Meet Darius Butler | Successful leader & growing serial entrepreneur
We had the good fortune of connecting with Darius Butler and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Darius, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I have had an idea to be an entrepreneur for about 5 years now. It originally started with the dream of becoming a Chick-fil-A Owner/Operator, running my own franchise because I was able to make such an impact on my community through leading and developing leaders in-house, leadership, mentoring within the community that I live in, leading a board of directors for a foundation, and being able to impact lives beyond the job is what first inspired me to become an entrepreneur so I could do more bolster a community.
In 2023 I learned about becoming a financial professional through selling insurance. The approach was, to financially educate individuals on their options outside of accepting what was common knowledge so individuals know that becoming financially free and planning for retirement is very real and likely even if you are not making a 6 figure income or more. Outside of just learning the information, there was a lot of coaching about how to grow your own business. This was a side I didn’t have much experience in because I had learned very much about running a business that was well established as a brand already but there is much to be learned about when you are on the adventure of creating your brand and business from scratch.
My idea of an entrepreneur began to take form as I started to identify what type of entrepreneur I wanted to be. While being a franchise would be great, I started to dream about what it would be like to build my own business, on my terms, with my life’s experience navigating the waters. I grew to understand the business relationship between franchise and franchisee, I began to ask myself if that was something I could live with long term. Either form of owning a business can be rewarding but only a small few dream about building something from scratch and even fewer take the journey on to make it happen. I wanted to be one of the few who chose to take on the hard road of building my business from scratch.
What should our readers know about your business?
I currently own an auto detailing company called DKDS Detailing. What I am most proud of with this particular business is that this is my self-made baby. The business I was doing previously was a creation of someone else, and being on a journey to own a Chick-fil-A is great, but once again, it is still someone else’s idea and creation that I would just be running a copy of. With this business, I have been challenged with creating it from scratch, and it stems from a passion for just care and detail that I have taken with my vehicles I have owned in the past and have found the value of turning that passion into something that can be modified.
It has not been easy by a long shot, but the biggest thing I think any business owner overcomes is the “fear of being great”. So many things you can say boil down to fear; procrastination, perfection, and any reason you can create to not do the work to move forward really can be called fear. The many questions of What if this doesn’t work? What will others think of me? Managing a full-time job while building the business and still not allowing your family to feel your absence. Entire books exist for this one daily fight alone. So, every day I make a conscious choice to push forward and as I love to put it “fall in love with the journy of becoming great”
I want people to know that brand-wise, I want to help them protect and continue to enjoy their investment. When you take in all the time we spend in our cars, I want people to love getting in their car to go anywhere because it just looks, smells, feels as good as it did the moment they drove it off the lot. All of my years in the Chick-fil-A world has really given me the experinece to give that great customer service that they would expect at the restaurant but bring it to another avenue in their lives.
If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
When my friends and family come into town from where ever and, I want to give them the great Houston, Texas experience! First, we have to experience breakfast at the famous breakfast club off Travis Street because that is always a must in visiting the city, and you need that great Southern-style cooking to start your day off! From here, we are gonna continue to work our way north! I am a huge fan of out door activities and after a great breakfast before it gets to hot we would shoot down to herman park and I would take them on a walk to experience the CHERIE FLORES GARDEN PAVILION, JAPANESE GARDEN, LAKE OVERLOOK AND MOLLY ANN SMITH PLAZA just to name a few places to walk off breakfast.
At this point, it’s probably starting to warm up, and being a big fan of art and museums, we are in the perfect area to slide down to the natural science museum and the Houston art museum. Depending on age, my new favorite attraction is the ARTECHOUSE Houston, where we can see some really wild digital art. After this, it’ll be time for lunch, and one unique place that I do not believe even many Houstonians know about is the waffle bus on North Shepard. Waffle fry little burgers remind me of a Chicago classic from my hometown white castle, except with much better food.
After fighting that Houston traffic to our next and last location, Sawyer’s Park Ice House on the north side of town in Spring, TX, where the drinks are great and the food is amazing as well. They have a great patio as well as inside seating, and the vibe is definitely Texas all the way. If we are there on the right night, we will even get a live band performance, and this will take us all the way through the night as long as we want it to last. This would be my perfect houston experience day that could be done any day of the week.
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
First and foremost, glory be to God for guiding my steps always, he placed me in a very loving and supportive community and has consistently surrounded me with solid individuals that I can dream out loud with and have accountability partners to keep me pushing for more. Lessons learned from my physical parents and all the adopted parents along my way, my wife and kids who unlocked an extra gear in me that allowed me to push further and farther than I had originally thought. I thank myself for never settling and always pushing the envelope and chasing uncomfortablity.
Website: https://dkdscardetailing.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dkdsdetailing/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darius-butler-997876343
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