Business Conference | The Vast Difference Between the Mindsets of Super Successful People & Everybody Else + SteveCurrington.com Success Story + Join Eric Trump & Robert Kiyosaki At Clay Clark’s March 6-7 Conference!

Audio Transcription

Hey Thrive Nation it’s Steve Currington dot com mortgage banker extraordinaire all 50 states I’m hanging out here in my apartment at my friend’s ranch on the farm here in Willis Texas which is just north of Houston and thought I’d share some of the fun stuff that we’re doing see ya

Hello Mr. George, I’d like to pay for the new guy. Do anybody? No. Too much money. He’s no good. No good operator.

He’s not doing nothing.

What happens when you teach a co-worker how to drive a front end?

Who’s a big boy?

I’m a big boy!

Who’s a great big boy? I’m a great big boy!

A big boy!

Hey, Clay Clark and my Thrive peeps.

It’s Steve Carrington, as you can tell.

Although I’m not wearing my signature green Lamborghini and I just wanted to say how appreciative I am of Thrive and all the guys at Thrive Time and the show and everything that you guys have done at Total Ending Concepts. We have had tremendous growth and a lot of things changing especially on the marketing front and from a coaching perspective and from a web presence and branding and our our internet leads are up everything is hammering on all

cylinders and really we’re just trying to figure out how we can leverage the systems and the processes that we’re learning it thrive more in our business so now we’re setting up a lead tracking system that has been long overdue and we’re doing lots of stuff but I want to take a minute and say thank you, thank you, thank you to Thrive and Clay Clark and Dr. Z and everybody for all the help in helping us grow our business and hopefully buy more Lamborghinis like this the more we sell. So, appreciate it guys.

Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show. But this show does. In a world filled with endless opportunities, why would two men who have built 13 multi-million dollar businesses altruistically invest five hours per day to teach you the best practice business systems and moves that you can use? Because they believe in you.

And they have a lot of time on their hands. They started from the bottom, now they’re here. It’s the Thrive Time show starring the former US small business administration’s entrepreneur of the year, Clay Clark, and the entrepreneur trapped inside an optometrist’s body. Dr. Robert Zunich. Two men, eight kids, co-created by two different women.

Thirteen multi-million dollar businesses.

That’s why I’m alive, so if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi.

It’s the C and Z up on your radio, and now 3, 2, 1, here we go! We started from the bottom, now we here. We started from the bottom, let me show you how to get here. Started from the bottom, now we here. We started from the bottom, now we here. We started from the bottom, now we here.

We started from the bottom, let me show you how to get here.

Started from the bottom, now we here. We started from the bottom, now we here. Do you want to achieve super success? Well on today’s show, the public relations expert of choice for Michael Jackson, Prince,

Nike, Pizza Hut, three United States presidents, 58 Academy Award winners, three Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times best-selling authors, and a no-talent podcast host slash entrepreneur guy by the name of Clay Clark.

Michael Levine joins us to break down the shared traits of super successful people. Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show. But this show does. Two men, eight kids co-created by two different women. 13 multi-million dollar businesses. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Thriving Timeshow.

Yes, yes, yes, and yes! And now Thrive Nation, back by popular demand, my good friend, Mr. Michael Levine.

Michael, how are you doing? I am well.

I am impacted by your passion. I see so much apathy amongst so many people that just hearing your voice and the passion underneath it is appealing and interesting to me. For those of you who feel like you might be saying, I feel like I’ve heard this interview

before.

Yes, I believe that you might have heard portions of this interview, but what I want to do on today’s show is I want to break down the knowledge bombs that Michael Levine is dropping one by one. So throughout the show, whenever he drops a knowledge bomb, I’m going to drop a bomb and I’m going to break down what he’s talking about. Michael started off the interview by telling me that he appreciated my passion, which I

am honored to hear that he picks up on that. And hopefully you as a listener pick up on that. But the teaching moment for you is Napoleon Hill, the bestselling author of Think and Grow Rich. Think and Grow Rich, the number one self-help book of all time. The guy the guy who wrote the book was the personal apprentice for Andrew Carnegie. He wrote he once wrote, there is one quality which one must possess to win and that is

Definiteness of purpose the knowledge of what one wants and a burning desire to Possess it or a passion to possess it What I’m talking about is the reason why I do this podcast each and every day is Because actually nine nine shows a week not that I’m counting. But the reason why I do this is because

I am passionate about your success. I know what it’s like to struggle and to not know what to do or how to improve your financial situation or not knowing the next step. And so I believe that my job is to be

America’s number one business coach as a result of, as a byproduct of, mentoring millions. Every day, somebody out there like you emails me and says, gosh, I started implementing the systems and my life is changing dramatically. And that’s why I do what I do.

So make sure that you don’t move on before you write down the answer to this question. What is your burning desire? What are you passionate about? And when I say passionate about or what do you have a burning desire about, I mean, what are you willing to trade for it?

What are you willing to trade off for what you want? Are you willing to trade off some sleep? Maybe some sweets? You know, that’s the foods filled with sugar. Are you willing to trade off time in your bowling league? What are you willing to say no to in exchange for what

you want? And if you’re not willing to trade off things for what you want, then you really don’t want it. It’s not really something you’re passionate about, and you cannot succeed if you’re not passionate about something, because there’s just way too much adversity and rejection that we all must face.

Now Michael, I appreciate you saying that.

You’ve been the PR consultant of the Public Relations Consultant of Choice for so many successful people. I’d love to tap into the mindset of successful people versus the mindset of the average person. Could you talk to me about something maybe

that super successful people know about, that secret that super successful people know about that secret? Yes. That super successful people know about that most people don’t?

Yes, I can and will and I’m honored by the question. Let me first just explain to your audience something that I think you may know, which is that I was born in New York City. I was born two and a half miles north of ground zero. I was born into a not ideal family. There was an alcoholic parent and I, in addition to that, and anyone who’s ever been raised in an alcoholic home knows that’s very, very, very difficult. But in addition to that, I had another significant problem, a disability

that wasn’t known very well at the time, and that is now referred to as dyslexia. And I say now because 40 years ago, we had a different word for dyslexia. It was called dumb. So these disadvantages, right, being raised in an alcoholic home, I was a very, as virtually all dyslexics are, a very, very disadvantages really helped form me, and essentially what I came to conclude about my situation, I left the house at age 17, is that since I wasn’t formally educated, and since I’m not that smart, I better increase my powers of observation.

Oh, there’s so much there to break down. But think about this for a second. Michael Levine, the number one PR consultant in the world, grew up what? Poor. Grew up what? Dyslexic. Grew up with what? An alcoholic family. So Michael

Levine had every disadvantage, but instead of becoming bitter, he decided to become better. And he could only do that by becoming self-aware. So I’m asking you today, are you deciding to become a victim or a victor. What is the disadvantage that you can turn into your advantage? The guy was dyslexic and he’s a best-selling author. He can’t read very well, right?

But he’s a best-selling author. But he didn’t view it as a what? He didn’t view it as a setback. He viewed it as a set up. He didn’t use it as a reason to become bitter. He used it as a motivation to become better.

That is what successful people do. You see, all successful people view their failures and setbacks as a prerequisite, as a stepping stone to their ultimate achievements. All successful people that I’ve ever spent time with view failure as a prerequisite to success and as a stepping stone to where they want to go. So I’m asking you, what disadvantage,

what bad deck of cards, what bad hand of cards, what bad situation have you been dealt? Did you grow up dyslexic? Did you grow up in an alcoholic family? Did you grow up without money? What are the list of excuses that you could make and as soon as?

You say you know what I’m not gonna let my excuses Define me. I’m not going to become the excuse the excuse Meister. I’m gonna become a person who is turning my haterade into motivation. I’m somebody who can turn my disadvantage into my advantage. I’m somebody who can turn my setbacks into my setups.

The moment that you refuse to believe your own excuses, you will win. Right?

Right.

So I tell people all the time, and I mean it,

and I know it sounds kind of humorous, I’m not very bright, but I’m significantly above average at watching what bright people do. And I’m also significantly above average, if I may say, at watching what not so bright people do. And I came to conclude the obvious, which is success leaves clues, and so does failure.

And again, since I’m not very bright, I figured out that if I increased my powers of observation, if I watched the world very keenly, and people very keenly, I would learn what people, exhausted, broke folks do. the better actions since I like to eat and since I didn’t have much any education. And so that was it. And success does leave clues and so does failure. Thrive Nation, do you know how I became one of the top three search engine optimization

experts on the planet? Do you know how I did it? I began to study sites that ranked well in Google and sites that did not rank well in Google. And that’s how I came up with the Search Engine Manifesto, the SEO Manifesto, the Search Engine Optimization Manifesto, which is available for free to download, as thousands upon thousands of people often do, by going to Thrivetimeshow.com.

You can download the Start Here book for free, and in the e-book version of the Start Here book, you will find the SEO manifesto. Companies all over the world. I’ve spoken with Hewlett-Packard. I’ve spoken with Maytag. I’ve spoken for O’Reilly’s Auto Parts.

I’ve spoken with UPS. You know, the guys in Brown. What can Brown do for you? I go on and on. Farmers Insurance. Huge companies.

They all pay me to teach the proven systems. And one of the systems I’ve been taught to, or paid to teach back in the day when I still traveled around doing speaking events was search engine optimization. And how do I know it?

How have I become such an expert of it? It’s because I’ve studied, when I say studied, I’ve spent an exhaustive, extensive, a massive amount of time myopically focusing on why do certain websites come up top in Google and why do certain websites not? And the reason why I’ve become a master of time management is because I’ve spent a lot

of time with actual millionaires and billionaires and I’ve asked them how do you organize their day? How do you organize your day? I mean, the founder of Hobby Lobby, I’ve asked him, you know, he’s a billion dollar company. How do you organize your day, Mr. David Green? I’ve asked Maurice Kanbar, the founder of Sky Vodka.

Mr. Maurice Kanbar, how do you organize your day? I’ve met Chet Kajo, the president and CEO of Quick Trip, the billion dollar convenience store chain. Sir, how do you organize your day? I’ve met David Robinson, the NBA Hall of Famer turned very, very successful investor.

Visit his website, Admiral Fund. Just do a Google search for the Admiral Fund and you will see it’s the Admiral Capital Fund. The Admiral Capital Fund. Just Google search it. You’ll see David Robinson, what he’s up to.

Having more success off the court than on the court. And I’ve asked him, how do you organize your day? Lee Cockrell, the former Executive Vice President of Walt Disney World Resorts, who once managed 40,000 employees. I’ve asked him, hey, how do you organize your day? That is how you become successful. Then you just study people that are having no success.

You go, wow, gosh, the guy who spends his entire day on Facebook making click funnels and attending every single possible networking event, that guy has no success. I probably shouldn’t do that. Wow. The guy arguing about politics on Facebook has no success. I probably shouldn’t do that. Gosh, the DJ company that’s my competitor that’s failing, they’re doing XYZ. I probably shouldn’t do that. The haircut competitor we deal with for the elephant in the room, the elephant in the room men’s grooming lounge

is a business I own, but one of our competitors does just unbelievable Jackassery that approaches what I would call a crime against the marketing humanity. It’s so terrible It’s it’s almost laughable, but I watch him and I go Wow, I probably should not do that. So I ask you today What should you be doing? And what should you stop doing as an example? I’ve never met a millionaire or a

billionaire who does not on average start their day three hours before everybody else. Every millionaire and billionaire I’ve met wakes up at either 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. every time, every time, every time. And I said, without exception, this happens. The only time I’ve seen somebody who has a slightly different approach would be like Dr. Zellner because this guy works an extra three hours every day, but he used to do it

after everybody went to bed. So this guy would stay up and burn the midnight oil and do it that way. But all successful people are putting, there’s no hack to it. These guys are getting up at 5 a.m. every day. In Z’s case, he’s probably going to bed at 5 a.m. every day. But the point is, when you study successful people, when you’re around super successful

people, you are going to discover that they work very hard, very hard. And they actually have an unfair head start on everybody else because they work harder than everybody else. Ryan Tedder, who I went to college with, he has a notable quote that I love so much. He says, when you’re around enormously successful people,

you realize their success isn’t an accident. It’s about work.

