Entrepreneur | Dr. Z’s 10 Rules of Business Rules #1-#5

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. Started from the bottom, and that’s what we’re about to do. Hola, hello, and greetings, Tulsa, Oklahoma. You are listening to the Thrive Time Show during your afternoon. And I am super excited about today’s content today’s show. It’s gonna be awesome. My name is clay Clark I’m the former SBA Entrepreneur of the year and I am here to help you learn how to start and grow a successful business and to help you Do that we have the co-host with the most. It’s dr. Robert Zellner on the show today, sir How are you? What is up thrive nation? I tell you what a great weekend, you know We got a little bit of snow here in Tulsa. So for those of you who are not in the Tulsa area and listening to this, around the world, we actually got a little snow this weekend, kind of made it festive. And I had my big company Christmas party on Saturday, and I’m proud to say that there were no fights. I took a big group picture, and there’s like 250 people there or something. There’s a lot of people. There’s a lot of people. Allegedly, they’re all getting paychecks from you. Allegedly, they are. You were there with your lovely bride. Do you ever feel bad that all those people are working for you? Is that ethical having people work for you? No, one, it’s humbling. And two, there’s a great burden of responsibility on me. A lot of the people sitting out there in that group photo, I was looking at it and going, Oh my goodness, all these people relying on the business that I started, the business that I own, to provide for their family and to provide a paycheck for them. I want to brag on you for just a second, because this is one thing that’s exciting. Yeah, we have a lot of trainings about how you’ve got to fire people that don’t perform. And we have a lot of training. Because this is an entrepreneurship show, and so we talk about how to manage people. But in your group of people there, you have many people who have been working with you for 10 years, 15 years. What’s going on? You have a lot of people who have been with you, man, for over a decade in a time and place in American history where the average American employee only stays at a job 2, 3 years. You have people there for 15 years, man. What do you want? You want a little secret? What’s the secret? You want a little secret sauce? OK, I’m ready. Give it to me. OK, here’s the secret. If you don’t treat your people well, somebody else will. Oh, that’s just Megan. That’s what Ben said. OK, now that’s a great segue. We’re bringing on a guy who treats Tulsa well. If you’re out there trying to get a mortgage, this is the guy who treats people very well. If you’re looking for a mortgage, this is your guy. It is Mr. Steve Currington. Steve, how are you, sir? Good. How are you, Clay? Man, I’m excited. I’m excited today because we’re getting into something that so many people have wanted to know. So many people have emailed in and have asked us over the years. They’ve said, what are Dr. Z’s 10 rules of business? You see, we’ve had people who have been subscribers of thrive15.com, many of which for three years, four years, these people have been up on the website and they all want to know what are his ten rules of business and that’s what we’re gonna be talking about today. Dr Z. Hey, listen, I just want to say one thing right now I have not had the outpouring I’ve ever we’ve had on the show over the weekend about Friday show if you missed Friday show Oh man about search engine optimization. What is that? Listen, I was like, what is that? It was cool Well, what was that again? Listen get on thrive timeshow.com. There’s a podcast on there and you can listen to that show, I mean, literally as many times as you want to. You can listen as many times as you want to, Thrivers. That’s Thrivetimeshow.com. Now, Z, I have reason to celebrate before we get into today’s mailbag. Here we go. Forbes published their study. They do this every year, so in about a month, we’re going to get the new study. Oklahoma City was ranked number five as America’s top city for entrepreneurs. Oklahoma City. Number four is Raleigh, North Carolina. Number three is Atlanta, Georgia. Number two is Tampa, Florida. But number one would be Tulsa, Oklahoma. The number one city in America for young entrepreneurs. That’s according to Forbes. This just in, there is a reason to celebrate this holiday season. There’s something in the water, literally. We don’t have a lot in our river just that we’re on the coast of. That’s why we do those workshops here. People show up, or they just get off the plane and they go, I just feel entrepreneurship in the air. I just feel it. Steve, what is it? You’ve traveled around the country, and you have multiple locations for TLC lending. Your mortgage company is in multiple states. What is it about Tulsa, Oklahoma that is so conducive to entrepreneurship from your perspective? Dr. Z’s here. I think there’s a lot of good people in Tulsa. I think it’s kind of a Mecca for people. I know the cost of living is low. We have a very limited regulation. There’s a lot of great things, but there’s a lot to be thankful for in the beautiful city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Now Z, we’re going to get into the mailbag here, okay? We have a mailbag question. Now this one comes at us from Malaysia. Z, from Malaysia. Seriously. Malaysia. I’ve got a good friend, Ed Hughes, is from Malaysia. Here’s the question. It says, improving a company’s culture. I’m an editor working with a publishing company that produces three magazines. The full-time staff strength is around nine people. The president happens to be complacent and depends only on one huge publishing deal, which is a magazine commissioned by a huge, that’s huge twice, huge mutual fund in Malaysia. For the other two magazines, one is on a borderline survival mode and the other has gone from monthly to bi-monthly. It seems finances are well taken care of as all nine full-time staff are paid without fail every month. The problem is, staff morale is very low and everyone is thinking about a plan B as they do not know what lies in store in the future. The publishing house is based in Malaysia and she goes on to explain the details. How do you improve the morale? How do you improve a company where you really only have three customers and the people really don’t see growth in the future? How do you, this is from Jeannie in Malaysia, what advice would you have for Jeannie in Malaysia? Well, first of all, I would always say diversify. There’s a lot of digital stuff out there you can do now with magazines. When Warren Buffett started buying magazines and newspapers, you knew something was up. That dude’s a smart dude. He’s a smart dude. He’s a smart dude. So the future can be bright. Obviously some of the modalities of bringing that information out are kind of changing. So you’ve got to be on the forefront of change. And the other way you can really keep morale high in a company is to celebrate and be positive. And the leadership has to bring that leadership to the game. In other words, when I show up at my office and I’m in a bad mood… Which has never happened. Impossible. Okay, we’ll go with that Clay. We’ll go with that Clay. Okay. But when I’m in a bad mood, it’s amazing. It’s just like everybody else is like, all of a sudden everybody else is fussy, everybody else is in a bad mood, patients are the worst, it’s a bad day. It’s amazing that that attitude starts from the head, from the top, from the leader and just flows down to the rest of the organization. So I’m going to tell Jenny, I’m going to tell Jenny, I’m going to say, Jenny, step one, you’re the leader, you’ve got to bring a positive attitude. You’ve got to bring a term that we’re going to talk about today on the show, it’s called show time, and you’ve got to be that positive, the positive epicenter of joy and happiness and looking forward and let’s brainstorm what are we going to do, let’s diversify with some of the products we can do. How can we get this message out in other avenues? It starts at the top, Clay. No, Z, I’ve got two action items for Jeannie I want to give her, two action items here. One Jeannie is I would encourage you to make a list today of 100 other deals you could go after, 100. There you go because if you’re not Growing you’re ripe and you’re ripe it in basically rotting. That’s what’s happening Yes, and so you’ve got as Z said you’ve got to go after new business. I’d make a list of a dream 100 This is a well documented in Chet Holmes book the ultimate sales machine You can find other video trainings at thrive 15 calm about the dream 100 But go after a hundred potential deals because if you go after a hundred deals, I’m telling you what you’re gonna screw up and sell something You’re listening to the Thrash Time Show on Talk Radio 1170. And the second move I would do is I’d really get with the leadership team, and I’m not sure exactly where you fit in the role, your role with the company, but I would just get a specific path that documents so your team knows they have a career path. Because when people don’t know if the company’s growing, people start going. Again, if your company’s not growing, people start going. So those would be my two action items. One, make the dream 100, and two, make a career path for the team or the company so people know there’s actually a vision for the company. Absolutely. And that comes from the head. That comes from the leadership. So you have to bring that positive every day, all right? No whiny, no negativity. Bring the positivity, but then also get a plan. Because people see you, okay, they’re happy, they’re good, they’re positive, but now what’s the plan? What’s the goal? Where are we going? And you need to set that down. I think the top 100 is perfect. If you’ve only got three clients, you know, double it. Add a fourth one for the next year. I mean, go after it. What other products can we bring to the table that we can do as a team to help get this information out instead of just a magazine? And I’m just telling you this. If you’re listening to the show today and you’re going, I financially have already achieved my goals. If you’re listening right now and you have thankfully already achieved your financial goals, you cannot stop growing your company. I’m telling you, your top people are going to start going. If you stop growing, they’re going to start going. That always happens. Now Z, we’re getting into your super, these are your ten business moves, your ten rules of business, the much anticipated ten rules. Here we go. All right, rule number one, Z, this just in from Dr. Zellner’s home office off the left coast of the Arkansas River. Pigs get fat, hogs get butchered. What are you talking about? What does that mean? Yeah. What does that mean? Does anybody know what that means? I don’t know what that means. You know, one time I was given a, I was talking to a group of optometry students, and I was going through my top business points, and this was always my number one, and I said it, I looked out in the audience, and I was like, does anybody know what that means? And nobody raised their hand. I was like, oh gosh. To me, it was just kind of self-evident. Self-evident? First time I heard that years ago. Well, that was self-evident, you know. But here’s the thing about it. Yee-haw! At times, I love stories about, you know, agriculture and agrarian society because you get to translate to so many other things in life, you know. So we go down to the farm, and you see the farm is, when you have a pig, that means a hog is a greedier animal hog is a term hog We’re really talking about greed when we talk about this, okay, and so if you own you’re starting a business You’re an entrepreneur all right, and you’re making a widget all right now if you price that widget for too much money Do you think you’ll sell a lot of the widgets? I have the best widget in the history of the world therefore I must sell it to I’m surprised of everybody else’s widgets. I mean, it is a fabulous widget, and I feel like that entitles me to screw you. Many scientists verify that it is confirmed that it is the best widget ever made. Yeah, well, you could charge a little bit of a premium, but if you overprice your goods and services, you will be not doing your goods and services anymore because you’ll be out of business. That’s one way. Go ahead. I want to ask you this here. Steve, you’re an entrepreneur. You’ve obviously been in Tulsa as a mortgage banker for years, having success here. Have you seen this happen before? Have you seen it where someone tries to get greedy on a deal and they blow up the deal in your industry? Have you ever seen this happen? Or is this a unique phenomenon just to Dr. Z and the auto auction and the optometry and the banking and the other industries? No, I think the rule of thumb is you’ve got to obviously take care of your customers and you’ve got to charge a fair price for what you’re selling. Things cost more maybe because they’re more valuable, right? So it’s not that you have to be the cheapest game in town or you have to be rock bottom, but you’ve just got to make sure that, I guess, can you sleep at night by taking care of people and charging what you’re charging? And if you can, then I think that’s… See, where’s the balance, man? Where’s the balance here? Well, the balance is being the pig. In other words, a pig is a healthy animal that eats well, that is not starving, that is making good money. And one of the things that you know about that is your sales growth and your numbers. And that’s one thing you have to take a hard look at, that if you are not selling as much of the goods and services that you’re wanting to, are you overpricing them? That could be one of the things that could be wrong with that. And that’s what my number one rule deals with. Also it deals with employees. What does that mean? What does that mean? Yeah. What does that mean is this, is that if you don’t pay your people well, okay, you can definitely overpay for employees. You can. I mean, you can pay them too much. Yeah, you can do that. But if you don’t pay them enough, in other words, if you’re greedy, if you’re like, well, I’ll pay this guy only about 75% what I think I need to, and that way I can pocket the rest. Because that’s a bottom line issue. Employee costs are a bottom line issue. You know, you’re out there, you’re going to hire someone, right? And one day one of my managers came up to me and said, hey, my budget is I’ve got $30 an hour I can spend. And she looked at me and she said, should I get two patients, I mean two employees at $15 an hour or three at $10? And I looked at her and said, well, that’s up to you. You’ve got to hire a quality somebody at $15 an hour, but you can have another hand at $10 an hour, and those are some of the balance and management that you have to kind of decide on. And one of the things that I’ve noticed throughout your career, what you’ve done, and if people want to test this and kind of see it first hand, if you go to Dr. Robert Zellner and Associates, your eye care center, your optometry clinic, where you have two locations, you’re going to see a value-based business where people get a good deal, but you’ve also been doing… Here’s the deal, okay? I think we’re going to sell a ton of cupcakes. Why? Because cupcakes are hot right now and because we have a great name. Cousins Cupcakes. Boom. We’re going to the top all the way. Now, in order to get to the top, we’re going to have to come up with an amazing business model. I came up with something that I think is going to blow your mind. And I can’t wait to see it. Can I show you? Please do. Can I show you? OK. Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce to you for the first time the Cousins Cupcakes business model, Shelly. Shelly! Shelly! Shelly! Shelly! Her goodness, Kate. Come to Cousins Cupcakes. What is this? What is this? What are you doing? Last week, you said we needed a business model. Not a business model. Well what then? I’m talking about a business model. Oh. Come on, man. Beautiful weather, huh? Yeah, gorgeous. It reminds me of Dubai. Really? I was just out there a few weeks ago. The Sultan of Abu Dhabi flew me out there in his private jet. You know him? Friend of a friend. I met him in Vegas. He’s pretty wealthy, right? You know how they make those lists? The world’s wealthiest people? Yeah, like Bill Gates is number one or… Used to be. Sold. He’s got a hundred million dollars in a Swiss bank account. He can’t touch it. Why not? It’s ten thousand dollars just to get the paperwork done. Okay, well I think he’s got ten thousand dollars. Can’t do it. It’s illegal to use your own money. Of course. I pay. Some like, Salton, listen, I’ll invest $2,500. I’m sure I can get some guys to pitch in $2,500 as well. Okay, we’ll get the $10,000, you get your money, you go on your merry way. He was so moved by my compassion that he said, I’ll split the $100 million, half for the investors, half for himself. Half of $100 million? That’s $50 million. Is it? I think it is. I think it is. I think it is. I think it is. I think it is. I think it is. I think it is. I think it is. I think it is. I think it is. I think it is. I think it is. I think it is. I think it is. I think it is. I think it is. I think it is. Half of a hundred million dollars. That’s fifty. That’s fifty million dollars. Is it? I don’t really pay attention to the money. I’m just trying to help a friend out, you know? Here’s the crazy thing, Mel. We just need one more guy to pitch in twenty-five hundred. Dude, that’s me. I’m the guy. I can do that. I barely know you. I don’t want to oppose. No, no, no. Hey, let me call my wife. Hey, I’ll clear it with her. Wish there was time. What do you mean? I have to have the money by 6 p.m. when the whole deal’s off. That’s in like three minutes. You know I’m sorry for bringing this up. I don’t usually propose. Thank you, it’s nice to meet you. Who do I wire the money to? Live, local, now. You’re listening to The Thrive Time Show on Talk Radio 1170. All right, Tulsa, green country, welcome back to The Thrive Time Show. It’s business school without the BS. And yes, my name is Clay Clark. I’m the former SBA Entrepreneur of the Year. In your ear, and guess who’s here? Guess who’s here? It’s Dr. Robert Z. to the L-ner. Dr. Zellner, how are you, sir? Happy Monday, Thrive Nation. It’s the start of another great week. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re here. Dr. Zellner, how are you, sir? Happy Monday, Thrive Nation. It’s the start of another great week. And all you guys out there that have that little entrepreneurial bug in you, we are going to try to help you get that bug out and turn it into a wonderful business. And we have a fabulous guest with us today, and inside the box that rocks here in the Thrive15.com world headquarters, it’s Mr. Steve Currington, Tulsa’s number one mortgage banker of choice. Sir, how are you? Good. It’s awesome. Hey, what is a mortgage banker? For people who are going, what is a banker? What is that? What does that mean? So, we don’t find a bank to go like fund our loans. A lot of people call them like a mortgage broker. The reason we distinguish between bankers is because we originate, underwrite, fund the loan all in-house. In-house. We’re doing everything. And then we may or may not sell it. And so you’re a correspondent lender, a non-depository, versus a broker. Where can people find out more about your super business? SteveCurrington.com. Who should be reaching out to you? I mean, what kind of people could benefit from the services that you provide? So you’ve been waiting to see if rates are going to go up. They’re on their way. So you might want to refinance if you’ve been on the fence. We’ve got a few people that have hopped into that bucket recently. And then just generally anybody, we work with a lot of first-time buyers. So if you’ve never bought a house before, maybe this is your second time. I just did a loan for my mother and father-in-law. I haven’t bought a house since 1980 something. So if you’re that person and you need somebody to walk you through the process and through the maze of mortgage financing as I call it, then go to GetQualified.com or SteveCarrington.com. Steve, now there is a rule of thumb. Let’s say my interest rate on my house is X. And what’s the spread to where it’s like worth my time to do it. In other words, if I’m at like five percentage on my house and you’re offering four, it’s probably not enough to justify, right? What’s that spread where you educate people on, yeah, that’s probably worth your time and money to do that? It’s just really dependent on your loan amount. That’s the biggest factor because you could have a 7% rate and a $50,000 loan amount and lowering it to four may not be worth the cost. And the other thing people don’t look at, Dr. Z, is they’re in year 12 of a 30, and they’re going to reset to a 30. So what we do with a lot of people is… Wait, wait, wait. Just real quick. I want to make sure we’re breaking this down, because you just said some profundities that via radio, we can’t see your beautiful face, so sometimes it’s hard to totally soak in the goodness. You’re saying if you’re on year 12 of a 30-year mortgage, the way that works, Thrivers, is you really don’t start paying off that loan until what year? So a lot of that loan is front end loaded with interest. So you’re now starting to pay a lot of principal and then you refinance and a lot of people do this. They reset back to a 30, maybe at that lower loan amount, but now they’re kind of starting over. So you’re never really paying down the principal of the loan. Right. Okay. Well, they are, but it’s just they’re paying down all its dollar. So I just recommend that you go, if you’ve got 12 years left, you ought to probably look at a 15 or a 20 so that you’re not kind of starting over on it. And that’s where, if you’re going Dr. Z from a 30 to a 15 or from a 25 to a 20 or lower in term, and you can lower your rate, then it’s typically always worth it because you’re going to pay it off faster. But here’s the thing, easy. There’s about five things I need, I don’t even have to pull your credit. So send me a mortgage statement or send me your property address, what you think your house is worth, and your annual taxes and insurance, and we can work up a quote and tell you whether it’s worth it. It takes 10 minutes. All right, now Dr. Z, we’re talking about your rule number one, which is pigs get fat, hogs get butchered. Your number one rule in business. Now, at your optometry clinic, Dr. Robert Zellner and Associates, you obviously have the two locations. Most people have seen the one by the mall. Where’s the other one located? It’s at basically 30th and Harvard. Okay, so when you’re pricing the glasses, you’re known for $99 for one pair of fashionable glasses and an eye exam. Right, $129 for two, but you’re right. Where is the balance, my friend? Where’s the balance between gouging the customers and taking advantage of them and giving them a good deal? Where’s the balance? Well, the balance is, as an entrepreneur, you have to find that balance. Now every, every, um, I mean, look at car dealerships. Let’s just, let’s just go through some businesses right now. Okay. When Pizza Hut makes a commercial for TV, they don’t talk about their most expensive pizza, do they? No, no, they don’t know. Unless it has a special feature. Now the little stuffed crust thing, when they came out with it, you know, they could charge whatever they wanted for it in essence, because there was no competition for it. You following me Clay? Yeah. And I’ll tell you what the, the, when you talk about stuff, stuffed crust pizza, it kind of gets romantic in the trailer almost. Amazing. It’s up there. And listen, when the car dealership runs a rad, do you think they’re going to run the fully loaded, everything on it, car? No, they’re probably not. Are they going to talk about the service fees and the upsells that they’re going to try to do to you when you’re in the dealership? No, they usually don’t. No, they typically don’t. And you have the extra service warranty, you know, hey, really it’s this, but you’re really going to be paying this by the time you get out. They don’t. So what you do is you lead with what we call a value deal, and then you have other options for them when they’re there. Not everybody wants cloth seats and no air conditioning and no cassette tape player. I’ve got a little notable quote. I’m going to give it to all the thrivers out here. I always recommend that when you have a business, you want to make it bankable, because if you make a business and you’re not making any profits, you can’t ever sell the company. So if you have a business and you’re just barely surviving, you can’t sell the company, you can’t get a bank loan to expand, you can’t pay your team well, you can’t, all those things. So I always tell people to try to shoot for between a 20 and 30% margin, and then you and your team will never be starving. That’s my kind of world view. You’re listening to The Thrash Time Show on Talk Radio 1170. And I see so many people in the consulting and graphic design and advertisement space. For my consulting firm, Make Your Life Epic, we basically do advertising. It’s like an advertising and marketing company for businesses. So companies that struggle to grow, they’ll reach out to us and say, hey, could you help us with our marketing? And I’m just telling you, I see these firms that will charge people exorbitant fees and deliver almost no value because they think they can. And then when the market gets tight, what do people do? They fire you. They fire you. They fire you. And you’re right. About 20 to 30 is really very healthy for a business. You get much more than 30, you’re kind of being a hog, and what you’re doing is you’re creating an environment for somebody else to slide in there, recreate your widget, oh they do it, and beat you on the price, because that’s one of the things that happens. And I’ve seen that historically in my profession. You know, it was Dr. Billy down in some private little town somewhere, and he could charge whatever he wanted for glasses, and these big optical chains around the country said wait a second boy That’s just a goods you know you make and sell glasses as long as you know you have your opticians license You have to be a doctor to sell glasses you following me. Yep. I’m falling so they came in they said listen They are being hogs. They are selling these glasses for way More than they’re paying for them you know and so it created an opportunity for them come and say hey I could sell it for half what they’re selling it for and still make a very good margin and make a lot of money. So that’s why you see these big national chains popped up, and they came in with the value message, and all the local optometrists are like, hey, what’s up with that? It’s kind of cool. You were being a hog instead of a pig with your pricing. Now, Dr. Z, we’re going to get into the notable quotable that supports your rule. This is from Brian Tracy, bestselling author. He says, successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, what’s in it for me? Ooh, deep