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S2 Ep. 8 | Scaling Businesses with Purpose ft. Chris Lee | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby
00:38:47
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- [00:01]
Host
He took a company from zero to $233 million in four years, sold it, and then turned around and started helping other businesses do the same. If you're a founder, a leader, or just someone who wants to build something great, you're going to want to hear this. Chris Lee isn't just another coach. He's been in the trenches as the former CEO of Soljan Power. He built one of the largest solar companies in the country, then led a $120 million acquisition, stepping away in 2023. Now he's showing business owners how to scale, lead and create real impact. But here's the thing. Chris isn't just about numbers. He's about faith, family, and building a business the right way. Today we talk about culture, leadership, making big exits, and why faith should never take a backseat to success. Welcome to Coffees.
- [00:58]
Interviewer
Just to give the audience a quick overview, just give a 10,000 foot overview of what is it that you do currently.
- [01:05]
Chris Lee
Yeah, so I run a education and training community called Next Level Pros. We mainly work with brick and mortar businesses and so but we have people from all different industries. But yeah, we have a full community in which we train typically through a series of workshops and coaching and support and help businesses scale and grow and based on, you know, and the big thing is, is I come from the space. I come from being in the seat of the business owner. I'm not just some coach that learned it at a seminar.
- [01:40]
Interviewer
Yeah, and you've scaled some, some nine figure businesses. So Soul Gen, which was the la, was one of the biggest solar companies in the country. You exited that in what, 20 was it? 2023?
- [01:54]
Chris Lee
2022 is when we sold to private equity. I stayed, we did another $120 million acquisition as, as while I was CEO and then I, and then I stepped down as CEO March of 2023.
- [02:08]
Interviewer
Now you're teaching other companies how to do it.
- [02:11]
Chris Lee
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
- [02:12]
Interviewer
We'll dive right into it. I like to start the show off the same way. I start with every founder, CEO I meet with and Chris, what is your morning routine?
- [02:21]
Chris Lee
What is my morning routine? It kind of depends. I go through different ebbs and flows, but for the most part I wake up and one of the first things I do is I, is I pray. And then I head to the gym and I, and I go and work out. And so I've gone back and forth from working out at a gym to working out at my home. I have a pretty, I have a pretty nice gym at home and I've Found that right now I'm kind of in a season of life where I work out at home so I can be around my kids a little bit more in the morning because when I go to a gym we, we live out on a 23 acre hobby farm and we're about 15 to 20 minutes from civilization. And so once I leave, I'm basically gone for the day. And so I've, I've shifted to doing most of my morning routine at, at home. And yeah, so some, some level of workout I'll implement cold plunges and sauna and, and different things. A lot of different biohacking type thing. A big, big focus on the fitness and then also the learning. I usually spend 20, 30 minutes listening to an audiobook and usually about 15, 20 minutes in some level of scripture. And so yeah, big, big focus on relationships, education and spirituality during, during that morning routine.
- [03:48]
Interviewer
I love that, Chris. I have a very similar morning routine. So biohacking listens that listen to God's word, kind of do some self reflection and you know, try to be around the kids as much as possible. So you know, when you, when did, what year did you start Soul Gen?
- [04:05]
Chris Lee
So 2017 was when we, so we scaled it. I sold it four and a half years after starting it.
- [04:12]
Interviewer
Yeah, so that's what I wanted to get into. It said you managed to scale a company from 0 to 100 in a period of four years and have an exit, you know. And you know, what are some of the key principles that you implemented in growing an organization to that kind of scale?
- [04:31]
Chris Lee
Well, first off, it wasn't my first go around and you know, a lot of people can say I hit the market right. Or whatnot, but everything in that business was done by design. It was done on purpose and with forethought. And, and so you know, prior to that, I launched my first business in 2008 when I was 24 years old. And two and a half years later I found myself bankrupt and just made a lot of terrible decisions. And then I tried all different kinds of things and tried to scale and just didn't know how and, and frankly didn't ask enough help of others. You know, when I was, when I was young, I liked, I liked to think that I had it all figured out, which I didn't. And so it wasn't until I went back and I, in 2012 I started working for, for someone else and I spent four and a half years working and studying what high growth CEOs were doing. And so I was very intentional about why I was working for these businesses and the people that I was working under and, yeah, just developed a clear roadmap of when I was ready to go and spread my wings again. It was going to be all done on purpose. And so I think that was the most important thing in principle was doing it by design, not by default, and building culture that was going to attract the right type of talent to be able to go and scale and not try to do it all myself.
- [06:07]
Interviewer
Nice. You know, culture seems to be a fundamental need for any business to grow, especially at scale. And in the solar business, it's like, well, how do you develop, like a strong, attractive culture? Because that's, you know, very watered down, very unsexy business to begin with. And it's a very, you know, boots to the ground.
- [06:29]
Chris Lee
Yeah, you know, the, the interesting thing about culture and, and this is what we always said with Soulja and, hey, we're building a culture, and our strategy may change. The strategy was solar culture is independent of whatever industry you're in. You can build incredible culture in a dumpster business, you know, a garbage business or whatever it may be, because culture is about people. And as long as you build a business that has people and you're doing it in a way. So I, you know, one of the biggest keys to my success was I focused on the development of my people more than just being productive at work, but being better physically, economically with their associations and their spirituality. And, you know, that is the foundation to be able to scale a group of individuals that can get behind the same mission and vision of whatever it is, whether it's, Whether it's solar, whether it's financial strategy, whether it's, you know, you build homes. I mean, whatever the business is, people will buy into it if you value them.
- [07:40]
Interviewer
So you've. You've always put Christ at the center of your organizations?
- [07:45]
Chris Lee
Yeah, yeah, for sure. I, you know, from, from the very. So when we launched my businesses out of my garage and from very early stages, we do potlucks and we pray over food and we'd do everything and like. And I, I'd say, hey, look, you don't need to agree with everything that I believe in, but we're all spiritual beings having a physical experience and we will continue to, you know, have. Have a level of focus there. And, you know, I, I can proudly say that throughout, throughout my career, I've been able to bring people closer to Christ. I've been able help people lose weight. I've been able to help them invest their money and, and become Independent on very low wage type jobs and all, all different types of things. So like those are the things that really matter to me is that I develop out my people to be incredible citizens in, in their communities.
- [08:39]
Interviewer
And that's what it's about. You know, you really put a servitude, mindset at the forefront and that, that's enabled you to scale. And you know, I always kind of live by that principle, you know, do God's work, He always does your work and you know, you're a testament to, you know, who God's going to favor.
- [08:59]
Chris Lee
Yeah, for sure. I, I, I, I firmly believe that. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs, they, they try to put things off while they focus on their business or whatnot. And I, I would say the key, the, the key to my success was that like I, I kept a balance impact across my, across my life. I, I focused on working out. It wasn't like I know Alex or Mosey will, will say, oh, you know, people only get in shape after they exit their businesses or this like, no, that, that, that wasn't true. Right. Like I, I still put God first. I chose my family first. I have a wife of almost 20 years and five children. And you know, we, I chose to have a family and build a business around a family rather than the, the opposite. And so those, those things have just really paid off because I think ultimately people are attracted to a, a holistic human more than they are just a flashy car and a nice watch.
- [10:03]
Interviewer
Yeah, that, that's the reality. I mean flashy cars, nice watches, all that stuff fades. You know, having a good godly family, that, that's eternal. So what, what do you think, like, besides kind of like living a holistic life, what were some of the key decisions you had to make to scale your business?
- [10:26]
Chris Lee
For sure. So you know, I, I learned from other business failures. One is, is balancing the priorities of the business. You know, my first business, my priority was customer, employee, then business. And by that it was charge as little as possible, pay as most as possible, and hopefully there's something left for me at the end. Ultimately what I found is that the, the reverse is absolutely imperative. You have to design with whatever your target profit margin is, which typically I, I like to target a 25 to 30% profit margin because if I'm highly profitable, I can then take care of my employee in a very good way and then they will in turn take care of my customer. And because of that, in order to get highly profitable, it's, it's charge more than the rest of the marketplace and over deliver on the experience. And so you know, we were well known for being the most expensive in the solar industry but because of it we were able to afford to take care of the customer in, throughout the experience. And that customer being both the employee and, and the end user. And so you know, and it also afforded us to make a lot of mistakes, you know, and when you're, when you're operating on good healthy margins, you can screw up and then you can take care of the customer. And so that you know, we were, we were charging about twice as much as most local solar installers were, which again like I said, put us at the very top of the market. I'm a firm believer that there's only two places that you can play in, in a, an offer, you either got to be the most expensive or you got to be the cheapest because anywhere in between you're ultimately screwing yourself. Because if you're playing the middle game, you will always be undercut in price by that, that lowcost leader. And so if you're going to be undercut, you might as well be undercut while delivering the best experience at the most expensive price. And so, and the only way that you can play that low cost leader is you got to be Walmart. You got to be willing to sacrifice in the customer experience. You got to sell butt cracks and what, whatever else with high level automation and crazy scalability at razor thin margins. And, and so very few of us can afford to get to that level. So if you can't afford to get to that level, you better be playing the other game.
- [13:02]
Interviewer
That makes a lot of sense. I mean everyone likes, you know, most entrepreneurs playing that middle, middle ground.
- [13:09]
Chris Lee
Yeah, I, I, I hate the middle. In fact one of the, one of the first things that I do when somebody joins our community is I get them to shift their offer. And so I say hey, let, how do we get you to the highest price? And then how do we use some of that additional highest price to improve the experience and the, and the delivery of your product? And so yeah it's, and most people are scared of that. And so I'd say that's like step number one is coming in with the right offer because foundationally most, most entrepreneurs screw that up from the beginning, it's really hard to fix down the road. So we foundationally started with that, we focused on culture, but then most importantly for scale is that we refuse to rob the growth, the growth capital from the business. I think most entrepreneurs, once they hit that Good what they deem a good income, 250, 500,000, whatever. Then they stop investing in growth and they start pulling profits to buy the watches, to buy the houses, to buy the different things where my model has always been. I take everything I netted and I plunge it back into marketing. I plunge it back into any growth metrics that are going to drive the top line. And so we sacrificed, I mean, our first two and a half years in business, we operated out of my garage. And I have a pretty good sized garage. It's a 3,500 square foot shop. But, but the day we moved out, two and a half years later, I had just in my headquarters, I had 53 people showing up to my house every single day.
- [14:42]
Interviewer
Wow.
- [14:43]
Chris Lee
And so, and we refused to live by vanity metrics, which is like the office and you know, just like looking good and saying, look at me, successful business owner. But dude, like the day that I had moved out of my garage, we had already done $75 million of business. And so, I mean we did year one, we did 16 million. Year two, we did 32. Year three, we did 34, then we did 89, and then we did 233 million. And so when like, so like, I think that is so important is like sacrificing the short term of like wanting to look good to your friends, wanting to look good to the people that don't even like you, wanting to good. What? And, and say, yeah, like all these dollars are just going in and, and then investing in the things that matter. Which. The only person that I cared to look good towards was our end user. Right. I wanted them to think like, wow, these guys are big and incredible, having awesome marketing and branding and everything else, but meanwhile we're operating out of a freaking garage. And so like that's, that's how, that's how we built the thing. And then ultimately we did build the big, beautiful, nice headquarters and we had 18 locations and all the cool stuff. But like that was long term gain over the short term sacrifice.
- [16:06]
Interviewer
I mean, that's incredible the fact that you were able to kind of bootstrap it with your own income, with your own money, build it where it was so mighty right out of your garage and then just roll into the fancy office. I mean, you really, really held out for a long time to just indulge a little bit in an office.
- [16:27]
Chris Lee
Yeah. And so we, you know, even, even then we didn't move right into our nice office. We had another 13 month period in what I call the shed. It was just a bigger, uglier garage essentially, but it was a place that they were willing to, to lease to us on a, on a one year lease while we finished the construction of our 22, 000 square foot headquarters. And, but yeah, like I, I, that short term sacrifice I have, I have rarely see it not paid off in my career and, and frankly like you like almost like are forced to spend the, the extra money rather than like spending it when you don't have it.
- [17:13]
Interviewer
Now one thing I'm impressed about with you is that you're also the host of the founders podcast and It's a top 20 podcast on Apple. And what I wanted to ask you is what's a common theme that, that's a common mistake that you see founders make when they start their business?
- [17:32]
Chris Lee
Yeah, so that's a great question. So six months ago we rebranded to Next level Pros is the name of the podcast now. But just for anybody that's going and looking for it, there's, there's several, several themes. I, I'd say theme number one is distraction. And you know, entrepreneurs, we are great idea creators. We can see value in anything. I can go and look at like a building and say, oh, if I just start selling this or doing this, I could make extra money. And I, and I think a lot of times we get bored and, and usually the boredom sets in right about when we hit the dollar that we had previously set in our head as our comfort number. So like if our Comfort number was $250,000 net or salary or whatnot, once we're able to achieve that, usually boredom sets in and we start getting distracted and we looking for new opportunities rather than focusing on the thing that got us to that, to that number. And so the greatest founders that I have interviewed or been a part of, Those guys are 100% dialed in and they make their wealth in concentration. And, and so there's obviously the, the old fallacy that you, a average millionaire has seven streams of income. No, I mean, sure that you may make an argument for that, but the average multi, multi millionaire made all their money in one thing and then they sold it and then they diversified into other things or they went all in on something else. Right? And I mean you look at, you look at a guy like Elon Musk, he made all of his money initially and PayPal, right? Like he wasn't there wasn't all these other distractions going on or whatnot. Like he went all in on that thing. And so for the first time in my life With Soulja was the first time that I said no to a lot of opportunities that came across my plate. And so the. The power and ability to say no is probably the greatest discipline that we can create as entrepreneurs and founders of businesses.
- [19:45]
Interviewer
That is amazing advice. And actually my mentor always mentions to me, it's like, dominate what your bet, dominate one thing, just dominate it. Don't go and set up this company, that company, be mediocre. Just dominate what you're best at. So it's. It's great advice. Those listening. And it's very easy as an. As an entrepreneur to get distracted because they're just trying to like, and especially if they're beginning, you know, they're just trying to survive. So they're like, I'll take that, I'll do that, or I'll add that as a vertical. And then what they don't realize is all these other verticals you're adding are just massive distractions. They're just taking you away from the end goal. Now, one thing you've done with Soul Jen is you managed to bring in great talent. We kind of alluded how you were able to bring great talent, but what are like, what's some tips that you can give the audience so that you know who are actively looking for talent so they can attract great talent?
- [20:42]
Chris Lee
So first of all, I mean, just to give you a little background, so I grew my organization to 1100 people, and we were the sixth fastest growing company in the nation at that point, any industry. And the secret sauce to that was one always focusing on recruiting. Like, recruiting was always just permeated throughout our culture. Everybody was recruiting, everybody was getting their friend or to be able to come in that. That shared common values or whatnot with them. And so there's. There was that focus on that consistently. The second thing is building a personal brand. And my brand, I have refused to allow it to be tarnished over the years. And I've always just established myself as someone that is reliable and trustworthy and. And that people can depend on, and it constantly has opportunity. And so because of that, a lot of the seeds that I had sown over the years started to come to fruition. So, you know, I'd be able to reach out to somebody that I met 10 years ago and say, hey, look, we're doing this thing or whatnot. The other thing is like, he who has the greatest vision will always win the recruiting battle. Right? And what I mean by that is like, when you are clear on what you are building and you can show a Roadmap. It's not just some crazy, lofty goal, but you're like, hey, in five years. So like, when we started out, I had a roadmap. It was five years. We would have 500 employees and we'd be doing $100 million a year. And I had built out the roadmap of exactly what the organization would look like in order to achieve that. And so when somebody's sitting down with me in my garage and they're a highly high quality talent and they're like trying to ignore everything physically around them, like, dude, I'm in a garage and I'm sharing with them, hey, this is the vision, the direction, and this is exactly how we're going to get there. And this is where you're going to fit in the organization. And this is how you can progress in the organization. Here's the clear roadmap and the career path and everything else. People start to buy into that. And again, he who has the greatest vision will always win the greatest talent, right? So like for example, if Elon Musk called me up today and said, chris, I need you to go and run this division for me, there's a good chance that I'm shutting everything down that I got and I'm going to work for Elon. Why? Because although Chris Lee is crazy and has a incredible vision of going to billions of dollars, it ain't even close to going to Mars, right? And so Elon's goal and vision of going to Mars and taking like just transforming the world will always win the greatest talent. And so like the. That is what really set me apart, is like, I have always been an incredible visionary, but not just, like I said, lofty goals, but like creating clear paths that guys could get on and get behind. On top of that, greed is the reason why most people don't grow, right? They want to have 100% of the pie. For me, I created equity structures that I was able to attract incredible talent into my team. In fact, I had a guy that came on year number one in the business. He had sold his business for a few million bucks. He came and worked for me for $40,000 a year with the hope and the promise that he was going to have an equity earn out structure to be able to go and grow with us. And so the cool thing is like, so me, I, me and my main business partner, Darrell Kelly, we founded the business the day that we. So we held the majority shares of the company, but the day that we sold that business to private Equity, there were 11 other people that were made multi millionaires at that transaction. And so the secret sauce is like putting together the team and aligning them in a way that they get a share in the upside, not being some greedy son of a gun that wants 100 of everything. And, but, but then also there's, there's a science in the way that you structure that to make sure that you don't get burned. Right. Because there's a lot of, a lot of people out there looking for a free handout and can, they're, they're, they got the gift of gab up front, but not the work ethic to be able to back it up. And so just making sure that you structure those, those equity deals that is going to get you the long term results that you desire.
- [25:19]
Interviewer
Nice. So set a big hairy, audacious goal like Jim Collins book always mentions, and then give them some sort of equity. That's great advice. Great advice. I mean, to get the top talent in the country. And that's what I do primarily. And that's what permeates throughout the, throughout our organization. It's like grow, grow, grow. You know, we're at 900 loan officers, we're doing billions a year and we want us and we're just, we're at like a fraction of our potential because.
- [25:49]
Chris Lee
Right.
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Interviewer
You know, I'm trying to improve the culture. God's in the forefront, you know, and I, I kind of echo that. Like we're pretty loud about it. You know, even though like under the last administration you get tabooed now this administration, you're like, do it. You know.
- [26:05]
Chris Lee
Yeah, I love it.
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Interviewer
Yeah. So, so is there a failure that's notable that either that you can mention as a story that you kind of heard through various other founders or something that happened to you that really allowed you to shift the way you do business?
- [26:25]
Chris Lee
Yeah, for sure. So as I alluded to a little bit earlier, so I, I had a bankruptcy in January of 2011. It was two and a half years into my first business. Ultimately in 2010 is when things really started, like, like coming down pretty hard and collections and everything were showing up. But, but yeah, man, I, I made a lot of terrible decisions. Bad partnerships. You know, a lot of these principles that I run my businesses by now were the exact opposite of the way that I was doing business prior. To. And yeah, ultimately had to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy. 2.2 million, had everything, had my car repoed out of my driveway, lost all my assets, had less than a thousand dollars in my bank account, all with my Third child on the way. And you know, the, the cool thing about that experience, like, although it was, like, extremely humiliating and one of the toughest things that I've ever been through, I came to the realization was like, the monster that I created around failure wasn't as bad as reality. And so most people don't take the crazy action that they should because of this fear of failure. Right? They're scared of zero. And the I, I would always say that, that my superpower is that I experience zero. It wasn't that I started from zero, but I nose dived to zero. And when, when I got to zero, I came to the realization I look around and I'm like, wow, things suck. But I still have my God and I still have my family, and I have everything that I have learned. Up until this point, all I've lost is physical possessions. And losing physical possessions wasn't as bad as I had made it out to be. And so from there, basically, I determined, like, if it's not that bad, then let's go. Let's keep going and take the action and don't. And so from then on, I have never been scared to go back to zero. Like, frankly, you could take everything from me today and I'd be fine, you know, two, three years, I'd be right back into the position where I'm at, because I have the skill set, I have the relationships, I have my God, I have my family. I have everything that is necessary to win on the court to make sure that there's points on the scoreboard. And so start the game over. I'm still going to come out and freaking hit three pointers in your face. And, and we're going to, we're going to score.
- [29:02]
Interviewer
Love it. Now, a couple last questions. So, you know, you didn't grow up in this affluent type of situation that you're in now, so you really had to grind to achieve what you've achieved. How are you instilling that same work ethic, that same grit that you have in your five children?
- [29:23]
Chris Lee
You know, it's, it's just expectation management. And so, like, one of the. My, my wife still fights me on this, but one of the things I am famous for telling my kids is like, look, you're not getting a dime. And everything that I have, like, if I die tomorrow, don't have your hand out because you're not in the will. Like, the, the will is everything that you can learn from me. So, one, I've set this expectation that there's no inheritance in the Lee household. Everything that I own is going to be donated to charity. The second thing is I've tried to recreate much of what I learned as a child from a hard work ethic, right? So I tried. Had my first job when I was nine and I had my diamond ring fund funded by the age of 12. And I saved up money and did all these different things. I was out working and hustling and so with my children, same thing. Like, the reason I live on a 23 acre hobby farm is solely for my children. It's solely for them to learn how to work, to get, get out, get their hands dirty, work in the fields. Understand that not everything comes easy. And so like I have two and a half acres of black walnut trees that my kids have hand, they hand weeded for the first two or three years of, of those trees growing. I have nine acres of cherry trees that they go out and they help in the pruning and the picking and, and everything else. And so although my kids are very privileged, right, Like, I mean they go on incredible vacations and we live in a nice home and we have a lot of different things. I've done everything in my power to make sure that they understand the, the, the need for work. Like example, my, my oldest daughter, she's 18 years old and she's planning on being, and she wants to own a spa and she wants to be an esthetician and everything like that. She's going to aesthetic school and she knows that dad doesn't pay a dime for that. Dad doesn't pay a dime for college. Dad doesn't pay a dime for everything. But, and so like right now, while she's finishing up high school, she's got a job. And I've told her like, hey, we, I can help you get into sales and I can help you get into this other. But she wanted to do a lot of things on her own, so she's gone out and like figure out her own little hustle. But again, the, the advantages that my children have over myself is like, I've taught them like the, how money works from a very young age. And so all my kids have started selling product at the age of five or six. They understand inventory, they understand cost of goods sold. They understand how it is to communicate with somebody how it is to face rejection. They all understand stocks. Like my 6 year old can explain to you how stocks work. And they, they've all been invested in the, in the stock market for a long time. They've made money in crypto. They've done all these, all these different things. And so, so like I said, although we have two completely different childhoods, like I've, I've strived, me and my wife have strived so hard to make sure that they do not lose track of their roots, of what makes them who they are.
- [32:46]
Interviewer
Dude, I love that there's a lot I asked that question for myself because I got four kids too and I'm always just trying to figure that out. I never thought though to tell them they're not going to get anything, you know, like, like did you, you're really not going to give them anything.
- [33:01]
Chris Lee
So right now that's the expectation. Will it potentially change? I don't know. I don't ever want to admit that out loud because I, I never, I, I've just seen too many people entitled to inheritances that is absolutely destroyed lives. And you know, so it's interesting. I just finished a three year program out at Harvard and it's called opm, stands for Owner's Presidents Management. It's for like some of the most successful business owners in the world. 30. I have 160 in my class. We go and we live at Harvard three weeks a year. And out of the 160, there's probably 60 billionaires. I'm really close with about 50 of those and 32Americans. And I would say out of the 160, probably 2/3 of it's family money. And I can see how much these people desire to be me. Like even though they're worth billions of dollars, knowing that they personally haven't created takes away from our dignity of our father who is deity. Right. Like what, what we are as sons and daughters of God is born to create. And that is where true happiness and joy comes from. And when, when you rob someone of that, when they are given it, they didn't create it themselves. Like I said, they lose self worth. And I, and I just have seen that in, in these, these people that I've become really good friends with and I'm just like, dude, I will never ever do that to my children.
- [34:46]
Interviewer
Thank you. Great advice. Couple last questions I have for you. What's a personal goal that you have for yourself, a family goal that you have for the family and a business goal that you have for next level coaching.
- [35:03]
Chris Lee
I love it. So, personal goal, I want to keep a 12% body fat consistently. And I, and I've been a classic yo yoer. I'll, I'll get below and then I'll get up to 22% and like back and forth and everything else. And so that's something that, that really, really drives me. A family goal that I have is to have a relationship that my wife is proud of. And so like me, I am a, a constant optimist and I always think things are great and I think our relationship is great all the time. But I, but I'm self deceived in that many times and I, and she puts me in check a lot of times. And so you know, that is the way that I measure the relationship with my wife. Is she proud of it? And is, is it something that she's bragging to her friends about? And so that's a, that's, that's a family relationship or goal that, that I do have. And then lastly the, the business goal, I wear it right here on my wrist. So we have our mission statement on here which is designing lives that impact the world. But the five year goal, it's right here, it says Impact125. And what Impact125 stands for is, it's a five year goal that we started in January where at the end of five years we have our, in our community, we're adding an additional $125 billion of revenue in addition to where these companies started at on an annual basis. And so someone joins our community and they're making 5 million in revenue a year. We, the goal Is to have 12,500 that on average are doing an additional $10 million in revenue because we know that if they follow our guidelines and do it at a highly profitable way, 125 billion in revenue is going to be between 30 and 35 million in profit. And if we teach these guys how to impact and change the world, that 35 billion in additional profit that's going to these owners is going to drastically change the way that the world operates. And so I believe that the only and best way to change the world is through entrepreneurship. And so like that is, that's the goal that is driving us. In addition to 125, we have a goal of that where our community is giving an additional 3 million hours of community service on an annual basis.
- [37:32]
Interviewer
Amazing. My last question, because you're a true servant and really, really, really enjoyed this talk. When you're in front of the pearly gates, what do you think God's going to tell you?
- [37:44]
Chris Lee
He's going to say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. You know, I, I believe, I believe that the goal in this life is to be on a trend to the next level. In fact, that's the name that the. The reason why we chose our name is that there is no happiness in plateauing, and it's only in trending to the next level. And so I believe that God knows my heart and, and that when I show up those pearly gates, he's going to. He's going to be pretty excited.
- [38:17]
Interviewer
I love it. Chris, it's been an honor. It's been a blessing. Thank you. Thank you for jumping on the show. God bless you. God bless your family. I hope you achieve all your goals, and I hope you dominate.
- [38:27]
Chris Lee
Appreciate it. Sa.