Entrepreneur | Refining Your Big Idea Into A Big Time Product With Jill Donovan

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 what I’m about. So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them I am 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 you gotta do. Jill the Thrill Donovan, thank you for allowing me to harass you. How are you? Thank you, Clay. Hey, we are here talking today about how to refine your big idea into a big time product. Now, do you have your rustic cuffs on today? I have a big time product on my wrist. Oh, there it is, the big time product on the wrist. And your products have been in stores all across the country. Allegedly, actually not allegedly, it’s a provable fact. Britney Spears has worn your products. Miranda Lambert has actually chosen to wear your products. So countless other celebrities have chosen to wear your product as sort of the product of choice, their style accessory of choice. Do you ever pinch yourself and say, how in the world did I get to a point where these people are wearing my product? Do you ever kind of pinch yourself or surprise yourself? I do. Actually, every morning I wake up and I turn on the Today Show or Good Morning America and for each person that is wearing it, I pinch myself. So if it’s a five pinch day, it’s a good day. Oh boy. Yeah. So you might get a lot of bruises over time. Exactly. Is that sort of a? No, I still, I was in Dallas on Tuesday, and I was walking through the airport and went to get a magazine for the flight. And I picked up, I think it was Entertainment Weekly. And I opened it, and right in the center fold, was a big picture of Miranda Lambert. And she was sitting just like this, or she was doing a T-line, and she had a rustic cuff on. And I just happened upon it and that is, those moments are still for me just, yeah. So we like the photos where people are doing this. We love this. With the rustic. We love the peace sign. We love anything that’s got hair. I feel like it’s part of Thrive Moving Forward. Maybe we should do every photo where we do this and we have sort of a… I love the idea. Okay. This might be an editor’s note here. Now, Sarah Blakely, she’s the founder of the billion dollar company Spanx. And she said that I failed, this is her talking, she says, I failed the LSAT. Basically, if I had not failed, I’d have been a lawyer and there would be no SPANC. So she failed the test and needed to become a lawyer. She says, I think failure is nothing more than life’s way of nudging you that you’re off course. My attitude to failure is not attached to the outcome, but in not trying, it’s liberating. In your mind, how important is it for every entrepreneur to be able to deal with the fact that there are some rejections that are going to happen before they launch a product? Well first of all I am wearing Spanx right now. Oh yeah really. Go Sarah Blankley. And I follow her and I think she’s amazing at what she’s done. I actually took the LSAT. I didn’t fail them but I went on to law school and I passed the bar and realized after I did that that I did not want to be an attorney. And why? Why? Because I was helping people. I was it was family law and I was helping people get divorced and nothing wrong with that. But it wasn’t it was like the greatest people but at the worst times of their lives. And it was very hard. And every day it was just it was I didn’t love it. It was not my passion. I love being able to say that I was an attorney, but anyhow, right after I passed the bar, I had an opportunity to go on to the Oprah Winfrey Show. It had nothing to do with being an attorney, but the Oprah Show had found out that I was like a chronic re-gifter. So I was born and raised Jewish, and my mom was extremely frugal and never believed in going to the store to buy presents for my friends birthday parties so she just had an entire closet full of gifts she had gotten throughout her life and when it was my 10 year old girlfriend’s birthday we’d have to go to her closet so we’d give like candles totally inappropriate age inappropriate for my friends so anyhow the producers Oprah found out that I had this huge gift closet that for every party I went to and everything I did because I just like I got to save money I didn’t have to go to the store I just go to my closet. So what started happening is like my mother-in-law would give me a gift one year for my birthday. Her birthday was next year and I’d forget that what gift she gave me and I would go and give her the same gift. No. So I had a lot of stories like that one of the partners my law firm gave me a present I’m like I’m gonna go visit somebody in the hospital or my clients, I’ll take that present to them only to find out that they were best friends. How do you deal with that when someone finds out that you regifted a gift from someone that’s very close to them? It was tricky. The Oprah Show found out about it. They asked me to come be a guest on the show. I did a little story about it and it was gonna be my chance to tell the world how funny that I am and what great ideas to regift and just gonna be a whole amazing thing. I went on the show, sitting on the couch with Oprah, and she asks me questions about this. And right before I started to answer, she said, hold on, I’m going to ask the etiquette experts what you think about what Jill does. And they said, we think Jill is tacky and rude, and she needs to give the whole closet to goodwill. And so in front of 20 million people, I was humiliated. 20 million. Well, it was 300, but it aired to 20 million people. I was so humiliated. The one moment that I thought in life would be the biggest moment of being on the Oprah show, and they asked me to tell three specific stories. Never happened because these two girls from Canada, nothing wrong with people from Canada, but they, they just, they hurt me so bad on TV, on national television, it wound up airing three times. Anyhow, to get back to the story, because of that, I, and that has nothing to do with law school or anything but it was at the same time because of that I got rid of every single present in the whole gift closet and I sat with an empty closet for about five years and one day I was like you know what I’m gonna start filling this closet back up again and this goes into how that rejection and failure what I thought had in front of all those people how it started rustic. So if you’re watching this right now and if in theory if your rejection was not experienced in front of potentially 300 million people 20 million people I’m sorry 20 million people then maybe we have nothing to complain about. So I just want to ask you though I don’t want to belabor it too much. Yeah. Did you feel pretty awful? It was I it was so painful that I couldn’t even hear when somebody started a word that started with O that I couldn’t even like I had to run away. Oprah, the whole, what it, it hurt me so bad because the amount of people that had now, were now misjudging me and didn’t understand what the whole thing was supposed to be light-hearted was extremely difficult. Did you get to sort of like a dark place there? Where did you, I mean, did you get upset? Or did you go eat some ice cream? Or how do you process, how do you process this feeling? Well, I probably of all the things that happened to me, that was one of the most shocking and the most caught me off guard moments. And I went to Gino’s Pizza and had maybe a whole pizza, cried, cried, cried, cried, and then decided that I wasn’t going to tell anybody about it and begged them not to air the segment. Which she said, it’s not really about you, Jill. And I’m like, no, it really is about me. This is really about me. Anyhow, the month later, that aired to 20 million people, it got such great ratings that it aired three months later and then another three months later No, so this all leads up to how I started rustic F in case you’re thinking. I’m just telling a story. No, I’m Into this okay, so five years later. Maybe not even five years I was clean the whole closet out so literally empty shelf to which once had been amazing gift. I thought they’re amazing Yeah, but totally empty and I thought you know what I am NOT gonna let those two girls from Canada keep me down. And I am going to start filling those shelves back up with something. And that’s how Rustic Cuffs. So the idea is to fill up your shelves with gifts that you could give to people that the girls from Canada would not be upset about? No. So I was laying in bed one night. It was about two o’clock in the morning. And I have always, when I, in all my travels, the only thing that I buy is cuffs. And so I had a whole drawer full of really unique cuffs to that region or wherever I was in the country. So for about 15 years everywhere I’d gone I had gotten a really unique cuff. I wore the same earrings my whole life, the same ring, so cuffs it really was this passion that I had. Never thought about making them. And one night I was laying in bed and I was watching, I hate to say this, but it was a highly rated TV show and one of the girls on there, I probably couldn’t strike that, I think I can do that. And so I got up and Googled and YouTubed from 2 in the morning for the rest, as long as I could, how to make a cuff, how to dye leather, how to stamp, how to engrave, everything that had to do with it. And so little by little, I just started making them from 10 o’clock at night till like four in the morning every night. And then I put my first one on the shelf. And every time I did it, I saw those girls faces from Canada. And I started filling the shelves back up with cuffs, nuts. So thanks to Oprah, I’m serious. When I think back about that heartache, and at the time it was devastating, had that not happened, I may not have been compelled to do what I did. Jill, before you started Rustic Cuff, had you had any experience creating products, marketing products, getting products into stores? When my second daughter was born, I had this idea to take scrabble tiles and put people’s kids pictures on it and then put a chain on it. And I made a bunch of them, put them on there and they started selling like crazy. But I sort of reverse engineered and I before I just launched out there I made sure that you know the branding and everything about it was just right before it launched so it would be perfect or not quite perfect but when it launched it was bigger than I had expected it. So you had a little bit of success there? A little bit on a very minor scale because I think the Tulsa World did an article on it and that helped with the bigger buzz for that. So if I’m an entrepreneur watching this right and I feel like I just had my big idea maybe just even hearing you talk it triggered or maybe I had one a couple weeks ago I’ve had this big idea what was sort of your first big step to turn that big idea into reality or what would maybe what should maybe the first step that any entrepreneur take what is the first step they should take if they have this big idea? After getting the big idea, I would say the first and in my book, the only step is to make a plan. Make a plan. Just to have a plan. Have a plan, even if you have no idea how you’re going to execute it right away, to have some sort of A through Z plan. This is where I am right now. This is where I want to be. This is in the end game, or maybe not even a total end game, but without any plan, then you’re gonna go right, you’re gonna go left, you’re gonna go, there’s so many different paths you can go down. Now, you are a high energy entrepreneur, I work with a lot of high energy entrepreneurs, we all sort of are wired, we’re all kind of passionate about what we do, and yet when I see a lot of the people who haven’t started a company yet, but they’re really excited, they have this passion, but it seems like it’s an uncontrollable passion, where they’re not really writing ideas down it’s just kinda like this idea festival. Do you write ideas down on post-it notes or when you have your plan do you put on paper, do you type it? How do you make a plan? Can you walk me through that? So I totally hear you about it just needs to be harnessed in because the entrepreneur mind has so many different ideas what I did is in the guest room I had a big white board and I just and I had a white board that I wrote down plan you know how what’s the first step that I wanted to take and then I wrote it my iPhone because I wasn’t always in my guest room so I copied it on my iPhone just the same exact thing so everywhere I went on airplane whether I was waiting for my kids whatever I would always refer back to my phone so I was looking at that a couple times a day to see One of my mentors years ago said if you’ll put your big idea everywhere where it sort of almost haunts you or taunts you, where it’s constantly there just sort of nagging you and you can’t really ever escape it, that’s when you’re going to turn it into reality. When it’s memorized almost. When you know it, you know that list without even having to refer back to it. I think that’s an action step every entrepreneur can take if you’re watching this is to definitely write it down, get it out there where you can see it. Now Elon Musk, he’s the famous founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX, he’s doing some big things here. This guy’s trying to basically take off where NASA left off. And he says, work like hell, I mean you have to put in 80 to 100 hours a week to improve the odds of success. He says, if other people are working in 40 hour work weeks and you’re putting in 100-hour work weeks, then if you’re doing the same thing, you know that you’ll achieve in four months what it takes them a year to achieve. Now, I know that we aren’t trying to reinvent space travel here. Maybe we’ll get there if we work together enough on some stuff. But how many hours a week were you putting into rustic cuff when you first had the idea for it? How many hours were you putting in to getting this thing off the ground? I think, you know, it first started off as a hobby that I was just so obsessed with, so I wasn’t thinking, okay, this is a business and I’m gonna make it work. I mean, it really was just my passion, which I think, first and foremost, if you’re gonna do anything, you have to have the passion for it. So the passion drove me to stay up till 4 in the morning, but really, I would put my kids to bed at 9 o’clock, and I would say five nights a week, I was up till 4 in the morning. There were times when my husband was going to work out at 6 o’clock, and I would still be in there working. I want to clarify this. You put the kids to bed. What time do they go to bed? Nine o’clock. Nine is the goal. It was usually ten. How many kids do you have? Two. You have two kids. Do you have a full-time job? No, I wasn’t working. You weren’t working? Okay, so you’re basically a full-time mom. Yeah, right. And you put your kids to bed at nine, nine-thirty. Maybe they come in or up to you and ask you for something. But the thing is, they’re asleep at nine-thirty, ten. And then from that point forward, until when? Until about four in the morning. And I would be hammering, I mean loud, and I bought sound machines. So they had sound machines that were very loud that would be right next to their ears so they couldn’t hear anything but the sound machine. I would literally hammer from 10 o’clock till 4 in the morning. I would dye leather, I would cut, I would do it all myself till 4 in the morning. I love sleep, like more than anybody. I love, I should say loved, I loved sleep. That’s how I am, secretly. I’ll just tell them I grew up. I love, I mean I couldn’t wait to go in bed and just go to sleep and then I would sleep in. I just, when my kids would wake up when they were little, I would have the TV set with the serial out already. I was that kind of. So you, what time did you wake up? I would sleep for maybe three or four hours. Now I want to throw this out for anybody watching this because this is huge. If you’ve ever dated somebody or married to somebody, maybe you remember what dating is like if you’re like in love with somebody or something Nobody has to call you and say hey, buddy Can you stay up you have a date with your dream woman or dream guy or because you’re passionately in love with something Yeah, and I’ve heard almost every successful entrepreneur entrepreneur I talked to they say if you’re in love with your idea, it’ll get you up early Yeah, it’ll keep you up at night and you’ll have this almost Undescribable amount of energy because you’re deeply passionate about this. That’s exactly how that’s exactly I didn’t need no does Yeah, I don’t know if you ever had that in college. I never did. I just heard about I went to college during that Red Bull face. Yeah, okay Yeah, but you’re right You’re so passionate about it that I could I didn’t want to sleep and I didn’t even care that like There was one night almost every week that I never went to sleep Like I would literally my husband would go to work out and then the kids would get up and I would just be up. You started this at night, from literally 9.30 at night until 4 in the morning. That’s when you were free. You were free for about 6.5 hours a day between those times. So if you’re watching this and you don’t have enough time in your schedule, that’s a good time. Yeah. Did you find yourself cutting out other things to make time for this too? Yes, I was a big tennis player. Loved tennis. I loved to watch TV and just relax at night after my kids went to bed. Like that was my thing. And so, yeah, I had to stop. I definitely for a whole year stopped for the most part going to my tennis club, but I didn’t care. That’s the thing. I didn’t care. I didn’t even feel like it was a sacrifice because I was so driven. I could not not do that. You’re getting me fired up here. Oh, I’m so excited. All right, now Jill, most entrepreneurs that call me looking for help, you know, I’m a business coach guy, they’ll call me and they have this big idea and they want to turn it into reality and have very little time and even less money. You’re saying, hey, if you don’t have enough, I mean would you say to the entrepreneur if you don’t have time just stay up all night? Is this sort of your advice? Yeah, no, I would say it’s very unhealthy because I aged a lot for that year. Are you 22 now? Well, I’m 21. Here’s the thing. If there’s something that you’re in love with, whether it’s a human, whether it’s a sport, or whether it’s a hobby, you are going to find the time to do it, because you are going to make less time for something else. It is just a fact. If you really, really love sleeping, you can’t survive without sleeping, you’re going to find time in the day if you really want it that bad. Or if it’s just not that time right then, then there will be a time that you can find the time. But I truly believe that if that is your passion and you want to make it work, then you will find the time. I 100% agree with this. You’re getting me pumped here. Now a lot of entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs, these guys, they’ll have this great idea. I know when I started my DJ business, I’m in my dorm room and I’m like, I’m going to blow up the wedding entertainment industry. I’m going to build this big old DJ entertainment business, but I’m cash-strapped. I’m idea-rich, very little money. That’s usually how it works. You have a ton of ideas, very little money, and then the people who have a ton of money have very little time, and so it’s sort of this weird thing. But you have this big idea, very little money, a lot of time. Where did you get the money to really start developing the idea? I mean, did you kind of pull money out of savings? Did you have a big garage sale? Where’d you get the money to kind of get going? You know, what I did is I took $250 and I went online and bought materials that I needed to make my first cuff. $250. $250. I took it. I say I took it from my husband, but it’s my money, too. Yeah. Yeah. I bought some leather. I bought some dye. I bought some, you know, materials to to stamp and seriously I spent $250 and so I started making them and then gave it to somebody. And when somebody, it was a girl that worked at Saks and when she started wearing it she said I know 20 girls here that would want to buy one. Oh man. I said well this is a hobby I’m not putting a price on it, it’s just a hobby. And she said you have to put some I’d learned how to even judge your time or even cost or materials. I was just like, okay, 38 sounds good. And so they said, well, let’s have a party for you and we’ll invite a bunch of people. I’m like, oh, I don’t wanna do parties, it’s a hobby. So she said, no, let’s have a party and we’ll just bring all the cuffs that you’ve made so far. And so a hundred people came and everybody bought one or two cuffs. So I went home with a sizable amount of cash that I had never expected. That was sort of how it funded starting. I just want to get specific on it for a second because I think a lot of men and women watching this may be a little bit like the idea. You had roughly $38 and you sold 25 of them. I sold like 150 to 200 of them. Whoa. Yeah, at the party. I sold like 150. Yeah. 150 yeah and I remember the feeling when I first DJ’d my first show and I got five dollars a head for any kid that came to the middle school dance after the first couple hundred kids you know I have a deal with the counselor and she’s because of the school dance we never had more than a couple hundred kids you know so I was like if anybody over 200 I’ll keep five and I remember going home was like I was like 16 with like a thousand dollars I’m like that’s the most money anyone’s ever had yeah it didn’t feel rewarding though and validating? Not so much the money, but that people would pay for your idea that you stayed up all night making? It felt really, really humbling because it was hard and then I thought, they feel sorry for me, all these people that are coming, and then I was like, well, if they felt sorry for me, they’d buy one, not two. So it was, it still is very humbling when anybody buys one and that is not just a line, it just feels so, if I even see anybody of my friends out there wearing it, I always think, well they just thought they were going to see me and that’s why they’re wearing it. So it still is just very, it’s so touching to me to see people, but this night in particular when that many people bought it, yeah, and I went home with, I don’t know, thousands of dollars and now, because I wasn’t an accounting major, I never kept track of how much I was spending and how much I was making realized that’s how I was accounting. Well I think we all learn from either mentors or mistakes. Yes. And so I think some of the stuff on Thrive when you get into some of the costing I think it’ll. Yeah. You know hopefully people can learn from our mistakes. Definitely. And kind of. Now the question. Napoleon Hill is a success author that I’m a huge Kool-Aid drinker of. He wrote Think and Grow Rich which is probably the best self-help, best-selling self-help book of all time and he says, first comes thought, then organization of that thought into ideas and plans, as you mentioned, then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you observe, is in your imagination. However, it seems like every day when I get calls and emails from entrepreneurs, they have these big ideas for these great products. They say, I’m gonna make brownies that are going to change the world. I’m gonna start making fudge. I had a lady the other day email me and she says, I’m going to start an event planning business. It’s going to change, it’s going to make an experience, it’s going to be… and yet when I meet them, and nothing wrong against the people, we all start somewhere, there’s very little organization. And so to help these people and to help people who are in that boat, I know I used to be this idea factory with no organization. How, can you kind of walk me through how you stay organized or how you stayed organized during the big idea phase? Because I know you had to get an idea for a new cuff or a new product. How did you stay organized and how do you stay organized? For the first year, I’ve been doing this for two and a half years, so for the first year it was just me. So I had nobody to help me stay organized. And because I have that entrepreneur mind now that was always going in so many different directions, again it was the paper. It was my pen to the paper. I would never remember it just thinking about, okay, this idea or that idea. I actually, I think of my brain as like this plate of pennies. If you put one penny on, then the other pennies fall off. So if I had an idea on here and it was from, you know that game in the arcade where you put a penny in and you try to see how many pennies will come off? I spent a fortune on that game. Okay, so I have two. So my brain is like that. It’s like this plate of pennies. And if I get an idea last week, if I get 20 emails and 20 new thoughts, well, that penny falls off and it may never be recovered again. So unless it’s written down, which for me is huge, huge, huge. So when I first started and I fell in love with this idea of, oh my gosh, I made my first cuff, I’d have so many new ideas. And so I just started writing them all down. And they were not always on the same notepad. It was all over the place. It was all contained in the same room. So somewhere in that room were all my ideas. And this great room is where you kept it. You just threw it in that room and you knew it was in that room. Yes, and I knew that eventually I would organize it into some sort of, which I haven’t done that yet, but I’m still working on it. I worked years ago, I can’t mention the guy’s name because I don’t want to get him in trouble. He hasn’t given me permission to share this crazy story. But very successful person, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and he has this room like this. It is a crazy room. It’s a room where you walk into the room and you’re like, is this somebody who’s got some psychological disorders? Or is this a genius? It’s like Doc Brown from Back to the Future, but he has post-it notes, pictures, ideas, pictures cut out of magazines, and you’re like, what are you doing? Well, he’s an inventor. And he says, well, this idea, I can’t lose that idea, so I cut it out of the magazine and I put it on the wall. And it’s sort of this bizarre way he collects ideas, but they make sense to him. But I think the idea is we need to turn those thoughts into things and have some sort of reminder to, hey, do you keep track of stuff? When you get an idea right now, if you’re driving home and you have an idea, do you put it into your iPhone? Do you email yourself? Do you call yourself? Say, self, remember this. What do you do? Right now what I do is I email it to myself, but I don’t email it to my regular email. I have a special email set up for me that is just for VIP, very important ideas and very important emails that I need to return. Otherwise, it will get lost in the hundreds of emails that come through every day. So my ideas go to that particular email. So you set up an email just for your VIP ideas. Yes. I won’t ask for the address. We’re not going to ask for it. We’re moving on. Okay, so this is a great thing. Now, Jill, how did you go about getting your initial feedback so that you could know whether this idea or this product was in fact a crazy idea or destined for greatness. Because a lot of people, I met a lady the other day, oh gosh, I wanted to hug the lady and then I wanted to cry because I felt so awful. She and her husband had taken their whole life savings and had bought a business that is ridiculous. And it was a franchise that they had purchased and I guess it was a license, not a franchise. There’s no way, I just did the math, it’s not even possible to make a profit. But they just were so enamored with the idea and I don’t think they ran it by anybody. How do you run it? How do you run your ideas by people to see if they were good? What was your process? I mean, you should be able to… You know, there’s two lines of thought on that. One is, okay, get great feedback and wise counsel on whether or not this is a good idea or whether it’s even workable, executable, or go with your gut, even regardless of what anybody says, you know it, you know that it’s gonna be good. And there’s that, is finding the balance between the two. Because now what I have to do is more this. What is your preference? Really my preference is going with my gut and letting it organically happen. Organically happen. Now I will say, some of the wisdom that has, or some of the wise advice that I’ve received on certain things has saved me money, but it has to be filtered and you have to consider the source because everybody will want to give you feedback. One thing I had heard, this is a great, just unbelievable line of thought here. There’s one entrepreneur who told me, he goes, you know, if there’s only a million people in the whole world who are kind of like you and they all like what you do, then you’ll be okay. Exactly. If there’s even a hundred thousand people in the whole world, there’s 350 million Americans, if only a hundred thousand think your idea is awesome, then you’re good. Yeah. But if nobody likes it because you’ve run it by so many committees that it’s just beige and no one really buys into it, then it’s worthless to the whole world. Yeah. So he was like, and I’m talking to the guy, I’m like, what are you talking about? You know, I was just trying to break it out. He says like rap music He’s like I don’t like rap music But there’s a lot of people that do and if they ran it by me and then ran it by the people who like rap music What will we have it’d be like countrified rap music? It wouldn’t no one would want that and it was just funny But he was just the idea was trying to find something that identifies with a core base Yeah, did you ever show it to anybody at all to get their feedback? Yeah, you just like you worked on it I just work and here’s the thing and I don’t even pride myself on having a great sense of style, but I knew what the general public liked already. Yeah. I knew that. And my main goal was to take what people liked already and make it that much better. And to create a product that they didn’t even know that they needed yet. That they weren’t even aware that they had to have that. That they were going to be obsessed with it. So you were trying to improve upon something that was already there and then make something they didn’t even know they needed. So for example the first product that I came out with was a leather cuff that was customized with your kids names and their birthdays or your wife’s name, anything that you wanted. And that’s already out there. A lot of people were doing that. So what I did is I discovered that is huge. People love customized bracelets or customized necklaces. I want to take that and do it being done. So it’s not like I created, I mean people have been wearing cuffs and customize things for decades. I just wanted to do it so well that they wouldn’t even consider looking anywhere else because that was the quality and the uniqueness of it superseded anything else. I love it. I love it. Now and I think that’s the Napoleon Hill writes about inventions and or writes about imagination. And he says there’s the synthetic imagination where you take an idea and you improve upon it. And then there’s this original imagination where you take an idea and you just, like it’s, you just came up with the idea to make a light bulb. And you just, out of nowhere, you just, so he’s talking about, you know, for entrepreneurs, as a general rule, synthetic is a much better way to go if you take something that kind of exists and improve upon it. And it seems like that’s what you’re doing. Yeah, well, I knew, I mean, I know that people love jewelry, first of all. I know that people love bracelets and so I, if I asked ten different people if they liked it then I’m probably going to get, you know, five who do, five who don’t. It could be a very, but then it sort of colors what I felt in the first place about it. So initially I just went with my gut. I had this one girl wear it and because she wore it and all her friends liked it, that was enough for me to go, okay, I have something here. Now that your product is already out, I mean, it is out there, there’s people all over the world wearing these things. You know, Bill Gates, he says, your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. Now that’s the Bill Gates philosophy where you release the product and it’s gonna have a lot, I mean, Bill, if you’re watching, I apologize, but you know, Microsoft, I apologize that Microsoft has always had errors until recently for me, but I get like a version of Word and it doesn’t work. And it’s almost like I don’t even want the newest version because I have to wait for it to find the errors first. But that’s kind of his theory. Do you do this? Do you go out and say, do you say this to you? I mean, does it work for your business that unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning or no? You know, I think it is a great point, but I think for unhappy customers what I’ve learned mostly is the process on how to run a business, not so much as far as my product. Because I feel if I’m not going to put a product out there that I don’t love or that I’m not passionate about, so because 10 people don’t like it, it’s not going to change my mind about that product. I’m still in love with it. If it doesn’t sell as much, okay, but it doesn’t change how the passion that went into creating it. But if they’re like I ordered it online and I didn’t get it sent to my house, that’s where you learn. The process of how to run a business is what I have learned through Unhappy Customers. I love it. I love it. So what are some steps that you recommend that every entrepreneur should take to get that initial feedback on their processes? You know, I mean, do you recommend that you say, hey mom go online buy this see what happens, see if it works for you. I mean, how do you get that feedback on the process? On the process. Yeah, I absolutely, before you would give it to the world, I would have at least a dozen people go through, order, receive, inspect, everything, because you will save yourself many, many, many hours of anguish and also of your reputation by having people that are already close to you test it out. Without a doubt. Now I didn’t know to do that. Of course it’s learning through my mistakes and I have since learned on everything, every new thing that we do. Any new bracelet that we make, I make all 12 girls that work for me wear it for weeks. I’ve been doing on Thrive and I’ve done this for our wedding business back in the day, I would hire somebody that’s not someone I don’t like, but it’s somebody that I’m not close to, and who’s not going to be false kind to me, and I would say, I want you to call our company and book one of our wedding entertainers. Go through the whole thing, show up, pay a deposit, I’ll reimburse you. Just go through the whole thing, tell me what happens. And they would say stuff like, your on-hold music didn’t work, I got put on hold forever, I had no idea where your address was, your place, the guy I was talking to, talk too fast. And not all at one time, but you would learn so much about the business that I could learn more in that. And so on Thrive, we’ve had family and friends that have given me feedback, which is great, but I’m having people that don’t really know me. This guy in Canada, I said, go online, subscribe, I want to see. He emailed me some awesome feedback. And I’m going, this is some good stuff. And so we’re kind of that beta phase. I think it’s just any product that’s important to test those processes that way. And you made a great point for people that are not that close to you, or even if they are close to you, you have a history with them of them being completely unfiltered and honest. Like my aunt is somebody who I don’t want to test it because she’s like, oh my gosh, it’s a website. It works, it’s online. You know, I just, I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. No, that’s your aunt off my list too then. Now do you ever have friends or do you have friends or family tell you that your rustic cuff idea was terrible? Like it had complete epic terribleness? Did anybody ever say that right there is a bad idea? Usually the people that work for me for whatever reason don’t tell me that. I will say that last night my mom sat me down, she’s here visiting me, and she sat me down she said can I be honest with you? I was like, no mom, you’re too many years of you being honest with me, you can’t. She said, I’m going to be. So she said, I just need to tell you something about one of your products. And she said, I think this one’s stunning and this one is stunning. This one is not so stunning. And I said, I really appreciate that, but you have no sense of style mom. No, I didn’t say So I said you know what I totally appreciate that. That is not the feedback that I’ve gotten from the majority of people and not even girls who work with me. And so what I did with that because I actually went to bed thinking about this. You know I very much value my mom’s opinion but I don’t live or die by her advice on that. So I took that and I put it in a little place in my brain and it just stays there. It doesn’t change the fact what I’m going to do with that product, but I just kind of file it there for now. So a lot of things people say, I just put it there and I may pull it out later. Well, one of the companies that I’m an investor in, it’s called the Elephant in the Room, it’s the men’s grooming lounge. And it’s funny, I personally don’t identify with the people who like our product. So, like, it’s a high-end men’s grooming lounge for men who want an experience and not a haircut. I wanna go in, and I associate quality with the speed of my haircut. So I’m like, just get me in, get me out, I’m peacing out, let’s go, you know? So I don’t want a beverage, I don’t want any conversation, I just, let’s go, boom, put a bowl on my head, bowl cut, let’s go. And my wife’s like, you’re terrible, would you just get some refinement in your life? But they do paraffin hand dips, they do hot towel treatment. So when he’s asked me early on, he said, what do you think about the paraffin hand dip? And I, it takes entirely too long. And- It wasn’t your thing. Yeah, and then I realized, I told him, and I said, wait a minute, but I’m not the person that you wanna get feedback from. And he’s like, that’s what I’ve been saying. And my wife’s like, that’s what we’ve been saying. So now that we’re getting guys in who are a little more cultured, guys who do care about their appearance more, and I’m getting there, but guys who do care. And they were going, this is great. I would like the extended shampoo massage. And I’m going, extended shampoo? Who wants that? And so it’s been interesting, but it’s like we’ve got to find our ideal and likely buyer and get their feedback, is what it sounds like. My mom is, I mean, I’m not saying she’s not my likely buyer, but I know who my market is. And not that it’s not my mom, but I know that that product works for the general market. Now you are a human, we believe. You could be just a robot of entrepreneurship. How do you emotionally process the negative feedback? I know you said you put it to a little part of your brain, but how do you emotionally deal with your ideas? It’s hard not to attach some sort of, really? Did you think that about my product? It’s hard not to immediately attach that to the person that is critiquing or criticizing your product. When you step back and you can almost put a shield and say, they’re doing that for me almost as a favor because I don’t need everybody to say, that’s so awesome, Jill, that’s amazing. I really need a mixture of, what do you really think? And then people who actually really like it. So I try after my first initial, oh that kind of hurt. Yeah, I try to just separate it and remember why I like them in the first place. Now I ask you this question here. Lee Iacocca, he’s the guy who helped turn around Chrysler. So Chrysler was struggling and he helped turn the whole company around, basically saved the company. And he famously said, in times of great stress and adversity, it’s always best to keep busy and to plow your anger and your energy into something positive. Can you think of a time since the last couple years as you built this product where you just had a train wreck of a situation happen or an entire shipment was wrong or harsh feedback or something where you were able to do that? Is that kind of your process or do you like to take a nap or what do you do? You know, that has happened over the course of the last couple years when something came in and thousands were wrong. We had done something completely the opposite of how we were supposed to or sent out 300 of the wrong product. What I like to do is figure out a quick plan how to deal with it but the pain still resides so I go do something completely different. Really? Completely different for the rest of the evening and I’m a poker player so I just go play poker, completely get my mind and I will just sit there and be a completely different person. By the time I go home, I have a new perspective. Do you count cards? It’s not illegal, I’m just wanting to know. In poker, you don’t have to count cards, but I can’t say I’ve never counted cards, but I can’t say I ever have either. I don’t have the mental capacity to count cards. You probably could do it. I don’t think. You’d be a great blackjack player. No, no. We’re going after this. How do you recommend that I should process negative feedback? If I’m watching this, and again, I talked to a gentleman in Chicago actually, and he told me that he had this great business idea and his father told him his idea was terrible. And it like just crushed him. Yeah. Because he’s like, that’s my dad. And we got into it and he’s like, my dad said it was terrible and so I just never done it. And I was trying to encourage him, like, I know your dad’s probably a great American. I’m sure he’s a great, you know, but you need to just go ahead and just start it. And then when it’s successful, you need to invite him to the awards banquet or something and maybe do a toast for him or something. But how would you, if somebody’s watching this and they are really struggling with the negative feedback they’re getting about their product or their business, their service they’re developing, what would you say to this person? You know I would say you’ve got to filter the advice or feedback that is coming to you because if you’re the kind of person that’s swayed by whomever you’re with then you’ll never launch your product. So you’ve got to go. I really believe in gut is a very very big thing for me and I’m not saying not to listen to advice but I’m saying to filter whether it’s from your parents, whether it’s from your neighbor, to filter it and then ultimately I think that you go with your gut and let it organically happen if it’s supposed to. Really? Yeah, I do. Plunge into it. So you’re telling this entrepreneur, hey, go with your gut, filter it, but go with it. I’m saying 20 years down the road when you remember, oh my gosh, I really wish I would have done that idea, but my dad didn’t think it was a good idea, I think you might be kicking yourself a little bit that you didn’t even try because your dad or your neighbor thought, you know what, that sounds like, that idea that sounds like it’ll never launch. Well, you’ll never know unless you try it. So down the road, they’re, you know, they won’t, what they told you may have changed two years later. So I just think that because of what is being told to you about your idea, you almost have to turn it off if you really, really believe in it. And if it doesn’t happen, well, you tried. Well, a final question I have for you about this idea of taking this big idea and turning it into a product here is, you know, Walt Disney lost it all twice. A lot of people don’t know this. Walt Disney literally was eating dog food at one point in his life because he just lost it all, spent all his money. Henry Ford lost it all five times. And then Abraham Lincoln, the guy is the 16th president of the US, probably one of the most notable presidents that we can think. He changed the course of history for so many people. And this guy lost eight elections that we know of. He probably lost a student council election too or something but this guy lost a lot of elections. So if I and this is one of the things that Abraham Lincoln said he says my great concern is not whether you have failed but whether you are content with your failure. So if I’m watching this right now and I have totally bet the farm I’m like Walt Disney I lost it all and then maybe I’m like Henry Ford and I’ve lost it all five times. What would you say to me if I feel like one pathetic loser and people are still going, it’s never gonna happen. What would you say to that person who’s a little bit beat up right now and feels like they just maybe can’t do it? I would say, you have two choices. You can either live in that for the rest of your life and never try. And, or you could say, you know what? You can refer to all those people that you just said and realize that some of the greatest accomplishments and the greatest people that have ever lived have failed more times than they have succeeded and I would not just, I mean if you’re okay with failure and you’re okay with just being where you are then be okay with it. Otherwise I would say it does not hurt to get up and try again because you will never know unless you get back up again. What’s the saying? I mean, we have it on one of our cuffs. It says, fall seven times, stand up. Oh gosh. Now- I think it says fall seven times, get up eight and then buy a rustic cuff. Okay. Well, certainly not by somebody who cannot remember what the quote says on her cuff. No, no. That’s that. Well, that’s just, that’s real entrepreneurship right there. But at the end of the story, the last word is rustic cuff and that’s where they buy your stuff. That’s what counts They real quick question if I want to buy your stuff, where do I go go to rustic cuff calm? Awesome Hey, thank you so much. You’re an angel. I appreciate you. Let me harass you tonight. I appreciate it. Enjoyed it JT do you know what time it is? 14 it’s It’s Tivo time and talk to him, baby. Tim Tivo 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 gonna have to come and find out because I don’t know. Well I’m just saying Tim Tebow is gonna 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 gonna 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 $100 million 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, Russell, 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. And 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 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. He’s going to 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? I don’t know what 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. 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 could 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 Yeah, 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 anything like that I had to work for it and I Super grateful. I came to a business conference. That’s actually I met you met Peter Tong 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 27th and 28th. You might say, well, who’s speaking? We already covered that. You might say, where’s it going to be? It’s going to be in Tulsa, Russell Oklahoma. I suppose it’s Tulsa, Russell. I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa, Russell, sort of like the Jerusalem of America. But if you type in Thrivetimeshow 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 and 28th. Who? You. You’re going to come. Who? You. 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, Russelaum. Get those tickets today at Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s Thrivetimeshow.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 up shows day after day and now he is the legendary host of the EO Fire podcast and he’s traveled all the way from Puerto Rico to Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend the in-person June 27th and 28th Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshop. If you’re out there today, folks, 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, Jodly Dumas and countless big-time super successful entrepreneurs. It’s gonna be life-changing. Get your tickets right now at thrive timeshow.com. James what website is that? ThriveTimeshow.com. James one more time before it leaves you. ThriveTimeshow.com. We own it. We own it. We own it. Thrive Time 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. We get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and they’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get-rich-quick, walk-on-hot-coals product. It’s literally we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, but I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses, or are they successful because they have a proven system. When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever, and we’ll even give you your money back if you don’t love it. We’ve built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see you. 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 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 and kings point new york octagon watch what a person not what they say good morning good morning good morning barbecue soccer is that radio show today i’m broadcasting from phoenix arizona not scottsdale arizona their clothes but the completely different worlds. And I have a special guest today. 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. As Mr. Clay Clark, he’s a friend of a good friend, Eric, Eric Trump, but we’re also talking about money, bricks, and how screwed up the world can get in a few and a half hours. 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 Donald, who is 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 wanted 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, you know, thank you, but you’ve become an influencer. You know, 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 too, 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, at King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. 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 school. The linear workflow, the linear workflow for us in getting everything out on paper and documented is really important. 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, they’re 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. The biggest takeaways are 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’ve got to go through the ups and downs of getting it to where you want to go. He actually gives you the road map out. I was stuck, didn’t know what to do and he gave me the road map 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 like motivates me and also give me a lot of knowledge and tools. It’s up to you to do it. 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 motivated me. Your competition’s gonna come eventually or try to pick up these tactics. 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. This is where we used to live a few years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See? This is 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 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. So we really just wanna 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 ThriveCon workshop, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. The Atmosphere Play’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 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 completely eliminates 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 your 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. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get an opportunity to see that it’s real.