thought from Brian Tracy. Ooh, deep thought. And that’s it. And you know, like you’ve said before, and I love when you’re talking to a young entrepreneur and you say, listen, first step, you know, follow your passion. But first step, find a problem and solve it. And that thinking is what you’re automatically thinking, what can I do for somebody else? Because it’s a problem somebody has. If you can find a problem that people are willing to pay you to solve, you’ve got a business my friend. Now we’re moving on to rule number two. Your rule number two is this, Zee. It’s be the pig at breakfast, not the chicken. Now Thrivers, when we come back, Dr. Zee’s going to unpack this rule, but you’re saying be the pig at breakfast, not the chicken. I have two questions that are going through my mind already. One, is this a free-range pig we’re talking about? Oh, hey, the answers are coming. I’m just going to sit here and do a little… I’m going to dance to Michael Jackson while we’re going out on the break. But it’s coming up. I’ve got all the answers to step number two. So my wife doesn’t get offended. Be the free-range pig at breakfast. Not the free-range chicken. Stay tuned. Thrive Time Show. Go. All right, Tulsa, welcome back to Tulsa’s only local business radio show. It is the Thrive Time show on this beautiful December to remember magical Monday. My name is Clay Clark It is not dark because it is the afternoon and you are tuning in to the best Z the best local business radio show Z. How can we say that? How can we how we possibly make that outrageous claim? This is the best business local radio talk show. Well you want the truth. I do. You want the absolute. Can you handle the truth? I can’t handle the truth. I can’t handle it. Well because we’re the only one. Oh, that’s so negative. I know. I need to get a better story. That’s the problem with that. I just need to come up with a better story. And you know what? We enjoy business coaching. Someone said the other day, they said, man, you guys sound like you’re really having fun. I said, yeah, because this is what we do. This is passion. This is what we love doing. This is what we love doing. We love the process. We love the process. You know, now that we’re on from 12 to 2, it’s over lunchtime. So it’s Monday, you just left work, you’re on your radio right now, you’re probably driving over to Oklahoma Joe’s, going to get some of those burn-ins and baked beans. And as always, you’re going to say, I’ve never been there, I’m going to go there. Those guys talk about it. You’ve got to go there. And you’re going to try it and you’re going to go, oh my gosh, this is like meat excellence. You want to talk about meat excellence. What you’re doing right now is you’re getting me all hungry. And as soon as we finish this, I am definitely going to go right over there. Now, there’s two locations I can go to, right? Yeah, there’s one over by the Bass Pro Shop in Broken Arrow, and then at 61st and Sheridan. And if you’re downtown, there’s one next to Kane’s. It’s only open for lunch, so I think it’s like 11 to 2, Joe Davidson, who’s a great guy. And they’re one of the sponsors of the show, so we like to give them shout-outs. And I’ll tell you what, their food is awesome. And for any of you going there today to eat, I’m just going to give you a, I’m going to, because you’re going to email me and go, well, that was awesome. I’m just going to say, you’re welcome. You’re welcome. Just up front. You’re welcome. Now Zee, over there at Oklahoma Joe’s, the burnt ends are known as meat candy. Now for the Thrivers, the Thrivers who are watching right now on Facebook Live, the guy next to me, he’s known as eye candy. It’s ecstasy when he’s next to me. It’s Mr. Steve Currington. How are you, sir? Hey, thanks, Clay. I’m doing great. Currington.com. There’s an Oklahoma Joe’s, did you guys know? I think in Colorado Springs. Really? I went to Colorado Springs and ate Oklahoma barbecue. Really? Well, I think. I think that’s the place to go for it. I cannot confirm or deny. I’ll go on his website and see. You’ll have to go check it out. I want to ask you, Steve, can you explain to Tulsa what it is that you do for a profession? I do home mortgage. That means residential. If you’re buying a house, I get you the loan so you can buy the house. Where can people find you? SteveCurrington.com. So if you’re looking to buy a house right now or refinance, they need to go to SteveCurrington.com? Yep. And people may say, why do we have this handsome man in a green shirt on the show? Here’s what we’re doing, folks. We love to take success stories around Tulsa, which at the beginning of the show, we talked about being the number one city for young entrepreneurs, which is really cool Yeah, so we have a lot to pull from and we love bringing those success stories You know and we love talking them picking their brain you love their secret sauce Yeah, maybe a secret move or two out of them. Yeah now Z we’re talking about rule number two This is your top ten rules in business number two be the pig at breakfast not the chicken What are you talking about? What does that mean? Using well here again… Story time. All right, Z, give us the farm logic. Give it to us. I’m ready. You see, every morning on the farm, you’ve got to have a hearty breakfast. That’s true. Because you’re working all day long from sunup to sundown. I agree. And without a hearty breakfast, you can’t make it through the day. Oh, wow. And so one of the things that you have for breakfast is you have eggs, which come from chickens. Now he’s getting kind of deep. Your wife’s out of fit today. Or organic free range chickens. Very important. Yes. Yes. And then you also have what we’re going to call bacon. All right. Or maybe if you choose, maybe some ham. Bacon, ham. And this comes from an animal that we affectionately refer to as a pig. Now, there’s a difference in how these two animals contribute to breakfast. Okay. All right, follow this. The chicken lays the egg. Chicken lays the egg. The chicken’s still alive. The chicken gets up and goes scratching around the yard because it’s free range. This just in, we did have seven eggs at the Clark house today. Seven fresh eggs. Well, then you were able to have breakfast. We were. Seven this morning. Back to you. Yes. In other words, in the holiday season, just a little note, just a little quick doctor note. Eggs are one of the best things you can eat if you’ve had too much spiked eggnog. In other words, if you’ve had too much libations the night before, eggs are one of the best things you can eat. Really? Yeah, Google it. It’s a thing. I did not know that. Water and eggs. Two of the best things. Okay, so now the chicken lays the egg and has contributed to the breakfast, right? Okay. Right. You following me? I’m following. It has contributed an egg to the breakfast. Apparently, you’re right. Yes. Yes. Free range out there. Now, the pig, on the other hand, in order to give you bacon or ham, the pig has to give up its life. That’s not very nice. I know. I know. I know. But he is what we call totally committed to your breakfast experience. Oh, hell. It’s a fact. I don’t want to upset anybody, but that’s what it is. So now you look at it and you say, well, the chicken was just involved in breakfast. And I see so many young entrepreneurs that start a business and they say to themselves, man, I can just hardly wait until it’s rolling, I can get out there and get my big boat, get on the lake and have all these people doing all my stuff for me, and then I can just sit back and easy town. You’re listening to the Thrash Time Show on Talk Radio 1170. And I would say that person is more in, they’re not committed. Bro, I’m totally committed. I’m working like four hours a day, bro. All half day, every day. I can’t find anybody to do the weekend shift, man. I guess I just won’t be open on the weekends, bro. I’m trying to find good help. Bro, I want to know, what’s your tips to success that I can do in four hours a week. And then you’ve got the guy, the young entrepreneur or lady, and they say, you know what, I’m there till open, till close. I’m working my hiney off. I’m giving it my all. I don’t have a plan B. They don’t? I came to the island and we burned our boats, which means there’s no getting off the island. Z, I’m telling you what, I’m going to dedicate this to Prince right here. I would die for you. This is the entrepreneur, the lady or the dude saying, I would die to make this business happen. See, they’re not kind of half in. They’re saying, I would literally die for you to make it happen. Yes, and those are the ones more times than not are the successful ones. I mean, there’s other steps to do, but having that mindset, if you’re going to open a business, number one, no one’s going to care as much about it as you do. You hire someone and you might say to yourself, what they got a bad work ethic, they won’t work you that extra late, they ran off the last patient of the day or they ran off the last customer of the day. Well yes, because they don’t care as much as you do. So that’s why you, as the head of the organization, the head of the business, you’ve got to be the pig at breakfast. You’ve got to lay down your life. You’ve got to give it all. You’ve got to say there’s no plan B. Now Stevecurrington.com, Mr. Mortgage, have you ever fought through some adversity in your business, my friend? Oh, just a little bit. Just a little bit? Yeah, the mortgage market’s been a little interesting. I think it’s in High Trust Selling by Todd Duncan. They talk about the law of the iceberg. I don’t know if that’s the book or not, but the law of the iceberg says people only see from the surface and up. So when you look at Dr. Z and you look, oh, look how successful he’s been and oh, it must be nice. No one sees everything beneath. All the work that’s been done, the foundation that’s been put there in order to do it. So it’s real easy to look at the guy that’s successful and say, oh, he’s got it easy. He drives this car, he has this or he has that. When they don’t know all the work you’ve done. They don’t know that Clay gets up at, you know, what time you get the office? Two o’clock in the morning on some Mondays? 3 a.m. is when I get up and start an email thing. But that’s just because we’re building time. Well, the thing is, is because we have this wonderful opportunity to host this radio show. And the show prep that we do for every one hour we’re on, it’s about three hours of show prep. So I mean, it’s just what you have to do if you want to put on a quality show. Now, let me give them a demonstration, just one example of preparation real quick here. We talk about sacrificing. Did you guys know that Larry Page and Sergey Brin, when they started Google in 1996, it took them three years before those homies made even a dollar of profit. Three years? Wow. People don’t realize that. Google is like, oh, it’s overnight success. What about Steve Jobs? How long did it take him? What about Bill Gates? How long did it take him? Let me tell you what. Look that up today. You’ll realize these people took years before they made any money. Years, Dr. Z. Years. And they were committed. They hung in there. And now, wow. Wow. So cool. We come back. Rule number three. Rule number three. When we come back. Boom. When I think of adversity, I think of torrents of rain. I think of dark clouds. I think of things that you don’t have any control over and yet they’re coming at you. And you have to make a decision, what do I do? Do I just stand here? and you have to make a decision, what do I do? Do I just stand here or do I move? Growing up in the Mississippi Delta as I did during the era of legal segregation, it was a time that adversity was surrounding one’s life. It was like torrents of rain that had been coming for generations and sometimes it seems as if it would never stop. But somewhere along the way you ask yourself the question, how do I get out of this rain? What do I do? What can I do to make a difference, to bring some sunshine into my life? Into every life, as the song says, some rain must fall. And rain is what people run away from, to get out of, but it is also the rain that waters and nurtures those incredible ideas that live within us. I think that adversity is challenging, no question about it, but it also becomes a great teacher as well. Oh mighty Lord, hear our prayer, and save our people forevermore. Hey, what are you doing? I’m just cleaning the bathroom. Looks good. Let’s go watch. All right. All right. Tulsa and Oklahoma, he’s welcome to the Thrive Time show, Tulsa’s only local business radio show. It is business school without the BS. And yes, my name is Clay Clark, the former SBA Entrepreneur of the Year, the father of five human kids, and kind of the man who herds many chickens. We have some free-range organic chickens that my wife and I are very passionate about. My daughter Havana does a great job raising and coaching up and really mentoring these chickens. She’s the chicken whisperer, Dr. Zellner. How are you, sir? Whisper to the chickens. Whisper, whisper, whisper. You’ve seen Havana. I’ve been over to your house, and they just kind of follow people around the yard. They do. They follow you around. They realize we’re not going to come kill them. We’re going to basically just… They must give you this organic, like the eggs must taste just super, super awesome. And they’re coming out in many different colors right now. We had seven eggs this morning. We had two that were a different color. It’s kind of a good times at the Clark House in terms of our organic free range egg raising business. Now we have a very special guest on the show today. Hi, Dr. Z. It’s a guy by the name of Mr. Steve Currington. Steve, how are you, sir? Good. What’s up, Clay? Hey, for Tulsans out there who say, I think I’ve heard the name. I think I know him. I think I’ve seen him driving that Bentley around town. What do you do? What is your profession? What is your core income-producing activity, my friend? I do residential home loans. I do mortgage. You need to buy a house, I give you the money. What’s the most number of mortgages you’ve ever done in a year? I want to ask, roughly, what’s that number? Not that you count or that I count or that other people who are listening even count, but what would be that number if you had to guess? In my younger career, I think it was about 200. I did about, personally, about 200 loans in a year. But you know, that’s not that big of a deal. I’m probably like small potatoes compared to some of these guys. That is pretty incredible. I have got a chance over the years to consult with many mortgage bankers and I will tell you that that’s a big number, my friend. What do you attribute your success to? Other than you can’t say your physical beauty and your beautiful looks, because people on Facebook Live know that’s sort of a crutch you’ve used throughout your career. That’s totally not true. What do you attribute your success to? I just don’t stop. Dr. Z talked about that in the previous segment that you’ve got to be the pig at breakfast and go all in and give your life for your business, whatever that business is. I’m just a thousand miles an hour. Thousand miles an hour. That’s why I’ve got a fast car. Oh, look at that. Well, it only goes 900. The rest of the thousand is me. Now, Clay, we’re going to get to my other, we’re going to get the other top 10 points a little further on, but I’m marinating on this number two. One of the things that happens is, and we talk about being committed and people sign up for that and they go, yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s what I need to do. And then they have this thing called life balance that happens. And so that is a thing. And I do want to address that. Can we address that in this segment? I would like if you would address it and I’d like to have a shameless excuse to play some Braveheart sound effects as a result of it. So here, let’s do it. What happens is people say, listen, you know, hey, Clay and Dr. Z said to be committed and give it all. And just so I’m just at the business. I never go home anymore. I just I sleep in like the storage room. And I mean, I’m just I’m so committed. I’m there every day. I don’t even change my clothes anymore. I live in my office. I’m starting to just be organic. I don’t take showers. I’m just focused. I listen. Everybody listening out there. I’m serious when I say this. When we first got this beautiful headquarters for Thrive 15, Clay was like, he was going to carve out an area and just move us, well I don’t know about his family, but he’s definitely going to live here. And I was like, Clay, Clay, no, you’ve got to go home sometimes. You’ve got five human children. They need daddy time at times, and Vanessa needs hubby time at times. And so I get this question asked a lot by young entrepreneurs. I say, how do I know when to go home? How do you know? What’s the point? How do you know? Because I’m committed. Because like you said, I’m committed. I’m being the pig at breakfast, not the chicken. So how do I know? Yeah. And you know what I always tell them? What do you always tell them? What I always tell them is this. You want to know a little secret? I do want to know. We want to know the secret. I want to know. You want to know, Steve? I want to know. Here’s the secret, folks. You’re a young entrepreneur. You’re all committed. You’re doing your job. You’re there just all the time grinding and making it happen. Your family will let you know. Oh! Is it subtle? Is it subtle reminders typically? No, your son is going to say, Dad, when am I going to see you again? You know, and you don’t want to be that song, where the cat’s in the cradle, you know that one, you know? Oh, wow. The dude that was never there. Cats in the cradle in the sea of a spoon. You don’t want to be that dude. So what happens is, and here’s the key, here’s the key folks, when you’re home with them, when you’re spending time with your son, your daughter, your wife, your husband, whoever it is, be all there. Don’t sit there with your phone. Don’t sit there with your answering emails. Don’t sit there and be in the living room and not be connected with them. So the key is to make that time quality time and you don’t have to spend as much time. Otherwise you’re going to be hearing this audio and this audio will be occurring in your own living room? First off, I am 35 years old. I am divorced. And I live in a van down by the river. That’s going to happen if you don’t find that balance. Yeah, so I live in a van. Rivers are fine bodies of water. Don’t get me wrong. And the Arkansas River, it’s kind of like the sand, like the ocean, beach. It’s kind of like a beachfront, really. We have beachfront property. All of us, Thrivers, Thrive15.com, we’re all very passionate here about the new Star Wars movies. They are located right here by the Arkansas River. And one could even call us Sand People, Z, because we’re right here on the river where we are sand people. Nice tie-in. Another Star Wars theme. Here we go. Rule number three, Z. This is your number three rule in business. Know when to cook that pig. What are you talking about? What am I talking about? I tell you what, I see people that go through life that are very successful and their heads down, they’ve always got kind of a growl on their face and their numbers weren’t as good as last month and they made money but they wanted to make more. Why didn’t we make more? And they’re just always growling. And I learned something very important from a mentor of mine. I’ve never met him personally, but I’ve listened to him, read his books, and that’s Jack Welch. He was one of the greatest CEOs. He’s right here on the table. And he was a big proponent of it, and so have I been in my business, is celebrating the successes. And cooking a pig symbolizes, you know, when you see like a luau or a big party or like a wedding feast, you know, they’ll often have a pig there with an apple in its mouth being marinated over a pit of flame, you know. A poka laka hiki past the poi mahalo? Poka laka hiki past the poi mahalo? Yes, so that symbolizes when you’re going to cook a pig, that symbolizes that you’re celebrating something. That’s one thing that I think you need to do is that, you know, if you don’t take the time to enjoy the victories along the way, you know, then what happens is you can get a little sourness in your staff, you can get people going, you know, hey, we just worked our butt off, we had a record month, and, you know… Steve, here’s the deal, you and Dr. Z are known, both you guys are known as guys who produce results, but also like to have a little bit of fun. So talk to me about having fun here, and kind of, you know, I mean, when you’re playing Galaga, you get points when you blow up a spaceship, right? You blow up something and you think, well, not that anyone has played Galaga in the last 20 years, but for people who have played Galaga, I love the sound effect. So talk to me, if I’m listening right now and I’m like, I don’t ever celebrate at all. That’s, oh no, this is not good. Or maybe someone’s listening right now and you’re going, my spouse never celebrates at all. What advice would you have? I think my personality, I don’t know if you call it natural or trained, it’s just you got to have fun. You’ve got to have some time in your life when you have fun. And if you’re working all the time on your business and you’re building a business, there is no other time but when you’re in your business. And if you have that, like as Dr. Z was saying, that sour attitude, then it’s contagious. And you don’t want sourness to be contagious. You don’t want that. No, so you want positive, fun. And so you know what I do, I’m just, the best advice I ever got from Dr. Steve Green, he’s a good friend of mine and my mentor, he said, just be who you are. Just be who you are. And I’m fun. And that’s like the best contribution that I can give to my team is just I am who I am and I like to have a lot of fun. And so I just bring that to the business. Absolutely, and the Steve Carringtons out there in the world that have their business, this isn’t going to be an issue for you. It’s the dudes out there, the dudettes, that that’s not their natural bend. And I’m telling you what, folks, if you start your business, give your team a goal, and then celebrate it. Say, hey, I’m taking everybody to dinner tonight. We’re going to have a pizza party. Here’s the action item. We’re going to go bowling. See, here’s the action item that I’m hearing, and I want to make sure that I’m getting this right if I’m listening to this. Is that you want to set clear goals for your team. Yes. And when you achieve those goals, you want to celebrate those goals. Yes, because if you say, hey, let’s do this, and then we hit it, and everybody’s like, hey, we did it, you’re like, okay, now we’ve got a bigger goal for next month. And they’re like, oh. You know who’s a great celebrator? You know who’s a great celebrator? Who? They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom! I thought William Wallace could throw down. William Wallace could sell, but when they won those fights, I mean, it was a celebration. When did they sell the glassless Z? We couldn’t, you know, I mean, he was… We could ring the bell, I know. I mean, you’ve been in your office, though, and yesterday there was a air of, you know, I would say, as you’re part of this past weekend, there was sort of an energy and an aura of excitement, of celebrating a year of victory at the auction, a year of victory at the optometry clinic. A year of victory with each of the businesses you’re involved in. There’s a sort of celebratory tone. But I guarantee you, you push your team hard, but you also know when to celebrate. I think there’s a lot of people listening right now who are celebrating like Leon Lett, the guy who used to play for the Dallas Cowboys. You’re celebrating before you get in the end zone. Yes, that’s not good. And then there’s somebody else who you celebrate, and as soon as you get in the end zone, you refuse to do an end zone dance because you’re a grinder. There’s a balance there. But once you get into the end zone, do that dance. Absolutely. I’ll tell you what, when you celebrate a victory, all right, a month goals, how many of this sold, how many of that sold, how many things produced. When you celebrate that, every one of your staff, they just, they do what I’m doing right now. They just take a half step up. Just like, you see how I got taller right there. You see that? Oh wow. I’ve just, I’ve actually just increased in size. Now we come back, we’re going to get into your business rule number four. Business rule number four. Hey, hey, hey, this is Captain Clay Clark on the Thrivetime Show. This is your place where you go to learn how to start and grow a successful business. And according to Forbes, according to Forbes, I have two powerful statistics for you. Statistic number one, this just in Dr. Z, 57% of Americans want to what my friend? Start or grow their fledgling business. In other words, entrepreneurship. It’s in the water in this country, it’s in the water in this city, we know for sure it’s in the water in the world. A lot of you out there, this little spark, little ember buried deep down inside and we are fanning that and we’re going to help you start and grow your business. That’s our passion. That’s what this show is about. 57% of you want to start a business at some point. Now also, this just in from Forbes. This is, this is, I’m not making this up. I want you to Google this. I want you to assume that I’m making this up and then I want you to find your own truth because when you engage with this and you research this and you realize we’re not making this up, it’ll become more powerful to you. But I want you to Google this. Okay. Forbes did a study, they looked at 181 cities across the country for which the cost of living data was available. They measured factors including access to funding, percentage of the local population between age 25 and 34, the local economy, the cost of living, and the data was all sourced by the USSBA, the US Census Bureau, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Council for Community and Economic Research. And they found Oklahoma City was the number five city for young entrepreneurs in the country. Number four was Raleigh, North Carolina. Number three was Atlanta, Georgia. Hotlanta. Number two was Tampa, Florida. And number one, Dr. Z, the number one city in America for young entrepreneurs is? This just in. Tulsa, Oklahoma. Bang! What? Oklahoma is to the top five. We are really, you know, Oklahoma really has that independent nature about us, that wildcatter kind of… And this isn’t a political show, but I’ll just say, you know, it seems as though the states that, you know, tend to vote a certain way tend to be the ones where the most prosperous economies are. I’m just saying this, I’m just looking at patterns, but this isn’t a political show. We move over here to Steve Currington, our special guest. Steve Currington, why would you take the show in such a political trajectory? It’s an unpolitical show. Why would you do that, Steve? I don’t know what I was thinking. It wasn’t what you said, it was just the way you made me feel that made me say that. Right. I was leading you to that. Now, Steve, for people who do not know who you are and what you’re all about, how does Steve Currington, how do you, sir, derive an income? What is your core business? What do you do? I do residential home loans. So for you people out there that are looking to buy a house, maybe you want to buy some investment property. I like living in a van. Maybe you like to live in a van. I can’t help you. I do home loans. I’m the home loan guy. Where can people find out more about you? SteveCurrington.com. I put it right here on my biceps if anybody wants to check it out. Hey Steve, did you do those big RVs, the big mobile RVs? I mean, that’s some people’s primary home. No. You don’t do those? We loan on mobile homes, but more like the double wides after that. Oh, okay. They’ve got to be kind of upset somewhere. They’ve got to be fixed, because we don’t want to be chasing you down. Okay, before we get back into the marrow of today’s training and Dr. Z’s business rules, I want to ask you right now, do you have any specials, anything awesome going on there at TLC Mortgage for the listeners out there who maybe need to refinance or who are in the process of looking for a new mortgage? If you come to our website or you call us and you mention that you heard me on the Thrive Time Show, I’m going to give you $500 off of your closing costs. What? $500 off? $500. Wow. That’s really like the cost of an appraisal. Wow. Yeah, that’s cool. Good for you. You could refinance with no out-of-pocket cost, technically. And your website is GetKoalaFied, like a koala.com? Yeah, like GetKoala. If you’re watching on Facebook Live, is that why there’s a koala stuck to my horse trophy’s ear right now? The koalas just find their way in. I don’t know. They’re sneaky little suckers. You know what sound a koala makes? Oh yeah, it’s on the thing. That’s the sound they make. That’s why we don’t have a lot of koala sound effects. Moving on. But seriously, you need to go on YouTube, Thrivers, and listen to the koala’s. I’ll tell you what, if things get out of hand, I will do that again. I love that. We’re talking about how being efficient with your time and getting stuff done, you’re like, hey, go to YouTube and listen to koala sound effects. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. We’re talking about how being efficient with your time and getting stuff done. You’re like, hey, go to YouTube and listen to like koala soundtracks. Cat videos. Dr. Z, your number three rule in business is know when to cook that pig. Now, I have a story that I want to share that relates to this because this is principles about celebrating success and victory. Here is the deal. I’m going to rip on myself and the story I promised. Is this where we’re going to do story time? It’s a story time. It’s a story time. Here’s the deal. Story time. You know, I’m a grinder. That’s what I do. I like to get up at like 3 AM and I like to just grind. I grew up without money. I’m not obsessed with money. I’m just obsessed with winning. So I work from 3 AM to 5 PM, 3 AM to 5 PM, 3 AM. I just keep doing that. So it’s 60 hours a week, 70 hours a week, every week. So you look up and you go, man, all of a sudden I’m 20 years old. I’m the Entrepreneur of the Year for the city of Tulsa, according to the Chamber of Commerce. And then I look up, I’m 27. I’m the SBA Entrepreneur of the Year. That’s the Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the Year. At this point, it was the exact place and time, and this is where the story gets kind of negative. But this is the place and time where my son was born blind at the very time that I was receiving the SBA Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Wow, that’s something to overcome. My wife and I were in a limo headed to this awards banquet and I remember thinking, what was the point of all of this success? You know, what was the point? And unfortunately for people listening right now, most of us, we have to have a breakdown before we have a breakthrough. That’s just what happens. We don’t ever have a breakthrough until we had a breakdown. But you, The Thrive Listeners, you are the most trainable, coachable people on the planet. You are, I’m telling you, you guys are awesome. You guys are the best listeners in the world. And you don’t need to have a breakdown before your breakthrough. But for me, I literally had to get to a point where I didn’t have time in my own schedule to spend time with my son and to take him to the Dean McGee Eye Institute for in-depth tests on his eyes to figure out what was going on. And I remember at that point going, what am I doing? And so then it was like I had to call a time out. My wife, who was a very kind and appreciative and perfect wife, my wife was going, we need to schedule time for family. We have to do this. We schedule time for meetings and clients and sales and coaching and management and search engine and why are we not scheduling an appointment for this? So we started doing family time. Very good. And family time is every Sunday. We actually do family time every week. What we do is we block out a set period of time. It’s not like the entire day where we’re spending 12 hours together, but the thing is we have a set time. Yeah. We always will do dinner. We’ll always get a chance to, you know, phones are off. We’re fully engaged and we just spend time with the family, the extended family, in-laws, whoever is in town. We just do that. And Z, I can tell you what, from that point forward, we’ve had family time virtually every week and it’s been an absolute game changer in the life of my family. And I just want to ask you, have you ever gotten to a point in your life where you went, oh no, I just had a huge year in business and I didn’t schedule time for family? Or have you always been pretty intentional about doing that? It kind of coaches through that, Z. No, and that’s what I was saying earlier in the earlier segment about I’ve got a lot of young entrepreneurs. That’s one of the number one questions I get asked. How do you balance? How do you balance your family life, right, unless you want to be a monk or what we call a hermit? A hermit? Yeah. That seemed kind of offensive. I prefer spending time alone in the… I just want to live in a cave by myself. Yeah, that was offensive for all the cave dwellers. This point is not for you. You can actually just take a mental time out from what I’m getting ready to say, okay? But for those of you that actually have a family and you have a business, how do you balance that? And one of the things that I said earlier, Clay, is that your family, it’s unfortunate if they have to scream really loud, but they will let you know when they need some daddy time. And it’s up to you then, just like that, and yours was kind of an extreme case, and yours was kind of a big, you know, extreme case, and you were so focused and you’re such a hard worker and you’re so dedicated and such a grinder that unfortunately it took that kind of event for you to really put a time out on it, you know? I think there’s a lot of entrepreneurs, though, that have been reading like, you know, maybe Elon Musk and then stories about the Pilgrims or something, and so you’ve all of a sudden got to this place where you now have developed a work ethic. You’re listening to The Thrash Talk Show on Talk Radio 1170. Let me tell you about a work ethic. Work ethic, it’s so hard to develop that habit and that routine. You really do have to get used to working hard. I think a lot of entrepreneurs fear drifting out of that rhythm of hard work. I would just encourage you, if you’re listening right now, Lee Cockrell, one of our Thrive15.com mentors, and the guy who used to manage Walt Disney World Resorts and all 40,000 people that work there, he told me this. He says, you only get done what you schedule. Yeah, there’s a lot of truth to that. That’s the action item I would give you is schedule time for faith, for family, for fitness, for friendships, and for finance. It’s the F5. Schedule time for faith, family, finance, fitness, friendships. Schedule time. If you don’t schedule it, it won’t happen. Steve, what advice would you have for the Thrivers out there? Wait, wait, wait. I got to throw my bonus number six in there. Oh, whoa. I’m ready. That’s what this point is all about. Oh, see, I always wanted to… And that’s what I’m always busting your chops about, Clay, is the secret number six, and that is fun. That’s right. And some guys like Steve and I, SteveCarrington.com, Steve and I, it’s natural for us fun is something that we don’t even have to really we know kind of schedule But for guys like clay or grinders like he’s got to schedule the fun And that’s what this point is guys you got a business set some goals, but then you know what it’s important to set the goals But then you’ve got to celebrate when you make the goals otherwise Why are you sitting? I know where you’re sitting to make more money and be more productive and grow your business I get that but you’ve got to enjoy the journey you know if you wait to I don’t mean if I could just know you know what when I sell a million Widgets, I’m gonna be happy my right so I know you won’t be I day well when I when I sell that millions cup of coffee I’ll tell you what bro. I’m gonna be it’s gonna be once I sell that one millionth a cup of coffee I swear, I’m gonna start having fun see I can then I then I’ll know I’m there and I can actually enjoy it once I get there You know what I mean, so no it’s the journey guys It’s a journey along the way. And I tell you what, taking your time and celebrating with your staff, because you guys are all in the boat together, you’re all rowing the boat together, you’re all building the business together, alright, even if it’s your business, it’s your vision, your widget you came up with, your service, your product, but I tell you what, to celebrate with them along the way, it’s just so good for the team, so good for the morale of the business. Mr. Steve, there’s a good book I just read by Grant Cardone. It’s called Be Obsessed or Be Average. Go get it. You can get it on Audible. Be Obsessed or Be Average by Grant Cardone. Grant Cardone wrote the book The 10X Rule. It’s a good book. What he says in this book is you need to take a break to where you can get your mind off your business and decompress, but a lot of people can’t decompress in like one or two or three days, right? So, if you’re not ready to completely disconnect and take three weeks off, you haven’t worked hard enough. You haven’t gotten there yet. So, I think a lot of people try to celebrate maybe too early. So, don’t celebrate too early. That’s the thing. I will just say this if you’re listening right now. There’s again, there’s just two extremes and I just want to make sure we’re rightly dividing this. Somebody listening right now is not grinding hard enough and celebrating way too early. Somebody else is listening right now. And you are never celebrating and you are grinding hard all the time. Find the balance. But I will just, I’m just going to emphasize this. Please put it into your schedule. Z has a, faithfully has a holiday party every year because you put in the calendar. You do it. Yeah, we’re purposeful about that. But Steve, what I would say about that and just, you know, have a, have a little slight to moderate fight on the air, is that if you’re setting a goal and you hit that goal, celebrate, all right? And that’s how you know when to celebrate. People go, well, when do I know to buy pizza for my staff? When do I know to take everybody bowling? When do I know, well, set a goal, sit down, be purposeful about that. Hey, our sales numbers for next month, this is our goal. This is what we wanna do, all right? And when we do that, guess what? We’re going to do XYZ. Something that’s financially appropriate, and just like Putin, Putin just forces it on them. No celebration. You will do. They didn’t, I’ll point out this, I just want to argue with you. The Soviet Union did quite well and they never celebrated at all, except for the collapse of their economy and the people being, you know, starving and just really… Just little things like that. Little things like that. Other than that, they did well. That’s the great thing about capitalism and the great thing about our country and other countries around the world is that you as the business owner, you get to decide what to do with your profit. What? And I’m telling you, take some of your profit and cook that pig. Cook that pig. Cook it. Get your cooked pig. Get your cooked pig. Now Steve, where can people find out more about you, my friend? SteveCurrington.com or GetQualified.com. And hey, set goals. Set goals, Thrivers. And we come back. We’re having Coach Calvert come join us in the program as we break down Z’s business rules. Boom. Hello, Tulsa and Oklahoma. Welcome back to the Thrive Time Show during your afternoon. Many of you are listening at your office. You’re listening maybe in your car. You’re listening while you’re trying to get some work done. And some of you, a few elite members of our Thrive15.com world audience, you are at Oklahoma Joe’s right now. You are there right now enjoying some of those legendary baked beans while listening to the Thrive Time Show. And see, it’s become kind of a problem. People are bringing in their own radios into Oklahoma Joe’s and they’re starting to bring their own radio so they can listen to the show while having their baked beans It’s a big problem. See yeah, well they Go on 1170 KFA Q comm and they can just stream it live right there on their little on their phone Put their earbuds in that way. They’re they’re not disturbing anybody’s around them, though I don’t know they’d be disturbing they probably lean in and try to listen to show too I would imagine cuz like I want to be an entrepreneur do you know what I was in? I was in Vegas there last week Z and one of the things in Vegas that’s kind of a trend right now is that young millennials are running around while listening to their favorite music. They get one of those sound tubes, the Bose sound tubes or the JBL sound tubes, and they put that in their backpack, and then they make you listen to what they want you to listen to. So they run around town with their backpack on. You know, like in the old school, back in the 80s, people had the boom box. Oh, the big boom box, yeah. You carry that, and now they’re putting it in their backpack and so you have to listen to whatever the person in front of you wants to listen to on the strip. And that’s kind of a move in Vegas there. So maybe that’s a move with the Thrive Time show. Maybe that is a move. You just get your little, we’ll call it the little boom bar instead of the boom box. Yeah. The little boom boom. Yeah. Because booms are a thing. Yeah, get yourself the boom, the little Beats pill or something. Yeah. Get that Bluetooth set up and just run around the town listening to the show and forcing other people to listen to the show. Absolutely. They’ll probably lean in and go, what is that? We’re talking today about your ten rules in business. We only have time to get into five of them today. We’re going to get into your ten rules in business, the rules that you live by that you’ve used to successfully grow your business. We have a very special guest on the show here now. Now we’re number two. It’s Coach Calvert. Coach, how are you? I’m good. I’m actually hungry now that you were talking about Joe’s. I got hungry for baked beans all of a sudden. That happens. You’re welcome when you go and get them this afternoon. You’re welcome. Absolutely good. You know, it’s a cold Monday afternoon. I mean, you think about those burnt ends and baked beans and you’re thinking that’s a sustaining meal for anybody. Now, Coach, for anybody who’s not familiar with you and what you’re all about. Can you tell us a little bit about what’s the name of your business and how can people find out more about your business? It’s called Score Basketball. We’ve been in business for 21 years. We’re in Bixby, but we have people that come from literally all over the state and other states. Wow, so 21 years you’ve been in business. 21 years. Now, this holiday season, you have a Christmas basketball camp. What’s that all about, my friend? 27th through the 30th, gym will be packed out. We’ll have 80 to 100 kids. And it’s a high energy camp because parents love for their kids to get out after Christmas and get lots of energy. How much does that cost, my friend? Only $99. We have a great package. And if someone wants to get started with the program or wants to learn more about the Christmas camp, where can they do that? ScoreBball.com. All you’ve got to do is Google score basketball, though. All right. Now, Dr. Z, we’re talking about rule number four, which is you love the piggy bank. Your business rule number four, the piggy bank. What does that mean? Well, the book I’m writing is called The Business Pig. That’s why when they go on the thrivetimeshow.com and they want to listen to some past shows or maybe they missed a segment or two, or maybe they want to re-listen to a show because they weren’t taking good notes, right? No one ever does that. And you pull up the website and there’s a picture that smacks you right in the face right off the bat. And the one on the left is Clay. And Clay looks like he’s a, oh I would say half robotic in his thing. We call him Claytron. We know he’s from a planet, we just know it’s not Earth. It’s some planet where they’re half robotic, half flesh, half… He was manu… We’re not sure. We’re still researching. I was manufactured, I was not born. I would agree with that. We’re still researching. Yes, yes. And then on the right hand side is a picture of me and there’s an actual pig in front of me and people go, what’s the deal with that pig? Is he a pig farmer too? Is that something else? You’re selling bacon down the side? No, I’m writing a book, Business Pig, and all my stories, all my analogies deal with the pig. So, you know, the first one was, pigs get fat, hogs get butchered. Okay. The second one was be the pig at breakfast, not the chicken. Got it. Right. And the third one is know when to cook the pig. Okay. Right. So they’re all dealing with a pig. Yep. Right. All kind of farmyard stories. And then this one is piggy bank. And for all of you out there that are listening that are saying, listen, I’m getting inspired. I’m going to listen to these guys, this thrive time show. They’re giving me the nerve to do my dream and to start my business. One of the things you’re going to need to start your business is a little old thing called money. Money. Money. Z, it sounds kind of eerie, kind of scary almost. I know. I know. To start a business? It’s amazing how many businesses fail because they didn’t start with enough money. Capital. I thought… Fortress. I thought Bunny Sanders was going to help us all. I thought Bernie, I was waiting for Bernie to come out there. He’s got grants, he’s got loans, he’s got free college, free phones, free… Bernie, whoa! I don’t know why Bernie hacks the show every now and then, just comes on and just hacks it. He’s making a deep impression. Wait for the government, wait for the government, they will help you. They’ve done great work in the U.S.S. Boss, in China, they’re doing wonderful things in France. That’s the other channel, no home and garden sorry I talk politics. Okay, okay No, but what happens is people listen, you’ve got a dream you want to start a business I’m gonna give you a little clue right now. Here we go Start saving some money and you go. How do I how do I do that? I’ve got ten bills and I can only afford nine of them as it is I’m gonna tell you what do you really need that new car? Really? Do you? Do you really need the latest iPhone? I mean really? Really? Do you need all the stations that you have on the cable? Do you really need that? Do you really need that extra piece of furniture in your house because you’ve got nowhere to sit? I have a story that I want to tee it up for Coach Cover. I have a story. I’m at Best Buy just a couple days ago. I’m buying a new computer for one of our graphic designers. I go there and the guy tells me, he says, hey, what do you do for a living? I tell him about what I do. He goes, oh, I’ve heard of you guys at thethrivetimeshow.com. I’ve heard your show. I’ve heard about you guys. He asks me this very question, true story. He says, how do you save? How do you do it? And then he proceeds to explain to me that there’s a World of War and Warcraft-like video game tournament or something? Yeah, yeah. And he requested time off so that he could do that. And because the entry fee for that was a certain amount, and because he had to buy the new console to play the game, and because he had the entry fee and all that, it was really hard for him to save. Well, yeah. I mean, you’re going to spend your money where you want to spend your money. Trust me. No one, hey, this is, you know, your money is going to go where you tell it to go. That’s just the way the world is. And so here’s what you do. It’s a little thing that I call delay gratification. Oh, come on now. And so so many times you see people get out of school and they go and they get the big house, they go buy the new car. It’s got to be a Mercedes or some German make or some high end Japanese car, you know, whatever the move is. And they get themselves in so much debt, you know, that they’ve just got to grind and there’s no way they can save money. I mean, holy cow. Oh, hey, oh my gosh. Holy cow. And so the idea is to live below your means. If you can’t save any money, you’re spending too much money. And I know that sounds crazy folks. I know it’s easy to do, but that’s just the reality of it. Now, some of you are going to have a clever enough idea. Some of you are going to be able to shark tank the right people and you’re going to be able to raise enough capital. But I’ll promise you this, if you don’t have your own skin in the game, that’s one of the things when people come up to me and want me to help raise capital for them, I always look at them and say, how much skin do you have in the game? How much money are you putting in personally? When they say, oh, well none, it’s a great idea. Nothing bro, it’s just my idea. It’s a coffee house bro, it’s going to be awesome. I’ll give you my idea for free bro. It’s going to revolutionize coffee, the coffee business man. So everybody should just give me like $250,000 bro, because you understand this coffee is the best coffee ever. Now, Z, when we come back, Coach Calvert’s going to teach us how he was able to save money to start scorebasketball.com. Stay tuned. All right, Thrivers, welcome back to the Thrive Time Show, your audio dojo of mojo, and the show that you go to fo’ sho’ to learn how to start and grow a business. That was Michael Jack, and now we are back. My name is Clay Clark, former SBA Entrepreneur of the Year. Here with me today is Dr. Robert Zellner. Sir, how are you doing? I’m fantastic. It’s a Monday, and you know you have a great Monday, you’re going to have a great week. Just smile, be happy, had a great weekend. We had our big Christmas party on Saturday. Epic. They’re at the top floor of the CityPlex. A shout out to all those workers there. They did a fantastic job. The food was great. The DJing was great. Marshall actually was a DJ. Mixmaster Morris. Yeah, he’s a very tall guy. Yeah. He did a great job and it was just so lovely and that’s one of the things we just were talking about in an earlier segment is celebrating with your people. Celebrating with the people that have helped you row that boat. Row, row, row your boat. And that’s what your business is and you want to all row in the same direction and you all want to row with efficiency and you know what, when you do that and you hit those milestones, celebrate. That’s what we were talking about earlier. That’s what we did this weekend. Now Z, we’re talking about your ten rules of business. Your ten rules of business from your upcoming book, The Business Pig. These are your rules. Oh wait, wait. You know what, I’ve got a bonus 11. But we’ll get to that tomorrow. That’s done. You have a bonus 11. I’ve got, well, a little sneak. Of course. I’m always going to, you know me, I’m always going to bonus. Now today we only have time to get into five. Now we’re on move number four, which is the piggy bank. We have Coach Calvert, the founder of ScoreBball.com, which by the way, if you’re looking for a great Christmas basketball camp for your kids, if you’re looking for a place where they can improve their skills and also be mentored how to just become great kids, I’m telling you what, the ScoreBball.com Christmas basketball camps are legendary. But Coach, the people want to know, how did you get the funding that you needed to start ScoreBball.com? First thing, my wife and I laid out a budget and we figured out what’s the minimum that we had to have. Okay, the minimum. That was the first thing. We figured out what can we do without. We didn’t want to spend money that we didn’t need at that point. And the car thing, like you were talking about, we were living in old cars or driving old cars. We didn’t spend money up front. We spent as little as we possibly could because we had heard the same thing that most businesses fail because of money. Now John Maxwell, the legendary best-selling author, he says this. He’s a leadership expert. He’s also a business expert, business consultant speaker guy. He says a budget is telling your money where to go. He talks about this. Dave Ramsey says the same thing. He says your budget tells your money where to go, where most people wonder where their money went. So you made a budget. That’s step one. Now how did you fund it? I mean, did you just kind of pay as you go or did you have some money you’d saved or did you do credit cards? How did you do it, man? First thing was we did have money because we had saved all along. I don’t spend a lot of money. I’m very careful with it. I don’t have to have the newest and greatest. But we also borrowed a certain amount of money. And we had a game plan, though, of how we were going to pay that money off. Right off the bat we wanted to get out of debt. We didn’t want to stay in debt. I have a funny story for you about funding the business that involves a little bit of jackassery from yours truly. Z, are you ready? Oh, these are the best stories. I love them. So my wife, back before we were married, we were dating at Oral Roberts University, and I was so excited because I flew her to Minnesota to meet my parents. My plan was to propose there in Minnesota. So she’s almost 20 at this point, she’s 19 years old. So she flies to Minnesota. Now I’ve been working all summer doing construction for Lund poured walls. And the move was the first 40 hours a week you got paid 10 an hour, half $10 per hour, then from hours 40 to 60 you got time and a half, then from 60 to 80 you got double time. And I also worked as a home health aide. And I had in my man book, it’s kind of like my journal, my Moleskine journal, I wrote down exactly how much money I needed. It was like 21,000, whatever, and I’d factored in the taxes, in every light, every speaker, every microphone, it was all detailed. And I factored in the Mazda MPV van that we’re gonna buy. So I was so proud of myself, I factored all this in. This is to start your DJ business, right? It’s called DJConnection.com. Yeah, so you were purposeful, you said, okay, to start my business, I need this much money, and you just kind of reverse engineered it. Okay. And I basically was working about 75 hours a week to do this at that point. Okay. So my wife, and at the time my fiance, Vanessa, she flies into Minnesota. And when we get there, I buy all the equipment at the guitar center in Minneapolis. And the problem was, is that I didn’t factor in that I needed to advertise my business. So I literally wrote a check. I paid cash for all the equipment because I didn’t want to have debt Z. I was totally sold on the concept of no debt. You’re listening to the Thrash Time Show on Talk Radio 11 Saturday. I’d be listening to a ton of Dave Ramsey or something. So I paid cash for the equipment. I paid cash for the Mazda MPV with about 220,000 miles on it. And I never factored in emergencies. So here we go. My wife and I are sharing a car. We’re sharing the Mazda MPV. She would drop me off at Panera Bread, and I would work from Panera Bread from like 9 AM to like 9 PM while she’d be working at Office Depot or, anyway, it was crazy. We were sharing a car, I had three jobs, I had a job at Applebee’s, Target, and DirecTV, and then on the days where I could do appointments, she’d drop me off at Panera, we’re sharing the car, and one day, Z, the transmission goes out. Uh-oh. And we had saved nothing for the transmission. We saved every dollar we could to start the business, but we didn’t have anything saved for emergency. Now if I could have gone back in time, I would have paid some cash down and would have used credit so that I would have had monthly payments as opposed to having everything paid for debt-free with no reserves. And if it wasn’t for my dad, Mr. Tom Clark, I called my dad, I said, Dad, bad deal. Transmission went out and I have zero dollars and he is saying I know you’re working three jobs what’s going on and he didn’t chastise me but I’m sure he wanted to and he goes so you’re telling me you don’t have a car and you have a DJ show this weekend and you’re working three jobs and he goes how much do you have saved I’m like I don’t have any money anything saved I don’t have anything said I spent it all to get my business and I was so proud I was debt-free oh yeah yeah yeah my dad was you know I’m gonna do I’ll be there tomorrow.” And he, my dad, we weren’t wealthy. And I’m going, what? He goes, I’ll do, use a vacation day, I’ll be there. So my dad drove into Tulsa from Minneapolis, 12 hours on a Thursday. He got to Tulsa. We drove the car over to M&M Automotive in Broken Arrow. My dad paid the $1,800 to fix the transmission and then without sleeping, drove straight up north to Minnesota to go back to work at Medtronic on a Friday. And he did all that. God bless him. He did it. And I was able to do that wedding. If it wasn’t for my dad helping me, I would have not been able to rebound over that situation. And I’m just saying right now, if you’re listening right now, please don’t go so militant on being debt free that you have no money left for reserve because Z, you’re going to have bad things happen, right? You’re going to have bad things happen. And we’re not, we’re not speaking that out. I mean, that’s just the reality of it. And you’ve got to plan for that. And you’ve got to have a little, I just interloped in there a little bit and said your rainy day fund, but you’ve got to have that. You’ve got to have a, you know, the rule of thumb is maybe a month’s worth of finances in the bank. You know, maybe whatever your budget is for a month, you want to at least have that. You’re preferably maybe two or three, but you at least a month in the bank for it to fall back on in case you, in case you need it. It’s like that happens. I mean, transmission goes out and you guys are setting, you’ve got all the speakers, you’ve got all the stuff, you’ve got the mics, you’ve got the lights, you probably even had a fog machine knowing you. I did, and I had bookings that I had to get to and I couldn’t get to them because they have a vehicle. Yeah, so you can’t run it that close to the edge and you’ve always got to have a little cash reserve. And like you said, the thing that you said about that is that you should have done some of it in credit. And that was the key, what you said right there. Well, I don’t want to go into debt. But that’s okay. That’s a way to raise capital is debt. And that’s okay. If you’re working hard and you’ve got a plan and you’re going to do your business, it’s okay to have some debt. It’s all right. Some people get freaked out by that, but don’t get freaked out by it. Now, Coach, when we come back, we’re going to talk a little bit about this piggy bank and the importance of savings, but we also want to get into these inevitable emergencies that are going to happen. I’d like to hear, you share one of your stories about how these emergencies pop up in business. And I know a lot of people listening right now are going, yeah, but you don’t understand. I had, I had, I’ve been, I’ve been, that’s an employee steal from me. I had a problem. I had this, you don’t understand. See, I’m different than you. I had this emergency. And we want to kind of give you an opportunity to share about just maybe some of the emergencies you’ve had in kind of your business career and how through, through the process of saving, you’re able to push right through it. Because you’ve been running scorebball.com for 21 years, man. 21 years. Stay tuned. Welcome back to the Thrive Time Show, where we are broadcasting from the left coast of the Arkansas River within the thrive15.com world headquarters and inside the newly renovated box that rocks. My name is Captain Clay Tiberius Clark, and you are listening to the Thrive Time Show. And as always, I’m joined here with Dr. Robert, who is just in from our home in New York. Dr. Robert, welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. to the Thrive Time Show. And as always, I’m joined here with Dr. Robert, who’s just in from our home office. Zellner, sir, how are you? Hello, Thrive Nation. Happy Monday afternoon. You know, we got winter finally showed up here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We had snow, not much, a little light dusting, you would say, this weekend. My five kids were pumped up about it. You know, when your kid just loved the snow, you know, and then with your business owner, you hate the snow. My wife and I, we commented on that, about how I was going, no, not the snow. I know what that means. That means I’m going to have to go open up my phone, and I’m going to have text messages from my managers saying that this person can’t get to work, and that person can’t get to work. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And I’m going to have to get the Hummer, and get out the Hummer. I’m going to have to drive around town and pick people up. It’s like a big school bus of picking up people who have two-wheel drive vehicles. But we have a very special guest here, a very special guest who’s blessing us during this Christmas and winter season. It is Coach Calvert of scorebball.com. Coach, how are you? I’m good. I’m enjoying my time. Now, Coach, for anybody who is just now tuning in, we’re talking about Dr. Z and his ten rules of business, his ten rules of business from his upcoming book, The Business Pig. And we’re talking about rule number four, which is the piggy bank. It’s the concept of saving. Now I want to read this notable quotable to you, and then I want to get your first-hand experience about how saving has enabled you to push through some pretty tough adversities over at Scorby Ball over the years. So here’s a notable quotable. This is from W. Clement Stone, the founder of the Combined Insurance Company, which went on to become a billion-dollar business. He says if you cannot save money, then the seeds of greatness are not in you. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Coach, have you ever had any adversity at score B-ball that you were able to get through because you had saved some money? Oh, many, but I’ll name two. Okay, here we go. One was Christmas time about two or three years ago. Yeah. A young man all of a sudden decided he needed $20,000 more than I did. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, and he bragged about what he was buying for his family and all. And if I hadn’t have saved money, we would have been in big trouble. He stole money from you? Yes, I’m. A person who worked for you stole money from you? Very sneaky young man. How’d he do it? Through PayPal. He was stealing all of our deposits. Oh, brutal. Yeah, it was. Brutal, brutal, brutal. And I have a great stack of charity. That was a twenty thousand dollar hit. Is that what you’re saying? Yeah, and what he did wrong was he tried to do it too fast and got greedy, and we were able to easily see it. So for all the criminals who are listening, the key is you want to steal slowly over time, not a bunch at one time. Yeah, he wasn’t real smart. I have a great secretary, though, who picked up on it. Okay, now is there another adversity you’ve run into in your business career at scorebball.com? Yeah, I’ve unfortunately had six back surgeries, and I’ve had to sit down for a month at a time, two weeks at a time. I’ve had great people to take over like Marcus, Courtney and Kim. Great employees. But if we wouldn’t have been saving, it would have been really tough. I went to Bremen, Germany for a month and had back surgery. I have a terrible story. It’s very positive for me but terrible for the person involved. I don’t want you to get the feeling that I was excited about the financial calamities of my competition. But Warren Buffett says that you need to be greedy when the market is fearful. Again, I repeat, Warren Buffett said, be greedy when the market is fearful. Well, in the DJ business, it’s kind of a low barrier of entry. So everybody goes out there, they’re getting highly motivated, they buy their own sound and lights and equipment, now they’re a DJ. Boom. Boom. And so what happens is they all run into an emergency and then they go, I’m out of business. Boom. They put their stuff on a Craigslist and I buy it. Boom. Boom. That’s my move. So my whole thing is like, I just basically wait for my competition to go out of business and buy their stuff at 10% off for every dollar, you know, $10,000. I’m not kidding. I bought probably a hundred thousand dollars of equipment for like 10 grand over a six month window for competitors that went out of business between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. You gotta say, I felt really good about it. Anyway, moving on to rule number five. Rule number five, the Cinco. Okay, showtime, Z. The blue ribbon pig. Showtime, the blue ribbon pig. And coach, I’m not feeling bad. I’m still feeling good about those purchases. Okay, go for it. The fair comes around once a year. And when it’s fair time, that means it’s showtime. Corn dogs. Corn dogs. Corn dogs, and the Ferris wheel, and deep fried anything, and showing off your pig. And I tell you what, at that time of year, you got to get out the soap and the brushes. You got to scrub that little rascal up, because they’ve been in the mud. They’ve been down snorting around in the slop. And you got to take him to the fair, and you got to show off your pig. Now what does that mean in business? What am I talking about? I don’t know, I just, I can’t wait to hear this. I got the pig thing going on, you know. Here’s the deal. Life is gonna throw a bunch of mud at you. And listen, entrepreneurs out there, business owners, you’re gonna get up in the morning and you may step in some mud, all right? There may be someone that emails you mud. There may, you may hit your head on some mud, all right? And if you, when you go into your business and you’re dealing with your customers? You can’t show up muddy Oh, ho now what does it mean? That means that when you are doing that thing that you do you’re selling your widget You’re out selling your your DJ business as clay was doing on insurance running your restaurant cutting hair Whatever you’re doing You have to always be in the back of your mind thinking this. I know it sounds a little cheesy. I used to literally say this to myself before I would walk into a patient. Stuff would be going on. There would be a problem, a bathroom leak in, the life going on, mud going on. We’ll just call it mud as a general term. But when I walked into that exam room in the early days, I had to shake it off. I had to clean all that mud off. I had to get my head right and realize that I can’t go in there in a bad mood. I can’t go in there talking about the mud. I can’t go in there fussing about the mud. I can’t even show that I have mud on me. I had to do what I called show time. And I had to walk in that exam room and understand that the most important thing I could be doing right then in my life was connecting with the patient, dealing with the patient, listening to the patient, and fixing the problem that the patient came in for, okay? And doing that with a smile on my face and with excellence. And then once they left, I could go back in my office and deal with the mud. I have a very pointed notable quotable from Winston Churchill that I want to read to you. Ah, Winston Churchill. He says, success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. Now, the thing is, is that we’re all going to have adversities. You’re listening right now, the chances are you’re having some kind of adversity in your faith, in your family, in your finances, in your fitness, in your friendship. Something’s happening. And this past year, Z, you’ve been such a great mentor for me through that time, but my dad got diagnosed with ALS. And for those of you who know what it’s like to see somebody go through a debilitating disease like Lou Gehrig’s disease, it was awful. And the thing about it that made it awful was that I had to get up there and sort of just march through the work day. And I remember twice I had an appointment with a lady named Tamara, and as soon as the meeting was over I hopped in the Hummer and I pulled over there on the Creek Nation, the turnpike headed back to Broken Arrow on Riverside. I pulled over and had a complete meltdown. And it happened twice because her meeting was the last meeting of the day. I don’t think she would have had any idea. The thing is, I’m just telling you, that was rough for me. I don’t know what you’re going through right now, Thrivers, but I know you’re going through something and I just encourage you to push on. If you’re going through hell, don’t stop. I had a son who had muscular dystrophy and Duchenne’s. It’s the same thing. If we can make it through that, you can make it through anything. You can make it. Now Coach, for anybody who’s looking for something fun to take their kids to during this holiday season or this Christmas season, what are you guys doing there to score basketball camps this Christmas season? Well, there will be the normal games and things like that, but what our camps are known for are their work camps, meaning they’re going to get a ton done every day. They’re going to go home tired. I’ve been told that we do more in one day than other camps do in a whole week because of all the activities. How much does it cost? $99. And where can they learn more about it? ScoreBball.com. Now Thrivers, on tomorrow’s show we’re going to get into the next five of Dr. Z’s 10 rules for business success. But Dr. Z, if I’m listening right now and I do want to start a business or I want to grow my existing business, I have three options I can do. There’s three things I can do today. Tell me about them. Tell me about them. Option number one is I could go to thrive15.com. Why could I or why should I go there? Because it’s business coaching excellence. We’ve broke it down by topics. We broke it down by mentors. We found the best of the best to teach you, to coach you, to be your business coach. Because you’re going to learn by coaching. You’re going to either learn by mentors or mistakes. We’ve gathered the mentors, great men and women around the world, and we’ve filmed them, and we’ve made it topical, we’ve made it fun, it’s edutainment, and for only $19 a month, I mean you spend more at Starbucks probably on a pumpkin, cauliflower, peppermint, mocha. It’s the world’s best business school. It’s $19 a month. You’ve got to check it out. And by the way, we have a scholarship program available. So if you spent $17 this month at Starbucks and you only have $2 left, we’ll work with you. But the point is we want to help you start and grow a successful business. Option number two, you can come out to a thrive15.com workshop, an in-person two-day workshop that’s 15 hours over two days. We teach you time management, customer service, sales, search engine optimization, accounting. You want to learn more about it? Go to thrive15.com. You can go to thrive15.com. You can find all the information there. Or Z, if someone wants in-person, one-on-one business coaching, why is that so valuable? Well, it’s so valuable because, I’ll tell you what, you know, you want someone, you’ve got a question, you’ve got something kind of urgent, you know, your transmission went out in your business, and you need to talk to someone right now, today. That’s that one-on-one business coaching, the access, and also to make sure that they’re holding you accountable to get done the things that you’re supposed to get done. Now, Thrive Nation, as always, we thank you for joining us today and on tomorrow’s show. We’re gonna get into Z’s next five business rules I’m Z. I’m excited. You’re excited and as always three two one 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 is that 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, 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 10-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 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 $3,000 every 10 minutes and they’re like, nah, that’s not worth my time. We getting there, everybody. We getting there, everybody. Probably some someone out there. Okay. They would think that. Well, I’ll just tell you folks, if you’re out there today and you’re making less than $3,000 per 10 minutes, I would highly recommend that you go to throttletimeshow.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. Takes the pressure off. JT, is there any other reason why somebody would not be willing to take 10 minutes to 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 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 company here called IPS. It’s Integrated Payment Services. 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 gonna 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 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 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. 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 nonexistent 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, asking our customers for reviews. And now we’re the highest rated and most reviewed Pest Alarm 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 percent over last year. Wait, say that again. How much are we up? 411 percent. Okay, so 411 percent 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, 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. And it’s incredible, but the reason why we have that success by implementing the systems that Thrive has taught us and helped us out with. Some of those systems that we’ve implemented are group interviews, that way we’ve really been able to come up with a really great team. We’ve created and implemented checklists, that way 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 and 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. 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. You know, they implemented those systems, that 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. 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. 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% 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 the use of services, you’re choosing to use a proof and turnkey 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’s 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 is working in every single industry. He’s written books with Lee Crockrell, head of Disney, with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with Mike Lindell. He does Reawaken America tours where he does these tours all across the country where 10,000 or more people show up to some of these tours on the day-to-day. He does anywhere from about 160 companies. He’s at the top. He has a team of business coaches, videographers, graphic designers, and web developers. They run 160 companies every single week. 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. So I’ve seen guys from startups go from startup to being multi-millionaires, teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom through the system. Critical thinking, document creation, organizing everything in their head to building into a franchisable, scalable business. One of his businesses has like 500 franchises. That’s just one of the companies or brands that he works with. Amazing guy. Elon Musk, kind of like smart guy. He kind of comes off sometimes as socially awkward, but he’s so brilliant and he’s taught me so much. When I say that, Clay is like he doesn’t care what people think when you’re talking to him. He cares about where you’re going in your life and where he can get you to go. And that’s what I like him most about him. He’s like a good coach. A coach isn’t just making you feel good all the time. A coach is actually helping you get to the best of you. And Clay has been an amazing business coach. Through the course of that, we became friends. My 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 listened to it. When we walked out, I knew that he could make millions on the deal and they were super excited about working with him. He told me, he’s like, I’m not going to touch it. I’m going to turn it down because he knew it was going to harm the common good of people in the long run. The guy’s integrity just really wowed me. It brought tears to my eyes 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. Anytime I’ve gotten nervous or worried about how to run the company or navigating competition and an economy that’s like, I remember we got closed down for three months. He helped us navigate on how to stay open, how to get back open, how to just survive through all the COVID shutdowns, lockdowns. 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. This is where we used to live 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 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. The Thrive Time Show, two-day interactive business workshops are the highest and most reviewed business workshops on the planet. You can learn the proven 13-point business system that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. We get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems, so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re gonna leave energized, motivated, but you’re also gonna leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and they’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big, get rich quick, walk on hot coals product. It’s literally we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, 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. If we go back eight years ago, think about the number of clients you had back then versus the number of clients you have now. As a percentage, what has been the growth over the past eight years, do you think? We’ve got to inspire somebody out there who just doesn’t have the time to listen to their calls. 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 five clients to 20 clients on my own with networking, but I had no control over it. I didn’t, without the systems, you’re going to be 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. Now, 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, 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 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 they 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. She’s been nailing down five and eight appointments a day. Somebody out there is having a hard time. On that script. 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 do, if someone were to buy an Apple computer today, and or let’s say about 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. That’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 had five years removed from the DJ business. And you were how many years removed from tax and accounting software? It was about 10-11 years. We met, how did we meet? What was the first interaction or some interaction where you and I first connected? I just remember that somehow you and I went to Hideaway Pizza. But you remember when we first reconnected? Yeah, well we had that speaking thing that… Oh, there it was. So it’s Victory Christian Center. I was speaking there. My name is Robert Redmond. I actually first met Clay almost three years ago to the day. I don’t know if he remembers it or not, but I wasn’t working with him at the time. I asked to see him and just ask him some questions to help 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 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. You know, he’s just serving them. They’re one of his clients, but it’s as if he is actively involved in the business. Whenever they have a win, he’s posting it all over his social media. He’s shouting it across the room here at Thrive. You know, he’s sending people encouraging messages. He can kind of be that life coach and business coach in terms of being that motivator and that champion for people’s businesses. It’s again unique because there’s no one else I’ve seen get so excited about and passionate about other people’s businesses. The kind of people that wouldn’t like working with Clay are people that are satisfied with mediocrity, people that want to get through life by just doing enough, by just getting by, people who are not looking to develop themselves, people who are not coachable, people who think that they know it all and they’re unwilling to change. I would say those are the type of people, in short, anyone that’s content with mediocrity would not like working with Clay. So if you’re meeting Clay for the first time, the advice I’d give you is definitely come ready to take tons of notes. Every time Clay speaks, he gives you a wealth of knowledge that you don’t want to miss. I remember the first time that I met Clay. I literally carried a notebook with me all around. I was looking at this notebook the other day actually. I carried a notebook with me all around and I just took tons of notes. I filled the entire notebook in about three or four months just from being around Clay, following him and learning from him. And then I would say come coachable. Be open to learning something new, be open to challenging yourself, be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted.