Clay Clark | Max Lucado | How to Become a Genuinely Happy Person + How to Choose to Be Happy When You Have to Relocate Your Studio Due to Flooding (September 10th 2019) + Join Tebow At Clay Clark’s Dec 5-6 Business Growth Workshop

Audio Transcription

Alright, for those of you who listen to this show on a daily basis, the show might sound a little bit different today, and that is because, well, the studio, the Camp Clark and Chicken Palace, Thrive Time Show studio, at Camp Clark and Chicken Palace, where I live, is currently under water. But I found out that about four feet of water mixed with equipment doesn’t work very well. And so I found out that Apple computers and microphones can be fascinating flotation devices that don’t float, so they’re sinking devices, but they’re paperweights. But the show must go on. So here we are at 328 in the morning. We’re about 30 minutes into editing today’s podcast and I can tell you what there’s only so much that you can do with with canned air and backup equipment so you might you might hear some some you know audio faux pas but today’s guest is absolutely great his name is Max Lucado and he is a best-selling author of over 50 books and on today’s show he’s gonna share with us how he landed his first book deal after 14 rejections with publishers. Oh come on, who let the Wookies in here? I know this is a backup studio but no, we have a new rule. No Wookies in the studio. On today’s show Max Lucado shares his process, or as the Canadians would say, his process for writing his books, how he gained attraction with his literary career, and much much more. Oh, and by the way, he just wrote a new book on how to become a genuinely happy person when you’re pushing through adversity, which reminds me of us right now. How could you possibly be a happy person at 3.29 in the morning after you’ve been up for a full hour and you only slept three or four hours the day before and all of your gear is destroyed and your basement is destroyed. The question I would have for you is, are you a happy person if you’re only happy when things are going good? Because that’s the real test, right? Because yesterday was a complete disaster. The show goes on and you deserve the absolute best quality content possible. Check. You deserve for your host to show up nine days a week. Check. And you deserve good audio quality. Uh, let me get that can there. No, not check, but we are working on it. Uh, everything’s under control. Situation normal. What happened? Uh, it’s like weapons malfunction, but, uh, everything’s perfectly all right now. We’re fine. We’re all fine here. No, thank you. How are you? Two men, 13 multimillion dollar businesses, eight kids. Get ready to enter the Thrive Time Show. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. Yes, yes, yes, and yes! All right, Thrive Nation, welcome back to another exciting edition of the Thrive Time Show on your radio and podcast download. And on today’s show, we are interviewing the New York Times best-selling author, multiple-time best-selling author, Mr. Max Lucado. Max, welcome on to the show. How are you, sir? I’m doing super. I really am. Thank you, and it’s a great honor to be on the broadcast. I know you’ve had a lot of success in your career. A lot of our listeners have read your books or know of your books. Could you tell us about the bottom or the very beginning of your career? What was your life like growing up, and how did it impact who you’ve become today? I grew up in a really delightful, small town in West Texas and I’ve come to appreciate that it was a real simple yet wholesome upbringing. My father was a mechanic for Exxon Mobil and wherever there was oil, we had the potential of living. We were not in the oil, not in the super wealthy oil part. We were on the blue collar part. He was a pipe liner and a mechanic, but stable income and a stable family. It was a happy upbringing. I was not a respectful teenager. I was a heavy drinker, very rowdy, kind of a brawler. Only when I was 20, when I was in college, did somebody convince me that God loves me and that Christ could forgive me and that there is something more to life than this life. When I tossed my hat in the ring and said yes, it really did. It was a pretty miraculous transaction. I soon thereafter decided I wanted to be a missionary. Initially my thought was I wanted to be a missionary and so I trained for that. I went to seminary for that. I ended up in Brazil in 1983 and served in Brazil I started writing and I’ve always loved reading but I never had tried writing. I took a stab at it mainly because it sounds crazy but I had time on my hands because I was learning the Portuguese language and there wasn’t a whole lot I could do. I would go to Portuguese school for four to six hours a day but that’s about all a brain can take. So I had time on my hands and I began writing and submitted a book to be published. That one got published and then I had another idea for a second and a third. By the time 1988 came around I realized that I wanted to write and preach. So I returned to the United States. There was a church in San Antonio, Texas looking for a pastor. They took a chance on me and I’ve been here ever since. So we’ve raised our family in San Antonio. I’m semi-retired now from the church. I’ve been in ministry for 40 years. I’ve been at this church for 30, but I’m no longer in charge of the staff, which causes a lot of hallelujahs coming from my heart. I do get to preach about 20 or 25 times a year at the church. It’s been great. It’s just been a delight. I’m very, very blessed. There are so many listeners that listen to this podcast very consistently who have reached out and said they want to become an author, or some of which who have become authors. They’ve actually written books. Many pastors, in fact, have written books. What do you attribute the traction of your books, or when did you first begin, again, to gain traction with your books? I think there’s a practical answer and there’s a spiritual answer. And the spiritual answer needs to be said, but I won’t spend a lot of time on it. The fact of the matter is that God just said, I think I’ll use Lakato to write books. It’s just simply that sovereign, because I really did not set out to be a writer. I do think there are some practical things, though, that I came across that really helped me. One of them is that I write books for people who don’t like to read books. I don’t write academic books. I don’t write technical books. I don’t try to take on minute doctrinal details. I think about people who don’t really have time or desire to read many books. I try to take a big idea and put it right where they have access to it. That to me has really been a game changer. Somebody the other day sent me a question. They had written a book and somebody had said, ìYou need to figure out who your audience is.î That really puzzled that young writer. She said, ìWhat do you mean I have to know my audience?î I wrote back and I said, ìI agree with the person who said it. You have to figure out if youíre talking to academic people, if youíre talking to people who are very well read or if you have a very strong Detroit drivers. As for me, I talk to people who don’t read books. I would encourage people who want to write, figure out who your audience is. Just kind of lock in. Are you writing for teenagers? Are you writing for the elderly? Are you writing for people who are depressed? Are you writing for people who need to be motivated to do better at work? Figure out who your audience is. So that’s number one. And number two, and I’ll just get two because I could talk about this a lot. I really like the topic. The number two is that good writing is hard work but it’s worth it. Good writing is hard work. It really is. I keep a little framed quote. I can see it right here. I’m in my office and I can see it. It says, do you want to write? Then put your butt in that chair and sit there a long, long time. That’s really what it is. Good writing is just like anything else. If you want to do well at it, it’s going to take hundreds of rewrites. My chapters go through at least a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty rewrites. It just takes a lot of work. I think that might surprise people because a good book when you read it you say, oh this reads so easily. Or you could say the same about a painting. You look at the painting and say, it’s just so beautiful. Well, I cannot paint but I know that artist painstakingly labored over every brush stroke to get it just right. And you and your broadcast, you can’t just flip the microphone and have a great broadcast. You’re inspired by God to do this, but you come in prepared, you’ve thought it through, you’ve got some questions. I look at the questions you wrote out for this interview. It’s thorough. You’ve thought through everything, and that’s what makes your program so great. So I think just those two thoughts. Figure out who your audience is and then be ready to roll up your sleeves and put in the work and I think that the result will be some good books. Now Max, we all know you’re a titan of the book world now, but going back to the first book you wrote, I’m curious, when did you start to get some traction? Was it a couple of books later? Was your first book, did it get traction right off the bat? What did that look like for you? It was really slow initially. I had no expectations, however, so I wasn’t disappointed. I might mention that it took 14 times for me to get published. I submitted my manuscript to 14 publishers and the 15th one said yes. So I got 14 rejections and then the 15th one said yes. Then that book never really took off. The second book I wrote fell onto the desk somehow of a well-known writer and pastor named Charles Swindoll or Chuck Swindoll. He really took a liking to the book. book and he mentioned it on his radio program and he used it as a premium to send out to people who made donations to his radio program. So that’s really when I began getting some traction. When somebody like of his caliber and who is so well trusted and known gives you an endorsement that then began to blow wind in my sails. Then I just kept writing. I think about some writers, like the Left Behind series that sold tens of millions. Our good friend Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life, I may be wrong but I think I read it sold ten or twelve million copies. It’s just stunning, stunning, maybe even more. I don’t have anything that sold a million copies. What I have done is I’ve just done a lot of writing. I’ve got 50 books out. Some people are called to write two or three really powerful books and some of us are just kind of like the Studebakers. We just show up and we’re not fancy but we just keep stepping up and try to get on base. And that’s been kind of my philosophy. Now Max, I understand that you have, I mean, throughout your career, and when I was doing research for you, you have different books that have been re-released, but how many books have you actually written? Is it 52, 53? What’s the total number of books that you’ve actually written throughout your career? Yeah, it all depends on what qualifies as a book. I’ve written about 43 what we call adult non-fiction books. These are the books that are kind of my bread and butter. I write one of those a year. Those are books based usually on a passage of scripture or a section of scripture or a theme in scripture. And then I’ve written a lot of children’s books. I don’t even know how many, but I’ve written 40 or 50 children’s books. Those are so much fun to write that I almost feel like they’re cheating. I can write one usually in a day or so if I get an idea or even less. They’re just fun. The hard work in children’s books is finding the right illustrator and the publisher does that. I’ve tried my hand at some fiction. I don’t think I’m a great fiction writer. I’ve written three fiction books. But I’ve tried my hand at it and I think I’ll try again at some point. Then there is a whole other genre of gift books, compilation books, and I try not to include those on the list because those are simply the existing material that’s been either recycled or reconfigured or reorganized and used as a gift book or a special occasion book. Max, you’ve written so many books throughout your career. Can you tell us about your new book, How Happiness Happens, and what first inspired you to write this book? Yeah, and I’m really and genuinely excited about this book. I know you were supposed to say that at every book, but this was a fun book to write, and the people who have already read it are having a lot of fun talking about it. And I’m having a blast talking about it because everybody wants to be happy. The truth of the matter is that most people are not. One survey said that two out of three people in America do not self-describe as happy. That is sad and I didn’t mean to be funny there, but it is sad that we are so unhappy. That really struck me, that research. I set about the task of first of all trying to determine if that was true and number two, why it’s true and number three, what can be done about it. It is true. Many surveys are revealing that this is a very unhappy society in which we live and we’re paying a high price for it relationship wise, productivity wise, health wise and even financial wise, we are not better people when we are unhappy. That doesn’t surprise us. And so then I began digging into why that is and I’ll try to unpack that in the first chapter. But most of all I’m excited about at least the strategy that I’m suggesting and that is that we really are happiest when we make other people happy. Happiness happens when we make other people happy. In the book I try to unpack the one another verses in the Bible that encourage us to think about others more than we think about ourselves. To forgive one another, serve one another, teach one another, encourage one another. I selected ten of them. I think there are over fifty one another verses in the New Testament. And just challenge people to try to lead a life in which you’re really trying to make other people happy, and you’ll be surprised how happy you are as a result. Max, in a world that is searching perpetually for happiness, whether that be through social media, new food, vacation, new cars, new girlfriend, new, new, new. How do you find lasting and fulfilling joy? What tips would you have for our listeners to find lasting and fulfilling happiness? What a great question. I think two things. We’ve got to have the right definition of happiness, and then we have to have the right strategy. The definition of happiness that resonates with me is something like this, a deeply rooted sense of contentment that does not depend upon circumstance. A deeply rooted sense of contentment that does not depend upon circumstance. As long as my happiness depends upon my circumstance, then I’m not going to be happy. As you well know, storms come. Yes, they do. Challenges come your way. And we get flooded. I mean, it’s going to happen. But we can be content even in the midst of those because we have a joy that does not depend upon everything going our way. Now the reason I think that so many people are unhappy is because we are all under constant multi-billion dollar marketing campaign that exists to tell me that I will not be happy unless I make a certain purchase or make a certain decision. A good example of this, I went home today to grab some lunch and I turned on the television, turned on the ESPN to see the scores from last night’s games. There was a commercial break and before I could see the scores I had been told that I need to do something about my balding hair. I need to drive a different make of car. And then, I don’t know how to put this tactfully, but since I’m getting old, if I want to be the kind of man my wife wants me to be, I need to take some supplements. So within 90 seconds, I was told that my hair is too thin, my car is out of date, and that I’m too old. That struck me because I’m in the middle of talking about happiness and about what’s going on in the marketing world. Otherwise it probably wouldn’t have dawned on me. The fact of the matter is in order for somebody to sell me their product they’ve got to convince me that I’m deficient without it. Consequently, all day long we are being told you don’t have enough, you don’t drive enough, you haven’t earned enough, and as a result the subliminal message is, if you’ll do this you’ll be happy. It gets me on that merry-go-round of trying to be happy, and we never quite find it. That’s always been true. That’s been true since the Garden of Eden, but it’s especially true right now because we are bombarded with this multi-billion dollar, highly sophisticated marketing engine that comes at us through television, through media, and especially through social media telling me that I need more in order to be happy. So I need a strategy. I’ve got to say, okay, I’m not going to let them convince me. I’m going to put my happiness in my identity with God. God loves me and I’m going to find happiness by giving it away, not by expecting others to give it to me. Now Max, I’m assuming you’ve been in ministry a long time, so you can correct me if I’m wrong here, but I know you’ve taken some strong biblical stances in your career and I’m going to assume that you’ve taken heat from both the secular and religious world having served this long in ministry. So when you are trying to give happiness to other people, have there been times where you feel like you can’t make everybody happy? And the difference between serving others and trying to make them happy and like you said relying on your identity in Christ, can you talk about walking through those kinds of moments where you are trying to provide happiness to others but it seems like you are just getting attacked from all sides. It is the oddest thing, isn’t it? If we get ten compliments, no I’m sorry, if we get ten statements in response to what we do and nine of them are positive but one of them is negative, we’ll remember that negative one. It’s just a crazy thing. I wish I could say I’ve matured out of that, but I haven’t. If I preach a sermon and ten people come up and have something to say to me about it and nine of them are gushing and wonderful and think it’s just such great things and then somebody else comes up and says, you know, you didn’t really study hard, did you? Or something tacky like that. I will go to sleep that night thinking about that one comment. So we’ve got to decide, we’ve just got to decide that not even God makes everybody happy. In ministry that’s especially the case. We’re just not going to make people happy. That’s not our job. When I say making other people happy, I’m not talking about pleasing them. I’m talking about taking an attitude of serving them, trying to improve their life in a genuine fashion. I can’t do that. I can’t make everybody happy with me, but hopefully I can make them happier in their life. Max, you’re writing some books that make a lot of people happy. I want to know the secret sauce. I want to know, where are you physically located when you’re writing these books? Are you writing the books outside overlooking a cliff, a ravine, trees. Are you in a sauna, riding in the sauna? Where are you writing your books? You’re funny. Well, you know, like I say, good writing is hard work. It really is. I’m in my office when I write. I for years had my office at the church building, but I’m like a lot of other people these days. I office at home now. All of my books begin as sermons, so I will take a sermon series that is usually in our church, 14 or 15 weeks worth of sermons. If it seems to resonate with the church, then I will go to the publisher and say, �Hey, I just finished this sermon series on happiness. Would you be interested in it? They’ll say, well what’s it about? And I’ll draft up a little proposal. Either sometimes I’ll write it up, most of the time it’s just over the phone. I’ll tell them and they’ll say, yep, let’s give it a go. So I’ll set about the task of writing it and I’ll take about two or three months to turn those sermons into a book. Then I’ll send that first manuscript to my editor and I’ve had the same editor now for since 1987 Wow and she will take that manuscript and she’ll beat it up This I finished the manuscript not the book we’re talking about right now, but a book for next year I finished it up about two or three weeks ago And she’d looked at the first line in her email was, Max this is a long way from being a good book. Oh, harsh. She just tore into me. But you know that’s her job and I think it’s a better book because she is that honest with me. So then we will be back and forth with it for about three or four months and eventually she will come to San Antonio and so will somebody from the publishing house and we’ll sit down and we’ll read the manuscript out loud. It takes us two or three days to read it together out loud in a room and then only when all of us have signed off on each chapter do we move on to the next chapter. And then I’m finished. So all told it takes me about a year to preach a sermon series and then turn that sermon series into a book. Now how many times do you typically make edits to the manuscript before you’re ready to print a book? I mean is this something you’re spending hundreds of hours editing? Is this something we’re spending just 24 hours, 36? If you had to estimate, I mean how many hours and… I think there’s a lot of listeners out there who want to write a book and they want to edit it twice and then be done. Tell us about that process. No, no. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, for me, on the conservative side, it would be 60 rewrites for a book. Wow! I just go over it, and I go over it, and I go over it. I think, at least for me, some people can write really well the first few drafts. For me I just have to keep working on it and just keep working on it. You know, Ernest Hemingway according to the story wrote and rewrote The Old Man and the Sea 365 times. Whether that’s just what you’re told in creative writing classes but that his process was that he would rewrite the entire book every time. He would sit down and rewrite it and rewrite it and rewrite it. And for me I’ve got to do that. Now some people just don’t take that often, take that much. I’ve never finished a book I’ve just run out of time. Because you can always rewrite it. You can always be better. And I’ve never read one of my books because I know if I read it, I’ll say, oh man, I should have said that better. So it’s kind of futile for me to read it. But yeah, I think rewriting is really essential to good writing. There’s somebody out there listening to our show who’s going, okay, you’ve got Max Lucado on the show. Clay, ask him the crazy questions. I’ve talked to your people and I can’t ask you the crazy questions, but I do want to ask you about some of these idiosyncrasies. We’ve interviewed so many super successful people, Wolfgang Puck and John Maxwell, and we’ve read about so many successful people and broken down their lives, and we all know that Steve Jobs wore the same thing every day. Zuckerberg likes to wear the same thing every day. We know Wolfgang Puck has this insane work ethic. Do you have an idiosyncrasy that you believe to be your superpower? Is it your good looks? What is your idiosyncrasy? Well, I don’t know if I’m, you know, I don’t really land at the same level of the people you just described, first of all. But I do have a terrible fear of failure, just to be honest. I just cannot bear the thought of letting somebody down that’s counting on me. That will keep me up at night. That can be a blessing and it can be a real burden. I’ve got to be very careful. I let my identity be caught up in my success and how many books are sold or how large or how small or how effective our church is. But it has been a battle through the years. It is my thorn in the flesh. It is something about which I have prayed. For whatever reason I continue to battle it. I compare myself to other people. I shouldn’t do that. So yet at the same time I think that weakness of mine drives me to really work hard and makes me want to do well at what I do. I think that it has generated some… You know, we talk about rewriting. That’s where that comes from. I want to make sure I’ve got it right. I have a book idea for you. I’m giving it my best effort. I have a book idea for you. Feel free to reject it here. But do you know John Maxwell? Oh, yes. Yes. I was thinking maybe if you wrote a book, and again, this probably wouldn’t help you with the whole comparison thing, but what if you wrote 22 super irrefutable laws of leadership, the Max Lucado version? What about that? Could you do that? I mean, it’s like Puff Daddy remixes songs from the 80s. Yeah, you just do 22, and then the next year he’ll do 23, and then you do 24, and pretty soon you’ve just rewritten the whole Bible and you can rewrite Proverbs together. That’s funny. You talk about a guy who is productive and prolific. Where does he get his energy? He’s just non-stop. Max, you kind of followed up on what you just talked about a little bit. You told us your editor has a relationship where she can speak truth to your manuscript and really help you in that area. As someone who’s experienced a lot of success, is there someone in your life that kind of reminds you to be humble or builds you up when you’re feeling down? Is there someone that you rely on to kind of speak truth into your life when you have either, you sway too far either way, either they need to bring you back down to earth a little bit or you have that thorn in the flesh and they’re like, hey, build you back up, build you up and remind you what your worth is. Yeah. The fleshly part of Max LoCato is so still prevalent that it seems to be God’s way of reminding me not to get too high on myself. I wish I could say that I don’t have struggles or the temptations that others have, but I was well on my way to alcoholism by the time I was twenty. My brother died of alcoholism. I have a family tree that is blighted with battles with alcohol. I’ve struggled with that in my life. I’ve had to really be careful because I can just sense that there is something inside of me that is not satisfied with just one glass or two. Here I’ve been in ministry for 40 years. I would think that a person might think that he should be on that. He should be beyond that. I have that same thought. I think I should be beyond that too, but it’s still there. I have filters on every smart device and computer I own. When I check into a hotel room, the first thing I do is tell them to turn off any adult movies. I don’t trust myself to be alone just a few clicks away from what I should not see. Again somebody could say, well Lakato you’re telling me that you’ve got a beautiful wife, you’ve got a wonderful, I’ve got a great marriage but you’re still tempted in that way. You ought to be beyond that. Yeah, maybe I should. But I say all that to say that somehow I’ve not really struggled with feeling like I’m really that great. Maybe that even sounds bad. I don’t know. But I don’t have to be convinced that I’m a sinner. You don’t have to convince me. I’m still genuinely surprised that people would listen to me preach or read what I have to say. I really am. Yes, I have some friends who speak honestly to me, but they don’t speak any more honestly than I speak to myself. Those constant, just that awareness, I think it has helped me to keep my feet on the ground. I don’t know. I kind of rambled on that answer. I hope there’s something there worth hearing. We found your superpower. It’s humility. You know what, Max? I’ll also tell you this. You sound like you’re smelling terrific tonight. You just sound like you’re smelling terrific. That’s just something I want to throw out there. There’s no proof of that, I don’t think. Okay, now I want to ask you. My final question I want to ask you, because this is so… I think this is powerful. All of our listeners, let’s say they had an opportunity to meet with you one-on-one. And so you’re meeting one listener, and then two and three, pretty soon you realize there’s like 500,000 people wanting to meet you one-on-one. And so you say, okay, okay, here’s the deal. I’m gonna send you guys all a text message with my one piece of advice. Here we go, just, shoo, and it could be a long text, it could be multiple texts, there’s no limit on the characters here, but if you had to, if you could just share one piece of advice with all the listeners, one just core principle that you feel like everybody needs to know. What is the number one piece of advice that you wish you could teach all of our listeners? I think I would say be kind to yourself. Most of us are our own harshest critics. We are hard on ourselves. We carry a lot of guilt and a lot of regrets. But if God can love us in spite of all of our mistakes, can’t we not learn to, in a good way, love ourselves? We don’t need to worship ourselves, but we can be grateful for who we are. So I catch myself saying that a lot to people at church when I’m visiting. I say, just be kind to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up so much. I think that would be a good… maybe I should write a book called Be Kind to Yourself. Yeah, for sure. In that book you can provide tips for looking so handsome here. You’re the one making me unhappy. I’m not looking at any commercial. I look at you and I feel bad about myself. You look great. Are you eating fish oil? Are you drinking fish oil? Are you eating organic? What are you doing? Say that again three times and then stop. How much kale are you eating? Are you just 100% kale at this point? What are you doing? Well, you know, the hamburgers in Texas are not nearly as fattening as everywhere else in the world. This just in, I did not know that. Max, we thank you so much for being on today’s show. We’re going to buy a copy of How Happiness Happens right now because we want you to see the verified Amazon review right there. We’re going to get another copy of the book and leave you a review right now. We thank you so much and we hope you have a wonderful rest of your evening. Well, you’ve been more than kind, both of you, and thank you so much. It’s a great honor to be on the program with you. Whether we are broadcasting from Camp Clark in Chicken Palace or from a backup studio or from the chicken coop, we always like to end each and every show with a boom, but before we do that, I want to encourage you to go to Thrivetimeshow.com and to book your tickets to attend our next in-person Thrive Time Show workshop. At the workshops, we teach branding, marketing, sales, accounting, customer service, everything you need to know to make that business grow can all be learned at the Thrive Time Show workshops. If you want to learn more about it, go to thrivetimeshow.com and click on the conferences button. Again, go to thrivetimeshow.com and click on the conferences button. Or just Google Thrive Time Show conference reviews. I think we have over a thousand. I know we have over a thousand video reviews right now. Over 600 Google reviews, thousands of iTunes reviews. It’s all out there transparently for the world to see. Both the people that like us and those that don’t. But if you want to take your business to the next level, don’t be a stranger and book your tickets to the next in-person Thrive Time Show Workshop. And now without any further ado, 3, 2, 1, boom! We’ve been like me, my family, I brought all my managers at one time, and I’m going to bring my, and all the managers on the next, on June 27, 28, I’m going to bring another manager over there. You should come. I mean, you should, I’ve been there several times, me, my son, my wife. We’ve been there. You have to be there in order to believe it. You have one, I mean, you, I don’t know, several books, but the millionaire, whatever, the big, huge book, you have to read it. It’s the one, I read it from one page to the end, to several times already. It’s worth thousands of thousands, if not millions, the price, I mean, the price is unbelievable. All right, ladies and gentlemen, on today’s show, we have an opportunity to interview a wonderful longtime client. His business is called Tortillasoup.com. It is a Mexican restaurant with multiple locations, and I’m super excited to have the owner, the founder of the company, Sol Mendoza. Welcome on to the Thrived Time Show. How are you, sir? Life is beautiful. Thank you. It’s a pleasure to work with you, my friend. I got to ask you, how did you initially hear about the business coaching that we do? Somebody told me about the great job you do, and I read the book and I decided to go to thetradeshow.com. It’s the most important thing happening in my life. Oh my. I love you. I love all of you guys. Now, I tell my team all the time, and I think Jordan probably tells you, I absolutely love your family, love you guys. I really feel like you understand the same values and mindset to work ethic that we bring. But I want people to know this, before we met, you had been in business since I think 2008, is that correct? That’s correct. That’s correct. When I opened Tortilla Soup, it was 2008 when the crisis was in the country. I don’t believe in crisis. I just believe in hard work. I love. I love you. Let me ask you this. What motivated you to start your restaurant in 2008? Hungry. All the immigrants who come to this beautiful country, we are lucky to be in this beautiful country, hungry. You need to bring up money for your family, your wife. So you started this company, Tortilla Soup, and over that time, we ended up working with you here the last couple of years. And my understanding is you’re having growth. Could you tell the listeners, what kind of measurable or visible success have you been having since we teamed up with you? Well, sales are keeping steady, and Tortilla Soup Macomb, we have an increase of 13% growth, which is a great success in the restaurant industry. And on Brookhaven, we have 11.40% increase in profits. And I mean, everyone is happy. They’re making money. We’re making money. You’re making money. Everyone is making money. Everyone’s happy. I love happy people. Now let’s talk about this for a second. I mean, when we talk about business consulting, you know, there’s a lot, I mean, there’s a lot of wonderful companies, I’m sure consulting firms that talk in theories. I’m all about action, practical steps. And so I want to talk about that for a second. We had to really work with you guys and you’ve been fast to adapt to make sure that every single customer that comes into your place is wowed and wowed that person. I know you were already doing that, but how has, what kind of emphasis have you put on wowing those customers? Because you guys always were doing a great job, but from what I’m hearing from your coach, Jordan, is that people are absolutely being wowed. Yes, yes sir. Any first customer who comes to the restaurant, he will get free cheese dip or free margarita, it’s up to them. And the thing I want everyone greeting them, making them a hospitality, making them happy. I want them to greet them to feel like they are better than at home because, I mean, service, you can get an amenity in my gym, but hospitality, you have to provide it. You have to make them feel because emotions work. And I want them to live happy. If they are very happy, I want them to live better, better way. And the way I look at a business, I know you do too, is from left to right, very linear. And so the first step is you got to get in front of your ideal and likely buyers. The second step is you have to actually wow them, but step number one, you’ve got to get in front of them. Can you talk about the increase of number of people who are finding you online? Are you finding that since working with us that more people are finding you online? Yes, sir, yes, sir. Yes, just to make it sure, on one of our occasions, we triple our Google reviews, video reviews, people are happy to provide us the video and Google reviews because I mean, we provide quality, but we didn’t know we have to increase the Google and video reviews. Now, every server, or most of them, the eight players, they’re happy to provide video reviews and people are happy to provide us with that because that way. Some people, they even drive three or four hours just because we are making noise on the internet, we are making noise on social networks, it is incredible, it is incredible. On one occasion, I don’t approve it the way you told me, because one of the managers, It doesn’t believe it. And the sales are less and less. And when you guys, oh, my God, we keep growing. You’re getting more people in now. More people are finding you online. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. More people. Do you think it’s the number of new people finding you? You’re in the restaurant, you manage the teams, you manage the locations. Do you feel like is it maybe double the amount of first-time customers that are finding you online, or is there some sort of number or metric you’ve found there? More than double, more than double. That’s why we have sales increasing. I mean, more than double. I mean, I’m pretty sure we’re making a lot of people, they find us online, especially because of the video reviews, the Google reviews. We texting them also because we have a lot of customers and we text them every Sunday to them. Sometimes we do on Mondays. And I mean, we see the numbers grow. On those days when we e-text them, oh my, you see the numbers. I love the numbers. I’m a numbers guy too. So step number one, marketing, that’s happening. We’re getting in front of ideal and likely buyers. If I’m getting it right, you’re having more than double the number of first-time customers, too. You got to wow the customers in your restaurant. And again, you have two, you have multiple locations. Can you tell us what city and state your locations are in there, sir? Yes, sir. We have two locations in Macomb and Brookhaven, Mississippi, and we have another location in Louisiana. So, and we are about to open another one coming, I guess, July. Or it’s going to be another location in July and Summit, Mississippi. So, five locations. So step number one, again, folks, you got to market to those customers. And that’s one of the things we’ve worked on together is to help you reach more of your ideal and likely buyers through search engine optimization, through online brand reputation enhancement, through social media, advertisement, etc. The second is we’ve got to implement a checklist to wow the new customer. And you said that one of the things you’re doing in your store, and again, folks, if you have a restaurant out there today, you want to optimize the sight, the sound, the smell, the experience for the first-time customer, the sight, the sound, the smell, the experience. And you’re saying first-time customers get what now when they come into TortillaSoup.com? Breaches dip or free margarita. If they drink, we give them a free margarita. If they don’t, we give them a free cheese dip. I mean, sometimes they want something else. We provide it. Don’t care, first customer, you have to treat them like kings or queens because they’re king and queens. I mean, that’s what it’s all about, to treat them, make them feel very important, no matter what. So again, folks, I’m just making sure we’re getting this idea. The marketing, you have to develop a three-legged marketing tool. And we’ve done that with Saul and his team there through search engine optimization, through online advertising, through social media marketing. The second is the wowing, the sights, the sounds, the smells, the experience. You’ve got to nail it down. Step three, you have to build a database and then stay in their face. What am I saying? You have to build a database and stay in their face. And so we collect the name, the phone, the email of first-time customers, and then you’re able to text them and email them and to stay in touch with them. Talk about that process and how that’s impacted your restaurant. Oh, yeah. My son over here, he’s the one in charge of the EZ texting. It’s all, and Josmar, my son, they’re helping me. Every Sunday before 11 o’clock, we send a text message to them, massive text for everyone. And you see the sales increase and sometimes it doesn’t work well. One Sunday it didn’t work and we sell very low on that Sunday. So I love it, I love it, I love it. When the people, they may feel important, they feel important usually because we send them only once a week, sometimes twice, but mostly once a week and the sales increase. I mean, it’s amazing. It’s amazing. It works. Now, step number four, you’ve got to hire people that are on fire. You’ve got to hire people that are on fire. There are certain people that want to work and certain people that don’t. And unfortunately, we have some people that do want to work and some people that don’t want to work. And so the solution is we implement a system, a hiring process, we call it the group interview, but it’s a hiring process. Can you talk about how implementing our return key hiring process has impacted your business? Yeah, before you and even my managers, they were not believing in hiring a group. I saw you, how you did it, I read about your book, you tell us, Jordan told me also. We do a group meeting every Wednesday at 9am, every Wednesday is a group meeting. Sometimes we post on social networks and Indigo also. We do a group meeting, they have to ask me questions about what they wanted, what their goals, what the money goals, and then from there you see if they come on time, in time, every time I tell them, that’s what I tell them, I start on time, no matter what. If they don’t come on time, they’re not going to be working a tortilla soup. I like to hire eight players, and since we’re doing this every week, group interview meeting, we have a lot of eight players coming and coming, and the C and B players, they’re leaving. I don’t care about the C players. Maybe the B players, but I want eight players all the time. Now the next step here, step number five, is you have to implement a daily meeting. You might call it a daily huddle, a daily meeting where you’re going to experience a financial beating. What I have found is if you do not schedule a daily meeting, you will experience a financial beating because people will start to drift, things will start to slip, especially with the restaurants we work with. I mean, you just cannot communicate with your team via email only. You can’t just have a quarterly meeting. You can’t have an annual review. You’ve got to have that daily huddle. Talk to the listeners out there about how implementing that daily huddle strategy has proven to be effective for you. Well, we do at least one to five minutes daily huddle meeting, pre-ship meeting I call pre-ship meeting. I mean, they have to know what are the specials, how they should be treating the customers, and how the food should be handling to the customers. I mean, we have to treat them well. We have to remind them of their special. We have to remind them, the customer tell us when they’re happy, or what we need to improve. That way we can improve. We’re willing to take comments from people in order to get progress. I mean, and we do a daily meeting, especially with the eight players, they encourage the other players. I like happy people. I like happy. And that’s how we do. Every shift. This tracking thing is super big. The tracking, I always tell people, again, we’re going back to step six here. Implement tracking or you’re going to start to find you’re financially slacking. You do a great job of that. The tracking sheet really is what matters. It’s like keeping score in business. Talk to the listeners out there about how implementing the tracking system has impacted your company. Well, the tracking system, the tracking sheet, you know, first thing, where are the customers coming from? Are they coming by word of mouth? Are they coming by Google Ads, by AdRolls or whatever. And the other thing you track in your numbers also. So whatever you say, I can prove it is real. It’s not just talking or saying something else, something is not real. We see the numbers every week and I would have a, they are in yearly wall. And we see if we get in or not get into that goal. I mean, keeping all the numbers in one sheet is more amazing. I didn’t know. We did it once in a while, once in a while. Now we have consistency, self-discipline, and then bad managers leave it also because they don’t want to be tracked. I mean, now there’s no excuses. We have to see the numbers in real time, every day, every week, every year, every quarter. Now, final question for you here before we wrap up, and I appreciate you carving out time for us, is there’s a lot of people that have a business right now, and it is stuck. And one of my highlights of having our business conference every couple of months is I love seeing you guys. I love seeing your son. I love seeing your family. I love being in the room with other successful entrepreneurs. I like seeing all my clients come to these events and hearing about their success stories and having them share how they’re implementing it. So to me, the highlights of our workshops is to meet great people like you who are actually growing as a result of implementing these systems. However, a lot of people are maybe a little bit concerned or resistant to scheduling a free 13-point assessment. Maybe they think there’s going to be some weird bait and switch or upsell. Maybe they got screwed over or scammed over somewhere else. What would you say to somebody out there that’s thinking about scheduling a free 13-point assessment today or somebody who’s thinking about coming to one of our in-person, two-day interactive business workshops? Oh, they have to do it. They have to do it. And we’ve been like me, my family, I brought all my managers at one time, and I’m going to bring another manager on June 27, 28, I’m going to bring another manager over there. You should come. I’ve been there several times, me, my son, my wife, we’ve been there. You have to be there in order to believe it. You have one, I mean, you, I don’t know, several books by the millionaire, whatever, the big, huge book, you have to read it. It’s the one I read it from one page to the end to several times already. It’s worth thousands of thousands, if not millions. The price, I mean, the price is unbelievable. It’s unbelievable. You have to be at the shop. Do you actually, I try to write books that entrepreneurs would want to read. I try to make it, I know it sounds crazy, but I try to write books that have words, but a lot of graphics. Do you like those graphics that are in the books and the different supporting images? Is that helpful for you? Yeah, I love it. I love it. That’s why I love it. It’s not a regular book, just words and things. I like the graphics. I like the jokes. You have some jokes over there. I like the quotes. I mean, even a third grade child can learn from that book. I mean, it’s easy. I mean, you have several examples over there. I mean, a lot of, it’s no doubt, I mean, you should read it. I read that in my whole life, like a thousand books or maybe more, and it’s one of the most important books, and I keep recommending that book, and I keep recommending your show to the people. You have to go in order to believe it. Everything, the organization is different. There was, with a lot of quotes, Jesus, which is very important, I saw him behind you. I love it, I love it. That’s another part I love it too. Yeah. Well, I tell you what, you’re a highlight for us. We love working with your family. Thank you for carving out time. And for anybody who’s in the area, check out the businesses. Go there today, folks. Tortilla Soup, Tortilla Soup, it’s expanding the locations we have here. We got Brookhaven and McComb, that’s in Mississippi. And do you have any other, where are the other locations there, Saul, for people out there that maybe want to come visit? You might become a tourist destination. Yes, sir. In Louisiana and New Orleans, I have a different name. Yeah, but I’m going to switch probably to Tortilla Soup, one of them, because I’m going to implement the system and all of that. No excuses. Amen. You have to do it, my friend, in order to believe it. You have to do it. I believe it. Thank you very much. I love it. I love it. Thank you, brother. Have a great day. Have a great day. Thank you so much. You too. See you in June. JT, do you know what time it is? Um, 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, in the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive Business Growth Workshop. We’ve been doing business conferences here since 2005. I’ve been hosting business conferences since you were 10 years old and a lot of people, you know, have followed Tim Tebow’s football career on the field and off the field. And off the field, the guy’s been just as successful as he has been on the field. Now, the big question is, JT, how does he do it? Well, they’re going to have to come and find out because I don’t know. Well, I’m just saying, Tim Tebow is going to teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s going to walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is going to be a blasty blast in Tulsa, Russia. Folks, I’m telling you, if you want to learn branding, you want to learn marketing, you want to learn search engine optimization, you want to learn social media marketing, that’s what we teach at the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive workshop. If you want to learn accounting, you want to learn sales systems, you want to learn how to build a linear workflow, you want to learn how to franchise your business, that is what we teach at the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop. Over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to feature Michael Levine, the PR consultant of choice for Nike, for Prince, for Michael Jackson. The top PR consultant in the history of the planet has spoken at the Thrive Time Show workshops. We’ve had Jill Donovan, the founder of rustic cuff.com, a company that creates apparel worn by celebrities all throughout the world. Jill Donovan, the founder of rustic cuff.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 thrive timeshow.com again that’s thrive timeshow.com and some people might be saying well how do I do it I’m gonna do it but it doesn’t work you just go to thrive timeshow.com let’s go there now we’re feeling the flow we’re going to thrive timeshow.com again you just go to thrive timeshow.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 could afford. And the reason why I do that is I grew up without money. JT, you’re in the process of building a super successful company. Did you start out with a million dollars in the bank account? No, I did not. Nope, did not get any loans, nothing like that. Did not get any inheritance from parents or anything like that. I had to work for it and I’m super grateful I came to a business conference. That’s actually how I met you, met Peter Taunton, I met all these people. So if you’re out there today and you want to come to our workshop, again, you just got to go to thrivetimeshow.com. You might say, well, who’s speaking? We already covered that. You might say, where is it going to be? It’s going to be in Tulsa, Russell Oklahoma. I suppose it’s Tulsa, Russell. I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa, Russell. I’m 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 gives you an access to meet some of the speakers and those sorts of things. And those tickets are $500. It’s a two-day interactive business workshop, over 20 hours of business training. We’re going to give you a copy of my newest book, The Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. You’re going to leave with a workbook. You’re going to leave with everything you need to know to start and grow a super successful company. It’s practical, it’s actionable, and it’s TiVo time right here in Tulsa, Russia. Get those tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s thrivetimeshow.com. Hello, I’m Michael Levine, and I’m talking to you right now from the center of Hollywood, California, where I have represented over the last 35 years 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestsellers. I’ve represented a lot of major stars and I’ve worked with a lot of major companies. And I think I’ve learned a few things about what makes them work and what makes them not work. 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 system that dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies We get into the specifics the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website We’re gonna teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re gonna 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 gonna leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and you’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get-rich-quick, walk-on-hot-coals product. It’s literally we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, but I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever. And we’re going to give you your money back if you don’t love it. We built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see it. And now you may be thinking, what does it actually cost to attend an in-person two-day interactive Thrive Time Show Business Workshop. Well, good news, the tickets are $250 or whatever price that you can afford. What? Yes, they’re $250 or whatever price you can afford. I grew up without money and I know what it’s like to live without money. So if you’re out there today and you want to attend our in-person, two-day interactive business workshop, all you got to do is go to 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, octa non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvard Keosak University Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re close, but they’re completely different different worlds. And I have a special guest today. Definition of intelligence is if you agree with me, you’re intelligent. And so this gentleman is very intelligent. I’ve done this show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts. And so Mr. Clay Clark is a friend of a good friend, Eric, Eric Trump. But we’re also talking about money, bricks, and how screwed up the world can get in a few and a half hour. So Clay Clark is a very intelligent man and there’s so many ways we could take this thing. But I thought since you and Eric are close, Trump, what were you saying about what Trump can’t, what Donald, who’s 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. 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. I just want to take a moment to tell you thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success. I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump. I just want to tell you thank you, sir, for changing my life. Not only that, Clay, thank you, but you’ve become an influencer. More than anything else, you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. So that’s why I congratulate you on becoming. Because as you know, there’s a lot of fake influencers out there too, or bad influencers. Yeah. So anyway, I’m glad you and I agree so much and thanks for reading my books. Yeah. That’s the greatest thrill for me today. Not a thrill, but recognition is when people, young men especially, come up and say, I read your book, changing my life, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this. I learned at the Academy, Kings Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Whoa.