Clay Clark | Logo Versus Brand | Practical & Powerful Moves for Enhancing Your Brand + Interview With Seth Godin + Tim Tebow Joins Clay Clark’s June 27-28 2-Day Interactive Business Growth Workshop (29 Tickets Remain)!!!

Audio Transcription

So let’s talk about the difference between a logo and a brand. Right? Because companies spend way too much time on their logo. Just like people on YouTube spend way too much time on their hair. I’m told they spend way too much time on their hair. If Nike owned, opened a hotel, I think we would be able to guess pretty accurately what it would be like. If Hyatt came out with sneakers, we’d have no clue. Because Hyatt doesn’t have a brand. They have a logo. If I swap the signs on a hotel at that price point, you couldn’t tell. If you were to Marriott, if you were to Hilton, if you were to Hyatt, the hallway, the room, I don’t know, where am I? No brand. So what it means to have a brand is you’ve made a promise to people. They have expectations. It’s a shorthand. What should I expect the next time? And if that is distinct, you’ve earned something. If it’s not distinct, let’s admit you make a commodity and you’re trying to charge just a little bit extra for peace of mind. The problem that Hyatt and Hilton and Marriott and the rest have is sort by price. Because if I go online now to find a hotel it’s really simple, sort by price. Why would I pay $200 extra to go a block away? I don’t. So what’s the value of a brand? The value of a brand is how much extra am I paying above the substitute. And if I’m not paying extra you don’t have a brand. So when we think about what brands ought to do to move forward, the most important thing is to not worry about your slogan, your spokesperson, their wrapping. It’s to worry about the substance, work that matters for people who care. Find the people who care, the smallest viable group you can live with and figure out how to give them work that matters. matter. On today’s show, Seth Godin, the iconic entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, and the man who in 1998 sold his company Yo-Yo Dine to Yahoo for $30 million. Well, now that’s a lot of money if you round it up. Joins us to share how he started his first business out of his New York City studio apartment. Why he believes that instead of wondering where your next vacation should be, you should set up a life that you don’t want to escape from. Why nobody bought one of the first books that he wrote. Why he doesn’t own a television. His process for writing books. His criteria for what he says no and yes to. His mantra of pick your customers, pick your life. Why he rails about industrial complexes, our shared love for patina and much much more. Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show. But this show does. Two men. Eight kids, co-created by two different women. Thirteen multi-million dollar businesses. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Thriving Time Show. Now, four, two, one, here we go! We started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. Oh yes, Thrive Nation, welcome back to another exciting edition of the Thrive Time Show on your radio and podcast download. Mr. Seth Godin, welcome on to the Thrive Time Show. How are you, sir? I’m fantastic, but getting better. Thank you for having me. Well, Seth, you’ve written now over 15 books. I believe 17 is the official count. Do you have a favorite book? It’s a little like asking about your favorite kid, but I will tell you, you know, the new one is my 19th. The one that I tend to talk about when people ask me that question is the second or third one, which is called Survival is Not Enough. And the reason is because no one bought it. It was a total failure. There are two reasons for that. One reason is because it came out right after 9-11, which was tragic for so many people. And then the second reason is because it’s about evolutionary theory. I worked on it eight hours a day for a year. I love that book, but it didn’t work. So you learn a lesson. You know, Seth, you have written a lot about finding your vocation. I don’t know if you’ve ever used those specific words, but the word vocation, originally in the Latin means you’re calling, and vacation means to retreat from. But you have a notable quotable where I’ve read that you once wrote, “‘Instead of wondering where your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from. Can you share what you mean by this? I think we begin with this. Everyone should have something that they love to do, something that feels to them like they’re truly connected to it. But that doesn’t have to be the thing you get paid for. It’s just a very happy moment if they turn out to be the same thing. But rather than forcing that thing you do to also be the thing you love, if we give ourselves permission to do both, to say, I love opera and I’m gonna work in my spare time and I’m not gonna try to make money from that. And then when I do my job, I’m going to do my job with care and grace, but I’m not gonna expect it to feel like opera. We let ourselves off a dangerous hook when we do that because then we can go to work and act as if. Act as if our work matters. Act as if we are making a contribution. Act as if our energy will come back to us many times over. What I found when people do that is they can turn almost any job into a job where they can thrive. And when you take that attitude, suddenly you’re not in such a hurry to run away from it. You know, I feel like you’ve been running towards your vocation for many years, and a lot of people know you now as the best-selling author, as one of the most influential entrepreneurial authors of the past decade, some could argue. a New York City studio apartment with a book packaging company. Can you share with us what it was like to start that book packaging company? And really, when did you start to develop some type of traction as an entrepreneur? Well, you’re being really generous because for something to be a company, it needs to have revenue. And so for a year, I didn’t have revenue. I was getting close to selling my stuff to the pawn shop, but that’s all I was selling. Because what book packagers do is they invent ideas for books, bring them to the book publishing world. If someone likes them, they give you money, and then you go make the book. And I started the company with a project I did with Chip Conley, who also went off to become successful. We sold that book for $5,000 on the first day, but then I started the company and I didn’t sell anything for a year. Rejection, rejection, rejection for a whole year. I was working 12 hours a day, shipping out proposals, 850 or so proposals, not one thing sold and that was really, really hard. It wasn’t just that I wasn’t getting revenue. It was that the people around me didn’t get what I was trying to do. So not only didn’t the world understand my vision, the people who cared about me didn’t understand it either. And that took a lot of reserve to get through. You know, Dr. Zellner and I both started from the bottom. He is an optometrist turned entrepreneurial tycoon. I started a company called DJ Connection out of my dorm room that grew into the largest wedding entertainment company in the country, and we’ve gone on to grow 13 multi-million dollar companies together. And we love stories about guys like you that started from the bottom and sort of grew to the next level. And I think one of the things you have to do to become successful, you have to build of your daily mantra, your daily rituals, your daily flow state, your normal. Can you walk us through the first three hours of your typical day? What does that look like, my friend? Because you’re the master of saying no. What did the first three hours of your… What does it look like? How do you organize your day? Walk us through your routine. I think it’s important to not get confused by the specifics. So as you know, Dr. Zellner went to school in Buffalo. I went to school in Buffalo. Does that mean you have to go to school in Buffalo in order to be successful? I don’t think so. That’s an irrelevant coincidence. What’s relevant is what’s the story you tell yourself about the work you’re going to try to do. And for me, I was telling myself a really negative story, particularly halfway through the first year. The phone would ring and I’d say, oh, here comes someone ready to reject me. And the mail would come and I’d say, oh, here comes some more rejection. It was as if I was hoping that it would happen, right? And I spent a lot of time listening to Zig Ziglar, a lot of time making sure I was feeding myself a different story. The big shift for me happened when I made the decision that I was now doing work that I get to do, not that I have to do. That’s the biggest thing about my daily ritual. I don’t have an alarm clock. I just leap out of bed because I can’t believe I get to do this again. and there’s not one part of my day where I roll my eyes and go, oh, I can’t believe I have to do that. Because if I’m going to do it, it’s choice. And if I don’t want to do it, then I can arrange my life so I don’t have to. I don’t go to meetings and none. I don’t have a television because those were things that were winding me down. And instead, I’ve tried to organize a day where I can’t believe I get to do this. Tell me about the process you go through in creating a new book. What do you start and what does it look like and then how do you finish it? So the way it used to work is I made a commitment that I was gonna do a book a year because I liked the rhythm and the process. So every once in a while I would say, hmm, if I’m gonna have a book coming out next year, I better have something ready to go soon. I would look at what the world was saying to me, where I saw a hole happening, where the opportunity was. I haven’t done that in about eight or nine books. Now it’s so painful to bring a book to market that I only write a book if the book demands that I do. My blog lets me off the hook. If I can just write a blog post, then I don’t have to write the book. Done. But if the idea keeps knocking on my door and won’t let me go, I say, all right, well, this idea demands this format. Because I’m not saying to the world, read this book, buy this book because it’s time for me to sell you a book, my posture is different. I don’t have to go out and say, oh, time to sell a book again. It’s a different sort of process. Then what I do generally is write the whole thing in three weeks and then spend six months or so rewriting it, thinking about it, throwing parts of it out. There are five books I’ve written, the whole book, and no one’s ever read it because it good enough when I was done. So I sort of put that into place, see how it all fits together, and if I think it’s something that I can be proud of 10 years from now, then I’ll share it with people. You know, Seth, one of the things I think is remarkable about you is that you say no to a lot of things, and I’ve heard you in previous interviews talk about this, and you say no to speaking events routinely, which Jonathan, who works closely with me in my office, who I believe arranged our interview, Jonathan knows this, whenever someone reaches out to me for a speaking event, I almost immediately say no, unless X, Y, Z is the case. Can you explain your criteria for what you say no to? Because that’s why you have the time freedom to focus on the things that you’re excited about. I mean, it’s because you say no. Can you talk about, what’s your criteria for the things you say no to? And what do you say yes to? Well, I would begin with this. The mantra that I think is true for everyone is pick your customers, pick your future. The people that you are serving, the people who are paying you, are the ones who are going to determine how you’re going to spend your day. And so I don’t have a staff. I don’t have a team. It’s just me. And if I don’t spend today doing X, then I could do Y, but I can’t do X and Y at the same time. So I used to limit myself to about 30 speaking gigs a year, now it’s 15, and I think hard about how far is this gonna be, how many people am I gonna be able to impact, is the audience, is the biggest one, enrolled in where I wanna go? So I mistakenly took a gig six or seven years ago to 3,000 men and women, mostly men, who own car repairs, a big chain of car repair franchises. So there were 3,000 people there. It met many of my criteria, except they had no interest in what I had to say. What was your speech of that day? Do you remember? Yeah, totally. My speech was, the one, the speech I give is, if I were in their shoes, what would I need to hear? What would I want to hear? How could I open a door for them? So I imagined what I would do if I owned a Goodyear, good, rich, tire and rubber kind of facility. How could I be significantly above average? What would it mean to have a different relationship with my customers? What would it mean to do work that they would miss if it were gone to not be in a commodity business. And I was right, except for one thing, which is that’s not why they were in the business. And they were in the business for something that I would never be in the business for. They liked owning a car repair shop and they didn’t want it to be one that was exceptional. They just wanted it to be the one they had. Right. Pay the bills. I just want to pay the bills. And I’m like, fine, that’s great, but I shouldn’t be the person to talk to you today. Well, now I want to ask you this because you have said, there was an interview you did with Tim Ferriss, and for any of our listeners out there who don’t know, Tim Ferriss is one of the top podcasters on the planet. And you talked about how you typically rail against industrial complexes. Can you please explain why you rail against industrial complexes. And if you have time, I want you to talk about Patina, because you and I share a love for the Patina. So talk to me about railing against industrial complexes. And if you have a moment, I’d love for you to share your focus on Patina. So General Eisenhower famously warned the public that there was a military industrial complex being built that was pushing us to be in the Vietnam War. What it means is you have a company that makes weapons. You use some of that money to lobby the government to get into war so you can sell more weapons. The military industrial complex, it works in tandem. What’s happened is various industries have grown as they’ve also turned into complexes. We have the educational industrial complex, which is a for-profit system that’s constantly chewing kids up, putting them through test prep, putting them into debt, etc. You have the social media industrial complex where people are basically going to work for their phones, not vice versa. If you’re on a social network and you’re not paying for it, that’s because you’re not the customer, you’re the product. We have these engines that push us to be cogs in a machine, push us to be part of the cash system, not part of the make a difference system. Whenever I see one of these working, my disruption is to say to the people who are willing to listen to me, wait a minute, you have more power than you think you do, you have more freedom than you think you do, it’s worth standing up and saying, I care enough about this, I don’t want to be a pawn in the system, I just want to make something better instead. I’m against cogs, I’m against people who check their imagination at the door when they get to work and who work for the weekend, work for the self-storage unit, work for the TV and the six-pack because life I think is too valuable to waste spending nine hours at work so that you can spend an hour and a half watching Netflix at night. Can you talk to me about patina because I think you and I share I think we have a vesicle of Pisces I think we have an intersection of our of our two values I love patina can you talk to the listeners out there what is patina why are you into it? So there’s a Japanese term wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi is the decay of nature and its intersection with the rest of us. Wabi-sabi, patina, it’s the disorganized bookshelf, it’s the fingerprints we leave behind. So my office has a patina of 25 years of making stuff, the patina has a patina. I can tell when I walk into my office if someone’s moved a few of the books, because they’re not in any order whatsoever except they’re in my order. And patina is the sort of cruft that’s left behind of a life well lived. So I don’t have a lot of patience for people who want it to be industrial and pristine. I would like to see that someone was here before me, and I’d like to leave behind this set of fingerprints. Seth, if I could ask you this question, this is a self-help question for me personally and then I’ll let you hang up on us because I know you have other things to do and you’re choosing to be here with us. You guys are great. You’re good at this. I really appreciate this because this is like, I’ve read your books and I’ve thought to myself, I would love to meet Seth Godwin. And because I built multi-million dollar companies that doesn’t take away my boyish excitement To have you on the show and it’s gonna go down as one of those like I want to put it on my tombstone I once interviewed Seth Godin. It’s so exciting So I want to ask this question You’ve been interviewed by some of the top podcasters and publications on the planet in your mind Who was your favorite interviewer the person who interviewed you where you thought that was a good interviewer because I want to get better. So what was the best interviewer you’ve ever had and why? Well I would say minute by minute you two are up there because it’s almost impossible to do an interview in 10 or 15 minutes that actually gets to something of substance and I applaud you for being crazy enough to try, and this has been thrilling. The interviews that are on my all-time list are much, much, much longer than this because you need to get into sync with people. My friend Brian Koppelman has done five with me. My friend Krista Tippett did an interview that made me cry that I recommend to people because that’s my best version of myself when I was on Being. on being. What I’m doing with my podcast, Akimbo, is interviewing myself and I’ve done that for 25 episodes so far and I really think that’s resonating with people. Those are three that I would mention. As we’re wrapping this up, I just want to point out that you’ve had great success and I would say the secret of your success is work that matters for people who care. And that’s the untitled subtitle of my new book. Because if any of us get the chance to do work that matters for people who care, that’s all we can ever hope for. That’s powerful. I love that. If I can sneak in one more question. Can you tell us about your new book, your new thing? Because I’m excited as a consumer and I know that if I buy your book after you pay this guy who pays that guy who pays that guy, I don’t know what you make. Let’s say I buy a book for $20, which I always buy your books. So let’s just say you get, what do you get? If I buy a book for $20, do you get two bucks? I mean, how much? Less. Less than two. One dollar? Yeah, a dollar fifty. I probably have to buy four of your books then. I’m not kidding. I have bought at least 50 of the Purple Cow book and I’ve given it away. Well, you did what I wanted you to, but let’s be really clear. If anyone thinks they’re going to make a living writing books, they’re crazy. I do not write books to make a living. I write books to make a difference. I go through all the hassle of cutting down all those trees and going through all these steps, not because it’s a good way to make a living, but because some people benefit from having that object in their hand. I’ve written 7,500 blog posts for free. If you want to read those, read those. But if a book helps you, then my new book is called This Is Marketing. The idea of this is marketing is when you appeal to the smallest viable audience, not the biggest one, with work that matters, when you see people for fear, when you see them for status, when you understand that some people measure affiliation, that some people measure dominance, that when you get to the humanity of the story we tell ourselves, then you can finally get down to making the work that you care about. Seth, I appreciate you for writing content that matters, books that matter for people who care, like myself. I hope I didn’t screw up this interview so much that you never want to come on again. I want you to know, your book, Purple Cow, helped me absolutely change the way I ran DJ Connection and our company Elephant in the Room that we’re franchising and a brand called OxiFresh that has over 400 locations have all been impacted by the book Purple Cow. And so I’m honored and humbled to have you on the show. And thank you for not saying no to me because I know that you are the master of saying no and it means the world to me. I’m probably going to go into my forest here behind my man cave studio and probably cry to celebrate this moment. And prophetically chop down a tree because you said you chopped all those trees chopped down to produce your book. I mean it though, it’s a huge highlight in my life. So thank you so much for being here today. I feel great about it. I’m glad we got to connect. Thank you both. Good luck with the show. Thank you. It’s been a lot of fun. Have a blessed day. Classy actor. Thank you. Thank you Seth. Bye-bye. Thrive Nation, if you are looking for a gift for somebody in your life who loves business, growing businesses, and the idea of achieving success in the world of entrepreneurship, you’ve got to go buy Seth Godin’s newest book called This Is Marketing. You can’t be seen until you learn to see. Again, I repeat, This Is Marketing. You can’t be seen until you learn to see. Pick it up today in bookstores or on Amazon.com. Also if you’re out there and you have yet to attend our in-person Thrive Time Show workshops, I would encourage you to purchase your tickets for our December conference. This thing is going to be hot. It’s December 7th and 8th. And we’re going to be featuring the best-selling author and the public relations expert of choice, the PR consultant of choice for Nike, for Pizza Hut, for Prince, for Michael Jackson, for George Michael, for President Bush, for President Clinton. Michael Levine will be attending the workshop and we’re going to be speaking at the workshop and Ken Schmidt, the man responsible for the turnaround at Harley-Davidson, will also be speaking at the workshop. If you’ve yet to attend a Thrive Time workshop, I’m telling you, you owe it to yourself, to your family, and to your financial future. Get your tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com. And now, without any further ado, we’d like to end each and every show with a boom. And so, here we go. Three, two, one, boom. Want to attend the legendary Thrive Time Show business workshop for free? Subscribe on iTunes, leave an objective review, and send us confirmation at info at thrive timeshow dot com to claim your tickets. Want to live in a van down by the river? Come by and see us in our Riverwalk offices and we’ll be able to make your dreams come true. All right Thrive Nation, welcome back to The Conversation. It is the Thrive Time show on your radio and podcast download. Now each and every show that we do is committed to helping you learn what you need to know to create both time freedom and financial freedom. The freedom to do what you want to do with both your time and your money. And one of the areas that I get probably the most pushback from, from early clients, and then the thing that they thank me the most about is they don’t want to commit to a sustainable three-legged marketing stool. So I’m going to go ahead and praise a client right now that’s really, really doing a great job with their business, but I want to talk to you about how the business looked before he committed to this idea. So if you’re listening right now, I want you to go ahead and do a Google search for Score Basketball. And then, Shep, I want to put this at the very, very top of the show notes there. I want to put the example of scorebball.com so that way people can see a business that’s implementing this system real time. So scorebball.com. So what’s his three-legged marketing stool? I’m going to tell you his three-legged marketing stool right now and Chep’s going to go ahead and put them on the show notes, okay? One is he has ongoing search engine optimization, which means that he has a steady regimen of content that he creates every single week that as long as he does that, he’ll never be anything but top in Google. He’ll always be top in Google when you type in Tulsa basketball lessons or Tulsa basketball camps. He’ll always be top in Google because, Chup, he’s committed to consistently doing the same thing every single week. Every single week. Now, this is a game. We’re talking about a three-legged marketing stool, a stool is sturdy when it has multiple legs, right? So you have one leg, another leg, another leg. That’s what makes the stool stable. Now if you sat down and one of those legs wasn’t stable and it collapsed, that’s not a stable stool. Now don’t ever think this, but a lot of business owners just have one aspect of marketing that their whole business is dependent upon. You have one vendor right now who gives you all of your business. One client that gives you all of the business you need. That’s the one source. One source of leads that you and you maybe are the only person that can close those leads. Right. So you want to have not one, but you have multiple sources. Now Chuck, his ongoing search engine optimization requires that he produces content every week. Why is that so profound that he’s committed to doing that? For the past six years I’ve worked with the guy, why is that so profound that he does it every week? Well, society might say that doing that is crazy, but guess what? Since he’s done it, he’s literally top, or at least top of the map for every single search term that relates to Tulsa and basketball and all of the surrounding areas. So yes, he did the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over for six years and it paid off big time. Now move number two, leg number two. He gathers Google reviews from happy clients. Now if you Google score basketball Tulsa, he’s got a couple different locations there. How many reviews does Coach Calvert and score basketball have today? Because if you’re, by the way, if you’re listening out there and you want to teach your kids how to become better at the game of basketball and help them play at a college or maybe professional level, I would encourage you to go to scorebball.com if you’re in the Tulsa area and you can schedule your first lesson. I believe your first lesson is free. Oh, so how many reviews does he have today? He’s got 124. 124 reviews. So again, you just commit to get… Now Chuck, why do you want to commit to gathering reviews from real customers every week? I mean, why would you want to do it every week? Well, getting to the top of Google is a process and we’ve talked about it on many, many shows, but the quick summation of this is that getting Google reviews is the most powerful and fast tool you can do as a business owner yourself to get you to the top of that first page of Google because the map listing is at the top of the first page. So again, he, leg number one, ongoing search engine optimization. Leg number two, Google reviews. Chum, are you ready for the third one? I’m so ready. It’s consistent online advertising. And I’m going to put the sub points under that, OK? So consistent online advertising. And that consists of YouTube ads. They’re ads that pre-roll on YouTube. So if you go to watch a TD Jake’s video, or a Cat video, or a LeBron James highlight or anything. Right. The videos pull up and they begin to play before you watch the video and our coders will set that up for you. It’s cool because, right, tell me if I’m wrong here, but you somebody might be searching in your geographical area a correct way to shoot a free throw. Right. And then your score basketball camp ad would pop up in front of that and you go, oh my gosh. And here’s what happens. Anybody who’s ever searched for basketball camps or basketball lessons in Google is shown those ads on YouTube as a result of their geography, where they’re living. So the second move we do is retargeting ads. Now those are ads that follow people around the internet to virtually every website. So you might go to Tulsa World or you might go to CNN or you might go to Fox News or you might go to Brainy Quotes or any website and the ads will follow you around because of the retargeting pixel. Now Chup, he also does Facebook ads. Now we commit to a regimen of about $600 a week between all three of those. And Chup, do you know why we don’t spend more on advertising than $600 a week for score basketball. Because, you know, on the show, we preach that you should spend about 10% of your gross revenue on advertising if you’re in aggressive growth mode. And 5% if you’re just trying to maintain. Why do we not even spend 5% of the gross revenue for Coach Calvert on advertising? I’m going to guess, educated guess here, that he’s pushing close to capacity or he can’t handle more clients at this moment. And the business exists to serve him, and if he wanted to open up another location, if he did open up another location, if he went through the effort of leasing another space, building out another space, finding another space, doing the things needed to grow another location, then it would make sense. But if you’re turning down people because you’re perpetually booked out, I mean, he has basketball camps where they are just so full, then it wouldn’t make any sense to keep advertising. Now, about Ben Horowitz, can you read us this notable quotable from Ben Horowitz? This is the guy who built Opsware. It was a company he built and he sold the Hewlett Packard for 1.6 billion dollars of cash. He’s also the co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm. So he says you can’t succeed by making something just a little better. People are fundamentally lazy and they’re not going to adopt something unless it’s at least 10 times better than what they already have. The incumbents are happy to make lots of money offering customers something that they’re familiar with. And to win, you have to build a breakthrough, a no-brainer, major enough to cannibalize the business. So you have to, again, Coach Calvert had to create an experience that was significantly better than the competition. And Braggin, he did it. He did it. When I very first started working with you, I was shooting video three years ago, and I used to go out there and shoot video at his camp. I grew up playing sports, and I’m looking at this thing, 200 kids out here at one camp, and I’m like, this is awesome. Now, again, he’s competing against the University of Tulsa basketball camp, the Oral Roberts University basketball camp, the Nike camp, the Oklahoma City Thunder camp. Russell, yeah, Westbrook. And now he’s the biggest camp in Oklahoma. Awesome. Now Reid Hoffman, Chuck, Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn and one of the early founders of the PayPal company, he says, what the only way to really scale is by taking bets that might reduce your opportunity. This is especially true of your branding and marketing. People have a tendency to say, I want to define my product as the best in the marketplace. You have to issue that kind of vagueness viciously. Of course, when you say, this is who I am, some customers will respond, nope, not interested. But if you don’t make those sorts of bold statements, you can never really learn whether people want what you are offering. Now, this is big. This is big. Because if you are having a business like a Coach Calvert does in any industry, and you’re afraid to make it significantly different than anybody else, you’re going to lose. You can’t be a chameleon. And so this is what we worked on with Coach Calvert. And this is a big thing. This is a breakthrough. This is a one-time event that your coach can help you do. But at Score B-Ball, what we did is I told Coach, we’ve got to come up with something that makes us different than everybody else. What are we going to do? And we agreed on doing this move for first-time visitors. It was the one where you can teach anybody to dunk within 10 minutes? Not that one. Okay. But if you’re a first-time visitor, it’s free. So if you want to attend square basketball and you’re a first-time visitor, it’s free. It’s huge. Again, you get to try it before you buy it. It’s one free group lesson. And we had to come up with that. Also, he’s a Christian business owner, and so I did not encourage him to do that, but he did it himself. He wanted to put Bible verses and positive verses all around his gym because he said he wanted to mentor kids about the game of life and not just. On today’s show, Seth Godin, the iconic entrepreneur, New York Times best-selling author, and the man who in 1998 sold his company Yo-Yo Dine to Yahoo for $30 million. Well, now that’s a lot of money if you round it up. Joins us to share how he started his first business out of his New York City studio apartment. Why he believes that instead of wondering where your next vacation should be, you should set up a life that you don’t want to escape from. Why nobody bought one of the first books that he wrote. Why he doesn’t own a television. His process for writing books. His criteria for what he says no and yes to. His mantra of pick your customers pick your life. While he rails about industrial complexes our shared love for patina and much much more. Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show but this show does. Two men, eight kids co-created by two different women, 13 multi-million dollar businesses. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Thrive Time Show on your radio and podcast download. Mr. Seth Godin, welcome on to the Thrive Time Show. How are you, sir? I’m fantastic, but getting better. Thank you for having me. Well, Seth, you’ve written now over 15 books. I believe 17 is the official count. Do you have a favorite book? It’s a little like asking about your favorite kid, but I will tell you, the new one is my 19th. The one that I tend to talk about when people ask me that question is the second or third one, which is called Survival is Not Enough. The reason is because no one bought it. It was a total failure. There are two reasons for that. One reason is because it came out right after 9-11, which was tragic for so many people. And then the second reason is because it’s about evolutionary theory. I worked on it eight hours a day for a year. I loved that book, but it didn’t work. So you learn a lesson. You know, Seth, you have written a lot about finding your vocation. I don’t know if you’ve ever used those specific words, but the word vocation, originally in the Latin means you’re calling, and vacation means to retreat from. But you have a notable quotable where I’ve read that you once wrote, instead of wondering where your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from. Can you share what you mean by this? Well, you know, I think we begin with this. Everyone should have something that they love to do. Something that feels to them like they’re truly connected to it, but that doesn’t have to be the thing you get paid for. It’s just a very happy moment if they turn out to be the same thing, but rather than forcing that thing you do to also be the thing you love, if we give ourselves permission to do both, to say, I love opera and I’m going to work in my spare time and I’m not going to try to make money from that, and then when I do my job, I’m going to do my job with care and grace, but I’m not going to expect it to feel like opera. We let ourselves off a dangerous hook when we do that because then we can go to work and act as if, act as if our work matters, act as if we are making a contribution, act as if our energy will come back to us many times over. What I found when people do that is they can turn almost any job into a job where they can thrive. When you take that attitude, suddenly you’re not in such a hurry to run away from it. I feel like you’ve been running towards your vocation for many years and a lot of people know you now as the best-selling author, as one of the most influential entrepreneurial authors of the past decade, some could argue. But you started out of a New York City studio apartment with a book packaging company. Can you share with us what it was like to start that book packaging company? And really, when did you start to develop some type of traction as an entrepreneur? You’re being really generous because for something to be a company, it needs to have revenue. For a year, I didn’t have revenue. I was getting close to selling my stuff to the pawn shop, but that’s all I was selling because what book packagers do is they invent ideas for books, bring them to the book publishing world. If someone likes them, they give you money and you go make the book. And I started the company with a project I did with Chip Conley, who also went off to become successful. We sold that book for $5,000 on the first day. But then I started the company and I didn’t sell anything for a year. Rejection, rejection, rejection for a whole year. I was working 12 hours a day, shipping out proposals, 850 or so proposals, not one thing sold. That was really, really hard. It wasn’t just that I wasn’t getting revenue. It was that the people around me didn’t get what I was trying to do. Not only didn’t the world understand my vision, the people who cared about me didn’t understand it either. That took a lot of reserve to get through. You know, Dr. Zellner and I both started from the bottom. He is an optometrist turned entrepreneurial tycoon. I started a company called DJ Connection out of my dorm room. It grew into the largest wedding entertainment company in the country. And we’ve gone on to grow 13 multi-million dollar companies together. And we love stories about guys like you that started from the bottom and sort of grew to the next level. And I think one of the things you have to do to become successful is you have to build a foundation of your daily mantra, your daily rituals, your daily flow state, your normal. Can you walk us through the first three hours of your typical day? I mean, what does that look like, my friend? Because you’re the master of saying no. What did the first three hours of your, what does it look like? How do you organize your day? Walk us through your routine. Well, I think it’s important to not get confused by the specifics, right? So, as you know, Dr. Zellner went to school in Buffalo. I went to school in Buffalo. Does that mean you have to go to school in Buffalo in order to be successful? I don’t think so, right? That that’s an irrelevant coincidence. What’s relevant is what’s the story you tell yourself about the work you’re going to try to do? And for me, I was telling myself a really negative story, particularly halfway through the first year. The phone would ring and I’d say, oh, here comes someone ready to reject me. And the mail would come and I’d say, oh, here comes some more rejection. It was as if I was hoping that it would happen, right? And I spent a lot of time listening to Zig Ziglar, a lot of time making sure I was feeding myself a different story, and the big shift for me happened when I made the decision that I was now doing work that I get to do, not that I have to do. And that’s the biggest thing about my daily ritual. I don’t have an alarm clock. I just leap out of bed because I can’t believe I get to do this again. And there’s not one part of my day where I roll my eyes and go, oh, I can’t believe I have to do that. Because if I’m gonna do it, it’s choice. And if I don’t want to do it, then I can arrange my life so I don’t have to. I don’t go to meetings and none. I don’t have a television because those were things that were winding me down and instead I’ve tried to organize a day where I can’t believe I get to do this. Tell me about the process you go through in creating a new book. What do you start and what does it look like and then how do you finish it? So the way it used to work is I finish it. So, the way it used to work is I made a commitment that I was going to do a book a year because I liked the rhythm and the process. So every once in a while, I would say, hmm, if I’m going to have a book coming out next year, I better have something ready to go soon. I would look at what the world was saying to me, where I saw a hole happening, where the opportunity was. But I haven’t done that in about eight or nine books. Now it’s so painful to bring a book to market that I only write a book if the book demands that I do. So my blog lets me off the hook. If I can just write a blog post, then I don’t have to write the book. Done. But if the idea keeps knocking on my door and won’t let me go, I say, all right, well, this idea demands this format. Because I’m not saying to the world, read this book, buy this book because it’s time for me to sell you a book, my posture is different. I don’t have to go out and say, oh, time to sell a book again. It’s a different sort of process. Then what I do generally is write the whole thing in three weeks and then spend six months or so rewriting it, thinking about it, throwing parts of it out. There are five books I’ve written, the whole book, and no one’s ever read it because it wasn’t good enough when I was done. So I sort of put that into place, see how it all fits together, and if I think it’s something that I can be proud of 10 years from now, then I’ll share it with people. You know, Seth, one of the things I think is remarkable about you is that you say no to a lot of things. And I’ve heard you in previous interviews talk about this. And you say no to speaking events routinely, which Jonathan, who works closely with me in my office, who I believe arranged our interview, Jonathan knows this. Whenever someone reaches out to me for a speaking event, I almost immediately say no, unless X, Y, Z is the case. Can you explain your criteria for what you say no to? Because that’s why you have the time freedom to focus on the things that you’re excited about. I mean, just because you say no, can you talk about what’s your criteria for the things you say no to? And what do you say yes to? Well, I would begin with this. The mantra that I think is true for everyone is pick your customers, pick your future. The people that you are serving, the people who are paying you, are the ones who are going to determine how you’re going to spend your day. I don’t have a staff. I don’t have a team. It’s just me. If I don’t spend today doing X, then I could do Y, but I can’t do X and Y at the same time. I used to limit myself to about 30 speaking gigs a year. Now it’s 15. I think hard about how far is this going to be, how many people am I going to be able to impact, is the audience, is the biggest one, enrolled in where I want to go. So I mistakenly took a gig six or seven years ago to 3,000 men and women, mostly men, who own car repair, a big chain of car repair franchises. So there were 3,000 people there. It met many of my criteria, except they had no interest in what I had to say. What was your speech of that day? Do you remember? Yeah, totally. My speech was, the speech I give is, if I were in their shoes, what would I need to hear, what would I want to hear, how could I open a door for them? So I imagined what I would do if I owned a Goodyear, good, rich, tire and rubber kind of facility? How could I be significantly above average? What would it mean to have a different relationship with my customers? What would it mean to do work that they would miss if it were gone to not be in a commodity business? I was right except for one thing, which is that’s not why they were in the business. They were in the business for something that I would never be in the business for, they liked owning a car repair shop and they didn’t want it to be one that was exceptional, they just wanted it to be the one they had. Right. They pay the bills, they just want to pay the bills. And I’m like, fine, that’s great, but I shouldn’t be the person to talk to you today. Ooh, well, now I want to ask you this because you have said, there was an interview you did with Tim Ferriss and Tim, for those of our listeners out there who don’t know, Tim Ferriss is one of the top podcasters on the planet. And you talked about how you typically rail against industrial complexes. Can you please explain why you rail against industrial complexes? And if you have time, I want you to talk about patina, because you and I share a love for the patina. So talk to me about railing against industrial complexes. And if you have a moment, I’d love for you to share your focus on Petitna. So General Eisenhower famously warned the public that there was a military industrial complex being built that was pushing us to be in the Vietnam War. And what it means is you have a company that makes weapons. You use some of that money to lobby the government to get into wars so you can sell more weapons. The military industrial complex, it works in tandem. What’s happened as various industries have grown is they’ve also turned into complexes. We have the educational industrial complex which is a for-profit system that’s constantly chewing kids up, putting them through test prep, putting them into debt, etc., etc. You have the social media industrial complex where people are basically going to work for their phones, not vice versa. That if you’re on a social network and you’re not paying for it, that’s because you’re not the customer, you’re the product. And we have these engines that push us to be cogs in a machine, push us to be part of the cash system, not part of the make a difference system. Whenever I see one of these working, my disruption is to say to the people who are willing to listen to me, wait a minute, you have more power than you think you do. You have more freedom than you think you do. It’s worth standing up and saying, I care enough about this that I don’t want to be a pawn in the system. I just want to make something better instead. I’m against cogs. I’m against people who check their imagination at the door when they get to work and who work for the weekend, work for the self-storage unit, work for the TV and the six-pack because life I think is too valuable to waste spending nine hours at work so that you can spend an hour and a half watching Netflix at night. Can you talk to me about patina? Because I think you and I share, I think we have a vesicle of Pisces. I think we have an intersection of our two values. I love patina. Can you talk to the listeners out there? What is patina? Why are you into it? So there’s a Japanese term, wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi is the decay of nature and its intersection with the rest of us. Wabi-sabi, patina, it’s the disorganized bookshelf, it’s the fingerprints we leave behind. So my office has a patina of 25 years of making stuff, the patina has a patina. I can tell when I walk into my office if someone’s moved a few of the books, because they’re not in any order whatsoever except they’re in my order. And patina is the sort of cruft that’s left behind of a life well-lived. So I don’t have a lot of patience for people who want it to be industrial and pristine. I would like to see that someone was here before me and I’d like to leave behind this set of fingerprints. Seth, if I could ask you this question, this is a self-help question for me personally and then I’ll let you hang up on this because I know you have other things to do and you’re choosing to be here with us. You guys are great. You’re good at this. I really appreciate this because this is like, I want you to, I’ve read your books and I’ve thought to myself, I would love to meet Seth Godin. And because I built multi-million dollar companies, that doesn’t take away my boyish excitement to have you on the show. And it’s going to go down as one of those, like, I want to put it on my tombstone. I once interviewed Seth Godin, it’s so exciting. So I want to ask you this question. You’ve been interviewed by some of the top podcasters and publications on the planet. In your mind, who was your favorite interviewer? The person who interviewed you where you thought that was a good interviewer, because I want to get better. So what was the best interviewer you’ve ever had and why? Well, I would say minute by minute, you two are up there because it’s almost impossible to do an interview in 10 or 15 minutes that actually gets to something of substance. And I applaud you for being crazy enough to try. And this has been thrilling. The interviews that are on my all-time list are much, much, much longer than this because you need to get into sync with people. My friend Brian Koppelman has done five with me. My friend Krista Tippett did an interview that made me cry that I recommend to people because that’s my best version of myself when I was on Being. And what I’m doing with my podcast Akimbo is interviewing myself and I’ve done that for 25 episodes so far and I really think that’s resonating with people. So those are three that I would mention. And as we’re wrapping this up, I just wanna point out that you’ve had great success. And I would say the secret of your success is work that matters for people who care. And that’s the untitled subtitle of my new book. Because if any of us get the chance to do work that matters for people who care, that’s all we can ever hope for. If I could sneak in- That’s powerful, I love that. If I could sneak in one more question. Can you tell us about your new book, your new thing? Because I’m excited as a consumer, and I know that if I buy your book, after you pay this guy who pays that guy who pays that guy, I don’t know what you make. Let’s say I buy a book for $20, which I always buy your books. So let’s just say you get, what do you get? If I buy a book for $20, do you get two bucks? I mean, how much less? Less than one dollar. Yeah. A dollar fifty. I probably have to buy four of your books. I’m not kidding. I have bought at least 50 of the Purple Cow book and I’ve given it away. Well, you did what I wanted you to. But let’s be really clear. If anyone thinks they’re going to make a living writing books, they’re crazy. I do not write books. I do not write books to make a living. I write books to make a difference. I go through all the hassle of cutting down all those trees and going through all these steps, not because it’s a good way to make a living, but because some people benefit from having that object in their hand. I’ve written 7,500 blog posts for free. If you want to read those, read those. But if a book helps you, then my new book is called This Is Marketing. The idea of this is marketing is when you appeal to the smallest viable audience, not the biggest one, with work that matters. When you see people for fear, when you see them for status, when you understand that some people measure affiliation and some people measure dominance, that when you get to the humanity of the story we tell ourselves, then you can finally get down to making the work that you care about. Seth, I appreciate you for writing content that matters, books that matter for people who care like myself. And I hope I didn’t screw up this interview so much that you never want to come on again. But I want you to know your book, Purple Cow, helped me launch a company called Epic Photography. It helped me absolutely change the way I ran DJ Connection and our company, Elephant in the Room, that we’re franchising, and a brand called OxiFresh that has over 400 locations, have all been impacted by the book Purple Cow. And so I’m honored and humbled to have you on the show. And thank you for not saying no to me, because I know that you are the master of saying no. And it means the world to me. And I’m probably going to go into my forest behind my man cave studio and probably cry to celebrate this moment. So thank you. And prophetically chop down a tree, because you said you have all those trees chopped down to produce your book. I mean it, though. It’s been a huge highlight in my life. So thank you so much for being here today. I feel great about it. I’m glad we got to connect. Thank you both. Good luck with the show. Thank you. It’s been a lot of fun. Have a blessed day. Classy actor. Thank you. Thank you, Seth. Bye-bye. Thrive Nation, if you are looking for a gift for somebody in your life who loves business, growing businesses, and the idea of achieving success in the world of entrepreneurship, you’ve got to go buy Seth Godin’s newest book called This Is Marketing. You can’t be seen until you learn to see. Again, I repeat, This Is Marketing. You can’t be seen until you learn to see. Pick it up today in bookstores or on Amazon.com. Also if you’re out there and you have yet to attend our in-person Thrive Time Show workshops, I would encourage you to purchase your tickets for our December conference. This thing is going to be hot. It’s December 7th and 8th. And we’re going to be featuring the best-selling author and the public relations expert of choice, the PR consultant of choice for Nike, for Pizza Hut, for Prince, for Michael Jackson, for George Michael, for President Bush, for President Clinton. Michael Levine will be attending the workshop, and he’ll actually be speaking at the workshop. And Ken Schmidt, the man responsible for the turnaround at Harley-Davidson, will also be speaking at the workshop. If you’ve yet to attend a Thrive Time workshop, I’m telling you, you owe it to yourself, to your family, and to your financial future. Get your tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com. And now, without any further ado, we’d like to end each and every show with a boom. And so here we go. Three, two, one, boom. Gentlemen, let me introduce you to the grill gun. Oh! Hi, I’m Bob Healy. I’m the inventor of the grill gun and the civy gun. Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 27th and 28th. We’ve been doing business conferences here since 2005. I’ve been hosting business conferences since 2005. And a lot of people, you know, have followed Tim Tebow’s football career on the field and off the field. And off the field, the guy’s been just as successful as he has been on the field. Now, the big question is, JT, how does he do it? Well, they’re going to have to come and find out, because I don’t know. Well, I’m just saying, Tim Tebow’s going to teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s going to walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is going to be a blasty blast in Tulsa, Russia. Also this is the first Thrive Time Show event that we’ve had where we’re going to have a man who has built a $100 million net worth. Wow. Who will be presenting. Now, we’ve had a couple of presenters that have had a billion dollar net worth in some real estate sort of things. Yeah. But this is the first time we’ve had a guy who’s built a service business, and he’s built over $100 million net worth in the service business. It’s the yacht driving, multi-state living guru of franchising. Peter Taunton will be in the house. This is the founder of Snap Fitness, the guy behind nine round boxing he’s gonna be here in Tulsa Russel Oklahoma June 27th and 28th JT why should everybody want to hear what Peter Taunton has to say? Oh because he’s incredible he’s just a fountain of knowledge he is awesome he’s inspired me listening to him talk and not only that he also has he practices what he teaches so he’s a real teacher he’s not a fake teacher like business school teachers so you got to come learn from them. And now the best-selling author of The Carnivore Diet and the multiple-time Joe Rogan guest, Dr. Sean Baker, joins our two-day interactive business growth and life optimization workshop. Also, let me tell you this, folks. I don’t want to get this wrong, because if I get it wrong, someone’s going to say, you screwed that up, buddy. So Michael Levine, this is Michael Levine. He’s going to be coming. And you say, who’s Michael Levine? I don’t get this wrong. This is the PR consultant of choice for Michael Jackson, Prince, for Nike, for Charlton Heston, for Nancy Kerrigan, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestselling authors he’s represented, including pretty much everybody you know who’s been a super celebrity. This is Michael Levine, a good friend of mine. He’s going to come and talk to you about personal branding and the mindset needed to be super successful. The lineup will continue to grow. We have hit Christian reporting artist, Colton Dixon in the house. Now people say, Colton Dixon’s in the house? Yes, Colton Dixon’s in the house. So if you like top 40 Christian music, Colton Dixon’s gonna be in the house performing. The lineup will continue to grow each and every day. We’re gonna add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup, but I encourage everybody out there today, get those tickets today. Go to thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s thrivetimeshow.com. And some people might be saying, well, how do I do it? What do I do? How does it work? You just go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Let’s go there now. We’re feeling the flow. We’re going to Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, you just go to Thrivetimeshow.com. You click on the business conferences button, and you click on the request tickets button right there. The way I do our conferences is we tell people it’s $250 to get a ticket or whatever price that you can afford. And the reason why I do that is I grew up without money. JT, you’re in the process of building a super successful company. Did you start out with a million dollars in the bank account? No, I did not. Nope, did not get any loans, nothing like that. Did not get an inheritance from parents or anything like that. I had to work for it and I’m super grateful I came to a business conference. That’s actually how I met you, met Peter Taunton, I met all these people. So if you’re out there today and you want to come to our workshop, again, you just got to go to Thrivetimeshow.com. You might say, well, when’s it going to be? June 27th and 28th. You might say, well, who’s speaking? We already covered that. You might say, where’s it going to be? It’s going to be in Tulsa, Russell Oklahoma. I suppose it’s Tulsa, Russell. It’s I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa, Russell. I’m sort of like the Jerusalem of America. But if you go to if you type in Thrivetimeshow and Jinx, you can get a sneak peek or a look at our office facility. This is what it looks like. This is where you’re headed. It’s going to be a blasty blast. You can look inside, see the facility. We’re going to have hundreds of entrepreneurs here. It is going to be packed. Now, for this particular event, folks, the seating is always limited because my facility isn’t a limitless convention center. You’re coming to my actual home office. And so it’s going to be packed. So when? June 27th to 28th. Who? You. You’re going to come! I’m talking to you. You can just get your tickets right now at Thrivetimeshow.com. And again, you can name your price. We tell people it’s $250 or whatever price you can afford. And we do have some select VIP tickets, which give you an access to meet some of the speakers and those sorts of things. And those tickets are $500. It’s a two-day interactive business workshop, over 20 hours of business training. We’re going to give you a copy of my newest book, The Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. You’re going to leave with a workbook. You’re going to leave with everything you need to know to start and grow a super successful company. It’s practical, it’s actionable, and it’s TiVo time right here in Tulsa, Russell. Get those tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s thrivetimeshow.com. Hello, I’m Michael Levine, and I’m talking to you right now from the center of Hollywood, California, where I have represented over the last 35 years 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestsellers. I’ve represented a lot of major stars and I’ve worked with a lot of major companies and I think I’ve learned a few things about what makes them work and what makes them not work. Now, why would a man living in Hollywood, California in the beautiful sunny weather of LA come to Tulsa? Because last year I did it and it was damn exciting. Clay Clark has put together an exceptional presentation, really life-changing, and I’m looking forward to seeing you then. I’m Michael Levine. I’ll see you in Tulsa. James, did I tell you my good friend John Lee Dumas is also joining us at the in-person two-day interactive Thrive Time Show Business Workshop? That Tim Tebow and that Michael Levine will be at the… Have I told you this? You have not told me that. Oh, he’s coming all the way from Puerto Rico. This is John Lee Dumas, the host of the chart-topping EOFire.com podcast. He’s absolutely a living legend. This guy started a podcast after wrapping up his service in the United States military and he started recording this podcast daily in his home to the point where he started interviewing big time folks like Gary Vaynerchuk, like Tony Robbins, and he just kept interviewing bigger and bigger names, putting out shows day after day. And now he is the legendary host of the EO Fire podcast and he’s traveled all the way from Puerto Rico to Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend the in-person June 27th and 28th primetime show, two-day interactive business workshop. If you’re out there today, folks, if you’ve ever wanted to grow a podcast, a broadcast, you want to improve your marketing, if you’ve ever wanted to improve your marketing, your branding, if you’ve ever wanted to increase your sales, you want to come to the two-day interactive June 27th and 28th Thrive Time Show Business Workshop featuring Tim Tebow, Michael Levine, John Lee Dumas and countless big-time super successful entrepreneurs. It’s gonna be life-changing. Get your tickets right now at thrivetimeshow.com. James, what website is that? ThriveTimeshow.com. James, one more time before you leave. ThriveTimeshow.com. Everything rides on tonight, even if I got three strikes, I’ma go for it. This moment, we own it, eh. I’m not to be played with because it could get dangerous. See, these people I ride with, this moment, we own it. Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshops are the world’s highest rated and most reviewed business workshops because we teach you what you need to know to grow. 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 Adipic chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and they’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get-rich-quick, walk-on-hot-coals product. It’s literally we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, but I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever, and we’ll even give you your money back if you don’t love it. We’ve built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see it. And now you may be thinking, what does it actually cost to attend an in-person, two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop. Well, good news, the tickets are $250 or whatever price that you can afford. What? Yes, they’re $250 or whatever price you can afford. I grew up without money and I know what it’s like to live without money, so if you’re out there today and you want to attend our in-person, two-day interactive business workshop, all you’ve got to do is go to thrivetimeshow.com to request those tickets, and if you can’t afford $250, we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. I learned at the Academy in Kings Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvard Kiyosaki, The Rich Dad Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re closed, but they’re completely different worlds. And we have a special guest today. Definition of intelligence is if you agree with me, you’re intelligent. And so this gentleman is very intelligent. I’ve done this show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts. As Mr. Clay Clark is a friend of a good friend, Eric, Eric Trump, but we’re also talking about money, bricks, and how screwed up the world can get in a few and a half hour. So Clay Clark is a very intelligent man, and there’s so many ways we could take this thing. But I thought, since you and Eric are close, Trump, what were you saying about what Trump can’t, what Donald, who’s my age, and I can say or cannot say. First of all, I have to honor you, sir. I want to show you what I did to one of your books here. There’s a guy named Jeremy Thorne, who was my boss at the time. I was 19 years old, working at Faith Highway. I had a job at Applebee’s, Target, and DirecTV. And he said, have you read this book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad? And I said, no. And my father, may he rest in peace, he didn’t know these financial principles. So I started reading all of your books and really devouring your books and I went from being an employee to self-employed to the business owner to the investor and I owe a lot of that to you. And I just want to take a moment to tell you thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success and I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump. I just want to tell you thank you, sir, for changing my life. Well, not only that, Clay, you know, thank you, but you’ve become an influencer. You know, more than anything else, you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. So that’s why I congratulate you on becoming, because as you know, there’s a lot of fake influencers out there too, or bad influencers. Yeah. Anyway, I’m glad you and I agree so much, and thanks for reading my books. Yeah. That’s the greatest thrill for me today, not thrill, but recognition is when people, young men especially, come up and say, I read your book, changed my life, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this. I learned at the Academy at Kings Point in New York, acta non verba, watch what a person does, not what they say. Whoa! Hey, I’m Ryan Wimpey, I’m originally from Tulsa, born and raised here. I went to a small private liberal arts college and got a degree in business. And I didn’t learn anything like they’re teaching here. I didn’t learn linear workflows, I learned stuff that I’m not using, and I haven’t been using for the last nine years. So what they’re teaching here is actually way better than what I got at business school. And I went what was actually ranked as a very good business school. The linear workflow, the linear workflow for us, and getting everything out on paper and documented is really important. We have workflows that are kind of all over the place, so having linear workflow and seeing that mapped out on multiple different boards is pretty awesome. That’s really helpful for me. The atmosphere here is awesome. I definitely just stared at the walls figuring out how to make my facility look like this place. This place rocks. It’s invigorating. The walls are super…it’s just very cool. The atmosphere is cool, the people are nice, it’s a pretty cool place to be. Very good learning atmosphere. I literally want to model it and steal everything that’s here at this facility and basically create it just on our business side. Once I saw what they were doing, I knew I had to get here at the conference. This is probably the best conference or seminar I’ve ever been to in over 30 years of business. You’re not bored. You’re awake, alive the whole time. It’s not pushy. It’ll try to sell you a bunch of things. I was looking to learn how to just get control of my life, my schedule, and just get control of business. Planning your time, breaking it all down, making time for the F6 in your life, and just really implementing it and sticking with the program. It’s really lively, they’re pretty friendly, helpful, and very welcoming. I attended a conference a couple months back and it was really the best business conference I’ve ever attended. At the workshop I learned a lot about time management, really prioritizing what’s the most important. The biggest takeaways are you want to take a step-by-step approach to your business. Whether it’s marketing, you know, what are those three marketing tools that you want to use to human resources. Some of the most successful people and successful businesses in this town, their owners were here today because they wanted to know more from Clay and I found that to be kind of fascinating. The most valuable thing that I’ve learned is diligence. That businesses don’t change overnight. It takes time and effort and you got to go through the ups and downs of getting it to where you want to go. He actually gives you the road map out. I was stuck, didn’t know what to do and he gave me the road map out step by step. We’ve set up systems in the business that make my life much easier, allow me some time freedom. Here you can ask any question you want, they guarantee it will be answered. This conference like motivates me and also give me a lot of knowledge and tools. It’s up to you to do it. Everybody can do these things. There’s stuff that everybody knows, but if you don’t do it, nobody else can do it for you. I can see the marketing working. It’s just an approach that makes sense. Probably the most notable thing is just the income increase that we’ve had. Everyone’s super fun and super motivating. I’ve been here before, but I’m back again because it motivated me. Your competition is going to come eventually or try to pick up these tactics. So you better, if you don’t, somebody else will. 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. This is where we used to live a few years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See? This is the life, right? So this is my old van and our old school marketing and this is our old team. And by team I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing. And this is our new team. We went from four to fourteen. And I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past. And they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales. Which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman. So we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 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 wanna thank you, Clay, and thank you, Vanessa, for everything you’ve done, everything you’ve helped us with. We love you guys. If you decide to not attend the drive time workshop, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. The Atmosphere plays offense is very lively. You can feel the energy as soon as you walk If you decide not to come, you’re missing out on an opportunity to grow your business, bottom line. Love the environment. I love the way that Clay presents and teaches. It’s a way that not only allows me to comprehend what’s going on, but he explains it in a way to where it just makes sense. The SEO optimization, branding, marketing. I’ve learned more in the last two days than I have the entire four years of college. Music The most valuable thing that I’ve learned, marketing is key, marketing is everything. Making sure that you’re branded accurately and clearly. How to grow a business using Google reviews and then just how to optimize our name through our website also. Helpful with a lot of marketing, search engine optimization, helping us really rank high in Google. The biggest thing I needed to learn was how to build my foundation, how to systemize everything and optimize everything, build my SEO. How to become more organized, more efficient. How to make sure the business is really there to serve me as opposed to me constantly being there for the business. New ways of advertising my business as well as recruiting new employees. Group interviews, number one. Before we felt like we were held hostage by our employees. Group interviews has completely eliminated that because you’re able to really find the people that would really be the best fit. Hands on how to hire people, how to deal with human resources, a lot about marketing, and overall just how to structure the business, how it works for me, and also then how that can translate into working better for my clients. The most valuable thing I’ve learned here is time management. I like the one hour of doing your business. It’s real critical if I’m gonna grow and change. Play really teaches you how to navigate through those things and not only find freedom, but find a purpose in your business and find a purpose for all those other people that directly affect your business as well. Everybody. Everybody. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get an opportunity to see that it’s real. Hey, Flyover family, come join us June the 27th and 28th, 2024 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We’re gonna be there with Clay Clark, an amazing group of individuals that have made such a difference in so many people’s lives. Do you wanna increase your production in a job? Do you wanna make more sales? Do you wanna own your own business? Do you wanna have breakthroughs financially? The key to that is knowledge. Clay Clark is anointed to help people in business. We’ve watched him over the last couple of years and we’ve been blown away. He is part owner of over 160 businesses. 2.4 billion dollars in sales. Before politics and the great reset came into Clay’s life, he had the number one rated Apple podcast and he interviewed people like Anthony Robbins, Seth Godin, the top authors, the top business minds in the world. At this specific event, there was an interesting cast of characters that come from gangs to American Idol. Some of the guests that are going to be there. Michael Levine, Colton Dixon, Peter Taunton, John Lee Dumas, Mando De La Viga. And Tim Scebo. They’re there to share what they’ve done and their breakthroughs and what their story is. And then Clay lays his map of business success, calls the path for every person to follow. So you may be sitting there thinking, okay, okay, I get it, I get it, what do I have to do? Go to thrivetimeshow.com. When you get there, the tickets are $250 or whatever you can afford. Yes, you got that right, $250 or whatever you can afford. You can name your price. So there are no excuses. You have to join us there. There are only a few VIP tickets left, like David said, special dinner and special time with the speakers. That is $500, why they last. So $500, only a few left if you want a VIP ticket. We want to meet these speakers as well, so we got VIP tickets. I want to meet Tim Tebow. I do too. The date is June the 27th and 28th, 2024 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Go to thrivetimeshow.com to get your tickets. Oh my God! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey guys, Luke Erickson here with the Thrive Time Show. As you can see behind me, we’ve got all kinds of energy going on. People are starting to show up for the conference and it is hot in this place. We’ve got grill guns over here, we’ve got people playing the drums, we’ve got a fire breather, and man, people are so excited as they come in. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! crazy her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her her is here on conference talking to entrepreneurs. We just wrapped up day one, it was incredible. We had some remarkable speakers, Michael Levine. We just finished with a lady named Jill Donovan who owns a company called Rustic Cuff, talking about the power of the Dream 100. I cannot wait to see what tomorrow holds. Hey guys, Luke Erickson with the Thrive Time Show here with you. It is day two and the energy is high. People are so excited to be showing up. The team is ready. Come on, let’s see what it’s like to go on in for day two. Follow me. I tell you what, people are so excited to be here for day two. It is going to be incredible. Cannot wait to see what today has in store. Right now, here at the conference, we’ve broken into groups going over search engine optimization. I know for most of us, myself included, if you hear that term, you go, what is that? What does that mean? That’s too techy for me. Well, our experts are breaking it down for people so that you can clearly understand how to come up top in Google. It’s doable. It’s possible. Now we’re in the middle of a break, and what we like to do is we like to give you as much tangible and relevant information from about the start of the hour for 45 minutes. Then we take approximately a 15-minute break to allow people to connect with other entrepreneurs around them, bathroom break, and also use this time to just really digest all of the good information that you’re receiving the whole time. Right behind me, we’ve got Bob with his grill gun, melting an ice sculpture, it is awesome. The ice sculpture represents our life, right? It’s here for a time, but we all need to have the sense of urgency to implement the things that we’re learning so that we can make the most of the time that we have. We are outside, you can see a line behind me. What’s going on is that we partner with different companies to help them implement the proven systems over and over and over again. And one of those companies is Master Machine. And so what we like to do is partner with these companies to also help them give samples to other people as they come to the conference and truly get their name out. I just wanted to recap some of the amazing things that have happened today. We’ve had entrepreneurs like Paul Hood with Hood CPAs. We’ve had Jill Donovan and Michael Levine come up. It just imparts so much wisdom and knowledge. We’ve got so much wisdom and knowledge. We’ve got an incredible giveaway for one of our teamies. Hey there, Thrive Nation. One of the things that we love most about our business conferences is that we want every entrepreneur to leave with their questions answered. So what we do is we let them put the questions up on the board here so that they can ask their specific questions and Clay will not end the conference until every question is answered. Behind this Clay Collard can answer all the different questions that entrepreneurs have brought to the conference. Whenever someone comes here and starts to hear this information, especially for the first time, it just brings about so much anticipation of wanting to actually implement the proven systems and processes. And so the lay always wants to make sure that he answers all of those questions, which they’re the most set up to be able to go home and start implementing. If you have any questions, email us at info at ThriveTimeShare.com. Hello, I’m Wes Carter. I’m one of the shareholders at Winters & Keen. My favorite thing that Thrive has helped me accomplish here in our firm is thinking a little bit outside the box. They do SEO, they do printing, they help us with a lot of things from the day-to-day marketing for the firm, but they also help us think of things that as attorneys we probably wouldn’t normally think of that help us market our services to our clients. One of the things I love about working with Thrive is that they make it enjoyable to actually do work with them. It’s not dry, it’s usually fun, but it’s always very enjoyable and practical. They give me things and ideas that I can put into place. It’s not just some theoretical