Clay Clark | The Power Of Thoughts, Appearance, And Reciprocity With Arthur Greeno

Audio Transcription

So many different times in my life, I’ve played with broken or hurt things, broken foot, broken leg, broken hand, broken arm, broken sternum, broken collarbone. I could keep going if I just thought more about bones. Why, man? Because I loved it. I loved playing the game. I was passionate about it. One of the reasons I even get encouraged at seeing all of you here, you know why I get encouraged by that is because you could be anywhere doing a lot of different things, but you chose to be here Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show But this show does in a world filled with endless opportunities Why would two men who have built 13 multi-million dollar businesses? five hours per day to teach you the best practice business systems and moves that you can use. Because they believe in you. And they have a lot of time on their hands. This started from the bottom, now they’re here. It’s the Thrive Time Show starring the former U.S. Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark, and the entrepreneur trapped inside an optometrist’s body. Dr. Robert Zulman. Two men, eight kids, co-created by two different women. Thirteen multi-million dollar businesses. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, and we’ll show you how to get here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, and now we’re at the top Teaching you the systems to get what we got Colton Dixon’s on the hoops, I break down the books Z’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks As a father of five, that’s why I’m alive So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi It’s the CNC, up on your radio And now, 3, 2, 1, here we go! Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, let me show you how to get here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, let me show you how to get here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. I’m Harvard. Napoleon Hill, the famous success author of the book Think and Grow Rich, the best-selling self-help book of all time He once famously wrote if you do not conquer Once yourself you will be conquered by itself Now Oprah once famously said I don’t think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good I think of myself as somebody who from an early age Knew I was responsible for myself and I had to make good. So on a practical level having dealt with being essentially abandoned by her father from age 13 to 18, being raised by a mom who was a severe alcoholic and you’ve had obviously the intense physical disabilities with scoliosis and the curvature of the spine and some things you’ve dealt with, how do you choose to have the right thoughts? How are you choosing to have those right thoughts? Well, I truly feel like in every situation you’re in, adverse or not, there’s something to learn from it. And so you can get caught up on the negatives, but if you can look for what may be positive that you might have learned from it. For example, for myself, as going through with my mom with an alcoholic, I could have easily, growing up with that, said, you know what, I’m a victim. I’m a victim of my mom being an alcoholic when the police would come by and they’d break my parents up. I could easily look at that. But you know what, I realized, even at a young age, is, you know what, I’m pretty independent. I learned my independence from that situation because if I wanted it to happen, I had to make it happen. Do you, so you, every time something bad happens, you then are trying to ask yourself, what can you learn from this? Is that right? Absolutely. Because there’s always something you can learn. Let me ask you this here. As far as for you, what action steps do you feel like that every entrepreneur can take in order to manage their thought life? Well, I think one of the things to do is I take a journal and I write down every night and I try to write down the positive things that have happened to me that day. It could be some days it may be simple, some days you sit there and you’re racking your brain. But if you’re able to start making a list of those positive things that have happened for you, what ends up happening is your mind starts searching for those positive things on a regular view, what ends up happening is… You found a way to motivate yourself by making a list of positive things that happen. Yeah. Positive things you’re grateful for, I guess. Yes. So, that’s one action step you can do to really manage your thought life. Why is it so important that you do manage your thought life? Well, if you’re not managing yourself, your thought life, life ends up managing you is what happens. I noticed that for me, I no longer really listen to music on the radio. I don’t really listen to talk radio. I just listen to self-help stuff, you know, when I’m driving. But I remember I could wake up in the morning, turn on the radio, by the time I got to work was so mad because of something I heard on talk radio that it flavored the way I talked. Or I could get up and listen to pop music or something in high school. I listened to a ton of Eminem, that kind of thing, and like, he’s still mad. I’m not sure he’s mad about still, but he’s mad. And you get yourself where you’re in a mindset of negativity or you’re upset about things. And you can also watch a movie that’s scary, and you can find yourself kind of around your house like almost afraid to turn the lights on. I know I’ve done that before. Absolutely. Your mind is like this, just like this, you can kind of trick it almost. Yeah, you absolutely can. I’ve noticed the other way though, I’ve read success books, I’ve listened to positive self-help, I’ve spent time with people like you, and then I find myself being like, was that? And I almost mistake everything for a good thing. Or I start thinking positive thoughts or I come to work Excited or and I totally think it’s what you put in is what you get out sort of thing Absolutely, is there any intentionally things you do on a daily basis to keep your thought life in control like anything you listen to? Anything you read any quiet time you have just what do you do on a daily basis from time you wake up? Maintain that positive. Yeah, I I look at having quiet time. That’s one of the things I do. And for me, it’s time that I get to pray, because as a Christian, that’s something that’s important to me. And how long do you pray? You know, it really depends on what’s going on. There’s times when I need to spend more time praying, maybe because of what’s going on around me. But I think it’s very important to have that built in to your schedule. For me, I listen to the Bible every day. And it’s very important for me. But I also, I like to listen to, if I’m not, there’s some times for me, I’m listening, I like a lot of self-help stuff, but then there’s also times I’m like, you know what, I just don’t feel like listening to it self-help. So I will put in soundtracks, like from movies, like positive movies that I love and so I will almost be driving down the road Having that thing blaring and it could be something like like Little Mermaid I’m gonna say that cuz I have six kids and I am just singing along with a little mermaid going kiss the girl kiss the girl really Okay, so now No dress for the role you want to have. Napoleon Hill once famously… It’s important that we dress for the role we want to have. Now Napoleon Hill is a success author I mentioned earlier. He says the clothes you wear influence, thereby they form a part of your environment. Soiled by shabby clothes, they depress you and lower your self-confidence. While clean and modest and refined clothes give you a sort of inner feeling of courage that you can, that causes you to quicken your step as you walk. What? What’s he talking about here? Well first of all I absolutely agree with him and one of the things that I talk to my staff about all the time is you dress how you want to be addressed. Ooh, dress how you want to be addressed. Sick, awesome, I like that. That’s something I love to use with my team members. And especially when you’re a young entrepreneur, there’s going to be people that are going to look at you and say, this guy is young. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. And so there is a way to combat that. You need to take a look at how you’re dressing. There’s a book out there called Dressing for Success. And I read that at a young age. And I literally, I went out and bought. I charged out my credit cards bought a whole new wardrobe I walked in there and the guy walked up to me with a with a tape and said alright Let’s start you know start this I said match me everything because I’m horrible at matching My wife says I’m the only guy that can Clash a white shirt to a tie no matter what that you know what it is so So he matched me up a whole bunch of clothes and literally when I the next day when I got dressed I felt good about myself. I was walking going I can take on the world. Let’s look at myself. I love the way that I look when I look at myself. Pretty much. Now, let me ask you this here. How did you used to dress as a young entrepreneur, or a young guy? I mean, what were you dressing like back in the day? Back in the old school. You mean like before I was an entrepreneur? Before you read that book, how were you dressing? Well, Chick-fil-A standards were we were supposed to wear a shirt and tie. And I wore a shirt and tie. But the shirt and ties I wore, to be honest, I would go to Walmart and I would buy three shirts for $10 or whatever it may be and a tie. This was back in the early 90s. Old school. Yeah. And that’s what I would wear. But yet the reality is, once you wash that shirt two or three times, it starts getting a little bit tight around the neck. And I wouldn’t have it pressed. And so, you know, I would look at my sleeves and it kind of looked all wrinkly and it was kind of short, you know, like this. And I thought that was okay because I was never taught anything different. So then once I read that book, I learned different. Dry cleaners have saved my life. Absolutely. You go to dry cleaners? No, I haven’t picked it up. I used to just like try to iron and… I burn more clothes. Yeah, I’m just burning like toasted shirts. Now, how did your shabby appearance back in the day, the appearance where you weren’t dressing that great, how did that affect the opinions of others? I think a lot of times they wouldn’t take me seriously or they would think that maybe this young kid doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I mean, I don’t think they were actually thinking because he can’t dress right, but it was more like Napoleon Hill said It’s part of your environment as part of Arthur Greenough as a whole You know, that’s that’s kind of the appearance back in the day We had a dude who used to work for us who just smelled funky, you know where he you talk to him and you just You know, I don’t think he was into the breath mint thing He’s in the whole shower thing and I know he’s a good dude and I remember pulling him aside and I said, hey Hey, you know, I love you, right? He’s like, yes. You smell so bad that I can’t even sometimes talk to you, but you know I love you, right? And he’s like, yeah. And I remember giving him some money to get nice clothes. I remember just watching him be different. I remember another young man that used to have big, massive cornrows, and he was trying to get a job in a professional setting. I talked to him, I said, hey man, you gotta cut the cornrows. Why? I said, I don’t know, there’s not many presidents I can think of that have cornrows. They used to have wigs back in the day, but I don’t see any cornrows right now. I don’t know of any heads of state, any CEOs that are rocking the cornrows. You just have to quit the whole smoking thing and quit the cornrows. It seemed like it was hurtful, but he told me thank you too, and he said he came back and said man it changed my life So I’m hoping that right now if you are watching this maybe if they’re like offended Maybe they’ll actually do something about it. You know and then because I know I was told at one point I met with a mentor of mine, and he pointed out. I had double hoop earrings And I was dressing like a wild man, and he was kind of like you’re dressing like Eminem And you have double hoop earrings. I wouldn’t do business with you either And it meant a lot from this guy because he’s a very successful person. So I just want to encourage everybody watching this right now to really ask yourself what kind of first impression are you making? In your mind, how important is it for the entrepreneurs to dress for the job they want to have and not just the job they do have? Oh, it’s absolutely, I mean, it’s important. If you see a young man who wears a suit, white collar every day, and you don’t ask him to, what do you think? If he does it, not just one day, but he does it every day, how do you start to think about that person differently, as an owner? I would think that this person has ambition, he has drive, he cares about what other people think and that he knows what he’s doing. And if he matches real good, I’m impressed. who has that only God can judge me tattoo on his neck, or the guy who’s contemplating, he’s watching right now and he’s like, as soon as I finish watching this, I’m gonna get a tattoo right on my neck, because only God can judge me. For the guy who’s going through that only God can judge me portion of their life. Yeah. What advice would you have for them? For one, then you need to go to work for a place that isn’t that venue. At my restaurant, we get all kinds of people that come in and apply. And sometimes they’ll come in, it looks like a taco box exploded in their face, and they got just things hanging all over. And their hair is purple and green. And we have to sit down and say, this isn’t the venue for you. And they need to know that. A lot of young entrepreneurs, I mean, I sat down with a guy, I’m not exaggerating, and he was an owner of a restaurant. And he was the owner of the restaurant. And he came down to sit down with me, and he had, he was in, every time we’d meet, he’d come in shorts, and he would come in this tie-dye shirt, and it was dirty, and he had long hair. But he’s his own boss. And he was his own boss. And what he came to me was, is, my business is not growing. I don’t know what to do. And so… Would you work for you? Yeah, that’s one of the discussions I had with him was you have to dress like an owner. I mean people are gonna, if you want people to take you seriously when you’re dealing with things or when you’re trying to get them to have you cater or do other things, you can’t be dressed like a blowback from the 80s. So if I’m dressed right now, I’m coming in with a tie-dye, you know, outfit. It’s like for some reason it’s like super tight tie-dye. It’s soiled and dirt. I got the multiple, you know, earring tattoo thing going on there. Looking a little crazy. What are you gonna say to me right now? What advice could you give me? Well, first of all, it depends on what job you’re asking for. If I’m trying to become the boss of a company someday, I’m an entrepreneur, I’m gonna become an entrepreneur. You’re an entrepreneur and you’re coming to sit down with me and you say what’s the first thing you’re gonna say to me? I’m gonna say, why don’t you come back when you take my time seriously? Oh, okay. But you’re gonna say and hopefully that person can learn from that. Absolutely. Now I won’t be mean. I’ll just sit down and say the expectations are that you also you’re extending you’re extending yourself to this person saying I respect you enough to dress up for you. One of the things I remember in high school was that their guidance counselors like now everyone everyone dresses different everyone is just different everyone different cultures, different values. Some people have the tattoos, some people don’t. And we just need to respect everyone’s diversity because, you know, we can’t judge people. And I remember as soon as she finished talking, we’d be like, look at that dude, that’s crazy! You know, and people, that’s what they do, they form impressions. And I think that’s important that we as people should not try to prejudge others. We should not try to label people. We should not try to have… but whether we do or not, the world does. We’ve got to be very cognitively aware of that, I think. And the reality is, and I use this illustration with my kids sometimes as we’re having discussions, is if you’re walking down the street and it’s dark, and there’s someone walking towards you and they have a hoodie on, and you can see the tattoos and stuff as they’re walking, and then you see somebody walking down in a suit or a shirt with a, a nice shirt with a tie, which one are you going to be more nervous about? You know, that other, it may be that the guy with the shirt and tie is the one that’s going to, you know, stab you, but… I wouldn’t assume that. But you probably wouldn’t assume that. And so it’s important. Once upon a time, I worked at Target and Applebee’s and I worked at call centers where we sold gas rebates, which I’m sure weren’t even real. And I know that you grew up without money. So from a practical level, where can I get some nice clothes if I can’t afford it? Well, if you’re really thrifty, and believe it or not, I still, the other day, my sons and I went to the thrift store. Boom. We went to the thrift store because, frankly, my kids are growing so fast that there’s no point in spending $200 on a suit that they’re going to outgrow in four months. Yeah. So we said, let’s go there and take a look. And I was impressed with some of the stuff they had. They have, I mean, you have to be picky, but it’s kind of one of those, what’s your goal? There’s a business called eitrlounge.com, elephant in the room. It’s eitrlounge.com. One of the owners there, one of the managers there, these guys are one of the most fashionably dressed guys I know. Yeah, they are. And they’ve won awards for their fashion. They get written about in the newspapers all the time for their fashion style tips. They go thrift store shopping to find their stuff. So I don’t think it’s about cost. It’s about looking like the boss. That’s right. Now, how big a first impression can a new employee make on you if they’re dressed sharp when you first meet? Oh, a tremendous amount. For one, it tells me that they value their job. OK. Now, reprogramming the mind. We’re talking about how to reprogram that thing, how to really program your mind. Every entrepreneur can decide to have the poverty mentality or the prosperity mentality. Many entrepreneurs who come from nothing battle this poverty mentality. It reminds me all the time. I know I did. Can you describe for me what the poverty mentality is? I think the poverty mentality is one that there’s only a certain amount of things. There’s been studies that have shown that there’s enough food in the world to feed every single person. But yet you see on TV all these people that aren’t eating. And so I have people come to me, friends or whatever, and they say, you know what, you’re eating too much. Save some for the kids. Well, no, they don’t say that to me. Okay, that’s what they say to me. I have people that come to me and they’ll say that there’s no good guys left in the world. Okay, you know, it’s a young woman, you know, there’s no good guy. All of them are taken. The reality is that’s not the truth. They may not be looking in the right spot. You know, where are you trying to, you know, where are you going? Well, I’m going to the bar to look for, well, okay, maybe that’s not the best place to go look for the good guys you’re wanting. Where would a good guy hang out? Well, maybe at church. Maybe you should go to church. But it’s a mentality of there’s only a certain amount of things. When if you flip that around, there’s always, there’s enough of everything. There’s enough money in the world to take care of everything, enough food in the world to take care of everything. There’s enough of everything out there. So at some point in your life you had to make that switch from the victim to the victor. From the poverty to the prosperity mentality. When did you do that? Well when that really happened was when I went off to college. When I was in high school I started making the baby steps. I started surrounding myself with better people and started kind of seeing things from a different view. But when I was in college, it really became when you have no money and you’re trying to put yourself through school and work in three jobs, you really get to the mindset of, can I do this? And then you have to start figuring out a way to make it happen. And we would do all kinds of crazy things. For me, I did all kinds of crazy things to stay in my school. Such as? Well, for example, when I was going to college, I worked three jobs and I would give plasma. And so I would work 40 hours a week at Chick-fil-A as much as I could. Then I would work at a gas station two nights a week. And then on Sundays, I would work. There was a church, and I would work at the church and do stuff for them. And then when I was trying to study, I would go give plasma because it took a couple hours to give plasma. And so that’s what, so I would study while I was giving plasma and I would use that money to gas my $200 car. You were practically, you know, like having two jobs, plasma while reading. Pretty much. Yeah. Is that a success tip you’d like to encourage the thrivers out there to maybe give some plasma? The thing for me is you do whatever it takes. Even when I was with Chick-fil-A, when I was very first with Chick-fil-A, I wasn’t earning a whole lot of money. My wife and I said, you know what, we want to go get each other some Christmas presents. So what do we do? We went and gave plasma so we can give each other Christmas presents. I remember telling the guy, he said, what is your job? I said, I’m the owner of Chick-fil-A at Eastland Mall. He was like, shut up. I was like, no, seriously. He goes, no, shut up. I mean, he didn’t believe me. So I had to kind of show my business card but the thing is that if you want success you have to do whatever it takes to make that happen. I know that like there was a time in my life where I worked at Applebee’s, I was working at Target, I was trying to get an internship at Tax and Accounting Software. I drove 45 minutes a day every day to Okmulgee and back from Okmulgee, Oklahoma, tourist capital of the world, to study at Oklahoma State, Okmulgee Technical College. And I know that I had the Target, I had the Applebee’s, I had that trip. My wife and I shared a car. I mean, there’s all these stories. And we’re just one of thousands of people like us that have done these sorts of things. And I think it’s not about resources, but it’s about being resourceful. Absolutely. And it’s about doing whatever it takes. And I think that’s exciting. Now, what could an entrepreneur do every day if they want to create and sustain the prosperity mentality? I mean if they’re kind of like, you know, a little bit going back to scarcity, a little bit into that poverty, a little bit into that… What can they do? What can they do to stay positive? They can give. I read a study the other day that said when people give, they feel rich. I know that’s contrary because you may not have a whole lot of money, but you know what? There’s always something you can give, whether you can give that homeless guy a dollar each day, you can feel good about yourself. And they’ll help you get that mind frame of, I’m rich. I encourage people to, when they go to a drive-thru or a coffee place, pay for the guy behind them or something. It’s just, it’s a way to, it releases endorphins, you know, and makes you feel better about yourself. And in essence, it gives you that confidence. I’ve noticed too, for me, enveloping myself with positive people, where I try to encounter positive people as much of my day as possible. So, before I knew these people, I mean, it was like, I’m going to read Dale Carnegie in the morning, his book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and at night I’m reading John Rockefeller, and I’m going to watch biography when I get a chance to watch that, and I just was positive, positive, positive, positive, positive. It sounds like you’re saying give, but there’s things you can definitely do to maintain that positive mentality. I think it’s just absolutely huge that you’re very aware that you have a prosperity mentality and not a… Well, and when you look at this, you gave a couple of examples and I gave different examples. There’s no limit on all the different things you can do to get that mentality. And so, you know what? Sometimes it’s just about trying things. Success authors, many of them have written about that your mindset is kind of like a computer. Basically you put garbage in, do a bad software program in your computer, you’ll ruin that guy. Yep. You’ll get garbage out. It seems weird that you can just download a software and ruin a computer. But how can you reprogram your brain if you know that your computer needs to be cleaned off? If you’re watching right now and you know you’ve got some garbage in your brain, what can you do to restart your computer and to renew your mind? Well, I think part of it is just start filling it with the right things. What are you reading? What are you spending your time on? What is your energy on? If you’re spending all your time, and I’m going to pick on reality shows if you’re gonna spend all your time watching the reality shows We’re all the the people are arguing back and forth on a regular basis. You know when you could Spend that time reading a book. That’s going to Well like you were talking about how to win friends and influence people That’s a great book to get you the mindset of success. I Know that for me to put the garbage out and to put the good stuff in, I just have to ask myself, is what I’m learning right now helping me get closer to my goal? Is the conversation I’m in right now helping me get closer to my goal? Is the movie I’m watching helping me get closer to the goal? I say goal, spirit, mind, body, relationships, finances. So is the conversation I have helping me have a better marriage? Yeah. Is the conversation I’m having right now helping me become a better friend? Is the conversation I have helping me. And if the answer is no, I try to peace out. I try to get out of there. I try to change what I’m doing. And I think it’s important that we do that. Now, the power of words. It doesn’t matter what study you read or what success magazine that you get the tip out of. Every entrepreneur that I know is very aware of the power of words. As an entrepreneur, whether you say negative words or positive words can affect you. Absolutely. How is that? Why is that? It’s, you know, I, one quote I love is, people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. You know, and when you’re speaking positive words into their life, it doesn’t just edify them, but it also edifies ourselves. It used to be when I would mess something up, I’d be like, man, you’re such an idiot. And sometimes I still feel that way, but yet you kind of have to change your mindset on where you’re putting your energy. It’s not that I’m an idiot, it’s that I’m looking for, you know what, I made a mistake, what can I learn from it? And that’s constantly what I’m looking for. So you’ve discovered what you’re constantly looking for. You’re looking for positive words that are going to help you really… Absolutely. And the people that also don’t use positive words, they suck their life right out of the room. As soon as I said that, one of you guys that’s out there, you guys thought of someone in your life that sucks the air out of the room. I’ve noticed that there’s people that will walk into a room at a doctor’s office or an elevator or at your home and they can just take that room down. Absolutely. How are you doing? Oh man, things are getting bad, things are getting worse. And here’s one challenge I have for every entrepreneur watching this is do you talk about the future in positive terms or do you talk about the past only in positive terms? So it’s like, well, the good old days. Do you believe that every year can be better than the next, better than the last? Absolutely. Or do you believe that last year was the best it’s ever going to be? And I think those are some of the things you can ask yourself now. How can saying a positive or negative words affect your decision to hire or promote somebody? So you have a guy who says negative words on the floor or says positive words on the floor. How can that affect your determination as to who you should promote or hire. Well, for one, as a leader, it’s your job to inspire people. That’s part of what your job is. I mean, John Matchwell says the definition of a leader is influence, period. Okay? Unfortunately, you’ve got stinky leaders who are going to tear your team down and you need positive leaders. And so, if for me, if I see somebody using those positive words and encouraging people, for one, they’re going to get their job done faster, they’re going to get it done better, they’re going to get it done and have better results. Have you ever promoted somebody, like two people are the same quality wise, in terms of their actual ability to do the job, but one person is positive and the other person’s negative? Yep. You see you have promoted people for being positive. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Because frankly, they’re the ones that step up. How can positive or negative words affect your ability to raise capital? If I’m an entrepreneur and I want to raise capital for my business to start it or grow it, how can negative or positive words affect that? Well, when you’re positive and you’re thinking those things, whether you’re standing in your mirror and going you’re good-looking, and I say this kind of joking or whatever, but yet you’re saying those positive things, when you walk into that meeting for capital you’re more confident about what you’re doing. If that person walks in there and they’ve already shot themselves down before they even got out of the car, they’re going to walk in there and everybody kind of puts off an energy. You know how somebody walks into the room and you’re like, that guy’s got it together. The same goes for the guy who walks in and goes, that guy doesn’t have anything going on for him. And it’s not about judging, you just can kind of feel it. What about the old yawn guy, the guy who shows up to your work meetings and yawns all the time? Oh, it drives me crazy. He certainly affects you, because then what? Everybody around him is yawning. Yeah, I’ll be real. It pisses me off when people yawn all the time at work. It affects the people around them. And I love the guy who’s always clapping or he’s excited or he’s like, Hey man, how you doing? I like the guy who brings that energy. And the reality is, that’s a choice. They get to make the choice on, am I going to exert that energy to go, hey, how’s it going? Or am I just going to sit there and go, hey, you know. And it takes a little bit of effort. And I think it’s important that the successful people are the people that are willing to put the effort in. I’ve noticed that a lot of times with you, I’ve seen you do some huge events. I remember about two years ago, maybe a year and a half ago, you did your first hamster ball race. Yes. Where you bought all these massive hamster balls, what they’re about six feet tall? Nine feet tall. Nine feet tall. You shipped them in from China? I did. And you shipped them in crates, they show up here, and then people can race inside these hamster balls to raise money for charity. Yeah. And I saw you, when you’d probably been up all night the night before, I saw you, it was cold. It was cold. You’d been up late, and I know that you decided to be positive. Yeah. I said, how are you doing, brother? And you’re like, great. Things are taking off. I mean, could you imagine if when the media interviewed you, because the media, they put the cameras right on you that day. Yeah. And they said, how are you? You’re like, well, I’ve been up all night. I just hope I make it through. I mean, it’s not a story. It’s not something people are excited about. That’s right. And you chose to speak those positive words. That’s right. And that’s why that event was successful. Now, what action steps should an entrepreneur take in order to begin saying positive words over their life, over their business, and over everything they do? Right. One is, you know, who again, you had mentioned this earlier, who are you surrounding yourself with? It’s super important that you’re surrounding yourself with those positive people. A group of friends and I get together and we talk about, we call it the Redwood Forest. It’s basically if you look at a target, who are you surrounding yourself with? If you have somebody that’s putting negative energy in you, you may need to move them to the outer parts of the target. The outer rim of the Red Forest. Absolutely. And so you need to move those people in that are going to energize you and get you excited. One of the things about entrepreneurs is when they get together, they get excited. When we get here as a group and we’re just, we’re, we’re hashing out boring things. We still always leave energized. He was like, Oh yeah, that’s awesome. Okay. And we’re, and we walk away and we’re ready to take on the world. I think it’s so important that you, that you become that energy guy. If you’re a guy right now, like I know I took algebra multiple times. I wasn’t good in Spanish. I didn’t do well that well in school, but if you can come into a business and you can bring the energy, I mean, if you hired a guy right now for whatever the starting rate at Chick-fil-A is, and he is the energy guy, and he just does a great job, and he says, my pleasure, thanks for coming to Chick-fil-A, my pleasure, and he says it with enthusiasm, and he greets guests with enthusiasm, he greets his teammates with enthusiasm, you almost won’t be able to keep from promoting him at some point. Absolutely, and one of the reasons why, and I mentioned this just a few minutes ago, is that it’s because he’s going to do that, and others are not going to do it. So what’s he going to do? He’s going to influence those others. Definition of influence is leadership. So he’s stepping into a leadership role even though he may not be able to count money to save his life, but yet he’s influencing others to be a positive impact. Positive words, if nothing else about you, positive words I know have affected your life. Because with your mom being an alcoholic, with your dad just disappearing on you. With you having the physical ailments you had, with all the things you’ve dealt with, I’ve never heard you say, you know, consistently negative anything. You’re always positive. And even when you’re down, if you’ve had a rough time, I say, how are you? And you say, I have nothing to complain about, or I’m doing great, or you know, getting better, or you’re just very aware of it. I know you’re intentional about it. Right. I can say as your friend, I appreciate it a lot. But I know that that’s something we can all pick up on. I think it’s huge. Now, the law of reciprocity, the law of reciprocity, the universal law that exists in business and in life is simply treat others the way that you want to be treated. That’s basically the idea. It’s called the golden rule. Why is it so important for entrepreneurs to keep that principle in mind of doing unto others as you’d have them do unto you? Well, one of the things is that as an entrepreneur, it’s easy for us to get the shaft. It happens all the time, whether an employee steals from you. I mean, you know, we’re setting ourselves up and somebody trips on a bumper outside your restaurant. Not that that’s happening right now. None of this is happening now or ever has happened in the history of Chick-fil-A anywhere across the world. That’s correct. You know, and they’re going to sue you because you put that bumper, you know, it’s been the same spot. Sue you as another company, he’s not Chick-fil-A. Correct, if that was the case. Yeah. So, but when it’s all said and done, you get to decide on what you’re going to do. And the thing is that I don’t want to be treated that way. I shouldn’t be treated that way. So I’m going to treat them with honor, dignity, and respect no matter what. And it’s so important in business. You go over with a lot of the clients who’ve invested in my businesses or I’ve worked with over the years. I have consistently tried to do right by them and I’ve noticed that they do right by me. I’ll just give you an example of how you’ve done this for me. My kids called the other day. I’m getting old so I say the other day. They call, Dad, what’s going on guys? They never call at work. Dad, what’s going on kids? Arthur Greeno dropped us off stuff at the house and you dropped off a gift box. Yes I did. With some books in it and t-shirts and basically Chick-fil-A promotional and swag items. Yeah. They were going crazy and you did that for me and you didn’t have to and when I found an article was written about you in the your place. Did you start this problem? Did you start this little game? Maybe. But it’s a deal of you generated that law of reciprocity, you threw the boomerang out and it came back to you. And I’ve noticed that everybody I have a great relationship with, it seems like one of us started that boomerang and now it just keeps coming back. And it’s exciting to see that. And but I think it’s contrary to the world because in the world it seems like in the world we’re like I’ll give you something if you give me something first you give me something maybe I’ll give you something yeah you know you give me what do you have for me and then I’ll see if I can and it’s the opposite so I think that’s amazing that you’ve you’ve done that you don’t know Arthur because you do it all the time so when you don’t know how do you generate that law of reciprocity doing well for others what you want them to do for you we look for opportunities I mean my family, my kids, Christmas is a big thing for us. And because we will literally look for opportunities. We’ve done a lot of crazy things for people over the years, but we will listen. And this was kind of a joke, but it kind of wasn’t. So a friend of mine and I were having a discussion. We were talking about some hot dogs from Quick Trip. Love Quick Trip hot dogs. We’re not getting paid for this by the way, but I love him and I was talking about it. He didn’t… Unbiased. We love him. Yeah. And he had told me he had never had a Quick Trip hot dog. So while we’re sitting there at this meeting, this luncheon meeting, I texted a friend of mine that was there. Actually, I was at Oral Roberts University on the campus there and I said, hey, I need three Quick Trip hot dogs. Quick Trip hot dogs. Yeah, as fast as you can. And sure enough, it shows up. And so I had somebody on campus that I had a relationship with for that. And then when they came in, I knew the caterer. And I said, hey, I need a plate and a lid. And so they got a plate and lid. We put these hot dogs on it and brought it out and slid it to him. So he literally has a plate of steak and mashed potatoes and everything here and three quick-drip hot dogs. They pulled it off. And he just laughed hysterically about it. Of course we made him eat them. But the thing was that he’ll never forget that. You don’t wait for someone to ask you, Hey, please do something nice for me so that I can, you know, you don’t wait, you initiate. That’s right. I will say this too. A lot of people watching this right now are saying, Nobody invites me to parties. Nobody invites me to parties. And I will tell you this. You’re one of the most generous people I know, in terms of inviting people to activities and events. And you do that all the time. I think it’s neat, because in my life, I get invited to a lot of things. And a lot of things we can’t go to, a lot of things we can go to, but I always try to be an inviter. I’m always like, hey, Arthur, could you come to this festivus party? Could you come to this birthday party? Could you come? And a lot of times you can’t, a lot of times you can. But you’re never gonna be invited unless you’re in vitro. That’s right, I actually speak to a lot of people come to me and say, how do you have so many friends? I had a guy from the corporate office one time show up and I said, hey, me and some guys are gonna go out tonight. And he meets us at the restaurant and there’s 19 of us. And he goes, are these your friends? And I was like, yeah, and he goes, are they all your friends? And I was like, yeah, they’re all my friends. Except for Greg and Daryl. Yeah, I didn’t like them. Are these your friends? And he goes, that’s just crazy. You guys are going to see a movie and you have 19, I said, because when we’re going to see a movie, we’re going to invite everyone we know because guess what? We have this habit as humans. We get locked into our lives and we just sit at home. And so if I can invite them to come out and I can do something that will make a difference in their day, then I’ve done my job. And it doesn’t hurt me any to invite them. It’s kind of like liking somebody on Facebook. You know, it doesn’t hurt you to like every single person even if you don’t like what they’re saying. I’m not saying to do that and start liking my post by the way. Get up on Facebook and like Arthur Greenough. There you go. Now, in your life you’ve obviously seen the law of reciprocity work a lot, but I want to ask you for, I’m watching this right now, and I remember when I started my whole business I was in an apartment with no AC, no heat. It was at 71st and Lewis in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the Fountaincrest Apartments behind the Marriott Hotel. If I’m in that situation, I have very little money, very little time because I’m trying to start a business. I don’t have a lot of money. How can I start to generate the law of reciprocity in my life if I don’t have a lot of money or a lot of time? Well, I think look for the simple things. I mean, it could be as simple as a phone call. You know, I actually read a study that was talking about how a certain percentage of rich people call people on their birthdays when people that aren’t rich, they don’t. They don’t make that effort. You know, it really doesn’t take much time to pick up the phone and say, you know, happy birthday or text message happy birthday. Simple things that that don’t take a whole lot of time, but yet that person feels that person cares about me. They’re feeling it. Absolutely. I guess the final capstone thought I want to share is that the circle of the social circle, if you if you say over here there’s a social circle of NBA Hall of Fame players, of former athletes and professionals and all that. And then over here is a social circle of successful entrepreneurs. And over here is a success circle of maybe pastors and leaders. And over here is one of attorneys. And here’s a one of… I have noticed that in my life, I have to jump into that circle and say, hey! And I just know that this week you and I have been working on this project together, but we finally got David Robinson, the NBA great, Hall of Famer, to finally, we’re in that circle now. And I can tell you, for everybody watching this, it is uncomfortable. It’s tough when you fly out to San Antonio and your party is like, I hope he likes me. I mean, I’m pretty pale. You know, I’m pretty, I don’t know, he’s probably intimidated by my basketball skills. You think? Probably, yeah. No, but he’s, I’m just thinking like he’s, it’s probably, maybe he won’t like me, maybe we don’t have a lot in common, maybe we don’t. So what I did to generate the law of reciprocity with David is I read his biography. I read every article I could, and I went there and I just decided I’m going to generate conversational generosity. I’m just going to ask him questions about his life and his brother Chuck who’s a pastor and Music and things he’s into so that it would generate a conversation absolutely so even if you don’t have money or time Conversational generosity can work absolutely are you asking people questions about their life absolutely and the fact that you took the time Out to find out what’s going on their lives you’re finding out what what they care about. He loved it. I can tell that he did. I was just like, what do you offer the guy? So we showed up, we bought him a Navy baseball jersey from the Navy baseball team. I knew he played baseball as a kid, I figured he didn’t have one. So it’s a Navy baseball jersey with on the back it says Thrive 15 with the number 50 on it. How large did you have to make that? I didn’t get it big enough. He looked at it and it was like, is this like a little boy’s shirt? I mean it was like a little, it was too small. And he’s 7’2″, he might be 7’3″. I mean this guy is massive. But then I got him number two reeds because I knew he played the saxophone. So I got him tenor and alto reeds. We got him, as a team we got him a lot of these neat little items so that he could go, these guys care. Because what do you buy a seven foot multimillionaire Hall of Fame player? So I think it’s important that no matter where we are, whether it’s conversational generosity, whether it’s a gift, whether it’s whatever we’re doing, we can do something right now to generate that. Well, and some of the guys watching this may be scared of what happens if I jump in there and they don’t like me. And what I tell a lot of people is, like when people come to me and say, Arthur, can you sit down and give me some of your time? And they’re trying to jump into my circle. I can explain to them, what did you think that I was thinking? Because for me, I wasn’t thinking anything wrong with them at all. I was like, not a problem, I’ll be happy to share with you. And so I’ve got to kind of think, well, if I’m thinking that, when people try to jump into my circle, those guys probably aren’t thinking anything either. So let’s go ahead, you know, so I’m going to do it. And you know what? If they don’t like me, I’ve done what I can. So now I’ll just go drown myself. No, whatever it may be. Well, if a final recap as always, make sure you don’t drown yourself. I think that’s something we can all… Absolutely. That would be bad. That’d be bad. It’d make it harder to get the enough points to win the Thrive Prize if you’re drowning. That’s right. Okay. Hey, thank you for your time. My pleasure. Appreciate it. Thank you. JT, do you know what time it is? 410. It’s T-Bo time in Tulsa, Oklahoma baby! Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma during the month of Christmas, December 5th and 6th, 2024. Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma in the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show Business Growth Workshop. Yes, folks, put it in your calendar this December, the month of Christmas, December 5th and 6th Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma in the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business growth workshop. 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 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? Mmm well they’re gonna have to come and find out because I don’t know. Well I’m just saying Tip Teebo 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 in Tulsa, Russia. Folks, I’m telling you, if you want to learn branding, you want to learn marketing, you want to learn search engine optimization, you want to learn social media marketing, that’s what we teach at the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive workshop. If you want to learn accounting, you want to learn sales systems, you want to learn how to build a linear workflow, you want to learn how to franchise your business, that is what we teach at the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop. Over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to feature Michael Levine, the PR consultant of choice for Nike, for Prince, for Michael Jackson. The top PR consultant in the history of the planet has spoken at the Thrive Time Show workshops. We’ve had Jill Donovan, the founder of rusticcuff.com, a company that creates apparel worn by celebrities all throughout the world. Jill Donovan, the founder of rusticcuff.com, has spoken at the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshops. We have the guy, we have had the man who’s responsible for turning around Harley Davidson, a man by the name of Ken Schmidt. He has spoken at the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshops. Folks, I’m telling you, these events are going to teach you what you need to know to start and grow a successful business. And the way we price the events, the way we do these events, is you can pay $250 for a ticket or whatever price that you can afford. Yes! We’ve designed these events to be affordable for you and we want to see you live and in person at the two-day interactive December 5th and 6th Thrive Time Show Business Workshop. Everything that you need to succeed will be taught at the two-day interactive Thrive Time show business workshop December 5th and 6th in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And the way we do these events is we teach for 30 minutes and then we open it up for a question and answer session so that wonderful people like you can have your questions answered. Yes, we teach for 30 minutes and then we open it up for a 15-minute question-and-answer session. It’s interactive. It’s two days. It’s in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We’ve been doing these events since 2005 and I’m telling you folks it’s going to blow your mind. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Thrive Time Show 2-Day Interactive Business Workshop is America’s highest rated and most reviewed business workshop. See the thousands of video testimonials from real people just like you who have been able to build multi-million dollar companies. Watch those testimonials today at thrivetimeshow.com simply by clicking on the testimonials button right there at thrivetimeshow.com. You’re going to see thousands of people just like you who have been able to go from just surviving to thriving. Each and every day we’re going to add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup, but I encourage everybody out there today, get those tickets today. Go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s Thrivetimeshow.com. And some people might be saying, well, how do I do it? What do I do? How does it work? You just go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Let’s go there now. We’re feeling the flow. We’re going to ThriveTimeShow.com. 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 a 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, 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. I suppose it’s Tulsa, Russell. I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa, Russell, sort of like the Jerusalem of America. But if you type in 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. 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 five hundred dollars. 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 gonna leave with a workbook. You’re gonna 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, Russell 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. 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 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. Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshops are the world’s highest rated and most reviewed business workshops because we teach you what you need to know to grow. You can learn the proven 13-point business system that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. When we get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two day, 15 hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur I always wish that I had this, and because there wasn’t anything like this I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter Bunny but inside of it it was a hollow nothingness and I wanted the knowledge. They’re like, oh but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get rich quick, walk on hot coals product. It’s literally we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, but I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever and we’ll even give you your money back if you don’t love it. We 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. Harvard 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 Trump, but we’re also talking about money, bricks, and how screwed up the world can get in a few and a half hour. So Clay Clark is a very intelligent man, and there’s so many ways we could take this thing, but I thought since you and Eric are close, Trump, what were you saying about what Trump can’t, what Donald, who’s my age, and I can say or cannot say? First of all, I have to honor you, sir. I wanna show you what I did to one of your books here. There’s a guy named Jeremy Thorn, who was my boss at the time. I was 19 years old, working at Faith Highway. I had a job at Applebee’s, Target, and Direct TV. 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. I went from being an employee to self-employed to the business owner to the investor. I owe a lot of that to you. I just want to take a moment to tell you thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success. And I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump. I just want to tell you, thank you, sir, for changing my life. Well, not only that, Clay, thank you, but you’ve become an influencer. You know, more than anything else, you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. So that’s why I congratulate you on becoming. Because as you know, there’s a lot of fake influencers out there, 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 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. 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,