ALL-STAR EDITION – Your Network is Net Worth (with America’s #1 PR Consultant Michael Levine and Friends

Audio Transcription

Aubrey. Good morning to you, my friend. How are you? Good. It is a three 30 in the morning. What time did you wake up today? I’m like two 45 and what are you wearing right now? What do you, what are you wearing? What is this? Christmas sweater? Oh, it’s a Christmas sweater. Cause tonight your DJ and the Christmas party at the top floor of Tulsa’s tallest building of Oklahoma’s tallest building. Actually these city Plex towers. Are you fired up my friend? Yes. And on today’s show, we’re breaking down audio from yesterday’s business conference where we interviewed Michael Levine, the former PR consultant of choice for Michael Jackson, Prince Nike pizza hut. He’s unbelievable. His name is Michael Levine. Google search, that guy Michael Levine. Type in the word Michael Levine and the word publicist and your Google search and you will find this guy. We’re also interviewing Jill Donovan on today’s show.

She’s a woman who started a company from nothing and grew it into over 130 employees. It’s called rustic cuff.com on today’s show, we also interview the MMA fighter who’s been featured repeatedly on the Joe Rogan podcast and on the Mike Tyson cast. Justin Wren is here to share with us about his cause. Fight for the forgotten. We are also joined here today with Matt Klein, the franchise brand developer with Oxy flesh to celebrate Oxi fresh opening, their 400th location. We have all of this and more in Aubrey. I believe that today you will be deejaying at the business conference. Is that correct? Yes. What big plans do you have for tonight’s Christmas party? What is your big DJ party? Are you going to take the party to the next level? Yeah, I plan on doing that. Are you going to be rocking the mic a little bit? If you give me a few announcements that you yeah, maybe a little bit.

And if people want to learn more about you and you’re a new upstart company here, uh, DJ Aubrey 3000 if they just Google you right now, they could find you and do you are Tulsa’s most reviewed? I believe, as of right now, the most reviewed disc jockey in Tulsa. So good job man. And today, no matter what you do, get those reviews. Why? Why do you have to get those reviews? Because no, you’ll find me on Google if you don’t reviews you. Are you? Are you saying that your 12 year old mind is telling us that no one will find you on Google if you don’t have reviews and other competition will have reviews me won’t. And then you’ll be at the bottom of Google and if there ever been people who’ve told you they’re going to leave a review and then they forget to leave a review.

Yes. Most of the time they said they’re going to do it. They don’t. Oh that’s right. So you’ve got to follow up like a Hawk today. You are the review King. I’m fired up. Are you fired up? Yes. Well at three 35 we’re fired up and now without any further ado, let’s play the podcast audio that we recorded at yesterday’s business conference. So in the background, you’re going to hear probably some people cheering. Occasionally. The background noise gets pretty loud because we’re recording this at the business conference during the lunch break. And if you have yet to attend an in person, thrive time show workshop, book your tickets today by going to thrive time show.com it’s thrive time show.com it’s always the money back guarantee tickets are just $250 but if you’re on a budget or you’re trying to save some money or you just are very resourceful Honeybadger entrepreneur and you want to get in for as little as possible, just leave objective review about today’s podcast on our Google map. Or you can leave a review on our iTunes and leave a review there to send a screenshot of it to info at thrive time, show.com and you can attend the two day interactive business workshop for just $37 and now that he further ado back to our interview,

some shows don’t need a celebrity in a writer to introduce a show, but this show dies to may eight kids co-created by two different women, 13 Moke time million dollar businesses. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the thrive.

I’m Sean [inaudible]

[inaudible]

yes, yes, yes. And thrive time show today interactive business conference. Yes, my name is clay Clark and on today’s show we have 407 guests in about a half hour of time. And we’re joined here with some really, really cool people. And let me just sell you on why you should listen to today’s show about your network being your net worth. Your network is your net worth. Who you hang out with determines your goals, your dreams, your standards. It’s just awesome how much your network can impact your life, your future, and your goals. We have Jill Donovan on the show. Jill Donovan. How in the heck are you my friend? I’m so excited. You’re here, clay. I’m trying to wrap my brain around how many people you can fit into one room. It’s like the Wu Tang clan. You’ve got like 18 guys, three mikes now you built a company called rustic cuff with the help of your team, but you started at yourself.

Indeed. And how many employees do you guys now have at rustic cuff? We have about 130 how many of those 130 or are women 132 do you doesn’t add up? Do you hate men? I love men. That’s why I’m surrounded by men right now about rustic cough.com rustic cuff.com. Check it out right there. By the way, if you’re not, if you’re not buying a rustic cuff, I don’t know what you’re doing is this. We still have time before Christmas and what better way to say I love you then with a gift of a rustic cuff that was said so beautifully. Thank you. And you, my friend have been on Oprah before. Yes. Your products. I have been worn by list off the big names who were worn your products, cause I know you wouldn’t naturally do this, but namedrop everywhere. Who wears your stuff? Clay Clark.

Harry Connick jr. keep Michael big ley. Keep going. Miranda Lambert, keep going. Here’s your favorite singer. Carrie Underwood. Yup. Carrie Underwood. Who else? Uh, Gayle King. Uh, Brittany Spears. J lo. Um, I’m not wowed yet. I need more. I have high standards. [inaudible] Spears is not a name that everyone knows. Yeah. A Justin Timberlake. Oh, aliens. Timberlake’s you know his wife, dad. Jessica Biel. Really? Is that do it for you? Nope. Well who does it for you? Nobody still appoint one more. Give me a bigger name. Michael Levine. Does he wear rustic cuff? He’s going to, okay. So here’s the deal, Jill Donovan, you’re here. Are you signing books today? By the way? My son’s in books. If you’d like me to, do you have a special going on? It’d be buy a book. We get a cuff for a discount or made one. Yes. If you buy any cuff you get, if you buy any three cups, you get a book.

But you started the business from the beginning. Nothing, nothing. And how did you get your first a hundred sales? First hundred sales. I gave away a hundred cuffs and then sold 500 right after that. It’s the same story over and over. It is. And then how did you get these celebrities to wear your products? Because I was a law professor, I would send letters to their agents saying introducing myself and saying that I was a law professor and they all thought they were in trouble with the law. So they kept reading the letter and it was my way to get them to read to the bottom of the letter, which said basically I made something for your client and wanted to send them just for fun, no strings attached. And nine times out of 10 they would say, send it to me. I’m going to see my client next week and I will take it for you.

And then the next thing I know you turn on the TV and see them. Right. It was so exciting. It still is. You have to start. It starts with a spark with the big idea, but it’s the diligence of mailing out those cuffs over and over to celebrities just for fun. It was just for fun for me. So it was neat. Talk about the rejections. How many times people did not respond with the times they didn’t respond. I pretended that my email actually went to junk mail. And so you send it again? Yes, I would send it again, but yes, but, but I eventually I realized that the ones that was supposed to go to it landed and they opened it and the other Wednesday, but it wasn’t for me that time. Now, Michael Levine, uh, you, my friend are a dyslexic man who grew up in a home with an alcoholic father and then you went on to start a PR firm that has represented, you have represented personally Michael Jackson, Prince, Nike, uh, pizza hut, Charlton Heston, Nancy Kerrigan, Barbara Streisand, George Carlin.

I mean, um, sir. How did you start? Didn’t, did you rent like a barber shop like the back of a barber shop? How did you start? Well, first play, thank you for having, yeah, nothing. And uh, it was an alcoholic mother, I’ll call him mother. Okay. And so were you in a barbershop? Did you sub rent a barbershop? Sublease a barbershop? I rented a desk above a hair salon, the bumblebee hair salon in Sherman Oaks, California. And I rented a desk and a desk was about the size of this little table. I was beautiful. Now how did you get Charlton Heston, the guy who made the big, you know, the big movie, my wife watches the Moses movie every year. She loves Charlton Heston. How did you get him as a client? Well, the, the story is I think an interesting one. I, I

was running a PR firm that was very hot at the time and I got the opportunity in 1983 to meet Charlton Heston and he asked to meet me at the Beverly Hills hotel. And so I’m still sitting there at the Beverly Hills hotel. I’m 29 years old. I have a hot PR firm and mr Heston is a terribly intimidating, imposing figure. And so I spoke for about 10 minutes to him about why I thought I could be of some service to him. And that’s pretty good, by the way, for an inarticulate 29 in an inarticulate intimidated 29 year old. And after about 10 or 15 minutes, mr Huston was very generous. He let me speak. He said to me in his booming voice, Mr. Levine is very obvious to me that you’re a bright young man, but I fail to see how you could make me any more famous. And,

and that’s what a PR firm does. You, you help make your clients famous.

Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Well, I paused and I don’t know why I pause, but I paused and I said, mr Heston, I don’t believe that I can make you any more famous, but I do think I can make you more relevant. Shunda and uh, on that basis, I signed Charlton Heston. Now a year later, I got him to host Saturday night live, which I thought was a good, relevant way of making Charlton Heston part of the culture and called him up. I said, mr Heston, I’ve got some good news for you. He said, what is it Michael? I said, I’ve got you to host Saturday night live. And he paused and his big booming voice said, Michael, what Saturday night live

there it is. So you, you’ve had massive success. Jill’s had massive success in Matt Klein. We’re here to kind of celebrating a, a a big win at Oxy fresh 13 years. It’s been in business and you guys just passed a milestone of how many territories we’ve just reached 400 territories. So we’re pretty excited about that. But now I feel like I’m in a room where I maybe should be sitting here. That that was a good story. I gotta tell you something about Matt Klein, the number one scorer in high school basketball in Colorado. Am I correct Matt Klein? Uh, we, we can go down that road. Is that true? It was true. You had, how many points per game did you average in high school? About 29 29 points per game. Now what’s fun is we have three really successful people in organizations right here. And we’ve got a business conference with just hundreds of people from all over the world. And I thought, let’s bring on some really cool entrepreneurs that actually get their crap done

through diligent doers. And let’s let them ask a question to Matt Klein or, or to Michael Levine or to Jill Donovan, a question you want to ask about, about business. And then, so I’m gonna start with a Brett Denton. So Brett, you’re going to have to like take Matt’s microphone, but Matt, you want to stay ready because you might have to need your microphone back and then you’re going to have to give me your headphones too. Cause it’s like the Wu Tang clan. So Matt, you’re going to have to give him your headphones. Oh, cause the routine clan. And we have, we have a shortage of equipment and we’ve got a lot of people and a limited supply of Mike’s. And everybody gets a mic. So Brett Denton, and just make sure you eat that microphone like it’s a corn dog of sorts. Okay. So Brett didn’t owns Cavell fit. He’s an entrepreneur.

He has got he, we’ve worked together for how long now? Bread have bet male, six years old. Six years dude. And you went from one gym to two gyms and now you just opened the third. You’re super exciting. What question would you have for Matt or Michael or Jill or any questions that you want to ask? Yeah, I think my biggest question here is, um, you know, what is small business owners? What are the ones that are Uber successful doing versus the ones that, who are not, you know, maybe they’re kind of mid tier success but like Uber successful. What’s the difference between those two? Jill, I’m going to let you go first. They’re staying relevant. Staying relevant. Okay. This is not a shameless pitch for Michael Levine. Is that what you do? Let me say this. I have found this a Brett, I have found the people who are the most successful find the two or three things that they need to do over and over and over to become super successful. And they stay in that lane and they just rapid fire. Like you saw Josh out here with living water. I mean you’ve grown from 300,000 to 1.9 million and we’re not doing a new thing every day, but it’s just violently executing the same plan. But Jill, I want you to have you speak your truth at rustic cuff water. Maybe the repetitive tasks you had to do or what are the things that you had to do to go from, you know, just you and two people to you and 128 now 130 employees.

Because I’m not the only person selling jewelry in this country or this world. And you can find it anywhere. You have to do something to set yourself apart. And it doesn’t mean selling it for cheaper. Uh, it means being seen in a world where it is overrun with people doing the same thing that we are doing. And now of course in this day and age marketing and how we do marketing, maybe not the formulaic way, but in a way that gets seen. And our number one thing is just being personable. I mean, that is, it is the connection. How are you personable? How just me personally or company, how has your company personable it? You think that you can’t, that you have to make a connection with a thousand people at once. But the truth is when we make the one connection, then it becomes exponential that one person tells the 10 and it becomes bigger and bigger. So sometimes instead of reaching the masses through a billboard, we find that if we do what we do well to the individual, then exponentially it grows virally in a way that say putting up a billboard they have done.

It’s, it’s the feeling that they got about the company instead of the actual Dory that Michael would have you done that has allowed you to become the, arguably, I mean you’re, you’re a New York times best selling author. You’re probably the highest, um, you know, most high profile P PR guy in the planet. What have you done that’s allowed you to escape the, you know, the average PR consultant success and go into like a new,

new level? I think, uh, one of the things that might be an explainer, uh, is if you can think of your clients not as clients, but as partners. When I introduce my clients to friends or media, I have trained myself not to introduce them as clients, but as partners in the history of the world, no man or woman has ever taken a rental car to a car wash before they returned it. We treat things we own differently than things we lease or rent. And so the idea of treating clients as partners with ownership real or perceived, I think is a valuable one. And, uh, so that, that might be something that I think that people, uh, can do. Now the negative from some perspective would be that that requires more effort, more time, more, more person. The reason that companies are desperately trying to automate in every possible way is because the personal touch is expensive both financially and from a time perspective. But if you’re willing to do it, I think it’ll give you tremendous skills.

You are obsessed with public relations where you were and Jill is obsessed with rustic cuff or you were at some point to get it off the ground and am I, am I Jill? Would you agree that you have to have a certain obsession? I mean, talk about that. I mean because certainly nobody else cared that rustic cuff was not doing well when you first started. No, I think it has to be in your blood where you don’t mind forgoing a night’s sleep in a long period of time. I don’t get that. People do not get, you actually have to go without sleep. Who did literally work sleep five hours a night for years. I would go to bed at five o’clock like every morning for months and months and months and then have to wake up at seven o’clock to take my kids to school. But I, the difference is I didn’t care because I loved what I was doing so much that you don’t care until you end up in the hospital from lack of sleep.

But up until that point, up until that point, you don’t care. I think it has to be in your blood. You have to really want it and love it so much that all else, it’s what you sleep, breathe and eat at least for until you can gather the people that are sharing that part with you and then you can go to Brent. Does that answer your question? Are you, does that help? No, that’s that. That really answers the question. I think and summarize what I got out of that is really focus on, I think, focus on the client or the partner and deliver as much as you possibly can to deliver to them instead of, I think focusing on the masses, right? So focus on the individuals and then that will then in turn come to the masses. The wowing, the wowing is so powerful that we have Justin Wren here.

And let me tell you a little commercial for Justin Wren. Justin Wren is an MMA fighter and what he does is he has chosen to give away his winnings to help people, uh, have access to fresh drinking water. And I was listening to the Joe Rogan podcast where he, Joe Rogan [inaudible] interviewed Elon Musk. And the next video that came up was you. So Joe interviewed Musk and then you in the same month. And I thought, who’s this guy? Cause I don’t watch Rogan. I just listen. I don’t ever watch, I just listened. I’m doing paperwork or something and I’m like, who is this guy? And the story was so powerful. I had to drive to Atwood’s for a sprinkler session. I mean serious. I was like bawling and Atwood’s because it was such a powerful story of you deciding to get back into the ring and to fight people, but to give away your winnings for people in third world countries who can’t even say thank you in English.

And then you just keep doing it and doing it and doing it. And recently where you on the ask, were you on the Jocko Willink podcast or has that happened yet? Is that happening? We’re scheduling that. I was just on Mike Tyson’s and then Joe Rogan’s, uh, last month. Are you going to be on Ferris? Tim Ferris? Hopefully. Yeah. We’ve been talking with their schedule. Just when next time you see Mike Tyson, just give him like a, like an unexpected jab and then say book clay Clark. Okay. I don’t know that jab, that guy the heaviest puncher of all times. I don’t think so. It’s a big hammer. Wrestling his back. He’ll remember though why you randomly sucker punched him while doing an interview. Okay. But anyways, those from clay Clark, I just want him on the show. My best way to stand out of the clutter is to have you punched, but no.

So your, tell us about fight for the forgotten. Yeah. Our, our overarching vision is to defeat hate with love. And our mission is to knock out bullying worldwide. And we do that in two places for the most bullied or oppressed people group, according to anthropologists. Um, uh, the pygmy people who I got to live with for a year, at one time slept in the twin leaf huts, slept on the dirt. The fire was my blanket, but this is their daily life and they bought all sorts of sicknesses and I’ve had intestinal amoebas and parasites and bacterias. Um, and it almost killed me, um, when I had malaria the first time. And, uh, basically we, we work to get back land on their behalf. So we’ve gotten back 3000, 15 acres of land, um, first time in their country’s history to get him back, just so the land was stolen from them.

Uh, and so they’re the first people grew up with Africa. Um, and the first people in Congo, they’re the first citizens, yet that land was stolen from them and they were enslaved on that land. Um, and so what we wanted to do was lobby petition on their behalf. And one thing that I’ve learned through fighting, I grew up getting very heavily bullied Seth Lunchable by myself, pelt in the back of head with chocolate milk, spit wads or food or fist as kids would walk by. I’m not just one simple thing. Instead of the public shaming in front of a whole school. Basically what I’ve learned through fighting is that it’s one thing to fight against people for competition, but it’s another thing, so much more fulfilling and driving and purposeful to fight for people. And so I wanted to fight for the most bullied people group in the world who adopted me in my fight name.

You know, this clay, we used to be the Viking and you guys can probably see why I was called the biking. Uh, but now it’s the big pygmy, uh, the name that they gave me. Um, and so yeah, working to empower the locals, equip them with the tools and educate them to drill the Wells and they’ve done 62 Wells now for themselves. What question would you have for a Michael Levine and or Jill Donovan about a public relations and growing your brand fight for the forgotten you’re, you’re growing a nonprofit. Yeah. But still, I’m sure you’ve got some questions about how to gain more media exposure now. You have been on Mike Tyson, you have it on Joe Rogan. You are going to be on Jocko. You’re reaching some of the biggest audiences in the world, but still, do you have any questions for Michael Levine and or, uh, Jill about growing the brand itself?

Sure, absolutely. Um, I’m so driven. I’ve been a competitor and a wrestler and national champion and that and youngest guy in the UFC, but they have PR people that are doing all sorts of work. But my story and really for anyone out there listening to this podcast now, which was in my opinion with the best podcasts in the world, clay, you’re, you’re amazing, bro. Appreciate. Um, but I think as athletes are peak performers like you guys are, it’s usually the people with the most reasons that win. Um, and so I feel like with my nonprofit or whoever’s out there and their business and how they want to give back and make a difference in the world, when you add, raise the bar to that necessity, you’re driven to do what you did, Jill, and go to bed at 5:00 AM and wake up at seven, take your kids to school.

Um, but how, how as all of our, I guess I’m trying to get to the question, but I have had organic reach and it’s been on sports illustrated and it was just on the guardian for Thanksgiving day. Our story was featured and front page and it’s been great, but it’s all been organic, but how, like Clay’s always saying, what’s the stupid repetitive task, the process, the system. What would be the system and process of getting those kind of opportunities to share the story in a bigger, more impactful way? Let’s go with you, Jill. You have to celebrities that use your products that love it and then the consumers love it. I’m everyone loves it. What would, what kind of, what kind of repetitive things did you do to get the rustic cuff in the hands of people

that everyone knows? First I want to say that I listened to your podcast with clay and was so moved by it, the whole thing, but mostly by your humility combined with your story, which I can see why it would have such an organic reach because of that base right there. That alone, the problem comes in when you want to change the organic and start doing those things to make it bigger. At times you can try to put it in somebody else’s formula, but it worked so well for you based off of what you’ve done so far. So how do you continue that maybe is what you’re asking. How do you continue that in a way once it reaches what maybe what you feel the end of, not the end of your or the organic nature of it, but in a, in a bigger way. Excuse me. Um, the, the hard part is keeping it in this really beautiful way that people can see you without it becoming. Uh, so, mm and I don’t, and this is not to offend any PR firm, but it’s really aligning with the right people that understand who you are and what you don’t, what you don’t want it to turn into.

I agree with that because what happens is you team up with a PR firm that changes your core message, right? To not offend somebody, then all of a sudden you lose you. So it’s like how do you get a megaphone to have other people saying what you’re saying the same way and not have them corrupted

the message, the same things that excited you in the beginning and that grew, you still need to be, it needs to be the same process because the passion will then take it to a bigger level. But I think it’s really aligned at this point. Whatever phase you’re in, it’s aligning with the right people that understand what you’re trying to do.

We met, um, uh, we met probably maybe nine months ago and I think that we were working with you for about three months, kind of. You’re getting, you have a great team, you’re putting all together. Can you share the listeners just how much money you’ve been able to raise for this cause so far? Well, I don’t have the exact numbers which I should have, but um, I can tell you this, since coming on board with thrive time and being mentored by you, inspired by you and your team and um, I think September, no, it, let’s say October was our biggest month of the year. Um, but then November matched all the rest of the year. Um, combined there it ends. We were able to go and get over 3000 donors, um, from all 50 States. There it is and from 58 different countries. Um, and so that has been incredible. And now you’re working with us to, how do we get those people from being a onetime donor to buying in and being a monthly donor?

$5. Um, or how would you describe this experience? Cause you just mentioned the results, she said says coming to this business conference since being in the program, this has happened, said you’re bringing in more money in one month and the whole year, but what is this event like from your perspective? Uh, it’s honestly transformative to me as a person. Um, but educational, inspirational, empowering, empowering would be the word and power because, um, I, I came once you invited me after hearing me on Joe’s and I am too. It was one of the best decisions in my life, honestly, bro, for my mission and passion and purpose. Um, but came just to speak and then I had to stay. I was planning to leave. I canceled things. I ended up staying because of this tribe and what I was learning came back two more times. Got to speak. But, but this time it’s just to come learn and put on my learning cap from, from people like you, Jill and Michelle.

You know, you have good speakers when you can’t let Justin Rin speak, you know, we’ve got some good ones. It’s like we just, every speaker’s just awesome. We just got great people in the room because your network is your net worth. I’m asking you rhetorically if you’re listening, who are you hanging out with? And if you’re around a bunch of whiners and not winners, get to a business conference. Meet some great people like Josh at living water. Let’s get Josh on the Mike real quick. Yeah, it was okay to end with one question real quick. So one question I get all the time from people that after I’m on Joe’s podcast or Mike Tyson’s or whatever, is someone saying, you got to get on the Ellen show. That hasn’t been a, a real goal of ours, but I guess now everyone’s asking for it and we want it to be organic and real and everything else.

But how do you go about for people like Joshua just all over, uh, with his billboards for living water, irrigation. If you Google it, Tulsa man buys eight billboards. A Josh Wilson, a longtime client, great guy. He has been on good morning America that Kelly Clarkson show. Uh, people magazine, living water irrigation, OK. Dot com is the website. But this guy has just all over the media. He’s making every man in Tulsa jealous cause he proclaimed his love for his wife with eight billboards. Awesome story. Just for a little context there. So you were asking me to get on Ellen. Yeah. How do you do that? What’s the process, Michael, after those, those big whales. Here we go, Michael.

Um, the, the task of a sales person is one to find out what the buyer wants and to, to get it to. So in this context, your question is, how do I sell my story to the Ellen show? So when in this relationship currently we’re discussing who’s the buyer and who’s the seller. Uh, I’m the seller and Ellen and her people are the buyers, were her cut her viewers and make the buyers well. So what’s the first obligation of every seller? Find out what the buyer wants. What’s the second obligation deliver? There you go and don’t under deliver overload. So if you want to be on the Ellen show, you better create a conversation with them that indicates rather persuasively and strongly why having you on their show is good and consistent for them. And information is power. Knowing what Ellen’s doing and why she’s doing it. Creating an attachment from your goal, which is that of getting on the show to her knee becomes the, the mission.

Also, I will say do everything he said and then look for warm intros. So John, Josh here has been on the Kelly Clarkson show and so you could talk to him, arm wrestling, whatever, and you could have a really nice concise email and talk to Josh about it. And Josh says, I’ll, I’ll send it to her. So Josh goes, Hey, I know it was just on your show. Justin Rand was just on a, you know, Joe Rogan and he was just on Mike Tyson and he was just on this and that. He would like to be on your show to talk about this. And all of a sudden it’s a warm intro and he goes right up the chain through the filters, through the, it’s a move. It’s a move. Um, Josh, I want to have time to allow you an opportunity to ask a question, but I hate to cut you off there.

Justin. You’re beautiful man. And you’re always right cause you’re bigger. So. Okay. So Josh, what question would you have for Matt Klein or Jill Donovan or Michael Levine as it relates to growing a living water, irrigation, or improving your life or any, anything at all about the game of business? So my question would be for, uh, for Jill. So I know that when you guys started rustic cuff, obviously my wife is a huge fan. Thank you so much for the cuff. She loved it from the last time we met. She here says she’s not, she’s not the same in her thing. And with the billboards she had up on all the attention. So whenever you started, you know it was to have friends give cuffs to others and you gave cuffs to a lot of people. So how would you encourage other entrepreneurs, it’s a big goal of ours as a company, but how would you encourage other entrepreneurs to start the process of being socially responsible and start the process of giving or donating? How do you encourage that? Because obviously you’ve done it on a grand grand scale. So how do you start that and kind of to piggyback off of guest Justin’s conversation as well.

It probably goes a little bit with my other answers. It has, it can’t fit into somebody else’s formula. What worked for Tom’s or what worked for this company is not going to work for living water. So whatever. Then this is a weird way to say it, but what lights your fire about giving? And it might be in many different ways and it might be to a certain group of people and talk to everybody. But sometimes I just lay out all the different things that I want to do and then which one, which one brings me the most joy at that moment, and then I just take a step and do it. If that,

the mechanics of building a sustainable give back, like at Oxi fresh, I want Matt to talk about this real quick, but Oxi fresh. Every time that you book carpet online, they give back in the mechanics of that. As a coach, I can help somebody down, but the why behind why you’re doing it, like Jill saying is different for everybody, you know? So it’s like you got to find the thing that lights your fire. Sure. My wife, literally true story. John, you’ve seen this. When we fire people, she prays for them. The people that I’m the most mad at, unlike you’re fired, you cannot be here. Stop contaminating my office and then she’ll go, can I pray for me? She’ll run out there and pray for him and they’re hugging and then they’re texting and then they’re following up and saying that that could change their life.

I don’t get that. I don’t understand that. Maybe eventually I’ll get that. But like, so my wife’s ministry is to the people I fire. I mean it’s like, it’s like everyone’s got their own give back, but Oxi fresh, the mechanics of that. How does that work when you book online? So, um, we created an online booking center a few years back and what it does, it makes us as a company more efficient day to day, but it also frees up a lot of things we didn’t have in the past. We don’t have to hire as many people and because of that we can actually utilize some funds that donate back to a good cause. So it’s doing multiple things at the same time. And it also goes along with what our actual theme is, low moisture, eco-friendly water conservation. So on one hand we’re saving it in the United States and Canada by doing the jobs at, at a much lower rate in terms of water usage.

But then we’re turning around and actually creating drink, clean drinking, um, solutions in areas of the world where they don’t have it. Right. So it is a cause marketing for us at works. It makes sense and everyone should probably try to find something of a feel good that they can actually donate and be passionate about. So find the why then the mechanics, get it on your website. Tell everybody about it. Keep telling them about it. Keep telling them the status of it, give them updates about it. Don’t stop talking about it and be sincere about it because if the world discovers you’re not sincere about it and they’re going to stop giving right away, they’ll smell it and they won’t give it to you originally. So just keep talking about it. Keep talking. Josh, one more question for Michael. Oh Michael. So we obviously got the tremendous attention off of a little message to my wife, so, and it’s when national, it’s helped us out as well. A lot of us as a company, it’s helped me out a lot at home too. But with all that viralocity and everything that’s happened there, what would you do with all the IRLs beautiful tells me at home if it was just me and Michael here, we’re going to love long conversation. Okay. What should I do to follow up Mike or just let it go or what’s your advice there now that it’s reached

the what it reached? Well, it depends on your goal, but it would seem to me that if you’ve had a good size fire, putting gasoline on, it might be wise. Continuing on with other messages and if you’ve had an opportunity and you want to continue to try to utilize that, find your next message. Okay. But you know, it depends on your goal. Awesome.

Now I have a, we have time for a few more questions here. We have Scott here. I want Scott to give me on the mic because Scott has served our, our our country. Ah, he’s been a member of military. He

started his entrepreneurial endeavor that we’ve helped him with at the age of 53 I believe. And he was just sharing at the business conference that he went from a startup to how much have you grown my friend? I mean, I guess when you start at zero it can be a big percentage.

Uh, did a little better than that. Uh, this year we’re on track for about 120% growth over last year. Last year we were equal to the three previous years totals.

And what do you attribute this? This growth to my friend

you and your, what you’re saying and your team,

but as an exchange you let me hire your daughter, which is cool. I did. And then she went off to college, which is not cool, but I’m going to get her to drop out, which is cool. Okay. All right. So he’s coming back. So what question would you have for Jill, Michael or Matt in any question you want as we, as we’d have to have time for three more questions.

Well, I guess Ms. Levine. Okay. With branding, um, there’s targeted branding evidently. So there must be non-targeted branding. What I know who my most likely buyers are, I know their ages. I know who they are. Do I just continue? Would it be better? Do you think that continued as branding the way I am generally or folk or have a targeted branding as my major outlay of cash?

Well, I think as a general rule, uh, creating goals and targets are better than not creating goals and targets. Uh, efficiency requires knowing where you’re going and being as precise as possible. Uh, branding just to, to ran random brand doesn’t seem to be megaphone marketing nearly as efficient. You can shoot with a rifle or you can just spray bullets in the air. No, both of the bullets in the air Alcaide endorses that. That’s what it is. Shoot it up there and no one thinks about when they’re going to come back down. And I’ll kite is doing well those guys Al-Qaida so I, I always think that, first of all, so many people have said what I believe. Start with the why that Simon Syntech brilliant. Start with the Y and then from the Y, create as many tangible goals as as possible and then shoot as close to him as you can and measure and monitor.

Know your numbers right now. We have time for two more questions. We have two wonderful gentlemen who’ve joined us here. They have traveled a great distances to be here and sir, I’ll let you introduce yourself to the, to the thrive nation and, and share what you do. All right. My name is Bob Kennedy. I’m with surface room, my partner Ryan shots. So you can see on the show here too, I guess it right next to me here we do tub and tile refinishing and have recently taken over another business that does concrete and Marvin stone restoration. Where are you from? Little rock, Arkansas. How’d you hear about us? I actually, I got a phone call from one of the guys out here and then I talked to Tim and then we came up here a super cool. And are you growing?

Is your business growing? Oh yes we are. How much are you growing as a percentage? As a percentage? It’s kind of a, if he won because we just lost about a quarter million dollar customer because our renovation was done. But I can say this, we’re still increasing sales in spite of losing that. So I put it at about 10% 10% and that’s huge. Cause the, the, the GDP right now in America is 1.9% so I mean that’s huge growth right there. It’s, we thought we’re going downhill. So no, we’re very happy. And people always say clay, it’s the workshops. All your clients are growing. How is it possible? I have a great success rate because I fire people that won’t do their crown. So it’s a, it’s a falsely positive case study. I just two weeks in, you’ve seen me do it, judge, I’ll just refund them their money and say you’re fired.

Someone else because I’m not interested in giving pep talks. People won’t implement and you guys are implementers. So it’s fun to meet you guys. What questions would you have for Michael Levine or Matt Klein or, or Jill Donovan? Him. Well actually my question is probably for Matt. Oh the best suited to answer this one. Beautiful. We’ve been in business 15 years, we’ve done well. We’re happy with where we’re at and we’ve tried to make forays into new markets and we’re not doing well. We don’t want to take it to take 15 years. I can get a little rock. What if you could offer like two or three components of the great backbone of a marketing plan, like a cookie cutter approach. If you can say, I want this market, I know it worked for us. How could we make a big splash in a, you know, instantly get some recognition in those markets?

Or what do you guys do parallels wise on some headphones here for Oxi fresh on. What’s really fun is that when you buy a franchise, um, you are going to get some inbound leads because of the market and they do nationally. But you, if you want to get corporate accounts, you’ve got to go out there and put in the efforts. So if you bought an Oxi fresh today and you want to get some corporate accounts, how do you do that? Yeah. And so this is something that, um, we really try to focus on on the front end is realistic expectations and what, what the individual behind the business is capable of and maybe what they’re not doing right now and how we can fill some of those gaps so it Oxi fresh. We’ve been very successful at really understanding current marketing trends and the environment of how we actually reached the end customer.

Yup. But the process of sales is always going to be heavy loaded on the actual person behind the scenes, right. Whether you have a salesperson or an owner, those things are not automated like marketing. So if you don’t have the goal and kind of the in the muster to keep going after those, those types of contracts and those types of large business, then you need to find somebody else that can because that is going to be an ever changing environment. You got to keep going after those people. It’s not going to be automated and every person is going to be a little bit different terms of what the conversation’s going to be. Dr Zellner makes a board, he calls the dream 100 from the ultimate sales machine and we declare on the board, these are the clients we are going to get. Notice not we might.

And then you literally call them all until they cry, buy or die, cry. Meaning don’t call me again by me. And they actually buy something diamond in there. They’re still dead. They’re no longer alive, they’re dead. And then you say, would your surviving spouse be interested? Cause you have that mentality of cry, buy or die. It’s a tenacity. Um, we have time for one more question when we get back into the show. Um, your partners here with us, you to hop on the mic here and tell us who you are and uh, what question would you have for Michael, Jill or uh, Matt Klein here. So w what is your name and what do you do? Ryan shots. I’m the cone or surface or new. Um, he kind of stole my question I had. Oh, he’s a Steeler. Hey, what do you think about the business conference so far?

How is it I love it. Is there a second time here and this time we’re not getting such the fire hose effect that we got the first time. It was so wild and crazy and awesome. Now we’re retaining everything and we’re really writing down twice to three times as much as we did last time and we implemented a lot of stuff last time and I feel sorry for our guys and we get back this time because this will be a whole nother new world. Well I’ll tell you what guys, I am I, I appreciate you being here. Thank you for implementing. What’s your web address for people to check it out? surface-renew.com and we polish.com and we polish.com we polish.com and surface-renew.com that’s correct. If you’re listening out there, the best thing you can do that’s free is go to their website cause it makes their site rank higher.

The more organic traffic they have, check it out. I appreciate you guys for being on the show and we’d like to end every show with a boom. And then we’re going to go a Tim Redmond who grew a company from two people to 350 people before he sold it to tax and accounting software will be speaking and then she’ll Donovan with rustic couple be speaking. And then I’m going to ruin the whole thing by speaking just a little bit. I’ll just contaminate the business conference and speak at the very end. And then we’re going to do a group photo and we’re going to leave. It’s going to be a laser show, uh, without any further ado. Here we go. Three, two, one, boom. Shunda