And Mark Twain had it right, Clay. Never, ever, ever let school interfere with your education. And so you’ve put an army of people together listening to this podcast. I think the army now about a half a million in size. Yeah. And these people clearly are trying to listen, to gather, to observe from you and others things that will assist them in their journey.

And I commend you because an army of half a million is pretty impressive. And so I’m happy to share with you some observations that I’ve had over a very long and unusual

and unexpected career about what super successful people do and what people who want to achieve do. You know, Craig Groeschel is currently the pastor of the largest Protestant church in America. America and we interviewed him today and the podcast will be released here in the coming weeks but Craig has a church over 100,000 people over 100,000 people and I

asked him you know what time you get to work and he says you know between five and six a.m. no we’re not talking about waking up it’s just between five and six I said he’s in great physical shape and I said are you taking steroids just kind of jokingly. And he says, no, I just eat meat and vegetables, no carbs. That’s what I do. And I like, well, how do you find time to write your sermons? I’m asking these questions. And it doesn’t matter whether I’m interviewing Craig Rochelle or Michael Levine or the guy who used to manage Walt Disney World. All of you guys are not

scared of waking up before 7 a.m. None of you run around making excuses, talking about how you just don’t have time to get things done. And you all have this burning maniacal passion to succeed. And my goal of today’s show is to give people a seed of the burning passion needed to succeed. It’s up to them whether they’re going to water it or not. So I want to ask you, can you show the difference in the goals between the goals being set by successful people and the super successful people like Michael Jackson, like Prince, like

the founders of Nike. Well look, if I were sitting in a Starbucks with any individual listening to this show right now, what I would first say is It all begins with one question. There is one question and it is exactly the same question in the professional part of life as the personal part of life. It’s not a different question.

It’s the same question. You can answer this question comfortably, clearly, effectively. You are basically driving in a circle. You’re wasting massive amounts of time and energy. The question is, and it’s the same for personal as professional, what do you most want and what are you willing to give up to get it?

What do you most want and what are you willing to give up to get it?

What do you most want and what are you willing to give up to get it? Tribe Nation, that is a powerful question that so few people ever ask themselves. What do I really want? So I’m asking you right now, what do you really want and what are you willing to trade off to get it? To build DJ Connection, the number one wedding entertainment company in America during its

time. DJConnection.com. It’s still doing very, very well today. It’s growing, expanding under new ownership. They’re doing a very good job. I was willing to give up everything.

Sleep, TV.

Check it out. I was willing to give up TV. Right there, I’m freeing up 5.2 hours a day for the average American. I was willing to give up distractions. We didn’t have social media when I first started DJ Connection, but as I grew it, we did. That’s 2.3 hours a day the average person is spending

on social media. I was willing to give up TV and social media. Right there, that’s 7.5 hours per day. I was willing to give up intramural sports. I remember there was some intramural football game, intramural football game, and I remember going,

I don’t wanna be here, this is not helping me get to my goal. I was willing to give up relationships with people that I knew just as a result of geographical convenience. Just because I was your neighbor or I went to church with you or I knew you from somebody who knew you or whatever the geography was, just because we knew each other because of

That doesn’t mean you should occupy 5%, 10% of my waking hours. You’re not essential to my goals. You’re not adding value to my life. I can’t add value to your life. You call me and lament about personal issues and bad moral choices on a consistent basis. I just simply decided not to spend time with people that were not able to… people who

I was not able to have a sustainable, mutually beneficial relationship with.

That’s the question. And until you get real clear on the answer to that, you’re basically just driving in a circle. wasting a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of energy, probably a lot of money. You’re probably tired, frustrated, and broke.

And probably belittling and blaming the world for those conditions. I want to hammer home something you just said and give a lot of examples for the listeners out there, John, because John’s our program observer, and he’s going to take notes here, but I just want to give the listeners an example. Bill Gates knew what he was looking to build, and so Bill Gates, his overnight success story started in 1975.

And in 1986, he went public, but for 11 years, he asked himself, what did he most want, and what was he willing to give up to get it? He actually moved to Albuquerque from Seattle to get his first deal. He actually moved there. Apple, Steve Jobs, he turned his parents garage into the founding place of Apple in 1976 and they really didn’t do well until about 1984. Google, think about this Larry and Sergeant, they started Google in 1996 and they didn’t

make a profit, Michael, and you know this, but until 1999. Facebook started in 2005 and they lost 3.63 million dollars after their first two years. Amazon did not report a profit for seven years. I met you, I think, four years ago, five years ago, and I think we had one subscriber to the podcast, and now

we have half a million people listening? By the way, two quick notes on something you were saying. Bill Gates’ brilliant remark, brilliant notation. Bill Gates says that the human being inevitably overestimates that which they can do in a year and underestimates that which they can do in 10 years. Now listen to that. Friends, my friends in the audience, listen carefully. I want you to write it down. Bill Gates says the human being inevitably

accomplish in ten. Isn’t that interesting? See, that’s worth the whole price of the show, see? If you write it down, if you think about that. Now, Mark Zuckerberg. Mark was at Harvard. Mark called five of his friends at Harvard to a meeting on a Saturday afternoon. He called them all and he said, and they were all friends of his, and he said, look, gentlemen, I am working on something.

I’ve been working on something very important opportunity to meet and discuss what I’ve been working on. Of the five people he invited, these are friends of his at Harvard, young and ambitious and smart. How many of the five showed up?

I’m going to have to say one, because that would be like what I would see in the world. It’s usually about 20% of people are even trying.

Well, the answer is two.

Oh!

Three of the five were too busy.

Too busy.

Too busy.

Now, the two that did show, yeah?

Yeah.

What happened to their story? Well, they’re both billionaires.

Just showing up.

So just showing up right now, the other three were too busy. Isn’t that fascinating? Thrive Nation, if you’re out there, do you want to speculate

as to what time I’m recording this show? What what time do you think as a father of five? I’m recording this show. Now this show is being recorded. A little hint, we have our biggest in-person Thrive Time Show workshop of all time

occurring today. Probably at the time you’re hearing this. So what time do you think that I am recording this show? 6 p.m.? Nope. 7 p.m.? Nope. 8 p.m.? No. I am recording this show at 2 a.m. And you know why I’m recording today’s show at 2 a.m.? Because I have a workshop I’m doing today with hundreds of great people, and you, the listener, have subscribed to our podcast,

therefore you deserve to have nine new shows a week. I’ve committed to doing that and I’m going to do it. So I had to make a trade-off. Part of it is I just had to show up. So I went to bed at 9 p.m. Go to bed at 9 until, if I went to bed 9 to 2, that would be five hours.

The point is, a little bit sleep deprived, but I got it done. I didn’t make an excuse. Let me tell you this little secret. I had some day quill. I’ve had some day quill because I’ve got a little bit of sniffles. I don’t feel very good, but I’m doing it. I’m making it happen. And you know why I’m making it happen? Because I’ve committed to doing it. And so many people only work hard on the days that they feel like it.

It is so hard. It’s so hard to get much done when you only work on the days you feel good. You know, Jerry West, the Hall of Fame basketball player, legendary NBA executive, a man who was born in 1938, once wrote, you can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good. Because there are many days where we just don’t feel good. So I’m asking you, do you show up when you don’t feel good?

And if you do show up when you don’t feel good, then great. But if you don’t show up on the days that you don’t feel good, then we need to fix that, right? We need to go ahead and fix that.

We need to show up on the days that we don’t mean most, all successful people have what I would refer to as a reverence for time. So I’ll tell you something a little quirky about me, Clay. Yes, sir. I live in a home and in every room of my home I have two things. I have a large clock and I have a timer in every room. Wow, that’s kind of interesting, Michael. Why do you do that? Well, because evidently, and evidently

is one of my favorite words, Clive, evidently, I have a reverence for time. Evidently. So Mr. Levine, let me see if I understand you. You have in every room of your house a clock and a timer? Yes I do. Really? Yes I do. In your kitchen? Yes I do. In your bathroom? Yes I do.

Gotta make it quick.

Wow. So why is that Mr. Levine? Well, evidently I have a reverence for time. See?

Thrive Nation, I have yet to meet a super successful person that does not have a reverence for time. Who doesn’t have a concept of time. Who isn’t irritated when the family leaves late to church. I’ve never met a successful person who is not bothered by people who are perpetually late.

I’ve never met a successful person who is perpetually late now there probably is an exception out there Just so that you know people can you know Have the devil’s advocate there, but I’ve never met somebody Who is very successful who? Isn’t doesn’t have a massive reference for being on time. I just haven’t seen it yet.

And John D. Rockefeller, the guy who is sort of like the father of the fossil fuel industry, there’s a book written about him called Titan, written by Ron Chernow. Great book. Great book there. And that book is just absolutely a life changer for somebody out there. But John D. Rockefeller, he talks about time management in the book. There’s a lot of quotes in the book

Titan by Ron Chernow about the life and times of John D Rockefeller this is a guy who grew up crazy poor who became the world’s wealthiest man in the oil and gas industry And this guy started working at 16 full-time His life is legendary, but he says a man has no right to occupy another man’s time unnecessarily. A man has no right to occupy another man’s time unnecessarily. So if you’re out there and you find

yourself chronically late or running behind, you need to get on top of your calendar today. Because people that are perpetually late, doesn’t mean you’re a bad person if you’re late one time, but people who are perpetually late cannot and will not become successful. However, when you become super successful, you can be late all the time. And it’s called being fashionably late. Before you’re super successful and you’re late, people just call you a jackass.

This is one thing about you that blew my mind the first time I had a chance to interview you. First off, I read your books. I read the Broken Window Theory and the PR Bible, and I’m a big fan of your stuff. You talk about how successful people are from Planet Epic, which I didn’t know you at the time, but my marketing company, which is arguably one of the largest ones in Oklahoma, is called

Make Your Life Epic. My photography company I started was called Epic Photography. I love the word epic. Talk to me about the planet.

And by the way, let me tell you what I would say to your audience members if I were in a Starbucks and Clay just walked away from our meeting. Here’s what I’d say. Hey, friends, evidently, Clay likes the word epic. And that’s the words and the things that we surround ourselves with are very telling and very important. And do you have a reverence for time? Because I’ll tell you this, virtually all people who have great success have a reverence for time, and all underachievers have no reverence for time and all

underachievers have no reverence for time.

So I would ask you, what camp are you in? Are you fastidious about being on time? Do you care about being on time? When you’re late, is it the rule? Are you chronically late? Do people expect you to be late or do people expect you to be on time? If you want to become a super successful person you must develop the habit of being on time and… Now you got to figure out which team you want to play on, evidently. Very few people play on Team Epic.

Yeah, they don’t even want to play. And they think it’s mean to do it. They think it’s mean when you end a meeting at the agreed upon time. I mean, today I did the interview with Mr. Craig Rochelle, Pastor Craig. He let me know I have a hard out. With a hard out, that’s code in the podcast and broadcast and the world of media, that

I am definitely going to end at this time, whether you’re ready to end or not. But most people have a soft out, or a peace out, or no out. They just basically talk and they lament about their feelings for an hour and a half. After an event that just took place, they lament about it for an hour and a half, then they go on social media and talk about it with a bunch of knuckleheads for two and a half hours, then they post a picture of a cloud on social media and write, feelings.

Or a cat or a dog. I mean, it’s really, it is remarkable. The good news is that if you don’t do those dopey things, right, you’ll have a pretty easy path. Because you’ve been born into a generation at exactly the moment in which your competition overwhelmingly is stupid and lazy. Yes, yes, it’s so true. It’s so true.

It’s so true. And what I mean stupid, I don’t mean academically stupid. What I mean to say by stupid is their mind is distracted with nonsense, right? Their mind is incapacitated. They may have an inherently smart computer on the top of their shoulders, but their brain is incapacitated with distraction. If it’s

okay, I would like to insert a little science to go with what you’re saying. We just interviewed a Silicon Valley former executive by the name of Ellen Petrie-Leans. She was featured on the Megyn Kelly show, and she wrote a book called The Happiness Hack. And in that book, they discovered, shockingly, that the amygdala, the almond-sized part of the brain,

prevents the massive part of your brain from making critical decisions. You can’t think critically when you’re emotional. So when you’re angry, you can’t think. When you’re laughing, you can’t think. When you are sad, you can’t think.

And according to psychology today, we’ll put this on the show notes, the average American, now Michael, receives 85 interruptions per day from their smartphone. Which means that your smartphone is now making you dumber than ever before. So you have a smartphone making you dumb. You can’t pay attention, you’re perpetually distracted. So I asked Craig Richelle, I said, Craig, your smartphone is making you operationally stupid. So the question

that you need to ask yourself, that we all need to ask ourselves, is are we operationally dumb as a result of allowing perpetual distraction to keep us from focusing our forces and our energy on one specific task at hand? And

Alexander Graham Bell, it’s Alexander Graham Bell, the guy who’s created with inventing and patenting the first practical telephone, he once wrote, and I love this quote, he said, concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus. Concentrate all of your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought into focus. So today, how many times did I check my Facebook status? Today, what do you think? Zero. Today, how many times did I check my emails after I responded to all of the emails in the morning.

So after I finished deleting all the emails, how many times do you think I checked email today? Zero. Today, how many times do you think I checked my LinkedIn status? Zero. Today, how many times do you think I answered a phone number? I didn’t know Zero today. How many times do you think that I went out there and discussed my feelings? Feelings with other people or my religious opinions or my political opinions with other people zero

Successful people all focus on what they can control. All successful people I’ve ever spent time with exclusively focus on things that they can control. If they can’t control it, they’re not interested in it. And that is the mantra of all successful people. Focus, which stands for focus on core tasks until success.

I repeat, focus on core tasks until success. I asked Pastor Craig, I said, Pastor Craig, you’ve got, you know, 100,000 people going to your church, you have the biggest church in the world, how often do you check your social media? And he says, well, I have two phones, but the one is always off, basically, and I have one that I, you know,

deal with important things. The point is, he doesn’t even go on there. He said it’s set, he’s made a lock on there for his own mind freedom, where he cannot check social media. He’s locked it up, where he has no apps, no push notifications. And if you’re competing against people that are distracted, that’s a lot like boxing against a guy who is, you know, you’re in a boxing ring with somebody and you’re going head to

head with a guy that’s on his smartphone. I mean, you’re just going to distract the guy. You’re driving drunk. Right. You are driving drunk. And the look on the faces of most young people, and even people, not young people. Disease is now transmuted beyond just young people. The look of addiction

on the face is just primal and visceral. It is absolutely 100% the problem for many people out there. Planet Epic, I want you to talk about these goals of super successful people. How are the goals of Prince? How are the goals of Michael Jackson? How are they different from that of the average musician that reached out to you for public

relations? I think the people that I represented in this most unusual life and career I’ve had, had a relationship with destiny that they felt internally that they were destined for extraordinary things. And so that relationship with destiny, I think, created an epic life. Now, not always a happy life, by the way. There is enormous sacrifice, enormous sacrifice to success or super success. You must say, as Steve Jobs taught us, a thousand no’s to get one big yes.

So let’s talk straight. If you want to be a world-class anything, you’re going to have to give up a lot. You’re going to be difficult, and some of them may be even painful, but that is the price of greatness. Just how it is, and so it is, and so it goes.

Thrive Nation successful people say no more than anybody else. 60 days I’ve been asked to speak at dozens of events all across the country. I have been sent text messages from people who somehow found my cell phone number and they said, Can we meet for coffee? And I’ve said no. There have been many, many people that really don’t know what they’re talking about, who

have reached out to be guests on the thrive time show and I have said no There is a college that I once attended and I went to three colleges So I’ll let you guess as to which college it is who’s asked me to come speak yet again, and I said no There are people that email me every day Feelings and opinions that I don’t value so I hit delete and all successful people are very, very okay, very familiar with, very good at saying no. And at first when you learn to say no, it feels bad, you know, because you’re not used

to saying no. But Steve Jobs once said, he said, people think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. I repeat, May 16, 2011, Steve Jobs writes, people think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus

on. That’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. Kobe Bryant has a notable quotable I wanted to read to you, and I also wanted to read to you a notable quotable from the late great Martin Luther King Jr. Kobe Bryant was coached by a friend of mine named Paul Presi. Paul is the assistant coach on the Lakers, and I became a big Kobe fan after hearing about his work ethic.

And he writes, I can’t relate to lazy people. We don’t speak the same language. I don’t understand you. I don’t want to understand you Kobe, right?

It’s about right I don’t get it you have precious little time here precious time Remember I told you I was born two and a half miles north of ground zero which means that they witnessed I was there and witnessed 9-11. Life is short and life is

unpredictable and to lose the opportunity of doing something you’ve been meant, born to do, just doesn’t, I deeply desire to waste my life, I don’t wish you ill. I just don’t relate to you. It’s not something that I really want.

Michael, real quick, this is something I want to make sure the listeners get. People who’ve been around the Tulsa area know that I hang out a lot with certain people in town, people that own banks, they own businesses. And we didn’t sit together and say, hey, let’s make a list of elite people that we want to surround ourselves with because we’re awesome. No, because we all grew up poor, or in my case, I stuttered and grew up without money. Dr. Zellner’s case, he had a speech impediment.

We all grew up with something. You were dyslexic, right?

Yeah, and by the way, I will note to you that often I believe that disability, the disadvantage turns out in the end, painful though it was, to be an advantage.

People don’t know this, Kobe Bryant played a game in 7th grade basketball and he never scored a single point. And he said the ridicule that he received because his father was a professional basketball player motivated him to have the most intense work ethic ever.

So the disadvantage can turn out to be an advantage if you play your cards right. And that’s what life is. Life is a series. Some of us get bad cards and play them well. Some of us get good cards and play them bad. Some of us get medium cards and play them medium.

How you play your cards will determine your destiny. destiny and I’m so honored to be talking to people in your audience, a large audience,

that are determined to try every day to learn how to play their cards better. Our listeners are people that, we teach this at our conferences, I know you’ll be at the December conference, by the way, very excited to have you at the December conference. If you’re out there listening and you want to attend a conference where you get to ask questions directly to the man who has given advice to three United States presidents, to Prince, to Michael Jackson, to Nike, to Charlton Heston. I’m missing other people. Nancy Kerrigan, Michael, who else am I missing? Who else have you co-sponsored?

Hello, George Carlin, Joan Rivers, John Voigt, there’s thousands of celebrities, but the three U.S. presidents, one of the things I’m proud of is both political parties. I’m very grateful to this nation, which I am deeply, deeply, deeply concerned about. I am very grateful. What happened to me could only have happened in America. And so I want to share with people in whatever remaining years I have left, some ideas, particularly attracted to sharing them with underdogs. And that means anyone who didn’t come from privilege.

And that means my minority friends, my African-American friends, my Hispanic friends, my friends that come, I was an underdog and I have an attraction to talking to underdogs. And it can be done. It can be done.

Now, is it simple? No. Is it easy? No. Is the game fair? No.

Will you have to do sometimes more than your, than what, than fairness would require? Yes. If you want to be broke in America, the number one thing you got to do, all you got to do is think like a victim.

And this is what I’m so deeply concerned about is too, too, too, too many Americans, unfortunately, are thinking like victims.

Oh, that was deep. He said, if you want to be broke in America today, the land of opportunity, you must think like a victim. A victim just means that, as a kid, I used to stutter a lot as a kid. I stuttered a lot as a kid. I had a neighbor that sexually abused me. I got mocked because I stuttered a lot as a kid.

I took algebra three times. I took my ACT three times. I could run around saying, gosh, I wish I had a better memory. Oh, I�m so bitter about the way I grew up. That�s why I haven�t had any success. My dad wasn�t rich.

My dad did the best job he possibly could, but we can all run around making a list of things that are keeping us from being successful, and if we did that, we would become victims. But a victor is somebody who turns their negativity into positivity. Nobody would want to know the story of Abraham Lincoln if he, you know… Tonight on the History Channel, we share a story about a man who was born successful, who died successful.

His name was…

No! We like Abraham Lincoln because he lost all the time when running for office. He failed in business. His childhood sweetheart died. He had a nervous breakdown. He fought adversity his entire life.

He ended slavery and died for it. No one would want to know the story if you hadn’t gone through something. That’s why epic movies are so powerful. It’s the heroic character. He encounters some adversity and he pushes through it en route to success. That’s what makes epic movies.

We all want to see the good guy beat the bad guys. Nobody wants to hear your story if the good guy just dominates since birth. He had a silver spoon handed to him and just dominates. You’ve got to go through something. What’s happening is as you go through something, struggle builds strength. Again, struggle builds strength.

So as you’re going through something, you’re developing strength as a result of your struggle and you’re developing a story based upon your truth. You’re gaining skills that will allow you to pay the bills as a result of adversity. With no pain, there is no gain. And it’s up to you to decide whether you want to become a victim or a victor. December 7th and 8th, victors, people who want to be victors, not victims, people who are going to become better, not bitter, they’re going to all arrive in Tulsa, Oklahoma on

December 7th and 8th, and rumor has it you’re going to be attending the workshop. Is that correct, my friend?

It is true. I’ve never been to Tulsa. I’m excited about the chance to talk to some of your nice friends, give it to them straight. I’m looking forward to it. I think it’ll be a great opportunity for me to share some of my ideas and values and listen to some of the concerns and ideas and challenges that people are having in their lives.

Michael, my final question for you, I know you’ve got to go here for a… you’ve got to move on and do some other things with your life today. I appreciate you hopping on the show here. But Michael Jackson, you were in the physical presence of the king of pop. Could you describe for the listeners just what the aura or mindset was of probably one of the top musicians of all time Michael Jackson. I think that

Without Speaking about him personally. I think that this is something that can be said about him and and others You can you are unwise in the extreme if you judge geniuses by normal people’s standards. And that genius could be Michael Jackson or Steve

Jobs or Bill Gates or Barack Obama or any anyone who has achieved that level of success. They’re operating on a different, with a different frequency and so we must not judge, we are unwise to judge them by just the normal contemporary standard of the day. They’re just not, they’re playing a different game.

Michael, thank you for writing 19 books, even though you’re dyslexic. Thank you for fighting the fight, for moving from the right coast to the left coast, and rounding up the world’s superstars and distilling it into your books.

And thank you for agreeing to come out there to the workshop, and for all the listeners out there, we have a special going right now. If you would like to get your tickets free, all you have to do, you’ve got to take some action, go on to iTunes, subscribe to the podcast, leave us an objective review, and then email us proof that you did it to info at thrivetimeshow.com.

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, leave us an objective review, email us proof that you did it to info at thrive timeshow.com and you not only get to meet Michael Levine, but you also get to attend for the low, low price of free and it’s just $37 for the workbook and the food, but it’s going to be a life changing event for somebody. Michael, we like to end the show with a boom, which around here stands for big, overwhelming, optimistic momentum.

And so we always end it with a three, two, one and a boom. So Michael, are you ready for a boom?

Are you ready?

I am.

Here we go.

to like the greatest guy. I ran from his goats, his chickens, his dogs. So this guy’s like the greatest marketer you’ve ever seen, right? His entire life, Clay Clark, his entire life is marketing. Okay, Aaron Antis, March 6th and 7th, March 6th and 7th. Guess who’s coming

to Tulsa, Russia? Santa Claus? No, no, that’s March, March 6th. You’re going to be joined by Robert Kiyosaki, Robert Kiyosaki, best-selling author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, possibly the best-selling, or one of the best-selling business authors of all time, and he’s going to be joined with Eric Trump. He’ll be joined by Eric Trump. We’ve got Eric Trump and Robert Kiyosaki in the same place.

In the same place. Aaron, why should everybody show up to hear Robert Kiyosaki? Well, you’ve got billions of dollars of business experience between those two, not to mention many, many, many millions of books have been sold. Many, many millionaires have been made from the books that have been sold by Robert Kiyosaki. I happen to be one of them. I learned from the man. He was the inspiration. That book was the inspiration for me to get the

entrepreneurial spirit, as many other people. Now, since you won’t brag on yourself, I will. You’ve sold billions of dollars of houses, am I correct? That is true. And the book that kick-started it all for you, Rich Dad Poor Dad, the best-selling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, the guy that kick-started your career, he’s gonna be here. He’s gonna be here. I’m pumped. And now Eric Trump, people don’t know this, but the Trump Organization has thousands of employees. There’s not 50

employees. The Trump Organization, again most people don’t know this, but the Trump Organization has thousands of employees. And while Donald J. Trump was the 45th president of these United States and soon to be the 47th president of these United States, he needed someone to run the companies for him. And so the man that runs the Trump Organization for Donald J. Trump as he was the 45th president of the United States and now the 47th president of the United States is Eric Trump is here to talk about time management, promoting from within, marketing, branding, quality control, sales systems, workflow design, workflow mapping, how to build.

I mean, everything that you see, the Trump hotels, the Trump golf courses, all their products, the man who manages billions of dollars of real estate and thousands of employees is here to teach us how to do it. You are talking about one of the greatest brands on the planet from a business standpoint. I mean, who else has been able to create a brand like the Trump brand? I mean, look at it.

And this is the man behind the business for the last, pretty much since 2015, he’s been the man behind it. So you’re talking, we’re into nine, going into 10 years of him running it. And we get to tap into that knowledge. That’s going to be amazing. Now, think about this for a second.

Would you buy a ticket just to see Robert Kiyosaki and Eric Trump? Of course you would. Of course you would. But we’re also going to be joined by Sean Baker. This is the best-selling author, the guy who invented the carnivore diet. Oh, yeah.

Dr. Sean Baker. He’s been on Joe Rogan multiple times. He’s going to be joining us. So you’ve got Robert Kiyosaki, the best-selling author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Eric Trump, Sean Baker. The lineup continues to grow.

And this is how we do our tickets here at the Friar Times show. If you want to get a VIP ticket you can absolutely do it. It’s $500 for a VIP ticket. We’ve always done it that way. Now if you want to take a general admission ticket, it’s $250 or whatever price you want to pay. And the reason why I do that and the reason why we do that is because we want to make our events affordable for everybody. I grew up without money. I

totally understand what it’s like to be the tight spot. So if you want to attend it’s $250 or whatever price you want to pay. That’s how I do it. And it’s $500 for a VIP ticket. Now, we only have limited seating here. The most people we’ve ever had in this building

was for the Jim Brewer presentation. Jim Brewer came here. The legendary comedian Jim Brewer came to Tulsa. And we had 419 people that were here, 419 people. And I thought to myself, there’s no more room. I felt kind of bad that a couple people had VIP seats

in the men’s restroom. Oh, no, I’m just kidding. So I thought, you know what, we should probably add on. So we’re adding on what we call the upper deck, or the top shelf. So the seats are very close to the presenters,

but we’re actually building right now. We’re adding on to the facility to make room to accommodate another 30 attendees or more. So again, if you want to get tickets for this event, all you have to do is go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Go to Thrivetimeshow.com.

When you go to Thrivetimeshow.com, you’ll go there, you’ll request a ticket, boom. Or if you want to text me, if you want a little bit faster service, you say, I want you to call me right now. Just text my number. It’s my cell phone number. My personal cell phone number.

We’ll keep that private between you, between you, me, everybody. We’ll keep that private. And anybody, don’t share that with anybody except for everybody. That’s my private cell phone number. It’s 918-851-0102. 918-851-0102. I know we have a lot of Spanish speaking people that attend these conferences and so to be bilingually sensitive my cell phone number is 918-851-0102.

That is not actually bilingual. That’s just saying one for a one. It’s not the same thing.

I think you’re attacking me. Now, let’s talk about this. Now, what kind of stuff will you learn at the Thrive Time Show workshop? So Aaron, you’ve been to many of these over the past seven, eight years.

So let’s talk about it. I’ll tee up the thing, and then you tell me what you’re going to learn here, OK?

OK.

You’re going to learn marketing, marketing and branding. What are we going to learn about marketing and branding?

Oh, yeah.

We’re going to dive into, you know, so many people say, oh, you know, I’ve got to get my brand known out there, like the Trump brand. You want to get that brand out there. It’s like, how do I actually make people know what my business is and make it a household name?

You’re going to learn some intricacies of how you can do that. You’re going to learn sales. So many people struggle to sell something. This just in, your business will go to hell if you can’t sell. So we’re going to teach you sales.

We’re going to teach you search engine optimization, how to come up top in the search engine results. We’re going to teach you how to manage people. Aaron, you have managed, no exaggeration, hundreds of people throughout your career and thousands of contractors, and most people struggle with managing people. Why does everybody have to learn how to manage people?

Well, because first of all, you either have great people or you have people who suck. It can be a challenge. Learning how to work with a large group of people and get everybody pulling in the same direction can be a challenge. But if you have the right systems, you have the right processes, and you’re really good at selecting great ones, and we have a process we teach about how to find great people.

When you start with the people who have a great attitude, they’re teachable, they’re driven, all of those things, then you can get those people all pulling in the same direction. So we’re going to teach you branding, marketing, sales, search engine optimization. We’re going to teach you accounting. We’re going to teach you personal finance,

how to manage your finance. We’re going to teach you time management. How do you manage your time? How do you get more done during a typical day? How do you build an organization if you’re not organized? How do you do organization?

