The Tactical Empire

Success and Growth | Lessons in Business and Real Estate with Chris Guerrero

Episode Notes

In this conversation, Chris Guerrero shares his journey as a successful gym owner and entrepreneur, discussing the tenacity and resilience required to sustain a business for over 15 years. He emphasizes the importance of building a strong team, evolving leadership styles, and understanding individual team member goals. Chris also explores growth strategies, the significance of taking action despite fears of failure, and his future aspirations in real estate. The discussion culminates in a philosophy of creating win-win scenarios for clients, employees, and the business itself.

Chapters

 

00:00 Introduction to Chris Guerrero and His Journey

01:06 The Tenacity Behind 15 Years of Business Success

02:39 Building a Resilient Team and Systems

06:32 Evolving Tenacity and Leadership Style

09:50 Understanding Team Dynamics and Individual Goals

13:50 Growth Strategies and Business Models

17:02 Taking Action and Overcoming Analysis Paralysis

18:33 Future Goals and Real Estate Ventures

21:50 The Win-Win-Win Business Philosophy

 

 

 

Episode Transcription

Episode 173

Chris: [00:00:00] I think my pursuit in not me doing it myself, but empowering others, knowing that now the, the biggest currency I see more than, more than, uh, money is time for me. And I want the freedom of time to be able to do whatever the hell I want. So if I want to go down to Florida for two months and live down there, that I'm able to pick up and go do that.

Um, but without having the change in mindset and the ability to really take the focus off me, And put it on to my team members and kind of meet them where they're at and see what they learn to see that some people are only able to hear things if they are told them in a certain way. Right. So it's like your style of communication and how you communicate with people.

How do you find the will to fight back against a world that wants to keep you sedated, averaging, stuck in place? Join us for the tools and strategies you need to create a life of abundance, discipline, and high achievement. This is the Tactical Empire, with Jeff Smith.[00:01:00]  

Shawn: What's up ladies and gentlemen, it is Sean from the Tactical Empire. Empire. And we have an inner circle member. We've been bringing them on, talking about their journeys, seeing if there's any, some, any, some, any lessons that we can extract from these guys. And today we have Chris Guerrero. And, and before I let him introduce himself, uh, he is one of the men that made it to the top of the incredible peak in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Uh, and I, were you one of the guys that forewarned us on how hard this hike was, or did you go into it blind, not knowing anything about it? No, I, I, I had  

Chris: warned you guys and was told that we were not doing this hike, little did we know we were doing this hike at the end of a five mile loop, so. Yeah.  

Shawn: I, I, you know, I'm not gonna throw Jeff under the bus, but I'm gonna throw him under the bus.

I had warned him as well, so, uh, [00:02:00] it is all good. After the fact, we're glad that we, we all did it and knocked it out. So, Chris, obviously, super fucking fit, made it to the top, crushed it. But, uh, Tell us a little bit about what you do, uh, for a living and where you're at and what you've been working on. Sure.

Uh,  

Chris: so I own two gyms. I have one primary gym as an owner operator. Uh, it's been in business for 15 years, a second one for five years. I've owned two other gyms at other points in time that I'd sold. Uh, I also work as a small business mentor. Um, I'm in, I'm a serial investor. I invested many different things, uh, stock market, crypto.

Getting into the real estate field right now as well. So I'm just kind of focused right now on bettering myself, bettering my leadership, continuing to improve my fitness, become a better man, and also make some money in the process.  

Shawn: All right. Well, I'm going to go right for the jugular because I don't want to fucking waste any time.

I like to extract these lessons. Uh, Owning a business, especially a family [00:03:00] for 15 years, as, as Jordan Peterson would say, that's not nothing. I mean, that, that's fucking something when, when 90 plus percent of small businesses fail and don't make the five year mark. And by fail, I mean, they could close down, whatever, you know, I, I don't like using that word, but, uh, 15 years, man, that is serious.

What, what do you attribute that to? In the realm of actually getting the 15 years. Now I could probably surmise that the early years were hustling and grinding just to make ends meet. So that might be the easy, early answer, but over time, over time, it's gotta be something more than that. So I'm just going to let you speak to the people.

How do you, how do you get a service based business where you see the majority of your clients most days, 50 to 80 percent of the month? Uh, how do you get that to last 15 years?  

Chris: Uh, well, there's a couple of things. One, I think it is a tenacity and being able to, uh, like go with the ebb and flow and the ups and downs, which are inevitable in business, right?

It's not, not just like [00:04:00] market downturns, COVID shutdowns, things like that. Um, if you can't roll with the punches, it's absolutely, I think it's absolutely impossible to stay in a service based business long term. Uh, cause you get burnt out. The second thing is having the right team and systems in place.

Um, And you get the right team and systems in place by educating yourself. Uh, so if there was one thing that I would say that it took me way too long to do, uh, was getting help, right? I was always of the mindset. Like I can figure it out myself. I could do it myself. Uh, which to a degree, I think makes you resilient and, and allows you to kind of roll with the punches.

But I could have saved myself a lot of time, stress and grief by hiring a coach or a mentor earlier on in my career and not looking at a, you know, 10, 15 an hour task like cleaning as a goal. I'm going to save money, let me do that, [00:05:00] um, where I could actually focus on being more resilient and growing faster than in some cases, like you said, grinding and just sustaining, um, I would say the other component to it is that I really, really, really loved what I did.

I still love what I do. It's a little bit different, but I really loved what I did. So eating shit per se was a lot easier to do then because I was like, I really wouldn't rather be waking up doing anything else. So,  

Shawn: yeah. So, I mean, Tenacity, are you born and bred in New York? Uh, yes. I mean, how, how did that Tenacity play into your life even before entrepreneurship?

Is this something that you had or what, what, where did that come from? Come from, I just  

Chris: think the way that I was raised, you know, like my parents didn't, uh, my parents didn't coddle me growing up. So it was like, if you, you know, like if I failed to do my homework or failed to do something, it wasn't like I let them know the night [00:06:00] before, like, Oh, okay, cool, you're going to fail and go deal with the consequences in the morning.

Because most people. Most people are not left to the devices of dealing with consequences, like they have to just like, figure out a way to get out of something. So that was something ingrained in me early on in academics and stuff. It's like, you have a set criteria of things that have to get done. You have to manage and organize your time in order to do it.

My parents were not like, hey, let me check your homework. It's like, You have the freedom to do X, Y, Z, but if you fuck up, you are going to own up to your actions and kind of deal with it. And it's just something that I've carried into every facet of my life as an adult. I have extreme ownership, extreme accountability, um, and integrity when it comes to, if I say I'm going to do something, regardless of whether I want to do it or not, it's going to get done.

Shawn: Now, I know other business owners, uh, for better or for worse that have had Tenacity that, that, that hustle mentality, that grind is. And I'm, I'm mincing words [00:07:00] here and they may not be perfect synonyms, but I understand what you mean. By tenacity, especially as a young fitness business, service based business owner.

Um, and some guys just run with that for the rest of their life. Now you being in the tattoo empire inner circle and being around Jeff and I, and the other guys in the group understand that that cannot be the thing that drives us long term. So I appreciate the other things that you mentioned, but I want to harp on one more question in regards to task.

How has that tenacity evolved? Over the 15 years or how has the type of tenacity evolved over 15 years? What would you, uh, attribute that to, or how does that look nowadays versus the first few years of business?  

Chris: Well, as we evolve, as we get older, you know, what we desire, what we want in life changes. So it's like a relentless pursuit of.

Empowering my team and helping them grow now, I've invested so much time and money, I mean, 50 [00:08:00] to 100, 000 over the last probably 5 to 10 years and just becoming a better leader, mentor, um, and be able to take ownership and like, Hey, you know what? I was an asshole. I fucked up. I'm sorry. Uh, and just trying to lead my team because one thing I pride myself on is that for the most part.

The people that have been with me, even part time coaches, have been with me for a very long time. The only time people leave working with me is if they move. I, I haven't really had a single, I think I've had one person in 15 years that quit. And it wasn't something to do with me. It was something to do with a team member, but it was culturally, so it's my fault, right?

So, at the end of the day, it's, it, it, it's that, Um, I think my pursuit in not me doing it myself, but empowering others, knowing that now the, the biggest currency I see more than, more than, uh, money is time for me. And I want the freedom of time to be able to do whatever the hell I want. So if I want to go down to Florida for two months and live down there, that [00:09:00] I'm able to pick up and go do that.

Um, but without having the change in mindset and the ability to really take the focus off me. And put it on to my team members and kind of meet them where they're at and see what they learn to see that some people are only able to hear things if they are told them in a certain way. So it's like your style of communication and how you communicate with people.

Um, and I think that's where I've been more relentless is just self improvement. Just constantly trying to get better at the way that I lead and communicate with people so that I end up getting the outcome that I want.  

Shawn: Well, that's where my next question was going to, as you spoke there was like, I can see and I've struggled with this as a leader too.

Like That tenacity or, Hey, when a job needs done, I'm just going to go do it. And I'm going to figure it out. Uh, but from a leader's perspective, people hear things differently. They want to be led differently. Um, they react differently to different tones, different words. The definitions of words are not the same between people.

And as you add more people to the team, I mean, the lines of communication. Are exponential, [00:10:00] right? Going from two people to three people is not adding one more line of communication. It's actually adding like six lines of communication. And so once we get above three team members, it's just crazy. Uh, the amount of, uh, issues that can arise via communication.

So, you know, you said something there about apologizing and I like when small business owners get super tactical on like. What they actually do. So I'm just going to let you take this question where it may go. Uh, you can stay like macro level in the clouds or micro level, super tactical. How do you put a governor on your tenacity when it comes to leadership?

Because unless you're hiring a bunch of like 22 year old sales bros, uh, the tenacity, the wolf, the wolf of wall street mentality is not going to work. So, uh, what do you specifically think of or do when you're approaching team members? Um, on development, on improvement, on mistakes. Um, and I'm asking partially for myself, like my biggest area of focus as I go into a new business venture as well.

So  

Chris: I [00:11:00] really, I love this question and I've struggled with it for so long and I still haven't figured it out, but what I've, what I have figured out is that what I want in my life is not necessarily what everyone else wants in their life. And I think as business owners, the lines are sometimes blurred in that.

We look at things like, Hey, I want to make money. I want to be successful. I want to do X, Y, Z. Not everyone is driven by that. So what I'd, what I'd learned to do is take a step back with my team and really try to figure out like, what do you want? And the, and the interesting thing is some people really don't know what they want.

Trying to help them kind of figure out like, Hey, so does this sound more like something you want? Do you want financial freedom? Do you like the flexibility of schedule? Uh, so, so first, it's kind of like taking a step back, figuring out what, what the team wants. Secondly, it might be paraphrasing or putting into context, so there's some kind of mutual agreement between the two of you.

Like, hey, we're gonna work [00:12:00] together in synchronicity to help get you closer to the goal that you want. And then, I, I really think when it comes to the perspective of like, what do you want, people are most successful when they're doing things that they enjoy. Right? So like if I have someone that's really good at, I'm in the fitness business, so I'm going to use this example.

If I have someone that's really good at coaching and really good at programming, but they suck at sales, right? Me putting them in a client facing sales role is setting them up for failure, setting them up for frustration, setting me up for frustration and setting our relationship. Into like a tailspin where eventually somebody leaves.

I have spoken with numerous, uh, gym owners, but also just business owners that get so frustrated at that concept that I'm like, but why are you trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, right? Like empower the person to do what they love doing and think of a creative way. Cause you know, entrepreneurs are very [00:13:00] creative.

Think of a creative way as to how empowering this person and something that they love doing. Is going to reap the benefit where your clients win, they win and you win. And that's the biggest piece of advice that I can give is that trying to really figure out how to bridge the gap between what they want from a personal level, what they enjoy doing in your business, and how you can kind of use their strengths to elevate everybody.

As opposed to just getting frustrated when things don't happen.  

Shawn: Does that make  

Chris: sense?  

Shawn: Yeah, it makes complete sense. I've seen that play out in my, my first brick and mortar service based gym as well. And, uh, you know, as entrepreneurs, we, we all read the e myth and it, you know, very easily lays out that if you love baking and then you decide to go open a bakery, you're no longer a baker.

You're the owner of a bake shop. And those skill sets, you know, Are different and yet we start hiring people to do something and the longer they're with us and the more successful that we all collectively become [00:14:00] The the traditional method is level them up Well, when you take when you take someone that's passionate about making cakes and you turn them into the bakery manager You're doing the same shit you did And so if they don't have that passion, that desire, that skill set, or that, you know, the, the want to do that, uh, you're really setting them and ultimately your business up for failure.

So I like what you hinted at there, which was how can we keep them in their zone of genius, their strength zone? Wow. Incentivizing them over the longterm to reap the benefits of a successful business. I think that's very, very hard because as you, as you said, like some people do change, desires change, and keeping that line of communication is important and not just resting on the laurels of what they said a year ago or two years ago.

And keeping that line of communication open. Uh, so where are you at now? Like, what are you trying to work on? What are you trying to improve upon, uh, for yourself inside your businesses or outside of your businesses? Inside the business, I [00:15:00] want  

Chris: to grow top line revenue. Um, I really want to push the, uh, semi private slash small group model.

Um, more so because I believe it, uh, most of my coaches align with the fact that they got into this to coach. They like coaching people. They like helping people. And I want to just say one thing about what we had just mentioned, which is that I do believe in an 80, 20 rule here, here as well, like 20 percent of what you do.

Um, You're going to have to eat shit and do it. You're not just going to have a job. I'm going to like everything here,  

Shawn: absolutely.  

Chris: Exactly. So there is a degree, but it's my job as like the manager and leader to make sure that that 20 percent is not something that's so critical to the growth of the business.

Um, As it pertains to the second part of the question, it's just like, I want to grow the top line revenue the way that I'm going to do it is by starting to implement semi private and small group training. It really is a win win win scenario, which I always talk about in my business. [00:16:00] The clients win because they're getting personal training, which is the best and quickest way to results based outcome, in my opinion.

Um, but the problem with personal training is it's just long term. It is very expensive. Most people can not and will not pay for that long term. Uh, group training is also fantastic, but sometimes, you know, people get lost in the shuffle. So the small group is the intermediary where, uh, the client I believe gets the The best of both worlds.

Um, the coach can make more money per hour. They can almost double their income of what they would do with a personal training session and triple what they do in a group session. Um, and then the gym overall makes more money. So the gym makes more money. Truthfully for me, it's not about making more money in my gym for myself right now.

You know, an extra thousand, 2000 bucks a month for me would be great. I could use it for investing. Um, but it's really the security for my team to feel like they're fully locked in and where they want to be so that I can [00:17:00] completely remove myself from the day to day and focus on the next step for me, which I have found the quickest way to build my financial freedom is going to be through real estate.

Um, it's, it's taken me admittedly a while to figure out what that path is going to be. Is it short term rentals? Is it Airbnb? Is it long term rentals? Is it burying properties? And I finally figured out what it is, right? The what. Then it was where? Where am I going to do it? And that's kind of fluctuated for so long, and it hasn't been until like the last four to five months.

And I'm like, okay, I'm going to bur properties, I'm going to do it in Alabama. I'm going to finance them, and I'm going to work with an operator who's going to be on the ground for me. Uh, that process, unfortunately for me, and I don't want to say unfortunately because I've learned a lot along the way, has taken me longer than I would have wanted, but what I've realized in the process of myself is that I suffer from paralysis by analysis, which so [00:18:00] many people do.

I just want to reiterate and like I'm saying it to myself. It's like imperfect action is far greater than inaction Like we're not gonna be making such catastrophic mistakes that we're just gonna fuck up our entire life It's not gonna happen not at the level that I'm starting at so Yeah, it's kind of taken me a while to get to this point, but that's the idea is that I want to, I want to start with one, I want to start with one and kind of see where that goes as I start to learn more about the process.

Shawn: Yeah, I can relate to wanting to know everything before taking action. And, uh, you know, the quote though, that we kind of run around is like perfection is the worst standard. And in this realm, it's trying to be an A plus student. And that's been ingrained in us. Since, you know, elementary school was we need to study hard for the test.

We need to know all the answers before we take the test. But in the real world, the C minus student who takes action and can learn the answers to what they got wrong on the back end, like how many, like, we don't even think about this in elementary school, like half the teachers allowed us to retake the fucking test.[00:19:00]  

Like that's what real life is like, take action, get a C minus. Figure out what you got wrong, and the next time you take the test, you're gonna get an A Like, the A pluses in real life are extremely hard. So, I've been trying to figure out a different way to say this. And it's like, the best shun is action, not perfection.

And so, just go take action. And I think you came out of the Scottsdale meetup understanding that. And so, Chris, like, What do you want to put out into the universe to the listeners, like, so the next time that we get you on the podcast or they see you on Instagram or Facebook and they see that you get this thing done, uh, they heard it here first.

So in the next six months, what, what are you going to accomplish?  

Chris: I want in the next six months, uh, minimum of two long term rentals that I'm in the process of burying. Because again, I haven't done this before, so I don't know how long the process and the refi process and the seasoning and all that stuff is going to take.

I would say at least two, potentially four, um, cause you know, [00:20:00] like what I've always learned is, is a good deal will find money, right? But what I was wrapping my brain around was, do I do it with my own money? Do I take hard money? And I've decided that I'm going to do it with my own money first. I feel more comfortable.

There's more wiggle room. But once I have proof of concept. And I do it once or twice, I can theoretically, on the third go around, do one with my money, do one with hard money, do one with private money. And I have people who believe in me and want to invest in me. But I'm not going to take money and funds until I know that I have proof of concept.

Shawn: Well, I like that. That's kind of where I'm at, right? I came out of the first meetup of the year, Birmingham, and partnered with an operator. I was the financial partner. Uh, we're wrapping up the first two pro it took us two months after Birmingham to finalize the partnership. So we're about month four now.

Properties are 99 percent done. We have all the paperwork submission for the cash refi. The appraisals were last week. Right. And I used my money and, uh, same, same mindset. It was like, I'm going to be the financer. I want to feel what this feels like, and I want to see the [00:21:00] economics, right? I can see the economics on paper, but now I actually get to feel the economics.

And that's the same thought that I'll put it out into universe. That's the same thought I've been having. Um, and I haven't put it on Facebook yet, but I'm going to go there and be like, I'm looking for hard money lenders. I'm looking for people that want whatever double digit percentage, uh, over the next three to six months.

So I can get control of the asset and yeah, the interest, the high interest is going to cost me a little bit of money, but I'm not doing this for the next six months. I'm doing this for the next 60 years. So I want the asset and I, and I believe, I believe in the cashflow and I believe in the appreciation and I want the tax depreciation benefits.

So it's good to see you coming along for the ride. Um, for the lessons that you guys, uh, may have gleamed over on this episode, I really like what Chris said about the win, win, win situation situation within his service based business. What is the best value. For the client to meet their goals. It does not have to be a fitness based service business, any business, what is the best value based product or service you have to get that [00:22:00] problem?

The client has solved as fast and efficiently as possible and economically to what is the best service? In your best interest for your employees to maximize their skill set and their time We know especially those in the fitness space There is a ceiling and guardrails on how much you can work in a day and how many people you can fit into Uh particular models and then ultimately yes, maybe not the biggest deal for chris right now But um the biggest profit product and service and when you can figure out A thing that gets all three of those, that is the business building.

Trident, in my opinion, is what's best for the client. What's best for the employees and what's best for the business. And, uh, when the same thing aligns for all three of those, that's what you want to go 80 percent of your time in. I do like what you said about respecting the additional 20 percent of suck or idea building and Callie mentioned, uh, at Scottsdale, do you want to leave the people with anything else, Chris, of anything that you learned over the years or, you know, the biggest thing that you see that you need to help small business owners?[00:23:00]  

Chris: Uh, I would say, and it might sound backwards, but I, back to that win win win situation that I talk about, I think teaching, uh, your employees to think of putting the business first, right? So, you have to have a successful, profitable business. If you do not have that, nothing else flows from there. The second concern is staff.

Is the staff happy and fulfilled? Cause if they're not, they're going to provide a shit product for your clients. The third tier is clients. And I know in a client service and client facing industry, that might sound backwards, but the truth is without that trident. You know, far too many people fall on their sleeve and that's why I think so many businesses fail because they have it upside down and I think you have to have a responsibility to the business, then your staff, then the clients, um, because it will work to accomplish that win win win scenario if everyone is, you know, I don't want to say happy, but they're fulfilled in their role of [00:24:00] what they're doing and they understand their contribution to a greater purpose, which is growing the business, which grows them, which then allows them to perform an awesome service for the clients.

Shawn: I'll end with not only are the clients not always right, there are a lot more potential clients for you to replace those clients than potential employees. So treat the business with respect, treat your employees with respect. And ultimately, if those two things are right, I mean that that's culture. Right there.

The business is doing the right thing and the employees are doing the right thing. That means the clients will get the best product and service from all of those involved in the business. So thank you so much for saying that, Chris, I appreciate you. Thanks for coming out. The Scottsdale was great seeing you, man.

We are going to get you back on the podcast here in the next couple of months after you get through the first two burr properties so we can see how it went, my man. Awesome. Thank you, man. I appreciate the time. You're welcome.[00:25:00]  

Yeah.