Entrepreneur | Daily Distractions – How to Deal with Distractions and Get More Done

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 3, 2, 1, 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. Dennis, we’re back. Yes. How are you, sir? Very well. Hey, I know if there’s any entrepreneurs watching this, if you are like me, if you are like almost anyone I’ve ever met, at some point in your day, you’re going to have distractions. Now, I’ve sat down, and I’ve been doing business consulting for years, so I have kind of like my 12 that everyone I see deals with. But you’ll probably have some on here that are ones you can relate to, and maybe some of you don’t. But I want to help you kind of get good at managing your time and avoiding those distractions. How big of an issue in your mind if you had to set a scale of 1 to 10, if 10 is like, uh-oh, huge problem Houston, we have a huge problem with distraction, and a 1 is like, I never have distractions at all, man, I just… I’m almost afraid that being distracted is what I’m good at. Hmm, okay. Let me say this. I find that I get a lot of paperwork done when I’m listening to my One Republic. About 4.30 in the morning, music’s blaring, if no one’s around, I just get a ton of paperwork done. Bam! Legal document done. Next one, bam, bam, I’m just rocking One Republic. Boom, boom, boom, getting stuff done. The Happy Feet soundtrack, I can write books to that music. I can write scores, or write books while I’m listening to those scores. But then I can’t get anything done when there’s a certain individual in my office. You know what I’m saying? Yeah. I don’t know who that is, but there’s… Or I can’t get anything done after 8. I can’t get anything done before 4. I can’t get anything done when I’m outside. I can’t get anything done. So I have to find whatever distracts me and kill it. So we’re going to get into these here, okay? And we’re going to put these up here. And these are the most popular. This is kind of like my 12 distractors that we have to avoid. Because these, this is our goal. This is where we are. And these distractions, we’re gonna just draw this big old fog. This, these distractions are doing what? Distractions are getting in the way of the action. A little D-I-S-T-R, that’s getting in the way of the action. This is like bad, bad stuff. So here we go. One, Negative Nancy. Negative, now hey, if your name’s Nancy out there, I’m sorry, we’ll just call it being negative. The negative guy. Can you, you don’t have to say their name, but can you identify at least one person in your life right now that’s negative, that just sucks the energy out of your day? Well, yeah, there’s a few of them. Okay, so this is being real, Napoleon Hill, the best, most successful self-help author of all time, the guy who wrote Think and Grow Rich, the guy whose books I’ve named my son after, or the author I’ve named my son after, Napoleon Hill, the writer of this incredible book here, he was the personal apprentice of Andrew Carnegie. And what he said is that we have to engage in mutually beneficial relationships. That’s what we have to do. It’s a bit of a mastermind. So here’s what I need you to do. I want you to write them down real quick. Unless you are married to them or it’s some sort of commitment, like it’s like a partner you’re working with, you need to agree that we are going to have a mutually beneficial relationship or else. Right. That’s what has to happen. Now, I’m being real. I have literally called up, and the guys who work in here, I don’t know if all of you guys have seen me do this before, but I’ve literally told somebody, hey, you’re a great human, but you’re negative, or maybe I’m negative. Maybe I’m the negative one and I frustrate you. I don’t know, but I never want to see you again. So please don’t email me, call me, text me. I went on Facebook three weeks ago and I told a guy, I typed, dear such and such, you lied to my face about an issue that we’ve discussed. And henceforth, I want you to never speak to me, call me, no matter what the situation is, I’m done. Right. Now, you know what I lost? About a minute of time to send that. You know what I got back? Like two hours a week of mindless arguing. Now, television. Forbes did a study, which I encourage every single person watching this right now to read. Forbes did a study and they found that the world’s wealthiest people watch the least amount of television. Television is a problem because it does what? It gets in front of your vision. You’re watching somebody else so you can’t do anything. Yeah, instead of making your own movie, you’re watching their movie. Television kills your vision because it’s like entertainment doesn’t require thought. So killing non-purposeful television is huge. So I don’t know if that’s been an issue for you, but for me it was. When I started my company, I’d come home and my wife, who I never had time to talk to, I would sit there and be like, next show, next show. And I’m watching 10% of 12 shows. Yeah. I don’t know anything about any show. I stay up late, eatin’ some ice cream, and then I haven’t talked to her at all. I really should have gone on a walk and spent that quality time. So television is blocking that vision. So if that’s something you’re dealing with, I’m giving you just a ton of action steps here. If you’ve got a negative Nancy, call them, say, hey, we’ve got to have a mutually beneficial thing going on here. I literally, I know you guys haven’t done this, I literally used to get together with you about my religion and political party for at least an hour a month. And I’m gonna make up a name. We’ll call him Calvert. That’s not his name. We’ll call him Calvert though. Calvert would invite us over to grill and I’m like, I’m gonna get him. I’m doing my research. I’m gonna prove my religion. I’m gonna teach him about my political views and he will leave corrected. I would go and he would get me so mad and I would be sitting there like, how you doing man? I’m like doing good. So tell me about the next thing you know we’re arguing. Well why was I giving up my Sunday? You know, I could have been sleeping, having marital sex, I could have been watching a movie, I could have been eating some twizzlers, I could have been doing anything else, but instead I’m arguing with a guy I don’t even like. Furthermore, then family. Now, I’m sure everybody watching this has awesome family. But there’s family that will go, oh, yeah, did you hear what she said? I heard that they’re doing this. And these are things that you’ll sit there and spend your whole Thanksgiving listening to somebody talk about somebody else. Now, my move, and those of you who are in my family, I apologize if I have offended you too late. I wish I would have offended you earlier so you could quit talking to me earlier. But what I would do is I walk up to us and say, hey, hey, hey, hey, I have no desire to speak with you anymore. So just go on, disperse. And I promise you it brings me peace. Now same thing with television. Same deal, you just turn it off. Yeah, the negative person, you gotta turn them off. Moving on to number three acquaintances acquaintances and I’m spelling that wrong and that’s why I don’t have a degree but acquaintances acquaintances it’s huge because have you ever been to church or a setting and someone says we should get together and you’re like we should and we should we should get together hey what’s up what’s up how you doing what’s up hey I’ll send you a tweet I’ll send you a Facebook hey I’ll tag you I’ll text you hey here’s a Chuck Norris joke. Hey, here’s a funny joke. Hey, here’s a funny thing. Hey, here’s a YouTube video you’ll like. And I’m spending, and I’m making up a number, I was spending, I bet you before I went through and really deep dived into this, I bet you I was spending between four to five hours going to play basketball at Aspen Fitness, hanging out with this guy who was into basketball. I’m an adult man. I’ve got kids. I’m spending four to five hours a week playing basketball with a bunch of dudes and not spending time with my own daughter. These acquaintances. You know, I’m just hanging out with them. So it’s not helping me get to my vision. It’s not helping me get to my goal. It’s not helping me achieve my spirit, mind, body, relationship for financial goals. But for some reason I just want to beat the crap out of a man I’ve never met in a C-League level of basketball. Do you not believe in downtime? You gotta have downtime, but if it’s not one of your goals, then it shouldn’t be downtime. So if your goal on your sheet is I want to play basketball, that’s a goal of mine, you know, then do it. But if not, like everything is downtime. You know what I’m saying? Like there’s a constant pull on downtime. I’m just saying intentionally live, like intentionally decide. Right. Another example, I get calls about every week from somebody who’s selling a new multi-level product. And if that’s you, I’m not mad at you. I’m just saying, they’ll say, Hey, I’ve been… usually it’s… We live in Tulsa, so it’s, I’ve been praying about you. I’ve been praying… The Lord from on high has… I’ve been praying and I just wanted to get together and meet you at Panera Bread, which is like a local store. Can we meet at Panera Bread? I’ve been praying about you. Then you meet and then they say, would you want to make more money? No, I don’t because I have so much money. In fact, I’m coming up with innovative ways to burn my money. Sure, I mean, who doesn’t want to make more money, right? Well, would you want to make more money in a way that could give you more family time? And the next thing you know, they’re like, well, let me introduce you to my friend, the black diamond, or the triple, you know. All of a sudden, a friend shows up in a suit, and now you’re cornered, and it’s two people talking to you, and you find yourself with an acquaintance spending your evening, when you could be with your kids, at Panera Bread, talking to a dude about some product. So the last time I had it happen I was at Cafe Bona. Oh, I was at Cafe Bona and I saw it happen. This guy who I thought was a friend, he says, we should get together. I really I really been praying about you. And I thought, this has been like three years since I had the last one. I’m pretty intense now. So somehow he stuck to my filter. I find myself there. We’re at Cafe Bona and he says, I’ve been, I swear to you, I’ve been praying about you and I just, would you want to make more money?” I said, no, no I don’t. I honestly don’t. A guy today asked me that same question. You want to make more money? No, I don’t. And if you’re watching this, no, I don’t want to make more money. I’m happy. So he says, I want to introduce you to my friend. He’ll be here in just a minute. I’m like, your friend, huh? Friend shows up in a suit. And I said, hey, hey, you’re a beautiful man. You’re a beautiful man. I’m pretty sure I left my house on fire. I’m going to go see you guys. He’s like, what? I’m like, I think I have to mow the lawn or pull my own teeth out with like a jackhammer. I don’t know, I got to go. And they’re like, what? And I just left them. I don’t feel bad. And he sent me a message and said, hey, what happened? And I’m like, I don’t know, but I don’t talk to him anymore. I unfriended him on Facebook. It’s good. I got my whole evening back. So the whole acquaintance thing, you’ve got to make sure that you count those. I know it sounds intense, but you’ve got to have a boundary. Because everybody has a new opportunity. And if you’re a serial entrepreneur, all we’re going to be able to afford is cereal. Moving on here. So point number four, okay, is the homeowners association. I put this down on my list because… do you have a homeowners association? We’re renting right now. Okay. Well, usually if you have one, if you can relate to this, maybe you had one at one point, but they’ll say, do you guys want to meet? We need to hold a quorum, a council, a meeting, a get-together. We need to talk about the bylaws. There’s been bylaws that have been breached. We need to have the new bylaws have been set forth by our committee. We need to go ahead and vote to motion to change, to appoint, to give a secretary, to get, you know, someone on the, we really need to make, article 2.7 needs to be changed because the easement was 4.3. So I find myself in a neighborhood and I’m getting a call from a lady. We’ll call her, I don’t know what we’re gonna call her. We’re gonna call her Eddie. But anyway this lady named Eddie, she would call. Yes? And I’m like hey this is Clay, how’s it going? Yeah, somebody’s parking their vans in the driveways and it’s just unprofessional. I’m just, I didn’t pay this much to live in a neighborhood like this and I’m like, okay What’s what’s the address there that you know? I’m like the vice president of the association because no one else volunteered so I made the mistake of like I’ll do it I mean, I’ll handle the easements. So I put my hand up next thing, you know, I’m getting these calls Well, I find out the lady is calling about my house So I never told her that she was calling me. I’m like, well, you know what? Why don’t you talk to him directly? Oh, I have. But I just, we need to file charges. We need to, I’m like, okay, well, just go ahead and talk to him personally and then we’ll see. And she never did. I was fielding calls from people complaining about my own house. Now again, what’s the worst case scenario if you just don’t show up at those things? You know? Another example, Cub Scouts. Maybe you like Cub Scouts and maybe it’s a great thing for America. But for me, I hate Cub Scouts. But maybe you like it. I hate going outside. I hate camping. I hate little race cars. But I have found there’s a group of men, have you seen the men who build those cars that go down the ramps with their kids? And they fight and argue over the weight of the vehicle. There’s actually these guys, these are adult men who are 35 and 40 years old. I swear to you, I can’t make this up.” And they’re like, Do you have a smelter? I’m like, smelter? Barely knew her. Anyway, smelter. They said, do you have a smelter? And I say, no, we may have a smelter. Do you have a smelter? We need to put lead in the, and we need to get a smelter to put lead in the car so that the car can go down the ramp. But it has to be the right kind of lead and we got this new pointer we need to buy, we need to go ahead and collect some money so this laser can determine which one of these cars passes the line first so that nobody gets the raw end of the deal. None of my goals relate to winning this stupid race so I said hey I don’t have a smelter. And I frankly don’t care. So I left. That was my interaction with the Boy Scouts. And it’s not on my goal list, though. Right? But I see all these dads. I was there. I’m watching dads. And this one dad I walk up to him. I said, do you care about smelters? He’s like, no. This is the biggest waste of time ever. I said, does your son like these races? No. Why do you go then? You know, what’s the deal? Well, I just, you know, it’s been a tradition. Everyone in my family’s been in Boy Scouts. I went… What? But it’s a culture, don’t we do that? We’re all going to Boy Scouts and we’re all hanging out with acquaintances and watching crappy television shows and joining the Homeowners Association and we’re just… we don’t have any time to get anything done because we’ve got this fog of just bunk we’re doing. Moving on to the fifth one here, the fifth one. Ridiculous commitments. Ridiculous commitments. Commitments. Now, let me into you. Ridiculous commitments. It could be Boy Scouts. What’s another ridiculous commitment? Have you ever had a ridiculous commitment that you found yourself? Right now, can you think of one right now that you’re committed to? I’m telling you, all I do is my business right now. Okay, here’s an example though. But I’ve had stuff, don’t get me wrong. Here’s a ridiculous commitment I have, and for your business is different because you have a social media company so it’s different. But for my business, responding to LinkedIn. I’m going to ask you this right now if you’re watching this, who cares? Maybe you don’t care, maybe you should care. I’m just asking who cares? For me, I don’t care. I have more clients than I could ever possibly work with. I don’t care to meet anyone new because I want to spend more time with my wife and my own five kids. If I just spent eight hours a week with each kid, that would be 40 hours. So if you’re like, hey, we should connect. I’m like, for some reason I felt the need to respond to every LinkedIn message like quickly. So I’m trying to respond and try to log into them and then I get hootsuite so I can respond to them all at the same time. Then I’m trying to like log in and I got synced to my phone where they’re pinging. So now I got tweets and LinkedIn and Facebook and YouTube coming in and I’m just feeling like a real champion because I’ve responded to every social media inquiry by noon but haven’t got anything done. So again ridiculous commitments. Another one would be like maybe you’re in a, I met a guy who was a member of a association. Oh, it was the Rotary. And the Rotary, if you’re watching this and you’re in the Rotary, again, I’m sure there’s a lot of things that you guys do well. You probably help a lot of people, and I know there’s some great things that come out of that. But this particular guy would go to the Rotary every week, and he would sit there as the secretary of the Rotary. He would literally take That was his job. Take the notes and they would go. They would, someone would get up and talk, somebody would do the flag, someone would do the pledge, he would take notes, and then he would sit in the back and then he would file those notes, he would get back to his office, he would type up the notes, send those minutes to the president, and I said, dude, why do you go to that thing? Well, I just, I think it’s my duty. Have you ever raised any money for the rotary? Nope. You ever generated a business deal from rotary? Nope. Do you like the quality of the lunch? Nope. Can I ask why you’re in the rotary? My dad was always been there. My dad was in the rotary. Why? It’s these sorts of questions. It’s just sort of like why, why, why. So I’m just asking you why. Okay, so we’re moving on to the next one here. This is the sixth one. This is the sixth one. This one will get you. Chuck Norris email jokes. Now, this right here deserves its own category because, again, I see people who are entrepreneurs who tell me, I don’t have time to get to my goals. I don’t have time. But when I add up the Negative Nancys, the television, the acquaintances, and you have to, you schedule time for downtime. In my mind, hanging out with Negative Nancy, watching television, and acquaintances are not downtime. Right. For me, downtime is basketball. For me, downtime is with my kids. But everyone has a different definition. I’m not going to judge that. But the emails. There’s an endless email distraction thing going on. And we’ve got to just decide. So I just block emails. And so people always ask me, like, bro, did you get that email? I sent you an email like six seconds ago. No, bro, because I actually am doing something else. I don’t just check emails every two seconds. So it’s that whole time blocking thing. So if you’re right now watching this and you’re an email person, kind of tying into that, though, is the social media fog. Now, if you weren’t in the social media business, Dennis, what do you, if you weren’t in it, talk to me about how big of a fog it could be if that wasn’t your job. Oh absolutely. I mean the whole reason why I do what I do is because people just live there now. They don’t work. They don’t, I mean they just literally live on Facebook. And so I provide an avenue and connect them to the businesses in the real world and get them to get off of their phones long enough to go spend money with businesses. I had a really sad moment this Thanksgiving. I was there and neat family, we’ve got some neat family, we’re staying with my uncle who I just think the world of. And I remember sitting down watching four people and if I’m not engaged I just go to sleep that’s my move right I just go to sleep so I just went to sleep. I watched four people sitting next to each other not conversing and on social media scrolling through Facebook feeds on Thanksgiving. And I’m going, we’ve traveled from wherever to San Diego to all be here, and we are now sitting on a couch and scrolling through Facebook and looking what other people are doing somewhere else. Why couldn’t we just stay at home in Tulsa and just… So I’m just like, I’m going to sleep. You know what I mean? But I, it’s a thing where the social media fog, that’s a huge thing. And if you’re watching this, that might be something you have to tackle. Eight, failing to plan. Now, how is this a distraction? Well, I have to pick up my dry cleaning at 105th and Memorial. I have a client I work with around that area. Then I have the bank that’s about 125th and Memorial, and then I have another client at 131st of Memorial. If I plan it out, I can go from the dry cleaner to the bank if I need to get more checks or something like that. Then I can meet with my client and another client and just boom, boom, boom. But if I don’t plan out my day, I’ll have to go here and then I’ll come back and I’ll go, gosh, didn’t I forget to get my dry cleaning? I have to come back. And my whole day, I spend my day doing like this sort of driving method. It’s like not planning out your day is like leaving on a trip without Garmin. And I will give you an example here. My wife and I drove to Houston one time. Have you ever been driven to Houston from Tulsa? Not from Tulsa, but I’ve been through Houston. Well, correct me if I’m wrong about the geography here, but I’m a big… map making is my second… I think that’s Oklahoma. That’s Oklahoma roughly. And this is Texas I think, right? Texas, that sort of Texas? That’s the port of Texas? So if you drive from here down to Houston, I believe the total trip is about eight hours. About eight hours. Is that right? Maybe it’s more than that. I haven’t driven from here. I think it’s eight hours. Here’s what I did, because I’m an idiot. I did not have a Garmin. I did. Well, I didn’t have a Garmin. I chose not to use a Garmin and I didn’t have a map. But I’m awesome, right? So I’m a dude. So I’m like, I’m gonna go from Tulsa. I’ll just head down south. It’s highway 75. Bam! Well somehow I end up going to Oklahoma City. Well that’s probably step one that’s wrong. And the whole time I’m driving. Well, Oklahoma City, by the way, if you’re driving from Tulsa to Oklahoma City and you miss that exit, you can’t turn around for a while. So I’m like, oh man. So then I drive straight south. I’m driving, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh. I somehow get to like Fort Worth. And I’m on like, I think it’s highway 35. Am I making that, is it highway 35? I guess I’m on I-35. And then I’m driving and I somehow end out like over here somehow. And then I’m over here, my wife is like, honey, we’re supposed to meet the Toons for dinner. And I’m like, baby, I’ve got it. I’ve got, I’m awesome. I’m just surrounded by perpetual awesomeness. How can you not be amazed at this? This fog of awesomeness. Then I’m driving, and I kind of get over here, and then I kind of get over there, and then I’m like, well, I think it’s over here, and over there. And this is like old school cell phone time where you had a cell phone, but you had limited minutes. Remember that? Yeah. And you’re like, I have 62 minutes left this week. I can only make… She’s like, you need to call. I’m not gonna call, I have 62 minutes. I can’t, you should call. I’m not gonna call. I’m not gonna, you know, it’s that whole wife thing where you’re being a bad husband and you’re getting your wife mad, that whole thing I do. This trip took me a total of 17 hours and we arrived at like three in the morning. And then once we got to town, we were so tired that we lost the whole first day we were there. And then when I got there, I went into my mobile office, which other people might call a van, and I proceeded to make sales calls from my van for the entirety of that trip. Until one of our cameramen’s fathers came down and said, Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, how many weddings a week do you book? And if he had not built a million-dollar business I wouldn’t have listened to him ever. But he had said, I said, I book about six weddings a week. I book six weddings a week. And he says, that’s pretty, it’s a lot. I mean, yeah, he’s like, well, unless you build duplicatable systems you probably won’t make any more than that. And I’m like, whatever. And so I go downstairs, I tell my wife, that jerk upstairs, that uncle of yours, that jerk, Uncle Clint, if you’re watching, you jerk. So I told Uncle Clint, I said, that guy, he’s judging me, he’s telling me I’m wasting my time. I’m trying to work in the mobile office, I’m trying to provide for the family. She said, honey, you know you built a million-dollar business, right? I’m like, okay, I’m going back upstairs, I’m gonna go see Uncle Clint. Love that Uncle Clint. Uncle Clint, come here. We talk, and I’m like, how do you do it? And he teaches me these principles and that sort of thing, and he had a plan. He laid out a plan for my life. But without a plan, it’s just this constant distraction. And my business career looked like this trip to Houston. I’m just going everywhere. But you have to have that specific plan. So filling the plan is like a huge deal. And moving on to our next one is procrastination. Now, I can honestly say I have whipped procrastination a long time ago. I don’t do it anymore. I can just BAM! Whatever I’ve got to do. Because for me, if I don’t want to do it, I do it first now. But it wasn’t always that way. I used to have, like for me, my kryptonite is I hate email. Hate your email. Hate email. I don’t want your email. Especially if you write email in a paragraph form, it gets me irritated. If you write me a paragraph that has questions mixed with statements, I want to fight you. So I used to just be like, oh man, I’m not going to check it. And so I would get just massive. But procrastination can totally… And do you ever deal with that in your business? Yeah. What’s an area where for you, procrastination can be like the worst. Like what’s the area in your business where you say procrastination gets you the most? Well, for example, I have to be in this like mindset to design websites. And so before it was really easy to get in that mindset because I’d had more hiring clients, but now with the kind of social media constant going, it’s hard to get in that mindset, so I keep putting them off. And it’s just, it’s tough. And again, scheduling that specific time would help. If you just said, man, you know what, that mindset, it takes me about two hours to wind up. For me, I cannot do email during the day. I have to wind up to it. So I do it first thing after I’ve done my reading, after I’ve built my to-do list. I just plunge into it because it requires me going into that nerd mode for me. And I’m not saying you’re a nerd if you email. I’m just saying for me, it’s like my inner nerd has to be fully developed. I call it web geek mode. Web geek. You get to get that fog where you walk out of the room like, hey, man, I was just doing a lot of email. I’m fine. That kind of thing. Now, the number 10 here, unsustainable home office. This is a distraction. You’ve worked out your home. What kind of things can happen in your home that can just totally decimate your efficiency? Your kids. Just period. Dad! I wanted to watch this show but… Yeah. A lot of these questions like, Dad, Dad, Scarlett ate all of the pie. You know? And you’re like, why are you telling me? I’m trying to make a sales call here. Dad, Dad, yeah, somebody pooped on the floor. What? Why would you poop on the floor? And so it’s hard to like talk to a customer about a serious thing when someone’s pooping on the floor But yet I know people who office out of their home because they say it saves them time Yeah, I was one of those people so I would be like well. I just work out of my house You see I can save time. I don’t have to commute. I usually coffee shop when my kids are home coffee shop So again, maybe you’re watching this and you’re being absolutely beat up by the home office thing yeah now moving on to principle number 11. All right. This is traffic. This could be a distraction. I have found no matter what city I’ve ever been in, 4 a.m. there’s no traffic. Am I talking to you right now? Yes. Now if I lived in San Diego, probably get to work about 4 a.m. because nobody’s there. And if I lived in San Diego, I’d probably leave at about 3. That’s what I’ve tried to do. In Tulsa, I’ve done work in Dallas, I’ve done work in Chicago, I’ve done work in New York City. You ever been up in New York City at 3 a.m.? It’s a miraculous thing. It’s just you. So, when I was in New York City, I’m at speaking events, I could set the alarm for 4 or whatever, I get access to all the workout equipment, I can go grab breakfast. The city never sleeps, really, but it’s a deal where it’s a lot quieter. I mean, you can actually drive around. So again, if the traffic’s killing you. And so I’m just asking, if you’re watching this right now, what are the areas that are causing you to, distractions, what are the distractions that are causing you to avoid your vision? What are the things that are roadblocking your vision? Do you have anything else that just for you perpetually, because you’re an entrepreneur, anything else that perpetually distracts you? I think one of the things I’m coming up against is because the last three out of four weeks, I’ve had some event that I’ve put on that really doesn’t make me any money. And it’s not that it’s a bad thing. They’re actually really good things and they help people, but I’m really not in a position to like help those people yet. Okay, I’m going to say this. I’m going to say this. This is the one and you might be guilty of this. God, this is a good one. I can’t believe I didn’t have it on my list right here. Getting the name out there. This is what entrepreneurs, what we say. We’re like, well, I got the name out there. Got my name out there. Got a name out there. Now, let me show you how to get the name out there. We go outside of our building and we say, hello. I am Clevis. That’s how we get our name out there. That doesn’t cost any money, nor does it take time. Get our name out there streaking. You want to go streaking? You’ll get on the news. You’ll get your name out there. Out there. You know, but you don’t make anybody money. Right. So I would just challenge. Like, for example, last week it was for to help someone, like a fundraiser. But I’m not a fundraiser. Or like this week, don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy that I’m doing this thing with Arthur, but I’m not an event planner. Like, I’m a social media dude who’s supposed to be… Does that make sense? And that’s why we said earlier that acquaintance thing, because anything seems like, if you’re a nice guy, everything seems like a good thing. I mean, because, you know, everybody has something they’re going through. And I will tell you this, it is just a huge thing we have to be careful of that we do not confuse productivity with activity. All of us are distracted, and that distraction gets in the way of the action. And the action is what we need to take if we want to actually make any money. And so if you’re watching this right now, I encourage you to think about three or four things that are just eating away your time and then stop doing it. Watch how little you miss them. Like watch how when you quit watching that stupid show, how it doesn’t affect you financially or mentally or when you quit showing up at the downhill super slope inverted smelting group of downhill racing things. It’s not going to affect your quality of life. I can tell you, since I’ve stopped going to the downhill car racing group, I haven’t lost a single friend. I don’t even know when the events are. And I don’t care. No one misses me. And finally, the negative business guy is gone from the downhill racing club. So they’re probably happy I’m not there too. But again, I appreciate your time. Hopefully you got some good ideas out of that. Yeah. All right, JT. So hypothetically, in your mind, what is the purpose of having a business? To get you to your goals. So it’s a vehicle to get you to your destination. And would you need profits to get there? I mean, when you have a business that’s successful and you’re in your mind, 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! Alright, 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 didn’t understand how you said 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 10 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 that it won’t. It’s not possible. There’s somebody out there. That’s making more than three thousand dollars every ten minutes And they’re like nah, that’s not worth my time Probably some someone out there, okay, I would think that well I’ll just tell you folks if you’re out there today, and you’re making less than three thousand dollars per ten minutes I would highly recommend that you go to thrive timeshare.com forward slash credit dash hard because you can compare rates you can save money and You know the big the big goal and 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 expenses. JT, is there any other reason why somebody would not be willing to take ten minutes to compare rates to see if they could save a total of three thousand dollars a year on average? I am at a loss and I cannot see anything. 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. 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. Why 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, you know, 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, alright? What’s your name? Patricia. Patricia, alright. 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. 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 a Wausau, Oklahoma And we have been working with thrive for business coaching for almost a year now Yeah, so 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 or can terminate Orkin, Terminix, they’re both 1.3 billion dollar companies. They both have two to three thousand 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 or 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 Pessimon 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, 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, 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, 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. 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 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 gonna take in order to really succeed. So, we just wanna 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. 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 Crocker, the 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. 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 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 of you. Clay has been an amazing business coach. Through the course of that, we became friends. My most impressive thing was when I was shadowing him one time. We went into a business deal and listened to it. I got to shadow and listen to it. When we walked out, I knew that he could make millions on the deal. 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 and 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 and anyways, just an amazing man. So anyways, impacted me a lot. He’s helped navigate any time I’ve got nervous or worried about how to run the company or navigating competition and an economy that’s like I remember we got closed down for three months. He helped us navigate on how to stay open, how to get back open, how to just survive through all the COVID shutdowns, lockdowns. 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, 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 fourteen 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. The Thrivetime 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 system 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 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, 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, 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 system 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 loan 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 our call. Well, 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 100 clients. That’s awesome. And so I would have anywhere from 5 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 victimized by your own business. For somebody out there who struggles with math, if you would 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 blessed 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 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, is 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. 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. That’s really what it’s all about. With a 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 100 calls. We make 200 to 300 calls a day per rep. And she’s been nailing down five and eight appointments a day. Somebody out there is having a hard time. So she’s making how many calls a day? She’s making between 200 and 300 calls a day. And our relationship is weird in that we do, 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 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 that… 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 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 here 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, you know, the best fits for this organization are the people that are goal-oriented. So they’re on their own trajectory and we’re on our own trajectory. And the best fits are those people where there can be a mutually beneficial relationship that as we pursue our goals and we help the business pursue those goals, the business helps us pursue our goals as well. And so I 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 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 and 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 come coachable. Be open to learning something new. Be open to challenging yourself. Be open to learning something new. Be open to challenging yourself. Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted.