Entrepreneur | Bring Stability and Order to Your Business | 4 Financial Power Principles

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. It’s C and Z up on your radio. And now, three, two, one, here we go. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, and that’s what we’ve gotta do. We are back. We are so excited to be with the US Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark, a.k.a. The White Moose, a.k.a. Claytron. Clay, we’re so excited to have you here today. I tell you this, the only thing that I am more excited about than being here physically is being there virtually with you, Thrivers. I am so excited. We had an unbelievable success story. I talked to a guy this week who’s killing it. His business has taken off. I’m loving it. It’s just fun to see. This guy, he used to be a former DJ of all things, and he’s got a new business he’s doing. He’s doing a little construction, and his business has taken off. That’s what it’s all about. We’re talking about, stop talking about busyness, we’re talking about business and success. And today we’re talking about these four powerful financial principles that are going to help you bring stability to your company, so you’re not financially up and down and up and down and up. We’re going to be very consistent, very fortified. You have a great foundation, so you’re doing well financially. So Clay, hit me with this, in your experience working with all these clients, how many businesses really lack financial stability? This just in from our home office, almost all of them. Wow. So most businesses are so busy doing busyness that we don’t get down to business. We’re going to make that end today. We’re going to focus, we’re going to get you out to the specific principles that you can learn and apply right now in your business and get out there and start to have some success. And as always, if you have any questions, just email us at info at thrive15.com, we’ll answer them for you. Info at thrive15.com. So why is financial stability so important for the ongoing operation of the business? What is this training going to really help all of our thrivers be able to do? It’s the lifeblood of your business. And if you have financial chaos, then you start to have emotional chaos, and then it starts to unravel. So we’re going to help you bring that stability to the force. Okay, so the four principles, and we’re going to just do a quick overview of them. We’re going to get into each individual one. But the four principles are principle number one, the definition of stability. Okay. Should probably break that down and figure out what we’re talking about. Okay. Principle number two, create a planned expense report and a forecast for the business. Principle number three, look for outliers. And principle number 4. Make sure that you or someone who is detailed, fastidious, and not afraid of confrontation approves all purchases and does not just report expenses. And after we go over all four of those, then we’re going to go to the White House. And then we’re going to the White House. It’s going to be incredible. And then we’re going to Washington, D.C. to take back the White House! Yeah! Yeah! That’s what we’re going to do as soon as we finish. We’re just dropping the mic and we’re off to the White House. Get ready, folks. Because we’re talking about finances here and a lot of people don’t get excited about it. So we’re trying to bring a little bit of enthusiasm to it, a little bit of energy, a little bit of focus. So every time that we teach you a principle, I want you to remember that no matter where you are, if you’re in your car, if you’re listening on your car, if you’re listening on your car, in your car, if you’re listening at work, if you’re listening in the bathtub, I want you just when you finish the power principle just It’ll help you feel good. Trust me go for principle number one the definition of Stability clay I’m gonna read the definition that we got from our good friends of Merriam-Webster. Okay. I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you I was huffing glue. Okay. I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you. I was distracted. Okay. I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you I was texting. Okay, that’s the kind of instability that people are doing in business all the time. We cannot have that kind of unpredictability. Back to you. So stability means the quality or state of something that is not easily changed or likely to change. Why is that important for a business? Because you have to be a little bit instable, discontent, unstable, discontent with where you are to have the motivation to start a business. So let’s not overanalyze this a little bit here, okay? Let’s not overanalyze this. Most people that start a business do so because they’re like, that’s it, I’m tired of working for somebody else. Or you got laid off. Or you’re unemployable. You’re so volatile and so motivated that no one can harness your powers. I mean, you’re like, you know, there’s like nuclear power. You’re like un-siloed nuclear power. You’re just all over the place. And so a lot of people start a business because they’re motivated, but they’re kind of, it takes a certain unstableness, a certain crazy train to start the business. We’ve got to have enough stability to keep it together. I know that you’ve mentioned countless times that your company’s financial documents should be more of a compass rather than a rearview mirror. What do you mean by that? Okay, so Epic Photography, that’s the photography company we have. This week we sold $37,000 of stuff, and we sell the stuff. I know how much I’m going to pay myself. It says I get pay myself a certain percentage of the revenue and there’s no like shocker. I’m not going I wonder how much money I’m gonna make this week. I wonder if I should pay myself all of it or none of it or I’m not you know at the end of the month going I wonder how I’m gonna pay my people. I wonder where I’m gonna office. I wonder what I do. It’s just stability. You make a system, you make a proforma. We have, by the way, proformas, we have a sample proforma. It’s awesome. Templates that Thrivers, you can download. You just ask for us, ask us to send them to you, info at thrive15.com and we can send it to you. I’ve worked with all kinds of Thrivers and they basically plug in these numbers into the proforma and we show them how to use it and everything and it’s awesome. It changes their business. Not even hyping you up. Not like you’re a hype man right now. I’m being real. I’ve seen you help people in the construction industry. I’ve seen you help people in the food industry. I’ve seen you help people in the fitness industry make these performances. You’ve actually done it. They’ve actually come here to Tulsa in a workshop and you’ve taught them this stuff. They’ve left with like, yes, after 40 years in business, I finally get it. After 10 years in business, I finally get it. There’s stability. I’m just telling you like try the idea if you’re married try the idea of your wife says hey When would you be home, and you’re going? I don’t know I? Don’t know it could be Any I mean it could be I could I might come home. I might not I mean I I I maybe I don’t know And I can tell you this one thing that you can bet your bet your life on honey. Is it I? Real, I don’t even know she asked when are you coming home? It’s like telling her that you’ll tell her tomorrow. Yeah, try telling your kids, hey, dad, when are you going to be home? Sometime, I mean, it could be this year or not. I just never know. Instability freaks people out. We got to stop it. Back to you. So just to drive home this point, we have a notable quotable from Bill Gates. Bill Gates, aka William Gaddies. Okay. Also, if you’re going to mispronounce it properly. Bill Gates of Microsoft, he says, know your numbers is a fundamental precept of business. Know your numbers. So what is he saying there? You’ve got five numbers you need to know. And Marshall, I want to make sure we add these to the screen. You’ve got five numbers. Okay, five. I don’t give you time, Marshall, to kind of type these in here too. We’re not going to, no pressure, but I mean, right now, immediately, whoa. Okay, there’s five. There’s five. Okay. One, you want to know your break-even point. Like, how much stuff do you have to sell to break even? Okay. Break even point. Two is your profit and loss. How much money did you, how much profit, how much loss, profit and loss, you know? Okay. Three is when are your taxes due? It’s a number like what date, when are they due? Right? Four is how much are your taxes for how much are your taxes? Right? And five, number five, we’re almost ready board. Number five is when are your licenses or your paperwork, when are those things up for renewal? Okay, when does your LLC expire? When does your, you know, that kind of thing. And Marshall, if you could just recap those for the friends at home, that’d be awesome. Okay, so the first is your break-even point. Gotta know it. The second is your profit and loss statement. True that. The third is when are your taxes due? That’s right. The fourth is how much are your taxes? What’s your tax obligation? That’s right. And the fifth is when are your licenses? documents Certifications, what are those up for renewal? And I want everyone to take your right hand lift it up right here And I want you to pull it back pull it back get ready Marshall. Can we do it hit it? Ah! Principle two, create a planned expense report and forecast. Clay, I’m going to read this notable quotable from our main man, Warren Buffett. Now, if you want to mispronounce his name, it’s Woreen Buffet. Okay. Just for all the thrivers out there. There’s a lot of people who want to do that. It makes it more fun. Yeah. He says, accounting is the language of business. The language of business. Why is accounting the language of business? What is Warren Buffett saying? Hola, me llamo Clay. Me no speako Espanolo. Wow. Now see, I don’t speak Spanish, so when I try to, it sounds horrible. I don’t know what I’m doing at no point can I communicate so I was literally down there in New Mexico true story down in Mexico thrivers love drivers would go does this guy really travel maybe what happens when he sees light I’ll tell you what happens I have I get like blisters on my body I am not like my body gets blisters I’m not kidding I go outside it’s just just anyway I’m in I’m in Mexico and I wear I wear like a boat shoe my shoe is like a boat shoe you know I mean my shoe is like I mean thrivers a lot of times, a lot of training schools aren’t going to get real like this, but I’m going to. So this awkward pause provided to you by my shoe. But this is my shoe. My shoe is a good size 13 here. I mean, this is a real deal. I don’t know if we can see this here, but this is a, can we cut to that camera? That’s my shoe. It’s a boat. You could set sail on these. You could go to other countries in this boat. But anyway, I didn’t have a shoe for some reason. Like something happened to my shoe, and so I didn’t have one. And so I ended up having to go find a shoe in Mexico. And so I’m walking around going, and for some reason, because I’m a typical American who does not speak any other languages, I’m going, do you guys have shoes? And like, this is the universal sign that foreigners use. And then you say it loud. So I’m like, do you have a shoe? Do you have shoes? You know, shoes, like shoes, and it’s almost like if I can’t speak the language, the other person’s deaf. Do you have a shoe? And people are going, no hablo ingles or whatever. I’m going, I think they’re saying they don’t know English. Okay, okay, I got that part. So like, no hablo espanol, shoe. Do you have a shoe? Yeah, shoes. And one guy, he has the compassion to go, he points down at my shoes, he has Zapatos. I think it was Zapatos or something. And I’m going, no Zapatos? And he goes, donde estas Zapatos? Or something like that, where are the shoes? And I’m like, yeah, true? And he goes, see? So he points me over there to that Walmart. And so we walk down there. Long story short, I didn’t know what was going on and by the end of the trip, because I lost my shoe, I ended up learning enough Spanish to find the bathroom. So don’t they start El Bano, I believe. And I knew how to say my name is Gwee, my name is Clay. So it’s like, hola, you know, mammo clay. And I learned a few things, but people, if you don’t know your language in business, you can’t communicate, you can’t talk to bankers, you can’t… that’s the language of business, it’s the financials, you got to do it. I mean, otherwise you’re going to end up just being in like a foreign country of business. So Clay, can you show us on the most basic level how to create a document, what it should look like, who should Thrivers talk to about creating that document or… Well, here’s my challenge right now. Okay. One is go through all of your fixed expenses, everything you’re going to spend money on every month. Okay. Like your rent, your phone, your utilities, your anything you spend money on every month and make a list of it. Just put it in a spreadsheet. Okay, Excel. Put them all in there, enter them in, enter them in. And you’re going, I don’t have Excel. Well, then use Google Sheets. Go to Google, make a Gmail account, it’s free, do it. But you got to have one. Then you add them all up and you click the little sum total button. It looks kind of like that E thing. Hit the sum total. Hit it. Boop. And it adds it up and there are all of your expenses. And now next month when you have other expenses, look and go, did my expenses go up or down? And try every month to make them go down. That’s as simple as it gets. So every month when you pay your bills, look at it and make sure that’s in line. Okay. So part of it, part of this specific principle is being proactive about the expenses. You have to plan the expenses. Yeah, be proactive about planning your expenses in the way our federal government is with the balance in their budget. No, don’t plan like our federal government plans the budget because there is no budget, right? They just keep printing money. I don’t want to get on too big of a rabbit trail, but just whatever you do, don’t keep it greasy. Don’t do what Greece would do. Ask What would Greece not do? WWGND. What would Greece not do? I’m printing little bracelets. Nice. WWGND. And then I want you to take your right hand. A lot of thrivers are getting this wrong right now. I want to help you guys. You want to start low, and then you want to fully extend, and you want to yell at the primal martin we’re gonna go to white house and then we’re going to washington dc to take back the white house as they get it principal number three look for outliers okay so clay i want to read this quote that i have here from john d rockefeller okay if you want to mispronounce that it would be johan road e Rokey Feeler. Just in case you wanted to do that. I mean, it’s nothing to do with credibility, like mispronouncing the name of the person you’re quoting, right? So he says, there’s no mystery in business success. If you do each day’s task successfully and stay faithfully within these natural operations of commercial laws, which I talk so much about, and keep your head clear, you will come out all right. So what is he really saying here? Look for stuff that you’re spending money on this month that you weren’t spending on last month. Every single month, just look through your credit card statement and go, did I buy that? And to simplify it, we talk about this in other trainings, but it’s very important to have one card for your business and one card for your personal life and just put everything on it. Someone says, I do Dave Ramsey’s system and I do cash. Fine, but write down all your expenses and look for outliers. And if you’re spending money this month on stuff that you didn’t spend money on last month that you don’t remember spending on, stop spending it. Just get serious. We got to focus here. We got to get a dial in. And we got to we we we thrivers need to work together to stop the spread of this evil, insidious, soul-sucking disease that is just eating the world from the inside. And it’s it’s a it’s it’s a it’s a very biblical word. It’s a word that comes from the deep innards of the Old Testament and it is, you know, from the word jackass, it’s jackassery. Stop the jackassery. Clay, can you give us an example of being fastidious about going through your statements and looking for outliers where this has saved you? Yeah, I’ll give you one this month that’s really fresh. It’s fresh. Fresh fish. This just in. There’s a business I was working with and they put automatic charges on their Facebook ads. So they’re paying Facebook every month for ads, which is a good, there’s ways to thrive. We have great trainings coming up on how to do that. But they’re advertising on Facebook. Well, they don’t look at their statement every month. What was happening is they were running an ad on Facebook for the last year and nobody was responding to the leads. Furthermore, no one knew where the leads were going. So that is an expensive thing to learn. And so what you have to do is if you’re spending money on it, you have to ask yourself, what am I getting as a result of that? And by simply looking at those expenses, we were able to dial that in and that fitness company was able to say, and I’m not exaggerating, over $1,000 a month, $12,000 they were spending having no fruit for it. That would be like going and taking, you get a big bonus at work and you go, I’m just going to take all this cash, I’m going to buy slushies. And they go, Greg, is that a good investment? Yeah, it’s like a thousand slushies. Greg, it’s going to melt. Au contraire, buddy, it’s not going to. So. So, Thrivers, as an action step for you, for this third principle, make sure that at the end of every month, get out your credit or debit card statement for your business. True that. And go through and look for those outliers. Just get a highlighter, grab a pen, just circle them. And then, we’re going to go to the White House. So we want you to take your… And then we’re going to Washington, D.C. to take back the White House? Get that hand ready. Get it ready. Yeah! Ah! Okay. Principle number four, make sure that you or someone who is detailed, fastidious, and not afraid of confrontation approves all purchases and does not just report expenses. You seem passionate about this one. What happens is, is you have some guy in accounting who just approves every expense. Well, they bought something on Amazon. That’s not what you need out of that position in accounting. You need someone who fights for every single dollar and says, quit spending money. And then people, I get emails, I’m not exaggerating, Marshall, I probably get four to five emails a day from somebody in our company, in this company, in the companies that I own, who requests something that they need, overnighted, super urgent, that when I go, do you really need it? And they go, nah, probably not. It’s just stupid. It’s an insidious, soul-sucking, just financial-ruining thing where people just spend and spend and spend. You need somebody who’s pushing back. And if you’re in a business of one person or two, look around, might be you then, you’re gonna need to be intense about pushing back against any financial increase. You don’t pay for something unless you’re getting something in return. Just don’t be sowing without reaping. You know what I mean? Get the old win-win going. Clay, tell us about the situation that you see mostly or see in business a lot of times. The accountant, the husband, the wife, the not billing customers kind of duo that they got going on there. Well, I can think of one in the medical industry a few years ago. There was a guy in the medical industry, true story, true story. Gosh, the story is so sad. It doesn’t end well. It doesn’t end well and it doesn’t, but anyway, it was a medical business up in Colorado I was working with and what happened was is that there’s a medical company and they would see a patient for a procedure and they would say, hey, Marshall, do you want to pay with insurance or do you want to pay up front or whatever. And the guy who was, when they would ask the person they wanted to pay, that debt or that invoice or that whatever that was, that ticket, would work its way down to accounting. Well the guy in accounting was friends with the doctor, like very good friends from high school, like friends from college, probably friends from just wherever. So the doctor never followed up with the guy. Well the guy started realizing over time, like, hey, you know, I never follow up with patients and no one even like checks. So you know, he just kind of over time didn’t collect a lot, a little bit, you know, 5% here, 2% here, 10% here, didn’t collect. Well, simultaneously, and I cannot make this up, he was a gambler and he went to a local casino and he didn’t have his personal card with him, so he just set up the corporate card. He used the corporate card and he thought, I’ll get back to the office, I’ll pay, reimburse it, I’ll pay, reimburse the company. That’s what he said. I don’t know if I believe that, but that’s what he said. And then he signed up for the Gamers Club or the Club of the Month or whatever it is, you know, where you’re like the preferred triple diamond black card member of the casino and you can get all the drinks you want and stay in the luxury suite. Anyway, at the end of the year, I’m not exaggerating, we discovered that Homie had spent over $50,000. And I got hired as a new consultant to come in to help, right? They’re like, oh, no, no, no, we’re losing money. Well, one, if Homie would quit spending money at the Blackhawk Casino in Colorado, that would probably help. Two, he wasn’t collecting anything. And this stuff just, it’s hard to go to the White House if you’re not collecting the money. And if you’re not making sure that you’re fastidious about making sure that the money that’s owed is collected, you have to have a super detailed, honest person who’s not afraid of confrontation, who’s managing the finances, because only then can we win. And then we’re going to Washington, D.C. to take back the White House! Thrivers, look right now. Look into your screen, into your phone. 90% of you are on a mobile phone right now, I know, I know, and just sort of touch your hand to my hand, like even with the E.T., the E.T., do we have that music ready? I don’t know if we have, just touch the screen and just say, I am going to manage my finances. Touch the screen. Magic just happened. We are covering all of these different principles, the four power financial principles here for you guys, and we really do want to make sure that you guys get these so we’re going to go back and review them and Clay maybe you can put a little bit of meat on them. I’ll put a little flavor on there. Yeah a little flavor. A little meat. Okay. Flavorful meat. Yeah flavorful meat. Okay so principle number one the definition of stability okay so Clay why is it important for businesses to be stable in their financials? Because naturally every business that I’ve ever seen that it started by somebody who’s motivated enough to start their own company The person who starts the company is a little bit Irrational a little bit unstable a little bit discontent. Otherwise, you would be crazy enough to start a business I mean you gotta be kind of crazy to start a company But then you got to dial it in and have somebody who’s stable who’s running your finances. Okay principle number to create a planned expense report and forecast for the business. Just type out all of the planned expenses and you can download a pro forma outline, a sample. We’ll just click info at thrive15.com and we’ll send it to you, just request it. Or you can come out to one of our workshops and have a phantasmagoria of financial fun here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the birthplace of really tourism. Come here and we’ll get it to you. Principle number three, look for outliers. Look for outliers. An outlier is something that’s unusual, something that’s not a normal occurrence, it’s something unique. It’s kind of like Taylor Dane. You ever heard of Taylor Dane? Love will lead you back, someday I just know that. Love will lead you back in my arms where you be.” Why am I doing that? Because that’s freaking weird. It doesn’t make any sense. You’ll probably have that song stuck in your head the rest of your life now. But the thing is, is that it’s not normal for somebody who’s teaching an accounting financial class to start singing Taylor Dane. It’s weird. It’s random. It’s unusual. The only way you would know is if you watch enough of these episodes, you will know that I have not previously sang a whole lot of Taylor Dane. Principle number four, make sure that you or someone who is detailed, fastidious, and not afraid of confrontation approves all the purchases and does not just report expenses. That’s the fourth principle here. Yeah, it doesn’t do you any good to have someone who just comes to you and goes, yeah, someone spent all of our money. They did. It was good. They did. They spent all of it. No, you want someone who pushes back and fights against all expenses. It’s like erosion. It can eat away land. You’ve got to fight against that erosion. You’ve got to stop the erosion of your finances. You’ve got to push hard back against that. That’s how it works. Because otherwise, you might end up living in a van down by the river while listening to Taylor Dane. If you walk out that door, darling, I’ll set you free. But I know in time, we’ll be together. I will try. I will try. I will try. I will try. I will try. I will try. I will try. I will try. I will try. I will try. I will try. I will try. I will try. I will try. I will try. I will try. I will try. I will try. But I know in time we’ll be together Clay thank you so much for being with us today now from the drivers We are broadcasting live to 44 countries now worldwide We’ll see you next time. I just know that Love will lead you back into my arms rather monkey. Where are you? 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, when you have a business that’s successful, in your expert opinion, would you need profits 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 10 minutes or less and see if you could save 3,000 bucks a year by reducing your credit card fees. Would you do it? Yes, absolutely. Oh Why would somebody out there who’s listening right now who has the same 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. Now that’s clear, okay, so 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 three thousand dollars or more on credit card fees? Maybe they think it is a waste of time and that 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. We getting there, right buddy? We getting there, right buddy? There’s probably some someone out there. Okay. That 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. Because you can compare rates, you can save money, and you know the big goal 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. Stop looking at me swan. Let me tell you a good story here real quick. I actually years ago compared rates with this here called IPS it’s integrated payment services and I scheduled a consultation I don’t know that 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 but 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 in my case my particular case, I save over $20,000 a year. Holy crap! Wow. Which is, uh, you know, like, uh, groceries when my wife goes to the organic stores. Find everything you need today? Yeah. Great. Okay. Oh, God. Everything okay, ma’am? Oh, 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 Ridgway, it’s from Ridgway. 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 gonna 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. In order to do that, you need to create additional profits. 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%. 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. 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 and 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 is 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. 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, you know, it’s really shown that we’ve gotten the success from following those systems. So before working with Thrive, we were basically stuck. Really no new growth with our business. We were in a rut. We didn’t know what was going to happen. 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 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 pediatric dentist. 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. 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’s just amazing. This kind of guy has worked in every single industry. He’s written books with like Lee Crockerill, 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. 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 six to eight weeks, he’s doing Reawaken America tours. Every six to eight 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 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. 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. 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. And 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. And when we walked out, I knew that he could make millions on the deal. And they were super excited about working with him. And 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. Anytime 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 Thrive15. 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? It’s 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 four 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 10 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. 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 going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to 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. 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, and 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. 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 our calls. 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. 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 twenty clients on my own with networking, but I had no control over it. I didn’t. Without the systems, you’re going to be victimized by your own business. For somebody out there who struggles with math, if you would say that your average number of clients was thirty and you go to a hundred, 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 5 times. Which is just incredible. I mean the first time you do it that’s one thing but when you do it repeatedly yeah I mean that’s unbelievable. We’re working our blessed assurance off this year to double. We plan on doubling again. We’re incorporating new some new things in there to really help us do it but we are going to double again this year. I started coaching 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 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 a script here, I, you know, I, 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 300 calls a day per rep. Right. And she’s been nailing down five and eight appointments a day. Somebody out there’s having a hard time. Call them script. What’s so she’s making how many calls a day? She’s making between two and 300 calls a day. And our relationship is weird in that we, we do, um, if someone were to buy an Apple computer today, or let’s say you buy 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 basically make the systems, and you’re like the computer and I’m like the software. It’s 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 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? There was 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. Oh, there it was! So it was Victory Christian Center. I was speaking there. 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, 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. And 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 mindset that I’ve gained has been huge. You know, 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 in the group interview talks about how 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. The best fits are those people where there can be a mutually beneficial relationship. That is, we pursue our goals and we help the business pursue those goals. The business helps us pursue our goals as well. And so I 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 a 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 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 about three or four months just from being around Clay, following him and learning from him. And then I would say from being around Clay, following him and learning from him. And then I would say come coachable. Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted.