From Banking to Entrepreneurship: A Journey with Daniel Korolev

Speaker 1: 0:10

Everyone, welcome back to the emotional man podcast. Today we have the treat of having Daniel Corlew with us. He's the founder and owner of we Are Royals. He's also happily married with two children. He has Logan, who's two years old, and Madison, who is 11. And also, not to be left out, his Jack Russell, who is his fur baby. So, daniel, welcome to the show. If you wouldn't mind. Why don't we go ahead and start off just talking about we Are Royals and just what the company is and what your mission is, and the kind of the genesis behind why you started this company in the first place?

Speaker 2: 0:46

Yeah, thanks, first and foremost, thanks for having me. So we Are Royals was really born out of my commercial banking experience. I was a commercial bank banker for a majority of my career. I worked with thousands of clients. I worked for various banks small lard my last employer was a private bank and I always wanted to be on my own, simply because I have always advised clients to build their own equity and having working for somebody, you're just not going to do that, and so I think that was really the core why, and I thought to myself, what problems am I going to solve by going on my own?

Speaker 2: 1:29

I have wealth of knowledge working with businesses extending credit. I've extended probably over $200 million of credit to businesses over the course of my career, and risk management is something that was near and dear to my heart, because we had to underwrite loans, we had to present the client, understand their business culture and have a favorable relationship with the bank and for us to extend credit. So I've really been used to preparing credit memos, do full risk management for the client, do analysis and that's how the insurance portion of where Royal's was born, because I would put together a risk management profile, send it to the agency and they will say, hey, thanks, this is fantastic. We're going to write a policy for the client. I would review it to make sure it's on par with the bank requirements. And then I had an aha moment saying why am I not monetizing at this relationship? I'm doing the work and this is something that is useful to me, and this is a perpetual model, because a client needs insurance. We all need insurance, whether it's personal or business, and you have to have it every year. So that's the idea that I have for the business.

Speaker 2: 2:46

That's one vertical of where Royals and how it was born. Second part is I thought what other services that I can provide that I'm really good at. So cash flow management and specifically payment processing, or credit card processing, as it's known, is something that I've done throughout my career. So I extracted that from my banking experience and I inserted into the Royals offering. And then the third vertical of our business is loan brokerage, or loan advisory, if you will.

Speaker 2: 3:19

So now we, if the clients do need a loan, they can come to us. We represent them from start to finish. We charge a fee, we find them a bank and really take them from the entire process and the reason it's good to work with us because I sat down on both sides of the table. I was a banker, now I represent a client and also I'm now limited to my bank. I can find any bank that is really suitable for the specific client. So that's where we are, and I think the last piece that I mentioned forgot to mention is we also do personal lines, which was a derivative of our commercial insurance, because our business owners come to us and say hey, dan, we love working with you, can you ensure my home, can you ensure my house? Absolutely. So we do that. So that's, in a nutshell what we are and why we do it.

Speaker 1: 4:13

Now you had a pretty cuss job with your previous bank, so you wanted to build equity. But there's always this conversation, this leap across the chasm where you leave stability in search for adventure. But you weren't taking that leap alone. You had a wife, you have kids. So what was your family situation when you made this initial decision?

Speaker 2: 4:40

So it was really during COVID. I think a lot of people would relate. So I was very happy with my last employer, very happy with the bank. The work that we did just can't say enough of it. I mean, I think it was just a combination of factors. One is we were giving out a lot of loans for PPP loans to businesses. I really worked hours. We worked probably six, seven months straight up over the weekends, didn't really see my family. We were passionate about doing that, extended a lot of credit.

Speaker 2: 5:15

At the end of it all I realized I haven't even seen my family. I was leaving home at six, seven in the morning, come back late. I haven't even seen my son. My daughter wasn't born at the time. So I thought to myself this is one thing. Unfortunately, too, my wife had a miscarriage during that time as well, so we had an additional burden psychological burden. That has happened. So that was rough.

Speaker 2: 5:40

So we sat down and thought we're young, we can change, we need to change. It's important. I just didn't feel right. So we're a family that embraces the desire, because a lot of us really think of oh, I should, I could. My biggest regret would have been if I don't do it now. It's never going to happen.

