Clay Clark | Business Podcast | “Most People Struggle Financially Because They Take Advice from Sales People, Not Rich People.” – Kiyosaki (Best-Selling Author of Rich Dad Series) + Why You Must Only Seek Advice from Successful People

Audio Transcription

Most people, the bottom 80% are lazy and it’s something that it’s not polite to talk about. And they’re surrounded by people who think the same way. You know, as much as 95% of your thinking is determined by the people that you associate with on a regular basis. If you associate with people who don’t work hard, don’t learn, socialize after work, then you become like them. You think like them, you talk like them, you dress like them, you marry them. And so you marry someone who also has no ambition. And you raise children, and your children have no ambition. Just go to work and complain about your work. But top people associate with other top people. There is what you heard about the law of attraction. And the law of attraction says that if you change the way you think, you start to attract new people into your life. If you become aggressive about personal development and personal growth, you start to meet other people who think the same way. And the old groups of people that you associated with fall away, and the new group of people appears. So people say, well, where do I find positive people who are thinking about success all the time? First you become one, and then you’re naturally attracted. We’re going to make double, instantly. I got to go, I’m in a networking thing. What’s up? My name’s Steve. What do I do? I make everyone more money. You give me two dollars, I give you three. Boom, doubled. That’s how we do it. Hi, my name is Becky, and I do interior design, and I’m really good at it. My name’s Kyler. I’m into photography. I like to take pictures of just life and really existence, you know. Oh, my gosh, I just get so nervous at these networking things. I’m just like, oh, Marlene, calm down. You can do it. I was at a networking event in China, okay? I don’t even speak Chinese, but I got three businesses, doubled their yen, all right? Think about that. You think I look hot? We should be Facebook friends. I don’t believe in business cards, you know, I just think like, if the universe wants us to work together, you know, that our paths would cross. I had a pregnancy scare, and that really changed me. I thought, oh my gosh, what am I gonna do with a six? Why am I here networking with the commenters? No offense. Why am I here? So I can stay humble. I didn’t come here just to flirt with you. Maybe. Eugh. They took a pint of fluids from my lower back. I’m starting to get the feeling that the universe doesn’t want me to get to know you. Do you think I look like Reese Witherspoon? That is how I pass my kidney stone. You gotta go. Bill Gates. See ya. Hey Bill! Great meeting you. Can I have your number? Please? No. Where are you going? Remember this, is that people are time wasters. And the great majority of people have no goals, they have no priorities, they have no plans, they have no concern about becoming successful, and they think that you are the same. They think because their time isn’t worth anything, that your time isn’t worth anything also. Earmuffs. Not everyone deserves to be heard. What? Yeah, you gotta put on earmuffs sometimes because not everybody deserves to be heard. Grab the duct tape and mentally prepare yourself for yet another mind-expanding knowledge bomb from America’s number one business coach, Clay Clark. Arms away! Yes, yes, yes, and yes! Dr. Breck, welcome onto the show. How are you doing this morning, my friend? I’m doing great, Clay. Thanks for having me. Hey, I’m having a great week. My understanding is your week might be better than my week because your pool is now open. Am I right? Is your pool open? It’s right there. We’re close. So do we have water in the pool? We have water in the pool. Water’s in the pool. What are the final stages that we have to lock down to open up the incredible oasis at Dr. Breck’s backyard here. We have to get the chemistry right, but other than that, we’re ready. The chemistry? Is it like you and the chemicals need to agree on things? No, you got to set the mood, set the tone, light some candles. Okay, okay, wow. I didn’t know. You know, the chlorine, the calcium, the hardness, the pH balance in the water. So right now, it’s basically just a really big bathtub. Now talk to me about the pH balance. Educate us and all the people out there that don’t have a pool. Educate us about the chemicals, the pH balance, what that means. Well this is an in-ground, recently replastered pool, and so to take care of that surface, you have to have the right pH, you have to have the right water hardness for the rest of the chemistry, the chlorine to do its proper job to keep the algae growth down. And so what happens if you don’t have the right balance? Oh, it gets nasty quick. Here in Oklahoma at least, it gets really nasty quick. You get a couple of leaves and debris in the pool, and that’s organic matter that the algae can eat off of. And the next thing you know, you’ve got a nice green cesspool instead of a fun oasis. A little swamp instead of a splash pad. So now, you’re saying that, do you have a guy that comes by and does this for you, or do you do this yourself? Well, we had to have it redone. Like the whole pool has been renovated. Why? And so somebody else did that. Why’d you have to renovate it? Well, we bought the house as a foreclosure and there was a lot of deferred maintenance. And so every so often there is a need to do this and it was past due time. Like what kind of stuff you did? Replace the tile? Yeah, we did some stone work, some tile work, they re-plastered the surface. So that was a nice process of about an inch, inch and a half thick. Is there a deck around your pool? A rock patio deck. Oh, cool. But it’s kind of hot on your feet. Did you have to renovate that at all, or is that? That had to be worked on some, because we had some pipes break sometime before we owned the house. And so, yeah, they did all that. But otherwise, the regular maintenance stuff I take care of. There’s so much to unpack here. So you bought your house out of a foreclosure. I did, yeah. I like to get a good deal. And I’m not asking you to share your address with the listeners. I’m telling you, we’re not going to go there. I’ll meet you in the ballpark. I’m here 71st and Harvard. OK, and so you go, you and your wife decide you want to buy a foreclosure. What was your process like for buying the foreclosure? We did a lot of online searching. A lot of online searching? Yeah, just, you know, I was very excited about it. Where do you go to search for online foreclosures? Well, there wasn’t any specific place, but I would be on Realtor, I’d be on Zillow. How did you know it was in foreclosure? You can just find out through some of the information. If it’s bank owned, there’s a lack of details and things that you start to figure out. And the price point is definitely better than it should be for the size of the house. And I’m not asking the price of the house, I’m just going to ask you, as a percentage, how much of a discount did you get on that house? Oh goodness, probably about a 50%. 50%? Yeah. You bought a house 50% off? Maybe a little more than. You’re sick! I think we got it like… That is awesome! $45, $47 per square foot. No way! Wow. I don’t… No, no. So you got the thing half off? I’ve been paying for it ever since, but yeah. That’s impressive though. There’s a project around every corner. That’s impressive. So you bought the thing, you got it half off, you’re in the house. How long have you been in the house? Just six years. Now, when you were going through the process of buying the house, did you have anybody who told you, it’s not a good idea to buy a foreclosure? I did. Oh, don’t. Don’t buy a foreclosure. It’s a bad idea. I’m not asking you to name names, but what kind of people, what people in your life were telling you it’s a bad idea to buy a foreclosure? Well, I think some that just wanted to hear their own voice. Did you have people specifically say this to you? Yeah. I also had some that I think were well-intentioned, but looking out for my best interest, they thought. Did you have realtors tell you not to buy a foreclosure? I had one that told me this is a real bad idea. I think they might have had another client or a different idea on the back burner. Family members? I was going to interrupt. Some family members said, I think this may be a money pit. You might want to walk away. Do you have anybody else tell you, hey, you shouldn’t buy a foreclosure? No. I think that was it. I didn’t want to make sure that they could pick up the gas station. I had some friends that were kind of cautious. They were like, it was bad information. Okay, so you had some friends. I’m mentioning this because today’s show is called Earmuffs, Not Everyone Deserves to Be Heard. Right. Now I’m just going to throw out this idea for the listeners out there. I’m just going to throw it out, throw it out, and you just, maybe you don’t like today’s show, and you say, I don’t like what you’re throwing. Now that’s fine. You can boomerang back some negativity, but this is what I’m saying. Or maybe they didn’t put on the earmuffs. This is what I’m saying. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, right now, is showing that right now, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is showing that right now, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is showing that right now, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is showing that right now, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is showing that right now, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is showing that right now, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is showing that right now, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is showing that right now, according to the US Chamber of Commerce and CBS News, 75% of employees steal from the workplace. And most do so repeatedly. So think about that for a second. Wow, that’s a positive thing. Now think about this other fun positive stat. 85% of job candidates are lying on their resumes according to Inc. magazine. And Forbes is reporting that nine out of ten businesses fail. Nine out of ten. So if you look at it just objectively, conservatively, at least 85% of people are wrong about everything. Right? Because 85% of people are lying on resumes, 75% are stealing from the workplace. I mean, Jason, with stats like this, would you agree that at least 7 out of 10 people do not know what they’re talking about? With the stats to back it up, absolutely, but also with personal experience, I realized, yeah. So I’m going to give you some examples of what I’m talking about today, and we’ll just kind of work through this together. So one, if you’re out there listening today and you’re thinking about buying a house, you’re thinking about buying a house, and you’re thinking about buying a foreclosure as Dr. Breck just mentioned. That’s a great idea if you have enough cash or can pull enough cash out of the house to renovate it. But I don’t know anybody listening to this show who shouldn’t buy a house out of foreclosure if you can. Why? Why am I saying that? Because you’re buying money. You’re paying 50 cents and getting a dollar. That’s a hot deal. I thought so. It’s a smoking deal. Why would anybody not do that? I’ll tell you why. Because there’s family, people in your life who are going, no, you should buy a brand new house. You shouldn’t look at one out of foreclosure. Listen to me. Listen to me. That is a great way to build wealth. I mean, Dr. Brick, is it possible to earn $100,000 of equity just by buying a house? Yeah. Absolutely. Think about that, dude. Your net worth goes up 100 grand. I think we might have done a little better Your net worth goes up by a hundred grand just by buying a house, right? Why would you not do that? I’ll tell you why people don’t do it. It’s because everyone around you is giving you false information, right? Yeah, Warren Buffett says be greedy when the market is fearful be greedy when the market is fearful Let me give you another example So many people Jason when it comes to growing a business. They say that the group interview is what? The group interview strategy that I’ve used for years and have taught to hundreds of business owners to create time freedom for their families, to create a inbound pipeline of great candidates. Most people when they first hear about the group interview, they say what? They say it’s impossible, it’s unethical, nobody in their right mind would ever do it. How could that possibly work? Who’s going to show up for it? You’ve seen the group interviews. It was recently his last Wednesday at 6pm I think. Yes sir. How many candidates did we have show up there approximately? One of my clients had a record week. They had 8 people show up and they only had like 12 confirm on Indeed, which is huge. Think about this. That means that there is a total of, at our group interview Dr. Breck, we had 50 people confirm to be on the show. And we only had, I think we only had like less than 20 show up. So why, why Jason, would I want to interview all the candidates at the same time as opposed to interviewing them each individually? Well, because it, I mean, you just said it, it allows you to interview all of those people at one time. If you had 20 people show up, that’s half a work week if you schedule that out throughout your week to sit down for one hour of power, like most people do, go through the process of them lying to you about the resume because 85% of them are going to and it’s just it’s easier it’s more condensed and it shows you who your true like unicorns and a players are going to be because the people who stand out in a group setting those are going to be the people that you want to hire so let me just give the listeners that I’m sure give you two examples I’m gonna give you ten today you watch out I’m gonna give you ten examples of people being wrong real estate and foreclosures okay mm-hmm every not everybody most people three out of four people I run into really push back about the idea of foreclosure. They just do. It doesn’t make any sense. So on Monday night at 7pm, I’m looking into purchasing a house that is, it’s crazy, but it’s listed to be worth just over $800,000. And I’m going to get that thing for $410,000. That’s great. Talking about that $100,000 equity. Now why am I going to go look at the house one more time? Because I want to make sure there’s not core issues that I can’t fix, big foundational problems. Therefore, I’m bringing one of the guys I flip houses with. But most people would go, but what if the market gets bad? Are you going to be stuck on the house? What if, I mean, come on. I know very few people that say, yeah, that’s a great idea go do it most people We have a what’s the catch there’s not a catch. There’s a lady who needs to get rid of her house She’s trying to sell the thing and we want to buy the thing and it’s it’s just there It is now the group interview. I do the group interview every single week every week I do the group interview you know I do the group interview cuz it works what people push back on the group interview. Let me give you another example. Call recording. Dr. Brick, why do people push back on call recording? You’re not a business coach, you’re a chiropractor, but why do you think that most people push back on the idea of call recording, even though American Express does it on every call, Southwest Airlines does it, AT&T does it, every large company records their calls. Why does the typical small business owner push back about the concept of call recording? Well, no doubt their employees are pushing back themselves. You know, they don’t want to be recorded because if they were doing their job, you know, they wouldn’t push back. But yeah, I think that’s probably the biggest thing is rocking the boat, changing things, having to be that beneficial or benevolent dictator, as you said before. Yes. You know, but yeah, once you do, you know exactly what’s happening and what’s not happening with your scripts and sales, inbound, outbound calls. Now let me give you a few more examples of where most people are wrong about everything, okay? Let’s get into no-brainer advertisements. I know that’s super offensive for people, the idea that, I mean, we’ve already dealt with buying things out of foreclosure, we’ve talked about a group interview, I mean, we’re really taking the show to a low level. Call recording, I mean, where do you get off recording your calls to make sure your people are actually saying what they should be saying? Now we move on, the no-brainer. People hate the no-brainer. Customers love the no-brainer. Even though it makes your customers love you, I just hate it. Business owners hate the no-brainer. Every time. Customers love the no-brainer. See, I don’t understand. I never push back on the no-brainer. So let me give you an example of a great no-brainer. The New England Patriots are getting set to start their season here with every other NFL team going back to summer training camp here in a few weeks. And Julian Edelman, at the age of 32, continues to be Tom Brady’s number one target. He’s not six feet tall, he’s his favorite receiver, he was drafted as a quarterback from Kent State, and he worked on the practice squad for two years before getting to play for the Patriots in game-time situations. Now, what is the no-brainer offer that you think Julian Edelman made to Tom Brady as a young, young player, year one, year two? That’s a great question. I know nothing about football, so I’m trying to relate it to no-brainer. Imagine you’re a receiver. You were drafted. You played quarterback your whole career. You’re on the Patriots as a receiver. You’re sitting behind Wes Welker, who’s potentially a Hall of Fame receiver. You’re getting no playing time. What’s the no-brainer that you could offer the greatest quarterback in the world in terms of winning Super Bowls? You pass me the ball and I’ll give you all the credit. Okay. What do you think, Dr. Bray? He’s not on the field. He’s on the practice squad. What’s the deal he could do? The no-brainer? Until he gets on the field, that’s tough. What do you think he did to get on the field? What do you guys think he did? I’ll carry your shoulder pads to practice every day, but I’m guessing that Tom Brady already has somebody doing that. No, but that’s about right. This is what Edelman says. That’s like the oldest play in the book. Edelman knows that Brady likes to live and work out in California during the offseason. So he calls. First off, he flies to California. He and Tom have not pre-agreed to work out together. And he calls, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Hey, Tom, I’m in the area, and if you need someone to catch some passes, I’m here.” And he’s like, you’re in the area? Oh, I’m in the area. So now the only guy who’s in the area is Julian Edelman. And if you go back and watch the documentary, or you learn about the situation, he didn’t have a great living arrangement set up. He’s basically couch surfing. Because when you’re on a practice squad, you’re not making very much money. And he travels out there, not knowing that Tom Brady is going to reciprocate and say, yeah, let’s team up here. He didn’t know if Tom Brady would appreciate that. But he did it. That’s a no-brainer. He didn’t ask to be a starter first. A lot of guys won’t do that. They won’t work out with a guy like Tom Brady unless they’re a starter. But he made a no-brainer. Another example. I probably said, anything you throw at me, I’ll catch. Right. Another example. Ryan Tedder right now has a TV show called Songland with Adam Levine from Maroon 5. We have two contestants from the show booked now. Two of the people from the NBC show are booked now on the Thrivetime show. We have Max Imbers booked there, and we have Darius booked. These are contestants on the show, the hit show Songland. It’s a fun show. Have you watched the show? I have. It’s fun because I got to tell my kids that you know Ryan Tedder. Yeah, there it is. And I guess one of their babysitters previously also, her family knows him from Victory ORU. Really? Yeah. Yeah, so I’m just saying Ryan Tedder is a great guy, hardworking guy. And all I’m saying is that he wanted to go work for, or work with, Timbaland. Now do you guys know who Timbaland is? Jason, do you know who Timbaland is? Oh yeah. Every time I can’t hear the word Timberland without hearing that. Oh, really? Now, OK, so Timberland was famous for doing a lot of, he does beats and he does songs that are very catchy. And he’s done albums with Justin Timberlake. And so Ryan Tedder wanted to intern for, he wanted to intern for Timberland. Now what’s the no-brainer that Ryan Tedder had to make? Jason, what do you think the no-brainer is that Ryan Tedder had to make he’s working at Pottery Barn now Yep, remember he’s an oral Roberts University student. I remember this like it was yesterday He moves to Nashville during the summers. Mm-hmm, and he goes to Nashville. And what is the no-brainer? What do you think? What’s the deal you’d have to offer? Timbaland to get a job there working for one of the top producers of his time for any of the top producers like any of The musicians that I listened to that came up under the mentorship of somebody big was, hey, I’m a no-name songwriter, you write beats that don’t have songs, how about I give you these songs, you make them hits, you get the credit for it. You would love that to be true, and I want that to be true, but it’s worse. It’s worse because, again, he’s Timbaland. How many people are making that pitch? A lot. It’s whoever makes the most aggressive no-brainer. The aggressive no-brainer. That was a very, that wasn’t aggressive no brainer. I’m talking about that crazy aggressive, that alpha no brainer. That no brainer you say, are you kidding me man? This guy’s working full time at Pottery Barn. He wants to work for Timbaland who’s banging out hits every day. How’s he going to get that deal, Dr. Brink? What do you think he did? Man, I don’t know. I’m trying to think here. It’s the Steven Spielberg move. He used the same move too. Did he throw in some maid service as well? He says, I will work here for free doing anything forever. I’ll just get your coffee. Yeah. So he didn’t get a chance to do anything with him for a long time. Yeah. He’s like the pool boy. He’s like the cabin boy. He’s like the towel guy. He’s like the gripper. He’s like the gear mover guy. You just have to get the golden look. Then you got to have an O’Briener. If you’re out there listening and you say, I don’t know what an O’Briener is. I can’t get out of here. Do a deal that is hot. Let me tell the listeners about my first no-brainer with DJ Connection. Dr. Breck, how long have you been married? 15 years. Okay, imagine… No, no, no, no, no. 18 years. 18 years. Now imagine 18 years ago, 18 years ago, you and your incredible wife are looking for a DJ, okay? Imagine the scenario. And you got a guy who looks like he was born yesterday. Right. 20 years old. Looks like he was born yesterday. Driving a hand-painted Mazda MPV. Right. What kind of no-brainer do you think that I had to make to book those first weddings? Because I had a hot no-brainer, and I was building djconnection.com. But what was the no-brainer that I had to offer? What do you think? Oh, goodness. The crazy hot no-brainer would be, I’ll do it for free. This is what I said. I said, I’ll DJ your wedding for $1. For $1. Now, my normal price that I like to charge is 500 bucks. For whatever the package was. Normally the package would be, let’s say, for 300 people, my normal package price would be 600, but I’ll DJ the show for a dollar. Or if it was 50 people, I’d say my normal show would be, 500 is a smaller system, but I’ll do it for a dollar. Now here’s the catch. As the show’s wrapping up, I want you to pay me based upon what you think I’m worth, how good I did. So if you are rating me a perfect 10, then pay me the $500 for the middle package. If I’m a perfect 10, pay me the $600 for the big package. But if I’m half as good as you wanted, pay me $300. If I’m 10% as good as you think I am, pay me the $60. Now how many people were you actually a 10 out of 10, but they were cheapskates? Maybe two out of ten chest. Okay. And they’d pay me like a hundred bucks or something. But all I’m saying is I won people over baby. Yeah. Because that kind of deal is hot. You brought the value and then they paid for it. So Dr. Breck what’s the no-brainer that you offer at drbreck.com. D-R-B-R-E-C-K.com. Well you can come in to our office, give an evaluation, a consultation, exam, x-rays if necessary, and treatment all at no cost, no obligation. All at no cost and no obligation? Yep, free 99 is my friend Jason’s. Wow. I love that. Now what percentage of people come in there and they come in for the x-ray, the exam, the adjustment and they never come back? Very few. Like 2 out of 10? Maybe 3 out of 10. 3 out of 10. I mean that’s a very good number. An elephant in the room, our first haircut’s a dollar. And I would say, what do you say, Jason, probably 4 out of 10 people, 3 out of 10 people, we never see them again? Yeah. Yeah. But the deal is hot. Right. It gives you the golden look. It does. Well, and we get the opportunity to basically, you interview us, you see what we’re all about, how we do what we do, and if you don’t like it, you’re not out of anything but a little time. Jason, let’s say that you and I teamed up to buy a coffee shop, which I know you secretly want to do. So let’s say we had a coffee shop. And we have this coffee shop and it’s located in a great area. It’s a hot, hot deal. Downtown it’s located by a Starbucks. So we’re competing downtown Tulsa with another Starbucks. What would be the no-brainer we’d have to do, in your mind, to win over the people? We’re going head-to-head all out war versus Starbucks for all the coffee people listening out there what would you do? I would have the lowest coffee prices because so going back to the beat any competitors price because as far as coffee shops go everybody always marks everything up and that’s the one thing people always complain about is you pay $5 for a cup of coffee so lowest price is for sure and then on top of that add on something like free refills or… Now let me educate the listeners on the super move here. I’ve worked with coffee places. If Starbucks charges $5.50, then you charge $5.52. The first beverage is on us. Or it’s a dollar. First beverage is on us. You say, well how do I know they’re not going to come back and screw us over? All you have to do is enter into the database to get that coffee. So all you have to do is your name, what’s your name, your phone number, I’ll enter you into the system, free coffee for you. Yeah. Now why is that a powerful move, Dr. Brick? Well, because one, you’re giving them the sample. Again, you’re bringing the value, and then they’ll pay for it on the backside. But then if they like it, if you over deliver with better coffee, better service, better music, better decor, better, better, better, better, better, then people don’t mind paying the same price at Starbucks. Right, true. Now, the thing about commodities, about keeping your prices always lower than everybody else. The danger with that is that it’s a sprint to the bottom. True. But, so Dr. Reckman, you’re not the cheapest chiropractor in Oklahoma. I’m not. But the first experience is free. It is free. See, that’s the move. You’re saying, you believe you’re one of the top chiropractors in the area based upon the level of care you offer. Absolutely. But your first exam is free. So in a way, if you can visualize it, the prices are going to go up and all the way to the bottom for the first offer. So the first offer is the cheapest in town, but they’re going up a little bit on the next offers. Yeah, I mean, we’re very competitive in our pricing. We’re still a great value, but at the same time, the first visit is absolutely free. There’s never been a better value than your competition. Just walking into your bathroom and seeing that new tile, it’s a majestic thing. It’s like a throne room. It’s an unbelievable experience. You’ve got to go check out his bathrooms at drbreck.com. Now, keystroke recording. Jason, why is this so… Again, we’re talking today about not everyone deserves to be hurt. If you go out there and ask the average person, hey, is it cool? What do you think about working for someone who records your keystrokes? Now I love recording keystrokes. I can only imagine. Now, why would I love to record keystrokes, Jason? And why do most people say, oh, that’s unethical, that is shady, that creates a really weird environment for your team, knowing that you know what they’re doing. Why is keystroke recording pushed back and held in such a low regard by most of humanity? Well, it’s like Breck said earlier with the call recording, it’s the people who know they’re not doing their job or know they’re up to no good, are the only people who are gonna push back, or the people who have had instances where they’ve got caught doing something before because somebody did not tell them, or they did tell them, they’re very like transparent in their handbook, hey we record calls, we record keystrokes, and they get caught doing something stupid and they’re made to feel dumb and they just, I feel like holding people accountable is the biggest thing, so if somebody knows that they can’t do anything wrong, it freaks them out. You have the people who want to hit the panic switch, who want to hit the self-destruct button. It’s like, I just want to send this awful email, or I just want to go to the site I shouldn’t go to. It’s $7.20 per computer to record the calls, or to record the keystrokes forever at ActiveTrack.com. A-C-T-I-V-T-R-A-K.com. I don’t know why you would have any problem recording keystrokes at your office. I can’t think of a reason. I mean, that’s like, do you want to know the truth? No, I don’t want to know the truth. Do you want to know how life is? I do not want to know how life is. You can’t handle the truth. I mean, why would you not? It’s crazy. Sir, we’ve got your bank balance. Do you want to look at it? No, no, I do not want to look at it. Now, video recording, the Nest cameras, you can get those Nest cameras right now, those are great cameras. You can pick those up at Lowe’s right now. The Nest cameras, why would you want to have video recording in your lobby? Could somebody, Dr. Rick, could you tell me, if I’m an automotive repair shop, why would I want to have the Nest cameras in my lobby? For the, I mean, from the client side as well as from the business owner side. Well, we live in a litigious society, and so, you know, everybody is, you end up in these situations where it’s a he said, he said, she said, you know, he said. And so, a lot of times, if you have it recorded, then it just takes care of it. There’s clear evidence that shows one thing or another happened, and you don’t have to wonder. And so, a lot of, maybe, potential threats get eliminated right off the cuff. That is, it’s amazing though. It’s amazing to me. I find it to be outstanding. I find it to be amazing to me that anybody could possibly push back about call recording, keystroke recording, video recording, the group interview. Again, it keeps your own employees honest. I’ve had situations where you go to a store and they’re like, I’m sorry, we can’t accept cash and it’s like the company is just admitting we hire shady people because they’re not allowed to handle any cash. Video recording, if you’ve got somebody stealing off the top, you’re going to see it. In our case, you can put a video right over the front desk. It’s just right there where you can see you are Big Brother. Are you guys familiar, Jason, are you familiar with this book called Proverbs? Proverbs? Oh, Proverbs, my bad. That’s my professional action item. For a second I was going to go home, this is either a trap or there is a book called Proverbs. That’s a great book title. It is. The professional action items. Yeah, Proverbs. Professional action, Proverbs. Proverbs. All right, so this is a book in the Bible that is filled with words of wisdom that I think everybody should read, even if you’re not a Christian, because there’s universal truth in there that I think everybody should grasp. But one verse in particular that jumps out at me is Proverbs 13 20 Proverbs 13 20 now Proverbs 13 20 I’m gonna read this verse to you. I like dr. Brecht to kind of break it down I don’t expect you to be a biblical scholar Well, I’m gonna break down the the I’m gonna read the verse to you twice you marinate on it And then I would like for you to break it down for the listeners. Absolutely. Here we go walk with the wise and Become wise for a companion of fools suffers harm. Walk with the wise and become wise for a companion of fools suffers harm. Dr. Brick how does that apply to being a business owner? Oh there’s several applications I can make. Again, you know who you’re around is who you’re going to be like. There we go. You know I’ve heard it said the top five people you spend the most time with that’s who you’ll be like in the next year or so. And that’s Tim Ferriss wisdom, and Tim Ferriss is definitely not a Christian. It’s universal truth. It is. But then you also have the flip side of that, and if you’re around suffering the company of fools, you are also, like you said a moment ago with the prices, you’re on a sprint to the bottom. The lowest common denominator ends up winning out. If you’ve got great quality people around you, you’re going to have great quality events and life experiences. If you are at the lesser quality end of the gene pool, then you’re going to have those more bad luck, as they like to say. They’re just always having bad luck. I mean, you create a lot of those things. So let’s think about this for a second. If you’re out there today getting feedback from most people, listening to most people, you probably need to put on some earmuffs. You need to be running around your city with wearing some earmuffs. So people though, are most always wrong about everything. I’m gonna continue. I’m gonna try to hammer this idea. I want everyone to understand that most people are freaking wrong about everything all the time. Not everyone, I’m just talking about the vast majority, at least 75%. Now last week, this is a story that’s going to just freak out somebody, okay? Last week, we had a client at Sam Adams Realty, true story, it happened. They called a sign, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, hi, I’m looking to buy that house. And one of our agents answers the phone, okay, yeah, okay, we’d like to, we can show it to you, whatever. They said, okay, and I have a friend of mine who’s gonna help show it, she’s the agent, you know. So the person already found the house before calling Sam Adams, or before finding a real estate agent. Now according to door.com, it’s a flat rate real estate company based in Dallas, a little more than nine out of 10 people research and look for the house they’re gonna buy online before calling a realtor. Well, I had a realtor, but I was doing the work. That’s what I’m saying. Exactly. So 9 out of 10 people are doing their own research. So the customer, the consumer, the buyer, the potential buyer of the home reaches out and they want to offer, it’s like $275,000. Now I’m a math wizard, so see if we can keep up with me here. Here we go. Right. $275,000 times 6% equals, there’s $16,200 of commission at play here. Right. And they, so then the client, the potential buyer, reaches out to us directly, and they said, now what’s this thing you guys are doing, a $1,000 commission? And our agent says, yeah, you just pay us 1,000. Right. And they’re like, so I can save $15,200 by buying a house from you? And they go, well, yeah, yeah. And they go, mm, okay, so, they’re just having a hard time getting it. And so they talk to their friend, their friend who has opened the house for them. Because they already found the house. Their friend just drove over and opened the house for them. They had the magic key. The person who, yeah, they had a realtor box. You could get in the house. So their friend invested, let’s call it an hour. They drove there, surprised they were through traffic, a lot of adversity, might have had to signal a turn or get gas or whatever. They drove there, opened the door, and then they go, yeah, I want to buy that house. And then they drove home. They got like an hour of their time invested. And their friend is like, no, no, no, no, you technically are working with me now. So they can charge you $1,000, but you owe me $8,100 of commission. Get out of here. No, it’s a true story. This happens all the time. That’s what real estate is. Right. That’s what real estate is. That’s what real estate is in America. But the contracts are complicated, so I’m going to have to help you on that part. Right. And so here’s the deal, is that the person, the buyer, hadn’t signed with this real estate agent an agreement. Right. And they said, what really does an agent do? Right. And we’re like, well, they analyze the standardized contracts that are regulated by the government so they’re doing not a lot but if you don’t want to use them we would encourage you not to and they’re thinking about this kind of they’re not a real friend it’s kind of like a person they know they’re going if I just kind of you know sever this relationship with his acquaintance right I can save $8,100 correct and being that I don’t talk to them very much I’m okay with probably talking to them never mm-hmm so they call hey agent I decided just not to use you. I’m just going to go direct. And the person saved a ton of money. Right. But it gets better. The person’s thinking about moving forward and I think about just buying the house. And the other person says the the agent, the agent who got denied the former friend, the former friend says, hey, just so you know, though, your preapproval is through this other person’s through this mortgage company that is run by a family member of this person. Okay. Yeah. And they’re going, you’re back. Plot twist. Now, your pre-approval, though, remember, your loan is contingent upon the funding from my family member, and that family member tacked on $11,000 of closing costs. Oh, my goodness. And so they call our agent and say, do I have to use that lender or can I use someone else? And our agent says, well, yeah, we’ve got several different lenders we’d recommend. There’s lots of them in Tulsa. Let me give you some phone numbers. And so they were going to get screwed again. So their friend was going to make $11,000. Plus the $8,000. Plus the $11,000 on closing costs, $8,000 on commission. They were going to make $19,000. And they really inflated that $16,000 of commission on that one, didn’t they? Isn’t that crazy? Yeah. So we, so Amanda ended up closing the deal and we saved that buyer a significant amount of money, at least $15,000. Right. And then the closing cost by recommending a different lender. So they saved $15,000 to $20,000 and at the close, the buyer’s like, what’s the catch? How do you guys make any money? This is where I love it. This is what we say. We say, here’s the deal. There’s no catch. We don’t really make any money. Clay, who’s the owner-founder guy, he’ll make $100. And they’re like, well, how does he make any money? We’ll have to do thousands of these. But it’s great. It’s in volume. It’s a no-brainer. But you would not believe how many realtors this makes mad. Dr. Brett, can you guess as to why samadamsreality.com is making realtors mad? Oh, not at all. That situation times a thousand. There’s a lot of people with no more friends. Over and over and over and over. We don’t do open houses, we do closed houses. Because when you have that low of a commission, people want to buy that house. If you were thinking about buying a house when you knew that little commission was going out, does that give you more flexibility as a seller or a buyer to negotiate? Sure. There’s less commission at play. It’s just a better deal. Right. I mean, you just save, you know, the 16,000. So now if the buyer wants, you know, 5,000 off, you’re like, yeah, I can, I can still do that. And I’m coming out ahead. But before the internet, before the internet had all the MLS information available online, right. Realtors served a lot of value because they would hunt for houses. Information is power. They knew what you did not know. But now they don’t. Now it’s just we, Sam Adams, we are doing to real estate what Uber did to taxis. We’re just going in there and just eating up the industry. It’s great. But if you’re out there today, and I’m telling you, if you are a potential buyer or seller, it would make no sense to not use a company like door.com or Sam Adams Realty because you save a lot of money. But if you go out there and ask the average realtor, they’re gonna go, it’s shady. Tell you that. It’s gotta be shady. So there’s gotta be a catch. There’s no catch! But people say it’s gotta be shady. It has to be. Now, other areas I get pushed, other areas where most people are wrong, and this will be the final one I want to hit on, this is where most people are wrong. The 40-hour work week. Now that’s a sacred cow for somebody. Yeah, no doubt. Now let me walk people through my rationale for this. All right, right, dr Breck do you remember the old story in a 1490 90 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue you remember hearing that as a kid I do Let’s just say that you’re like well Columbus came over here and then spread disease and killed everybody. Okay, maybe you don’t like that Let’s just say we do remember there were pilgrims. There were pilgrims. Some people say they were terrorists Okay, but the point is they came over here. They whoever they are they came over here. Mm-hmm and They decided to survive. Mm-hmm. They didn’t want to die as much right? So they thought we need to probably plant some corn plant some crops and build some houses, right? Now did they have the luxury of going? Well, brother everyone’s name was like pry has a kaya Oh, Brother Jebediah, do you want to go on break? We’re going to go to a subway.” Well, one, there wasn’t a subway, but two, the concept of going on a break for an hour, what would have happened if they would have worked 40 hours a week while building their houses and planting their crops that first year? We probably wouldn’t be here, because they would have frozen through the winter. Interesting. Their houses would have been half-built. Interesting. So in the agricultural society, when everybody had to plant their own food. Did people work 40 hours a week? No, no, no. No, far more. Okay, so then, I think about we go forward into history, we get into the big profound highlights of American history. Drbreck.com, when you started Dr. Breck, your chiropractic center, did you work 40 hours a week? No. Interesting. Now, we’ve had Warren, we’ve had so many big guests on the show. We’ve had Paul Hood on the show, who loves to give all of our listeners a copy of Snowball, Warren Buffett’s only authorized biography. And I was reading Warren Buffett’s book, and it’s occurred to me that Warren Buffett, he didn’t work 40 hours a week. No, I understand he spends like six hours every day reading. So you think about, okay, so if Warren Buffett, who’s done very well, doesn’t work 40 hours a week. If Dr. Breck has done well, I can kind of relate to Dr. Breck. We’ve had Wolfgang Puck on the show. Turns out he doesn’t work 40 hours a week. He works six days a week. And you think about John Maxwell, the leadership speaker. We’ve had him on the show, and he doesn’t work 40 hours a week. And then you think about Seth Godin. Everybody we’ve had on the show who’s worth more than $10 million, more than a billion dollars. Every single guest we’ve interviewed doesn’t work 40 hours a week. Every one of them! Oh, yeah, it doesn’t surprise me at all. We’ve never had a guest on the show, and I’ve read a ton. I’m not like Tai Lopez where I claim that I read an autobiography every hour, every day, but I have read a lot of autobiographies, a lot of biographies of very successful people. We’re talking about Steve Jobs, we’re talking about Ben Franklin, talking about Thomas Edison, talking about Henry Ford, talking about Richard Branson, talking about Oprah, talking about T.D. Jakes, Steven Spielberg, talking about very successful people. And I have never, ever, ever, ever met anybody who’s had any level of success at all that works a 40 hour work week. Ever! I believe. Now let’s go back, because we don’t like the Pilgrim story, and we don’t like these modern stories. We need to go back to get further justification. So Breck, are you familiar with that book called The Bible? I am. And I know a lot of people think it’s obscure and they don’t like it. That’s fine. That’s fine. But let’s go with Adam and… who was in the garden? Was it Adam and Steve or Eve? Who was it? Adam and Eve. Oh, okay, my bad. So Adam and Eve are in the garden. I thought it was Adam and Steve all these years. No, Adam and Eve, they couldn’t produce a child. That’s why it was Adam and Eve. So they’re there, Adam and Eve, in the garden. Why are you harping on that? I don’t know. Why am I? I’m just bringing up the facts. So Adam and Eve are in the garden, and God says, Adam, here’s the garden. I want you to work it. Now the Bible was written originally in this language called Hebrew. So it was written by people that drink a lot. No, not Hebrews. Hebrew is written in Hebrew, which some call God’s language. We’ve had Rabbi Lappin on the show. He breaks down the Hebrew. He studied the Hebrew. But the word, the word work in the Hebrew, which is the language in which the Bible is written states that Adam was given the garden to work it. But the word work in Hebrew means worship. It also is defined as six days that’s what it means in the hebrew language is a six-day work week it tells adam adam he’s supposed to rest on the sabbath do you remember that part do you remember that part dr. berger was supposed to rest on the sabbath yes so that means the seventh day but it’s pretty specific that we’re supposed to work on the sixth day why do you think we’re supposed to what why do you feel like that genesis do you feel like it’s random as a guy who does believe the Bible, do you believe that it’s random that it talks about the sixth day? No, I don’t. Interesting pattern. Now, we go into Exodus, and Exodus talks about working on the sixth day, resting on the seventh day. So we get the Ten Commandments. Interesting. So, I don’t know if I like it though, because it’s Genesis 1, 24 through 26. I don’t know if I like this part, but it says, God said, I command the earth to give life to all kinds of tame animals, wild animals, and reptiles. And that’s what happened. God made every one of them. Then he looked at what he had done and said, it was good. God was a little bit not humble, you know. God said, now we will make humans, and they will be like us. We will let them rule the fish and the birds and all the other living creatures. And if you just keep reading, you’re going to find that he talks about how he got it all done in six days, but he rested on the seventh. Now I just am struggling to understand why God would hammer home working six days in Exodus and in Genesis. Could it be that it is not possible to become successful working five days a week? Now you would have to ask yourself, where does the jackassery, I mean concept, where does the jackass, I mean the concept, where does the concept, I mean the jack… The concept, where does the concept of the 40 hour work week come from? I’ve heard this before, but it’s right there on the tip and I know it, I know it, I’ve had it and I’ve lost it. 1938. I think it was around the Depression era. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1938, he rolls out this thing called the Fair Labor Standards Act, which officially creates the 40-hour work week. Now, we’ve got a bunch of hipsters living in a coffee shop, living on the couch with their mom and dad, working 35 hours a week, watching Bernie Sanders’ YouTube videos, wondering why they’re not having success. Yeah, somebody else needs to pay off my student loan. You can’t have success unless you say yes to working six days a week. You can’t compete if you don’t work six days a week. I’ve never had a single client walk through that door, walk out of that door as a consulting client who’s had any success at all that works 40 hours a week. I have never seen an author become successful working 40 hours a week. I’ve never seen a musician become successful working 40 hours a week. I’ve never seen a pastor. What? Oh, I’ve seen some pastors try. Or 20 hours. No, I’ve seen it. It’s interesting. It’s interesting how Wolfgang Puck goes on less vacation time than most people, but yet people look up to him. Right. Interesting. So I would just say if you’re out there today and you’re thinking about, Jason, let’s say that somebody has a business coaching session with you and they think about going home and asking their spouse for feedback on the strategy or their best friend. Why is that dangerous? To ask your spouse, hey honey, what do you think about the idea of call recording? Well it’s dangerous because, I mean, the whole premise of what we’re talking about is earmuffs, some people don’t deserve to be heard, and the one thing that I could throw out there, which I have to edit it since it’s on the podcast, is opinions are like stomas. Everybody’s got one. Or a couple. So you have to really, so many people operate in that opinion field. There we go. This argument or conversation, which always turns into an argument so many times. It’s like, oh, I think this. Well, it doesn’t matter. If somebody who knows something is telling you something, that’s a fact and facts are irrefutable. What is your skin color? My skin color is brown. I always joke and say it’s like caramel. So let’s have that conversation that people can’t have because the whole like, I’m going to offend somebody. He’s a beautiful man. Let’s have this real quick. Yes. I went to school in a town that was predominantly white in Minnesota. It was called Dassel Cokado. And there was a myth going around that the white guys can’t jump. Right. Or dunk. Right. And there was this one town called Waconia. W-A-C-O-N-I-A. There was these two brothers named the Hadeens. There was Joe Hadeen, I can’t remember his brother’s name, there’s two Hadeen brothers. And these guys were like six foot three, and they could fly. And they would dunk and just all the time. But in my town, I would like to have a conversation that you couldn’t possibly have in modern America right now. I’m going to have that. Someone will get offended. But we have somebody who’s not white in the room to mediate. He can be a referee here. I love to do that. This is what they said. This is what people in my town said. They go, well, you know the reason why white guys can’t dunk is it’s a genetic thing. Right. Have you heard that argument? We’re built this way. Dr. Breck, you played sports. Yeah, I could dunk actually. Not anymore, but there was a time. Now I’m telling you, I’ve heard that though. And I’m Caucasian, I’m white. How tall are you? 5’11”. Okay, so I’m just saying, I’ve heard though that argument in the town. You know the reason why we can’t dunk is because we’re missing part of like a tendon. Yeah, there’s a little tendon missing. It’s a little tendon. It’s very, it’s a urban myth. You know, right. Or you’ll hear a lot of white guys go, well the reason why that guy can’t rap is because he’s not black. Right, because his tongue operates differently. Or they’ll reverse it. I’d like Jason, because you are white and black simultaneously. True. You’re like Obama. Yeah, I like to think of it that way. But you grew up where you probably weren’t super accepted by either group, were you? No, not at all. That’s what my whole background, I did stand up. That was my whole routine because a lot of people don’t get it. And then I can’t have that conversation, so you put it in a funny element. And they’re like, oh, okay. So I would like to pick your brain. What are stereotypes that you have heard about black people that you could share on the podcast or about white people that you’re like, that’s insane. Well, so one that I can just like completely debunk is like the whole rap thing. So, oh, that guy can’t rap because he’s white. That’s nothing to do with your genetics, it has everything to do with how creative you are, and if you know anything about the whole structure. So rhythms, 808s, flows, knowing how to pull like similes, metaphors, all of that stuff. Because if you look at it, who’s one of the highest rated and highest grossing rappers of all time? Eminem. Both of you at the same time without you having to think about it. Eminem and Mac Miller, those guys did things that hadn’t previously been done by a Caucasian, but it was because there were very few Caucasians that were as committed to the craft as those guys. Exactly. But then you flip it around and what are things you hear about black people’s stereotypes that are maybe not positive? One of my favorites that always makes me laugh is, oh, you know, it’s just those African Americans, they can’t swim because their bones are too dense. I’m a great swimmer, and I know a guy, his name is Robert, he’s about, he’s almost seven feet tall, over 200 pounds, one of the fastest swimmers I’ve ever seen. And so all I’m saying is, if you’re out there today, and you want to play hockey, and you’re black, if you want to play basketball and you’re white, you want to be a rapper and you’re white, you want to, you can break through the stereotypes, but there’s all this ridiculous momentum called opinions. Well, and I’ll add something. You know, in my own ignorance, growing up in rural Oklahoma, I remember this little movie that Mario Van Peebles did called Posse. Posse. And the cool part about it, I mean, it was, you know, just a cowboy movie, probably early 90s I’m guessing. But at the beginning, it actually goes through statistics about every third cowboy was black. And it’s just something most western movies don’t really show in the movies or speak to. But I hadn’t really even thought about it. It’s just, like I said, just in my ignorance, just hadn’t really considered it. And then you start kinda seeing, well yeah, that would make sense. I just, there’s so many people out there that should be quarterback. But I mean, well, and where I was gonna go with it, I’ve got a rodeo, a patient who’s a rodeo cowboy, I mean, well-built, athletic black guy. I mean, you know, there’s a lot of black cowboys still today. And I mention this because there’s somebody out there that wants to play quarterback, but you’re black, and so you don’t try. Because you’re like, oh, I could probably be a running back. Quarterbacks are white, guys. There you go. And there’s somebody out there who wants to be a running back, but you don’t try because you’re white. And there’s all these, and so I’m just asking you right now, today, to take a moment and write down, just make a list of the areas in your life you’re being limited by the opinions and the false beliefs of those around you. Make a list of those things. So let’s get into our list we talked about today. Real estate, maybe you’re thinking about buying real, I just talked to a young couple this week and the discussion was, you know, should we break our lease and go buy a house? And I’m like, well, how much do you owe? And they’re like, well, you’d pay the first month’s rent and the last week’s, it’s a two month penalty. So it’s like $1,200 to break the lease. And I’m like, yes, break the lease. Why? Because that’s an agreement. It’s not unethical to break a lease if you’re settling based upon the terms of the agreement. So if you’re leasing a house and the agreement states that if you want out, you’ve got to pay two months, do it! Don’t complain about the penalty, but pay the penalty. Do it because the interest rates have never been lower. Do it! I talked to another couple this week. They’re going, I’m thinking about buying a foreclosure but I just don’t know if we don’t have the experience to do it. I was told by my dad I probably shouldn’t buy a foreclosure until I’m in my 30s. What are you saying? There’s somebody out there thinking about getting married right now but you’re like, well I was told I need to wait until after college. Get out of here! Get out of here! Everybody told me, Clay, you shouldn’t get married in your 20s. Is she pregnant by the way? No she wasn’t pregnant! And yes I got married when I was 20. Why? Because I did not benefit at all from being on the dorm rooms. People say, well, college is where you meet most of your friends for life. That may be true for you or it may not be. I don’t talk to anybody that I went to college with. You might say, well, Clay, the group interview, it sounds efficient, but my office front desk person thinks it’s offensive. Your front desk person also thinks it’s offensive that you should still be recruiting even when you’re fully staffed. Why? Because it makes people replaceable that won’t be compliant. Call recording. Well, my front desk guy says it’s unethical to record calls. He’d feel like he’s being micromanaged. Right! Which is why he needs the call recording. The no-brainer. You’re thinking about changing your life by coming up with a no-brainer offer, but you’re not going to do it because you ran it by your husband. Who’s wrong? True. Listen, female business owner, I’ve talked to a lot of you female business owners, and I know there’s a lot of discussion about who should lead the household and these certain things, but work with me on this, female business owner. If you’re right, he doesn’t have to be right, too. Just because he’s married to you doesn’t mean he should get a voice about how you’re going to mark up the prices of your retail items. Quit asking him. He’s as broke as a joke, and you know it. Just because you’re married to the guy doesn’t mean he gets to speak into your life jackassery. Or that he automatically got an MBA somewhere. It’s unbelievable. Another example would be, some people say, Clavis, what you’re saying to me, it is harsh and I don’t believe it. Have you actually cut off communication with members of your family who are actually in your close family? Have you actually cut off relationships forever because of their toxic worldview? Yes! Because I do not need to debate the merits of capitalism every Thanksgiving. I don’t need to work on my pitch every Thanksgiving. I don’t need to work on my anti-Bernie Sanders pitch. And the thing is, we used to have these people come over for Thanksgiving. I used to go over there for Thanksgiving. You sit down, I say, how are you? This is how the conversation would go every year. How are you? I said, things are great. He said, well, so how great are they? Well, they’re doing well. I mean, well, you know, I haven’t been able to find a job for like six months. And, you know, this economy is terrible, you know, you’re making so much. Don’t you think it’s wrong that you make so much and I make so little? I’m like, no, I don’t. No. Then we sit down to watch football. Usually it’s the Lions versus who gives a crap. Half the family’s asleep. People are, ate too much turkey, they’re watching the game and it’s like, man, it’s sad that those athletes make so much more than teachers. No, it’s not! Because if America wanted to pay $100 a ticket to watch a third grade teacher teach, we would do it! But we don’t want to! I’m not going to run around town wearing a jersey with the name of a teacher on it. You’re such a mean person. Okay, I’m asking you, Mr. Listener, why aren’t you wearing a jersey with the name of a third-grade teacher on it? Why aren’t you showing up at random high schools and paying, can I pay $200 to sit really close to watch? No, you don’t do that. You pay $200 to go watch the Thunder play, to watch the Denver Nuggets play. You’ll drop $300 to go watch the Miami Marlins play a baseball game, and you won’t even watch the game. You’re just going to be running around, drinking beer, having a blasty blast, but you, so yeah, it’s easy to say, well, ideologically, teachers should definitely get paid more. Well, maybe we agree with that, but they don’t, so move on. But every year I’d have to have the same stupid conversation with somebody who just wants to pick a fight every year. So I remember how freeing it was. I called him. Right. It was so helpful. I called him. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Yeah, what’s going on? What’s up? I just wanted you to know that I will never speak to you again. So I just wanted to let you know. Just to be clear, this is our last conversation. Let’s just roleplay all the scenarios real quick. You’re like, are you kidding me? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, some rant about health care, every birthday party, wedding you’ve ever been to, a couple of which we’ve had to go to for you. You know, it’s always been toxic. So here, I just want to make sure you understand the words coming out of my mouth here. If you are near death, like say you’re on the side of the road and you have one person to call, don’t call me because I’m blocking it, all right? If you are needing someone to attend a wedding number three, don’t call me. If you are finding yourself needing a friend, I am not that friend. If you say, I need my family, you don’t have any more. Whatever paperwork we need to fill out, we’re done. I’ll change my last name if I need to, but we’re done. And they’re going, really? I hate you. Like, well, good. I want that hate to keep you from calling me. And you burn that bridge. I’m telling you, I’m telling you, there’s somebody out there that’s got an abusive uncle in your family. Maybe you were raised with a father that abused you. I’ve had multiple clients of mine who their fathers beat them as kids. And as adults, verbally beat them. And I’m like, I give you permission to never speak to your father again. I realize he’s in a prison somewhere, but you don’t have to answer the phone call. Just because you share a little bit of DNA doesn’t mean that you have to continue to have a relationship. If it’s toxic, then it doesn’t need to be in your life. Just because you live in the hood doesn’t mean you have to stay in the hood. Just because you live in the woods doesn’t mean you have to stay in the woods. I see a lot of clients who are sharp people. They come in, they bring in their staff with them, great people, and they’ll say, Hey, I would like to introduce you to my staff. This here is my brother-in-law and he’s helping me with my sales. I’m like, Okay, what’s your name? Well, my name is Cletus and I do all the sales and I’ll tell you what. Well, Cletus, this week did you make your, you know, we’re talking, this week I guess we’re supposed to make a hundred calls a day Is that right? Well, I was I didn’t do it Well, why not? Well, cuz I didn’t want to and I see this business owner being held limited and helps and they’re being sabotaged by their redneck Cousin Cleaves it cleatus. Mm-hmm, and I’m going hey, mr. Business owner. Have you ever thought about firing cleatus? Well, I would never What he ever thought about firing cleatus? No, why cuz he’s my cousin. You’re aware that Cletus is stealing money from you and not making calls and not doing the job right and you’re not gonna fire him? Well, then they’ll say something like, well, blood’s thicker than water. I’m like, a perm was a haircut in the 80s. I don’t know, what does that mean? How is that helpful, that statement? Blood’s thicker than water. Okay, well, a perm was a haircut in the 80s. What does that mean? Nothing! The point is you got to punt that person. I mean, Jason, have you seen this before? Dr. Breck, have you seen this before? I mean, I want to get your take on this. Jason, have you seen a client who could be successful, but they have a moron as a partner, friend, and somebody in their business that’s just sabotaging it through their passive-aggressive jackassery? Same situation. And that same person was the head of sales and all of their leads. And every week that we would meet, the business owner could have been fantastic, but he left everything that was going to jumpstart the sale. So the person who’s supposed to make the calls, set the appointments, supposed to record all the data, go to somebody who didn’t want to do it, and then he didn’t have the stones to fire them because they were family. So I’m just telling you, if you’re out there today, if you want to become successful, you’re in a rare group of people if you get there. And it’s not lonely at the top, it’s just peaceful. That’s great. It’s very peaceful. I’m going to write that down. It’s very peaceful. Not lonely, it’s peaceful. Actually, I just finished handwriting a book about that. I have two books coming out that are handwritten. So yesterday at Camp Clark, we’re putting in the row of trees, we’re digging the trench for the entryway. We’re finishing up. Can’t wait to see it. It’s really cool stuff. And there was no drama the whole day. Nobody had a drug problem. Nobody was having issues. We didn’t have any fighting, no screaming, no yelling, no stealing, no Bernie Sanders debates. It was just a peaceful thing. I didn’t go over to my neighbor’s house and give them feedback. They didn’t come over to me and give me feedback. There’s no fighting, there’s no affairs, there’s no stealing, there’s no… It was a peaceful place. But Dr. Breck, speak into the life of somebody out there listening who’s got to break ties with somebody today. If there’s somebody in their life they’ve got to break ties with. Help somebody out there. Oh man. All right. So, like I said before, if you share some DNA with somebody it does not mean that they need to continue to be a toxic force in your life. So as an adult, Clay, myself, I believe Jason, we all three give you permission to no longer have that person in your life. And so, you know, if it’s a work environment, first of all, as a business owner, I recommend not ever hiring family in the first place. That is a lot of truth there. That’s my personal rule. And I would say this, I’ll say it because I want to make sure everyone gets this. Only hire somebody who you would fire if that is what was required. So if you hire somebody who’s unfireable, so I would say yes, I agree with the don’t hire family, unless you’re willing to fire them. Right. Also, don’t hire friends, unless you’re willing to fire them. And don’t hire anybody, unless you’re willing to fire them. Because if you have someone you can’t fire, that’s a bad sign. Then you’re now hostage again. Hostage. Yep. And so, yeah, anything that’s holding you back, if you actually want to be successful and you don’t want to be that statistic of the 9 out of 10 small businesses that will fail, then you have to be willing to do what others aren’t willing to do. And sometimes that’s a draw the hard line and you know rid your life of that toxicity in those toxic relationships. Think about this in a world where 75% of employees steal from the workplace, 75% and 85% of people lie on their resumes and nine out of ten small business owners fail, you probably should put on some earmuffs because not everyone deserves to be heard. And now without any further ado, three, two, one, boom! I mean, I remember some bills of $4,500 a month just to get leads that I was having to pay for and that’s only get a lead and a contact to where now I’m paying you $1,700 a month and I got 80 some leads last week alone and I paid you $1,700. And to me, that was huge for my industry. That was one huge thing that just blowed me away. Okay, folks, money is a magnifier. That’s what it is. Money is a magnifier. It’s an amplifier. It just makes you more of who you already were. So as an example, if you’re a complete jerk and you make a lot of money, you’ll become a bigger jerk. And on today’s show, we’re interviewing a longtime client who’s a really nice, kind, decent person. He doesn’t claim to be perfect, nor do I think that he’s perfect, but he’s a guy that I use over and over and over. I utilize his services to plant trees and do landscaping for my family, for my business, because I really enjoy him as a person. I consider him to be a friend, and it’s been awesome helping him magnify and grow his business. And without any further ado, we have the founder of Outside Inc., Paul Sullins. Welcome onto the Thrive Time Show. How are you, sir? Doing good, Clay. Thank you for having me. So Paul, I gotta ask you here, and correct me if I’m wrong, I’m looking at your tracking sheet, which for anybody out there who’s a client, we look at the tracking sheet. And last week you had 89 leads. So 89 people reached out to you to inquire about hiring you to do landscaping, pool maintenance, backyard work for them outside, remodeling kind of work. And then I’m looking at your tracking sheet like a year ago, and you were getting like four or five leads on a weekly basis. Can you maybe walk the listeners through what it feels like to be on the receiving end of 89 inbound leads in one week? It’s a little scary, to be straight honest with you. It’s awesome just to know that the amount of work up front that we put in is actually paying off. You see these people, you hear all these things, and you’re like, hey, it’s going to be there, it’s going to be there. It’s been kind of mind-blowing to sit there. And one of my office ladies comes in and goes, we’ve got 56 calls in one day, right after a rainstorm. And to actually realize the work and the effort that we put in is actually coming to fruition. It’s been amazing. What I’m going to do is I’m going to pull up your website and I’m going to showcase what you do so people can get the context, I know you’re not a hologram. Outside Inc. Irrigation, Outside Inc. Irrigation is one of the websites. Also, folks, if you do a search on Google for Outside Inc. and the word HULSA, you can find the website outsideinc.co. So two different websites there. When you go to outsideinc.co, we look here, we look at the services you provide. It’s French Drainage, it’s landscaping, you do monthly home maintenance. If you look at the irrigation services, you guys are doing irrigation system repair and installation. So you’re not the only guy in your market who’s providing irrigation systems or French drains, but you’re consistently getting a lot of leads. So I want to focus on the four aspects of business growth. There’s a lot of them we can focus on, but I want to focus on four today. The first is marketing. You’ve got to get reviews from happy customers. Every single week I harass you about this and every week you show up with more, but these are actual customers that have actually done business with you. Can you talk about the importance, and I’ll hit play, but I’ll hit mute as I’m playing these, can you talk about the importance of gathering objective video reviews from real customers each and every week. What kind of value has that made when you’re even talking to prospective clients? It’s made a lot of difference. I mean, a lot of the phone calls, we’ll sit there and go, hey, we’re the highest rated much reviewed company in Tulsa. We’re doing all these things. Yeah, we know. We went to your website. We saw the clients speak about what you had done around their houses and how well you communicated with them. And that’s how we decided to work with you guys. So it’s just, you know, I’ve put on, I’ve put on so many different client reviews and interviews on the webpage and it’s been completely different, you know, through some of your training and seeing some of your different videos from the business shows that you put on, Clay. I’ve noticed that we don’t have to have the best looking and the most entertained TV produced videos. It’s just getting videos of real people in their backyards, in their yards, and actually talking about you as a person and the products that we’ve done for them and how they’ve enjoyed it. How often when you meet somebody, and again we’re focused just on marketing right now, when you meet with somebody, how often does the potential buyer reference the fact that you, they’ve watched a video review or have looked at examples of video reviews on your website as a percentage? Like how often do they reference, yeah, I’ve seen some of the videos or I’ve seen some testimonials. Percentage-wise, I would say at least 25 to maybe 50%. I have a couple of different sales guys and I have some ladies answering the phones here. I’m hearing it all the time. I’ve got an office right next to the lady answering the phone. She goes, hey, how did you hear about us? Well, we Googled you and then it’s like, oh, hey, you know this, this, this. They were like, oh, yeah, we already looked at your website and saw all the views, all the video reviews you’ve done. I mean, it’s all the time. It might be more than that, but I would say in the neighborhood of 25 to 40%. And again, if you’re talking about marketing, folks, we’re talking about marketing, it’s VISM. There’s other details, but everyone needs to remember this. VISM, video reviews, images, search engine content, more reviews. Let’s hop on to I, images. You’re constantly gathering images of your projects. So it’s not an event. I think a lot of people think planting a garden is an event, and it’s not an event. I think people think that getting married is an event. It’s not an event. I think people think that raising a child is an event. It’s not an event, it’s a process. Every week you’re gathering images, before and after images of projects you’ve done. How has that paid off? Just the consistency of adding before and after images of projects. It’s been a, it’s actually done quite well. It gets my guys, number one, it helps my staff and us know that, number one, you know, because as the owner of the business, you can’t be on every job, you know, as you grow, it helps me know that the guys are doing what I’m wanting them to do in the field. My company is actually being portrayed the way I want it to be portrayed. And also, people always look at a company and look at, you know, we pull up in a nice fancy track and they’re like, oh, these guys, all they’re going to do is the big fancy jobs. Not all our jobs are big and fancy. We talk and we work for the average Joe, the average person in the background. When they’re able to look on and see some of these photos of just a little small French drain or we poured a little 10 by 10 concrete patio, it actually helps us relate better to the clients and the customers in the field. I feel just having all those videos and pictures. Just to be super clear, again, video reviews, got to get them every week, images of projects. You do a great job with that. Search engine content, our team handles the optimization, the ongoing updates on the website, so you don’t have to mess with that. How much does that help for you knowing that you don’t have to go in to your website and figure out how to code and update a website every week? There’s no way I’d be where I’m at if I had to stick or mess with that. Um, you know, running a company, a lot of people always say starting your business is an easy thing. It’s managing it and, um, keep on top of it. And these little details like this, I mean, we’re in the age now. Word of mouth is one way, but most all, everybody’s going to Google and going to your websites to see how to get hold of you. And that’s the marketing we are in today, society. And I think that is super important to have that up and running. And when I don’t have to mess with it, it is blowing me away because I mean, I’ve got to deal with my employees, I’ve got to deal with all this other stuff. And so it’s just a huge peace of mind to know that that’s just taken care of. I don’t have to mess with it at all. So again, we go back to this VISM. And I think one way we learn is through repetition, video reviews, images, search engine content, the ongoing optimization of the website. We handle that for all of our clients. And then M, more reviews. We’re never done getting reviews. And so right now, if somebody goes to Google and they do a search right now and they type in Tulsa tree planting, which is how I originally heard about you was I was looking to plant trees at one of my properties. I went to a church called Church on the Move, a really wonderful church that at the time was led by Pastor Willie George. And the trees looked incredible on the property. And so I kept asking people, who does the trees? Who’s doing the work? And I kept hearing your name. And that’s how I first met you. And now today when someone types in Tulsa tree planting, you come up top in the search results, 703 reviews, you’re constantly getting video reviews, images, search engine content, more reviews. Let’s talk about that for a second. How much has it helped you to have the most Google reviews? In addition to video, but the most Google reviews. It gives you validity. I really think with people, I kind of tell this to people all the time, is like, I talk to my buddies of mine that own businesses and or in any kind of a service industry and I’m like, what do people do nowadays? They go to Google, they Google. They’re Googling for French grains, they’re Googling for this, they’re Googling where to go eat. And if you, to be at the top of Google gives you the opportunity to actually talk to a client and to bid it. Now, we still have to go out and sell the job to the client, but it’s been very important and very helpful to be able to be at the top to be able to get that. I don’t know if I quite answered your question. No, this is great. And you’ve got the four aspects of business I want to focus on today. Again, step one, marketing and branding. We covered that. The web branding is anything people see, the website, the print pieces, the logo, the auto wraps. We handle all that with you. We do a lot of that work behind the scenes. That’s marketing and branding. The second step is sales. Sales is converting an ideal and likely lead or an ideal and likely buyer into an actual buyer. I believe that a lot of times, and I’ve worked with companies in the past that helped me with my marketing when I was first starting DJConnection.com, and I would say, well, yeah, I’m getting a lot of leads, but I’m not selling anything. And they would say, we don’t really help with that. We just focus on the marketing or just the branding, or just, I wanna get your thoughts on the sales thing. You do a very good job of tracking. I won’t show your tracking numbers on today’s show, but you do a very good job of tracking. This is how many leads that came in. This is how many people bought. How has that helped you measuring and tracking your sales? Number one, it helps me because as I’ve grown, I’ve got multiple salesmen that work with me. Number one, I’m able to see what my guys in the field are selling every week. It also gives me time to see, or not time, but gives me the capabilities of looking and seeing how our ebbs and flows are in my business. I’m an outdoor service company so in the springs in the fall it’s able to see when I need to gear up for employees when I need to gear up and get guys ready for stuff when our down times are so you know over the last two years I’m able to go back and look at going hey you know January and February is going to be real slow December so I really need to start as a business owner in October you know September and October start pushing sales and start finding different ways to be able to get more business to keep my guys going so we can book out over that time. So if I wasn’t able to track my sales, my leads coming in, the jobs were sold, I wouldn’t know. You get so busy in your day in and day out, you don’t focus on that stuff. Me meeting with you every week as a business coach and able to sit there and look at that stuff every week, you get trained to be able to look at that stuff and be able to see stuff ahead as you’re growing your business and not looking in the rearview mirror going, man, I wish I would have kept that going or wish I would have known about that six months ago because then I would have been able to adjust then to help us now. And now I’m sitting there going, hey, I’m going to make money to pay bills and we got to get some jobs sold and I’m working in the rearview mirror trying to get stuff closed that we should have been working on three to four months ago. Now most of the clients I work with, I charge clients a flat rate of $1,700 a month plus a small percentage of growth. And the idea is hopefully I’m the cheapest employee that you have. You know, so look at it and you go, okay, I’m paying this guy $1,700 a month. Okay. Hopefully I’m the least expensive person on the payroll, the least expensive line item. But over time, once we produce fruit, hopefully that small percentage of growth, that small percentage of the growth makes it all worth it. You know, and so that’s the idea is to achieve that true win-win. And so the next, the third aspect of the business coaching I wanted to cover on today’s show is management. So you look at a great project like this, you gotta do marketing, branding, true. Step two, you’ve got to do sales. But three, you’ve got to manage. And I think that most people who are self-employed feel sort of isolated and annoyed. I feel like most self-employed people feel isolated and annoyed. They feel like, am I the only one seeing the level of jackassery that is often allowed in the American workplace today? And I have to work with all my wonderful clients to teach best practice management systems. I think you do a fine job of that. That’s something that you, in my opinion, is one of your strengths. You do a very good job of communicating the expectations directly to the client, and you manage those expectations. You tell the client, hey, Mr. Smith, hey, Ms. Smith, we’re going to have your pool remodel or your pool fix or your pool house fixed or your outdoor siting project, your outdoor landscaping, we’re going to have your retaining wall, we’re going to have whatever the project is, we’re going to have it done by this particular day. It’s going to cost this amount of money. And you do a very good job of managing that relationship with the client and then managing those employees by the behind the scenes. Can you talk to us about the importance of just mastering management techniques? Well, I don’t know if anybody’s ever a master. One of the things I’ve learned, you know, and I’ve had clients over and over in my field sat there and going, man, when you said you were there, you were there. You were there every time you said you were going to be there. And you did what you said you were going to do. And that, you know, number one, I like to be a man of my word. I mean, I like to be able to tell people when we’re going to be there. I work in the outdoor industry. I mean, it rains. We’re in Oklahoma, so you’re going to have delays. But setting those expectations with the clients, number one, helps me to be able to go, hey, it’s rain. I can’t get it. We’ve been delayed because of this. And setting those expectations up front makes for a happy end product with your clients. And just going through the process, say, hey, even when I sell the job, I’m like, hey, we’re the highest rated, most reviewed company in Tulsa right now, and here’s the reason why. But that also comes with, we’re really busy. We’re not going to be able to get to you tomorrow. And the thing is, the people that can get to you tomorrow are probably not going to give you the best product. And setting those expectations with the clients up front, letting them know, hey, we’re going to be a little behind. We’re, you know, we’re six weeks out, we’re eight weeks out and letting that client know that and then keeping them up to date. Then the client knows, hey, they just didn’t take my deposit or they just didn’t take this and just disappeared. They know that, hey, we’re coming down, you know, we’re there, we’re still there, we’re going to get the benefit. So I think that’s one of the things that’s helping really to set that set with your clients, and it makes it important to them at the end. Some of these jobs are an investment for their backyard. It’s a lot of money for them on some of these projects. It’s just like buying a house. You want to know that you’re getting what you’re paying for, and it’s going to be there when you expect it to be there. We could share just hundreds of video testimonials or Google reviews. I’m just showing some examples here. But again, the final area I wanted to cover on today’s show, again, I’m just making sure we’re recapping, marketing and branding, that’s how you generate leads. Second step is sales, you convert ideal and likely buyers into sales. Three is management, you have to manage the expectations. And then the final step is accounting and what I would classify as merit-based pay. At the end of the day, it’s not how much money you make, it’s how much you keep. And I just don’t think that most people think about that when they’re growing a business. And that’s becoming an increasingly part of our ongoing conversations is making sure that, cause A, you’re the kind of guy that quotes a customer a price and you hold yourself accountable to not changing your bid on the client. But that doesn’t mean that subcontractors or employees won’t try to change the game on you and all of a sudden drive up your expenses. So can you talk about that, that final step of just the accountings? I think a lot of entrepreneurs, when they reach out for a business coach or a consultant, they don’t think about the accounting. But I would argue, as we continue to grow outside Inc, the accounting aspect of your business is becoming a bigger part. I firmly agree. I just actually just came out of a meeting talking about accounting and bills and what’s coming in. Fresh on my mind. And as you grow your business, one of the things, I think as you’re young, you’re just trying to get jobs done. You’re just trying to get whatever you can go. But as you grow, it becomes a huge part. It becomes, I think, more than what most people think it’s gonna be. And getting, keeping the money and keeping the accounting, it’s just like this last year, Clay, me and you had been talking about doing merit-based. Because I think once if you get, if you pay people enough where they’re comfortable, they stay there. They don’t want to grow. You know, as your business grows, you want to grow. You want to give them more money. You know, most people want more money. I think everybody would, you know, not frown against getting some extra money, but as a business owner, you want your salesman, you want your guys out there in the field wanting to be able to make more money. And if you just keep them on a hourly basis, there’s no growth for them to perform better and to make more money. So this last year, I’ve switched my sales guys to 100% commission. I used to have them above base and I put them over to commission. And the amount of calls of clients looking for their bids has got and over half. He’s selling more jobs by, I would say, 30 to 40 percent, maybe more than that, since we’ve been tracking it. It’s maybe a huge, huge thing. Because the thing is, if he doesn’t sell, he doesn’t get paid any money. And so, you know, especially when you find people that are eager to make more money, they’re going to sell more. You know, this is one thing I wanted to bring up, and I’ll let you go here because I know you’re a busy guy here. For anybody out there that doesn’t know this, when I built my first company called DJConnection.com, after every event we did, I was obsessive about calling the bride after the wedding and asking them to leave us an objective review. Now, this is before Google was super relevant, so we had WeddingWire and the Knot.com and those kind of things, or we would get video testimonials on an old school video camera we had back in the day. We would archive them, and at a certain point, I remember I talked to a bride and she said to me, you have thousands of video testimonials. And I said, oh yeah, absolutely. And then now today people go to thrivetimeshow.com, they click on testimonials. And I had a call, I had the other just the other day with a wonderful man. And he was saying to me, I was going through your testimonials and I had to stop around like page 30 because I kept looking at the testimonials. I realized there is really no end in sight. I mean, I’m looking at this and there’s like years after years after years of video testimonials. And I said, well, yeah, because we document that. That’s a very important thing that we do. But I want to ask you this question. For anybody out there that’s thinking about coming to one of our workshops or scheduling a free 13 point assessment with myself to go over how to grow their company, what would you say, or maybe what kind of impact do you think that business coaching with our program has made on your business? It’s been huge. One of the things I’ve loved, the problem is a lot of times with business owners is they’re, I feel, especially with me, we come from, for my instance, I come from, I call it W-2 employee status, working for somebody and said, hey, I’m gonna go out here and start my own business. Well, I didn’t go to business school. Nobody’s told me the next steps. What, what I really need to focus on because, um, as you grow this business, I’m like, what is it there? You know, you can read a thousand books and what’s made it huge for me is to be able to come along, you know, have you come along beside me and something to go, Hey, you need to focus on this and this is why you need to focus on this and this is why. Because when we get, when we get down in what I call the trenches as a business owner you’re sitting there going man if you all you do is focus on that you can never focus on what you really need to do you can’t focus on your accounting and stuff like that and it’s been amazing it’s actually I don’t know how much it’s grown my company so far in the last two years but it is the peace of mind is unreal because I’m not looking at my numbers at the moment. But it has been huge. It’s just like I used to have to pay, I think it was, I think we were paying in the neighborhood of $4,000 a month just for leads, just to get leads in now, two years ago. I mean, this time of the year, we’re, I mean, I remember some bills of $4,500 a month just to get leads that I was having to pay for, and that’s only get a lead and a contact to where now I’m paying you $1,700 a month and I got 80 some leads last week alone and I paid you $1,700. And to me, that was huge for my industry. That was one huge thing that just blown me away. And I’ll say this too, you are a client that’s more private about your numbers. That just goes with your personality. I’ve had some of my clients are a little bit more flashy, they love to talk about their sales and their sales. But I can say this, I was looking at year over year, so you take the month of May when we’re recording this and you look at this week, last year, and last week you had eight leads. So last year, this week, you had eight leads, from what I can tell on the tracking sheet. And this week we had 89. So whatever that’s worth for anybody out there, and again, we have some of our clients that like to talk about gross sales and we, and Paul keeps it more private and that’s totally fine. So I just encourage everybody out there, you can have a tenfold increase in your number of leads, your amount of activity, you can do it, but you got to be a diligent doer. You can’t just be a hearer of these words. You have to implement what you’re learning. And Paul, I really appreciate you for making the Thrive Time Show World headquarters look incredible. Thank you for the maintenance you provide. Thank you for the work you provide. And again, it’s been awesome serving you. So again, thanks for your time today, sir. Hey, thank you, Clay. Have a great day, buddy. Take care. Bye. All right, bye. I’m Glenn Shaw, owner of Shaw Homes in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Started the company in 1985. At that time, it was one employee doing everything, me. I met Aaron Entis in 2007. The top three things that Aaron did for Shaw Homes was he was a real estate agent. He was a real estate agent. He was a real estate agent. He was a real estate agent. The top three things that Aaron did for Shaw Homes was he brought in processes that helped us be able to repeat over and over. He brought in unique hiring skills. He was able to find the right people for the right seat on the bus. Aaron brought sales techniques that we weren’t familiar with up until that time. When Aaron came, we were selling about 80, 85 houses a year. And during the 16-year period, we sold sales, get up over 400. Before I met Aaron, the only sales manager we had was myself. was my cell, and I was completely unable to perform that job. And so Aaron brought major changes and great results with him. In the many years that I was building houses before Aaron, I was great at selling if somebody wanted to buy. But they had to be knocking on my door asking me to sell them a house before I could actually make that sell. I had no sales techniques and no ability to generate sales. Aaron coming in as a natural salesperson just absolutely transformed that and made the sales experience better for the company. I’d sit in the model home over the weekend, and I had a salesperson or two, but I was actually out there all weekend working that. Since hiring Aaron, I was able to take my weekends off, even reduce my workload during the week. I went from working 60, 70 hours a week to almost a normal workload. So I’ve been a member of the Builder20 program in the National Association of Home Builders for 25 years, 20 years. And during that time, I’ve seen a lot of sales managers with the other companies that have been involved. In my opinion, Aaron is smarter and sharper than any sales manager of any builder that’s ever been in our group. Some markets, they don’t have to try to sell, they just sell themselves. But with the ability to sell and to train and hire, Aaron was better than any of those sales managers that were in my program. Well, I remember when I considered hiring Aaron many years ago, the thought of spending the extra money was a little scary, but in hindsight, it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. It freed my time, increased our sales, and at the end of the day, increased our profitability beyond my wildest expectations. Years ago, I was concerned that if I didn’t do whatever a customer asked me to do, it might be the last house I sold. And so, over time, we were able to move away from unlimited customization to pre-designed options. The problem that we were having in those days is that the customer would tell us what they wanted, but they didn’t really know what they wanted. And we would deliver exactly what they told us to do, and they wouldn’t be happy with it. So, as we became more standardized, we give lots of options, but we don’t customize. And in the end, that allows us to sell more homes for better margins than spending countless countless hours trying to customize in just every avenue of the sales process. We get weekly reports on sales, on profitability, on production, and it provides all the manageable tools that I need to review the company from a 10,000 foot level. Alright Thrive Nation, on today’s show we’re going to focus on is how to grow a successful company. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to pull up a graphic that is the theory of how to grow a successful company, but vision without execution is hallucination. And so if you go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash millionaire, you can download a book that I have written called A Millionaire’s Guide, How to Become Sustainably Rich. You can download it for free at thrivetimeshow.com forward slash millionaire, but you have to actually implement that which is in the book and so on today’s show we’re joined by a very successful Person in the home building business a great friend of mine a man by the name of Aaron Antus Aaron It is welcome on to the thrive time show. How are you sir? I’m doing great clay. Thanks for having me on Hey, so I got to ask you this for people out there that want to prove you’re not a hologram first off What’s the website for your company so people can verify that you are in fact a real business you bet it’s Shawhomes.com. S-H-A-W-H-O-M-E-S dot com. Shawhomes.com. I’m pulling up Shawhomes.com. That’s the website. Shawhomes.com. And when you and I met, before we met, you had been already very successful as a home builder. You turned your dream of being a home builder guy into reality. Yeah. And so how many homes had you sold or what kind of sales had you done in your career as a home builder guy before you and I even met? Before we met, probably about $750 million in sales prior to meeting you. And then you did, the year we first started working together, what were the sales totals that year? We were at like $19 million. $19 million. And then when you ended 2022, obviously we’re in 2023 and so we’ll see how this year ends, but as far as ending 2022, how much sales did you do last year at the end of 2022? Uh, 2022 we were at like 84 million. Okay, so from 19 million to 84 million. 84 million. So you’re doing some things right here and we’re going to try to do is kind of demystify the plan here. Okay, so here we go. So, um, establishing revenue goals. Yep. Um, when you and I first started working together, we started off with a 13-point assessment. We went over your goals. I’m not going to ask you to share your goals on the air, but why is it important that you have goals? Well, I mean, goals are sort of your guideposts that, you know, you set something out there in front of you and you start chasing after it. And without that, you’re just kind of floundering in mediocrity. You don’t have any reason to get up in the morning and really get after it. And so, you know, I think goals are, you know, it’s, you can have lots of different types of goals. And we’ve talked about a lot of this. We’ve talked about, you know, having financial goals and having, you know, fitness goals and having friendship goals and just all these different areas. I know you’ve got the F6, you know. So that’s kind of something that, you know, we touched on very early on. You asked me like, is the goal, is one of your goals more income or is it more time? And so I said, well, really at this point it’s more income. And then later it became more time. So you know, it’s changed over the time I’ve known you since 2016, we’re going on seven years and the income went up considerably. So now it’s, you know, turned in the last couple of years towards more time. Now the break even numbers, again, I’m not asking you for the numbers on the show, but you guys have a lot of fixed costs. I mean, if you go to Shawhomes.com, you’ve got framers, you have plumbers, you have tile people, you have so many skilled people, you have a full-time sales team, you have an admin staff, and if you don’t sell a house, you still have the service of the land, you still have all the overhead. Why is it important for every listener out there to know their breakeven point? How many deals they need per month just to break even. Well, yeah, because you’re going backwards real quick and it doesn’t take very long if you’re at the beginning of your business. It doesn’t take very long for you to be in a place where the creditors are knocking at your door and you can’t pay your bills and all of a sudden you’re going to lose all your – for us, all of our trades, all of our suppliers are going to start backing out. else. So, you know, you’ve got to know what that number is that lets you tread water so that, you know, okay, this is the worst case scenario, everything above that, at least I’m into the profit zone. So, you know, you go out of business pretty quick. Most businesses don’t last more than just a few months if they get below that break-even number. So now folks, again, these might seem like simple steps, but they’re all the linear steps you have to take to create time, freedom, and financial freedom. And if you want to grow your company, this is how you do it. Box number three, though, is you have to know the hours you’re willing to work. Now, your incredible wife is here off camera for accountability, so at any point, she could yell like, amen, or boo! But you guys are on the same page with the hours you’re willing to work, and you guys, as a couple, I want to brag on both of you, you guys both committed to sacrificing time and energy and a lot of things to get to where you’re at in life. And then as you had your children, you raised them, you decided to devote time to raising said kids. And now that your kids are older, you’re devoting time to raising these kids. So it’s not like you advocated being a parent while also growing a company. You did both well. I’d love to get your thoughts on sitting down with your spouse, if you’re watching this today, or your significant other, and making sure you’re on the same page about how many hours per week you’re willing to work. Well, yeah, I mean, you don’t want to grow a business to make a whole bunch of money just so you can split it in half later. Oh. Because that’s kind of what happens when you don’t work out those details ahead of time. And so my wife and I have been married 25 years. We’ve been together for four before that. And so yeah, 20, sorry, 26. Did I just say 25? 26. I hate to do this to you. I just got in trouble. I hate this. Your wife just turned 27 on Thursday and what you said is 100% false. Okay, so the unique value proposition here. Now let’s talk about this. Whether it’s growing a home building company or a dog training business or a haircut chain or a carpet cleaning franchise or whatever business we’re involved in helping to grow, you have to sit down as a listener out there, as a business owner, and you’ve got to figure out what makes your company unique. Absolutely. So I want to ask you, what makes Shaw Homes unique in the marketplace with other home builders? Yeah, we have more furnished and decorated model homes than any other builder in the market. So, you know, a lot of times people, when they walk into a home and they’re trying to decide if they like the floor plan, the layout, whatever, they usually, most builders in our market have an empty house that they walk into. It’s just kind of echoes when you walk through it. There’s no furniture or anything. And we completely, as you can see in this little video here, we completely furnish and decorate it, make it beautiful. We are the most award-winning builder in the state of Oklahoma. We’ve won like five times as many awards as any other builder in the market. So definitely that is one of our big takeaways. Now I’m going to throw you under the bus real quick, and I don’t mean to do this super passively aggressively it’ll just be more of a subtle passive-aggressive. When I met you, you guys have all these awards but no one knew. That’s true. It was like this weird bizarre thing where you have all these awards. I remember talking to you and I’m like what makes you guys different and you’re like you know we do a good job and you’re gonna be nice about it you’re a good salesperson but I said well I mean tell me about the awards and you’re like well we got this award, that award, this award, like 45 minutes later it’s like that award, this award, I need to shave now, this award, that award, I need to go brush my teeth, this award, that award, I want to go mow the lawn now, this award, that award, I’m thinking about retiring, this award, my kids are turning 18, I can see it, this award, you’re just going, and this award, and that award, and so we put those on the website and that helped. And the other thing you guys were, we needed to change was all these people were saying great things, but we didn’t have video reviews of them saying it on camera. Right. So it was like your online reputation didn’t match your real world reputation. It’s so much good momentum there. And so many people love you guys. And now you guys have, would you say a hundred video reviews? Oh gosh, I would say more than that. We’ve got, yeah, we have a lot. Everyone can just keep scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. And this is actually all that’s on this page. If you go to our YouTube channel, we have way more than this. So again, and this is all the stuff. You’re going to grow a successful company, folks. Step one, you’ve got to figure out your revenue goals. Step two, you’ve got to figure out your break-even goals. Step three, sit down for an hour of power. Sit down with your spouse. Make sure that you guys are on the same page of your hours you’re willing to work. Step four, unique value proposition. Figure out what it is that makes you unique. And we have an in-depth guide that you can download for free at Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash millionaire if you get stuck. Next box. You got to improve your branding, your website, your one sheet, in your case model home presentations, business cards, social media branding, everything that a customer sees needs to be first class. And I was talking to a guy named Ronnie Morales today and it’s Morales Brothers. I think you met him at a conference. He told me this and I’m not slamming Ronnie Ronnie if you’re listening, I’m not slamming This is the real thing Ronnie said he’d listen to our show for seven consecutive years Before ever reaching out and now he’s reached out and he’s up 57% in about eight months that’s awesome, and we’re gonna put his story on part two of today’s show because he’s in Texas and He’s seven years behind you. Yeah, but he’s doing a great job What do you think that thing is where people have bad branding and we’re not aware of it? Someone hasn’t brought it to our attention? What causes bad branding? You know, the number one thing I hear business owners say is, well, you know, I don’t really need good branding because I sell everything by word of mouth. Oh yeah, baby. I’ve got such an incredible reputation that everybody just comes to me by word of mouth. And then it’s like, okay, yeah, but how much business did you do last year? Well, not very much. And, you know, I’m really unprofitable, but I’ve got great reputation out there and I get a lot of word of mouth. So when people switch over to starting to improve branding, I know you helped us a lot with that in just creating a lot better looking website, creating, you know, we’ve got an office environment now that is when people walk into our model home, they are blown away. We truly wow our customers when they come to our model homes. It’s a one of a kind experience in the state of Oklahoma. And the process of that, just going through, branding it so that it looks really top notch. And that includes everything from marketing to all of your senses and everything else. So it just really brought us to another level. And when the customer comes in and experiences us after having walked through other builders’ homes, they usually come in and go, you guys are just on a whole nother level. It’s sights, sounds, smells, experiences, everything that your customer sees, they’re grading you on. And you might not know that they are even judging you because they’re not filling out the form. And I have a funny story to share with you that’s kind of sad. I was working with a fitness guy years ago, and I’m not gonna tell you what studies he’s in or what study folks, I know you wanna know, but I’m not gonna tell you. And he filled out the form because his wife wanted him to schedule a 13-point assessment. He did not want to. And he tells me, Clay, honestly, I’m just doing the call because my wife wants me on the phone. I got to, I don’t really don’t get leads from social media. I don’t get leads from marketing. I get all my leads word of mouth, like you were saying. And I said, well, let me just do this. Let’s just this first month working together. Let me get all the passwords for your Facebook, your Google, your YouTube. And I’m just as the first month we are, we just with every single client, we optimize your YouTube, your Facebook, your Instagram, your Twitter, your all that. We log on. This is a fitness guy. He was spending like 400 bucks a week, every week on ads. And he hadn’t known, he wasn’t aware that every time a lead came in, it got stuck in Facebook and went to an email address that he wasn’t checking. So think about this. That’s not good. And it’s like 15 to 20 leads a week for years this guy had. That’s not good. And he didn’t even, so I’m going, you’re spending, you know, 20 grand a year on ads that you’re not getting anything from. And are you aware that the phone number on your site rings to a phone that’s no longer a real phone. And I’m serious, this was real. And then he had before and after photos where somebody had had the idea of let’s get before and after photos. You know, where you interview someone before they start working out? But then they never completed the thought. You know what I’m saying? I do. Where it’s like they interview them about getting in shape, but then they never actually like aired the part where they’re in shape? Oh no. So it’s just sort of like an interview with people that are not in shape, and I’m like, and again, he’s a busy guy, busy entrepreneur, that kind of stuff is very common. It’s kind of laughable if it’s not your company. But okay, next box. You gotta determine your customer acquisition costs. How much does it cost you to get a customer? So Aaron, you guys run ads on Google, on Facebook, on retargeting ads. You have massive signage, there’s a lot of stuff you do. Why is it important to know how much it costs you at the end of the day to get an actual new buyer of a shawl? Well because if you want more of those, you know what it costs to go generate more of those. And it’s a cost where it’s like, okay, well, I’m down in sales this month or this quarter or whatever, and I need four more sales to make it a good quarter here before the end of the quarter. And it’s like, I know I can go put money into that and it’s going to cost me X number of dollars per customer to get there. And so then it’s just a matter of, do I want to spend that money to get to that point? So for us, it’s a pretty high number because it’s a big ticket item, but for some people, it might be very small to get that each customer. For us, you’ve got to know what the number is because ultimately that goes into the price of your product and whatever you sell. We’re doing homes. That is one of our line item costs in our homes. That’s a cost. Yeah. Now, if you go to any of the businesses that I’m involved in, you go to eitrlounge.com forward slash staff. I put in the password here. Once I put in the password, I have all of the documents needed to run the company and they’re all saved. So the checklist for the manager, the opening checklist for the assistant manager, the bathroom cleaning checklist, everything needed to grow the company’s all in one place. And therefore, the business, everybody who works there knows where to go to find those documents. This is the kind of stuff that fires me up and it makes other people crazy. Oh yeah. So with the conferences we do, if we ever do a conference that’s out of town, I have a checklist of stuff I print out. I know it seems kind of crazy for people, but this is real. I print it out and it’s like, okay, socks. I’m gone for four days. I want to have 12 pairs of socks. Why? Because it could be hot. I don’t know. It could get wet. I don’t know. I have a list of deodorant and socks and shaving and I have a laptop and a backup laptop and I have patch cables and XLR cables and we bring three… You’ve seen all this stuff, but it’s multiple monitors, backup monitors. It’s backups for everything. When you guys build a Shaw home, you’re not moving off of guesswork. There’s blueprints, there’s plans, there’s systems, so houses don’t fall down. There’s somebody out here listening right now that doesn’t have systems in place. They don’t have checklists. They don’t have it. And so they have to think about everything all the time, because if not, they forget a step. What would you say is the importance of having taken the time to have built these systems now. It is the night and day difference between running around like your hair is on fire every day, constantly playing firefighter, or you hear people say, I’m up to my armpits in alligators. It’s because you don’t have systems and processes. And every time at Shaw Homes, every time that we have a problem come up, we automatically go, okay, what step in our system did this fall apart in? And what’s broken in that step? And how can we fix it so it never happens again? So we go fix the process. You know, we address the problem for the customer, but then we go back after that and we go, how do we fix the process so we don’t repeat this problem? And the business owners that are running around with their hair on fire all the time, it’s because there’s no systems, no processes. Everything is urgent. Everything is hair on fire. And it is a chaos world that you live in. And if you’re going to build homes for a living and build a lot of them, you cannot live in that chaos world. Now, this next box, I get excited about all these boxes. This is what I get excited about. This this right here is what I care about. OK, the next box is boxes, management and execution. You have people on your team and I’m just going to give some examples and I hope this benefits somebody out there listening. You have people on your team, it’s their responsibility every time that you do a new house, they go out there and they design, or they get the blueprint on the website. They get the new design of the home because people want to see floor plans. So somebody’s job is to get those up there. Somebody gets photos of every house that you guys are building. Somebody gets videos of every house. Somebody puts them all up for sale. Somebody answers the phone every day. Somebody calls the leads every day. Somebody cleans the bathroom every day. Somebody builds the houses every day. Now this is what I find, and I’m sure none of our listeners can relate to this. Some of our listeners fire people and then nothing happens. So work with me on this. There’s listeners out there that I talk to every day because we do free 13-point assessments. So I talk to two or three people a day who go to ThriveTimeShow.com. They want to schedule a consultation. And the other day you heard me talking to Jordan. I said, Jordan, go ahead and keep setting those. Because he set an appointment with someone who’s definitely not a good fit. And you could tell he had a little question if that was okay. And I said, I’d rather you set an appointment with somebody than not, because I don’t know if who’s a good fit or not. But the idea though is, I sit down, I was talking to a guy the other day, and he was like, the reason why my team did not get Google reviews or videos reviews this week is because we fired a guy. And I go, cause I’m just asking him, you know, where are we stuck? What’s your biggest limiting factor? I have a big process I go through in my evaluation. I said, who calls the leads? He’s like, well, normally I have a person that calls the leads, but we just fired her. And I mean this, I’m going, how long have you been in business? This guy’s been in business for over 10 years and he’s reaching out for help. Good person, we’re trying to help him. I think it’s gonna be a good fit. But, so I said, so basically, everybody follows the systems until they don’t work there anymore, and then no one does the systems. And you go back and forth vacillating from things being done to not being done. And one of my favorite things about working with you guys is that you’re honest people. What does that mean? You do your best to do what you say you’re going to do, and you hold yourself and the employees accountable. Absolutely. But what would happen if every week you, if somebody wasn’t performing, you remove them from the position and then the houses weren’t built for the week because something wasn’t going well or because maybe a salesperson wasn’t performing at the peak, you let them go and the next thing you know, what would happen if you managed your company that way? It would be a disaster. I mean, I can’t just fire my superintendent without having somebody already ready to take over all of those responsibilities because I’ve got materials showing up at the job site today, tomorrow and the next day. I’ve got trades showing up who need some supervision, need to know what they’re supposed to be doing. If I fire that guy with no warning, somebody else has to come fill in that position. So for us, we try to never have that gap happen. And sometimes it’s like you know that you’re gonna need to fire somebody and you can see the writing on the wall, but you wanna get the next person up and ready to go before that happens. And you guys have a weekly meeting. So we talk a lot of the show from an employer perspective, but how frustrating would it be to be an A-player employee and you’re working for a C-player boss? You know, a boss that doesn’t have a staff meeting, that’s not organized, that doesn’t pay people on time, that’s constantly emotional. I see that a lot. And so management is a learned skill. And thankfully, you know, when I first met with you, you’d already really mastered, in my opinion, managing people. But this next box is where I thought we needed some help, was to build a system for constantly recruiting new people, because certain people work for Shaw Homes for three years or four years, and then they want to go move, they want to have a baby, they want to stay home, they want to get a new job. Even though you have low turnover at Shaw, certain people get to their expiration date and it’s time for them to move on to something else. Because we didn’t have a process in place at Shaw at that time to consistently bring in a pipeline of new people, it made it difficult to do the management that was needed. Can you talk about the importance of implementing a human resources program for hiring, inspiring, training, and retaining good people. It’s huge. I mean, that was definitely an Achilles heel for us. And you helped us a lot with that. You know, putting in a, you know, where every single week I’m seeing, you know, potential candidates that could come work for us and their job shadowing and seeing what it’s like to work in our company every single week. Yep. It does multiple things. It helps the people who work there to know, hey, there’s other people who desire to come work here. And if I’m not doing my job, I might get replaced. So there’s a little bit of that. And then it’s also a thing of the people who are shadowing get to see the job being done by people who are happy doing their job. And it helps them to want to come be a part of Shaw Homes. I’ve got a very long list of people right now in every single position that would be excited to come work for us if I did all of a sudden find myself with an opening, you know, because occasionally people leave with no notice or whatever, you know, something happens, family emergency, whatever. Right. And you have that, oh, I need to replace somebody immediately. And the great thing about it is I have a whole bunch of people that I could plug into that position very quickly because every single week I am interviewing. Now, the next box here is you got to do your accounting and in order to automate, in order to earn millions, you have to automate your accounting. What does that mean? You have to have a system in place for making sure you price your products and services correctly and that you pay yourself first, that you set aside a set amount of money to pay yourself and your staff. All these things work together. And what I find is people ask me often just not knowing they come from a place of a good heart. They don’t know. They say to me, Clay, what is the most important step in growing Shaw homes? I’ve heard Aaron on the show. He’s a great guy. Clay, I’ve heard PMH OKC on the show. Clay, I’ve seen Oxi Fresh on the show. What was the most important thing they did? And to me, that’s like asking a hiker, what was the most important step you took to get to the top of that mountain? Well, I was the one we took there an hour ago. I took a left step. No, it’s also, it’s like asking a baker, what’s the most important ingredient? Is it milk? Is it sugar? Is it eggs? Is it, you know, it’s like asking a farmer, what’s the most important thing, feeding the animals or watering them? What’s the key to your success? There’s just certain questions that I understand people want to know, but all of this has to work together and nothing works unless you do. So I have three final questions for you. For anybody out there that’s thinking about scheduling a consultation, a free consultation with thrivetimeshow.com and myself, obviously they’re stuck with me if they fill out the form. I’m the only person that does 13 point assessments. I believe we, I’ve seen it since 2005. We help people decrease their costs, increase their time, freedom and profits. What would you say is the benefit of scheduling that 13-point assessment? Well, actually, the 13-point assessment was very eye-opening for me. You asked me a lot of tough questions that I probably should have been asking myself and wasn’t. And so as we went through the questions, I was like, I think at every question you asked me, I was like, oh, that’s a good question. I was like, hang on, let me think about that for a minute. So I find that it kind of helps open your eyes to, you know, hmm, these are some things that I know I have some areas of weakness. And then there were, I think, a couple of the questions where I was like, oh, I know the answer to this one. I got this one, no problem. But it helps you sort of identify, I walked away having identified areas of strength and areas of weakness, even though that really wasn’t the purpose of the phone call necessarily, it helped me to see that. And then I was like, hmm, I think I have a need in a couple of these areas, and I didn’t really know what to do for myself. I didn’t have the answers. You know, in part three of today’s show, part two, we’re going to show the Ronnie Morales story. In part three, we’re going to do a testimony with Myron. And Myron just bought his first Lamborghini today, and he’s super fired up. And so Myron’s about six years down the path. We’ve been working with you for about eight years, whereas Ronnie’s been with us for less than a year. And it’s at a certain point that we have to take action. Knowledge without application is meaningless. What would you say to somebody who’s like, you know, it’s $1,700 a month, and I’m spending that much right now on random ads and that much money on random regrettable purchases at the gas station and a lot of iTunes I’m downloading. I’m spending $1,700 a month on various things. And I don’t know if I can afford it because I’ve just bought another vehicle that I can’t afford, but I’m leasing it. What would you say to anybody who’s kind of on that fence? I mean, I would say you need to do it. I mean, it has been a game changer for us. I don’t know why you would sit there and think $1,700 a month is too much money to spend. Go find the money somewhere. Go empty out your sofa cushions. Go sell the stuff that you have in your house that you’re not using. I mean, go get, you know, whatever you need to do to get to that place, you need to find that $1,700. And I will say this, that cost was very quickly replaced with the extra money we were making. And I’ve seen, I’ve actually seen, because I’ve been around you for a long time, I’ve seen a lot of your clients come in and right off the bat, they’re real nervous about, am I going to be able to, you know, because maybe they’re a smaller company or whatever. And they’re like, I’m wondering if I’m going to be able to handle this 1700 a month. And then I see him six months later and I’m like, how’s it going now? And they’re like, man, we’re just hitting record after record. I have referred several business owners. And they’re doing great. That are killing it. And that, you know, I’ll give one example. I won’t name the person, but I did send one of my very good friends to you who was on the verge of losing his business because he just wasn’t able, he had bought another one of the shops of what he does. He opened it and it was not profitable and it was going to take under both of his shops and I sent him over to you and I remember about three months later I asked him, how’s it going? And he goes, man, we just had a record breaking month. This was amazing. And by the way, he said, Percy just hit another record breaking month, just so you know. Yeah. And I know right now, not only does he have way more income, but he has a lot more time freedom because he’s been working with you for many years now. And so that was, it changed his life just like it changed my life. I would say if you’re thinking about, you know, doing a 13 point assessment, stop thinking, dial the phones, pause this video, make the phone call, reach out to Clay, get it started right now. Now, final question I have is, I think people look at oxyfresh.com and they go, man, there’s 500 locations now. Yeah. And they look at Elephant in the Room and they go, there’s five brick and mortar locations now. They look at Shaw Homes and they go, you know, these are big success stories. I don’t know that I can do it. What would you say to somebody out there that just feel like they might not have the, like all this stuff they’re going to learn is going to be over their head, too complicated. What would you say? I would say the information, the ideas are easy. It’s the application that is difficult for people. The ideas that you share, there’s nothing that’s like, oh, my God, I don’t have a Ph.D., therefore I can’t do it. I feel like it’s all very, very simple stuff, but it is a lot of action to get traction, and you’ve got to get the action going. And I think if somebody has diligence and discipline or can learn diligence or discipline, they’re going to do extremely well. And it’s not about education. It’s about action. Now, Aaron, I got one thing I want to say, and then we’re going to wrap up today’s show with a boom, because boom stands for big, overwhelming, optimistic momentum. And that’s what’s required to have success. People watching this, they’re going, Aaron, he looks like a normal guy. Well, that’s true. They say, well, he sounds like a normal guy. He sounds like an all right guy. That’s true. But the one thing you can’t quite picture on the show, and I want to just give that gift to you folks who are watching is Aaron smells tremendous. It’s like a, it’s like a, if you had smell-o-vision, if you could just get up there and just smell that, it’s incredible. And it’s really, it’s, it’s his aroma that allows him to achieve massive success. So unless, so if you’re out there and you’re going, what’s the secret sauce? It’s not a sauce, it’s more of just a smell. So I don’t know if you qualify to have the kind of success he has, unless you smell like he smells. It’s a really tremendous smell. Okay, let’s do this thing with a boom. Here we go. 3, 2, 1, boom. JT, do you know what time it is? 410. It’s T-Bo time in Tulsa, Roseland, baby. Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma. During the month of Christmas, December 5th and 6th, 2024, Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the two-day interactive thrive time show business growth workshop yes folks put it in your calendar this December the month of Christmas December 5th and 6th Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa Oklahoma 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 in 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? Hmm, well, they’re gonna have to come and find out because I don’t know. Well, I’m just saying, Tim Tebow’s gonna teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s 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. You know, over the years we’ve had the opportunity to feature Michael Levine, the PR consultant of choice for Nike, for Prince, for Michael Jackson. We’ve had 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’ve had the man who’s responsible for turning around Harley Davidson, a man by the name of Ken Schmidt. He has spoken at the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshops. Folks, I’m telling you, these events are going to teach you what you need to know to start and grow a successful business. And the way we price the events, the way we do these events, is you can pay $250 for a ticket or whatever price that you can afford. Yes! We’ve designed these events to be affordable for you and we want to see you live and in person at the two-day interactive December 5th and 6th Thrive Time Show Business Workshop. Everything that you need to succeed will be taught at the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show Business Workshop December 5th and 6th in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And the way we do these events is we teach for 30 minutes and then we open it up for a question and answer session so that wonderful people like you can have your questions answered. Yes, we teach for 30 minutes and then we open it up for a 15 minute question and answer session. It’s interactive, it’s two days, it’s in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We’ve been doing these events since 2005 and I’m telling you folks, it’s going to blow your mind. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshop is America’s highest rated and most reviewed business workshop. See the thousands of video testimonials from real people just like you who have been able to build multi-million dollar companies. Watch those testimonials today at Thrivetimeshow.com. Simply by clicking on the testimonials button right there at Thrivetimeshow.com, you’re going to see thousands of people just like you, who have been able to go from just surviving to thriving. Each and every day, we’re going to add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup, but I encourage everybody out there today, get those tickets today. Go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s Thrivetimeshow.com. And some people might be saying, well, how do I do it? How does it work? You just go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Let’s go there now. We’re feeling the flow. We’re going to Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, you just go to Thrivetimeshow.com. You click on the business conferences button, and you click on the request tickets button right there. The way I do our conferences is we tell people it’s $250 to get a ticket or whatever price that you can afford. And the reason why I do that is I grew up without money. JT, you’re in the process of building a super successful company. Yeah. 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 am 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, Jerusalem, Oklahoma. It says it’s Tulsa, Jerusalem. I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa, Jerusalem, sort of like the Jerusalem of America. But if you type in Thrive Time Show in Jinx, you can get a sneak peek or a look at our office facility. This is what it looks like. This is where you’re headed. It’s going to be a blasty blast. You can look inside see the facility We’re going to have hundreds of entrepreneurs here. It is going to be packed now for this particular event folks The seating is always limited because my facility isn’t a limitless Convention Center you’re coming to my actual home office and so it’s going to be packed who you you’re going to come who you I’m Talking to you. You can get your tickets right now at Thrivetimeshow.com. And again, you can name your price. We tell people it’s $250 or whatever price you can afford. And we do have some select VIP tickets, which give 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 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 systems that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. We get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this, and because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the Adipic 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 loan. We’ve built this facility for you and we’re excited to see it. And now you may be thinking, what does it actually cost to attend an in-person two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop? Well, good news, the tickets are $250 or whatever price that you can afford. What? Yes, they’re $250 or whatever price you can afford. I grew up without money and I know what it’s like to live without money. So if you’re out there today and you want to attend our in-person, two-day interactive business workshop, all you’ve got to do is go to Thrivetimeshow.com to request those tickets and if you can’t afford $250, we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. I learned at the Academy at King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvard Kiyosaki, The Rich Dad Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re close, but they’re completely different worlds. and of our special guest today. Definition of intelligence is if you agree with me, you’re intelligent. And so this gentleman is very intelligent. I’ve done this show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts. And so Mr. Clay Clark is a friend of a good friend, Eric Trump. But we’re also talking about money, bricks, and how screwed up the world can get in a few and a half hour. So Clay Clark is a very intelligent man and there’s so many ways we could take this thing. But I thought since you and Eric are close, Trump, what were you saying about what Trump can’t, what Donald, who is my age, and I can say or cannot say. Well, I have to, first of all, I have to honor you, sir. I want to show you what I did to one of your books here. There’s a guy named Jeremy Thorn, who was my boss at the time. I was 19 years old, working at Faith Highway. I had a job at Applebee’s, Target, and DirecTV. And he said, have you read this book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad? And I said, no. And my father, may he rest in peace, he didn’t know these financial principles. So I started reading all of your books and really devouring your books. And I went from being an employee to self-employed to the business owner to the investor and I owe a lot of that to you and I just want to take a moment to tell you thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success and I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump. I just want to tell you thank you sir for changing my life. Well, not only that Clay, thank you but you’ve become an influencer. More than anything else, you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. So that’s why I congratulate you on becoming. Because as you know, there’s a lot of fake influencers out there, or bad influencers. Yeah. Anyway, I’m glad you and I agree so much, and thanks for reading my books. Yeah. That’s the greatest thrill for me today. Not thrill, but recognition is when people, young men especially, come up and say, I read your book, changed my life, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this. I learned at the Academy at King’s Point in New York, I learned at the Academy at King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say.