Entrepreneur | Part 2 – Raising Venture Capital: The 14 Points You Need To Know

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. And the definition from Pitching Decks real quick on traction is, traction is a measure In order of importance, it is demonstrated through profit, revenue, customers, pilot customers, non-paying users, and verified hypotheses about customers’ problems and their rates of change. A story without traction is a work of fiction. You must start building your product and start testing it with your market before you start raising money. That’s just, I mean, it makes sense. But that’s specifically what you need to look for when you’re trying to compile this traction to show investors. Yeah, and so if you’re confused as to what traction is, again, traction, you listed off all those variables, but traction at the end of the day is you’re saying, what is the evidence that what you think might happen is actually happening? Good. So just real quick to touch on those, you talked about the product. Educate us on the product, the team, the social proof. Yeah, well the product, the idea is you want to have a working model. Okay. That was what made Growing Thrive so hard. Yeah. Is it, I couldn’t show anybody what it was going to be, because I’m not a computer programmer. Right. I built a successful company and sold it, and I knew to build it, it would require several million dollars. But I couldn’t show people an example of what Thrive did. So I had to have like a super team. So as you go through this list, the traction was that other companies that were online education platforms were doing well in different spaces. That was the traction. So you could point to them. But Jill Donovan of Rustic Cuffs, if she had gone to, you know, try to raise money and just talked about some, you know, cuffs that hadn’t been made yet, that would have been different because she could actually make a prototype. That’s right. That’s right. And the product you want to show a prototype, like you said, on the team, you want to surround yourself with people where you are the least intelligent person on the team. I want to repeat, you want to surround yourself with a team of people where you are the least intelligent person on the team. If you’re ever in a business startup and you find that you’re the most intelligent person on the team, you need to get a different team. Right. And that’s tough, because what do you mean? Like how are you gonna afford to hire all these geniuses? Well, what happens is in startups is usually there’s a board of extremely smart people, and then there is the team that’s executing it, who might be very smart, but they’ve never done it before. And so you need to build a team of experienced people that can coach you. And then the final thing is social proof. Social proof is where there’s kind of anecdotal evidence from the society or from the business world to show that your idea is good. So as an example for Thrive, do you guys know, if you’re watching Thrive, you probably know this, but the cost of college has more than tripled over the past 20 years. It’s tripled. College today, we have about 50% of graduates that are looking for work a year, a full year after graduation. There’s more college graduates right now working as bartenders and working as retail clerks than ever before. So these are the evidence I can show, I can say, look at the social proof from the social tapestry that makes our country. These are things that point to that this idea is not just my idea, but it’s something that’s supported by society and the national trends at large, even the global trends. And this is under the elevator pitch point because I mean I assume that you have to have that elevator pitch to kind of catch people’s attention. The idea is it should be explained in an elevator ride, but then to clarify you need to be able to articulate these things. Yeah what’s funny is that you have to have your elevator pitch ready to go, and then when people ask you, well what kind of traction are you having? Right. You have to know it up here or have it written down. And I recommend you have this thing called a one sheet. And a one sheet is an eight and a half by eleven sheet where it answers all these questions. So an action step that you can do right now is you can go ahead and write your elevator pitch. You can go ahead after you write your elevator pitch, write your clarifier, and then have an answer for the traction, have an answer for product, have an answer for your team, have an answer for your social proof, have it all ready to go. And Chet Holmes talks a little bit about the elevator pitch in the Ultimate Sales Machine. Love that book. And so if you want to know how to write that elevator pitch, I’d start there. It’s a good book. It’ll help you with that. One other tip if you’re struggling to write an elevator pitch is you can go onto the websites of like Twitter, Dropbox, Facebook, different companies that have done well, and you can notice how simply they communicate their mission or the problem that they solve on their homepage. Usually on their homepage, they’ll answer it very simply, and that should give you some ideas. So it really can help you clarify. But basically, your elevator pitch explains to the world what problem your company or product solves. Simply and concisely. Simple and concisely, which is, by the way, simplicity, according to Steve Jobs, is the ultimate form of sophistication. Again, simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication. So it will be extremely hard to say it simply. Right. All right, number six, the definition of a high concept pitch. Yep. So in Pitching Hacks, they describe the term high concept pitch as what does the product help the customer do? Who is the customer? A single sentence that distills your startup’s vision. Yep. So how is this different than your elevator pitch? Well, your elevator pitch is basically, if you’re in an elevator, you should be able to, on the way down from floor 15 to the bottom, explain all these elements, the traction, the product, the team, the social proof, the, but your high concept pitch is basically that kind of like that opening line. It’s kind of like that opening, you know. That’s what you said when you said Thrive provides entertaining education for entrepreneurs. Yeah, so someone said, well, tell me, tell me what is thrive? On a very high level, I would say, you know, thrive provides entertaining education for entrepreneurs. And it’s all taught by millionaires and everyday entrepreneurial success stories. So that’s not your elevator pitch. That’s your high concept pitch. Yep. And then all the things underneath that attraction, the product, the team, the social proof. Yes, relevant. That’s relevant. Yep. So I guess to make sure we’re clear, good. Your height, your, your high concept pitch, your high concept pitch is right Sure, clear. Good. Your high concept pitch, your high concept pitch is right here. Cool? And then all of the things that go underneath that, like your traction. Traction, products. Yep, and your team, and your product. All of that stuff here, that goes into making your elevator pitch. That makes sense. Okay, that makes sense? Yep. Cool. Because the high concept pitch is just immediately you are literally on the phone with a venture capitalist and they’ll say tell me about it Yeah, and I can tell you man. I have jacked that up. You start vomiting information Yeah, let’s say you cold call for months. Yeah, I Remember I was on the phone with one major Silicon Valley fund I’ve been cold calling for months and he’s like click Clark. Hey, this is such a such. Yeah, he’s like So what’s your high concept pitch? Well I don’t know what that means. That’s exactly what happened. I’m like, well basically what it is, and he’s like, are you done? I asked you again, what is the idea? And I, again, about two minutes on the phone trying to explain it, and he goes, I think we’re done, but if you can get a better concise idea of what you’re talking about, call me later. That was it. I mean, really, that’s what happened. Ben Holmes talks about that too. He talks about how to do the cold calling, but he says you better be ready when they ask you those questions. Yeah, and I gotta be real, I didn’t know what I was doing, but I think doing something wrong is better than doing nothing all the time. So I would encourage you, if you’re like, I can relate to that. I mean, you work so hard to get invited to the home of a multimillionaire so you can explain your idea, and then when you do, you just, blah, blah, blah, and you mess up. But if you watch this episode over and over and over and you’ll define these 14 points, I promise you that your likelihood of closing a deal, it goes up tremendously. Right. And, I mean, you’ve already touched on it and you’ve touched on it probably in every episode on Thrive, but you will fail. Not every investor is going to invest in you. So if you’re not doing it because you’re afraid that you’re going to fail, you’ve got to start failing. Look up George Lucas. Just look up George Lucas and see how many times he pitched the Star Wars script Okay, look up Sylvester Stallone and see how many times he scripted. Yeah Tested the Star Wars or the Rocky the Rocky Script there or a Rambo script or another example was like just look up like Jack London That’s a guy who wrote White Fang that dude was rejected over 600 times on his books I mean we go on and on it just you have to give failure is a prerequisite to success. Yep. You have to get rejected before you get that Especially in this area venture capital. This is tough. Yeah, okay number seven the definition of a pitch deck or a Ten slide. Okay. I know I think I’ve heard you say you have some somewhat embarrassing stories of people Requesting a pitch deck to just tell us those stories. Well, okay one time I have was on the phone with a guy and I was trying to raise capital. Yeah. And he said, can you send me your deck? Oh, so how did you how did you respond to that? I I didn’t know what he was talking about. Did you say yes, though? Yeah. I was like, absolutely. What do you mean? What do I do when he’s like, you know, I want your 10 slide. And I was like, what? That is like what he slides on my slideshow. And he was like, just email me what you have. Okay. And this kept happening. Okay. I think about the third time I’m like, what is this word? Yeah. What are they saying? I’m like, are you saying that like deck, D-E-C-K, like a patio? You know? And then, you know, a tin slide? What is that? You know? And then you realize that these people are, you know, like if you worked in a factory Yeah, and all you did all day was made airplane parts You would start to refer to stuff is like yeah go over there and grab the t3 71, right? Go ahead and get the are they gonna get the you know The TPS reports over there by the R valve and everyone in the I’ve run your obvious and your office is like oh, yeah That’s the R valve. That’s the TPS reports. That’s the but never been there. You know what I’m saying. Yeah, and so the world of venture capital is just like this. These guys are so used to saying this stuff, that they have very little patience for people that can’t speak their language. Because it’s almost like if you can’t speak their language, then they know that you’re not supposed to be there. It’s bizarre, but it’s like, you know, I traveled to Mexico a few times, and I do not speak Spanish very well at all. You don’t blend in very well either, do you? Well, I go there and a lot of people, they think that I might be Latin American. Really? Yeah, they think that. Because of your tan skin? Yeah. That’s beautiful. And I go there, and so I’m there, and I’ll try to speak the language, and I do it terribly. Well, right away, it’s like putting your hand up and saying, I’m not from here. Right. That’s how it’s like when you’re calling venture capital firms, and you’re like, I’m not from here, but trust me. Yeah. They’re like, if you don’t have enough savvy to at least know these terms right? That’s how it works. Can you throw out a couple more terms like this pitch deck or are we gonna go into that later ROI? Good, what’s your ROI? Who’s Roy? I don’t He’s a good dude. I don’t have a Roy, you know, well ROI stands for return on investment That’s just that’s when they say They say tell us about your team What they want to know is the cumulative bios of your team and why they have experience that matters. But you’re just not ready for it because they just, like a high concept pitch. What was the first, I mean, you probably heard it for the first time today if you’re like most people. So these are just the things they do. And the reason why, I mean, we’re going through this, is Clay says you can learn from either failure or mentors. Clay learned from failures, now he’s your mentor. Take his advice. This has happened. He’s walked through it and now we’re going to outline exactly some of these specific terms for you. All right, number seven, the definition of a pitch deck or a tenslide. Now I know I’ve heard you mention a few times some slightly embarrassing stories. Yeah. In terms of people asking you for a pitch deck and you being confused. Can you explain, just tell us these stories. The two that stand out to me as being a number one and number two Example of what you should not do good is one. I cold-called a whole bunch of venture capital funds I had mailed a ton of physical copies of our Business plan. Yeah, and I finally got a call back from somebody says well, what’s your ROI? Okay, I Don’t know You know, so you you kind of just say, you know, who? Oh, he’s, yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. You know, you just, you feel dumb. You can’t really just talk your way through that if you don’t know what he’s talking about. Another one is someone says, hey, can you send me your deck? Deck. The whole thing? Like the patio, like you want me to unbolt it for my house, send it to you, what are you looking for? He’ll invest, he’ll do it. No, that’s what I’ll, I’ll build you a deck, I’ll build you, you know. It just was embarrassing because I didn’t know what the word pitch deck meant. And people have also asked me, well, can you email me your 10 slide? Well, what’s a 10 slide? These are things that if you don’t know, then if you don’t know, it’s kind of to quote the great notorious PIG, if you don’t know, now you know. So we’re going to teach you right now. Yeah. OK, so we’re going to dive into how to build a pitch deck, but can you quickly just tell us what it is, just in a summary? What is a pitch deck? It is a PowerPoint presentation that has no more than 12 slides. I don’t know why they call it a 10 deck, but you can’t have more than 12 slides. So 10 slide and pitch deck are interchangeable, same thing? Yeah, and this has to be in this exact order. We’re gonna lay it out for you. Exactly. If it’s not in this order, boo. And that’s because of the language that venture capitalists, I mean, they can tell if you’re not speaking their language, if you’re not meant to be there. Let me give you an example. You know, in college, those of you went to college, those of you like me who went to college for a while, what had happened was I didn’t graduate. What will happen is you basically learn a format to write papers, right? I mean like it or not. There’s a format Yes, and always like well make sure you use this, you know the double spaced more point font Cite everything at the bottom. I saw it title subtitle Four years of college Yeah, it was awesome. I actually did good at papers But the thing is is it if you just decided to make your own format, we’re like I’m my format is boss I know you want 20 pages. I give you one page. I know you want double space, I put it single space, and I know you want Ariel font or Times New Roman, but I’ve decided to put it in wingdings, so it’s coded. That’s not usually accepted well, is it? No, you just get rejected, because people reject the packaging, not the actual product. They reject the presentation, not the actual, it’s the deal where they don’t reject your idea, they just reject the way it was delivered. Right. And it’s kind of like their filter. Yeah. If you don’t have it laid out like this, they know that this is a guy who doesn’t know what he’s doing exactly. He’s new to this. It’s why every time I show up at the Freemasons meetings unannounced, they kick me out. All right, so we’re going to put the outline up on the screen here that comes from David Cohen of Bessemer Venture Partners. So this outline has been revised though and you’ll find it in Pitching Hacks, right? Yep. So I’m gonna list off these 12 points and I want you to kind of dive into each one for us. Cool. And this is how you need to lay out your pitch deck. Gotta have in this order, have to have every element, right? Boom. Number one, cover. Okay, this should include your logo, tagline, and complete contact information. Yeah. We’re grabbing all of this. I’m just going to give you the definition. All these definitions are coming from Pitching X. So tell us more about the cover. Well, if this was the actual PowerPoint slide, let’s just say the slide was like this. It says here you have to have the logo. So let’s say our company was called Globo Pants. Globo Pants. Globo Pants. Global pants global pants now underneath here you put your tagline you’d say Pants You never Take off Funny but I’m trying to exam don’t laugh. This is serious stuff So you put right here you put the logo right the logos right here So this is the logo the logo is like this, you know, it’s like a Graduation cap. They’re not glowing pants. No for some reason. It’s a graduation cap that and then you have your tagline And you have your complete contact information. So you’d put here like your your name your number Your email boom that is essentially what we’re looking at here on the you have to have this you have to have your logo, title, and then you have the subtitle? Is that what you call it? What’d you call it? Well, you can call it the tagline. The tagline, have the tagline, and then you have all your contact information on the first slide. True. Okay, and so you’re telling me that venture capitalists, if they see your pitch deck and one of those elements are missing, they know something’s up? It’s a general rule, yes, and it’s usually somebody who’s a secretary for the boss who’s checking these, and they’re like, I mean, because think about this. There was a statement made to me by one guy who was extremely wealthy. Yeah. Unbelievable. I blew my mind. He goes, you know that if I returned every voicemail I get every day and every email I get every day that I would never be done with every day? I thought, what do you mean? He’s like, most of the voicemails I get I don’t return. Most of the emails I get I don’t respond to. I only respond to the ones that interest me, because he’s worth millions and millions and millions. And so people are constantly reaching out to him with, I’ve got a business idea. So he’s getting hundreds a day now. He’s kind of known as being the successful guy. And so everybody in town wants to do business with him. So he just basically doesn’t answer his voicemail and doesn’t return emails. So they’re just not even going to call you usually. Usually they don’t even tell you no, they just don’t respond. Which is why if you do get their attention, you’ve got to have everything outlined the right way. Yes. Okay. Number two is the summary. This is the second slide here. This is from Pitching Hacks. Summarize the key compelling facts of the company. You can steal the content from your elevator pitch. Okay. Now this is big here. On the summary, what you’ll want to do, and all these slides use as few words as possible. And you want to give supporting statistics or facts about the company. So you’d want to put like with 9,000 subscribers to our automatic monthly pants shipping company, Globo Pants is positioned to become a world leader in re-wearable pant technology. You know, that kind of thing. So this slide is full of facts that come from your elevator pitch, which could include traction, your team, products, social proof. So let’s go ahead here. I just want to show you real quick. If we take this slide right here, and if we go in and we say, this is kind of our summary, OK? OK. So we might even put the word summary at the top. OK. And underneath it. That doesn’t matter. It’s good to have summary at the top? Yeah, absolutely. A lot of times, this is called the executive summary. OK. And you can put the words executive summary at the top. And I’m sorry I write like a third grade boy. OK. But you’ll put the product under here. You’ll put the team, and you’ll put social proof. So this isn’t outlined like a nicely worded sentence like your high concept. This is actually you can do bullet points of things that people are looking for, like facts, correct? Exactly. Okay. Exactly. And so, but this is how you’ll do it. So you might put that we sold 9,000 pants sold in the first quarter of the year. Our product is patented and it’s made from a blend of llama and mule hair. And then our team, our team we have the President Bill Clinton and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. And then as far as social proof, you’ll put our right now research shows that 27% of Americans don’t want to change their pants. And that appeared in, let’s say, Fast Company. You know, this is what it is, the summary page. So the summary is not, I just wanted to clarify, is not the high concept pitch. The high concept pitch is that first tagline, kind of, it gets people interested, but this is full of facts. This is just a fact page. Yes. So what do they look like for your Thrive pitch deck? Specifically on your summary page, again, you wanna make sure you’re hearing me. Okay, good. You have to have your traction, your product, your team, your social proof. Good. That has to be on your summary. Okay, on that slide, yeah. Good, makes sense. All right, well then let’s jump to number three. Yep. Which is the team. Team! This is the next slide. Oh! Slide number three. This is from Pitching Hacks again. Highlight the past accomplishments of your team. If your team has been successful before, investors may believe it can be successful again. Include directors and advisors who bring something special to the company. Don’t include positions you intend to fill. Save that for the milestone slide. Put yourself last. It seems humble and lets you tell a story about how your career has led to the discovery of the Globopants. Yeah. Right? So tell me again how we lay this out. We go last, but why is it so important to highlight your team here? Well, what you’ll do is you’ll make your slide here. Again, this is your team. And let’s just say that your baseline level of credibility is here. So this is your credibility. So I’m just making up an example, but if this is you, because you are a person who’s never had a successful company before, an investor won’t invest unless the credibility is up here. Right. They want to invest in somebody who’s a proven winner. Right. So if you can build a team, and let’s say on your team you can have a guy who’s been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize nominated author, right? Like Clifton. There you go, like Clifton Talbert. And if you can have an NBA Hall of Fame player and a founder of the equity fund, David Robinson, and well pretty soon they start to look at it and go, well, gosh, if all these people are on a team, even though I don’t know who you are, through the power of association, I begin to believe that you’re a safer risk. Through the power of association, because of the law of credibility, I believe that because people, birds of a feather flock together, you know what I’m saying? So eagles aren’t hanging out with chickens. The whole idea is that if you are a chicken, you probably just tricked me because it looks like you’re flying with eagles here. It’s really, really important. So your team, I’ll read you a quote here that just blew my mind when I read it. Bill Draper was one of the first venture capital people in Silicon Valley, and he went on to become probably one of the most successful people in Silicon Valley. He is known, he helped fund Hotmail, but he’s known as kind of like the grandfather of venture capital funding. He says this, the most important thing you need to know about your pitch, first and foremost, is you have to sell your leader and your team. You have to give the venture capitalists confidence that you can beat the odds and pull this thing off. So, for me, it’s super, super, super important to have a great team, because they’re going to help you be successful. But forget me, venture capitalists won’t even take you seriously if you don’t have a great team. So when I’m laying this out on slide number three, is it important? I know I go last. Is it important to rank the people on your team by their credibility and how well they’re known? Yeah, I would put the most successful people first. This is how it works. When you mail somebody your pitch deck or they get an email, they’re going to look at it and immediately, almost every time, they’re going to immediately skip to the team. They’re going to go, nope, throw it away. Almost every time. I’m not kidding. People talk about, well, why do degrees matter? Check it out. Harvard MBA, Stanford PhD, okay, we’ll keep reading. That’s all, I mean, really that’s all it is. Right. So it’s a law of credibility right now if you’re like me and you’re like Oklahoma State, oh mogi non-graduate Uh-oh. I mean usually the venture capitalist would take that out of here But when they look and they go because they’re you associate with David Robinson Clifton Talbert, okay I should keep reading that’s how that works and to clarify all these guys are on one slide. You’re not, there’s not like a David Robinson slide and then you go to the next one and then Lee Cockrell. This whole thing needs to be 12 points if at all possible. Good, okay, so one page has your team and it’s ranked in, and you list them in order of how well they’re known, the credibility that they bring to the table. And if you follow this system, by the way, if you do the due diligence to follow this system, let me tell you how pumped you’ll be when you meet with investors. Because you’re like, nobody’s done these moves right no no but except for me right so I’m telling you tell me how pumped you would be right now if you’re meeting with an investor and they say right away so you know they go slide one they say well just kind of real quick here you know just go ahead and give me a show what this is you show them the cover it’s got your logo got the logo oh nice logo no you have a logo yeah cuz I spent money and time on it right then you say well so what’s your tagline? Bam. Well, what is this thing? You go to your summary page. The trends, the traction, you got the facts, it’s all right there. The social proof, you got the team. Bam. Well, who’s helping you on this? Boom. All of a sudden, I mean, your confidence is just sick. Okay, now we’re on to slide number four, and this is the problem. So, Pitching Hacks says to describe the customer, market, and problem that you address without getting into your product. Emphasize the pain level and the inability of the competitors to satisfy the need. So, specifically, you don’t get into the product here, you’re just talking about the problem. And I would really try to focus on like three lines or less. The whole slide, you’ve got three lines. If I can. Okay. Fewer words as possible. So, like, oh, go ahead. I would say, like, elephant in the room, that’s a business that I’m a part owner in. What is the problem we solve? We offer an experience for the modern man who’s looking for, you know, it says, we offer a haircutting service for men who are looking for an experience and not just a cheap haircut. And then we show the market leaders are, you know, top cuts, super cuts, whatever, all these different companies. And none of them offer a high-end men’s grooming experience. So there’s a huge need. No one’s doing it. Here we are. And so when you were building this pitch deck for Thrive, you weren’t talking about how your website would look. You weren’t talking about how these videos would be funny. You weren’t talking about any of that in this slide. You were just talking about how nobody’s doing this, how many entrepreneurs there are in the world? Yep, and how you’re filling a void exactly Okay, so describing the problem. There’s a huge problem in our country right now There were 50% of graduates can’t find a job. Yeah that the degrees are getting exponentially more expensive Yeah, people are graduating with so much student loans. They can’t even Pay it off in a 30-year window of time Yeah, and then people have degrees that don’t translate into jobs that pay for themselves. So I mean, this is a huge problem that I can define. And as much third party provable factual information you can use here, the better. If you can show stats from Wall Street Journal and Forbes and the Census Bureau and things that show there really is a problem, that’s great. But don’t just put like, well, Karen and I got together and we personally believe there’s a problem because we talked to a dude at Subway who said that he wanted that. Right. That’s not good. Yeah. So just to humor me, can you go ahead and describe the problem that the global pants will be fixing? Oh, a lot of people wear pants? I mean, there’s a lot of people do. 100% of the people that I’ve surveyed that wear pants, they have them on and they don’t want to take them off. Wow. Every day. Wow. That survey was conducted alone. All right, on to slide number five, the solution. No, but in all seriousness, I give you an example like that because I want to get a conversation started, for example. No, I know. I love it. But when you’re in front of a venture capitalist and you can’t explain there’s a problem, you’re just like, well, I just have a gut feeling. There’s usually a lack of excitement from the venture capitalist to invest in a gut feeling. And they don’t want to invest in an idea. They want to invest in a, and you should write this down, a well thought out idea and a plan. That’s what they want to invest in. And so you have to have a problem though, like that you’re solving, like when you’re building a restaurant and you have to identify how you’re different or? You have to show there’s a problem in the market that needs to be solved. Because all entrepreneurship is, is solving a problem. JT, do you know what time it is? 410. It’s T-Bo time in Tulsa, Oklahoma baby. Tim T-Bo 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’s 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 will be presenting. Now we’ve had a couple of presenters that have had a billion dollar net worth in some like a real estate sort of things. Yeah. 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 9 Round Boxing. He’s going to be here in Tulsa, Russia, 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 gotta 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 gonna say you screwed that up buddy. So Michael Levine, this is Michael Levine, he’s gonna be coming, he’s gonna 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 best-selling 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. Did 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’m super grateful I came to a business conference. That’s exactly 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 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, Russelum. I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa, Russelum, 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 and 28th. Who? You. You’re going to 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, Russelaam. 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. 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 on. 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 traveling all the way from Puerto 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 thrive timeshow.com James what website is that? Thrive timeshow.com. James one more time for the 40’s enthusiasts. Thrive timeshow.com. Played with me, cause it could get dangerous. See these people I ride with, this moment we are in. 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. When we get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two day, 15 hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars no money down real estate Ponzi scheme get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything It was like you went there, and you paid for the big chocolate Easter Bunny, but inside of it It was a hollow nothingness, and I wanted the knowledge They’re like oh But we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get-rich-quick, walk-on-hot-coals product. It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, and I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever, and we’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 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 gotta 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, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Whoa. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Herbert Kiyosaki, The Rich Dad Radio Show. Today, I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re closed, but they’re 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 a Mr. Clay Clark. He’s 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 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 Thorn, 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 Direct TV. 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. 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 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 changing a life. I’m doing this. I’m doing this I’m doing this. I learned at the Academy at Kings Point in New York Octa nonverba Watch what a person does, not what they say. Hey, I’m Ryan wimpy. 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. Like we have workflows that are kind of all over the place. 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, 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 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 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’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 will be answered. This conference motivates me and also gives me a lot of knowledge and tools. It’s up to you to do it. Everybody can do these things, they’re stuff that everybody knows, but if you don’t do it, nobody else can 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 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 Canine. 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? Nice, right? Right? Right? So this is my old van and our old school marketing and this is our old team. And by team I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing and this is our new team. We went from four to fourteen and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past, and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman. So we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts, and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd. We’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, times a thousand. 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 Thrive Time workshop, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. The atmosphere at 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 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. It’s 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. 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. It’s real.