Business Podcast | A Players, B Players & C Players + “I noticed that the dynamic range between what an average person could accomplish & what the best person could accomplish was 50 or 100.” – Steve Jobs + Steve Currington / TipTopK9.com Success Stories

Audio Transcription

I’ve built a lot of my success off finding these truly gifted people and not settling for B and C players, but really going for the A players. And I found something. I found that when you get enough A players together, when you go through the incredible work to find five of these A players, They really like working with each other because they’ve never had a chance to do that before. And they don’t want to work with B and C players, and so it becomes self-policing, and they only want to hire more A players. And so you build up these pockets of A players, and it propagates. And that’s what the Mac team was like. 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. Started from the bottom, now they’re here. It’s the Thrive Time Show starring the former U.S. Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark, and the entrepreneur trapped inside an optometrist’s body, Dr. Robert Zunder. Two men, eight kids, co-created by two different women, 13 multimillion dollar businesses. I’m a father of five, that’s why I’m alive So if you see my wife in camps, please tell her hi It’s the CNC 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, and we’ll 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, and we’ll show you how to get here Started from the bottom, now we here Yes, yes, yes, and yes! Steve Currenton on today’s edition of the Thrive Time Show. We’re talking about A players, B players, and C players. And you happen to run a company called SteveCurrenton.com. I’ve had the opportunity to work with you. You’ve been a client of mine for… 2015. Yeah, so we’re now nine years in. Nine years in, nine years in baby, and the one thing I observed, we were talking about today in our Monday morning meeting, and I wanted to carry on the conversation and keep the conversation going on this podcast to the millions of listeners who tune in from all over the world, and this conversation about A players, B players, and C players, and I’m gonna try to go rapid-fire because I don’t want to waste anybody’s time, which is something that an A player would appreciate. OK, so you have A players, B players, and a C player. And I have a little document here about the A players, C players, and C players. This is a book I’m writing right now about financial success. And in the book, I really do a deep dive into A players, B players, and C players. So A players, they love getting things done. They love wowing customers. They love results. They are purpose-driven, and they view mediocrity as a source of either. People that don’t get things done are an annoyance to them, so much so that many of them will refuse to stay at an organization where idiocy, lack of accountability, and excuses are the order of the day. If you don’t want these top people going, you had better make sure that your organization is growing. A players make up only, in my opinion, 10 to 15% of all non-dumb, non-distracted, and non-dishonest employees. So you must work like hell to keep these people on your team or your organization will suffer. Now, what am I saying? According to Inc. Magazine right now, 85% of employees lie on resumes. So let me clarify that stat. I’m saying 85% of employees lie on resumes. So of the 15% of employees that don’t lie on resumes, only 10% of those are A players. So it’s like a 1% kind of thing. So we had a young lady today, she’s going to the mall to gather objective reviews from clients who’ve experienced a demo of a specific product. She came in today, she exceeded her quota. So Steve, I gave her a tip. You know, and you saw it happen. Because she’s an A player. And she’s focused on how many objective reviews she got, how many presentations she got, how many sales she got, and she’s an A player, and A players track that crap. Why is it that A players love getting things done, and why is it that C players never get anything done? I don’t know. I can just speak from my own experience. I like getting things done because I like winning, and I like the results that come from winning. I like the permission that I make when I sell something, because it helps me to spend money on the things that I like that most people probably don’t like, but I like. So I like to spend my money on that. You like to buy silky chickens. I like to buy Lamborghinis. You buy a lot more silky chickens than I buy Lamborghinis. Everybody has their thing. So for me, it’s like, if I’m going to go to work today Have that option go to work, then why not be? Like good and like do a good job versus being a weak-ass And what’s crazy about VA players the B players and the C players is that they exist within any organization where you have? Multiple people yeah now so if you’re out there listening today, and you don’t have a team then maybe you can’t relate to this But maybe you could ask yourself are you an a player are you a B player, are you a C player? B player. They make up 80% of every good workforce. These people value being part of the team and love being consistent. They love showing up on time and leaving on time. They’re not interested in staying late, nor are they very excited about anything that requires change. To them, change is bad. Consistency, that’s good. They’re unable to grasp the concept of incrementally improving a business to achieve peak results. However, they will reluctantly go along because they don’t want to rock the boat. Not to be annoyed by these people. Do not be annoyed by these people because every organization needs B players. These employees value following the rules and honoring their word, but you cannot have your growth limited by their overall lack of ambition. Your goal as a leader should be to inspire, to coach, and train your B players into wanting to become A players. If you celebrate your A players enough, some B players will begin to become discontent with their current realities and begin to act differently so that they too can join the ranks of your company’s A players. So today in our office, true story, we’ve got a guide. I’m going to be vague here so not to throw a teammate under the bus today, but we have an employee who’s really rocking it as an A player. You can picture in your mind who it is, Steve. They’re getting the job done. And you can look about seven to eight feet apart from the A player, there’s a B player. I would say a B player who’s trending to become a C player because they married a C player. Yeah. You can sense it, can’t you? There’s a tension. And you’re like, the guy who’s the C player, his tie is barely on. It’s barely on. Like, I got to wear this thing. Yeah. Oh, geez. I had to get dressed today. Dude just sort of scurries into work at the very last minute. Yep. And dude is just not gonna do what it takes to be the A player. Yeah, right. And he’s just frustrated with the A player. Now meanwhile, the A player got to work two hours before they were supposed to be at work. The A player got all the work done. And the A player is sitting around 15 minutes before the meeting starts and has the time freedom to say hello to everybody who walks through the door. Yeah. Because the A player is like, I’m gonna get all my work done two hours before I’m required to be there. Then when people walk in, I’m gonna go, what’s up guys, good to see you, how you doing? How you doing? Because they have enough sense of awareness to say, you know what, I should probably say hello to every single person. Yeah. And then the C player comes in shuffling in last minute and they are pissed. Yeah. Of the A player. Why, what is the good deal with the C player? What is this desire that people have to do less than the minimum requirement? What is that? I don’t know. I mean, you know, I call them haters. I mean, C players are haters. I mean, they kind of go one in the same. Your haters are your people that like despise your success despite knowing that they won’t work as hard as you to get there, but they’re mad at you because you will, you know. So they’re mostly secretly they hate you because you kick their ass every day and it exposes how weak they actually are. And so I think that’s where that hater or that C player is because just like you say in your book here, they’re negative and lazy, they’re dumb, they’re distracted, and they’re dishonest. Their life’s thermostat is permanently set to make just enough money to support my baby’s mama mode. Right? Right. And that’s what it is. So they are envious and also hate anyone that outperforms them because it exposes their weakness and how they don’t perform. And it’s wild because you talk about the B players, we talked about the B players, we talked about the A players. Let’s just do a little bit, let’s look at the C players just for a second, then I want to talk about how you’ve been able to buy planes and Lamborghinis, or a plane, and Lamborghinis plural as a result of being an A player. C players, they’re negative and lazy. They have a unique combination. They’re dumb and they’re distracted and they’re dishonest. It’s a winning combination. Their life’s thermostat is permanently set to, make just enough money to support my baby’s mama mode. By the way, these are people that create baby’s mamas. The idea of taking care of the kid they created isn’t in their mind. That’s a Zercy pledge in every area of their life. These people spend their work day making excuses for not performing, talking about bad management, spreading rumors, and relentlessly questioning every aspect of your business. These people have decided to become full-time victims, and they seek validation for their mental disorders, their emotional situation they’re going through, and for their distractedness of late. These people are draining, and they love to ask questions like, could you call me to remind me to wake up on time? When they don’t get something done, they’ll always blame someone else. They can’t write well because their teachers in school weren’t any good. They steal because they had to make ends meet. They routinely ask management either or questions that don’t make any sense like, so do you want to be a good husband or a good salesman? Do you want me to be a good husband or a good salesman? Do you want me to get my paperwork done or make my sales calls? Should I get everything done or focus on doing a good job? Yeah. These people are consistently, people consistently make bad decisions but are unable to mentally grasp the concept that they ever caused any of the problems they are currently experiencing in their lives. These people are draining and they will kill your business. When you sit down to meet with them, they always find a way to make you feel personally responsible for their bad decisions and poor life results. When dealing with these people, keep this quote by best-selling author and multi-millionaire turned author Harvey Mackey in mind, it isn’t the people you fire who make you miserable, it’s the people you don’t fire. Yeah. Oh, come on. Yeah. That’s, I mean, that, wow, that’s a lot there. But I mean, that’s, now let’s talk about this for a second. So you, you know, we, you and I have worked there for nine years and, what great pleasure of working with you is everybody that I know, sincerely, who’s gone to SteveCurrenton.com, this is a real story, everyone that I know, before I met you, I already had a person, I bought my first house when I was 20 years old, I built my first house. So I’ve used the same mortgage lender for 23 years. And I have this thing called loyalty, it’s kind of crazy, but when I meet somebody and they do a good job, I say, I’ll use you again. And that’s the relationship I have. And if you do a good job, I’ll do it again. If you drop the ball, I’ll tell you, and if you fix it, I’ll use you again. That’s just the relationship I have. Yep. So I’ve used the same lady for years, and anybody asks me, they say, what do you think about Steve? I said, from what I can tell, he’s the fastest funding, fastest response time, doesn’t do bankers hours, does loans in all 50 states. Everybody that I hear who’s gone to SteveCurrington.com and has used your service is happy, and they go, well, do you use him? And I said, just being totally honest with you, the person that I use is said person over here. I’ve used them for years. And what will happen is these people will call both you and that person sometimes. And I try not to give out their number because the person I’ve used doesn’t call people back quickly. They work banker’s hours. They’re off all the time. They’re always on a vacation. And they’re not really super good to work with for new people, but they’re good for me. Because you’ve been around for 20 years. Right, and so they know that the way I’m gonna do my mortgages, which is a little crazy for anybody out there, but this is how I roll if I do a mortgage. I’ll go, I’d like to get a 30 year mortgage that I plan on paying off in 12 months. You know, that’s the relationship we have. They go, what? I don’t, you know, I don’t like to owe debt, it’s like on my house and my business, I don’t have any debt, I don’t wanna have debt. But if it’s a hot deal, you know, and it’s like a good deal Like if it’s a rental property or something I’m looking into I might say hey, I’d like to go ahead And I already have my financials. They’ve got my you know, the whole thing and they just go approved. Yeah, here you go Go get it so like right now my wife and I are looking at picking up something I might get it and if I buy the thing if I buy the property it’ll cost X amount of dollars and You know if I can get a rate, it’s pretty low I’m like an adjustable rate mortgage, but I don’t recommend anybody does but if you if I’m gonna do it I know the rates locked in for 12 months. I’m gonna pay it off in 12 months. I mean, you know, I mean I just I’m a unique cat. I’m not a normal mortgage guy Yeah so I always tell people don’t don’t call the person I use you Steve and People are happy and they all and but then the people will actually call other mortgage people Steve and they say the mortgage guy Didn’t call him back and back. The mortgage guy was slow on the responses. And we actually had a business conference we were at about five years ago, and your competitor showed up at the conference. Who’s a C player, by the way. And they showed up and they said, can we hire you, Clay, to coach with us? And I said, I don’t coach with two mortgage people in the same city. I just don’t. I never coach two clients that compete with each other. And I told you the story. I said, hey, your competitors is at the workshop. Just so it’s not weird, they’re here. And they asked if I could coach them. I told them no, because I don’t want you to feel like I’m working with your competition. I always do that. And then you said, well, why don’t you just take them on? And I go, what? And you said, the guy is such a hardcore C player. He’s not going to implement anything you teach him anyway. And it’ll just be kind of a fun thing for me. Do you remember that? Oh, yeah. And it happened exactly as I predicted. So let’s go back to the A player, C player. I want to make sure we get this. So the C player, it was the funniest thing ever. It truly was amazing. So the C player, we have a weekly meeting with all of our coaching clients. A players always show up to their meetings. They get stuff done. C players can’t figure it out. So I remember the first meeting with this guy, it’s been years, but he said something to the effect of, I can’t meet today. Could we reschedule for tomorrow? And I said, well, I keep a calendar, this is my calendar, I block out every hour of my day. Yeah, everything on my calendar has happened. I don’t like, there’s no drifting. Yeah, so I can’t meet you unless somebody were to cancel and I could, you know, put you in a slot there. So I don’t have any availability. So he’s like, are you kidding me? I just became a client, he gives an attitude. I just became a client and you’re not willing to work with me on my on my rescheduling my what? The first meeting was like that. Geez. So I’m like hey I’ve got an availability at this time. I got only got a half hour though because the hour slot I have because every client I have I meet them every week at the same time recurring. Right. Then he said something to the effect of I can’t make that time is there any way just like a month in and you remember I remember you asking me we were in the conference room at the Riverwalk and you said how’s that going? I said, I think dude’s missed three out of his four meetings, hasn’t gotten anything done, because he’s a C player. Yeah, because you suck. So the question I would have for you today is, are you an A player, a B player, or a C player? Right now, are you an A player, a B player, or a C player? Second question is, do you want to have A player, B player, or C player problems? So the A player problems that you have is you happen to have a plane. And you were telling me that your plane has a parachute on it. So in case there’s mechanical failure, this plane shoots out a parachute so that you, that’s your mom, so that you could escape in the event of an engine problem. Right. That’s the kind of problems. Yeah. And you’re taking pilot lessons right now. Yeah. I’m probably the highest hour non-pilot on the planet 360 hours of 300 and like 30 landings But I’m taking my time But your problems that you’re always dealing with is you’re trying to always auto wrap the Lamborghini with a new wrap Yeah, and it’s hard to find you have a great company that you’ve worked with white glove for years But it’s you know, you’re trying to figure out the perfect design. Yeah You’re trying to figure out how to get the Lamborghini over from Florida to California because you have some event you’re participating in. Those are the problems you have. No, like I have that problem right now. There’s a concourse in Miami on Sunday and I really need to be at flight training in McKinney on Monday at like 1.30 p.m. But I also really want to be in Miami for that and it doesn’t end until 5 p.m. right? So you know what your options are? What are the options? What flight can you get from Miami to Dallas on Monday morning so that you would get there by 1.30 and then Uber over to McKinney? And then you’re like, I don’t need to get a flight because I have an airplane. So I’ll just fly my airplane. We can leave whenever we want. And so the deal gets over on, you know, five o’clock on Sunday, we’re just going to hop in the Sears. We’ll fly, um, home on Sunday night, be there by like, you know, 10 PM. Get up Monday morning, fly to Dallas. It’s an hour and three minutes probably. And then you’re good. So yeah, it’s, I wouldn’t even call it a problem. The only thing I do for fun though, is I like to compare what a first class ticket costs me to go to Florida versus, um, how long and how long it takes. How early do I have to get to the airport? How many hours am I going to be in the air? What’s my layover? Is it a direct flight? Versus what the Cirrus is going to be. These are the kind of problems that you deal with as an A player. Yeah. These are the problems that you’re dealing with and it’s because you choose to be an A player. Right. So if you’re out there today, and again I’m working on a new book here, I should have it finished hopefully this week here, but it’s a book on personal finance, and how I ended up talking about this in that book was I noticed that all of the clients that have major financial problems behave like C players with their finances. And they might be an A player in marketing, an A player in sales, but for some reason they have a C player lazy, negative, distracted attitude about their finances. Yeah. And I’m like, I need, we need to nip that in the bud. I’m gonna leave people with a final quote and I want to get a Final a call to action from you Steve there if anybody goes Online and you do research to Steve Jobs There’s a book written about him years ago by Walter Isaacson and it’s it’s a it’s an authorized book It’s an autobiography Steve Jobs with Walter Isaacson and Walter Isaacson is interviewing Steve And one of the things that Steve says is he says I noticed the dynamic range Between an average person but an average person could accomplish and what the best person could accomplish was 50 to 100. Like 50 or 100. Like an A player can do 50 to 100 times more than a C player. Wow. And Steve was just saying I only hire A players, that’s the key. Yeah. And so on part two of today’s show, Steve, we’re gonna get into the success story of Tip Top K9. Yep. And we’re going to showcase how when a brand like Tip Top K9 that was stuck teams up with an A player organization like what we do. Yeah. It’s like nitrous oxide. Steve, you, I think you’ve met, you probably met the tip toppers when they came in here. Yeah. And they had had a business that was just, it was just stuck, you know, God bless them, but it was just stuck, you know. Yep. And they came in, they teamed up with our team. Next thing you know, they grow, they grow the business from about 350,000 to over a million. And then they grow, Steve, from over one location to 18 locations. It’s because the A player culture that I have created, that we have created, will not allow mediocrity. We’re not going to allow somebody to become a client and just sort of drift around. They have to bring in more money than they’re paying us. So Steve, why should everybody go to SteveCarrington.com and use you for their mortgage? I have one hot thing that I want to share today. That’s our one-time closed construction of permanent loan. That means you can build a house, close up front, when the home is completed, it converts into a 30-year fix, and we do it in all 50 states, and we do it with zero down VA, 3.5% down FHA, 5% down conventional. It’s unheard of. You’ve never heard of this product. If you’re building a house and you’re anywhere in the United States and you’re building a house that’s going to end up being the conforming loan limit for most people is $766,000. So, I’m going to build a house. My loan amount when it’s all done is going to be $766,000. You need to call me, tell your builder to call me. You can carry that loan, close it up front, great terms, no payments during the build process and it converts into a 30-year fixed when the home’s built. No payments during the build process? Nope. And that’s SteveCurrenton.com. SteveCurrenton.com. Folks, I’ve known Steve for nearly 10 years. Very excited to introduce you to him. Steve, the mortgage services you provide are truly great, and we have more and more members of the Thrive Nation that reach out to you all the time, and I’m excited for them to experience the A-player level of customer service that you provide. Steve, thanks for joining us, and now, folks, without any further ado, it’s the Tip Top K9 Success Story. Hey, I’m Ryan Wimpey. I’m originally from Tulsa, born and raised here. I’ve definitely learned a lot about life design and making sure the business serves you. The linear workflow, the linear workflow for us in getting everything out on paper and documented is really important. We have workflows that are kind of all over the place. Having linear workflow and seeing that mapped out on multiple different boards is pretty awesome. That’s really helpful for me. The atmosphere here is awesome. I definitely just stared at the walls figuring out how to make my facility look like this place. This place rocks. It’s invigorating. The walls are super, it’s just very cool. The atmosphere is cool. The people are nice. It’s a pretty cool place to be. Very good learning atmosphere. I literally want to model it and steal everything that’s here at this facility and basically create it just on our business side. Play is hilarious. I literally laughed so hard that I started having tears yesterday. And we’ve been learning a lot, which you know, we’ve been sitting here. We’ve been learning a lot. And so the humor definitely definitely helps it breaks it up. But the content is awesome off the charts and it’s very interactive, you can raise your hand, it’s not like you’re just listening to the professor speak. You know, the wizard teaches, but the wizard interacts and he takes questions, so that’s awesome. If you’re not attending the conference, you’re missing about three quarters to half of your life. You’re definitely, it’s probably worth a couple thousand dollars, So you’re missing the thought process of someone who’s already started like nine profitable businesses. So not only is it a lot of good information, but just getting in the thought process of Clay Clark or Dr. Zellner or any of the other coaches, getting in the thought process of how they’re starting all these businesses, to me, just that is priceless. That’s money. Well, we’re definitely not getting upsold here. My wife and I have attended conferences where they upsold, where it was great information and then they upsold us like half the conference. And I don’t want to like bang my head into a wall. And she’s like banging her head into the chair in front of her. Like it’s good information, but we’re like, oh my gosh, I want to strangle you. Shut up and go with the presentation that we paid for. And that’s not here. There’s no upsells or anything. So that’s awesome. I hate that. Oh, it makes me angry. So glad that’s not happening. So the cost of this conference is quite a bit cheaper than business college. I went to a small private liberal arts college and got a degree in business. And I didn’t learn anything like they’re teaching here. I didn’t learn linear workflows. I learned stuff that I’m not using and I haven’t been using for the last nine years. So what they’re teaching here is actually way better than what I got at business school. And I went what was actually ranked as a very good business school. I would definitely recommend that people would check out the Thrive 15 conference. The information that you’re going to get is just very, very beneficial. And the mindset that you’re going to get, that you’re going to leave with, is just absolutely worth the price of a little bit of money and a few days worth of your time. I’m Rachel with Tip Top Key Night, and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey guys I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9 just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys we appreciate you and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. See? It’s nice, right? So this is my old van and our old school marketing, and this is our old team. And by team, I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing, and this is our new team. We went from four to fourteen, and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past, and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman. So we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts, and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place we’ve gone from one to ten locations in only a year. In October 2016 we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018 the month of October it’s only the 22nd we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us Just thank you. Thank you. Thank you times a thousand The Thrivetime show two-day interactive business workshops are the highest and most reviewed business workshops on the planet You can learn the proven 13-point business system that dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. We get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and they’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get rich quick, walk on hot coals product. It’s literally we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, but I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses, or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever and we’re going to give you your money back if you don’t loan it. We’ve built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see you. All right and now ladies and gentlemen I’m gonna bring up my good friend Ryan Wimpy, my good friend Ryan Wimpy and his dog Odin, this dog has the ability to eat me so I’m sort of concerned. I’ll pass the mic to you and Odin you can have your own mic if you want whatever you want Odin. Okay. Hi I’m Ryan Wimpy. And I’m Rachel Wimpy and the name of our business is Kip Top Training. Our business is a dog training business. We help people with behavioral issues and teach their dog how to listen. When I was learning to become a dog trainer, we didn’t learn anything about internet marketing or advertising or anything at all. Just dog training. And that’s what’s so great about working with Clay and his team, because they do it all for us. So that we can focus on our passion, and that’s training dogs. Clay and his team here, they’re so enthusiastic. Their energy is off the charts. Never a dull moment. Very proud. We’ve been working with Clay and his team for the last five months, two of which have been our biggest months ever. One, our biggest gross by 35%. Clay’s helped us make anything from brochures to stickers, new business cards, new logos, scripts for phones, scripts for emails, scripts for text messages, scripting for everything. How I would describe the weekly meetings with Clay and his team are awesome. They’re so effective. It’s worth every minute. Things get done. We’ll ask for things like different flyers, and they’re done before our hour is up. So it’s just awesome, extremely effective. If you don’t use Clay and his team, you’re probably going to be pulling your hair out, or you’re going to spend half of your time trying to figure out the online marketing game and produce your own flyers and marketing materials, print materials, all the stuff like that. You’re really losing a lot as far as lost productivity and lost time. Not having a professional do it has a real sense of urgency and actually knows what they’re doing when you already have something that’s your core focus that you already know how to do. You would also be missing out with all the time and financial freedom that you would have working with Clay and his team. We would recommend Clay and his team to other business owners because they need to be working on their business, not just trying to figure out the online game, which is complex and changing daily. So, and no one has a marketing team, too. Most people don’t. They can’t afford one, and their local web guy or local person that they know probably can’t do everything that a whole team and a whole floor of people can do in hours and not just weeks or months. There’s a definite sense of urgency with Clay and his team. I used to have to ride other West people, really, I mean, really ride them to get stuff done. And stuff is done so fast here. And people, there’s a real sense of urgency to get it done. All right, JT, so hypothetically, in your mind, what is the purpose of having a business? To get you to your goals. So it’s a vehicle to get you to your destination. And would you need profits to get there? I mean, when you have a business that’s successful, in your expert opinion, would you need profits to get you to your goals? Yeah, because if you have a $15 million business, but you have $15 million of expenses, it’s kind of pointless. Holy crap. All right, so the question I would have here for you, if you could take like, I don’t know, 10 minutes or less and see if you could save $3,000 a year by reducing your credit card fees. Would you do it? Yes, absolutely. Holy crap. Why would somebody out there who’s listening right now, who has a sane mind, why would they not go to Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card, Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card to schedule a 10 minute consultation to see if they can reduce their credit card fees by at least three thousand bucks a year. Why would they not do it? Yeah, why would they not do it? Maybe because they don’t understand how you set the website. This tree is a symbol of the spirit of the Griswold family Christmas. That’s clear. Okay, so that can be true. So I would encourage everybody to check out Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card what would be another reason why someone would not be willing to take 10 minutes to compare rates to see if they could save $3,000 or more on credit card fees maybe they think it is a waste of time and then it won’t it’s not possible There’s somebody out there. Okay. Well, I’ll just say it folks, if you’re out there today and you’re making less than $3,000 per 10 minutes, I would highly recommend that you go to throttletimeshow.com forward slash credit dash hard. Because you can compare rates, you can save money. And you know, the big, the big goal, in my opinion, of building a business is to create time, freedom and financial freedom. And in order to do that you have to maximize your profits. Holy crap. Now, one way to maximize your profits is to increase your revenue. Another way to do it is to decrease your expenses. It’s a profit deal. It takes the pressure off. JT is there any other reason why somebody would not be willing to take 10 minutes to compare rates to see if they could save a total of $3,000 a year on average I Am at a loss and I cannot see the banana Shampoo is better. I go on first and clean the hair Good. Yes, no, it’s better. I need to hair silky and smooth. Oh, really fool Oh, really, fool? Really? take ten minutes I’ll compare it’s I can’t tell you can tell me I’m a doctor no I mean I’m just not sure but can’t you take a guess well not for another two hours you can’t take a guess for another two hours and in my case in my in my case my particular case I save over $20,000 a year Wow which is uh you know like groceries when my wife goes to the organic stores. Find everything you need today? Yeah. Great. Okay. Oh God. Everything okay ma’am? It’s just that you’ve only scanned a few items and it’s already sixty bucks. I’m so scared. Okay I’m a trained professional ma’am. I’ve scanned a lot of groceries. I need you to stay with me. It’s just that my in-laws are in town and they want a charcuterie board. This isn’t going to be easy, so I need you to be brave, all right? What’s your name? Patricia. Patricia, all right. I need you to take a deep breath. We’re about to do the cheese. You know, that’s the difference between eating organic and not organic. So because my wife eats organic, I had to take the 10 minutes needed to compare rates to save the $20,000 a year on credit card fees just for one of my companies. One question, what’s the brand name of the clock? The brand name of the clock, Rod, do we have it? The brand name of the clock. It’s an elegant, from Ridgway. It’s from Ridgway. Let’s buy the clock and fill the fireplace. I encourage everybody out there, go to thrive time show dot com forward slash credit dash card. You schedule a free consultation, request information. A member of our team will call you. They’ll schedule a free consultation. It should take you ten minutes or less, and they’re going to compare rates and see if they can’t save you more than $3,000 a year off of your credit card processing. You were hoping what? I wouldn’t owe you money at the end of the day. No, you don’t owe us money. Because at the end of the day, the goal of a business is to create time freedom and financial freedom, and in order to do that, you need to create additional profits. The number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. We are Jared and Jennifer Johnson. We own Platinum Pest and Lawn and are located in Owasso, Oklahoma. And we have been working with Thrive for business coaching for almost a year now. Yeah. So, what we want to do is we want to share some wins with you guys that we’ve had by working with Thrive. First of all, we’re on the top page of Google now, okay. I just want to let you know what type of accomplishment this is. Our competition, Orkin, Terminex, they’re both 1.3 billion dollar companies. They both have two to three thousand pages of content attached to their website. So to basically go from virtually non-existent on Google to up on the top page is really saying something. But it’s come by being diligent to the systems that Thrive has. By being consistent and diligent on doing podcasts and staying on top of those podcasts to really help with getting up on what they’re listing and ranking there with Google. And also we’ve been trying to get Google reviews, asking our customers for reviews, and now we’re the highest rated and most reviewed Pessimon company in the Tulsa area. And that’s really helped with our conversion rate. And the number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. Wait, say that again. How much are we up? 411%. Okay, so 411% we’re up with our new customers. Amazing. Right. So not only do we have more customers calling in, we’re able to close those deals at a much higher rate than we were before. Right now, our closing rate is about 85%, and that’s largely due to, first of all, like our Google reviews that we’ve gotten. People really see that our customers are happy, but also we have a script that we follow. And so when customers call in, they get all the information that they need. That script has been refined time and time again. It wasn’t a one-and-done deal. It was a system that we followed with Thrive in the refining process and that has obviously, the 411% shows that that system works. Yeah, so here’s a big one for you. So last week alone, our booking percentage was 91%. We actually booked more deals, more new customers last year than we did the first five months, or I’m sorry, we booked more deals last week than we did the first five months of last year, from before we worked with Thrive. So again, we booked more deals last week than the first five months of last year. It’s incredible, but the reason why we have that success is by implementing the systems that Thrive has taught us and helped us out with. Some of those systems that we’ve implemented are group interviews. That way we’ve really been able to come up with a really great team. We’ve created and implemented checklists and when everything gets done and it gets done right, it creates accountability. We’re able to make sure that everything gets done properly both out in the field and also in our office. And also doing the podcast like Jared had mentioned that has really, really contributed to our success but that, like I said, the diligence and consistency in doing those, and that system has really, really been a big blessing in our lives, and also it’s really shown that we’ve gotten a success from following those systems. So before working with Thrive, we were basically stuck. Really no new growth with our business. And we were in a rut, and we didn’t know. The last three years, our customer base has pretty much stayed the same. We weren’t shrinking, but we weren’t really growing either. Yeah, and so we didn’t really know where to go, what to do, how to get out of this rut that we’re in. But Thrive helped us with that. You know, they implemented those systems, they taught us those systems, they taught us the knowledge that we needed in order to succeed. Now it’s been a grind, absolutely it’s been a grind this last year. But we’re getting those fruits from that hard work and the diligent effort that we’re able to put into it. So again, we were in a rut, Thrive helped us get out of that rut. And if you’re thinking about working with Thrive, quit thinking about it and just do it. Do the action and you’ll get the results. It will take hard work and discipline, but that’s what it’s gonna take in order to really succeed. So we just wanna give a big shout out to Thrive, a big thank you out there to Thrive. We wouldn’t be where we’re at now without their help. Hi, I’m Dr. Mark Moore. I’m a pediatric dentist. Through our new digital marketing plan, we have seen a marked increase in the number of new patients that we’re seeing every month, year over year. One month, for example, we went from 110 new patients the previous year to over 180 new patients in the same month. Overall, our average is running about 40 to 42% increase, month over month, year over year. The group of people required to implement our new digital marketing plan is immense, starting with a business coach, videographers, photographers, web designers. Back when I graduated dental school in 1985, nobody advertised. The only marketing that was ethically allowed in everybody’s eyes was mouth-to-mouth marketing. By choosing to use the services, you’re choosing to use a proof-and-turn-key marketing and coaching system that will grow your practice and get you the results that you’re looking for. I went to the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry, graduated in 1983, and then I did my pediatric dental residency at Baylor College of Dentistry from 1983 to 1985. Hello, my name is Charles Colaw with Colaw Fitness. Today I want to tell you a little bit about Clay Clark and how I know Clay Clark. Clay Clark has been my business coach since 2017. He’s helped us grow from two locations to now six locations. We’re planning to do seven locations in seven years and then franchise. And Clay has done a great job of helping us navigate anything that has to do with like running the business, building the systems, the checklists, the workflows, the audits, how to navigate lease agreements, how to buy property, how to work with brokers and builders. This guy is just amazing. This kind of guy has worked in every single industry. He’s written books with Lee Crockrell, head of Disney, with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with Mike Lindell. He does Reawaken America tours where he does these tours all across the country where 10,000 or more people show up to some of these tours. On the day-to-day, he does anywhere from about 160 companies. He’s at the top. He has a team of business coaches, videographers, graphic designers, and web developers. They run 160 companies every single week. So think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. Every six to eight weeks he’s doing reawaken America tours. Every six to eight weeks he’s also doing business conferences where 200 people show up and he teaches people a 13-step proven system that he’s done and worked with billionaires helping them grow their companies. So I’ve seen guys from startups go from startup to being multi-millionaires. Teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom through the system. Critical thinking, document creation, organizing everything in their head to building into a franchisable, scalable business. One of his businesses has like 500 franchises. That’s just one of the companies or brands that he works with. So, amazing guy. Elon Musk, kind of like smart guy. He kind of comes off sometimes as socially awkward, but he’s so brilliant and he’s taught me so much. When I say that like Clay is like he doesn’t care what people think when you’re talking to him. He cares about where you’re going in your life and where he can get you to go and that’s what I like him most about him. He’s like a good coach. A coach isn’t just making you feel good all the time. A coach is actually helping you get to the best you and Clay has been an amazing business coach. Through the course of that we became friends. My most impressive thing was when I was shadowing him one time. We went into a business deal and listened to it. I got to shadow and listen to it. When we walked out, I knew that he could make millions on the deal and they were super excited about working with him. He told me, he’s like, I’m not going to touch it. I’m going to turn it down because he knew it was going to harm the common good of people in the long run. The guy’s integrity just really wowed me. It brought tears to my eyes to see that this guy, his highest desire was to do what’s right. And anyways, just an amazing man. So anyways, impacted me a lot. He’s helped navigate any time I’ve gotten nervous or worried about how to run the company or navigating competition and an economy that’s, like I remember, we got closed down for three months. He helped us navigate on how to stay open, how to get back open, how to just survive through all the COVID shutdowns, lockdowns. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9, and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey guys, I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys. We appreciate you and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old house. Right, this is where we used to live a few years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See? It’s nice, right? So this is my old van and our old school marketing and this is our old team and by team I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing. And this is our new team. We went from 4 to 14. And I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past. And they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales. Which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman. So we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts, and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month. And we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you thankful for thrive and your mentorship. And we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us just thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Times 1000. 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. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. We get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan. We teach you everything you need to know here during a two day, 15 hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re gonna leave energized, motivated, but you’re also gonna leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur I always wish that I had this and because there wasn’t anything like this I would go to these Motivational seminars no money down real estate Ponzi scheme get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything It was like you went there, and you paid for the big chocolate Easter Bunny, but inside of it. It was a hollow Nothingness, and I wanted the knowledge and 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. And I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, but I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses, or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever, and we’re going to give you your money back if you don’t love it. We’ve built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see it. If we go back eight years ago, think about the number of clients you had back then versus the number of clients you have now. As a percentage, what has been the growth over the past eight years, do you think? We’ve got to inspire somebody out there who just doesn’t have the time to listen to their call. Well, okay, so Clay, it’s like I would go up and down from about $10,000 a month up to about $40,000, but it’s up and down roller coaster. And so now we’ve got it to where we’re in excess of 100 clients. That’s awesome. And so I would have anywhere from 5 clients to 20 clients on my own with networking, but I had no control over it. Without the systems, you’re going to be victimized by your own business. For somebody out there who struggles with math, if you would say that your average number of clients was 30 and you go to 100, as a percentage, what is that? I have doubled every year. That’s a hundred percent growth every year I’ve worked. Now so I’m looking, we’ve been good friends seven, eight years and I’ve got doubled five times. Which is just incredible. I mean the first time you do it that’s one thing, but when you do it repeatedly, I mean that’s unbelievable. We’re working our blessed assurance off this year to double. We’re planning on doubling again. We’re incorporating new, some new things in there to really help us do it, but we are going to double again this year. I started coaching, but it would go up and down, Clay. That’s when I came to you, as I was going up and down, and I wanted to go up and up instead of up and down. That’s when it needed a system. Creating a system is you have nailed down specific steps that you’re going to take no matter how you feel, no matter the results. You lean into them and you do them regardless of what’s happening. You lean into them and it will give you X number of leads. You follow up with those leads, it turns into sales. Well, I tell you, if you don’t have a script and you don’t have a system, then every day is a whole new creation. You’re creating a lot of energy just to figure out what are you going to do. Right. And the best executives, Peter Drucker is a father of modern management, he said, the most effective executives make one decision a year. What you do is you make a decision, what is your system? And then you work like the Dickens to make sure you follow that system. And so that’s really what it’s all about. So with a script here, we have a brand new gal that just came in working for us. She nailed down the script and she’s been nailing down appointments. Usually we try to get one appointment for every 100 calls. We make 200 to 300 calls a day per rep, and she’s been nailing down five and eight appointments a day on that script. So she’s making how many calls a day? She’s making between two and three hundred calls a day. And our relationship is weird in that we do, if someone were to buy an Apple computer today, or let’s say a personal computer, a PC, the computer is made by, let’s say, Dell. But then the software in the computer would be Microsoft, let’s say, or Adobe, or whatever that is. So I basically make the systems. And you’re like the computer, and I’m like the software. It’s kind of how I would describe our relationship. Tim, I want to ask you this. Were you and I reconnected, I think it was in the year 2000 and, what was it, maybe 2010? Is that right? 2011, maybe? Or maybe further down the road. Maybe 2013? 2012. Okay, so 2012. And at that time I was five years removed from the DJ business. And you were how many years removed from tax and accounting software? It was about 10, 11 years. We met… How did we meet? What was the first interaction? There was some interaction where you and I first connected. I just remember that somehow you and I went to Hideaway Pizza. But do you remember when we first reconnected? Yeah, well, we had that speaking thing that… Oh, there it was! So it’s Victory Christian Center. I was speaking there. My name is Robert Redman. I actually first met Clay almost three years ago to the day. I don’t know if he remembers it or not, but I wasn’t working with him at the time. I asked to see him and just ask him some questions to help, you know, direct my life, to get some mentorship. But I’ve been working with Clay for now just over a year. The role I play here is a business coach, business consultant. I work with different businesses implementing best practice processes and systems that I have learned here by working with Clay. And the experience working here has, to put it real plainly, has been just life-changing. I have not only learned new things and have gained new knowledge, but I have gained a whole new mindset that I believe, wherever I end up, will serve me well throughout the rest of my life. Since working with Clay, I have learned so much. I mean, I would like to say it was everything about business in terms of the different categories. I haven’t learned it all, but I’ve learned all about marketing. I’ve learned about advertising. I’ve learned about branding. I’ve learned how to create a sales process for organizations in any industry. I’ve learned how to sell. I’ve learned how to create repeatable systems and processes and hold people accountable. You know, how to hire people. It’s almost like every aspect of a business you can learn I have learned a lot in those different categories and then Again, the the mindset that I’ve gained here Has been huge, you know working here You can’t you can’t be a mediocre person you are a call to a higher standard of excellence. And then as you’re called to that standard here, you begin to see those outcomes in every area of your life. That standard of excellence that you want to implement no matter what you’re involved in. I would like to describe the other people that work with Clay are people that are going somewhere with their life. Marshall in the group interview talks about how, you know, the best fits for this organization are the people that are goal-oriented. So they’re on their own trajectory and we’re on our own trajectory. And the best fits are those people where there can be a mutually beneficial relationship, that as we pursue our goals and we help the business pursue those goals, the business helps us pursue our goals as well. And so I say people that are driven, people that want to make something of their lives, people that are goal-oriented, they’re focused, and they’re committed to overcoming any adversity that may come their way. Clay’s passion for helping business owners grow their businesses is, it’s unique in that I don’t know if there’s anyone else’s that can be as passionate. You know whenever a business starts working with Clay it’s almost as like Clay is running that business in the sense that he has something at stake. You know he’s just serving them they’re one of his clients but it’s as if he is actively involved in the business. Whenever they have a win, he’s posting it all over his social media. He’s shouting it across the room here at Thrive. You know, he’s sending people encouraging messages. He can kind of be that life coach and business coach in terms of being that motivator and that champion for people’s businesses. It’s again unique because there’s no one else I’ve seen get so excited about and passionate about other people’s businesses. The kind of people that wouldn’t like working with Clay are people that are satisfied with with mediocrity, people that want to get through life by just doing enough, by just getting by, people who are not looking to develop themselves, people who are not coachable, people who think that they know it all and they’re unwilling to change. I would say those are the type of people, and in short, anyone that’s content with mediocrity would not like working with Clay. So if you’re meeting Clay for the first time, the advice I’d give you is definitely come ready to take tons of notes. Every time Clay speaks, he gives you a wealth of knowledge that you don’t want to miss. I remember the first time that I met Clay. I literally carried a notebook with me all around. I was looking at this notebook the other day, actually. I carried a notebook with me all around, and I just took tons of notes. I filled the entire notebook in about three or four months just from being around Clay, following him and learning from him. And then I would say come coachable. Be open to learning something new. Be open to challenging yourself. Be open to challenging yourself. Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted.