Business Podcasts | What 5 Character Traits Do You Need to Look for When Hiring? | How Peter Taunton Has Been Able to Open Up Thousands of Franchise Locations of SnapFitness.com While Scaling 3 Additional Brands

Audio Transcription

Get ready to enter the Drive Time Show. And the good look has a father of five. That’s why I’m a dive. So if you see my wabbit kids, please tell them hi. It’s C and Z up on your radio. And now three, two, one, here we go. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, and we’re sure you had a good time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Woo! Woo! Yeah. Yeah. One of the biggest things we picked up when we picked up the Thrive 15 team was an entire team. You want an SEO guy that knows things about search engine optimization? Got it. was an entire team. You want an SEO guy that knows things about search engine optimization? Got it. You got a website guy that’s built big websites like Garth Brooks website? Awesome. We have it. He’s coming in. If I had to pay for that on my own outside of Thrive 15, there’s just no way. For us, one of our most immediate needs when I got connected with Clay was technology. We had a website, but I had a website in Tulsa, our other partner had a website in Colorado. They did everything from doing a drone video where they flew over all of our markets with a drone, they integrated that into our site, they built every single thing that I think of they do. We do a podcast. If I was going to produce my own podcast, there’s no, I mean that alone, just that alone would be what I pay for it, just for that. But then if you add the fact that I’ve got, if I need a business card design, if I need a website build, if I need this, if I need that, I know what I would pay for that if I had to go a la carte. I feel guilty sometimes, like I don’t probably write a big enough check for the value that I get. I think there’s a lot of entrepreneurs that have ideas of what they want to do with their business and how they want to grow and what market they want to be in and how they can increase production and do all this. But it’s not about having 4,000 ideas, it’s about having 12 and executing them 4,000 times. That’s the trick, in my opinion, and that’s where Thrive’s value comes in. I feel like I have my own staff, my own, like, I don’t know, 20-person team that when I need something I just go to them and it happens. Well Thrive Nation, on today’s show we’re interviewing somebody who has achieved the American dream. You know, so many people fought to make this country free, and free where you can be as poor as you want to be, or you can be as successful as you want to be. And when we have freedom of capitalism, I mean, you can really be as poor as you want to be, or you can be as successful as you want to be. And today’s guest, he had a little idea, maybe, maybe it was a big idea, I don’t know, but he started small. He started building this fitness business, and then he opened up one location, and then two, and then thousands. And then he opened up another brand, and another brand. And now today, he’s going to join us. I’m not sure where he’s located, it looks tropical. Peter Totten, welcome onto the Thrive Time Show. How are you, sir? My man, Clay, I’m good. I’m actually, I’m back in Miami now, in my Miami home. I’ll be here for the next eight months. Now, your Miami home, is this, do you have like a room that’s looking out? Are you like in a sunroom or where are you? No, I’ve got a, I’m in a penthouse up here. So that’s my terrace behind me. Okay, so you’re up high in the air somewhere? Yeah, you bet. Right overlooking. I got a great view. I’d show my camera, but a great view of the water. It’s great. It’s beautiful. I’m blessed for sure. Awesome. So tell everybody, how did you start? Like if you could go back in, you know, cause now you’ve had just so much success. If we could do this, if you could tell us how many franchises have you sold today? Kind of just tell us about those brands, but then let’s go back to the very beginning for how you started all this? Well, look, I mean, I’ve got four brands just launching my fourth round right now, but I’ve got literally thousands of locations across three brands. Three of the brands are all fitness related, SNAP Fitness, Nine Round, Fitness On Demand, and then my fourth one is Not A Pupil’s. And it’s been a 25 year journey for me in franchising. So it didn’t happen overnight, but it was just a culmination of great ideas with great executions, you know. And execution doesn’t work unless obviously you’ve got great people, great human capital. So I’ve been fortunate in this 25 year journey, I’ve been able to stand on the shoulders of some amazing people. And it was being at the right time, at the right place, with the right idea, with the right execution. And when that happens, that’s when the magic strikes. Can you tell us how you opened up your first Snap Fitness? I mean, were you working three jobs? How did you get started, your very first location? Well, the first, what was kind of the catalyst was I had an opportunity to turn around a failing gym that was not a franchise. It was just a privately owned gym that was failing. And I was brought in to try to turn this gym around. I was a 22 year old kid and they just thought that I had the tools in my hometown to try to turn this failing health club around. And I was successful in doing that. They paid me $16,000 a year, but they said, look, if you can turn this thing around, you can buy us out with the profits. And that was the only, I needed opportunity. I just needed a break. And that was my big break. I did that for 20 years and then sold that business. And I had a few million dollars in my pocket, which was what I needed in order for me to start thinking really bigger dreams, bigger opportunities. And one of the first things that fell into my mindset, my headspace, was to start a franchise concept that was a little bit smaller in stature, open 24 hours a day, you belong to one, you belong to a mall, no contract, made it affordable. And I piloted it in three different markets to small, medium, and big urban markets. And it just worked out Clay. What I did, in all honesty, I took what was in the hotel space. We’ve been going to hotels, as long as I can remember, and you would access the gym with your room key. Okay? I just took that idea and brought it to the doorsteps of across America. That’s what I did. I took that idea and I leveraged it to doorsteps of every little town, big town, urban, all over the country. You know, I love talking to you and interviewing people like yourself because you get it. You’ve been self-employed for a long time. I’ve been self-employed since the age of 15. You’ve been doing this forever. And so it’s fun. I think there’s a certain flow. But I think what happens is people listen to a show like this and then they go back to their office and they’re surrounded by idiots. Now what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna help somebody today free themselves from potentially combating jackassery on a daily basis. Jackassery, that’s the technical term, jackassery. So if you go to Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash millionaire, you can download a book called A Millionaire’s Guide How to Become Sustainably Rich. You can download it for free, Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash millionaire, A Millionaire’s Guide How to Become Sustainably Rich. And then once you do that, you can download, you can go to page 132 of my book. And I have written the things that I’m looking for when I hire people. There are five characteristics that I look for. You might have 407 characteristics. We’ve never talked about this online or offline, but I’m going to throw out my five and I’d love to get your thoughts on whether you agree or not or just. So the first one is energy. I look for people that have great enthusiasm about just being alive. So I don’t need this person to be super passionate about haircuts or dog training or whatever business I’m involved in. I just need them to be an enthusiastic person. I need them to be the kind of person that can laugh at a joke, who can smile, who can just a person that doesn’t seem like a doom loop or a doom cloud or a dysfunctional, not happy person. I need somebody who wakes up every day with an encouraging word for others. I’d love to get your thoughts on that. Do you look for people with good energy? Does that matter to you? Yeah, you know what? I mean, good energy is key and you can’t, it’s just like being an athlete. It’s hard to teach speed. So you’ve either got good energy or you don’t. It’s hard to fake good energy and some people are just born with it, it comes natural. And so yeah, that’s, if I had to pick, if you were gonna give me five, you know, how they roll, you know, it’s how I would, where I would class it. I mean, how they roll would be, they gotta have a positive mindset, good energy, good flow. You know, there’s a buddy of mine, I won’t mention his name, cause he’ll get offended. He played in the NBA for many years and the guy was just a terrible shooter. I mean perhaps one of the most prolifically terrible shooters in the history of the NBA, but he played for multiple seasons and we were talking one day and I said, bro, how is it that you played the NBA for so many years? He said, I determined that I couldn’t shoot. I couldn’t really shoot very well at all in fact, but I could really, really pass. I played incredible defense and I brought great energy. And he said, my coaches loved, they could bring me in and I could shift the energy. And I thought, that’s so true in business too. So I mean, if you’re out there today, you’re not the best at something, we have good energy. That’s a good thing to have. If you’re hiring folks, I’m telling you, look for good energy. The second is the ability to execute. There’s a lot of people that have great energy, but they can’t get anything done. You know, so even though my buddy couldn’t shoot the basketball super well, he didn’t turn the ball over a lot. He played great defense. He could ultimately get something done, execute the ability to get things done. Let me get your thoughts on this, Peter, because in business, there’s so many squirrels out there, which is like a rat with good branding. You know, it’s somebody who just they look great, but they just can’t get anything done. Can you talk about that when you’re hiring and building your brands? Does that matter to you that at the end of the day, somebody can get stuff done? on? Yeah, look, and that’s part of what we do, Clay, as entrepreneurs, you know, it boils down to mentoring because the goal is you want to create 100 mini-me’s. You want to create 100 mini-Clay’s out there and you can’t, you’re not going to make it, you’re not going to make the cut if you don’t have, if you don’t have, if you’re not organized and you don’t have critical thinking skills. Both those two things work hand in hand with getting stuff done. Okay, because to your point, if it’s rabbit, rabbit, squirrel, people, they’re not gonna get anything done. So they have to have critical thinking skills and they have to be organized. Critical thinking skills that when you tell them, hey, look, here’s the material things, here’s the big movers, this is what I need you to focus on. It resonates with them. You just, this is not one of my character traits, but this is why I love talking about these things. You said being organized. You know, this is something, a lot of people will visit my house and they’ll say to me, it’s probably a psychological problem, but they’ll go, why don’t you and your man cave have any cabinets? And I said, well, I like shelves. That way I can know if I’m in stock or out of stock of anything. And they go, are you kidding me? And if you walk into my man cave, there’s books everywhere and I’ve got everything super organized. So I’ve got, I’m a former DJ, so I’ve got a lot of technological equipment, but it’s all on shelves, so it’s easy to find. And I don’t spend my day looking for things, you know, where in the home, the rest of my house, which I’m not really in charge of, there’s cabinets and people are always looking for remotes and batteries and things that work. And in business, you just have to be organized. You’re in my office, I mean, we hopped on today’s show and just moments ago, I was talking to a, I’d say a celebrity or a household name just a moment ago, who was getting a ticket for one of our events and I was able to talk to him, get him a ticket, and then immediately hop onto our conversation here and I didn’t have to look for the Zoom link, I didn’t have to look for my computer, I wasn’t looking for the password to log on, I was just organized. And I see so many people, Peter, that they want to be successful but they can’t find the passwords. They can’t. And I just think if you’re hiring people that are disorganized, you might not live long enough to see them get out of that dysfunction. Just let me get your thoughts on that. I mean, how much effort are you willing to put into helping somebody become organized if they’re not when hiring? Yeah, look, and once again, it goes right back to that mentoring piece that we talked about. Some people, they need a little push. They need a little, a little, sometimes you need to take their shoulders and square them off at the target a little bit and say, look, if you’re the kind of person you always scramble around, you’re forgetting passcodes or links and passwords, or you’re constantly losing the remote to your TV or the remote to your life, it’s your job to help give them little cheats on how to do it. For me, as an example, look, both you and I, we run a thousand miles an hour, we multitask, we’ve got a lot going on, but there’s things that we do, little cheats, little to-do lists, little notes that we keep on our phones so that we know where to find things very fast if we need to. So that’s part of what we need to do is share with people how to get through it and roll and be very organized. Edge. Uh-oh, this is the third characteristic. So first one is energy. Second is execute. And by the way, Jack Welch, the best-selling author of a book called Winning, is who first documented these four Es in a piece. So energy, execute. The third is edge. Now I’ll give you an example today, Peter. We had somebody on our team, we had our staff meeting every Monday. We have an all-staff meeting for one of my companies that starts at 7 a.m. And I have somebody who showed up at 7.38 today. And I know this because I was watching the clock. And at 7.38, they came in, they looked like they’d been hit by a bus or like they’d slept in a dumpster and we had this conversation last week and they were great Peter they were great you know and all of a sudden they look like they were something a dumpster last week and this week they look like they got hit by a car and I just said to him hey I have no animosity towards you what is going on and they’re like well you know I’m going through this I’m going through that go through this I said okay I don’t want to go through that with you, so I need you to stop doing that now. And I’m giving you one final encouraging word here, but if you do it again Monday, don’t show up, okay? Because I’m not going to, you know. And some might think that was harsh, some might think that was too light, I don’t know. I just feel like if you can’t make the tough call, you’re never going to be successful. It’s like being a referee where you can’t say whether the ball was out of bounds or not. It’s as if you’re a ref and you can’t call a foul or not for fear of offending somebody, let me get your thoughts on that edge, the ability to make the tough call. Well, look, ability to make a tough call, that’s one thing too, but the underside, the underbelly of that is accountability by the people that you surround yourself with. So if you’re going to give someone an opportunity, I don’t care if it’s an opportunity because you awarded them one of your franchises, that’s an opportunity. You’re not selling franchises, you award opportunities. So the bottom line is, people have got to hold themselves to a certain standard, a certain level of accountability, and when you waver from that, if you don’t consistently show up the right way, with the right role, with the right edge, if you don’t do that, then you’re going to have problems. Because in business, if you’re going to win, you can’t be inconsistent, you can’t be right half the time. And what I mean by that, it’s got nothing to do with money. The uncontrollables, your attitude, showing up on time, those are things that you control. Yes, there’s times you get caught in traffic, but then my first response to somebody who’s consistently late because of traffic, look, you need to back your time up a little bit and risk, here’s what you’re going to risk. You’re going to risk the shot of coming early, but you’re never going to be late. Amen to that. I just love it. You’re going to risk being early. Okay. Now the next E I want to talk about, this is big, folks, is the ability to energize other people. Now this is different from your own energy. So this is something that I had to learn, Peter, because… And I’m not saying this is how people should live their life. This is just what I do. I wake up at three, my alarm goes off every morning, and I go… It goes, and I don’t want to get up, but I set my alarm for three, and I get up, and I immediately get over to the shower. And today, Peter, I get in the shower and I think to myself, oh, no, it’s so early. But then I try to get to the office by three thirty. That’s my flow. And by about three thirty, the mental cobwebs are dissipating and I’m able to get focused. And then I’m rocking and rolling. Our first our first staff meeting starts at six. So I’ve got about two and a half hours of mental momentum. I’m building, organizing my day, planning out my day before I even talked to a human. And I used to think that everybody worked that way. You know, when I started my first company and Peter, I’d find myself getting frustrated with other people that had just woken up 30 minutes before they got there. And I had to learn that skill. And it took me until about my mid twenties to figure that out, how to energize other people and to create that kind of environment. Can you talk about that? If you’re looking for someone to, you know, manage one of your stores or work in your business. Why is the ability to energize other people super and a certain certain important, very important skill to have? You know, it’s a gift. It’s a gift that you’re and that’s why that’s something that in today’s day and age, it’s lacking to be honest with you, because in many cases, corporate America resides in your living room. OK, people people don’t have to show up to work anymore. So the energy, the mentoring, the all of that is is lost in the office because you’ve got 20 or 30% of the people that actually show up to the office every day now, which is the way that it’s been designed. So when I find somebody that has, think about the points that you’ve made thus far. If this point is one of them, that they have a positive influence on those around, they’re mentoring, they bring great energy, all right? Those are the people you’ve got to hold on to because it’s a gift, you know? And as you start looking at your five principles of good hires, a bit, everybody, so the cut line is you have to have all five, or you’ve got four and the fifth one, you’re a work in progress, I get it. But the bottom line is when you get that all-star, those are the ones you gotta elevate because the all-stars, those moments of great, they happen often. And if you don’t reward them with opportunity, if you don’t release the glass ceiling of opportunity for them, they’re gonna fly away. So when you get greatness, you gotta let them know they’re great. You gotta let them know they’re special. And you gotta say, look, I wanna be the guy that gives you nothing but opportunity within my organization. Let me know what I can do to help you shine. And believe me, Dave, they will run and shine like you can’t imagine. Amen to that. Now, final point I wanted, final character trait to look for, I wanna cover is passion. You know, a lot of people walk in my office who come to our conferences and they go, where did you get that wooden carved eagle? I have a massive carved eagle. It’s probably 10 feet tall. And I say, well, I had it custom made in South Dakota. They go, really? You drove to South Dakota to have a custom wood thing? I was, I said, well, I had a speaking event in South Dakota and I saw it and I saw the guy who made it. And I said, hey, you got to make me one. And yes, I did send one of our teammates to drive to South Dakota and back to get it. And they go, well, your microphone, why do you have like a custom microphone? I said, well, it’s a passion thing for me. There’s a lot of things I’m passionate about, and if I’m passionate about it, I’ll drive it to completion. And I find that a lot of people, Peter, just are not passionate about anything. So you don’t have to be passionate about your workplace to work here, but people that are passionate about life in general, I find tend to do well in my organization. People that, as soon as their workday is done, they know what they’re going to do this weekend because they have it planned out. They’re excited about the weekend. They’re excited about their work day. They’re excited about the book they’re writing. They’re excited about the new thing they’re doing. People that have a passion tend to do well. Can you talk about that, finding people that have a passion? Because again, I just find that people don’t have a passion for life. It can be very difficult managing these people. I think it’s important with passion, whatever career path that you’re heading down, that you find something that you can love, that is a genuine interest of yours, that it’s something that you genuinely enjoy. Because you know what? Being in business, it’s tough. Even today’s day and age, this is a tough economic climate that we’re in right now to conduct business. So it’s very important that you’re doing something that you love. And you can still be passionate. You gotta be passionate about it because that’s contagious to everyone around you. Think about the points that you made. You’ve got somebody, they show up on time, they got great energy, they’re organized, they’re coachable, and they got passion for what they do. Boy, you can work with that, right? I mean, you take that, you can mold that into anything you want because the heavy lifting has already been a box that’s been checked. Now you just gotta get them focused on whatever it is you want them to do. Now, I’m gonna pull up your website real quick here. I want to pull up the website again for everybody who’s not familiar with Peter’s Business Successes. The first brand a lot of people got to know him with was SnapFitness.com. That’s again SnapFitness.com. How many locations did you open of SnapFitness.com there, Peter? We have roughly, we’re in 28 countries, but there’s thousands of locations across all of my brands, but this is, there you’re looking at, you know, the brand and it’s morphed too from what we originally started and what we have today, which is so critical that you’re constantly evolving with the brand. Did you hire this guy? Do you remember hiring this person here or this person here? No. Okay. Now, nauticalbowls.com, this is a brand you’re working on right now, which is these acai bowls. They’re healthy meal replacements, as I would describe. They’re not really a snack anymore. A lot of people are getting these superfoods as a meal. That’s a meal replacement. And you guys are growing quickly. You’re taking off. There’s a big interest there. Tell us about buying this particular brand, if somebody out there is listening today. And tell us who would be a good fit to buy a nautical bulls franchise and maybe how much kind of how much money are we talking about to get in the game there? Yeah I’m looking you know what we’re looking for candidates that once again they have passion they have a passion for life because you know the people that are gravitating towards this product are people that are they’re actively they’re living a healthy active lifestyle okay so this is great fit to your point earlier look these are bulls this is not dessert this is a meal replacement. These are full of great antioxidants. The product tastes great, but it’s a meal replacement. And so I’m looking for candidates that are, that through their lens, they’re leading that kind of a lifestyle. That’s step number one. Step number two is I really like to have owner operators. Cause when you’re in a tough business climate, like right now today with inflation, high interest rates, whatnot, I think that it’s an advantage to be an owner operator in this business. About half of our people are semi-absentee owners, but I like the person that’s getting in there and driving the business. Not only driving people inside their stores, but they go out and are constantly communicating with their Dream 100, as I know you spoke with your audience. We do the same thing. We took that from you, and we actually got that from you, Clay, about finding your 100 greatest customers, businesses within your trade area, and then approaching them regularly, asking for catering, deliveries, all those things. So our product, great product, fastest growing acai bowl concept in the country, and we’re looking for great candidates. It costs $100,000 cash to get into it. You’re going to find it’s about $250. We have financing available for you. But once again, first step is great energy, great product in a relevant space, and we make getting in the business easy. Now, I’m going to tell everybody out there why they should buy a Nautical Bowls and not buy one of my franchises called Elephant in the Room. This is a reverse commercial for myself. This is a real thing. It’s actually happening. I’m being serious. If you go today, and you go to Elephant in the Room, this is a business that I’ve started. We have five locations. And I’m just going to tell you why I think buying a Nautical Bowls is a better idea. And I mean this sincerely. First off, if you look at Floyd’s, which is one of our competitors in the hair space, they want you to have a net worth of over a million dollars, or they don’t want to talk to you. You have to have a net worth of over $1.5 million to even get started. Now I don’t require people to have that kind of net worth, but I, so far, you know, Peter, I talk to people every day and they go, “‘Clay, I want to buy an Elf in the Room.” And I say, you do? And they go, well, yeah. I said, okay, well, you know, do you have an extra $500,000 laying around for the build out? And they go, huh? I go they go they cost that much I said well, yeah, look at our stores. I mean it costs a lot of money and then they say, okay Well, yeah, I do I have a half million dollars. I say, okay great Now do you have the ability the mental capacity to manage 14? licensed stylists 14 of them they go what I mean you have to find these two understand you have to find people that can cut hair at a high level and manage them. And they go, uh, 14 and they go, oh man, that seems tough. And I said, oh yeah, that’s why we’ve got great managers. That’s why I’m always training up a great managers to run those stores. Now let me contrast that to opening up a nautical bowls, nautical bowls. You’ve designed this. We only need really an employee and a half, you know, at all times. I mean, I could, what, two employees at all times, one employee, how many employees do you need at all times? We have one full-time employee and then you’re going to hire 10 to 15 part-timers. So depending on the time of the day. And we’ve got tools there that will tell you the flow of your business and when you need to have more people on. So we help set your schedule for you to try to keep your labor costs in that 20% or lower range. But it’s literally one full-time employee, 10 to 15 part-timers, which is what people love about this concept. This product in our stores, there’s 700 to a thousand square feet, one full-time employee, not a lot of moving parts. All we sell is acai bowls. You’re not cooking anything, you need no restaurant experience. I always say this is a lemonade stand on steroids, meaning this is a simple business. We sell one thing, we sell acai bowls, and candidly, we do it better than anyone else. I would say this, this analogy is going to fall apart quickly here, but it’s eliminate stand on steroids and it’s like bumper bowling, you know what I mean, for business. I mean, you can’t really screw it up if you’re willing to do the following three things. Let me show you folks. So for my haircut chain, OK, if you type in OKC men’s haircuts every day, people look up OKC men’s haircuts. And the reason why I come up top and Google’s not because I’m a great guy, it’s because I understand how to optimize websites, okay? But we have to obsessively get Google reviews and write content to be top. Or OxyPress is a carpet cleaning brand I’ve worked with for years. I’ve helped them to grow from just a few locations to now we have, right now, 517 locations. We have 265,000 Google reviews. Okay, so if you’re out there today and you buy inaudible and you’re willing to get a review from every single person that comes in that store, okay, you’re one third of the way there. Second, are you willing to manage a staff of about an employee and a half at all times? Are you willing to manage you and two at all times? Can you do that? Can you manage you and two if you can? Okay, you got it. Third is, are you willing to do the Dream 100? What’s the Dream 100? You make a list of the locations that are near your business. And we do this, by the way, for Elephant in the Room. So if you type in Elephant in the Room and we type in Yale, that’s one of our locations in Tulsa. And everybody who lives around us, who has a business near us, we wanna make sure we drop off a $1 haircut card. So we tell people, hey, your fair first haircut with us is a dollar. There’s our store right there. All these businesses, we’ve dropped, business, we’ve dropped off a $1 haircut card for every business that’s in the shopping center and all the shopping centers and all the neighborhoods. And so everybody around here knows, oh yeah, you’re the haircut place that does a dollar for the first haircut. And we do that, you’ve got to watch out for the pharmacy. But we do that because everybody who’s around us within that mile and a half area, five mile area, they need to know that we exist. And so this is the kind of stuff that we do. Now again, think about how much more money it is to open up an elephant in the room versus a nautical bulls. And so on part two of today’s show, I’m going to introduce you folks into another franchise concept. But before we do that, Peter, you are just a breath of fresh air. You’re offering an encouraging word for people right now who are looking for some opportunities. If people want to get a hold of you guys at nauticalbulls.com, what’s the first step everyone needs to take if they’re looking to buy a Nautical Bulls franchisor? Literally, just follow your lead. Go to nauticalbulls.com and click in that upper right corner where it says franchise. Boom. Click on that, you’re going to fill out just an easy form that just takes a couple minutes to do and we’ll follow right back up with you. Hey, with your location that you’re in right now, did you design it yourself? Did you decorate and design the space you’re in right now? This, my home? Yeah. Yes, I did. You did it or did you and your wife do it or you and a person? I had a designer that helped. They put the color palettes together and then we pick the ones we like. Okay, but you were involved in that? Yes. You designed your own environment? I do. And you like it? I like it. I’m very visual. So, that’s one of my gifts. Even my lake home, I’m very involved in the design. I just want to be very clear. Everybody I’ve ever met who is super successful is very intentional about designing the life they want to live as opposed to passively just accepting what exists. Everybody out there, I’m telling you, just get intentional today. Design the life you want to live. I know you can do it. You absolutely have the mental capacity and tenacity needed to do it. Just go to nauticalbullets.com, schedule that first consultation. If that’s not a good fit, come to one of our in-person workshops. You can get those tickets at thrivetimeshow.com. And because we want to give you a hand up and not a hand out, you can pay $250 for a ticket or whatever price you can afford. And you can get those tickets at thrive timeshow.com Peter Taunton Thank you so much for being here today, sir. We’ll talk to you next week. You’re the best. Take care. Take your dude. Bye All right, we’re joined here today with an actual Friend of mine longtime friend of mine started out as an employee of mine. No actually he started out as an employee For a client of mine. So this guy today’s guest He was an he was a a player employee for one of my clients, scorebasketball.com, and then he became an employee of mine. He reached out to his employer at the time and said, hey, do you mind if I work for Clay Clark in the morning before I come to my job here? And he said, no problem. And he did an all-star job working with me. And then when today’s guest heard about the opportunity to open up a tip-top canine franchise in the great state of Tennessee and in the great city of Nashville, he jumped on the opportunity. So JT Lawson, welcome to the Thrived Time Show. How are you, sir? I’m doing great. Thanks for having me on. Hey, first off, can you tell everybody out there, how did you and I first meet? What was that connection like? We first met, I was working for a school basketball and we used to have a meeting and we would go through one of your books, this, we would go through this book every day at the meetings. And so I started learning a little bit about you like that. And I thought at the time you were some business guru who doesn’t sleep, who is all knowing when it comes to business. And then I just got done doing a college, going to college for business. So I was like, I guarantee you I know everything he does because I went to school for business and so I got invited to the meetings where you were coaching them going through the Tracking sheet tracking their cold calls their ad stats how much came in just all the numbers you need to know and All of the stuff you went through in a meeting with stuff I had literally never heard of in all of my years of college. So then I asked if I could go to a business conference that you were hosting and clients of yours get to go for free. So I got to go, I showed up, and I just started asking questions and I was like, hey, how do I get mentors in my life that are business owners and not just employees? And you were like, when do you work for Score? And I was like, at nighttime. And you were like, come work for me in the morning. I was like, deal. So, and I didn’t know if it was paid or not or whatever. I was just coming and I didn’t care. And then I went and I checked with, and you were like, check with SCORE, make sure it’s okay with them and everything. And then I did, and now we’re here. Now, SCORE Basketball, you probably don’t know this part of the story, but Don Calvert, I’m gonna pull this up on the screen so people can see this. Don Calvert, the owner of SCORE Basketball, is a very, very good friend of mine. And he got referred to me because he had this wonderful idea of opening a basketball training facility. And I’m going to share with everybody his testimony along at the end of today’s show so you can see it. He knew how to train kids in basketball, but he didn’t know how to grow a successful company. And so I sat down with Don and we went through everything that we needed to do to grow a successful company. Now, folks, if you’re listening right now, you can go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash millionaire, thrivetimeshow.com forward slash millionaire. And I’m gonna walk you through this, this you can download this book for free right now. It’s no, no cost to you. It’s thrivetimeshow.com forward slash millionaire. And I let him see from my perspective how we were gonna grow his company. So you go to page five and I lay out, okay, here’s what we got to do to grow your company. Folks, I’ll try to zoom in a little bit so everyone can see this and follow along. But I said, we got to figure out your revenue goals, you know, your yearly revenue goals. What are your goals per year? And he told me the number and I said, okay, so what are your total weekly gross revenue goals? And he goes, you know, I hadn’t really thought about that before, but my weekly revenue goals are this. I said, okay, how many students do you need to break even? He’s going, I hadn’t really thought about that either. But he’s a smart guy, he’s a nice guy, he just never thought about these things. You know, he educated guy, went to college guy, read a lot of books guy. And I said, well, how many hours a week are you willing to work? And he’s like, you know, I hadn’t really thought about that either. Like, okay, and now what’s the unique value proposition? What does score do that nobody else does? And he says, I’ve trained a certain number of players who’ve now played in the NBA. And I said, what? And he goes, oh yeah, I’ve trained a lot of guys who’ve gone on to play in the NBA. And I said, does anybody else know this? He says, no. I said, okay, we got to get that history of success on the website. We got to start filming testimonials. And so we began to do that process and so that people could see how many players that Don has coached who now are playing at the NBA or college level. And then once we did that, I said, do you have a no brainer? And he says, a no brainer? What’s a no brainer? And I said, well, the no brainer is an offer so hot that you simply cannot say no to the offer. And he goes, well, I don’t have a no brainer. He said, I start my lessons off at this many dollars per lesson. I said, oh, we need to offer the first lesson for a dollar. He says, why a dollar? He said, am I going to cheapen the brand? Are people going to take me seriously? I said, oh yeah. So we offered the first deal for a dollar. I said, Don, you have to call every single customer you’ve ever worked with and get them to leave you an objective review because you’ve got like three reviews on Google. You’ve been doing this for 20 years and you’re not making any money. We’ve got to do this. So I helped Don with that. We established the no brainer. Then after that, we improved the branding, the print pieces, the websites, the logo, everything needed, all the print pieces, the branding, the logo. We did all that. Then we had to come up with a three-legged marketing stool. Now, the three-legged marketing stool is how you go about getting customers. So what’s interesting is the tip-top canine franchise model is almost exactly the same as score basketball. And you worked in score basketball, and you saw that. So, every single week, Dawn has to gather objective Google reviews from happy customers every week. And then we have to write articles so that this website comes up top in Google. And then we have to run ads over and over and over that reach their ideal and likely buyers and retargeting ads that follow people around. So let me show you. So if you go to Google and you type in Tulsa basketball lessons, you scroll down, score basketball comes up top. They come up top again, they come up there, the first 10, they’re here, this is an ad, so we type in Tulsa basketball lessons, ad, ad, ad, they come up top here, they come up top here, they come up top here, they come up top here, and then the phone begins to ring, and Don’s going, man, the phone’s ringing. Well now we have to build a sales system where you have recorded calls using a company called ClarityVoice.com, you have the scripts, the people that follow the scripts. By the way, that’s a little bit of a challenge for business owners to write a script. This is all the stuff we coached Don through. And from the time I started working with Don to now, he’s grown his company, I want to say six times larger than it used to be. But JT, I call this the, this is the crap you got to do to keep the business going. The core, repeatable, actionable processes. So I want to ask you this, why did I have to go over the same topics with you and you weren’t the owner by the way, but why would I have to meet with you and the manager and yourself every week to go over the same topics every single week? Basically the big one is accountability. Just having that accountability partner because no one wants, like no one just has a burning desire to go out and get Google reviews, to track things, to figure out where leads are coming from, to check how much we’re spending on ads or how much it costs per click. And these are things you have to do and you have to check it often or else the business starts to drift in a way that you don’t want. So that’s the equity. I’m gonna bring up Aaron Antis here for a second here. What we’re talking about, Aaron, is why, after you build these initial systems to build a business? Yes, sir. Why you have to go over the same stuff over and over and over again. Now, let me bring this up for a second here. I want to show people this. I don’t know if people are aware of this, but I’m going to pull it up so you can see. 96% of businesses fail according to Inc. Magazine by default. And Aaron, you’ve seen wonderful people that have come in here and they’ve said, Aaron, Clay’s helped you to grow Shaw Homes from $19 million to $140 plus million. You’ve been working with Clay for five years plus. Could you help me? And you watch it happen. I sit down with them. I establish the revenue goals. I go over the break-even numbers. I go over the number of hours we’re willing to work. We rebrand the whole company. We get them to the top of Google. We optimize their website. And where most people start to get frustrated is this box down here. This little box here called management or execution. So I wanna ask you this, why do we, you and I, cause we meet every week, why do we have to go over every single week, the same core repeatable actionable processes? I’m gonna type this on the agenda. So everyone can see this. Every week you have to get Google reviews from happy clients every week every every week you have to get Google reviews from happy clients to you have to get video reviews from happy clients three your ads have to be on for we’ve got to do the group interview every every single week you have to do it five you got to call the leads and record the calls we got to record the calls and then you got to train people and it’s over and over and over, like a maniacal obsession with doing the same thing over and over. Why don’t most people by default do these items if they don’t have weekly mentorship or accountability? Why don’t people just go to the gym and get jacked without a trainer? Because it’s not fun. For one thing, like going out and getting a Google review, I’ve done that a few hundred times. It’s not, there’s no excitement about it. It’s not fun, but it moves the needle. And I’ve seen that for long enough that I know. I think for some people, they don’t realize what kind of impact it’ll make. You know, keeping your ads on, I mean, people, what I see a lot is I see people go, well, you know, business is a little bit slower. So I’d like to pull back on the ads. Pull back on the ads, yeah. I’m like, if business is slower, you need to accelerate the ads, not pull them back, you know, or at least be consistent and keep it there. Have you ever heard people say they quit doing the group interview because they’re fully staffed now? Oh, yeah. That’s another. They don’t need to do the interview because they’re fully staffed. People go in and out of ebbing and flowing. Instead of just doing the core repeatable actions over and over and over again, they want to do the new idea. The new idea. Oh, but I’ve got this new idea about branding. I thought it’d be a real sizzle if we could change the logo. Change the logo. And make it bigger. Change the logo. Make the logo bigger. I feel like the logo needs to get bigger. If the logo was bigger, it would be more fun. So we talk about this. This is big stuff for everyone to know out there. I’m going to pull up a different business we work with called Flutter. Flutter is not a dog training franchise, but just as an example, with her business, every single week she does eyelash extensions Oh, yeah, and Andrew has grown her business dramatically sharp lady. You gotta get Google reviews now This isn’t for every client every business is a little different But for this particular business you got she has to get Google reviews every week. We’ve got to write search engine content We’ve got to keep the Facebook ads on we’ve got to keep the retargeting ads on we’ve got to make sure we’re getting video Testimonials the leads come in the calls have to be recorded, we have to use the pre-written scripts, the pre-written emails, the calls have to be recorded, training has to happen. And everybody out there, she has multiple locations now, and at each of her locations, multiple locations, but each location, every week they have to do the group interview. We do too. They have to have the manager meeting. Yep, we do too. They have to do the huddle. We do too. And yet, and so again, with somebody who, the greats tend to bore down when mediocre people struggle with boredom. So true. So they want to bring in a new sales trainer or a new marketing guy with a new approach. Let’s take a new approach. And they usually don’t follow anything. Usually people pitching ideas don’t run a team. No. They usually just have random ideas. So let’s focus back on score basketball. Then we’ll go to Tip Top K9. So JT with score basketball, I’m trying to try not to cause any flashbacks, but this is the actual tracking sheet for score basketball, their current tracking sheet. Yep. And every week I ask him guys, how many leads do you get? Why do I ask him every week? How many leads did you guys get? Because you have to know one where they’re coming from too. Um, and then you need to know what you’re doing or else you have no, you’re just going to… I’m not asking you to throw your score basketball compadres under the bus. Was there ever a time where people would not have gotten Google reviews if they knew that I wasn’t going to harass them every single week? Well, I won’t name names. I’m not throwing anyone under the bus. Yep. Even when you said to do things, they would not do them and then come look at you and say I did them and I’d… What? No, you didn’t. And so they’re telling you they’re making cold calls and that they’re getting other stuff. But they’re… But I didn’t. Oh yeah. Yeah, and you can lie on the cold calls, but you can’t lie on the Google reviews because then you just go check. And you’re like, okay, how many are you getting? They’re like 15. You’re like, awesome, let’s see. You pull it up and you got zero. Now I thought I did. I thought I got it. Now we’re showing a large blockbuster sign in the background. Yes. So that’s what that sound is. It’s gonna be awesome. Now you go here and you look up 85%, 85% of employees lie on their resume. So I wanna be very clear. The reason why as a business coach, why I go over the same things every week, and this is what’s crazy, it’s called cognitive dissonance. I actually have met business owners that lie to themselves. Oh yeah. They’ll say, oh man, I got 20 reviews, woo! And I go, I’m opening it in the tracking sheet, I’m showing four. And they go, I gotta be honest with you, I’m lying about that. And that happens, oh that’s probably, well no, I got 20, they must have just taken away 16 of them. But I mean, this is very normal in my life for people to say those kind of statements and to say, oh no, no, no, I did. And I’m not shocked by it because 75% of employees steal from the workplace. So with a brand like Tip Top, you really, you, the brand can’t really not work because the systems work, but nothing will work unless you work. Ooh, there it is. So 75% of employees steal from the workplace, 85% of people lie on the resume, 96% of people are, their business has failed. So you go back to score basketball, we got to get Google reviews, we got to get video reviews, got to do the group interview. And JT, how did you decide that it was a good fit to buy a tip-top canine? What made you jump from going, because you saw me work with business owners every day, day in, day out. You worked in the office and you would see clients come in that had unsuccessful companies and you would watch these companies have massive growth, no matter what the industry was. Why did you decide that you wanted to buy a tip-top canine? Yeah, well, and Aaron can attest to this, but when I’ve been in your office, I see that people who listen to you and are diligent and implement the systems, they just have massive growth and they succeed. Where the people who push back and try to argue, it’s magic, but they don’t. I saw that Tip Top, they’re implementing what you’re saying and they’re doing everything, you’ve systemized everything for them. And so, one, it’s a franchise. So, and when you open up a franchise, they are, the stuff they have already works, which you help them get to that point where it works. Yeah. And so then it’s like the bumper rolls are up, but then also, each individual location gets coaching from you guys and Thrive. So then it’s like, I have the little dragon ramp thing that I just push the bowling ball down. So literally all I have to do is push and do the work and you guys aim everything. And again, this is what’s great is within six weeks of training, Ryan and Rachel do a phenomenal job training people on how to train dogs. So if you’re out there listening today and you’re saying, I want to shift industries, you know, we’ve got people that have worked in the mortgage industry that then shifted into dog training. They did great. In your case, you came from a basketball background, you switched, you’re doing great. We got people moving from the concrete industry doing great. People moving from the fitness training industry doing great. People moving from all different industries. I think the common denominator with all the franchisees is I don’t think that anybody previous to buying a Tip Top K9 franchise was a dog trainer. Now unless I’m missing something, and maybe I’m wrong, because maybe I am missing something. The purpose of a business is to create time, freedom, and financial freedom for the owner. So this is a big thing. Maybe this is a controversial idea. Dr. Zellner and I, I know we share the same worldview, but Dr. Zellner is the number one gross revenue optometrist in Oklahoma. And I’m one of the top haircut chains in Oklahoma. And I haven’t even been to my store in three years. And I’m probably never going to go to the haircut store again, because I would rather take that time to go to a competitor and mystery shop, you know? So like, I, the purpose of an elephant in the room, men’s grooming lounge, is so that I can create time freedom and financial freedom. So I don’t need to cut the hair personally to, I don’t need to have a passion about hair in order to do well in that business. And I think that’s where a lot of people get confused, is because the purpose of a business is to create time freedom and financial freedom. So if we look at Tip Top K9 Nashville now, as you’re opening up Tip Top and you’re doing well there, where are you at in the phase right now? Are you getting leads? Yeah, I’m getting a lot of leads. I’m getting anywhere between like 12 and 18 leads a week. So let’s be clear, the average ticket, how much is the average ticket price? Average is like the average one dollar sale right now is about like fifteen hundred, anywhere between twelve hundred and fifteen hundred. That’s the average like per one dollar. So people pay a dollar for the first tip top canine dog training lesson, right? Yep. They fill out the form, the call center calls them, you show up and you’re saying you’re converting, you’re getting twelve leads a week on average. Is that an accurate statement, you think? Yeah, anywhere between, I haven’t been under 12 in weeks. And are you getting Google reviews and video reviews every week? I’m getting a, I’ve never not gotten a video review from a client who’s finished dog training. There’s not one yet that I haven’t got. And are you getting the group interview? You doing that? I am doing the group interview. So you got the group interview, you got the Google reviews, you got the video reviews, your ads are running. Yep. What’s your biggest limiting factor? Like what’s the one thing that once you solve that problem, it’ll unleash more growth? Currently the biggest limiting factor is just finding people that can show up on time and I just did group interviews. Again, I’m doing that every week. And last night there was about five good quality people. So I had three shadowed today. I’m probably going to hire two of the three, and then I got two shattering Saturday. So that problem is going to be solved quick. So the group interview, now Aaron, if you took out the group interview from Shawhomes.com again, which is Oklahoma’s, one of Oklahoma’s largest home building companies, if you stopped that process, what would happen? We would have major problems because we’re a big enough company that I’ve found that people quit or leave when it’s convenient for them and not when it’s convenient for me. And so we’ll have people, you know, life happens. We just had one of our top people left because they were moving out of state to be with family that’s getting elderly and taking care of their family. And so they made that life choice to move. And they love Shaw Homes and would love to be here, but they need to go help family. And so that’s one of my key people and I had to replace them. And because we were doing the group interview, I had multiple people in mind the day that that person said, Hey, I’m about two weeks away from leaving. I already had the person lined up to put into that position. So it would be devastating to me to not have that because then I got to go, Oh my God, I have an emergency. This is a burning fire. Let me go start an ad and hope to get somebody in so then I can interview them and then I can pick them. I had multiple candidates from previous weeks already ready and in mind to be able to hire right off the bat. And our turnaround time was literally one day and we had a person. So again, JT, how big of a selling point was it when it came to buying a Tip Top K9 that I was involved and that my systems would be used? The true reason is it’s actually the only reason I did it. And I’ll tell you this, every business that I’ve ever been involved in does great. Yep. That’s true. And the only business that I’ve ever got involved in that hasn’t been like a mediocre, like a massive meteoric, like a rocket ship super success story, was our online school. And I’ll tell you about the online school. It’s $19 a month, and it’s sort of like, tried to make it super affordable for entrepreneurs to learn entrepreneurship if they can’t afford one-on-one coaching. Right. And, you know, I mean, you gotta have a lot of people paying $19 a month to be lucrative, you know? So it pays the bills, but I’m telling you, every business that I’ve been involved in, they all scale. And the question is, am I a genius? No. Is Dr. Zellner a genius? No. It’s because we know the proven systems. And so the big idea I want to communicate today is if you want to create time and financial freedom, you must master the crap, the core, repeatable, actionable processes. So JT, let’s just say in the future as your tip top continues to grow, and if you were in the future and you were, let’s say there’s 50 franchisees in the future and they are all just doing great. And you got hired to speak at that conference to teach the things that make the tip-top successful. What would be the things that you would make sure that everybody, every tip-top canine owner masters, in addition to being a great dog trainer? In addition to that is systems. So all of the systems, holding people accountable to the systems, actually jumping on the weekly coaching call so that you guys can help them. Like if I could only pick one, it would be to hop on that call because then questions they have, they can ask, they can get it answered. And then also it’s just the accountability factor of actually doing what you need to do. I know, I see you laughing at this. And then that would be the biggest things are all of the systems that you guys already have implemented Just do them and just figure out like you did on the in your in your book that you were talking about here Figure out how many hours you’re willing to work Have all of that set in stone figure out your f6 goals you talk about so that you remember that the vehicle That the business is a vehicle to get you to your destination. It’s not your overall life because then people get stuck and then they get stuck in creative ideas and all that stuff so it’s just staying on the path and implementing the systems. Although you’re running a successful location and your sales are blowing up and you like your own dog, how passionate are you about actually the art of dog training? Like how big of a, you know, I mean do you wake up every day going, what I want to do today is train dogs, that’s my passion. Because again people I think when in franchising, you know, I’ve met so many of the Oxifresh franchise owners over the years, Oxifresh.com, and almost none of them care about carpet. No one’s like, oh man, really want to clean that carpet. Greg, are you okay? Sorry, I blacked out. I was focusing on that carpet. Can I touch your carpet? Is that okay? Greg, we’re not going to invite you over if you keep touching the carpet. Quit licking the carpet, Greg. Quit licking the carpet, Greg. Sorry, I’m writing a book right now called Carpet and What It Means to Me. I mean, it’s just- Why have you stapled your head to the carpet, Greg? So I mean, is dog training itself like a big life passion for you? Do you wake up with this burning desire to train dogs? No, I love my dog. I like dogs, but I don’t truly wake up and like, oh, this is what I want to do. I want to train dogs. I want to be patient all day and work with them. I’m not super passionate about like training dogs. I like dogs and I love my dog, but I don’t just wake up with a burning desire to be all things dog training. So why did you buy a Tip Top K9 franchise? Is the goal to create time freedom and financial freedom? Is that the real goal? Yeah, so the only goal is to be able to live the life I want and I can’t do that without time freedom and financial freedom. And me and Anthony talked about it at one of your conferences. I said, my goal was to have five rental properties and my favorite places to travel. And he said, well, mine was 10. And I was like, okay, well, now mine’s 11. So I love it, JP. I love it. Well, brother, thank you for carving out time. And again, I just want to encourage everybody out there. If you own a franchise, let’s just say you don’t own a tip top canine, but you know, you own any other kind of business franchise. The franchise that you bought is successful because they introduced a proven system. And what you want to do is you want to master those core, repeatable, actionable processes. You want to master the core, repeatable, actionable processes. And remember, the greats among us, they bore down while the rest of the world chases shiny things and struggles with boredom. So JT, thank you for joining us. And again, folks, if you want to learn more about owning a tip-top K9 franchise, you can learn more about that at time2freeamerica.com. We have a button there where you can find jobs that don’t require the shots. Or you can go directly to tiptopk9.com. I would encourage you to go directly to tiptopk9.com to learn more. JT, you smell terrific. Thanks a lot. See you, Gene. Thanks, sir. Bye. See you, guys. I played basketball at the University of Oklahoma, and my father was a high school coach. When I got out of college, what I wanted to do was coach. I coached in college for about four years and then I had my son and life changed. And my son was terminally ill. He had muscular dystrophy, what’s called Duchenne’s. At the time I was working for school. I needed to make more money because of all, you know, doctor bills, all that kind of stuff you got to buy and everything. And so I started doing just a side program with score, just doing a few basketball lessons. My schedule filled up. At the time, you know, my son was in a wheelchair. It got to be quite a struggle with him. And so it was a constant fight every day of, do I work, do I spend my time with him? How much time do I spend with working? But what I learned from all of it is, you still got to get your job done. Well, I’m not a business owner. And I’m probably a terrible business owner. Back a couple years ago. Because I had parents tell me all the time, Well, I wish I’d have known about you three years ago. Or I’d never heard a score. We get that all the time. And then doing the finances, doing the… Just everything that I had to do was just eating me alive. It would take hours every day. And so I needed to get smart about doing my business. All of us need a game plan. And Thrive 15 has helped me tremendously with that game plan. We changed how it was charging. We changed the programs we were doing. We changed the advertisement we were doing. We started doing everything smart. We’re the largest basketball facility in this three or four state area. We have people that call us from all over Oklahoma because of our website. My time has been freed up tremendously because I’m not involved in all the little things. It’s just streamlining your business so it’s not taking just all of your time away from your family. Because my wife’s very important to me, my kids, you know, I’ve got to have some of that as well. And as a business owner, if you allow your business to eat you up, it’s not really worth it. You got to have a value of life as well. We wouldn’t be where we’re at today without Thrive 15. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Danielle Sprick, and I am the founder of D. Sprick 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 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. 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 four to 14. And I took this beautiful dodo. 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 a thousand. So we really just want to thank you, Clay, and thank you, Vanessa, for everything you’ve done, everything you’ve helped us with. We love you guys. Get up, I’ve got it. Right there. Oh yeah. Shake it. Okay. What is it? Freeze. Yeah, here it is. Wow, good boy, Rody. Good boy, look, that’s Clay. You want to say something to Clay? Bark. Bark. That’s Clay. That’s Clay right there. Wow! Okay, see? And the good folks at Tip Top K9 kind of helped mentor you into your dog training skill set, am I correct? Is that right? Yeah, yeah. That’s right. No, I had all the full training with Rody, and he would have eaten you, Clay, if you were here in person. He would have just ripped an arm off. You’ve got to be careful. Okay, now we’re going to move into the heavier stuff here. Now that we’ve covered that, I want to make sure from an animal cruelty perspective, you weren’t using a part of a dog as a windscreen. One thing, it’s super self-serving because I have partnered with the brand and have worked with the brand for a long time. Mike, I just wanted to ask you here, feel free to punt if you want, but the good folks at Tip Top K9, why I like them is they’re providing opportunities for people that don’t want to take the jab. So if you have a job, but you don’t want to take the jab, I think that’s going to be an increasingly difficult thing to find. And so if you’re looking for a career that doesn’t require the taking of the COVID-19 shots, the good folks at Tip Top K9, they have a six week training program where they can, six weeks, you can learn how to open your own Tip Top K9 franchise. There’s approaching 20 locations all over the country. Mike, you’ve worked with the Tip Top folks. Has your dog eaten you yet? Are you happy with the service? How’s it been going so far? Tip Top K9 is just amazing. I mean, really, interacting with those folks and getting this dog changed my life. I mean, that’s not an exaggeration. And I just want to put this offer out there to anybody listening who wants to consider opening a Tip Top K9 franchise. Once you open a franchise, I will announce it for free. I’ll publicize it on my podcast because what I learned from these guys, it’s so life-changing. Even I’m training my other dogs, Clay. Now that I learned, let me back up. So Tip Top K9 people trained me, first of all, on how to train dogs, including this military dog I have here. And then I took that knowledge and now I’m training my other dogs who I thought were uncontrollable. And now, guess what? They come when I call them. It’s amazing. Using the training techniques, even a guy like me who’s not a professional dog trainer, even I’m competent at training my own dogs now, but this is a great opportunity in any city in America, you know, that’s available for the franchises. People want to bring their dogs and have them train because more people are working at home. More lockdowns are probably coming, God forbid, but people need to be able to get along with their pets. And Tip Top K9 really is effective at making that happen. That’s just my testimonial right there. Feel free to use it. Mike Adams, thank you so much for carving out time. I really do appreciate you very much. Your studio is looking great there, sir. I know it’s been a long time coming. You’ve been one of the first truth-telling voices in the movement one of the most heavily censored people In America, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you for investing in lighting and Sound that makes you look better Well, see we’re giving you our wide shot here right now. This is the watch out of the studio Yeah, just you look great. I’ll show you it’s real. It’s not a green screen. No, we’re actually good. So it looks great, Mike. It’s coming along. It’s coming along. And yours has always looked awesome. But we finally upgraded to Clay’s level of studio. Mike, seriously, I say this, any of the events that you’ve ever wanted, if we ever do a reawaken America tour, the door’s always open for you. I appreciate all the work you do behind the scenes, keeping people focused on exposing the truth. You really are a leader in the truth movement. I appreciate that, sir. I hope you have a great rest of your day. Well, thank you, Clay. We’re working at it. And again, keep me posted. If anybody joins the Tip Top K9 franchise, we want to announce it and help get all these dogs under control all across America. So they don’t, you know, eat our microphones and things like that. Hey, thank you. I appreciate it. Take care. Thank you, Clay. All right, bye. Hey, I’m Ryan Wimpy with Tip Top K9 and I’m the founder. I’m Rachel Wimpy and I am a co-founder. So we’ve been running Tip Top for about the last 14 years, franchising for the last 3-4 years. So someone that would be a good fit for Tip Top loves dogs, they’re high energy, they want to be able to own their own job, but they don’t want to worry about, you know, that high failure rate. They want to do that like bowling with bumper lanes. So you give us a call, reach out to us and we’ll call you, and then we’ll send you an FDD, look over that, read it, fall asleep to it, it’s very boring, and then we’ll book a discovery date and you come and you can spend a day or two with us, make sure that you actually like it, make sure you’re opinion on it is something that you want to do. So an FCD is a franchise disclosure document. It’s a federally regulated document that goes into all the nitty-gritty details of what the franchise agreement entails. So who would be a good fit to buy a TikTok K9 would be somebody who loves dogs, who wants to work with dogs all day as their profession. You’ll make a lot of money, you’ll have a lot of fun, it’s very rewarding. And who would not be a good fit is a cat person. So the upfront cost for Tip Top is $43,000. And a lot of people stay there generating doctor money, but on our disclosure, the numbers are anywhere from over a million dollars a year in dog training, what our Oklahoma City location did last year, to $25,000, $35,000 a month. To train and get trained by us for Tip Top Canine to learn your own Tip Top Canine, you would be with us for six weeks here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. So we’ve been married for seven years. Eight weeks. Eight years. So if you’re watching this video, you’re like, hey, maybe I want to be a dog trainer. Hey, that one sounds super amazing. Go to our website, tiptopcanine.com, click on the yellow franchising tab, fill out the form, and Rachel and I will give you a call. Our Oklahoma City location last year, they did over a million dollars. He’s been running that shop for three years before he was a youth pastor with zero sales experience, zero dog training experience before he ever met with us. So just call us, come spend a day with us, spend a couple days with us, make sure you like training dogs, and own your own business. Well the biggest reason to buy a Tip Top K9 is so you own your own job and you own your own future and you don’t hate your life. You get an enjoyable job that brings a lot of income but is really rewarding. 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. 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. He’s key. This kind of guy has worked in every single industry. He’s written books with like Lee Crockerill, 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. They run 160 companies every single week. 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 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 it 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. 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 the 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 of 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. Anyways, just an amazing man. Anyways, impacted me a lot. He’s helped navigate. Anytime 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, 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 he was a 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 for maybe six hours a day and literally the rest of time he’s working and he can outwork everybody in the room every single day and and he loves it. So anyways this is Charles Kola with Kola 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 Kola. We’ll see you guys. Bye bye. Alright so if you want to schedule a one-on-one consultation to learn about the business growth consulting that I provide. You can schedule that or learn more about that at Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, Thrivetimeshow.com. If you want to attend one of our in-person two-day interactive business workshops, you can learn more about that at Thrivetimeshow.com. And the way we charge for that is it’s $250 or whatever price you choose to pay to attend our in-person workshops. I do that not to give people a handout, but to give people a hand up. We want to make those workshops affordable for everybody. And again, you can get those tickets at Thrivetimeshow.com. Also you can book the free, the complimentary 13-point assessment with myself to see how we can help you grow your business and take it to the next level. And if you go to Thrivetimeshow.com and you click on testimonials, you can see thousands of entrepreneurs just like you that we’ve helped to grow Over and over again. That’s just what I do growing businesses is my thing It’s easy for me to do it will be easy for you to do if you just follow the proven path And then finally if you want to schedule a consultation to learn more about opening a tip-top canine franchise Full disclosure will take you about six weeks of training to become a Tip Top K9 franchise owner. And I would encourage you to learn more and schedule a free consultation to learn if opening a Tip Top K9 is right for you by going to tiptopk9.com. The Thrive Time 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 you’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, and 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 built this facility for you and we’re excited to see it.