How do you build an org chart? Everything that you need to know to start and grow a business will be taught during this two-day interactive business workshop. But let me tell you how the format is set up here. Again, folks, this is a two-day interactive 15…

Think about this, folks. It’s two days. Each day it starts at 7 a.m. and it goes until 5 p.m. So from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., two days. It’s a two-day interactive workshop. The way we do it is we do a 30-minute teaching session, and then we break for 15 minutes

for a question and answer session. So Aaron, what kind of great stuff happens during that 15 minute question and answer session after every teaching session? I actually think it’s the best part about the workshops because here’s what happens.

I’ve been to lots of these things over the years. I’ve paid many thousands of dollars to go to them. And you go in there, and they talk in vague generalities, and they’re constantly upselling you for something, trying to get you to buy this thing or that thing or this program or this membership and you don’t you leave

not getting your very specific questions answered about your business or your employees or what you’re doing on your marketing and what’s awesome about this is we literally answer every single question that any person asks and it’s very specific to what your business is and what we do is we allow you as the attendee to write your questions on the whiteboard yeah and then we literally as you mentioned we answer every single question on the white

board. And then we take a 15 minute break to stretch and to make it entertaining when you’re stretching. And this is a true story. When you get up and stretch, you’ll be greeted by mariachis. There’s going to probably be alpaca here, llamas, helicopter rides, a coffee bar, a snow cone. I mean, there’s just you had a crocodile one time. That was pretty interesting. You know, I should write that down.

Sorry for that one guy that we lost.

The crocodile, we duct taped its face. We duct taped it. It was a baby crocodile. And we duct taped. Yeah, duct taped around the mouth so it didn’t bite anybody. But it was really cool bouncing that thing around.

I should do that. We have a small petting zoo that will be assembled. It’s going to be great. And then you’re in the company of hundreds of entrepreneurs. So there’s not a lot of people in America today. In fact, there’s less than 10 million people today,

according to US Debt Clock, that identify as being self-employed. So if you have a country with 350 million people, that means you have less than 3% of our population that’s even self-employed. So you only have three out of every 100 people in America

that are self-employed to begin with. And when Inc. Magazine reports that 96% of businesses fail by default, by default, you have a one out of 1,000 chance of succeeding in the game of business. But yet, the average client that you and I work with, we can typically double this. No hyperbole, no exaggeration. I have thousands of testimonials

to back this up. We have thousands of testimonials to back it up. But when you work with a home builder, when I work with a business owner, we can typically double the size of the company within 24 months. And you say, double? Yeah, there’s businesses that we have tripled. There’s businesses we’ve grown 8x.

There’s so many examples. You can see it at thrivetimeshow.com. But again, this is the most interactive, best business workshop on the planet. This is objectively the highest rated and most reviewed business workshop on the planet. And then you add to that Robert Kiyosaki, the bestselling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad. You add to that Eric Trump, the man that runs the Trump organization. You add to that

Sean Baker. Now you might say, Clay, is there more? I need more! Well, Tom Wheelwright is the wealth strategist for Robert Kiyosaki. So people say, Robert Kiyosaki, who’s his financial wealth advisor? Who’s the guy who manages, who’s his wealth strategist? His wealth strategist, Tom Wheelwright, will be here. And you say, Clay, I still, I’m not going to get a ticket unless you give me more.

Okay, fine. We’re going to serve you the same meal both days. True story. We cater to food and because I keep it simple, I literally bring him the same food both days for lunch. It’s Ted Esconzito’s, an incredible Mexican restaurant.

That’s going to happen. And Jill Donovan, our good friend, who is the founder of Rustic Cuff. She started that company in her home and now she sells millions of dollars of apparel and products. That’s rusticcuff.com. And someone says, I want more.

This is not enough. Give me more. OK. I’m not going to mention their names right now because I’m working on it behind the scenes here. But we’ve got one guy who’s given me a verbal to be here.

And this is a guy who’s one of the wealthiest people in Oklahoma. And nobody really knows who he is because he’s built systems that are very utilitarian that offer a lot of value. He’s made a lot of money in the, it’s the, it’s where you rent, it’s short term, it’s where you’re renting storage spaces. He’s a storage space guy. He owns the, what do you call that? The rental, the, storage space, storage units. This guy owns storage units. He owns railroad cars. He owns

a lot of assets that make money on a daily basis, but they’re not like customer-facing. Most people don’t know who owns the mini storage facility, or most people don’t know who owns the warehouse that’s passively making money. Most people don’t know who owns the railroad cars. But this guy, he’s given me a verbal that he will be here, and we just continue to add more and more success stories.

So if you’re out there today and you want to change your life, you want to give yourself an incredible gift, you want a life-changing experience, you want to learn how to start and grow a company. Go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Go there right now. Thrivetimeshow.com. Request a ticket for the two-day interactive event. Again, the day here is March 6th and 7th. March 6th and 7th. We just got confirmation. Robert Kiyosaki,

best-selling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad. He’ll be here. Eric Trump, the man who leads the Trump Organization. It’s going to be a blasty blast. There’s no upsells. Aaron, I could not be more excited about this event. I think it is incredible and there’s somebody out there right now you’re watching and you’re like, but I already signed up for this incredible other program called Smoke Your Way to Thin.

Do you think that’s going to change your life? I promise you this will be ten times better than that.

It’s like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking.

Don’t do the Smoke Your Way to Thin conference. That is, I’ve tried it, don’t do it. Yeah, chain smoking is not a viable. I mean it is life-changing It is life-changing if you become a chain smoker it is life-changing weight loss program Right not really if you’re looking to have life-changing Results in a way that won’t cause you to have a stoma get your tickets at the ride time show calm again That’s Aaron antus. I’m clay Clark and reminding you and inviting you to come out to the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show workshop

right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I promise you it will be a life-changing right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I promise you it will be a life-changing experience. We can’t wait to see you right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma.