Business Podcasts | The Steve Currington Success Story & SteveCurrington.com Case Studies

One of the biggest things we picked up when we picked up the Thrive15 team was an entire team. You want an SEO guy, that knows things about search engine optimization? Got it. You got a website guy that’s built big websites like Garth Brooks’ website, awesome. We have it. He’s coming in.

If I had to pay for that on my own outside of Thrive15, there’s just no way. For us, one of our most immediate needs when I got connected with Clay was technology. We had a website, but I had a website in Tulsa. Our other partner had a website in Colorado, and they did everything from doing a drone video where they flew over all of our markets with a drone, they integrated that into our site. They built every single thing that I think of, they do. We do a podcast. If I was going to produce my own podcast, I mean, that alone, just that alone would be what I pay Thrive, just for that.

But then if you add the fact that if I need a business card designed, if I need a website built, if I need this, if I need that, I know what I would pay for that if I had to go a la carte. I feel guilty sometimes, like I don’t probably write a big enough check for the value that I get.

I think there’s a lot of entrepreneurs that have ideas of what they want to do with their business and how they want to grow and what market they want to be in and how they can increase production, and do all this. But it’s not about having 4,000 ideas. It’s about having 12 and executing them 4,000 times. That’s the trick, in my opinion. And that’s where Thrive’s value comes in, I feel like. I have my own staff, my own… I don’t know, 20-person team that when I need something, I just go to them and it happens.

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I’ve see Jack Canfield, I’ve seen Tony Robbins, and I’ll tell you that Clay made a far greater impact on me than any of those other speakers, as great as they are, and as great as they were at that time.

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Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Steve Currington joins us on today’s edition of the Thrivetime Show. Now today’s show, Steve will primarily be… We’re going to be featuring a lot of video excerpts from my newest book called A Millionaire’s Guide How to Become Sustainably Rich: A Step-By-Step Guide to Building a Successful Money-Generating, and Time-Freedom Creating Business.

We’re talking specifically on page 49, we’re talking from page 49 of the book about decreasing your business’ reliance upon you. How do you build a business that creates both time, freedom, and financial freedom for you? We’re going to turn to page 49 of the book.

If you want to download the book for free, again, if you want to download the book for free, you can download the book for free today by going to thrivetimeshow.com/millionaire. That’s thrivetimeshow.com/millionaire. And Steve, as people are downloading the book right now, we’re giving them a second, tell everybody out there, what is the name of your company? And what’s your website there, sir?

I’ll start with my website. It’s stevecurrington.com, and the company I work for is called CrossCountry Mortgage. We’re a national residential mortgage company.

So it’s stevecurrington.com, and do you provide mortgages in all 50 states, or primarily in just the bricks nations? Do you supply mortgages primarily in communist countries, in America? Where’s your niche? There’s a lot of confusion right there, Steve.

All 50 states, but we recently added Ukraine since so much money’s been going there.

Nice.

So your people are going to have the ability to put down payments on houses.

You’re not actually in Ukraine though?

No, not yet.

Okay. And then also Steve, for anybody out there that doesn’t know, how long have I known you or had the opportunity to work with you?

Well, I think you DJ-ed my wedding in 2001.

There it is.

So that’s that long, but working together in a coaching capacity since 2015.

Okay. So we’re going to talk today about how to decrease your business’ reliance upon you. Again, with full disclosure, you’ve been a client here since 2015, so we’ve worked together for eight years. That deserves a fist bump. Boom. Okay. So I’m going to read here from the book and I’d love to get your thoughts on this, okay?

Yeah.

Here we go. Page 49 reads, “Years ago, I was working with a business owner based in Texas who had absolutely worked himself into exhaustion. He ran a soccer coaching facility and was approaching 60 years of age. During college, he had been a standout and full scholarship player and business just seemed to follow him wherever he went, following his Division I career.

However, as he grew his business, his physical body began to deteriorate from years of hard use and natural aging. This coach who was once able to demonstrate every drill firsthand was now forced to hire younger coaches to teach the kids the moves, the drills, and the skills that he had spent a lifetime creating and perfecting. Furthermore, for the first time in his life, he was now facing major competition from another coaching facility in town.”

Steve, this scenario I see all the time, where it’s people who don’t have the systems that we’ve been able to create together. And a mortgage company entirely depends upon them. People that don’t have systems, their whole business is based upon them. Let’s just go through the workflow here. When somebody goes to stevecurrington.com to get a mortgage to apply right now to see if they qualify for a mortgage, what is the process that happens?

They fill out an application on my website, which everything’s digital, which people prefer now because they can do it in the convenience of their own home. They don’t have to come into the office to do it. Takes them max of 15 minutes to submit the basic info like your name and Social, birthday, income, where you work, that kind of thing.

And then with all the technology now, I get 17 notifications. I’ll get a text, I get an email, I get a pop-up on my phone that says, “Application started.” And then I get one when it’s finished and then my team hops in there, and they will set the file up, pull credit, import liabilities, look based on what they submitted what loan program works best for them. And then we whip out a pre-approval letter usually within two hours of whenever they apply.

So just to be clear, if someone goes to stevecurrington.com right now looking to get a mortgage, the lead comes in, and you have a team that assists behind the scenes and you guys are known in Tulsa and throughout Texas and other areas that you serve as being the people that respond the fastest. Why is it important? Because, I mean, there’s so many mortgage companies that offer mortgages, right?

Yep.

It’s safe to say that maybe rates are competitive or maybe your company offers maybe a little lower rate than somebody else or about the same. But one of your differentiators is that you guys have fast response time. That’s a big thing you guys do.

We don’t work bankers’ hours. I think that’s what a lot of people think, is they just think that 8:00 to 5:00, Monday through Friday. What I’ve found is when people are buying a house, they’re not doing it 8:00 to 5:00, Monday through Friday. I mean, people have jobs, which is how they qualify for their mortgage.

A lot of them work during the week. So, they’re looking at houses, Clay, after hours, maybe on Thursday night at 6:00 PM or it might be Saturday. It’s Saturday right now. Is it 3:30?

Yep.

By noon today, I’d already talked to two realtors, three salespeople at Shaw Homes who I work with, and two clients. Because people are doing their home shopping when they’re not at work, and if you’re their employer, you should be happy about that because they’re not surfing realtor.com while they’re at work.

We set it up to where it’s not 100% dependent on me obviously, because I learned a long time ago, they call it the good news, bad news, right?

Yep.

The good news is my business depends on me. The bad news is my business depends on me. So you want to get out of that mode where… and for me, a lot of people that I know, it’s just a control thing. You got to release that to people on your team to be able to handle some of that stuff.

Now you, just to talk about the successes of what you’ve been able to do there. I’m going to go to Lambro Steve, lambrosteve.com, I believe that’s the website?

Yep.

And lambrosteve.com is a website that I would describe as your hobbies, it’s your hobbies manifested. It’s like that which you dream about has been turned into reality. Tell us about what lambrosteve.com is all about and how unprofitable lambrosteve.com is, because your mortgage business is very profitable.

It allows you to buy the Lamborghinis that you drive, and it allows you to have the plane that you’ve purchased and these sorts of things. Tell us, how unprofitable is lambrosteve.com?

Well, I would say from a monetary standpoint, as far as money coming in, very not profitable, but from a standpoint of having a Lamborghini and the people that it introduces you to, there’s no price you can put on it.

So I can tell you that my biggest relationship I have, which is Shaw Homes, I landed because I had an exotic car and I met people who had influence-

Interesting.

… which helped me close that deal. So I think, yeah, that’s a hobby. I quit drinking in ’16. I had to have some positive vice, I guess. So I looked for cars to do that.

You own a Lamborghini, is this correct?

Yeah, I own a lot of Lamborghinis, actually.

Okay. Again, you buy those Lamborghinis using money you’ve earned from your mortgage business?

Yeah. Here’s the thing, funny story, let me give you an example of the Lamborghini that I bought last June. Okay? I bought it on June 6th, on my anniversary of my… would’ve been my seven years of not drinking, or six years not drinking. So I paid 264,000 for it. By the time I paid taxes and stuff, it was like 271.

Driven that car, rallied with it, had a lot of fun with it, modified it, added a bunch of cool stuff to it since last June. It’s got 9,700 miles on it. And that car’s for sale because my new car’s coming in and it’s for sale for 305,000. I paid 264 plus tax, 271. So I just leveraged my money. In a way, it’s like an investment, because I’ve spent $271,000 last June, and that car will probably be sold by the end of this weekend.

You’re telling me you bought the Lamborghini for how much?

271, by the time I paid excise tax and everything.

You sold it for how much?

I’ll be selling it soon for a little over 300, 305 probably.

Which is more than you bought it for.

Yeah.

Wow!

And I drove it and put 10,000 miles on it.

So I want to make sure we’re clear because I want to make sure I don’t lose anybody here, because sometimes people make success super complicated. So step one to success, and Steve, I’m putting notes here on the show notes, and I’d love it if you could chime in on how we’re doing this here, okay?

So step one, you have to find a problem. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to find a problem that the world wants to solve. So what’s the problem that you guys solve at stevecurrington.com?

The biggest thing is time. I mean, we solve the timing issue. Most people are trying to get a offer submitted on a house when it’s not 8:00 to 5:00, Monday through Friday. So we solve that, because it gives them the ability to get their offer submitted or get their home bought when it’s not bankers’ hours.

I would also argue that the problem that mortgage providers provide is you allow people to buy a house that they would not otherwise be able to afford. Correct?

Yeah, or what they think they wouldn’t be able to afford. Most people I would say are scared of bankers, because we’re the Bad News Bears or something. They don’t want to be told that they can’t qualify. So what we try to do is make the process easy, so that people aren’t stressing about that part of it.

We take care of that up upfront, let them know they’re good, get them their pre-approval and then they can only really stress about what house they’re going to pick out and they don’t have to worry about the financing side of it.

So Entrepreneurship 101, again, you find a problem that the world wants to solve. In this case, that people need money?

Yep.

Two is you solve the problem. So, what are the problems that you solve again, Steve, at stevecurrington.com?

So this would be like, “I don’t know where to start. How do I get approved for a house?” Solve that problem. We solve the problem of like I said, time. It’s the weekend, I’m trying to make an offer on a $400,000 house.

And this happens, people go out on a Saturday, they’re not planning to buy a house, they walk into an open house. Next thing you know, they want to buy a house. So I solve that problem by being available-

You do.

… seven days a week.

Now step three, Steve, step number three is you have to sell the solution. So, let’s talk about it. If somebody gets a $300,000 mortgage from you, how do you make money?

I make money either on the servicing side because we service loans that we close.

Got it.

And then on the secondary market, whether we’re getting it insured with Fannie or Freddie or we’re selling it on the secondary market, we get paid a premium when we sell the servicing of that loan.

Now step four is you have to nail it in scale. Nail it, and scale it. You have to build the systems. That’s really I feel like what I’ve helped you do, is you already had step one, you were already finding problems and solving them. I was working with your direct competitor, so I didn’t really have the ability at that time to come into your life and say, “Hey, here’s a problem you should solve.”

You were already doing that. I couldn’t assist you, because I was working with your competitor, and then you reached out to me and we connected. I can say step one, you were already solving a lot of problems before we met. You were already a very successful mortgage provider before we met. Two, you were already solving problems that the world wanted you to solve. You were already solving those problems, you were already providing those mortgages.

Step three, we worked together to help you sell that solution more often. We worked together to get the branding nailed down, to get the pre-written emails nailed down, the sales scripts nailed down, to get the website optimized, to get the videos optimized, to improve your online reputation, all that stuff.

And then we had to nail it and scale it. Now we’re into the fun part, I believe, Steve, and this is the part where every business owner, I hope once you’ve figured out those first four steps, now this is how to create time freedom. This is how to decrease your business’s reliance upon you.

Hi, my name is Josh Sperl from Sperl & Associates Chartered Professional Accountants based out of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I met Clay at a conference, at his conference in Tulsa in June of 2018. Started working with the coaching program shortly after there.

The experience has been great. You really have a partner in the grind. Most people, I like to say most people are wrong about most things about business most of the time, and it’s very difficult for entrepreneurs to connect with other entrepreneurs who actually know what they’re talking about when it comes to business. But Clay and his team really does understand.

The tangible improvements that we’ve seen is we’re up over 50% starting since starting with the coaching program, and they’re helping to help business owners create time freedom and financial freedom. And I know what you’re going to think. You’re going to say, “What the heck are you going to do with your time freedom and financial freedom when you’re in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, that’s the most northerly city in North America with a million people?”

We’re probably just sitting in our igloos hoping for some television, but I’ll give you an idea of what we’re doing in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. So over here, we have Sandra and we have Emma. Emma, say hello!

Hi, everybody. This is my daddy’s channel.

Emma really likes any video. So let’s see what actually the time freedom, financial freedom can do for you in Edmonton. So believe it or not, we have a beach here, guys. I’ll take you on a little tour of Edmonton’s Beach. Now, it’s not what you Americans are going to think of at the beach. This is a northern beach.

We’ve got a really cool slide here. I don’t know if you can see this purple slide, this purple slide that you’re looking at here, it’s a full loop to loop. It knocks you completely upside down when you go through. Let’s see if I can get the right angle here. That does not appear physically possible, but it really is going to knock you upside down, went on it last time.

And here is the Edmonton Beach. This is a northern beach. You guys out in Tulsa, you Americans think you have all the beaches here. But here is the northern beach, complete with waves. We got 30 degree weather inside here. Oh, sorry, 30, that’s 90 for you guys over there. I got to do the translation, the math in my head. And we even got a zip line that we can ride down here, and this is what we’re doing with our time freedom and financial freedom in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, thanks to the ThriveTime team. Thanks very much, guys.

What you want to do is you have to improve the branding. Steve, why does your Lamborghini and your high-end branding help you sell more houses?

Well, people want to do business with people that are successful. Although there is a small group of the population that resents the fact that you have a Lamborghini or a nice car.

There we go.

But most people, they want to do business with people that are good at what they do. I think that’s just a way to send that message. The other thing is the biggest reason I do cars, I enjoy cars and I enjoy sharing them. So I meet a lot of people through that. Car shows, kids, there’s lots of kids that grew up with the Lamborghini on their wall like me that love Lamborghini. So it’s a good way to connect on a more personal level with people.

And then they find out, “Oh, you do home loans.” They’ll ask, “How do you pay for that?”

What does a Lamborghini cost? If someone’s going to go out there and buy a Lamborghini today, how much are they going to spend?

The new one I have coming next month, it’s 331,000.

If someone were to lease a Lamborghini or finance a Lamborghini, what kind of payments is someone looking at?

Yeah, I mean-

I want to get a Lamborghini now maybe.

The first one I bought, I think my payment was… and I did it a shorter term, like 60 months, but it was like 3,700 a month.

Okay, okay. Now step two, you want to create a turnkey marketing system. That’s so important, you have a turnkey marketing system. Let me just put a little bit of meat on the bone here, there. You want to have a website that inspires customers. You want to have pre-written emails that make sense. Steve, you do what’s called the Dream 100 Marketing System. That’s where you-

Yeah, I have one of my Dream 100s calling right now. You want to call a customer?

I do not want to call a customer right now. So the Dream 100 Marketing System, it’s very important that you consistently market to your ideal and likely buyers, or your ideal and likely referral sources. Who are the ideal and likely referral sources for you at stevecurrington.com?

Builders, real estate agents that actually produce and sell houses.

All right, now why do you have to have pre-written scripts? So that way when the phone rings at your office that the people on your team are… Why did you have to take the time to write these scripts as opposed to just letting people say whatever they want to say?

Because otherwise they’re just going to say whatever they’re going to say, and it’s not going to be in line with how we do business and they are probably going to suck. So you’re leaving people who aren’t as well-trained as you to try to sell like you, without any direction.

Now, step three, you want to create a sales system and workflow. We don’t have time to get into all the details of it. But again, when someone applies on the website from that forward, there are many steps. I mean, dozens of steps that have to be done. You’ve nailed them down there.

Now step four, Steve, every single week, we weekly get together and we optimize your business. From a coaching perspective, why do I meet with all of my clients every week to optimize their business and not just once a month or once a quarter? Why do we weekly meet? Why do we have these weekly meetings to optimize the business?

So things don’t drift, because it’s out of sight, out of mind, and you got to take the time every week to… We’re in orbit now, as you call it. So we’re making little adjustments and our industry changes, the time changes.

Sometimes your marketing strategies might change a little bit. So, it’s just good to have that meeting every week so that you’re on the same page. Sometimes we’re real busy in that weekly meeting and sometimes, there’s not a whole lot.

My name is Sharita Bent, and I work on the leadership team here at Thrive15.com. Our team is a group of dynamic individuals and we work really hard to deliver the goods for our clients. We have a variety of clients, gosh, we work with people in all industries. Dentists, bakers, doctors, lawyers. We work with people stateside. We work with people abroad.

Really we don’t have any limits to who we’ll help. We help them with search engine optimization, marketing, making a logo, your business card, what’s the most effective way to have your website, with cutting edge branding, social media, leadership skills, I mean, the list just… I could keep going and going and going. Whereas a company may have a budget for branding or a budget for their advertising, we can take all of those things, handle them here in-house, give you excellent results quickly, efficiently, and for a fraction of the cost.

So that’s our deal. The one thing that you hear over and over is the excitement and the gratitude for the results that we get for them. Most times, people are moved to tears literally, because they just have maybe been stuck in a place where they’re maybe not hitting the goals that they have for themselves, or maybe they are just having no profitability at all. So, it’s really neat when we can help them.

That is the recurring theme that really warms your heart and makes you really excited for the customer too. We have a system, it works. If you work the system, the system will work for you. So, it’s a win-win. We have something that we know totally works, so you can’t beat that.

Now the step five here, we want to install a tracking sheet, install a tracking sheet and look at it weekly. Why do we have to have a tracking sheet, Steve? And why can’t we just go off of feelings and going off of just emotions? Why do we want to track how many leads you got this month, how many calls you got this month, how many people actually went to your website? Why do we want to track those kinds of things, Steve?

Well, otherwise you’d just be guessing at what it is. And-

Do you see a lot of business owners that are guessing?

Oh, yeah.

You do?

They just don’t have a clue and they don’t want to have a clue.

Really?

Well, yeah, because I mean, it’s probably bad and they don’t want the bad news.

Yeah, I would argue that’s-

Their numbers probably suck.

I would argue that’s pretty accurate for a lot of people. Now, we’re going to-

Yeah. The people that don’t look at their bank account.

Now, this company here, Del Rick, I’m not sure if you remember these guys. We worked with them, Steve, from 2016 to about 2019, and their business grew from $408,000 here to $3.7 million in 20 months. How is that possible?

I mean, people have to work, I guess. I don’t know what they did, but they probably sucked and then they started sucking less, and then they started sucking even less.

Technically speaking, I think you might be correct there. All right, now Brian Tracy said the following, he said, “No one lives long enough to learn everything that they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.”

So if you’re out there today and you’re going, “Man, I need help building turnkey marketing systems and proven turnkey advertisements, and formalized inbound sales scripts, and pre-written emails, an inbound sales script and an outbound sales script, and a formalized cross-selling or upselling system, and a wow experience for when customers see you, and optimizing your website and your online ads, and your weekly accountability to your tracking, a recruitment system for finding high quality employees, a way to optimize the public relations campaign for your business, a way to optimize and organize the way you store files, a turnkey recruitment system process to find new employees,” if you’re looking for these things and you say, “I don’t even know where to start,” my recommendation would be that you would go to thrivetimeshow.com.

Again, that’s thrivetimeshow.com, and I’ve got two primary ways that I’d love to serve you today here. One, we have business workshops every two months where people like Steve show up in our office with a goal and a dream and a business that’s stuck, and we help them to go from the idea into the execution of that idea. You can attend our in-person workshops at thrivetimeshow.com. You can learn more. These events are hosted in Tulsa, Oklahoma at my office. We’ve created thousands of millionaires and you can learn more about that by going to thrivetimeshow.com.

You can click on testimonials to see those thousands of stories or you can go to thrivetimeshow.com and schedule, requesting more information about the in-person workshops. They’re two-day workshops. They’re in-person. They’re in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They’re personally hosted by me. I introduce you to a lot of our clients and an expert panel of successful entrepreneurs, and you can learn all about that at thrivetimeshow.com.

The events are $250, or you can pay whatever price you can afford. Again, you can get those tickets at thrivetimeshow.com. We do cap the attendance of those events to 100 folks, ish. So that way, you are able to ask questions and you can interact there. The second thing is if you want to schedule a 13-point assessment with myself to learn how we can grow your business, you can do that at thrivetimeshow.com. If you want to become a coaching client, we only take on 160 clients, but we do offer free 13-point assessments.

If someone is a good fit, we charge $1,700 a month to scale the business. Now Steve, we’re going to go here to YouTube and we’re going to look at your channel here, and where’s the video that we can find that features the purchasing of your new plane? Where can we go to find that there, Steve? Is there a certain place we need to go to find your newest purchase here?

There it is.

The Cirrus-

Aircraft Reveal.

Okay-

Do you know what this is?

They got a little commercial here. Someone says why don’t I have a paid YouTube account? I keep getting banned on YouTube. So Steve, narrative, what are we seeing here?

So we took the big truck because I took my Lamborghini, took my mom and we did the plane and my Lamborghini are the same color. So we did a photo shoot with them.

And where did you go to buy this vehicle, or pick up the new plane?

They built it in Duluth, Minnesota, but they do the delivery in Knoxville, Tennessee.

All right. Was this you in your car right here?

No, that’s just me getting arrested. I’m just kidding. That’s me meeting the police. So this is where we went to the Sears Vision Center and we brought our big semi-truck and brought the Lamborghini in the truck. There it is coming in, and then it was cool. They did a whole delivery inside the Sears Vision Center and made a real big deal about it. It was fun.

Did you ever think that you would own a Lamborghini or Lamborghinis plural?

I don’t know. I think when you’re young and a kid, you always think you want to, but I don’t know if I thought it would ever be a reality, so.

What do you enjoy most about owning your own plane, and your own fleet of vehicles at this point, the Lamborghini and the plane? What appeals to you about this? Because I drive a white van. I hate to one-up you, but I drive a white van. It’s sweet. I mean, I’ll let you borrow it if you want. I mean, you’d need to pay a retainer.

Yeah, I know you don’t like this because you rode in my Lamborghini and said, “Please don’t ever drive that fast again.”

It’s terrifying.

But when I’m on a track and I can drive, I like the feeling of doing 190 to 200 miles an hour, it’s pretty fun. And then the airplane, I mean, I got it because of all this COVID and masks and vaccine passports and all the crap you have to do just to fly anymore.

I’m like, “You know what? That’s dumb. I’ll just get my own airplane.” The great thing about that is you can just leave, whenever you want.

Where do you like to go to?

You know what I did the other day?

What’d you do?

So Monday, I was supposed to… Sally was going to LA on Tuesday.

That’s your wife?

Yep. That’s my wife. And I bought her a new ring, a new diamond. So it went from two and a half to four karats. So, it’s this big, giant rock. I wanted to give it to her before she went to… because Valentine’s Day was on Tuesday and she was going-

I don’t want to steal your thunder at all, but you should probably also get her a chiropractor, a membership, with that rock. You got her a ring for one finger, not both hands, right?

Yeah. The finger’s [inaudible 00:31:47]-

Yeah. See, probably you’re going to have to get an adjustment for her. Back to you, Steve.

So they say to me, “Oh, it didn’t ship, it’s got to go from this town in Arkansas to…”

The truck wasn’t big enough, we couldn’t ship it.

And I said, “Where is it?” And she gave me the address and I said, “Just tell them I’ll be there in an hour.” And then I went and got in the airplane, and it was a four plus hour drive to this place. We flew there in one hour. We stopped, the little private airport gives you a courtesy car.

So we took the car, we drove 20 minutes to this jeweler, got the ring, drove 20 minutes back, got in the airplane, round trip, it was like two hours and 40 minutes. It would’ve taken us about eight and a half hours to do it if we’d have driven.

But you had your own plane!

I didn’t have to wait on [inaudible 00:32:30].

And your own Lamborghini?

Yeah.

You made it happen. Now, Steve, for anybody out there that wants to learn more about you and the mortgage services that you provide, we go to stevecurrington.com. Do we just fill out the form? Do we call you? What’s the best way to get in touch with you?

My number’s on there, call me. There’s also that application, which you can just fill out and it notifies me, but I work every day. That’s why I stepped out for a second because guess what? One of Shaw’s people was sitting there with a client.

There it is. That’s very interesting.

Wanting to run payments, having-

Well, let’s-

… having anxiety about it.

No, this is the fun thing about the Thrivetime Show. We bring in real entrepreneurs that really grow their business. That’s the kind of people we have on the show. Steve, in closing, what kind of people should not reach out to us at the Thrivetime Show to schedule a 13-point assessment with me? What kind of people should?

The people that should would be… I’ll start positive first. People that should would be people that are good receivers of constructive criticism, feedback, and want to be beaten up and coached to get better.

The people that shouldn’t call you are the fakesters that want to look like they have a good business, but not do any work or put any work in, people that can’t follow a simple to-do list and get things done that they need to get done, people that are maybe constantly complaining about all the bad things that happened to them in life, people that-

Let’s think about this recent phenomenon where we’ve had… and it’s so funny because I build systems for my businesses as well as for my clients’ businesses, right?

Yep.

What do you think about this phenomenon, it seems like in the last two years, we’ve had people that have came to our conferences that were so wowed by the staff that we have, that they actually try to hire my employees away from me after the conference? Anytime employees leave, I just replace them with someone better. You know what I mean?

Yeah.

You’ve seen it happen, because you’ve been around for eight years. And it’s interesting because it seems like recently in the last probably five years, I’ve had this phenomena where we’ve had clients that we’ve helped them grow their businesses dramatically, and then they reach out to the employees and try to hire them away from us. And then every time-

They think the magic, and I’m not dogging any great employee, okay?

Sure.

So don’t take this the wrong way. If you take it the wrong way, I don’t care. But I’m not dogging any employee. But-

Sure.

… they think that the magic is in the employee, and the magic isn’t in the employee, the magic’s in the leader. So that same person who does amazingly with you might go there and suck, because they don’t have the processes and the systems and they don’t have the leadership.

And that’s the power of creating a business that’s not reliant upon you. And Steve, you’ve seen the cycle so many times.

Oh, yeah.

It’s so funny as it happens, I’ve watched people and they’re like, “I’ve hired your employees away from you.” And then it takes about three years and about three years later, they reach out to me and they go, “Hey, man. I’m sorry I hired your employees away from you. Is your business okay?” I’m like, “Yes, the business is growing. I replaced them with somebody better.”

No, we actually shut down immediately.

It’s interesting how that works. So if you’re out there today and you want to achieve massive success and you want to learn the systems that you need to use to grow a successful company, you can learn more today at thrivetimeshow.com. But Napoleon Hill once said, the bestselling author of Think & Grow Rich, the top-selling self-help author of all time once said that, “The time will never be just right; you must act now.”

So if you’re thinking about getting a mortgage or you’re thinking about scheduling a one-on-one business consulting session, or you’re thinking about attending an in-person Thrivetime Show Workshop, go to thrivetimeshow.com to learn more, to schedule that assessment, to book that ticket, and go to stevecurrington.com to get that mortgage. Steve, I appreciate you being here.

We’re going to end this show with a BOOM, because BOOM stands for big, overwhelming, optimistic momentum, and that’s what you need to have massive success. Here we go. Three, two, one, BOOM!

BOOM!

So many of you are reaching out. So many of you saying, “How can I increase how much money I’m make? How can I take my business to the next level? How can I increase my productivity? How can I grow my company?”

So what we wanted to do on today’s show is we wanted to interview somebody who I would classify as a diligent do-er-

Yes.

… a goal pursuer who reached out and said, “Could you help me grow my business?” And we’ve been able to work with her, and she’s just a diligent implementer. She offers a great product, a great service, and it’s been a joy to work with her. I’m very, very thankful to have her in our life, and without any further ado, Kirsten White, welcome onto the Thrivetime Show. How are you?

Thank you. I’m good.

Hey, for anybody out there that’s not familiar with your company, can you tell us your website and what services you provide?

So our website is hartwhiteinteriors.com, and we are a full-service interior design firm.

Hartwhiteinteriorservices.com?

No, hartwhiteinteriors.com.

Interiors.com?

H-A-R-T.

I’m glad I clarified this. Somebody’s probably driving down the road right now while trying to eat baked beans and operate an Etch A Sketch while taking notes here. So, this is helpful. So hartwhiteinteriors.com. What all do you provide? I mean, what are all the different services that you do? What do you not do? What’s your niche?

So our niche is luxury design, anything from a full new build, so if somebody’s starting from scratch, we love to team up with the builders and architects from the very beginning. We also work on luxury renovations, and then some clients just need full furnishings. So, we do a little bit of everything.

Now, how did you first in come in contact with Clay Staires and the team here?

So I was introduced to Clay Staires and the team through Sky House, which is a builder that has been working with Clay up in Banner Elk.

Staires, and he’s been a client of yours for maybe a couple years?

Yeah, I’m thinking maybe three years.

Sky House?

I think almost four.

Almost four, yeah. Yeah, Jeff’s been rocking.

So Jeff with Sky House is one of your long-time clients?

Yeah.

He’s feeling the flow? He’s working it.

He’s feeling the flow.

He’s growing his company.

Yes.

And then you knew him, Kirsten, how did you meet him? Did you lose a bet? How did you connect with him?

So I met Jeff in fourth grade when he moved to the same town I was in. So we’ve gone to elementary school, middle school, high school.

Okay. So his business is growing. You probably talked about that, and then you decided to reach out. How much has your business grown since you’ve worked with Clay Staires and Sean and the team? Do you know?

Well, so I actually started with Clay Staires and Sean before I started the business.

That’s a big growth strategy.

Clay actually coached me on how to leave my job position.

Yes. Remember those days? Oh, yeah. Clay, she had to leave her job first. So we had to work through that, how to leave successfully.

So, I’m not asking how much money you you’re making. I’m not saying that, I’m just saying, would you classify yourself as a success story right now? I mean, would you say that you’re doing well?

I would say so. I mean, we wanted to hit a million in our first year. We almost did that, and we’ve exceeded that in year two, so.

So for anybody out there, what I’m trying to do on today’s show is I want to encourage somebody out there who feels like that they don’t qualify to have success, and I want to just get into the nitty-gritty just briefly about this, because Staires, when you and I met, you were 47 years old-

I was old.

… and at that point, you had already had… You were already Teacher of the Year in the school system. You’d run a successful camp, you’d run non-profit organizations, and you hadn’t really gone out on your own yet. So somebody might be listening right now going, “I’m too old, I can’t do it.” You did it at age 47.

Did it.

Someone might say, “I’m too young. I’m too young.” Kirsten, she doesn’t look old.

She is not 47.

She’s probably not old. Okay. So there’s-

Definitely not.

… some people who always say, “I’m too young, I’m too old.” No, no. I’m saying right now is your year to take hold of your future, and to implement proven processes and systems. If you’re listening right now and you feel stuck with your business, I want you to come on out to one of our workshops, because these in-person workshops, Clay Staires and I do them together. And I’m telling you, when you’re in the room with so many successful entrepreneurs that are all having success, it will build your faith that you can do it.

I’ll tell you why. Sometimes, you’re sitting by people who are impressive, like Kirsten here. Other times, you’re sitting by people like myself and you go, “So you built a multi-million dollar company, sir? How did you do it?” They go, “Well, I’ll tell you what, I just followed the plan and we was… What? I think I blacked out.”

And you’ll be talking to someone who I’m serious, someone who just had tons of success who’s maybe not that impressive, like myself. Somebody who is impressive, but I’m just telling you, everyone can do this stuff. So I wanted to break down on today’s show the things you guys have actually worked with Kirsten on.

Love it, yeah.

So, let’s talk about step one, building a website. Did we have to help you build a website or did you already have one, or what happened there?

No, I didn’t have anything. So we started with a website.

Okay. So you launched the website. Now a lot of people, what I heard from Sean and Clay Staires is a lot of business owners, they never launch. It’s like ready, aim, aim, aim.

Oh, yeah.

But you were quick to make the decisions, to get the information needed. How long, Kirsten, did it take you to launch the website? I mean, was it two years? I mean, seriously, I know a lot of entrepreneurs that take years, you’ve seen this, years to launch-

Oh, yeah, and they keep editing and, “Clay, I don’t like that font.”

Oh, yeah-

Whittle it, whittle it, whittle it.

Oh, yeah. And I was-

Well, we did go through a little bit of that.

No, but I tell you, Kirsten, though-

But in a few weeks, we had a website.

… for an interior designer, it was amazing-

Yeah, it was phenomenal.

… how quickly you were able to make decisions.

How long was it?

Yeah, how long was it? Do you remember?

I would say maybe three weeks to a month.

Wow, that is crazy.

That’s phenomenal. So, go from startup to website, get the website launched. Now again, for folks out there that are wanting to follow a timeline or follow a linear path here, if you go to thrivetimeshow.com/freeresources, thrivetimeshow.com/freeresources, there’s a roadmap on page four. And page four, we want to start off here. We got to figure out your goals.

Nice.

So you got to have your goals because your goals are the only reason that we do any of these things. Did you clearly come in knowing your goals? Did you know your goals?

Actually, no, I didn’t. I had an idea of what they were, but that was something that Clay and Sean helped me with from the very beginning, is defining those goals.

Now, this is something that somebody out there is going to find to be incredibly disturbing. There’s a guy today who keeps texting me, and I love this guy so much, but at this present time, I can’t work with him because I already work with a competitor in his industry and I only have 160 spots.

That’s why I asked you today. I said, “Sean, how many more clients could you take on?” We talked about this, and this guy really wants to pay me. He’s like, “I will pay you whatever it costs if you’ll work with me.” And I said, “No, I only work with 160 clients and I don’t have clients that compete in the same industry.” Because I know my goals. I don’t want to have 5,000 clients. I don’t want to have my weekends defined by… I want to have our conferences intimate, where you can ask questions.

I know my goals, you know your goals. Staires, you’re living in your dream house now.

Wow. Yes.

With your dream wife, right?

Yes.

Sean’s living the single life, living in the office here. No, but everybody, we all have our goals. Do we not? We have our own goals, do we not?

Uh-huh.

Okay. So it’s very important. So we know our goals, step two though, we got to get the brand built. And that involves the website, the logo. Did we do a logo for you or do we make your name a logo, or what did we do with the logo?

No, I did have somebody that helped do a logo.

Okay. So you launched the website, get the brand. Step three is you must come in contact with the marketplace. You must actually get your ideas into the marketplace. How did you work on that? What was the strategy that we helped you implement as far as to reach your ideal and likely buyers?

Well, you guys gave me the steps to follow, basically.

And how do you derive your clients right now? Because I know that your clients are very happy. So again, for everybody out there that gets this, if you wow your customers, it turns out they will tell people about you. However, to get in front of customers-

It’s just that.

… that you don’t know, what was your way to get in touch with new, ideal and likely buyers?

So there’s a few things that Clay and the team have helped me with is one, we set up Google. So we have Google leads coming in, and then the big thing is our Dream 100.

Nice.

And that has taken a little bit of time, but that is starting to drag in big, ideal leads.

Yeah. Kirsten, I know you and Sean have been working quite a bit on this Dream 100. Explain what that is and how you responded to it right at the very beginning and how that’s going as you and Sean have been working together.

So I would say in the very beginning, I was a little skeptical, but at the same time, I trusted you guys and I knew that I was going to have to go out there and get the business. So what the Dream 100 is it’s really just making a list of all of the ideal sources that you could potentially get leads from.

We are looking to work with the highest and most luxury builders in the Charlotte area, so what we did is we started researching to find those people and we’ve added them to a list. And then what we’ve done is we’ve called them and we’ve gotten a face-to-face meeting with them.

So what we did is we took my calendar and we marked off Fridays. So every Friday for over a year, we consistently made appointments and showed up and just sat down with these guys and laid it out there, told them what we were looking to do, who we were, and really just our ideas and there’s a need for that.

Now I want to make sure we’re very, very clear about this. I’m hoping this will help somebody out there being very clear. Okay, so step one, we define your goals. So if you’re listening right now and you say, “What do I need to do?” I would recommend step one, you define your goals.

Step two, once you define your goals, you say, “Okay, I kind of know what I want to do.” That’s when you would reach out to schedule a free consultation. So what I want you to do is I want you to go, if you go to thrivetimeshow.com/eofire, that’s thrivetimeshow.com/eofire, and when you fill out the form, a member of our team will call you. We’ve got literally thousands of testimonials up there. And if you want to work with Sean or Clay Staires, you just let us know, “Hey, I heard about these guys,” and they’ll pair you up.

But we start with the 13-point assessments, so we can figure out where you’re at versus where you want to be. Then we got to launch. Once we meet though, we do all this whole planning and the 13-point assessment, it’s a free consultation. After we do the consultation, we must actually begin activation. We have to do something. So we launched the website, we build a three-legged marketing stool.

Now you learned the Dream 100 system, and I just want people to know this. When I was in college… Staires, did you go to college?

I did go to college, yes.

In college, it’s a time of reflection. You’re away from your mom and dad and it occurs to you-

Is that what that was? Okay.

No. You know what I mean? “I was reflecting, Mom?” Yes. Sean, did you go to college for a while there?

Yeah, I dropped out, but I was there for a little bit.

Oh, yeah, I got kicked out of college. So the point is, we went to college.

I made it through.

So I went to college and I knew that I wanted to marry somebody who was really smart and I wanted to have five kids. I was very clear with what I wanted from the world. So when I went on dates all the time, but people in college said, “Man, you go on a date like every week. What’s your deal?”

And I’m like, “Got to find an incredible woman who’s super smart, who wants to have five kids. That’s a rough deal.” I mean, you’re in college, it’s not a good pitch.

Yeah, that’s a niche.

But seriously, I met Vanessa, and I met her and she’s like, “I do want to have five kids.”

Bingo.

And she’s super smart. I find myself taking notes when she talks and I’m going, “Oh, wow. She’s a wizard.” But the chances of anybody picking up the phone and calling me, it’s not going to happen. One, because I’m a solid B- in the game of life.

But the idea, there were certain men I went to college with seriously, who sat there and waited for their phone to ring.

Oh, yeah.

They graduated college. I see them. They’re 35 now. I say, “How are things going?” They say, “Well, I’m still single.” Well, are you calling anybody? You working any leads? No, no, no. Seriously, this is important. And I see a lot of interior designers, a lot of business owners, a lot of photographers, a lot of videographers, a lot of home builders, attorneys sitting there waiting for the phone to ring.

And really, they have a great idea and really want to make money, “I can really help people, if they would just call me.”

But you got to reach out. But you got to reach out. And when you reach out, it requires a lot of rejection. Were you all worried about the rejection, Kirsten, when you were doing the Dream 100? Was it soul-sucking at times?

Of course it was, yeah.

But now you’re seeing the fruit, right? I mean, now you’ve met them, you’ve talked to them, you’ve built the trust. Now you’re starting to get some referrals. Is that an accurate assessment?

Yeah. So we started the Dream 100 system. We started working it about 17 or 18 months ago.

Amen.

I would say after four or five months, we started seeing some leads come in and-

Wow, four or five months.

… I would say after 10 months, we started closing deals.

And I’ll just say this, it’s applicable, the Dream 100 system is where you create a list of your ideal and likely 100 buyers, people that you want to refer you, people you want to work with, and I’ll take it out of your business and move into a different business just for a second.

When I was building my DJ entertainment company, it occurred to me that most brides were the ones booking the weddings. Not men, not grooms. Not the father of the bride. So I decide I’m going to go where the brides are. So I made a list of all the bridal stores and all of the floral stores, and all the catering stores and all of the cake bakery stores, all the hotels where brides had weddings. And I said, “I’m going to reach out to all of them and I’m going to call them all until they eventually refer me.”

So I remember I met with one place, I won’t mention her name, but I want to so much. She told me, she said, “I want you to know, you come here every week and I will never refer you.” I’m going, “So can I ask you why?”

So you’re saying there’s a chance?

No, I did. I asked that, I said, “Can I ask you why?” And she says, “Because you’re not organized. Your linens look terrible.” I said, “But if I the linens did look better, would you refer me?” She goes, “Yeah, but your music’s too loud, the sub-woofers.”

And I said, “If I didn’t bring the sub-woofers and I had the linens right, would you?” She goes, “Yes, but just ugh.” So, no, I’m not kidding. So I went back and I’ve talked to this lady’s husband at this venue in town, and he goes, “My wife hates you, but I want you to know if you’ll stop bringing these crazy linens you have, these ghetto linens, and you’ll stop bringing the speakers that make it where you can’t think, I think you have a chance.”

So I brought the gear, brought the better gear, got rid of the linens that were crappy, brought the nice speakers, did the moves, got rid of the sub-woofers, and I kept asking, “Hey, what do I need to do to get you to refer me?” And eventually, it became like, “Well, I already have a guy I refer, but thanks for changing the linen.”

No, seriously. And then it became after months, it was like, “Well, here’s the deal, Clay. I already have a DJ I recommend, but if you’ll pay me a referral fee, I will recommend you.” And I said, “Well, let me just DJ one big party for you.” So she referred me to Adam Spuller’s party. And when I DJ-ed for Adam’s party, it was a next level event.

It was a home run. And then the referrals came in forever from that place. And today, we’re still good friends, but that’s just what happens. You’ve got to push through the rejection because people start off thinking you’re crazy. They don’t want to talk to you. So that’s a big thing. So define your goals, launch the website, create the marketing tool.

Then you got to manage your online reputation. You have to get objective reviews from people that have actually bought from you. Was that hard to do for you, Kirsten, to ask people who’ve worked with you to leave an objective review about their experience?

No. It was a little uncomfortable in the beginning, but it’s really pretty simple. We went back and asked every client that I had worked with in the past, and then we started asking vendors, builders, architects, anybody that we work with, we want their opinion on what it’s like to work with us.

I was just today working with a business that it’s almost a $200 million a year business, and you would not believe how hard it has been for them to ask for Google reviews.

Wow.

They’re like, “But our industry, people just don’t ask.” I’m like, “You got to be kidding me.” But this week they just started getting them and they’re like, “Hey, we got a referral from Google.” So it’s crazy how certain people can build up this phobia.

And this particular business was built very big before online reputation mattered. So they’re like, “What’s the point?” But now they’re starting to see, so again, everybody out there, you just have to get reviews. Now the next thing is you have to implement a schedule that works. You mentioned you do your Dream 100, what day of the week?

On Fridays.

You have to block it out. Sean, it turns out we’re here right now doing an interview.

We are.

And what are we not doing right now?

Anything else.

Right. That’s a tough deal though. That’s a tough deal because you have to be intentional about your schedule. Now, Sean, what else have you guys worked together to implement here during these past… Have you guys worked together for 18 months or has it been two years, or what?

Yeah, it’s coming up I believe two years this month.

Oh, wow, a two-year business coach-iversary!

Two-year anniversary.

Wow.

Wow.

So systems have started to become a big deal. Can you talk a little bit about implementing systems with your team?

Yeah, so that’s something that we’ve worked a lot on just these last few months. I think I finally discovered that there is no way that I’m going to be able to step away and have the time freedom that I want and the company still run, unless my design team and everybody is still continuing to move those projects along. So the only way that they can do that without depending on me is to have a system and a checklist.

So Sean and Clay have really helped me to just define, “Okay, this is our process. We’re going to run every project through these steps.” And every step has its own checklist. We don’t have those checklists built yet, but we’re working on it and each week, we assign out systems and we write them and then we use them, so.

Now, have you begun to hire people?

Yes.

So I’m asking this question because I know you clearly stated you have a team, but I just want to make sure we’re getting this. Are they employees? Are you contractors? How do you deal with this?

No, they are employees.

Okay. Come on now. Listen to this, folks. Listen, the next part is by far the hardest part for most of my clients that I’ve ever had. Again, at this point, Staires, you know this. We have thousands of testimonies.

Yes.

I mean, it’s epic, is hiring, inspiring, training, and retaining good people. I repeat hiring, inspiring, training, and retaining great people. People say, “I live in Utah. And Utah, just this time of year, the people just aren’t…” Then they’ll go, “I live in Wyoming where if you saw the people there, Wyoming is just…”

People from Minnesota, “Oh, don’t you know Minnesota, everybody’s out there haunting for lutefisk with Bjorn.” And you’re like, “What?” Who’s the client we work with, wonderful lady, she has an automotive repair shop in Boston?

Oh, uh-huh.

We first started working with her, people in Boston, “You can’t find any freaking people here. It’s unbelievable. Tom Brady, just everyone, all they care about is Brady, Brady.” Everyone has their own colloquial reason for not finding people.

Oh, yeah. Every single business owner has some reason why they can’t find.

But she’s found great people. Tell us about-

She has done a great job.

Tell us about the Dream 100 system. Have you implemented that? Not the Dream 100, but the group interview system? Kirsten, have you began to implement the group interview and the ongoing process of hiring people?

Yes, we have.

Is that helpful to always keep it going for you? Because a lot of people start it and stop it. Are you keeping it going every week? Is that the flow you’re in yet?

No.

You’re not there yet? So you’re… Oh. Oh, I’m not trying to harass my padawan.

She’s got what you call the reality distortion field. So people somehow just-

They want to stick with her.

… she has not had to do it yet. She’s found-

Well, let me just give you some real-time coaching. I’ll say this to people, usually, no, I mean this, this is very important. I had a very strong member of the team a few years back, and Clay Staires remembers this, I’ll be very vague.

Yes.

Guy had been with me forever.

Oh, yeah.

And all of a sudden, his countenance changed.

He did.

A client comes in and says, “I don’t know what’s going on. There’s a weird feeling.”

There’s a vibe.

And I go, “Really? What’s going on?” I called the guy, “What’s going on? Are you okay?” “Oh, yeah.” Turns out, said guy, I’ll keep it vague, took a big monster deal. And guess who offered him the deal? My client.

There you go.

So I called my client, I said, “Mr. Client, did you offer my employee a great deal?” He said, “I would never do it.”

Uh-oh!

I called the guy, he said, “I would never do it.” Then the attorney says, “We need to go ahead and settle with the severance pay.” I’m like, “What?” I mean, seriously. I’ve been self-employed since I was 16. That only happens every 12 months just to remind me I’m alive.

Because we have like 47 people up in this office, and then we have elephant in the room, so there’s hundreds of employees. That’s a big process. Now have you guys dialed in on the accounting thing? Is that something you guys have worked on at all?

Oh, yeah.

Making sure you’re profitable? Because most designers I know work a lot and never make any money. Have you guys got into that, Kirsten? Have you tackled the financial side, making sure you’re profitable, or what have you done there?

No, Sean’s helped me a lot with that. We actually were just looking, I guess it was last week or the week before, and really just nailing down next year’s budget and the amount of projects that we need to take on next year to come in even, and then to be what it looks like to be profitable with taking on projects for next year.

So the income and expense report is a big tool we use regularly. We’ve got a budget derived from that.

Hey, most people have no idea where revenue’s coming from by the way, I’ll tell you this.

Oh, yeah.

And the way our current debt system works, this is not a political statement, but it’s a statement that some could perceive as political, but there’s a lot of people that always spend more money than they bring in, always. So I work with doctors, dentists, lawyers, and they always spend 103% of what they make. Everything always looks like a hot deal.

And the way that lending works is you can always borrow money. There’s always somebody willing to lend you money for a thing if you’ve got about a 700 credit score. I mean it, and even if you shouldn’t buy the thing. So let me just rip on myself for a minute. Years ago, this would be about… I was 25, maybe. So this’ll be like 15 years ago.

One of my employees says, “Kirsten, in order to get the…” He didn’t say Kirsten, he said to me, he said, “Clay,” he says-

Which was awkward.

No, but he says, “Clay, listen, in order for the call center to really do a good job, we need a new server.” And I’m like, “A server?” “I’m telling you, I’ve looked into it, I’ve already researched it.” Next thing you know, I’m getting ambushed by the server and my top employee, telling me I got to do it. Not kidding. Spent 50 grand-

Hello.

… on the server, the phone thing where it’s like, you know the voicemails where you go, “It’s Tuesday, I’ll be out of town until Thursday. Thank you for calling. It’s June 27th. This is Karen. This is Carl, I’ll be out today.” You know those little custom voicemails?

Oh, yeah.

And he’d sold me on custom voicemails, custom emails, backup redundancy, 50 grand. Then there’s a monthly fee. By about two months into the system, I said, “We’re never going to use the system again.” And then they’re like, “Well, we’re paying for it.” I’m like, “I don’t care.” Because no one can figure it out.

Customers would call and X employees would have their voicemail hasn’t been set up yet.

Oh, man. Yeah.

Or people would call your… and they would say, “Press two to talk to a human. Press three to talk to sales. Press four to talk…” Then all of them got routed to the same person anyway, it was just jackassery.

Oh, yeah. I don’t like that.

So I’d already spent the money. But I borrowed it. See? So I had to make that payment every month. And then my wife who does math, she’s mean, she does the math. She says, “We’re paying for this server, and I don’t think we’re bringing in any extra revenue from this.”

Again, this is just very important that somebody in your life is looking at the numbers. For anybody out there that’s thinking about reaching out for consulting, Kirsten, for anybody out there that hasn’t worked with Clay Staires and Sean for as long as you have, we only have a limited number of clients because we do a weekly one-on-one meeting.

There’s no extra fees. So it’s a weekly meeting and then we help you with accounting and marketing and sales and branding and websites and print pieces and all these things. So it’s really an all-encompassing ecosystem, and it’s month-to-month. What would you say for anybody out there that’s contemplating scheduling a one-on-one consultation?

I would say I wouldn’t want to do it any other way myself, looking back and getting started, I can tell you that I would not be in the seat that I’m in now had I not been working with Clay and Sean and implementing just the systems and all the different things of building the business.

Now, I’ve used other consultants in the past where it wasn’t a flat fee. So every time you call them, it’s like $300, $200. Does that help you? I mean, do you like that it’s a monthly, flat cost? Does that help?

Yeah, it’s just easy. Just easy.

What would you say for anybody out there who’s thinking about reaching out, where you might say, “We all have friends,” where we go, “You would not be a good fit for them.” Who would not be a good fit for the consulting, and who would be in your mind for the business growth coaching?

So I would say you’re probably not a good fit if you are not going to implement and take the time to take the systems that you’re taught and put them in place in your business. If you’re not willing to take the time and block out time on your calendar, it’s probably not going to be the best fit.

But if you are willing to do whatever it takes to make it, and you’re willing to put in the hard work, then I would say hands down, call Clay, call Sean, and at least hear them out and see what they offer and how they can help you because I can-

And again, you’re-

… guarantee you they will double your business.

Guarantee they can double your business.

There we go!

Now, your website is hartwhiteinteriors.com. And for anybody out there who’s listening, sometimes we have shows where we have a million listeners. Sometimes we have shows where there’s 10,000 listeners. We never know how many people are going to hear the show. For anybody out there that’s wanting to hire you, again, what area do you service? What regions of America do you service?

So we’re in the Charlotte area.

Charlotte, North Carolina?

North Carolina. Yes, that’s right.

Do you ever go into the foothills of Latvia? Going global? You won’t go up to Canada for a brief assessment?

So, little background on myself. So I have done design work all over the world. I started my career in Hickory, North Carolina, which is the furniture hub of the world. So we have clients in other states and we can accommodate that and we know how to get furniture there and get things set up. Right now, we’re really trying to hone into the Charlotte area and the surrounding counties around there.

Got it. So again, folks, if you’re in the Charlotte, North Carolina area, go to hartwhiteinteriors.com. That’s hartwhiteinteriors.com. Hey, thank you so much for carving out time in your busy schedule. I know you’re super busy. Appreciate you guys all being here.

Oh, yeah.

And again, folks, check out that website. It’s hartwhiteinteriors.com. Kirsten, you are a great American. Thank you so much. Proud of you, girl.

Thank you, guys.

My name is Josh Wilson. I’m the owner of Living Water Irrigation. So I’ve been working with Thrive since December of 2017. So the biggest changes we’ve seen as a company is first of all, just systematically how we do things, how we present things.

Our Google presence is phenomenal, our website’s a million times better. And just the overall accountability and the process by which we’re conducting ourselves. So our biggest win since working with Thrive is literally, March was a record month for us. It was almost twice as month as our biggest month prior to that. In the last week or so, we’ve closed about $250,000 worth of business.

We still have to go dig a bunch of dishes and get it done, but we’ve signed about $250,000 worth of business with the relationships we’ve built, the things that they’ve implemented through Victoria and Clay and everybody here at Thrive. So I would recommend Thrive to other business owners simply because they can point out where you’re flawed and what you need to work on.

You just have to be real and honest with yourself on what you need to improve upon. So that would be first and foremost, and the huge reason why I would do it is because it works. Actually everything that they said when we came in for our initial meeting to today, absolutely, positively has been accomplished.

Just how does an irrigation and sprinkler repair company increase in sales by over 450% in just one year? When according to Forbes, nine out of 10 startups fail and eight out of 10 existing businesses fail, how can one company grow by 450% in one year? Ladies and gentlemen, without any further ado, it is now time for yet another edition of-

Wins of the Week! [inaudible 01:04:25].

Doing the Bull Pants, feeling the flow. Working it, working it.

You can do it!

We are joined by none other than my brother from another mother, Mr. Josh, the founder of Living Water Irrigation. Mr. Josh, welcome onto the show, my friend. How are you?

I am awesome, Clay. How are you, sir?

Well, I’m excited for the listeners to get to know more about you. Could you share the name of your company, a little bit more about what you guys do at Living Water Irrigation, where the name comes from?

Absolutely, positively. So Living Water Irrigation, the most important part of that to me is John 7:38. So it’s mentioned in the Gospel a number of times we’re the Living Water, but our specific scripture that we drew our name from is John 7:38. It says, “Whosoever believes in me, rivers of Living Water will flow through him.”

We have a very distinct vision as a company on who we are and what we want to do, and I believe that I was put here to go make some money to give it away, so.

I’m not going to ask you for the specific details of your career and how you started the business as far as a linear timeline, but how long has this particular business been around?

We’ve been around just two years, sir.

Two years. How did we first meet?

I came in and y’all started coaching me over Thrivetime, over Thrive15.

Do you remember when that was approximately and how you first heard about us?

So it would’ve been October or November of ’17.

October or November of ’17.

Yes, sir.

And in terms of your growth as a company, how much have you grown this year?

So this year, we’re up 450% year over year.

So now that you’re implementing this program, you’re getting more calls, right? Are you getting more calls?

Absolutely.

Sales are going up?

Absolutely.

You’re gathering reviews from your real customers, adding content to the website, adding a gallery of work?

So I’m going to actually take a minute and make you really uncomfortable, Clay.

Nice. I don’t think I want this to happen, bow-chicka-wow-wow.

Because I know how humble you are, and I know you don’t want to hear this stuff.

Oh, yeah. It’s only my paleness that keeps me humble.

So when we started with y’all, it was awesome. We had a little company, just me and one dude and one little van, and ’17 was great. I ate more than Ramen noodles, but not much more. ’18 was really good. We started to implement the systems, got Start Here, got the BOOM Book, went to a couple conferences and said, “Okay, I’m going to buy in. I’m going to sell out.”

We went to the coaching, got coached by Marshall and Victoria and started to implement. As opposed to just listen, to actually be doers. It’s in James. It says, “Don’t just be hearers of the word, but be doers as well.”

So we implemented scripts, we implemented systems, we implemented checklists, we implemented a proforma for quoting and all these things that you talk about. So just as a real person, and I’m real, I promise you, there’s a bunch of Josh Wilsons out there. I’m a famous baseball player and football player.

Oh, wow.

And a gospel singer.

Oh, oh, wow.

But this Josh Wilson just digs ditches for a living. But I just want to say thank you standing here for all the systems. I encourage everybody out there, go pick up, Start Here. Go pick up the BOOM Book, the stuff you hear on this show, it actually sincerely works.

It’s not just some nonsensical guy sitting in an awesome mancave who’s bored, so he wants to record a show. And then from there, here’s another super-duper move for you. Schedule your day.

Oh, wait a second. Wait a second. That right there’s a hot tip.

Holy cow!

Schedule your day?

So I was listening just a few months ago and I was running all over the Tulsa metro area from Glenpool to Owosso to Broken Arrow back to Owosso, to Jenks, to Midtown. And I’m like, “Man, why am I getting nothing done?”

Why am I getting nothing done?

Well, your issue is that you’re running places, you got to drive.

Why am I talking in Zoom megaphone? Back to you.

Well, obviously I wouldn’t have his belly if I was running, John. So my wife says to me, “Hey, how was your day, honey?” “Oh, I worked all day, I did all these things.” And I’m like, “Wait, I have nothing to show that I did anything.” So super move number one, you’ve said it 17,000 times. Whatever gets scheduled, gets done. So now my day is scheduled.

Come on now.

So if it’s not on my schedule, nope, doesn’t happen.

Listen here, here’s little secret. You can become successful. You have the tools needed to start and grow a successful company. But you’ve got to implement the best practice systems. You have to implement the proven systems, checklists, and processes that have been shown to work time and time again.

It is very hard for me to help you implement those systems if we don’t get a chance to know you. So if you’re out there today and you’re saying, “I feel stuck, I don’t know what to do,” I would encourage you to go to thrivetimeshow.com today and watch over 1,000, we have over 1,000 video testimonials from real people, just like Josh.

Watch those videos and build your faith. Believe that you can actually do this and then do one of three things. One, you can schedule a one-on-one consultation with me by simply going to thrivetimeshow.com and scheduling that free 13-point assessment. Now our team is going to vet you, make sure you’re not psychologically impaired or your dream is not delusional.

Now, move number two. You could book your attendance at our in-person Thrivetime Show Workshop. The tickets are normally $250, but if you want to attend the workshops because maybe you’re in a spot right now or financially you’re strapped, just subscribe to the Thrivetime Show podcast and leave us an objective review. After you leave us an objective review, take a screenshot of the review and email it to [email protected], and we’ll give you tickets for just $37.

Or maybe the Thrivetime Show Business School is the right move for you. Maybe it is. Listen, it’s only $19 a month. And when you subscribe to the Thrivetime Show Business School, here’s what you get. You get access to the massive amount of videos. We have over 3,000 training videos taught by the world’s business leaders. You can watch those videos, that alone has tremendous value.

Also, you get to attend one in-person workshop per year. Now if you think about it, if you go to, I don’t know, Harvard, the average graduate debt sits at around $101,000. If you go to Oral Roberts University, let’s say you go to Tulsa University, you’re going to spend $35,855 per year. If you go to the Harvard Business School, you’re going to spend $66,000 per year.

If you go to the Wharton Business School, you’re going to spend $64,828 per year. If you subscribe to the Thrivetime Show Business School, it’s month-to-month and it’s as little as $19 a month. Check it out today by going to thrivetimeshow.com. And now without any further ado, we like to end each and every show and Win of the Week with a BOOM, because BOOM stands for big, overwhelming, optimistic momentum. And now without any further ado, here we go. Three, two, one, BOOM.

The Thrivetime Show, today, interactive business workshops are the highest and most reviewed business workshops on the planet. You can learn the proven 13-point business systems that Dr. Zelner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. When we get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website, we’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate.

We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days, you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems, so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve.

You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I’ve 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 was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge. And they’re like, “Oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop.” And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get rich quick walk on hot coals product.

It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. But 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 Zoellner & Associates. Look them up and say, “Are they successful because they’re geniuses, or are they successful because they have a proven system?”

When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever. And we’ll even give you your money back if you don’t love it. We’ve built this facility for you and we’re excited to see you.

Hey, how’s it going? I’m Thomas Cross, and owner and founder of Full Package Media in Dallas, Texas. I’ve been a coaching client with Clay Clark since the beginning of our business. We started about a year ago, August of last year. Had no clients, no idea what we were doing, no clue really what was going on.

Mow, we’ve grown to where we’ve got six photographers, we’ve got office space here. I have an admin sales person that works for us full-time developing an online system. A lot of that growth we attribute to Clay helping us, and there’s so many things that… I mean, his stuff is not revolutionary. It’s not this crazy walk on hot coals and all this stuff.

It’s just real stuff, and group interviews, we were totally against group interviews. We were like, “No, we’re different and we’re special and we need to do one-on-one interviews so we can find good quality candidates and not just do this group interview thing.” And we tried that. We failed miserably. We did group interviews. Now we do them every two weeks, and it’s awesome. It works good.

We always have an influx of new people that we can train, get going. He’s helped us a lot with our website, graphic design, SEO. SEO is another thing that I thought before I started this business and before Clay, that it was a joke or something that only your Apples of the world and Amazon could get to the top of Google. But Clay said, “Mo, just do these things, follow these steps, and you’ll get there.”

And I think now we look today and we’re number two for Dallas real estate photography. If you don’t believe me, you can look. So we’re getting to the top of there. That’s really cool. It’s really awesome to get leads that people will call you and say, “Hey, I found you on Google. We want to hear about your services.” So that’s really great.

I’d say there’s nobody out there that’s not a good coaching client for Clay. I mean, anyone, regardless of the business, it’s not about what the business is, what the specialty is. It’s about following the steps, doing what he says. It’s a good thing. An hour a week, it gets you on track and keeps you in line of what you’re doing and what you shouldn’t be doing.

It’s good to give you some flow and future goals of your business. And I remember our first meeting, we set our goals and our goal was to do 16 shoots a week. At the time, me and my business partner/girlfriend Gretchen were like, “Oh, we’re never going to do 16 a week. That’s just crazy.” And today, we’re doing nine, and we did about 54 last week. So he’s helped us grow.

We’ve put in a lot of hours, a lot of hard work as well. But if you follow his steps and do what he says, there’s a lot of principles that he’s taught, instilled in us that help us. So, yeah, Clay Clark, he’s the way to go. I wouldn’t venture out to find someone else. They’d be more expensive and a lot more fluff and no real actionable work and things to get your business growing. So that’s the way to go. Thanks!

You smell like a winner.

Would you mind?

You want to smile, USA!

Ladies and gentlemen, the judge’s score.

Whoa!