Clay Clark | Elephant In The Room Tulsa Men’s Grooming Lounge | Meet the Founder of the Elephant In The Room, Clay Clark Shares the History of The Elephant In The Room Tulsa Men’s Grooming Lounge | EITRLounge.com

Audio Transcription

If you’re like me and you remember your first haircut, being at a place where they still had a barber pole and a bunch of guys swapping old war stories, then you’ll be so glad you stuck around for more Explore Tulsa. Well, hairstylists, even for men, have come a long way since then, Stevie. Barbers accepted thousands of dollars in donations for the Tulsa Boys’ Hall. And Fox 23’s Price McKeon is live in South Tulsa with the shop’s plans to continue sharing. And it sounds like you’ve got a lot going on there, Bryce. This is the second location here for the elephant room in McLean High School drum line. They’re here and they’re playing. They’ve been out here all night. The owners tell me they’re celebrating not just this expansion, but for another reason too. Thousands of dollars of free haircuts. As Keri Clark cuts a customer’s hair, a bigger vision is playing out. Well I feel awesome. It’s wonderful to be able to give back to the community. The haircuts aren’t really free. Instead each person here is asked to give a donation to the Tulsa Boys Home. For the owner, it’s not just about what people see in the mirror. It’s about what they do. Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show. But this show does. In a world filled with endless opportunities, why would two men who have built 13 multi-million dollar businesses altruistically invest five hours per day to teach you the best practice business systems and moves that you can use? Because they believe in you, and they have a lot of time on their hands. They started from the bottom, now they’re here. It’s the Thrive Time Show starring the former U.S. Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark, and the entrepreneur trapped inside an optometrist’s body, Dr. Robert Zilner. Two men, eight kids, co-created by two different women, 13 multi-million dollar businesses. We started from the bottom, now we’re here We started from the bottom and I’ll show you how to get here Started from the bottom, now we’re here We started from the bottom, now we’re here We took flight, started from the bottom And now we’re at the top, teaching you the systems To get what we got, Colton Dixon’s on the hoops I break down the books, see if we get some wisdom And the good roots, as the father of five That’s why I’m alive, so if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi It’s the C and Z up on your right, take off And now 3, 2, 1, here we go! We started from the bottom, now we here We started from the bottom, and we’ll show you how to get here Started from the bottom, now we here We started from the bottom, now we here We started from the bottom, now we here We started from the bottom, and yes! Thrive Nation, you’re listening to the Thrive Time Show podcast, and on today’s show I’m breaking down the history of how I started the Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge. If you haven’t checked out the company, we have four locations all throughout the Oklahoma area. You can learn more about it today by going to eitrlounge.com. eitrlounge.com. I hope this broadcast will be educational for you. And so without any further ado, one take, no edits. Here we go. So the Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge mission and purpose. I came up with the name Elephant in the Room because I believe that the elephant in the room was that Tulsa, Oklahoma at that point did not offer a high-end men’s grooming lounge experience. It just wasn’t available in a way that provided high-quality haircuts in a high-quality and positive man-focused environment. Now, there were other companies that had tried the concept, but they had all failed. And so, again, the idea of a high-end men’s grooming lounge was not a unique idea to me or anybody else. It had already happened in Tulsa. In fact, several failed attempts to make a man-centric men’s grooming lounge had started and bombed out. But my idea and my way I processed it was to come up with a membership model that made it very affordable for the average person to come in where the first haircut could be a dollar. They could experience this unbelievable high-end men’s grooming experience. It’s almost like a country club for men’s hair or like a relaxing way to experience a kind of a little man retreat or a little man vacation, a sort of a refresher there and do a membership model where then if you decide to become a member, you’re basically just prepaying for your next haircut at a discount. So that’s what the elephant in the room was all about. And having been self-employed since the age of 16, I was really passionate about developing a business that would solve what I consider to be the three Ps. The three Ps. P number one, I wanted to make sure that the product wowed the customer. Two, I wanted to make sure that the pay was first class for employees. Again, so the three Ps. I wanted to make sure that we made a product or service that wowed. Two, I wanted to make sure that the pay was best in the industry for our people. And then three, I wanted the business to be sustainably profitable. And so in 2011, I began organizing my thoughts related to Elephant in the Room and putting together what would become the Elephant in the Room men’s grooming lounge. Now up to that point, I had built a company called DJConnection.com, another company called EpicPhotos.com, MakeYourLifeEpic.com, the Tulsa Wedding Show, the Tulsa Bridal Show, I put that together in conjunction with Lori Montag and others. So I had a lot of success up to that point, but I wanted to build something that could service and provide great service for my friends and family and people that lived in Tulsa and that would create a scalable men’s grooming lounge model. You see, I truly believe that God gives us all unique talents and skills and that every day we live on this earth is a gift from God. And what we do with each day and every day is a gift to God. And with that in mind, my focus is to wow each and every customer that comes into the Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge with the absolutely best Tulsa men’s haircut they could possibly find, the best Tulsa men’s haircut experience. I want every Tulsa men’s haircut experience you have at the elephant in the room men’s grooming lounge to feel special, warm, and welcoming. And I believe that God really does want us to use our talents in a way that we honor Him through our work ethic. In fact, the Hebrew word for work means worship. So in Hebrew, the word work means worship and the word worship means work. So when I have a customer that comes in, I’m trying to wow you, A, because I want to wow you. It just makes sense in the game of business to exceed the expectations of customers. But beyond that, I believe it’s our commandment as a Christian. If you’re listening to today’s show, if you’re listening to today’s show and you’re not a Christian, I certainly don’t expect you to share my worldview. But that’s a look into my worldview. When you come into the Elephant in the Room, Tulsa Men’s Grooming Lounge, I want you to have an unbelievable experience where you leave and you say, wow, that place was awesome. And again, I believe that we get that sort of focus and commitment and dedication to excellence by, at least I do, not by trying to wow you as a consumer, but trying to work as unto the Lord. Because again, in Hebrew, the word work means worship, and the word worship means work. So in fact, from a Christian perspective, the Bible actually instructs Christians to work as unto the Lord and not as unto human masters. Right there in Colossians chapter 3 verse 23 through 24 where it reads and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily and as to the Lord and not unto men knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ. To learn more, if you want to learn more about the origins and the true meaning of the word work, I would highly recommend that you listen to part two of this show where I interview Rabbi Daniel Lappin. Rabbi Daniel Lappin is mind-blowing and this guy, this rabbi, sits down with me on the Thrive Time Show podcast and teaches really how you cannot be a person of faith within the Jewish faith or Christian faith without being somebody who works as unto the Lord. It’s a requirement and a mandate of anybody who claims to be a Christian or practicing Jew. Now we are on a mission to wow you an elephant in the room. In fact, when my son was born, I named him Aubrey Napoleon Hill Clark. And someone might say, well why? I named my son Aubrey Napoleon Hill Clark because Napoleon Hill was the name of the best-selling author of think and grow rich the book that really changed my life In fact, I Napoleon Hill he once wrote the quote the notable quotable That runs parallel with the Bible that reads render more service than you are paid for and eventually you will be paid More for less services rendered what he was saying is when you sow seeds of overdelivery, success leaves clues. And people will run around telling others about what a great experience they had working with your business. And that’s why when you step inside our Elephant in the Room Tulsa men’s grooming lounge locations, you’ll quickly discover that we are truly and deeply passionate about connecting with and building relationships with our members and clients. At The Elephant in the Room, we love listening to your history. We love getting to know each and every wonderful customer like you that we have the opportunity to serve. For me, every aspect of our customer service experience, including the sights, the sounds, the smells, the haircut experience itself, the daily checklists, the opening checklist, the closing checklist, the music, the ambiance, everything about the elephant in the room is deeply personal and profound to me. It was my goal to create the most intentional, relaxed, and comfortable men’s grooming lounge and barbershop environment possible so that our tremendous clients like you would have the perfect atmosphere to have a joy-filled and positive conversation-filled haircut experience while receiving the industry’s best Tulsa men’s haircuts and grooming experience. My goal, when you visit each and every Elephant in the Room location, is to create a truly life-changing memory for you and for every man who chooses to visit our shops. So again, if you haven’t been to the Elephant in the Room, come check it out. Again, that first haircut is always just $1. So again, if you go to EITR Lounge, that haircut is just a dollar. So people always ask me, you know, what does the elephant in the room name stand for? You know, what does that name elephant in the room, Tulsa Men’s Grooming Lounge, what does that stand for? Well, one is it stands for the elephant in the room. Number one is the consistency of wonderful men who have bad haircuts. I believe that wonderful men out there, probably not you, but other people, they have a bad haircut experience, and it’s because there’s really nothing else available. And so you’re out there, you want to get a haircut, you need to get a haircut, so you go to a place, and when you sit down at the place, the person greeting you is a chain smoker who doesn’t want to be there. There’s no thought put into the sights, the sounds, the smells, the experience. And so the haircut is something you have to endure and not something that you actually enjoy. Elephant in the room number two, and in my opinion this is a big elephant in the room, is that America’s youth need our help. I have five incredible kids and one wonderful wife, and again, I’ve been married to the same woman for 20 plus years, and my kids are great, right? But there’s a lot of people that have never had a father figure in their life or have never had a dad in their life. They never had somebody in their life that was providing for them financially or was able to provide food, shelter, education, mentorship, and leadership in their lives. Every time you come into the elephant in the room, we donate that first dollar, that $1 haircut, we donate that first dollar to Compassion International. The Compassion International. So again, when you get a haircut at Elephant in the Room, you definitely are going to have a great haircut, but you’re also supporting people in need. And so what I’m going to do on the rest of today’s show is I’m really just going to take the time to document the history of the Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge so that it can hopefully serve as an inspiration for maybe you if you’re an entrepreneur, for the employees who work here, and to the hundreds of thousands of customers that we’ve had the opportunity to serve, and to the hundreds of thousands of listeners to the Thrive Time Show podcast. Now, if you’re hearing this and somehow you’re new to the Thrive Time Show podcast, over the years I’ve interviewed the founder of Atari, the founder of Twitter, the founder of Netflix, Damon John from FUBU, John Maxwell, Jim Stovall, Eric Trump, Wolfgang Puck, Eric Thomas. I can go on and on. I mean, it’s kind of like the who’s who of entrepreneurship we’ve interviewed. And I would encourage you, if you haven’t checked it out, go to thrivetimeshow.com and there you can see the podcasts that we’ve recorded over the years. And then on part two of today’s show, as I mentioned, we are going to play the interview I did with Rabbi Daniel Lappin. We also are going to be playing some employee testimonials so you can hear from some wonderful employees that we’ve had the opportunity to employ over the years because it does take teamwork to make the dream work. Okay, so here’s kind of the abbreviated history of Elephant in the Room. In 1999 I began documenting the proven processes and success systems and scripts and turnkey marketing and accounting systems needed to build a successful company. And these these these systems are the same systems I used to build epicphotography.com that was a epicphotos.com before I sold it. DJConnection.com, which grew to be one of America’s largest wedding entertainment companies, DJConnection.com, the big Tulsa wedding show, the Tulsa Bridal Association show. I built a company called Party Perfect, which I later sold. I could go on and on, but these systems are sort of like the rails on which Elephant in the Room was built. It’s the foundation upon which Elephant in the Room was built on. Another example, one of my companies is Make Your Dog Epic. It’s a dog training company. If you go to Thrivetimeshow.com, you’re going to find thousands, literally, I’m not exaggerating, thousands of client testimonials of wonderful clients that we’ve had the opportunity to work with over the years. And you can see those success stories there. So the systems that we built Elephant in the Room on, I began creating those in 1999 when I started my first company, DJConnection.com, out of my Oral Roberts University dorm room. And after 12 years, after investing 12 years previous to opening Elephant in the Room and documenting and creating and refining these systems and processes, I was able to then create the Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge. And so I launched the Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge on the first floor of my office building, which at the time was located at 1609 South Boston in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with the help of three grooming professionals. Now it might seem crazy, and if you go on Reddit and different online platforms where people are free to speak and share their life experiences. It might seem like a tough rule, a tough, hard, judgmental rule that I have, but with the companies that I build, I do not allow the employees who work in my companies to have extra marital affairs with employees. I just won’t let it happen. And so over the years, you’ll discover that I’ve had to fire some people that, for whatever reason, wanted to date people that they’re not married to, while they’re married to somebody else. I also have in my businesses rules that you can’t just be sleeping with other people within the company, especially when you’re in a leadership position. So if you’re a leader, you can’t be sleeping with a subordinate. And so because I’ve been self-employed since 1999, and it’s now 2024, I mean, it’s 25 years, there are going to be some people on Reddit that are going to, they’re not gonna go on Reddit and say, by the way, I was fired for, you know, sleeping with somebody I wasn’t married to while I was married to somebody else. They’re just not gonna go online and put that little caveat there. You’re not going to see somebody going online saying, yeah, it’s true, I did embezzle money from somebody and therefore I got fired. They’re not going to do that part. So when you look around the Tulsa men’s haircut space and you take a time to go onto Google and you type in Tulsa men’s haircuts, you’re going to find that many of the competitors that we work with or compete against in the marketplace, these are former employees who’ve worked with us over the years. And again, sometimes I have to make the tough call as a business owner. What’s that tough call? I have to fire people if they’re going to sleep with people that they’re not married to while they’re married to somebody else. I have to have that standard. Now maybe somebody else says, well you’re too judgmental. Well, okay, but that’s the standard I have to go with. So when you look up Tulsa men’s haircuts and you start to go, it seems like there’s people on Reddit that are saying bad things about you. Maybe ask some of these people, hey, how many times have you been married? Have you ever had a history of sleeping with women that you’re not married to, well married to somebody else? And you’ll find that that’s sort of the history certain people have. And so we move on. In 2011, and again I started Elephant in the Room at 1609, South Boston in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with the help of three grooming professionals. And so 2011, after having invested 12 years in the developing of the systems, the processes, the financial capacity, the credit score, the connections, the network, and the team needed to create the Elephant in the Room Tulsa men’s grooming experience, I started the Elephant in the Room men’s grooming lounge with the help of three grooming professionals out of our downtown Tulsa office building with an obsession to design the best customer service, best customer experience possible. The initial customers at the Elephant in the Room men’s grooming lounge consisted of my long time DJConnection.com employees and clients, MakeYourLifeEpic.com consulted clients and employees, friends of mine from college, all my Facebook contacts. My father was actually one of my, may he rest in peace, he was actually one of the first customers we had. I believe he was the second customer we ever had at Elephant in the Room. And our first customer was a wonderful man, a great guy, who was a little bit reluctant to get his hair cut at Elephant in the Room by the name of Kirk Fryer. Kirk Fryer had been a client of mine in my consulting business, MakeYourLifeEpic.com for years. And his farmer’s insurance agency was located in the same building as mine because I sub-rented or sub-leased space to Kirk. And so Kirk was literally just a few feet away from our Elephant in the Room store number one door. And so Kirk Fryer’s farmer insurance agency, they sub-leased space for me and he was willing to give Elephant in the Room a try. Kirk, I appreciate your patience there. Ultimately we nailed the workflow and the systems, but we had to iterate quite a bit. I named the company Elephant in the Room. I knew it was going to be a membership model. I knew we were going to provide a high-class, high-quality men’s grooming lounge experience. I knew that. I wasn’t aware that we were going to have some pretty epic changing of the guard with certain staff over the years and that the vast majority of the employees would become my direct competitors. I didn’t know about the hair business, how often that some grooming professionals like to sleep with people they’re not married to while they’re married to somebody else. I did not know that the key to the success of the business was nailing down that first experience and nailing it down in a linear workflow where the first haircut was 27 minutes. I didn’t know some of those things. But what I did know was that we were going to make this thing profitable and we were going to create the highest quality Tulsa men’s grooming lounge experience on the planet. And so I used my experience, my capital, my connections from my years building other companies to build the Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge. Now, there’s a little bit of controversy or questions over the years. People have asked me, they’ve said, Clay, were you the first grooming lounge in Tulsa? Again, like I said, I don’t claim to be the first. There were other grooming lounges in Tulsa. About once every month or two, a stylist asks me, were you the first grooming lounge in Tulsa? We were the first grooming lounge in Tulsa to be consistently profitable that had a membership model. You know, Guy Kawasaki, I’ve interviewed him as well. Guy Kawasaki was the legendary former key Apple employee turned venture capitalist, best-selling author, chief marketing evangelist for Canva and Mercedes-Benz. He once said, ideas are easy, but implementation is hard. And so, you know, when I created Elephant in the Room, I wasn’t the first guy to have an idea for a high-end men’s grooming lounge with a membership model, but I was the first one to nail the process and to make it profitable. Now, as a mentor and a business coach, and having worked with thousands of successful entrepreneurs through their journey to success, including but not limited to the case studies you can find at Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash testimonials. When I started Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge in 2011, I obsessively pondered the following four things. The following, I obsessively thought about the following four steps. So step number one is, what is the problem we’re solving? You see, men in Tulsa, Oklahoma did not have a service provider, a men’s haircut service provider that provided a high quality men’s grooming lounge experience with a man-focused, high-end country club style atmosphere. That was problem number one. That was step number one. Step number two is I had to think about, you know, what is the solution that I was offering? What was the solution that we were offering? So I started Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge to offer the men of Tulsa a high quality haircut in a high-end country club environment. Step three is how much would we charge for this solution? We got you have the three P’s you got to think about again you got to make sure that the product wows the customer, you got to make sure that your people are paid well, and you’ve also got to make sure that you have profit there you got to make sure you have a profit and so that’s that’s you know the mindset I have when I build a business how do you how do you nail all of those components those three I call them the three P’s. Step four you know how can I nail it and scale it? I mean, once I do create a workflow that wows and systems that wow and a brand that wows and a website that wows, how do you scale it? Once you nail it, how do you scale it? Once it’s done, how do you get it documented? And so what I did, some of the things I had to think about while building Elephant in the Room was how to save, how to reduce costs to make the business viable, how to document the scalable workflow? How to document the logo? How to document the branding? How to document the business cards, the marketing print pieces, the website that wows, the performa, the unit economics? How do we dominate the search engines? How do we dominate social media marketing? How do we dominate retargeting ads? How do we create retargeting ads that work? How do we develop social proof from real clients? How do we develop social proof from public relations and media, how do we get celebrity endorsements, is it possible to get celebrity endorsements, how do we develop an inbound script, how do we develop an outbound script, how do we develop a linear workflow that wows, how do we create an atmosphere that men actually want to come to, how do we generate leads, how do we convert those leads into paying customers, how do we properly insure the business, how do we create a handbook to hire new employees? What kind of employees are a good fit? How to inspire the new employees? How to train employees? How to retain employees? How to price the products we offer? How to not employ employees that want to sleep with people they’re not married to while they’re married to somebody else? I’m telling you, in the men’s haircut business, in the Tulsa men’s grooming business, that is a concern. How to create packaging for our customers that purchase the products, how to develop a musical playlist that creates the overall ambiance we’re looking for, how to develop a pro forma that’s profitable, how to find the perfect locations, how to build out the locations, how to manage the contractors that were building out the locations, how to fund the store. I paid cash, but how do you fund the store in a way where you can eventually make a return on your investment, right? That’s the idea. How to lead a team, how to lead the weekly staff meetings, how to track, you know, what numbers should you track? We’re supposed to in business measure what we treasure, but what numbers should we measure and what numbers should we treasure? How to deal with, you know, the personnel issues that happen in the hair business. The hair business, by the way, there are some great stylists in Tulsa. If you’re listening to this show and you are a hair stylist, you know this to be true, and I know this to be true. There are some great stylists in Tulsa. There are some. There are also stylists that for whatever reason just can’t figure out the concept of being faithful to their spouse and not having affairs with one another. And so I have, you know, when I was building the business, I didn’t recognize the subculture that existed in the haircut industry, so I had to cut out a lot of that nonsense. I just had to deal with it. How to manage people that choose to be chronically late? How to manage people that refuse to use a to-do list? How to manage people that are at a place in life where they literally cannot afford to even pay rent and where you have employees that ask you, hey, can I live with you? I mean, when I’m starting a business, these are all things I didn’t think about when I was building the business. Now thankfully, we’ve worked through all those things, but that was… I mean, these are the kinds of things that we dealt with when building Elephant in the Room. How to use the online… how to create an online booking system, how to create a calendar system, how to create the concept of time blocking for the stylus, how to build a checklist for everything, and how to design a storyboard, an end-to-end customer service experience that wows. That’s what I had to think about to build Elephant in the Room in 2011. I want to give you a little notable quotable from the late, great, best-selling author Napoleon Hill, who I chose to name my son after. He once wrote, by the way, this is Napoleon Hill who wrote the book Think and Grow Rich. He once said, a Carnegie or Rockefeller or James J. Hill or a Marshall Field accumulates a fortune for the application of the same principles available to all of us, but we envy them and their wealth without ever thinking of studying their philosophy and applying it to ourselves. So that was 2011. Now we’re on to 2012. 2012 was a year of discovery. This was a year where I relentlessly focused on finding what our customers wanted and what they didn’t want in their haircut experience while continuing to refine our workflow systems and processes. Upon further review, our clients wanted a 27-minute haircut and not a one-hour haircut. Our clients wanted a simple and easy to understand menu, and our customers wanted us to be on time all the time. And thus, I worked tirelessly to refine the workflow, upgrade our staff, and document the systems that wowed our customers while removing aspects of our service and our team that the customers did not like. 2012 was filled with constant public relations and media appearances that I was drumming up for the brand. This was the year filled with cold calling all my personal contacts and inviting every male human in Tulsa to come out to try the men’s grooming lounge. This was a year filled with begging friends and business associates who I’d had for years to visit our stores so that we could refine every aspect of the business on a daily basis. So in order to succeed, my friend, as an entrepreneur, you have to develop, we have to develop the habit of over-delivering and exceeding the expectations of each and every customer that we come in contact with in a scalable way. This has to become our normal. And so this is what we did in 2012. We aimed to show up early to meetings and to over deliver with each and every customer that we interacted with. We aimed to over deliver with the products and services that we provided to our customers with faster turnaround than promised. You know, we were trying to make the first men’s grooming lounge experience just a dollar, but we also wanted to make that fast turnaround time so you weren’t stuck in the chair well past the point where you no longer care. Three, we wanted to make sure that the overall atmosphere exceeded the expectations of the customer. Four, we had to develop a dress code so we could make sure that our employees were dressing the way they wanted to be addressed. We had to create decor that made our customers want more and made them want to intentionally hang around. We had to be intentional about the smells in the stores and refining those smells, what makes the store smell well. Seven, we had to be intentional about the playlist. What was the music, what was the sound, what was the atmosphere? Eight, we had to figure out how we could schedule every customer now. You see, the haircut business, a lot of guys will reach out for a haircut today because they want to get their haircut today. And so we had to find a way to book people on the same day that they wanted to get their haircut booked. And we have a membership model where you can pre-book your next haircut at a discount. We had to find a way to no longer say no to walk-ins or people that were just showing up and off the street or people that were calling for a last minute haircut. We had to find a way to get those people in. We had to refine that packaging. We had to make sure that any of the food or beverage items that we offered were first class. We had to make sure our business cards were first class or nothing. We had to make sure that everything in our business was first class or nothing. We had to build the website that wowed. We had to make an about us video that wowed. And we had to make sure that everybody in the organization was somebody that we could trust. And again, there are certain people, God bless them, that are drawn to startups and those people maybe live a little bit of a wild life. You know, I mean, you have certain people that, not sure what series of poor life choices you have to make to get to where they are, but you know, certain people are just making poor life choices. That’s the kind of folks that get drawn sometimes to a startup And so as we grew the business, I just had to remove people from our business that were You know bringing the bringing a handgun to work and you can’t do that, right? Employees that kept wanting to date each other while being married to somebody else and and so, you know Unfortunately, or maybe it was fortunately I don’t know a lot of those early employees have gone on to start their own haircut chains. And so when you look at the Tulsa men’s grooming industry today, most of the competitors that we face in the Tulsa metro area, those are former employees. And so I’m gonna read a notable quotable to you from Ben Horowitz, the founder of Opsware, which was sold to Hewlett Packard for $1.2 billion. Ben Horowitz writes this in his book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things. He says, every time I read a management or self-help book, I find myself saying, that’s fine, but that wasn’t really the hard thing about the situation. The hard thing isn’t setting a big, hairy, audacious goal. The hard thing is laying off people when you miss the goal. The hard thing isn’t hiring great people. The hard thing is when those great people develop a sense of entitlement and start demanding unreasonable things. The hard thing isn’t setting up an organizational chart. The hard thing is getting people to communicate within the organizational chart that you just designed. The hard thing isn’t dreaming big. The hard thing is waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat when the dream turns into a nightmare. And as far as from the branding perspective, Michael Levine, a long-time business consultant I’ve worked with. This is a guy who is a public relations expert of choice for 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times best-selling authors. I mean this guy Michael Levine, he’s a legend. He’s considered to be the father of modern PR. He once said, if you give someone a present and you give it to them in a Tiffany box, it’s likely that they’ll believe that the gift has higher perceived value than if you gave it to them in no box or a box of less prestige. That’s not because the receiver of the gift is a fool, but instead because we live in a culture in which we gift wrap everything, our politicians, our corporate heads, our movie and TV stars, and even our toilet paper. Public relations is like gift wrapping. My friend, I really, when I was starting the brand, Elephant to the Room, I had to really use my contacts and my energy to get the brand out there. So we did a lot of media pieces. We were featured in the local media quite a bit because I wanted to get the name out there. And we were competing against sports clips and other great clips and other brands that existed and we weren’t the first people to come up with the idea of a high-end men’s grooming lounge in Tulsa. And so in order to be successful, we had to really be diligent about getting that public relations out there. So 2013, that was a year where the grooming, the Tulsa Men’s Grooming Lounge experience at Elephant in the Room was gaining momentum by offering great haircuts and beard trims and relaxing hot towel treatments, mind-blowing paraffin hand dips, luxurious essential oil scalp massages and rejuvenating face moisturizing. And this combination of doing all this while providing the first haircut for a dollar was really wowing the customers. And what I wanted to do at that point was to keep refining and documenting the systems. My philosophy as a business owner is this, is one of deep empathy. I want to really understand what my customers want. Whenever I start any business at all, I want to make sure that I start, but then I want to refine and scale, and I want to be obsessed with talking to the customers and finding out how we can improve their experience. How can we make your Tulsa men’s grooming lounge haircut better? What can we do to better serve you? How can we solve the problem better? And that really was what I was doing at a rapid speed in 2013. And for all the aspiring and current entrepreneurs out there that may be listening to this, I want to encourage you to read Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich, because in that book he discusses the 30 major causes of failure. And thankfully, none of these reasons caused us to fail, but it did cause us to remove people from the team. So let me just read off some of these, okay? Unfavorable hereditary background. That didn’t cause us to remove anybody from the team. Lack of a well-defined purpose. Yep, we had to remove people from the team who didn’t have a well-defined purpose in life. Three, lack of ambition to aim above mediocrity. You know, some of the early people we had, they just couldn’t understand the concept of showing up on time for meetings. Insufficient education. At the end of the day, you have to be licensed to cut hair and you have to be good at your job here. Lack of self-discipline. Yeah, we’ve had certain employees that we’ve had to let go due to substance abuses and life issues. And again, it takes a long time to build a great team. Ill health, unfavorable influences during childhood, procrastination, lack of persistence, negative personality, lack of controlled sexual urge, exclamation point. Uncontrolled desire, something for nothing. Lack of a well-defined power of decision, number 14. One or more of the six basic fears, number 15, wrong selection of a mate in marriage. Again, we’ve been doing this business for over a decade and I’ll tell you this, it’s unfortunate when you have a teammate that decides to get married and divorced or starts dating someone and breaks up or whatever that is, because it does impact their work performance. And so it’s taken years to build the team we have today. Over-caution, wrong selection of associates in business, superstition and prejudice, wrong selections of a vocation, lack of a concentration of effort, the habit of indiscriminate spending, lack of enthusiasm, intolerance, intemperance, inability to cooperate with others, possession of power that was not acquired through self-effort, intentional dishonesty, egotism and vanity, guessing instead of thinking, lack of capital. Again, these are all reasons that people tend to fail. These are the 30 major causes of failure in business as documented by Napoleon Hill. Thankfully, we did not fail because of these, but you know again the business would have failed if I would have Clinged to people that were not functional and that’s why I say we’ve got a lot of comp competitors in Tulsa that are former employees Proverbs 13 20 reads he that walketh with the wise men shall be wise but a companion of fools Shall be destroyed. That’s real and if you have people folks I’m telling you this is a business tip if you’re out there today and you own a business or you want to own a business and you are Plagued by or surrounded by perpetually dysfunctional people don’t let them hold you back It’s really hard to build an organization If you’re working with people that insist on being disorganized and it’s hard to have a drama-free work environment When you’re choosing to consistently work with people that are always engaging in dramatic behavior It’s hard to build an organization where people can trust each other when you have people in your very Organization that are choosing to sleep with one another while being married to somebody else right that sets can’t be a thing You can’t have people in your business that are embezzling money that can’t happen So you can’t focus on solving big problems when you’re surrounded by people that are self-sabotaging So I encourage you to remove those people from your life is zig Ziglar the best-selling author Legendary best-selling author couldn’t be on today’s show because he’s dead. He once said, don’t let toxic people rent space in your head. Raise the rent and kick them out. Another notable quotable from 1 Corinthians 15.33, coming in hot from the Bible, 1 Corinthians 15.33, says, do not be deceived. Bad company ruins morals. So I’m dwelling on this aspect of growing the business because nobody wants to talk about it. Yet from my experience it is the biggest reason that most businesses fail. You just can’t allow your business or your life to be plagued by people who self-sabotage. Albert Einstein, who couldn’t be here on today’s show because he’s dead, he’s the German-born theoretical physicist who’s widely considered to be one of the most influential scientists of our time, of the modern world, he says, stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution. And I would just say, amen, which simply means yes. So in 2014, the Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge brand expanded to reach the greater Tulsa metro area. And our membership model continued to resonate with people because we consistently refined the workflow, the systems, and overall experience based upon customer feedback. At Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge, we began to introduce men to new concepts, such as what we call men’s grooming professionals. We don’t really refer to our team as stylists as much as we call them grooming professionals. We introduced the idea of a tailored custom haircut. We introduced people to the idea that your haircut experience could be more than just a discount haircut. So after further refining the business model, I decided to go ahead and open up our third location in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. And Chet Holmes, the best-selling author of the book The Ultimate Sales Machine, who also couldn’t be here because he’s also dead, he once wrote, special or more gifted than anyone else, mastery is a direct result of pig-headed discipline and determination. And I would say that’s what 2014 was all about. Pig-headed discipline and determination. Just being organized, being focused, and making sure we nailed the experience on a daily basis. You see, successful people know where they are going and they know what needs to be done. However, most people, by default, don’t know where they are going and they don’t know what needs to be done. And so as we built the Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge, we had to document these experiences, document these processes, these systems into what you know as Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge. Stephen Covey, the bestselling author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, he once said, begin with the end in mind. So the elephant in the room that you experienced today, it really is what I had in mind. That was my vision. It was to provide an unbelievable men’s grooming lounge experience for you when you got your hair cut. And that’s what you’re experiencing today, is that, the fruition of those systems. Napoleon Hill, the best-selling author, again, of Think and Grow Rich, he writes, “‘The world has a habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he’s going. So, you know, I’ve had the pleasure and honor to run the company and to build the company over the, what are we on, 13 years now? And I just, I love building the brand. I love the people that work there. Someone says, well, why don’t you have 10 stores? Or why don’t you have 20 stores? I really do believe that we are the size we need to be with a team of people that we love. We keep a staff of around 50 folks that work for us and I really enjoy working with them and I encourage everybody out there, if you are a stylist and you’re looking for a men’s grooming lounge, a Tulsa men’s haircut place to work with that you’re going to love working at, I encourage you to apply today if you can or apply today at eitrlounge.com. Now 2015, after opening the third location of Elephant in the Room, Tulsa Men’s Grooming Lounge, I began to obsessively fine tune our customer support and scheduling center in an attempt to remove any friction points from our linear workflow. My goal was to create a men’s grooming lounge where the phones never ring in the store, where the phones never ring in the stores, and where our stylists would never be interrupted with a phone call so they can be 100% focused on wowing their customers. And during this year of business, I obsessively focused on creating checklists and documentation for everything that makes Elephant in the Room great. We installed the Clarity Voice Call Recording System for quality control and we began obsessively training our customer service center. So when you schedule your haircut at Elephantintheroom.com, if you do call in, you’re calling our scheduling center, and that way the stylists don’t ever have the need to answer a phone in the store. Steve Jobs, who couldn’t be here because he’s also dead, the co-founder of Apple, the founder of Next, and the man who saved Pixar. The guy who introduced the world to the iPod, the iTunes, the iPad, right? The iMac. Steve was said here, he once said, be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected. So 2016, this was a year of refining, recruiting, and pruning. Pruning? Pruning, yeah. We had to remove some folks. It just, you know, again, as you build the brand, you just can put up with less and less jackassery the bigger you get. And I pay attention. I mean, it’s hard to deal with jackassery when you’re small too, but as you grow, you just can’t have a plague of personal problems in the business. So, my goal was to continue to elevate the Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge in 2016 to accommodate more walk-ins, more first-time Elephant in the Room customers. And although we are a membership-based business, I wanted to make sure that we never, ever turned away somebody because we were too busy to wow a first-time customer. We never want to turn away a first-time customer. Now again if you’re out there today and you go to EITRLounge.com and you want to schedule that first haircut, we want to get you in today. We don’t want to tell you, oh call back later, we’ll try to get you in later. We really wanted just to get you in today and I want to get you in today because I found is that if we don’t get you in today, you’re going to go get your hair cut, but you’re just not going to go get your hair cut with us. So we always want to get you in same day. Now, here’s another notable quotable from Napoleon Hill, who once wrote here, nature will not tolerate idleness or vacuums of any sort. All space must be and is filled with something. When the individual does not use the brain to act upon negative thoughts. How does that relate to the elephant in the room? Well, it has everything to do with the elephant in the room. I have been obsessed with trying to make the elephant in the room the best possible experience it can be since 2011. And if you’re out there today, I would encourage you, come out, check it out. The first haircut’s a dollar. We want to wow you. So 2017, as the original man of the elephant in the room, and again as the founder of the company, I signed the first lease, I designed the workflow, made the logo, made the name, that sort of thing. I felt it was time to move our 16th and Boston location to a bigger location. We had invested five wonderful years developing the first elephant in the room men’s grooming lounge location, but we simply needed a bigger physical location to keep up with our needs. So I decided to relocate the Elephant in the Room Tulsa Men’s Grooming Lounge to 18th and Boston. And as we relocated the downtown location and as the brand continued to thrive, just like any business or family, certain people in our organization were no longer a fit because they chose to pursue new opportunities, many to compete with us, and they decided to move. Many, when we made the physical move, many people decided not to make that physical move. They decided to move on to new careers, or because of perpetual bad life choices, there were just certain individuals we had to purge out of the company. Michael Gerber, the best-selling author of E-Myth Revisited, who has been a guest on the Thrive Time Show podcast, he once wrote, with no clear picture of how you wish your life to be, how on earth are you going to live it? What is your primary aim? Where is the script to make your dreams come true? What is the first step to take, and how do you measure your progress? How far have you gone, and how close are you getting to your goals? Again, that’s a profound question from Michael Gerber, and I encourage everybody out there to think that way and that’s how I think about the businesses that I build and perhaps my standards are too high but I simply refuse to spend time with self-sabotaging people which unfortunately is common in the men’s haircut industry. So anybody who chooses to be unfaithful to their spouse, unfaithful to their teammates, anybody who’s embezzling money, anybody who’s lying about their tips, anybody who’s perpetually late, I just have very little tolerance for that. It creates weird staff meetings and weird office environments when employees look more and more pregnant and when other coworkers begin asking if the person who impregnated them is someone they’re not married to, right? When the focus of the staff Christmas party becomes who is sleeping with who, it’s a weird atmosphere. And so therefore, I had to prune, I’ve had to prune, I continue to prune. I obsess on this because, again, you go on Reddit, you go on different online portals, and you see that ex-employees love to come up with their own wonderful stories as to why they got fired, but that’s what happens time and time again. You see, my friend, you become the average of the five people that you spend the most time with. I really do believe that. And when the Bible in Proverbs 13, 20 reads, he that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. I really do believe that. Having worked with literally thousands of clients to help them scale their businesses, while also having scaled business models myself, I’ve discovered that many people are never able to start a successful business because they can’t stop self-sabotaging themselves or they can’t stop surrounding themselves with people who can’t stop self-sabotaging. You just got to get jackassery out of your life. And so if you’re listening to this show, I guess a theme here is don’t allow idiots to work within your company culture. And you might say, well, what is a company culture? As a business owner, your culture is simply the culmination of that which you allow to grow in your business. Again, if you tolerate a culture where certain things are allowed, then over time that becomes normal. If you tolerate a culture where people aren’t paid on time, that becomes normal. If you tolerate a culture where people don’t cut hair on time, that becomes normal. If you tolerate a culture where people self-sabotage, they do drug use and unfaithful to their staff or to their spouses or there’s partying or poor spending habits that are allowed with the company credit card, if you allow relentless sexual lasciviousness and drunkenness to work its way throughout your business, you’re just not going to have success. So my approach has always been, and I don’t regret it and I don’t apologize for it, is to eliminate constant sources of drama from my life so that way the businesses that I have can be a place of peace. The best-selling author of a book called 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene, I don’t necessarily endorse Robert Greene, but I will tell you some of his observations are right on. He says, people around you, constantly under the pull of their emotions, change their ideas by the day or by the hour, depending on their mood. You must never assume that what people say or do in a particular moment is a statement of their permanent desires. That’s Robert Greene. So isn’t that true though? I mean it is true. So sometimes people will join your team and they have goals of becoming the best hair stylist ever or becoming the best manager ever. However, we had one of our top managers years ago. She moved to Hawaii and I was the last one to know. She’d worked with us for years, did a great job, and then I find out from our staff she’s moving to Hawaii. And did I know in advance? Did they tell me in advance? No, but because I have systems in place, we’re able to fill those positions with other great hires. Proverbs 13 20 again says, whoever walks with the wise shall become wise, but a companion of fools shall suffer harm. First Corinthians 5 11 reads, but now I am writing to you to not associate with anyone who bears a name of Brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or as an idol idolator or reveler or drunkard or swindler Not even to eat with such a one. That’s that’s from the Bible folks Robin Williams the comedian back of the day. He said don’t associate yourself with toxic people. It’s better to be alone and love yourself than to be surrounded by people that make you hate yourself. Gandhi chiming in. Gandhi coming in hot. Gandhi once wrote, I will not allow anyone to walk in my mind with dirty feet. And really that’s the key to building a successful business. Now that we have the processes and systems in place, it’s just making sure we have great people on the team. John Maxwell, the best-selling author of 21 Laws of Leadership, also a multiple-time Thrive Time Show podcast guest, he once wrote the secret of your success is largely determined by your agenda. And that’s why every single Monday I meet with my staff and I go over the weekly agenda. We have a management meeting on Monday, we have an all-staff meeting on Monday, and that agenda drives the success of the business. So on to 2018. During 2018, we sold our first franchise location to my longtime friends and clients by the name of Nace and Jordan Roberts. During this process, I worked to oversee the actual site selection, the build out and the grand opening of that store. And the Roberts have had that store open since 2018. And the Roberts, wonderful people they’ve been in my life for a long time and they wanted to try out the elephant in the room men’s grooming lounge experience to see if they could make it work in Oklahoma City and so since 2018 they’ve had that store up and running and I encourage you out there if you’re in the Oklahoma City area and you haven’t checked out the Roberts their elephant in the room store check it out that’s elephant in the Room OKC. Just do a Google search for OKC men’s haircuts and you’ll find it. So 2019 and 2020, that was a couple of years that went by very fast. I think 2019, the economy was booming. Things were great. And then 2020 was a year where, as the original man behind the Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge, I can tell you that 2020 was a wild year, right? I mean, it was filled with lockdowns, quarantines, mandates, curfews, perpetual economic challenges, mask mandates, but yet we kept the elephant in the room in Screaming Lounge open, and we continued to optimize and refine our processes and systems and people through relentless training and focus. During the year 2020, we added incredible talent to our roster and dramatically improved our ability to accommodate walk-ins and predictable schedule issues that arise when you are working with thousands and thousands of clients. So we developed the concept of having a float, which is a stylus that’s not scheduled for any particular haircut, but they are scheduled to be there in the event that a walk-in comes in or if somebody calls in sick. Another notable quotable, this is big, from Elon Musk, he writes, I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could do it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice. Constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself. It’s Elon Musk. And so that’s why we have mystery shoppers that are in the store. We have people that come into our store to get their hair cut that I don’t charge, so that way we’re able to get the feedback from them about what we could do to improve the men’s grooming lounge experience. Mark Victor Hansen, the best-selling author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series. He’s been on my show before. He’s been on the Thrive Time Show broadcast and he once wrote, don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles, and less than perfect conditions. So what? Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, and more and more self-confident, and more and more successful. And you mentioned that quote because what makes the stores work is we have a sense of urgency. Every single Monday, we start that staff meeting, we start that manager meeting right on time, we start that manager meeting right on time, then we start that staff meeting right on time. And that agenda from those two meetings drives the week. And we follow up relentlessly to put out all burning fires. We never want to delay maintenance. Anything that needs to that needs to be fixed, if it’s a door that’s broken or a water leak or a shampoo bowl that’s not working, we want to fix that right away. We’ve got to take massive action. That’s the culture we have is big, overwhelming, optimistic momentum. I say it all the time. It’s boom, big, overwhelming, optimistic momentum. So on to 2021. During the year of 2021, the world economy settled into a new normal and business bounce back. Amen. And to accommodate the growth and the renewed interest people were having around the idea of getting a haircut. I mean, there was a time where people were scared to get a haircut, right? So because people were now getting this interest back in the concept of getting their haircut, we expanded the hours, expanded the staff size and we installed wonderful training bonuses for key members of our training staff. And again, Napoleon Hill, best-selling author of Think and Grow Rich, he writes, action is the real measure of intelligence. I mean, even though the world was concerned about lockdowns and quarantines, I wasn’t, but we still had to deal with the reality that more and more people were afraid to get their haircut with all these health restrictions. And so we had to face the reality, not as we wanted it to be, but as it was. Jack Welch, the best-selling author of the book called Winning, the CEO of GE who grew the company by 4,000%, he wrote, face reality as it is, and not as it was or as you wish it to be. And I’m saying this to say that we really had to face the reality there for a while that people were afraid to get haircuts. And so we had to staff accordingly. And then in 2021, people were no longer afraid to get haircuts. And so we had to staff accordingly. You know, it’s often said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And I don’t know whether that is always true or not, but I do know that the vast majority of our competitors in Tulsa, Oklahoma, are now former employees or teammates. And I believe that’s because of the standards and expectations that we have set at Elf in the room, such as not allowing core leaders of our company to engage in drug use, to date employees they’re not married to, to have affairs with each other, to etc., etc., etc. And so I have to let those people go. And when I let those people go, they often say, you know what? I’m going to open my own hair business. And that’s happened multiple times, and I’m sure it will happen again. So that’s the reality. That’s the way the cookie crumbles. I want to read you a notable quotable from Walt Disney. Walt Disney, the founder of Walt Disney World Empire, he once wrote, whatever you do, do it well. And do it so well that when people see you do it, they will want to come back and see you do it again. They will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do. And I believe that’s really a big key to the success of Elephant in the Room. Now on to 2022. In 2022, with a wonderful team of drama-free, amen, drama-free Elephant in the Room employees, we were able to expand our hours of operation, our menu of services, and then family environment that we had been building since our inception. We really were happy. Again, in 2022, we were able to expand the hours, expand the menu services, and really just expand the team to where we can accommodate all walk-ins. So in 2022, we put a big emphasis on diligence, consistency, and wowing our customers in a big way. And then in 2023, during the year 2023, we put our core focus. And when I say focus, I mean focus on core tasks until success. We put our core focus on wowing every single customer and making sure that we updated and overhauled barber chairs, shampoo bowls, decor, behind-the-scenes infrastructure, the call center. We wanted to make sure that our mystery shoppers were top-notch. We just wanted to make sure that the brand continued to move forward and to provide the best service possible. How do I do that? Well one, Peter Drucker, the legendary management expert, he once wrote, if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. And so I always try to measure what I treasure at Elephant in the Room. And so certain metrics and measurables, those are things we look at to make sure that customers are happy. Also, I just, I’m really obsessed with preventing drifting. Napoleon Hill, the bestselling author of Thinking Grow Rich, he once wrote, the majority of people begin to drift as soon as they meet with opposition. And not one out of 10,000 people will keep trying after failing two or three times. So again, it’s been a relentless path to growth since 2011. I mean, this is 13, almost 14 years we’ve been building this brand. I encourage everybody out there, if you’re listening today and you haven’t gone to any of our Elephant in the Room stores, you can book that free, or not that free, but you book that first Tulsa Men’s Grooming Lounge haircut for just a dollar at eitrlounge.com. Now 2024, this has been a year where we focused on wowing each and every customer through the hiring of the most inspiring and skilled professionals that we could possibly find to cut hair for the great men of Tulsa. We want to provide the best Tulsa men’s haircuts So how do we do that we hire character and we train skill and I think about some of the people we have on our Team now, I think wow that is a person with great character and we just had to help them refine their skills We’ve also had to refine the checklists and processes to continue to make everything Operate at peak at peak performance. I took a one day the best-selling author of a book called Checklist Manifesto. By the way, that’s a book I love, Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. He once wrote, we don’t like checklists. They can be painstaking. They’re not much fun. But I don’t think the issue here is mere laziness. There’s something deeper, more visceral going on when people walk away, not only from saving lives but for making money. It somehow feels beneath us to use a checklist or an embarrassment. It runs counter to our deeply held beliefs about how the truly great among us, those we aspire to be, handle situations of high stake and complexity. The truly great are daring, they improvise, they don’t use protocols and checklists. Well, maybe our idea of heroicism needs updating. That’s Atul Gawande. And so it opened the room, I am obsessed with checklists and processes. Having helped to grow thousands of businesses to scale, and again, you can see those case studies at thrivetimeshow.com forward slash testimonials, thrivetimeshow.com forward slash testimonials. I try to use my experiences to offer the best Tulsa men’s barbershop and men’s grooming experience possible. That starts with wowing you. And so because I’ve committed, you know, well over a decade of my life to radically improving the Tulsa men’s grooming and Tulsa men’s haircut experience, I have refined and fine-tuned the skill, the art, and the performance of Tulsa men’s haircuts. Because my team and I are obsessed with offering the best Tulsa men’s haircuts at the highest level barbershop experience in Tulsa, you can be assured that you’re going to love that $1 first haircut at Elephant in the Room. Yes, we are known for being the guys who first introduced the phrase Tulsa tailored haircut, the phrase Tulsa men’s grooming, and the concept of grooming professionals and not just stylists, but beyond that nomenclature, we’re known as the folks that over deliver and that aim to wow. And that’s my passion is to provide you with the most exceptional Tulsa men’s haircut experience in a way that you’re gonna wanna leave and tell your friends. And so people always ask, well, what do you guys do? Well, now up in the room, Men’s Grooming Lounge and Tulsa Men’s Haircuts, we recognize that image, that the image that you present and that the first impression that you make when people see it for the first time, that matters to a lot of people. And thus, we try to hire, train, retain, and inspire people that have the skills needed to provide that best haircut for you. We’re like a country club for men’s grooming in Tulsa. We’re like a high-quality country club for men’s hair that offers a variety of products and services for men just like you. With our tailored haircuts and precision shaves, beard trims and scalp massages are designed to create an atmosphere where the modern male like you wants to go. And so we really look at our grooming professional experience as the gold standard and the Tulsa men’s grooming business and we would love to serve you. And people ask me all the time, are you guys a barber shop? Well, we are an exclusive men’s grooming lounge. We offer a variety of services from tailored haircuts and precision shaves to scalp massages and beard trims. And again, I encourage everybody out there today, schedule your first haircut today at eitrlounge.com. That’s eitrlounge.com. And on part two of today’s show, you’re going to hear a brief interview with longtime employees that have helped to make the brand successful and to thrive. And then on part three of today’s show you’re going to hear my interview with Rabbi Daniel Lappin. Rabbi Daniel Lappin, this is the the man who educated me about the importance of working as unto the Lord. My name is Clay Clark. I’m the founder of Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge. I’m the author of 30 plus books and if you want to download those books for free, just go to Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash free dash resources. So Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash free dash resources. And now without any further ado, we’ll end part one of today’s show with a boom, because boom stands for big, overwhelming, optimistic momentum. Here we go. Three, two, one, boom. Hi, I’m Josh and we’re hiring. Oh yeah, and we’re looking for you. Why? Because you want to do work that matters. You want to be part of something that’s changing the game. You’re different and that’s why I like you. Do you really want to work in the beige doldrum of corporate America? Trying to get your ideas through the minefield of VPs, executive VPs, and the chief of the nobody gives a crap division? No, you don’t exactly Hey, that’s a nice shirt. Thank you. I’m here to tell you there’s a better way We need more people on our team and we have a position that just might be perfect for you Because I got to say we’ve got some people that They’re just not quite cutting it. I find your lack of faith. I find your lack of productivity disturbing Oh Then one more thing. Here’s a picture of our founder clay Clark and his best friend. What’s that you say? There’s no one else in the picture? It’s because he’s waiting for you. Vader, back to work! Yes, my name is Daisy Capehart. So I am the call center manager for Elephant in the Room. Clay has been awesome. I would say he is my goat, my greatest of all time. He’s been a really solid mentor. I’ve learned a lot of information about how to be a better leader in a very short amount of time. My name is Marshall Morris, and I’ve known Clay Clark for the past nine years. And over the past nine years, it has been fantastic working with Clay. I originally started working with him over at DJ Connection and have been with him through the Realty Group, and it’s just been fantastic. It’s been a rollercoaster of a ride, and I’ve loved every minute of it. So in the time that I’ve been working with Clay, I’ve learned a whole capacity of different things. In fact, I think that that’s one of the most differentiating things up here in the office is how many different things that you can learn. I’ve learned search engine optimization, sales skills. Clay is one of the best sales trainers in the world. And as well as website development, managing people, managing clients’ expectations, these are all invaluable skills that you can learn up here in the office and that Clay’s taught me. My name is Lexus, and I heard about Elephant in the Room through a friend that I used to work with. I think the experience is very positive. The atmosphere is very energetic and always very great people to be around. At Elephant in the Room, there’s always room for growth and opportunity. Like I said, everyone is very positive and accepting and there’s also a really great work-life balance and they just care about you more than anything. My name is D Tucker and I’ve known Clay for going on about five years now. I’m the lead designer here. Working with Clay, Clay is an anomaly. If Thrive is a set of principles, watching Clay is like watching the standard. It can be an amazing experience just being around him. My name is Jordan Denmark. Working with Clay is really unpredictable, dynamic. It’s kind of like working for Mr. Miyagi combined with Eminem with a little bit of Mark Zuckerberg. The cool thing about working with Clay is that everything translates to real life. I think the biggest thing that I’ve learned from Clay is the concept of trade-offs. So sacrificial work ethic, you have to give something to get something. Clay is extremely self-assured. He is unapologetically himself all the time. He’s hilarious and also sometimes really politically incorrect. My name is Abigail McCarter, and basically what it’s like to work with Clay is it’s hard at times, but also extremely rewarding. You learn something new every single day through the process of the eight months that I’ve worked here. I’ve learned more than I did when I was in college for business. So you learn a lot, and you learn not just about business, but also life experience as well. So it can go in two different ways and it’s fantastic. My name is Paul Matherin and I’ve known Clay specifically since February 2016. Getting to work closely with Clay it’s it’s a great learning experience at all times because he’s like an interactive book, just an infinite source of knowledge. Working with Clay has inspired me to do many things business-wise and in my personal life. One of the greatest things that I’ve gained from Clay is to wake up earlier every day. So I wake up two hours earlier every day and it’s gifted me over a month of my life of 24-hour days over the course of a year. And in that time, I’ve managed to be very productive in reading books and getting action items done for clients and just generally improving my quality of life. If you don’t know Clay, I would describe him to you in very few words. He loves life, he loves energy, he loves passion, he loves positivity, and he loves winning. My name is Felicia Brown I’m a photographer and videographer here, but I didn’t always start out that way when I started I started as a graphic designer And my first day is something that I’ll never forget. I walked in the door and Everybody was hollering and cheering and so excited all the sales team were on the phone with clients And we were literally hollering for them because we were so happy we were going to help them change their lives. I knew from that moment that this was the type of place that I wanted to be at. But working with Clay is not as easy as it looks. The people with Clay and his team are very hard working individuals. Everybody is diligent and passionate about their clients and they want to make sure that they’re meeting those deadlines, but not only meeting the deadlines, over-delivering. My name is Victoria Wood, and I’ve been working with Clay for about two years. When I first came on here, I started in sales and learned a lot of different things. So working with Clay has definitely been an experience. You learn something new every single day. You’re always moving forward. Since working with Clay, I have learned so many different things, not only in terms of business knowledge, but in my personal life as well. Honestly, it would be really hard to go in and list the different things that I’ve learned, but I do feel that I’m at a place now where I could go anywhere if I chose to and be really successful thanks to the things that I’ve learned from working with Clay. The type of people that are going to enjoy working with Clay are going to be go-getters, people who are always looking for new opportunities to learn a new skill or move up in whatever their personal goals are. Somebody that’s not going to take the easy way out and is just going to get the job done. My name is Rachel Jelly. My role at the company is in sales and scheduling. Since I’ve been working with Clay, I’ve really learned that the only limitations that I have are the ones that I put on myself. I would describe Clay’s personality as a giraffe. He’s a big picture thinker and a big thinker. My name is Jordan, and I’ve been with Elephant in the Room for four years. I would describe the experience as energetic, friendly, and comfortable. What’s unique about Elephant in the Room is we have a call center, so if you want to schedule your appointment, you can call our call center instead of having to call the store and get through when we’re really busy. I would describe the clientele as more of higher-end business clients and not having to keep up with my own books gives me peace of mind because it’s less stressful throughout the day worrying about who I’m going to schedule next. The Monday morning all staff is energetic and it’s a great way to start the morning off and get your and get your week started. at the job. So I thought we would do a quick tour and we can show people what we are doing. Is that cool? Can we do a tour? Okay, so we are going to do a road trip here. Here in the office right now, this incredible woman works here. This incredible woman works here. These are great people that are here. This incredible woman works here. This incredible woman works here. This incredible woman works here. These are all great people. Okay, so if you are looking to seize this opportunity and to land this job that requires a little bit of handiness and you want to make between $20 and $40 an hour, just fire me off a text right now at 918-851-0102. That’s 918-851-0102. And a quick disclaimer, if you’re a communist, you’re a socialist, you’re a luciferian, if you’re part of Antifa, don’t apply. But if you love this country, if you love Jesus, apply. My phone number is 918-851-0102. 918-851-0102. We are now hiring. We’d love to hire you. My name is Clay Clark. My name is Vanessa Clark and I am married to Clay Clark. We have five kids together. I started my first business in my dorm room at Oral Roberts University back in 1999. In 2002 I received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the City of Tulsa, the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce. And different business owners came up and said, hey, could you help me grow my business? Or do you think that I could grow a business like you? And one by one, I began helping businesses, and they began referring other people. Eventually, my wife said, you should charge people. I was saying, you need to be done with BJ Land and get on to consulting, because you’re doing it for free way too long. And so I started charging people, and then those people led to more people, and now I’m a business coach. Day-to-day play gets up very early. I guess I’m just kind of used to it at this point. Typically, I go to bed around 10 p.m. and I set my alarm. I set it so that I had exactly five hours to sleep, and then five hours from that time is when I wake up. So typically, I wake up like at 3.01. I type up my to-do list, make my plans, and then I come to work. So he is very extreme. So he’s one way or the other. There’s no really in between. I am just extremely passionate about people not being mediocre. I am an enemy of average. Anything that’s average just pisses me off. And so I’m all about helping people who have big ideas turn those big ideas into reality by focusing on the small action step. No one wants to do, but they have to do to grow a successful business. So one of the important things to understand about Clay and all the people that surround him, all the team members, the partners, the people that Clay associates himself with, are they’re all people of high integrity and high character. And that comes back to the core values that he has for himself, his family, and his life, and it’s polarizing. So if you don’t share the same core values, you’re not gonna like working with the other team members up here in the office. And so we protect that. We’re almost like cultural warriors up here in the office, protecting the core values of integrity and character. So Clay’s passion for helping other business owners grow their business, working in their business, working on their business, it’s unmatched by any other business coach in the world. Not Tony Robbins, not Tai Lopez, not any of these charlatans that want to help you set up a click funnel or set up the 67 steps for success. But Clay sincerely cares deeply about helping other business owners get from where they are to where they want to be. And that is one of the coolest things in the world. So Clay’s management style is a little bit unique but effective. He’s going to hold you accountable, which means that we’re going to celebrate the wins up here in the office for whatever it is that you’re doing when you achieve a task or a project, but you’re also going to be held accountable. So if you’re not meeting expectations, you’re going to hear about it. And so I think that can be a little bit of a turnoff for some people, but for A players it’s really a cool thing that we have up here in the office. The people that would not like working with Clay are those that want to be assigned a task and then never followed up on it at all. So zero accountability and people that yawn. So if you’re meeting Clay for the first time, I have a couple tips. One, be brief. Two, be funny. And three, be witty. He might not acknowledge it at the time, but when he’s in his man cave at 3 a.m., he’s going to remember that joke and think the world of you. Since working with Clay, I have definitely learned a lot about how to be a better leader, how to be a more solid manager, how to motivate my team, empower my team, how to hold my team accountable and also how to help them bring that enthusiasm that makes our work culture so awesome. If you didn’t know Clay, he’s very straightforward, he’s no BS, but he’s also hilarious. So he’s got the best parts of a personality that you could want in a boss, in a mentor, in a person. I think people who are driven, they’re motivated. I think the kind of teammates that would like working with Clay want success. They’re motivated, they’re passionate, but they’re also really fun. They work hard and they play hard. I would say Clay’s passion for helping business owners grow their business is overwhelming. He really does bring that optimistic momentum to every day. There is never a shortage of information that he shares with everybody. He always has a really funny story or some kind of parable to go along with the things that he’s teaching and he has so many coaching moments that just come out of ordinary everyday situations and I think that that really shines through just in his day-to-day interactions with everybody. Clay’s management style is not for everyone, and the reason why I say that is because he holds people accountable, and I think not many people are used to being held accountable. However, if you want to be successful, if you want to win, if you want for your dreams and your passions to come true, you have to be held accountable, and I think that Clay does an awesome job about that, but again, it’s not for everybody. You will not like working with Clay if you don’t like being made to do your job, if you are not results driven, if you are not passionate, or if you don’t have an aim in life, if you’re just kind of floating around. But you will love Clay if you are the opposite of that and want that success, you want to make your dreams come true and get the results that you want. I think Clay loves his turkeys, chickens, and cats so much because they provide him endless entertainment. My advice for anybody who’s about to meet Clay would be, you’re going to want a notebook, something to write with, a pen, and prepare to get a lot of information that’s going to help you be successful. You will definitely be enlightened. In my time working with Clay, I’ve really learned how to simplify things in life. I’ve learned to say no to some things. Improving my work-life balance has been huge. I think people who are kind of curious about their own limits and love trying new things and like being challenged, I think you’re going to enjoy working with Clay. Clay’s passion for helping people grow their businesses, I would say, is just genuine. He really hates to see people struggle, and he wants to help them in any way he can to grow their business. What I’d say is the most polarizing about Clay’s management style is that he doesn’t let you get your own area and get comfortable. He’s always pulling you into things that terrify you, pulling you on the radio show, and just making you stretch yourself and expand yourself. I think if you think you’ve got it figured out pretty much, you’re not gonna, you’re gonna have a hard time working with Clay. If you’re about to meet Clay for the first time, definitely be on time and be present in the room. Be focused on what you’re there to do and don’t be distracted by phones and buzzing and texting and all of that. Not to get too deep, but I think what Clay sees in his turkeys, chickens, and cats, trust is not, trust is kind of huge, and trust is not an element of perfection. You don’t trust people because they’re perfect, you trust them because they’re consistent. And I think consistency is something that he really appreciates in people, and to me those animals kind of epitomize consistency. It’s easy to get into a routine with those animals. He knows what to expect and they’re not going to surprise him. So I think that’s what he appreciates in people as well. So for somebody that doesn’t know Clay incredibly well or you’re just meeting him, the first thing that you need to know about his personality is it’s very polarizing. Black and white and really that’s how you know whether you’re going to love working with him or maybe not like working with him right off the bat? People that are really motivated and driven love working with Clay. People that love to laugh, love to be really weird, and are comfortable doing that love working here. On the counter side of that, if you’re slow and lazy and kind of just want to float along in your job, not really looking to improve or develop yourself, you’re probably not going to like working with Clay. He’s always challenging you, always pushing you to be better and learn new skills and step outside of your comfort zone and do things that make you squirm a little bit. Clay’s passion for helping business owners grow their businesses translates into everything that he does. It kind of affects his whole self. So everything that he does from the moment that he wakes up is preparing himself to share that with people and get his message across. He’s always looking for new methods and new medias to reach wider audiences. And that’s why he does a podcast, so that he can reach people that aren’t physically here. But yeah, it affects everything he does. Clay’s management style is extremely blunt and, like I said, politically incorrect. So I think that’s probably the most polarizing thing that you can be in society today. I mean, he just puts it out there and kind of just sees how you handle it. And that’s either going to draw you in or send you running in the other direction. If you’re about to meet Clay for the first time, all I would say is be yourself. He’s really good at reading people. All the management here is really good at reading people. And so, if you’re trying to be something that you’re not and you’re disingenuous, they’re going to pick up on that. I would describe Clay’s personality as somewhat eccentric. He is very determined, he’s consistent, he’s hilarious, he’s extremely hardworking, and he just loves to get things done. He’s a grinder, and he really loves to see progress and success in his employees and in his clients. Since working with Clay, I have learned an enormous amount of business knowledge and life experience. I’ve learned more working for Clay than I did in the four years of going to a private university for business and entrepreneurship, if that tells you anything. And then life experience, just he’s changed the way I’ve looked at relationships in my personal life. He’s changed the way that I looked at goals myself for studying for myself. He’s changed a lot of things just in my personal life and and in my business life. The kind of employees and teammates who really love working with Clay are people who love to get things done, who love to grind things out, who love to see the success in others, and who also love to have a bigger goal in mind, to like to work to look work for something and for other people as well. So Clay has an enormous passion for helping business owners. And the best way I can describe this is he doesn’t have to do Thrive 15 financially and just in his personal life. He doesn’t have to have this business. He created this business because he has that passion and he loves to see people succeed and to work for something and overcome things and see them do great in life and in their business. So Clay’s management style can be polarizing, mainly because he demands a lot out of his employees. Because there’s so much to get done and he does want to see success in all of his clients, there’s a lot of behind the scenes work that everyone has to do on a daily basis. And that could mean being here at 5 30 in the morning or leaving at 9 at night. If you are very goal driven and like to get things done then it would be perfect for you. So I’ve worked at a lot of different places and it probably wouldn’t be a good fit if you are the employee who likes to take long breaks in the bathroom or who doesn’t like to do anything while the manager is not in front of your site or there to keep you on track or if you like to be on your cell phone all day, things like that it probably wouldn’t be a good fit for for this company. The advice I would give to you if you were first meeting Clay was definitely be prepared. So bring a pen, bring a piece of paper or a notebook and also do your research on Clay, Dr. Zellner, the companies that they’ve created, have questions already for him, and just come with confidence and integrity and you’ll be fine. So one thing that’s different about Clay is that he really loves spending time with his turkeys, his chickens, his cats, some unconventional animals for most people. And I think he likes spending time with these animals just because they’re not human beings, to be honest, and he has to deal with a lot of people every day, a lot of different personalities, so really spending time with these animals kind of gives him a break from that. Most importantly, Clay knows what he wants and he’s found a way to synthesize every aspect of his life to create a harmonious balance. So if you contribute toward that balance, then you’ll have a good relationship with Clay. And if you take from that balance or disrupt that balance then he won’t last long in Clay’s life. I’ve definitely noticed a common denominator between employees that enjoy working with Clay and they’re often diligent, they’re hard-working, they dress sharp, they have great personalities and Clay enjoys being around every single one of them. Clay has a desire to see people win and I think the reason for that is that he knows what it’s like to win and he knows how good it feels and he wants people to share that same experience that he has. He also knows what it takes to get there and so to share those concepts with people is a great passion of his because he’s not selfish and he doesn’t want to keep winning just to himself. The kind of people that wouldn’t enjoy working with Clay are people that are under the illusion that they know everything they need to know out of life and business and everything in between. I’ve always believed in the concept that we’re always growing, we’re constantly growing and there are no such thing as plateaus in life. So as soon as you stop growing, you’re essentially dead and essentially pointless to the earth and so Clay understands that and everybody that works for Clay also understands that. So the kind of people that don’t enjoy working with Clay are people that don’t want to grow, don’t want to learn and are most definitely not coachable. Claive really loves his turkey, his chicken and his cats and I’ve really taken a lot of time thinking about why that might be. Now there are two answers to this. First of all there’s a surface level answer. Okay, Claive just loves animals. I mean who doesn’t love animals? But then there’s a deeper answer to this. When you look at animals, animals do what they want. Take cats for example. Have you ever tried to tell a cat to sit? Good luck with that. Well, it’s the same thing with Clay. Clay does what he wants. Clay doesn’t wear a suit. Clay wears a hoodie, he wears jeans, and he wears Adidas sneakers to work because he can. He’s earned the right to do so. Just like a cat won’t come and sit on your lap if you tell it to do so, you cannot tell Clay to wear a suit. And so he has something in common with these animals. And so he relates to the animals. And so that’s why I think he loves spending time with his turkey, his chickens and his cats. If you’re preparing to meet Clay, first of all I’d say make sure you’re not late. You have to respect his time because as I said before he’s found a way to synthesize the aspects of his life to where his time is very efficient and very intentional. I would dress sharply and I would come prepared to laugh because Clay is hilarious. I would also make sure that you bring something to make notes with, whether that’s a pen, a pencil, a paintbrush, or a piece of chalk. Clay’s passion for helping other business owners grow their business and be successful is very apparent. Everything from his radio show to the day-to-day coaching that he does with his clients. Because when he helps his clients win, he’s the best, so he’s winning. You know, it’s just a white, white hot passion for helping people reach their goals and it’s really, it’s really great to see somebody who’s not always just trying to get the best for themselves and but help somebody else reach their goals. The type of people that would not like to work with Clay would be the people who call in sick all the time for a runny nose, somebody that is always going to look for an easy way out, shortcuts that just make their life easier, somebody that’s nefarious, anybody that’s shady because Clay is very transparent in everything that he does. So if that’s not, you probably wouldn’t like it. So if you don’t know Clay, he is a very unique person. He uses humor a lot and it’s a really good way to interact with people and help people actually obtain whatever you’re trying to get through to them. And he’s just a very passionate person about reaching his goals and completing what he sets his mind to. My best guess of why Clay likes turkeys, chickens, cats so much, you know, those unorthodox animals is because Clay is not the most orthodox human, so you know he relates to them. If you are about to meet Clay for the first time, I would highly recommend three things. One, bring a pen and paper. Two, do not yawn. And three, stay off of your cell phone. The teammates and employees that work with Clay are people who have vision, drive, ambition, and they know where they’re going. They know their goals. So that’s been really amazing. Clay’s passion for helping business owners is really like tunnel vision, in a good way though. He is so determined to help his clients win. I would characterize Clay’s management style as a strong leader. He really wants you to go as far as you want to go and he’s going to help you get there. The kind of people that would not like working with Clay would be anyone who lacks ambition or is unwilling to change or grow. The advice that I would give to someone that’s going to meet Clay for the first time would be come hungry, bring your A-game, and be intentional about your questions and your time with him. I think that Clay likes his turkey, chickens, and cats so much because they genuinely make him happy. My name is Robert Redman. I actually first met Clay almost three years ago to the day. I don’t know if he remembers it or not, but I wasn’t working with him at the time. I asked to see him and just ask him some questions to help direct my life, to get some mentorship. The experience working here has, to put it real plainly, has been just life-changing. I have not only learned new things and have gained new knowledge, but I have gained a whole new mindset that I believe wherever I end up will serve me well throughout the rest of my life. Since working with Clay, I have learned so much. I mean, I would like to say it was everything about business in terms of the different categories. I haven’t learned it all, but I’ve learned all about marketing. I’ve learned about advertising. I’ve learned about branding. I’ve learned how to create a sales process for organizations in any industry. I’ve learned how to sell. I’ve learned how to create repeatable systems and processes and hold people accountable. You know, how to hire people. It’s almost like every aspect of a business you can learn. I have learned a lot in those different categories. And then again the the mindset that I’ve gained here has been huge. You know, working here you can’t you can’t be a mediocre person. You are a call to a higher standard of excellence and then as you’re called to that standard here you begin to see those outcomes in every area of your life. That standard of excellence that you want to implement, no matter what you’re involved in. I would like to describe the other people that work with Clay are people that are going somewhere with their life. Marshall and the group interview talks about how, you know, the best fits for this organization are the people that are goal-oriented. So they’re on their own trajectory, and we’re on our own trajectory. And the best fits are those people where there can be a mutually beneficial relationship, that as we pursue our goals, and we help the business pursue those goals, the business helps us pursue our goals as well. And so I’d say people that are driven, people that want to make something of their lives, people that are goal-oriented, they’re focused, and they’re committed to overcoming any adversity that may come their way. Clay’s passion for helping business owners grow their businesses is, it’s unique in that, I don’t know if there’s anyone else that can be as passionate. You know, whenever a business starts working with Clay, it’s almost as like Clay is running that business in the sense that he has something at stake. You know, he’s just serving them. They’re one of his clients, but it’s as if he is actively involved in the business. Whenever they have a win, he’s posting it all over his social media. He’s shouting it across the room here at Thrive. He’s sending people encouraging messages. He can kind of be that life coach and business coach in terms of being that motivator and that champion for people’s businesses. It’s, again, unique because there’s no one else I’ve seen get so excited about and passionate about other people’s businesses. The kind of people that wouldn’t like working with Clay are people that are satisfied with with mediocrity, people that want to get through life by just doing enough, by just getting by, people who are not looking to develop themselves, people who are not coachable, people who think that they know it all and they’re unwilling to change. I would say those are the type of people. In short, anyone that’s content with mediocrity would not like working with Clay. So if you’re meeting Clay for the first time, the advice I’d give you is definitely come ready to take tons of notes. Every time Clay speaks, he gives you a wealth of knowledge that you don’t want to miss. I remember the first time that I met Clay. I literally carried a notebook with me all around. I was looking at this notebook the other day actually. I carried a notebook with me all around and I just took tons of notes. I filled the entire notebook in about three or four months just from being around Clay, following him and learning from him. And then I would say come coachable. Be open to learning something new. Be open to challenging yourself. Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted. I think Clay loves his turkey, chickens, and cats. First of all, because Clay actually spent some time on a farm. I believe in Minnesota, he talks about how his uncle, who’s been somewhat of a mentorship figure to him, spent time on a farm with him. And I remember a story that he tells where he says that he didn’t wake up on time, and his uncle was telling him, hey, if you don’t wake up on time, you’re not gonna eat. And he didn’t wake up on time, and he didn’t eat. And there was another time where he didn’t try hard at a basketball game. And his uncle said, hey, since you’re not trying hard, you’re going to walk home. And he literally walked home. So he had that farm experience. But I think on a deeper layer, turkeys and chickens and cats, they’re not too dramatic. And I know that Clay does not like dealing with gossip, with drama, with negative emotions. And then those animals kind of have an aspect of purity to them. And I believe that deep down that Clay loves anything that is wholesome, good, and pure. My name is Carter Watts. My experience here has been really amazing. I love working with the people here, really love being able to interact with Clay on a pretty regular basis. Since I began working here, I’ve learned a lot of valuable skills. I’ve been able to learn how to be more efficient with my time. I’ve been able to learn some things to apply to my wife and I’s business. We run a photography company together, so I’ve learned a lot of really good skills that I think are really going to help to boost our business. Since I’ve met and begun working with Clay, one of the things that I’ve learned is to be more productive with my time. Before I started working here, I still got up relatively early. I would get up about 5.30, 6 to get things done at work, but I never seemed to have time for what I really wanted to do. Personally, I love going to the gym, and so one of the things I’ve learned from Clay is when you want to add things to Your schedule you need to take things out. So I stopped staying up late I begin going to bed at nine o’clock eight thirty sometimes and I’ll get up at 430 So I’ll have you know a half day full of what I want to do before I come here and begin working I’ll describe Clay’s passion for helping business owners as as fiery, definitely. He is very intense when he has his mindset on something he wants to do. He doesn’t hesitate, he goes for it. He knows exactly what a company needs to help them learn and grow. He’s not going to sugarcoat it at all. He’s going to tell you exactly what needs to happen. My advice for you if you’re to meet Clay for the first time would be show up early, bring a pen and a paper, and be ready to hear a lot of jokes. Now he’s not exuberant about his jokes, they’re kind of just small things you have to catch on. If you’re meeting Clay for the first time, my advice would be to show up on time, bring a pen and a paper, and be ready for a lot of jokes, as well as an overflow of knowledge. To me, I think Clay loves his turkeys, chickens, and cats so much because they’re a bit like him. They’re all kind of standoffish, but once you get to know them, they’re pretty awesome. My name is Jason Beasley, and I have been with Elephant in the Room for four years now. I mean, Elephant in the Room, how would I explain the experience Elephant in the Room provides? It provides an amazing work environment, but also just constant accountability. It’s one of the few places I’ve ever worked where I come in feeling energized to go to work every day. I don’t have a case of the Mondays because I know that no matter what day I have ahead of me, it’s just gonna be systemized, it’s gonna be accurate, and it’s gonna be action-packed. One of the things that makes Elephant in the Room unique as compared to other salons is the fact that they offer a full experience. So I get my haircut there all the time, but one of the cool things that always brings the guys back, and one of the reasons why we’re so popular amongst guys is the fact that we don’t just, you know, get you in and out for a haircut. You have your regular stylist, there’s awesome conversation. The overall experience is great from the shampoo to the style to all the add-ons. I’ve never had, I’ve never worked at a place like that or had my haircut at a place quite like Elephant in the Room. The clientele at Elephant in the Room varies from like your everyday average Joe to your CEO. So one of the cool things about working the front desk at Elephant in the Room being a manager is you always have interesting conversation You’re gonna talk to some guy about Star Wars. You’re gonna talk to some guy about fortune 500 companies. It’s just a blast There’s just so many varying different types of people to come through The Monday morning all staff meetings are kind of like a game show if I had to describe it We go in and there’s always something super motivating, but Clay does a lot of call-and-response So even if everybody else has a case on the Mondays, he doesn’t allow us to. He’ll make sure that he engages every single person, but there’s just a lot of energy. Gives us a really awesome ability to reset at the beginning of every week and make sure that we’re on our best game. Oh, I’d describe the training at Elephant in the Room as in-depth and intentional. I’ve worked at plenty of other places where they had training protocols that you do maybe one time, but here, whether it be the weekly meetings, the Monday meetings, or even individual training throughout the week, we make sure that our managers and our stylists are always growing. And I think it’s really cool, because a lot of places you just get stagnant and you feel like you’re stuck and you’re never gonna learn anything new. There’s always an ability to learn something new and grow your skills within Elephant. So I love that. I learned at the academy, at King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Hi, I’m Aaron Antus with Shaw Homes. I first heard about Clay through a mortgage lender here in town who had told me what a great job he had been doing for them and I actually noticed he was driving a Lamborghini all of a sudden so I was willing to listen. In my career I’ve sold a little over eight hundred million dollars in real estate. So honestly I thought I kind of knew everything about marketing and homes and then I met Clay and my perception of what I knew and what I could do definitely changed. After doing 800 million in sales over a 15-year career I really thought I knew what I was doing. I’ve been managing a large team of salespeople for the last 10 years here with Shaw Homes. And I mean, we’ve been a company that’s been in business for 35 years. We’ve become one of the largest builders in the Tulsa area and that was without Clay. So when I came to know Clay, I really thought, man, there’s not much more I need to know, but I’m willing to listen. The interesting thing is our internet leads from our website has actually in a four month period of time has gone from somewhere around 10 to 15 leads in a month to 180 internet leads in a month. Just from the few things that he’s shown us how to implement that I honestly probably never would have come up with on my own. So I got a lot of good things to say about the system that Clay put in place with us. And it’s just been an incredible experience. I am very glad that we met and had the opportunity to work with Clay. So the interaction with the team and with Clay on a weekly basis is honestly very enlightening. One of the things that I love about Clay’s perspective on things is that he doesn’t come from my industry. He’s not somebody who’s in the home building industry. I’ve listened to all the experts in my field. Our company has paid for me to go to seminars, international builder shows, all kinds of places where I’ve had the opportunity to learn from the experts in my industry. But the thing that I found working with Clay is that he comes from such a broad spectrum of working with so many different types of businesses that he has a perspective that’s difficult for me to gain because I get so entrenched in what I do, I’m not paying attention to what other leading industry experts are doing. And Clay really brings that perspective for me. It is a very valuable time every week when I get that hour with him. From my perspective, the reason that any business owner who’s thinking about hooking up with Thrive needs to definitely consider it is because the results that we’ve gotten in a very short period of time are honestly monumental. It has really exceeded my wildest expectation of what he might be able to do. I came in skeptical because I’m very pragmatic and as I’ve gone through the process over just a few months I’ve realized it’s probably one of the best moves we’ve ever made. I think a lot of people probably feel like they don’t need a business or marketing consultant because they maybe are a little bit prideful and like to think they know everything. I know that’s how I felt coming in. I mean, we’re a big company that’s definitely one of the largest in town. And so we kind of felt like we knew what we were doing. And I think for a lot of people, they let their ego get in the way of listening to somebody that might have a better or different perspective than theirs. I would just really encourage you if you’re thinking about working with Clay. I mean, the thing is, it’s month to month. Go give it a try and see what happens. I think in the 35 year history of Shaw Homes, this is probably the best thing that’s happened to us. And I know if you give them a shot, I think you’ll feel the same way. I know for me, the thing I would have missed out on if I didn’t work with clay is, I would have missed out on literally an 1800% increase in our internet leads. Going from 10 a month to 180 a month, that would have been a huge financial decision to just decide not to give it a shot. I would absolutely recommend ClayClark to anybody who’s thinking about working with somebody in marketing. I would skip over anybody else you were thinking about and I would go straight to Clay and his team. I guarantee you’re not going to regret it because we sure haven’t. Hello, my name is Charles Colaw with Colaw Fitness. Today I want to tell you a little bit about Clay Clark and how I know Clay Clark. Clay Clark has been my business coach since 2017. He’s helped us grow from two locations to now six locations. We’re planning to do seven locations in seven years and then franchise. And Clay’s done a great job of helping us navigate anything that has to do with like running the business, building the systems, the checklists, the workflows, the audits, how to navigate lease agreements, how to buy property, how to work with brokers and builders. This guy is just amazing. This kind of guy has worked in every single industry. He’s written books with like Lee Crockwell, head of Disney with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with Mike Lindell. He does Reawaken America tours where he does these tours all across the country where 10,000 or more people show up to some of these tours. On the day-to-day, he does anywhere from about 160 companies. He’s at the top. He has a team of business coaches, videographers, and graphic designers, and web developers, and they run 160 companies every single week. So think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. So in the weekly he’s running 160 companies. Every 6-8 weeks he’s doing reawaken America tours. Every 6-8 weeks he’s also doing business conferences where 200 people show up and he teaches people a 13 step proven system that he’s done and worked with billionaires helping them grow their companies. I’ve seen guys from startups go from startup to being multi-millionaires, teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom through the system. Critical thinking, document creation, organizing everything in their head to building into a franchisable, scalable business. One of his businesses has like 500 franchises. That’s just one of the companies or brands that he works with. So amazing guy, Elon Musk kind of like smart guy. He kind of comes off sometimes as socially awkward, but he’s so brilliant and he’s taught me so much. When I say that, Clay is like, he doesn’t care what people think when you’re talking to him. He cares about where you’re going in your life and where he can get you to go. And that’s what I like him most about him. He’s like a good coach. A coach isn’t just making you feel good all the time, a coach is actually helping you get to the best you. Clay has been an amazing business coach. Through the course of that we became friends. My most impressive thing was when I was shadowing him one time. We went into a business deal and listened to it. I got to shadow and listen to it. When we walked out I knew that he could make millions on the deal and they were super excited about working with him. He told me, he’s like, I’m not going to touch it, I’m going to turn it down, because he knew it was going to harm the common good of people in the long run. The guy’s integrity just really wowed me. It brought tears to my eyes to see that this guy, his highest desire was to do what’s right. Anyway, just an amazing man. He’s impacted me a lot. He’s helped navigate any time I’ve gotten nervous or worried about how to run the company or navigating competition and an economy that’s like, I remember we got closed down for three months. He helped us navigate on how to stay open, how to get back open, how to just survive through all the COVID shutdowns, lockdowns, because our clubs were all closed for three months and you have $350,000 of bills you’ve got to pay and we have no accounts receivable. He helped us navigate that. And of course we were conservative enough that we could afford to take that on for a period of time. But he was a great man. I’m very impressed with him. So Clay, thank you for everything you’re doing. And I encourage you, if you haven’t ever worked with Clay, work with Clay. He’s gonna help magnify you. And there’s nobody I have ever met that has the ability to work as hard as he does. He probably sleeps four, maybe six hours a day, and literally the rest of the time he’s working and he can outwork everybody in the room every single day and he loves it. So anyways, this is Charles Kola with Kola Fitness. Thank you Clay and anybody out there that’s wanting to work with Clay, it’s a great, great opportunity to ever work with him. So you guys have a blessed one. This is Charles Kola. We’ll see you guys. Hi, my name is Josh Sperl from Sperl and Associates Chartered Professional Accountants based out of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. And I started, I met Clay at a conference, at his conference in Tulsa in June of 2018. Started working with the coaching program shortly after there. You know, the experience has been great. You know, you really have a partner in the grind. You know, most people, I like to say most people are wrong about most things about business most of the time. And it’s very difficult for entrepreneurs to connect with other entrepreneurs who actually know what they’re talking about when it comes to business. But Clay and his team really does understand. The tangible improvements that we’ve seen is we’re up over 50% since starting with the coaching program. And they’re helping to help business owners create time, freedom and financial freedom. And I know what you’re going to think. You’re going to say, what the heck are you going to do with your time, freedom and financial freedom when you’re in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada? That’s the most northerly city in North America with a million people. You know, we’re probably just sitting in our igloos hoping for some television, but I’ll give you an idea of what we’re in Edmonton Alberta Canada. So over here we have Sandra and we have Emma. Emma say hello. Hi everybody this is my daddy’s channel. Emma really likes any video so let’s give it a go. Let’s see what actually the time freedom and financial freedom can do for you in Edmonton’s Beach. Now it’s not what you Americans are going to think of as a beach. This is a northern beach. We’ve got a really cool slide here. I don’t know if you can see this purple slide. This purple slide that you’re looking at here is a full loop-de-loop. It knocks you completely upside down when you go down. See if I can get the right angle here. Now that does not appear physically possible, but it really is going to knock you upside down. Went on it last time. And here is the Edmonton Beach. This is a northern beach. You guys out in Tulsa, you Americans think you have all the beaches here, but here is the northern beach complete with waves. We’ve got 30 degree weather inside here. Sorry, 30, that’s 90 for you guys over there. I’ve got to do the translation of the map in my head. We’ve even got a zip line that we can ride down here. And this is what we’re doing with our time freedom and financial freedom in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Thanks to the Thrive Time team. Thanks very much, guys. I learned at the Academy in Kings Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. The number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. We are Jared and Jennifer Johnson. We own Platinum Pest and Lawn and are located in Owasso, Oklahoma. And we have been working with Thrive for business coaching for almost a year now. Yeah, so what we want to do is we want to share some wins with you guys that we’ve had by working with Thrive. First of all, we’re on the top page of Google now, okay? I just want to let you know what type of accomplishment this is. Our competition, Orkin, Terminex, they’re both $1.3 billion companies. They both have 2,000 to 3,000 pages of content attached to their website. So to basically go from virtually non-existent on Google to up on the top page is really saying something. But it’s come by being diligent to the systems that Thrive has, by being consistent and diligent on doing podcasts, and staying on top of those podcasts to really help with getting up on what they’re listing and ranking there with Google. And also, we’ve been trying to get Google reviews, you know, asking our customers for reviews. And now we’re the highest rated and most reviewed Pest and Lawn Company in the Tulsa area. And that’s really helped with our conversion rate. And the number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. Wait, say that again. How much are we up? 411%. Okay, so 411% we’re up with with our new customers. Amazing. Right. So not only do we have more customers calling in, we’re able to close those deals at a much higher rate than we were before. Right now, our closing rate is about 85%. And that’s largely due to, first of all, like our Google reviews that we’ve gotten. People really see that our customers are happy, but also we have a script that we follow. And so when customers call in, they get all the information that they need. That script has been refined time and time again. It wasn’t a one and done deal. It was a system that we followed with Thrive in the refining process. That has obviously, the 411% shows that that system works. Yeah. Here’s a big one for you. Last week alone, our booking percentage was 91%. We actually booked more deals, more new customers last year than we did the first five months or I’m sorry the first we booked more deals last week than we did the first five months of last year from before we worked with Thrive. So again we booked more deals last week than the first five months of last year. It’s incredible but the reason why we have that success by implementing the systems that Thrive has taught us and helped us out with. Some of those systems that we’ve implemented our group interviews. That way we’ve really been able to come up with a really great team. We’ve created and implemented checklists. Everything gets done and it gets done right. It creates accountability. We’re able to make sure that everything gets done properly both out in the field and also in our office. And also doing the podcast like Jared had mentioned that has really, really contributed to our success. But that, like I said, the diligence and consistency in doing those in that system has really, really been a big blessing in our lives. And also, it’s really shown that we’ve gotten the success from following those systems. Yeah. So before working with Thrive, we were basically stuck. Really no new growth with our business. And we were in a rut. And we didn’t know… The last three years, our customer base had pretty much stayed the same. We weren’t shrinking, but we weren’t really growing either. Yeah. And so we didn’t really know where to go, what to do, how to get out of this rut that we’re in. But Thrive helped us with that. They implemented those systems, they taught us those systems, they taught us the knowledge that we needed in order to succeed. Now it’s been a grind. Absolutely, it’s been a grind this last year. But we’re getting those fruits from that hard work and the diligent effort that we’re able to put into it. So again, we’re in a rut. Thrive helped us get out of that rut, and if you’re thinking about working with Thrive, quit thinking about it and just do it. Do the action, and you’ll get the results. It will take hard work and discipline, but that’s what it’s going to take in order to really succeed. So we just want to give a big shout out to Thrive, a big thank you out there to Thrive. We wouldn’t be where we’re at now without their help. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvard Kiyosaki, The Rich Dad Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re close, but they’re completely different worlds. And I have a special guest today. Definition of intelligence is if you agree with me you’re intelligent and so this gentleman is very intelligent I’ve done this show before also but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts as a Mr. Clay Clark he’s a friend of a good friend Eric Eric Trump on today’s show Rabbi Daniel Lappin explains why people that practice the Jewish faith are so disproportionately financially successful while sharing the secrets of financial success. As you know, the book was spurred by a question I was constantly being asked by good people, people who didn’t have a molecule of bigotry in their entire bodies. But people said to me, why is it that Jews are so disproportionately good with money. On today’s show, Rabbi Daniel Lapin explains why in the original Hebrew language the words work and worship meant the same thing. This might be the most important and powerful point we’re talking about today which is that the word for worshiping the God, Lord, is exactly the same as the word for doing your work for six days a week. He explains both the power and the principle of the sixth day work week. He explains why the original Hebrew language intentionally did not include a word for the English term, fair. He explains why the original Hebrew language intentionally decided not to have a word for retirement. We think of retirement in Hebrew as obscene. He explains why money should be viewed as a certificate of appreciation. He explains why that in order to get rich, you must sell the customer something that they want, not something that you want. He explains why being a good person will not necessarily guarantee you financial success. He explains practical steps to increase your personal earnings and why nobody can become successful when involved in selling something that they believe to be morally reprehensible. And he explains why doing what you love will not guarantee you massive amounts of wealth and much, much more. Money only works because of faith. And this is one of the reasons that the planet has never produced an atheistic regime with a healthy economy. Never happened. Ladies and gentlemen, this show could be the most profound episode of the Thrivetime Show that we’ve ever recorded. Grab a pen and a pad and get ready to enter into the lab in the dojo of Mojo about how to create wealth with Daniel Rabbi Lappin. Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show. But this show does. Two men. Eight kids. Co-created by two different women. Thirteen multi-million dollar businesses. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Thriving Timeshow. Now, 3, 2, 1, here we go! We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Thrive Nation, on today’s show, we are interviewing the best-selling author, the best-selling financial expert and author, Rabbi Daniel Lapin. And if you’ve ever been out there seeking financial wisdom, financial advice based upon biblical truth, this show is the show for you. Rabbi Lappin, welcome on to the show, and how are you, sir? I couldn’t be any better, thank you, Craig. Delighted to be together with you and to share some time with your wonderful audience. Well, I would like to start by asking you what the term Rabbi means. It merely means a teacher with a specialty in ancient Jewish wisdom’s insights into the Bible. Now, I know that you have had a ton of success as an author, and you’ve really developed a career that spans decades, but could you share with us where you grew up and what life was like growing up? Certainly. I was a terrible child, and I grew up in the home of a very famous and distinguished rabbi and his wife. This was in Johannesburg, South Africa, and when I was about 10 years old, the parents were rightfully worried that I was turning into a completely barefoot savage, and so they sent me to boarding school in England. I went to school there and gradually became civilized, but it took quite a while. What is it like going to a school like that? It was shocking to me because it was a school way beyond the standards I was accustomed to. It took a little while for me to find my feet and to become accepted. I had to work at it, and it taught me a great deal. It really did. I was ten years old. What did I know? Rabbi Daniel, when did you decide that you wanted to become a rabbi? Never. My father was a rabbi, my grandfather, my great-grandfather, and so I grew up knowing, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that of all the careers in the whole world, the one thing I really would never, ever be was a rabbi. But I’ve come to the conclusion that the good Lord has your destiny in mind, and he’ll send you one or two soft messages, and if you don’t pay any attention, he begins to get you with a two-by-four. Eventually, he whacks you hard enough that you do start paying attention. I actually became an engineer. I worked for the Philips Electronics Company designing communication equipment. I thought that was what I wanted to do. I certainly did not want to replicate the career path of my family, but as I said, the good Lord has plans and you can ignore them for a certain amount of time, but eventually you say, �You know, this hurts too much. Maybe I better just do what I�m expected to do.� Your book, The Vow Shall Prosper, is just filled with so many nuggets of knowledge that they really don�t teach in college, so many profound ideas. Well, on the contrary, they teach the opposite very often in college. As you know, the book was spurred by a question I was constantly being asked by good people, people who didn’t have a molecule of bigotry in their entire bodies, but people said to me, ìWhy is it that Jews are so disproportionately good with money. And I realized that this was a question worth answering. And I even thought to myself, you know, I’m going to be absolutely honest about it. I’m going to spend as long as it takes to research this, and if it turns out that Jews are good with money because they routinely rip everyone else off, then I’m going to know the truth. But it turned out not to be the case. There are bad apples in every bunch and no more or less with Jews. Was it that it’s Jewish genes, that the Cossacks killed all the poor Jews, leaving the rich ones available to reproduce? But if that were true, it would need to show a money gene in Jewish sperm, which just doesn’t exist. We also see that in common with other groups, that very often in Jewish families, after several generations, wealth is dissipated, not created. I had to really probe, and finally and eventually, after a good few years, nearly seven years, it became apparent to me that the inevitable conclusion, which shocked me, I hadn’t expected that, was that embedded in the Bible, embedded in the Torah, structured within the intricacies of the Hebrew language and 2,000 years of carefully communicated ancient Jewish wisdom, with thousands of tips and tools and techniques and specific strategies for how money works and how to be good with it. I decided to condense that into a book called Thou Shalt Prosper, The Ten Commandments for Making Money. The publishers said it was much too big. After a good few years, nearly seven years, it became apparent to me that the inevitable conclusion which shocked me, I hadn’t expected that, was that embedded in the Bible, embedded in the Torah, structured within the intricacies of the Hebrew language and 2,000 years of carefully communicated ancient Jewish wisdom with thousands of tips and tools and techniques and specific strategies for how money works and how to be good with it to begin with. This book and our work was about how do you increase your revenue? How do you make more money than you are now making? And that was what the work was all about. How did you go from your early career to becoming a rabbi and a financial teacher from a biblical perspective? How did you make that jump? What was the transition like? Well, I was forced in spite of the fact that I thought I wanted to become an engineer, and I was forced, before I could even go to school for engineering, I first of all had to go to Bible school, and I had to become ordained as a rabbi. My father said, �Look, I don�t care if you don�t practice as a rabbi, but I want you to be able to.� I didn�t understand it at the time, but obviously today I�m enormously grateful that he insisted. Now Tim Redmond has been a client of mine for years, and now we work together on different business ventures, and he was actually my boss. I was 19 years old. I landed an internship at Tax and Accounting Software, and he was my boss. And I’m telling you, this guy quotes you all the time. It’s almost like he’s a paid advocate of you. Like he’s a paid sales guy. No, it’s not that at all. Tim really gets it. Tim has studied this material. He and I have worked together on numerous occasions, and we’ve spent hours and hours and hours studying this material and researching and working on it together. He really gets it, and that’s really all it is. Well, Tim, this is the thing. Tim pulls me aside. I don’t remember what year it was, but he pulls me aside and he says, Hey, you know, the Hebrew language was God’s original language. And that original language, the Hebrew language, does not have a word for retirement. And I’m going, what? And maybe I’m losing something in translation there. Could you explain the Hebrew language and does it have a phrase for retirement? What’s that all about? Sure. Well, needless to say, I’m not the only person. You know, this is not Rabbi Daniel Lapp and drumming on, Hey, Hebrews, God’s language, no, it’s not like that at all. Many learned people, people who developed the Oxford English Dictionary understood it. Sir William Bradford, who came to North America on the Mayflower, wrote a book in the 17th century called History of the Plymouth Plantation, and the first 20 pages or so in his own handwriting, in the manuscript of the book, are in Hebrew. And in those 20 pages, he even explains why he studied Hebrew and learned how to read the Bible in the original Hebrew, the Old Testament. And he says it’s because this is the language in which God spoke to the patriarchs of old, and it’s the language in which Adam named all living things, etc., etc. And so, yeah, this Lord’s language does have certain pieces of wisdom in it. One of them is that certain words, concepts for which no word exists in Biblical Hebrew are false concepts. So for instance, there’s no word for adolescent. Now I don’t know if you’ve raised teenagers and adolescents, but if you have, you know that the word teenager or adolescent is a euphemism for somebody who wants all the advantages of being an adult with all the slack cut to him for being a child. It doesn’t work like that in the real world. You’ve got to make up your mind, and that’s how I raise my children. I’m not interested in your chronological age. I’m interested in your behavior. You can either behave in a way that says you’re an adult, or you can behave in a way that says you’re a child. Those are the only two choices, and we will treat you accordingly. There’s no word in Hebrew for hero. Why is that? Well, what is the most common usage of the word hero? Oh, he’s my hero, or who is your hero? That’s what you hear all the time. The word doesn’t want me to be anybody else but me. He doesn’t want me to strive to be like my hero, whoever that is. He wants me to strive to be what he has decided is my destiny. And it’s terribly important, particularly in our financial success, in the development business personality that we don’t try and replicate somebody we admire but that we use the information and we use the inspiration in order to develop and grow and ultimately achieve our own destiny. Retirement is another word that doesn’t exist. Why is that? All flows from a really important principle early in the book, Thou Shalt Prosper, and this is fundamental to the disproportionate financial success enjoyed by the people of Israel. That is that nobody can ever succeed, no decent person can ever succeed at any activity that deep in their hearts they believe to be morally reprehensible. And so, you know, if you’re a decent person and you’re working in sales, but you believe that your merchandise is shoddy and overpriced, you’ll fail. You can’t sell it, because your heart’s not in it. And so it becomes very important, very important to understand that we become the kind of people that relate to the moral vision that we hold. If you believe that making money because you have moral qualms about it thinking that you’re taking it. By the way, many people are like this. The babysitter we had working for us Saturday night three weeks ago, I noticed when we came home and I wanted to pay her, I said, �How much do we owe you?� and her eyes went down to the carpet and her toes started tracing patterns, she was uncomfortable to say, ìYou owe me $40.î Because she felt she was taking my money. And so I had to explain to her, I said, ìLook, we want to pay you. We want to pay you what you ask for. And if it’s too much, we won’t use you again. If it’s right, we want to be able to use you again. So please don’t be shy about saying how much you want you’re not taking anything from us You gave us an evening out you follow what I’m saying. Yes, because money is just a certificate of Appreciation and performance that’s exactly right and the problem with retirement is that what you’re essentially saying is hey I’ve got enough so I’m getting out of here to which I say hello You know, you’ve been my doctor or my dentist or my bookkeeper or my shoe polishing guy or I don’t care what it is, but for the last 20 years, you’ve been taking care of a need I have in my life, for which I’ve been happy to pay you. And now you tell me, sorry, you’re not, like, well, what’s with you? What are you doing? What, you’re gonna play golf instead of taking care of me? Well, that suggests that all along, you weren’t in this to take care of me but you were in it just to get what you could get out of it now that you got enough you’re done. So in that sense we think of retirement in Hebrew as obscene. I um this is a verse I know that can you explain to listeners out there the difference between Christianity and Judaism just so that the listeners out there who Nope, I can’t for several reasons. Number one is I only know about Judaism. Okay, number two, that’s theological and I have zero interest in theology Okay, theology is what men think about God Okay, and I’m just you know much of what men think about men is wrong and silly I’m certainly not interested in what men think about God. I’m really interested in only interested in what God thinks about man That’s not theology. That’s Bible. So I’m sorry but that’s a question I simply can’t answer. No, I love it. Not my field. I love the directness of it. I, I, this is, maybe I’ll try it this way. I have a Bible verse that I quote often, and I quote it quite a bit. It’s Colossians 3, 23, 24. It says, whatever you do, work at it with your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you’re serving. Do you share the same view that you’re working as under the Lord? It’s like you’re working to honor God. Do you view it the same way or no? Okay, so again, I don’t know the New Testament, but I know the Hebrew Scriptures very well. And a crucial aspect of this, and I think this goes exactly to this important point you’re making. And that is that in the Hebrew, in the Hebrew, okay, let’s look at this real quick. In the book of Genesis, God put man in the Garden of Eden to work it, right? Right. And we also know that in chapter 20 of Exodus, we got the 10 Commandments, and in the 10 Commandments, in Commandment number four, it says, six days shall you do all your work. So here we’ve got two verses having to do with work. God put Adam in the garden to work it, and six days you must do all your work. Now there are another two verses I want to share with you quickly. One is that God says to Moses, go to Pharaoh and say, let my people go so that they may worship me in the desert. And the other one is towards the end of the book of Joshua. Joshua says, you know what, I don’t care what you guys want to do. As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord. In the last 40 seconds, I’ve shared with you four verses. Two of the verses include the word work, and the other two verses include the word worship. What you don’t know, and none of our listeners know, is that in the Hebrew text there’s only one word for all those four instances, which is an incredibly powerful thing. This might be the most important and powerful point we’re talking about today, which is that the word for worshipping the Lord is exactly the same as the word for doing your work for six days a week. In other words, to put it very directly, taking care of business is another way of worshipping God. One of the ways, by the way, that in English we say customer service and worship service, recognizing this fundamental reality that in taking care of our customers we’re also serving God. I am probably going to have to put that on repeat 40 to 50 times in a row because it’s so mind expanding. I read this book called Thinking Grow Rich Years Ago by Napoleon Hill. Oh sure, Napoleon Hill, yeah. I’m reading that book because my boss told me I had to read it or I’m fired. He said I was like a ship without a rudder. He says, you’re a ship without a rudder, you’ve got to read the book. And Napoleon Hill said, if you over-deliver, eventually you’ll be overpaid. He goes, just exceed the expectations of every person on every transaction. And that really helped me, because I grew up without any money. And there’s just so many powerful concepts in your book. And I want to ask you about this one. The concept of businessman, a businessman being a business person. How do you, in your book, Thou Shalt Prosper, you talk about this a little bit, but the Hebrew concept of businessman, I believe, and again I’m just making sure I’m getting my notes right, because I’ve got notes everywhere, is a man of faith is a businessman? Can you kind of explain that, and where am I getting that wrong? Sure, no, you’ve got that exactly right, that in Hebrew, the word for a business professional is also a person of faith. That is the reason why history’s most effective engine of wealth creation, namely the United States of America, puts not on the walls of its churches where you would have expected the phrase, but on its currency, the phrase, ìIn God we trust.î And thatís because if youíre in church, you canít probably already know that, so you don’t need it on the wall of churches. But what you need to know is that money only works because of faith. And this is one of the reasons that the planet has never produced an atheistic regime with a healthy economy. It never happened. And the most religious, the most Bible-centric country on earth, which is the United States of America, is also the engine of greatest prosperity. I’ll go further than that and point out that in the thousand years from the year 900 to the year 1900, no indigenous capital market ever grew in a non-Christian country. You know, so today we have stock markets in Accra and we have stock markets in Hong Kong and Singapore. We’ve got stock markets all over the place. But originally, the stock market grew in London and Amsterdam. Essentially, the idea of pooling capital, which is the heart of faith, only grew in Christian Bible-based countries. One only has to look at the most prominent and revered structures in every European city, like Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. And you’ll find the Christian origins of the wealth building of Western civilization. And Rabbi Daniel, I just want to, and I’m not going to get into a religious debate with you at all, I just want to make sure the listeners understand, because there’s somebody out there who doesn’t understand. Judaism, you really have a deep knowledge of the Old Testament. Is that correct for anybody out there who’s unclear in their mind? Yes, it is. And it’s also important for everyone to understand, I’m not saying you have to be Jewish to succeed with this book. I’m not saying you have to be of the Jewish faith in any way whatsoever in order to benefit from the strategies of ancient Jewish wisdom that I share in Thou Shalt Prosper. That is right. I don’t want anybody out there to discount that because I want to make sure we kind of understand where you’re coming from in your background there. Now, you rewrite in your book, this is highlighted and circled, and I have to apologize for the desecration of this book. On the contrary, I’m thrilled to hear it. You wrote, take out a dollar bill and look at it. Now pat yourself on your back because you’re looking at a certificate of performance. Rabbi, can you break that down? Sure. Look, let me give you an example. And by the way, this is really important, this point you’re bringing up, because if we don’t understand money, we cannot get it. I’m probably one of the worst fishermen in the world, but I like fishing for salmon in the cold waters of British Columbia off the west coast of Canada. Something I learned a long time ago is that the best money I’m going to spend is not on my gear, but it’s on the guide, because somebody who really knows the fish will help me catch them. I can have the most expensive rod and reel, but if I don’t know fish, if I don’t know salmon specifically, I’m not going to catch them. And I really didn’t until I tweaked on to this fact that, hey, I can hire a guide, and all of a sudden I look like a good fisherman. In the same way, money’s like that as well. If you don’t get it, if you don’t understand it, it’s simply not going to work. And so, for instance, in the book we cover the whole question of physical and spiritual, what’s the difference. By the way, spiritual doesn’t mean godly or holy or religious. Spiritual just means something you cannot measure in a laboratory and I explain why you’ve got to be able to understand the essential spirituality of money. Part of that is that, let’s say my job is a roofer and I was planning on taking my kids You know fishing or whatever and all of a sudden I get a call from Somebody who says hey, you’re the roof. I say yep. He says can you come quickly? It’s been raining where we are and there’s a leak in the roof My wife is going nuts the water’s coming into the kitchen making everybody miserable And so I’m just about to say to him. Hey pal. You know what how about I come tomorrow? because like this afternoon I’m planning on taking my kids fishing, and all of a sudden, fortunately, I shut up because I remember to think before I speak. I in fact say to him, ìYou know, I’ll be happy to come. The only thing is, I was about to take my kids fishing, but it would be worth much, much more for them to see how I serve another one of God’s children by fixing your roof. So if you don’t mind, I’ll be on my way, but I’ll bring him along as well.” So I haul the kids into the pickup truck, tools in the back, off we go. And the kids help me and we fix it up. We put on some new shingles, the roof is fixed. The guy is as happy as could be. His wife is smiling and he says, I appreciate it very much. Would you need some certificates of performance? I say, yeah, please, I would. I need 100 certificates of performance. So he takes out a roll of green certificates and he peels off 100 of them and gives them to me. And I say, thank you very much indeed. That night I take my wife for dinner and we come into the restaurant and the restauranteur says, yeah. And I think, well, it’s not really a polite way to welcome a diner, but all right. I said, you know, could we please have two big fat steaks and a plate of the largest, biggest French fries you can make? And he says, what, you want me to go into that hot kitchen and slave over a stove to make you steak and fries? And I said, well, yeah, isn’t that what this restaurant’s all about? And he says, no, as a matter of fact, this restaurant is only for members of a club who take care of God’s other children. I said, I don’t know what you’re talking about. He says, well, let me put it this way. Could you prove to me that you’ve taken care of anybody else today? I said, well, as a matter of fact, I can. He said, how are you going to do that? I said, right here in my pocket. The person I took care of this afternoon gave me 100 certificates of performance. He said, well, why didn’t you say so before? He brings me a great meal at the end of the meal. I say to him now, would you like any certificates of performance? He says, yeah. My kids have to go to the dentist tomorrow, and our dentist only takes care of people who’ve taken care of other people. And he says, so I’d need 60 certificates of performance from you. So I happily peel off 60, and I give them to him, and off we go. We are all part of the club of human beings who take care of other human beings. Beautiful. I don’t understand, I grew up very, you know, without money, I grew up very, very limited resources. I don’t understand the argument mentally, financially, spiritually, as you defined it, the argument for socialism. How could anybody with a sound mind advocate for socialism right now? It’s not an accident that almost without exception, socialists are people who do not share biblical faith. Socialism almost always goes together with atheism. Now what does this mean? It’s very simple. One of the big differences between a person who has a spiritual awareness and somebody who thinks the world is confined to only the material is that people who think the world is confined to the material think that a human being is nothing other than about $10 worth of cheap chemicals like a bunch of nitrogen, a bunch of oxygen, a bunch of carbon, some hydrogen, some potassium and all of this mixed together produces and that biological determinism is an atheistic and physical view of the human being. A person like that says a human being is just a body. I don’t think that’s right. In fact, I’m willing to state with some certainty that it’s not right, not out of faith, but out of life experience and financial experience. I think people are both body and soul. Now, one of the big differences between physical and spiritual, and I can wrap this up and bring it in for a landing very easily, is that an example of a difference is a saxophone is physical, because you can take it into a lab and weigh it. You can measure it. You know, a saxophone’s made out of five pounds of brass and carefully arranged and structured. That’s what a saxophone is. And if I have it on the table in front of me and when my attention is diverted, you run in and take it away. Now you’ve got the saxophone and I’m without a saxophone. That’s how physical things work because it’s a rule of physics that any physical object can only be in one place at one time. This is an expansion of Einsteinian principles of time-space. Any physical object can only be in one place at one time. However, a tune is not a physical thing, it’s a spiritual thing. There’s no instrument in the world, no lab in the world capable of measuring a tune to see whether it’s the kind of tune that would make people happy or sad or make men march off to war or whatever it is. And so a tune, if I have a tune and you hear me whistling my tune and you learn it and you walk away and you teach it to a bunch of other people, have you taken away anything from me? No, you’ve just made the world a more tuneful place. The difference between physical and spiritual is physical can only be in one place at a time. Spiritual can be in more than one place at a time. Now if money is only physical, and sure, socialistic people view the world in materialistic terms. You’ve heard of the Marxist materialistic dialectic, and that is that everything is only physical. That’s the essence of Marxism and communism and socialism. Well, in that case, money is like the saxophone. And if I have some, and this is really important, if I’ve got it, that must mean there are a whole bunch of other people who don’t have it, because I must have taken it from them. And the only way for other people to get it is to take it from me. That’s called, by the way, redistribution. But the way money truly works is that it’s spiritual, not physical. That is that two human beings can agree on a transaction and that transaction doesn’t exchange money. It brings money into being. I explain all the arithmetic and mathematics of that in the book, Thou Shalt Prosper. The bottom line is that inflation is when the government prints more money than transactions have created, and deflation is when government doesn’t print enough currency to account for the fact that every time you and I did a transaction, we actually brought money into being. Wow! Wow! And, Andrew, I think I’m going to have to duct tape my head together and listen to this show at least five times. You you talk about you write about that in order for people to prosper We have to behave decently and honorably toward one another and live among others who conduct themselves In a similar fashion. Can you explain what this is all about? Yeah, look a lot of people have said to me Well, I don’t get it, you know My rabbi or my pastor is this really holy guy, he’s so spiritual, he’s so wonderful, and yet he suffers in terrible poverty. Okay, fine, yeah, I would never say a word against your rabbi or against your pastor, I’m sure they’re very beautiful people. Let me give you an example. How about a guy who is a beautiful human being, lovely person, loving, kind, compassionate, spiritual, godly, virtuous in every possible way, wouldn’t hurt a fly. And he walks to the top of a 20-story building and he steps out the window. Well, he starts moving towards the ground really, really quickly, and it’s kind of a thrilling ride for about four seconds, but it comes to a very abrupt end in a way that kills him. And then he comes before the good Lord and he says to him, I don’t get this Lord, I’m such a good person, I’m so kind to people, I pray to you twice a day, I give charity, I tithe my money, how could you let me die? And God says to him, well I gave you a set of principles both physical and spiritual. And one of the sets of physical principles that I put there in the world for you to learn is that if you step out of the window on the 20th floor, you’re going to come to a very painful end. Why didn’t you pay attention to that? Did you really think that the fact that you are good and virtuous can take the place of actual knowledge? And so I say exactly the same thing to the poor rabbi or the poor pastor. I say, of course you’re a good and kind person, that’s lovely, but do you really think that that’s enough to make money? No. God wants you to have certain information, which by the way is why the Old Testament is filled with financial data. But I wouldn’t be so if somebody told me there is There’s a thousand times more mention of money in a positive sense in the Old Testament than the New Testament I wouldn’t be least and surprised Because many many many dear good Christian friends of mine before they started studying Bible with me and learning the Old Testament They believe that money is evil. And when you believe money is evil. I promise you you’re not gonna get any. And so the Old Testament teaches these principles about not stepping out of the 20th floor window. In other words, it’s not enough to be a good person. That doesn’t stave off poverty. God wants us to do actual specific things, and what those are, are some of the things we’re talking about. You write about the idea that in order to be a successful person, you can’t promise more than you’re going to deliver. You have to actually promise less than you’re going to deliver. Can you explain that to me? You’ve got to over-deliver always, yes. Now you talked about how businesses that don’t do something valuable for others do not survive and should not survive. Profit is a way to measure how useful a business is. This doesn’t ever change. I’d love to have you share more about that. Sure. So, there is somebody in New Zealand that I’m coaching at the moment, business coaching, and here’s how our engagement began. This person told me the business he started and what he is supplying to customers in New Zealand, and how he’s advertising and marketing, and it’s just not working. And I said to him, what made you decide to sell this particular thing at the particular price you’re selling it at? And he said, I just believe deep in my heart that it’s what people need and that I’m providing a real value. And so I said to him, look, part of ancient Jewish wisdom is that I am sometimes going to help you collide with reality, and like any other collision, a collision with reality can be very painful, and Iím going to tell you that we donít really care about what you believe. Thatís not the point. The point is that only the market can determine value, and so you think that the market needs this thing and that’s because you are in love with this particular type of product. That means you should be buying that product, not selling it, but we need to build you up so that you fall in love with the act of business, which is the act of supplying the needs and desires of other human beings. If that was really what motivated you. You would have done research to find out what people really want in your neighborhood in New Zealand, not decide in advance what you want to sell them. That is very much at the core of what we’re talking about, understanding that it is the market out there. It’s what people want. The idea of being in business is serving God’s other children. And you can only do that by finding out the things that they want and they need and they desire and then providing them. Which is why one of the stupidest things that anybody ever tells new graduates is oh, now that you’ve finished your studies, you’re finishing, you’re leaving school, you must find a job doing what you love doing. Well, that’s rubbish. What’s, I mean, that’s an unbelievably selfish piece of advice which will never work. Take me for instance. I love boating. I’m yet to find anybody who’s willing to pay me a nice living for going boating. It’s irrelevant. What I’ve got to do is find out what people around me need me to do, and then I’ve got to learn to love it. You are just a man who is filled with so much wisdom, and I just think everybody should go out there and pick up Thou Shalt Prosper. There’s just so many great concepts in there, and I wanted to seek your wisdom on two more questions there, Rabbi Daniel. Yes, of course. What are the most costly and harmful habits that you see stopping most people from having success or growth or profitability with their business or their lives? It’s not necessarily the same thing. There are things that people can do that harm their marriages and their businesses. I’m so interested that the way you phrased the question included both those areas in terms of family. Let me give you an example. One of the most fundamental principles of a sexual relationship is that it has to be between two people. It can’t be one person. If it is, most people are embarrassed about it, and they don’t talk about it. People might say, you can pick me up at 8, I’ve got to take a shower first, but they’ll never say pick me up at 8 because I first have to shower and you’ll pardon me, provide myself with sexual satisfaction. Nobody would ever say that, because it’s an embarrassment, because you’re not providing anybody else with anything. And we human beings were created by God to be givers, not takers. And so that’s one of the reasons that that particular solitary activity is shameful. As much as, I mean, Bill Clinton had a certain general who had a fire because she was obsessed with trying to normalize and popularize that particular solitary behavior. People weren’t interested in it because deep down in our souls we all know that sex is a gift for bringing together two people. It’s bringing joy to another person and that’s particularly important, particularly to a man. It’s not a case of seeking self-satisfaction, it’s providing somebody else. Now if you fail to grasp that, you’re just not going to be obsessively preoccupied with fulfilling the needs of another person. That couldn’t be more fundamental and basic. It’s not about you. It’s about the other person. And so in both those areas, both family and business, the idea is learning to find the thrill in bringing pleasure, satisfaction, joy and enthusiasm to another human being. That’s absolutely fundamental and it’s very interesting that you can buy books on how to build a boat. You can buy books on how to build an airplane in your basement. You can buy books on how to build a log cabin and in all of those cases, those things you build are going to work just fine. They really are. Boeing builds planes and other than a few sad exceptions, they don�t fly 98% of the time. They fly 100% of the time. When people build ships with the sad exception of the Titanic, ships float 100% of the time. When an architect builds a building, it stands. It’s not like 84% of this guy’s buildings stand. They all stand. But when people set out to build a marriage, the success rate is only about 70%. When people set out to build a business, the success rate is even lower than that. So why is it that it’s so easy to build a building or a ship or an airplane? It’s so reliable, and yet it’s so risky to build a marriage or to build a business. The answer is because it’s very easy to communicate physical data. To build boats and skyscrapers and airplanes, all you need is physical data. It’s not hard, but marriage and business both involve spiritual data and without that spiritual data your chances are very low. Rabbi Daniel, and I don’t want you to take this as an offensive question, you are not Bill Gates, you’re not Oprah, you’re not Steve Jobs, you’re not… So for somebody out there who’s wrestling with this idea, what makes him qualified to give me financial advice? That’s a terrific question and I not only don’t take offense but I admire you for being direct enough to ask the question. The answer is really very simple and if I may say without sounding obnoxious, it’s a very important point and that is Bill Gates would be probably a more entertaining interview and people who heard you interviewing Bill Gates would probably talk about it for the next three weeks, ìOh wow, I heard Bill Gates interview because heís a celebrity and heís one of the wealthiest guys in the world and this is remarkable.î However, with all humility, Iím more useful than Bill Gates. is very, very helpful in terms of making money, as long as, as long as your father is a very prominent and well-connected national attorney, and as long as your mother is on the board of directors of IBM, and as long as you dropped out of a prestigious university at the cusp of the computer revolution. If all of those things apply to you, Bill Gates is more useful to you than I am. But if you dropped Bill Gates into Wichita, Kansas with $100 in his pocket, and you dropped any student of mine into Wichita, Kansas with $100 in his pocket, I am almost 100% willing to guarantee that at the end of the first month, my student will have a whole lot more success than Bill Gates will and I’m willing to guarantee that at the end of the year, Bill Gates will be knocking on doors asking for help and my student will be well on the road to a fortune. That’s the difference and the same thing applies to Bezos or Donald Trump, they are all very specific people. Bezos, by the way, might be a slight exception because he did start a business from absolutely nothing, so he may well be a bit different. But what I bring is history’s most effective longitudinal study of hundreds of thousands Jewish men and women of all colors and all sizes and all shapes and all backgrounds, all of whom succeeded financially beyond your wildest dreams. There are people who started huge businesses in America like CVS Pharmacy and Commodore Computers and Chappelle Construction that were started by people who came out of World War II with their families destroyed, with their backgrounds destroyed, with their wealth destroyed, they came as broken penniless people and they became giants of commerce. They became multi-millionaires. Using what? Using the principles of ancient Jewish wisdom. Rabbi Daniel, thank you so much for investing the time in our listeners. I personally will be listening to this show multiple times. One, because I go through and edit every show, so I will definitely listen to it once. But there are certain shows where I’ll listen to the show two times or three times and then I’ll… and your book, it’s so practical, but yet it provides so much context, so much richness of wisdom. If you had to recommend one of your books to the listeners out there, there are a much richness of wisdom. If you had to recommend one of your books to the listeners out there, is there a certain book you’d recommend, and I’ll let you get back to doing what you do? I would recommend either start with Thou Shalt Prosper and then move on to Business Secrets from the Bible, or you can start with Business Secrets from the Bible and move on to Thou Shalt Prosper. Well, we’re going to put a link to the show notes right now, and let’s get the, you have Thou Shalt Prosper, which I’ve read. Any other book title there, Rabbi, was what? Business Secrets from the Bible. Business Secrets from the Bible. We’re going to buy one right now on Amazon. We’re starting a momentum here, starting a momentum. Thank you for investing in our listeners and I just hope you have an awesome day. Thank you very much indeed. It’s been an honor to be with you, and I wish success and prosperity to everybody listening in. In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed, created, and put into law. However, think about this for a second. If the Pilgrims who came over to the United States of America, they landed at Plymouth Rock, imagine that they believed in the 40-hour work week. Would they have survived? No. Okay, let’s look at the 40-hour work week from a secular perspective. Elon Musk, who is the guy behind PayPal, the man behind Tesla, the guy behind SpaceX, he once wrote, and I’m quoting, Elon Musk once wrote, he said, work like hell. I mean, you just have to put in 80 to 100 hours per week. This improves the odds of success. If other people are putting in 40 hour work weeks and you’re putting in 100 hour work weeks, then if you’re doing the same thing, you know that you will achieve in four months what it takes them to achieve in a year. My friend, the point is the 40 hour work week will enslave you to poverty. I can’t think of examples. I’ve read autobiographies about Conrad Hilton. I’ve read the biographies of Russell Simmons, Dale Carnegie, Phil Knight, Larry Bird, the basketball player, the founder of Starbucks. I can go on and on and on. The In-N-Out story, the Quick Trip story, the Southwest story. None of those people worked 40 hours a week. But if you want to succeed, you have to believe in and act upon the 6th day principle. You just have to work 6 days. You cannot get ahead if you’re working 40 hours a week. It’s not possible. If you’re out there and you’re a Christian and you want a Bible verse you can print out and put on your mirror and put on Facebook and wherever you’re going to see it. Exodus 16 5 reads, on the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days. Or read the book of Genesis. God created the earth in how many days? Six days. And he rested on the seventh. So if you’re out there today, and you are of the Judeo-Christian faith, stop working 40 hours a week! Go to work for free on your off day! Whatever you have to do, just work six days a week, because when you sow the seeds six days per week, you’re going to gather a harvest twice as much on the sixth day! But you cannot get ahead working 40 hours per week. If you’re out there and you say, I don’t believe in the Bible, then just fire up the Elon Musk quote or read about the life and history and the times of John D. Rockefeller or Andrew Carnegie or Russell Simmons or Michael Jordan or anybody. None of these people worked 40 hours a week. This idea that you’re going to achieve success while working 40 hours a week is absolutely a shamockery. It is wrong. It is backwards. It’s not possible. And this podcast, I hope that it has touched your soul in a profound way because the idea that the word work and worship mean the same thing. Wow. The idea that the Hebrew language doesn’t even acknowledge the word retirement because they think the word is obscene? That deserves a wow! What does it mean to be obscene? Well obscene means to be offensive or disgusting, to be absent of morality. That’s what obscene means. And in the Hebrew language, the concept of retirement is obscene. And I agree. Stop trying to work 40 hours a week so that you can eventually work zero hours per week. My friend, you have to work six days a week if you want to become successful. So I would ask you this. How many hours a week are you working right now? How many days a week are you working right now? Because if you are not working six days a week, you cannot get ahead. And now, without any further ado, we’d like to end each and every show with a boom. So here we go. Three, two, one, boom! JT, do you know what time it is? Um, 410. It’s T-Bo time in Tulsa, Russia, my baby. Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma. During the month of Christmas, December 5th and 6th, 2024, Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show Business Growth Workshop. Yes, folks, put it in your calendar this December, the month of Christmas, December 5th and 6th. Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business growth workshop. We’ve been doing business conferences here since 2005. I’ve been hosting business conferences since 2005. What year were you born? 1995. Dude, I’ve been hosting business conferences since you were 10 years old and a lot of people, you know, have followed Tim Tebow’s football career on the field and off the field. And off the field the guy’s been just as successful as he has been on the field. Now the big question is, JT, how does he do it? Well, they’re going to have to come and find out, because I don’t know. Well, I’m just saying, Tim Tebow is going to teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s going to walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is going to be a blasty blast in Tulsa, Russia. Folks, I’m telling you, if you want to learn branding, you want to learn marketing, you want to learn search engine optimization, you want to learn social media marketing, that’s what we teach at the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive workshop. If you want to learn accounting, you want to learn sales systems, you want to learn how to build a linear workflow, you want to learn how to franchise your business, that is what we teach at the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop. You know, over the years we’ve had the opportunity to feature Michael Levine, the PR consultant of choice for Nike, for Prince, for Michael Jackson. The top PR consultant in the history of the planet has spoken at the Thrive Time Show workshops. We’ve had Jill Donovan, the founder of rusticcuff.com, a company that creates apparel worn by celebrities all throughout the world. Jill Donovan, the founder of rusticcuff.com, has spoken at the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshops. We have the guy, we’ve had the man who’s responsible for turning around Harley Davidson, a man by the name of Ken Schmidt. He has spoken at the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshops. Folks, I’m telling you, these events are going to teach you what you need to know to start and grow a successful business. And the way we price the events, the way we do these events, is you can pay $250 for a ticket or whatever price that you can afford. Yes! We’ve designed these events to be affordable for you and we want to see you live and in person at the two-day interactive December 5th and 6th Thrive Time Show Business Workshop. Everything that you need to succeed will be taught at the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show Business Workshop December 5th and 6th in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And the way we do these events is we teach for 30 minutes, and then we open it up for a question and answer session so that wonderful people like you can have your questions answered. Yes, we teach for 30 minutes, and then we open it up for a 15 minute question and answer session. It’s interactive, it’s two days, it’s in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We’ve been doing these events since 2005, and I’m telling you folks, it’s gonna blow your mind. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Thrive Time Show two day interactive business workshop is America’s highest rated and most reviewed business workshop See the thousands of video testimonials from real people just like you who’ve been able to build multi-million dollar companies watch those Testimonials today at thrive time show calm simply by clicking on the testimonials button right there at thrive time show calm You’re gonna see thousands of people just like you who’ve been able to go from just surviving to thriving. Each and every day we’re going to add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup, but I encourage everybody out there today, get those tickets today. Go to thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s thrivetimeshow.com. And some people might be saying, well, how do I do it? I don’t know what I do. How does it work? You just go to thrivetimeshow.com. Let’s go there now. We’re feeling the flow. We’re going to thrivetimeshow.com. Again, you just go to thrivetimeshow.com. And you just go to Thrivetimeshow.com, you click on the business conferences button, and you click on the request tickets button right there. The way I do our conferences is we tell people it’s $250 to get a ticket or whatever price that you could afford. And the reason why I do that is I grew up without money. JT, you’re in the process of building a super successful company. Did you start out with a million dollars in the bank account? No, I did not. Nope, did not get any loans, nothing like that. Did not get an inheritance from parents or anything like that. I had to work for it and I’m super grateful I came to a business conference. That’s actually how I met you, met Peter Taunton, I met all these people. So if you’re out there today and you want to come to our workshop, again, you just got to go to Thrivetimeshow.com. You might say, well, who’s speaking? We already covered that. You might say, where is it going to be? It’s going to be in Tulsa, Jerusalem, Oklahoma. It says Tulsa Ruslim, sort of like the Jerusalem of America. But if you type in Thrive Time Show and Jinx, you can get a sneak peek or a look at our office facility. This is what it looks like. This is where you’re headed. It’s going to be a blasty blast. You can look inside, see the facility. We’re going to have hundreds of entrepreneurs here. It is going to be packed. Now, for this particular event, folks, the seating is always limited because my facility isn’t a limitless convention center. You’re coming to my actual home office and so it’s gonna be packed. Who? You! You’re gonna come! I’m talking to you. You can get your tickets right now at ThriveTimeShow.com and again you can name your price. We tell people it’s $250 or whatever price you can afford and we do have some select VIP tickets which gives you an access to meet some of the speakers and those sorts of things and those tickets are $500. It’s a two-day interactive business workshop, over 20 hours of business training. We’re going to give you a copy of my newest book, The Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. You’re going to leave with a workbook. You’re going to leave with everything you need to know to start and grow a super successful company. It’s practical, it’s actionable, and it’s TiVo time right here in Tulsa, Russia. Get those tickets today at Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s Thrivetimeshow.com. I’m Michael Levine and I’m talking to you right now from the center of Hollywood, California, where I have represented over the last 35 years 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestsellers. I’ve represented a lot of major stars and I’ve worked with a lot of major companies and I think I’ve learned a few things about what makes them work and what makes them not work. Now, why would a man living in Hollywood, California in the beautiful sunny weather of LA come to Tulsa? Because last year I did it and it was damn exciting. Clay Clark has put together an exceptional presentation, really life-changing and I’m looking forward to seeing you then. Clay Clark has put together an exceptional presentation, really life-changing and I’m looking forward to seeing you then. I’m Michael Levine. I’ll see you in Tulsa.