Ex-Military Turned CEO's Path from Chaos to Control | Keith Gause | EP22

Speaker 1 What is up entrepreneur DNA family? We are back with another episode and it's going to be incredible. This is pure chaos.
He's chaos and he's turned it into control.

Speaker 1 Ex-military, ex-SWAT, and now controlled CEO of a seven-figure, multiple seven-figure business. Keith Gauze is in the house.
What's up, bro? What's up, dude? Good to be here, bro.

Speaker 1 Let's let this fly, dude. I'm excited to rip this one.
Let's rip. Yeah.
I think many people can

Speaker 1 understand.

Speaker 1 align, empathize with the chaos as a teenager, young man, even young business owner can be chaotic. That's hit.
But how did you wrangle in your life to get to where you're at in business?

Speaker 1 And just so everyone knows, we're talking about someone who makes millions and millions and millions a year, but it wasn't always that way. No.
Shit, no.

Speaker 1 Just pure stupidness to not give up is really the ultimate seed, right? People say, like, what's the secret? I say, ignorance. Yeah.

Speaker 1 continuing to show up every day and get kicked in the face and just rush it off. But chaos to control, and now I've refined that hustler to CEO as kind of the storyline.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 It just started with being a dumbass kid, like all of us, right? We all have that story. No, I didn't go to prison for 15 years for doing stupid shit.

Speaker 1 I probably would have if I stuck to the game, but you know, it was one of those things, like the time caught up with me, and the judge was like, hey, idiot,

Speaker 1 this way or this way? Yeah. Prisoner or military.
And it was one of those things, like, all right,

Speaker 1 stage right. How do I sign up for the military?

Speaker 1 And I just left

Speaker 1 18

Speaker 1 17 when I enlisted and I like right at 18, I was pretty much out of here.

Speaker 1 So it wasn't very long after graduation and I was like,

Speaker 1 I got to bail. Do you think your chaos as a teenager and listen, as guys, this is a,

Speaker 1 there's, there's levels of chaos, right? You can take it to the furthest level of it. But I think for the most part, we all understand the chaos that we get into as boys.

Speaker 1 When I just had my baby boy, I was like, honey, this is going to be a little different world than you're in for it, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 So, but do you think this was innate a factor of location of where you were raised, a function of how you were raised, or simply you're a boy, you were fucking picking your battles, however you felt fit?

Speaker 1 What do you think that chaos was a function of?

Speaker 1 So, my mom and dad split super early when I was two.

Speaker 1 So, my dad raised me. My dad was into the biker gang type shit, and you know, I was around.

Speaker 1 Now, he, you know, he didn't let it be known that he was in the biker gang until I was, I think, 20, 21. I saw a message and it was like, what's up? Your uncle just all seemed to have a simple.

Speaker 1 Long hair, bandanas, and Harleys, bro. You know,

Speaker 1 I found a message when I was like 19, 20, 21. I was home and it was like to my dad, what's up, VP? And I'm like, hmm, yeah, what's that mean? He's like, oh, vice president.

Speaker 1 I was like, yeah, let's talk about it. And so I found out after the fact, I kind of knew-ish, sure, right? But so I grew up, dad, just, you know, raised in hell.

Speaker 1 And he was an entrepreneur. Okay.
So he worked for a plumbing company,

Speaker 1 my upbringing.

Speaker 1 So he actually had, and I think this is somewhat of a myth, but it's always cool to hear, right? So you think son's an anarchy, at least I do, because I was not raised around this.

Speaker 1 It wasn't that bright, though. It wasn't that loud.
Right. You know what I'm saying? Like, it wasn't known.
Yeah. So he had a real job.
He was a job.

Speaker 1 He owned a real business, business, had a real nine-to-five, real income. It's not like he was just

Speaker 1 dirty, you know,

Speaker 1 and all this other stuff, which is more common in the Sunset Uniork. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, and I never experienced any of that. I never saw any of that shit.
I never saw violence.

Speaker 1 I never saw fights and shit like that, right? But I saw the people. Yeah.
And those were family and those, the dudes that I knew. Sure.

Speaker 1 But the reality is like, watching him go from

Speaker 1 that kind of just hanging out and partying on the weekends, like we all do. I mean, my dad had me when he was 25, right? So we grew up together.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 The reality is, like, I saw the transition from employee to business owner. So I got to experience it from like the very first decision of like, fuck this, tired of that.
Yeah. I want ownership.

Speaker 1 And I watched the full journey happen. I watched business partnerships come and go.
I watched success happen and fail. I watched him get off the ground and dust himself off and go again.

Speaker 1 And I think that that was just ingrained in my

Speaker 1 growth pattern as a kid, right? Yep. So it was my makeup and my DNA to say, okay,

Speaker 1 get your ass kicked. Just get the fuck back up and figure it out.
And for me, I saw him do it. Yeah.
I just watched him look at a great role model in that. Yeah, dude.
Yeah, extremely.

Speaker 1 And ultimately, the vision was for me to go and run the company, but I had to get the hell out of here first. I had to disconnect from who I was running with.

Speaker 1 Ultimately, I was going to end up the same thing, slinging beers at the local bar or whatever the case was, right? Right, right. So I got out.
I went into military right after high school.

Speaker 1 I was in the Air Force.

Speaker 1 A lot of people have no idea. There is a special operations branch there.

Speaker 1 So you were in special ops in the Air Force. Yeah.
So

Speaker 1 I skipped school. I got highest shit one day.
We went surfing. I lived in Jacks Beach.
Skipped school, went third period because surf started to suck, and was too high to go to class. Right.

Speaker 1 And so the teacher's like, you just can't come in here. So I went to the auditorium and they were having the ASVAB test, which is like the military entrance test back then.

Speaker 1 I don't even know if they still do that. I got a 96.
Out of 100? Out of 100.

Speaker 1 So at that point, I was like, well, I don't, I wasn't intending to go to the military. I think I was in 10th, 11th grade, right?

Speaker 1 Fast forward, they're like, hey, you can have any job in the military you want. Wow.
Because my score was high. Yeah.
And

Speaker 1 so

Speaker 1 I picked the Air Force because it was the shortest boot camp.

Speaker 1 For no fucking other reason. Yeah.
I was like, how do I get in and get out as quick as possible? Because no one, like, my ego at the time was super gigantic. Like, no one could tell me shit.
Right.

Speaker 1 And then knowing that these dudes were going to be all up in my ass. Totally.
I just wanted to like shorten time. Yeah.
So. Oh, that's a good, that's a good philosophy for almost all of us.

Speaker 1 time. It's carried forward.
100%.

Speaker 1 How do I condense my time to win business? How do I condense like that's the right way of doing 100%?

Speaker 1 So go through, this was in 2000, but we all know what happened in 2001. Of course.
Right. So halfway through boot camp, these guys are like, they come in and they show their shit off.

Speaker 1 And my job initially wasn't special operations or anything of the sort.

Speaker 1 Fast forward, I'm deployed. September 11th happened.
I was in chemical warfare refresher class in Hurlbert Field, which is in the Panhandle, Florida. And

Speaker 1 Pager started going off. And I'm 18, right? 19 at the time.
And I'm like, all right, cool. They turn the TV on the second plane hits.
And I'm like, oh, boy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I don't know what that means specifically, but that shit doesn't feel good. Some shit's about to happen.
And then, dude, chaos. Like, report to the talk, go here, do this, go home, pack.

Speaker 1 Five years, you're not coming home.

Speaker 1 That was kind of what I was told. Yeah.
Go pack your shit, take care of your affairs personally.

Speaker 1 We're not telling you where you're going, when you're leaving, or when you're coming back. Tell your family five years.

Speaker 1 And I'm like,

Speaker 1 Jesus. You've been in how long?

Speaker 1 Nine months, 10 months, 11 months, like after all the schooling and all the bullshit.

Speaker 1 This was my first two weeks on base. I had just got stationed.
Wow. Right?

Speaker 1 So I'm still like trying to figure out where the hell I'm supposed to go on base. Right.

Speaker 1 So I called my dad up like, yo,

Speaker 1 I'm leaving and I don't know where I'm going. I don't know when I'm coming back.
And he's like, let me stop the car. Yeah.
Yeah. And it, dude, it was nuts.
So action-packed chaos. Yeah.

Speaker 1 My life was chaos starting right there. Right.
How quickly were you actually deployed from that like moment to

Speaker 1 think was like seven days? That fast. It was like we were joking.
Yeah, it was quick. And

Speaker 1 when that happened, it was just like, all right, this is, this is, this is the new me. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Told where to go, when to sleep, how to sleep, where to shoot, all the things, and it was just chaos. And so the storyline was,

Speaker 1 you know, we were involved in a bunch of shit and helicopter crashes, and four years later, I'm out, right?

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 luckily, I'm okay. No PTSD, right? No, you asked my wife that, and she's like, yeah, you got some episodes, player.
Like, don't hide it.

Speaker 1 But for the most part, like, I'm physically fit. I'm good.
I can operate.

Speaker 1 I don't have any, you know, thank God. Yeah.
Because I got some homies who are fucked up. Oh, right.
Of course.

Speaker 1 So I came home and

Speaker 1 it was 2004, right at the beginning of 05.

Speaker 1 And my initial play was to take my dad's company over because, you know, it was like, hey,

Speaker 1 you're ass getting a little older. Let me come in.
Right. And Paul Sr., Paul Jr., you know, an American chopper.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 It was brutal. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It was brutal. So that shit just didn't work out.
And I was like, all right, well, I'm missing like running and gunning and shooting at things. And where can I go do that?

Speaker 1 And so law enforcement was the solution. Only place here that I could go run with guns and jump fences and do bad shit and

Speaker 1 have fun without being a criminal. Right.

Speaker 1 And so

Speaker 1 that was the plan. And I went to school.
And, you know, 2005, I got hired on in a small city, county, Clay County. I actually lived there up in Florida, and it was really

Speaker 1 hillbilly shit, redneck shit, right? It was a lot of country. And my vision was like, this isn't chaos.

Speaker 1 Can't hate it. I was bored.
Yeah, sure. So it didn't last long there.
And I went to JSO, which is up in Jacksonville. It's a sheriff's office.

Speaker 1 And I was like, you know, put me in the shittiest part of town. It's where I want to be.
Not a lot of people opt for that.

Speaker 1 No, and it was, you know, what was funny is my buddy growing up with Gabe Rose,

Speaker 1 he was actually my, my instructor. Okay.
Because I had to go through their training for 16 weeks after being, this was an 09. Okay.
So, oh, 08.

Speaker 1 So I had to go kind of through another police academy. Sure.
And so that sucked. Right.
Because I was already damn on the streets. Yeah.

Speaker 1 But Gabe Rose is a childhood friend of mine and he was the instructor. And so me and him had a good time with it.
And he's like, yo, where do you want to get a sign? I was like, bro, Mongrief.

Speaker 1 That's the hood. That's the hood.
Send me. Midnights.
I want to be there when it's dark.

Speaker 1 He's like, you're an idiot. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I'm out on that. Yeah.
So that was a thing, man. I rode the streets there for a bit.
I got picked up on the team and

Speaker 1 narcotics undercover narcotics work. And I did that.

Speaker 1 But that's where I was making $38,000 a year.

Speaker 1 You would risk your life every day to make $38,000 a year. Yeah, man.
Money wasn't the thing. It was, you know,

Speaker 1 my impact was servant leadership. Sure, of course.
You're in service, military and officers. That's what I knew.
Service. Yeah, that's what I knew.
And even today, you fast forward, you're in service.

Speaker 1 You haven't changed anything. You just are a lot safer and make a whole lot more money.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And actually, most likely, actually impact more lives now than you did then because the people that you were helping as... They didn't want help.
They don't want help. Right.
Right. And so you're...

Speaker 1 You're in the shit. And I can only relate to growing up with an alcoholic mom, dad.
They don't want help until they're ready to get help. Right.

Speaker 1 So if you're in the middle of their season of not wanting help, they're just going to shoot at you in your case. Yeah.
Yeah. So, which I was all about it.

Speaker 1 I was like, yeah, just throw me in the most dangerous shit and let's figure out who comes out on top. And if I don't, then it is what it is.
Have you been shot? Yeah. Like in, not shot at, shot?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I was shot in the leg.

Speaker 1 I've been shot in the, in the kind of back fat area, my lower roll that I asked Nelson not to get on film.

Speaker 1 From one, obviously your adrenaline's running and whatever, but like,

Speaker 1 how painful?

Speaker 1 or is it just like you don't really feel anything until you finally get to the hospital um i don't know i'm asking just because like adrenaline's crazy yeah it can push you it's a number bro it numbs shit and it's uh

Speaker 1 it like when you come to fruition with it like okay something's wrong like it burns

Speaker 1 you know when you notice it it burns for sure uh but you know to me it was it

Speaker 1 Wasn't painful and I don't say that as like Billy badass, but it was like in the moment thinking back now, it just wasn't

Speaker 1 I didn't feel it. Yeah.
I think it would have happened. Yeah, yeah.
For sure. But it was one of those things like, okay, I'm not dying.
We're good. Yeah.
We'll figure it out.

Speaker 1 It's like falling off your bike and skinning your knees and your elbows. You're like, fuck, that sucks.
Yeah. But I'm here.
Let's keep riding bikes.

Speaker 1 So when I got out of all that, it was.

Speaker 1 You know, so why do you decide to get out of that? Just like, all right, I should probably not risk my life every single day. I'm a dad.
I'm a husband. well I was I was definitely married uh but

Speaker 1 you know we found out we were pregnant with our first in 2008

Speaker 1 right

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 1 I had been tired of the game

Speaker 1 you know working 12 14 16 hours and then going to figure out off-duty work to make extra money to be able to take my wife to dinner like I was working I was working you know 17 18 hours a day average and

Speaker 1 oddly enough, man, I've always had this entrepreneur shit in me just from watching my dad. It was a seed, right?

Speaker 1 I never forget. We were in the hood.
It was 2008. We were doing a search warrant, and there was a bounce house in the middle of this apartment complex.

Speaker 1 This apartment complex is probably responsible for 40% of the murders. Like it is, it's a shithole.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And there were three bounce houses, and there were probably 200 kids. Oh, my God.
It was 2 a.m.

Speaker 1 This was 08, right? So if we think economically, 08 was, as an adult, right, one of the worst times you and I have experienced.

Speaker 1 Right. And I'm like, man,

Speaker 1 if

Speaker 1 those types of dollars are being spent in this environment, in this time,

Speaker 1 people on the other side of the tracks have to be spending two or three times that. Yep.

Speaker 1 And so that weekend, this was a Thursday night, I'll never forget it. That Friday afternoon, I found Craigslist.
I found a bounce house used,

Speaker 1 and I found, this was how stupid I was back then. Without, this is me just kick the door in and go figure it out.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I spent 20 Gs, which was all the money we had in our savings account, and this was right before our daughter was supposed to be born. Sweet.
Right. Great decision.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 A business name. Okay.
And a bounce, one used bounce house. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, if anyone knows anything about business now, I can generate a business name for $150 in Florida. Right.

Speaker 1 I paid $19,000 for this business name, but I loved the name and I knew a play on it. Bounce around Jack's party rentals.

Speaker 1 So I bought this one, Bounce House, and I owned a Nissan Armada at the time. I went to Harbor Freight, I picked up a $29 dolly,

Speaker 1 and I posted on Craigslist: bounce house rental, $100.

Speaker 1 Right?

Speaker 1 And $100 an hour for the day.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I need any money doing that.
Anyways, keep going. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So I had so many phone calls in the first hour of that post, I took it down and I increased the price. Yeah.
Right?

Speaker 1 But at this point, I'm just kind of throwing shit at the wall. Sure.
I made $1,700 in the first four days.

Speaker 1 $1,700. And I'm like, well, fuck, dude, that was more than a two-week paycheck.
That's great. I'm onto something.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So I went and at this, now today, I know what I did. Back then, I just borrowed money.
I went and raised capital. Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1 And I bought five more bounce houses in the first 30 days that I owned the business and I put in my notice. Good for you.
So fuck it. We're going all in.

Speaker 1 2009 to 2011, we went from the one bounce house to 500 inflatable units. Wow.
Outdoor DJ equip, like anything for a kids or any party outside, we had what you needed, right? And we just blew it up.

Speaker 1 And the thing about that is that aggravates me days.

Speaker 1 i didn't i didn't record any of it i didn't i back then i just didn't know right i didn't know like film any of this sops what the are those like you're just going so it was chaotic and it but it was what i knew i knew chaos i i vibed well there right yeah and that led me to where we're at today yeah sold the business got my ass kicked in taxes learned that lesson

Speaker 1 fast forward through four or five more companies and today we have black label yeah which is kind of the culmination of all of my experiences through business and what I know today entrepreneurs need that they don't know they need, like business owners, right?

Speaker 1 And the solution is Black Label, which is a one-stop shop for every component of business that you can possibly fathom. So who's your perfect clientele for Black Label?

Speaker 1 Everyone from a really entry-level

Speaker 1 about to start their company to we're helping three roofing companies exit the market right now. Wow, through an exit.
That's phenomenal. So, you know, my dream was like, how can I serve

Speaker 1 an individual being the focal point, but also have impact on their entire ecosystem of employees by helping the one person. So what do you focus on at Black Label?

Speaker 1 And by the way, just so we're clear, Black Label is the company, right?

Speaker 1 So that is the service company that helps entrepreneurs like myself and anyone watching this on YouTube or listening to this on Apple or wherever you might find this.

Speaker 1 Black Label, what's the website? Where can they go to even check out Black Label? Yeah, BlacklabelSolutions.com, Black LabelArmy.com. BlacklabelSolutions.com, BlacklabelArmy.com.

Speaker 1 And make sure you check out my boy Keith. What's your Instagram handle?

Speaker 1 Own your own economy. Own your own economy.
That's it. That is what O-Y-O-E means.
That is,

Speaker 1 I've been staring at the hat thinking. I got you a freshie in the truck, bro.
Oh, come home. I should be wearing it.

Speaker 1 Own your own economy. Well, let's get to that.
Let's talk about Black Label.

Speaker 1 So what are the things? What are the services why would an entrepreneur entrepreneur like myself or anyone out there why would we want to be working with black label so the the the kind of

Speaker 1 let me kind of back up a step so black label started via tideland consulting which started via me being in financial planning at northwestern mutual okay okay so when i sold the company had some decent money i retired What the fuck else did I want to do?

Speaker 1 I didn't want to do anything because I won, right?

Speaker 1 Quickly at 27, you realize that all your boys are working. Yeah.
Right. So life was

Speaker 1 life was boring. And

Speaker 1 so that didn't last very long. And

Speaker 1 I don't sit well. Yeah.
Right. I don't either.

Speaker 1 Do you vacation well? No. No.
We're going to Costa Rica next week. And I'm like, my wife's super excited.
And I'm like,

Speaker 1 yeah, you'll have more fun. You got some boys.
Well, I'll forget.

Speaker 1 We'll make it happen. But yeah, I don't, to answer the question, it's like, two days, I'm okay.
That third day. I'm on the way threshold.

Speaker 1 Well, now, if I have vacation, like fun vacation, doing things, I'm pretty solid. You bring me to the beach for more than two days, and I'm going to lose my hair again.

Speaker 1 Again,

Speaker 1 this time it's from here. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 1 you know, vacations, that's not for me. I'd rather work.
But that's also

Speaker 1 not great, right? No, there's a fine line. I'm similar.
Like, I just, not to detract the conversation, but like,

Speaker 1 you know, people are like, I can't believe you're already working again. And, and I'm like,

Speaker 1 I don't have that urge to be with my baby for 12 hours a day. Like, I love my baby.
I'm with him. And I love my three-year-old, but like, I also don't have the maternal urge to just do that.
Right.

Speaker 1 Like, my businesses are also my baby, and I love it. And I love hanging out with great people.
And so I totally can resonate with, you know.

Speaker 1 So the, the idea of like black label was, was a culmination of all these experiences that I went through and learning curves, right? Sold the company, got my ass kicked in taxes.

Speaker 1 Okay, that happens every day. People bitch about paying taxes.
Okay, well, let's, how do I then go learn that game? So I went and studied, right? I didn't want to become a CPA.

Speaker 1 I don't wear a pocket protector. I'm not doing that shit.
I'm not going to be in a student tie. I'm going to be awesome if you did, though.
I may show up next time with one just because.

Speaker 1 It's funny because I have like nerd glasses with white tape that like when people try to nerd out on me on like our actual Zoom meetings, I put that shit on. So hold on, hold on.

Speaker 1 This is how you sound right now okay

Speaker 1 but i just took my l's right and my losses and and i figured out let me go study that because i don't if i get my ass kicked once you're not kicking my ass again yeah it's just in me uh so i went and learned the game i got

Speaker 1 enticed to go to northwestern mutual i learned how to sell life insurance like a motherfucker but i realized that that wasn't financial planning that was a component of it sure but it wasn't and that's all they wanted you to do.

Speaker 1 So in my analogy, they're a hammer. Everything's a nail.
There's one thing. You're not a tool belt.
You are a hammer.

Speaker 1 Dude, and if, yeah, and it was commission only, and if you weren't using that thing, you weren't eating.

Speaker 1 So I figured out the game there.

Speaker 1 I was good at it, but it wasn't fulfilling for me because I wasn't able to coach and teach on all the shit that I had learned. Because they compliance, right?

Speaker 1 They want you to just talk about what they want you to talk about.

Speaker 1 So I learned, I got my series six and seven and 63, and all the shit, the nerdy shit you have to have to be able to give advice. And I got out of there.

Speaker 1 And so then I started Tideland Consulting, which was the consulting company that allowed me to start consulting for business owners.

Speaker 1 Then I realized what I was missing.

Speaker 1 And it was the analogy that I use for all you sports enthusiasts out there is as the CEO, we're the head coach, we're the quarterback, we're the defensive coach, we're the offensive line coach, we're everybody, but nobody's truly communicating.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean? It's me at the helm getting 15 lanes of information, trying to make the best decision on all this info that I'm getting from random people.

Speaker 1 And a decision I make today offsets some shit that I set up two years ago that I've forgotten about, and it breaks things.

Speaker 1 But we don't know that it's broken until it's too late.

Speaker 1 So the vision was like, how do I refine and become the person that all that information goes to for me to then sit with the business owner belly to belly and help them make the best and most efficient and effective educated decisions?

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 1 And when we started doing that, I realized there was a lot of other components to this game.

Speaker 1 marketing component, there's websites, there's CRMs now, there's Facebook ads, there's Instagram, like there's all this shit, tax mitigation work, financial planning, retirement, exit.

Speaker 1 And so it was funny. I was having a conversation this morning.

Speaker 1 Someone's like, dude, you're the master of all things. I said, no,

Speaker 1 no, but I'm a damn good delegator, right? And so I know a lot about a lot.

Speaker 1 My focus is on the financial side of the world. Yeah.
And my co-founder of Black Labels, Chris Zizzo.

Speaker 1 And together, we've known each other probably five years, and he has run a very successful marketing company.

Speaker 1 He's got a very successful content creation company. And he's also an engineer by trade.

Speaker 1 And so we all know that,

Speaker 1 you know, partnerships very rarely work out.

Speaker 1 So this partnership's five years in the making on very intimate conversations and understanding each other's genetics and makeup and how we operate and move and do this just mesh so well.

Speaker 1 So our thing was like,

Speaker 1 let's not partner. but let's take our concepts and prove them, right? So the financial side and the business consulting side and the things that I do, right? We've multi-million dollars a year.

Speaker 1 It's a proven concept.

Speaker 1 Same on his side. And now in the past 12 months, we've just created black label and we've merged all of that.
So black label, if you had,

Speaker 1 it doesn't matter the vertical. You're talking about any business owner out there.
Could you use a black label solutions?

Speaker 1 Setting up trust, right, in the real estate space, owning assets and understanding how to protect those assets in case of death, in case of taxes, in case in case, in case, in case, in case of lawsuits, that is a function that Black Label would serve.

Speaker 1 That's right.

Speaker 1 What about,

Speaker 1 I mean, what else, what other services, like, that's just top of my mind right the second because it's real time I'm going through some of this stuff sure right with the assets I'm acquiring and making sure like the thing that goes through my mind which is important which I you know now that I'm 42

Speaker 1 Unfortunately, I'm starting to see people pass and that sucks.

Speaker 1 And I'm seeing people pass that they don't have their shit together. And their wife is like, what the fuck do I do? I just don't even, I don't know where to start.
Right.

Speaker 1 I don't have a log into the bank account. I don't even know how to pay the next bill.
Right.

Speaker 1 And so I'm slowly, unfortunately, I wish I was doing it faster, but setting things up where, like, if, God forsake it, I pass early,

Speaker 1 Steph is locked and loaded. She's got it.
She doesn't have to worry. Can

Speaker 1 Black Labels solution help entrepreneurs do that kind of stuff? Yeah. And so that's kind of one of the entry points when you come into our ecosystem, right? It's, it's

Speaker 1 first and foremost, how do we automate a lot of things that you're doing today and create time, right? I think if we ask any entrepreneur, like, what, what are you missing? I just need time.

Speaker 1 I want more time, right?

Speaker 1 And when you ask that first, it's like, more time to do more shit. I'm like, okay, cool.
So you want to be more busy because you don't. have enough time already.
So how are you going to do that?

Speaker 1 So when we come in, it's more of like, we fact find.

Speaker 1 What are your your current processes how are you automating things are you automating things what's your crm how are you accepting clients like what what are all those flows financially

Speaker 1 what are you what are your benchmarks how is your company structured first and foremost like are you a sole prop guy and you just don't know are you a c corp or do you not have a clue and restructuring all of those things not only for protection, but for tax mitigation, right?

Speaker 1 Like for

Speaker 1 movement of money. That's the game.

Speaker 1 You know, everyone's all so do you have like in-house accountants or is that yeah we have in-house accountants we have the in-house attorneys we have i mean we have everyone you could fathom that you need as a business owner if they're not underneath the black label umbrella they're a third party and we we just plug yeah right and so setting your business up structurally and to your point like if something happened to you and you got a business partner well Your wife is now a partner of your business partner.

Speaker 1 Right. And does she want that? And does he want that? Or she want that? And what does that look like?

Speaker 1 So we, we, I mean, I break it all the way down into like, how did you even apply for your business license? What are your articles of incorporation? What does your operating agreement say?

Speaker 1 And people are like, what is that? That's right. And I'm like, yeah, yeah.
Sit down. So totally.
It is a,

Speaker 1 I think a service in itself that is needed. I think too many people want to go become an entrepreneur because it's sexy.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Name the name from Grant Cardone to whatever, Bradley, like they've made it sexy to be an entrepreneur. For sure.
And to some extent, it is, for sure.

Speaker 1 I mean, I live an incredible life and it's because I'm not beholded to a boss or a company, right? Same for you.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 I've also gotten my teeth kicked in several times because I didn't know what I didn't know when I first started.

Speaker 1 I first started with a business partner and thank God that, yes, it's over and we're not, but it didn't end. terribly, right? It wasn't a tragic ending.
Right. Right.
Thank God.

Speaker 1 I see my clients in my coaching program all the time. They're boys.
They start real estate investing together and it becomes a nightmare and relationships are broken and crunched.

Speaker 1 I think it's a lot about how you start, right?

Speaker 1 I would almost encourage people if you're watching this or listening to this, reach out to Keith now if you're starting a business, if you're just getting going.

Speaker 1 I think that's really pivotal because too many people get going, which you and I are the same, right? We just go. We figured as we're going.
Dude, that's why we were.

Speaker 1 Most people probably are that way listening to this, right?

Speaker 1 But if you can stop for a second and go to own your own economy, go to blacklabelsolutions.com, like get a hold of Keith. I would encourage everybody to

Speaker 1 set these things up right from the get-go. If you do have a business partner, awesome.
Make sure it's set up correctly where if you die or if there is a divorce, who gets the money? Who gets what?

Speaker 1 Like find this shit out now because there's too many, it doesn't matter whether they're in real estate, there's just too many business owners that start it because it looks good, it's fun, they want to be their own boss.

Speaker 1 They just don't do it with a good foundation. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know,

Speaker 1 what we found is like, to your point, like people just move quick. Right.
And then six years later, they're like, oh, I want, I'm successful now.

Speaker 1 Well, there's six years of shit to clean up to make sure that your success doesn't go away because, you know, this lady rear-ends you and now you're dealing with some bullshit. Right.

Speaker 1 So that, that was like the focus of like, how do I start protecting these people from the very seed?

Speaker 1 So what they, when they do grow the harvest, they can reap the benefits of the harvest and they can keep a lot of that.

Speaker 1 Right. And so that's, that was the kind of the thing of like, all right, I want to be able to, the one-to-many concept of I want to help you, which in turn helps all your employees.

Speaker 1 Everyone keeps more money. We're able to really take you to market and you can scale and do the things you want to do, which then what is that? That's you impacting more people.
That's right.

Speaker 1 So it's the pebble in the lake. If I throw a little pebble in the lake, all the ripples continue.
Right.

Speaker 1 And that was our kind of mindset going into this thing. I found the right business partner.
We mesh well. We put it together.
We have all the connections and proof of concept has been there. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Right. So now it's about marketing and getting the word out and in which we're not even really trying, but it's blown up.
Yep.

Speaker 1 And, you know, it's just we're doing the right things being on podcasts like this.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's not cold calling or direct mail or, you know, PPC ad, but you have an audience right now listening and watching to you that hopefully follows you on Instagram now with the Own Your Own Economy.

Speaker 1 But talk about that brand. What is that? Is that a cool way of saying the same thing? Or

Speaker 1 own your clothing line or what is it going to be? Yeah. So

Speaker 1 I'd say eight, nine months ago now, I had a had a crazy dream, right?

Speaker 1 And in this dream, I saw these letters.

Speaker 1 And I've never been that guy to like wake up and jot shit down that I'm dreaming of or whatever, but I woke up and it was one of those like wake-ups where you just knew you weren't going back to sleep.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So it was like two in the morning.
I got out to the kitchen and grabbed my computer and I'm working because that's just what I do. Right.
If I can't sleep and everyone's asleep, it's me time.

Speaker 1 I'm not going to go to the gym at two, but I'm going to go at five. So I got a couple hours to knock some shit out.
And I just couldn't get over this dream.

Speaker 1 And if you ask me today, I still can't recall the dream itself. I just kept seeing the letters.
And it hit me when I was kind of just working. It was like, on your economy.
And I jotted it down.

Speaker 1 And that day, I had one of my VAs go and apply for the trademark for the letters and the actual phrase.

Speaker 1 And I didn't, I still didn't know like the direction that this was going to go. But what it is now, it

Speaker 1 it is a lifestyle. It's a movement.
It's a movement, man. And it's not a movement with one of these lame-ass, you know, mastermind things with a bunch of rah-rah.

Speaker 1 It's not a paid movement. You can get into my ecosystem 100% free.
There is no hook.

Speaker 1 It is literally a bunch of people trying to take

Speaker 1 better and more proactive decisions and implement them into their life.

Speaker 1 And what I found, like thinking back on it, is like, fuck working 18 hours a day, right? If you can find something you enjoy doing, to me, black label is not work, right?

Speaker 1 To you, to you, real estate, as you already said it, it's family. Like it's your baby.

Speaker 1 So it's not work. It is a movement on impact.

Speaker 1 And so for me, I wanted to band together as many people who were stuck in the nine to five or who were stuck in the mentality of like, I just got to go to work, got to go make more money.

Speaker 1 Let's go make a movement. Let's own our economy, whether that's in real estate or business ownership or relationships or whatever the fuck it is.

Speaker 1 Take ownership of it and grab it by the horns and let's make it something that you enjoy. Right.

Speaker 1 And so, like, when I think of that, you know, we just finally, after two years, got the pool put into the house, right? We live on the river up in Jacksonville.

Speaker 1 It's probably way too big of a house than we need, but this point that I'm making is

Speaker 1 my kids have all their friends over.

Speaker 1 My kids hang out at the house, right? My friends come hang out. This is our economy, right? This is not money by the word economy.
This is my lifestyle. This is who I enjoy spending my moments with.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 all the way back to like, dude, we're not here very long. Totally.
I agree. Like that dash between the numbers is short.
That's it. And if we don't take advantage of it, like I'm 42, bro, like that.

Speaker 1 Yeah. We'll be 70 like that.

Speaker 1 And so it was more of a thing like, I'm going to force this bitch to slow down. I know time's not going to slow down, but I'm going to force my time and my experiences to slow down.

Speaker 1 I'm going to take ownership of those. And that's what I've been working on.
And I am not a great solo learner, right?

Speaker 1 So if I have an ecosystem of people hustling and doing the things that I can do, I can learn off them, they can learn off me, and own your own economy happened.

Speaker 1 And so now it's, I got some swag, you know, I don't do it to make a shit ton of money. Like if you look at my Shopify store, you'd be like, well, why do you waste your time?

Speaker 1 It's not for money. It's so people can wear this and have a constant reminder of like, what am I doing right this second? That's right.
And that's what it was.

Speaker 1 I think it's really empowering for any entrepreneur or anyone who has been there and done that to help people understand it is about looking in the mirror and taking ownership. Yeah.
Right?

Speaker 1 Is

Speaker 1 you know, I am pretty money driven and some people will look at that as bad, but frankly, it's just because I want to take ownership of my life and money affords me to have a really awesome life.

Speaker 1 Like we're making a real life decision right now about moving back to Scottsdale, Arizona, which is not cheap and it creates chaos and all those other things, but money fixes a lot of that.

Speaker 1 I can go do that. I can go pay for my cars to get shipped out there.
I can go pay like, and that's why I do what I do is to take ownership of the life.

Speaker 1 And I love this mantra of own your own economy, not necessarily the financial, but like your life's a message. Just take ownership.
Yeah. Right.
And I think a lot of the evolution of money, right?

Speaker 1 We don't have it. Then we have it.
Then we get it. Yeah.
Then we use it incorrectly because it's new.

Speaker 1 And then when we get to a certain level, it just becomes a tool. And I'm going to speak for myself here.
It is a tool for me now on how I can impact other people. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And the cool shit I can do for other people. Like

Speaker 1 just random shit. Like my wife has friends and sometimes I get in fucking financial issues.
You know,

Speaker 1 one of our close friends went through a shitty divorce and he was an asshole and left the house and like her refrigerator went out and killed all her food. Right.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, she's crying to my wife on the phone and I overheard it and I and I tapped my wife. I said, get in the truck.

Speaker 1 We're going to Home Depot. Yeah.
We're going to buy her a fucking refrigerator. It's stupid.
Put the refrigerator in the same day.

Speaker 1 Like, those are the things that I love to do just because someone else is in need and I can do it now without even hesitating. Right.

Speaker 1 And so I think the evolution of money is like we blow it, we fuck a lot of things up and then we realize like it is a tool.

Speaker 1 So to your point, it is the tool that allows you now to get the hell out of here because of whatever that reason is and go where you want with no real hesitation. Right.
No friction.

Speaker 1 It reduces a lot of friction in life. Right.
But it goes back to the point of what own your own economy is just the ownership part is the most important part, right?

Speaker 1 Because it's also okay to not necessarily have the same drive to create a lot of money. It's okay.

Speaker 1 Just take ownership of the fact that like if you wanted to move, it's going to be a lot more friction and more chaos and hard to do. Right.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 But that's why business owners, in a general sense, I think it's really imperative for them to hear your good and your bad are you. Yeah.
Right.

Speaker 1 And so if you're not going to go look up black label solutions, then that's on you.

Speaker 1 If you're going to have a partnership and you don't have your divorce papers written before you even get divorced, that's on you. Right.

Speaker 1 I mean, that's that the services you provide business owners, everyone needs to be going to black label solutions because they just go and get an entity, they get an EIN number, and they start doing business and start transacting.

Speaker 1 They start making money. Until the IRS sends them a tax bill, and then they're like, oh, shit.
Trust me, I did. What did I do? Just went through that.
Not that it was my fault.

Speaker 1 My bookkeeper fucked me. No longer my bookkeeper.
But, you know, I had to make some very quick decisions because of that, right? You make enough money and you got to pivot and move.

Speaker 1 And so, tax implications: as Black Label Service have, you know,

Speaker 1 people with

Speaker 1 conversations around, you know,

Speaker 1 not how to avoid taxes because they don't like that word avoid, right? But do not.

Speaker 1 What should you be doing inside of your day-to-day operations with your money to pay less? Yeah. Right.
And we've all heard it.

Speaker 1 The tax book wasn't made to pay taxes. taxes.
A little bit was on the rules of why you're paying. 90% of that book is how not to pay taxes.
People just are too lazy to look.

Speaker 1 They need to reframe how to read the book. Right.
Meaning, if you frame it, I'm going to read this book and no one's going to really read it.

Speaker 1 You know, like I need to follow the rules on not paying because they're lineiting them. Like we just had a discussion about buying 10 doors.

Speaker 1 And if it's commercial, there's a big tax right write-off it's residential it potentially is a big tax write-off depending okay well as long as we play the rules do you need to go create that into a commercial and rezone it right because then you have a major tax those are the decisions you know you can play because you know the rules of the game right right versus just buying them and being like oh man i just bought 10 homes that there's not much of a tax write-off there

Speaker 1 know the rules turn that into a commercial asset and then you can go get a bigger tax write-off it's just knowing the rules again donald trump gets hated on billionaires get hated on.

Speaker 1 They just know those rules. I study those people because I want to figure out how the fuck they're doing it.
And, you know, I think the reality is like a lot of us don't have time to learn.

Speaker 1 So if you don't have time to learn, go find someone that knows it and just copy them. So let's talk about time really quickly.
You said something earlier that I wanted to hit on.

Speaker 1 I'm glad you brought it back up. You're big in business partnerships, like partnering with others that have an asset class that you don't have in terms of, you know, their skill set or whatever it is.

Speaker 1 The older and older I get, the more I buy into this concept. I'm not a fan of people just partnering for partner sake.
Hey, bro, you're my bro, let's partner. Breakups are terrible.

Speaker 1 Yeah, terrible, right? Divorce almost imminent. Right.

Speaker 1 But when you have someone that can provide you time value, strategic value, experience value, I am 100% all for it.

Speaker 1 We are talking about things that we can be doing together based around that type of stuff. Right.
Where I don't have to be the guy to go do the thing.

Speaker 1 And in our world, you probably aren't either. But you have the resource, the connections, the people, the systems, the structures that I'm not going to have, or vice versa, right?

Speaker 1 And I've even gotten to the point now where I'm telling my leadership within my companies, if there are other people, services, companies, assets that could reduce our obligation to grow, scale, hire, recruit, train,

Speaker 1 I want that partnership. Yeah.
Because I'll give up the 50% or whatever the negotiated partnership split will be. So I don't have to take on the brain damage and time suck it takes to build.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's a lot of things. Like back to black label.
That's what we're trying to give people.

Speaker 1 And we've even had people, once we run them through our process, they're like, yo, why don't you just partner with us, take 10% of the equity in our company and just stay with us forever?

Speaker 1 That's a great business model. Right.
And it's enticing and shit, right? But it's like, maybe. Pumpkins.
Yeah, for the right people. Right.

Speaker 1 So I think as entrepreneurs and all the cool shit we always talk about is time, like that, it all comes back to time, right? Time, money, time this, it's time.

Speaker 1 And to your point, like this relationship, it doesn't happen often. Right.
Right.

Speaker 1 And I think that if people can look at it and give time and give value first, which is what Black Label and I personally am all about, How can I provide you with something without expecting any fucking thing?

Speaker 1 And we're sitting in Miami right now, and I told you this from this morning. Like, I walked outside this morning, I was like, everybody wants something.

Speaker 1 I can feel it. I feel it.
I am. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I can feel it.

Speaker 1 Right. And to me, it's like

Speaker 1 I look through the lens of

Speaker 1 how can I give to you?

Speaker 1 Like, what is it in your world right now that I can plug and fix? Right.

Speaker 1 And, or just give you a tip on. And I've led that way for now 10, 12 years, like intentionally, and the shit pays off a million times over.
But you are patient because most people say,

Speaker 1 well, yeah, but I want it now. Yeah, commission mouth's not a good look.
No. You know what I mean? Like when I'm trying to help you, but alternatively, I want something out of that.

Speaker 1 It's not compassionate. It's not real.
It's not organic. Commission mouth.
Commission mouth. Fucking love that.
Yeah. Bro, I need something from you.
Let me fake help you to get paid. No, thanks, bro.

Speaker 1 That shit's for the birds. Like,

Speaker 1 within seconds, if someone calls you, you can tell. Yeah.
Hi, my name's Keith Gauze and I went. No, bro.
Stop.

Speaker 1 There is a hard lesson that people, or a skill set, whatever you want to call this, people don't have the patience, right? They want the thing now. Like, what's in it for me? Right.

Speaker 1 You hear that a lot. Almost every conversation I get into, I can hear on the other side, they're having a conversation with me.

Speaker 1 Because of my notoriety or whoever I am, and they're thinking, how can I leverage Justin for me? And I'm okay with that. I'm a capitalist.
I'm not, you know, I'm not opposed to people making money.

Speaker 1 And, but

Speaker 1 if you aren't willing to just serve to serve, you're short-sighted. Yeah.
Because one of my first mentors in real estate said, every meeting you sit down with is a paycheck.

Speaker 1 It just may not be right now. Yeah.
So take the meeting, right?

Speaker 1 And it's always stuck with me. To this very day, that meeting with my mentor stuck with me.
And I take meetings because I know one day where we will sit down and we will make money together.

Speaker 1 It may not be today, this week, next month, next year. But in four years, we just talked about a mutual friend.
It took us two years. We're about to do some business, make some money.

Speaker 1 But neither one of us really saw anything. And so we just were patient with it.
Yeah. You know?

Speaker 1 Well, that's the, I mean, when the government took away the debit card and gave us a credit card and then gave us the buy now button,

Speaker 1 the dopamine hits are fucking fast these days. That's agree.
And

Speaker 1 the buy and out button isn't because you can get it quicker. It's It's so you can feel good about behind the thing today instead of, oh, let me think about this thing, right?

Speaker 1 And to me, I correlate that with relationships. It's like, what can I do for Justin over the next 12 months that is going to leave impact and legacy and whatever? And I don't expect shit.

Speaker 1 I've exchanged the quick thing for the long-term dopamine hit. If I can give you something today, my dopamine hits there.
That's right. It's not when you give me something.

Speaker 1 And I think uh when you correlate those two things and you can process that in business and you can help deliver that through your business like your business doesn't hurt for new clients yeah right you you grow and um

Speaker 1 you don't have to try as hard which is the fucking great part that's the great part and your service and your and what you do is so good that literally just it grows because of word of mouth it just grows because you're you're a compassionate human being that's not out to fuck someone over that's right people can hear that in language.

Speaker 1 And also, you have to have a great deliverable.

Speaker 1 You can't just

Speaker 1 talk smooth. Oh, yeah.
So here's that value.

Speaker 1 So, I mean, that's really what we're all about, man, is servicing people where they're at.

Speaker 1 You know, we find people where they're at, whether it's a concept of startup to exit. And

Speaker 1 Black Label Army is kind of the, that's why we named it that. That's the main solution is Black Label Army.
It's an ecosystem of

Speaker 1 professionals, right? It's not a mastermind. You don't have to pay to be in it, but we're all here to fucking push each other.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And if I can take one thing away from you each day and put it in my book, which I'm pissed off, I typically have a book in my hand most of the time. Here's a great question if you don't have it.

Speaker 1 Do you have Black Label Army Facebook group? We do. Okay, good.
Yeah. We got all that.
Well, make sure you guys go join that. Can people just join that for free?

Speaker 1 Yeah, they can send in a request and all that. Yep.
All right. So follow you on your own economy and Instagram.
That's all I'm doing. Black Label Army Facebook group on Facebook.
That's it.

Speaker 1 BlackLabelArmy.com. Yeah, they will work to the solution side.
Let's go, bro. I appreciate you being here.
Yeah, dude. We could get it done for a lot longer, but we can't.
We got to go.

Speaker 1 We got lunch to eat. All right, y'all.
Appreciate you. See you on the next episode of Entrepreneur DNA.
Like it, subscribe it, follow it, share it. Let's go later.