spiel that they give me. We get practical steps that we work on together to do my job better. So me personally, I would easily recommend Thrive 15 services to my friends, my families. I recommend them to my clients. I think they do a good job. They’re passionate. They care about their clients. And I think it’s actually a valuable service they provide to people that are in the business world. My name is Jeff Thomas. I’m originally from Atlanta, Georgia. It’s all about getting to the grindstone. It is about putting the… It’s one thing to have a specific vision or a dream, but knowledge without application isn’t knowledge at all. So that’s nothing. Really funny? The atmosphere is very lively. Everybody that is working for Clay is very upbeat and not tired, not sluggish, not complaining, not whining. They don’t have anything to do with those types of characteristics. It’s all about getting to the grind and having fun while you do it. I haven’t actually been to any conferences in the past, but what I will say from what I’ve seen on YouTube and what from other friends have told me is this isn’t like a motivational kind of thing to just, you know, hoo-hoo, rah-rah, get you motivated, but it’s like practical steps that if you do take them, which most people aren’t willing to do, then you will grow and you will achieve the specific things that you want. Well, for one thing, I would say that this isn’t necessarily for everyone. So if you’re not willing to work, this isn’t for you. But I will say that if you are willing to work and you know you’re just getting started, but you have actually taken a step in that direction, then this will actually help you grow further exponentially than you could ever imagine. My name is Taylor Hall. I’m the general manager of the Tulsa Oilers professional hockey team. Our goal every night here at the BOK Center is to try to fill the seats with lots of people and create an exciting environment so when somebody comes to a game they want to come back. Working with Clay and the staff at Thrive, they’ve really helped us in many, many ways. Website and graphic design and video production and a lot of things that go along. And a lot of businesses, including ours, doesn’t have a staff or a full-time videographer or graphic designer. But the biggest thing that we noticed was the needle mover. More sales, more attendance, more successes in business. We had a record year last season working with Clay for the first time. Our average attendance is higher than it’s ever been. So there was a lot of really cool things that we did and they worked. That’s the nice thing about working with Clay and the team over there. It’s just not one person, you get the entire team. If you need video design and editing and production, they’ve got that. If you need graphic design, if you need some coaching, your sales people and call scripts, PR, they offer all that. Clay was instrumental in helping guiding us and getting us on the right track so that we could really raise the bar and become ultra successful. So it’s been an amazing experience for us. My name is Caitlin. I own a tumbling gym called Justice Tumbling Company. It’s awesome. Working with Clay is so helpful. It’s being diligent with everything and making sure we execute our goals and really make things happen. It’s fun, it’s high, it really gets you energized and going and just makes you really want to work. To get the momentum going, to really just like get that buzz, really give you the energy to get up and make it happen. I’m Bob Healy. I’m in the charcoal grilling industry and the name of my business is Grillblazer. How will I apply what I’ve learned so far into my business? I’m learning at this conference and my regular weekly attendance that it’s helping me establish business and get it off the ground. Clay’s presentation style is just blatant disregard for what anybody wants. He just has fun, it’s him, everything that you see is authentically Clay. It’s a great deal of fun. Everybody enjoys it. They know when they walk in, they think they’re coming into a carnival. And frankly, they are. It’s just great fun. There’s not another conference like it. You don’t go to a carnival atmosphere and learn like you do here at a Thrive conference. It’s great. The reason people should attend at least one of these conferences is because it’s common sense. And everybody’s fed an entire line about the way you should run a business. But until you actually experience running a business, which is, candidly, what you learn here, how to run a business. You don’t know what you’re doing. My name is Tyler Hastings, and this is my wife, Rachel. And our company is Delricks Research out of New Orleans. During our time working with Thrive, we’ve had numerous successes. When we first started, we were working with one physician, we had one research site, and we were seeing on average between 10 and 15 patients a week. Since working with Thrive in the last 18 months, we now have four research sites, we work with over five physicians, and on average we’re now seeing over 60 patients per week. Recently, we’ve been the top enroller worldwide in seven studies, which is just incredible considering where we were two years ago, 18 months ago. Thrive really differs from the other conferences that we’ve been to and the other kind of programs that we’ve been through because they actually really practice what they preach. And they implement the same systems and the processes that they teach you about. And they give you real life examples that really work for them and show you with the training how to implement that yourself. For example, Tyler and I actually got the opportunity to come out to Tulsa and we’re fortunate enough that the Thrive team took us out to some of the businesses that they own and we really got to see in real life, real-time, some of the systems and processes and it was just incredible. A real-life example of some of the businesses and the things that they’re implementing. Having a coach is important to us. They act as not only an accountability factor but they’re someone we can talk to on a daily basis as we go through the problems of running a business that inevitably come up. They always understand what we’re going through and they’re always there to help us or guide us through the problems that we experience. The best part of our experience working with Thrive has just been seeing our relationship grow. So at each step as our business grows, we know that they have something else to provide us with. They’ve got the resources, whether it be marketing, graphic design, website development or even in accounting practices, maybe we need a new insurance policy. If they have someone they can connect us with or they have the direct resource we need to speak with for any of the problems we face. If someone is thinking about signing up for the coaching program, I would highly recommend that they call in for a free 30-minute coaching session and see exactly what the team can do for you. Just speak with someone and let them know what you’re going through, and I think you’ll find that regardless of what you need, there is someone there that can help you. Clay’s presentation style is very real and raw. It just gets real down to the bone of it and the real purpose of it. There’s no, like, fluffy vagueness about it, you know? So, he really gets to the point. I’m always reminded about how important it is to be intentional and to really pay attention to how you schedule your time and really honor it. Because whatever gets scheduled gets done. That’s what he said from Lee Copperl. So just constantly hearing that and getting reminded helps me to reinforce that in my own life. It always helps to get an outside perspective. And especially from a guy that’s run so many multi-billion dollar businesses, it doesn’t hurt. My name is Nick Guajardo. I heard about the Thrive Time Show workshop through Andy Mathren. He’s my, Andy Mathren and Larry Montgomery, they’re my bosses at Restore Home Health. So I work with a home health company called Restore Home Health. And my role is pretty much to bring in business. So I was hoping to learn kind of the sales process on top of just kind of the responsibilities and help understand what it looks like on the SEO side and just kind of an all-around what it looks like to own a business because that’s something I want to do in the future for sure. How I would describe the atmosphere here at Thrive is high energy, great professionalism, great people. It’s just a place you definitely want to visit. And yeah, plays delivery style, humorous, professional, hilarious. I haven’t seen someone do it better, so he does a great job. The most valuable thing I’ve learned so far, a lot of it has been extremely valuable. So, but one thing that’s always really stuck out to me is learning the SEO stuff. I mean, that is, I think, things you don’t really even think about, and then you hear it, and you think you know it, but you don’t know it. So I feel like that was the most valuable. Well, they’re missing out on just, come down to just basic applications to be a business owner. I mean, I feel like it’s like an absolute necessity, you know, to come here and learn The the ins and outs and maybe come here once and twice or twice if they, you know, take good notes that kind of thing Why to just did it’s the experience here and what you can learn like absolutely So marketing and SEO seemed like something that would be very scary But then in the way that clay and his team described it became very clear and concise and something that’s very accessible to any business owner. I’ve learned a lot about marketing at this conference, and a lot about business management and HR, really everything, the key components of anybody’s business, they’re going to give you the best tools to be successful at it. So most workshops or conferences can be really boring, really one note, or they just seem so theatrical that it’s a joke and it’s not even giving you the tools that you need or that you came there for. But here, it’s still high energy, it’s still fun, everything’s to the point, but it’s very professional and yeah, you’re missing out on easy steps to use in your business that are very accessible and very clear. My name is Abigail McCarter. The best thing I’ve learned so far is definitely like organization, schedule wise, always keeping a to-do list, keeping your calendar organized. I’m kind of all over the place so that’s always good to know. So Clay’s presentation style and the atmosphere is electric. It’s so energetic, it’s so fun. Clay’s hilarious but also knows a ton. So it’s just really great all around. This conference is much different than any other conference I’ve gone to. Again, because it’s fun. Like a lot of other conferences, it’s like really quiet, really cold, and you just kind of get bored. But this one, you’re like always engaged, you’re always learning something, and the staff is amazing. They’re always super helpful. So it’s just been really great. My name’s Clint Howard. We’re a personal training and fitness training facility. Oh, wow. I’m learning a ton. Like, this morning so far has been searches and optimization. So really just the importance of being at the top of Google, how Google works, and why it’s so important to go out and get video reviews and testimonials and getting Google reviews. And so all those things, we can take back and really apply that immediately. So it’s really cool to see not only how to do it, but really the relevance and the importance of it in the long-term strategy of your business. Now, it’s amazing actually the way in this morning and yesterday I was videoing as I was walking in the front entrance. And actually me, I go to a lot of seminars, I go to a lot of conferences, massive ones. I’ve been doing that since I was like 22 years old, so I got to almost 20 years now. And this is by far the most entertaining, not only the content, their content is amazing, but Clay and you guys do a great job of mixing in entertainment where it’s fun, it’s fresh, it’s lively, you never get bored. And I heard a study one time that the reason that children learn so much quicker It’s fun, learning is fun, and so obviously Clay is nailed that. It’s very fun to be here and it keeps you awake, keeps you energized, so I’m having a blast. Yeah, I think any business owner or someone that wants to own a business or considering owning and starting a business should definitely come. I know that I was referred here by friends of mine and clients of mine, and I’ve referred other people. Again, just to understand what it takes to make a business successful, to have a good time, obviously, like I was saying, have fun. And network, there’s a lot of people here that you learn from, and there’s a lot of breaks that you can talk to other people. So I think this is a must-do for anybody that owns a business, and more than once has started this. My name’s Jamie Fagel, I’m with Jameson Fine Cabinetry. I heard about the conference through Andrew, he’s the coach that I deal with here at the Thrive. The most valuable piece I found, even working with Andrew, but it’s been solidified when it came here, was you got to actually do the things that they’re telling you. With no action, you’re not going to get anything from it. I would highly recommend this to almost anybody in business today. I have recommended it to some of my other business partners. It’s phenomenal. It’s really something that if you want to start a business, the old way of doing things is gone. This is what you got to do. It’s the only way it’ll work. Hey, this is Charles and Amber Kola. We’re the owners of Kola Fitness. The way we’re able to do that is working with Clay for the last three years, he has really readjusted our thinking and taught us that our business is here to serve us. And by doing that, we’re able to live the lifestyle we want and take off on a random vacation last minute. So we had totally planned on being at the conference. So wish we could be there and meet all of you. We know you’re having a great time. So thank you. Yes. Clay, in the last three years, has helped us build all the necessary systems, checklists, workflows, task lists, time blocks, audits that are always running, and the right capable lieutenants to keep track of all that, so that you, too, can get time freedom, financial freedom. And that’s what we have done, and Clay has helped us do. We’ve got multiple companies in multiple states and they’re all doing very well getting ready to go to two more locations in this next year. And Co-op Fitness has a really big future. We’re teaming up with a couple other groups and we should scale the company here shortly. Hopefully we’ll open like 50 locations in the next 10 years. So but yeah, we’re on the way. We’re going to probably more than double our company, maybe triple our company in the next eight to nine months. And it’s just awesome. God is working in our business and we’re making Jesus and changing lives. We’re a strong Christian company that focuses on making Jesus famous and changing lives in the fitness field. And this is Charles and Amber Cola. Thank you Thrive. Hit your action items. We love you guys. We wish you were there. You guys have a wonderful day. Bye-bye. My name is Jennifer Johnson. I’m in the pest control industry and also weed control and fertilization. And my business is Platinum Pest and Lawn. Some of the things that, I’ll be able to apply a lot of the things that I’ve learned in our business because this is not my first conference and so a lot of the things that we learned we’ve put into place and now we’re doing the next level of refining the processes for just a different concept and so it’s getting better and better. Things that were just big processes before, we have the foundation laid and now we’re able to make it better and better than hearing different things Now that we’ve implemented things and so we can just make it even better implementations in our own business Clay’s presentation and the atmosphere is very exciting and fun. It keeps you awake It makes it interesting you have a lot of information, but if it’s not going to be entertaining your brain is going to tune it out. But Play makes it just entertaining enough that you retain what you learn. Lots of rhyming and catchy things so that you remember stuff. What makes you different? Something that makes this conference different than other workshops or conferences that I’ve been to is that there’s a lot of people here in my same situation. We’re all, most of us are pretty small businesses wanting to improve. And we want real life information and something that will work and that’s attainable. And not just some crazy magic formula, but actual action items that we can implement in our business and actually see a difference. Everyone should attend a Thrive Type business conference, whether you’re a business owner, it has practical applications that you can apply to so many different parts of your business. And then you need to come back for more so that you can keep doing more of the wonderful things that you learn. But secondly, I am also a mom of three kids, and a lot of the concepts can actually be applied to home, like getting routines and getting, setting systems at home has just seriously made a huge difference in my life at home. So I’ve been able to improve our business, but I’ve also been able to improve things at home. And so, that’s why everyone should come, no matter what your station is in life. My name is Nolan Q. I’m originally from San Francisco, California. The industry that I’m in is financial services. I’ve learned a ton so far, but what I could best apply from this conference is the opportunity, that hunger to go out there and make a big difference in my industry. Clay’s presentation style is amazing. He’s got an endless amount of energy. It’s contagious. And yeah, by being here, I really do want to go back and be able to face all the adversity that the industry has. Yeah, this conference, the thing that makes it different is that it’s special because it has a unique set of individuals that all share that same energy. I think he takes it as a dragon energy, but yeah, that’s what we investigate. Everyone should come to multiple, but their first would be very special. Yeah, you’re welcome with a lot of enthusiasm. That’ll last for a long time. My name is Gabriela Cruz. Our business is HTS Electric. My husband’s the owner, but I’m involved with that, so we’re a lucky company. Well, here at the conference they talk a lot about consistency, and so just staying consistent with different things in the business, and I feel like applying that to our business model will really help us grow. The atmosphere is very positive, uplifting, and then it’s very fun and energetic, and so it gets you pumped and it gets you excited, and it encourages you to do big things. So, I think it’s a great place to be. I think it’s a great place to be. I think it’s a great place to be. I think it’s a great place to be. I think it’s a great place to be. I think it’s a great place to be. I think it’s a great place to be. I think it’s a great place to be. I think it’s a great place to be. I think it’s a great place to be. I think it’s a great place to be. I think it’s a great place to be. I think it’s a great place to be. I think it’s a great place to be. I think it’s a great place to be. I think it’s a great place to be. So it gets you pumped and it gets you excited and it encourages you to do big things. I probably like how real they are. They tell you up front what you need to do and what’s like a no-go. And so conferences are, they kind of trigger code things. So I like how real they are here. I think it will definitely, if you want your business to grow, I think this will be a great experience. And then not only that, it will encourage you and inform you on so many things you don’t think about on a daily basis. Hey, I’m Ryan Wimpey. I’m originally from Tulsa, born and raised here. I’ve definitely learned a lot about life design and making sure the business serves you. The linear workflow, the linear workflow for us in getting everything out on paper and documented is really important. Like we have workflows that are kind of all over the place. Having linear workflow and seeing that mapped out on multiple different boards, it’s pretty awesome. That’s really helpful for me. The atmosphere here is awesome. I definitely just stared at the walls figuring out how to make my facility look like this place. This place rocks. It’s invigorating. The walls are super, it’s just very cool. The atmosphere is cool, the people are nice. It’s a pretty cool place to be. Very good learning atmosphere. I literally want to model it and steal everything that’s here at this facility and basically create it just on our business side. Play is hilarious. I literally laughed so hard that I started having tears yesterday. And we’ve been learning a lot, which, you know, we’ve been sitting here, we’ve been learning a lot, so the humor definitely helps, it breaks it up. But the content is awesome, off the charts, and it’s very interactive. You can raise your hand, it’s not like you’re just listening to the professor speak, you know. The wizard teaches, but the wizard interacts and he takes questions, so that’s awesome. If you’re not attending the conference, you’re missing about three quarters to half of your life. You’re definitely, it’s probably worth a couple thousand dollars. So you’re missing the thought process of someone that’s already started like nine profitable businesses. So not only is it a lot of good information, but just getting in the thought process of Clay Clark or Dr. Zellner or any of the other coaches, getting in the thought process of how they’re starting all these businesses, to me, just that is priceless. That’s money. Well, we’re definitely not getting upsold here. My wife and I have attended conferences where they upsold, where it was great information and then they upsold us like half the conference and I don’t want to like bang my head into a wall and she’s like banging her head into the chair in front of her. Like, it’s good information but we’re like, oh my gosh, I want to strangle you, shut up and go with the presentation that we paid for and that’s not here. There’s no upsells or anything so that’s awesome. I hate that. Oh, it makes me angry. So, glad that’s not happening. So the cost of this conference is quite a bit cheaper than business college. I went to a small private liberal arts college and got a degree in business and I didn’t learn anything like they’re teaching here. I didn’t learn linear workflows. I learned stuff that I’m not using and I haven’t been using for the last nine years. So what they’re teaching here is actually way better than what I got at business school. And I went what was actually ranked as a very good business school. I would definitely recommend that people would check out the Thrive 15 conference. The information that you’re gonna get is just very, very beneficial. And the mindset that you’re gonna get, that you’re gonna leave with, is just absolutely worth the price of a little bit of money and a few days worth of your time. I’m Rachel with Tip Top 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. So this is my old van and our old school marketing and this is our old team and by team I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing and this is our new team. We went from 4 to 14 and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past, and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman. So we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts, and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, times 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. 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 running the business, building the systems, the checklists, the workflows, the audits, how to navigate lease agreements, how to buy property, how to work with brokers and builders. This guy is just amazing. This kind of guy has worked in every single industry. He’s written books with like Lee Crockrell, head of Disney with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with like Mike Lindell. He does Reawaken America tours where he does these tours all across the country where 10,000 or more people show up to some of these tours. On the day-to-day, he does anywhere from about 160 companies. He’s at the top. He has a team of business coaches, videographers, graphic designers, and web developers. They run 160 companies every single week. So think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. 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. I’ve seen guys from start-ups go from start-up 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. So amazing guy. Elon Musk, kind of like smart guy. He kind of comes off sometimes as socially awkward, but he’s so brilliant and he’s taught me so much. When I say that, 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. That’s what I like him most about him. He’s like a good coach. A coach isn’t just making you feel good all the time. A coach is actually helping you get to the best you. 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. They were super excited about working with him. He told me, he’s like, I’m not gonna touch it, I’m gonna turn it down, because he knew it was gonna 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, he doesn’t, his highest desire was to do what’s right. And anyways, just an amazing man. So anyways, impacted me a lot. He’s helped navigate. Anytime I’ve gotten nervous or worried about how to run the company or you know 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 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. 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 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. 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 have 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 them a shot, I think you’ll feel the same way. I know for me, the thing I would have missed out on if I didn’t work with Clay is I would have missed out on literally an 1800% increase in our internet leads. Going from 10 a month to 180 a month, that would have been a huge financial decision to just decide not to give it a shot. I would absolutely recommend ClayClark 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 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 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.