Business Podcast | Why Does Every Successful Business Needs an Effective Manager? | “The Definition of Insanity Is Not Doing the Same Successful Thing Over And Over And Expecting Profitable Results.” – Clay Clark

My name’s Ron Harper, and I am the proud franchise owner of the number 14 most popular place to get pizza in America, the Pizza Pad. So I’ve been a franchise owner for about six years. How it happened is we looked at the FDD Franchise Disclosure something, and I said, “Cha ching. Yes, please.” So we took out an SBA loan, got this turnkey system. It’s like an ATM machine. 20s rolling at me all day. Sometimes fives, sometimes 10s. It’s awesome. Here’s the thing about being a franchise owner. What I know is that corporate don’t get it. I like to think outside of the pizza box. I open that baby up, boom, theme night. Like for instance, I have a camping night. I send my cooks home, and we just give the customers raw pizzas, and we got a fire pit out here in the middle of the dining room and they cook their pizzas. Does corporate know about these ideas? So my job as a franchisee is to really help make the brand better. What I did is I took a look at our logo here. Pizza pad, boring. I know.

And I thought, how can I help this? How can I make this better? And I thought, what’s hot right now? Apple’s hot right now. So what did I did with our logo is I took my Sharpie just like this, and pizza iPad, revolutionary. The thing about this rebranding is it has just absolutely changed our whole restaurant. It’s changed our menu completely from top to bottom. Now you can order an iMac and cheese, which is just absolutely delicious. You can order the Apple TV, which is actually just a basket full of apples. But our Coup de grâce of our new menu is a pizza iPad. Oh yeah, check this thing out. It comes complete with apps right here. You got your pepperoni app, your sausage app, your green pepper app, your mushroom app. People can load this iPad pizza with whatever app they want. The one thing you can’t do is you can’t swipe it. Of course, you can’t click on an app and more pepperonis are going to come out. But people love it. You can also get this in an iPad mini.

One, two, three.

Pizza iPad’s number one.

Pizza iPad’s number one.

Okay, so Sarah, I got to ask you, you know what we’re talking about on today’s show is why don’t business people want to follow proven systems? Cause there’s really three steps you have to go through in the evolution of growing a successful company. So step one is you find the problem that you can solve for your ideal and likely buyer that you find the problem. Again, this is all part of step one. You find a problem you can solve, you solve the problem, you sell the solution, and then you nail it and scale it again. So step one involves these little moves here, step one, you find a problem that humanity has. So you say, wow, grass is growing everywhere and somebody wants to mow it and it’s not the customer. Great, so I’ll mow it. That’s the problem, you solve it, then you sell it.

You say, Hey, knock on the door. Excuse me, neighbor, I have a landscaping business, lawn mowing company. I would love to solve your grass growing problems, and I’m here for you. Boom. And then once you sell it, you nail it and scale it. That’s the step where you say, Hey, hey, hey, hey, listen, I know you guys are hungry. You’re looking for pizza. I know you’re looking for pizza. You’re not looking to make the pizza. I shall make the pizza. And then people say, well, okay. And then they like the pizza. So then you sell them the pizza, then you nail it and scale it. So now you have a system that works. So now you’ve got it where your business system is working great. However, the ideal unlikely buyer, they want the consistency. The customer wants the consistency. So I go back to your career, before working here, you actually used to manage a very successful pizza-themed business, correct?

Yep, I sure did.

Okay. And so there’s a checklist at that restaurant. I’ll be vague, I’m not going to talk about the name of the brand, but that restaurant, they have a checklist probably to clean the bathroom or something, right?

Yes.

And they have a clean checklist per shift of all the stuff that the employees need to do. Correct?

Correct.

And what kind of stuff was on that checklist, super Sarah?

Well, I mean, wiping things down, cleaning out cabinets, replacing the dough, making sure all of the ingredients are fresh.

But it’s a checklist.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

Of things that you need to do, and other things. What other things are on that checklist? There’s got to be a lot. I mean, the place you worked at was massive.

Yeah, huge.

Massive, huge, physical space, probably what, 40 employees working per shift? Was it about 40, 20?

Yeah, yeah, in my department, yeah, it was about 40 people.

About 40 people. I see. Okay. So big and yeah, big checklist. Okay. So now step two, you have to get people to follow the checklist.

That’s a doozy.

Okay.

That’s the doozy.

That’s called management. And that’s the thing that nobody wants to talk about. And that’s the thing that I do well. And that’s the thing that brings results is the execution of the idea. Just the idea is not helpful if you can’t get other people to execute the idea. So let’s just say, a typical day at the big massive pizza place that you worked at. What time did your workday start?

Well, mine was only on weekends.

And my understanding is, were a manager, an assistant manager? What was your position?

I was actually what they call a director. So I was the assistant director of the entire building. So I was over all of the management there.

Really. So people knew you?

Yes.

You were kind of a big deal.

Yes. People knew me.

Okay. So your job though was to get the people on the staff, on the team to follow the systems. So again, what time did you have to get there?

I got there at 9:00 AM.

What time was the rest of the staff expected to be there?

11:00.

Okay. And what percentage of the employees showed up late?

I would say 25%.

Just late. How late? Five minutes, 20 minutes, what?

It would range from anywhere from 10 to about 30 minutes late.

Okay. And what percentage of the employees were high, drunk, or some combination thereof?

I would probably send one person home every two weeks for being high or drunk.

For being drunk or high? Out of a staff of 40.

Oh yeah.

So out of a staff of 40, one person every two weeks you’d send home for being high or drunk. And then what percentage were late?

25%.

What percentage of the people wouldn’t wear their uniform? Or if they did, they looked like they had slept in it or that their uniform had been in a dumpster wet.

I mean, I never had anyone not show up in uniform, but the amount of uniforms that were wrinkled or smelled terrible was probably 50%.

50%.

Oh yeah.

Okay.

A lot of them.

So that’s common. Now, in the event that you get everybody there on time and drug free and in the uniform, what percentage of the time would the employees just follow the checklist and get stuff done without you following up?

I mean, without me hovering over it, it was probably about 60, 65%. If I was there, it would be 85, 90%.

Okay. So let’s recap and make sure that if everyone out there is learning some stuff, that I’m being an effective communicator here. Because again, if I put out this show and then you listen and you go, I don’t get out of the applies to my life, man, then I’m a bad teacher. Okay? So step one, let’s talk about step one of entrepreneurship. You find a problem that humanity has, right? You solve the problem. After you solve the problem, you have to sell the solution. You sell the solution, then you nail it, nail it, and scale it. That’s what you do.

Step two though, is you have to get humans on the planet earth. What? On the planet earth to follow the systems that you created. And this is something that I think that almost everybody who’s ever started a company underestimates the importance of this step.

yep.

If you had a highway system in a fictitious country, okay, let’s just say you’re listing out there and you go, my goal is to own my own country. That’s what I want to do. I’ll start my own country, have my own thing, I want to be a dictator. I mean, there’s somebody out there that has that thought. Usually one really bad person per century has that thought. Maybe more than that, but you’re like, I want to be a dictator. Woo.

Okay, but let’s just say though, or I want to be the president or whatever your visions of grandeur are. So in your little town that you have, or your city or whatever, if you have a speed limit, a speed limit, you say this is the limit to the speed you can go. And you don’t have a police officer, a law enforcement person there to, sir, do you know why I pulled you over? Sir, can you roll down the window please? Roll down the window. Sir, can I see your license? If you didn’t have that person pulling people over, what percentage of the people of your town would ever drive anywhere close to the speed limit if there was no policing ever?

0%.

That’s what saying. So step one, you have to find a problem, solve the problem, sell the solution, nail it and scale it. Step two is you have to get humans on the planet earth to follow the systems that you created. And step three, uh oh, step three, you must manage your team, uh oh, manage your team in a sustainably profitable way. So let’s talk about this. You have to know the numbers. So for this ReAwaken America Tour event, I’m not sure what people will hear this show, but we do conferences and ongoing events. Every two months I do a business conference. I’ve been doing that since 2005. And we have a conference coming up here in March 23rd, a business event. It’s a ReAwaken Tour event. And then in April we have a business conference. But if you’re listening right now, whenever you hear this, just go to ThriveTimeShow.com. You’ll always see the next event.

But we’re going to have an event and it’s going to be full. So the business conferences are going to be full, but I have to figure out the costs that went into the event. And, folks, this is some deep stuff here. This is TED Talks part II. This is TED Talks part II. This is deeper than normal TED Talks. This is like, wow, write that down. This is C’est la, TED Talks Part II. C’est la. This is the deep stuff here. This is like trying to explain the plot to, what was the movie that had DiCaprio in it? It was Inception. This show’s like explaining the plot of Inception to somebody that you met on a bus. That’s what this show is. This is a deep show.

Elevator talk.

So you have to manage your team in a sustainably profitable way. So if we did the event and it was full, woo, to quote Rick Flair, Woo. To quote the great philosopher Rick Flair, Woo. And they did the event. The optics were great, it looked full, but we lost money. How would that go?

Not good.

Why?

Well, I mean, if you don’t make money, then what’s the point of doing it?

But let’s just say, even if you’re like a nonprofit church.

Oh right, right, right.

Even if you didn’t bring in enough money to cover your costs, what would happen eventually? I mean, if you’re a church, and you’re doing this for the betterment of humanity, you have no profit motive. What would happen if you’re not sustainably at least covering the costs?

Well you’d have to stop doing it. You couldn’t afford to keep going.

Interesting. So there’s this quote that people have, and the quote they have is this. They say the definition, it’s what people say. They go, well, the definition of, and they always say it’s slow like they came up with it. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. That’s what it is.

Well, what if the definition of insanity was uh oh, is not doing the same thing over and over and expecting results. What? What if the definition of insanity is not doing the same successful things over and over and expecting results? Think about that. Because how many people do you know, they’re like, man, this script is working great, I think I’m going to change it up.

Yep.

How often do you see that?

I see that all the time.

You do?

Yeah.

And it’s like people then bring their emotions to the system too. So it’s like, this would never happen at my businesses or any of our listeners. This is just other businesses and other planets. But you’ll go to a restaurant and they’ll say, I’m just picking, they’ll make up the name of a restaurant. We’ll call it MacGruber’s. And it’s like, “Thank you for coming to MacGruber’s. How can I help you?” And you could kind of hear them, it’s coming through the speaker thing and you go, “Yeah, I’d like to get two hamburgers.” And they go, “Sir, sorry, what is?” “What did you just say?” “Sir? I was, well, no, no, no. What had happened was… ” Is he talking to me or is he talking to you? Have you seen this phenomenon?

Yeah, it happens to me all the time.

And even though I know that the fast food restaurant doesn’t have a script that involves the person inside talking to the person next to him, but you say, “Excuse me, I’d like two hamburgers please, and french fries.” “What had happened was, and I was saying, no, no, back off, back off. Excuse me, sir, can I help you? What was the problem? No, nope, sir, pull ahead. No, no. I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to the other car. Sir.” Have you seen this?

I have.

And so why does that happen?

Well, I mean, they’re not organized. You go through these different things where they think it’s going to work and it’s not going to work. And then they get sidetracked, they get distracted.

But why?

I mean, they think that the system they have in their mind is going to work when it doesn’t. And the system that they’re supposed to be following, they don’t follow.

So even today, in my real life with one of my companies today, I have given somebody a task, and you go five hours later and the 15 minute task is still not done. How is that possible?

They just don’t want to do it.

And so the only way to get it done is to have an effective manager. And this just in, people don’t like their managers. Why don’t people like say, “Oh, I love the manager.” They’re constantly following up, getting into my business saying, follow the script. Show up on time, take a shower, be on time. Tuck your uniform in, be on time. Follow the checklist. Don’t get high. Go get un-high. Come back when you’re not high. Come on now. Take the drug test. Quit dating your coworkers. Come on, stop making out with a coworker. She’s married. What are you doing? I mean, how often did you manage a pizza place and you thought to yourself, wow, what poor life choices have I made that have caused me to find myself in this situation where I’m managing people?

Yeah. Well, in all my years of managing anything ever, I’ve never had a management position where people liked me, because they didn’t like being told what to do. They want to do their own thing and clean how they wanted to clean, and it wasn’t going to work.

Sarah, it’s like, it’s my own thing. The script to me is more like, I don’t want to sound like I’m reading a script, like a robot. I don’t want to sound like a robot. So I just say what feels natural. And you’re going, you didn’t tell them the price. You told them the wrong price, your conversion rate on inbound phone calls is one out of four. Well, i just like to whisper. To me, sales is more, I don’t want to be high pressure, so I just whisper. You’re going, did you say whisper? I don’t know why you have to yell at me that way. You see these things.

I hear that every day.

Do you not?

Every day. I hear the robot thing every day.

Right. Right. You got to follow the systems. So every business needs an effective manager. The question is why does every business, every successful business need an effective manager? So people, they go to ThriveTimesShow.com and they say, “Clay, I want you to teach me how to start and grow a successful company.” I say, “You know what, I’m going to do it.” And if you go to ThriveTimeShow.com, and you see the results of our clients, they are tremendous, tremendous. But you know why a lot of the clients will not invite me over to their homes or to their Christmas parties? It’s because my job is to make sure they’re successful. If somebody becomes a client, for me, it’s like bumper bowling for business.

That’s a good way of putting it.

It is. You go to ThriveTimeShow.com and you see these clients and they’re like, wow, a guy’s selling mortgages, a guy’s selling some kind of service. A guy is, he’s a musician, he’s a music teacher, he’s a home builder. Next thing you know, he’s doing 10 times the revenue he was doing last year. And was it the ideas? Well, okay, so step one, you introduce the proven idea. That’s step one. Step two, you got to get humans on the planet to follow the systems. So you have to introduce effective management. Introduce effective management. I just talked to a lady today, bless her heart. She needs effective management. Okay. And then step three is you have to introduce key performance indicators and math. And tracking. You have to do it. You have to track. Why do you have to track who’s selling the most tickets? Who’s selling the most pizza? No matter what business you have, who’s selling the most insurance? Why do you have to do it?

Well, you got to know who your A players are. You got to know where your business is profiting.

Why did I promote you? Do you want to speculate why I promoted you and said, “Hey, can you be a manager?”

Well, I mean, I sold the most tickets.

Yes.

At the highest price.

Right. This is why I did it. I didn’t do it because I liked you more. I didn’t say, well, I’m looking for a Horvath. Someone with a last name Horvath. I wasn’t praying every night going, dear God, could you send me someone who’s a Horvath? I feel like that’s what I need. But people do that though. They say, I’ll tell you what, it’s some BS, only reason she got promoted is because, and why do people not like effective managers? It’s a general rule the kind of person that can get done an hour long task in 15 minutes, why is that person not like, because a general rule, why is it that people resent effective managers? Why is that?

I mean, it goes back to people not wanting to be told what to do. They don’t like systems set in place. They want something new every day.

Something, did you say every day?

Mm-hmm.

Why?

They don’t like consistency.

Okay, so let me ask you a personal question, and then just between you and me and everybody listening, you’ve been married for how long?

I’ve been married two years.

Awesome. Okay. And how old is your kid?

She is a year old.

What’s her name?

Dotty.

Do you feed Dotty most days or just, somebody just let us, it’s a personal question, but what days are you feeding people? Feed the kid?

I try to feed her 100% of the time. So every day.

Right. Now, think about this though, there are people that, this is how they parent. There’s people that this is how they run their company. So why do you have to do this every day? Why do you have to follow-up every single day with your staff?

Well, you got to keep the systems alive. You got to keep the business going. If your employees aren’t doing well, then your business isn’t going to do well.

So people ask me, “Clay, why do I do an interview for potential hires every single Wednesday at 5:30?” Sarah, you’ve seen it. Why does step four, why step four? Why do I do an interview every single Wednesday at 5:30? And by the way, on today’s show, I’m going to play audio of a recent interview I’ve done so you can hear how I do it, how the process works. Why do I interview candidates every single week at 5:30?

Well, you’ve always got candidates to fill places. If employees get fired or they quit, you always have people on board or people who shadow and they’re really great. We can find a place for them.

And why do I do it at the same time every week? Why don’t I just change it up to see what would happen if we did it this week or maybe not this week…

Well, it’s consistency and it’s saving you time also.

Why don’t I conduct some interviews where I talk like a pirate the entire time? Are you ready for an interview here? Arr. And then people show up, “I’m looking for a job.” “Are you ready to find a good job?”

I think he’s tried it.

No, but people would say, “I don’t think you’re healthy mentally I was just looking for a job as a marketing assistant.” “Are you ready to interview today?” “Seriously, can you stop with the pirate theme?” “What’s a pirate’s favorite letter? Arr.”

Might be better at a seafood restaurant.

Sir. I mean, the candidates, think about the candidates they would go, I don’t know whether he’s stable. So I do it at the same time every week with the same format so I can measure it. Because you have to measure what you treasure. Come on, step five. You got to measure what you treasure. Somebody says, no, no, you don’t. Yes you do. You have to measure, measure what you treasure. Now what am I saying? So if you own a restaurant, you want to track, if you own any restaurant that sees humans on the planet, this just in, you want to measure the number of Google reviews you get every week. You want to measure the amount of video reviews you get every week. You want to measure the amount of original search engine content you’re putting out every week so you rank high in Google, you want to measure the advertisement spending. There’s so many key performance indicators that we go over with our clients, and potential clients.

But why do you want to actually know these things? And why would you want to measure these things? Why would I want to know, if I’m a business owner, why would I want to know how many Google reviews did we get? How many video reviews did we get? What kind of original search engine content did we put out this week? Advertisement spending, et cetera. Why?

Well, you need to know what you need to work on and what’s going great. What can you improve? And even with those reviews, it’s also helpful to know how your employees are doing as well, because people will give that information on the reviews.

And I feel like the stuff behind the stuff in business a lot of times is not this super complicated academic thing. It’s more brofessional than professional. Bro. Bro. So bro, you’re saying if I introduce a proven idea, it won’t make me millions? Right. Ideas don’t matter unless they’re executed. Give me an idea or give me, you say, “Clay, you got to let you choose. You have manure, fresh manure in one hand or an idea. Give the manure because at least it’s tangible.” Second is introduce effective management. You have to do it. You can’t not do it. And say, put a little meat on that. What do you mean? You have to introduce carrots and sticks. Okay? Carrots and sticks. You have to introduce carrots and sticks. If nobody could ever be fired ever, what would eventually happen?

Well, no one would get new jobs, first of all. And bad employees would stay. So businesses would fail.

And so people always ask me, “Clay, your businesses are so successful and your clients you work with are growing massive. But what’s the turnover rate?” Who cares? I mean, I could tell you this, Dee, our graphic designer, our web developer, Devin, these people have been here 10 years. Did you see the new cars? Were you here the other day when they got the new cars?

Mm-hmm.

The guys got their car bonuses, they got their new cars, they’re fired up. And I’ve been doing that kind of thing for years. And that’s exciting. So one of our employees got an Aston Martin car. I don’t do cars, so who knows? It could have been a white van, I don’t know. But I think it was Aston Martin is the brand. And then the other one was a Ferrari. So the two employees got their new cars. They’ve been here 10 years, they hit their car bonus. Awesome. To quote Rick Flair, Woo, to quote Rick Flair, to quote Rick Flair quickly, Woo.

But I want to turn over people quickly if they can’t do the job. You don’t want to keep them around. I mean, have you ever gone to a restaurant and had food that was just rough?

Yeah, actually yesterday.

Okay. And do you ever think yourself, I went to a local restaurant and the chicken sandwich was rough. So what I did is I go, heart, oh whoa, threw that thing away. But some people are like, “No, I’m going to keep it around. It’s nostalgic. This sandwich was made by a friend of mine.” And you’re just choking it down. No. So why do people do that with employees? It’s like, well, this was a referral from my sister. Who cares? Well this is my brother. Even more reason not to keep them around.

Well, this is somebody, stop. So one, introduce the proven idea. And that means find a problem, solve the problem, sell the solution, four, nail it and scale it. Step two, introduce the effective management. Underneath that, get humans on the planet earth to follow the systems that you’ve created. Introduce carrots and sticks. Wow. Step three, introduce key performance indicators. You must manage your team in a sustainably profitable way. You have to know the numbers, man. What kind of numbers did you have to know at the Pizza Palace? It wasn’t called the Pizza Palace, but the place you worked at that sold prolific amounts of pizza to people on the planet.

I had to know how many birthday parties we had that weekend, how many employees we were going to have, how many ice cream cookie cakes we had to make.

And how often did somebody who was on the staff, you’re supposed to come out and sing Happy Birthday for the birthday kid. And they’re like, Happy birthday to you, Daryl. Happy birthday to you, Daryl. And you’re going, “Hey, listen, his name’s not Daryl. His name is Hamilton.” Happy birthday, fricking Hamilton, Frank Hamilton, son of a… boop. You. How often did the morale get like that when they were supposed to sing Happy Birthday?

It happened pretty often.

Right.

But most times I had to do it for them because you couldn’t even hear what they were saying.

Because they’re just happy happy birthday. Happy happy day. At the Pizza Palace. This song is okay. Happy happy birthday.

That sounds about right. That’s actually pretty good.

Didn’t they do it? That’s what they would do.

That’s a good impression.

How often do they say, “Let’s see how long we can leave out the dough to see what happens if we don’t use it freshly.”

There’s always at least one person every night.

Right. It’s unbelievable. How often are they trying to steal pizza and bring it home?

Actually every day.

Right.

Yeah. We had to be on watch.

How often are they trying to make extra cake just for themselves?

That would happen once a shift.

Every shift. “I didn’t know I couldn’t take home the cake so I just put it in my pocket.” “You put the cake in your pocket.” “No, I was just storing it there.” What? That happens.

There’s always a culprit.

It is. And then you have to measure what you treasure. You got to get Google reviews, video reviews, original search engine content, advertising, spending. So what I’m going to do on today’s show here, the part two of today’s show, part II, we’re going to introduce here, the group interview. Then we’re going to show the group interview, how that works. Then what I’m going to do is I’m going to share with you about some successful client testimonials. These are people that have really been doing well.

And then I’m going to tell you about a great franchise opportunity for a company called Tip Top K9. You can learn more about that. Now, if you want to attend one of our in-person Thrive Time Show workshops, and I know you do, what you want to do is you want to go to ThriveTimeShow.com. And then you’re going to, have you seen the new updates? Have you seen the new header up here? ThriveTimeShow.com?

I haven’t been able to.

You haven’t?

I haven’t yet.

You are sick. Look at this.

Oh, it looks great though.

Look at that.

Wow.

Oh, that thing’s hot.

That looks nice.

Burn my retina. Ow.

I love it.

I want some SPF 4,000 up in this studio.

You’re going to need it.

Okay, so you go to ThriveTimeShow.com and you’re going to see that Dr. Zoellner and I, between he and I, think about this. I mean, we’ve built a massively successful haircut chain, the state’s largest DJ entertainment company, which by the way, there’s so many details in that event. And that company we built back in the day, DJConnection.com, 4,000 events a year. Think about all the vans, all the mic stands, the equipment, the training, the insurance, so much there. The music, the sound, the lights, the audio.

A party rental company that I sold that’s now called Party Pro. We’ve helped scale a carpet cleaning franchise called OxyFresh.com. I’ve worked with that founder and we’ve helped him grow that thing to 500 plus locations we’ve worked with. I mean, I can go on and on. You got to look at drzoellner.com. D-R-Z-O-E-L-L-N-E-R.com. You can look at Bank Regent, Regent Bank. Have I ever told you the theme song for Regent Bank? It might sound familiar because it’s so good.

I actually haven’t ever heard it.

Regent and Bank, Regent Bank, Regent Bank, Regent Bank. People already go, “I think it sounds like Purple Rain.” No it doesn’t sound like, I want to see you in the lobby of Regent Bank. Regent Bank, Regent Bank.

That’s amazing.

It sounds a lot like Purple Rain. No, it’s just, because it’s a very familiar, it’s so catchy.

It’s original.

I just want to see you in the lobby of Regent Bank. Anyway, that’s a real thing.

Amazing.

I appreciate that. I mean, I wasn’t going to say how amazing it was, but thank you.

Did you write that for it?

Thank you for reading my mind. That’s impressive. It sounds a lot like Prince. No, it’s just, it’s that catchy. So we built these companies and every company we build doesn’t go into bankruptcy. They all scale. And if you go, have you seen our new testimonials? The button at ThriveTimeShow.com? Have you seen this?

I’ve seen some new ones. I haven’t seen them uploaded yet. But I have seen it.

It is so sick. There’s over 2.000.

It’s amazing.

Testimonials up here at ThriveTimeShow.com.

Oh yeah, those look great.

Of real clients that we’ve helped. And so all you got to do is you want to attend the workshop, this is how you do it, this is the move. You go to ThriveTimeShow.com. You click on the business conferences button, right there, you click. And the sound that I want you to make when you click it is… If you make a different sound, it might not be as effective. That’s the sound you have to make. All those sounds. And then you click business conferences and you scroll down, what are you on a forklift? And then you click it right there, request a ticket. Request a ticket. And you request a ticket. And when you do, we allow you to name your price. So I tell people, if you can afford $250, we’d love that. If you would do that. I’m not a nonprofit. It would be great if we could make a profit, but if not, I’m not stressed out about it. But I only take on 160 clients because the clients I work with, we teach you the proven systems, the proven methods you need to succeed.

And if you want to learn more about that, you just go to ThriveTimeShow.com, click on the business conferences button. And I promise you this event will be life changing for you. It’s a two day interactive business workshop and it’s at my office. You can meet our actual clients. The level of success they have is abnormal. I don’t know if you know this folks, but 96% of businesses fail. What?

That’s a high number.

According to Inc. Magazine, 96% of businesses fail. But our average client last year grew by 104%. But I know it’s higher than that because I was thinking about Primo Trailer. I mean, this guy grew his business 10 X. Shaw Homes has grown his business roughly eight times larger than it was. I mean, Shaw Homes, Aaron Antis, a very diligent person, comes in with the business doing a little under 20 million a year.

Wow.

Now it’s a company that’s approaching 160 million a year of revenue. I can go on and on giving you examples all day. But the thing is, you got to take action.

Napoleon Hill once said that the time will never be just right, you must act now. So if you want to attend an in-person workshop or you want to schedule a free 13 point assessment with me, you can do that. But you have to do it today ThriveTimeShow.com. And Sarah, we’re adding on the upper deck now. Have you heard about this?

Oh yeah.

The top shelf.

I’ve heard of the top shelf.

Because we keep selling out the events and I think we need about 20 more places to sit. So we’re building a VIP, top shelf. Let me tell you what you get if you sit up there, okay?

Okay.

A, you’re in the top shelf. So you’re just going to get a bird’s eye view.

Wow.

Wow. Two, people say, “Isn’t that farther away from the stage?” Listen, it’s a bird’s eye view.

It’s exclusive, okay?

Exclusively bird’s eye view. Then there’s going to be a fridge up there.

Oh wow.

Load it up with accoutrements.

Amazing.

So you’re not going to have those accoutrements if you’re not upstairs on the top shelf.

Wow.

Third, you know, you’re going to be my Oklahomies up there. That’s where the Oklahomies, we’ll have a flag up there that says Oklahomies.

Oh, beautiful.

And that’s where you’re going to be.

I will have to say now it’s 14 spots.

Really?

As of this morning.

Really? So you sold a couple more top shelfers?

Mm-hmm. So we’re going to have to act fast.

Are people fired up? Are people fired up?

Oh, they’re excited.

The cedar’s being cut right now. True story. It’s being installed. We measured it. I’m excited about it. And again, and also, have you seen, are you aware of the aquarium that you bought the fish for? Have you seen the aquarium?

I sure did. We added some this morning.

What kind of fish did you add to the new aquarium? We added a new tiki hot, it’s beautiful.

We’ve got Tetras, guppies.

Tetras?

Mollys.

Sounds Deep State.

Yeah. Well we named some after our very own General Finn.

Oh really?

And Mike Findel.

Really?

Oh yeah.

Oh nice. That’s very witty of you guys.

Filet Clark.

Whoa. I appreciate, Filet, it seems like they’re murdering me. Hey. Thank you so much for carving out time. We’re going to end this show with a boom. We always end every show of the boom. But this is kind of the pre-end because we’re going to transition into the group interview show and then testimonials. But we’re going to end this show with a boom. So are you ready?

Oh, I’m ready.

Here we go. Three, two, one, boom.

Boom.

My name’s Mark Worley from Tulsa, Oklahoma. And I’ve worked with Clay for about a year now. I would describe our business experience with Clay as phenomenal and awesome. We’ve had some great results. Just keeping our standing operating procedures in place and keeping our advertising and marketing where it needs to be has been a huge help and huge success. I’d work with Clay and his team because first of all, the professionalism and also their outside the box thinking. I know it kind of doesn’t go together, but it makes a big difference in business to be able to have everything in one place.

Hey, what’s up y’all, this is Montel Jordan, and at Elephant in the Room, this is how we do it. Every first haircut is $1, and we donate it to Compassion International.

Grab the duct tape and mentally prepare yourself for yet another mind-expanding knowledge bomb from America’s number one business coach, Clay Clark.

Bombs away.

Recently. I’ve had more and more members of the Thrive Nation asking me, “Clay, what do you actually say at the group interview? How does the group interview look? Do you really interview all of the candidates at the same time? Seriously? Every Wednesday at 6:00 PM you interview everybody at the same time? How do you do it? When do you do it? Where do you do it? Why do you do it? How do you do it? What does it sound like?” Well, I do it Wednesday nights at six. Why do I do it? Because it’s efficient, interviewing everybody at the same time is efficient. Where do I do it? At our office at 1100 River Walk Terrace, Jenks, Oklahoma. Who attends? A lot of people, we have like 50 people confirmed, say they’re going to be at the interview and usually 10 to 15 show up. And last night we had a great group of people who attended the workshop and we found some really, really great people. And so now without any further ado, this is what our group interview sounds like.

Okay. So I’m Clay Clark, and this is my office, and we are hiring for a myriad of different positions, and I’ll open it up for you guys to ask questions. So Justice, is that right?

Yes, sir.

Oh, I’ll start with you. Because you’re in the back. So Justice, what questions do you have?

Well, you said there’s positions available online, specific ones [inaudible 00:36:38].

Sure. What position did you remember reading about online.

Marketing Assistant.

Okay, cool. Let’s talk about that one. So marketing assistant. And feel free to take notes if you want. Everybody, if you’re looking for a product for service, you typically search on…

Branding.

Probably, branding. How would you find, if you want to go, if you’re in Florida tonight and you’re going to go to a movie or you’re going to go, I don’t know, what do you typically do to find these?

Some people get a third party vendor.

What do you do?

To search for [inaudible 00:37:10].

That’s right. See, so 94% of people who are in Forbes right now, use Google for everything. But I think in any room, 1% of 1% know how Google works. So I grew up crazy poor, and I was in, the company’s called DJConnection.com. It still exists, but I grew up really poor, and I was 16. My dad was delivering pizzas. I’m 38, and my dad was 38. He delivering pizzas. He had a degree from ORU, top of his class, Tom Clark. And my dad just didn’t know how… He had a good business degree, but they don’t teach business. And so my dad, he just grew up really poor. And so my whole thing was like I had to find a way to not be poor. So I started a DJ company out of my dorm room. Do you know why I started a DJ company out of my dorm room?

Because it was fun, and you enjoyed it and it was something that you really good at, and it was something that was needed high demand.

What do you think Justice?

I think it was something that you thought was something [inaudible 00:38:04] and you were good at.

And I’d say I wish it was that deep. It was like I’m crazy poor, and the barrier of entry’s pretty low. And most DJs are terrible. So I’m like, even if I’m bad, I’m better than them. So I had a service called DJ Connection. This was my pitch. And your name is?

Barbara.

So I’d say, “Barbara, I’m going to DJ for your wedding, your birthday, whatever. And it’s a dollar if you hire me. It’s a quick cost. And then if you’re happy, you can pay me based on your happiness. So if a 10, perfect 10, I’d love to get paid $600, because everybody else charges that. But if I’m terrible, it’s a dollar. And everyone charges four hours, I do unlimited time.” And everyone’s like, “Are you kidding me?” And I go, “Nope. And I help you plan your wedding first.” So pretty much every bride at every wedding show said yes every single time. And I just grew it. And so when I sold it, we were doing 4,000 weddings a year, so it was like big. I do 80 weddings a weekend.

And then my wife pointed out to me in 2006 or five, I was an entrepreneur of the year for the state of Oklahoma from the Small Business Administration. She’s like, “You know, what you do works for other things. You shouldn’t be a DJ.” And I’m like, “Why?” She goes, “Because you’re a grown man.” Okay, fine. So we had five kids and I built that business and then I started teaching people how to grow their businesses. But not in a, and if you’re in a multilevel, I’m not attacking you, I’m saying, but not in a multilevel kind of way. Not in 100% commission kind of way. Not in a get rich real estate kind of way, but like, hey, you’re a chiropractor, and let’s sell some stuff. Or hey, you’re a home builder. So now my client, we worked with Maurice Kanbar, who is the founder of Sky Vodka.

So when he bought a third of downtown Tulsa, if you look at my name, Clay Clark, Tulsa World, you’ll see the articles. We helped lease, downtown used to be dead. We helped basically bring tenants downtown.

Sky Bar.

There you go. The deals we did was, Elote was the first downtown restaurant, Mayo Hotel, we worked with them, with the bar and all that. Anyway, that’s what we did. And so then people kept reaching out, reaching out, reaching out, reaching out, reaching out. And so now we work with 160 clients. That’s the number. One-six-zero. 160 clients. Most of them are not in Tulsa, and Shaw Homes is the largest home builder in Oklahoma. That’s one of our clients. Total Ending Concepts. That’s one of our clients. Barbie Cookies was one of our clients. Pappagallo’s Pizzeria as a client. Oxy Fresh is a client. UPS has been a client. Maytag has been a client. So Ben, come on up here Ben. Woo. This is Ben. Yeah, let’s here it for Ben. Yeah. Ben. Now Ben, where were you working at? How long have you been here?

I’ve been here eight months. Before that, I was at Lowe’s for eight months, and before that I was working as a handyman for about 10 months.

Oh, you shouldn’t have told me that.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

That’s great.

Oh yeah. Can you do a lot? Is he handy?

I’ve done ceiling fans. I can do drywall and stuff. I hate tiling. I hate tiling.

No, no tile, no tile. No, no. My wife’s been praying for handyman. Like here Jesus, can I have a handyman. But anyway. And then Ben, where did you start? What was your role at first?

I was on the search engine optimization team. So I write the search engine content. So the content that is going to be going on to the webpage for all of the clients.

Had you ever done this before?

I thought I was illiterate. I think I got C’s in English, high school and college. So I never thought I would ever be writing for my professional career.

And what do you do now?

I am the SEO, I think I got promoted to czar, actually, I’m the SEO czar.

Czar. That’s the title. Very official.

So I manage a team of eight now, and they’re writing content all day long. It’s my job to make sure that the quality of the content’s going to be good, make sure that there’s not going to be any duplicates, because Google loathes duplicate content with a passion. So I loathe it with a passion.

How much could you get paid per hour right now at your current rate.

Per hour, current rate, I can do about 25 to 27 an hour.

Questions?

Yeah.

Yes. Okay.

So you said you’re writing, are you writing just writing like a literary artist or are you talking about programming?

So I, no, not programming, I don’t know that yet.

HTML?

So we use, it’s called Dragon diction. So we just speak it, instead of typing it, because that would take forever. Plus I can’t spell. But then I just talk, and I just kind of write that content as in two 500 word articles.

And let me tell you how this system was created so you see it. I was building DJ Connection, I hired Bruce Clay, which by the way, eight grand a month is a lot of money, contract, 12 months. I’m not bitter about it, but it’s expensive. I still pay him now. But it’s a lot of money. So you’re like, I’m a DJ. Let me tell you about being a DJ. You make $167 of a profit a show. If you charge $600. So you’re not making, you know what I mean? After I pay the DJs and the equipment breaks and hiring and sales and marketing, it’s about 150 bucks. Well it’s cool when you’re doing 80 a weekend, but it’s still a lot of money. You know what I mean? So I’m going, there’s got to be a better way. There’s just got to.

So I try to make it really affordable. And so I used to type the articles, and I wrote the best crap ever, man. It was like, oh, and just you’re going to love working with our DJs because we have just, I’m using big words like plethora, cornucopia.

[inaudible 00:43:37] creative writing class.

I was working it. I thought that’s what mattered was, I thought having really good words was where it was at. Then my wife was like, have you ever asked women if they’ve ever read these things? And I’m like… Because most people go to the website and call. They don’t read your 40 page manifesto about DJing. And so then I’m like, wait a minute. So that’s when I came with the Dragon diction thing. And then that’s kind of, anyway, so that’s how that worked. But any other questions for Ben? Yes.

The training process where you were to start and then where you are now, how do you go about that?

My quick interruption is two weeks, hands on, you’re getting paid the whole time, but two weeks is about how long it took you to, am I right?

Two weeks, yeah.

And then just start off after two weeks we joined under your team.

You’re still getting paid and you’re on the team right away.

Yeah, I think there’s someone the third day on. And so they’re slowly picking up little by little.

We had a young lady today who is great and I think her head was going to explode because it’s like her second day or third day. Nice lady. But it’s like you’ve never done it before. And it’s like riding a bike. And unless you’re a weird person, you don’t mock babies that are learning to walk, oh look at the baby. Look at the stupid baby. Lazy baby. You just kind of coach them, mentor up, you teach.

It should be positive.

Right.

Positive approach.

So that’s the vibe there. So you learn that. And then one day Ben was like, “Hey, check it out. My wife is smart.” And I go, “Your wife is smart? What is this?”

Smarter than me.

And then I’m like, well let’s meet said person. So I’m going to bring up your wife. Is that cool?

Cool.

So you got to go in now. Let’s here it for Ben. This is Amelia, and she happens to be married to that guy. And can you explain your path, how long you’ve been here and what you do now?

I’ve been here for about six and a half months. I started in Elephant in the Room’s call center. And then I moved from there to sales. And then from sales, I’m now in coaching. So I’ve got my first three clients this past week. So I’m doing coaching now.

Any questions for Amelia? She’s been here a while, but not super long. No?

Six and a half-ish.

Six and a half months.

Oh good for you, that’s a lot. Take over in about six and a half months.

Yeah, no, she’s going through very fast. She’s plowing through it. Probably the fastest rate of anybody we’ve had so far. But that’s only because Ben’s her life coach and just telling her what to do.

When you client’s pathways… are you starting them, setting up the website. And what do you guys mean by pathways?

Yeah, so Clay writes all the pathways. That’s like their business plan.

You sir. What questions do you have and what is your name?

Zhaj.

Zhaj. How do you spell it?

Z-H-A-J.

Z-H-A-J.

Yeah.

Zhaj. Is that like a family name? Is this common?

Not very common in my culture.

what does it mean?

It means Dragon.

That’s cool.

Can you give him a copy of Dragon Energy? My new book is called Dragon Energy.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. Any questions for Amelia about that? Because she’s here. That’s why I have her here. Because she can tell you, and you can ask her anything. Yeah.

Do you personally make a lot of cold sales? On cold calls?

I did when I… It’s kind of split now, but yeah. So when I was doing sales, that’s what I did, I did cold calls.

Can you explain who you were calling for though?

Yeah, so it was for a company called Digi Security Systems. They’re a client of ours. So they actually contract out their cold calling to us. So I would call their leads. They’re doing 100-

So we don’t cold call on behalf of my business. We call on behalf of our clients.

Of our client’s clients.

Because a lot of our clients are afraid of the phone at first. And we actually explain to them, nobody woke up today with a desire to pay you. And they’re like, “Huh?” Nobody cares about your product. You got to go call them. And if it’s a retail store, you got to get in front of them. Every business has its own path. But for Digi, they did the security systems for the-

Gathering Place.

Gathering Place.

OSU.

OSU.

OU.

OU. B-OK. And they get all their accounts by cold calling. So she’s calling on their behalf, if that makes sense.

That’s what the call center is for?

The other call center would be for Elephant in the Room. So that’s a men’s grooming lounge. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. No matter which location you’re going to, the calls all come into us and then we-

And if you move to Denver, the company I worked with for a long time up there, Denver, my partner and I, he and I have Elephant in the Room together. The other business though is called Oxy Fresh. And there’s 406 locations, carpet cleaning. And there’s a major call center that books like 8,000 carpets a day. A lot of carpets. But inbound calls for Elephant in the Room, basically. Any other questions? You feeling good? Okay. And it’s Zhaj. Am I saying that right?

Yeah, that’s right.

Okay, sure. And what is your culture, by the way? You said your culture. What’s your culture?

Mon.

Monk?

Mon.

Mon? Mon. And were you born here in this country?

Yeah, I used to live in Arkansas. But [inaudible 00:48:38] in Tulsa.

Are your parents first generation immigrants?

I’m not too sure.

Okay.

Maybe my grandparents are.

Okay, cool. Awesome. I’m excited. Okay, so Zhaj. Zhaj.

You had a question?

Yeah. I was just curious if I did get the job, how long would I have to get everything in order to move up here? Because I don’t live in Oklahoma.

And what’s your name?

Roy.

Roy? And you drove here from where, Roy?

Just south of Houston.

Really. For this interview?

Yes.

Mm-hmm. He did.

Whoa.

How’d you hear about us?

Online. I saw something that said, it was about graphic design and I looked into what the company was, Google researched it, it looked really great.

We have about half a million people that listen to our podcast. I don’t think the workshops were at, but Sean, were you at the one we had people from Guam here?

Yeah, two of them.

So we have people from Guam and Canada and Australia. But no, I’m always amazed though because you never know with the podcast, where it’s going to reach. We’ve hit number one on iTune six times, so we get different people that find it. How far did you drive?

Nine hours.

That’s impressive. That’s impressive. What are you doing now?

Right now it’s just a little part-time job, what I’ve been using to pay for college.

Where do you go to college?

The local junior college.

I’m super impressed. That’s wild. Okay. And you’re a graphic design guy?

I’m a lot of stuff. The program at the school has a video game and computer simulation type program. So I program.

got it.

I can write I can design.

To answer your question, what we do is we have a thing called a shadow process. And is it Carol, is that right?

Barbara.

Barbara. Why would I say Carol? Boo, boo. Okay. So Barbara. Make a note now. So what we’d do is we’d have you guys shadow. So if it was like, we go through all the resumes and I want to meet you. Because I go through them and I kind of want to put a face with the resume and figure all that. And then we’ll call you guys tomorrow by nine. If it’s something I want to move forward, I just like to get your aura. And then we have a lot of people, and I’m the one who always meets everybody. But then we’d have a shadow where you actually, we’re going to shadow for an hour or two. I always tell people, just plan on from nine to 12, but you don’t have to the whole time necessarily. And I’m just wanting you to meet everybody who would work here to see if you’d get along and that kind of thing. And then Barbara, what questions do you have?

I’m not sure.

How’d you hear about this place.

I heard about it from [inaudible 00:51:10].

Oh, my mother-in-law. Cool. Yeah.

I wasn’t sure.

Yeah. Well, what questions do you have?

I just, to see if there are any jobs here, and she told me there might be some.

Yeah. Well basically the search engine optimization role, of the marketing assistant. That role is open today, tonight. It’s very dynamic though, because there’s always growing, so there’s a lot of people coming in. It’s like Google, they’re always hiring. But then you have the sales thing, I don’t think we have a position open for that tonight, right?

For Elephant? No.

But we do sometimes.

Yes. It changes.

Okay. But we do have, I think three spots we’re looking for currently tonight. But any other questions you have about what we do up here?

Do you have [inaudible 00:52:04] something with a law firm?

Yes I do. My attorney represents TD Jakes and Joel Osteen and Craig Rochelle. And somehow he got stuck with me. And we handle all the marketing for them too. And they are looking for somebody who’s really, really sharp to fill a long-term position. It’s benefits, but they want people who’ve been on the planet a longer period of time. Because if you were born yesterday, one might think that, oh, this person has the best of intentions and if you’re working for a law firm, there’s always kind of squirreliness. So they want people that are mature and kind of dress sharp. That’s just what they’re looking for. People who are detailed and yes. So that position just came open yesterday, so I know about that. I can be able to talk to you more about that. Any questions you have?

What skills do you need to be a ideal candidate?

Skills? Just be crazy coachable, off the charts coachable. And then try to go years without yawning. Because it goes fast in here. And so we’re meeting here after everyone’s gone home, but Monday through Thursday from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM it’s like a sprint. And it’s just, if you like energy, you like to go, you’d like it. But if you’re like, I don’t like this.

Way too many times.

Yeah. Now what is your name?

My name is Terry.

Terry. And what questions do you have Miss Terry?

Well, I want, first of all, I came here to make sure it wasn’t just a sales position. Because I have two degrees, an AAS in graphic communications and a BA in graphic design.

Okay.

And the reason why I feel like it’s sufficient to bring it up is because I’ve been looking for something like in the advertising world. Now I live in Fort Gibson because me and my husband own a ranch.

Oh cool.

Okay. And so I do all the ranching and stuff like that with him. And plus I do industrial design and stuff like that. But I’ve had a lot of ad agencies looking at me, but I didn’t want to relocate.

Got it.

You see what I’m saying?

You don’t want to move.

No.

You want to stay, you have a farm, the ranch, the husband, the whole thing.

Yes.

Okay.

Right.

Cool.

And he’s a literary artist. We’re all into art. My daughter’s an artist. She’s in the Air Force on top of it. She also did her squadron art and stuff like that. But I saw this on Indeed, and I was like, this is probably an opportunity for me, but I wasn’t sure because all the positions that I’ve applied for a graphic design position, I mean I want to grow first of all.

Well, there’s different kinds of, and I’ll just tell you this, and I’m not trying to be negative. I just to make sure that-

No, no, go ahead.

My buddy owns a firm called Hampton that might suit what you want to do, because it’s very artistic, very creative. And they do really cool stuff. And I don’t view him as a competitor, but they’re like, he wears a flower in his shirt.

That’s cool.

And he’s very, I don’t know, it’s fabulous. But they have huge accounts, and that’s what he does. And I’m all about helping people get unpoor real fast. I’m all about that’s cool. We could spend seven weeks talking about the logo, but instead I’m going to just get you to the top of Google and make a bunch of money right now. And by the way, when you shoot your YouTube video today and make a performer and fire that guy and do this, and then they’re like, I’m more of like, you ever seen that show The Profit?

Yes.

I’m kind of like that. It’s like, “No soup for you.” It’s high energy, fast-paced. People are like, “What is your deal?” I’m like a bowling ball. I just go. Just go. But the graphic design, typically more like the high design, I would say Hampton and Cubic are probably the best in town for that. I’m probably more low design, but fast design, and then make money for clients, if that makes sense. You know what I mean? I count winning as the client making more money than they’re paying me as soon as possible. That’s how I do it. Skills. But just super coachable, being able to, Ben can talk to you more about that, but Ben, you were at Lowe’s.

Oh yeah.

I mean were you typing like a boss at Lowe’s?

I was not, I was moving lumber actually.

And I have no discernible skills. I mean I took algebra three times. Took my ACT three times. My wife rejected me multiple times when I proposed, crazy. It’s crazy that she said yes. Blindness, she’s got blindness, she can’t see. But all I’m saying is you don’t need a whole lot of skills. You need to have that grind, if that make sense. And your name is?

Alex.

Alex. Alex. Alex, where are you from dude?

Tulsa.

Tulsa. Okay, cool. What have you been doing previous to now?

I was going to TCC.

Yep.

But that really wasn’t for me.

Okay. Now, so you tried it out and you’re kind like, hmm. Okay. Okay. Any questions you have sir? And what’s your name again?

John.

John. Okay. John. Any other questions you have, John?

So there’s a graphic design position open?

Yep. True.

Marketing?

Yep. Graphic design and the marketing assistant would be SEO, search engine. And those would be the two spots tonight.

Oh, okay. Great. So those are two of them?

Yep. Two that are open for search engine tonight. Shaw Homes is looking to hire somebody. Steve Kerr is looking to hire somebody. I believe Nathan’s hiring somebody for the carpet side. Do you need one technician tonight?

One or two.

One or two? Yeah. And what does that pay approximately?

Depending on the person they could make 35, 40, $50,000.

Yeah. So I’m kind of a matchmaker. I try to find the right fit for the right people. So there’s a couple different spots there. And ma’am, your name?

Lily.

Lily. Okay. Lily. And Lily, what questions do you have?

No, I’m fine.

You’re good? Okay, I respect that. And your name again sir?

Austin.

Austin. What questions do you have?

I was just wanting to know more about the graphic design position.

Okay. Well what I’m going to do, I’m going to bring up Daisy here real quick. And Amelia, I’m going to let you get back to me and Austin over there. Hey, let’s hear it for Daisy. Yeah, Daisy. Woo. How long have you been here?

Two years.

Okay. What were you doing before you were here?

So before I was here I was in education, which is surprisingly soul-sucking.

Oh.

But no, I love the kids. The politics and the bureaucracy of it all. I just got… I became kind of cynical with it. Before that I managed a donut shop, two locations. I’ve done banking, I’ve done a myriad of different things, but none of them as great as here.

And you are not white.

Last time I checked.

And you’re Buddhist?

Yes.

How does that impact our daily interaction?

It doesn’t like, I mean it…

You know that I’m a Christian, and I’m always trying to convert you.

Right. Yeah, yeah.

And you know that Ben’s a Mormon and he’s always trying to convert me. He never mentions it, but I know what he’s doing. I know what he’s doing. No, he is. This is the thing about Ben, let me tell you Ben, he’s sneaky, sneaky. He is like, “I’m not going to talk about it. I’m just going to live it. And then if you want to ask me about it.” See that’s what he does. He just sets this, he doesn’t talk about it.

He sets the tone.

I mean it, very sneaky. His wife’s the same sneaky. They’re both like, this guy the other day we had barbecue, we were serving barbecue for a person it was like a celebrating somebody. And we’re like, “Ben, do you want barbecue?” Tempting him. He’s like, no, “I’ll wait for Amelia.” Doesn’t know where she is. Says it’s sneaky though. And multiple people were like, “This dude’s not going to have barbecue while he is waiting for you?” He has no idea where she is in the building. He’s a good guy. So all I’m saying is, but we have different faiths in here. It doesn’t have to be like your pro, but capitalism is probably the religion that we all have. So what question do you have for Daisy? Because she started off on the phones and now she manages the call center and she’s a great lady and has a great kid named Atticus who says that I’m old.

Sorry.

He’s like, “You’re old.” Yes.

So the big training is just two weeks or whatever that you’re starting?

You’re going to get paid to do, you’re going to be doing it day one.

That’s awesome.

Past the first initial two weeks training, what do you have? Is there the ability to then get further training as you go?

Yeah. What you do is you’re going to work in a 90 day tour of duty, as I would call it. I’m just asking you mentally to commit to work here for 90 days because I shouldn’t do it, and my wife’s kind of helping me through this, but I don’t know, you know my mother-in-law, but she really cares about facials. And I’m like, can we let it go? No, no, no. Because she wants to deliver a great experience. She’s into that. And I can’t explain to you why, but she is, that’s just her love language she’s into. And I think clients of hers experienced that. And for me, I kind of view every employee as the personification of my dad where I’m like, “I don’t know why my dad was so poor at the age of 38.” I don’t understand that. But I think it’s because he wasn’t taught certain skills. Because he had a degree, he was the top of his class. He literally was the very top of his class at ORU.

And I’m like, I have to believe that if somebody would’ve pointed out to him, “Tom, don’t do this, and do this.” I believe he would’ve done it. Because He always worked hard. But because he worked at QuikTrip on the night shift and he worked at Dominoes, I stuttered as a kid, and I got made fun of. I couldn’t talk until I was 13 years old. And I got made fun of all the freaking time. And my parents couldn’t afford a speech pathologist, and I have to believe they would’ve hired one if they could’ve.

And so I just, I want to teach you the skills needed to pay the bill. I’m just all about do this, boom. And then if you want to be here for five years or six years and become a partner in one of the businesses, like a law firm, great. If you want to be on the podcast with me every day and that’s your goal, great. If you want to become a real estate agent, great. If you want to become a Super Mom, great. I don’t care. Super Dad, great. I just am saying I want to help you get where you want to go. And I view it as a tour of duty, not like a wage cage. So upward mobility’s my game. So every 90 days we kind of reevaluate. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Yeah, yeah. So I started off in the call center as a call center rep. And I came in through the group interview and I was like, I literally don’t care what I have to do. I need to be here. So what do you have? And at the time Vanessa was like, well we need somebody in our call center. And I was like, okay. So I really want to work for Thrive, but if it means being here in this environment, I will do whatever I need to do. And so I started off in the call center, and within the first 90 days they’re like, “We want to promote you to call center manager.” I was like, okay cool. And I’ve been doing that ever since.

And she was the worst manager of all time, my opinion. And the best salesperson at the same time. Because she’s good at her job. But then managing people, that’s like where you’re going, “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Quit vaping.”

So constructive criticism is awesome.

And she absorbed it though, you know what I mean? And so I’d be like, “Hey, don’t argue with her, just tell her what to do.” Because we had one coworker who used to go out there and do the hula hoop. Remember her?

Yeah, I do.

In the middle of the day. She would just go out there and she’d be like… Just hula hooping. I’m like, what? You know what I mean? And then she would get into a debate with them. And then now she’s great at it though. And then she messed up and said she wanted to become a speaker lady. And so now she speaks at the conferences and we have a conference in here every two months, our clients. 120 people are here at the time. But any questions for Daisy about being here? No?

When you first got here, when I first came in I was like, oh this is so great. Because of the way it’s set up and everything like that, I’m like, that’s where the workstations, this area right here looks like a photo shoot, the backdrop of a photo shoot and everything like that. And then I was going over there and was like this where some of the graphic design comes in.

Every picture on every wall has been put there specifically. And then all the writing is my handwriting. So I’m always, my dad died, there he is, RIP Tom Clark, Tom Bomb. So I put that there because I felt like I needed to have it, I see it all the time while I’m speaking. So at conferences, I’m always thinking of my dad. And then victory. I think that’s a big word. It’s important. But anyway, so it is a different place. It’s a fun place. But I would like for you to meet the teammates before you to kind of decide A or B. But what I want to do is I had questions for Justice and Zhaj, and for Barbara. I had some questions for you guys based upon your resume, and I would like for Amelia to give a tour of you so can see everything. Okay. So if you guys here, you three can go with Amelia, that’d be great.

And then if you three can go with Daisy and Ben on a little tour, let’s give them a tour. That cool? And then I have some questions for you guys. And then do you have your printed resumes tonight? Okay. Because I have a few questions. And then those of you who are interested in the graphic design, have you all emailed in your portfolios?

Yes.

Okay. Those have all been emailed.

Yeah, I’ve emailed.

Okay. So before you go today… because graphic design comes down to me. I have to obsess and look at your portfolios because we’ve got so many talented people applying and I like to personally look at that. So before you leave, if you have access to a mobile device or something, if you could please, I want you to verify they do it, send it to [email protected].

And that is how we do it. And now without any further ado, three, two, one, boom.

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 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’s just amazing, this is the kind of guy who’s worked in every single industry. He’s written books with Lee Cockrell, 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 and graphic designers and web developers, and they run 160 companies every single week. So think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. So in the weekly, he’s 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 multimillionaires, teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom through the system. Critical thinking, document creation, making it, organizing everything in their head to building it into a franchisable scalable business. One of his businesses has 500 franchises, that’s just one of the companies or brands that he works with.

So amazing guy, Elon Musk, kind of 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, Clay, 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 the most about him. He’s 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. I was really most impressed with him is 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 and when we walked out, I knew that he could make millions on the deal and they were super excited about working with him.

And 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. And 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, it impacted me a lot. He’s helped navigate anytime I’ve gotten nervous or worried about how to run the company or navigating competition in an economy that’s, 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 because our clubs were all closed for three months and you have $350,000 of bills you’ve got to pay and we have no accounts receivable.

He helped us navigate that, and of course we were conservative enough that we could afford to take that on for a period of time, but anyways, great man. I’m very impressed with him. So Clay, thank you for everything you’re doing and I encourage you, if you haven’t ever worked with Clay, work with Clay, he’s going to help magnify you. And there’s nobody I have ever met that has the ability to work as hard as he does. He probably sleeps four, maybe six hours a day, and literally the rest of the time he’s working and he can outwork everybody in the room every single day and he loves it. So anyways, this is Charles Colaw with Colaw Fitness. Thank you Clay. And anybody out there that’s wanting to work with Clay, it’s a great, great opportunity to ever work with him. So you guys have a blessed one. This is Charles Colaw. We’ll see you guys. Bye-bye.

Hi, I’m Aaron Antis with Shaw Homes. I first heard about Clay through a mortgage lender here in town who had told me what a great job he had been doing for them, and I actually noticed he was driving a Lamborghini all of a sudden, so I was willing to listen. In my career, I’ve sold a little over 800 million in real estate. So honestly, I thought I kind of knew everything about marketing and homes, and then I met Clay and my perception of what I knew and what I could do definitely changed. After doing 800 million in sales over a 15 year career, I really thought I knew what I was doing. I’ve been managing a large team of salespeople for the last 10 years here with Shaw Homes, and I mean we’ve been a company that’s been in business for 35 years. We’ve become one of the largest builders in the Tulsa area, and that was without Clay.

So when I came to know Clay, I really thought, man, there’s not much more I need to know, but I’m willing to listen. The interesting thing is, our internet leads from our website has actually in a four month period of time has gone from somewhere around 10 to 15 leads in a month to 180 internet leads in a month. Just from the few things that he’s shown us how to implement that I honestly probably never would’ve come up with on my own. So I got a lot of good things to say about the system that Clay put in place with us, and it’s just been an incredible experience. I am very glad that we met and had the opportunity to work with Clay. So the interaction with the team and with Clay on a weekly basis is honestly very enlightening. One of the things that I love about Clay’s perspective on things is that he doesn’t come from my industry.

He’s not somebody who’s in the home building industry. I’ve listened to all the experts in my field. Our company has paid for me to go to seminars, international builder shows, all kinds of places where I’ve had the opportunity to learn from the experts in my industry. But the thing that I found working with Clay is that he comes from such a broad spectrum of working with so many different types of businesses that he has a perspective that’s difficult for me to gain, because I get so entrenched in what I do, I’m not paying attention to what other leading industry experts are doing, and Clay really brings that perspective for me. It is very valuable time every week when I get that hour with him. From my perspective, the reason that any business owner who’s thinking about hooking up with Thrive needs to definitely consider it, is because the results that we’ve gotten in a very short period of time are honestly, monumental.

It has really exceeded my wildest expectation of what he might be able to do. I came in skeptical, because I’m very pragmatic, and as I’ve gone through the process over just a few months, I’ve realized it’s probably one of the best moves we’ve ever made. I think a lot of people probably feel like they don’t need a business or marketing consultant because they maybe are a little bit prideful and like to think they know everything. I know that’s how I felt coming in. I mean, we’re a big company that’s definitely one of the largest in town, and so we kind of felt like we knew what we were doing. And I think for a lot of people, they let their ego get in the way of listening to somebody that might have a better or different perspective than theirs. I would just really encourage you, if you’re thinking about working with Clay, I mean the thing is, it’s month to month.

Go give it a try and see what happens. I think in the 35 year history of Shaw Homes, this is probably the best thing that’s happened to us, and I know if you give him a shot, I think you’ll feel the same way. I know for me, the thing I would’ve missed out on if I didn’t work with Clay is I would’ve missed out on literally an 1,800% increase in our internet leads going from 10 a month to 180 a month. That would’ve been a huge financial decision to just decide not to give it a shot. I would absolutely recommend Clay Clark to anybody who’s thinking about working with somebody in marketing. I would skip over anybody else you were thinking about, and I would go straight to Clay and his team. I guarantee you’re not going to regret it because we sure haven’t.

My name is Danielle Sprik and I am the founder of D Sprik Realty Group here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After being a stay-at-home mom for 12 years and my three kids started school and they were in school full-time, I was at a crossroads and trying to decide what do I want to do? My degree and my background is in education, but after being a mom and staying home and all of that, I just didn’t have a passion for it like I once did.

My husband suggested real estate, he’s a home builder, so real estate and home building go hand in hand and we just rolled with it. I love people. I love working with people, I love building relationships, but one thing that was really difficult for me was the business side of things, the processes and the advertising and marketing. I knew that I did not have what I needed to make that what it should be. So I reached out to Clay at that time, and he and his team have been extremely instrumental in helping us build our brand, help market our business, our agents, the homes that we represent. Everything that we do is a direct line from Clay and his team and all that they’ve done for us. We launched our brokerage, our real estate brokerage eight months ago, and in that time we’ve gone from myself and one other agent to just this week, we signed on our 16th agent. We have been blessed with the fact that we right now have just over 10 million in pending transactions.

Three years ago, I never would have even imagined that I would be in this role that I’m in today building a business, having 16 agents, but I have to give credit where credit’s due, and Clay and his team and the business coaching that they’ve offered us has been huge. It’s been instrumental in what we’re doing. Don’t ever limit your vision. When you dream big, big things happen.

I started a business because I couldn’t work for anyone else. I do things my way. I do what I think is in the best interest of the patient. I don’t answer to insurance companies, I don’t answer to large corporate organizations. I answer to my patient and that’s it.

My thought when I opened my clinic was I can do this all myself. I don’t need additional outside help in many ways. I mean, I went to medical school, I can figure this out, but it was a very, very steep learning curve. Within the first six months of opening my clinic, I had a $63,000 embezzlement. I lost multiple employees. Clay helped us weather the storm of some of the things that are just a lot of people experience, especially in the medical world. He was instrumental in helping with the specific written business plan. He’s been instrumental in hiring good quality employees using the processes that he outlines for getting in good talent, which is extremely difficult. He helped me in securing the business loans. He helped me with web development and search engine optimization. We’ve been able to really keep a steady stream of clients coming in because they found us on the web.

With everything that I encountered, everything that I experienced, I quickly learned, it is worth every penny to have someone in your team that can walk you through and even avoid some of the pitfalls that are almost invariable in starting your own business.

I’m Dr. Chad Edwards and I own Revolution Health and Wellness Clinic.

The Thrive Time 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. Zoellner 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. Now 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.

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