Entrepreneur | Developing Your Own Prosperity Pro Forma | Know Specifically What It Will Take to Reach Your Goals

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 hear what we got. Cullen Dixon’s on the hooks, I’ve written the books. He’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks. As a 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. We started from the bottom, and that’s what we gotta do. Claytron, how are you? Man, I am doing awesome. I woke up today, and I was just feeling great. Got a chance to read a little bit this morning. Just, I’m feeling good. So it sounds like if you’re doing any better, vitamins would be taking you? Is that how that would work? That is how, that is, yes. We have a guy in our office that actually says that on the phone now when people ask him. He’s on the, doing cold calls. He says, hey, how are you doing? They ask how he’s doing and that’s his line. That’s his go-to. It’s a go-to move. It’s a go-to move. Jonathan Kelly, this one’s for you. Now today, what we’re doing is we’re gonna be talking about developing your own prosperity proforma. But before we dive into that, you have written something on the board that I want to figure out how it pertains. Pitbull plus pop stars? Pop singers equals hit. These are just proven formulas. A plus B equals some dollars. A squared plus B squared equals C squared. Pitbull plus pop singers equals a hit. It’s just proven formulas. I love it. So that’s what we’ll be talking about today. But first, the main problem that we’re discussing though is the fact that most Americans are in debt, okay, and they don’t know how to save, they don’t know how to create that discipline of saving, and they can’t build financial momentum. So that’s what we’re going to talk about. But to support this, I’ve kind of found some startling facts, if you will. I found a quote here from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This is what they said. Good times. Overall, consumer debt is over $11.5 trillion and is higher than it’s been since 2011. And more unsettling, debt is rising at rapid levels. Americans’ debt, that includes mortgages, auto loans, student loans, and credit card debt, increased by 2.1% or $241 billion in the last three months of 2013, the greatest margin of increase since the third quarter of 2007 this seems like bad bad news The only reason that it matters yeah is the more debt you have the less choices you have okay, so No of a young man who recently was telling me the story, but he had moved from One area out to the coast he moved out to the east coast and the cost of living was like three times higher. And so just to be able to make ends meet, he was working all the time. Where he used to live, he didn’t have to work very much at all to afford food, shelter, that kind of thing. So he’s like, hey, I moved out there because I wanted the weather. I wanted the view. I wanted the, but I worked so much, I never got a chance to enjoy it. So the thing is, we just want to really be aware. Just be cognitively be aware, know what’s going on, be consciously aware, be present and know, hey, how much is your cost of living right now? And I would recommend highly that you begin to develop a prosperity of performance, which we’ll talk about later, so that you can begin to live a debt-free life. And I say debt-free, it means you don’t owe anybody anything, which means you have the freedom to make those choices. Okay, I’m gonna do something for you, this is a little fun, a little fun game here. We’re gonna play fact or fiction Fact or fiction we got so I’ll read a couple statistics you tell me if this is a fact or if this is fiction Okay, first statistic according to the Association of Mankind 90% of people dislike and root against the New England Patriots Fact or fiction that’s a fiction because most people love the Patriots. Wow. Okay, that might be fiction. The next one here though, this is from USA Today. This is 36% of people in the US have nothing saved for retirement. Fact or fiction? I’m sorry, I thought you said, did you, this is, what percentage of Cowboy fans have nothing saved for retirement? We’re not talking about, no, it’s not Cowboy fans. 36% of all people in the US have nothing saved for retirement? Cowboys weren’t mentioned there. I would say that’s fact, and I would also say that, I don’t know why you keep mentioning cowboy fans in your stats, but that’s offensive to cowboy. I mean, just because cowboy fans don’t save money doesn’t mean you should credit them. This is a fact, not just cowboys, this is a fact. 36% of the people have nothing saved for retirement. What is the impact of that? How does this happen? How can you get to a point where you have nothing saved for retirement? What happens is we get busy. We get busy doing things that we do because everyone else does them. I’ll just give you an example. You get a guy, he goes to college. And I say guy, let’s not be sexist. Let’s get a lady. A lady goes to college. So she goes to school, she graduates from high school. This is step one. She graduates from high school. In high school, most people watching this, not you, but other people, I’m sure, not you watching this, but other people, graduate from high school with zero dollars of debt. You don’t owe anybody any money in high school. I mean, usually you didn’t get into a debt war with somebody. You don’t owe a ton of money to somebody, right? You’re not getting your third mortgage in high school. Well, then you get out of college. When you go out of college, all of a sudden, in college, what they do is they say, well, to go to this college, you know, it’s going to cost some money. And then you get a credit card because you applied for one in college. And by the time you get out of college, you end up owing, you know, about $100,000 for college. Then you owe about $20,000 for your car. And then you end up owing about, you know, $15,000, maybe $10,000 of credit cards. And all of a sudden, you’re used to being in debt. I mean, all of a sudden, you’re like a debt management expert because you now have accumulated this debt. In college you had no debt, or in high school you had no debt, but in college all of a sudden you went from zero to whoa. And a lot of Americans get to a point where by the time they graduate from college, they’re nearly $100,000 in debt. Well, that is a problem. Then what happens is you get married and the neighbor next to you has a nice house, we’ll call it a McMansion. So the neighbor has a really nice house and he lives in a neighborhood. You never question why the freak would I want to live in a neighborhood? You just go, well I guess that’s the American dream so I should probably do that too. So you move into the neighborhood and you don’t buy a house with cash, you buy the house with debt. So you borrow another four hundred thousand dollars for the house and now you add it all up and now guess what? You’re $500,000 in debt and you’re 35. And so now you want to start a business but you can’t because you’re 35 and you’re $500,000 in debt. And you have to work in order to pay off the debt. So every month, every day, you wake up and you go, okay, I’m going to income, I’m going to earn $6,500 a month. It’s a pretty good income. But you go, my debt, to service $500,000 of debt, just to pay the bills, I’m out like $3,500 before I even do anything. And then this is how we get stuck here. And so you have very few choices. Now, if we could eliminate this debt, all of a sudden, this is a great lifestyle. And I can tell you that what we have to do is be intentional about getting rid of our debt. We have to be intentional about living debt-free. And if we do have debt, let’s get debt at a very, very great interest rate. Let’s get the good kind of debt. Let’s be intentional. Let’s just not. But if we’re not careful, we’re going to go from high school to college, from college to McMansion, and each step we’re going to get further and further behind. And I’m sure it’s not you, I’m sure the people who we’re talking about in this statistic are just strictly cowboy fans. Well, I don’t know about that. But what’s interesting to support what you’re saying here is the USA Today also said that 37% of people don’t ever expect to retire, but instead will have to quote, work until I’m too sick or die. That’s their mindset because of this debt, it seems like they know they’re just gonna have to keep working They don’t have the option to retire. Yeah, and the thing is when you’re working. There’s nothing wrong with working I think work is worship work is something I enjoy I love what I do right, but the idea that you have to work work work work work and you can never get ahead That’s when you start to get worn out because you don’t have any hope of a better tomorrow, right? You never have a hope of a time where you can reduce that tension You never have a hope of a of a laissez-faire, which is the reduction of tension. You never have a hope of getting out of your current situation. You just feel stuck. And when you feel stuck, that pressure, that weight, you just start to come apart and you just start to physically get sick, get worn down. And Napoleon Hill, he’s got an interesting quote here. I’m going to read this little notable quotable for you. He says, a Carnegie or Rockefeller or James J. Hill or a Marshall Field, accumulates a fortune through the applications of the same principles available to all of us. But we envy them and their wealth without ever thinking or studying their philosophy and applying it to ourselves. We look at a successful person in an hour of their triumph and wonder, how did they do it? How they did it? But we overlook the importance of analyzing their methods, and we forget the price that they had to pay in the careful well-organized Preparation that had to be made before they could reap the fruits of their effort Yeah, so you saying we see somebody in success and we just said man that was that’s good for him I wish I could do that How did he do that? But we don’t actually take the time to study how somebody did that I have found that most people that are very very successful Know how much money they owe they know what their expenses are they know what their income is, and they’re very detailed about planning and plotting their monthly expenses. I know most people, not you, but most people, we get very busy, and we have to go to the game, we’re going to work, after work we’ve got to go to the game, we’ve got to drop the kids off, we’ve got to pick the kids up, we’ve got to get to church, we’ve got to come back, we’ve got to return the call, and we never take the time out, we never structure the time, we never, for some reason we feel guilty almost about telling friends and family, I can’t get together tonight because tonight is my weekly night where I take two hours a week and I look at my finances. I mean, who does that? Well, millionaires do that. So I’m just telling you, you can do it. You just got to block off time. This is what I love though. If we’re going back to this quote, he says that all these people accumulated their fortune through the applications of the same principles available to all of us. You can do this. And I want you to know it’s absolutely something that you can do. Let’s dive into these principles. OK, so this is what we’re going to be talking about today. We’ve got three principles. The first is we are going to help everyone break down their life goals into five financially specific goal areas, OK? Five financially specific goal areas. Second, we’re going to make a figure. We’re going to help figure out what trade-offs we’re going to have to make in order to achieve these financial goals. And third, we’re going to teach everyone specific ways to keep themselves motivated as they begin to go down this path of financial success. Awesome. Let’s do it. Those are our three steps. So the first one is the five specific goal areas. So I know that you talk a lot about spirit, mind, body, relationships, finances. Why do we need to have goals in all of these areas? Why is that important? How does that impact us? Well, what will happen? I’m gonna pull up a Kind of a calendar here. I think this is the best way to explain this. Okay, um My life your life as you’re watching this watch this I encourage you to either you know make your own calendar here or at least just kind of begin to marinate and think about your own Calendar and think about how your life is similar or maybe different than this I know that for me I have anything about spirit. We’re gonna write this down around spirit. Okay, we’re going to write it down, spirit, we’re going to put mind, we’re going to put body, we’re going to put relationships, we’re going to put finances. And we’re not going to go through all of them, let’s just pick a few for a second. Relationships, if I’m going to have a relationship with somebody, I have to spend time with them. So when am I going to do that? So I’m going to just show you. For me, particularly on Fridays, Friday nights from about six o’clock to nine, this is when we get together with other family and friends. Like we get together, I’ll take somebody out to eat, I’ll take another couple out to eat, I’ll invite kids over to the house. But every Friday, that’s kind of our deal. That is the time. If someone says, hey I’d love to go out to eat with you guys Friday. If I would like to invite someone out to eat Friday, why? That’s when I do it. That’s my relationship time. Also on Sunday, I have my fam jam. This is my time when I spend time with my family the entire Sunday. So these are times that I do that. Also on Saturday, from about 9 o’clock to 10 o’clock on, I do more fam time. This is my fam time. This is when I spend time with my kids. So I have these three rocks in my schedule where I get my finances done. So as you look at this, I’m just going to cross this off and go boom. And I look at it and I say, have I invested enough time here to have a great relationship with these people? So why, why is this so hard for people, I guess? Because we’re not blocking off times. Why is it hard to block off time? Because you feel guilty about telling people no, because you’ve been taught this line of BS that you should feel bad if you ever say no to people. So for whatever reason when people used to call me and say, hey could you get together on Friday? I’m like sure. Well my wife needs me to spend time with her. I married her because I love her but for some reason I was never available. And my dad, I mean he lives in town with me. We had an opportunity to hire my dad years ago. I would like to spend time with my dad. So that’s when I do it on Sunday. We’ve got a schedule. Now you get in here to finances and you go, well finances, I mean, when am I going to devote time to finances? I’m going to tell you what I do, not saying this is what you have to do, but this is what I do. Monday, I typically get up on Monday like about 3 a.m. and I basically from 3 o’clock to 7 I am planning out my day, methodically planning out my day, my calendar, my life, my finances, balancing checkbooks, whatever. This is when I do it because people leave me alone between 3 a.m. and 7. It doesn’t take time out of my family schedule. And you’re not going to let that go without spending time. You’re not going to make it happen in the middle of the day on a work day, but you’re not going to sit there and say, I don’t have time. Right. And now you get into like mind. I mean, this is where you develop skills. I would encourage you to think about mind as kind of skills. When are you going to watch Thrive? When are you going to read books? When are you going to… For me, everyone’s got their own time. Some of you want to do it at night, but I have five kids. So for me, some people watching this have five kids and you want to do it at night. That’s fine. You can get together at night and study. That’s cool. If you do it in the morning, it’s fine. But you got to do it. You have to schedule time for it. So for me specifically, every single day, pre-7, pre-7 a.m., before 7 a.m., that’s when I’m doing it. So I’m going here, you know, 6 a.m. I mean, it’s usually 5 to 6, 5 to 7. I’m just, I mean, it’s right here. I’m just boom boom boom that’s when I do it so I have again gone through and I again to knock out my mind now these are all and again I’m just I’m not going through all of them but I just want to show you you have to block off time or it won’t get done Now you specifically talked about having goals in these areas. Yeah. Have you written down specific goals that apply to each of these areas? Do they need to be written down? You need to write those goals down. I had a goal, you know, my first goal was to have a million dollar business before I was 30, to do that. I got a goal to hire my dad. Had a goal to, you might have a goal for a certain amount of weight you want to weigh. You might have a goal for a certain amount, I know with my family, I just really, really want to be a dad that my kids love being around. I love screwing around with my kids, making them laugh. I just love to have time with my kids. We all have different goals, but we have to define those goals because those goals should shape everything that you’re doing. What happens is if you hold these goals out here, if these are your goals, this is what you’re doing, if these are your goals, what begins to happen is this world around us has so many distractions that are pulling at us, that are coming at us, they’re pulling, they’re pushing, they’re just they’re really wearing us out and you have to be able to say no, no, no, no, no, no and learning to say no is a huge thing and I don’t care if you’re reading Warren Buffett, if you’re reading the life of Rockefeller, if you’re reading the life of Walt Disney, these are people who became excellent at saying no. You begin to have to say no to everything that doesn’t help you get to those achievement of those goals. Okay, so you’ve got to have specific written out goals for those five areas. I would encourage you to do it. Yes, you absolutely have to. And that process is kind of identifying problems, you know, and focusing on the solution. I know Tony Robbins, we got a little notable quotable here. Oh, bam. Tony Robbins says, identify your problems, but give your power and energy to solutions. So I can see in this, saying, I’ve got a problem financially here, how do I fix that? Focus on the solution, but you gotta block off time for it. Well, okay, example, it’s a sad deal, but I see a lot of business owners that come to me and say, hey, I need help, I wanna grow my company. And I say, cool. And I’ll work with them, and I’ll notice they’ll play to their own strengths. So they’ll say, I really want help marketing, which is fine. And you can help people market all day, and you can double the size of the gross revenue. But then I’ll tell them, when are you going to block off time to do your accounting? Ooh, nobody likes that. And then you’ll find people who haven’t filed their taxes in three years. Literally, three years, and you’re going, how do you not do that? Well, I just didn’t have time. But you do have time. People found that I used to be an entertainer, you know? So they would come to me, all the time I get this, they’ll say, could you announce the kids’ game on Friday? Is there any way you could announce the game on Saturday? Is there any way you could, I get that asked probably 10 times a year. Hey, there’s a football game, the announcer’s gone, could you announce the game? Could you, no, why? Because it’s a Friday, and I’m with my wife and kids. It’s a Saturday, I’m doing this. It’s a Sunday. No, no, no, no, no. It’s not on my goal sheet I didn’t write down, become a part-time high school backup football announcer guy. That was not one of your goals? That was not one of my goals, but if it was my goal to be an announcer, which it used to be, back in the day when I was doing that, I would have done it. Right, okay, so give us some practical action items here. You’ve covered a lot in this first principle. What do I do right now if I’m watching this? Step one, write out your goals. So I don’t go for spirit mind body relationships and finance right out goals for each of us Yes, then number two ask yourself when when are you going to block off time for it? What are you gonna do it cuz when you block off time for it it happens you have to do it So the first is right at your goals the second is block off time. Yep to achieve those goals I’m talking about blocking it off. I say block it off. I’m talking about Walk it off. I’m talking about blocking it off, boarding up. I mean this, you’ve got to board the doors, you’ve got to get your music going. Some people watching this, I know who you are, and you’re somebody who says, you want to be a writer, you want to be an author, you want to do your accounting, and you go, I can’t do accounting when people are around me. I have to be alone to think. Somebody else goes, I need music, I want to hear like some, I do my accounting when I got that mojo around me. That’s me, I’ve got to get the stretch. But some people are saying, I have to be alone. Someone else goes, I really prefer to do my workouts when I’m outside. Well, then you got to figure out when are you going to be outside? Where are you going to be outside? You’ve got to think through it. So the step one is define those goals. Two, think about when. And the third is where. Okay, so the third action step is figure out where you’re going to actually do this goal. What’s such for 10 for a second that you skip that step. Okay, cool, captain motivated, here we go. It’s seven o’clock at night, you decided to do your accounting on a Monday night. Come to my house, try to do accounting on a seven o’clock on a Monday night. Tough with five new kids. You got five kids, they’re all talking to you about various things, they all got different theories about what’s going on, they’re all wanting to show you a new sticker they bought, they’re always wanting to kind of snuggle and they’re wanting to mention funny jokes and bathroom humor and you can’t get anything done, you gotta block off the time and the place. At the end of this principle, we’re moving on to the second principle. You talked about saying no. Your heart found that a lot, and it leads right into the second principle, which is trade-offs. Okay. Okay, trade-offs. This is huge. We’ve got a little notable quotable here from Jack Welch. Jack Welch is a fairly successful CEO. He was the CEO of GE and actually grew it 4,000 times, 4,000%. He grew it 4,000% from the time that he took it over. This is what he says. There’s no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences. Unpack that for us. Dude, like, you know, let’s go ahead and dive into this. Let’s dive on in here. Unpack that for us. Let me do an offensive example real quick, and that way, if we get offended, maybe we get shocked into thinking about this, okay? Oh, man. So let’s say that we have kids, my wife and I have five kids. And my wife says, I want to go to work. And I say, cool, you’re going to work, you know, she wants to work, right? Okay. And so she says, I would like for you to stay home. Cool. So I stay home. Let’s say I stay home for 18 years. Right? And she works for 18 years. Forget the gender thing for a second, a little bit. Forget the gender thing for a second, a little bit. We don’t want to do it too much because otherwise we would forget to be offended. Here we go. She’s going to make more money than me. Why? Because I have not been working for the last 18 years. And she has. So the degree she has, or the occupation she entered in, she will maintain a relevant skill set. Let’s just pretend I haven’t worked on my work skills at all in 18 years. Well, let’s say you go back 18 years before now. So we’re going back. We’re going back from 2015 to 2007. We’re back in the 90s now. If I hadn’t been to work since Vanilla Ice, I haven’t been to work since Vanilla Ice. I remember Ice Ice Baby. Last time I was at the company function, I was going, hey guys, do you guys want to play Ice Ice Baby at the corporate? And everyone said yes, I do. Everyone’s going yeah. Yes, I do. And they’re going, that is the song. And I was going, man, I remember back in the day. So I come to, I finally get hired now, 18 years later. I finally get hired. My wife’s company hires me. Somehow I’m there and I’m like, homies, check it out. I got a playlist for this year’s corporate party, Vanilla Ice. People are going to go, where have you been the last 18 years, bro? Well, the thing is I traded off, I took time away for the family, thus I traded off that income potential. So when I get back into the workforce I’m gonna make less. Another example, I’ll give you one more. If you’re spending time doing your finances, you’re doing your finances and you block it off and you say Thursday night at let’s say 7 p.m. that’s when it’s going down. You know, and you say, this is what I’m going to do. Well, your buddy, you know, Troy, who’s in a bowling league, you know, Troy’s a good guy, he’s a nice guy, we like Troy, he’s a handsome guy, he’s, you know, he’s a big bowler, you know. I just want to say I really do appreciate your acclamations. They make my day so much happier. Well, this is Troy, he’s in a bowling league. When you’re in a bowling league, you get your name embroidered on the shirt. Of course. And Troy says, hey, do you want to come and participate in our super bowling tournament? That sounds fun. Because we’ve got our own custom ball and you know, it’s the new thing. It does sound fun. And you say, I can’t do it Troy, because I’m in the process of doing my accounting. Guess what? You can’t be in the tournament and be bowling at the same time. It’s a trade off. But people who are obsessed with going out to karaoke every single night of the week and trying to do your accounting, it won’t get done. You have to decide A or B. You are not an optical illusion. You can’t be in two places at the same time. You’re not like one of those Star Wars holograms, you know, where the Emperor could not be there physically, but he could be there through the hologram. You can’t do that. You got to be somewhere. So you have to trade off, but this whole jackassery belief that we can do everything at the same time isn’t possible. So be an awesome parent, be an awesome dude, be an awesome… Choose what you’re going to do, but don’t… You can’t do everything. You can just choose to do some things. Now, Clay, listen, you and I, we’re close, okay? The Thrivers, we all know that you’re kind of our bro Stradamus. Yeah, yeah. Okay, we know that. You’re our bro Stradamus. But break it down and explain it to us. So why is this simple concept so hard for us? Why is this so hard for so many people you work with? Because we’re insane. We’re an insane group of people. We say, I want to be out of the workforce for 18 years and I want to make the same amount of money as my wife who’s been working the last 18 years. We say, I want to be in the bowling league, yet I want to be awesome at accounting. You’re going to have to trade off. We want everything right now. This is what we do. This is the culture of jackassery we have. We want zero calories. So we want to drink something that has zero calories. Zero calories. I want Coke zero. OK, if you’re watching this right now and you work for Coke, deal with it, but this is the real talk. You go here and you say, I want Coke Zero. Well, Coke Zero, what’s in this stuff? Well, whether it’s Coke or it’s Pepsi or whatever the product is, they’re going to have this thing called aspartame, right? I’m probably spelling that wrong. The fact checkers can spell it correctly. Aspartame. Look up aspartame. These things are cancer-causing agents. Why? Because you can’t have something that has zero calories. It can’t be full of nothing. There’s something in it. What gives it the flavor? It’s a trade-off. If you want to have fat-free yogurt, check it out real quick. Fat-free yogurt. What’s the trade-off? Fat-free yogurt. If you trade off the fat, you’re going to get sugar. They put sugar in place, artificial sweeteners. So now you have sugar instead of fat. And what does sugar become? Fat. If you want to work out, you want to do zero impact. You say, I want to do zero impact. Well, guess what? You buy one of these shake weights. You buy the shake weight and you just hold it and you go. And then you say, what are you doing, mom? What are you doing, dad? I’m just shake weighting. And then you’re not getting in shape. Why? Because it’s zero impact. It doesn’t work. But the thing is, and I don’t want to judge you, because I’m stupid too. We all do stupid things. We all are drinking Coke Zero. We’re all going, well I’m drinking Coke Zero. I’m on a diet. Whatever! The fact is you’re eating something that has to have something in it. It can’t be nothing. It’s not Coke Air. It’s Coke something. Aspartame. Then you go and you say, fat-free yogurt. You’re still eating a yogurt. There’s got to be something in it. It’s big. And you say fat-free, it has sugar. If you just look this up, moving on, next thing you say, you know, zero impact. I want to work out, but I don’t want to get sore, and I’d prefer not to get tired, and I don’t get sweaty. Well, you’re not going to get in shape. The reality is you have to trade off. Everything is a trade-off. You have to sow the seeds before you can grow something. So you just, I’m just telling you, I don’t want to sow seeds, I just want to get a harvest. You can’t! You can’t pray for Santa Claus every day of the week. I’m just saying, it doesn’t matter what it is. If you’re watching this and you’re going, I really want the government to help me. Cool! The government can help all of us. They can bring us a boatload of cash right now, but guess what? Someone’s got to pay for that stuff. It has to happen. So just, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. There’s no such thing as a, you know, something that doesn’t require a trade-off. And all Jack Walsh is doing is saying, let’s get real. It’s a trade-off. There’s no work-life balance. You can’t be awesome at everything with no trade-offs. And this is something, in all seriousness, you’re passionate about because you’ve seen, I mean, you’ve worked with thousands of people now. And I was an idiot. I did this for so long. For so long, I didn’t want to read and study. I was like, I want to be awesome at my job, but I never want to study. For so long, how long did you keep trying and trying to shake weight without any success? Are you saying I should stop? How long was so long until you’re like, this might not be working? I was working at Faith Highway. And I remember I would not read books. My boss said, you have to read Think and Grow Rich. Yeah. I’m like, I’ve skimmed it. Yeah. Well, you need to read it. Well, I mean, I have it. I mean, you need to bring your book to the meeting and write down notes. Well, I don’t, I mean, I pretty much know everything in there. It’s pretty much common sense. I mean, it’s pretty much, I pretty much understand it. I pretty much, all that BS we tell ourselves. I was terrible at my freaking job. But once I beat into my bosses, I’m going to fire you if you don’t read this book. All of a sudden, I’m like, whoa, I am motivated. So I started reading these books. Well, guess what? As I started to learn more, I started to earn more. It’s amazing. Forever. I hated reading. Just being real. I don’t even like reading a lot of things I read right now. But you know what I discover every time I add a new weapon to my arsenal, I can blow more stuff up. It’s awesome. Okay, I love what Dave Ramsey says. He says this perfectly supports the second point here about trade-offs, okay? And Dave Ramsey, I mean, he’s New York Times best-selling author, all about finance. He’s very much preaches against debt, but has helped, I mean, thousands upon thousands of people get out of debt. He’s awesome. Absolutely. It’s incredible, okay? But this is what he says. If you will live like no one else, later, you can live like no one else. Oh, boom. If you live like no one else, later, you can live like no one else. What is he saying? It’s a little riddle here. It’s a little trade-off, actually. Okay. So my wife and I, this is what we did. This is my life. This was real talk. Okay. I had, this is my income, you know, and this was my expenses. I’m working over here at Faith Highway. Okay, I’m working at Faith Highway, so let’s put F-H, Faith Highway. I’m working over at Applebee’s, you know, and I’m working over here with the DJ business. And my wife is working here at Office Depot. And my wife is also working as a cheerleader. We took all of the money we made and you add it up, we were probably making about $4,000 a month. But I had to buy DJ equipment. And that DJ equipment, I was trying to spend about $2,000 a month on equipment so I could buy, because every system I bought was about $3,500. So this was just on DJ gear. So in order to do that, we had to decide what are things we can’t do. So we said, well, we have $0 available for AC, air conditioning. We have $0 available for dates. So we went on those dollar movies, you know, the dollar movie. So we did things, but we kept our expenses low. So we were able to have our monthly, just the cost of just eating, you know, eat, you know, shelter, you know, food, shelter, just the whole, you know, our car, just the basics. We got that down to about 2,000 bucks. Well, Clay, you had friends, I’m sure, friends your age at that time probably making something similar, maybe $4,000 a month, who had AC. Yeah, well, here’s the thing is I have friends… You lived like no one else. I have friends today, still have people in my life today, a lot of people in my life today who still are like, dude, you just spent like $3,000 on auto-wrapping your Hummer. Bro, you just spent like $400,000 on funding an online education website for people you don’t know. Why would you do that? Because I know that if I live like no one else now, I’ll live like no one else later. I’m just telling you, when we started Thrive, you, me, the whole team, we believe in you. We’re going, I don’t know who you are. I don’t know where you’re from, but I know you need to hear this And so we’re gonna invest in the money and the technology and the team we’re gonna do it now my wife And I we made sacrifices. Oh, yeah, when you sell a business you still a million-dollar business You have a lot of success you want to lay in a hammock party wants to do that But when I see people like you who need help and right need this kind of thing I’m like, you know what who am I not to do that? So that’s why we’re building thrive and you were living like no one else now you look like no one else later. Boom Okay, so an action set for us because this is a huge principle. What do I do today if I’m watching right now? Talk to the Thrivers. What is my action step? Ask yourself right now, what do you want? What do you want? Spirit, mind, body, relationships, finances. Okay. And then ask yourself, what are you going to have to give up? And to make it easy for you, I’m just going to show you. Okay. There are things right now that everybody watching this, with the exception of you, you’re good. But the things you’re going to have to do is you’re going to probably have to reduce the TV time. You’re going to have to cut that, reduce, I’m going to say reduce, you know, I understand if you’re having the Patriots season package and you want to watch all the games or the Cowboys, I understand. If you have the Cowboys season package. Yeah, you want to watch this series. I understand your dedication, I understand how hard it is. You’ve been through some stuff. Be careful, be careful what you’re saying. Yeah, so anyway, reduce the TV time. You know, all of us need to get up. We all can reduce the cost of going out to eat. OK. OK? Because a lot of times, you don’t want a brown bag. You know you should brown bag, but you don’t brown bag. You end up buying lunch every day. So reduce what you can spend on out to eat. Reduce the TV time. Maybe you say, I’m going to reduce the, I’m going to call this random buying. It’s kind of like where it’s four in the morning, you’re tired, and you’re like, I do want Domino’s pizza. It’s just you get to a certain point of mental fatigue, you start eating bad, you start thinking bad. But think about the things you want to reduce, think about the costs over here, and then think about the time. So the TV, yes, that’s a cost, and that’s a TV time. Think about the time spent with, I’m just gonna say this, negative people. I’m gonna say the time spent doing nothing, where you’re just sort of mentally drifting. You think about the costs and the time that you can start to reduce and pull out of your life, then think about the things you really want and begin to intentionally, I mean literally, make trade-offs, say I’m not gonna do that because I am gonna do that. Okay, so the action item is to identify the areas of trade-offs. Go in eyes wide open. Know what you’re going to trade off. Okay, I love it. All right, let’s move on to the third principle here, self-motivation. Oh, come on. Okay? And this is huge because if you’ve now written out your goals and you’ve set aside time, you’ve identified areas for trade-off, now comes the tricky part, we have to motivate yourself to do that every day. Motivate yourself. Okay, so before we dive into this, how do you continually motivate yourself to pursue these goals and stay dedicated to the trade-offs you’ve committed yourself to? How do you do that? Well, I would say right now, what I do is I think about you. We have thrivers all across the country who email in and they say, hey, I’m applying this principle and I’m actually making 20% more than I did last year. I’ve actually increased my sales by 5%. Hey, I decreased my cost last week by, and so I always think, I begin with the end in mind, but I always make, to quote Stephen Covey, he says always make the main thing the main thing, you know, so my main thing is helping Help people like yourself to start a business to grow a business or get where you want to go with your career, you know And so I focus on that so I literally have cut of covered my walls with your your cards your emails your questions I mean, that’s where my focus is and I’ve written down my other goals for my family my faith my finances I have those goals clearly defined so every day when I wake up, regardless of how I feel, I want to be clear, I do not feel. Real talk, what time did you wake up this morning? Like 2.30. Okay, so you woke up at 2.30 a.m. this morning. Yeah. And the motivating factor for you was what? Mikaylo, Mikaylo, one of our Thrivers of the Month in New York. He’s a guy originally from the Ukraine. He’s actually sold close five deals. And I just was thinking about, man, there’s how many millions of Michaelos out there that need this and need this kind of training. I was thinking about thrivers like you. And the other motivating force that I was thinking about, my family, and just being transparent with you, there’s people in my family who need me to do what I do in order to support themselves and to be part of that team. Well, and I think the fact that you wake up at 2.30 matches up with your goal of wanting to be an incredible dad and incredible husband. Because you know that you’ve got to get work done and it’s not going to take away from family time. So your family’s probably not up and doing a lot at 2.30am. And so you decided to make that sacrifice, trade off sleep so you can be a great dad and successful in your career. Well, let me tell you about the trade offs that go into that. I mean, if I get up at 2.30, I go to bed at 9, so that way I can get up, so I can sleep legitimately five and a half, six hours. So I’m not going to kill myself. I’m going to still sleep six hours. So I do that. And I honestly didn’t think about my family this morning, in terms of my own kids. When I woke up, I didn’t do that. I’m a flawed human, I guess. But I have scheduled it. And see, that’s what’s cool, is when you schedule it, I don’t even think about it. I didn’t think about, oh, my kids, that’s why I’m getting up. No, I’ve scheduled it. It’s a rock in your schedule. It’s a rock. And so I get it done so that I can spend the time with my kids. That’s the magic. If you’ll take the time right now to schedule it, you’ll sometimes even forget what’s in your schedule, but it’ll become a rhythm and you’ll just find yourself getting ahead and achieving your goals and losing the weight and getting the jobs and getting the skills. It’s awesome. Okay, financially now. Specifically, jump on in to this principle of motivating yourself, trade-offs, whatever, as far as financial principles go. So I hear you talk about the habit of saving 20% after taxes and putting aside money for opportunities. Talk to us about that. How much do we need to be putting away? Why is this so important? Well, I would say as a minimum. Now, if you study the life of John Rockefeller or Henry Ford or Thomas Edison or you read anything Napoleon Hill, they’re going to talk about the habit of saving. Basically, if you don’t have the habit of saving, the seeds of greatness are not within you. That’s a paraphrasing Brian Tracy, best-selling self-help author. But the point is, you have to save. So when you earn money, I encourage you, regardless of your religious faith, I encourage you to take 10% of your money and set it aside for charitable giving. Whether that’s your church, whether that’s an organization you’re into. I think most people we care. When you see the Salvation Army guy ringing the bell, most of us have a little tug. We want to help. When you see the Girl Scout cookie girl, you want to help. Let’s set aside 10% of our money to do that, but let’s not feel like we have to give more than that. 10% is a great place to start. Then you want to save 20% of your money. Save that to buy an opportunity. Minimum of 10%. I’d say 20% you want to save that to buy opportunities. So that way when a deal comes along… So I’ll give you an example. I was traveling all around the world doing speaking events and people were coming to me all the time hiring me as a consultant. And I was like… My wife and I were talking and we kind of… the conversation changed and all of a sudden we need to start an online education site to help teach these things that people are paying us thousands of dollars a month for, we need to teach it for 50 bucks a month. We need to teach the things they’re not teaching on the college campus. We need to teach these business skills for 50 bucks a month. Well, what does it cost to do that? I don’t know. Three million dollars? Yeah. But if you don’t save, you can’t do it. And because we saved, all the investors are like, well, did you put in money? Yeah. I’m like, yeah, I already put in 100,000 bucks. Did you put in money? Yeah, I already put in $200,000. Okay Well, I mean you’re crazy if you think people are gonna want to invest in you when you don’t invest in you You are a business. You’re not a businessman business. You need to invest in yourself. You’re worth it God put you on the planet for a purpose and just invest in yourself believe in your own dreams and be disciplined enough to say No to the random purchases say no to the all the ridiculous cable TV packages we have. And if you say yes to your education, say yes to investing in yourself. This is intense. This is like this. I feel like you’ve kind of like verbally in a kind way punched me in the face. OK. Well, I’m just. 30% that’s big. It makes me want to punch you in the face. It’s like we’re punching each other in the face Well, I’m good. Okay. This is this is huge for us. And so I feel like When you’re giving these principles, it’s not just an opinion that you have. This is all based on studying successful people It’s based on these books that you’ve read and it’s a proven philosophy. You’ve seen work Oh, I’ve read more autobiographies and it’s healthy Okay And I can just say you read the autobiographies or the biographies of you know Ford, Disney, Abraham Lincoln, all these people. At the end of the day you’ll start to realize they had a very hard time in life and once they begin to develop the habit of saving, when you save it is awesome. It is awesome because you don’t get stressed out about stuff and when you can manage your lifestyle when you’re intentional about not spending money on crap you don’t need, you are going to get ahead. When you get ahead it just feels good. I love waking up going, man I don’t have to do anything if I don’t want to. I choose to, but if I don’t want to, I don’t need to. You can do it. So tell me about this limited balance, you know the debit credit card move that you’ve talked about or the cash envelope move, the automatic savings. Let’s get into specific financial moves here as we’re starting this momentum. Okay, well one we’re talking about the debit card. What you do is you get a debit card, you put a specific amount of cash on that beast. So you get paid this month, let’s say you make $3,000 this month, you might put $400 on that card and you say, that’s all I’m going to spend this month on groceries. Okay, so this is the move to help you stay within those financial goals you’ve set. I know multiple people who are very successful who do this. And you’re like, so when they go to the store and they get overdrafted, it tells them that they’re overdrafted and they can’t buy anything and yes. So these people are fastidious about putting a limited amount of money on the debit card and literally not spending more than that every month. That’s crazy. You start going in your closet, your pantry, looking at beans, going, how old are these beans? You eat these beans, you start looking at old soup, all of a sudden you realize I’ve got some old food in my fridge that’s still not, it hasn’t gone bad, I’m going to start eating that. But I’m just telling you, that is the financial discipline you need to have in order to get where you want to go. And that’s one method to do that. Now the other method is a cash envelope. Some people I know, numerous people, Dave Ramsey endorses this idea of taking cash and putting it in an envelope. And you put the money in the envelope and every month, that’s all you spend. So you say, this month I’m going to spend $500 total on food. You put the cash in the envelope, every time you go to the store, you buy what you need to buy. At the end of the month, when you run out of money, but you still have some month left, you’re done spending. That’s it. Yeah. That’s huge. You start eating ramen noodles. This is what, I have a notable quotable, supports exactly what you’re saying here. This is from Napoleon Hill, okay? He’s the guy, he dedicated his entire life to studying the most successful, wealthiest people in the world, their habits, put it into a book and became the best selling self-help book author ever. 70 million copies sold, boom. Okay, so here’s what he has to say. Adopt as a part of your definite chief aim, the habit of saving a regular portion of your income. Even if this be no more than a penny a day, very soon the habit will begin to lay hold of your mind and you will actually get joy out of saving so he’s putting an emphasis on just the act of saving Yeah, so if you say right now, I can’t save 30% first of all, you probably can find a way but you got to just start saving right now to develop that habit Is that what he’s saying? Well one thing I’ll notice is you get the hat when you get the habit of something it begins to subconsciously affect the way you think Okay, so back in the day just to example my wife and I would do and this is probably you know you might go that’s weird But we would have literally had this whiteboard and every time I saved a thousand dollars I would just come in and go boom every time I save a thousand boom now It took a while to save a boom I took a couple weeks three weeks four weeks right boom boom boom I keep doing this book pretty so I go boom boom. I got whoa boom six thousand bucks seven thousand boom Boom boom boom boom man, but you know typically people would do five tallies, but I’m not, because I want to keep it confusing, I guess. Right, no, that’s good. But the thing is, is that over time, we would end up looking at our board, and we would go, I mean, it became an exciting thing. We looked at our board, and we said, one, two, three, four, five, one, two, three, four, five, one, two, three, four, five, one, two, three, four, five. And we would look, and we’d go, man, we’ve set $20,000. That’s awesome, yeah. And then you begin to realize, man, that is an opportunity. And then you start to have bigger dreams because now I’m not now instead of having these $2,000 dreams you start going well if that’s 20,000 I can play in that game if that if that opportunity costs 20,000 and I can and I remember that I just dream to start this landscaping business true story and I ended up going Yeah, let’s do it. Why because it was like 30 grand to start the business and so I took out some cash I bought the business started the business. I mean, that’s what you do Yeah, but you can’t have big dreams if you don’t have big habits So Napoleon Hill touched on why that habit is so important. W. Clement Stone talks about how terrible it is if you can’t save and how that negatively affects you. He says, if you cannot save money, then the seeds of greatness are not in you. You alluded to this, but that’s what he’s saying. Brian Tracy talks about it. W. Clement Stone talks about it. The seeds of greatness are not in you. And this is a man that, I mean, he went through extreme trial. He had to start working at the age of six to get his family out of debt. He understands being in a terrible place financially and moving himself out of that. Yeah, W. Clement Stone is a fabulous success author, but he went on to become a multi-millionaire in a variety of different industries. But he’s just saying if you can’t save, you’re not going to be in the game. I love you so much. I really do care about you. And I want you to know, I’m trying to give you the real talk that you need to hear. We all need to hear it. We need to save. Save? That’s not fun. Well, it’s really fun when you have money saved and you can do awesome things with it. Okay, so these are the ways we need to motivate ourselves. In summary here, this is what we’ve talked about today, okay? We started with identifying the five goal areas. You’ve got to go ahead and write out goals for each of those areas. If you don’t do it, well, I mean, you’re kind of stuck. I’m just telling you, you have a much higher likelihood of achieving your goals if you write them down. Okay, so then you’ve written the goals down, now you’ve actually got to identify areas for trade-offs. That’s tough, because that means saying no. You’ve got to give something up to achieve those goals. Yeah. Now you, for instance, I’ll just take an example, I mean this in all sincerity. You’re one of the most fastidious guys I know when it comes to preparation, and when we’re recording this content for you guys, there’s fact-checking, there’s research, there’s a lot of work that’s gone into that. And to do that it requires an undivided mind. You know, you have to be focused on it. And obviously, you know, there’s a million things you want to do, but when you’re focused on it, it doesn’t mean that you don’t like what you’re doing. It just means that when you’re doing it, you’re physically and mentally present while you’re doing it, and you’re not doing something else. And that’s hard to do. A lot of people just don’t have that discipline. That’s why your show prep is so tight, because you do that. That’s the one nice thing I’ll say this year. I’m blown away. I didn’t know you’d ever say something like that. Well, there is. Who put that on the prompter? Don’t cut that out. Okay, third thing that we talked about, though, is the self-motivation. You gave us specific moves when you’re starting that financial momentum with the debit card move, the cash move. These are ways to help you focus on the tradeoffs and focus on the goals. Here’s the thing. People are going to say, I don’t want to be limited. I have enough discipline to not use the credit card, the de-debit card method. I have enough discipline. I don’t need to use the cash method. And I’m just going to say, do you? Yeah. And probably you do. But the guy next to you does right, but what I’m saying is I know statistically if we go back to the very very very beginning Yeah, the majority of Americans the vast majority of Americans have nothing save for retirement So if you’re somebody who doesn’t need those guardrails and need that discipline you are a unique person And either way, I just want to say you are a unique person not just because your skin tone. America, America. The jerseys, you know he wears a jersey under every single suit. Well I want to real quick, this is David Robbins. A little shout out here. David Robbins, this is for you buddy. This is an actual embroidered, real deal, old school, San Antonio Spurs jersey I’m wearing. They representin’ David Robinson. Very few men in suits that I know wear basketball jerseys underneath it. Very few men that you know like you. Wow. And on that note, we will end 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. 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 3,000 bucks a year by reducing your credit card fees, would you do it? Yes, absolutely. Holy crap! Why would somebody out there who’s listening right now, who has the same 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 could reduce their credit card fees by at least $3,000 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 Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. What would be another reason why someone would not be willing to take 10 minutes to compare rates to see if they 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. 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 everybody, we getting there everybody. There’s probably some, someone out there. Okay. 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 thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash hard. Because you can compare rates, you can save money, and you know, the big goal, in my opinion, of building a business is to create time, freedom, and financial freedom. And in order to do that, you have to maximize your profits. Holy crap. Now, one way to maximize your profits is to increase your revenue. Another way to do it is to decrease your expenses. Ah. It’s a profit deal. Takes the pressure off. JT, is there any other reason why somebody would not be willing to take 10 minutes to compare rates, to see if they could save a total of $3,000 a year on average. I am at a loss and I cannot think of any other. Shampoo is better. I go on first and clean the hair. Conditioner is better. I leave the hair silky and smooth. Oh really fool, really. 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. Why can’t you take a guess? Well, not for another two hours. You can’t take a guess for another two hours? And in my case, in my case, my particular case, I save over $20,000 a year. Holy crap! Wow. Which is, you know, like groceries when my wife goes to the organic stores. Find everything you need today? Yeah. Great. OK. Yeah. Oh, God. Everything OK, ma’am? 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 Ridgway. 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 $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. 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. Okay, I just want to let you know what type of accomplishment this is. Our competition, Orkin, Terminix, they’re both 1.3 billion dollar companies. They both have two to three thousand 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 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 Pessamon company in the Tulsa area. And that’s really helped with our conversion rate. And the number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. Wait, say that again. How much are we up? 411%. Okay, so 411% 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. And 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. 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 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 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 gonna take in order to really succeed. So, we 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 proof-and-turn-key marketing and coaching system that will grow your practice and get you the results that you’re looking for. I went to the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry, graduated in 1983, and then I did my pediatric dental residency at Baylor College of Dentistry from 1983 to 1985. Hello, my name is Charles Colaw with Colaw Fitness. Today I want to tell you a little bit about Clay Clark and how I know Clay Clark. Clay Clark has been my business coach since 2017. He’s helped us grow from two locations to now six locations. We’re planning to do seven locations in seven years and then franchise. Clay’s done a great job of helping us navigate anything that has to do with running the business, building the systems, the checklists, the workflows, the audits, how to navigate lease agreements, how to buy property, how to work with brokers and builders. This guy is just amazing. This kind of guy has worked in every single industry. He’s written books with Lee Crockerill, head of Disney, with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with Mike Lindell. He does Reawaken America tours where he does these tours all across the country where 10,000 or more people show up to some of these tours. On the day-to-day he does anywhere from about 160 companies. He’s at the top. He has a team of business coaches, videographers, graphic designers and web developers and they run 160 companies every single week. So think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. So in the weekly he’s running 160 companies every 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. Critical It consists of critical thinking, document creation, making it, putting it into, organizing everything in their head to building it into a franchisable, scalable business. Like one of his businesses has like 500 franchises. That’s just one of the companies or brands that he works with. So, amazing guy. Elon Musk, kind of like smart guy. He kind of comes off sometimes as socially awkward, but he’s so brilliant and he’s taught me so much. When I say that, Clay doesn’t care what people think when you’re talking to him. He cares about where you’re going in your life and where he can get you to go. That’s what I like him most about him. He’s like a good coach. A coach isn’t just making you feel good all the time. A coach is actually helping you get to the best you. Clay has been an amazing business coach. Through the course of that, we became friends. My most impressive thing was when I was shadowing him one time, we went into a business deal and listened to it. I got to shadow and listen to it. When we walked out, I knew that he could make millions on the deal 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? Neighborhood. 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 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 ten locations in only a year in October 2016. We’ve 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 systems that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. We get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two day, 15 hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this and because there wasn’t anything like this I would go to these Motivational seminars no money down real estate Ponzi scheme get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything It was like you went there, and you paid for the big chocolate Easter Bunny, but inside of it. It was a hollow Nothingness, and I wanted the knowledge. They’re like oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big, get rich quick, walk on hot coals product. It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, and I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever and we’re going to give you your money back if you don’t love it. We built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see it. If we go back eight years ago, think about the number of clients you had back then versus the number of clients you have now. As a percentage, what has been the growth over the past eight years, do you think? We’ve got to inspire somebody out there who just doesn’t have the time to listen to their call. 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. So now we’ve got it to where we’re in excess of 100 clients. That’s awesome. So I would have anywhere from 5 clients to 20 clients on my own with networking, but I had no control over it. 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. I’ve doubled in clients. I’ve doubled in revenue every year. That’s 100% growth every year. 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 I 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 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 100 calls. We make 200 to 300 calls a day per rep. And she’s been nailing down five and eight appointments a day. Somebody out there is having a hard time. Found that script. 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, and or let’s say you buy 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 even 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. 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. You know, how to hire people. It’s almost like every aspect of a business you can learn, I have learned a lot in those different categories. And then again the mindset that I’ve gained here has been huge. 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’d say people that are driven, people that want to make something of their lives, people that are goal oriented, they’re focused. And they’re committed to overcoming any adversity that may come their way. Clay’s passion for helping business owners grow their businesses is it’s it’s unique in that I don’t know if there’s anyone else that can be as passionate. You know, whenever a business starts working with Clay, it’s almost as like Clay is running that business in the sense that he has something at stake. You know, he’s just serving them. They’re one of his clients, but it’s as if he is actively involved in the business. Whenever they have a win, he’s posting it all over his social media. He’s shouting it across the room here at Thrive. 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 doing enough, by just getting by, people who are not looking to develop themselves, people who are not coachable, people who think that they know it all and they’re unwilling to change. I would say those are the type of people, in short, anyone that’s content with mediocrity would not like working with Clay. So if you’re meeting Clay for the first time, the advice I’d give you is definitely come ready to take tons of notes. Every time Clay speaks, he gives you a wealth of knowledge that you don’t 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 something new. Be open to challenging yourself. Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted.