Entrepreneur | Customer Service Magic with Lee Cockerell the man who used to manage Disney World

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 three, two, one, here we go! We started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, and that’s what we’ve gotta do. Lee, you have worked in the hospitality and service industry for years, ultimately culminating where you are managing. How many employees were you managing at Disney? I had 40,000 under my area. So 40,000 employees. Just to give some context, Wrigley Field, I was reading, has I think 37,000 people it can hold or something. So Wrigley Field can hold about as many people as you are managing. That’s insane, especially a lot of entrepreneurs in America today. The US Small Business Administration says that a little over 90% of all business owners have 10 employees or less. So you’re managing 40,000, the average business owner is managing 10. And so what I’m going to try to do is make a lot of these questions applicable to the average guy who’s got 10 employees or less. So can you describe to the average person what does great customer service look like in your mind? Whether you have 10 employees or 40,000, what does great customer service look like? Well, you know, when we think about it at Disney or Marriott, it’s consistency. It’s delivering what the guest expects. It’s giving them a little something extra. I always talk about what’s extra look like. We might talk about it later, but I said, if you’re running a little dry cleaners and you’ve got six employees and you open at 7, get there at 630 and unlock the door for the guy who happens to show up early so you don’t have that sign closed. And if you close at 7, stay around until 7.30 for the lady running late. And all of a sudden your reputation is just going to grow and grow and grow. When you have only 10 employees, you’ve got to really work harder at getting great people because if you hire one bad one, 10% of your people are not good. So, you know, at Disney we have a lot of demand. So for the entrepreneur, they’re going to have to be looking for those people when they go to the mall, when they go to McDonald’s, when they’re looking for that good attitude. Somebody meeting people every day so you can pick these people off, asking your friends and neighbors if they know any good kids that want to work for you. And I think a lot of young people want to be in a small business today. They want to be entrepreneurs themselves and they like that life of not working in a big corporate structure. What made the Disney service experience so magical? First thing that makes it magical is we hire the right people. We’re very careful who we hire. We’re looking for people with passion and can-do attitude. The skill we’re not worried about. We’ll train you. You’re not worried about the skill? No. Until you get up to high technical jobs. But it’s pretty caring. Most of the employees down this way, you got somebody that’s going to be checking somebody on our front desk. They don’t have to have any experience. I’ll train them. I need the attitude. I want to repeat that again. You’re saying you don’t hire for skill, you hire for passion. Attitude. Attitude. Can’t do attitude versus can’t do attitude. We all know who those people are. The problem with can’t do and can’t do, you know, it’s very interesting. You ask, what we found out is when we do interviewing, we’ll talk about that in a minute, but finding people who know how to overcome obstacles, because we all have them every morning. Yeah. And the can-do people just figure it out. I had an interview, or a meeting yesterday, with David Robinson, the basketball player. And it was the craziest thing. I wake up at 4.45 to prepare for the presentation, and wouldn’t you know it, the laptop doesn’t work. So at 5 a.m. I have to drive from San Antonio to a Walmart to buy a computer. They say that the computers aren’t available to purchase until 7 because the guy has the keys to the cage. They’re locked. Long story short, the GPS won’t work. I can’t pull up on my phone. This is a crazy situation. But it’s not about resources. It’s about resourcefulness. It’s about being able to figure it out. And I think you’re absolutely right there. Obviously, you’re right. But how do you tell if someone has resourcefulness when you interview them? Well, we really did. I’ve been working with the lady for a few years now. We really decided that we were looking for three things, skill, passion, can-do attitude. So we developed questions for if you’ve got a job open, you’re going to interview five people for it. We developed 6, 7, 8 questions. And we tell them, all five people are going to be asked the same questions in the same order. Every question has an obstacle in it. So what you do, I would say to you, retail. So tell me about a specific time you had to deal with an irate customer that was just totally unreasonable. And then you listen to the answer. And what you’re listening for is what did they do, what was the outcome. And I guarantee you, when you hear five people tell you, the one that really goes all the way, it’ll come out like cream rising. Tell me about a specific time that you had a very big problem with one of your bosses and they were being unreasonable and not treating you properly. Listen for what they did and what was the outcome. And when you ask six, seven, eight questions with an obstacle in them, because at the end of the day, people who can figure out how to overcome obstacles, they’re the winners. You want to know what that looks like? I was in Toronto. I had a speech to REMAX back in February last year. At 2.30 I had a flight to Orlando because I had to get to Orlando, pick up 80 books to fly to South Africa out of Atlanta at 6.30 the next night. All the flights were cancelled. Snowstorm. Now what do you do? I went to work. I talked my way onto a WestJet flight. Literally. I had them so confused they put me on the plane, took me to LaGuardia in New York. Got there, no flights till Saturday. I need to be in Atlanta. I ran into a car in drove a thousand miles overnight to Atlanta, got on my plane and went to South Africa. Now, you think everybody would do that? What would most people do? Snowstorm. Yeah. No, no. Priscilla was so mad at me for driving all night. It took me 18 hours to drive to Atlanta in a rental car, turn it in, get on the plane. That’s amazing. So you can either get to Atlanta if you want. Even now, in the winter, I have to go to Indianapolis next week. I’ve already looked up how long it takes to drive there. Just in case. That’s so funny. It’s 16 hours to Indianapolis. I have taken a cab from the airport in Green Bay to some obscure place in Wisconsin because same sort of deal where I got there and for some reason I reserved the rental car using my credit card and the credit card that I reserved it with I didn’t bring with me so I wouldn’t let me rent the car. So I had a cab all the way up there. I know you’re talking about it just requires that some people get there and some people call up and say I can’t make it. I mean there’s a big difference and you know the problem with people who don’t make it? They actually believe that excuse is adequate. They believe their own excuses. The people who come to work on Disney on I-4, the ones who come late and the ones who come on time, both come on the same interstate. So not believing your own excuses is huge. You gotta do what you said you’re gonna do. I said I was gonna be in South Africa and I’m gonna be there. Well let me ask you this. In your book you’ve written about the system you’ve created called RAVE. RAVE. Can you walk us through RAVE and what it’s all about and how it works? Respect, appreciate and value everyone. If you really can come to believe that, you’re going to be successful. People under you are going to know that you respect, appreciate and value. You don’t care what religion they are, you don’t care what sexual orientation they are, you don’t care what anything, what disability they have, if they went to 9th grade or 12th grade. I tell people the only thing you should discriminate on, nothing else except performance. That’s all you need to focus on, if people are performing or not. You can’t, whether they’re black, Asian, Hispanic, American, Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, just let it go and focus on your own life and respect, appreciate, and value everyone because we all want it. I can’t find one person in the world doesn’t want to be respected. I’ve been looking for them. That’s why they have problems around the world right now. Let me ask you this now. So you have 40,000 employees working with you. You’ve got your your rave system there. You get to work about two hours before. How many direct reports did you have? Yeah, I had a range over the years at Disney and one time I had 14, one time I had six. As we got bigger I tightened it up because 14 was getting harder and harder to deal with and so yeah we reorganized a few times but actually when I had 14 I think it was easiest because I really had loved the other thing. I just communicated my expectations and I had a good trace and follow-up system with a lady in my office who tracked when I asked for something I gave it to her and she took care of make sure it got back. Yeah. And can I get into medication? I want to get into that real quick. So if I was just say I was one of your direct reports. Yeah. And what was the lady’s name who helped you with the call? Chris Bostic. Oh Chris Bostic? She helped. Okay. So if you delegated an item to me. So let’s just say you got to work at let’s what time you get to work typically? 615. So 615 you get to work. You don’t really see anybody until about 8. At 8 o’clock, let’s say you have a meeting with me. I’m one of your six reports. Do you give me a printed out to-do list of what I need to do for the day? If I ask you to do something, I’ll probably, 99% of the time I’ll email you a note and say, just as we discussed, I’d like to have this back by December 12th at 5 o’clock. I’m always specific. I copy Chris. And then Chris keeps this on a master list? She takes it over. Okay. And does she follow up? She follows up. She gets to them a week ahead of time and tells them, you know, you owe me this next Friday. This is coming up too. So she’s kind of the honey badger. Yeah, she was. And she was like so organized. I mean, it freed me. Let’s go back a layer. Let’s say that I own a appliance store. Let’s say that I am a doctor. I’m a doctor and I have five employees total. I’m the boss, I own the place, I pay the bills, I’m the CEO, the owner, the founder, and the doctor. How would you recommend a guy like that delegates to the 5P Man? You know, a lot of the time, even today, if you and I, I write it in here. Do, over the 12th, I write, due today, what it is. And if I, if I’ve had problems with you, I might flip back to the 8th and remind Chris, remind Lee, remind whoever I was going it to. Yeah. And so I just use this as a trace system too. Do you, you know, I trace things as simple as cleaning the air ducts. Okay. I clean them and they’re supposed to be done in six months later. I flip over six months and I clean the ducts. The warranty on my vacuum cleaner says clean it monthly so you don’t burn up the motor. So every month I clean and I flip over and I put clean. Really? Yeah I just put everything and I don’t forget it. So you write everything down. It sounds like at the end of the day. Now if I’m working for you and you give me these assignments. Are you expecting me to have one master to do list if I work for you? If I have to have one master? I don’t really care what you have as long as you do what you’re supposed to be doing. I mean, I would encourage you to have a list. Rubber meets the road. I show up though a week later and I’m like, I didn’t remember. What would you say to me if I said I didn’t remember? Well, we didn’t have that talk. You wouldn’t forget probably because I tell people, people go to work for me. I tell them one of my hot buttons is you’ve got to be organized. Okay. And actually we do profiling on leaders. And if I find out they’re disorganized, I don’t hire them in the first place. Because there are people who are disorganized. They can’t get it together. They’re smart, but they can’t get it together. What role did making to-do lists play in managing your daily schedule? Is that a big part? Everything. Everything. I mean, it’s either in my calendar or in my to-do list. What role does your… so your to-do list and your day planner for you is the same document. Is that correct? Okay, so in your mind if you don’t have a day planner or to-do list you’re kind of up a creek. What are you gonna do? Okay, now let me ask this. In your mind, how important is it to have a checklist? So let’s just say in Dizzy there’s a bathroom and there’s a bathroom. How many bathrooms did you have on your four resorts? Did you have four resorts or was it five? Did you manage four resorts? We had four theme parks and 20 hotels and four theme parks 20 hotels hundreds of bathrooms sure did you have a checklist for how to clean the bathroom absolutely we have you know they’ve proven the checklist on an airplane it’s kind of important you know the pilots yeah flaps up or down does it matter yes without a people in the ice or not the ice in the last 30 minutes yes or no. Yeah. And then when you think about other checklists, hospitals have proven recently that checklists reduce infection rates and all kinds of issues. Wash your hands. Checklists. When you go in with your… As we’re building Thrive, you know, this online platform, it’s a, we have to edit videos. And so we’ve made these workflows on how to edit a video quickly and so that when they interview with you we can get it edited put into the right format There’s a big checklist there in your mind Is it possible to make the magic happen at Disney or any other business without checklists? Not at all. I mean, it’s so complex If you don’t have checklists one day you’re gonna show up and you’re not gonna have one of the cameras with you Yeah, and you don’t believe that’ll ever happen. It couldn’t happen It will all of a sudden one of you people gets distracted They had a problem at home this morning, a death in the family, it doesn’t get on, it gets left at the client. I have an embarrassing confession, this is funny. I had a wedding I did all the way in Houston, and I show up for the weddings before checklists, before I knew this stuff. I show up there, so excited to DJ down in Houston, and I’m like, oh no, there’s no mic stand. So I thought, I’ll just go buy one. So I go buy one, and I’m like, oh no, there’s no amplifier. And I just kept having that. My wife traveled with me. She never would go with me. Well, the couple, we ended up getting the music on right before they got there. No one knew. I was so nervous. And I remember at that point, I’m like, I am never going to a DJ wedding or event without a checklist. And now I’m insistent upon it, and I’ve just noticed that that’s not a natural behavior for people. So what would you say right now to the business owner who said, well, you know, at our staffing company or our, uh, you know, our insurance agency, we don’t use a checklist because it’s all up here. What would you say to that guy? I’d say, first of all, you’re not going to execute in an excellent way. And second, what’s going to happen the day you’re not there. Can the company carry on? And, you know, I used to work for an outside catering company where you learn when you get everything on the truck and when you get to the side a hundred miles away to do the dinner. If you don’t have a check, you start to open the boxes and you don’t have the chicken. Yeah. Or you don’t have the plates or you don’t have the tablecloth. That that’s where I really learned about checklist. Make sure everything’s on the truck before you get out. So that checklist and this is your checklist. Basically, this is a checklist for me. So let’s talk about the bathroom checklist for a second. Does somebody initial that off every day? Yeah, they do. And it’s all been timed, how long it takes to clean that bathroom. 12 minutes, 8 minutes, 6 minutes, because the manager’s been in there, they’ve done it, everybody knows, this is how long. So we know that person should only be in there for 12 minutes and he should be in the next bathroom within 8 minutes. Does someone inspect that checklist? Yeah. I mean, yeah. And by the way, the checklists are always improving. When something goes wrong, you go look and see if it’s on the checklist. Why did it go wrong? Because it wasn’t on there. Or there were people checking it off and not really doing it. I want to hear this because this is the stuff that you didn’t… there’s no place on the planet right now where you hear this kind of thing. That’s why I want to ask you this. Let’s just say that I’m one of those guys who didn’t actually do the checklist. I just pretended like I did. That’s a lot of people. So I am at your business, you’re the owner, and there’s ten, or I’m at Disney, and I pretended like I checked off the checklist. Go ahead and deal with me. What would you say to me if I pretended that I did your checklist? Yeah, I mean, I would ask you first, and then I would keep interrogating you like you do a teenager until you get to the truth, and they lie about 12 times before you get there. And then I probably would tell them the consequences of that. Do you realize that people can get food poisoning and die from this kind of situation. Do you understand that? When the temperature is not 160 degrees or more, and bacteria is growing, and 12 people die, and you’re the responsibility for that? And by the way, let me tell you again, I’m going to give you one chance. If you ever do this again, you’re terminated. And there won’t be any more written warnings. Because when you get into safety, you’ll start to see how you deal with your kids when they do something unsafe. You’re not going to be real nice about it. You’re going to be real firm when they run into the street. You’ll probably have a talk with them, they won’t forget for the rest of the afternoon. Or when you catch them one day driving without their seatbelt on. What if it’s an area where it’s not safety, but it’s just, like Disney. One of the things that’s amazing about Disney is that it’s so clean. It’s so clean. It’s always a clean walkway, it’s beautiful, it’s pristine, but thousands of people will not come back if there’s just stuff littered everywhere. How do you deal with that guy? Well, there’s pretty serious training up front about when you join the company, you go through eight hours of what they call traditional training, cleanliness, friendliness, and all of that hammered in, and you learn about the characters, Walt Disney, and the pride we have, and the public’s love of Disney. And then when you get to the workplace, you get very clear training, testing, and then our managers know they’re, we expect them to enforce the training. So Disney managers have no problem dealing with an employee not doing what they’re supposed to do. They’ll step over. You know, some managers are wishy-washy, they let it go. I don’t want to cause, our managers are very, that’s how we get consistent at Disney, by training, testing, and enforcement. Bill Marriott told me, Lee, the only way to get excellence in any organization is training and enforcement. You’ve got to train it and you’ve got to enforce it. Don’t close your eye to it. So let me ask you this here. How many bathrooms were you in charge of? Hundreds? Thousands? Hundreds. So how come you guys could keep 100 bathrooms clean and the average small business owner can’t keep one clean. What is the difference? Is it the checklist and the enforcement? What is it? I think first it’s your values. Cleanliness is a big deal. That’s one of our values at Disney. Cleanly. Even Walt Disney said before he died, he said, even after I’m gone, if you all will keep this place clean and friendly, everything will work out just fine. He didn’t talk about technology. Clean and friendly. And today, when you say you stand for something, cleanliness, then you’ve got to do it. And it’s worked into all our training, it’s worked into our systems, it’s worked into our inspection systems, it’s worked into… I mean, even me, I’m Executive Vice President, I would never walk over a piece of paper. Because role modeling, people are watching. When I do it, and when you have 72,000 employees wake up in the morning and know that’s their job, there’s nothing on the ground. Now, what tools did you have to make sure that everyone was on the same page with expectations as it came to cleanliness or safety? Was it basically a series of checklists that were then all supervised? Yeah, well, it delegates down. I mean, we have some basic principles at Disney, which safety is always the first thing you do, no matter what. Safety comes before cleanliness. Safety first. Second thing we do is being cordial. That’s the second. I mean, always Disney people are nice after safety. Third thing is what we call show that the place looks great. And we’re even nice before we worry about if there’s a piece of paper. And last, efficiency, productivity. We never say productivity comes first because safety comes first because you could I could save money by not locking the gate or Not cleaning up the floor right not having enough people on duty to clean the bathrooms So we always tell people when you’re making a decision think safety Courtesy show how the place looks and then efficiencies last Safety courtesy show and efficiencies last okay now last. Okay, now this is one thing. You go to a conference, I know I’ve done it before, you go to the conference and you are pumped. You come back to your office and you’re going, yes, we are going to have checklists and systems and accountability and then you get to the office and the brass tacks of implementing these things. Most businesses I know don’t have a checklist in place. How if this is said to you, we’re starting a business today, so even like your speaking business, this is a good example, how do you start making a checklist? Do you just sit there and sit and kind of think about all the things that need to be done and just start jotting them down? There’s a simple way to think. When I came to Disney World from Paris, I had a lot of people tell me what I should look into when I got there. I had a yellow pad with five, six, seven pages full of things. It probably took me five years to get to all of them, but I had them on my desk. And as I got them done, transportation, I got involved in that. Costuming, there was opportunity to improve proficiency there. Whatever. So I think every time you get, keep something on your desk, so you’re looking at it every day. You may not get to it for a month, six months, but don’t ever forget that you thought it was a good idea at one time. And then you’ll get to it when you get to it. You don’t want it to fade from your memory. What do they say? There’s an old saying about writing things down. That it’s better than… I don’t remember the saying, but writing things down makes it permanent. I always kept that pad. For years I had that pad on my desk. A lot of them were scratched off, but I still… Oh yeah, I was supposed to get involved and find out about the laundry. Yeah. And I went, I had time now, I got to that point, I started getting involved in the laundry. Check that one. Now, what percentage of your time was spent inspecting? Yeah, I would say I had a very clear schedule, like I do everything because I’m so compulsive. So I scheduled, in a month in advance, I’d schedule four hours at the Magic Kingdom, four hours at the Animal Kingdom, so many times to visit a hotel for an hour or two, walk the rooms, walk the sanitation, check the kitchens, and they knew. I mean it was programmed for me to go. And then I had times when I went out just as a guest, put on shorts and a hat, and went out and experienced the parks. Really? You did that? I did that a lot. You actually did that? I took my grandkids so nobody can see me anymore. You actually put a hat on and shorts and your kids? And you see so much. You didn’t feel bad about that? No, no, and I think because you don’t learn the truth when you’re being handled. Oh, now if I have a gas station or have some small business you’re saying that you might recommend just going in there and shopping like you’re a customer. Yeah, and if they’re gonna know you, send your neighbor in and tell them how say, hey tell me how it went. Did they come out and clean your windshield or not? What percentage of your time do you recommend, say I have a business and I have seven or eight employees, what percentage of my time should I spend inspecting? I think inspecting, if you’re in a small business, you’re just probably around your people all the time. I mean, really? Even at Disney, as big as we are, we finally mandated that the assistant managers and the managers had to be in the operation with the customers and with the cast members 80% of the day. So, eight, nine hours a day they had to be there. And they said, we can’t do that. We’ve got too much administrative work. We’ve got to be in the office. So we added administrative help to them so they could be out in the open. What would you say to the business owners that you work with, I work with a lot, I see them all the time, that say, I’m so busy doing this, I don’t have time to follow up on my people. So the people have no accountability. What would you say to somebody whose business model is built upon not following up on their people? I would say that you probably ought to rethink how you’re organized. Maybe you do need to add one more person. Maybe you need to rethink where you’re spending your time. Because if you’re not executing well, your business is not going to grow downstream. No matter what you’re doing. If you can’t execute, you’re going to slowly… I was talking to my dry cleaning guy the other day. We were talking about, I wonder why people leave businesses. And I said, you know, I’ve been coming here for 20 years with my clothes to you. And I said, you even screw up a lot. You lose a shirt every now and then, but you pay me for it. And you’re really a nice guy and I enjoy it. I said I don’t want to walk away. I can put up with it as long as people treat me respectfully or nice. You always take care of it when you screw up. And he’s always there personally. Although sometimes I forget to fold my shirts when I travel. I want them folded. He’s like, just wait a minute. Here go buy me a coffee. Come back and find out. I’m going to fold it myself. Now let me ask the final two questions here. What rewards and penalties would you recommend that every, I guess what role would you recommend that every business has as it relates to rewards and penalties? Does there need to be a reward and penalty in place in every business? Well I think every owner ought to understand that the biggest reward is appreciation, recognition and encouragement. Give a little of that, it doesn’t cost a dime. Appreciation, recognition and encouragement. It’s in my book. It’s called R. I call it the fuel that drives performance. Appreciation, recognition, encouragement. We all want it. We don’t all get it. We all have a full tank every morning. It’s like a fuel. I can give you some and I have some for Priscilla when she comes home. You never run out. It’s renewable. If I do it, you learn to do it. You get some people when you give them appreciation, recognition, encouragement, they soar. Yeah. They stay with you. They quit stealing from you. The number goes down. And it is a fuel that is free. It costs nothing. And every day you and me and all these guys, we miss opportunities to give this to people on the street. A homeless person. Is that nicer? Is that? So if I have an employee that is doing a great job and I want to give them appreciation or a reward, do you want me to, is that something where you just tell them publicly? Do you give them something? I always ask people, what is the best way for people to know they matter? Tell them. What is the best way for your wife to know you love her? Tell her. Yeah, okay. If you love her, don’t keep it to yourself. If you appreciate your piece. So you might walk in. I might walk in and say, Clay, I was thinking about you on the way to work. And I was just thinking how much I appreciate you. You do a great job. I hope you stay with me for another 15 years. You’re the kind of person I need around here. And I just want to tell you how much I appreciate you. What do you how do you think about that? Yeah, I’ll tell you. You want to test it out because you’re not. We’re not good at it. You call up your parents. I tell everybody, call your parents when your mother answers the phone. Say, mom, I was just get dad on the phone I just wanted to call and tell you tonight how much I appreciate and love you too I appreciate all the sacrifices you made for me in your life and your mom will start crying and your dad will say what happened you get fired today the part that’s not so fun is the the penalty so let’s just say that I’m not showing up at work on time so the everyone comes in on what what’s that what’s the highway everyone comes in on the way to Disney? Interstate 4. Interstate 4. And some people say traffic was crazy. And then some people say I’ve been here for 10 minutes, I’m good. What do you say, how do you deal with the person who shows up late? So let’s say they show up late to work at Disney, how do you deal with it? Well first of all when they’re hired it’s very clear to them what happens. At Disney we have a point system. If you’re late to work you get a half point. If you don’t call and don’t show up at all, you get three points. When you get 12, you’re terminated. Bottom line. That’s it. Let’s repeat that again. No discretion. Let’s repeat. So you get there late. You get what? A half a point. And you get there. It doesn’t matter what the situation is. If you don’t call and don’t show up, three points. What other ways I get points? That lasts a year. They drop off as you’re curing them. How many other points can I get? What other ways can I earn bad points? Most of it is attendance related at Disney because there’s hourly employees and being late and we don’t do that for management. But it’s a clear system. You know you might put a point system in for your kids one day and say if you come home late three times you’re not going to use the car anymore. At the end of the year if I haven’t used the sale I have two points all year. They drop off. If you got them in November they drop off the next November. So the next year I start with 12 again? Yeah, you start 12. It’s always dropping off. So if you got six so far this year. What if someone gets crazy and talks back to their manager? Yeah, like two points? If they’re, it depends how they do. If they use profanity and get any aggression, physical, then they’re terminated. Okay, that’s 12 points. And you’re gone. We tell people if you’re just a pain in their butt, you know, like you just give me a hard time all the time when you come in, but you do a good job for the customer. Yeah, that’s part of the game. You just, that’s the way a guy’s got it. What about if you’re just somebody who’s insubordinate, refuses to make a hamburger the right way? Oh, you would probably be terminated then. Terminated? Okay. Now, the reason why I talk about this is because this really does matter for a lot of small business owners. So if you, if I show up late, I’m 10 minutes late, you just write me up right there, you go ahead and let me sign the document. Before you go home. But I talked to a guy at a hardware store this year and he said you know I’ve had this lady for 23 years she comes to work late every day 10, 15, 20 minutes I said and he says my wife says I need to fire her I said yeah right so she’s right I said you know why she’s late to work every day? It’s not her, it’s you. You let her. And his wife his wife’s standing there saying yeah see I told you. And I said, by the way, she’s setting a terrible example for the rest of your employees. Yeah, you’re not enforcing your own policy. I wish that there almost needs to be like an online school devoted just to what you just said there, because it’s just a brass tacks of discipline and management. And I think if you start thinking about performance, you’ll make you’ll deal with it. If you think that’s that’s not good performance. So they’re one person short on the floor for half an hour in the mornings when the customers are coming in. Yeah. Well final final question I had here for you as it relates to customer services. I know at Disney it seemed like the goal was always to wow customers. It still is to wow. It seems like the goal a lot of businesses is just to satisfy. Can you maybe walk me through some of the details that made that wow experience? Because when I take my kids to Disneyland, I mean we are wowed. What are some of the details that you put on that checklist that create that wow? I think we do a good job of preparing the employees, the cast members, to how important a trip this is for families. This is one of the trips of a lifetime. They’ve saved their money for three years to come here. They’re bringing their children here. They came here when they were children. Disney is a magical experience and we promote magic and the magic is really comes from the employees, comes from the cast, you’re the ones who produce it and so what happens to a guest who comes here that is really drilled into everybody no matter what we take care of. We go out of our way, we see you across the parking lot, have a look at a map, we don’t run away, we go to you, we get over this. If you’re carrying your bags in, one of the engineers, he’s just come from fixing a toilet, will help you carry your bags in. This blows people away because they’re going, wow, this only happens at Disney. Or you lost your pacifier. And there’s two things can happen. Some places you go, they’ll say the store’s closed. Other places, like Disney, they’ll go get the keys. There’s two ways to do things. Every employee, every cast member at Disney has the authority to take care of you financially. So your daughter got her dress wet or wet her dress or something. They have the authority to give you a new dress. They don’t have to check with a manager. We have a document called no strings attached. You just fill it out, sign it, tell them what it was, give it to the cashier and give you a new dress. Or your son drops his Mickey Mouse in the mud, $30 item. I can give you another one. I don’t have to check with anybody. How big does that latitude go? There’s a limit on the amount, but even then you’ve got to get the manager. But I would say we found out that about 90% of the problems were not financially more than $30, $40. But then one year we decided that when there’s a loss, like you lose a camera, it’s missing from your room when you come back. And it’s a $1,000 or $800 camera. We used to turn them over to claims. You know how that works? I turn you over to claims. You know how claims treat you? Like you’re a criminal. Yeah. So we made a change and we said every front desk person has authority to settle a claim for $1,000. Up to $1,000. Really? Our costs went down that year. Wow. It’s because it makes it more simple. I mean… Right now it’s done. By the time you get into claims, you get the lawyers involved, it gets higher and higher and higher and then the people want more money and they’re not happy with this. Instant, set instant authority. Yeah. 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 mind, 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. All right, 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 3000 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 Thrivetimeshow.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. That’s clear. That can be true. So I encourage everybody to check out Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. What would be another reason why someone would not be willing to take ten minutes to compare rates to see if they can 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. If 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 gettin’ there everybody! We gettin’ there everybody! There’s probably some, someone out there. Okay. That 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 thrive time should I come forward slash credit dash hard? Because you can compare rates you can save money and You know the big the big goal and 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’s or 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 three thousand dollars a year on average. I am at a loss. 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. here real quick here. 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 that 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. Why can’t you take a guess? Well not for another two hours. And in my case, in my in my case, my particular case, I save over $20,000 a year. Holy crap. Wow. Which is like groceries when my wife goes to the organic stores. Find everything you need today? Yeah. Great. Okay. Oh, everything okay, ma’am? Oh, it’s just that you’ve only scanned a few items, and it’s already $60. I’m so scared. OK, 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 Ridgeway. It’s from Ridgeway. 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 three thousand dollars a year off of your credit card processing. You were hoping what? I wouldn’t owe you money. Oh, 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. All right. Let’s go, let’s go. 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, so what we want to do is we want to share some wins with you guys, uh, that, that we’ve had by working with Thrive. Um, first of all, um, we’re on the top page of Google now. Okay. Um, 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 non-existent 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 listening 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%. So 411% we’re 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, 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 and 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 is 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 way 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 a diligence and Consistency and doing those and that system has really Really been a big blessing in our lives and also, you know 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, 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 really 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% 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 proof-and-turn-key marketing and coaching system that will grow your practice and get you the results that you are 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. He’s, 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. They run 160 companies every single week. So think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. In the weekly, he’s running 160 companies. Every six to eight weeks, he’s doing reawaken America tours. Every six to eight weeks, he’s also doing business conferences where 200 people show up and he teaches people a 13 step proven system that he’s done and worked with billionaires, helping them grow their companies. So I’ve seen guys from startups go from startup to being multi-millionaires, teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom through the system. Critical thinking, document creation, making it, putting it into, 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. What I was really most impressed with him is when I was shadowing him one time, we went into a business deal and listened to it. I got to shadow and listen to it. When we walked out, I knew that he could make millions on the deal and they were super excited about working with him. He told me, he’s like, I’m not going to touch it, I’m going to turn it down because he knew it was going to harm the common good of people in the long run. The guy’s integrity just really wowed me. It brought tears to my eyes to see that this guy, his highest desire was to do what’s right. Anyways, just an amazing man. Anyways, impacted me a lot. He’s helped navigate anytime I’ve gotten nervous or worried about how to run the company or navigating competition and an economy that’s like, I remember we got closed down for three months. He helped us navigate on how to stay open, how to get back open, how to just survive through all the COVID shutdowns, lockdowns. 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 team and by team I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing and this is our new team. We went from 4 to 14 and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome but Ryan is a really great salesman so we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month, and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship, and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you times a thousand. The Thrive Time Show, two-day interactive business workshops are the highest and most reviewed business workshops on the planet. You can learn the proven 13-point business system that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. When 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’re going to 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. 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 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 5 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 let’s say that your average number of clients was 30 and you go to 100, as a percentage what is that? I have grown, I have doubled every year since working with you. So I’ve doubled in clients, I’ve doubled in revenue every year. It’s a hundred percent growth every year I’ve worked. Now 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 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 gonna 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 turns into sales. Well, I tell you, 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 hundred 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. What’s, so she’s making how many calls a day? She’s making between 200 and 300 calls a day. And our relationship is weird in that we do, if someone were to buy an Apple computer today, 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 was 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 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. 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 the mindset that I’ve gained here Has been huge, you know working here You can’t you can’t be a mediocre person You are a call to a higher standard of excellence And then as your call to that standard here you begin to see those outcomes in every area of your life That standard of excellence that 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 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’d say 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’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 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. 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 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 from him. And then I would say come coachable. Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted.