Entrepreneur | Part 3 – Raising Venture Capital: The 14 Points You Need To Know

Audio Transcription

Get ready to enter the Thrive Time 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 too, kid, what we got coming. Dixon’s on the hooks, I’ve written the books. He’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks. As the father of five, that’s where I’mma dive. So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi. It’s C and Z up on your radio. And now three, two, one, here we go. Started from the bottom, now we in. Started from the bottom, and that’s what we gotta do. I’m opening a restaurant. Yep. And I’m looking for a problem. Can a problem be as little as, hey, nobody’s replicating this enough, so I want to capitalize on the fact that a couple people are doing this well, but nobody is duplicating this and making it a replicable process, and I think we can do that. Does that count as a problem? No, because there’s a lot of problems that shouldn’t be solved. Okay. Like Maurice Kanbar, the guy who launched Sky Vodka, he said that he came up with a process to make a certain kind of food organically. And he realized that after he could do it, that you couldn’t make enough profit to make it worth it. So as an example, like if I’m a venture capitalist and I want to, I need to invest in things that can make a massive profit, like a ridiculous profit. So if it’s something that’s a problem, it’s not worth solving, I still don’t care if it hasn’t been replicated yet. So I guess an example would be most venture capitalists don’t invest in restaurants. There’s almost no examples of venture capitalists who invest in restaurants. Because it’s like, what is that problem? Now they might invest in the Great Wolf Lodge, which is an experience. And so it’s this whole like, or a Gaylord Texan, where it’s like a restaurant, shopping, it’s an experience. And there’s families looking for an experience, so the problem they solve is in, and let’s go to Texas. I love Dallas, you love Dallas, you grew up there. You go down to Dallas, what is there to do? Now there’s things to do, but what was there to do? There wasn’t a whole lot to do. So these guys say, look, there’s not a lot of things to do. There’s a lot of wealthy people, there’s not a lot of tourism here. So we’re going to create the Gaylord Texan, which will be a tourist trap for everybody within a three-state area. So the problem is there’s not a lot of tourism activities here. And we’re going to solve it with this item. You just have to find a problem that people have. Maybe people want a place for community. And you’re trying to show that you can build a restaurant that offers a place for people to gather. But make sure your profits are high enough that somebody would want to invest in it. If your profits are too low on a per location basis, it might not be worth the hassle for a venture capitalist. So I just touch on that because as I’m starting to think about it, I feel like it could be easy for you to say, well, I’m not really solving a problem necessarily. I’m offering a cool different option. But I think what I’m hearing you say is that you’ve got to spend time thinking about enough to relate your idea to a problem. So I think of this as Sarah Blakely. Yeah. Okay, so in my mind, she’s in the fashion industry, and so I’m not thinking that she’s solving a problem, but she was, because she identified the fact that there were no high-quality options available for these women for undergarments, right? Yeah. She just said everybody was trying to cut prices and be cheaper, and so she solved the problem in that she offered what they wanted and didn’t have? Well, Sarah Blakely would be an example. She felt that most women wanted to have a flattering figure. And there was no shapewear that they could wear that was high quality. And so she thought, well, there’s a problem I’m having. The problem I have is that I can’t find shapewear that’s high quality. I just can’t find it. I wonder if other women have this problem. So she starts talking to other people a little bit, and they’re like, I have this problem, too. So then she’s like, I’m going to develop a solution to a problem that tons of women have. But entrepreneurship at its core is just solving a problem. If people could put braces in their own faces and adjust their own teeth, then orthodontists wouldn’t need to exist. So you have to find a problem that people cannot solve on their own. Okay, so we spent a good amount of time on this, but I think this is important to figure out. All right, number five. This is the fifth slide here for your pitch deck, and that is the solution. All right, so Pitching Hack says, introduce your product and its benefits and describe how it addresses the problem that you just described. Include a demo, such as a screencast, a link to working software, or pictures. God help you if you have nothing to show here. That’s who helped me. God helped you? Yeah, I mean it. I really do believe it. We didn’t have a working prototype. That’s rough. I’m telling you, when you have a prototype, it’s still rough. You’ve got to understand that the one thing, no matter how wealthy somebody is, no matter how wealthy the venture capitalist is… By the way, venture capitalists are wealthy. Think about this. If a venture capitalist is wealthy, the one thing that he cannot make more of is time. In a lot of cases, he probably has less time than you do. Right. Isn’t that a great irony? Yeah. I mean as I’ve met people that are higher up the food chain, I met one guy recently who was worth about a billion dollars. The entire time I’m with him, like he didn’t ever deal with interruptions. He just kind of was with me and was focused. Right. But when we got out of the meeting he said, his assistants, like sir you have you know nine voicemails to call and by the way your wife called about this and you need To be here and then the staff needs you here and it never ends, right? So what they what happens is is the higher up the food chain you go the more People guard their time and revere their time and they don’t want to waste their time So if you can’t articulate what your problem is and now you can’t articulate your solution You’re not gonna win. So what I’m asking you to do, these are three things you can do for the solution here. Boom. One, express in writing what the solution is, like what your solution is. Okay. Two, explain how your solution is different than anything else in the market. And three, have a prototype or an example if at all possible. Okay. Write it down. Yep. Explain how it’s different. Yep. And have a prototype. If at all possible, that’s the three. So if you don’t have a prototype. Better have a freaking awesome team. Okay, that’s what I was gonna say. That’s what I did. You just relied on that. I just had a team. I was like, well, you know, we got Magic, we got Bird, we got David Robinson. We might not have a lot. Yeah. But we, these guys have won some games. Yeah. And so we’re gonna play. Right. And that’s how, and people bought into that. But I’m just telling you, you really do have to have a prototype. Okay, good. And then I know specifically your benefits need to relate exactly to that problem. So you can go off of that last slide, right? Yep. And say, all right, so this is the exact problem I just identified. Now, specifically, this is the benefit that comes about by this. Make the problem huge, by the way. Because you know what? A lot of venture capitalists aren’t even aware of the problem that you’re aware of yeah as an example I was talking to one venture capitalist about thrive, and he doesn’t even know that college isn’t something that people like hmm He’s like People are going to college and not getting jobs Not kidding. Yeah, well why because he’s like extremely wealthy right he hasn’t been to college for a long time He didn’t even know online education existed really. I swear to you, so I’m talking about online education. He’s like what hmm, so I’m mentioning the names of big online education companies He has no idea who any of them are hmm at all. Yeah, so he’s like this is curious. It’s very fascinating So you mean that people are attending school online? And you might think well, geez that guy’s out of touch well, no, no he’s super in touch with oil and gas Hey, he’s doing what he’s doing. That’s all he does. Well, he didn’t watch TV much. He does oil and gas. That’s his whole deal. So I’m just telling you, you really have to be able to articulate how big of a problem is and how you can solve it. Number six, technology. Describe the technology behind your solution. Focus on how the technology enables the differentiated aspects of your solution. If appropriate, mention patent status. So dive into this. Does this apply to everybody’s idea? A lot of ideas can be helped if they are patented. But I’m going to give an example with you guys and some of the Thrive guys. You guys have some snow cone checks. You have to be able to keep track of what was sold, what needs to be purchased. So let’s just say you sold 1,000 snow cones yesterday. But then on Tuesday you only sell 400. And then Wednesday you sell 1,500. Well, how do you, if I bought like 10 of them in a city, how do I know which ones need ice tomorrow? And if I’m going to maximize my efficiencies, I’m going to want to know which snow cone shop needs ice drop-offs and which one doesn’t. Because dropping off ice when I don’t need to could cost me $30. And if I own 400 of them, then that could cost me thousands. So that’s a technology. The point of sale technology, if I buy, a lot of people don’t have cash. So unless you want to have a hold up waiting to happen, which is fortunately what a lot of small businesses are, you have a lot of cash business, and usually what happens is when you start a business, let’s say a snow cone stand, if you start a business that’s a smaller business and you put it in a rougher area, there’s more crime. Right. So then if you have all cash in an all crime area, someone’s going to get shot. Right. So you want to maybe make a benefit to your customers. We don’t accept cash. We just do credit or debit. So that’s a technology. A technology of how can you find the different snow cone shops. Maybe online, there’s a website that shows all of them. That’s a technology. A technology of how do you update the nation about all the new flavors that are coming out or cool activity that happened today in Tulsa and cool activity happen tomorrow in Phoenix. You have to be able to integrate it. That’s all technology. There’s no business anymore that exists without some kind of technology. And if there is, if you do have a business and you don’t think it involves any technology, when you meet with an investor they’re going to be like… We’re going to be doubting it. Let me give you an example. If we were to meet here. Yeah, and I know this is an exciting This is this is an exciting concept for the Thrivers. Well, but if we met here right now, we’re having this meeting Yeah, I got a tie on. Yeah got a lavalier mic on you’re looking sharp this whole studios here Oh, yeah, but I don’t have a shirt on. Oh Then then like that something will be off They wouldn’t know what it was really other than my shirt. You’d be like, hey, your shirt’s off. I’m like, oh, and it’s obvious to you I don’t have a shirt on. But if I showed up here completely intoxicated, and I’m like, let’s go. Then you’re like, you sure? Yeah. All right, boss. Drive on. So we’re recording, and I have a tie on, and I’ve got, you know, I don’t have a shirt on right but to me I’m like, this is great, right, you know, it’s warm in here, you know, but you’re saying that’s how it is That’s how it is. If one is missing. Okay, the venture capitalist is like, oh A lot of times they don’t want to say like hey, you don’t have a shirt on. Could you leave my house? Yeah, they just say I finish up quickly. Thank you. Yeah, and some of you guys watching this who have daughters You know I’m talking about guy shows up to pick your daughter up, smells a little bit weird, looks a little weird, has a van. Hey, why don’t you go outside and then never come back? That’s how it comes across. So when you’re talking to venture capitalists, there’s very little patience. Imagine that you only have 12 minutes to get to all 12 points. That’s how concise it has to be. 12 minutes, 12 points, boom. Wow, how long do these normally last as you’re going through each slide? Gosh, each presentation I try to do about 10 minutes. And that’s not including questions. Yeah, that’s not including questions at the end. 10 minutes, the whole thing. 10 minutes. If I can, five. Then I open it up, not a rush, but just succinct. Ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-bam. See, I think that’s big, because I think that initially people would think they need to fill more time to make this grand presentation. That’s not what venture capitalists want. Dude, I did a presentation for Thrive, and Sean Copeland is a beautiful man and one of our Thrive investors. He pulls me aside and says, go a little faster next time. It was love, and he coached me through it, and I was like at like 30 minutes. Actually, no, I wasn’t. I was like at 45 minutes. Yeah, I think that’s what I naturally, I think naturally that’s kind of what you think you’d want to do. So if we don’t hear this from mentors and people who have done it, that’s what most people would do. 10 minutes tops, bro. Wow, that’s big. Yeah, 10 minutes tops. All right number seven Marketing. Oh boy, who are the customers? How big is the market you summarize this in your problem slide? And this is your opportunity to elaborate How are you going to acquire customers and what customers have you already acquired? That’s really this is tough because Nothing happens until something is sold And I know like with Thrive, as we’ve built Thrive, we’ve got some neat subscribers, people all over the world. And I can tell you that as people have joined the Thrive team to help, one of the only things people don’t like to do is market. Like people love to have marketing plans, but very few people want to actually market. Because that requires, it’s a contact sport, a lot of rejection. And so as we’re landing subscribers all over the country, what we’re finding is that subscribers to Thrive are subscribing because they have a business and they desperately need to figure out how to grow it, or they’re serious about starting a business. But Thrive doesn’t even apply, nor is it even remotely interesting to somebody who’s the average human. And only 13% of our population is even self-employed. So this is Thrive is for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. And so we have to find out how to get in front of them. And we have to find out how to do it better and better and better. And so on this slide, we have to explain to investors how we’re going to get in front of customers. And again, in as few words as possible, I recommend three sentences or less. Explain the three ways, the three top ways you’ll get in front of customers. But also on the slide, it’s identifying who your customers are, right? Yep. So you’re identifying who they are. Yep. And so you’re elaborating on that problem. Who they are, and how we’re going to acquire them. Okay. With as much simplicity as possible. Who they are, how we’re going to acquire them. If the investor is interested, oh, he’ll ask for more information. Right. And so what I would recommend you do is, for each one of these pages, each one of these slides, I would have at least two or three pages of supporting documentation ready to go, and they ask. That’s big. Make sense? Yeah. So he’s like, well tell me more about your team. Right there. Three pages of detailed stuff. And it’ll be like diving into those bios deeper. Boom. Tell me more about your marketing. Specifically diving into it. For some reason when I grab my, I notice it’s like a transformer. That’s how I do it. That’s good. All right, number eight, sales. Again, from Pitching Hacks, they said, what’s your business model? If you have sales, discuss the sales you’ve made and your pipeline. What are the microeconomics and macroeconomics that turn your business into a X million dollar revenue business? And then emphasize the microeconomics instead of the macroeconomics. And so go ahead and dive into that, the microeconomics, you know, each user is worth this much because of this. And then the macro is if you get 1% of the $10 billion market, but why do we focus on one over the other? What you’re going to want to do here is is a little bit a little bit tough, but I just want to share this. The micro economics are like if I have one subscriber to Facebook, right? I make x number of dollars per subscriber. Right. Because they want to know how much money you make per person. Because they, being the venture capitalist, who as a general rule has money, is very good at optimizing revenue and minimizing costs. Good. And they want to see, so how much money do you make per snow cone buyer? Right. And if you said $0.80, I go, how do you figure that out? You tell me? And they go, what if we can get that to $1.50? And then they begin to scale it from there. So they want to know on a micro level. That’s what you need to focus on here, you’re saying? Yes. Now the macro is like, if we got 1% of the $15 billion market, we would be great. Right, okay. Because the macro is usually delusional. Yeah. It’s usually a deal where somebody is completely talking out of their pants So there’s this global pants. They’re going you know in the world today There’s a you know like three billion people, and they all have pants a lot of people have four pants So if we just take four pants per before that’s 12 billion pants now We’re only going to sell 1% of the 12 billion pants, and then therefore we’re gonna sell a lot of people do that. That logic doesn’t work. They want to know micro. How much are you making per subscriber, per customer, per whatever. But you do have to have the macro on the slide? You need to know it, but on this slide, what you want to do is you want to emphasize the micro. Okay. So you want to focus on that, put it on the screen. I’d like to throw this cord up on the screen so you can look at it, marinate it, pause it, look at it. But it’s really important that you emphasize the micro. Good. OK. That makes sense. And then you were able to do that pretty well with, I mean, a subscription-based model. You said, hey, this is how much each person will be paying per month. And that’s exactly what they’re looking for. Example, like in the haircut business, one of the businesses I’m an investor in. Elephant in the room. Basically, we make no money until the 167th person gets their hair cut. Not the 166th. Right now it’s 167. That’s awesome. You know exactly what I do. And then in each month I should revisit it. But then 144 is for our downtown location. So like we don’t make any money until we the 145th customer. And then after that, we make a profit of about 30 percent. So I can tell you if you pay for a 32 dollar haircut, I make about 10 dollars profit after the first 144. That’s big. I feel like most entrepreneurs don’t take the time to dive into those numbers that deeply. Almost nobody does that. But this is why we’re teaching you guys because, now again, it’s not about what you know, it’s about what you do. So once you know this stuff, I need you to do it. I say, need you, if you’re watching this, I mean, literally, with the next 72 hours, you want to just devote yourself to figuring out, scheduling a time, when am I going to make this. It’s big. 80 hours? Let me tell you a secret. 80 hours is how long it took me to make this. Now that is typical for entrepreneurs. We’re talking about two weeks. Now some of you are going, but I have a job. I couldn’t take 80 hours. What’s awesome is that typically you’ll go to work from like 9 to 5 and you’ll see your wife until like 8 or 9 o’clock at night if you’re married. If you’re not married, you don’t. But anyway, then you have like another 16 hours a day you can work on it. You only need about six hours to sleep. So you got 10 hours a day you can work on these. It’s real, he loves it. Yeah, look up Elon Musk and see how many hours he works. That’s what you have to do. If you want to turn your big idea into actual thing, into a tangible result, into something real, this is how you do it. Good. Find the time. Slide number nine. Come on. Competition. Describe why customers use your product instead of the competitions. Describe any competitive advantages that remain after the competition decides to copy you exactly. Never deny that you have competitors. It’s OK to compete against anyone. Yeah, now the competition is really big because a lot of the investors do not know who the competitors are. Right. Just because I’m looking, I’m just because you’re meeting with me, so if you came to meet with me about investing in the snow cone shop, it does not mean that I know anything about snow cone shops. In fact, I probably know nothing about snow cone shops, because I wouldn’t invest in two companies that are exactly the same niche, right? So that means every niche that you present to me is something I’m not involved in. And so what I’m doing is I’m trying to use my capital to make more money. I am not trying to spend my time studying every industry possible. So it’s a big deal where you have to explain to me, hey, in our industry, as you look it up and get more familiar with snow cones, there are three or four main competitors you need to be aware of. This company, that company, this company, and the local convenience stores. You don’t need to hide that you’ve got competition. You don’t have to be scared that somebody’s doing it. And again, unless you want to appear shirtless in front of a guy who’s your white collar venture or venture capital investor, you need to bring up the competition before they do. In this order, on slide nine. Kapow! I feel like this is something that not only isn’t something that shouldn’t be avoided, but can hugely help your case. If you’re saying, this person is doing this successfully, and this is how we’re different, and why we’ll be preferred, I mean, that’s even more of a reason, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s very, very important that you know your competition, that you know what they do well, what they don’t, so that you can, with great clarity, explain it to somebody when asked and when pressed, well, what are you going to do when someone copies your business plan? Good. Okay, milestones. This is slide number 10. Oh, yeah. Describe your current status and perspective milestones for the next one to three quarters for your product, team, marketing, and sales. Use the table with the quarters on the X axis and the functions on the Y axis. Also include quarterly and cumulative gross burn for the next one to three quarters. Don’t build a detailed financial model if you don’t have past earnings, a significant financial history or insight into the issue. I’m going to break this down line by line because there’s so much goodness here. It’s a lot there. So one, describe your current status and perspective milestones for the next one to three quarters. Here’s a saying Hey, our team is doing this much so far. This is our team currently. This is where this is who we need to hire In the next, you know the next three quarters our product. This is where we’re at with the product This is where we want to be with the product the next three quarters. Here’s a rat with marketing Here’s we want to be here’s where our sales. Here’s where we want to be then what you’re gonna do is on this axis, it’s just a chart, like a slope, and you want to show on that chart, all you want to do is you want to show basically how these items work on this chart. You want to get someone to visual so they can understand quickly without being a super expert in marketing or sales to know, here’s where we are now, here’s where the sales are here, here’s where we want to be. You can graph it out there for them. Don’t get overwhelmed by that. But you’ve got to have that. You’ve got to have that graph on there. You really do. Yep. And then you also want to show your gross burn. Gross burns means how much money have you had to burn to get the rocket into orbit. And I want to explain this to you. When you start a business, it’s extremely expensive to start a business because there’s no cash coming in and there’s just cash going out. So speed matters more in a startup and you say, hey I can save the company $40 but it’ll take six weeks. Well I got to pay everybody for six weeks. No, go faster. And that burn is like, when you’re starting a business, just to give you an example here, and you have like a rocket. I mean this rocket, it’s heavy, it’s huge, you got to take this thing off. This thing has to take off. It’s massive. To get it off the ground, you start rumbling the jet engines. You start getting that smoke going on. You get some of that smoke. And then all of a sudden, you got to get it up in the air. Well, to get that dude up in the air, it requires so much jet fuel that it’s expensive. But once it gets out of orbit, or outside of the atmosphere, now it’s in orbit, so it’s going around the planet here. Once it’s working its way around the planet, now it can kind of coast up there. And so you really, really have to explain to somebody how much you’ve spent to get here. So like this business, we had to put all these lights in here, these logos, these signs, this decor, this build out. It’s expensive, but I don’t need to buy this new table every day. I don’t need to buy a new logo every day, but I had to buy it all first. Right. That makes sense. And so they want to see all of that on the milestone slide. Yes. You want to explain to them where you are and where you want to be. OK. And so you have to explain, in terms of burning all this money to start, how much you’ve already spent and how much you intend to spend to get off the ground. Yes. OK. What hypothesis did you test in the last round of financing? And what were the results there? What you’re saying is you say, well, I believe it’s going to take this much money. A hypothesis is simply an educated guess. Sometimes an over-educated guess, but it’s an educated guess. And I’m saying, I believe it’s going to cost this much money to open up two studios, fully staff it, and to build the website. I believe that. This is my guess. However, on this area it was significantly cheaper. On this area it was significantly more expensive. And so you have to explain, how did you do against the hypothesis? OK, and so that explains that you kind of already, I mean, again, you’ve got to have the traction before you get to this point. You have to already be doing something to show them, or else this milestone slide is really pretty weak. Well, the milestones, it could be pretty weak. But what if you showed that we haven’t started yet, but once we open up our fifth snow cone stand, we’re going to do this. And then because we’ll be doing so well, we’ll take the profits from those five to open ten more. Okay. Now, number 11. Oh, come on. This is the conclusion. Pitching Hack says, the slide can be inspirational, a larger vision of what the company could accomplish if these current plans are realized, or a rehash of the summary slide. So this is when you just get pumped, right? You’re getting them pumped at this point. You really need to maybe put a notable quotable on there, cast a big vision for the future. But you’re basically rehashing the summary slide you already made, but in an inspirational way. Because people, investors as a general rule, are going to invest in things that make sense unemotionally, but that emotionally get them pumped. Good. You see that? So they won’t let the emotions get in the way or cloud their vision of investing in something dumb. Yep. But if it’s smart and they’re emotionally pumped, that’s what they’re gonna do. Now you’re on fire. So as an example, if somebody invests in Thrive, they have to be somebody who philosophically thinks that online education makes sense, but then actually is excited about it. That makes sense, but as far as it being similar to the summary slide is this have a lot of facts in it again No, this is just a very like example we said for for Thrive our conclusion slide was something to the effect of that in America today, it’s we thrive will be one solution for 90% of America’s employers and 13% of our population. Because we believe that people who want to move beyond surviving need a place to go, something like that. And the idea was it was trying to inspire, let them know this is the huge marketplace we’re going for. And we believe we can help people move beyond surviving. And the reason it’s similar to that summary slide is because that outlined how many entrepreneurs there were, how big that market could be, right? I mean, that’s what that summary slide’s doing. Yeah. It’s all the facts. Well, what happens is, like when you do a public speech, what do you do? You stand up in front of the people, you say, today, folks, we’re gonna talk about this. Right. And if you’re a decent public speaker at the end, you come to the end and say, and today we talked about this. Tell them what you’re gonna tell them, you tell them, you tell them what you told them. Boom, that’s what you’re doing. Okay, that makes sense. So now we’re on to that very last slide. Woohoo! Financing. This is after we’ve motivated, inspired, cast the vision, got them excited. Pitching Hack says, dates, amounts, and sources of money raised. How much money are you raising in this round? Restate the hypotheses that you will test in this round. That’s all that needs to be included on this financing slide. That’s it. So you’ll put, Dr. Smith invested this much money on this date. Right. Mr. Smith invested this much money on this date. Ms. Smith invested this much money on this date. A lot of Smiths. And then what you’ll do is you’re going to go ahead and restate your hypothesis for how much money it will take to get to where you want to go. Now, I think I’ve heard you say that it’s beneficial when you have a lot of your own money in this, correct? Yeah. And so if you can say, and this should be on this slide, right? Yes. So and so did this, so and so did this, and I personally did this. Skin in the game. Right. Investors will invest more money if they know you put in your own money. Okay. So example for Thrive, my wife and I are totally prepared to move into the Thrive offices if we had to, to make it work. Right. Whatever it takes. You’re all in. I’m all in. Right. Elon Musk just so you guys know this is fun story when he shot up his third rocket into the air for SpaceX That was all his money That’s crazy third one. So fail fail and he’s like sweet mother. Please work now He ended up getting other sources of financing, but he’s all in right spin every dime he had That’s what a lot of entrepreneurs do that’s what most entrepreneurs do right? There’s very few entrepreneurs who start a company and are like, I’m playing it safe. No, I mean, Richard Branson was down to his last dollar when he was building his brand, Virgin. Same thing with Donald Trump. You have to be all in. If you’re not all in, then you’re playing it safe. If you’re playing it safe, you’re going to lose. Yeah, nobody wants to bet on that. You really have to bet on somebody who’s all in. Right, because when we look at you, failure, rejection, shortcomings, it doesn’t phase you. You have no choice but to make this succeed and you will. Honey badger. Yeah, you’re a honey badger. Boom. So if I’m betting on that, I mean, that’s what I want to bet on. JT, do you know what time it is? 4.10. It’s TiVo time in Tulsa, Roseland, 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, you know, 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? Mm, well, they’re going to have to come and find out because I don’t know. Well, I’m just saying Tim Tebow is going to teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s going to walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is going to be a blasty blast in Tulsa, Russia. Also, this is the first Thrive Time Show event that we’ve had where we’re going to have a man who has built a $100 million net worth. Wow. Who’ll be presenting. Now, we’ve had a couple of presenters that have had a billion dollar net worth in some real estate sort of things. But this is the first time we’ve had a guy who’s built a service business, and he’s built over $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, Russel, Oklahoma, June 27th and 28th. JT, why should everybody want to hear what Peter Taunton has to say? Oh, because he’s incredible. He’s just a fountain of knowledge. He is awesome. He has inspired me listening to him talk. 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 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. You say, who’s Michael Levine? I don’t get this wrong. This is the PR consultant of choice for Michael Jackson, for Prince, for Nike, for Charlton Heston, for Nancy Kerrigan. 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times 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 gonna 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 gonna be in the house performing. The lineup will continue to grow each and every day. We’re gonna 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 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 or anything like that. I had to work for it and I’m super grateful I came to a business conference. That’s actually how I met you, met Peter Taunton, I met all these people. So if you’re out there today and you want to come to our workshop, again, you just got to go to thrivetimeshow.com. You might say, well, when’s it going to be? June 27 and 28. You might say, well, who’s speaking? We already covered that. You might say, where is it going to be? It’s going to be in Tulsa, Russell Oklahoma. It says Tulsa, Russell. I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa, Russell, 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. 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 a business training. We’re gonna give you a copy of my newest book, The Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. You’re going to leave with a workbook. You’re going to leave with everything you need to know to start and grow a super successful company. It’s practical. It’s actionable. And it’s TiVo time right here in Tulsa, Russia. Get those tickets today at Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s Thrivetimeshow.com. Hello, I’m Michael Levine, and I’m talking to you right now from the center of Hollywood, where I have represented over the last 35 years, 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestsellers. I’ve represented a lot of major stars, and I’ve worked with a lot of major companies. And I think I’ve learned a few things about what makes them work and what makes them not work. Now, why would a man living in Hollywood, California, in the beautiful sunny weather of LA, come to Tulsa? Because last year I did it and it was damn exciting. Clay Clark has put together an exceptional presentation, really life-changing. And I’m looking forward to seeing you then. I’m Michael Levine. I’ll see you in Tulsa. James, did I tell you my good friend John Lee Dumas is also joining us at the in-person, two-day, interactive Thrive Time Show Business Workshop. That Tim Tebow and that Michael Levine will be at the… have I told you this? You have not told me that. He’s coming all the way from Puerto Rico. This is John Lee Dumas, the host of the chart-topping EOFire.com podcast. He’s absolutely a living legend. This guy started a podcast after Wrapping up his service in the United States military and he started recording this podcast Daily in his home to the point where he started interviewing big-time folks like Gary Vaynerchuk Like Tony Robbins, and he just kept interviewing bigger and bigger names putting out shows day after day And now he is the legendary host of the EO fire podcast and he’s traveled all the way from Puerto Rico to Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend the in-person June 27th and 28th Thrive Time Show 2-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 2-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 four enthusiasts. Thrive timeshow.com. Tonight, even if I got three strikes, I’mma go for it. This moment, we own it. A, I’m not to be played with. B, cause it could get dangerous. C, these people I ride with. This moment, 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 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 edific 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’re going to give you your money back if you don’t love it. We’ve built this facility for you and we’re excited to see it. And now you may be thinking, what does it actually cost to attend an in-person two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop. Well, good news, the tickets are $250 or whatever price that you can afford. What? Yes, they’re $250 or whatever price you can afford. I grew up without money and I know what it’s like to live without money. So if you’re out there today and you want to attend our in-person, two-day interactive business workshop, all you got to do is go to thrivetimeshow.com to request those tickets. And if you can’t afford $250, we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. I learned at the Academy at King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Robert Kiyosaki, The Rich Dad Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re close, but they’re completely different worlds. And I have a special guest today. Definition of intelligence is if you agree with me, you’re intelligent. And so this gentleman is very intelligent. I’ve done this show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts. And so Mr. Clay Clark is a friend of a good friend, Eric, Eric Trump. But we’re also talking about money, bricks and how screwed up the world can get in a few and a half hour. So Clay Clark is a very intelligent man, and there’s so many ways we could take this thing. But I thought, since you and Eric are close, Trump, what were you saying about what Trump can’t, what Donald, who 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 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. 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, changed my life, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this. I learned at the academy, 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. 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, it’ll 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’ve 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, 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 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. 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 tag teams. So you better, if you don’t, somebody else will. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9 and we just wanna give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey guys, I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just wanna say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys, we appreciate you and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old house. Right, this is where we used to live a few years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See? It’s nice, right? So this is my old van and our old school marketing and this is our old team. And by team I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new van with our new marketing and this is our new team. We went from four to 14 and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman, so we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd. We’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month, and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship, and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, times a thousand. 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 Thrive Time Workshop, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. The Atmosphere Plays 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 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. Everyone. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get Everybody. Everybody. Everyone. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get opportunity to see that it’s real.