Speaker 2: 6:04

So that's what led us to Utah and just a combination of factors just said I want to be with my family. I'm young enough to go and build my own equity. I want to build my own future and this was just. I didn't see. I saw it as a leap of faith, but I also saw it as a necessity into the future because I needed to challenge myself and nothing. I don't regret anything of my past. This was just an evolution of me and my family and luckily I have an amazing partner who supported me during that transition. And we're really dove into unknown and to your point, it is absolutely terrifying going from a cushy job being an SVP, but going out there and saying you know what? Let me challenge the world, let me offer something, let me solve some problems on a bigger scale, and that's what I ended up doing.

Speaker 1: 6:58

No, it's funny because it seems like a lot of business owners have this kind of story where they go through this really just difficult time period where they're working a lot of hours. They hit, like this breaking point where, okay, this is too much. Now it's interesting is that sometimes the working spouse realizes it, but it's the spouse that's not working or the spouse that's really affecting that brings up the issue. So in your situation, were you the one that realized like, hey, I'm working too much and I'm going to go talk to my spouse about changing it? Or did she bring it to you? Or was it mutual? What to be about? What brought about that conversation that I'm working too much? And how did that evolve to? I should start my own company.

Speaker 2: 7:47

So I've always been entrepreneurial. I've always had side businesses. I always done something different aside from my day job, so that's something that, but I never cultivated into something that was full time. So my wife was aware of it and I think it was a really joint conversation. One of the things that we always talk about in the family is you know, I like to overcommunicate and I think it I'm the over communicator in our relationship and I think it was important for us to realize that you need to take risks.

Speaker 2: 8:21

So it wasn't something that was spontaneous, I would say it was. It's something that evolved over time and I think we did not ignore certain things that bothered us. We said I see a light, if I had changed the course of my career, I may be able to establish a better balance. I wanted to see my son more. So that was me personally, because I lost my mom to cancer when she was 48. I was in my early 20s. I lost my best friend and to me that was I've always lived in the now. That was the moment in my life I realized that we may not have tomorrow, so you need to change accordingly. So that's something that really fueled the change really. So I'd say it's a combination of that, but also other things that have already been in motion.

Speaker 1: 9:18

So it seems like you already had the habit of communicating with your wife where you're at. You already had this desire from your past no losing your mother, this desire to have this relationship with your son and you saw that your current path wasn't leading where you wanted to be, either professionally or personally, or with your family, yeah, yeah. Now what advice would you give potential business owners or business owners? Because a lot of times what's happened is that we get really focused on our professional life. Our business becomes our baby. We have this relationship with it and we can get so sucked into this relationship with our business that we start struggling with our relationship with our kids, with our relationship with our stylist or even our relationship with ourselves. So what has helped you keep tabs on those relationships? Because it seems like you're pretty good at communicating where you're at. So what have you learned about communicating and keeping tabs on those relationships and balancing them?

Speaker 2: 10:25

I think the important question to ask your spouse, and vice versa, is what is truly important? Because I don't. I firmly, and I've listened to a lot of. I'm a sucker for motivational speeches and coaches, and I listen and read. I've probably read most books that there are out there.

Speaker 2: 10:50

So I believe that the best success you'll have is when you do balance. You balance things out, and that's the challenge for all of us. So I think that's where that's the advice is that you need to have a balance. You need to figure out what your priorities are, because your priorities could be today, I wouldn't do that, but is that going to lead me to achieve my goals in 10 years from now? So you got to do the micro and you got to do the macro.

Speaker 2: 11:19

So that's what my wife and I did, because, look, I'm 40 years old, I'm a workhorse. Right now, I don't want to be working the same way. I want to work smarter, but I also don't want to be working the same way when I'm 50 years old or 60 years old. I want to do different things, but in order for me to achieve that, I needed to switch things up, and that was and that's the challenge. It's a leap of faith, but I think that's the communication you really need to figure out.

Speaker 2: 11:48

And the same thing was for my wife. Yeah, I asked her like what is important? She needed change. She went through a very difficult time Both of us did but I felt like I needed she was my priority at that point in time and entrepreneurship like the two pieces really fit. So that's how we end up doing what we did. So I think it's again coming back is like what's the important thing? And it's sometimes very difficult to see the broader spectrum, like you said, because you get sucked in. You need to zoom out and I think and you'll achieve clarity and then making decisions will be easier.

Speaker 1: 12:23

You really touch on something really quite, I think, pivotal, which can be pivotal for relationships. Most conflict in a relationship comes from a divergence of values. So, for example and this is what we see a lot in entrepreneurs and business owners is you start really valuing the potential financial possibilities that you can create for your family and you get so honed in on that because you want to be able to provide generational wealth for your family. You want to provide these amazing opportunities after you go through this work period and you'll enjoy your life together by the same time. Your spouse may just really value having a good relationship now.

Speaker 1: 13:09

And so we see this one of the previous people I spoke with on the show they call them walls of indifference start to grow. You value something over here, she values something over here, and you're indifferent to each other's values, and so you start this divergence. You get these walls of indifference and you said you talked to your spouse about what is important to her Now at any time. Did you ever find that what was important to her didn't align with what was important?

Speaker 2: 13:46

to you at the time. Certainly, absolutely, so, absolutely. But that's why we respect each other, so I know what's important to her, so that becomes my priority, and vice versa.

Speaker 1: 13:59

Absolutely, because what do the conversation look like when you bridge the gap? Because you have the value gap. You become aware of the value gap, but then you said she is your priority. So how do you navigate that switch? Because you can get so focused in on the one, on the company, but then you say, oh no, my wife's the priority. How do you navigate that switch? How do you have the self-awareness to make that flip or to recognize Love yourself before you go over the edge?

Speaker 2: 14:30

Yeah, that's a great question. I think what we did is really reassess on a daily basis. I think that the so when you go on through that transition because it's very important is how do you feel what's going on with you today? This is how I felt what do we want to do tomorrow? And that so becomes a more of a daily rather than a weekly or a monthly situation, and I think that's how we're able to navigate it, because we both knew clarity, because we knew that entrepreneurship requires tremendous amount of time.

Speaker 2: 15:03

Now I didn't have to commute anymore. Let's talk practicality here. So I decided to work from home at point we're going through COVID. So no one knew what. We still didn't know what was going to happen. But we, so you realize, let's practically. I get more time, I'm at home, so we can balance things out. Yet I will have tremendous amount of work to be done, but then let's focus on what's important to you, and we can achieve that on a daily basis. Do we get it wrong? Absolutely so. Is every day perfect? Absolutely, not, far from it. But I think when you're communicating together, that's what, that's what allowed us to go through that transition.

Speaker 1: 15:49

That's amazing. You're building those micro visions for each day, touching or what's important to you today. How did last day go? A lot of times, as husbands, as fathers, just in families, have these daily rhythms where there's certain points of high I call them high friction or there's certain periods of the day that are just tougher than the other parts of the day. Have you experienced that? What are the toughest parts of the day for you and your family?

Speaker 2: 16:18

When the baby doesn't sleep and you're sleep deprived, right. So then I know that First year my kids were. It's all about mom. So I understand that if mom's frustrated it has nothing to do with me, something to do with her not getting enough sleep and it's a challenge. So you have to, and I know that she could be frustrated and I know it's nothing to do with me. So that's important because it's very easy. If that's an easy, that could be an easy flip. I could sense that I would navigate through that and try to provide as much support as I possibly could, but a lot of times, unfortunately, you can't. And as a husband, as a dad, you want to try and I'm sure a lot of parents can relate to me, and that was the same thing with my son. But then year two, when he was two years old three years old was a little bit different, so that was the high point. He was stressed out the house isn't clean. So those are the points that you got to be very aware of.

Speaker 1: 17:19

Well, that helps you. So another thing that we deal with as business owners and as parents and being in relationships, we experience a lot of emotional taxing. As a owner, you're experiencing stress just trying to keep the company going, growing, and then you're experiencing stress as a spouse, especially when you're 11th month old, and then you just have the interrelationship friction that can come about. So how do you manage your emotional load as a business owner, husband and parent?

Speaker 2: 17:57

So I've been an athlete, so exercise is probably on the top of the list. My wife doesn't lift weights Like I do, for example. That's my outlet. But I got her into running, peloton, kickboxing, non-weight training activities, so I wouldn't say forcer, but I would try to create times where she could do that. And same for myself. My routine I always been to wake up early, before anybody wakes up, and get that out of the way, because then when you feel physically strong or you could be emotionally defeated, but then you spend 10 minutes in the bag or we lifting weights, whatever your physical outlet is, that really helps because it's not going away. It's not gonna go away.

Speaker 2: 18:39

And when you dive into entrepreneurship I've worked with a gazillion of business clients it's not if you committed. This is not something that you can six overnight. You just have to realize this is part of life. Now it's a lifestyle. So how to manage that? So that I think that's, I'd say sports is something very important, like physical fitness. And then I try to eat healthy because we can deal with stress and emotional burdens a lot better whenever physically strong, and that goes for both, for the husband and wife. So we always try to do that. So I think that's really how we able to do that. And again, coming back to communication, if I'm stressed out, I'm not gonna hold back from my wife. I'm not gonna say oh, I'm Marchie, we're gonna get it, of course, we're gonna get it done, but today was a hard day. It is what it is and that's how we communicate.

Speaker 1: 19:29

Cool, we're gonna kind of transition to the very last question. I love what you shared here, just having healthy habits. I also think behind all of that is the way that you view those items. I have to exercise and eat healthy so that my body can help support all of this. Just incredible, incredible advice here. As business owners, it's really easy to gauge success in our businesses. We can look at money in, money out, like a cash flow, capital growth, number of clients we have. How would you go about measuring success in your family or measuring the health of your family? How would you respond to that question?

Speaker 2: 20:13

I actually think it goes both ways. This is something that I've realized over the course of the years is that it's not separate anymore. When you start making business and personal separate and that's the biggest challenge, I think, for all of us is that you're going to have that separation that you talked about earlier. So, to me, I decided to have one lifestyle. That's it. This is my lifestyle. I'm an entrepreneur and I'm a dad, I'm a husband, I'm part of the community, I'm a client to some, I have clients, so that is just all-encompassing. So to me, success is really not. Yeah, there are milestones, like talking about cash flow oh, I want to hit this number, or I want to get this, whatever it is. I think those are great milestones.

Speaker 2: 21:06

But to me, success is more of a state of mind all the time, and I think that's what allows us to be where we are, because, again, nothing is guaranteed.

Speaker 2: 21:16

So a lot of times I notice personally that a lot of times we say, oh what if I just get that, or I get to that little thing both in a relationship? Oh what if my wife and I go on a date twice, which hasn't happened for us? We've been living in Utah for two years and we don't we're, it's just us. We don't have relatives around to take care of us. It's just us. So I'm not going to think that, oh, I need to wait until kids grow up, right? Oh, if they're like eight years old, we're going to be more independent. Yes, that time will come at some point, but today it's not so. For us it's more of a state of mind. I think that's really the success of the family is a state of mind, because when you have a state of mind, you start making daily habits or daily decisions which are very difficult to do. A lot of times it just takes a lot of discipline.

Speaker 1: 22:11

So talk to Expound on the state of mind. What would you consider is and I hesitate to use the words as successful state of mind, a healthy state of mind, a state of mind that aligns with what you believe? So how do you know when you're in that state of mind and when you're out?

Speaker 2: 22:31

I think it's here, right, you can be emotionally defeated, right? So that's not the state of mind that I want to be in. So when I'm that, I try to get back into, let's say, a positive state of mind or calm state of mind as an example, where I'm making rational decisions, where I'm aware of things. I think one of the things I noticed that, especially as business owners, we start being aware of your spouse's, let's say, conversations. You're on the phone and she says do this, and you're like, and all of a sudden you're like okay, I didn't pay attention to her, that was nice, you need to go back to that. I catch myself all the time, and so that's. I think that's my engagement, where I know I'm out of my state of mind and I think that's important to be cognizant of that. And I would say another thing that we actually talked about it, like we just talked about it last week.

Speaker 2: 23:34

There's a lot of different emotions and one of the emotions that, for me, that is, I would say, the pillar of our family and like our vision, like our, what we stand for, is to be proud. So I would ask my son did you feel proud today? You may lost a soccer match. I may not want a client, I may not have done this. I gave it 200%. I feel proud. Did you feel proud that you felt a certain way confronted your emotions? So that's been lately that for the last two, three weeks the word proud has been really on our minds, both from my wife and I. So we've really been focusing on that because economy is challenging. You got to grow the business, you got to do all these things. So feeling proud is something that we would like to zone in and focus on.

Speaker 1: 24:29

And love that. I love that and I think this is probably one of the cornerstones of why your family I mean you have the word successful, meaning that you have a meaningful, rich relationship with each other and with yourself, and this holistic health is your anchoring to values and you understand what your spouse values. You're communicating what you value, what she values. You're bridging the value gap. You're communicating this vision. You're plans together. I really think you're doing some amazing things to not only build a rich life, a rich whole life that encompasses, like you said, it's not these separate pieces of yourself, it's this whole self, that's your company, your family, your children. Really, quite incredible.

Speaker 2: 25:13

Yes, thank you, and I also think that success how you define it is very individual and I think we need to focus on that, because what I consider successful could be very different from what you consider successful, Like when you and I met initially before at a networking event.

Speaker 2: 25:33

Right, we, our definition is so different, but I think the principles behind it is what makes it valuable to have a conversation to understand what you, for example, consider that Like all right, cool, you're doing this. Let me try to adopt that into my relationship and I think that's what people need to realize. And because success looks in different ways and as I grow and that goes both in business and personal, because, for example, I don't have a vision of my company like I'm not gonna become a geico or a stage farm of insurance, as an example. That's not what I consider a success. I have my own boutique vision of my company, which is completely different, and the person to level the same thing. My wife and I have certain things that we like to have on a daily basis and share a goal to work together, and that's what we consider a success and that could be probably totally different than yours right, but the important thing is to have the conversation to define what success looks, based on your values, just your vision, and then developing a plan to achieve it.

Speaker 2: 26:45

And I also think that. So I've been married now for, I'd probably say, like 10 years, nine years the definition of success and where we are also changes, and that's something that we needed to realize. I hope I'm a different person than I was a year ago and I really hope my wife is too, but we wanna make sure that we're going together, we're dancing partners, and that's. I think that's important too and that's one of our priorities, because so, to make sure that we know how we change and how we becomes we're, I think, what is it, oprah?

Speaker 2: 27:22

I think one said be your biggest fan and your biggest critic and do the same thing for your spouse Right, and then critic. I don't mean that in a negative way. I need it in a positive, constructive way, and I think that's very important because sometimes I'm important to my wife, like we're talking about. She loves garden, so every week I set up, set time to work on our garden, to make sure our landscaping is done well, things like that, because it's important to her and that's the time that we bond. So that was an example.

Speaker 1: 27:53

Daniel, this has been incredible. Thank you so much for sharing these words of wisdom, the kind of your experience, what you've learned. I've definitely taken away a lot of things that I can apply in my own life. If people wanna come learn more about you whether it's about your company or just your life experiences where's the best place for them to find you?

Speaker 2: 28:12

Let's. They can go on our website. We are royalscom with a hyphen in between. We hyphen are hyphen royalscom. Put a form in and we'll reach out to you. You actually started this because this is my first podcast that I've ever done in my entire life, so that's exciting. There's a big milestone. We're talking about milestones I wanna make sure that we also have. We would just. I literally I'm late to the game, but we're doing it. Youtube channel is gonna grow for us, so we're gonna put a lot more content, not just to business but personal, because, again, so it's all together on there, but again, our website is probably the best way to reach us. Fantastic.

Speaker 1: 28:59

Yep. People should want to reach out to you. I hope people do reach out to you. If you need insurance or there's help with your banking relationships, daniel is the man. So thank you for coming on the show, daniel, it's been a treat.

Speaker 2: 29:13

Thank you, sir, and you have a wonderful day. Thank you.