it's a hundred percent
15:28 and it was it was interesting so how we decided to do it we were so we were
15:34 sending part of our initial go-to Market strategy when we launched in 2015 so we
15:40 have four tiers basic to Pro Plus the Pro Plus was 150 when we launched now
15:45 it's 170 plus sales tax in the Uber majority of states and shipping ends up
15:51 being about 200 but we were sending that Pro Plus which is our most popular about 45 of our base is actually in that box
15:57 yeah which is surprising and not the theory we had when we launched the subscription box but we were sending
16:04 about 30 of those out to YouTubers and just that was part of our strategy we
16:10 wanted people giving unbiased reviews content SEO it was was part of the strategy and
16:16 you know to date ourselves and it's such a cringe thing to say now when you talk
16:21 about conversion rate optimization and stuff like that for your site but we had a pre-purchase survey where prior to
16:28 even letting them give us the money we said hey how'd you hear about us Usual Suspects Facebook Twitter Instagram
16:36 Etc and we had a other where they could type in something we don't know about
16:41 and we started seeing this huge influx of people clicking other and they
16:46 started clicking and typing it in typing in current 1776.
16:52 now at the time we don't know who that is what that is we quickly find out it's a YouTube channel it's this guy named
16:58 Brandon Currin that is putting out these YouTube reviews jump to our Google sheet
17:04 he's not part of the 30 we're sending this to so we find him in in the system he's a paying customer he's paying the
17:10 450 doing this and we're getting this crazy amount of traffic from him wow so
17:15 we start tracking it after a couple of months we reach out to him or okay ma'am we want to just keep sending you the box
17:21 don't don't stop what you're doing we don't have to pay for it anymore and then five six months down the road right
17:27 hey Brandon we're also going to give you 500 a month in addition just make sure
17:32 you do the video at this date like yeah you can't have them stop this because it's continuing and the next
17:38 conversation was hey Brandon so we know this is just like a side hustle for you
17:44 but do you want to quit your day job and move the wife and your three kids to Georgia and just do content full-time
17:51 and he obviously talked to his family he said yes he's the face of the brand if you've seen a battle Box video you've
17:58 seen him yeah and as soon as he was you know part of the team in a full-time capacity we could then just lean in and
18:05 not even like double down on content but quadruple down that's that's what we did wow I I love
18:13 the the detail there I want to go just one more layer because I'm I'm sure the listeners are probably as interested as
18:18 I am but you know providing valuable content like you say contest king that's what we're always like okay well what what does
18:25 that look like so on a on a normal week whether that's him in a on a YouTube channel or social like give us some
18:33 practicals on what you guys are doing or maybe what you would suggest a business owner listening today that they can do
18:39 to create quality content sure so the the horrible short answers you want
18:47 to do a lot of testing and find out really what is gaining momentum and getting eyeballs and getting engagement
18:54 right because the engagement part is what builds the community which is the whole reason you're doing the content to
18:59 begin with with certainty it's not it's not making a video trying to sell a product
19:05 um that comes later in the funnel that's that's not not what you want to be doing with content now you can occasionally
19:11 pepper in a sale or some kind of call to action but it can't be the Uber majority
19:17 you're even close to this be a has to be a very large minority of of your content
19:22 it's it's really just unfortunately testing and trying to find
19:28 find what it is right so our largest channel is Tick Tock we don't dance
19:33 which when we launched on Tick Tock was what Tick Tock was known for right right
19:40 it was it was a rebranded musically and people were dancing on there and we knew that that was not our thing no sleeping
19:48 bags and hunting knives doing a dance together right so so we it honestly is testing a bunch of stuff and we found
19:55 stuff that works for us so for us Outdoor Gear Company a lot of our product videos were testing here we're
20:01 seeing if it if it's up to the test to be in a battle box at the same level you
20:07 know another big thing we do what we've always done is this is this unboxing review of of the Box we send out it's a
20:14 25 to 30 minute video well we shoot it in a way where Brandon and and whatever
20:20 the main character main focus is is kind of Center in our filming so we take a
20:26 lot we'll take that 30 minute video and from that we'll be able to chop five six seven sometimes more short form pieces
20:33 of content from that right so I'd say 70 of our content that's short form which
20:40 is our focus is repurposed re-edited from from a possibly horizontal form video in
20:48 addition to that we're we're trying to really show The Human Side of the brand we we want to really show that because
20:57 that's a key part for that connection to occur right so
21:04 yeah you you want to you want to form that that connection that's that's part of the community building
21:10 you look at if you're selling a product where it is only kind of the need want scale sure you know unfortunately battle
21:16 box is for some people it probably is on the on the Need side but for a lot of
21:21 people it's probably closer on on the one side it's that disposable income that we're competing for that's right
21:28 and when something's farther on the want side consumers want to identify have some
21:35 sort of relationship connection with that brand and this is a consumer behavior that year over year has become
21:41 more and more true it's it's occurred for a while but like it's just every year becoming more of a trend yeah if a
21:49 consumer is buying something with your disposable money it's and it's not you know dire need just pure want there
21:57 has to be some sort of connection and that's how we're forming that by building this relationship with the
22:04 community it's a long answer to not really give you a direct yeah it's good stuff man would you say that that
22:09 relationship that you're building I think it's applicable to so many businesses listening even if
22:16 they're a marketing company or you know installing Windows there can be a need
22:21 quote unquote in certain times but for the most part we're all
22:26 needing to create this relationship that you're talking about I think that it is the absolute way to doing business in
22:33 today's world I also think it's the like it's like the lever that we don't really understand fully that we're pulling
22:40 even as we're networking doing a business podcast between the two of us like who knows where this relationship
22:45 goes or who I refer or who you refer like you just don't know the power of the lever and so you start doing it on a
22:50 regular basis and you're like oh wow this is really powerful and so inside of that I guess my question to you is that relationship
22:57 that you're building do you find that it stemmed from like okay as the consumer yeah they they see
23:04 me is that is that the relationship piece or I feel heard or is it like I uplevel my status because I'm a battle
23:11 box member like what's the in like the value inside of the relationship for
23:16 your consumer sure so it's a great question so so in addition to the content piece we have a
23:23 it was a it was just a website that was a Reddit style Forum we unpopular
23:30 opinion have converted it over to a Facebook group we like it as a Facebook
23:35 group it's a lot easier to moderate and manage so if you're an active subscriber you're allowed access to that group not
23:42 everybody takes advantage of it we have maybe 8 000 people in there right now that's that's a place and it it combines
23:50 that with commenting on Facebook and tick tocks and and YouTube shorts but
23:55 it's it's just it's connecting other people right yeah so so Chas you and I
24:00 might both be battle box customers and because of all the engagement that we're
24:06 showing towards the Battlbox brand and the Facebook group we're then meeting and we're then forming forming a
24:12 relationship and we both live 20 minutes from each other and we both like to go camping well now we're going to go
24:20 camping together yeah and that's that's the value add are we're connect acting
24:25 like-minded individuals yeah and giving them a platform to connect learn from
24:31 each other and buy battle box but also you get a product you don't like
24:36 yields 8 000 people you can post and try to trade it for something else or sell it right so really
24:43 the the value is an actual actual community and there's additional value add like sure you know we're giving them
24:50 there'll be free giveaways we do and yeah and unique exclusive stuff but at
24:57 its core that the value lies is that we've created friendships yeah and it's
25:04 it's not like there's there's no other argument Chaz and John became friends
25:09 because they were both Battlbox customers yeah and and Chas and John
25:14 both know that which is which is pretty cool yeah it's actually really cool I want to encourage the listener because this can
25:21 happen in any business in fact I just want to liken this real quick because I I haven't had anybody articulate it
25:26 quite as well as you just did but it's actually exactly what I've done with Gathering the Kings number one is a mastermind group number two is a podcast
25:32 because not only Mastermind members get together and what you just described is exactly what a mastermind does but even in
25:40 extension to that I have a Facebook group for all my podcast guests and sometimes seeing podcast guests get together
25:46 because they both met me is extremely fulfilling whether any of them pay me money or not right I just
25:54 know that it it levels up the value of the brand which then somewhere else organically is going to get me exposure
26:00 and a deal and I think that the way you articulated it around community and actually pouring
26:06 into what relationships are built on can be applicable to any business would you agree 100 and will you describe it
26:13 I'm smiling inside because it's exactly the same spot on right and then you're
26:18 back to checking that box that I was talking about where that satisfaction
26:24 like seeing that like you know what you're doing is right yeah which is
26:29 extra motivating yeah continue to go down that path 100 yeah I I'm I'm
26:34 already and I usually do this anyway but I'm always like even in the midst of a conversation on a podcast or somebody
26:40 that I that I'm doing business with or or even one of the Mastermind members it's like oh man I met John Roman the
26:46 other day you need to like boom connection boom just like hey you need me you need to meet you need to meet and and really what it is like you're saying
26:53 by building the community You're Building like this deeper level of value that has nothing to do with the actual
26:59 product the actual trip or the actual podcast or the actual you know box that
27:04 has all the products in it so right what do you think is keeping I just I want to hang here for just another half second because I think it's just so valuable
27:10 what do you think is keeping most brands or most just even entrepreneurs listening right now
27:15 from doing what it is that you're talking about so it's it's a commitment and to truly
27:24 attack it and be successful with it you have to go down that path and see a lot
27:30 of rejection and zero success and and truly have the the vision that you're
27:36 doing it correctly and that it's going to take a while Tick Tock for example so we launched in we grabbed the name in
27:43 the beginning of covid and then literally for a year until early 2021 we
27:49 just sat on it we had the account we didn't make a single post we weren't even logging in and we jumped in early
27:55 2021 and we really felt that we had already missed the ball but we were still going to give it a give it a good
28:01 good try the reality is we we had not missed the ball yet and we were still even though we found starting today
28:07 hasn't missed the ball would you agree correct 100 but
28:13 those first six seven months almost a year
28:18 it was 99 failure it got to the point where my team started to probably think
28:24 I was crazy because I was like no we're gonna keep doing this like this is eventually going to work and our
28:32 audience lives on Tick Tock we just haven't found them yet we're gonna keep trying different types of content I even
28:38 convinced Brandon to do a dance one time I was like let's just try a dance it didn't work of course but it was but it
28:44 was funny and like I think he even put the text like the boss is making me do this right now right but we just kept
28:50 trying different approaches and it was insane because it was constant failure but I think to answer your question
28:57 that's people fail because they don't get that instantaneous results that they're looking for and they give up oh
29:04 it's not working this is not a a quick return this is probably if you're
29:09 familiar with SEO where it's were we a long long game Yep this is this is even a longer game right yeah you're putting
29:17 these seeds in and trying to grow these roots in this infrastructure but you're you're never going underground so you
29:23 don't really see the the build until you know when you
29:29 see that little little uh Sprout yeah the reality is the roots are huge
29:36 underneath it a lot of times right and I think it's human nature to not see that
29:41 little Sprout that little Boop and you're like oh not working I'm gonna give it up in reality you had built this
29:48 entire root system and just it was days away or months away from sprouting and
29:53 you just didn't stick with it yeah and I think it's it's tough to to not see
29:59 results and continue to go down that path almost religiously but you have to
30:04 have the confidence that you're you're doing it right and I think that's that's where the failure happens people people
30:09 don't commit that long I was getting like the air all the word that was just pounding on my brain as you're talking
30:15 his commitment it's no I'm seeing this through all the way right I know it's gonna feel a little bit Weary at times
30:21 but no I'm gonna press in what you were just talking about as far as the Sprout and you know the roots you know I try to
30:27 teach my my children this and it's difficult sometimes to get them to think long term I mean they're three and seven
30:33 and nine yeah and nine months so she's not even thinking yet yeah but the reality is is
30:38 my my wife has been taking my son we they found an acorn and and there they planted it in a cup and you know it's
30:44 got like two inches of soil in it and it's in a clear cup so he can see it just the other day a little Sprout came
30:50 up and he was so excited he was daddy I'm trying to use his words and trying to explain what was happening and and
30:56 and so my wife reaches down and goes it Whispers to him and tells him to show me what was happening underneath and so he
31:03 flips open the you know the cup about spills it all out you know luckily we caught it but he won he was showing me
31:09 all the roots under there and how like I mean they were just like everywhere right in there and of course once it
31:14 gets a little bit bigger They're Gonna Take It Outside and it's gonna grow into a big old tree for that to like have like been working
31:22 all this time you know it's only been a week or two or three or whatever it's been but the reality of it is for a four-year-old that's like a really long
31:28 time yeah it's it's the it's the same exact analogy yeah man we get distracted we
31:35 get bored we get you know we don't have enough persistence or perseverance we're not committed really we're really not
31:41 all in right 100 same thing crazy all right well let's flip the coin
31:47 you've given us some really valuable information on a good decision what was that bad decision that you made that
31:52 we can we can learn from so a bad decision one of the first ones that that
32:00 we had and it was is honestly in in hindsight it's easy to say it's a
32:06 bad decision it was it was really because of naivety so for the first year we we were
32:14 advertising on on one channel we were we had we had one lead Source Facebook Facebook ads well we had some
32:21 organic stuff I you know kind of had alluded to the YouTube video so but from
32:27 from a paid Uber majority of our leads and new customers were one place
32:33 Facebook and it was all great until in our example uh
32:40 going into Labor Day weekend Friday at 6 pm we're gonna have our biggest weekend
32:46 we've ever had literally it's gonna be impossible not to be our biggest weekend ever we're having a sale we never have
32:51 sales and not only do all of our ads get declined rejected our account gets
32:58 deleted canceled you're dead Friday at 7 pm going into the three-day weekend and
33:04 we went from these are only leadsource so all of a sudden we went from these consistent sales every day to literally
33:11 not the problems from 50 new customers a day now we have one that came organically from a from a YouTube review
33:18 right right and we were super super fortunate in this situation where at the
33:25 time it was our Reddit light group and one of our customers worked for Facebook this is this is pre-covered so this is
33:32 people went into an office and his office row of Cubes were like a few Cube
33:39 rows down from the the manual team that was like in charge of those ads and he
33:46 was like Hey I'm gonna go ask them and he like walked over this is on on a
33:51 Tuesday following all this two someone came back dropped on our our Forum hey I
33:58 just spoke to someone over there they're looking at it right now and like within 30 minutes we were back that's pure luck
34:04 happenstance like we got lucky but it was a wake-up call on on a
34:10 mistake we were making and I think this is true for for all businesses right like you never want to be completely
34:16 dependent on one vendor One Source One One customer
34:23 right like yeah you think about places where you have this giant customer that's 90 of your Revenue like that's a
34:31 problem and that's the mistake we made and and now we we we're far from ever it's not
34:37 possible to make that mistake now but I think that's a huge mistake people make yeah yeah it's interesting because you
34:43 you hear a lot of gurus talk about you know one product one channel and I think that that's true for a period of time
34:49 you know typically you know to maybe to get to Seven figures but then you have to you have to be able to go other places otherwise you run you run too
34:56 great of a risk but right I want to point out I don't actually think it was luck that saved you that day I think it
35:01 was your intentionality behind building relationships and a community well you right so you could I'm a firm believer
35:08 that you create your own luck right and and yes you could very strongly argue
35:13 that because of that Community approach we put ourselves in the best situation possible to to lock out the fact that
35:21 you told everybody hey we're down like I think that's a pretty vulnerable thing to share even with your current
35:27 desperation this is crazy yeah yeah thanks for the clarity on that that
35:32 wasn't it wasn't a self-righteous moment that was a oh we're gonna right
35:38 yeah that's good stuff man but you're right it's the power of community and
35:43 you intentionally doing the thing right be way way before and and I can you know
35:50 not to Circle this all the way back to you know the power of groups and and community and masterminds and stuff but
35:56 it it is exactly what you're talking about everything that we need or want can come from a relationship and and
36:02 sometimes we don't know we need or want something until it happens right in the moment and you're like oh
36:07 but if you've already been planning and and you know serving or or spreading
36:13 seed out of good not out of expectation necessarily exactly knowing that that
36:18 there is an expectation of a harvest but you don't necessarily know exactly where it's going to be and when and at what time right yeah
36:25 huge man all right what about like something comes across your desk today you got to make a decision on it do you
36:31 have a magic decision-making formula help us make some good decisions here John no I I don't have like a a perfect
36:39 perfect process I think it depends on on what what's crossing my desk right so
36:47 is it is it a is it an acquisition that we're looking at to to fold into to our
36:52 portfolio is it is it a marketing approach I I don't have a perfect process I am
36:58 very process driven almost to a fault where I have to sometimes say okay like
37:03 human turn human mode back on but it's all it's all it's so dependent on on the
37:09 exam sure sure okay so what I'm taking away from that is have a process but but
37:14 be intentional about what specifically we're talking about 100 percent okay that's good what would
37:20 you say just for good making good decisions in life kind of a little bit more maybe you know 30 000 foot up how
37:25 have you you know made good decisions repeatedly so anything important at
37:31 least personally my biggest thing is I have to take the emotion out of it I I and I think most people initially
37:37 there's some emotion in their decision if they try to make a quick decision sure and and taking the emotion out of
37:43 it it seems so silly to say but sleeping on it it's not necessarily that like
37:48 sleeping on the actual decision is going to make a difference it's right it's allow the emotion to completely pull
37:57 pull from it so I think I'm very calculated in that sense I sometimes you
38:02 have to make a decision right sometimes something something's happening you have to go with your guy you have to go right then and there there's emotion involved
38:09 in that and you hope that it didn't sway your decision but any meaningful decisions it's
38:15 ensuring that the emotion is completely out of it yeah which sometimes for most
38:21 people means you have to take some time yeah yeah I didn't hear you say delay and procrastinate I heard you say wait
38:28 take a breath and that breath might be a day or two or however long right to be able to Exhale the emotion and make a
38:34 logical Choice yeah but it yeah it's not it's not progressing and push it out right it's push it out the the
38:42 I don't even like saying push it out just as little of time as possible and everybody's different but knowing that
38:48 the emotions out of it and you're looking at it purely from in a black and white sense it's good it's good all
38:54 right I'm gonna go over to the speed round first questions around kpis I like to say it like this if you could only pick one thing to track especially being
39:01 a marketing Guy this is gonna be good what would be that one thing that you attract ban this
39:07 this question gives me anxiety yes so we're we're so data driven and we
39:14 make all of our so many decisions the Uber majority on so many kpis so to to come and bring it
39:24 down to one my anxiety meter if I had to pick one I would say actually profit
39:31 um or or even us because with with with that you can at least
39:37 assuming you're blind on all other data and kpis you at least know you have X
39:44 amount that you can reinvest and now you don't know if it's profitable or not
39:49 because you're not looking at those kpis but if you only have one is profit because you know at least you can throw
39:54 more you can throw that back into the game and try to build from it yeah I love that that's that's your play it's
40:01 not to buy a boat or take a vacation although I'm sure those things are in your in your thought at some point but
40:08 it's to play the game I want to keep playing the game right 100 percent love that what book what resource would
40:15 you recommend for a business owner trying to try to grow so so this was this is a question that I
40:21 have I think it's an unpopular opinion so okay you see all these books that you're
40:28 going to read that are going to help and and take you to the next step and I I occasionally read I don't read as much
40:34 as as probably other other CEOs and other people I I don't want to say that
40:41 it's a specific book I I think honestly it's it's what we've already both hinted
40:47 at the group The the community The Mastermind groups that's
40:52 to me that's that's the value when I when I'm going to conferences in
40:58 Industry conferences like the most important thing that I'm trying to accomplish is is is networking
41:06 uh and it's not it's networking it's Chas you're gonna be here I wouldn't be
41:11 I want to actually get to know you right like I want to have an actual connection with you and I think I think that's of
41:19 so much so much more value right you can you can read a book where this person's
41:24 gonna give an example of how they did something that might not be even close to Apples to Apples or even be
41:31 comparable to to your business or what you're trying to accomplish you then try to try to fit that square peg in the
41:37 round hole for your business and it you think you understand it but you don't know if you really do and then
41:44 so many of the books are like Ivory Tower Management Styles just
41:51 they're giving you just enough information but it's
41:56 they they're not giving you the actual there's no implementation there's none and and that to me is is the Paramount
42:03 part and with a mastermind group you're talking to peers you're talking
42:09 to people that have tried doing this or you're trying to accomplish this for your business and three other guys in
42:15 the group have done something very similar and you can talk through what they did what worked what didn't work
42:21 their learnings and and and like troubleshoot together yep and that's
42:27 worth that's worth a thousand books yeah in in in my opinion unpopular opinion
42:33 maybe but I'd rather be in a mastermind group and be using that two hours a week
42:40 in that group right versus spending that two hours reading yeah it's super
42:45 powerful when again we've talked about this in almost the entire show but I had one of my Mastermind members this was
42:51 probably a month or so ago I had a guest speaker come in and we talked about the 80 20 rule which
42:57 seems pretty simple but there's an actual like strategy behind it and he's done it with several private Equity purchases he comes in and overlays this
43:04 strategy and helps them grow and then they sell and the afterwards this member
43:10 he reached out he said Hey how if you had to quantify
43:15 the value of that you know hour and a half what do you think that that was and I was like well obviously I can only
43:21 speak for me but Millions and he was like yeah at a minimum you know but but some people don't realize
43:27 that like that information yeah I'm sure is in a book somewhere but right
43:33 not only not only the presentation itself but then the agitating questions afterwards that got us to think and
43:39 dissect like you were saying just a little bit differently afterwards it's like wow you can go apply that and it
43:44 can it can literally mean Millions to your business right the big deal okay what about family John
43:51 I want to know how you've obsessed about your business and your family at the
43:57 same time I'm a firm believer that there's no such thing as belief or a balance I'm a big believer in belief
44:03 balance is what I'm not a believer in okay so I believe that in order to be successful in business we got to be all
44:09 in committed obsessed I believe the same thing for my marriage I believe the same thing for my kiddos
44:16 how have you been able to do that same all in all at the same time it's tough so I don't think work I mean work life
44:24 balance it does it does it exist I don't think it does I think
44:30 both are important honestly I believe family is is higher up on the importance
44:36 right than than the business yet you're bleeding sweating for both and they they
44:42 work together so it's it's not easy I I think having dedicated time and it's tough and
44:51 I'm my my poor wife like she looks at me and it'll be we'll be doing something and she looks at me I'm looking at my
44:57 phone because there's some kind of fire something's going on but you know as as we've grown and the relationship has
45:04 grown she she understands like I'm doing that for her
45:10 it's tough there's not to me there's not a good answer I think I'm a constant work in progress and I think hopefully
45:17 this the 2023 version or the 2024 version will be better than the 2023
45:23 version will be better than my 2022 version but I'm not great at it I I and
45:29 you know I think it's it's tough and I'm I'm constantly
45:35 working on it but I'm not like there's tons of area for improvement it's not a
45:40 good answer so it's a real answer and therefore it is a good answer I've asked
45:46 that question too at this point a couple hundred people and and maybe even more than that because I ask it all the time
45:51 really kind of wherever I go and it's always the same answer it's oh I know I need to get better at that and but it's
45:57 not like we're not doing it it just means that we know that there's area for improvement and I would say that that's
46:02 probably across the board for all entrepreneurs that's why this work-life obsession is
46:08 what I call rather than the balance because I don't believe actually that they that they are separate and that
46:13 there's a balance I think that it's actually all together and we got to be all in
46:19 on all of it otherwise otherwise how can you in fact I actually I'll say this to you really as an encouragement because
46:24 my listeners may have heard it on a podcast once before but I had another guest that said it like this he said you know if your business is a mistress then
46:31 you keep her from your wife and your wife's always wondering what you're doing and wondering whether you're
46:36 thinking about her or whether you're thinking about the mistress and or and your kids your kids don't know who the
46:42 mistress is you know it's like so forth and so on down the story right or it's another kid in the family and it sits at
46:48 the table and everybody knows its name and everybody knows when you know the events are and and everybody has t-shirts and it's like everybody goes
46:55 yeah it's just like your wife is involved the kids are involved like it's got to be together you gotta be all in
47:01 on all of it and it's like that's that's I love that that's great big deal
47:07 one last question here for you John this might seem odd because we're both young guys but powerful nonetheless
47:13 if you had a chance to whisper in the younger John's ear what would you say oh man
47:19 that's deep how to take a break for that one yeah I
47:25 mean I'd probably give stock advice you're the first one oh my gosh Sandy my production she she's gonna
47:32 she's gonna freak out because she asked me after hundreds of people she's like what would be your answer oh Bitcoin
47:39 Apple yeah yeah like stock advice tell maybe tell tell me who's gonna win the
47:44 World Series like yeah yeah she said to me which I'll say to you okay fine
47:49 but what's the real answer I think that is the real answer I know I know yeah it would be a hack some information to make
47:56 everything easier gotta come up with something else though because you're right because that's not so the Back to the Future answer doesn't
48:03 count it's real though I I know it because that that's what I felt for a long time
48:08 so we can go with it if it's real yeah it's real I I don't I think
48:15 giving an answer of like a learning that you know I've I have the older John has
48:22 to give to the younger John the reality is the younger John old John could tell
48:28 young John that and I'm gonna trust but I'm still gonna
48:33 verify it right I'm not gonna take it at face value I'm still going to challenge
48:39 it I'm probably still going to go down that path and and I'll it'll be a theory at that point or a hypothesis that I'm
48:46 testing but I'm probably still not just gonna take it for face value so it doesn't matter
48:52 but if you told me about a stock I'm at least gonna give me a stock with uh you
48:57 know not just a 200 return like something insane over time and I'm gonna I'm gonna take a shot at it regardless
49:04 totally it's it's interesting I I you know I dissect some of the like you know
49:10 just psycho pieces of of why are our answers like this the best the description I give to listener is that
49:16 it's a super high logic strategic person who's answering this because that's how
49:22 that's how I think it's like well if I had this one opportunity to talk to the younger Chas I mean I
49:28 feel like you know yeah okay persist everything's gonna be okay you know keep
49:34 going like all those things are great like yes that would have been super encouraging to hear at 20 that the 36
49:40 year old Chaz is like hey bro like things are working out pretty good just keep your head down keep focused
49:45 but super strategic very logical like X Plus
49:50 y equals z I would have been like bet all in let's go yeah 100 percent
49:56 Back to the Future here is that the sports book here's the Packers the sports almanac for the next 10 years
50:03 yeah yeah that's funny man well I want to know how can we find battle box how
50:08 can like give us a little promo on on your product where can we find and then also where can we find you as a business sure so Battlebox is battlbox.com
50:17 b-a-t-t-l-b-o-x no e in that if you put an e you're gonna end up on a Disney site Disney owned site go to Netflix go
50:25 to the search bar type in Battlbox our show will pop up we're on all social media Tick Tock and YouTube are our two
50:31 biggest channels on on me personally unpop third unpopular opinion of of the show
50:38 LinkedIn is my preferred platform so I'm most active on LinkedIn also on Twitter
50:44 I have a Blog called onlinecaso.com I try to
50:50 walk people through initiatives things we're doing and I try to not sugar coat
50:55 it I'm I'm not just posting the wins I'm trying to post some of our losses because I think they're probably more
51:01 important because there's Lessons Learned in those and the thought process I can save someone else
51:07 that the trouble totally um love that you gave us a little
51:13 Smorgasbord of ways to connect I appreciate that and we'll put all that in the show notes as well but awesome John this has been a super fun interview
51:20 I look forward to building an actual connection with you like you said and what an honor I get to get to do that
51:26 and thank you for being here blessings on your family your business all the people that you're touching all across the world with your products we we thank
51:33 you for being here thank you as well thanks for having me Chaz this was this was a lot of fun thank you for listening to Gathering the Kings today I hope that
51:39 you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go applying to your business right away more importantly though I hope that
51:45 you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by
51:50 yourself doing it all on your own carrying the weight all by yourself what I have realized not only in my own
51:56 Journey from multiple businesses in multiple different Industries and now interviewing literally over two or three
52:03 hundred other very successful seven eight and nine figure business owners is that
52:08 it's tough to do it alone and so Gathering the Kings literally exists to
52:13 bring together successful entrepreneurs in fact we are putting together 1
52:18 000 Kings specifically who are grateful but not done who are intentionally
52:24 assembling Kings who fight tooth and nail for their business family and communities and here's what we believe
52:29 that in the pursuit of excellence in those areas that it ignites within us
52:35 the responsibility to govern power and Forge a lasting Legacy so if that
52:40 relates and and resonates with you and you know that you need people around you sharp qualified other very successful
52:49 business owners I want you to go to gatheringthekings.com I want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it
52:54 makes sense for you to be part of our Pursuit to 1 000 Kings talk soon