Entrepreneur | Agreements Do Clients Need To Sign Them + Asset Protection of Business + Are You Crazy The Founder Phenomenon

Audio Transcription

Get ready to enter the Thrivetime Show! 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. We started from the bottom, now we’re on the top. Teaching you the systems to get what we got. Cullen Dixon’s on the hooks, I’ve written the books. He’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks. As the father of five, that’s where I’mma dive. So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi. So Jack, today we are talking about always confirming your agreements in writing and quickly. And in your book, The Evolution of an Entrepreneur, you write, there’s a saying in business, invest in haste and lose your money in leisure. Once you’ve finished a negotiation or a deal and you’re happy with results, immediately get it in writing. It’s also a good deal to preserve notes from conversations and meeting transcripts and to follow up on phone calls with an email confirming what was discussed. Jack, unpack this for us. Why is it so important to get agreements in writing and quickly? Well, first of all, when you and I are speaking, immediately after that, that sound is lost. If there’s no witnesses to that, we could both have the same idea. We could be talking about the same deal, but may remember different facts about it. So I feel that it is important that once you’ve made a deal, as easily as you can, confirm what the deal was. For example, it has to be no more than, It was a great meeting. We decided that I’m buying your building and that my price is going to be so and so and the first payment is going to be such and such. And thank you for your kindness or something to that effect. But you’re succinctly stating what you’ve agreed to. If there’s ever an argument in the escrow or any place in there, I can’t say I said, you said, he said. Who do you believe? Well, here’s what I said back incidentally in my agreement. I always have the place for the recipient to sign off on it. Right, that makes sense. if your thoughts are in agreement with mine, sign it, kindly sign it in the right spot. So, it’s just a question of… I’m not saying that the other guy is dishonest, and I’m not saying… but he’s going to change, and sometimes it’s deliberate, sometimes you take a shot. Yeah. When I originally sold my company, there was an exchange of stock. I called it a tax-free exchange of stock. Well, included was not my building. The building I owned separately. For that I wanted cash or I wanted to keep it and still be the landlord. We agreed everything. I had sent it back. I had confirmed that. When I came to sign the papers, it was entirely different. I mean, the property is going to be for stock. I said, no, you understand. No, no, we didn’t say that. Oh, yes, here’s what I sent you a confirmation. Here’s your signature. Yeah. Well, what can we do? I said, we can do exactly what we had before. Or we could discontinue the whole thing and the deal’s over. I mean, he says, would you blow the deal for that? I’d say in 30 seconds. And that was it. Yeah. And he looked and says, okay, you keep the building. I collected rent on that building for 50 years after that. Really? And collected, I can’t even tell you how many times the original price was. Well, you know, I was just thinking as you were talking about this, a lot of times my wife will say, could you go to the store and get A, B, and C? And I really have an intention of getting A, B, and C. I’m not trying to lie to her or mislead her or to not do a good job, but I’ll come back with like A, B, and F. It’s because it wasn’t written down. She told me over the phone, I didn’t write it down. I’m paying a dumb tax, bringing the wrong thing home at the wrong time. I think in business, a lot of times people then get emotional because if somebody just misheard something or misunderstood or they didn’t quite agree. It’s so simple. You can stop all that by just putting in writing. Putting in writing. Well, you said here in your book, you say, keeping a written record protects you and makes sure that everybody’s on the same page. Having a written agreement can save everyone time, aggravation, and money. So Jack, I guess what we need to do, I mean, as far as the action item, what do we need to do to start creating the right culture where we don’t forget to put things in writing? If I’m a sales company watching this right now, what kind of things do I need to start doing moving forward so that I can stop aggravation and frustration from occurring? Well, the first thing you have to do is use that as a regular procedure. Okay. And you see, as a matter of habit, and as I said, you make that as innocuous as you want it. You could say, you know, it was great meeting with you. Here are the terms of the deal. I just want to check and make sure you have the same idea of what was said. Please, initial it or sign it. Not a big deal. It’s as simple as that though. It’s very… keep it simple. Keep it simple. You don’t have to go through lengthy explanations. It’s pretty good explaining. If we disagree, I’m not going to call you a thief and you’re not going to call me a thief. But we both think the other is a thief anyway. We’ve got to just make the deal, sign it, and that’s it. I have in other deals where someone has decided they want to change the terms of a deal. I said is this a renegotiation or is this a an agreement? From that and from the business condition you get your answer. Well, Jack, I appreciate you distilling 70 years of entrepreneurial knowledge into your book, The Evolution of an Entrepreneur. It’s an awesome read. It’s a great book. There’s so much more to dive into there. But again, thank you for investing your time today to share your knowledge with all the thrivers all around the world. It just means the world to me, which is why I’ve decided to live the next two years in your backyard. I guess that’s enough. Excuse the cough. It wasn’t your remark that brought on the cough. Okay. Okay. All right. But the, uh, we’ll talk about it. We’ll talk about it. Okay. I’m going to confirm that in writing. United States. If you are a human who is watching this video, you should seek the legal advice of a local attorney before making a legal decision. If you are watching these videos from any country outside of the United States, or from any planet outside of the planet Earth, you need to seek the wise legal counsel of a local attorney who better understands the legal complexities found within your country, planet, state, or city. For instance, in some states, including California, Florida, Nevada, Alaska, and Hawaii, a motorist can be cited for driving too slowly. Other states do not have this law, although Clay has actually been pulled over for driving too slow within the state of Oklahoma. It pretty much never happens. Wes Carter is a great American and a beautiful man. His 515.com and his partners are in no way legally liable for any fashion statements that he makes verbally or just by admitting fashionable awesomeness simply by entering into a room. Wes Carter is not related in any shape or form to Clarence Carter, a recording artist, John Carter, an entrepreneur and artist, or Joe Carter, MLB baseball player. Wes Carter, how are you my friend? I’m doing great, how are you doing? I am doing well, and I wanted to read an email that I sent myself this morning. Awesome. Dear Clay, on today’s episode, make sure to ask Wes Carter one legal question that the Thrivers want to know. Okay. Is Wes Carter related in any way shape or form to former president of the United States Jimmy Carter? No. Okay now we’re going to talk about the big elephant in the room that that well I mean I think that was the elephant in the room that the Thrivers wanted to know. Or the donkey in the room. The donkey in the room. But now all right but now we want to talk about agreements and do clients really need to sign them? Okay. So Wes, when I go to Target, I don’t have to sign a legal agreement. No. Why? Well, you are purchasing something for cash and the law has a few very limited implied warranties that if I sell you something, I’m going to implicitly guarantee you that it’s not going to blow up or harm you. So Target doesn’t require a legal agreement, but when I buy a house… You just need your credit card at Target. Oh, really? What do you mean by that? If you buy with cash, which not many of us do today, then you give them cash, they give you your shirt, you walk out the door. If you use a credit card, there’s all kinds of contracts that come into play, because you have contracts with your credit card company, credit card company has a contract with Target, there’s probably a credit card processor in the middle. Gosh. So if we’re talking cash, maybe simple, anything beyond cash. Okay. Bitcoin, you know. Now when I built my house, you know, I had to have a contract, an agreement. Why? Why can’t I just pay a credit card, not have an agreement? Well, it’s to protect you and to protect the other party. So what point do you go from Target to the House? I mean, is it like at $60,000 we need an agreement? 10,000, 2,000? I mean, what point do I need to start, if I’m a business owner, at what point do I need to start having contracts for everybody I do business with? You, as a business owner from a commercial, not personal, should have contracts for just about everything. Why? If it’s above $10, then, well, because you’re having, what happens if we get in a fight, so maybe it’s only $100 a month but I have a contract for five years or $100 a month But you do something stupid and really Caused me a ton of money in a loss You do something that shuts down my business for four months and I lose hundreds of thousands of dollars Then we need to be able to address that and not have it up to just no agreement We’ll sue each other and find it out for years. Okay, but when I cut hair, one of my businesses we cut hair. Do I need to have a contract every time I cut someone’s hair? Yes. Really? Why? Well, because you’re going to talk about liability release, you know? You’re not going to sue me if you hate my haircut. So you’d recommend we do an agreement even for hair cutting? Yeah. Really? So do you feel like most businesses are running kind of roughshod and operating without contracts and they should have them? I think the more you can agree to up front, you and I as the customer and the business can agree, here’s the rules we’re going to play by. Now there’s a line, you have a line, a fine line you walk between protecting yourself, agreeing to things up front, to overdoing it and harming your business. So it’s a fine line you walk. If you’re going to have a person who comes in to cut their hair once a month, every month. You have a membership program, something like that. Definitely you have a contract for that. You’re going to be doing a monthly charge, anything like that. If you’re at a barbershop on the corner, I walk in, I give you 20 bucks to cut my hair. You’re probably going to feel a little, the customer is going to feel weird. Okay, so just to get some clarity, what kind of businesses definitely need a contract every time and which kind of businesses do not? I think any time you’re selling something to another corporation, a commercial transaction, always you need a contract. Business to business? Business to business, you need a contract. Okay, what about business to consumer? Business to consumer depends on the type of service. Anything more than a cash transaction for a very low amount, you need a contract. Okay, that makes sense. So that’s big. And I think that a lot of people watching this, we were kind of going, okay, that’s great. I need to get an agreement. But what are the action steps that I need to take if I want to create a legal contract that I can use when working with my clients? Should I go to Office Depot, just get a template, boom, I’m done, or what should I do? You need to have an attorney tailor it for you because once you get a good one, you’re probably going to have to change it for a while. So find a good, you know, have your attorney help you with a good form for your agreement, whatever it is. They’ll tailor it to your specific business. You can put your branding on it, you can use it as a place to market, but you need that language in there, that specifically, if you’re selling lawnmowers, you’re cutting hair, I know the agreements are gonna be a little different depending on what you’re doing. So let’s say that I’m a crazy guy and I say, I don’t wanna do a contract. I just, I wanna just be rough shot, I’m rogue, I’m just going, bam, I’m just selling stuff. And let’s say that I am selling RVs. What’s the worst that could happen to me? Worst thing that could happen to me is a business owner. If I’m out there selling RVs, no contract. Well, I’m going to come in, your customer, your salesman on the floor, the lawn, or wherever you sell the RVs is going, I’m going to say, look, your salesman promised me this thing would run for 25 years without any maintenance. They said I would get 50 miles to the gallon and they said I’d come back here and serve for free for life. Quick timeout. I would never sell RVs on a lawn. I would always sell RVs in a big dome. I would call it the RV dome. It’d be like the the metrodome where the twins used to play, the superdome where the the uh the uh saints would play. Yes. And I would sell RVs there. That’s that’s a fact. RVs and an Epcot’s in there. Yeah the Epcot of RVs. So you’re saying the sales guy is telling me all this, he’s telling you as a consumer. Well, I can say that, we have nothing in writing. So me as the customer, I can say whatever I want, allege whatever I want, and it’s your salespeople’s word against my word. And salespeople never lie. Never, or try to go a little extra just to get the sale. So let’s say that now we’re in court, courtski. Yes. You said, hey, you defrauded, you committed fraud, you sold, you told me it had 50 miles a gallon on this RV that I bought from your superdome of RV, your Epcot center of RVs. And it did not do that. You told me it would do that, but it did not do that. Does the court usually rule in favor of the consumer or the business owner? They’re always going to err on the side of the consumer. Come on! To protect the naive public is, I think, is the theory behind this. But yeah, and you have all these consumer protection laws where you could be whole sets of laws on if you sell something fraudulently, it could be a crime, it could be penalties, it could be all kinds of stuff, state level, federal level. So it’s why it’s important to have things in writing. Well, I think the moral of the story here is, one, you definitely don’t want to open up an RV park in the middle of a dome, because that sets you up for legal issues. And then two, if you do sell RVs, you better have a contract. You want a contract. Are you always shocked when you run into business owners that do not have contracts? Are you like, what are you doing? I do. Or they’re doing huge value bills, as far as $100,000, $50,000, or back the business trying to bills. And so then they get a fight, they come see me because something’s got screwed up. Well, what’s you know, let me see the agreement. And it’s either one piece of paper with a paragraph and a signature that they made themselves. Or they said, well, we just they’re going to shoot. So what, what should it cost me if I’m convinced I’m like, okay, I’m going to hire an attorney to make a contract. How much does it cost? You know how long the contract is? I’d say 500 going up. I mean, if we’re talking about a 500 page contract, obviously that’s more money than a simple release. What about a transaction deal? Like if I’m gonna sell mattresses and I wanna get a contract for my mattress sales? I’d say 500 bucks, a couple hours of your attorney’s time. 500 to a thousand bucks maybe, a couple hours of your attorney’s time. Okay, now Wes, I appreciate you coming here and bringing some clarity to the contracts and if we need them and if we don’t need them. And I really don’t want to leave this episode where we had a chance to talk about the RV dome and contracts and all that without telling you, I look forward to suing you. I can’t wait. Thrive15.com and Wes Carter are providing general legal information to provide Thrivers like you with a basic framework of the terms, concepts, and scenarios found within the legal system of the United States. If you are a human who is watching this video, you should seek the legal advice of a local attorney before making a legal decision. If you are watching these videos from any country outside of the United States or from any planets outside of the planet Earth, you need to seek the wise legal counsel of a local attorney who better understands the legal complexities found within your country, planet, state, or city. For instance, in some states including California, Florida, Nevada, Alaska, and Hawaii, a motorist can be cited for driving too slowly. Other states do not have this law, although Clay has actually been pulled over for driving too slow within the state of Oklahoma, which pretty much never happens. Wes Carter is a great American and a beautiful man, but the Y15.com and its partners are in no way legally liable for any fashion statements that he makes verbally or just by admitting fashionable awesomeness simply by entering into a room. Wes Carter is not related in any shape or form to Clarence Carter, recording artist, John Carter, entrepreneur and artist, or Joe Carter, MLB baseball great. Wes Carter, it is so good to have you back on the show. You’re always a bro who’s in the know. I feel like I go to your dojo every time we talk. I just learn all this awesomeness. Can I start with a boom, just a little boom? Boom, awesome, okay. So today we are talking about asset protection of business owners. Okay. Wes, it’s great to have you back on the show, but legally speaking, I have to ask you this question. There is people in Australia right now, petting kangaroos, who are worried about this. They’re wanting to know, legally, are you in any way related to Nathan Carter, an Irish country singer whose debut album Starting Out was released in 2007. No. You know what they say. Wes, you know, if I’m a business owner watching this, walk me through your checklist of asset protection moves that every business owner should do to properly protect themselves. I mean, what should, what kind of asset protection moves should I be doing to make sure that I’m protecting the stuff I’ve worked so hard for? One, you want to have a business entity that’s a good one. So we’re talking LLC, corporation, something that’s going to help protect your personal assets from your business debts. Okay, so number one, you want to have some sort of entity, whether that’s an LLC or a corporation, just some sort of entity. Right. Okay, what’s number two? Number two is good insurance. Good insurance. Yes. Okay. And this is a deal where I’ve met with a lot of successful entrepreneurs all over the country and they always say, have the right entity and have a ton of insurance. Right. They always say insurance is like the cheapest piece of mind you can buy. Yes. And I always thought, whatever, I’m not going to do that. And then I ended up having one of my trailers stolen with a lot of equipment in it and I realized that that was more expensive than insurance and so therefore I’m now a big believer in that. And insurance covers your attorney’s fees which can be more expensive than the claim itself. Really? Yes, more expensive. That makes me want to sue you more. Alright, well Wes, according to an article that appeared on Forbes.com on January 1st 2012 which is written by a guy by the name of Matt, it could be Kib, Matt Kibby, Matt Kibby, we don’t know. But he says tort litigation costs Americans more than $250 billion. That’s the equivalent of 2.2% of the gross national product here, that’s the GDP. And roughly $838 per person according to Towers Watson. What is he talking about? That’s a lot of money. Well, I mean, tort is a very broad term for everything from a personal injury to, you know, employment kind of claims. You know, basically, I wronged you, you owe me money for it. What does tort mean? It sounds like a dessert. It is a legal wrong. You did something to me that caused me damages, and so I want to recover those damages. You know, that’s a broad word is tort. It’s an old, crazy word for, you hurt me. Okay, alright. Well, I find myself a lot of times saying that, not knowing what it means. I’m just like, you’ve torted me. And people are like, what does that mean? I’m like, I don’t know, I just say it. You know, it’s like nip it in the bud. People say nip it in the butt. That’s kind of how I use the word tort. It just rolls off my tongue. But Wes, on a scale of one to ten, if I’m a business owner for five years, ten being the most likely, one being the least likely, what is the likelihood that I’ll find myself in a situation where I wish that I would have properly protected my assets? A hundred. A billion. That’s more than ten. So you’re saying it’s definitely going to happen? Definitely. Oh man, gosh, the legal eagle. Always giving the negative stuff here. We’re all about worst case scenarios. So what are the most common misconceptions that people have when it comes to asset protection? Where they’re like, I’m all good, man. I’m all good. I’m just doing good. One is I don’t need a business. I registered my name with the state. It is what they call sole proprietorship. I fill out a form that says I can do this. I fill out a form. I don’t need insurance because my business is only making a few hundred bucks right now. Shoot, I don’t need insurance. Right. Because I’ve got all the stuff I filled out on that paper with the state. Right. Cash in a Folgers can, I don’t need insurance. Or I got nothing to lose anyway. Yeah. You know, so those are some of the misconceptions that you don’t need it for X, Y, or Z reasons. Okay, well, story time, Wes. Give me a story, Wes. Set the stage here. Give me the narrative here. Tell me a story about a scenario where a business owner wished. You don’t have to tell me the specifics. I know legally you can’t really give me much, but just we can change, maybe change the gender of the person you’re describing, change the city, the town, maybe the industry. But what is a specific situation where you saw an owner that wished they would have taken the time to protect their assets proactively after the fact I’ve seen literally multi-million dollar manufacturing companies that Had little to no insurance and very shoddy Corporate stuff as far as how they set the corporation. It was I knew a guy I borrowed his stuff, we switched out the names, there’s still blanks in the documents. And you know, so with that much money the company’s doing, the owners are making a nice little chunk of change. But the problem is, first time something really bad happens, let’s say, oh I don’t know, employee dies on the job, then it’s pretty easy to get to your personal assets. Insurance isn’t there to help you out, next thing you know all the owners are bankrupt and the company’s dead because one claim wiped out everything. That story really went pretty negative pretty quick. Now I want to ask you this because I come from the hip-hop generation. Because of Russell Simmons and what he did with the hip-hop nation there, I kind of just view things in a hip-hop America. It’s like a hip opera. That’s how I view life It’s a hip opera you use the word shoddy Were you referring to T-Pain like shawty like that or shoddy like bad? Acceptable okay Sometimes he starts throwing a when it’s a hit when you’re dealing with life like I do as and I’m you’re talking I’m just it’s like a hip opera, and I’m trying to just sift through it there I want to make sure you weren’t talking about anything that T-Pain was talking about. So, walk me through the action steps I should do right now if I own a business. Are you saying I should go ahead and make an entity, buy some insurance right now? Yes, right now. First, get a corporation, get an LLC, talk to someone about what’s good for you. Besides nothing, if you just send in a DBA with the state, that’s nothing. Doing business ads, that’s what that means, right? DBA? Yes, sometimes your state calls it a trade name, an assumed name. I get that all the time where someone’s like, no, I filled this piece of paper, they said I could operate under this name. That’s really just you with an alter ego, that’s what it is. And no protection whatsoever for any of your personal stuff. Second, get some insurance. Even if it’s just a cheap general liability policy, get some insurance, you’ll be happy you did it. Okay, now Wes, if I’m watching this right now and I’m going, okay, I’m going to do it, just go ahead and punch me in the face with the amount. How much is it going to cost? Set up a corporation, $500 to $1,000. Terrible. I mean, you’re talking about setting up the building blocks of your entire empire you’re about to build, so that’s cheap. Gold-plated legal eagles is what you guys are. And then insurance, it just depends on what industry you’re in and what your policy limits are. Okay, well, you heard it here. I’m not the one pushing the whole insurance deal, pushing the whole legal thing. That’s this guy. He’s saying, whatever, if you want to have peace of mind. I say, peace of mind, peace of schmine. Did Noah have insurance? You think Noah, did Noah have an LLC? No, he didn’t. And that’s, that just goes to show you. Hey, everybody’s got that buddy from college that flimflam that sells insurance and calls you all the time. Yeah. Next time, just return the call. Yeah. I mean, seriously, you’ll freak him out when he’s cold calling. He’s like, hey, dude, he’s got this whole if your buddy sells insurance, he’s got this whole move where he’s trying to act like he’s not trying to sell you, but he is. Yes. Hey, guy, why don’t we get together and go out to lunch? I feel like we could talk about some stuff it’s been a while bros I’d love to I’d love to do you sell insurance sure I’ll buy I’d be happy to buy it’ll freak him out he’ll probably end up having a make his year yeah maybe make his make his year make his year so anyway the moral of the story is make your buddies year buy some insurance form an entity protect your assets right sleep better at night boom West I get a boom? Boom! Wes, I look forward to suing you later, my friend. I can’t wait. Then, after you have all that, then think about the expenses. What does it cost to run that thing per day? And you have to think about all the hard costs, okay? Hard costs are your things that aren’t going to be your, just all those hard calls, your phone bill, figure that out. And then figure out, it’s called a variable cost. And a variable cost is the cost per customer. So if John comes in and buys a beer, and he buys a coffee, I mean, I guess you got up and down. Well, yeah, you know, get them on the front end on their way to work, get them on the back end after the day at work. OK, so let me make sure we got this. So John comes in. He comes in first. He comes in the morning. And he’s getting himself a coffee. This wouldn’t happen, but just work with me, because I think this is funny. So John comes in, and he’s like, all right. He just had a coffee, a Frappuccino, a Mopa, a Mocha Latte, whatever. And then he’s like, yeah, I’ll take a beer, too. So now he’s coming down. Now he’s all mellow. That probably won’t happen, though. But it will probably be he might buy this coffee, and he might buy a bagel. Or he might buy a beer, and he might get some nachos. I don’t know. And you might not even sell nachos, but I’m just working through this. That’s fine. Think about how much money per customer you’re really going to bring in per transaction and then think about what it costs. So to cool that mug and to pour that beer, what’s your hard cost? So if you’re hard what would your variable cost? So if you’re going to bring, if you say the average customer brings in five dollars, they pay you five. So I’m just making this up, but if the average customer pays you, I think you’re going to be closer to like eight. Yeah. But if you’re doing eight dollars per customer, well what does it cost to provide the goods and services for that person? And maybe those costs are five. You know, maybe these are the costs. Now you begin to figure out, man how many customers do I need per month to make this company viable? So all this And this is what you’re looking for here, okay? Number of customers to break even, okay? Number of customers to achieve goals, okay? And you need a 30% profit margin. That means after all the bills are paid, 30% needs to be left as a profit margin. You’ve got to get really close to that. Don’t make a system where you make 8% profit or 2% profit. That’s dumb. Okay? Don’t do that. What you want to do is you’ve got to figure out again, so let’s go through it, the number of customers you need to achieve your goals. So I’m thinking of a very specific business right now. There’s a business that I work with. I was just there last night, unbelievable. I want Marshall to show it to you because this lady had this vision. She’s a thriver and she turned it into this bakery that is now rocking. It’s called Barbie Cookies. It’s awesome. We’ll put up a graphic on the screen so you can see it. Okay, great. But she just opened up. She opened it up like five years ago and now she just opened up her new location and it’s happening. But she knows how many customers she needs per day just to break even. So imagine what that feels like for her, the confidence of knowing, if I have this many customers, I’m now at least breaking even. Then she knows, this is how many customers I need every day to hit her financial goals. Right? And then she knows, this is what I need to do to get to a 30% profit. And you can think about all that on paper before you even spend a dime. And then, once you have all this together, what this is gonna be, is this is going to create, this is what’s so great, okay? This is going to create, you’re going to have a certainty of the numbers. You’re going to know the numbers. So you take the numbers, this is my little math equation. The numbers plus Murphy’s Law. Murphy’s Law states anything that can go bad will. Equals not crazy. That’s how you start a business. Excellent. But if you don’t take the time, and so many entrepreneurs are guilty of this, they want to go out and start leasing the space, putting up the signage, hiring the people, getting the loan, chasing the capital, making the website, and they haven’t done the math. But when you do the math, I’ve blown up more business ideas on paper and not even spent any time on this, spent any money on them. I just spent the time on researching. But then after you get those numbers and you go, okay, this is how many customers I need to break even. This is how many customers I need to achieve my goals. This is the how I get to a 30% profit, then factor in Murphy’s law. I’m going to tell you what Murphy’s law is. All right, yeah, I’m telling you a little bit of your story here. That’s okay. That’s gonna be okay. You’re gonna be therapeutic. But you know, she’s building the business. And guess what happens? She moves in, and there’s no AC. Why is there no AC? It’s because it’s Oklahoma. It’s 100 degrees and it’s Murphy’s Law. She just finished this build out and the AC goes out. Right? Why does that happen? Well, a lot of things happen. You have no AC. She had one of her key employees that gets sick. We can go on and on and this stuff takes its toll. But because she knows the numbers and she factored in Murphy’s Law, she knows she’s not crazy and she’ll be able to get through it. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah. Is that helpful for you? Uh-huh. Awesome. What other questions do you have as it relates to that specific idea of just making sure that you’re not super crazy? Well, you know, the good news is I am a uber nerd and so working on the numbers, I’m already part way through that. There are some areas though in terms of some of the hard costs that I’m struggling with, in particular, like utility costs and how that winds up factoring into the cost of goods and that sort of thing. Some of those type of numbers are a little fuzzy on me. This is the move that I would encourage you to do. Whenever you’re stuck, you got three moves. So whenever you’re stuck, you’ve got three moves. So one is your rule of three. Two, in it to win it. Three, find a goat. And that’s what we do on Thrive. On Thrive 15, that’s what we do. We provide goats. Rule of three, example. If you’re going, I don’t know what the utilities are going to be. Guess what you need to do. You need to go find three spaces in your town and go try to lease them. OK. Just call up the landlords and say, hey, I’m looking to lease some space. You are? Absolutely. Just curious, what do the utilities run per month? I don’t know, they say. It’s OK. Go to somebody who leases space that actually is a tenant. Hey, I’m looking to lease space near you. How much are your utilities each month? They’ll say, screw off, I don’t want to tell you. OK, fine. Third, you call another landlord. Hey, I’m looking to lease space. How much are the utilities? And he’ll say, they run $400 a month. Boom, you got your answer. Now, would it be better in terms of that, for example, to call the landlords direct or? Call their leasing agents. Yeah. And if you type in the name of your city plus commercial broker or commercial real estate, you’ll find brokers. And that’s their job is to help lease that space. OK, so go to the broker or the leasing agent and say, hey, this is what I’m looking up. Excellent. About half the properties in most towns are owned by an actual landlord, and they’re managed by a landlord. And their half are done by brokers, roughly. Now, the other thing, to get in it to win it, what that means is like, if you don’t know, let’s say you have no idea. One of the companies I work with, this is a good example. This guy does automotive repairs. And he had no idea. He couldn’t seem to get the answers he wanted. So I said, just get in it to win it. So he literally went to work at a local, like, wasn’t a Jiffy Lube, but something kind of like it. And by working there he found out this is the kind of supplies we use, this is what they cost, this is how you do it, this is how we roll, this is how we advertise, this is what works, this is what doesn’t. And by taking six months to get in it, work in the job, he was able to find out all that information. And then he felt very confident, you know, when he was able to open up about a year after, he basically wanted, the timeline was he wanted to have this big idea to start a business. He spent six months working in it, in that industry. And it took him about a year to save up the money, and he was able to start his own business. Perfect. Now, the third is you find a GOAT. GOAT stands for Greatest of All Time. Find somebody who really knows the answers. And on thrive15.com, it’s really fun because you have the Ask the Mentor button. You can just click that, and we’d be happy to answer, too. So either way, find someone who’s either done it before, get in the industry, or reach out to three options so you don’t get stuck. A lot of entrepreneurs get stuck because they call one landlord who doesn’t return their call and they go, yeah. But the reality is, I mean, you got to have three options so you can move fast. Yeah. Does that make sense? Excellent. But again, this is how you’re going to know you’re not crazy is you get the certainty with your numbers, add Murphy’s law to it, then you know you’re not crazy. Cool? Cool. Awesome my friend. Alright, thanks. Boom! Alright JT, so hypothetically, in your mind, what is the purpose of having a business? Um, to get you to your goals. So it’s a vehicle to get you to your destination. And would, uh, you need profits to get there? I mean, is the, when you have a business that’s successful, in your, in your mind, in your expert opinion, would you need profits to get you to your, to get you to your goals? Yeah, because if you have a $15 million business, but you have $15 million of expenses, it’s kind of pointless. Holy crap! All right, so the question I would have here for you, if you could take like, I don’t know, 10 minutes or less, and see if you could save $3,000 a year by reducing your credit card fees, would you do it? Yes, absolutely. Holy crap! Why would somebody out there who’s listening right now, who has a sane mind, why would they not go to Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card, Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card to schedule a ten minute consultation to see if they can reduce their credit card fees by at least three thousand bucks a year? Why would they not do it? Yeah, why would they not do it? Maybe because they don’t understand how you set the website. This tree is a symbol of the spirit of the Griswold family Christmas. That’s clear. That can be true. So I encourage everybody to check out Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. What would be another reason why someone would not be willing to take ten minutes to compare rates to see if they could save $3,000 or more on credit card fees? Maybe they think it is a waste of time and then it won’t. It’s not possible. There’s somebody out there that’s making more than $3,000 every 10 minutes and they’re like, nah, that’s not worth my time. Hello! We getting there, everybody! We getting there, everybody! There’s probably some, someone out there. Okay. They would think that. Well, I’ll just tell you folks, if you’re out there today and you’re making less than $3,000 per 10 minutes, I would highly recommend that you go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash hard it because you can compare rates you can save money and you know the big the big goal and in my opinion of building a business is to create time freedom and financial freedom and in order to do that you have to maximize your profits holy crap now one way to maximize your profits is to increase your revenue another way to do it is to decrease your expenses. It’s a profit deal. It takes the pressure off. JT, is there any other reason why somebody would not be willing to take 10 minutes to compare rates to see if they could save a total of $3,000 a year on average? I am at a loss and I cannot think of any other. Shampoo is better. I go on first and clean the hair. Conditioner is better. I leave the hair silky and smooth. Oh, really fool, really. Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm. Stop looking at me, swan. Well, let me tell you a good story here real quick here. I actually years ago compared rates with this company here called IPS. It’s Integrated Payment Services. And I scheduled a consultation. I don’t know if I was skeptical. I just thought, whatever. I’ll take 10 minutes. I’ll compare rates. I can’t tell. You can tell me I’m a doctor. No, I mean, I’m just not sure. Or can’t you take a guess? Well, not for another two hours. You can’t take a guess for another two hours? And in my case, in my case, my particular case, I save over $20,000 a year. Holy crap! Wow. Which is like groceries when my wife goes to the organic stores. Find everything you need today? Yeah. Great. Okay. Oh God. Everything okay ma’am? It’s just that you’ve only scanned a few items and it’s already 60 bucks. I’m so scared. Okay, I’m a trained professional, ma’am. I’ve scanned a lot of groceries. I need you to stay with me. It’s just that my in-laws are in town and they want a charcuterie board. This isn’t going to be easy, so I need you to be brave, all right? What’s your name? Patricia. Patricia, all right. I need you to take a deep breath. We’re about to do the cheese. You know, that’s the difference between eating organic and not organic. So because my wife eats organic, I had to take the 10 minutes needed to compare rates to save the $20,000 a year on credit card fees just for one of my companies. One question, what’s the brand name of the clock? The brand name of the clock, Rod, do we have it? The brand name of the clock, it’s an elegant, from Ridgeway, it’s from Ridgeway. Let’s buy the clock and sell the fireplace. I encourage everybody out there, go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. You schedule a free consultation, request information. A member of our team will call you. They’ll schedule a free consultation. It should take you 10 minutes or less. And they’re going to compare rates and see if they can’t save you more than $3,000 a year off of your credit card processing. You were hoping what? I wouldn’t owe you money at the end of the day. No, you don’t owe us money. Because at the end of the day, at the end of the day, the goal of the business is to create time, freedom and financial freedom. And in order to do that, you need to create additional profits. Ah. Let’s go, let’s go. 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 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, 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, and that has obviously, the 411% shows that that system works. Yeah, so here’s a big one for you. So 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, 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 are group interviews, that way we’ve really been able to come up with a really great team. We’ve created and implemented checklists that when 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, and that system has really, really been a big blessing in our lives. And also, it’s really shown that we’ve gotten a success from following those systems. 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 what we were going to do. 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, and 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 were 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. Hi, I’m Dr. Mark Moore. I’m a pediatrician. Through our new digital marketing plan we have seen a marked increase in the number of new patients that we’re seeing every month, year over year. One month, for example, we went from 110 new patients the previous year to over 180 new patients in the same month. And overall, our average is running about 40 to 42 percent increase month over month, year over year. The group of people required to implement our new digital marketing plan is immense, starting with a business coach, videographers, photographers, web designers. Back when I graduated dental school in 1985, nobody advertised. The only marketing that was ethically allowed in everybody’s eyes was mouth-to-mouth marketing. By choosing to use the services, you’re choosing to use a proof-and-turn-key marketing and coaching system that will grow your practice and get you the results that you’re looking for. I went to the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry, graduated in 1983, and then I did my pediatric dental residency at Baylor College of Dentistry from 1983 to 1985. 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. Clay has done a great job of helping us navigate anything that has to do with 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 Lee Crockrell, 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, graphic designers and web developers. They run 160 companies every single week. So think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. 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. 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 start-ups go from start-up 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 it 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. 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. 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. I was really most impressed with him is 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. 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. Anyways, just an amazing man. Anyways, impacted me a lot. He’s helped navigate any time I’ve got nervous or worried about how to run the company or, you know, 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, how to get back open, how to just survive through all the COVID shutdowns, lockdowns. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9, and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey guys, I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys, we appreciate you, and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old house, right? This is where we used to live a few years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See? This is nice, right? So this is my old van and our old school marketing and this is our old team and by team I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing and this is our new team. We went from 4 to 14 and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past, and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman. So we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts, and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to ten locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, times a thousand. The Thrive Time Show, two day interactive business workshops are the highest and most reviewed business workshops on the planet. You can learn the proven 13 point business systems that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. When we get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two day, 15 hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re gonna leave energized, motivated, but you’re also gonna leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge and they’re like, oh but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get rich quick, walk on hot coals product. It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, but I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates, look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever and we’re going to give you your money back if you don’t love it. We built this facility for you and we’re excited to see it. We go back eight years ago, think about the number of clients you had back then versus the number of clients you have now. As a percentage, what has been the growth over the past eight years, do you think? We’ve got to inspire somebody out there who just doesn’t have the time to listen to their phone. Well, okay, so Clay, it’s like I would go up and down from about $10,000 a month up to about $40,000, but it’s up and down roller coaster. coaster and so now we’ve got it to where we’re in excess of a hundred clients. That’s awesome. And so I would have anywhere from five clients to 20 clients on my own with networking but I had no control over it. I didn’t. Without the systems you’re going to be at the you’re going to be victimized by your own business. For somebody out there who struggles with math if you let’s say that your average number of clients was 30 and you go to 100, as a percentage what is that? I have doubled every year since working with you. So I’ve doubled in clients, I’ve doubled in revenue every year. That’s 100% growth every year I’ve worked with you. So I’m looking, we’ve been good friends 7, 8 years and I’ve got doubled five times. Which is just incredible. I mean the first time you do it, that’s one thing, but when you do it repeatedly, I mean that’s unbelievable. We’re working our bless assurance off this year to double. We’re planning on doubling again. We’re incorporating some new things in there to really help us do it, but it would go up and down, Clay. That’s when I came to you, as I was going up and down, and I wanted to go up and up instead of up and down. And so that’s when it needed a system. So creating a system is you have nailed down specific steps that you’re going to take, no matter how you feel, no matter the results, you lean into them and you do them regardless of what’s happening. You lean into them and it will give you X number of leads. You follow up with those leads, it turns into sales. Well, I tell you, if you don’t have a script and you don’t have a system, then every day is a whole new creation. You’re creating a lot of energy just to figure out what are you going to do. And the best executives, Peter Drucker is a father of modern management, he said, the most effective executives make one decision a year. What you do is you make a decision, what is your system, and then you work like the Dickens to make sure you follow that system. And so that’s really what it’s all about. So with the script here, we have a brand new gal that just came in working for us. She nailed down the script and she’s been nailing down appointments. Usually we try to get one appointment for every hundred calls. We make two to three hundred calls a day per rep. And she’s been nailing down five and eight appointments a day. Somebody out there’s having a hard time. So she’s making how many calls a day? She’s making between two and three hundred calls a day. And our relationship is weird in that we do, if someone were to buy an Apple computer today, and or let’s say you bought a personal computer, a PC, the computer is made by, let’s say, Dell. But then the software in the computer would be Microsoft, let’s say, or Adobe or whatever that is. So I make, I basically make the systems and you’re like the computer and I’m like the software is kind of how I would describe our relationship. Tim, I want to ask you this. You and I reconnected, I think it was in the year 2000 and what was it, maybe 2010? Is that right? 2011 maybe? Or maybe even further down the road, maybe 2013? 2012. Okay, so 2012. And at that time I was five years removed from the DJ business. And you were how many years removed from tax and accounting software? It was about 10, 11 years. We met, how did we meet? What was the first interaction or some interaction where you and I first connected? I just remember that somehow you and I went to Hideaway Pizza. But do you remember when we first reconnected? Yeah, well, we had that speaking thing that… Oh, there it was. So it’s Victory Christian Center. I was speaking there. My name is Robert Redmond. 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, you know, direct my life to get some mentorship. But I’ve been working with Clay for now just over a year. The role I play here is a business coach, business consultant. I work with different businesses implementing best practice processes and systems that I have learned here by working with Clay. 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 almost 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 mindset that I’ve gained here has been huge. Working here, 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 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. 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 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 wanna 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 Be open to challenging yourself, be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted.