Entrepreneur | Creating An Ethical Corporate Culture

Audio Transcription

Get ready to enter the Thrivetime 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 to get what we got. Cullen 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 where 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. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, and that’s what we gotta do. David, thank you for letting me come visit you, my friend. Thanks, Clay. Appreciate it. All right. Well, today we’re going to be talking about creating an ethical corporate culture. Now this is, I think you’re super qualified to talk about this, and so I’m excited to get your feedback on this, because you played in the NBA for 14 seasons. And the NBA is known, I mean it gets a bad rap in some areas and a good rap in others, but there are players who are interesting characters. And the league is known for having some great character people, and then there’s also sometimes the music that’s played in the locker rooms and the things that are said on the corridor are so profane that some parents kind of cover their kids ears at the game. And so you see both extremes, but yet you carried yourself in an ethical way during your career. I try to. Okay. Well, except for those maybe one or two times. Okay. So principle number one we’re teaching here is establish your business ethics and David before you and I can really begin to ethically I guess begin resolving these these Teaching how are teaching people how to set up a ethical corporate culture We have to kind of define what the word ethical means so in your mind. What does it mean to be ethical? well, I think I think One of my mentors when I came to San Antonio was a McDermott gentleman Dermott built USAA a huge organization Was a phenomenal player in building San Antonio into the city that it is today. His rule that he lived by was the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And he built his whole organization around that rule. And I think that that’s a great example of what corporate culture should be. People who know me know that my faith is a big part of who I am and how I approach things, but that doesn’t mean everyone else shares my faith. But there are certain rules as human beings, as a society, that we should follow. And treating other people like you want to be treated, I think, is a phenomenal place to start. So if you want to define what an ethical culture is, I would say you could build your whole business around that idea. to if I’m the customer how do I want to be treated and and and proceed that way and if you could teach everyone in your organization that mentality then I think you have a great culture. For somebody watching this and just trying to get kind of devil’s advocate perspective of this, you’re very self-disciplined or at least that’s the rumor. So you’re a guy who’s all about high expectations and reaching for something more and press and press and don’t stop. Right. So if you were gonna, just say I came to work for you, if somehow I was able to sneak in your organization and you hired me. So if I’m working for you, I would guess that you would want to push me because you would want to be pushed. That’s just my. No, I don’t think that that’s necessarily the case. I think you need to, I wouldn’t want someone to try to turn me into something I’m not. So I think that that’s what you have to understand is that one of my personal rules is always put a person in a position where he can succeed. Some people have Michael Jordan type talent. Let him loose. Hey, that guy, just let him go. But some people have the reserve type talent. And that guy can still bring something to the table. He can still be a very, very valuable part of your organization. I mean, Steve Kerr was not known as this great superstar who dominated everyone, but he had a role, and he did it extremely well. If you put Steve in the right situation, he was gonna kill you. So, that’s my goal with every single person around me, whether it’s a teammate or an employee, I’m going to figure out what they can do well, I’m gonna try to put them in a place where they can be successful, and let them go in that role. So you’re helping somebody here. So if I’m a small business owner, and again, I average one as 10 employees or less, and let’s say that I’m hiring right now, okay? So let’s say I’m a Chick-fil-A, and I’m hiring right now, and I’m looking for an extroverted person to work the front. It’s kind of a shame on me, sort of deals the owner, if I hire somebody who’s an introvert and I want them to be the extrovert dealing with customers, is that right? Yeah, that would be a mistake. Yes. No, you’d certainly, you need to find what their abilities are, what their talents are. You certainly don’t want to put someone, if the guy’s not a shooter, don’t put him on the perimeter. You know, make sure he understands that and he can play within the role of the offense. When you played for the Spurs, you were known as one of those good guys. And I think that what was neat though is that the Spurs, I don’t know whether they did it to you or you did it to them, but you guys became known as a good guy team. Right. So, and again, again, I don’t know, a chicken before the egg, I don’t know if you came in and were the good guy and now the team became the good team, or I’m not sure if that was the ownership, but you guys were known as a good guy culture. How did you specifically, let’s just go into the locker room, how did you lay out this ethical culture in the locker room? What sort of rules did you put in effect there? Well, our goal was not to be known as the good guys. We don’t go about trying to say, hey, we’re any better than anyone else. That’s not the goal at all. When we came in, I said, look, we’re going to do things in a professional manner. We’re going to do things the right way here. So that means trying to get the right amount of rest, coming into practice prepared to practice. It means having the right mentality and being team players. When we step out on the floor, I don’t care about what your stats are. I don’t care about how many shots you got yesterday. I don’t care about your salary paycheck. Don’t bring that stuff to the floor. That’s not what we need. We’re going to do things the right way day in and day out. If you’re a role player, you do your job, you’ll get rewarded. At the end of the day, somebody’s gonna want you because you did your job very, very well. And so that’s creating a culture. That is getting them to understand that success for the organization means success for the individual. And that way they can kind of fit in their role. So you define for people, we’re going to do things the right way. It wasn’t your goal to be the good guys, but you said we’re going to do things the right way. So let’s go into the locker room and here’s a situation. There’s one small business owner I worked with a few months ago, and if you’re watching this, this one’s for you. But I was working with them and they have a front desk person who listens to crazy music, like crazy, as in music that has curse words within a salon environment. So there’s a men’s grooming sort of environment, and yet there’s music playing overhead with foul language. Right. And he talks to the front desk guy and says, Hey guy, can we, the owner says, can we please stop doing this? And this is maybe the third or fourth time. That’s probably nicer than I would have been about it. Okay, and so I want to have you now come into the salon, okay? So we’re pretending that you’re now, it’s like you have been brought on as an advisor for the day. How did you deal with it in the locker room? Because you know what happened there. And how did you deal with it, how would you deal with it in the small business? Well, we have to understand what the goal of the business is. So if the goal of the business is to bring in a certain clientele, and that music does not match that clientele, then we shouldn’t be playing that music. It’s nothing personal against me, against that person. We have different tastes. I have no problem with that. If you’re listening to that at home, you do what you want to do. But in this place, we’re going to do things that build around the business. And so you just need to be real specific about what the expectations are, and you need to demand those things. Not because you don’t agree with this person or you don’t like this person, but because it’s what’s best for the business. So what would you say, now here’s an example, the same business, perpetually late employee. I’m sure in practice you probably had a guy who attempted to be late just to see what would happen, to see if Coach Popovich would deal with it first or if you would or however it would end. So guy shows up to practice, let’s say in this case he shows up to work 10 minutes late. How do you, how did you as the captain of the team or how would you as an owner of a business process that? Specifically, what would you say to me if I walk in 10 minutes late? I think there’s a lot of factors there. If he’s doing that purposely- Perpetually. Well, perpetually. But perpetually is fine as long as it does not affect the quality of their work or the business goals. I’ve never been one that’s a stickler for time. If we have a business where you can work half the day and you can still get your job done, more power to you. I’d rather see you at home with your children. I’d rather see you get your children off to school. I don’t know why this person’s late. There’s a lot of factors. He could wanna spend the time in the morning feeding his children and taking them to school. I have no problem with that. If it doesn’t affect the quality of our business, I don’t want you to be there at nine just because it makes me look good, but yet you’re there at nine and I have control over you and I can tell you to be there at nine, that doesn’t bother me. What say that it did affect the team’s goals? Well, then that’s a problem. So how would you do it? And we would be very specific about that. If it were we’re at a bank and it starts at nine and you have to be at your station at nine and you may not work at the front desk, but you may have a station over here for loans or something. But someone is going to come in at nine at some point to get a loan and you need to be at that desk. That’s a different situation. Then that person needs to understand if they cannot make that work, then they are hurting the business and they don’t belong either in that role or with the organization. I just love how you focus on performance. It’s black and white for you. It seems like there’s no gray area. I try to make things black and white. I think if you can, the more that you have defined, the easier it is to determine the outcomes. I always try to understand what’s my role, what’s their role, what’s the goal. One thing I learned doing non-profits is going back to the mission statement. You always go back to the mission statement. What are we trying to accomplish? If it doesn’t help what we’re trying to accomplish, it’s a useless endeavor. What about the personality type who tries to corrode the culture. So I’m sure, maybe it never happened on the Spurs, but other teams. But what happens to the player who is trying to stir up something between another player? They’re trying, that person is for whatever reason trying to create animosity. You can’t quite pin them on it, but you just, you know what I mean, they’re always trying to, how do you deal with that? There’s always people like that and I think there’s there’s a couple things you need to consider And first of all is do you actually have a culture established? So I mean if you don’t have one established It’s very hard to deal with a person like that because there are no expectations that you don’t know They don’t you can’t specifically call them out on the types of things that they’re doing because there’s no real culture But if once you have a culture which at the Spurs we always did have a great culture. When you came in, you knew what you were getting into, and you knew what we expected of you. It was very easy to call someone out when you’re doing things detrimental to what the team is about. We don’t talk about your salary. We don’t talk about it to the media. We don’t talk about it in this locker room. That’s your business. It has nothing to do with what we’re trying to accomplish on the floor. That was very clear. And if people came in and they started whining about salary or they started picking fights with other individuals, then that was clearly unacceptable in our organization. So everyone, I’m just, I’m writing this down, because this is really good nuggets here. You said we always go back to the mission statement. Always mission statement. Well, let me ask you this. Again, in America today, nine out of 10 of these businesses are small businesses. Some of them haven’t taken the time to write a mission statement. We’re so busy, we don’t have a mission statement. My first suggestion would be sit down and write a mission statement. Okay, alright, so that’s a great action. Understand where you’re headed. Understand who you are, what your core business is, and what you’re trying to accomplish. Because everything you do needs to go into that. If it doesn’t go into that, then you’re wasting your time and energy. Love it. And I know it thrived, and our purpose is to help provide mentorship and entertaining education for entrepreneurs. That’s our niche. And it’s our focus. And I think that on the Spurs, your goal was to win championships. Absolutely. That’s your mission. Absolutely. And to do it the right way. Right. Was there a certain mission statement that you remember them having or something that was kind of like a, or was it really just to win the championship the right way? No, it was to win, but in order to win, we felt like we had to build the right team. Yeah. That was a real key and I guess there’s an analogy there with business. You have to build the right team. You have to build an organization that can withstand not only the competition of the day, but the changes for tomorrow, right? So you’re trying to build this team that’s flexible, that’s intelligent, that works together well, that is focused. And so that’s what I felt like when I came to the team. How do I get us from here to there? We were not a very competitive team when I came. How do I help move this organization over here so that we can be competitive? What was your team’s record when you took over? The year before I came in, we won 21 games. We lost 61 games. And then what were your rookie year? How did you do? Because you’re all NBA. I think you’re a rookie, right? My rookie year, we went from 21 wins to 56 wins. And we lost 26 games. So we pretty much flipped the record, which was great. But there was a lot of other factors that came together at the time. We had a new coach that was a very good coach. We had some players that we had brought in which were fantastic, but it was the beginning of a change in culture. We consistently over the last 20-something years have been at a high level because that culture was established and has grown. Principle number two, develop progressive disciplinary procedures. Now David, I see this a lot where you see a small business and every time someone does something, they say, I’m gonna talk to Danny, I’m gonna tell Danny, I’m gonna talk to her, I’m gonna talk to him, we need to have a meeting, and there’s all this talking and meetings where there’s no disciplinary procedure. There’s no expectations as to what happens next. So it’s all these empty threats and again, it’s a bunch of small businesses where they’re stuck, they’re not growing. And the key, I think, of a small business owner is to win, to make money, to feed your family, by providing value to customers. You don’t want to stay small. It’s not a badge of honor to be a small business. We want to grow and be a big business. So when you played in the NBA for all those years, you come back and you start a school called the Carver Academy to help inner city kids. Why did you do that? Because there’s a need. Looking at all the kids that I had visited, I grew up in Virginia. I went to school in Annapolis, Maryland, near DC. And when I was graduating, I went into DC, played in the summer leagues there, got a chance to visit a ton of high schools with the Police Athletic League. We went from high school to high school, probably 15 to 20 high schools there in the Maryland, northern Virginia area, DC area. And what I saw there was a lot of minority kids who didn’t have the motivation, didn’t have the focus to utilize their talents. And there was a big drug culture at the time in DC. I don’t know if you followed that time, but it was a big issue throughout, not only throughout the high schools, but throughout the city. But my focus was telling them, say no to drugs. Get your education. Stay focused. It’s a great way to get yourself in a position where you can succeed. But it was interesting, the feedback that I got when I talked to these kids on a one-to-one basis that it was easy to sell drugs. I mean, the opportunity was there. All the people that they admired were the guys that had money, cars, and all the things that they got from selling them. They were kind of entrepreneurs almost. They were. I mean, they were using their talents in a destructive way for our society. But with these kids, the only thing at the time I could tell them was, I just respect you more if you do the right things that aren’t hurting other people. But that was the emphasis to start Carver Academy, to go and get these kids at an early age, at the four and five-year-old age, to understand, hey, work ethic, man. If you start working now, you start getting the right habits. You study, you’re self-motivated. By the time you get to high school, you’ll have a thousand options that are amazing options as opposed to getting stuck having to do something illegal. So it sounded like instead of treating the fruit, you tried to treat the root. You went back and said, hey, we’re going to try the very root system here. Well, I only have a limited amount of resources personally and I didn’t know how much money I could raise doing it. So when I said if I have a limited amount of resources do I start with middle schoolers who might be two grades behind already or do I go to you know kindergartners who I can get off, make a jump start and then create leaders who will go out and perpetuate the message. It seemed like the kids in San Antonio is it East San Antonio has sort of a rough area there? Where’s the rough area? All over, East, West, but no actually you know we’re really what’s traditionally the East side has been known as a area where you know we we have higher need families but but they’re all over the city, they really are spread out but I focus largely in the East area of San Antonio. And you brought these kids into the school. I have five kids. I know you have the boys. And they’re maybe at home hearing something different. And they show up their first day of school. They want to be there. You know, David, the kids want to learn. They want to be impacted. They’re excited to see you sometimes. They’re excited. They love the environment. Some of these kids, this is the only place they have that’s clean, that’s the expectation levels there. Some of the kids, I know my wife had a friend, she was telling me the story about a girl who just didn’t have a toothbrush at home, you know, and just those sorts of things. And these kids come in with some of these behavioral issues that are, because they saw their dad do it last night, or their mom. And so they come in there. How did you, because I know there’s lots of success stories of kids who’ve now worked their way through the program and their lives have changed. How did you implement a progressive disciplinary structure or system while also wanting to love on the kids? And how did you find that balance? The key was really, like you said, loving on them. I took the family situation, the family organization, because if we go way back in, I always look at the Bible, I always look at Scripture, but if we go way back in Scripture, God created the family before he created the church. I think that whole idea of the family is a very strong institution, and so we built the school in a way where it was a family. We wanted the older kids to mentor the younger kids. So just like in an organization, you get your leaders to be in tune with your message. And then they would, in turn, spread that message throughout your organization. And so that was the mentality that we used at Carver. We tried to take the older kids, get them up to speed with what our expectations were, get them excited about the education. We created an environment that was fun, that was where they were rewarded constantly for all of their achievements. We love to have them get up and kind of tell what they knew. If they were learning Japanese, get up and show us your Japanese. And we’d have visitors come in often to let them see what we’re doing. So we just try to create that culture of fun and enthusiasm and it spreads down into all the kids coming in. And that’s how we try to create that atmosphere as quickly as we could. As a specific example, if a kid, let’s say, said foul language during a class setting, do you have a system in place of this is what the next step is, this is the next step, this is the next step? Do you have those progressive disciplinary procedures? We did. We were very specific about the things that we did. And my head of school was phenomenal at that. That was really her role. But we didn’t focus on the punishments, but we did have kids knew what step one, step two, step three, step four was. For me, in college, I remember in one particular class, there was a sequence of events that you would go through. I was growing at the time. I grew six inches in college, so I fell asleep quite often. I fell asleep in this one class. And I remember there were stages that I went through, and stage six, I think, was getting an F in the class for the semester. So I think I got to about stage four. And I was terrified. Oh, really, you were stage four. Well, I was growing at the time. I had no choice. I fell asleep standing up, I think, one time. But I think, yeah, it’s very important that people understand that you have one chance, two chance, but this is an action that’s not tolerated in this environment. And if you’re constantly positively reinforcing them, then you generally tend to not focus on the spankings as much as the encouragement. So let’s say I own a bakery, okay? And I’m, let’s say I own a bakery and I hire somebody, and let’s say that I hired you to come work for the bakery, would I then just tell you, hey, here’s our handbook, here’s our mission, and here’s our disciplinary policy as well as kind of a bunch of things that you’re reading? Or how do you recommend you tell somebody about this discipline? If I’m a small business owner watching this, how do you recommend that we bring up the conversation so that people know what it is? We don’t want to focus on it. How do you do that? Well, you make it clear. I think you always go back to culture. You talk about culture. In any organization, mentorship, leadership is always key. So the best way to do it is to put them with someone who can walk them through the process, someone who knows the culture, someone who does it right so they can see what right looks like. And then when they do wrong, they can be corrected immediately by the mentor. So I think that that’s a real key, is to walk people through a process and get them to understand this is what right looks like. You know, when we see wrong, we’ll deal with wrong, but this is what it looks like when it’s done the correct way. So I think you just have to focus on the positive. Focus on, that’s why it’s so important to define roles, because you have to know what it looks like, because it’s hard when you don’t know what it looks like, you don’t know what wrong is. You don’t know when you’re stepping out of bounds. You don’t know when something is not acceptable. So if you have the picture clearly painted for them, then I think you spend a lot less time focusing on the negative. I would use my children as an example. When they were smaller, I would spank them when they did something wrong. But I always focused on the loving part. So even after I had to spank them, I would hug them and I would never spank them when I was angry because I didn’t want them to think I was just mad at them. That was a consequence of your action. But then I would spend a lot of time hugging them and talking to them about, you know, this is why you can’t do that. It’s not a good thing for you in the long term. I can’t have you doing that. And so what ends up happening is after a short period of time, you never spank them again. Because they understand the discipline. They understand the structure. That hey, there’s a consequence to when I do things wrong, but I get such great reinforcement when I do things right. There’s not really a reason for me to step out of bounds anymore. So that it happens in a family, and you can make it so that it happens in an organization the same way. Now, the next principle, principle number three, is we do have to occasionally fire employees who corrupt the culture. Oh, absolutely. So let’s take it to the NBA for a second. Eventually you’re going to have a guy on the team who just says, hey, I appreciate that you’ve laid out specifically your mission here. I appreciate that you have disciplinary policies in play, but I am just going to continue to be crazy. I’m going to just be as crazy as possible. At a certain point, David, business people, they’re going to have to fire somebody. I see this all the time. I talked to a guy the other day, late 30s, who had said, I’ve never fired an employee. His business hasn’t grown ever, though. He was wanting to bring me in as a consultant. I just did an assessment. hey, we have a culture issue here. You have people that are in the back when customers are in the front. Nobody’s even in the building on lunch. You have calls aren’t getting returned. It’s just a cultural issue. You’re the head. You’re going to have to get serious about it. I want to know what steps you’ve taken. And he said, well, this person just has refused to do anything. I’ve warned him. I’ve warned him. I’ve warned him. So when we get to that point where we have to fire, nobody wants to do it. But I want to know, how do you know when it’s time to fire somebody? That’s… clearly it depends on situation and person. I like to try to give people as much a benefit of the doubt as possible. That’s a personal thing. Some people are no-nonsense. They don’t even want to deal with the first sign of trouble, they get rid of people. And that’s fine. It really has to do with your personality. If you are a patient person, that’s fantastic. Give people the benefit of the doubt. But understand also that we go back to mission. We go back to what are we trying to accomplish? Is this working for our organization? And that’s why all of this structure is so important. People rarely wanna sit around and take the time out to write all of these things out and make sure that there’s expectations and make sure that there’s consequences and make sure that there’s steps. But these things help you make these decisions. When we reach step three, it’s time to let somebody go. And so I think it’s really key here to have the leadership team in place, which equates to culture, making sure that they understand what the expectations are, and then the steps, and then it’s easy to say, okay, it’s time. We can make it very clear to the person, because you don’t fit our culture. You don’t fit what’s happening here. Our experiment has not been successful. I think with everybody watching this, we’re unanimous to want to win. You won on the court, which a lot of players don’t do. You won two championships. You won gold medals. I mean, you see, you won. And then we say, well, you know, and I’m just going to pretend if you’re the sawed-off version, you’re the smaller version, if it’s the 6’1 version of David Robinson, I would argue that you would be successful in any field because of some of the principles that you live by. But then you win and you started a school with really no experience having started a school. And the school has done well. So you’ve been blessed and you’re winning in those areas. And so I just want to know, did it break your heart when you had to fire the first employee over there at Carver? Did you ever have to fire somebody? Was it hard for you? Because you’re a guy who cares about people. Yes, we’ve had to fire people several times. OK. And yeah, it does a little bit. It breaks my heart a little bit. But I think that when I make it clear what I’m expecting, then it’s not a personal issue. And I let people know that, hey, you just don’t work here. That doesn’t mean you don’t work. You may work somewhere else, you just don’t work here. And so I’ve always tried to focus on the positive things about even when I had to let someone go. It’s, failure is something we all experience. And sometimes we need that failure. That’s the only way you’re going to grow, right? Trials and tribulations. Without those things, you have no opportunity to grow whatsoever. And so I look at those times as more of a positive time in saying, hey, this is my opportunity to let them know this is something you need to learn from. So this didn’t work. I’ll tell you why it didn’t work here. Now, either you can take that and listen and learn and move on, or you can fight it and deny it and say, you know, it’s your fault, it’s your fault, it’s your fault, okay, I’ll accept that, it’s my fault, but it didn’t work. I have the ability to move you on, and I’m moving you on. So I think if we can understand that even for the person that’s being fired, it can be a really positive experience. They need to know something’s wrong, or else they can’t fix it. So you just don’t work here. You just don’t work here. You’re a great worker, just not here. Now, what do I have to do specifically to get fired from you though? If I steal, am I fired right away? Oh, absolutely. Okay. If I straight up lie to you, am I fired? It depends on why you lied. I’m late to work and I have a crazy story. There’s like aliens and things that are involved in the story. And so somehow… The old alien story. I mean, you’ve heard some ones though. You’ve heard about the traffic and the guy… I wouldn’t fire you necessarily for lying. People are human. I mean, people make mistakes. You can’t just fire people for making a mistake. Now, if it’s a pattern of mistakes, a pattern of lies, that is a problem. And that would be a cause for firing to me. Okay. Anything else that’s an immediate firing for you? Anything sexual or deviant. Anything in that manner that I feel like is a menace to society would be an automatic firing. I’m bringing this up because you’re helping somebody here. There’s a guy on the West Coast I dealt with and he was in the medical field. That’s the specifics I’ll get with that. But he had an employee that inappropriately touched another employee. Yeah. And that employee still works there. No, that, to me, that’s a problem. That’s a problem. So you can say that, so you’re telling me. I tend to kind of go with the society rules. What’s good for society is probably, you know, what’s, I won’t say that. What’s not good for society is probably not good for my business. So I would say that, you know, society allows a lot of things I don’t necessarily think would be good for my business, but certainly if it’s not good in society, then I’m not going to allow it in my business. Makes sense. Makes sense. I think you’re giving people some clarity on these situations. Now, do you have a method or a game plan? I want to hear David Robinson’s notable quotable on what you say. So let’s say you have to fire me. I have done everything bad, and it’s now time. What would you say to me? It’s not me, it’s you. I don’t know. What do you say? I want to know. I don’t have a go-to move. You don’t have a go-to move? I don’t have a go-to move for the firing off. You don’t have a go-to move? Really, I would go back to say, this is an opportunity for you to grow. It’s an opportunity for you to learn from this. You may not feel like it’s your fault, and it may not be your fault, but somehow it falls on you. And you have to take it on as a responsibility and move forward from this and learn from it. Okay. The reason why I’m asking is because I know a lot of people struggle with the words to say and I know we have one of our Thrive Venture capitalists. He says a phrase, he says, you’re fired and it’s just not working out. That’s like kind of his thing. You’re fired and it’s just not working out. That’s kind of his. I’m just curious if you had. So that’s good stuff. Now, the final question I wanted to ask you about firing employees, because I think it’s tough, is that if I’m watching this and I’m struggling with firing somebody who clearly, though, needs to be fired, and we’re obviously understanding that you, that’s a last resort for you. You don’t want to fire people. But if I’m someone watching this and I just, for whatever reason, can’t seem to get to the point where, I mean, to the point where it’s hurting my customers. My customers aren’t coming back because this person keeps coming back to work. Well, that’s a problem. What would you say to encourage me if I’m the person who’s really struggling to let somebody go? Mission, mission, mission. If you have a business and you’re running your business, I don’t care if it’s your brother, I don’t care if it’s your cousin. If you have a business and you have a mission, you’ve got to address that issue. That is, it’s just like a cut that’s just, you’re bleeding yourself dry. And so what I would tell you is, you know, don’t make it personal. Say, cousin, hey, I love you. I absolutely love you, but you don’t belong here. I mean, this is, it’s very clear that, you know, what you bring to this organization doesn’t help us at all. Maybe there’s a different role, maybe there’s no role. Maybe your personality just doesn’t fit our organization. But if you can keep yourself detached on the personal side and making sure that I’m not hurting this person. I didn’t bring this on. This is something that all factors come together and it’s dictating this. I’m not saying it’s your fault. It might be your fault, but certainly this falls on you that you had an opportunity to prove yourself. You didn’t prove yourself, so you need to go find another place or grow. Now, principle number four here is avoid ethical culture killers. So if I’m an employer and my desire is to create a first class organization like the Spurs, like you’ve done at Carver. And I mention those because I think a lot of times, you as an athlete, I don’t know if you run into this, but I think a lot of people might just put you in a category, well, that’s just an athlete. You can’t coach tall. And why I frankly wanted to have you as a Thrive mentor is because I have been, as a kid, I was a student of you. My parents thought that David Robinson is a good guy. And then following you through Google Alerts, you can do this. Google Alerts. So I’m being Google Alerted. I’m going to follow my sons through Google Alerts. Yeah, you should. Do you do that? I should. This is the new move. And so when you started Carver, I get to know about it. I hear these things. It’s kind of neat. But it seems like you’ve had success off the court. So it’s not just a fluke. It’s not just I was good on the court sort of thing. So Dave, specifically, if I’m looking to hire somebody and I’m wanting to avoid these sort of break, I’m wanting to build the right culture by hiring the right people. And I’m really, really looking here to build the right team. What specific character traits, maybe just two or three things, should every small business owner, every leader, every basketball coach, should everybody looking to build a world-class organization be looking for? I would say, you know, that’s a tough one. I think, you know, number one, you have to look for someone that aligns with your mission. So if your mission has to do with service, then you’re gonna want someone with a service streak and a service history. If your mission has to do with just bottom line end results, then you’re going to want somebody with a proven track record. I mean, you have to understand what your business is about and understand what drives your business. Some businesses need creativity. Some businesses need a salesman, kind of a nonstop, kind of a go, go, go, go, go attitude. And so you just have to know those top two or three qualities that you’re looking for. And I always looked in specific settings, a school setting or in a financial setting looking for building our business through Admiral Capital. We’re looking for guys who have expertise and track record. We think we can mold them into our culture. But we’re looking for guys who have proven themselves and who understand, who have proven themselves, not only in results, but also in the way that they’ve treated the customer. So specifically, I want to give some really good specifics for people. The Admiral Capital Fund, it’s a fund where you own a lot of properties. I think you have nine or 10? It’s a real estate fund that is a private equity fund that is a value-add fund. So we go out, we acquire a property, we’ll add value to it, and then we’ll sell it. So we have a horizon of five to seven years. So we have to have people who are highly motivated, who are get up and go. We’ve got to find new properties, we’ve got to be creative in the way we think about how are we going to add value to this property, and then we have to be diligent in being able to turn it over. So you’re looking for people that will help you acquire the properties and can analyze the deals and that and you know Specifically this is the character traits We’re looking for and so you’ll interview, you know, 10 20 30 wherever how many people it takes to find that right person? absolutely, and our organization also has a Component where we we are connected to the community. We donate 10% of our profits to the community We find projects in those areas where we invest. In Houston, we went into the public school systems, we joined up with Hilton and the University of Houston at the hospitality school. And now we give out 25 scholarships a year to kids coming out of high school. We send them through a year’s mentorship with some of our hotel owners, so they spend time with executives, they learn the business, and then if they are interested in hospitality they get a scholarship going to University of Houston. So we try to tie our business into those communities where we invest and so we have to have a person in our organization who understands that’s who we are. That’s a part of our culture. So why is it that most organizations, people watching this, why is it that most of us watching this, the people who own these businesses, they don’t prioritize culture? Why is it that most people just, it’s like low on the priority list. It’s like I’m going to sell some stuff, I’m going to ship the stuff, I’m going to, I’m going to, and how come like culture is like maybe the last, if I have time. Yeah. I think it’s partially because a lot of people don’t even know who they are. I mean, I think the key is you have to have some value system yourself, something that is important to you. And it’s okay to express those things within the culture of your organization. And people follow people, people invest in people. It’s what drives the growth. I knew at Carver, a lot of our people came to work for Carver because of my personality and because they wanted to support what we were doing. And so I think it’s the same way with any business. If people see your business, and they see the power of your business, and they see the power of your character, they’re gonna wanna follow you. And people, a lot of times, will look at an organization, and they’ll say, I wanna work at that place. I don’t care what they do, that’s a place I wanna work. So if you build the right culture, I think it attracts the right type of people. But you have to have a personality. You have to have an understanding of who you are, and what you wanna accomplish, and how you want to accomplish it and that Magnetic personality will draw people. I know when I first started my DJ company We did entertainment for we started in the dorm room and we grew it to the point where we were eventually doing three or four Thousand you know weddings and corporate events every year and I am somebody who loves to exceed the expectations of people That’s like a game I play I love to just kind of add that little extra something and I love humor So I’m kind of like a Steve Martin meets business guy just like They mess around people and I remember the first time I hired somebody who didn’t appreciate humor because I had to grow from me to We from one to two or two to three I hired the first person who didn’t appreciate humor Just put up with it and didn’t like to over deliver, and I started thinking like am I weird or well anyway It took me about two years, David, to figure this out. And when I said that- So you didn’t fit your culture? No, I mean, I really, and I read this book called Nuts about Southwest, and it talked about the culture of Southwest Airlines and how they, you want to build your personality, you want to build a business around your personality. Absolutely. And I thought, well, you know what? He probably could work someplace great, but not here. And I started hiring people that sort of shared my energy and values, and it took off. Absolutely. That’s a key. I think you have to know what type of person you are. If you’re the impetus for the business, if you are driving the business, then you have to have a business, a culture that draws people to that business too. I think that’s very important. Well, David, I appreciate you giving us these principles and these tips because this is things that I think a lot of people might say, well, that’s common sense, but it’s not common. It’s not happening. It’s not happening, right. And I appreciate you for teaching us this stuff because you’ve been a winner on the court and off the court. So again, thank you for your time. Yeah, thanks, Clay. Appreciate it. All right, JT, so hypothetically, in your mind, what is the purpose of having a business? To get you to your goals. So it’s a vehicle to get you to your destination. And would you need profits to get there? I mean, when you have a business that’s successful, in your expert opinion, would you need profits to get you to your goals? Yeah, because if you have a $15 million business, but you have $15 million of expenses, it’s kind of pointless. Holy crap! Alright, so the question I would have here for you, if you could take like, I don’t know, 10 minutes or less and see if you could save $3,000 a year by reducing your credit card fees, would you do it? Yes, absolutely. Holy crap. Why would somebody out there who’s listening right now, who has a sane mind, why would they not go to Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card, Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card to schedule a 10-minute consultation to see if they can reduce their credit card fees by at least three thousand bucks a year why would they not do it? Yeah, why would they not do it? maybe because they don’t understand how you set the website this tree is a symbol of the spirit of the Griswold family Christmas that’s clear, okay, so that can be true so I would encourage everybody to check out thrive timeshow.com forward slash credit dash card, thrive timeshow.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 $3,000 every 10 minutes and they’re like nah, that’s not worth my time. Hello, we getting there, I’m out of here, we getting there, I’m out of here. We getting that rap money. We getting that rap money. There’s probably someone out there. Okay. They would think that. Well, I’ll just tell you folks, if you’re out there today, and you’re making less than $3,000 per 10 minutes, I would highly recommend that you go to thronetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash hard. Because you can compare rates, you can save money, and, you know, the big goal, in my opinion, And in order to do that, you have to maximize your profits. Holy crap! Now, one way to maximize your profits is to increase your revenue. Another way to do it is to decrease your expenses. It’s a profit deal! It takes the pressure off. JT, is there any other reason why somebody would not be willing to take It takes the pressure off. JT, is there any other reason why somebody would not be willing to take 10 minutes to compare rates to see if they could save a total of $3,000 a year on average? I am at a loss and I cannot 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. Stop looking at me swan. Let me tell you a good story here real quick. I actually years ago compared rates with this company here called 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. Or 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, uh, you know, like, uh, groceries when my wife goes to the organic stores. Find everything you need today? Yeah. Great. Okay. Oh, God. No. Everything okay, ma’am? Uh, 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, at the end of the day, the goal of the business is to create time freedom and financial freedom. And in order to do that, you need to create additional profits. methods. The number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. We are Jared and Jennifer Johnson. We own Platinum Pest and Lawn and are located in Owasso, Oklahoma and we have been working with Thrive for business coaching for almost a year now. Yeah. So, what we want to do is we want to share some wins with you guys that we’ve had by working with Thrive. First of all, we’re on the top page of Google now. I just want to let you know what type of accomplishment this is. Our competition, Orkin, Terminex, 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, 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%. So 411% we’re up with, 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 percent, and that’s largely due to, first of all, like our Google reviews that we’ve gotten. People really see that our customers are happy, but also we have a script that we follow. And so when customers call in, they get all the information that they need. That script has been refined time and time again. It wasn’t a one and done deal. It was a system that we followed with Thrive in the refining process. And that has obviously, the 411% shows that that system works. Yeah. So here’s a big one for you. So last week alone, our booking percentage was 91%. We actually booked more deals, more new customers last year than we did the first five months, or I’m sorry, we booked more deals last week than we did the first five months of last year from before we worked with Thrive. So again, we booked more deals last week than the first five months of last year. It’s incredible, but the reason why we have that success 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 is of the diligence and consistency in doing those in that system has really, really been a big blessing in our lives. And also, it’s really shown that we’ve gotten a success from following those systems. So before working with Thrive, we were basically stuck. Really no new growth with our business. And we were in a rut, and we didn’t know. Okay, 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, that they taught us those systems, they taught us the knowledge that we needed in order to succeed. Now it’s been a grind, absolutely it’s been a grind this last year, but we’re getting those fruits from that hard work and the diligent effort that we’re able to put into it. So again, we were in a rut. Thrive helped us get out of that rut. And if you’re thinking about working with Thrive, quit thinking about it and just do it. Do the action and you’ll get the results. It will take hard work and discipline, but that’s what it’s gonna take in order to really succeed. So, I just wanna give a big shout out to Thrive, a big thank you out there to Thrive. We wouldn’t be where we’re at now without their help. Hi, I’m Dr. Mark Moore. I’m a pediatric dentist. Through our new digital marketing plan, we have seen a marked increase in the number of new patients that we’re seeing every month, year over year. One month, for example, we went from 110 new patients the previous year to over 180 new patients in the same month. And overall, our average is running about 40 to 42% increase month over month, year over year. The group of people required to implement our new digital marketing plan is immense, starting with a business coach, videographers, photographers, web designers. Back when I graduated dental school in 1985, nobody advertised. The only marketing that was ethically allowed in everybody’s eyes was mouth-to-mouth marketing. By choosing to use the services, you’re choosing to use a 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 from 1983 to 1985. Hello, my name is Charles Colaw with Colaw Fitness. Today I want to tell you a little bit about Clay Clark and how I know Clay Clark. Clay Clark has been my business coach since 2017. He’s helped us grow from two locations to now six locations. We’re planning to do seven locations in seven years and then franchise. And Clay has done a great job of helping us navigate anything that has to do with like running the business, building the systems, the checklist, 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 Crockerill, 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. They run 160 companies every single week. Think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. So in the weekly, he’s running 160 companies. Every 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. 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 of critical thinking, document creation, organizing everything in their head to building it into a franchisable, scalable business. One of his businesses has like 500 franchises. That’s just one of the companies or brands that he works with. Amazing guy, Elon Musk, kind of like smart guy. He kind of comes off sometimes as socially awkward, but he’s so brilliant and he’s taught me so much. When I say that, 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 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. 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. Anytime I’ve gotten nervous or worried about how to run the company or navigating competition and an economy that’s like, I remember, we got closed down for three months. He helped us navigate on how to stay open, how to get back open, how to just survive through all the COVID shutdowns, lockdowns. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9, and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey guys, I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys, we appreciate you, and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old house. Right, this is where we used to live a few years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See? It’s nice, right? So this is my old van, and our old school marketing, and this is our old team. And by team, I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house, with our new neighborhood. I mean, it’s been another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing. And this is our new team. We went from four to 14. And I took this beautiful 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. The Thrive Time Show, two day interactive business workshops are the highest and most reviewed business workshops on the planet You can learn the proven 13-point business system that dr. Zellner about 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 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, 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, 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’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. 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 100 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 going to be victimized by your own business. For somebody out there who struggles with math, if you would say that your average number of clients was 30 and you go to 100, as a percentage, what is that? I have doubled every year 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 with you. So I’m looking, we’ve been good friends 7, 8 years and I’ve got doubled 5 times. Which is just incredible. I mean the first time you do it, that’s one thing, but when you do it repeatedly, I mean that’s unbelievable. We’re working our blessed assurance off this year to double we’re planning on doubling again We’re incorporating new some some some new things in there to really help us do it But we are going to double again this year. I Started coaching, but it would go up and down clay That’s when I came to you as I was going up and down And I wanted to go up and up instead of up and down. 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, 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. So she’s making how many calls a day? She’s making between two and three hundred calls a day. And our relationship is weird in that we do, if someone were to buy an Apple computer today, yeah, and or let’s say about 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, what was it, maybe 2010? Is that right? 2011 maybe? Or maybe further down the road. Maybe 2013? 2012. Okay, so 2012. And at that time I was five years removed from the DJ business. And you were how many years removed from tax and accounting software? It was about 10, 11 years. We met, how did we meet? What was the first interaction? There was some interaction where you and I first connected. I just remember that somehow you and I went to Hideaway Pizza. But do you remember when we first reconnected? Yeah, well, we had that speaking thing that- Oh, there it was. So it’s Victory Christian Center. I was speaking there. My name is Robert Redman. I actually first met Clay almost three years ago to the day. I don’t know if he remembers it or not, but I wasn’t working with him at the time. I asked to see him and just ask him some questions to help, you know, direct my life to get some mentorship, but I’ve been working with Clay for now just over a year. The role I play here is a business coach, business consultant. I work with different businesses implementing best practice processes and systems that I have learned here by working with Clay and the experience working here has, to put it real plainly, has been just life changing. I have not only learned new things and have gained new knowledge, but I have gained a whole new mindset that I believe, wherever I end up, will serve me well throughout the rest of my life. Since working with Clay, I have learned so much. I mean, I would like to say it was everything about business in terms of the different categories. I haven’t learned it all, but I’ve learned all about marketing. I’ve learned about advertising. I’ve learned about branding. I’ve learned how to create a sales process for organizations in any industry. I’ve learned how to sell. I’ve learned how to create repeatable systems and processes and hold people accountable, 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. I would like to describe the other people that work with Clay are people that are going somewhere with their life. Marshall in the group interview talks about how, you know, the best fits for this organization are the people that are goal-oriented. So they’re on their own trajectory, and we’re on our own trajectory. And the best fits are those people where there can be a mutually beneficial relationship, that as we pursue our goals and we help the business pursue those goals, the business helps us pursue our goals as well. And so I say people that are driven, people that want to make something of their lives, people that are goal-oriented, they’re focused, and they’re committed to overcoming any adversity that may come their way. business owners grow their businesses is it’s unique in that I don’t know if there’s anyone else’s that can be as passionate. You know whenever a business starts working with Clay it’s almost as like Clay is running that business in the sense that he has something at stake. You know he’s just serving them. They’re one of his clients but it’s as if he is actively involved in the business. Whenever they have a win, he’s posting it all over his social media. He’s shouting it across the room here at Thrive. He’s sending people encouraging messages. He can kind of be that life coach and business coach in terms of being that motivator and that champion for people’s businesses. It’s, again, unique because there’s no one else I’ve seen get so excited about and passionate about other people’s businesses. The kind of people that wouldn’t like working with Clay are people that are satisfied with with mediocrity, people that want to get through life by just getting by. People who are not looking to develop themselves, people who are not coachable, people who think that they know it all and they’re unwilling to change. I would say those are the type of people, and in short, anyone that’s content with mediocrity would not like working with Clay. So if you’re meeting Clay for the first time, the advice I’d give you is definitely come ready to take tons of notes. Every time Clay speaks, he gives you a wealth of knowledge that you don’t want to miss. I remember the first time that I met Clay. I literally carried a notebook with me all around. I was looking at this notebook the other day, actually. I carried a notebook with me all around and I just took tons of notes. I filled the entire notebook in about three or four months just from being around Clay, following him and learning from him. And then I would say come coachable. Be open to learning something new. Be open to challenging yourself. Be open to challenging yourself. Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted.