Clay Clark | Six Steps To Achieving Your Dreams – How to Achieve Your Dreams

Audio Transcription

Get ready to enter the Thrivetime Show! We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re on the top. Teaching you the systems to get what we got. Cullen Dixon’s on the hooks, I’ve written the books. He’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks. As the father of five, that’s where I’mma dive. So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi. It’s C and Z up on your radio. And now 3, 2, 1, here we go. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, and that’s what we gotta do. Terry Powell. How are you, my friend? Hi. Good to see you. Hey, you too. Do you ever get called Terry Boom Boom Powell? Just mostly today. Mostly today, alright. I am excited to be here with you because you’re a guy who’s literally helped tens of thousands of people, you and your team, to become successful in the world of franchising. It’s just exciting to me. We’re talking today about having a big vision for your life and the six steps to achieving your dreams. I want to read this quote because this in my mind really exemplifies what we’re talking about. Helen Keller, who was an American author, political activist, lecturer, but she was the first, this is amazing, the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Deaf and blind, I don’t know how she would, I mean, it’s amazing to me that she was able to do what she did. It’s amazing. But she said, the only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. Terry, can you describe for me in your own words or your own idea of how important it is to have a big vision for your life? What it means to have a big vision for your life? Yeah, it’s something that has been close to my heart for a long time and creating a vision is something that’s very motivating and very empowering. Just from the standpoint of the word vision, and having a vision gives the alignment around seeing. Of course, Helen didn’t have sight, but she had a huge vision. And so it’s not about necessarily seeing things, but envisioning them. And that’s really powerful when you can envision your future, and you can attract and be intentional about what that future will be. And once you understand the power of that, no matter how big the vision is, it’ll never slow you down. In your own life, you didn’t come from money. I mean, you basically are kind of a self-made… What’s your background? I mean, how did you start out? How did you first start there? Well, I know I didn’t come from money, but I barely got out of high school. I was one of those, you know, people in high school that didn’t do well and was always in some sort of trouble. So I remember I had not graduated the year before, mainly because I spent so much time in the principal’s office. And Pop, who was the principal, called me down three days before the graduation, which I wasn’t intending to graduate, the second time, and said, reached under his desk, pulled out a cap and gown and threw it at me. He said, you’re out of here, pal. Tell your parents you’re graduating. That’s all they need to know. And I never went to college. I sort of, you know, became an entrepreneur very early and developed a lot of different business models. When did you first have a vision for your life that you could do something big? Because today, I mean, you have close to 200 people on your team, 200 franchisees that are helping grow the business and helping people. When did you first have a vision that you could achieve not just an okay survival, but when you could really thrive and do something awesome with your life? When did you first have that vision? I started at a pretty young age and most of it I can attribute to watching my father being in the same position for the time he was 19 until he retired and not seeing myself go through that. And I was also very fortunate, I had some mentors early on. I had one particular gentleman by the name of Mr. Robinson who took me under his wing and allowed me to have a lot more responsibility than a 12 or 13 or 14-year-old would in the business environment. And then he coached me and mentored me and really, you know, allowed me to see what can be done without limitations. There’s that one controversial book that some humans have read called the Bible. And it says there in Proverbs 29, 18, that says that where there is no vision, the people perish. And looking at it from a completely secular perspective, let’s say, from your experience, I mean, you’ve been in the franchise industry for years. years, what tends to happen to the entrepreneurs who don’t have a vision for their life? What tends to happen to them? Well they are typically the ones that are on the failure rate side of the business. And in non-franchise businesses, entrepreneurs who launch their own businesses without a vision, about 52% of them are gone within the first five years. A lot of that has to do with the vision or lack of it, not being able to see where they’re going and being passionate and getting mired down in the today rather than developing the future around the vision. In franchising, the vision really is about using the business model as a vehicle to create income, lifestyle, wealth and equity because really people own businesses for the reasons, the byproduct of the results. What we call the lifestyle profile. What’s the lifestyle profile that that business can develop for me? So income, lifestyle, wealth, and equity are the four major motivators. The most successful people in any business, if you look at what motivates them every day to get up and create that vision, is they have a very clear plan about what their income, lifestyle, wealth, and equity goals are. Not just for this year, but for three, five, and ten years out. So for someone watching this, they might want to ask themselves right now, what are your goals for your income, your goals for your lifestyle, your goals for your wealth, and your goals for your equity? Equity. And these are goals, I mean, we should literally take a time out here, maybe hit the pause button, take some notes, write that down. Absolutely. Okay. That’s that important. really will make the difference in your success of your business and more importantly, the lifestyle and the way that that business either consumes you or you use it as a vehicle to drive you. I’ve met through Thrive and years before, I’ve met so many successful people, multi-millionaires, and it seems like they all have their goals written down in a place where they can see them on a consistent basis. This is a big kind of step. It’s kind of a big, I guess, before we get into these steps. This is something big that everyone needs to do, is define your income, lifestyle, wealth, and equity. And so now we’re going to hop onto the six steps that every entrepreneur needs to take action to achieve their dreams. Every six action steps every entrepreneur needs to take in order to achieve their dreams. So the step one is to design your future proactively. Terry, in your mind, what does it mean to design your future proactively, let’s say, as opposed to reactively? Well, reactively means that you’re subject to the circumstances of whatever happens, and you’re sort of pushed or pulled or congealed along in a path that you have no, you’re not invested in. To be proactive is to take steps and create new habits that are going to allow you to grow and proactively paint that picture that vision, that future. Actually create the intentions that are associated with it and then attract the right types of results and the right types of relationships that will drive that vision. Terry, I remember years ago I intentionally decided, you know, I’m going to build these relationships. I’m going to have I wrote down a list of about 20 people that I wanted to have a solid relationship with. It’s been amazing. These are people I didn’t know at all. Looking back now 12 years later, there are at least half of the people on that list that I’m very good friends with. I didn’t know them. I first had to cold call them or reach out to them or network with them. It’s amazing how your life can change because of the new people you meet, but it won’t happen if you’re not intentional. And so this is like a very important first step. I had read this, that the International Franchise Association actually reported, now this is back in 2012, so a few years back, but it said that one out of every 12 companies has a franchise business model for their entrepreneurs to invest in. Meaning that one out of 12 businesses out there that people work at is in some way a franchise-related business. Absolutely. Obviously, franchising is just one way that people can design their future, but in your mind what percentage of people do you come in contact with that actually are proactively designing their future and not just letting it happen? That’s an interesting question from a percentage standpoint. I’d say there’s about 20 to 25% that are proactively working and come to us proactively. And the rest are really seeking the coaching that allows them to see beyond the blind spots that are holding them back from that. So by even reaching out to you, they’re saying, hey, I maybe don’t know how to cast a vision for my life and I don’t really know how to do it, but I’m at least, I’m starting at step one by calling you guys. Why does so few people in your mind take the time out to design their future? Well, it has a lot to do with the culture that we’ve developed in our society around employment and working for companies. And the unfortunate part about it is that time and effort is really what’s important when you’re working for someone in a corporate situation. And when you shift from time and effort or you’re involved in time and effort, being proactive and intentional is not necessarily something that’s applauded. So it’s been held back because of some of the culture issues in corporate America. Going into your own business or exploring that, you need to break free of that and be able to become proactive, break outside that mold and look what’s outside as far as opportunity. Now moving on to step number two, determining where you want to go. Tara, you’ve met some of the most successful people in the world of franchising. In fact, you’ve met some of them when they had just the big dream. And you’ve seen them now where some of these franchisors, the people who started the franchise itself, have grown to have thousands of units. You’ve also seen people that bought an individual franchise, the franchisees, and they’ve grown over time too. How important is it, though, for franchise owners and business people to take that time out to determine where they want to go? I mean how important is that? Is it kind of that that step one in your mind? Well we’re talking about planning. I mean you know there’s all types of quotes about planning you know and how important it is. You know if you’re failing to plan you’re planning to fail and that’s really the key and being intentional about that and taking the time to map that out and create that path is a vital part of any success track, whether it be an entrepreneur, a franchisee, or even in the job market today. It’s immensely more important than it ever has been before that you be intentional about the planning of where you’re going. So you’re saying if you’re failing to plan, then you’re planning to fail. Absolutely. So if you’re watching this and you’re not, you haven’t planned out what you want to do over the next five, six years, you’re saying that you’re really going to plan to fail. If you don’t have a plan of where you’re going, any destination will be okay. There’s an interesting report on CNN Money where Jessica Dickler, she’s actually one of the reporters there, she wrote an article and she said that the majority, or 56% of those that were polled, said that they were not saving for retirement. Now I’m not necessarily advocating that people should save a lump sum for retirement, but she said they had no plan for how they’re going to get through their later years in life. Is that shocking to you at all that people don’t have a plan at all to either retire or to earn money throughout their later periods of life there? That’s not that shocking when you also consider the number of people who don’t even save money or put money aside for retirement. So it’s not shocking. We’ve shifted our perspective on retirement and the need to have this goal of a nest egg in a time that we’re going to retire and just sit back and have to sort of coast. We know it’s important to our longevity now to continually strive to be productive and a contributor in society. So it’s kind of let more people be okay with the fact that they don’t have to have a large nest egg as far as retirement is concerned. Now for the thrivers out there who are watching this who say, okay I have determined I’m gonna be proactive. Okay, I definitely know I wanna go where I need to go. I want to make a plan for where I want to go. Is there an action step here? Do you recommend that somebody sits down on a blank sheet of paper and kinda writes out their goals in certain areas? What’s something that the thrivers can do out there right now if they’re saying, I really do want to determine where I want to go, I want to be proactive now, I’m going to do it. What’s an action step you’d recommend? Any step is an action step. The first step is the most important is to be committed to the idea that you’re going to start to make notes, create a journal, spend more time thinking about your thinking as it relates to where you’re going, and writing down the elements of that that you want to make sure you capture. We have a lot of great ideas that come to our minds, a lot of great intentions that come into our minds, but if you don’t capture those, you tend to lose the ability to implement. So you’re kind of thinking like step one might be just to turn your thoughts into things, start writing down your ideas, not just letting them drift around, but to put them down on paper and put them in a journal or put them somewhere you’re going to see them all the time. And then start setting some proactive goals as to where you’re going to be from an income and lifestyle standpoint. You know, a year, three and five years, wealth and equity will come as a byproduct of that. And then determining what paths you have or options you have to attaining that income and lifestyle. Now, the third step here is design a detailed plan. Now, this is not just a vagary. We’re starting to get into some detail now. It’s starting to take some form, take some shape. Terry Napoleon Hill, the late great success author and personal apprentice of at the time Andrew Carnegie, he was one of the world’s wealthiest men. He says, he wrote that the definiteness of plans, the successful leader must plan his work and work his plan. A leader who moves by guesswork without practical definite plans is comparable to a ship without rudder. Sooner or later he will land on the rocks. How important is it for every entrepreneur in your mind to actually design a detailed plan for their lives and their businesses? To actually take the time to really write out a plan and not just say I want to be successful, but to actually take the time to write it out and to make some specific details there. Yeah, it’s crucial. You know, having pretty much every franchise business as a byproduct of going into a franchise, you’ll have a business plan, you’ll have a marketing plan. Now, all businesses have those, but we know not all businesses are going to be in the top 20% of those franchises. So the real shift is understanding that a business plan and a marketing plan are sort of pre-wired with batteries included when you go into a franchise. The next step is what’s going to be your motivator as that owner to continually get up every morning and drive yourself to accomplish and grow and turn that vehicle into wealth and equity, not just income and lifestyle. And that’s where the visualization of the pictures of the things that you’re aspiring to, what’s going to be your family life as a result of the vehicle that you’re going to invest in. Really getting visual about it so you can see the pictures of the types of homes you’re going to have and the cars you’re going to drive. This is, I want to make sure I’m understanding this here. So one is you’re saying, okay, you’ve got to figure out what’s going to be your motivator. So you have to visualize it. Maybe rip some pictures out of magazines, put pictures of the houses you want, the cars you want, the trips you want to go on, the experiences you want to have, get the visuals. Maybe a poster board or putting it on a mirror somewhere. A vision board. A vision board, okay. And for those of you who aren’t familiar with a vision board, this is going to be like a poster board, like back in the day when you made a project for school or college. You put it on the board, boom. And then you put that where you can see it. And then those motivators are what make you have the tenacity needed to actually implement the business plan, the marketing plan that you’re buying from the franchise. Every time you, even your peripheral vision picks up on some of those visuals or note cards with a comment about your future on it, it really brings you back into focus subconsciously on where you’re going instead of being caught up in what’s going on today. So those types of visuals and that type of writing it down, having it next to your bed, having it on the refrigerator, having it in your car, having your vision board at your office are really going to create that. Can you give me a little story time with Terry Powell here about maybe a franchise owner that you’ve worked with over the years that you saw them actually make a dream board and who’s now doing something magical or somebody that you met years ago and now they’re doing something unbelievable that was pretty pig-headed about making a vision board? There’s lots of stories associated with people that visualize and then put it into a vision board and what they’ve been able to do. But one comes to mind just from a standpoint of challenging themselves around that vision board and to grow their vision to a larger degree. It was a gentleman who was focusing on growing his business 10% the next year and set that goal and came in at 6% and was disappointed. Came back, updated his vision board, set the goal for the next year at 10%, came back at 6%, was disappointed. So we had a conversation about it, we talked about his vision board, and the vision wasn’t empowering enough to drive that business to the next level. So he revamped the vision board with some coaching. And I said, now you need to set a target for your year that’s in alignment with your vision board. I said, well, that would be 10%. I said, no, that was the past vision board. This looks like a 50% increase. Really? 50? And he just couldn’t believe it. I said, well, does your vision board represent you achieving that? And is that motivating you to do it? He said, absolutely. So he set the goal for a 50% increase. Unfortunately, he only came in at 42%. That’s huge. I have found this, that countless entrepreneurs have said it in different ways. But if your dream does not keep you up at night and wake you up early, you don’t feel like your hair’s on fire, it’s a little scary, then it’s probably not big enough of a motivator for you. Absolutely. So we have to set big goals. And I know that for me, an example of what not to do. I remember working at Target. Nothing wrong with working at Target. We all start somewhere. I was working at Target at the minimum wage. And I started to set little goals for myself, realistic goals of, well, if I could just make an extra $0.25 an hour or another $0.30 an hour, maybe a year from now I could be making an extra $0.50 an hour, instead of thinking, well, how can I double? And luckily, I read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and it just shocked me out of that thinking, where I could have got in that rut. But if you’re watching this right now and you feel like, gosh, I am guilty of having some small, small, small goals, you heard an example here. This is a guy who had a 10% annual growth goal and missed it and hit 6%. But then he shot for 50% and came short at 42%. So aim for the stars, because worst case scenario, you miss and you maybe hit the outer atmosphere or you at least get to pretty high altitude there. Absolutely. Now, moving on here to the step number four. Determine if your current employment will help you reach your goals. Now, I am particularly passionate about this, because I do not believe that every single person watching this needs to immediately quit their job and start a franchise or start a business. I also believe there’s a lot of people who are watching this who definitely need to get out of that stuck-in-a-rut job you’re at now. But walk me through this, what it means to determine if your current employment will help you reach your goal. Well, that’s basically an ongoing career evaluation and that’s looking at what’s happened in the last several years and what’s predictable about what will change going forward. We talk a lot about the deficit of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting or hoping that the results will be different. That’s not a good plan. So if that’s what you’re basing your current decision to stay employed, it’s just because you have a predictable paycheck, and even that’s questionable today. You really have to determine what you’re aspiring to accomplish and whether just income is going to be enough for you. Okay. Because in today’s employment environment, income is pretty much all that comes with it. There used to be lifestyle. Some employment situations still have lifestyle. But rarely do they have wealth and equity. And that’s the key. Unless you have all four, you’re really not self-sufficient. So let’s say this. Let’s say that I’m working at a job right now. I can think of one example. There’s a gentleman that I met, a very, very successful guy. He stayed in a company, and the company said, well, hey, if you work with us for a given period of time, we’re going to give you a percentage of ownership or you can earn some equity. And for him, he stayed in that corporate environment and did very, very well. And I think of other people who’ve been at a job where they know for sure they’re not going to get wealth, they’re not going to get equity, they’re not going to get, but they just stay year after year after year. Is that kind of what you’re talking about? I mean, if you’re not getting wealth or equity, you need to probably move on. Yeah, I worked with a client who was number six employee for Home Depot. Really? And retired at 32 years of age with a nice little nest egg and then decided to go into his own franchise business. So there are situations where that happens, but he was smart. He didn’t stay with it. He was able to accomplish that, cashed out, and went to do his own thing. That’s great. So not everybody, but you’re right, not everybody is well suited for a franchise or business ownership either. I just encourage you to be honest with yourself, self-evaluate yourself, and really ask yourself, is the current job I’m at, is that going to help me reach my goals? And if the answer is no, you don’t need to quit tomorrow. You just need to, you can actually buy, and we’ll get into that in some different trainings we have, but you can actually buy a franchise if you wanted to and stay at the job. Yes, you can. You can do that. So don’t feel like we’re saying you have to be crazy and all or nothing. I mean, there’s ways to do a little bit of both. Now moving on to step number five, determine if self-employment will help you reach your goals. I’m going to give an example here of a story that I tell often. And it’s sort of sad, but I see it a lot. It’s the business owner I met with a gentleman years ago. He asked me to help him with consulting and I sat down and I said when you sell a product How much money do you make he says well about $85? And I said, okay, how many days of prospecting does it take you to sell a product? He says well about two I Said so you’re gonna make about a hundred and seventy to 250 a week and he’s like, well, yeah Yeah, but that’s just that’s just I mean that is just extra. I work at this other job Full-time and I work here just part-time and I’m able to make that. I said, well what if you devoted your full-time energy into that? And he says, well I could probably make 400 a week. And I thought, well why are you doing it? And he went on and on and he listed all these things about how he’s helping the community and he’s helping, he believes in the product and he’s helping the community and he believes in the product and he’s helping the community. And this is sort of the logic over and over. And I said, but financially, are you ever going to get to your goals? Have you thought about this? And he says, no, but I’m helping the community. And so I think there’s a lot of people that have built their own wage cage in their own business. They’ve bought a business model that isn’t replicatable, scalable, profitable, all that. How often do you see that where you’re coaching a client who owned their own business or who owns one that’s not profitable and can never be? In franchising, it’s not that common. But in non-franchise businesses, which we do a lot of coaching in small to medium-sized businesses, that’s pretty common in an entrepreneurial environment. Even the ones that drive success early on get to that point of ceiling of complexity where the business doesn’t really continue to grow. And they get frustrated by it. And it’s time to really either take that business to a new level or shift to another business. You know Forbes wrote an article, there’s an article that appeared in Forbes by Eric Wagner and it says as of 2013, this is about a year back now, it said 8 out of 10 businesses will fail within the first 18 months and one of the things that they found and the researchers find when they look into these business models is some of them couldn’t possibly work. I’ll give you one more example. Years ago there was a dessert business that I ended up not doing work with, but they were on the west coast. I remember meeting this person at a franchise. It was a business model discovery kind of conference where people could discover whether franchises were right for them. It was put on by a local chamber. I remember talking to her and she was so jazzed about the products. I did the math and I was like, you’d have to sell 1,500 to 1,600 of your products a week in order to just break even. Is that possible? Nope, it’s not possible. Sometimes we don’t take the time out to think about it because we’re so, we don’t think about the potential profitability because we’re so passionate about that dessert item or about that business model. Do you see this a lot when you’re coaching independent business owners, where they’re so passionate about the baseball card shop or the whatever the company is that they don’t even stop to think about whether they could actually make a profitable living? Well, that’s one of the joys of being an entrepreneur is that you constantly have new ideas. And the downside of that is you believe every new idea is plausible and will be successful. And that’s never the case. Every new idea. Yeah. I have a lot of ideas over the years that weren’t successful. And it’s about making sure that you’re exploring enough of those and deploying on those that are. But you’re right, people get entrenched in their ideas and their passion about something or their excitement about it and don’t think through whether or not it’s plausible from a business model. The guy who invented Sky Vodka, Maurice Kanbar, I had an opportunity to work with him for a while, and he was explaining in his book called The Inventor’s Handbook. He was explaining that he had come up with a system to make organic cheese, some kind of organic cheese. And when he did the math, he realized under no circumstance could it ever be profitable. So he immediately just quit. He said, I’m not doing that. I’ll move on to another invention. But that’s why he’s been so successful, is because he’s always asked the question, is it potentially a profitable thing? Thomas Edison was a master of that, asking, is this invention potentially profitable? So if you’re watching this and you have an invention or an idea that can’t work, maybe we need to just get over that and move on to another idea here. Now moving on to step six, choosing to have faith and to reject doubt. Now Martin Luther King Jr., famous civil rights leader, a guy who a lot of people credit as having helped really bridge the inequality gap in America, just unbelievable inspirational leader. He wants to describe faith by saying faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. How would you describe what it means to have faith in the context of owning your own business? It’s critical to have faith in what you’re doing in any type of situation, business or otherwise. But if you don’t have faith, you’re typically functioning from a concept that we refer to as you’ll only believe it when you see it. So you are constantly looking to see it being proven or results before you believe in it. And that continually pushes out the results because you don’t have the belief in it. People will be drawn to you and your business when your faith and your belief in what you’re doing is much higher. So the downside of that is needing to see proof before you actually execute or drive something. Let’s say I bought a pizza franchise because I just, I ate there, food was awesome. I heard about it online, I talked to different people, maybe a coach recommended it to me. I have basically decided that it was the great idea to buy this pizza franchise. But then this little thing called doubt starts to creep in. I’ve been in business for a month. Not too many customers are coming in. So I have a little bit of doubt, maybe put a little less on advertising this month than last month. How dangerous is that little slippery slope of doubt creeping in in the world of franchising? Yeah, it’s very dangerous. And that’s where franchisees get off track and they don’t rely on the business model and the systems associated with that to really work for them. They start getting creative and having doubts and they start modifying. That’s where some of those fears come in around their faith in what continuing to invest is about. In the earliest months of a business, you don’t just make the initial investment, you continue to invest in that business to grow it. You’re investing in marketing so that the business comes in in the future. I start to pull back. Now I have this, this is a question I want to ask you because you see this and you, one thing that’s great about what you do, I don’t think we talk enough about it and people don’t realize this, is you help people literally go from poverty to prosperity. You think about all the people you’ve worked with throughout your career, how many people you’ve helped go from near poverty to prosperity how many people now are affording family vacations that couldn’t before because if the help that you and other franchise owners have have helped them but you know the success you help them achieve but I hear this false belief all the time and I used to have it too is that the rich get richer you have to have money to make money you know it’s not possible to be successful. But yet when you read the book called The Millionaire Next Door, which is an in-depth research into America’s millionaires, we’re finding that over 8 out of 10 millionaires out there are self-made. In your mind, how important is it for people to know and understand that you can achieve success regardless of the background you come from. In your mind, is this a doubt area, a lack of faith area you see a lot? Well, I think a lot of people have the, you know, they buy into the myth that it takes, you know, you have to have money, you have to have wealth in order to be able to do something else or go into your own business. The reality is that, you know, the proof shows that that’s not the case. And it’s about creating an environment that allows you to grow and develop greater returns, greater profitability, grow your income. It’s not about having it before you start. And that comes from the belief standpoint. Most people, when they aspire, 75% of the adults aspire to be self-sufficient. Most of the time, they’re working on a plan that shit goes out to disprove the fact that that’s possible. I met a guy on the airplane yesterday. Awesome. This guy, I’m talking to him and I think, I want to ask you what you would say to this guy. I want to tell you the story here. We’re on the airplane, I’m talking to him and I’m asking, I said, what do you do for a living? He says, I climb poles, cellular phone, cell phone towers. I said, how tall? Well, a lot of them are 300 to 600 feet. He says, 600 feet is kind of my average. I’m kind of known for the 600 foot tower. I said, what do you do? Well, I carry a six-foot piece that needs to be replaced, and I carry it up there, put it on there, and I come back down. And I said, is it hot up there? Oh yeah, it’s about 115, sometimes up at the top, you know, it depends if you’re in Arizona or Texas. And I’m thinking, this guy has got to have a ton of fearlessness, he’s got to be diligent, he’s got to be hardworking. I ask him, when do you get up? He said, oh, well, I usually work five weeks, and I’m off for a week. And I usually get up when it’s still dark. That way, the poles aren’t as hot. And he’s explaining this whole thing. I’m thinking, this guy has what it takes to be a successful franchise owner. And I asked him, I said, well, what’s going on with your mom and dad? Give me your background. He says, well, my dad’s been incarcerated my entire life. Never really met the guy. My mom has been food stamps poverty her whole life. So I’m just doing this so I don’t make minimum wage. So if you’re talking to that kind of person who maybe is going, okay, I’m crazy enough, I’m on Thrive, I’m watching this, I kind of want to start a business, but they have a little bit of that doubt, what would you say to that person right now who’s battling that doubt and that lack of faith that they can do it? Well, you know, that depends a lot on the individual, but the primary message would be that it’s okay to have those fears and doubts. Everyone has them, and that’s where you start from. It’s a matter of where you want to go from there, and to encourage them to at least, or at the very least, explore their possibilities. Don’t go out with the intention of saying, I’m going to go invest in a business or a franchise, but go out and create an environment where you can discover what other options and possibilities you have in a safe space without investing. In the world of franchising, if I’m somebody who wants to discover the possibilities, what can either your company do or what are some other ways I can, what’s kind of the step one I can take if I want to discover the possibilities that are out there in a safe space, as you mentioned. What are some specific things that I can do? Well, it depends. If you want those possibilities to be limited to your current perception or knowledge or feelings about what you think you would like to do or not, then you can go do that on your own. You can buy a handbook with thousands of franchises. Let’s say you could go to a franchise expo and wander around for hours. But if you really want to create, if you want to look exploring possibilities, things you haven’t thought of before, having a coaching environment where you’re going to get to look beyond your blind spots, see beyond your perceptions. We have a program, Could the Myths of Franchising be Keeping You from Becoming a Legend? Most people have these myths about, that they make in their mind, about what it is or what it isn’t. And that’s what’s keeping them from becoming a legend. What is the website someone can go to if they say, OK, I want to hire a coach? What’s maybe a website they can go to? And then if they do want to go behind or around a conference or a trade show, what’s a trade show they can go to? Well, the best way to start is to get a sense for the coaching of our businesses to use our virtual coaching experience, which is entrepreneurssource.com. If you want to just look at some opportunities, every other month we have a virtual expo called Start a Business Weekend. You can go to startabusinessweekend.com and learn more about that where there’ll be hundreds of opportunities that you can explore. So there’s different ways you can do it within… Let’s say that I go, I don’t want to deal with a coach, I just want to go to the actual physical brick and mortar trade show. What are some credible trade shows? Well, there are fewer and fewer of those these days. There’s some that are promoted in conjunction with the International Franchise Association. Okay. And those are typically going to be the best ones, and they’re in various parts of the country. The International Franchising Association is like the most highly credible organization in the world of franchising. You kind of want to look for that endorsement, maybe? Yes, it’s a trade association for the franchise world. And a lot of good information there if you go to franchise.org, you can connect with them. Franchise.org is a great resource. Correct. Now, Terry, I appreciate you sharing one-tenth of one-tenth of one-tenth of one-tenth of what you know about franchising here today with us because I think if I’m considering buying a franchise it can be scary and I appreciate you clarifying all that and and again I just thank you for being here. My pleasure Clay. Take care. JT you know what time it is? 410. It’s Tebow time in Tulsa, Oklahoma baby. Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma June 27th and 28th. We’ve been doing business conferences here since 2005. I’ve been hosting business conferences since 2005 What year were you born? 1995 dude, I’ve been hosting business conferences since you were 10 years old But I’ve never had to the two-time Heisman Award winning Tim Tebow come present and a lot of people You know If I 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? Mmm well they’re gonna have to come and find out because I don’t know. Well I’m just saying Tim Tebow is gonna teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s gonna walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is gonna be a blasty blast at Tulsa Russelum. 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. Yeah. 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, Russell, Oklahoma, June 27 and 28. 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’s 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 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 said who’s Michael Levine? I don’t get this wrong. This is the PR consultant of choice for Michael Jackson, Prince, for Nike, for Charlton Heston, for Nancy Kerrigan. 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestselling authors he’s represented, including pretty much everybody you know who’s been a super celebrity. This is Michael Levine, a good friend of mine. He’s going to come and talk to you about personal branding and the mindset needed to be super successful. The lineup will continue to grow. We have hit Christian reporting artist, Colton Dixon in the house. Now people say, Colton Dixon’s in the house? Yes, Colton Dixon’s in the house. So if you like top 40 Christian music, Colton Dixon’s 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 how to do it, 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 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, Russelham, Oklahoma. I suppose it’s Tulsa, Russelham. It’s… I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa, Russelham, sort of like the Jerusalem of America. But if you go to… if you type in Thrivetimeshow and Jinx, you can get a sneak peek or a look at our office facility. This is what it looks like. This is where you’re headed. It’s going to be a blasty blast. You can look inside, see the facility. We’re going to have hundreds of entrepreneurs here. It is going to be packed. Now, for this particular event, folks, the seating is always limited because my facility isn’t a limitless convention center. You’re coming to my actual home office. And so it’s going to be packed. So when? June 27th to 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 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, California where I have represented over the last 35 years 58 Academy Award winners 34 Grammy Award winners 43 New York Times bestsellers I’ve represented a lot of major stars And I’ve worked with a lot of major companies And I think I’ve learned a few things about what makes them work and what makes them not work. Now, why would a man living in Hollywood, California, in the beautiful, sunny weather of LA, come to Tulsa? Because last year I did it, and it was damn exciting. Clay Clark has put together an exceptional presentation, really life-changing, and I’m looking forward to seeing you then. I’m Michael Levine, I’ll see you in Tulsa. James, did I tell you my good friend John Lee Dumas is also joining us at the in-person two-day interactive Thrive Time Show Business Workshop. That Tim Tebow and that Michael Levine will be at the… Have I told you this? You have not told me that. He’s coming all the way from Puerto Rico. This is John Lee Dumas, the host of the chart-topping EOFire.com podcast. He’s absolutely a living legend. This guy started a podcast after wrapping up his service in the United States military and he started recording this podcast daily in his home to the point where he started interviewing big-time folks like Gary Vaynerchuk, like Tony Robbins, and he just kept interviewing bigger and bigger names, putting up shows day after day, and now he is the legendary host of the EO Fire podcast and he’s traveled all the way from Puerto Rico to Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend the in-person June 27th and 28th Thrive Time Show 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 sports enthusiasts. Thrive timeshow.com. Even if I got three strikes, I’ma go for it. This moment, we own it. Hey, I’m not to be played with because it could get dangerous. See, 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 systems 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, 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 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. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvard Keosak University Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re close, but they’re completely different worlds. I have a special guest today. Definition of intelligence is if you agree with me, you’re intelligent. 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. It’s 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 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. He said, have you read this book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad? I said, no. My father, may he rest in peace, he didn’t know these financial principles. I started reading all of your books and really devouring your books. And I went from being an employee to self-employed, to the business owner, to the investor. And I owe a lot of that to you. And I just wanted to take a moment to tell you, thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success. And I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump. I just want to tell you, thank you, sir, for changing my life. Well, not only that, Clay, you know, thank you, but you’ve become an influencer. You know, more than anything else, you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. So that’s why I congratulate you on becoming. Because as you know, there’s a lot of fake influencers out there too, or bad influencers. Yeah. Anyway, I’m glad you and I agree so much and thanks for reading my books. Yeah. That’s the greatest thrill for me today. Not a 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’m doing this. I learned at the Academy, Kings Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. 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 and getting everything out on paper and documented is really important. We have workflows that are kind of all over the place. So having linear workflow and seeing that mapped out on multiple different boards is pretty awesome. That’s really helpful for me. The atmosphere here is awesome. I definitely just stared at the walls figuring out how to make my facility look like this place. This place rocks. It’s invigorating. The walls are super, it’s just very cool. The atmosphere is cool, the people are nice, it’s a pretty cool place to be. Very good learning atmosphere. I literally want to model it and steal everything that’s here at this facility and basically create it just on our business side. What was your first impression of the conference? 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 waiting in line the whole time, it’s not pushy, they don’t try to sell you a bunch of things. I was looking to learn how to just get control of my life, my schedule, and just get control of the business. Planning your time, breaking it all down, making time for the F6 in your life, and just really implementing it and sticking with the program. It’s really lively, they’re pretty friendly, helpful, and very welcoming. I attended a conference a couple months back and it was really the best business conference I’ve ever attended. At the workshop, I learned a lot about time management, really prioritizing what’s the most important. Biggest takeaways are, you know, you wanna 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. There’s stuff that everybody knows, but if you don’t do it, nobody else can 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 gonna come eventually or try to pick up these tactics. So you better, if you don’t, somebody else will. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9, and we just 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 4 to 14 and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman so we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to ten 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 offense 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. Everybody. Everybody. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get an opportunity to see that it’s real.