Entrepreneur | Coworkers – Dealing with Coworkers to Get Ahead

Audio Transcription

Get ready to enter the Thrive Time Show! We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re on the top. Teaching you the systems too, kid, what we got coming. Dixon’s on the hooks, I’ve written the books. He’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks. As the father of five, that’s what I’mma dive. So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi. It’s C and Z up on your radio. And now, 3, 2, 1, here we go. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, and that’s what we gotta do. Clint Clark, how are you, my friend? I am excited to be talking today about dealing with workers, co-workers, buddies, teammates. Workers working with workers. Workers working with workers. That’s exciting. That’s what we’re doing today. We’re working with you to talk about working with the workers who you work with. I love working with you. That’s great. We work well together when we’re working together. That’s one thing we’ll do. We’ll work it out. Here’s the issue, though. A lot of people don’t work well while they’re working together with coworkers. What? Yeah, that’s true. There’s a big issue. A huge issue, actually. I saw a statistic. Actually, New York Post actually said half of workers in large companies don’t like their co-workers. And if we’re just still piling on here, U.S. Department of Labor Bureau and Labor Statistics says 2 million Americans are voluntarily leaving their jobs every month and 35% of employees leave due to internal politics. So I don’t, you know, I’m not a math wizard, but just kind of jotted some stuff down here. That equates to about 8.4 million jobs per year people leaving because of internal politics. That’s huge. Huge man. Why is this you you travel around the world you talk with a event you you know you work with all these owners, companies, managers of people and individual employees. Is this true? Is this as big of a problem that it seems like it is right now? Well, I’m going to show you real quick. Listen, I’m oversimplifying. I’m going to give you your five characters that you see at most offices, OK? And I think when you see these five, you’ll go, OK, I get it. You’ve got sensitive, sensitive Sam. He is so sensitive. He is just, he’s a crier. He’s going to cry at any given time. He’s just like, I just don’t know what you’re talking about. Sensitive Sam. Then over here, you’ve got Likes to Fight Guy. Okay. Now Likes to Fight Guy, he’s angry at any point. He could explode. He’s just got, he’s like, are you kidding me? Are you? Every time. Okay. Then you’ve got Captain Fun. Okay. Now Captain Fun is kind of like, he’s wearing like a birthday hat. He’s like, hey, it’s someone’s birthday. Let’s celebrate. It’s someone’s birthday. Hey, look, it’s President’s Day It’s good. It’s the day. It’s the month before Christmas. What are we gonna do to celebrate Christmas? It’s the month after Christmas Hey, did you guys know it’s the new solstice? Did you guys know that it’s a full moon tonight? Let’s have a part right you have that guy, right? Then you have the money guy. He says Shut up. I’m here for the money. Oh, you shut up. I’m here for the money I’m here for the money and I want you to I want you to stop crying. Let’s make some money.” Right. Are you the birthday guy? Then, you’ve got the guy who just wants to marinate. So this is the marination guy. He’s like, Hey guys, did you know, he’s usually got kind of a Ted Koppel haircut. He’s got kind of a Ted Koppel, it’s kind of a parting over to the side. He said, Hey guys, did you know that last night our president gave an awesome address and you’re like no I did yeah And did you guys know that the square root of and you’re like no I did Did you guys know the equator is exactly a hundred miles from Michigan you’re like what? Well, I just interesting to me interesting and so you have these five personalities that are coming to work every day There’s some different ones too, but these are kind of the five I see a lot and so what happens is if you’re a leader or you want to be a leader you might go Well, I kind of focus on the money. I want to make money But I also want to be the fun guy and you’re trying to deal with people who only Care about fun or only care about fighting or only care about and that’s like your characters These are these are kind of these characters and then you have this one little guy We’re gonna call normal which is not normal, right? This is kind of 20% of the office who is there to get stuff done and they’re not they don’t really care about the politics I just want to get something done. Okay, so let me ask you this. If I care about advancing my career, I’m a thriver watcher, right? Yeah. My goal is to move up, dominate. I want to do that. Why do I need to be creative dealing with coworkers? Why does this matter? Why should we spend any time on this at all? Well, there is one, I watched an awesome documentary last night about how they make these skyscrapers. There’s one company who built a skyscraper It’s in London. And it’s a building that’s shaped like a… It’s kind of shaped… I don’t want to… I’m going to get the name of the building wrong, but it’s shaped like this. And it has a steel exoskeleton. And it’s got glass on it. And it’s this building that’s shaped as they built it in downtown London. And it only takes six workers and one crane to build this massive skyscraper. Because it was pre-assembled off-site. It’s crazy. So they’ve automated the whole system so it doesn’t require a ton of humans to build it. Okay. And unless you’re going to automate your system or deal with robots, you know where you just hit the button and they go, beep boop boop boop boop boop boop, and you’re like, oh cool, thanks R2D2, that was great. Right. Unless you’ve got C3PO running around, R2D2, unless you’ve got that whole, you know, Johnny 5 is alive, you’ve got that whole like back to the future kind of cube computer unless you’re in the movie Tron and let’s not to be able To do that. Yeah, otherwise you’re gonna be I mean unless your computer unless you can just replace humans Which is not possible, right? Um, you’re gonna be stuck So as somebody that has Promoted people. I mean you have tons of employees, you own a bunch of different businesses. Have you, do you look at that? Do you consider that? Okay, I would like to move this person up to become a leader in this area. But I don’t think that they know how to work well with people. Does that come into, weigh into your decision? I just had a conversation last week with somebody who gets their job done. Accurate half the time. Half the time they’re 100% accurate. Oh, wow. And I was saying, hey, you know, I need you to improve in these areas so you can get promoted. And it’s like the fight guy. He’s like, are you kidding me? You know what I do here? And right away, you realize this is not a promotable person. And so I’m just saying, we all trend to do, we all tend to do a few of these things. So what you want to do is ask yourself, which one of these personalities are you? And then begin to write down the names of the people you work with that fit these categories Who’s your who’s your sensitive to ask yourself? Who’s the captain fun? Who are these people and then begin to think about? How am I gonna treat these people? All right, so this is a huge problem. Let’s dive into it Then what we’re gonna be talking about today. We’ve got three principles. The first one is be thankful for the easy Differentiator, okay. The second one is don’t let them contaminate you. That’s bad. Third one is view them as your mission field. So the first one here, you just like making that sound, don’t you? Well, you did it three times. You want to do it a fourth time. Oh, yeah. That makes sense. I didn’t even think about that. OK. Principle number one here, be thankful for the easy differentiator. So we got a little notable quotable here. Napoleon Hill, your main man here, he’s one of the most successful authors as far as self-help books. Over 70 million copies sold. Million. Kind of a big number. This is what he says. By establishing a reputation as being a person who always renders more service and better service than that for which you’re paid, you will benefit by comparison with those around you who do not render such service, and by contrast, will be, and the contrast will be so noticeable that there will be keen There will be keen competition for your service No matter what your life work may be he’s saying if you over deliver you’re gonna stand apart so far Well, it will like be competing just to have your service Well a lot of times companies get acquired, you know company gets purchased it gets bought it sold whatever sure and the new owner comes in and goes Who here has their stuff together? And they’ll go, OK, we got a normal guy here. OK, let’s promote him. I mean, it’s just a deal like you stand out. Because the other 80% of the staff is nuts, and you’ve got 20% that’s doing the job that’s very stable. And you just stand out. I mean, it’s easy to get promoted. People just promote you because they hear there’s rumors that you’re normal. So that’s the first principle, is just the fact that you should be thankful for the differentiation here. It’s easy to get promoted. You just show up on time every day. Think about this. This is amazing. I talked to a guy years ago who owns a bank, and he said, literally, if you show up to work every day this year on time, and you do your job, you are going to be one of five people in my organization of 200 people who have done that. And therefore, you will get a raise. That’s crazy. It says all you do is show up on time and do your job. But it’s amazing how hard it is for people. People sprinting into work. I’m sure you’ve seen this. I’m gonna, I know I shouldn’t do this because it makes the camera crew crazy. Yeah. But the guy who sprints in and he’s like… You wouldn’t believe traffic. Did you run in traffic? Were you running past other cars? Is that how you got to work? I had a guy, literally, he told me, he goes, bro, my car quit working, so I had to skateboard in. I’m sorry I’m two hours late. I swear to God. He said I had to skateboard in to work. You’re like, you skateboarded in to work? I mean, come on. I mean, it’s so stupid. If your car doesn’t work, first off, leave an hour. If you know it takes you 10 minutes to get to work, leave an hour before. Then, when you have a car problem, call someone and tell them, hey, boss, I want you to know, it’s an hour before work and my car doesn’t work. I just want you to know. But instead, don’t run. You know the person who’s running into the office meeting is someone who left 20 minutes late. And they had normal traffic, but then they just put it off on traffic. Let me ask you this. How does this principle, being thankful for the easy differentiator, apply to dealing with co-workers? Instead of getting upset, just thank them. Okay. Thank you for being a jackass. Thank you for being stupid. Thank you for wanting to fight. Thank you for being dumb. Thank you for not studying. You shouldn’t get too worked up. I love it. I gotta tell you that was a speaker. Yeah, it’s the best. Yeah, it’s a feast. Yeah, you go in to speak. And I’ll get a guy who speaks before me who goes, now guys, I didn’t really prepare today. For today’s talk. I got put in charge of the… I was the chairman last year. Susie, when you’re going, what? Last year Susie was the chairman and this year I am. And I got to tell you guys, this date just crept up on me. And so I didn’t have a whole lot prepared. So I’m just gonna go off the cuff. I’m like, we know! And if I get up to speak, I could be the crappiest speaker ever, but I’m not that bad. I mean, it’s like comparing a prisoner, you know, a guy in prison for a violent crime with Satan. I mean, by comparison, you’re like, well, I’ll take him. It’s just a great deal. So you want to be thankful. Don’t get mad at him. Don’t get mad. Don’t let him take that emotional. I’m harping on this because there’s so many right now. You need to hear this. Don’t get upset. I was talking to a lady today. She’s a wife, neat lady, I was talking to her and her husband. She’s like, oh, the moms at the school are so mean. I’m like, be thankful. Be thankful they’re all hateful. You stand out as a bright spot. You’re a shining light. Don’t get mad. Don’t let them take your joy. Just bring your energy and try to create that momentum. If there wasn’t anybody who needed to be led, there would be no leadership positions. And let me tell you what, people pay a lot of money to leaders to lead people. If people could just naturally, if these crazy people weren’t doing their normal dysfunction, they wouldn’t need you. If organizations were naturally organized, they wouldn’t need someone to do that, they wouldn’t need leaders. So I’m just telling you it’s very very important to be thankful Don’t be upset. Don’t want to take any of your joy. I love it. Be thankful. That’s huge It goes right into the second one too when you’re talking about not losing joy The second principle is don’t let them contaminate you don’t let them Contaminate you. Yeah, that’s that that’s where we got that sound from earlier. I’m sorry I have a notable quotable here though from Dale Carnegie. All right, he wrote the book how to win friends and influence people This is what he says, when we hate our enemies, we are giving them power over us. Power over our sleep, our appetites, our blood pressure, our health, and our happiness. So if you let some of these crazy people, you’ve written out here, the angry person, the fun, these people just make you mad if they actually affect your emotional state here. Emotional state you I have to tell you what I tell myself I honestly and I’m a person who is a kind of a prayerful guy. I do pray. I don’t pray Maybe I don’t go to a house of worship and pray a lot there I go to those places, but I kind of in a constant state of prayer Yeah, or in a constant state of but the other day I literally there was somebody who was being such a moron But I literally was like I want to thank you for this idiot because if there wasn’t this idiot, I would not have this level of leadership. I wouldn’t have this consulting job if this person wasn’t such a moron. I am so thankful for their idiot-ness. It is awesome. That’s ridiculous. Oh yeah. But what happens? How many times, you’re a consultant, you work with these clients, they’ve got their own employees that they deal with. How often do you see somebody whose emotional state has just been wrecked, they have been contaminated by people they hate, people they’re frustrated by. Due to legalities and various potential legalities, I won’t yet disclose the specifics of this situation. However, I had a partner years ago that screwed me over bad. Just took my stuff, maxed out credit cards and my name, did some bad things. I had to pay all the investors back. I was so mad. This is a little ample example for us here. Yeah, it was just real talk. I was mad. And I was like, I remember calling and being like, you need to pay me back. You need to pay me back. I remember going to the house, I remember calling them, writing letters, talking to the attorney, having the attorney write letters, you need to pay me back. And the whole time he was like, not going to do it. You know what just happened about three weeks ago? I finally had to just give it, if you don’t believe in giving it to God, I would just encourage you to write your issues on the water’s edge so when the sea comes over each morning when the tide comes in it washes it away What if you do if you live in like a landlocked area? You want to go to the rock you want to find a rock and just beat the rock with a stick Until you no longer have any I’m being serious so what happened though, so what happens is the guy comes to me And he says this is what you literally he goes I have literally had ulcers in Like hard time sleeping because I felt so bad about what I did to you in your life. Well, I would Like to ask you this is like seven years like eight years later. I would like forgiveness and I’m like You want forgiveness? He’s like, yeah, I I just felt so awful the money back or just funny for you Just felt bad about everything and I’m like easy I honestly have cancer and I’ve been going through stomach problems and it’s just wrecked. And the doctors will tell you that, just so you know, I mean, cancer, a lot of cancer, a lot of heart disease, a lot of ulcers, stomach problems are caused by being stressed. And I said, hey, you know, I forgive you. I mean, and you know, if you wanna restore me financially and pay me back for things, that’s up to you. But I forgive you. And I’m just telling you, I though carried that hate for about a year. So what happens… And it honestly, I couldn’t sleep man. How, I mean, how does this affect your dealing with coworkers if this is, if you’re contaminated? What happens when you’re trying to coexist and deal with other coworkers? Well, forgiveness is not for the person you’re forgiving, it’s for you. So when you forgive someone, when you say, hey, I forgive you, you don’t let the person who’s offending you be in control of your life. If someone offends you, if they lied to you, they stole from you, they cheated, they did something awful, don’t let them take your joy and your stuff. Just immediately, before they even ask for forgiveness. By the way, they’re not going to usually ask for forgiveness. Usually they’re so steeped in justification and idiocy and poor mindsets that they’re never gonna ask for forgiveness, but you just go hey I forgive you I Remember saying to this guy and this is I’m not making this up literally man-teared from this guy I said, do you know what every day that you had my stuff and you didn’t Restore it and even now Every time I think of you I pray for you and I pray that you’ll be abundant and you’ll be successful And you’ll be fine every time you know why because I’m not gonna let you take my joy And he was like I am so sorry and honestly we had this talk and it was unbelievable how? He the guilt he had right was eating him, right? So clay for the second principle then you don’t let them contaminate you Do you have action items for the Thrivers watching today that you can say hey if you’re dealing with these people, if you’re a human, you are, what action steps do they take today? What you want to do is you want to decide right now that you have, it’s this cause and effect deal, okay? Okay. So you have to say it’s cause and effect. You can say, am I going to affect people or am I going to let them affect me? Am I going to be a plus or am I going to be a minus? You just have to decide that right now because there is no neutrality. If you’re just trying to keep on keeping on mind your own business, then you’re not really helping your organization. If you are somebody who is a change agent, a catalyst, the kind of person who can create a momentum, then at that point you’re going to have to pull aside with the guys marinating. You have to go, hey, I really enjoy that story. I want to ask you, can we maybe talk after work about that? And that way we can go ahead and focus right now and get this done. We really got to get that deadline done. Right. You go to the likes to fight guy and you say, hey, you know, I’d like to sit down and figure out why you feel that way and talk to him and just be candid with him. And if you’re not in a position of leadership where you can tell them that, then you are in a position of influence and you can lead by leading by example. You can lead by example. You can do a good job and people will notice the way you live your life and over time they’ll start to say, like just about a month ago a guy pulled me aside and goes, dude, how do you stay motivated? Right. I remember that. How do you stay motivated? It’s a great question. Yeah. But I was in a position of leadership and by leading by example, he was able to say, how can you stay motivated? He wouldn’t have asked me, you don’t ask someone a question who doesn’t know the answer. So you want to lead by example and you want to decide. So one is lead by example, no matter where you’re at. Because that’s the first action. First action item. Lead by example. And the second is decide whether you’re going to be a plus or a minus. Decide whether you are a plus or a minus. Right. OK, so you make that decision. That’s huge. Yeah. What we’re doing next is this third principle is big as well. The principle number three is view them as your mission field. Yeah. And you’ve kind of started to lead into that perfectly with that last principle as well. But view them as your mission field. Dale Carnegie says, quote, nothing can bring you peace but yourself. That’s the notable quotable here. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Clay, let’s get down to the core issues here, okay? Core issues, talk to me about how this applies and why this third principle is so important. Well, okay, like let’s say if you’re President Obama right now, whether we like him or not politically, just work with me on this. Let’s say you were President Reagan, whether you like him or not. I’m just giving you two examples. You can’t get on the TV screen and go, America, you’re not getting your crap done. Imagine this was a presidential debate and you say, presidential address, I’m talking to America and the White House is behind me, the Oval Office, and I’m like, America, you’re not getting your crap together. Your crap’s not getting done and I’m tired of it. I’m tired and goodnight. I mean, that’s not going to be a good address. What you have to do is you have to tell people, you have to cast a vision. You have to say, I believe this country is great. It has the capacity to be greater and we can all improve. And so to do that, here is the vision. You have to constantly share the vision and tell people how they can improve. Encourage people. Push people. Encourage people. Show people they can get there. But don’t view people who are not performing at the level they can as like a cancerous, end-of-the-world problem. Understand, this is your mission, this is your opportunity. This is your opportunity to lead people. If they didn’t need to be led, there would be no room for a leader. So, okay, if I’m not a leader yet, why do I need to do this now? How will viewing them as my mission field further my career? I guess I’m being totally selfish. Why do I need to buy into this take this opportunity? Well, if you’re if you’re a leader, you’re the folks you work with are your theater Okay, if you’re a leader the folks around you that’s kind of your theater. This is like your stage This is your chance to show what you’re what you’re on the planet You’re a little show like hey, this is my opportunity to break out of that clutter of commerce, to break out of that clutter of everyone’s equal and everyone’s trying to get a promotion, and to show why you deserve that promotion. But if you view it any other way, you’re going to start complaining about them. And guess who you can’t change? Them. And according to Dale Carnegie, he says, nothing can bring you peace but yourself. You can’t wait for other people to change to get peace of mind. You have to decide right now. Now is my time for peace of mind. Now I got another notable quotable here from Dale Carnegie. And by the way, if this is something that you guys really want to dive into even more, we’ve got more trainings on interacting with coworkers, but also this book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, that Dale wrote is incredible. When I was struggling with bitterness, the book that helped me go from bitterness to betterness was this book here called How to Stop Worrying and How to Start Living by Dale Carnegie. That was the book. Both of those, okay. That was the book that helped me get, honestly, I was so mad at that person. Right. This is the book that helped me. I was stuck. I was so mad. This is a notable quotable here from that book, the book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. Dale says, he’s in the discussion here, he’s kind of talking, we’ll jump in the middle, but he says, that’s what a great educator does, but the fool does the exact opposite. If he finds that life has handed him a lemon, he gives up and says, I’m beaten, it’s fate. I haven’t got a chance. Then he proceeds to rail against the world and indulge in an orgy of self-pity. But when the wise man is handed a lemon, he says, what lesson can I learn from this misfortune? How can I improve my situation? How can I turn this lemon into lemonade? Now you’re saying that’s the mindset you have to have when you’re dealing with this you have to view them as your mission field This quote right here blows my mind if I was watching right now. I hit pause and just look at it and just kind of And then my mind would start to rotisserie marinate start to just let’s have a mental marinate I want to get into have a mental marination moment. Rotisserie. Right here. I just want to get into this. Just marinate on this. Here we go. He says if he finds that life has handed him a lemon, he gives up and says I’m beaten. How often have we done that people? It’s fate. How often have you done it? How often have I done it? Where we have a bad situation where we’re like, well that’s just how it is. Right. Let me tell you something guys. If you’re a school teacher right now and you’ve got some kids that are tough. I remember I volunteered to teach at an inner-city school where I had some tough kids. Well guess what? I got so many thank-you cards from kids six, seven years later who said, you changed my life Mr. Clark. Well if I had gone into a school where everyone has it all together, I wouldn’t have gotten that card. I wouldn’t have received that card. You know who I helped? By helping them myself. I felt great about it. But I feel bad when I think about all the times that I was given a situation and I thought, well, because this team I’m asked to lead, or this group that I’m working with is a bunch of idiots, and now I’m just blah. And so it’s a check yourself deal. And every time we run into that situation, you don’t want to just go out there in a situation where you can’t possibly ever win and just keep coming back. That doesn’t make any sense. But what I’m saying is, then the natural thing is we start to do that word, just self-pity, that vile where you start to say, he says here, an orgy of self-pity. You start to just rail against the world and go, these people, I’m tired of it. I’m tired of being tired. I’m so tired of them. Yeah, you start to go off on tangents. But then he says, the other person, the wise person, looks at this misfortune and says, how can I improve this situation? What can I learn from it? I mean, Walt Disney, when he lost everything, famous story that is true, Walt Disney lost it all you know multiple times. Yeah. And when he lost it he started to go, what can I do to get to make a better result? And you guys probably know this, but he changed from making Mortimer, Mortimer was the first mouse, to Mickey Mouse. Now Mortimer was an angular shape, he wasn’t, it was a kind of a, it was a certain kind of mouse and his personality was different. And Mickey Mouse became this funny, light-hearted, witty character. So he went from this harder character to a softer, friendly, more relatable character. He went from drawing all the cartoons to building a team of people and focusing on what he did well, which is write these movies, and to lead teams. He went from drawing to doing the voiceovers. Remember, he lost it twice. So don’t feel bad if you’re losing. Just understand if you’re going through this situation, are you getting bitter or are you getting better? Okay, and we’ve touched on it a little bit here, but I think that this is going to be a huge lesson for a lot of people here. So what are the resources of choice here? If we’re looking at the resources of choice, what are you saying we need to tap into these resources? What do we do if we’ve identified this as a problem? Right now is I’d write down all the things in your life that are terrible that are going on. Okay. So let me just start with me. Okay. I’ll give you an example. One, I always have a lawsuit going on. Right. I don’t remember the last time I didn’t have one. Right. I always do. If you own a business, you’re always gonna have a lawsuit going on. So that that frustrates me. It pisses me off. So I’ll put that down. Okay. Cool. What else? Certain people in the family. You go, come on man! Come on man! You just go, come on man! What is your deal? You know, I don’t want to get specific, but you’re starting your family who for whatever reason just can’t get their crap together. So you put that down. You put down traffic. What’s up with that? What do you do with these things? You’re the person at the DMV. Oh, yeah. You’re at the airport. Everyone, for some reason, everyone goes to the airport late and acts like it’s a unique situation that they’re in a hurry, which gives them an excuse to be a complete idiot. To be a jerk. So yesterday, I’m at the airport, and I told you this, because it happened. We were at the airport, and there’s all these people getting there late, trying to catch that 5 o’clock, 6 o’clock flight. Yeah, and we’re there way early. And this lady’s like, excuse me, this man literally was going, and you were grabbing bags. And I’m like, are you okay? And he’s like, you need to move those bags. I’m in a hurry. Well, I was like, okay, absolutely. You know, you can walk around if you want to. I moved out of the way. Well, like he was so upset. Yeah, and he’s justified. He’s justified because he’s upset. So I decided at the trip I’m gonna go out of my way to be nice to anyone who’s mean. Right. And so we were sitting at that little bar over there and this lady, she was kind of rude to me at first. I sat down and she’s like, excuse me. And I was like, I guess she thinks that every seat there is hers. Right. She didn’t want to take it. And I guess I’d violate her personal space. I guess it was like two inches too close. Anyway, so I sit down and I said, I’m so sorry. I said, what’s your name? And she said, such and such. I said, where are you from? She said, I’m from Mexico. I said, so what are you in town for? Well, my husband and I, you know, I’m visiting some family. And I said, so what do you do? Well, we’re thinking about starting a business. I’m like, oh, what kind of business? And I just have a nice smile. I’m trying to be kind to her. And then about the third or fourth question, she’s like, well, what do you do? She, her tone had changed. And I said, well, I actually, I travel around the country teaching people how to start and grow businesses. I was Entrepreneur of the Year for the Small Business Administration 2007. And she says, could you tell me about that? And then she’s in, yeah. And all of a sudden, I was able to help her. That’s cool. I gave her 10 steps to get going. And it was, it was an enriching thing. And then when I finished helping her, she goes, thank you so much. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’ve just been a little stressed. And I thought, there it is. Right. So how much better did I feel about my day because I chose to take the high road there. So let me ask you this. Do you suggest that somebody who has identified this as an area for improvement to read these books by Dale Carnegie? I would recommend that you prayerfully, and if you don’t pray I’d recommend you thoughtfully, and if you don’t think I’d recommend that you marinate. But either way you need to get this book How to Stop Worrying and How to Start Living and it needs to be sort of every time that you go into a tough situation that book explains to you how the world’s greatest leaders dealt with adversity. It’s huge. You have to find your move. I love it. Because for me every time something gets bad what I do is I think about well it could be worse. Right. My dad’s had cancer. I’ve lost family members to death. It could be worse. This is better. I’m thankful. That’s my move. That’s huge. But he gives you all different moves on how to deal with stress. And we’ve given you three as well. The three principles we touched on is one, be thankful for the easy differentiator. You should literally be thankful that these other people act the way they do. This should never make you upset. Two, don’t let them contaminate you. We talked about the impact of that and how to avoid that. Don’t let them contaminate you. Third is view them as your mission field. That mindset is going to change how you view everything and this book is a huge resource. Do you have any closing thoughts here? Any final action items, or maybe you’re talking to a thriver out here that feels what you’re saying is kind of hidden close to home, but doesn’t quite want to let go of anger, or they’ve been contaminated? I talked to a guy named Brad yesterday, he’s a thriver. And Brad was explaining to me that he’s in a toxic work environment where everyone’s negative. And I remember just a brief little conversation. But I had said, hey, be thankful for that. And he’s like, well, why? I was like, well, because you’re going to stand out. So don’t get bitter. Get better. Show people what it’s like. Show them. Lead by example. Show them the high road. Don’t let them wear off on you. And you’ll stand out. And I promise you, a promotion is right around the corner. And I would just encourage you guys to do the same thing I told Brad, because it’s just a decision. Because think about it, as you get promoted, I’ll leave you with this final thought. If you get promoted, now in the dictionary it doesn’t work out this way, so work with me on this, but the word promotion in my mind means more problems. That’s what it means. Now Colin Powell, who used to be basically one of the highest ranked military officials and members of the United States military, he worked under the President Bush administration. He says that leadership is solving problems. I just look at it as promotion as problems. So every time someone asks me to invest in a company or to help lead a company or, hey, could you help consult with us, or we’d like to bring you in to facilitate our group discussion. I know that a promotion is asking for more problems. So right now, think about it. It requires a big person to lead a big company, and big people don’t focus on small things. So right now, just ask yourself, what kind of person do you want to become? Not what kind of person are you, or what kind of person were you, but what kind of person do you want to become? And just understand, if you didn’t get promoted, there’s more problems. And if you can’t handle the problems, stay in a small job. Small problems, small issues, spending your whole day worrying about small things, getting petty about small politics. If you want to be a big person with a big check, sign up for the big problems. Deal with it. I love it. I love it. I feel like I, you know, you’ve promoted me here and there, I feel like I’ve got a good amount of problems, but hanging out with you is not one of them. I love hanging out with you. All right, JT, so hypothetically, in your mind, what is the purpose of having a business? To get you to your goals. So it’s a vehicle to get you to your destination. And would you need profits to get there? I mean, when you have a business that’s successful, in your expert opinion, would you need profits to get you to your goals? Yeah, because if you have a $15 million business, but you have 15 million dollars of expenses it’s kind of pointless. Holy crap! Alright so the question I would have here for you if you could take like 10 minutes or less and see if you could save 3,000 bucks a year by reducing your credit card fees would you do it? Yes absolutely. Holy crap! Why would somebody out there who’s listening right now who has a sane mind why would they not go to thrive timeshow.com forward slash credit dash card Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card to schedule a ten minute consultation to see if they can reduce their credit card fees by at least three thousand bucks a year. Why would they not do it? Yeah, why would they not do it? Maybe because they don’t understand how you set the website. This tree is a symbol of the spirit of the Griswold family Christmas. No, that’s clear, okay, so that can be true. So I encourage everybody to check out Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. What would be another reason why someone would not be willing to take 10 minutes to compare rates to see if they could save $3,000 or more on credit card fees? Maybe they think it is a waste of time and that it won’t, it’s not possible. There’s somebody out there that’s making more than three thousand dollars every ten minutes and they’re like nah that’s not worth my time we getting there everybody we getting there everybody there’s probably someone out there that would think that well I’ll just tell you folks if you’re out there today and you’re making less than three thousand dollars per ten minutes I would highly recommend that you go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash hard because you can compare rates you can save money, and you know the big goal in my opinion of building a business is to create time freedom and financial freedom, and in order to do that you have to maximize your profits. Holy crap. Now one way to maximize your profits is to increase your revenue, another way to do it is to decrease your expenses. It’s a profit deal. Takes the pressure off. JT, is there any other reason why somebody would not be willing to take 10 minutes to compare rates to see if they could save a total of $3,000 a year on average? I am at a loss and I cannot think of any other. Shampoo is better. I go on first and clean the hair. Conditioner is better. I leave the hair silky and smooth. Oh, really, fool? Really? IPS, it’s Integrated Payment Services, and I scheduled a consultation. I don’t know if I was skeptical, I just thought, whatever, I’ll take 10 minutes, I’ll compare rates. I can’t tell. You can tell me I’m a doctor. No, I mean, I’m just not sure. But can’t you take a guess? Well, not for another two hours. You can’t take a guess for another two hours? And in my case, in my case, my particular case, I save over $20,000 a year. Holy crap! Wow. Which is, you know, like groceries when my wife goes to the organic stores. Find everything you need today? Yeah. Great. Okay. Oh, God. Everything okay, ma’am? It’s just that you’ve only scanned a few items and it’s already 60 bucks. I’m so scared. Okay, I’m a trained professional, ma’am. I’ve scanned a lot of groceries. I need you to stay with me. It’s just that my in-laws are in town and they want a charcuterie board. This isn’t going to be easy, so I need you to be brave, all right? What’s your name? Patricia. Patricia, all right. I need you to take a deep breath. We’re about to do the cheese. You know, that’s the difference between eating organic and not organic. So because my wife eats organic, I had to take the 10 minutes needed to compare rates to save the $20,000 a year on credit card fees just for one of my companies. One question, what’s the brand name of the clock? The brand name of the clock, Rod, do we have it? The brand name of the clock, it’s an elegant, from Ridgway, it’s from Ridgway. Let’s buy the clock and sell the fireplace. I encourage everybody out there, go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. You schedule a free consultation, request information, a member of our team will call you, they’ll schedule a free consultation. It should take you 10 minutes or less, and they’re going to compare rates and see if they can’t save you more than $3,000 a year off of your credit card processing. You were hoping what? I wouldn’t owe you money at the end of the day. No, you don’t owe us money, because at the end of the day, the goal of the business is And in order to do that, you need to create additional profits. The number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. We are Jared and Jennifer Johnson. We own Platinum Pest and Lawn and are located in Owasso, Oklahoma. We have been working with Thrive for business coaching for almost a year now. What we want to do is we want to share some wins with you guys that we’ve had by working with Thrive. First of all, we’re on the top page of Google now. I just want to let you know what type of accomplishment this is. Our competition, Orkin, Terminix, they’re both $1.3 billion companies. They both have 2,000 to 3,000 pages of content attached to their website. So to basically go from virtually nonexistent on Google to up on the top page is really saying something. But it’s come by being diligent to the systems that Thrive has, by being consistent and diligent on doing podcasts and staying on top of those podcasts to really help with getting up on what they’re listing and ranking there with Google. And also we’ve been trying to get Google reviews, you know, asking our customers for reviews and now we’re the highest rated and most reviewed Pest and Lawn company in the Tulsa area and that’s really helped with our conversion rate and the number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. Wait, say that again. How much are we up? 411%. Okay, so 411% were up with our new customers. Amazing. Right. So not only do we have more customers calling in, we’re able to close those deals at a much higher rate than we were before. Right now our closing rate is about 85% and that’s largely due to, first of all, our Google reviews that we’ve gotten. People really see that our customers are happy, but also we have a script that we follow. And so when customers call in, they get all the information that they need. That script has been refined time and time again. It wasn’t a one and done deal. It was a system that we followed with Thrive in the refining process. And that has obviously, the 411% shows that that system works. Yeah, so here’s a big one for you. So last week alone, our booking percentage was 91%. We actually booked more deals and more new customers last year than we did the first five months or I’m sorry the first we booked more deals last week than we did the first five months of last year from before we worked with Thrive. So again we booked more deals last week than the first five months of last year. It’s incredible but the reason why we have that success by implementing the systems that Thrive has taught us and helped us out with. Some of those systems that we’ve implemented are group interviews. That way we’ve really been able to come up with a really great team. We’ve created and implemented checklists that when everything gets done and it gets done right, it creates accountability. We’re able to make sure that everything gets done properly, both out in the field and also in our office. And also doing the podcast like Jared had mentioned, that has really, really contributed to our success. But that, like I said, the diligence and consistency in doing those and that system has really, really been a big blessing in our lives. And also, it’s really shown that we’ve gotten the success from following those systems. So before working with Thrive, we were basically stuck. Really no new growth with our business. And we were in a rut. And we didn’t know. Oh, sorry. The last three years, our customer base had pretty much stayed the same. We weren’t shrinking, but we weren’t really growing either. Yeah, and so we didn’t really know where to go, what to do, how to get out of this rut that we’re in. But Thrive helped us with that. You know, they implemented those systems, they taught us those systems, they taught us the knowledge that we needed in order to succeed. Now it’s been a grind, absolutely it’s been a grind this last year, but we’re getting those fruits from that hard work and the diligent effort that we’re able to put into it. So again, we were in a rut, Thrive helped us get out of that rut, and if you’re thinking about working with Thrive, quit thinking about it and just do it, do the action, and you’ll get the results. It will take hard work and discipline, but that’s what it’s going to take in order to truly succeed. So we just want to give a big shout out to Thrive. A big thank you out there to Thrive. We wouldn’t be where we’re at now without their help. Hi, I’m Dr. Mark Moore. I’m a pediatric dentist. Through our new digital marketing plan, we have seen a marked increase in the number of new patients that we’re seeing every month, year over year. One month, for example, we went from 110 new patients the previous year to over 180 new patients in the same month. And overall, our average is running about 40 to 42 percent increase month over month, year over year. The group of people required to implement our new digital marketing plan is immense, starting with a business coach, videographers, photographers, web designers. Back when I graduated dental school in 1985, nobody advertised. The only marketing that was ethically allowed in everybody’s eyes was mouth-to-mouth marketing. By choosing to use the services, you’re choosing to use a proven turnkey marketing and coaching system that will grow your practice and get you the results that you’re looking for. I went to the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry, graduated in 1983, and then I did my pediatric dental residency at Baylor College of Dentistry from 1983 to 1985. Hello, my name is Charles Colaw with Colaw Fitness. Today I want to tell you a little bit about Clay Clark and how I know Clay Clark. Clay Clark has been my business coach since 2017. He’s helped us grow from two locations to now six locations. We’re planning to do seven locations in seven years and then franchise. 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, and graphic designers, and web developers and they run 160 companies every single week. Think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. In the weekly, he’s running 160 companies. Every 6-8 weeks he’s doing reawaken America tours. Every 6-8 weeks he’s also doing business conferences where 200 people show up and he teaches people a 13 step proven system that he’s done and worked with billionaires, helping them grow their companies. So I’ve seen guys from startups, go from startup to being multi-millionaires, teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom through the system. Critical thinking, document creation, making it, putting it into, organizing everything in their head to building it into a franchisable, scalable business. Like 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. And that’s what I like him most about him. He’s like a good coach. 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 is when I was shadowing him one time, we went into a business deal and listened to it. I got to shadow and listen to it. When we walked out I knew that he could make millions on the deal and they were super excited about working with him. He told me, he’s like, I’m not going to touch it, I’m going to turn it down because he knew it was going to harm the common good of people in the long run and the guy’s integrity just really wowed me. It brought tears to my eyes to see that this guy, his highest desire was to do what’s right and anyways just an amazing man. So anyways, impacted me a lot. He’s helped navigate any time 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. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9. And we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay Vanessa Clark. Hey, guys, I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys. We appreciate you and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old house. Right? This is where we used to live a few years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See? It was nice, right? So this is my old van and our old school marketing. And this is our old team and by team I mean it’s being 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 ten locations in only a year. In October 2016 we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month, and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship, and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, times a thousand. on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re gonna teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re gonna teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter Bunny but inside of it it was a hollow nothingness and I wanted the knowledge. 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, and I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses, or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever, and we’re going to give you your money back if you don’t love it. We built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see it. If we go back eight years ago, think about the number of clients you had back then versus the number of clients you have now. As a percentage, what has been the growth over the past eight years, do you think? We’ve got to inspire somebody out there who just doesn’t have the time to listen to our call. Okay, so Clay, it’s like I would go up and down from about $10,000 a month up to about $40,000, but it’s up and down roller coaster. And so now we’ve got it to where we’re in excess of a hundred clients. That’s awesome. And so I would have anywhere from five clients to 20 clients on my own with networking, but I had no control over it. I didn’t, without the systems, you’re gonna be at the, you’re gonna be victimized by your own business. For somebody out there who struggles with math, if you would say that your average number of clients was 30 and you go to a hundred, as a percentage, what is that? I have doubled every year since working with you. So I’ve doubled in clients, I’ve doubled in revenue every year, that’s 100% growth every year I’ve worked. So I’m looking, we’ve been good friends seven, eight years and I’ve got doubled five times. Which is just incredible. I mean, the first time you do it that’s one thing but when you do it repeatedly, I mean that’s unbelievable. We’re working our blessed assurance off this year to double. We’re planning on doubling again. We’re incorporating some new things in there to really help us do it but we are going to double again this year. I started coaching but it would go up and down, Clay. That’s when I came to you, is I was going up and down and I wanted to go up and up instead of up and down. And so that’s when it needed a system. So creating a system is you have nailed down specific steps that you’re going to take no matter how you feel, no matter the results. You lean into them and you do them regardless of what’s happening. You lean into them and it will give you X number of leads, you follow up with those leads, turns into sales. Well, I tell you, you know, it’s, if you don’t have a script and you don’t have a system, then every day is a whole new creation. You’re creating a lot of energy just to figure out what are you going to do. Right. And the best executives, Peter Drucker is a father of modern management, he said, the most effective executives make one decision a year. What you do is you make a decision, what is your system? And then you work like the Dickens to make sure you follow that system. And so that’s really what it’s all about. So with a script here, we have a brand new gal that just came in working for us. She nailed down the script and she’s been nailing down appointments. Usually we try to get one appointment for every 100 calls. We make two to 300 calls a day per rep. Right. And she’s been nailing down five and eight appointments a day. Somebody out there’s having a hard time. On that script. So she’s making how many calls a day? She’s making between two and 300 calls a day. And our relationship is weird in that we do, if someone were to buy an Apple computer today, or let’s say a personal computer, a PC, the computer is made by, let’s say, Dell. But then the software in the computer would be Microsoft, let’s say, or Adobe, or whatever that is. So I basically make the systems, and you’re like the computer, and I’m like the software. It’s kind of how I would describe our relationship. Tim, I want to ask you this. You and I reconnected, I think it was in the year 2000 and was it maybe 2010? Is that right? 2011 maybe? Or maybe further down the road. Maybe 2013? 2012. Okay, so 2012 and at that time I was five years removed from the DJ business. And you were how many years removed from tax and accounting software? It was about 10-11 years. We met, how did we meet what was the first interaction or some interaction where you and I first connected I just remember that somehow you and I went to hideaway pizza but you remember when we first reconnected yeah well we had that speaking thing that oh there was so it’s victory Christian Center I was speaking there my name is Robert Redmond I actually first met clay almost three years ago to the day I don’t know if he remembers it or not, but I wasn’t working with him at the time. I asked to see him and just ask him some questions to help, you know, direct my life to get some mentorship, but I’ve been working with Clay for now just over a year. The role I play here is a business coach, business consultant. I work with different businesses implementing best practice processes and systems that I have learned here by working with Clay. And the experience working here has, to put it real plainly, has been just life-changing. I have not only learned new things and have gained new knowledge, but I have gained a whole new mindset that I believe, wherever I end up, will serve me well throughout the rest of my life. Since working with Clay, I have learned so much. I mean, I would like to say it was everything about business in terms of the different categories. I haven’t learned it all, but I’ve learned all about marketing. I’ve learned about advertising. I’ve learned about branding. I’ve learned how to create a sales process for organizations in any industry. I’ve learned how to sell. I’ve learned how to create repeatable systems and processes and hold people accountable. You know, how to hire people. It’s almost like every aspect of a business you can learn. I have learned a lot in those different categories. And then, again, the mindset that I’ve gained here has been huge. You know, working here, you can’t be a mediocre person. You are a call to a higher standard of excellence, and then as you’re called to that standard here, you begin to see those outcomes in every area of your life, that standard of excellence that you want to implement no matter what you’re involved in. describe the other people that work with Clay are people that are going somewhere with their life. Marshall in the group interview talks about how, you know, the best fits for this organization are the people that are goal-oriented. So they’re on their own trajectory and we’re on our own trajectory and the best fits are those people where there can be a mutually beneficial relationship that as we pursue our goals and we help the business pursue those goals, the business helps us pursue our goals as well. And so I would say people that are driven, people that want to make something of their lives, people that are goal-oriented, they’re focused, and they’re committed to overcoming any adversity that may come their way. Clay’s passion for helping business owners grow their businesses is, it’s unique in that, I don’t know if there’s anyone else that can be as passionate. You know, whenever a business starts working with Clay, it’s almost as like Clay is running that business in the sense that he has something at stake. You know, he’s just serving them. They’re one of his clients, but it’s as if he is actively involved in the business. Whenever they have a win, he’s posting it all over his social media. He’s shouting it across the room here at Thrive. You know, he’s sending people encouraging messages. He can kind of be that life coach and business coach in terms of being that a motivator and that champion for people’s businesses. It’s again unique because there’s no one else I’ve seen get so excited about and passionate about other people’s businesses. The kind of people that wouldn’t like working with Clay are people that are satisfied with mediocrity, people that want to get through life by just doing enough, by just getting by, people who are not looking to develop themselves, people who are not coachable, people who think that they know it all and they’re unwilling to change. I would say those are the type of people. In short, anyone that’s content with mediocrity would not like working with Clay. So if you’re meeting Clay for the first time, the advice I’d give you is definitely come ready to take tons of notes. Every time Clay speaks, he gives you a wealth of knowledge that you don’t wanna miss. I remember the first time that I met Clay, I literally carried a notebook with me all around. I was looking at this notebook the other day, actually. I carried a notebook with me all around, and I just took tons of notes. I filled the entire notebook in about about three or four months just from being around clay following him and learning from him and Then I would say come come coachable Then I would say come come coachable Be be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted.