Clay Clark | Blockbuster | Don’t Let Your Business Become the Next Blockbuster | How to Reinvigorate Your Business Now + Interview with Official NBA Photographer & Co-Author of Kobe Bryant’s The Mamba Mentality, Andy Bernstein

Audio Transcription

Oh, I’m so happy. Oh, you’re so sweet. Oh, you’re so sweet, kitty. Come on. Get over here. Don’t let go of it. Can I hold it? Sure. Here’s one. 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 altruistically invest 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. They started from the bottom, now they’re here. It’s the Thrive Time Show starring the former US Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark, and the entrepreneur trapped inside an optometrist’s body, Dr. Robert Zilman. Two men, eight kids, co-created by two different women, 13 multi-million dollar businesses. 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 took flight, 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, he’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 C and Z upon your right knee, yo. And now, three, two, one, here we go! 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 here. On today’s show, we are interviewing the official photographer for the iconic 1992 NBA Dream Team and the five USA gold medal winning teams that followed. Mr. Andy Bernstein is now known as the photographer that revolutionized indoor sports photography with the development of the multiple camera flash wizard 2 system. Andy was inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2013 and is now the best-selling co-author slash photographer of five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant and his new book release the Mamba Mentality with Phil Action Jackson and boom boom pow Gaston. Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show but this show does. Two men, eight kids co-created by two different women, 13 multi-million dollar businesses. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome on to today’s show. We have the incredible Mr. Andy in the house. Andy, how are you? I’m great, Clay. Great to be on the show here with you. Thanks so much for sticking with me and the perseverance. I’ve been a little busy lately, but I’m glad we’re talking. Now, Andy, you have been a photographer, photographing in the NBA for, I believe, 35 plus years. How did you get your start? I can’t remember that far back, Clayton. I’m kidding. I actually picked up a camera when I was 14 and fell in love with it, with the whole process, the whole craft of it, everything in the darkroom. Just really excited to be seeing the magic happen right before your eyes, you know. And I went to college at the University of Massachusetts and quickly got to work for the newspaper there, our Daily Collegian newspaper, which is a very prestigious college paper, and kind of kind of got my start really doing assignments and understanding what it took to be a news and sports photographer. And transferred out to a school in California and continued my training, but much more, much deeper into the science of photography. And my start really happened professionally when I became an assistant for Sports Illustrated while I was at Art Center in College of Design in Pasadena, California. This is the late 70s, early 80s, and I learned everything that I needed to know to prepare me to be a professional sports photographer by working for some world-class, award-winning sports photographers who were staff photographers for Sports Illustrated. I mean, that was the creme de la creme, you know, the top of the line. And specifically, I learned how to light indoor arenas for basketball and hockey, which illustrated was at the forefront of a technique using giant strobes, big gigantic flash units that had to be installed hours and hours before games and then removed after games. But essentially they were these big flashes that supplemented the light that these arenas had, the crappy old available light that the arenas had and You were able to shoot daylight balanced film and it was beautiful, but nobody knew that technique except a few a handful of people in the US and I was luckily I was one of those so I took that into my professional life and it opened some doors for me with the Lakers and the Horns and the Kings and the NBA came calling in 1983 with their All-Star game and the rest was kind of history after that my friend. Andy, were you working for free or as an intern or at some really, really low level of pay when you first started out there working with Sports Illustrated? Oh yeah, I mean, we’re talking, oh man, I don’t even think I was making this job. Yeah. Assistant, started off as a fourth assistant, you know, on these big production shoots that required days of portrait photographers and then the arena photography and the location photography that I did, every imaginable sport that you can possibly think of, of course football and baseball to basketball, hockey, but tennis and rugby and water polo and water sports and all kinds of stuff. So I’ve learned the ropes that way, but you know, you were still a lowly assistant and the rates were what they were back in those days. I don’t think I made more than maybe a hundred bucks, 150 bucks a day as an assistant back in the day. But it was great training, you know? I mean, they were actually paying me to be trained and it all came to fruition when I hung my shingle out and became a sports photographer myself. You know, we’ve interviewed Michael Levine, the former PR consultant for President Bush and the Clintons and Prince and Nike and Lee Cockerell, who used to manage Walt Disney World Resorts and all these people who are the best in the world at what they do, just like you. And that story we hear over and over again is you guys went in there willing to work for free or for as little as possible to learn and master a skill early on in your career. What advice would you have for somebody out there that’s needing to improve their skill but is up to this point been unwilling to work for quote unquote below market rate? Well, I think across the board, Clay, not just in my profession but maybe in every profession, a great idea to find somebody or a group of people, but specifically somebody that you can latch on to that you really respect and admire their work and their work ethic and how they conduct themselves and the results and the success they’ve had. And if that takes interning or working for free, working for low pay for a while, there’s no better training than being on the inside with somebody in the industry you really want to be in. And I did that, you know. I don’t know if you did that, but so many people I know did it, and I’ve tried to get that across to my kids, you know, when they were growing up as teenagers and now they’re adults, that sometimes you have to just kind of suck it up and not make it all about money all the time, make it about your future. And people respect that, they respect that you respect them and you respect what they’ve done and what they’ve accomplished. You know, I’ve been in business over 40 years and there are still people in my life that I look up to and I seek advice from and are mentors to me. Two of them were my teachers from college, from 40 years ago. Peter Guber has become an incredible mentor and resource for me. You know, Peter’s kind of a busy guy. You know, he owns the Warriors, he owns the Dodgers, he owns the LASC soccer team, he’s He’s the head of a giant film studio, but yet he finds time to talk to me because I value him and value his business acumen and his experience, and I think he respects that. Andy, I want to tap into your wisdom about this because I’m a huge Phil Jackson fan. Anybody who listens to this show regularly knows I’m always quoting Eleven Rings, his book. I love the career of phil jackson and phil jackson has been known as uh… by many is for like the the wizard of basketball and there are countless photographers people that want to be photographers but whatever reason he has allowed you into his dojo of mojo the wizard of basketball has allowed you into his zen locker room when most other photographers aren’t allowed. I think I think you were actually allowed into the locker room during all 11 championships am I correct? That is correct sir yes. Why? Why does he like you so much and why do you mean not that he doesn’t like anybody else but he likes you the most? Well it’s a five-letter word and it’s called trust and that And that trust has to be built incrementally, but it all comes from integrity and presenting yourself, your true, genuine self to the person because as we know, first impressions mean everything. And if I was arrogant or aggressive or made it all about me from that first moment I met which was before he won his first championship with the Bulls during that season, I don’t think he would have let me in that first locker room, much less the ten after that. So we hit it off. He saw in me, I think, a guy who really enjoyed what he did, and just like he did, there’s a real meaning in the mind. He’s a big photography buff, by the way, which people don’t really know. Yeah, he’s very artsy. Yeah, he amazingly knows so much about so many things, but photography was the one thing I didn’t realize he was into and he really was. And he and I just formed a bond and he knew I had a job to do. He knew I wasn’t there to make him or the team look bad. I’m there working for the league itself and then of course for the Lakers when he came to LA and I was their team photographer and still am. But it’s all about trust, and like in any other profession or relationship, interpersonal or in marriage or whatever, you don’t have trust and integrity, you’re really coming from behind. It’s sometimes very difficult to build that when you start behind the eight balls. I think that’s kind of the long answer to your question, but I hope it makes sense. What was Phil Jackson’s demeanor like as a coach, and how was it different from that of most other coaches? Phil had a different vibe. I mean, he came from a working class background. He worked his way up into the NBA, didn’t have a lot of skills. I mean, he’d be the first one to tell you that he didn’t have a lot of basketball skills. But somehow he found a niche as sort of the guy who would dive for any ball or pull down any rebound, a hard worker. Living in New York at the time when he was playing there in the early 70s, he was exposed to incredible counterculture as well as just an amazing group of people that he hung out with. North Dakota and the background that he had. He’s just a very deep person. So he’s not a one-dimensional or two-dimensional sports type person. And Phil and I have had many conversations that don’t even get into talking about basketball at all. I went to him when I first started having kids and trying to figure out how to do that. And he’s got children, he’s got grandchildren. You know, we would talk politics, we would talk about all kinds of stuff. He’d give me books to read, you know. So this is a guy who I really admired and looked up to, you know, not just as a basketball coach, of course I did, but as a person and as a resource. Andy, Shaquille O’Neal, there’s many times during his career with the Lakers, he would dive into the crowd to try to save a loose ball. Or maybe just to fall on photographers like you. How many times did he accidentally kick you in the crotch, fall on you, lay on you, half suffocate you, break a camera? Talk to me about Shaquille O’Neal falling on you. How often did that happen? Well, that’s one of the hazards of our job, unfortunately. We sit so close to the players. I mean, we’re within inches, literally, of them on the baseline. And a guy like Shaq, who was incredibly nimble. I mean, people don’t realize this guy was 340-some odd pounds, but he had incredible body control. He usually had two or three guys draped all over him, you know, when he was trying to go up for a dunk. He always was able to save himself when he was a little bit out of control or whatever, but there were three times that I can remember that he laid me out. The most profound time was the third time, I think it was the 2000 Western Conference finals. Man, he took me out. He kind of lost his balance. I think somebody pushed him in the air. So right into me. And man, we were face to face. I was like a pancake, like a Wile E. Coyote cartoon, you know, like this flat, I got lenses and cameras embedded in me. And he’s about two inches away, his face from my face. And he looks at me and I’m wheezing I can’t catch my breath he goes oh man is that you and I’m like yeah that’s me you know what off you miss and he looks me straight in the eye goes he goes give it a couple of seconds we’re on national TV I’ll never forget it and I’ll never let him forget it either because they almost had a cart me out of there oh man okay so so Shaquille O’Neal has almost killed you you also photographed Magic Johnson who was also a very graceful guy very I mean Unbelievable charisma on the court great floor general graceful. What was his demeanor like what was your relationship like? photographing Magic Johnson Well Magic and I basically came into the league Season but I was around him in his rookie season. The most animated, wonderful, friendly person that I’ve ever really encountered as an athlete in any sport. But he was ferocious on the court. He was a winner, he was competitive, and he brought that lunch pail every single game, every single practice because his work ethic was drilled into him by his father who held two jobs back in Lansing, Michigan. And Irvin grew up watching his dad go to work every morning at 4 o’clock in the morning and working 16 hours a day every single day. And that work ethic was instilled in him and stayed with him even when he became a multiple champion and is still the same work ethic in business and of course now is president of the Lakers. So one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met, what he’s had to deal with in life and what he’s overcome and the message that he’s brought. I’m just in awe of Magic all the time, especially when I’m with him. He just has such a presence and an aura about him. Kobe Bryant is probably one of the most misunderstood athletes I think. I’m 38, so I kind of grew up watching Kobe Bryant. And fun factoid for you, a guy I went to high school with by the name of Ryan actually competed against Kobe Bryant during an AAU basketball game. He was a junior and Kobe was a junior, I believe at lower Merion. And after the game, Ryan actually blocked one of Kobe’s shots, got kind of lucky, and Ryan’s mother went up to Kobe after the game and wanted him to sign her son’s shoes. And Ryan’s like, no, no, no, you can’t ask the guy I’m playing against to sign my shoes. This is right when there was that rumor of him going to the NBA the next year. And he said Kobe was intense in high school. Where do people get Kobe Bryant wrong? Talk to us about his intensity. Just help us to understand the myth that is Kobe Bryant. You’re getting into the broader issue of the Mamba mentality, which is the title of the book that Toby and I just came out with. The Mamba mentality just didn’t happen. The guy just didn’t wake up one day and become who he was. This started very early in life. He talks about going to the gym with his dad, who of course was a professional basketball player and they lived in Italy while Kobe was growing up and then moved to Philadelphia in high school, and playing against the bigger guys and really learning the game right there in front of his father, but also breaking down. I mean, it’s incredible because he used to break down VHS tapes of the greats that were sent to him to his dad in Italy. He’d watch Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan or an All-Star tape or NBA Finals or whatever it is, and he became such a student of the game. So his obsession with the game, which is really the essence and the kind of root of the Mamba mentality, started very early in life. So here’s a guy who probably could have gone from junior high school to the NBA. But I don’t think they would take any eighth graders back then. But he was certainly ready to go to the NBA at 17, he had just turned 18 when training camps started. And when I met him, I knew there was something special about this kid. Honestly, I saw some stuff in him that I saw in myself at that age. I’m 20 years older than him, but I remember what was driving me at 18 years old. We bonded then, and have had a great bond ever since, and it led to this great collaboration over 20 years of photographing him. Tell us about this new book here, The Mamba Mentality, with yourself, your photographs, Kobe Bryant’s book. Tell us about your involvement in the book and how the book came about. Well, it’s a great question. During Kobe’s final year, after he announced his retirement in November and had sort of the farewell tour the rest of the season, I kept thinking about the thousands and thousands of photos that I’ve taken of him over the years, I mean literally probably have taken half a million pictures if not more of him over a 20-year period, and how the public really has only seen the tip of the iceberg of that, you know, what’s ever been published. And you know, it just seemed a little bit of a shame that that stuff would just sit back in the NBA photos office, probably forever, and that it needed to have some kind of voice or life to it. So I approached Kobe right after he retired about doing a book together, a big coffee table book, big photos, you know, he would write some captions and maybe chapter headings, and he was very respectful of the pitch that I gave him, I made a prototype, closed it and said, you know what Andy? Said, this is very nice, we’re gonna do a book together, but it’s not gonna be this book. We’re gonna do the book I wanna do. And I said, great, what do you got in mind Mr. Mamba? And he wanted to do a book that was a deep dive into what made him tick as a player. You know, like he said, he was mysterious. He kept to himself, he was very enigmatic. You know, he had techniques and ways of training that nobody saw. I was the only one, honestly, besides the trainer or his physiologist or his physical therapist or his doctor, who ever saw what went on behind the scenes with this guy. That goes back to your question earlier, but that was built over a long period of time of trust, and he allowed me to document all that throughout the years. We sat down and we hammered out what the book would look like. The book is literally in two parts. It’s process and craft. Process deals with everything that he had to do to prepare mentally, physically, come back from injury, take care of his body and mind to prepare himself and be ready to play, and then Kraft is everything basketball related. How he breaks down his game, his opponents’ game, how he learned from the greats like playing against Michael Jordan. And what he really wants to get across in this book is you could achieve the Mamba mentality. You don’t have to be another Kobe Bryant, you don’t have to aspire to be him, because there’s really only one him, but you can have the Mamba mentality to take your potential beyond what you even think you’re capable of. He talks about his obsession about the game and how it drove him and how it was really tunnel vision for 20 years. It’s a very insightful, deep dive. A lot of people, not just basketball or sports people, but even people in regular walks of life, business people, can get a lot out of what he has to say. The book is 100% in his words, supported by 100% of my photos. I really encourage our listeners to go out and check out this book, The Mamba Mentality. Andy, I have three final questions for you because I want to tap into your mamba mentality here a little bit. If you’re aware that everybody out there today who has about three grand is calling themselves a professional photographer. Everybody. Everybody. Everybody is saying, oh, I’ve got a camera. I mean, you maybe needed $10,000 for the gear, but you know what I mean? It’s, as the cost of gear has gone down, more and more people say, I’m a photographer. That’s what I do. But you stepped on the scene, you paid your dues, you’re working for Sports Illustrated for next to nothing. You’re developing your techniques. But then something happened where you, like, dialed in to this next level, I call it mastery, and you’re credited with having developed this multiple camera flash wizard system that allows people to photograph the game like never before. How did you develop this system? Well, that’s a loaded question. If we go back to before this system was developed, with these big strobe units that I talked about, you could only really shoot with the camera that you were looking through and possibly trigger one more remote camera. Remote camera is a camera that’s mounted somewhere, usually through the backboard. You know, you’ve seen those images where the camera’s mounted behind the backboard of the basket or on the basket stanchion or you know even up in the rafters looking straight down. So it was really the only option you had was to use either the camera in your hand and you’re looking through or push a trigger button and the remote camera would go off. Reason being that the strobes could only react to one camera. So it’s either the one in your hand or the one that’s mounted, right? Right. So at Sports Illustrated, they developed a technique where they could hardwire, take wire, and if you can imagine how big an arena is, you’re stringing wire from one camera to the next and then to this, what was really honestly called a black box, a switching unit, that all the cameras would come in and then somehow or other, I don’t really know the mumbo-jumbo how it happened, but you at that point could trigger three or four, maybe five remote cameras at a time with the strobe, but it was very time-consuming, difficult to set up, you know, especially on a nightly basis. So we partnered, we meaning NBA, NBA Photos, partnered with a couple of guys, MIT grads, who didn’t know squat about, really about sports or sports photography, but they knew about light, and they knew about radio control, and they developed a system called the Flash Wizard 2 system, with our help, to synchronize by radio control an infinite number of cameras. I mean, we at one point were doing 35, 36 cameras remotely. They were all going off at the same time with one push of a button. What year was this? What year were you doing this? Well, this was during the Jordan era. And this was all born out of wanting to maximize how many sales you could make from a Michael Jordan dunk to different entities, different media. So imagine Michael’s going in for this tremendous dunk, right? And I shoot it with my handheld camera, you know, I’m looking through, and then there’s seven or eight remote cameras that are shooting it from different angles, right? So all of those cameras are recording the same moment, but they’re not recording the same picture, right? Each one is its own individual photograph, because it’s from a different angle. So therefore you can sell the same moment in time to different entities, even competing entities. Two different poster companies could run a poster or a trading card of that moment of Michael’s dunk, but from different angles. So it became, you know, a business decision almost. Like how can we maximize how many sales we can make from photos like that? And it took a couple years of agonizing R&D, honestly, to get it right. And keep in mind this is back in the film days, where cameras were not particularly dependable in terms of being able to all synchronize together. Now in the digital era, basically out of the box, these cameras work perfectly. And that’s my way of doing business every single game. We do seven remote cameras. I have three or four cameras in front of me that I use, but I’m able to trigger through this technology seven or eight remote cameras. You know, I only have one grievance there about your technology, Andy. I think you probably missed the boat. You could have called it the flux capacitor don’t you think? The flux capacitor? Yeah that would have been cool. I think it’s a great thing the flash wizard too because people don’t really have any idea what that means. But people see these units they’re like little keypads that sit next to the cameras where they’re located but also in a small cluster on the basket. And people are always asking me, like, what are those calculators? What are those, like, they’re not calculators. They’re actually Flash Wizard, like, trans-fever units that we use. Maybe that should be your rap name, the Flash Wizard 2. That would be cool. That would be your rap name, okay. You’re awesome. All right, now, the Dream Team, 1992. Couldn’t have been bigger you know Carl Malone John Stockton Clyde the glide Drexler Charles Barkley was Christian later on that team to Michael Jordan Larry Bird there’s so many big guys on the team Magic Johnson and then they say you Andy we want you to be the official photographer after you wet your pants, what was going through your mind? Well, in retrospect, I would have liked to have retired after that assignment because no assignment ever came close to that the rest of my career. It was seven weeks embedded with the team. I was honored and humbled that they had asked me to be their official photographer. At that point, the NBA was working hand-in-hand with USA Basketball and with FIBA, which is the world governing body. And myself and my cohort, Nat Butler, he shared that with me, the entire experience. But I was kind of the first guy in, you know, and was able to record some unbelievable moments with truly the greatest team, I think, of any sport ever assembled. Not just basketball, but I would beg anyone to try to find an all-star team or an Olympic team that matched the 92 men’s dream team, because I don’t think it’s possible. Were you photographing the practice, the scrimmage that wasn’t televised? The game that Chuck Daley described as the greatest game ever televised. Were you there in that practice? I wasn’t at that practice. That’s a very specific practice that I was not at. I was at most of the other practices, and they were intense. Keep in mind that these guys didn’t have much competition in the 1992 Olympics, and they were beating teams by 40 or 50 points. So to keep their edge and to keep their juices flowing, Coach Daley decided he’s going to have some pretty intense practices, and he did. It started in San Diego, a training camp, and extended through Portland, the Tournament of the Americas, and into Monte Carlo. And these guys took it very, very seriously. Their reputations and egos were on the line, I think. And to this day, I’m very thankful that I was privy to watching some of this amazing competition. I mean, all those guys you talked about, but of course, you had the great centers, too. You had David Robbins, Patrick Ewing. I mean, these guys were the top of the top. So, and then being around Coach Daly was just an incredible experience. He was the master tactician. He knew how to deal with these guys’ egos, but also how to mesh them together. And it was just a great experience. I had the good fortune of taking my dad to a lot of this, and it was a real bonding experience for my dad and I that started back when I was a kid. He would take me to hockey games and baseball games. So it was a nice sort of payback to him. And it remained a great moment between us for the rest of the time that he was alive. I’m really glad that you mentioned your dad and David Robinson. Today David Robinson. Those were the two I could cheer for. Those were the quote-unquote good guys. I got a chance to cheer for those guys, so it was kind of a lifetime goal of mine to be able to work with David in some capacity, although he’s much older than me. The guy is nicer in person than I thought he would be, and I already thought he was going to be nice. Well, he’s an amazing person altogether. Of course, he has that military pedigree, so he’s very polite, very professional. But he’s also a good guy. I’ve been with him a lot over the years, but I was with him last summer in Israel when we were over there with the NBA on a tour with the owners. Everyone obviously recognizes him still, and he’s very gracious with everybody and i’m glad you mentioned podcast because he’s gonna be a guest on my podcast coming up somewhat soon, i guess early january well tell him hello from clay clark when you talk to him there of course, absolutely my final question for you is the nba has a lot of photographers but my understanding is that you are like the official head photographer guru guy for the NBA. What’s the official title? Is it still head wizard to guru guy? What’s your official title there? Yeah, head wizard, yes. That’s what I am. Well, for a long time, I was pretty much the, I was the first official NBA photographer and that was the, that came about in 1986, and I continued to be, like, working my way up there, became the senior official photographer and all. Now I’m considered the longest-tenured official NBA photographer, because we have other official NBA photographers. Like I said, my good friend, Nat Butler in New York, has been doing it almost as long as me. There’s a photographer named Jesse Garbrandt down in Philadelphia, who was our third guy in. And then all the team photographers throughout the league, all 30 teams, report to NBA Photos as the team photographer for the team that they represent. But I guess I’ve been around the longest, so I get to have that title. Nice. Well, I don’t know if it’s fish oil, or if it’s the camera angles or the lighting. But you’re still looking like you’re 27, probably 27, tops. Well, you’re probably looking at an old picture, Clay. Hey, Andrew, that wasn’t nice. Why are you giving me an old photo? Andrew here, he’s taking show notes, feeding me old photos. Andrew, come on now. He just said he made it black and white to make it look cool. OK. All right. Yeah, well, if you’re seeing me with hair and a mustache, you’re looking at an old picture, buddy. By the way, that was a thick mustache right there. That was a thick mustache. That was a serious 80s mustache going, that’s for sure. You were sold out to the air and I appreciate that. And Andy, I appreciate you for taking time to be on the show. I’m really proud to be on with you. You had great questions, by the way. Hope you don’t take that for granted because you’re a great interviewer. And I hope everyone can check out the book, Mamba Mentality, How I Play by Kobe Bryant, photos by me. And follow me on Instagram at adbphotoinc, as well as my podcast, if you don’t mind a little plug. Yeah, no, do it. It’s called Legends of Sport as well. So, you know, tune in, check us out. I have a blog, legendsofsport.blog, where we’re posting daily what’s going on in sports history and what’s going on with the guests on our podcast every week. So it’s an interactive blog that people can comment on. And, you know, I really appreciate being on. Hey, will you take care of my friend and don’t go changing. I’ll try my best. All right, take care. Been working so hard for all these years. Take care Clay, happy holidays. You too. Thrive Nation, it would be rude to end this show without bringing a super incredible NBA standard high-quality professional boom. And so now with any further ado, three, two, one, boom! I just wanted to take a second and share with you the positive experience that I have had. Took over our marketing account a little over a month ago and has worked on increasing our presence on Google. It has been overwhelming, the response that we have had. They have been amazing in getting our presence on Google out there. And not only that, but Robert has also been great at helping us with just little minor things just to keep our business going and to really add a little extra flair to it. So I just want to say has been just absolutely amazing for our company. My name is Robert Redmond. I actually first met Clay almost three years ago to the day. I mean, I would like to say it was everything about business in terms of the different categories. I haven’t learned it all, but I’ve learned all about marketing. I’ve learned about advertising. I’ve learned about branding. I’ve learned how to create a sales process for organizations in any industry. I’ve learned how to sell. I’ve learned how to create repeatable systems and processes and hold people accountable. You know, how to hire people. It’s almost like every aspect of a business you can learn. I have learned a lot in those different categories. And then, again, the mindset that I’ve gained here has been huge. You know, working here, you can’t be a mediocre person. You are a call to a higher standard of excellence, and then as you’re called to that standard here, you begin to see those outcomes in every area of your life, that standard of excellence that you want to implement, no matter what you’re involved in. I would like to describe the other people that work with Clay are people that are going somewhere with their life. Marshall in the group interview talks about how, you know, the best fits for this organization are the people that are goal-oriented. So they’re on their own trajectory and we’re on our own trajectory. And the best fits are those people where there can be a mutually beneficial relationship that as we pursue our goals and we help the business pursue those goals the business helps us pursue our goals as well. And so I say people that are driven, people that want to make something of their lives, people that are goal-oriented, they’re focused, and they’re committed to overcoming any adversity that may come their way. Clay’s passion for helping business owners grow their businesses is, it’s unique in that, I don’t know if there’s anyone else that can be as passionate. You know, whenever a business starts working with Clay, it’s almost as like Clay is running that business in the sense that he has something at stake. You know, he’s just serving them. They’re one of his clients, but it’s as if he is actively involved in the business. Whenever they have a win, he’s posting it all over his social media. He’s shouting it across the room here at Thrive. You know, he’s sending people encouraging messages. He can kind of be that life coach and business coach in terms of being that motivator and that champion for people’s businesses. It’s again unique because there’s no one else I’ve seen get so excited about and passionate about other people’s businesses. The kind of people that wouldn’t like working with Clay are people that are satisfied with that want to get through life by just doing enough, by just getting by. People who are not looking to develop themselves, people who are not coachable, people who think that they know it all and they’re unwilling to change. I would say those are the type of people, and in short, anyone that’s content with mediocrity would not like working with Clay. So if you’re meeting Clay for the first time, the advice I’d give you is definitely come ready to take tons of notes. Every time Clay speaks, he gives you a wealth of knowledge that you don’t want to miss. I remember the first time that I met Clay, I literally carried a notebook with me all around. I was looking at this notebook the other day, actually. I carried a notebook with me all around, and I just took tons of notes. I filled the entire notebook in about three or four months just from being around Clay, following him and learning from him. And then I would say come coachable. Be open to learning something new. Be open to challenging yourself. Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted. I think Clay loves his turkey, chickens, and cats. First of all, because Clay actually spent some time on a farm, I believe in Minnesota. He talks about how his uncle, who’s been somewhat of a mentorship figure to him, spent time on a farm with him. And I remember a story that he tells where he says that he didn’t wake up on time. And his uncle was telling him, hey, if you don’t wake up on time, you’re not going to eat. And he didn’t wake up on time, and he didn’t eat. And there was another time where he didn’t try hard at a basketball game. And his uncle said, hey, since you’re not trying hard, you’re going to walk home. And he literally walked home. So he had that farm experience, but I think on a deeper layer, turkeys and chickens and cats, they’re not too dramatic. And I know that Clay does not like dealing with gossip, with drama, with negative emotions. And then those animals kind of have an aspect of purity to them and I believe that deep down that Clay loves anything that is wholesome, good and pure. review and send us confirmation at info at Thrivetimeshow.com to claim your tickets. Want to live in a van down by the river? Come by and see us in our Riverwalk offices and we’ll be able to make your dreams come true. Alright Thrive Nation, welcome back to the conversation. It is the Thrivetime Show on your radio and podcast download. Now each and every show that we do is committed to helping you learn what you need to know to create both time freedom and financial freedom. The freedom to do what you want to do with both your time and your money. And one of the areas that I get probably the most pushback from from early clients and then the thing that they thank me the most about is they don’t want to commit to a sustainable three-legged marketing stool. So I’m going to go ahead and praise a client right now that’s really, really doing a great job with their business, but I want to talk to you about how the business looked before he committed to this idea. So if you’re listening right now, I want you to go ahead and do a Google search for Score Basketball and then, Shep, I want to put this at the very, very top of the show notes there. I want to put the example of scorebball.com so that way people can see a business that’s implementing this system real time. Scorebball.com. So, what’s his three-legged marketing stool? I’m going to tell you his three-legged marketing stool right now and Chep’s going to go ahead and put them on the show notes, okay? One is he has ongoing search engine optimization, which means that he has a steady regimen of content that he creates every single week that as long as he does that he’ll never be anything but top in Google. He’ll always be top in Google when you type in Tulsa basketball lessons or Tulsa basketball camps. He’ll always be top in Google because, Chup, he’s committed to consistently doing the same thing every single week. Every single week! Now this is a game. We’re talking about a three-legged marketing stool. What does that mean? A three-legged marketing stool, a stool, is sturdy when it has multiple legs, right? So you have one leg, another leg, another leg. I like my stools with one leg. That’s what makes the stool stable. Now if you sat down and one of those legs wasn’t stable and it collapsed, that’s not a stable stool. Now, don’t overthink this, but a lot of business owners just have one aspect of marketing that their whole business is dependent upon. You have one vendor right now who gives you all of your business. One client that gives you all of the business you need. That’s the one source. One source of leads that you and you maybe are the only person that can close those leads. Right. So you want to have not one, but you have multiple sources. Now, Chuck, his ongoing search engine optimization requires that he produces content every week. Why is that so profound that he’s committed to doing that? For the past six years I’ve worked with the guy, why is that so profound that he does it every week? Well, society might say that doing that is crazy, but guess what? Since he’s done it, he’s literally top, or at least top of the map for every single search term that relates to Tulsa and basketball and all of the surrounding areas. So yes, he did the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over for six years and it paid off, big time. Now move number two, leg number two. He gathers Google reviews from happy clients. Now if you Google score basketball Tulsa, he’s got a couple different locations there. How many reviews does Coach Calvert and Score Basketball have today? If you’re listening out there and you want to teach your kids how to become better at the game of basketball and help them play at a college or maybe professional level, I would encourage you to go to scorebball.com if you’re in the Tulsa area and you can schedule your your first lesson. I believe your first lesson is free. Oh, how many reviews does he have today? He’s got 124 reviews. 124 reviews. So again, you just commit to get every, now Chuck, why do you want to commit to gathering reviews from real customers every week? I mean, why would you want to do it every week? Well, getting to the top of Google is a process and we’ve talked about it on many, many shows, but the quick summation of this is that getting Google reviews is the most powerful and fast tool you can do as a business owner yourself to get you to the top of that first page of Google because the map listing is at the top of the first page. So again, he like number one ongoing search engine optimization like number two Google reviews. Chumper, are you ready for the third one? I’m so ready. It’s consistent online advertising and I’m going to put the sub points under that okay so consistent online advertising and that consists of YouTube ads. They’re ads that pre-roll on YouTube. So if you go to watch like a TD Jake’s video or a Cat video or a LeBron James highlight or anything, the videos pull up and they begin to play before you watch the video and our coders will set that up for you. It’s cool because, right, tell me if I’m wrong here, but somebody might be searching in your geographical area, correct way to shoot a free throw. Right. And then your score basketball camp ad would pop up in front of that and you go oh my gosh. And here’s what happens, anybody who’s ever searched for basketball camps or basketball lessons in Google is shown those ads on YouTube as a result of their geography, where they’re living. So the second move we do is retargeting ads. Now those are ads that follow people around the internet to virtually every website. So you might go to Tulsa World or you might go to CNN or you might go to Fox News or you might go to Brainy Quotes or any website and the ads will follow you around because of the retargeting pixel. Now, Chup, he also does Facebook ads. Now, we commit to a regimen of about $600 a week between all three of those right and jump Do you know why we don’t spend more on advertising than 600 a week for score basketball because you know on the show Yeah, we preach that you should spend about 10% of your gross revenue on advertising if you’re in aggressive growth mode and 5% if you’re just trying to maintain why do we not even spend 5% of the gross revenue for coach Calvert on advertising? I’m going to guess, educated guess here, that he’s pushing close to capacity or he can’t handle more clients at this moment. And the business exists to serve him. And if he wanted to open up another location, if he did open up another location, if he went through the effort of leasing another space, building out another space, finding another space, doing the things needed to grow another location, then it would make sense. But if you’re turning down people because you’re perpetually booked out. I mean he has basketball camps where they are just so full then you wouldn’t make any sense to keep advertising. Now Ben Horowitz, can you read us this notable quotable from Ben Horowitz? This is the guy who built Opsware. It was a company he built and he sold the Hewlett-Packard for 1.6 billion dollars of cash. He’s also the co-founder of Andreesen Horowitz, the venture capital firm. So he says, you can’t succeed by making something just a little better. People are fundamentally lazy, and they’re not going to adopt something unless it’s at least 10 times better than what they already have. The incumbents are happy to make lots of money offering customers something that they’re familiar with, and to win, you have to build a breakthrough, a no-brainer, major enough to cannibalize the business. So you have to, again, Coach Calvert had to create an experience that was significantly better than the competition. And Braggin, he did it. When I very first started working with you, I was shooting video three years ago, and I used to go out there and shoot video at his camp, and I grew up playing sports, and I’m looking at this thing, 200 kids out here at one camp, and I’m like, this is awesome. Now again, he’s competing against the University of Tulsa basketball camp, the Oral Roberts University basketball camp, the Nike camp, the Oklahoma City Thunder camp. Russell, yeah, Westbrook. And now he’s the biggest camp in Oklahoma. Awesome. Now, Reid Hoffman, Chuck, Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn and one of the early founders of the PayPal company, he says, what? The only way to really scale is by taking bets that might reduce your opportunity. This is especially true of your branding and marketing. People have a tendency to say, I want to define my product as the best in the marketplace. You have to eschew, who eschew, eschew, eschew, eschew, you have to eschew that kind of vagueness viciously. Of course, when you say, this is who I am, some customers will respond, nope, not interested. But if you don’t make those sorts of bold statements, you can never really learn whether people want what you are having a business like Coach Calvert does in any industry, and you’re afraid to make it significantly different than anybody else, you’re going to lose. You can’t be a chameleon. And so this is what we worked on with Coach Calvert. And this is a big thing, this is a breakthrough, this is a one-time event that your coach can help you do. But at Score B-Ball, what we did is, I told Coach, we’ve got to come up with something that makes us different than everybody else What are we gonna do and we agreed on doing this move for first-time visitors? It was the one where you can teach anybody to dunk within 10 minutes not that one, okay? But if you’re a first-time visitor, it’s oh, it’s free So if you want to attend score basketball, and you’re a first-time visitor. It’s free. It’s huge again You get to try it before you buy it’s one free group lesson, and we had to come up with that. Also he’s a Christian business owner, and so I did not encourage him to do that, but he did it himself. He wanted to put Bible verses and positive verses all around his gym because he said he wanted to mentor kids about the game of life and not just business. Now once you’ve got your differentiator there, and you’ve talked to your business coach and you’ve developed what you think is your purple cow or your unique offering, your thing that makes you different. Now what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to go out there and launch that three-legged stool. Now, Chuck, Seth Godin, the marketing expert, the New York Times best-selling author, the founder of Yo-Yo Dime, which was sold to Yahoo for $30 million, says what? He says that marketing is a contest for people’s attention. And I love the brevity of this quote. Because once you understand this, I was talking about trade show earlier in the show, I’ve got a few clients that are doing trade shows right now and what I keep telling them is this exact quote, marketing is a competition for people’s attention. You’re at a trade show, you have got to stand out. You’ve got to be that person that people are like, whoa, I’m going to go check that out. You know, and a lot of people want to fight that idea, they want to fight the idea that marketing is getting people’s attention. So they’re conservative with the advertising, they’re conservative with the marketing, and so they don’t launch a three-legged marketing stool. But then Jeff Hoffman, the former CEO of Priceline, would say, what, Chuck? Without sales, you have no business. Could you repeat that one more time? I’m sorry, I was distracted. As you were saying that, I was trying to come up with a new idea and avoid marketing. Could you do that again? Without sales, you have no business. Could you repeat that again? Why you were talking about that, what I was doing was talking about a new idea and I wanted to talk about making the font 2% smaller on my website. I wanted to make my font 2% smaller on the website. Could you say that again? I’m sorry. Without sales, you have no business. I’m sorry, I wasn’t able to hear that. There is no business without sales. You were saying that I wasn’t… Business equals sales. I’m sorry. Sales equals business. Well, you were just saying… Money. Money. While you were just saying that, I was talking about a new product idea I had. You have to sell something. You’ve got to sell something. Come up with that new product, but sell stuff first. Be fruitful, then multiply. The goal is to build a time freedom and financial freedom creating business, not a job that is 100% dependent upon you and 100% non-delegatable. Thus, we must focus on creating turnkey marketing systems that have the ability to generate you leads for your business without you personally having to go out there and generate the new business. Many self-employed people fall into the trap of being the only person within your organization who can generate leads, sales, and essentially life-giving income to the business. You want to develop a three-legged marketing stool that is not dependent upon just one marketing system, and so that you can consistently generate leads regardless of whether you’re on vacation or not. You got to build. If you want to build a successful business, you’ve got to work on it and you have to build a marketing system that generates a lead that’s not dependent upon you and your personal efforts. So it’s really cool if you’ve been able to generate leads for years as a result of networking, but it’s really not cool if that’s all you can do moving forward because you want to build a system that’s not dependent upon your personal efforts. When we come back, we’re going to talk about the difference between turnkey lead generation and personal effort-related lead generation. Stay tuned. It’s the Thrive Time Show on your radio. If you’re here to thrive, this mess you will find. Today is your day, and now is your time. This moment is profound, because you’re a perfect friend. You’re a perfect friend. You’re a perfect friend. You’re a perfect friend. And now is your time. This moment is profound, cause you’re a perfect clown. Your road might have been rough, but what you got now is now. We’re here. Attend the world’s best business workshop, led by America’s number one business coach for free. By subscribing on iTunes, and leaving us an objective review. claim your tickets by emailing us proof that you did it and your contact information to info at ThriveTimeShow.com Alright Thrive Nation, we’re talking about building time freedom as a result of creating a repeatable process for generating leads to grow your business. Now when your business is profitable and you’re confident that it’s going to survive then it is time to build your business’s four core systems. Says Jeff Hoffman, the former CEO of Priceline. So let me walk you through the systems that he believes that you should build, that I believe you should build, that we believe you should build. So again, marketing. That is a competition for what, Chuck? Marketing is just a competition for people’s attention. That’s Seth Godin talking to you. This is the best-selling author of The Purple Cow, the guy who sold his company Yo-Yo Dine to Yahoo, a marketing guru. He says, marketing is just a contest for people’s attention. You’ve got to understand, don’t overthink it. That’s all you’re doing. It’s that simple. You just got to get them to notice you. You might say, well, okay, so how do I do that? Step one, you get your branding. Make sure your branding looks good. Make sure your website looks good, your print pieces look good, your videos look good, your marketing. Make sure that looks good. Now, once that does look good, now it’s time to choose three marketing legs. Now you say, why a three-legged stool? Well, because it’s more sturdy, right? If you’re dependent upon just one form of marketing, you could lose all of your leads at just a… One person’s decision could cause you to go out of business. And so here are the strategies that I would recommend that you would discuss with your business coach because they work very, very well. Search engine optimization. Now search engine optimization is what I would call a long-term strategy. It’s not a mid-term. It’s not a short-term. It’s going to take you a long time to get to the top of Google because Google indexes and ranks websites. It determines who should be on page one based upon those four variables that we discuss so often here on the radio show. But the four being your mobile compliance, it has to look good on a mobile device. That’s a one-time event. We’ve written a format and a layout that has been proven to rank high in Google search results. So if you Google Tulsa cookies, you’ll see Barbie cookies. If you Google Tulsa mortgages, you’ll see total lending concepts and Steve Carrington. If you Google search Tulsa men’s haircuts, you’ll see elephant in the room. If you Google search broken arrow men’s haircuts, you’ll see elephant in the room. If you Google search, again, Tulsa cookies, you’d see Barbie cookies. Oklahoma City auto repair, Shepard Automotive. You’re going to see it as a system. But again, how you get to the top in Google is whoever has the most content, which should write a lot of content to whoever has the most reviews, three, whoever has the most mobile compliance and whoever has the most the most canonical compliance. So it takes a long time to get those reviews and it takes a long time to write the content. So that’s a longer term play. The second leg that you may consider based upon your industry, every industry is different, but you might want to look at doing mailers. Mailers, no one responds to mailers. You’re right. 97% of people do not respond to mailers, but 3% of people do. So what you want to do is if you know all ideal and likely buyers live in that mile, that one mile radius. They all live in that part of town. You see, all of that area. You see, if I’m like a car dealership and I sell luxury cars and all of the people who can afford to buy my cars live within that five to ten mile area of town. It’s a numbers game, right? I’m going to just mail and mail and mail and mail and mail that area until you can use this is powerful is I would create a dream 100 campaign now a dream 100 campaign is where you would make sure that you physically go where your top 100 you’d go to the top 100 locations that are visited most often from those ideal and likely buyers So if you’re selling luxury cars, most of the people who live in those nice neighborhoods probably go to Whole Foods right they probably go to Starbucks and so you’d make a consistent marketing effort to make sure that your Branding and marketing is like you might put up signs on the road right by The Starbucks if you can you might do mailers right to the neighborhood right there You might want to team up with the local yoga business and make sure that you’re sponsoring The store you might you want to have a and your coach can help you develop a dream 100 strategy. But Chet Holmes, the bestselling author of the ultimate sales machine, writes about 3% of potential buyers at any given time are buying now. 7% of the population is open to the idea of buying the remaining 90% fall into one of the, one of each of these three categories. The top third are not thinking about it. The next third are, they think they’re not interested. And the final third are definitely not interested. Chuck, why do you have to be consistent with your marketing? Why can’t you just market for like a month to get that 3% and then be done? Because you’ve got to be top of mind and you’re not going to be top of mind in a month. It’s not going to happen. I think on average, it’s an ad week that says 4.7 times that somebody has to interact with your brand before they make a buying decision. Yeah, check this out. If you read a book called Retargeting Playbook, you’ll find that the average person has to encounter a brand or product that actually solves their problems. You can’t convince people. You couldn’t convince me to ever sign up for yoga. No matter what you did, no matter what your pitch was, no matter how motivated you were, I would never under any circumstance sign up for yoga. I would also never under any circumstance at all be interested at all, unless my wife somehow convinces me to do it. I never want to leave the continental United States ever again. I hate leaving the United States. I’ve been to Roatan, I’ve been to Honduras, I’ve gone on cruises where we’ve gone to, you know, you go out there to Jamaica, to Belize, to Brazil, to Mexico, to Canada. I’ve been to these places and under no circumstance, no matter what kind of mailer you send to my family, I do not, under any circumstance, want to leave the United States, the continent of the United States. I don’t want to go to Hawaii. I don’t want to go with you to the Philippines. I want to just stay on land, Chuck. I’m going to make it a personal goal of mine to get you to do yoga on a beach outside the United States. It’s gonna happen. I did hot yoga for 30 seconds with my wife. Quit? You’re like, no. Yeah, I went in there and this is how the lady was talking. She says, I want everyone to do the Vinyasa. And I said to Vanessa, I go, why is she whispering? And everyone’s like, why did she mispronounce your name, Vanessa? Everyone’s like, shh. The whole thing was weird. But you wanna work with your coach on designing your three-legged marketing school that could be launching YouTube ads that could be retargeting ads that can be a daunting Google AdWords that could be launching Facebook ads we have an entire section of the boom book which is kind of our business coach curriculum devoted to helping you as the entrepreneur learn what systems what systems are out there and what systems are the best for you. But then once you figure out with your coach what you believe to be the lowest hanging fruit, the top three legs of your marketing stool, you’ve got to launch those ads, launch those marketing efforts, and you’ve got to be consistent for 90 days while tracking the results. I was just about to say that. You must track the results. That’s the reason you don’t want to launch with 80 different marketing legs. Well, I’m going to have you put this on the show notes as action items for all the listeners. We need to make sure we launch our ads for at least 90 days and that we track the results on a weekly basis. You’ve got to track those results on a weekly basis or you won’t know what’s working and what’s not working. It’s so important that you track every single inbound lead and you say, hey, how did you first hear about us? Where did you come from? When we come back, we’re going to talk about the execution of systems. That absolutely cannot be done without creating daily checklists for everything. Stay tuned to the Thrive Time Show on your radio. Broadcasting live from the center of the universe, it’s Business School without the BS. Featuring optometrist turned entrepreneur, Dr. Robert Selner with USSBA Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark. It is the five time show, let your boom begin Where we drop knowledge bombs for you in Portland Teach the proven systems to make your ends So you can produce the greenery like all the Oregon Sue will call you fragrant cause you got Benjamins Will call you pimp girl cause you just bought organs And then you’ll be bragging to your wife and kids That your wallet’s overweight but it used to be thin Thumbs away, this is Clay, broadcasting with the zen, with the focus locked in like San Quentin. Can I get a B to the O, O to the M? You’ve heard the rumors, he is I and I is him. He be the Z and I be the C. Now it’s teaching business skills from plate to Z. We both grew up poor, but we’re poor no more. The goal of this show is to help you score. Welcome back to another edition of the Thrive Time Show on your radio. Now, now, Chup, Chup, you ever stayed up all night before? You remember in high school, maybe in college, and the goal was to pull an all-nighter? Maybe the first time you and a bunch of young third-graders got together and you said, the goal tonight is to stay up all night. Of course. Have you done that before? Yeah, of course. When was the last time you did that? When was the last time you remember pulling an all-nighter with some buddies? It could be third grade, eighth grade, high school, college. Where you said, no matter what, our goal is to pull an all-nighter. If that was our goal, that would have been like middle school. Had to have been like middle school or something. Okay. Yeah. Well, this is what happens. When you pull an all-nighter, what happens is about about 5 a.m., you start to say things to people that you wouldn’t say during normal hours. You make regrettable comments. People will go, hey, I just want you to know, guys, guys, I like Ashley. You’re like, oh my gosh, you like my sister? You like my sister? You want to date my sister, you sick freak. What is wrong with you? That’s my sister. Come on, man. No, no, I’m just kidding. I’m just testing the waters. No, but you weren’t kidding though, bro. And it gets weird. Right. So, today’s show we’re going to talk about how to make your marketing dramatically more effective but we’re going to do it with a perspective as though we’ve been pulling an all-nighter. Okay. And I no longer have a filter. Like I can say what I want to say. Does that sound fair? We have the beauty of editing. Right. So it’s going to feel like, I’m just saying, it’s going to feel like I’ve been up all night and it’s a 5 a.m. kind of deal. So here we go. We’re going to open up Seth Godin’s book, The Purple Cow. It’s weird, it’s an all-nighter thing and then at 5 a.m. somebody busts out Seth Godin’s Purple Cow. He turns the pages. That’s how you know it was a fun all-nighter, too. Hey guys, now that we’ve pulled an all-nighter, we’ve eaten all the Mountain Dew we have and eaten all the Twizzlers and Funyuns, why don’t we read our marketing book? Let’s open the Purple Cow. All right, so here we go. This is the Notable Quotable. It reads, if you can show up in a parody, it means you’ve got something unique, something worth poking fun at. It means that a Purple Cow is at work. The paradox is this. Before we get into this referencing Purple Cow, can you explain to the listeners what a Purple Cow is as it relates to marketing. Yeah, a Purple Cow is something that differentiates your business from all of the other businesses in your sector. So it’s something that people will remember you by, basically. Something outside of the norm that people are definitely going to remember you by. So what I’m going to do is, I’ll give you an example. One of the brands I work with is called Oxifresh. O-X-I fresh. And by the way, if you want to buy a franchise to Oxifresh, email me to info at thrive timeshow.com and for under 45 grand you can be basically buying a business that will pay you over a hundred thousand dollars a year if you do it properly. It’s an incredible incredible business model. Many of the Oxifresh owners do far better than that, but you definitely if you are interested in buying one just email me to info at thrive timeshow.com but Oxifresh is the world’s greenest carpet cleaner. So, when you think about Stanley Steamer, when you think about other carpet cleaning companies, there’s one company that stands alone as the world’s greenest carpet cleaner. Chup, do you care at all, honestly, as a dude, do you care at all whether your carpet cleaning company is green or not? Actually, I kinda do, but really as a dude, I don’t care about a carpet cleaning company. You do care? Yeah, I like that fact that they’re the world’s greenest carpet cleaning company. I think that’s pretty cool. I mean, would that be a deciding factor for you? Well, that’s what I’m saying. Yeah, I would say yes, actually. I would say yes. Okay, well let me just, I’m gonna give you the listeners example. We’ll put this on the show notes. So, Chep, you’ll have to go to Oxifresh.com and click on green and you’ll find it there. But Oxifresh now is EPA certified, which means that the Environmental Protection Agency actually has certified our level of greenery, our level of efficiency, and we are basically reducing the amount of water used when cleaning carpet dramatically. So it’s, I mean typically when you have someone clean your carpet, it’s like it’s kind of soggy for a few days, you know, it’s soggy for a day and if you don’t walk on it, it’s kind of wet and that kind of thing. Oxifresh, the carpets are cleaned, but it’s very dry. And that’s because with the technology that they have created, the use of technology, they use the power of oxygen to clean. It’s kind of crazy, but the point is, it’s more green. Also when you schedule online, we actually will donate to a cause called Water.org. Now Water.org is an organization where Matt Damon is the spokesperson, but a lot of countries people don’t have access to clean and safe drinking water. And so Oxifresh donates a percentage of all their sales back to Water.org. And so Oxifresh stands alone as the world’s greenest carpet cleaner. But that’s what makes them unique. Right, and if a potential buyer or consumer is battling in their mind, who am I going to pick, Oxi Fresh or Stanley Seamers or whoever, that could very well be the deciding factor. Right. Another purple cow would be Tom’s shoes. If you’re looking to buy shoes, a lot of people are looking to buy some shoes to wear with some jeans or just some shoes to wear with some shorts and shoes to wear around. And you’re going, okay, if I buy this pair of shoes, it’s this many dollars. If I buy this pair of shoes, if I buy these shoes, I’m supporting an athlete. Bottom line, there’s an athlete endorsing these shoes, and if I buy these shoes, that athlete will probably make a commission check, or I’m paying for his endorsement. With Tom’s shoes, every time I buy a pair of shoes, they give a pair of shoes away to someone in need. And I’m asking you, Mr. Listener, Mrs. Listener, with your business, what is your purple cow? What makes you stand out in a world of so many remodelers, in a room of so many photographers, what makes your company stand alone? And I read again from page 87 of the Purple Cow. If you can show up at a parody, it means you’ve got something unique, something worth poking fun at. It means that there’s a Purple Cow at work. The paradox is this. The same word of mouth that can make your product a huge hit can also lead to someone’s snickering at you. Most companies are so afraid of offending or appearing ridiculous that they steer away from any path that might lead them to this result. They make boring products because they don’t want to be interesting. When a committee gets involved, each well-meaning participant sands off the rough edges, speaking up for how their constituency might not like the product. The result is something boring and safe. And so here’s where it gets kind of weird. Here’s where it gets weird. If you’re out there and you have a company and you’re not selling anything, I’m telling you, you have to come up with a purple cow. You have to come up with a purple cow. If your church does not have enough people attending the church service, you’ve got to stand out. So I’m giving you a specific example. I thought about this. Here we go. Let’s say you have a church and nobody is attending your church. Chuck, you know what we’re going to do? If I was the head of your church and nobody had an idea, if everybody on our team said, I don’t have an idea, I really don’t know what to do, Pastor Clark, what would you do? This is what I would do, Chuck. Are you ready? Shoot. Let’s hear it. I would paint the church with purple cow print. I would literally call it the Purple Cow Church. I would. That would work. That’s the whole point, right? And there’s actually a burger joint. Have you seen the Purple Cow Burger Joint in Texas? Let’s put that on the show notes. It’s Purple Cow Burgers, and that’s in Dallas, Texas. And I guarantee you, that’s what happened. You had somebody who was… I’ve got to pull up on the big screen here. It’s purplecowlr.com. I guarantee you this guy’s like, I don’t know how to stand out. I’m not sure how to do it. I’m not sure what would make our company stand out. So it’s actually a burger place called PurpleCowLR.com and it stands out. People know about it. If you have to come up with something to stand out, and again I read from Seth Godin’s book, Purple Cow from page 94. He says, the lesson here is simple. The more intransigent, the more, was it the more intransigent? Intransigent. Right, intransigent. I’m going to look that up real quick. Intransigent. Intransigent. Intransigent. He says, the more intransigent, what intransigent? Intransigent. You know, I don’t say that a lot. I don’t say that. I usually don’t say, hey, Chuck, that’s more intransigent. Intransigent means, it’s I-N-T-R-A-N-S-I-G-E-N-T, unwilling or refusing to change one’s views or to agree about something. Chef. That makes sense. Intransigent. That makes sense. Have you ever said that before? I think so. You have not. I probably said it wrong, though. Whatever. You’ve never, I mean, hey, guys. I woke up and said it 10 times. Listen here, listen here, Gordy. The more intransigent you are, the more crowded the marketplace, the busier your customers, the more you need the purple cow, half measures will fail. Overhauling the product with dramatic improvements in the things the right customers care about, on the other hand, can have a huge profit. My friend, he talks in this book, he says you have to have the otaku. Otaku. Otaku. Put that on the show notes. A-T-A-C-U. Otaku. He says, that word actually means, I guess in Japanese it means the obsession and the inspired. You have to have this obsession and inspiration to make your purple cow stand out. And I just think, I think so many people are afraid to do this. I mean, when I ran Epic Photography, I just said, guys, listen, we’re going to guarantee that we can get our wedding photos back to the bride and the groom within two weeks. Everyone thought I was crazy. And what was the biggest winning factor of that business? That was it. That was why everybody knew. We had the awards, we had the talented photographer, we had everything, but everybody knew about that two-week turnaround. Right. Every wedding photographer takes like four months, six months. It’s crazy. Chuck, did it take forever to get your wedding photos back to you, whoever you guys used? Yeah, actually it wasn’t that long. We used a friend of ours, but it still took months. Months, yeah. People like taking months to get your photos back to you. It’s ridiculous. And so, I just said, listen, we’re going to get it back to the customer in two weeks. And everyone thought I was crazy, but it worked. Also, I said, I’ll beat any photographer’s price by 30%. When you go in saying, hey, we’re 30% less money, and by the way, this is when I owned epic photos comm so I’m not sure that how they’ve changed it today Whenever I sell a company, I just have to move on mentally. I no longer know what’s going on there I don’t care what’s going on there. It’s kind of like selling a kid you feel kind of bad But you have to move on but all I could say is that we would do a two-week turnaround time and we’d be anybody Anybody’s price by 30% That was our purple cow and I ask you again. Mr. Listener. Mrs. Listener, what is your purple cow? Now this is the problem with your purple cow. A lot of people come up with something that’s really unique, but then nobody wants it. And so Seth Godin talks about this on page 106 of the Purple Cow. He says, you need to figure out who’s buying and then solve their problem. Chuck, you need to figure out who’s buying and then solve their problem. So let’s talk about men’s hair for a second. Okay, let’s do it. Elephant in the Room. Elephant in the Room is a company that I own, and I’ll just tell you this, a lot of guys are frustrated that when they go in for a haircut, all they get is a chance to read old magazines. They get no ambiance, no atmosphere. They have a chain smoker that’s cutting their hair, and they have to wait while sitting on those third grade, those blue kindergarten chairs, those plastic chairs. They have to sit there and wait, and sit on those plastic chairs while they’re waiting for their appointment. And guys are like, this is just ridiculous. And so we built the country club of men’s hair. And that’s what makes Elephant in the Room unique. And that’s why we’re opening up locations in Dallas, and Oklahoma City, and in Tulsa. And after six years, the company has been a hit. We come back from the break. I’m going to tell you about what makes Elephant in the Room unique and why so many people have fallen in love with the brand. But before I do that, let me tell you about a company called Classic Janitorial. Classic Janitorial. You might be saying to yourself, I want to make sure that my bathrooms are clean. I want to make sure that they make a great first impression for my ideal and likely buyers. So if you want to make your bathroom super clean, call the folks who are used by DuPont, by Google, by Newstar. That’s theclassicclean.com. It’s theclassicclean.com. Theclassicclean.com. Check them out. Attend the world’s best business workshop led by America’s number one business coach for free by subscribing on iTunes and leaving us an objective review. Claim your tickets by emailing us proof that you did it and your contact information to info at Thrive Time Show.com Welcome back to the Thrive Time Show on your radio or broadcasting today From the man cave here at Camp Clark and Chicken Palace Chup did I tell you about the did my wife show you that well? Yeah? Yeah, I was hoping to put some stuff together for it Yesterday we went down. I think 20 feet. Did you get hit water? Yeah bro. Nice! Now here’s the deal. Before you leave I need you to help me attach one more attachment. I gotta go another five feet. Oh I can do that. It’s gonna happen. I did it once I can do it again. I’m just telling you we’ve hit water. We’ve got to go deeper. That’s awesome. And Chep you know what we got to go deeper. We you know what we got we’ve hit the water but we got to go deeper. That’s the whole point to life, Clay. It’s that essence. If you want to really get that water, you’ve got to go deeper. That’s right. Chuck, if you want to go out there and get that fruit, you know where that fruit is? It’s way out there. On the limb. On the limb. Oh! It’s kind of scary out there. It’s curious. It’s kind of hard to go down deeper to get the water, to go out on the limb to get the fruit. It takes more effort. But out on the limb, that’s where the fruit is. That’s right. And I think a lot of people start a company, not our listeners, but other people, you start a company, what happens is you want to be conservative with your marketing. You’re wanting to say this on your website, the most professional service in town. I’m actually going to pull up a… I was working with a client yesterday and I was helping them through this process. They have a company in Texas that does siting. Tejas. I was looking at their competitors and I want to show you their competitors’ website so you can kind of… Can we point and laugh? Yeah, I mean, well, it’s just, they say, helping the people of this area since 1978. Oh, wow. And that’s their purple cow. Well, that sounds pretty awesome. They’ve been helping people, Clay. Now here’s another one. Here’s another one. It says, get a free estimate. I mean… But it says, the area’s source for quality service. And if you look at all the competitors, another one, they say, let’s see what they say here. These are not purple cows. None of these stand out. These aren’t even cows. Nobody’s even going for it here. These are just super weak. You can’t say, the most professional says, be proud of your home. That’s not a move. That’s not anything. That’s just a sentence. But that’s what everyone does. Everybody goes out there and tries to have a website or a marketing plan or a marketing system where they say, we’re the most professional. We’ve been around since 1978. We have guaranteed quality. We have the most professional team. The word professional, the word quality, that is lost all meaning because everybody says it. Right. You have to get their attention through having a purple cow that works, and then prove that you’re the most professional. And you have to have kind of an obsession about coming up with your purple cow, because as Seth Godin writes here, every other business by default is a brown cow. But if you want your purple cow, if you want your business to be the purple cow in the crowded pasture of brown cows, if you want your cow, your business, to stand out in the clutter of commerce, you’ve got to make the purple cow in the sea of the brown cows. A sea? Not a herd? A sea. Right. So Chuck, tell me about this new word we’re learning here. We have a new word we’re introducing to our listeners. So the word is otaku. And what it means is… Do it again. Otaku. Grande. Otaku bell. You remember that song Rico Suave? I do. Rico Suave. Otaku. Yeah, so it’s O-T-A-K-U, pronounced Otaku, and in Japan it means a young person who is obsessed with computers or particular aspects of popular culture to the detriment of their own social skills. And what Seth Godin points out is he says you have to have that kind of obsession to come up with your purple calc. Because once you do, it unleashes your success. You have to come out two shades more pale. You haven’t been outside. You haven’t seen the sun. I’ve got a question for you before we move on, Clay. Yes, Chief. Yes. How many times have you worked with a client or spoken at a conference and talked to business owners who take their purple cow ideas to a committee within their business, and how does this work out? Does this ever work out for good? Almost every time. And does it ever turn out well? No. No. It’s the worst case scenario. If you are a business owner and you’re out there trying to come up with a purple cow, get some ideas from people, but you have to make the ultimate decision. Bro, it’s like you’re reading page 108 of a book. He says here, it’s crazy. He says, if someone in your organization is charged with creating a new purple cow, leave them alone. Don’t use internal reviews or committees and usability testing to figure out if the new product is as good as what you’ve got now. Instead, pick the right maverick and get out of the way. So I’m going to tell the listeners about Elephant in the Room now. So Elephant in the Room is a brand that I own. It’s a men’s grooming lounge. And what we found, and I say we found, my brother-in-law had deeply researched all of the competitors in the men’s grooming space and had discovered that when you go in, there’s a lot of plastic being used. Everything seems to be very much, you know Subway has a wallpaper, brick wallpaper? Yeah, faux brick wallpaper. Come on now. It’s a heavy wallpaper. It couldn’t possibly be cheaper. Have you seen that? Yes. Right, okay. So it’s like every Subway has a fake brick wallpaper, which goes well with their fake bread and their fake meat. I thought that chicken was healthy forever, man. I feel kind of lied to, I’ve got to tell you. I’m just telling you it’s kind of crazy. The point, it’s like a McDonald’s on steroids. But the point is, you go in there, it really is on steroids, but you go in there into an elephant in the room and we use actual barn wood. We use reclaimed brick. We use, everything is live edge wood. I mean the whole… Edison bulbs, it’s not all white fluorescent like a doctor’s office. Which store do you go in to check on occasion? Is it South Tulsa? Yep, South. But everything, I mean, you notice the shelves are built out of that lead pipe stuff? Yep, pipe, black gas pipe and reclaimed wood and live edge wood. It’s a very cool atmosphere. And so we went with the authentic look, but then we also went with where we book via appointment only. So when someone walks in, they’re not waiting forever, and they’re not sitting on these ridiculous child third grade plastic chairs. Our competition literally has third grade plastic blue chairs that are super uncomfortable and they have old magazines. You’re supposed to sit there and read People magazine from 2003, some story about Prince Harry or something. Well, that was a really important story, though. I’m just saying, everybody wants to watch. The guys want to watch ESPN. We offer you a beverage when you get there. Well, guess what else they don’t want to do? They don’t want to sit there and wait for 30 minutes while somebody’s on the phone, while people are taking forever. We don’t even have a phone in the store. It’s so cool. The phone, there’s no phone. The phone rings to a call center and we have, the whole thing has been designed to be the perfect atmosphere for a man. We do paraffin hand dips, hot towel treatments. The whole experience is something that you’re going to love and we believe you’re going to love it, but the thing is that we know that you probably already get your hair cut somewhere else. You’re probably not just sitting around going, oh my gosh, my hair is getting crazy long. What should I do? I wish somebody would invent the idea of a men’s grooming lounge. No, you’re already getting your hair somewhere. So what happens is, is that we offer our first haircut to you for a dollar. You can’t do that! That sounds crazy! Now, Jep, why do we do the first haircut for a dollar? Because it’s a literal no-brainer. It’s such a good deal. You need a haircut and you’re a man. Why would you not go in there and get a one-dollar haircut? Now Jep, let me tell you about another company that has a no-brainer right now. Oh, I’d love to hear it. Onyx Imaging. Now Onyx Imaging is a company that we actually buy our printer and office supplies from. And I’ll tell you this, because a lot of people, a lot of people out there are going to Office Depot, they’re going to Target, they’re going to different stores to buy their office supplies, and they’re paying full retail price to get office supplies, printer cartridges, toners, that kind of thing. They are. But if you want to save both time and money, you got to check out our good friends at OnyxImaging.com. That’s OnyxImaging.com. Now Chip, what’s the no-brainer they’re offering right now for all of our listeners who go to OnyxImaging.com? Right now for new select and premium customers, they’re going to give you a free printer. I’m talking like one of the big daddy free printer copiers. It’s amazing. They’re your one-stop business shop. They can repair your printer. They have loaner printers. They have office supplies. They price match. They deliver same and next day. You’ve got to get a hold of these guys to keep your business running like a well-oiled machine. 918-627-6611. 918-627-6611. You are now entering the dojo of Mojo and the Thrive Time Show. Yes you can, this is Clay Clark on the mic again My opera focused on Elvin Jain I’m focused on the mission To teach you the skills and give you the plans Broadcasting from my lands To the left, to the portlands I’m here to tell you, you can do it, yes you can And now my friend, you got two fans You need to see, comma, ands I’ll be just the, yes, ands Now let’s kick it like Batman, bam! And get a little nuts like Pete Gant Welcome back to the Plowtown Show on your radio. My name is Clay Clark. I’m the former USSBA Entrepreneur of the Year, sent here on a mission to get you into a great financial position. One thing I want to make sure we carve out time to talk about right now is our June 22nd and June 23rd workshop is going to be awesome. It’s going to be a great crowd. A lot of people from all over the country are attending this event. If you want to get yourself free tickets to attend the June 22nd and June 23rd workshop, you can get your tickets today by simply going to the Thrive Time Show on iTunes. Find the Thrive Time Show on iTunes, subscribe to the podcast, leave us an objective review. So subscribe and then leave us an objective review and email us your contact information to info at thrive timeshow.com and we’ll get you your tickets. Also, if you can’t figure out how to do that or it’s difficult, you don’t have an iTunes account, you can just leave us a review by going to Thrive 15 and the word Jinx. And then just leave us an objective review there and we will also give you two free tickets to our next in-person Thrive Time Show Workshop. The event starts at 7 a.m. on Friday the 22nd and it goes until 3 p.m. And so we do 45 minute sprints followed by a 15 minute break. So we’re going to teach you marketing, branding, the millionaire mindset to time management. We’re going to teach you sales. We’re going to teach you workflow design. We’re going to teach you accounting. We’re going to teach you branding. We teach all of that to you, and it’s a laugh and learn format. So you’re going to have a lot of fun. I would say for every three things you learn, you’re going to laugh one time. We have a great bookstore there. We have a coffee bar. We break for lunch. It really has been designed to be very interactive. Marshall’s there. He’s really tall. Yeah, well we try to keep the event where it’s less than 175 people, so it’s very interactive. And if you get on a ladder, you can talk to Marshall. And you’re going to have a great time. We have great music, great fun, great food. Hood CPAs, typically sponsors a lunch. And you’re just going to love it. Oh, this time, guess what? I don’t know if you remember this. Restore Home Health is going to be smoking a bunch of meat right out in the parking lot. We’re going to feed everybody. Really? To quote Bone Thugs, what does he say? Smoking meat, smoking meat, ready to peck you if we have to today. What does he say? That’s exactly what Bone Thugs says. Smoking ganja, smoking ganja, ready to peck you if we have to today. We’re going to be smoking meat instead of ganja. But, so you gotta come out. Do you remember Bone Thugs? I do remember Bone Thugs. Wake up, wake up. It’s the fuss of the month, get up, get up, get up. Cashotrucks and wake up. Okay, now all I would say is if you don’t want to hear Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, but you do want to see Business Coaching-N-Harmony, come out to the Thrive Time Show conference where we’re going to be smoking what? Meat! Not ganja. Not ganja. Nice! Meat! Okay, I want to make clear of any confusion there. Book your tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com. Page 118 of The Purple Cow by Seth Godin. He explains how to stand out in the clutter of commerce, how to make your business stand out and get the attention it deserves. And he writes, get inside the heads of the people who do care deeply about your product and make them something they’ll love and want to share. Marketers and designers who do it can put themselves into other people’s shoes and imagine what they’d want. In the long run, learning this knack is actually much more profitable than being able to make stuff for only yourself. Learning this knack gives you more flexibility. There are also… This is huge. For the photography company, that’s what I did. I got into the mindset of what brides wanted. I asked the women, I asked the brides, I asked them at the bridal shows, I said, hey, if you could get anything you wanted out of your wedding photographer, what are you looking for? And they said… They would come up to the booth and say, how much do you guys charge? Everyone would say, how much do you guys charge? And every other company just gives them an answer, right? Right. But every woman would come up to the show, they’d come up to the booth, and they’d say, how much do you guys charge? And like you said, the competitors would say, this is how much we charge. Here’s a brochure. I said, well, let me ask you this. Assuming that we could beat anybody’s price, what’s the main thing you’re looking for out of a photographer? I mean, assuming we’re the cheapest, because we’ve got a great deal. They go, well, if you guys could do like, get my photos back to me within like a week or two, that’d be awesome. I said, what else? They said, if you guys could do free engagement so I could try out the service before I decide to buy with you guys. If you could allow me to do free bridles, that would be awesome, before we decide to book with you. If you guys could beat anyone’s price, that would be great. If you guys let me choose the style, that would be awesome. That’s what Epic Photos became. It became what people wanted. That’s what the Thrive Time Show Workshop is. We talk to business owners. I’m telling you, I have talked to thousands of business owners and said, hey, you’ve been to so many workshops. I’ve spoken at these things. And all of them, this is the insincerity of the format. You’re asked to speak. If you’re a motivational speaker, a guest speaker, I remember I spoke at the Community Bankers Association event out there in Las Vegas. Sounds exciting. And I’m speaking. There are thousands of people attending. You are supposed to teach people the millionaire mindset to time management where there are thousands of people. If there are thousands of people, Chep, can you ask a question? You can, but it’s probably hard to get people’s attention and responses. It’s not possible. Right. What we had to do in our workshops is we wanted to keep the venue small enough where you could have your questions answered. Absolutely. And so if you’re listening right now and you say, gosh, I would like to attend a workshop where I could actually work on my business and I can have access to ask questions I have, that’s what our workshop is. It’s not a big motivational seminar with thousands of people. That’s not the format. So you’re going to be seated next to other entrepreneurs. I mean, the last one we had, we had Charles Kowal, who owns three multi-million dollar gyms. He’s sitting right over there by Pastor Brian Gibson, who’s a pastor of a church of thousands of people in Owensboro, Kentucky. And right behind him, we got Aaron Antus, who has built literally thousands of new homes in green country with Shawhomes.com. And we have all these people that are dealing with thousands of customers, thousands of members of their church, thousands of gym memberships. You get to sit by people that are going through the same things you’re going through, Chuck. You will be motivated, but what I would say is you’re going to be more inspired than motivated, because you’ve already taken action when you’re at the… You’ve got yourself to the conference, to the workshop. Iron sharpens iron. You’re going to be talking to people, getting questions answered that you may not even realize that you had, but you’re going to leave inspired and ready to take action with actual action steps that you can put into place Immediately to turn your business around now Chuck We talked about onyx imaging before and how you should go there for your office supplies But they have a competitor called staples they too, and they’re famous for a button what button are they famous for that was easy That was easy. Yeah now if you’re if you’re saying you know what guys guys guys I want to come up with a purple cow, but I want the that was easy button. I just want a move That always were did you say that on purpose a move? That always works if you’re looking for a kind of a BBB default button that always works we come back from the break I’m gonna tell you that move, but this move this move is dirty So this is a dirty move this move works every time, but it’s a little bit dirty So sometimes in work you gotta get dirty Just grab it grab a notepad grab a sheet of paper, grab an Etch-A-Sketch, get ready to take notes as we teach you the universal purple cow move that always works. And during the break, I encourage you to go to hoodcpas.com. That’s hoodcpas.com. If you’re looking for a proactive accountant, visit their website today at hoodcpas.com. See, I’m more than just a rhymer, like a horse with blinders. Focus on the thrive type show, that’s where you’ll find us. P be the Z and I be the C. Teach you business skills from clay to Z. We both grew up poor, but we’re poor no more. The goal of this show is to help you score. I couldn’t see the light until my son put C. But I learned to rock the mic in the high school scene. A yo DJ with a billion dollar dream. Now to the pain that rejection brings. So I, like a song from a swing. 3, 2, 1, boom! You are now entering the dojo of Mojo and the Thrive Time Show. Thrive Time Show on the microphone, what is this? Top of the iTunes charts in the category of business. Drilling down on business topics like we are a dentist. Providing you with internship like you are an apprentice. And we go so fast that you might get motion sickness. Grab a pen and pad to the lab, let’s get in this. Time to best some fruit like some Florida oranges. 3, 2, 1, here come the business ninjas. I’m in. Thrivetime Show on your radio and podcast download, folks. Yo, my name is Clay Clark. Welcome back into my dojo of mojo. The entire purpose for putting together the Thrivetime Show podcast is because we want to provide you a refuge from the political deluge. Yes! I feel like there’s a constant where I’m trying to watch sports, trying to watch the NFL, right? And there’s some guy getting on a knee protesting, right? I’m trying to like, switch to like, I’m just trying to watch the Patriots game, you know? And they got some other guy taking a knee, and then all of a sudden the announcer’s like, well, the NFL has a problem on its hands, they’re going to have to deal with the players, and then all of a sudden, you know, they have somebody who, an NFL player who makes a statement about something political, or a player refuses to go to the White House to meet the president. There’s always something political. If there’s not that, there’s always something religious. There’s always somebody who’s… If you listen to a podcast about business, somehow all the conversations are like, should we hire a homosexual or not? Should we tomorrow show what is the place for lesbians in the workplace? I’ll just tell you this. Let me get it out there. If you are gay, if you are straight, if you are just the straightest person ever, you are so heterosexual, it’s crazy. If you’re so homosexual, it’s outstanding. If you are either way, I don’t care. I just want you to come to work and do your job.” And so we’ve created this show to be the place where you go, you know what, I don’t care about the political stuff. I don’t want to get into the religious stuff. What I want to do is I want to learn how to grow a successful company. Let me tell you what, when you have money in the bank, you’re still going to have problems, but it’s so much easier. Now, when you’re struggling financially and you’re struggling with life, that’s terrible. Not fun. So what you want to do is you want to go through the struggles of life in the areas of faith and family and finances and fitness and friendship and fun. You want to go through all those dramas with money in the bank. You don’t want to go through all the… Right, because you’re the man. Right. You don’t want to go through all these problems without money in the bank. And so one way to get more money in the bank is you want to create a purple cow. Seth Godin wrote about this in his best-selling book called The Purple Cow. Wow, that was pretty crazy. He wrote a book called The Purple Cow about the purple cow. That’s crazy. Yeah, so Seth Godin wrote this book and he talks about the importance of standing out in a cluttered marketplace. So he’s talking about, hey, if you’re out there and you’re saying, gosh, I don’t know, man. I have a siding company. I have a siding company. I do windows and doors and I can’t think of a purple cow. I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about it. I just can’t figure it out. He says, this is the dirty default move that always works. On page 125, he writes, Cheap is one of the only remarkable items that never seems to run out of appeal. Let me try again. Cheap is one of the only remarkable items that never seems to run out of appeal. For just about any repeatably purchased item, all other things being equal, the cheap one will gain market share. The problem with cheap is that once you start, your competitor will likely play the same game. In an incremental price war, how will one player beat the other and still win economically? Ikea can do it, Walmart can do it, can you? Cheap is a lazy way out of the battle for the purple cow. Cheap is the last refuge of a product developer or marketer who is out of ideas. Let me tell you how we did it for Elephant in the Room. I love going the cheap move until you don’t have to. That’s where Seth and I would have a great interview right there. I love going cheap until you don’t have to. So I want to go as cheap as possible. So the first haircut of elephant in the room is a dollar. By the way, if you’re in Tulsa right now and you’ve not been into the elephant in the room yet, you’ve got to check it out. We only have capacity for 4,000 members and we’re almost there. So you’ve got to check it out. The first haircut is a dollar. And then after that, every other haircut is the normal price. And if you’re a member, you get a discount. But it’s as cheap as can be the first time. So that’s how I would do it, Chup. But what he’s talking about is if you make your entire business model just being always the cheapest option, it’s really hard to do that because you now have to have cheap labor, cheap materials, everything has to be cheap. You’ve started a race to the bottom of the price bucket. Everybody’s going there. And it really can get tough to hire good people and tough to have good products when you always focus on being the cheapest. But off air, Chup, you had a question in between the break there you were going to ask me. We were talking in a previous segment about people talking to their customers about what they actually want. Yes. I wanted to ask you why you think most business owners don’t seem to actually do this. They don’t seem to actually go talk to their actual customers or their ideal and likely buyers and say, how can we be better? Or what are you actually looking for out of our product or service? I think that I go through life as the drunk guy. So this isn’t my thought. We were talking about this a little bit. If somebody’s had like four adult beverages at a wedding, usually they don’t have any problem going out and dancing. If they’ve had four adult beverages, they have no problem giving a toast. Saying what needs to be said. So I used to DJ though, and this is how every single… I mean, it’s hilarious. It was like if I did 100 weddings, 70 of them would go like this. I would say, alright ladies and gentlemen, coming up in just a moment, the best man and the maid of honor are going to do the toast. So again, the best man and the maid of honor are going to do their toast to the bride and the groom. Stay tuned in just a moment. The best man and maid of honor toast. Then I go get them. The maid of honor always has a folded up piece of notebook paper with something thoughtful. She’s like, okay, I’m ready. I’m ready to do it now the groom that the groom’s friend the best man. He’s like I I heard I don’t know. I didn’t get a chance to write something down. I was Let me go. Let me go get a couple beverages and I’ll be right back So this guy comes back and he’s like that He’ll get back and the maid of honor gets up because I just want to thank April for inviting me. I Just want to thank April for inviting me April is so special and I wrote a poem to demonstrate my love for her. Hey April, I just had some fourth grade. You can do this, you can do this, Candice, you can do this. You can do this, Margaret, you can do this. I just want to tell you, I just want to tell you. I was like, you can do it. And it’s like, April, showers are ours because of our power that has… and it’s always a rhyming thing. Everyone’s like, oh yeah, nice, nice, nice. Now the best man gets up four beers in because he’s had four beers. I say four, it’s four after the previous six. Before the wedding started. So he gets up and he’s like, you know, Darryl, I’ll tell you this, there’s a lot of guys, you know, that I went to school with. Hey, I’m like, hey, do not point the mic at the speaker. And he’s holding the mic away from his face. Darryl, Darryl, you’re like, you’re like, what I would call probably one of my best friends I’ve ever had. And I, Frank, I love you, man. You’re just like, you’re just, you’re like, you remember when we were in high school, We took stage. We were like 18, and I went into that Navy bar, and I found the biggest guy, and I said, you want to do this? And he said, no, but then you got my back, man. You knocked him out, bro. And we went to jail, and everyone’s going, oh my gosh. That’s how like the best thing. Remember when you met Suzanne, man? Oh, go ahead. Oh, Suzanne. Suzanne was great, and that’s why I’m so glad that you and Suzanne, I mean dear Lord, April, I’m so glad that you and April are married, but if you and April and Suzanne got married, that would have been cool. So anyway, if you guys would raise a glass. Oh, I spilled it on my shirt. That’s what they do. That was my cousin when he got married, I was probably 18 or 19, and that was almost my best friend’s. Because I did not prepare anything. Right. So I’m just saying, I don’t care. And the guy giving the toast doesn’t care. And I just don’t care. I don’t care about pride. I don’t have fear of embarrassment. I don’t worry about what are they going to say. I just want to get the result as soon as possible. So I have no problem asking a man on the street. I have no problem going to wedding shows and asking people. I had no problem at all with buying a booth for a bridal show when I couldn’t take photos. We didn’t even have any cameras. It’s awesome is what that is. And nobody else would do that. All the guys are like, well, we don’t have a booth. This is crazy. Dude, we don’t even have cameras. I’m like, I know, this is how we start. We don’t even know how to take photos. Right. But this is how I built companies. It works. And so if you’re out there and you’re saying, gosh, I just don’t know what the customer wants. Ask them. Don’t be arrogant about it and think that you know better. Now you know that you need to do it. Don’t be scared. Just get out there and ask them. Yes, if you’re saying that I need to ask my customers what they want, are you saying that? Chuck, are you saying that? Are you saying that? That’s exactly what I’m saying. Chuck, it seems like you’re just saying I’m supposed to go out there and just ask somebody. Let’s say you might be a company called Platinum Pest and Lawn. Oh, come on now. You might want to go out and ask people if they need termite treatment services. And if you find, when you find out that they do, you can have a no-brainer offer like our friends at Platinum Pest and Lawn, where they’re going to do a free termite inspection. And if they find that you have termites, they’ll do $200 off of termite treatment. Can I give you a testimony real quick about Platinum Pest? By the way, you’ve got to check out platinum-pestcontrol.com. That’s platinum-pestcontrol.com. We used to have these wood bees. Those things are massive. Out front of the Man Cave Studios here at Camp Clark and Chicken Palace. I’m talking about massive wood bees. They came in and got rid of those wood bees. If you go to platinum-pestcontrol.com, they’ll remove your wood bees, they’ll remove the snakes from your lake, they’ll get rid of the mosquitoes in your mojito, the bees by your knees. Call platinum-pestcontrol.com. Check them out online today. No negative emotion, because that’s what business is. Always dominate, cause I got five kids. I will not lose, I don’t break for clues. They can talk about me, I can take that abuse. Here is the truth, while they make that excuse. I’ll be up grinding, cause the scoreboard’s a twos. He is my mentor, like my Yoda dude. He showed me the force, like I was a young moose. Oh yes, Thrive Nation, welcome back to the Thrive Time Show on your radio. And according to the rap lyrics there, you know, Z is my mentor. He’s like my Yoda dude. Like I was a young Luke, he showed me the truth. I mean that. And I just want to tell you, Dr. Z has taken my kids and my wife and I out to go see the new Star Wars movie. And I’ll tell you the one thing about Dr. Z that I love. It’s everything. The one everything. No, I mean he honestly has been the best mentor in my life. Probably one of the best. He is definitely my favorite male human I’ve ever met. He’s just always there for me. He’s been very consistent in my life. And I just want to say, if you know Dr. Robert Zellner and you have his cell phone number, shoot him a text message and tell him what a great guy he is. Because, is he perfect? No. I mean, who is perfect? But the guy is absolutely as consistent as can be. And to me, that is Dr. Z’s purple cow. In a world of brown cows, where a lot of people claim to want to be there for you, he’s there for me. When my dad passed away, my dad actually got sick. He had ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease. Dr. Z asked me if he could fill that father role. I don’t know that there’s anybody else in the world that would have asked that question to anybody. I’ve certainly never had somebody ask me that question before. And he’s just been there for me. And I’ll just say I respect that relationship. I know that I’m not his son, but he treats me like I am. And I would just say I appreciate Dr. Z so much. And if you’re out there listening and you have his cell phone number, just shoot him a text and tell him what a great guy he is, because he is the purple cow. He really is the goat in Tulsa, the greatest of all time. He’s a great guy. He’s fun to have on the show. And Chup, it’s fun to have him on the show because he provides great mentorship, great learning opportunities, and always has a great attitude. He always has a great attitude. He’s always having a good time. There’s two things that I notice about Z every time I see him. If something needs to be talked about or figured out, he can switch into that mode. Hey, let’s just figure it out right now. There’s no need to beat around the bush. And then go back to having a great time. And then he always drops some kind of knowledge bomb some kind of quotable or something And I just remember a few weeks ago. We were talking and this is stuck with me I think I think I’ve literally I’m waking up with this in my mind. No, he said something about Don’t seek justice, but seek mercy Mmm, and that was just so powerful to me, especially from somebody with his position his stature his you know in the community He’s a powerful figure and for him to seek mercy instead of justice is so powerful Let’s say well Let’s focus this entire segment on that idea before we get back into purple cows, because this is an idea that is powerful. I know that for me in business, I get wronged so many times, and my natural reaction is to go attack. Let me just give you a funny example. Chuck, will you put the Bible verse on there that vengeance is the Lord’s. Yep, vengeance is the Lord’s. The Bible verse. Let me pull up the actual verse so I can read it to the listeners here. Romans 12 19. Romans 12 19 writes, do not take revenge my dear friends but leave room for God’s wrath for it is written it is mine to avenge I will repay says the Lord. So I’m gonna give you two revenge stories recently that are hilarious, that are just crazy funny. But I had a competitor that, for elephant in the room, every time we would put our signs out that said, $1 first haircut, they would literally take down all of our signs. And so they’d take them down, take them down, take them down. So I took down one of their signs, which is in the man cave. You can see it up there in the ceiling. So I took down one of theirs after they took down, I want to say, like, 20-something of ours. But then that idea that Z has been telling me over the years got in my head. I’m like, you know what? I’m going to seek mercy because it’s got to, your business has to be doing pretty bad if he’s resorted to taking down our signs as his chief marketing strategy. And just the other day, I was driving by the business, you know, because I drive by all the competitors to see what’s going on. And I noticed they’re out of business, Chuck. And the revenge was the Lord’s or somebody’s, the marketplace. I mean, it just, they didn’t, they didn’t last. You know, if you, if you practice that principle, I truly believe it leaves, it removes a corrosive influence on your heart, on your brain, that constant looking for revenge, looking how to get back at people. When you just take that out of your own hands and you do your best and forget the rest, it makes for a lot happier life. Now the other one, recently, this was the hardest one for me to move on from. This is just like in the last three weeks. We had a customer that came into one of our businesses, and the customer came in there and was told by an employee that I hate veterans. Of course you do. Now, Chuck, I don’t think people realize this. A lot of my friends are veterans. We give off half-off haircuts for veterans. So we don’t even make money on the haircuts for veterans. We’ve done, for Thrive, we offer a free membership for veterans. If you go to thrivetimeshow.com, you get a free membership. David Robinson, my partner, served in the United States Naval Academy. I could go on and on. If you’re a veteran and you come into the Thrive office, I’ll give you a 30-second shoulder massage. For sure. Absolutely. We have American flags everywhere. There’s nobody who’s more… I mean I cried during the national anthem. Yeah. I’m a huge veteran guy and for somebody to say on social media without knowing me that I hate veterans. One, I don’t go on social media so I didn’t know, but then a member of my team, a member of my management team, text me screenshots of what was going on and this person’s getting really personal. They’re like right Clay Clark is a nutjob. He hates veterans. He discriminates against veterans He fires veterans and then a guy that we had to fire years ago Suggested that They should report me to channel 2 to do something like news works for you because I hate veterans. Of course you do, yeah. And I thought to myself, wow, I mean here’s a guy that I fired for being terrible at his job and he, because he’s a veteran, now has a platform and everyone on social media doesn’t know me. And so all I can say is if you go to my Facebook page, I don’t post negative stuff. Like if you go to my Facebook page and you just go through it, it’s pretty much every day is just positive stuff. Win, win, win, win, win. That’s all I do. I don’t post anything negative. And Chep, you know why I don’t post anything negative? Because it’s a waste of time and effort and why? Why would you want to? Well, I was listening to a Tim Ferriss podcast the other day, and I really, Chep, I would encourage you and all the listeners to check out this podcast. It was a really good one. It was with the lady named Whitney Wolfe, and she is the founder and CEO of a company called Bumble. B-U-M-B-L-E. Have you ever heard of Bumble before there, Chuck? I have, but I have no idea what it is. Bumble is a dating website where basically women initiate the conversation. Yeah, my buddy was telling me about it. It’s also a social media platform where you can’t make negative comments. Right. So you can get punted from the platform if you say negative stuff. What happened was, is she had a lot of people that were attacking her personally on social media. And she said even though she was very wealthy, she got depressed because everyone kept saying negative things about her on the Internet. They weren’t true. And she felt like she had to go on there and like right every wrong. Yeah. So I’m just trying to give listeners out there a little encouragement. If you’re out there and you feel like you have to right every wrong on social media, I would encourage all of our listeners to stay off of social media. And when you are on social media, post something positive. Just go on there and write something nice about somebody. Go on there and brag about somebody you’ve been working with. Brag about a friend of yours. Brag about a client of yours. Brag about your wife. Go on there and brag on them. That’s a good move right there. Go on there and talk about how much you love your kids. Talk about how much you love your friends’ kids, talk about how much you love your church. Be positive. Put positivity into the world, because if you sow the seeds of positivity, positive things come back. But Dr. Z is a guy who has so many business ventures going on that the world does sometimes throw negative things his way. But Chep, as you pointed out, he encourages us to seek mercy instead of justice. Man, that’s good. Such a big thought. And again, if you know Dr. Z and you have his cell phone number, send him a text and tell him what a great duty is. I promise you he will appreciate that and he is a great mentor and a great co-host. We read here from page 163 of the Purple Cow. Page 163 of the Purple Cow. Seth Godin’s talking about how to transform your business by being remarkable. How to be the purple cow that stands out in a herd of brown cows. How do you make your business stand out? He writes, is your product more boring than salt? Unlikely. So come up with a list of 10 ways to change the product, not the hype, to make it appeal to a sliver of your audience. That’s powerful. That’s powerful. Think about your service. Think about your product. How could you change your product or service to make it stand out. I think of one company that’s done that. Chuck, have you ever been to Elote? Yeah, I have. It’s been a while. Elote, my partner Braxton Fears signed the lease with Elote back in the day. And Elote, I’ll put it up on the big screen, I want to put it on the show notes, it’s E-L-O-T-E, Tulsa.com, Elote. Now, Elote is known for having a menu of food offerings they offer that no one else really offers. I mean, they have the Puffy Tacos. Famous Puffy Tacos. Have you ever had the Puffy Tacos? I have. They have sweet potato burritos. Have you ever had that? I have not. They have all these food items that you’re not gonna find anywhere else, and it’s all farm to table, it’s all organic, it’s all fresh, and then they have this craziness. They have luchador wrestlers. Luchador wrestlers. That actually wrestle inside the restaurant while you’re eating food. Have you seen this before, Jeff? I have not actually seen the match, the wrestling match, but I’ve seen the wrestling ring. I’ve seen the Luchador wrestlers running around. So yeah. Yeah, and it doesn’t make any sense, but that’s what works. It stands out. It breaks out of the clutter of commerce. If you are absolutely committed to growing your business, you have to come up with a purple cow. Everyone has to do it today. Today is your day. Today is the greatest day you’re ever going to have. Today is the day. Today is all you have. There’s Monday. There’s Tuesday. Yep. There’s Wednesday. Those days. Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Sunday. But, Chuck, there’s no someday. That’s right. You know, someday actually doesn’t exist. Someday. You’ve got to do it today. Make that choice. Make that choice. Chuck, I want to read all the listeners what I’m going to do today. Let’s read it. Just so they understand that I actually do live a Carpe Diem sort of mindset. Seize that Carpe. And by the way, some of this involves you, okay? One is we’re going to be buying a Mac Mini. I will go get that because we’re going to plug in the sound effects to this computer over here. Nice. And that way I can go, hey-o, hit that button from here. The second is we’re going to rearrange the Man Cave studio so that this actual desk is going to be parallel with the wall. So I can get two desks in here instead of one desk. Oh, he’s going to have a master station. That’s the move. That way I can have more room to hit those switches. Also, I need to finish drilling that well, and I need your help, because that well, we’re trying to, my wife is trying to drill a well in our backyard. Is that well giving you beep? Sorry. No. We are going to, Chuck, that was pretty good. We’re going to drill down, though, pretty deep here. We’re almost there. We’re five feet away. We’ve hit water. I think my wife is still going to want to drill a lot of wells. Multi-well system. I really think she’s going to. So I’ve got to finish that up today. I’ve got to send an email to a partner. And Chuck, I’ve got to send a thoughtful email. He had a question, so I’ve got to respond to that. I’ve got to clean out my bag, Chuck. It’s the weekend, so a lot of times people put crap in my bag. I’ve got to clean that bag out. Get that bag clean. But these are all things I have to do. I have to plan out my son’s birthday party, Jeff. He invited us to that, by the way. I don’t know if you know that, but I’m coming. Are you? Yep. Awesome. Yeah, so I’ve got to… These are all things I have to do. And the reason why I have to do this is because today is the day. The day. And I’m not going to let my son’s party be crappy. No, I’m not going to let my well be five feet short from the water it needs. I’m not going to let the Thrive listeners out there miss out on awesome new sound clips. No, I’ve got to…Chuck, but we have to break it down into linear, specific steps. We have to do it, my man. You have to take action. And Chuck, one of the things we have to do right now is we have to promote one of our sponsors. This is a guy named Dr. Sibley. I call him Sib. Sibs for short. Sibles. Chuck, tell us about Dr. Sibley. Dr. Sibley is one of the…he’s the actual chosen chiropractor of the great one, Wayne Gretzky, NHL legend. He is over there at 51st and Harvard. If you guys need to get a hold of him, he’s going to offer you guys a free chiropractic assessment, free x-ray, and first treatment. If you’re struggling with asthma, back pain, any of that stuff, get a hold of him at drjohnsibley.com. And now broadcasting live from the box that rocks it’s the Thrive Time Show on your radio. We’re talking about the Purple Cow. What is a Purple Cow? Well, Seth Godin wrote a book here called The Purple Cow, Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. And I think that the book made a massive impact on my life in a way that I can’t explain to you how powerful that book has been to me and to my businesses over the years. And so what I want to do is I want to take the remainder of today’s show to walk you through case studies of real clients I’ve worked with and Chuck has worked with that have implemented a thoughtful purple cow into their company that’s allowed them to transform the company and allows them to grow and to be sustainable. So let’s go with the first one. Score basketball. Score bball.com. So let’s say you’re out there and you live in the Tulsa area and you want your kids to become better at the game of basketball. Maybe your child is sitting on the bench, maybe they’re the sixth man on the team or the seventh man, they don’t get to play a lot of minutes, and you want them to become great at basketball. So if you type in Tulsa basketball camps into Google, you search for that, you’re going to find score B-ball is either top or in the top two or three in Google search results. Correct. Now if you type for Tulsa basketball lessons, you’re going to find that score is top in the search engines. Now if you were going to search for Tulsa basketball training, you’re going to find that score basketball is top. Now, Chuck, being top in Google, do you think that impacts score b-ball? Maybe, absolutely. You think it does? In an amazing way. Really? Yes. Okay. Absolutely. Step number one, I want to put this on the show notes. This is the Score Basketball case study. Okay? So step number one, we had to help them get to the top of Google. Now that is not a purple cow, but that was what we had to do. We had to get them to the top of Google. Now once he got to the top of Google, I’m going to pull up his stats so I can read them off here to you. Right now, in a typical week, we’re getting over 24,000 people who are seeing his ads, and 3,233 people a week clicking on his advertisements. Are you serious? Yes. That’s insane. I know. So he has 11 leads that came in this past week. That is awesome. He’s been in Germany the last couple of weeks, and so he’s turned down his advertising a little bit. But if you look over the weeks here, like you’re seeing March, April, he’s averaging He’s averaged almost 25 leads a week for basketball every week, and the guy converts about half of them into members. But his purple cow, a lot of people say, well, what’s his purple cow? His purple cow is that this guy has a history of success. He’s been the coach for over 50 Division I basketball players, including Ralph Charles, Kalina Azabouki, Jason Rainey who played for Arizona University, Kalina Azabouki who played for the New York Knicks and the Dallas Mavericks and the Warriors. He’s worked with a lot of former NBA players. Shea Seals from the University of Tulsa who played for the Lakers. Lee Mayberry. These are real folks. And up on his site, he shows you how he compares to the competition. Powerful. So if you’re going online, you’re going, well what does Score do differently from everybody else, he’ll show you how his program is different and or better than everybody else. Then his purple cow is that he is the best basketball coaching facility in Tulsa, but he proves it. It’s different than just saying he’s the best. He proves it. Again, his purple cow is he’s the best, but he proves it. It’s different than just saying he’s the best. He proves it. Just saying you’re the best is puffery. Proving it with facts, that’s impressive. Then he has a little marker on his website where it says, Experience Oklahoma’s highest and most reviewed basketball camps. If you click it, it takes you to his reviews. The guy has over 185 reviews right now. He has 186 reviews as of the time of this show right now. Also, if you’re a first time visitor to Score, your first lesson, Chup, is free. That’s amazing. Why would you not want to try it? It’s free. Why would you not want to go there? And look here, the history of success. Right, he’s got the history of success, he’s got the Google reviews, he’s got the ads running for him. You get there and you see, try your first lesson free. That’s his no brainer. Come on. And it’s purple cow. That is a move. Chup, that’s a move. Chuck, tell us about one of your clients you want to brag on. I want to really get specific to show the listeners this is not a unicorn event. This is not just Seth Godin who sold a company to Yahoo for millions of dollars teaching you. These are real things that you can apply, real moves that actually work. So I got a good one. We just came up with this, I think it was last week actually, Guy Shepard over at Shepard Automotive. He is a diligent doer. He is a super grinder. He is an awesome guy. And his whole move is that he wants to be that trusted mechanic. The person you could send your mom to or your sister, anybody you could send to. He’s a Christian guy. He works with Christian values. And so we’ve been working on, you know, he’s got no brainer offers. Guy Shepard, you better get to 100 Google reviews as soon as possible. Of course, Shepard is for you. You’ve got 66 reviews right now. You’ve got to get to 100, Guy Shepard. It’s coming for you. But right now, it’s $25 off your first oil change and that’s been getting some traction for him, but what we came up with, Clay, I want to get your take on this, is we got a new saying. It’s going to be Shepard Automotive, he’s your guy. Because everybody needs a guy. When your car’s broke down, you need a guy. His name is Guy. That’s good. His name is Guy, Guy Shepard, Shepard Automotive, he’s your guy. He’s your guy. So when somebody asks, hey, my transmission’s sounding weird, do you know a guy? Do you have a guy? That’s what I always say. Now, Guy Shepard, let’s walk you through his case study, okay? Right. So, step one, you had to get him to the top of Google, right? Top of Google, Oklahoma City Auto Repair. Two, he’s had to gather objective reviews from as many clients as possible. And a lot of people are resistant or hesitant to give people a review. They don’t want their name on the internet. They don’t know how to do it. They’re busy, whatever. But Guy’s been very persistent, asking his real customers for objective reviews. And he’s scored 66 reviews. And now he has a no-brainer. And you can check it out at ShepardAutomotive.com. It says get $25 off of your first oil change. But my friends, this is how it works. There’s no easy, get-rich-quick move. How long did it take Guy Shepard to get to the top of Google? Oh my gosh. It was a nine or ten month long campaign. How’s he doing right now? Are his sales growing? His sales are growing. He’s up. We just figured it out. I think he’s up. This month was down just a little bit, but he’s up at 18% overall over the last year. For the year. Yeah, now score basketball, just so you know, he’s up over 50% since we first started working with the guy. Oh, in five days, yeah. But I mean, Platinum Pest, I think they’ve almost tripled sales, I heard. Yeah, it was at 440% or something crazy. It was like more than four times, and Marshall’s their coach. And so all I would say is that we want our clients to do well, but we can’t help you if we don’t get a chance to know you. So if you’re out there and you say, gosh, I want to be one of these case studies, I want my business to grow, what I encourage you to do is go to Thrivetimeshow.com and schedule your one-on-one business coaching session. And one of our clients, our show sponsor, a great guy, there’s a company out there owned by a guy by the name of Travis. This company is Williams Contracting. Now if you have a business and you’re saying to yourself, gosh, I want to add on to my building. I mean, do you want to build on to your office building? Do you want to build on to your church? Do you want to add on to your school? Do you want to build a restaurant? Do you want to expand your commercial shopping center? If you said yes to any of those things, you need to check out our good friends at Williams Contracting. Their website is will-con.com. That’s will-con.com. You might be saying to yourself, could you say it slower? I’m trying to write it down. Check them out today. Williams Contracting. Their phone number is 918-682-5511. Will-con.com. 3, 2, 1, BOOM! Make sure you never miss a broadcast by signing up for the Thrive Time Show Podcast. Rise and grind, the answers you will find. We drop knowledge bombs each and every time. Who is the sound? You is the noun. The verb is the action, it must happen now. You gotta run the chorus to join the chorus of the Thrive Mission that has gone before you. With no excuses, you gotta run the course. You gotta run the course to join the course of the Thrive Time Show on your radio. The entire focus of today’s show is trying to help you get your product or service to out in a cluttered commerce, in the marketplace, in a world where there’s so much advertisement noise, how do you stand out? So I’m going to list off a bunch of purple cows that I’d like for Chubb to put on the show notes so you as a listener can think about them, research them, and decide whether you could replicate them in some capacity. All right? So let’s, Chubb, we’re going to do this and we’re going to have a lot of fun with this. We have a lot we’re going to go through here and see if you can keep up with them. The first one is the BigTexan.com. We talked about it on yesterday’s show. But it is home of the 72-ounce steak. A lot of people have heard about it, but they say, well, what is the challenge? How does it work? Well, it says here on BigTexan.com, the entire meal must be completed in one hour. If any of the meal is not consumed, swallowed, you lose. Before the time starts, you’ll be allowed to cut into the steak and take one bite. If the steak tastes good and is cooked to your satisfaction, we will start the time upon your acceptable approval. The time will not stop and the contest is on to make sure. So make sure before you say yes. Once you have started, you’re not allowed to stand up, leave your table, or have anyone else touch your meal. You’ll be disqualified if anyone assists you in the cutting, preparing, or eating of your meal. This is your contest. You don’t have to eat the fat, but we will judge this. Should you become ill, the contest is over. You lose. You are required to pay the full amount up front. You will win, and if you win, you will get 100% refund. You must sit at the table that we assign. If you do not win the steak challenge you are welcome to take the leftovers with you. No consumption or sharing of the leftovers is allowed in the restaurant once the contest is over. If you fail to complete the challenge you must pay the $72. That’s a big steak. Dude, 72 ounces. With all the fixin’s. So let’s divide that by 16, because there’s 16 ounces in a pound, right? So that’s a 4.5 pound steak. So all I’m saying is that is actually something that stands out in the crowded marketplace. That’s a real thing. And I knew about this before you even brought it up yesterday, which proves the point that it works. How did you know about it? I drove by billboards, traveling around as a kid. Everybody knows about the giant steak in Amarillo. Go down there, try to eat it. I was a young man, Clay. I wanted a large steak. Now, another place that everyone needs to know about, and a lot of people do know about it, it’s called the Little Man Ice Cream. Oh, this place is awesome. Now, this is what they do. This is a powerful no-brainer that they have, and a powerful purple cow. What they do is their actual restaurant, I’m not sure, Chuck, how you would describe it. I’m going to pull up on the big screen so you can see it. Let’s put it on the show notes. Let’s look up Little Man Ice Cream. Let’s go to the Google Map and see if we can’t find the map. So you can give the listeners a link to the actual map. I think that’s going to be the move here for us. But I’m going to zoom in here so all the listeners, if you can, when you get to the show notes, all the show notes are always available at thrivetimeshow.com. But when you get there, there it is, Chubb. Look at that. How would you describe the Little Man Ice Cream store? That’s like an old school milking container. Not like a milk container, but like the one that you actually put under the cow. Right. It’s big, but it’s like 30 feet tall. Do you see that line? Yeah, there’s a Google map line, happened to be when the Google car drove by, there’s a line out to the street. There’s always a line. If you go there, there’s always a line. I think he has a video here on his site. Let me see if we can link to that video. Oh yeah, this is a video on YouTube. Let’s put the link to that video on YouTube. You can find it at littlemanicecream.com. What he does is he does a scoop for scoop. So what he does is if you buy ice cream from the Little Man Ice Cream, this is what he says on his website they do. He says, Little Man Ice Cream was built on a belief. A belief that business exists to make a difference. Since the day we opened for business, we have made giving back a part of who we are. Little Man’s Scoop for Scoop program is how you are helping to us to make the difference. For every scoop of ice cream purchased, Little Man matches that scoop with a donated scoop of rice, beans, or other essentials to a community in need anywhere around the world. To date, Little Man has delivered to communities in nine countries spread across four different continents. Scoop-for-scoop missions directly send our employees to volunteer their time and talents. Our partners with reputable mutual understanding and a commitment to always being a force. And it goes on, it just goes on to explain how much they’ve given away you can check out a little man ice cream dot comment and by the way chop I want to know that we should get the little man ice cream founder guy on the show who the owner with every great guest you talking about to do list little man ice cream you put them on the the dream 100 right this time in the dream 100 little man ice cream founder that be a good that because that’s a great cause, a great company. That’s a good one. Now, another company out there that has a purple cow that I want to brag on, and it happens to be a client of mine, is Morrow, Lye, and Kitterman. It’s Morrow, Lye, and Kitterman. They are a pediatric dentistry in Tulsa who has been growing at a rate of more than 30% year over year. 313 Google reviews. These guys are rocking. Now what they do is they have a special where they say that your child gets free treatment until the age of three. It’s free until three. Now Chuck, why does that work for them, offering free pediatric dentistry, free until the child is three? Well, who doesn’t want to take advantage of that for the first three years when you’re going through this with your first kid, maybe a young kid, and then it’s awesome for them because now they’re hooked in. They’re in the system, baby. Dude, look inside their location there. They have a… It’s super cool. You see they have like a video game for the kids there. They have a fun playhouse area for the kids. Kids love to have an aquarium in their lobby. Saltwater action. People love it there. It’s a cool spot. They’re really, really good at what they do as well, so that helps. Yes, but I mean they have decided to break out of the clutter where there’s so many other dentists out there. They wanted to stand out, and they’ve created a purple cow. Chuck, can you think of one of your clients right now that’s created a purple cow where you say to yourself, man, that is really, really a good move? Yeah, so Best Choice Auto Glass. Come on now. These guys are super diligent as well. We came up with a no-brainer for them, and a purple cow to kind of separate out. Everybody in their industry, it’s a lot of low price. Low price, low price, low price. And so what Mark and Donna over there, the owners of Best Choice Auto Glass, they pride themselves in doing a really good job being fast and mobile responsive. And he always was going around cleaning up the cars afterwards. He was wiping down all the windows, he was vacuuming out the front floorboards. Wipe them down, wipe them down, clean the cars. But the thing is, he wasn’t telling anybody about it. He wasn’t letting anybody know that he was over delivering. What’s his name? Mark Burgess. Mark Burgess. Wipes them down, wipes them down, he cleans the cars, wipes them down. We came up with the best choice detail, so with any glass replacement, we’ll offer him the best choice detail for free where they clean your windshield, inside and out of your front windows, they vacuum your floorboards, and wipe down all of your door jams because that never happens. If you have a church, if you have a business, if you have an organization, you have to have a Purple Cow if you want your organization to grow. So I’m going to give you the Purple Cow of our next show sponsor. This is RC Auto Specialists. Roy owns the company. It’s a Christian owned business. But here’s his Purple Cow. These guys can do any kind of Ford automotive repair that you need. If you have a Ford vehicle, a Ford truck, a massive Ford vehicle. If you need your transmission to be fixed, battery issues, lighting and wiper blades, heat and air systems, suspension and alignment, they have over 80 years of combined experience. At the Ford Power Stroke Diesel Service and Repair, that’s what they do. If you have a Ford automobile, check out rcautospecialists.com. That’s rcautospecialists.com. rcautospecialists.com. Stay tuned. Attend the world’s best business workshop led by America’s number one business coach for free by subscribing on iTunes and leaving us an objective review. Claim your tickets by emailing us proof that you did it and your contact information to info at Thrive Time Show on your radio. Today we’re talking about purple cows, how to stand out in a cluttered marketplace. I want to brag on one of our upcoming show guests. We’ll be interviewing him, I believe, not tomorrow’s show, but the day after tomorrow. Two days we’ll have him on the show. This is Muggsy Bogues. Now Muggsy Bogues, if you look up the name, his original name, his given name is Tyrone Curtis Bogues. Now he played 14 seasons in the NBA, 10 seasons for the Hornets. He also played for the Washington Bullets, now the Wizards, the Golden State Warriors, and the Toronto Raptors. The thing about him that is a purple cow, he’s got so many purple cows, but he’s got a couple that really resonate with me. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and he was raised in the projects, which so many kids unfortunately are raised in the projects. Where I see the first purple cow is his father went to prison. His dad went to prison. I mean, he wasn’t raised by a dad, and so his mom raised him, and yet he went on to play Division I basketball at Wake Forest. You might say, okay, there’s some other kids I could… that’s maybe not a big, big purple cow. Maybe that’s… you say, gosh, this kid didn’t have a father. His mom raised him. He went to play at Wake Forest. That’s impressive. That’s a purple calf. That’s not maybe the total Purple Cow. He was drafted 12th overall in the first round of the NBA draft. You might say, that’s really not that impressive. And that’s impressive. I mean, wow, that’s good. But that’s not really like, I mean, in the world, gosh, we’re looking for a real Purple Cow. He’s not number one. The guy’s 5’3″. He’s 5’3″. One of the players he played with was Larry Johnson. And when he was on the Hornets, Larry got traded to the Knicks. And if you look at Larry gave him a hug before the game, look how the difference between Mugsy Bogues and Larry Johnson. I got one, but go back one. I’m going to put it on the show notes. Look at that. Michael Jordan versus Mugsy Bogues. It’s the one where he’s standing next to Manute Bull and they’re holding the basketballs right there. Yeah, look at that. Yeah, the difference is unbelievable. They’re on the same team. Right? It’s insanity. I’ll put it on there. Look at him getting by Charles Oakley. I mean, how in the world, look how fast he is. That’s right. So Muggsy Bogues will be a guest on the show. I’m super excited to have him. Also we have, have you ever read the book called Made to Stick there, Chuck? I have not read that one. No? You have not? No, but I’ve heard a lot about it. It’s on our bookshelf. I’ve heard a lot about it. I’m working on the show outline today called Made to Stick by the Heath Brothers. These guys, they wrote a book that is phenomenal. It teaches people how to write advertisements or how to write public speeches or how to have ideas that get stuck in the head of your ideal and likely buyers. That book is absolutely powerful. They’re going to be on the show here coming up in a few days as well. We’ve got a lot of great guests coming on the show who are purple cows in their own right, but I really want to help you, the listener, find the purple cow for your business. I’m trying to help you find one for your business. So I’m just going to keep firing off examples. Shep and I will go back and forth. And we’re going to see if we can help you discover a purple cow that will work for your business. Shep, can you tell the listeners about Tip Top K9? They have a great purple cow for their company. Tip Top K9 is a dog training company. And it’s a dollar for your first lesson. How much? One single dollar for your first lesson. And part of their purple cow is the fact that their systems are so awesome. Ryan and Rachel have developed such an awesome system for training dogs that they can get some major traction with your canine animal in that first lesson. So they wow and they get them with the one dollar and then they wow them and it’s a no brainer after that. So if you’re out there and you say I have a dog that’s starting to bite, bite, or starting to get rowdy, it’s not behaving. What you could do is you could do a Google search for Tulsa dog training, and you’re going to see this working. So here’s the case study. Here are the steps we had to take them through. One, Chuck, we had to get them to be the top of the Google search results. And if you Google search Tulsa dog training, you’re going to see their top. Two, we had to make sure that they gathered reviews from their actual customers. Chuck, why is it so important that they took the time to gather real reviews from their real customers. Because 88% of people are reading reviews online. According to Forbes. According to Forbes, I’ll put it on the show notes. Right. Are reading reviews online, and not only that, they trust them more than the personal recommendation of a friend or family member. So it’s so important to get those reviews. It’s also important to get reviews because if you want to run ads for your business and you don’t have above 40 or 50 reviews and you’re not to 100 yet, before you get to that 40, it’s not wise to run a bunch of ads and spend a bunch of money because there’s no proof out there. You have no Google trail, no resume online. And then their first lesson is a dollar, as you mentioned. Now the one dollar lesson is a great value, but it wouldn’t work well if they didn’t have a lot of reviews. They need to have both. But their purple cow is it’s a dollar for the first lesson. So I’d ask you again, Mr. Listener, what is your no-brainer? Chuck, can you think of another company you work with that has a no-brainer? Can you talk about the Keystone Harbor folks you’ve worked with? Yeah, so Keystone Harbor is a marina on Keystone Lake here right outside of Tulsa, and they have an almost brand new facility out there on the lake. So their purple cow is that it’s new, clean, and close. All of the other harbors and marinas in Oklahoma are 50 to 70 years older than this place. It’s closer to Tulsa than any other big lake experience and it’s clean. They clean it. Turns out there’s a lot of cobwebs on all these other places so they clean this place up and then so the way we got a hold of them people was that they had a really new awesome fleet of rental boats and jet skis and things like that so we put some no-brainers out there rent one jet ski get one for a dollar a dollar for your first hour on a rental boat and it really just drove a lot of traffic out to their facility. Let me give you another purple cow. Think about Outback Steakhouse. Outback Steakhouse is famous for the Australian-themed steakhouse. Chump, are you familiar with the history of Outback Steakhouse? I know that they have a Bloomin’ Onion and something called Alice Springs Chicken that smells like an armpit, but tastes delicious. You think it smells like an armpit? Yeah, it’s like the cheese and bacon and onion mixture kind of smells like an armpit, but I tell you what. Let me give you some fun factoids. Okay. Outback Steakhouse is an Australian-themed, American casual dining restaurant, but it has an Australian theme. Right. But it was started, it was founded by Bob Bashman, Chris Sullivan, Trudy Cooper, and Tim Gannon in 1988, none of which had Australian ties. Think about that. They did not have Australian ties. They have a business based in Tampa, Florida, and they decided, you know what, we need to have a way for our company to stand out. And it has an Australian theme. Why Chup? Why does it have an Australian theme? Because apparently when they were going around doing their research, there was no other Australian themed steakhouse restaurant. Well, think about how many steakhouses there are that you can’t remember the name of. There’s always like Big Texas Steakhouse, the Texan Steakhouse, Big Texas. Charlie Steaks. There’s so many of them. But Outback is stuck in our heads because of the Australian theme. Do you do an Australian accent? Can you do an Australian accent? Hey, good day, mate. That’s pretty good, man. Yeah. Put some shrimp on the old Bobby. Hey, let’s put some shrimp on the Bobby. Yeah, so all I’m just saying is that worked. I mean, the endless kangaroo references and all the Australian themed things, that actually worked for those guys. Now, the next purple cow I want to talk about is Starbucks. What makes Starbucks stick out? What makes Starbucks stick out? What makes Sam Adams beer stick out? Because the beer itself at Sam Adams is known to be good, but the actual name helps them break out of the clutter of commerce. It has all those historical references. It relates to the Revolutionary time where America fought against the British to become, when the colonists fought against the British to gain our independence. Starbucks. Starbucks does everything they do as a Purple Cow. So I’m gonna list off the Starbucks Purple Cow moves and we can put on the show notes. If you go to Starbucks and order a small, they don’t have a small. They have a tall. Then they have like a grande, right? And they have like a venti. So I think it’s tall, grande, and venti are their sizes. Starbucks, the people that serve you coffee are not coffee people. They are baristas. Chip, why are they baristas and not coffee people? Because a barista sounds fancy. Sounds like something you might remember. Howard Schultz said, I’m not charging you for the coffee, I’m charging you for the ambiance. He created this thing called the third place. That’s right. And so you’re that it’s the it’s the decor. It’s the atmosphere. It’s the overhead music It’s the sights. It’s the sounds that’s why you’re paying five dollars for a cup of coffee and Starbucks has absolutely poured their heart into it there’s a book that I’m gonna be breaking down and Too distant future called pour your heart pour your heart into it by the founder of Starbucks Howard Schultz But if you’re looking for a purple cow, just look at the companies we’ve referenced on today’s show and yesterday’s show, and you just have to lock yourself in a room and not come out until you have a purple cow. If you have a business coach, you’re one of our coaching clients, have your coach work with you on this. You have to develop a purple cow. If you don’t have a purple cow, you will not win. And we want to help you. We want to help you. We want to get to know you. We want to help coach you. Our mission is to mentor millions. And so the only way we can do that is if we get a chance to meet you and interact with you. And so I’d encourage you to go to thrivetimeshow.com today, and there you can find the podcast that you’re listening to now. You can find all of the show notes we keep up there. You can book your tickets for our in-person workshops. You can schedule a one-on-one consultation with a business coach. Or you can find our video vault with thousands and thousands of videos archived there at ThriveTimeShow.com. June 22nd and June 23rd, our next workshop is coming up quickly. If you’ve yet to purchase your tickets, buy your tickets today at ThriveTimeShow.com. You can purchase your tickets today at ThriveTimeShow.com. You might have missed it, but our local blockbuster, the last blockbuster on the planet, had a Super Bowl ad. No, it did not air on TV. That airtime cost millions of dollars. Instead this ad debuted online. The internet streams no more. We’ll still be here. I’m Clay Clark and I just hired this man Kenny and his great company Highwayman Signs to install what might be the world’s last blockbuster sign. Kenny where did you find this sign? Comptonville Kansas. We got contracted to take down these old blockbuster signs and now you’re the proud owner. Yes and Kenny you don’t just do signs for men in their 40s who are trying to fill a hole in their soul by installing blockbuster signs. You do signage for other companies too, right? So tell us what kind of signage do you do? We’ll do signage for any company. We do vehicle wraps, lighted signs, channel letters, CNC routed logos, pretty much anything you can think or print, we can do. JT, do you know what time it is? 410. It’s Tebow time in Tulsa, Russia, baby. Tim T-Bo is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma. During the month of Christmas, December 5th and 6th, 2024, Tim T-Bo is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and 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 T-Bo is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and 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? Well they’re going to have to come and find out because I don’t know. Well I’m just saying Tim Tebow is going to teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s going to walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is going to be a blasty blast in Tulsa, Russia. 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 is 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. But 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 today 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’ve been able to build Multi-million dollar companies watch those testimonials today at thrive timeshow.com Simply by clicking on the testimonials button right there at thrive timeshow.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? I don’t know what I do. How does it work? You just go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Let’s go there now. We’re feeling the flow. We’re going to Thrivetimeshow.com. 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, 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 Russel. I’m 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 gonna be packed. Who? You! You’re gonna come! I’m talking to you. You can get your tickets right now at Thrivetimeshow.com and again you can name your price. We tell people it’s $250 or whatever price you can afford and we do have some select VIP tickets which gives you an access to meet some of the speakers and those sorts of things and those tickets are $500. It’s a two-day interactive business workshop, over 20 hours of business training. We’re going to give you a copy of my newest book, The Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. You’re going to leave with a workbook. You’re going to leave with everything you need to know to start and grow a super successful company. It’s practical. It’s actionable. And it’s TiVo time right here in Tulsa, 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 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. 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 gonna leave energized, motivated, but you’re also gonna 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 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 thrive time show calm 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 Octa nonverba Watch what a person does not what they say Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvard Kiyosaki 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. 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 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? And I said, no. And my father, may he rest in peace, he didn’t know these financial principles. So I started reading all of your books and really devouring your books, and I went from being an employee to self-employed to the business owner to the investor, and I owe a lot of that to you. And I just wanted to take a moment to tell you thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success. And I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump. I just want to tell you, thank you, sir, for changing my life. Not only that, Clay, thank you, but you’ve become an influencer. More than anything else, you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. That’s why I congratulate you on becoming. Because as you know, there’s a lot of fake influencers out there, or bad influencers. Anyway, I’m glad you and I agree so much and thanks for reading my books. That’s the greatest thrill for me today. Not thrill, but recognition is when people, young men especially, come up and say, I read your book, changed my life, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this. I learned at the Academy, Kings Point in New York, acta non verba. I learned at the Academy, Kings Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say.