Entrepreneur | Nobody Cares More About Your Success Than You + Philosophy

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 gotta do. Hey, how are you doing, my friend? I’m doing great. I was watching some of the guys editing today. Sure. And I was looking at it, and I was realizing, like, people are not, we have thousands of people all around the world who are logging on to learn about how to grow a business or start a business Or advance in their career, and I’m realizing they’re not logging on for my physical beauty It just occurred to me that that’s not the reason I people have been lying to me I know I’ve been feeding this line of bull for months now. I just realized that can’t be true I was trying to you know you pad you trying to build you up a little bit I want you to still come and not feel embarrassed I realize what I look like though, and I’m like, well, people are here for the reasons. One thing to try is maybe get a tan. Maybe try getting a tan. Okay. Just put it out there. It’s on the table. Do what you want. Today we are talking about the fact that nobody cares more about your success than you. Nobody cares more about your success than you. Why is this important to dedicate a whole episode to? This punched me in the face when I started to realize this knowledge when I started getting out of college, that every day that I struggled, no one was going to call me and encourage me. I remember as a kid, I’d screw up, I’d fall off my bike, I’d do bad at spelling, and my mom would say, hey, you can do it, you can make it, you can… or my dad, or maybe some of you watching didn’t have a mom or a dad, maybe you had… but at a certain point I realized I’m going to have to encourage myself. Like nobody cares. Right. If my business fails or if I do too poorly in my career, nobody’s going to call and encourage me. I kept waiting for somebody else to come and help me. I kept waiting for the reinforcements to come. So you have to establish your own success. Yeah. Whatever that is, whether you’re in your job right now, wanting to start a job, whatever it is, you’ve got to establish that yourself. Yeah. It’s a time. One thing I love is the New York Times actually did a book review on the book, The Millionaire Next Door. They said 80% of millionaires are first generation affluent who never received inheritance. So they weren’t handed anything. And lots of times it’s easy for anybody who’s, you know, those of us that aren’t necessarily where we want to be financially to say, well, they got it handed to them. Well, because you’re watching the Kardashians and you’re watching the, you know, the shows about the reality shows. And that’s not the fact. Yeah, the reality is 80% of people in our country who have done well, and if you’re not watching from America, we have people all over the world. If you’re watching in Ukraine right now, what up? But here’s the deal, you can become successful, but the reality is four to five people who do become successful are self-made, and you can be one of those four out of five. So you’re saying if you do want to be one of those four out of five people that have achieved some of their goals financially, I believe you’re going to probably have to do some things that they do. Yeah, and the thing is that success is hard. And the great thing about success is when you have success, if you want to have big success or you want to achieve big, big goals, you want to have an abnormal lifestyle of wealth, it’s not normal. So you’re going to have to embrace that concept. You’re going to have to put forth a different kind of level of intensity and effort to get there. So here’s something that’s interesting though. Entrepreneur Magazine said that 86% of wealthy people, and they defined wealthy people as anyone earning at least $160,000 annually and holding at least $3.2 million in assets. That’s how they define wealthy. So 86% of wealthy people love to read. However, only 26% of poor people love to read. Is that a coincidence? Or is there something to that? I noticed for me, when I first started reading and started, I mean, it’s crazy, but a lot of men, I was one of these guys, I’d go to work and my boss would say, could you practice your sales over the weekend? Could you practice your customer service? Could you read the manual over the weekend? And I’d be like, I don’t have time for that. I’ve got to watch, and I remember specifically, I’m watching like every football game that they had on Monday Night Football. Back in the day when it was on regular network TV, I had to watch every Monday Night Football. And I had to get together with the dudes during a certain night. And on Friday night, I had to go out with, and on Saturday I had no time because I had to say yes to all of those obligations. Clay, this is getting offensive. And so I had to start to say no. I started to say no. People were like, dude, how come you don’t come out anymore? And I’m like, because I’m studying success. And so I would just say, when you start to study success and read success books, you’ll start to notice you get paid more. And that makes you kind of like it. So you’re saying nobody cares about your success as much as you do. Yeah. And it seems like this top percent of wealthy people understand that. That’s why they invest so much in their own education. Is that what you’re, that’s kind of the, that’s how the statistic fits in? Yeah. It’s just the thing of like, if you’re going to become successful, you’re going to have to start to care more about your success than anybody else. You’re going to have to just own it and say, I am going to be successful and I have decided, I made that decision. You have to dominate and own that decision. So I got a notable quotable here. This is from Napoleon Hill. OK, he says the starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat. Unpack that for us a little bit. Can I offend people? Is that okay? I would prefer you not to. If you say like an all due respect… I do not give you permission. If I say an all due respect, I can pretty much after that say whatever I want. So I’m going to say it. With all due respect, check this story. I remember at college, I remember seeing my wife, and at the time she wasn’t my wife, she’s a girl, you know, on the campus. I remember thinking, she is so hot, so hot. And I remember, I have to, I have to, I’m not sure what to do, but I’m going to catch her, I’m going to get her, I’m going to bring her back to my, I’m going to win this, I’m going to win her. And I remember that my buddy Jake, he says to me, dude, she’s out of your league. And I’m like, I know, but she’s, I’m telling you. And so then I start, check it out though. Once we started kind of I got rejected. She told me no, right? So I come back and I’m like, maybe she just wants more information That’s what you because I had the desire that was required to win this lady. I I straight up shut up She was babysitting at someone’s house. Well, I showed up I’m making like omelets. I’m like just cat I’m like trying to wow her. Yeah only to discover she hates my cooking hates my food Rejection number two, bro. I move into that that kiss action, no go. So I come back, opportunity number three. The average man would not have come back for the third. It’s your desire. But my desire, I had the desire required to woo the lady. So I kept coming back, keep coming back. Boom, next thing you know, I’m getting married to a lady who’s totally better than me in every single possible way. I just, she’s awesome. We all agree with you there. You know what I mean? So I am just, I’m just telling you though and then once we started dating kids keep keep keep focused here This is okay once we start dating. We’re start doing that deal where you’re you know You’re kind of calling each other at 4 in the morning going. What are you doing? I don’t know What do you what are you doing? You hang out? What do you do? What are you doing? No? I just tell you you do all right, babe. You get that email, baby. You’re just talking right? I was I didn’t sleep for like a year. I’m pretty positive that scientifically It was impossible to not sleep for a year. But I didn’t sleep for a year. Because I could make out with her till 4 in the morning and then get up for class at 6. And I was still on fire because I had the desire. Does that make sense? Yeah, that makes sense. And I’m glad you got so passionate because this is intense. We got to see some of that desire and that passion come through. That’s why as soon as this episode is done, I’m sprinting home to hit on my wife. Well, let’s go ahead and slow down because we’re not done here. What we’re going to be doing is we’re going over these two different points, two different principles here. This is all to help you realize that nobody cares about your success as much as you, okay? The first thing we’re touching on is come to the realization that the Calvary is not coming anytime soon. That’s tough to hear, but it’s real. Come to that realization. The second one we’re going to touch on is coming to grips with the reality of the law of cause and effect, okay? So let’s start with the first one. The Calvary isn’t coming anytime soon. All right? I got a notable quotable here. Yeah. All right. So this is notable quotable from Walt Disney. Okay. He’s, he kind of started a successful company. He did a few things that people thought were all right. Right. Okay. He did all right. You might have heard of him. Whatever. You know. All right. Might have heard of the mouse. Any of those things. That’s him. Okay. He says, all our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. Okay? Why do you need courage? Because it’s scary, right? Because my wife was hot and I could not have, I mean, I am, I am, I mean, look at me. I am not America’s standard for beauty. Okay, well stop. I am, but, but what I, but I, I knew that I wanted, I wanted to get her. I wanted to catch her. I wanted to marry her. I wanted to bring her home, bring her back to my castle, the whole deal. Right? So the dreams can be scary though. They’re scary because she’s so hot. Yeah. And nobody’s going to help you. And your business goals are so big. And you want to be an awesome mom. You want to be an awesome mom. You want to be an awesome dad. You want to have an awesome house. You want to have health insurance. You want to have, you want to be successful. And that’s not normal. Most people are not successful. Well tell us though, when you first started out, you know, you’re doing cold calling in the early days. This was after Target, you know after some of the other jobs. You were doing cold calling and I think I remember you telling me a little bit of kind of this false belief you know that you had about cold calling. How does that relate? Tell us. Okay the top insurance agent, I work with agent insurance companies, okay, so I help them train their agents. So specifically I’ve worked with farmers insurance for a long time. Perhaps you’ve seen their commercials. I have. We are farmers. Those guys. I work with those guys. I start realizing the top agent though, the top, the guy who’s the best of the best of the best. He converts roughly 1.7% of all of the people he talks to into a deal. Meaning he makes a hundred cold calls and he books 1.7 deals. That’s his office average. And you start to realize that Steve Jobs pitched to over 100 and something venture capital firms and they all said no three times, but one guy, Markula, Mike Markula, I believe I’m saying that right, we’ll put it up on the screen here, but Mike invested in Steve Jobs, and that’s what made it work. So when I got rejected, I started to realize that, I’m like, it’s like I’m digging for gold, and I’m getting farther and farther down through the soil, and I’m eventually gonna find it, instead of getting discouraged that I hadn’t found it yet. So how does this apply though, to what we’re talking about where the Calvary is not coming? How does that apply? You have to realize that there’s nobody coming to say you can do it, all right, you’re on the way, you’re near, you’re close to gold, you’re three feet from gold, don’t stop, but if you can say that to yourself, now you have a powerful thing. And I will tell you, I’ve interviewed countless millionaires and mentors and all of them talk to themselves. You mean talk to themselves? I mean they tell themselves you can do it, you’re almost there, you’re getting there, you’re getting closer. But in actuality, do you really talk to yourself? What does that look like? I do all the time, bro. Well, OK, so if I’m the driver here, I’m watching. I’m on the side of this camera. What do you say to me in that regard? Because it makes a big difference. OK, just being honest, this is a rough, rough example today. I have a double sinus infection. It’s true. And I got the double ear infection going on. And I have fluid on my lungs. It’s like a neat deal. Yeah, it is pretty cool. I’m like a medical anomaly. So I wake up this morning and I feel awful. And literally when I breathe I kind of hear it wheeze a little bit. I’m deaf in one ear. It’s weird. And I told myself this morning, I said, it is a great day. And I am too blessed to be stressed. I’m excited about today. I’m going to have a great day today. I am pumped. And I listened to One Republic, If I Lose Myself on my Groove Shark on the way in. And I was pumped. Got the subwoofer cranked up. Get out of my homework of love, hop into the meeting, you’d have no idea I had a rough morning. But I had a rough morning because I feel physically bad. But I have to encourage myself to tell myself that I do not feel that way. That’s because the Calvary’s not coming. The Calvary’s not coming. They’re not going to come help me. Okay, we’ve got principle number two here now. Principle number two, the law of cause and effect. We have a little dictionary definition here. Are you ready for it? Yep. Dictionary definition. Cause and effect is noting a relationship between actions or events such that one or more are the results of the other or others. What is cause and effect? Let me show you it real quick if it’s okay if I go to my incredible board of… Please do. Let me just show you this real quick. Cause and effect, what is it? If this is a seed right here, this is a seed, okay, and I have soil and I till the soil, right? Yep. And I put the seed, step one is I till, step two is I sow, okay, step three is I want to water that beast, right? Step four is I want to keep watering that beast, step five I keep watering the poison, I keep watering, yeah, then I eventually have a harvest. Let’s make sure with our lives that we are one, tilling the soil, two, let’s make sure we’re sowing seeds. Three, let’s make sure we’re consistently watering. And then let’s talk about a harvest. So how does this fit with cause and effect? Well the thing is in business right now if you’re being a slug of an employee, if you’re not bringing it every day, if you’re not over delivering, if you’re not wowing the boss, if you’re not wowing customers, if you’re not reading self-help, if you’re not studying self-help, if you’re not devoted to being awesome, you have not tilled the soil. And then if you did till the soil, you’re that crazy guy who is working like that, you are dominating, you are doing the six-day principle, you’re working hard, you’re over-delivering, you’re bringing that mindset to the office, then you’ve got to water that. You don’t get a merit badge or a cookie because you’ve been working hard for 30 days in a row or 60 days in a row. I’m talking about getting it done week after week, month after month. And I will tell you, after you’ve been doing that for about six months, people will start to say, wow, that’s a diligent person. Wow, that’s somebody who’s a hard worker. Now people want to start to talk to you about maybe getting promoted, maybe advancing. But you’ve got to understand the law of cause and effect. You can’t just get the effect because you want it. You have to make sure you are the cause of the effect you want. Okay, so what do I do with this now? You’ve explained to me what cause and effect is. Practically, what do I do with this cause and effect? Look at your job right now and ask yourself, are you truly performing at a level that is 15% better than what you’re asked to do? So real talk. If you’re a server, working at a restaurant, if you’re at a call center, if you’re working in sales, you’re replacing mufflers, ask yourself, are you working at a level that’s 15% better than what is expected? Because if you do not, you’re not sowing seeds. If you’re working just at what they…if all you’re doing is meeting their expectations, you are not sowing seeds. If all you’re doing is just getting the job done, you are not sowing seeds. I’m talking about you have to over-deliver consistently. That is sowing seeds. And watering it is doing it day after day. Diligence, remember the word diligence means the steady application of effort. The steady, consistent application of effort. Okay, but listen here, I’ve got to get notable quotable here. This is from your main man, Thomas Jefferson, and he talks a little bit about cause and effect. This is what he says. He says, I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. What does he mean by that? He’s not talking about luck. Well, what you’re talking about is in business, I know specifically, there’s been numerous businesses where I’ve helped clients raise money. They’re trying to raise capital. And specifically, I worked with a guy who just had a great business idea, brilliant. And all he needed was like $80,000. Now, if you’re watching this, $80,000 might go, that’s nothing. Somebody else might watch this and say, $80,000, that’s like a million. I mean, in my mind, that could be… I don’t know what 80,000 means to you, but to him, it was a big thing. And I can say that he had three leads. He had three guys who he knew who were talking about maybe putting in 80,000. And I said, let’s get the list to 150. I mean, do you think if you have 150 people on that list, and you talk to them all consistently, and you execute the plan, that if you just suck like a vacuum, that you’ll get at least one out of those 150. That increases your luck. And he was like, yeah, I do. I’m like, I mean, if you are terrible, one out of 150. And he’s like, yeah, I think I can. So we started doing it. And I don’t remember what the number was. It was around like 40 some odd contacts. He ended up getting his money. The point is you’ve got to increase. Thomas Watson, OK, this is the guy who ran IBM for years, the CEO, he says if you want to double your rate of success, you have to double your rate of failure. And that’s the cause and effect, though. You can’t expect the effect without actually doing something. If you’re sowing seeds, you’re sowing one for the crow, you’re sowing one that, you know, it’s kind of just out there, just kind of like, well, I hope it works. You’ve got one that you want to grow. You’ve got one that just sort of didn’t get a deep impact. You’ve got four or five seeds you’re sowing, and only one’s going to grow. So get off this whole utopic, ridiculous worldview that if you have a great idea, it’s going to take off, or if you just work hard for one day, you’re going to have success. No. I’m talking about working hard every day because your boss is not going to see you working hard today. No, they’re not. They’re not going to see you tomorrow. They’re going to be on vacation the one week that you got motivated to work hard. But if you keep doing it every single day, they’re eventually going to notice. When they do notice, boom. Who benefits? Who are you penalizing if you don’t do this? If you do not work hard and over deliver, if you do not implement the law of cause and effect, you’re not hurting your company. You’re hurting yourself. OK, but so how does this fit into the whole nobody cares about your success more than you? Well, the thing is that you have to get white hot passionate right now about whatever that is. And I gave you an example about my wife, because there’s nothing I’m more passionate about on this whole planet than my wife. She’s my best friend. She’s the best. But the thing is, at one point, she was just a dream. She was the dream weaver, you know? Dream weaver. And I wanted to get her. I wanted to catch her. I wanted to convince her. I wanted to woo her. But I was not qualified. And then when I started growing my business, I thought, man, I would love to be the DJ of choice for UPS, for IBM, for all these major corporations and one by one I got them all that’s huge And so when you’re when you’re going through this episode the important thing to keep in mind are these two things one The Calvary is not coming for you true that the Calvary is not coming for you and two You’ve got to remember the law of cause and effect Absolutely, and that’s the important thing when you’re thinking about this Nobody cares about your success more than you and if you’ve got these two things in mind you use the rule of you know The law of cause and effect appropriately, you can achieve those genes. Absolutely. And I want to encourage you if you’re watching this right now and you’re like, man, I’ve been sowing seeds. I’ve been working hard. I’ve been, I promise you, if you watch this, you say, I promise you, I have been sowing seeds. You have no idea how many seeds I’ve been sowing. I will tell you, if you’ll make it your effort to over deliver consistently over the long haul, over the next six months, you will get noticed. And you will have your opportunity. And when opportunity meets preparation, that’s when luck happens. That’s good. I love it. I appreciate it, Clay. Thank you. Boom. Arthur, you have six kids, one wonderful wife, beautiful house, multiple successful businesses. What are you passionate about these days? Well, I’m passionate about mentoring. I love sharing ideas. I love helping people get over their hurdles. A lot of times as entrepreneurs, you know, we get stuck. And so I like to be the guy that kind of helps them get unstuck. So you’re passionate about helping other entrepreneurs succeed? Absolutely. And not just other entrepreneurs, just anyone I can and I know that you’ve done this and I and I and so I feel like because I’ve you’ve had so much Experience experience mentoring and doing speaking events and working with people. I think you’re qualified answer this question Why do you believe that some people? are I’m not talking about some people are millionaires and some people are multi millionaires and some people are but why are some people? clearly unsuccessful financially, spiritually, emotionally, whatever. And why are some people successful? What is the separation in your mind? I think the biggest thing is they’re totally unbalanced. I think the ones that are, a lot of times, the ones that are unsuccessful, if you really look at their lives, they’re unbalanced in multiple things. You could probably just go down a list and say they’re unbalanced spiritually, they’re unbalanced in their marriage, they’re unbalanced in their time management, their unbalance in their bank account, and maybe even in weight loss. You grew up with an alcoholic mother, a father that abandoned you. I said abandoned, but he basically was gone from your life from age 13 to 18. Financially, you guys struggled. So talking about mentors, how big of an impact did mentors have in your life as far as giving you hope that you could be successful? Even though your parents maybe didn’t encourage you that way. Yeah, when I was a teenager, the mentors I had in my life, it wasn’t like a mentor like I have nowadays, where I’ll sit down and meet with somebody on a regular basis. I was taking what I can get, literally. It might be a coach who gave me a positive word, or I would look at some of the people, the figures in my church and say, you know what, I want to be like that guy. And so it was really one of those, I’ll take anything I can get. I got a lot of my mentorship when I was starting out from books. You know, I obviously, John Rockefeller had passed by the time that I was born. Russell Simmons, multimillionaire, founder of hip-hop successful entrepreneur, I couldn’t reach him. So I bought his book and I found that through the books, when a lot of people get successful, they’ll write everything they did to get there. And I’m like, what? These secrets, these little secret keys are all in there. And I found that I would just take those keys and I’d unlock it and I could have all these successful things that happened. Is there any books that you’ve read that have helped you become successful? Oh, tremendous one. The very first one, see, I didn’t used to read a lot. I didn’t like reading, but the very first one, I was talking to a gentleman and he imparted some wisdom in my life because I was frustrated with some things and he said, you need to dress better. And so he suggested the book, Dressing for Success. Who wrote that, do you know? I don’t. We’ll say it’s Ron Ron Burgundy. Okay. Okay. Is it? No. Okay. So Dressing for Success. It was an old book that they wrote and it really went through how mentality-wise, what people think when they see other people dressing certain ways. And that’s when I really learned the value of books. So you learned to dress successfully and that was like the first time that a book meant something to you. Absolutely. In fact, I went out that day and I went to a place and I said, I got a whole new wardrobe that day. I threw everything else in the trash. What other books jumped up to your ears? My management team, I require that they read 21 Laws of Leadership. John Maxwell? Absolutely. Great man, great philosophies, but to me, the 21 Laws of Leadership are entry-level leadership things to read. I was on a vacation, I was on a cruise, and I read that book, because I don’t do vacation, I’m very into like processes and systems, I like to get stuff done, so vacation to me, I’m just like waiting for it to be over, like, you know, on the cruise. I’m sure your wife loves that. No, no, we’ve worked it out a little bit. This is, you know, I’m a little old school, 2005, so I’m on vacation just kind of waiting, like, when’s this going to be over? Not her, just the fact that I just don’t do vacation, right? And I’m reading this 21 laws of leadership and it’s all these laws And I’m starting to write down these laws. It’s talking about the law of the lid like basically of a lid on your business You can’t pour any more into it because you’re a lid on it talks about You know the law of basically your communication these different laws and I’m like I am violating every leadership law And I came home and I had some huge epiphanies in 2005. It changed my whole way I did business. I mean, our company was literally stuck at, you know, 10-15 weddings a weekend we would provide entertainment for. And we’re almost tripled based off some of these systems. So it’s amazing to me like that book meant something to you, something to me meant a lot to a lot of people. The third book for me would be… Where’s Waldo? No, I haven’t read that one. Oh, yes. I mean, all these different books are racing through my mind. Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich, I think is a pivotal part of successful thinking. That book blows my mind. It absolutely does. Is there anything out of that book in particular that jumped out to you as being like, whoa, whoa. You know, this sounds really weird, but it’s almost like that book is, it just has so many different aspects of business that when you read, you’re like, oh yeah, I can apply that. Oh yeah, I can apply that. I mean, it’s almost like whenever I get frustrated, it’s like, you know, I’m going to go flip open that book and see what it says. It’s almost like the Bible for business. I mean, that sounds weird. This is one thing I discovered. I see like 2100 vision out of this bright eye here, and I see it 2040 over here. And when I read that book, I feel like everything was blurry, but I would put on my glasses and I’m like, oh, this is how you do it. Like, it was amazing how the night and day, like the vision I had was just crystal clear about how to grow a successful company after reading that book. Well, what’s kind of funny for me is that I didn’t read that book right out of the chutes you know it took a little bit while a little while to do it and I remember I Didn’t want to read that book because to me it was almost like rich is bad. Yeah I don’t you mean though you like it’s almost like we’ve been taught that it’s bad to talk about money, correct And so so I read that book well just a little while ago I was interviewing Dan Cathy the president of Chick-fil-A, and he was sitting down I said what’s one of the books that that you read early on and he said my dad made us all read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Oh again! Think and Grow Rich strikes again! I was so shocked because Chick-fil-A is such a conservative company I was like what do you mean? He goes, oh, that has so many business principles. With Think and Grow Rich and with 21 Laws of Leadership and Dress to Success, how do you find time to read it all, man? You have six kids. How are you doing it? What time are you getting up? I get up generally about 6 a.m. Is that when you read? No. I generally will read… I schedule out my day. It’s very important. But there’s always times in there that I’ll generally carry my books around with me. Really? And so I will pull it out and read it at certain times. But I can generally look at my schedule and go, I’m going to have time here and here and here. Okay. Because for me personally, and not everybody’s like this, in the mornings, that’s when I do my planning time. Yeah. And in the evenings, I can’t stay focused. It’s hard for me to stay focused. See, for me, I have found that I will read the first 15 or 20 minutes of the day, and then I get some new ideas that when I do my planning, it kind of like flavors it a little bit, gives me some ideas. If I’m with you at night, it’s just whatever. No, I generally get about 15 minutes somewhere in the day when I’m alone, very alone, that I can probably read. And there’s some time there that I always have. That’s great. OK. When you’re alone and very alone, that’s when you read. Now, do you currently maintain a specific day timer? You said you’re very scheduled. Do you have a day timer? Well, I use my iPhone. And I use my iPhone, which syncs up with my iPad and syncs up with my computer. And so I use a calendar that’s on there. And I’m very, really, if it’s not on there, it won’t happen. That’s just how life is for me. Now let me ask you this. Every entrepreneur I’ve ever met has kind of mentioned a little bit of a cautionary tale. When I ask them this, I always ask them, what’s the thing about becoming successful that I don’t want to hear? Maybe the thing that you don’t want to tell somebody but it’s true. And this is the kind of thing I hear all the time. They say, well, one of the penalties, one guy said, one of the penalties of ambition is that you have to have extremely detailed and organized life if you want to be successful. You know, if you’re ambitious. Otherwise, if you’re ambitious, you’re just in chaos. Okay. Do you agree with that? If you’re going to be ambitious and successful, you’ve got to be extremely detailed? No. No. And let me tell you why. I am, I am not extremely detailed, but I surround myself with people that are. Okay. And so I actually have people in my life that will correct me. You know, if things aren’t going the way they should, they’ll step in and go, Whoa, you have this meeting over here. So the net result is organization and detail. Correct. You don’t have to personally be the organized or detailed one. Correct. It’s about surrounding yourself with those people that can make you successful, whatever that may be. I am probably one of the most creative people that I know. But I do know that I will get distracted very easily. What if I’m a thriver, I’m on some website, and I’d be like, man, I’d like to have a free Chick-fil-A sandwich sent to me. Is that something you could do? Is that something I could do? I mean, there’s probably millions of people that would do this. So is that like maybe we do a raffle? Like they just send an email and maybe one out of like every four million people we decide to give a free sandwich to? Or how do you think we should handle that? What’s your philosophy on this? On how to do it? Yeah. Well depends on where they at. I have been known to overnight sandwiches to different places in the U.S. So they sent us an email, info at thrive15.com. They may or may not receive a free Chick-fil-A sandwich? That’s correct. That’s correct. Okay. We stand behind that. You may or may not get a free Chick-fil-A sandwich. At least we’re consistent. That’s right. That’s right. But, Arthur, thank you so much for sharing your philosophies. I appreciate you letting us just mine into your head. It means a lot. It was an honor. Thank you. All right, JT. So hypothetically, in your mind, what is the purpose of having a business? To get you to your goals. So it’s a vehicle to get you to your destination. And would you need profits to get there? I mean, when you have a business that’s successful, in your expert opinion, would you need profits to get 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 thrive timeshow.com forward slash credit dash card thrive timeshow.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 then it won’t. It’s not possible. There’s somebody out there that’s making more than $3,000 every 10 minutes and they’re like nah that’s not worth my time. We getting there, everybody. We getting there, everybody. There’s probably some someone out there. Okay. They would think that. Well I’ll just tell you folks, if you’re out there today and you’re making less than $3,000 per 10 minutes I would highly recommend that you go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash hard. Because you can compare rates, you can save money and you know the big goal in my opinion of building a business is to create time, freedom, and financial freedom and in order to do that you have to maximize your profits. Holy crap! Now, one way to maximize your profits is to increase your revenue. Another way to do it is to decrease your expenses. It’s a profit deal! It takes the pressure off. JT, is there any other reason why somebody would not be willing to take 10 minutes to compare rates, to see if they could save a total of $3,000 a year on average I Am at a loss and I cannot think of any other shampoo is better. I go on first and clean the hair Good. Yes, no, it’s better. I leave the hair silky and smooth. Oh really fool 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. And I scheduled a consultation. I don’t know if I was skeptical. I just thought, whatever, I’ll take 10 minutes. I’ll compare rates. I can’t tell. You can tell me I’m a doctor. No, I mean, I’m just not sure. Why can’t you take a guess? Well, not for another two hours. You can’t take a guess for another two hours? And in my case, in my case, in my particular case, I save over $20,000 a year. Holy crap! Wow. Which is, uh, you know, like, uh, groceries when my wife goes to the organic store. Find everything you need today? Yeah. Great. Okay. Oh, God. Everything okay, ma’am? It’s just that you’ve only scanned a few items and it’s already 60 bucks. I’m so scared. Okay, I’m a trained professional, ma’am. I’ve scanned a lot of groceries. I need you to stay with me. It’s just that my in-laws are in town and they want a charcuterie board. This isn’t going to be easy, so I need you to be brave, all right? What’s your name? Patricia. Patricia, all right. I need you to take a deep breath. We’re about to do the cheese. You know, that’s the difference between eating organic and not organic. So because my wife eats organic, I had to take the 10 minutes needed to compare rates to save the $20,000 a year on credit card fees just for one of my companies. One question. What’s the brand name of the clock? The brand name of the clock, Rod. Do we have it? The brand name of the clock. It’s an elegant from Ridgway. It’s from Ridgeway. Let’s buy the clock and sell the fireplace. I encourage everybody out there, go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. You schedule a free consultation, request information, a member of our team will call you, they’ll schedule a free consultation. It should take you 10 minutes or less, and they’re going to compare rates and see if they can’t save you more than $3,000 a year off of your credit card processing. You were hoping what? I wouldn’t owe you money at the end of the day. No, you don’t owe us money. Because at the end of the day, at the end of the day, the goal of the business is to create time freedom and financial freedom, and in order to do that, you need to create additional profits. Let’s go. Let’s go. The number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. We are Jared and Jennifer Johnson. We own Platinum Pest and Lawn and are located in Owasso, Oklahoma. We have been working with Thrive for business coaching for almost a year now. Yeah. What we want to do is we want to share some wins with you guys that we’ve had by working with Thrive. First of all, we’re on the top page of Google now, okay? I just want to let you know what type of accomplishment this is. Our competition, Orkin, Terminix, they’re both $1.3 billion companies. They both have 2,000 to 3,000 pages of content attached to their website. So to basically go from virtually non-existent on Google to up on the top page is really saying something. But it’s come by being diligent to the systems that Thrive has, by being consistent and diligent on doing podcasts, and staying on top of those podcasts to really help with getting up on what they’re listing and ranking there with Google. And also, we’ve been trying to get Google reviews, asking our customers for reviews. And now we’re the highest rated and most reviewed Pest Salon company in the Tulsa area. And that’s really helped with our conversion rate and the number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. Wait, say that again. How much are we up? 411%. Okay, so 411% we’re up with our new customers. Amazing. Right, so not only do we have more customers calling in, we’re able to close those deals at a much higher rate than we were before. Right now, our closing rate is about 85%, and that’s largely due to, first of all, like our Google reviews that we’ve gotten. People really see that our customers are happy, but also we have a script that we follow. And so when customers call in, they get all the information that they need. That script has been refined time and time again. It wasn’t a one-and-done deal. It was a system that we followed with Thrive in the refining process. And that has obviously, the 411% shows that that system works. Yeah, so here’s a big one for you. So last week alone, our booking percentage was 91%. We actually booked more deals, more new customers last year than we did the first five months, or I’m sorry, we booked more deals last week than we did the first five months of last year from before we worked with Thrive. So again, we booked more deals last week than the first five months of last year. 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 when everything gets done and it gets done right, it creates accountability. We’re able to make sure that everything gets done properly, both out in the field and also in our office. And also doing the podcast, like Jared had mentioned, that has really, really contributed to our success. But that, like I said, the diligence and consistency in doing those 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 and we were in a rut. The last three years, our customer base had pretty much stayed the same. We weren’t shrinking but we weren’t really growing either. Yeah, and so we didn’t really know where to go, what to do, how to get out of this rut that we’re in. But Thrive helped us with that. They implemented those systems, they taught us those systems, they taught us the knowledge that we needed in order to succeed. Now it’s been a grind, absolutely it’s been a grind this last year, but we’re getting those fruits from that hard work and the diligent effort that we’re able to put into it. So again, we were in a rut, Thrive helped us get out of that rut. And if you’re thinking about working with Thrive, quit thinking about it and just do it. Do the action and you’ll get the results. It will take hard work and discipline, but that’s what it’s going to take in order to really succeed. So, we just want to give a big shout out to Thrive, a big thank you out there to Thrive. We wouldn’t be where we’re at now without their help. Hi, I’m Dr. Mark Moore. I’m a pediatric dentist. Through our new digital marketing plan, we have seen a marked increase in the number of new patients that we’re seeing every month, year over year. One month, for example, we went from 110 new patients the previous year to over 180 new patients in the same month. And overall, our average is running about 40 to 42 percent increase, month over month, year over year. The group of people required to implement our new digital marketing plan is immense, starting with a business coach, videographers, photographers, web designers. Back when I graduated dental school in 1985, nobody advertised. The only marketing that was ethically allowed in everybody’s eyes was mouth-to-mouth marketing. By choosing 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 has worked in every single industry. He’s written books with Lee Crockrell, head of Disney with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with Mike Lindell. He does Reawaken America tours where he does these tours all across the country where 10,000 or more people show up to some of these tours. On the day-to-day he does any work 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. Every six to eight weeks he’s doing Reawaken America tours. Every six to eight weeks he’s also doing business conferences where 200 people show up and he teaches people a 13 step proven system that he’s done and worked with billionaires, helping them grow their companies. I’ve seen guys from startups go from startup to being multi-millionaires, teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom through the system. Critical critical thinking, document creation, making it, putting it into, organizing everything in their head to building it into a franchisable, scalable business. Like one of his businesses has like 500 franchises. That’s just one of the companies or brands that he works with. So amazing guy. Elon Musk, kind of like smart guy. He kind of comes off sometimes as socially awkward, but he’s so brilliant and he’s taught me so much. When I say that, Clay doesn’t care what people think when you’re talking to him. He cares about where you’re going in your life and where he can get you to go. That’s what I like him most about him. He’s like a good coach. A coach isn’t just making you feel good all the time. A coach is actually helping you get to the best you. Clay has been an amazing business coach. Through the course of that, we became friends. My most impressive thing was when I was shadowing him one time. We went into a business deal and listened to it. I got to shadow and listen to it. When we walked out, I knew that he could make millions on the deal and they were super excited about working with him. He told me, he’s like, I’m not going to touch it. I’m going to turn it down because he knew it was going to harm the common good of people in the long run. The guy’s integrity just really wowed me. It brought tears to my eyes to see that this guy, his highest desire was to do what’s right. 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. Right? This is where we used to live. Here’s the old. 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 4 to 14 and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman, so we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 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 you’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 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 gonna be the best business workshop ever, and we’re gonna give you your money back if you don’t love it. We built this facility for you and we’re excited to see it. We go back eight years ago. Think about the number of clients you had back then versus the number of clients you have now. As a percentage, what has been the growth over the past eight years, do you think? We’ve got to inspire somebody out there who just doesn’t have the time to listen to their call. I would go up and down from about $10,000 a month up to about $40,000, but it was up and down roller coaster. So now, we’ve got it to where we’re in excess of 100 clients. That’s awesome. So I would have anywhere from 5 clients to 20 clients on my own with networking, but I had no control over it. 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. That’s 100% growth every year. We’ve been good friends seven, eight years, and I’ve got doubled five times. Which is just incredible. I mean, the first time you do it, that’s one thing, but when you do it repeatedly, I mean, that’s unbelievable. We’re working our blessed assurance off this year to double. We’re planning on doubling again. We’re incorporating some new things in there to really help us do it, but we are going to double again this year. I started coaching, but it would go up and down, Clay. That’s when I came to you, as I was going up and down, and I wanted to go up and up instead of up and down. And so that’s when it needed a system. So creating a system is you have nailed down specific steps that you’re going to take no matter how you feel no matter the results you lean into them and You do them regardless of what’s happening you lean into them And it will give you X number of leads you follow up with those leads turns into sales Well, I tell you you know it’s if you don’t have a script 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. Right. And the best executives, Peter Drucker is a father of modern management, he said, the most effective executives make one decision a year. What you do is you make a decision, what is your system, and then you work like the Dickens to make sure you follow that system. And so that’s really what it’s all about. So with a script here, we have a brand new gal that just came in working for us. She nailed down the script and she’s been nailing down appointments. Usually we try to get one appointment for every 100 calls. We make 200 to 300 calls a day per rep. And she’s been nailing down five and eight appointments a day. Somebody out there is having a hard time. On that script! So she’s making how many calls a day? She’s making between two and three hundred calls a day. And our relationship is weird in that we do, if someone were to buy an Apple computer today, or let’s say you bought a personal computer, a PC, the computer is made by, let’s say, Dell. But then the software in the computer would be Microsoft, let’s say, or Adobe or whatever that is. So I basically make the systems, and you’re like the computer and I’m like the software. It’s kind of how I would describe our relationship. Tim, I want to ask you this. You and I reconnected, I think it was in the year 2000, and what was it, maybe 2010? Is that right, 2011 maybe? Or maybe further down the road, maybe 2013? 2012. Okay, so 2012, and at that time I had five years removed from the deep 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 read me? 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 was so it’s victory Christian Center. I was speaking there My name is Robert Redmond. I Actually first met clay almost three years ago to the day I don’t know if he remembers it or not, but I wasn’t working with him at the time I asked to see him and just ask him some questions to help you know direct my life to get some mentorship But I’ve been working with clay for now just over a year. The role I play here is a business coach, business consultant. I work with different businesses implementing best practice processes and systems that I have learned here by working with Clay. 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 the mindset that I’ve gained here has been huge. You know, working here you can’t you can’t be a mediocre person. You are a call to a higher standard of excellence and then as you’re called to that standard here, you begin to see those outcomes in every area of your life. That standard of excellence that you wanna 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 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.