I have a question for all the business owners out there: Is your 2025 business plan ready? It's nearly Christmas. You should be done with your list and checked it twice.
Wherever you are in your plan, I want to give you and anyone else who is ready to wrap up 2024 a Christmas gift: a true story about faith and the cascade of abundance that comes with it.
For Chiseled listeners in my Buffini and Company coaching group, you may already know this week's guest, Greg Chaplain.
Raised Catholic in Massachusetts, Greg's family always had a relationship with God. Yet, it wasn't until he was 23, when he met a businessman at an Amway convention, that he accepted the Gospel and Christ as his savior. The
commitment to walk in faith would guide him well over the next 35+ years.
Fast forward 16 years to 2004, Greg was working in the wine industry as a regional leader with a $100 million budget at his fingertips. He managed his company through eight acquisitions, but after a final $1.6 billion deal, he was let go.
For many people, losing a high-powered job at 39 years old with a new mortgage, a homemaker wife, and two children in private school would have been a terrifying blow. Not for Greg. He was calm and cool — so much so that a friend
in his Christian fellowship expressed surprise by Greg's reticent response to this career broadside.
"That was the moment that I went, 'Oh yeah, I really do have faith. It's a real thing. I can actually feel it. My heart's at peace. I am not worried. I know we're going to be fine,'" he said.
While confidently interviewing for one of many corporate positions over the next three months, Greg started taking real estate classes on the side. The week that he passed his real estate exam, four hot job prospects, any of which
could have been perfect for him, all dried up. The message was obvious.
"I looked at the sky and said, 'Really? This is what you want me to do?'" he recounted.
Greg joined a real estate company where he would hone his skills and empower himself to start his own team. In 2009, he opened the Real Estate Home Team in Norfolk, Virginia. The team kept hitting higher and higher peaks — until it fell apart.
Undeterred, Greg rebooted, and his new team grew and grew — to more than 365 transactions a year. That's more than one a day!
Then the bottom fell out again.
I'll let Greg tell the rest of the story, but as his longtime
friend and a true believer myself, I can tell you that Greg is my Rocky — it's not how hard he falls, it's how many times he gets back up.
Greg's resiliency is a great story in faith. I am happy to share it with you this Christmas season and hope your holidays, whatever you celebrate, are meaningful and joyous. I can't wait to see and hear from you in 2025.
By the way, if you want to talk to Greg about buying and selling in Norfolk, becoming an agent, or how your faith walk is going, he shares how to reach him at the end of this week's podcast. Happy listening.