Entrepreneur | Public Relations 101 Basic Training With Michael Levine

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 hear what we got. Cullen Dixon’s on the hooks, I’ve written the books. He’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks. As a father of five, that’s where I’mma dive. So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi. It’s C and Z up on your radio. And now, 3, 2, 1, here we go. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, and that’s what we gotta do. All right, Michael. Before we get started here, I want to make sure that all the Thrivers who maybe haven’t seen some other episodes, they know just a little bit about some of the people that you and your firm have personally worked with over the years. You’ve worked with Michael Jackson. You’ve worked with Prince. You’ve worked with Cameron Diaz and hundreds of other household names that people know. What was it like to work with the king of pop, Michael Jackson? It was challenging, but all clients… was a little more challenging than most because of the special circumstances. But you know, when you’re doing your job and you’re doing it well, you give 120% whether you’re representing the biggest star in the world or you’re representing someone who wants to be the biggest star in the world. You try, like a doctor, to depersonalize. I promise you if you got a heart surgeon that’s a real good heart surgeon. He’s a Democrat and you’re a Republican. He’s going to try to save you the same way. Now you quoted in your book there, The Grill PR 2.0, George M. Cohen is the famous playwright, entertainer, he’s an actor, he’s a singer. In his book the quote he says is, I don’t care what they call me as long as they spell my name right. What does this concept mean for the average business owner? What is this idea? I think it speaks to the idea that people do business with people who they know, like, and respect. And before you like and respect somebody, you’ve got to know them. Okay. And before you like and respect somebody, you’ve got to know them. And creating an identity, a brand, a profile for your business is very important. If you don’t believe it’s important, I think you’re a d***, but that’s cool. I want you to, I think you’re going to like this, but I read the PR 2.0 book. We did entertainment. Before I sold it, we were doing thousands of weddings and corporate parties per weekend. When I came across your four fundamental ideas for generating PR ideas of utility, juxtaposition, humor and image, I had no idea how to conjure up these ideas. It absolutely blew my mind. I implemented them. You’ll be happy to know we received Entrepreneur of the Year from the SBA, US Chamber Awards. I’ve been being totally real honest. By implementing those ideas that I would not have otherwise heard of, it’s generated hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars for our business. That’s wonderful. I just want to ask you, how did you originally come up with these four principles? Did you just fail fast enough to kind of eventually just settle on them? I’m a good learner after failing, after making mistakes. First of all, let’s talk to our friends listening. Friends, never, ever, ever let a crisis go to waste. So when you screw up, when you strike out, when you fail, pause. When you screw up, when you strike out, when you fail, pause. Pause. When you screw up, when you strike out, when you fail, pause and say to yourself, okay, what are three lessons learned the hard way? What are three lessons learned the hard way? Don’t do that again. Don’t do this again. Write them down. Send them to yourself by email. Send them to a friend. As we’ve been building the Thrive platform, one thing that’s interesting is we have some people behind the team. And I interviewed a guy who has built a very successful online platform and he was telling me, what issues are you dealing with? And we’re going through it and he says, well, what could you learn from this? And he basically distilled, hey, if you’re going to have these web developers for this kind of project, you need to have them in house. You can look at them every day and hold them accountable and you can’t outsource this party. I think what he was really saying is you don’t need to have them in-house unless you want to be successful. If you want to be successful you would be wise to have them in-house. Now let’s talk about utility. This first principle, utility. You describe it in your book as usefulness. Most ideas, inventions, and innovations are based on the simple principle. The question to ask yourself is, what do people need or what haven’t they thought of before? Talk to me about utility as it relates to PR. I want to answer your question directly, but I’m not sure I fully understand it. Explain. Well, you’re talking about utility in your book. When I read it, I was trying to think of, okay, what are some press releases that I could do that could use this idea? Or what are some marketing ideas I could do for utility? Well, in the book we give you a lot of ideas. What are some predictions that you could make? What are some prophecies you could make? What are some lists that you could create? How could you create information that’s of value to your audience? See, from your idea, I created the Tulsa Bridal Association, which is when a bride would book us for the entertainment, we’d give her a book of recommended vendors and they just loved it. Of course they loved it and let me tell you and you were doing videos at the time? We had a wedding entertainment business. Wedding entertainment. Now, let me tell you, I wasn’t there, but I’ll tell you something. I felt like you were there. It was awesome. Let me tell you something about your competition when you were doing this book. Right? Here’s what your competition was doing. Are you ready? I’m ready. Nothing. Playing on Facebook. That’s what they were doing. Jackassery. They were playing on Facebook. They were going to Disneyland. They were posting sushi. Let’s not tell them. That’s what they were doing. You were creating an idea that said, we’re going to provide our customers with more than we’re being paid to do. We’re going to give them an experience help them give mother suggestions your competition was doing as little as humanly possible and You won in the market in your book you talked about this obstetrician in Dallas as Walter Evans and Basically what they did was they I guess they gave the mothers a special ride home from the hospital Can you explain a little bit about that or what that was all like? I can’t explain it any more with any more clarity than to say if you had two obstetricians and one said get, watch a hitchhike home and the other one said we’ll drive you home, which one do you think would create a relationship with you that’s more caring and more… This person did limo service, I believe. That’s amazing. If you’re watching this, I encourage you to think of how can you exceed the customer’s expectation. Clay, I agree with you, and that’s cool. We both agree. How do you exceed the customer’s expectation? Think about how you… That’s what you said. Think about it. I say yes yes yes but brother Clay and people watching thinking takes time thinking takes time put your Facebook off put your cell phone down put your candy crush down think work do you know what percentage of Americans currently have a library card? I would say it had to be less than 2%. Okay. The correct answer is 3. 3%. 97% of Americans think it would be a really cool, good idea not to have a library card. Now by the way, you know the cost of a library card, Clay? I think it’s free, actually. Free! Best-selling author Clifton Talbert, who’s my mentor, he told me that rich people have big libraries, poor people have big TVs. Yes! And so he was telling me, he says, you’ve got to get up. I said, well, I’m not an early guy, early morning guy. He said, well, here’s the deal. Are you ambitious? And I said, yeah. He said, well, you know, if you’re ambitious, you’re either going to be a divorced guy or you’re going to be a guy who’s getting up early. So you need to figure out a way, because you can’t do both simultaneously. You’ve got to get up early. When you go into college, any young college kid will tell you, a good professor welcomes you, says you can have good grades, good friends, or good sleep. You can only have two. Pick them. You know, but think about this. Let’s just take this, let’s just pause for a minute. Let’s think about this. A hundred Americans. We go to an airport. We pick 100 Americans. We put them in a circle. We say, Hello, hello. How are you, my good and valuable friends? How many of you have library cards? Three raise their hand. 97 say, No, we don’t. Now, that’s 97 people out of 100 walking around America thinking this is a cool, good idea. Okay? Now, we go to the 97 and we look at their lives. We go on Facebook, right? See what they’re up to. What’s going on? In the soulful words of Marvin Gaye, what’s going on? What’s going on? And we look at it and we say, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, you didn’t have time for library, but I see, I see, I see what’s going on. kitty cat food picture candy crush i see i see i got confused i thought you’re trying to get ahead what time did you wake up when you were starting your company or did you actually wake up before you went to bed fred smith the founder of fedex was asked by a college kid about five years ago i was in the audience. So he said, Mr. Smith, Mr. Smith, how many hours do you work? Mr. Smith, how many hours do you work? He says, today, nine to five. He says, ten years ago, five to nine. Pay attention. What time did you get up? What time do you get up typically? My routine, my daily routine is, I get up about 6.30 or 7 every morning. Yep. And I go to sleep around 11, 30. 11, 11, 30. It’s very, now listen carefully. It’s very, very important to make sure you get adequate sleep, adequate exercise. That’s important. Yeah. Very important. Now, when you were. Sleep is very important. When you were starting your business though, when you, 1983 I believe, when you started it. June 1st. What time were you getting up at that point? 6.37. Okay, and you were going to go until about 5? Or you were going to go until 9? I’m trying to get people to get up. I didn’t understand what you’re saying. Would you work until about 5 or 9 o’clock at night? including today. I’ve averaged 85 hours a week. Now, some will say, well that’s too much, or you don’t have kids, or I’m divorced, no kids. Okay, all right, fine. I’ve always worked 85 hours. But there is a secret, some secret that I did learn on the journey, and I really, seriously, Clyde, believe this is central. Okay. And here’s the secret. Since I was a d*** when I started and didn’t know what I was doing, I decided for reasons that I cannot explain or express, I decided to go into work on Saturday and I would work for four hours. I’d get in at 10.30, see? Drive in 10.30 and stay till 2.30 on Saturday. Now, here’s what I found when I did it, Clay. Number one, good parking. Yeah, that’s true. Good parking. Boom. Nobody there. Good parking. Number two, you know, it’s quiet. There’s nobody there. It’s quiet. So number one, good parking. Number two, quiet. Now, here’s another thing I learned. Because it’s quiet, see? No interruptions, see? The four hours that I worked, see, really had an effective value of eight, see? So now I leave 10, 10.30, 2.30, Saturday leave at 2.30. I drive home. Now, I come into work Monday at nine o’clock. My other friends come in Monday morning 9 o’clock. Now I’m 8 hours ahead of them. Can they ever catch me? No. No. See, no matter how they work, they can’t catch me. They were out rollerblading. Now wait, one more thing. Rollerblading? Hold on son. Hold on, hold on. Now, I’m 8, week 1, see how it is? Week 1 I’m 8 hours ahead. Now you want to hear something crazy? I’m ready for it. I did it week two. Boom! Now, eight and eight, what’s that? Well, I’m at 16. See? I don’t have my degree, but let’s do it one more time. I just look stupid. See? 16. Now, can they ever catch me? Now, you want to hear something crazy? I did it week three. See? Now I have my degree. You don’t have a degree, I don’t have a degree, but I think that’s 24 hours. As Bill Clinton said, arithmetic. See? Now, here’s what else I learned and I kept doing. I did it 52 weeks a year. I didn’t do it 48. See, I did it 52. Now, you say to me, Mr. Levine, I understand Saturday 1030, 230. I got that. That’s cool. 1030, 230, every week, that’s cool. Now, what about Halloween? In you go. Now, now, now, now, Easter Bunny, what about Easter, you go in, in you go. Birthday, in you go. 52 weeks a year, in you go. If you ever wanna come to Tulsa for a big tourism adventure, I think you’re gonna discover that you and I are somehow kindred souls. Your wife says that she feels we’re very similar. Yeah, I really think it’s a weird deal. Where were you born again? I was born in New York City. Really? That’s odd. But I didn’t get good cards. Now, we should talk, Clay, when you’re ready to bring it up, about the advantage of disadvantage. Let me ask you this. I’m going to weave it in. We’ll weave it in like a tapestry. Go. Juxtaposition. Michael, you describe the principle in your book as throwing together two disparate personalities, notions, styles, or concepts makes people see things in an entirely different light. Why is this principle so important for business owners to learn? Why is this idea of juxtaposition so important? Because our human thought process is a paradoxical one because life is paradoxical and filled with paradox and irony. If you want to learn anything about the great Shakespearean subjects in life, love and death and God and fear, all the great subjects, you better learn a little something about the concept of paradox. Did you really come up with, were you the guy who came up with the two million dollar insurance policy for Mary Hart’s legs? Is this you? Is this you for the Entertainment Tonight personality? Did you come up with this idea? Maybe. Maybe. Okay. Impressive. Okay. So now, so this idea of juxtaposition, in your book you give a few ideas that I thought were really interesting, but one was, you know, insuring someone’s legs for $2 million. That’s not a concept most people think about, but the media likes that stuff, right? Because it’s interesting. Or there’s a black tie sit-down dinner where you had the tiny portions of rice that you served on the really immaculate China, the high-end China that was raising money for people in third world countries that were struggling. So in your book, you do caution people to make sure the two concepts are linked. You got to think, which is what you say, but I add to what you say. You say you gotta think and I add and thinking takes time. And you gotta decide. We all get, you, your wife, I, everybody watching, we all get the same 186 hours 186, 168, 168 hours per week. Yeah. Same? You get the same as I get. How are you gonna spend them? And I see a lot of people screwing up their… They must think they have a lot of extra time on their hands. I told you, Clay, that I was born 2 1⁄2 miles north of Ground Zero. I think you can understand that that 9-11 deal, that was pretty personal for me, right? I remember those towers being built. One of the things that we were so deeply impacted by that, I think we were all aware, I was, and my primal lesson is this. Life is short, life is unpredictable. If you live to be 70, write this down, will you? If you live to be 70, you got it? You get 25,500 days. 25,000? 25,500 days. Yep. If you live to be 80, you have 29,200 days. That’s it. Game over. Now, you’re sitting here, you’re 30 years old, 40 years old, 20 years old, I don’t know what you are, or a percentage of them are done. That’s it. And you may die tonight. I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs that I meet, I’ve worked with consulting clients for years and I’ve personally had my struggles with this until about 2007. But my glorious story is that our son was actually born blind in 2007. I remember at that time going, I am wasting huge amounts of time. I’ve always been a guy who got to work at 5 and 6, you know, always worked late. But the thing was that I was spending time in meetings with those B and C player people who just would never perform. Endless. endless like… Give people, give people, give people your time who deserve it not who need it. There you go, boom. I didn’t know that and so for the entrepreneurs watching this you’re saying give people time who deserve it not who need it. That’s what you’re saying. Yeah. That’d be your… And I’m also saying that human relationships are valuable. I’m not suggesting that… But just in the context of work you’re saying don’t waste your time. And look, go back to 80-20. Go back to the 80-20 principle. 80% of your aggravation is caused by 20% of the people. Boom! 80% of your income comes in 20%. It’s all 80-20 deal. So look at your life and say, where am I spending 80% of my time that’s netting 20% of my results and get rid of it. Also I speak a lot publicly, Clay, and I tell people your life will get better. Your life will get better when you come to see the world through the prism of maybe is no. Yes is yes, no is no, and maybe is no. So there you go. We teach our sales team that. We teach our sales team that. So if you say, I might come in this week, or I may be able to book with you, that’s code for now. That’s right. Now, moving on for the third element here is humor. Ideas grounded in humor succeed because, frankly, they make us feel good. If you recall your favorite TV show commercials, I’ll bet at least half are of a comedic variety. In your book, you challenge people about the idea of humor. Now for me, this is somewhat of an easy concept, because I’m kind of a ridiculous human, and I kind of enjoy that sort of stuff. But a lot of business owners are like, oh, I just, I could never put humor on my website, or on my video, or on my commercial, or on my, you know, whatever the thing is, on my business card, and then they’re not memorable. They’re these invisible businesses, and they’re not, so they say, well, I’m not gonna do juxtaposition, I’m not gonna do humor, I’m not gonna do, and they just kind of are forgettable. Talk to me about why you think that humor, if done right, is a safe bet. Because I’ve noticed and discussed this at length with people, if you’re going to tell somebody the truth, you better make them laugh or they’ll kill you. Boom! Okay? You know… It blows my mind. Say that again one more time. You’re going to tell someone the truth? If you’re going to tell somebody the truth, you better make them laugh or they’ll kill you. Oh, that’s good. Can I get a boom? Can I do a little boom here? Just a boom. Unbelievable. So now, what’s the danger of using humor? I mean, if a business owner, let’s say a business owner doesn’t baseline. In your book you talk a lot about- What’s the danger about being a… and anything? Well, in your book you talk about recording yourself doing things, and you talk about being very self-aware. But is the main danger just not being self-aware, using some humor, and it falls flat? There’s a danger of doing anything stupid. Of course. Yeah, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t find a way around that. There’s a danger of doing anything dopey. Well, in your book you also talk about image, this idea of image. And the most powerful kind of idea you create, you say, because nothing is quite as searing as a well-constructed image. You talk about Mel Gibson and his mug shot. Everyone just cannot forget that. The Hurricane Katrina victims, they’re in the Superdome and on top of their apartment buildings and stuff. If I can get water to poor folks in America, that wasn’t good. If I’m a small business owner, for example, one of my good friends, he owns a Chick-fil-A, he’s one of our Thrive Partners for our online school here. His name is Arthur Greeno. He grew up in a very similar background as it sounds like you did. And he owns a franchise? He owns two Chick-fil-A’s. That’s a franchise deal? Yep, two of the more popular ones in the country. He built the world’s largest iced tea and he built the world’s largest snow cone. And what’s his first name, Arthur? Arthur Green. Let me guess. Arthur did this, he did this work in 35 hours a week, right? He didn’t work any long hours, right? I think he was working about 65 hours, 70 hours at a time. And I call that part-time, you know, but that’s cool. Boom. Now here’s the thing with Arthur. As Arthur, he was, your concept you talked about, you never want to waste a good emergency. It was snowing, and in Tulsa when it snows, things just stop. Like when it rains here in L.A., people just stop. They’re just like, what is this? How do these wipers work? But he had taken those situations and turned them into a big image that the media put on the covers. What are some of your favorite examples from your career where you’re able to come up with a great image that the media took off with? Or what’s an example of one that you could think of that you’re with some of your celebrities or brands or maybe an example of one that you were really happy with? Well, I mean the one that we talked about earlier, Charlton has to meet on Saturday Night Live. That was iconic. I got, when Mr. Heston died a few years back, and I worked very hard, I did not feel frankly that Mr. Heston got the kind of public attention on his death that he should have. And I noticed when I would go into my office that some of the young folks didn’t even know who he was. So I dedicated three years of my life to working very hard at first, particularly. Not much success, but it ultimately worked out, getting a U.S. postage stamp for Charlton Heston. Can you tell the Thrivers, that’s what we call our community, the Thrivers watching this, who… I call them winners. Winners. Boom. Either way, we’ll agree on that now. Or honey badgers. We call them honey badgers occasionally too. Now, when you have, you dedicated some pro bono hours to another cause in addition to the Charlton Heston, The girl who fell into the well. What was her name? Smith. But that was like a national, international deal. I documented it. There was another crime. You may remember Chandra Levy, the intern. I donated time to her family, creating a reward fund. What makes it so? Why did the world focus so much attention when this child fell inside this well? It was a terrible, terrible incident. Just heart stopping. We wanted to make sure that the media was well handled for that family and we donated our services. Now let’s say that I am somebody who gets up early, and I’m getting up to the office at 5, I’m working on the Saturday, the 10 to 2, 10 to 2, 30, let’s say that I’m that guy, okay? But you’re going to go through your competition today like hot knife through butter. Let’s pretend though that I am. And by the way, for my business, what I found is that you’re exactly right. But as you’re going through it, but here you go. It’s so easy, it’s hilarious. Well, you talk about in your book, you talk about how you have to decide if the ideas are worthwhile though. You know, just you’re not completely wasting your time. And so you talk about kind of a filter. Well, the idea is, you know, if you want to prosper, if you want to, listen, here’s the number one rule. If you want to be broke in America, I’m going to tell you how to do it. I know you’re all. Tip for the bottom. OK. In case any of your audience is listening to us now and they’re saying, gee, I want to know how to be broke. How do I be broke? I’m going to tell you how to be broke in America. Ready? Here’s the number one thing you’ve got to do if you want to be broke in America. Ready? Boom. Think like a victim. That’s what you’ve got to do. If you think like a victim, I promise you, I promise you, you’re going to be broke in America. Now, people listening, discussing, arguing about ideas in our civilization, maybe you are talking even about income inequity which is a very, very, very serious problem. You say wait, wait, wait, Mr. Levine, everything you are saying is kind of interesting, but you know this game you’re talking about, this game, this game here, this is a rigged game. I know, you’re right. The game is not easy. The game is not fair. But with enough burning maniacal rage and focus, the game is winnable. The game isn’t easy. The game isn’t fair. And here’s what you gotta do. Don’t sign up when you want to say, why isn’t the game fair? Don’t sign up for that class. Let me ask you this here now. Don’t sign up for that class. Let’s say that I assume that the game’s not fair and I’m working really hard and I just want to know if the idea that I’m about ready to work on is a waste of time or not. You kind of give us a checklist in your book, okay? And you talk about, you have this one idea, you say, does it serve a purpose? What does this question mean? Like if I’m going to do a big PR campaign, does it serve a purpose? How do you sort of run that through a filter? I mean, do you say, if it doesn’t get me more ideal and likely buyers, it’s a waste of time? If it’s successful, what would victory look like? If it’s successful, what would that be like? If it’s unsuccessful, what would that be like? What would happen if this was out? Usually what happens with ideas, Clay, are one of three things usually happens with ideas. It’s a strikeout, it’s a single, or a home run. If it’s a home run, you don’t need a plan. If it’s a single, you better try to figure out how to steal second. If it’s a strikeout, you better march your sorry ass into a room and figure out how, what the lessons are, lessons learned the hard way. So let’s say there’s a small business owner right now, I see this all the time, there’s small business owners who are like, here’s what we’re going to do, we’re going to come up with this great PR campaign, we’re going to do this, we’re going to do that, we’ll do this, she’ll do this, he’ll do that, she’ll do this, and then you’re saying if you add it all up, if we’re successful, if it’s just a single, it’s probably not worth doing. You better be a little resourceful or figure out how you’re going to steal second. You’re just saying look at the outcome of where it would take you if it was a success and see if that’s worth your time. The average business in America spends 4% of its gross on marketing. The average business in America spends 4% of its gross on marketing. Now, we then say, and I wrote this in a book, what are the 500 fastest growing businesses in America spent on marketing? Correct answer, 11%. So if you want to out-market your competition, if you want to become a brand leader, or hyper-grow your business, if you want to become a brand leader, either number one or two in your market, or you want to hyper-grow your business, you’ve got to out-market your competition about three to one. And you’ve got to do it in traditional and non-traditional ways or you go broke. Michael, I appreciate you bringing some clarity to this topic. And I appreciate… you could be like longboarding or out of In-N-Out or you could be doing all the things that Californians do from time to time. But I appreciate you sacrificing your time to be here, my friend. Thank you. JT, do you know what time it is? 410. It’s TiVo time in Tulsa, Oklahoma baby! Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma June 27th and 28th. We’ve been doing business conferences here since 2005. I’ve been hosting business conferences since 2005. What year were you born? 1995. Dude, I’ve been hosting business conferences since you were 10 years old, but I’ve never had the two-time Heisman Award winning Tim Tebow come present. And a lot of people have followed Tim Tebow’s football career on the field and off the field. And off the field, the guy’s been just as successful as he has been on the field. Now, the big question is, JT, how does he do it? Well, they’re going to have to come and find out, because I don’t know. Well, I’m just saying, Tim Tebow is going to teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s going to walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is going to be a blasty blast in Tulsa, Russia. Also, this is the first Thrive Time Show event that we’ve had where we’re going to have a man who has built a $100 million net worth. Wow. Who’ll be presenting. Now, we’ve had a couple of presenters that have had a billion dollar net worth in some real estate sort of things. But this is the first time we’ve had a guy who’s built a service business and he’s built over a hundred million dollar net worth in the service business. It’s the yacht driving, multi-state living guru of franchising. Peter Taunton will be in the house. This is the founder of Snap Fitness, the guy behind nine round boxing. He’s going to be here in Tulsa, Russel, Oklahoma June 27th and 28th. JT, why should everybody want to hear what Peter Taunton has to say? Oh, because he’s incredible. He’s just a fountain of knowledge. He is awesome. He has inspired me listening to him talk. Not only that, he also has, he practices what he teaches, so he’s a real teacher. He’s not a fake teacher like business school teachers. So you’ve got to come learn from him. Also, let me tell you this, folks. I don’t want to get this wrong, because if I get it wrong, someone’s going to say, you screwed that up, buddy. So Michael Levine, this is Michael Levine. He’s going to be coming. You say, who’s Michael Levine? I don’t get this wrong. This is the PR consultant of choice for Michael Jackson, for Prince, for Nike, for Charlton Heston, for Nancy Kerrigan. 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestselling authors he’s represented, including pretty much everybody you know who’s been a super celebrity. This is Michael Levine, a good friend of mine. He’s going to come and talk to you about personal branding and the mindset needed to be super successful. The lineup will continue to grow. We have hit Christian reporting artist Colton Dixon in the house. Now people say, Colton Dixon’s in the house? Yes, Colton Dixon’s in the house. So if you like top 40 Christian music, Colton Dixon’s going to be in the house performing. The lineup will continue to grow each and every day. We’re going to add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup. But I encourage everybody out there today, get those tickets today. Go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s Thrivetimeshow.com. And some people might be saying, well, how do I do it? What do I do? How does it work? You just go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Let’s go there now. We’re feeling the flow. We’re going to Thrivetimeshow.com. Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, you just go to Thrivetimeshow.com. You click on the Business Conferences button, and you click on the Request Tickets button right there. The way I do our conferences is we tell people it’s $250 to get a ticket or whatever price that you can afford. And the reason why I do that is I grew up without money. JT, you’re in the process of building a super successful company. You start out with a million dollars in the bank account? No, I did not. Nope, did not get any loans, nothing like that. Did not get an inheritance from parents or anything like that. I had to work for it. And I am super grateful I came to a business conference. That’s actually how I met you, met Peter Taunton, I met all these people. So if you’re out there today and you want to come to our workshop, again, you just got to go to thrivetimeshow.com. You might say, well, when’s it going to be? June 27 and 28. You might say, well, who’s speaking? We already covered that. You might say, where is it going to be? It’s going to be in Tulsa, Russia, Oklahoma. It’s Tulsa, Russia. I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa, Russia, sort of like the Jerusalem of America. But if you type in Thrive Time Show and Jinx, you can get a sneak peek or a look at our office facility. This is what it looks like. This is where you’re headed. It’s going to be a blasty blast. You can look inside, see the facility. We’re going to have hundreds of entrepreneurs here. It is going to be packed. Now, for this particular event, folks, the seating is always limited because my facility isn’t a limitless convention center. You’re coming to my actual home office and so it’s going to be packed. So when? June 27th to 28th. Who? You! You’re gonna come! I’m talking to you. You can get your tickets right now at ThriveTimeShow.com and again you can name your price. We tell people it’s $250 or whatever price you can afford and we do have some select VIP tickets which gives you an access to meet some of the speakers and those sorts of things and those tickets are $500. It’s a two-day interactive business workshop, over 20 hours of business training. We’re going to give you a copy of my newest book, The Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. You’re going to leave with a workbook. You’re going to leave with everything you need to know to start and grow a super successful company. It’s practical, it’s actionable, and it’s TiVo time right here in Tulsa, Russia. Get those tickets today at Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s Thrivetimeshow.com. dot-com Hello, I’m Michael Levine, and I’m talking to you right now from the center of Hollywood, California Where I have represented over the last 35 years 58 Academy Award winners 34 Grammy Award winners 43 New York Times bestsellers I’ve represented a lot of major stars And I’ve worked with a lot of major companies and I think I’ve learned a few things about what makes them work and what makes them not work. Now, why would a man living in Hollywood, California in the beautiful sunny weather of LA come to Tulsa? Because last year I did it and it was damn exciting. Clay Clark has put together an exceptional presentation, really life-changing. And I’m looking forward to seeing you then. I’m Michael Levine. I’ll see you in Tulsa. James, did I tell you my good friend John Lee Dumas is also joining us at the in-person, two-day interactive Thrive Time Show Business Workshop. That Tim Tebow and that Michael Levine will be at the… Have I told you this? You have not told me that. He’s coming all the way from Puerto Rico. This is John Lee Dumas, the host of the chart-topping EOFire.com podcast. He’s absolutely a living legend. This guy started a podcast after wrapping up his service in the United States military, and he started recording this podcast daily in his home, to the point where he started interviewing big-time folks like Gary Vaynerchuk, like Tony Robbins, and he just kept interviewing bigger and bigger names, putting out shows day after day, and now he is the legendary host of the EO Fire podcast, and he’s traveled all the way from Trujillo, Rico to Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend the in-person June 27th and 28th live time show, two-day interactive business workshop. If you’re out there today, folks, if you’ve ever wanted to grow a podcast, a broadcast, you want to improve your marketing, if you’ve ever wanted to improve your marketing, your branding, if you’ve ever wanted to increase your sales, you want to come to the two-day interactive June 27th and 28th Thrive Time Show Business Workshop featuring Tim Tebow, Michael Levine, John Lee Dumas, and countless big-time, super successful entrepreneurs. It’s going to be life-changing. Get your tickets right now at thrivetimeshow.com. James, what website is that? ThriveTimeshow.com. James, one more time with more enthusiasm. The Ride Time Show dot com. Shine, everything rides on tonight. Even if I got three strikes, I’m a go for it. This moment, we own it. I’m not to be played with because it could get dangerous. See, these people I ride with. This moment, we own it. We own it. We own it. We own it. This moment we are winning. Thrivetime Show two day interactive business workshops are the world’s highest rated and most reviewed business workshops because we teach you what you need to know to grow. 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. website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re gonna leave energized, motivated, but you’re also gonna leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because, as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and they’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get-rich-quick, walk-on-hot-coals product. It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, but I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert, Zellner & 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’ve built this facility for you and we’re excited to see it. And now you may be thinking, what does it actually cost to attend an in-person, two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop? Well, good news, the tickets are $250 or whatever price that you can afford. What? Yes, they’re $250 or whatever price you can afford. I grew up without money and I know what it’s like to live without money, so if you’re out there today and you want to attend our in-person, two-day interactive business workshop, all you’ve got to do is go to thrivetimeshow.com to request those tickets and if you can’t afford $250 we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. I learned at the Academy at Kings Point in New York octa non verba watch what a person does not what they say. Good morning good morning good morning Harvard Keosokten Rich Dad Radio Show today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re close, but they’re completely different worlds. And I have a special guest today. The definition of intelligence is if you agree with me, you’re intelligent. And so this gentleman is very intelligent. I’ve done this show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts. And so Mr. Clay Clark is a friend of a good friend, Eric Trump. But we’re also talking about money, bricks, and how screwed up the world can get in a few and a half hour. So Clay Clark is a very intelligent man, and there’s so many ways we could take this thing. But I thought, since you and Eric are close, Trump, what were you saying about what Trump can’t, what Donald, who’s my age, and I can say or cannot say? Well, first of all, I have to honor you, sir. I want to show you what I did to one of your books here. There’s a guy named Jeremy Thorne, who was my boss at the time. I was 19 years old, working at Faith Highway. I had a job at Applebee’s, Target, and DirecTV, and he said, have you read this book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad? And I said, no. And my father, may he rest in peace, he didn’t know these financial principles. So I started reading all of your books and really devouring your books and I went from being an employee to self-employed to the business owner to the investor and I owe a lot of that to you. And I just want to take a moment to tell you thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success and I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump. I just want to tell you thank you, sir, for changing my life. Well, not only that, Clay, thank you, but you’ve become an influencer. More than anything else, you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. So that’s why I congratulate you on becoming. Because as you know, there’s a lot of fake influencers out there, or bad influencers. Yeah. So anyway, I’m glad you and I agree so much, and thanks for reading my books. Yeah. That’s the greatest thrill for me today. Not thrill, but recognition is when people, young men especially, come up and say, I read your book, changed my life, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this. I learned at the Academy, Kings Point in New York, acta non verba, watch what a person does, not what they say. Whoa! Hey, I’m Ryan Wimpey, I’m originally from Tulsa, born and raised here. I went to a small private liberal arts college and got a degree in business. And I didn’t learn anything like they’re teaching here. I didn’t learn linear workflows. I learned stuff that I’m not using, and I haven’t been using for the last nine years. So what they’re teaching here is actually way better than what I got at business school. And I went what was actually ranked as a very good business goal. The linear workflow, the linear workflow for us in getting everything out on paper and documented is really important. Like we have workflows that are kind of all over the place. So having linear workflow and seeing that mapped out on multiple different boards is pretty awesome. That’s really helpful for me. The atmosphere here is awesome. I definitely just stared at the walls figuring out how to make my facility look like this place. This place rocks. It’s invigorating. The walls are super, it’s just very cool. The atmosphere is cool. The people are nice. It’s a pretty cool place to be. Very good learning atmosphere. I literally want to model it and steal everything that’s here at this facility and basically create it just on our business side. Once I saw what they were doing, I knew I had to get here at the conference. This is probably the best conference or seminar I’ve ever been to in over 30 years of business. You’re not bored. You’re awake and alive the whole time. It’s not pushy. They don’t try to sell you a bunch of things. I was looking to learn how to just get control of my life, my schedule, and just get control of the business. Planning your time, breaking it all down, making time for the F6 in your life and just really implementing it and sticking with the program. It’s really lively, he’s pretty friendly, helpful, and very welcoming. I attended a conference a couple months back and it was really the best business conference I’ve ever attended. At the workshop I learned a lot about time management, really prioritizing what’s the most important. Biggest takeaways are, you know, you want to take a step-by-step approach to your business, whether it’s marketing, you know, what are those three marketing tools that you want to use, to human resources. Some of the most successful people and successful businesses in this town, their owners were here today because they wanted to know more from Clay. And I found that to be kind of fascinating. The most valuable thing that I’ve learned is diligence, that businesses don’t change overnight. It takes time and effort, and you gotta go through the ups and downs of getting it to where you wanna go. He actually gives you the roadmap out. I was stuck, didn’t know what to do, and he gave me the roadmap out step by step. We’ve set up systems in the business that make my life much easier, allow me some time freedom. Here you can ask any question you want, they guarantee it’ll be answered. This conference motivates me and also gives me a lot of knowledge and tools. It’s up to you to do this. Everybody can do these things. There’s stuff that everybody knows, but if you don’t do it, nobody else is going to do it for you. I can see the marketing working, and it’s just an approach that makes sense. Probably the most notable thing is just the income increase that we’ve had. Everyone’s super fun and super motivating. I’ve been here before, but I’m back again because it motivates me. Your competition’s going to come eventually or try to pick up this tactic. So you better, if you don’t, somebody else will. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9, and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey guys, I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys, we appreciate you, and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old house, right? This is where we used to live a few years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See? This is a nice, right? So this is my old van and our old school marketing, and this is our old team. And by team, I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing. And this is our new team. We went from four to 14. And I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past. And they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman. So we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts, and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grew to 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. So we really just want to thank you, Clay, and thank you, Vanessa, for everything you’ve done, everything you’ve helped us with. We love you guys. If you decide to not attend the Drive Time workshop, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. The atmosphere of Clay’s office is very lively. You can feel the energy as soon as you walk through the door. And it really got me and my team very excited. If you decide not to come, you’re missing out on an opportunity to grow your business. Bottom line. Love the environment. I love the way that Clay presents and teaches. It’s a way that not only allows me to comprehend what’s going on, but he explains it in a way to where it just makes sense. The SEO optimization, branding, marketing, I’ve learned more in the last two days than I have the entire four years of college. The most valuable thing that I’ve learned, marketing is key, marketing is everything. Making sure that you’re branded accurately and clearly. How to grow a business using Google reviews and then just how to optimize our name through our website also. Helpful with a lot of marketing, search engine optimization, helping us really rank high in Google. The biggest thing I needed to learn was how to build my foundation, how to systemize everything and optimize everything, build my SEO. How to become more organized, more efficient. How to make sure the business is a success. How to make sure that the business is a success. How to make sure that the business is a success. How to make sure that the business is a success. How to become more organized, more efficient. How to make sure the business is really there to serve me, as opposed to me constantly being there for the business. New ways of advertising my business, as well as recruiting new employees. Group interviews, number one. Before, we felt like we were held hostage by our employees. Group interviews has completely eliminated that, because you’re able to really find the people that would really be the best fit. Hands-on how to hire people, how to deal with human resources, a lot about marketing, and overall just how to structure the business, how it works for me, and also then how that can translate into working better for my clients. The most valuable thing I’ve learned here is time management. I like the one hour of doing your business is real critical if I’m going to grow and change. Play really teaches you how to navigate through those things and not only find freedom, but find a purpose in your business and find the purposes for all those other people that directly affect your business as well. Everybody. Everybody. Everybody. Everyone. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get an opportunity to see that it’s real. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get an opportunity to see that it’s real. .