Entrepreneur | Part 1 – PR Like The Stars – Learn 14 Steps to PR Mastery With Deedra Determan

Audio Transcription

Get ready to enter the Thrivetime Show! We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re on the top. Teaching you the systems to get what we got. Cullen Dixon’s on the hooks, I’ve written the books. He’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks. As the father of five, that’s where I’mma dive. So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi. It’s C and Z up on your radio. And now 3, 2, 1, here we go. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, and that’s what we’re about to do. Deidre. Hello. Hey, welcome to Thrive 15. We love having you on the show here. Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here. Well, hey, a lot of people do not know about your background, unless they Google you. I know a lot of people will. But you started a company called 918 Moms. Yep, 918moms.com. And you were a stay-at-home mom at the time, or were you a workforce mom? Or kind of, explain to me how that’s happened. I had always worked, you know, had a career in television, and wanted to see my kids more, and kind of be the homeroom mom, and still get to work. So my partner and I left News Station and started 918moms.com and basically created a niche website for moms that was advertising based. Was it a little scary? It was very scary. We didn’t have any money. We didn’t want to sacrifice our home and put the mortgage up against our business and all that. So we really did it with zero marketing dollars and grew to over 100,000 moms in a year and sold the business. Well, as we’re talking about today, PR like the stars, PR really comes down to branding and how the public perceives you and a lot of that. So I brought some visual examples here. I don’t know if we can show this to you. This right here is some Ozarka 100% natural spring water. It’s got the logo on it, feeling nice. This right here is water without a logo on it. It could be sketchy. Yeah. And so if we were to walk into a room and we’re thirsty, we’re like, I’ll take that one and we’ll grab this one this one will act like it doesn’t exist because the logo makes us feel safer. Right. So in the world you know these these right here are in a wrap and they’re wrapped and they’re in packaging we feel safe. This did Bernie leave these again did Bernie leave these you know so it becomes rough. So in the world of PR it seems like the PR has become this big industry. Right. Can you define from your perspective what PR is? I think it’s what the public perceives of your brand, your product, your service. Do they have a favorable perception of you? Now Webster, I’m a big, big fan of Webster’s dictionary. He says, the activity or job of providing information about a particular organization to the public so people will regard that person or organization in a favorable way. Or he says definition number two, which is my personal favorite, the relationship between an organization and the public. Okay. So I guess PR stands for public relations. Yeah. I got one more definition because I want to get into this. Michael Levine, this is like the famous PR consultant. He’s not as much of a big deal as her, but right in that category. And he calls it the Tiffany theory. And he says, a gift delivered in a box from a, or in a box from Tiffany’s will have a higher perceived value than one in no box or a plain box. That’s not because the recipient is a fool, it’s because in our society, we gift wrapped everything. Our politicians, our corporate heads, our movie and TV stars and even our toilet paper. Public relations is like gift wrapping. Now I see you do this all the time with brands. I see where you have a client that you’re working with and I’ll just make up an industry. Hypothetically, you’re working with a bakery. And you’ll go in there and right away you’re like, you say it nicely, you’ll say we have some opportunity for growth here. Right. But what are the common mistakes that you see right away in almost every small business? Yes, you know I think spending the energy and the time on all the marketing materials, starting with your logo, you know people think well my cousin can do the logo, he’s an artist and he’ll draw something up or I’m pretty good I’ll try it on the computer. If you really want to leave it up to the experts to do things, like your logo. Your logo is your brand, it’s not going to go away. So I’m going to draw this on the board of fun here so we don’t forget here. So you’re saying the logo is one thing that we’ve got to look out for? Yes. Logo is going to be your most important thing right off the bat. If you don’t have a budget, when you started 918 Moms, I know that you had worked hard and stuff but you didn’t have a huge budget. Right. I think you were trying to spend around $0 or? $0 on marketing. So how do you get a great logo? How do you say, I want a world class A plus logo over here, but then I’m on like a D minus budget. How do you get the great logo with the little budget? I think reaching out to even say a college. Is there a college in your town where there’s a great graphic design department, and you’ve got all these students and maybe they could take your company on as their project. All the students in the class come up with different logos and different looks and you’re able to pick, you know, there’s some shining stars, those young kids growing up. You can pick a great logo and use that for your company. Let’s just pretend I don’t live near a college. I’m just being devil’s advocate because I’m just trying to, you know, very few people get to glean your insight here. So I’m saying if I’ve got a D minus budget, maybe I go with the college, kind of the whole intern route. Let’s say I don’t live near a college. For some reason, I live in Cocado, Minnesota, where I’m from. What could I do also maybe? What’s the other plan? You know, another thing you could do is, is there a way that you could go to a graphic designer where you like their work, they’re in your town, and say, starting a business, I’m on a shoestring budget. Could you do a logo for me and maybe I could put you on my website with your partner and I’ll let everyone know that you did my graphics, you did my logo. So kind of that trade barter sort of thing. Yeah, trade barter partnership. Maybe you can give them something in return. You have the bakery with the goods. Maybe you give them some of your goods. The thing is you don’t compromise. You always get an A plus logo. Right. Okay, so I just want to make sure the folks at home are getting this. We do not compromise on logo quality when we’re on DEDRA. That’s something we don’t do. Now, one thing I wanted to share is kind of my definition of PR. In a world with a 24-hour news cycle, PR has become 80% of the news. A friend of mine, he works for Microsoft. He’s like as high up as they can go. He’s explaining to me that almost 80% of all the news stories that you watch on TV come from some kind of PR firm. I never thought about that. And it’s kind of that verifiable fact-based information that to the frantic news community It comes from one of these PR consultants or a business that’s sharing a story. So how can PR Benefit a business how can PR influence the decision-making of maybe my potential buyers? Let’s say I own this bakery We’re going down that bakery right path here. So I’m just gonna I got this bakery here Let’s just say I’m making some sort of cupcakes, just so we’ve got a visual going on here. For some reason I put a candle in it. I don’t know. But anyway, this is my bakery. How can your PR help my bakery? You know, I think you want to be the leader in your industry. So, if you’re the bakery in your town, you want everyone to think of, if there’s a birthday party, you know, school party, anything like that, a celebration, to think of your bakery for that special moment. I’m the bakery boss. Right. So, becoming that leader in the industry and PR helps with that. So you know if you’re on the news giving tips maybe you’re the only one with gluten-free cupcakes. So being on the news talking about the health benefits of eating gluten-free. You know by the way we offer a gluten free cupcakes things like that. I remember years ago I had never really been on the news before and you can kind of pan over this hopefully we just you know only get four or five things we shouldn’t have on the camera here. But this right here says DJ’s Company Big Hit. I remember how that just changed my business career when the Tulsa world, whatever town you’re in if you’re watching this, getting on the cover of the business section, I had all these big companies calling me. Yeah. Suddenly you’re credible. You’re credible. You’re an expert in your industry. And there’s probably not a lot of bakeries out there hustling the PR and becoming that expert. So if you can win, whether it’s on the news, radio, TV, print, social media, you want people talking about you. So when I ask the question, how can PR influence the decision making of my ideal and likely buyer, you’re saying it’s that credibility? The credibility and I think just being part of the conversation. Be where your likely buyers are. So have the conversations be around your brand. So it’s that credibility, and hopefully I’m spelling that right, but it gives me that that credibility okay that’s huge and expertly you know the leader in the market the expert in the market okay and I hear all the time you know doesn’t matter what sales book you read that people buy from people they like and they trust right and it seems like with great PR the clients you work with they already are trusted right by the buyer right at that point that’s that’s exciting now if I have a strong PR presence, describe for me what that looks like. Am I on the radio? Am I on TV? Am I on print? I mean, what tangible results? Am I in magazines? You’re everywhere where they’re talking about your industry. So you’re the real estate expert in this market. You know, you’re in the home magazines. They’re talking about you. They’re, you know, coming to you for opinions on the market. When to buy, when to sell, all of that. You know, you’re on television talking about it. You’re on the radio, social media, or they’re bloggers out there. Anytime they’re talking about real estate, it’s you. It’s me. Now if it’s a bakery, again going back to that one, maybe every time they’re talking about a wedding show, weddings, birthday parties, celebration. Any celebration, they should think of you. So to the business owner who says, I don’t need PR. That’s just a bunch of bunk. Right. What would you say to me? You can never have enough PR. So even if you’re the your Starbucks and you’re the leading, you know, the leader in your industry already and you think I don’t need it anymore, there’s always someone coming behind you and you always have to be top-of-mind awareness. Do you hear a lot of customers say that? Like whether it’s like, I know a lot of times doctors, lawyers, people that are professionals like, I don’t need PR. Right. You know, I think it is the perception of PR. What is PR? You know, if you’re talking intelligently about your industry and being the expert, that’s a beautiful thing for your brand. So it doesn’t have to be in your face about your business, but it’s you being the expert and, oh, by the way, this is where I work. Okay. Now I want to give some of the folks at home some examples here because these are, I read these the first time I was mind melted. It’s just now coming back together. But in 1964, the Beatles, these guys, John, Paul, and the other dudes, they were going to land in New York City, and they were supposedly hotly anticipated. Well, they land, you probably remember that if you’ve seen the old footage of it, they land, teenagers are screaming, ahh! And all of a sudden there’s pictures taken, and then the British invasion was launched. But yet, what actually happened was, they were going to land, and no one was there. And so their publicist, their PR person, someone like you, was like, this, we need to get some excitement here. Right. So they got these high school kids to come out and yell and scream. And they took video footage of these of these kids. These kids were like paying to scream and yell and show excitement. And all of a sudden, America was like, well, they’re excited. I’m excited. Right. And it took off. Or Michael Levine talks about talks in his book, Gorilla PR 2.0 Frank Sinatra His publicist actually planted a person in the concert who was paid to fake hysteria to be like Frank, right? You know Rumor has it some people were paid to faint in Michael Jackson concerts. Yeah, why do they do that kind of stuff? You’re creating a buzz creating a buzz around your brand if you can get people talking whether it’s on social media telling their friends You know that that is the experience that you want with your brand. Have you ever done anything crazy like that? I haven’t really. Okay, well there’s a guy that we work with, Arthur Greeno, who we interviewed the other day. He wouldn’t mind us telling this. But Arthur has actually put out cows in front of his Chick-fil-A. Yeah. Because he found out that it was against the law to have cows in front of your Chick-fil-A. So he got the media involved there. He’s built the world’s largest iced tea, and those are maybe the ones you’re talking about that are more in your face, but then there’s other ones where you’re the expert. So it’s not, you’re not just a crazy man if you’re on the news. Right, so you either take the road of that, I think the expert or the wow factor, and that’s more of the wow factor and gets people talking. So in your mind, I mean, you’ve been doing this for a long time. I’m thinking about somebody who you’ve greatly impacted. One would be Coach JC. If you’re watching him and you Google right now, pull up a new tab, Google Coach JC. Tell us about the journey with the PR you’ve been on with him. Yeah, so Coach JC, he’s a dynamic personality. And he runs Boot Camp Tulsa, his dynamic sports development. He’s actually also a life coach. So he gets out there motivational speaking and all of that. He’s really the perfect PR package, great in front of TV and all of that. But his brand was not about him Yeah, he had his several companies going doing great, but really people went because of him Yeah, they participated, but his brand wasn’t about him So we took the coach JC brand and put all of his businesses under one umbrella Created a new website and really made it all about him Expert in the news you know he’s on the news every week. He is on the news almost every week, right? I hear people that are like is that guy like a paid act? Is he a paid personality on the news? Right. You have him on there all the time. On the news, radio, TV, print, and really becoming that expert in the market, the expert in fitness and nutrition, and really winning in life. His brand is a huge umbrella. Not just a fitness guy, not just nutrition, but also winning in life. I think the folks watching this, if you Google that, Coach JC or Bootcamp Toss, and you can see some of Deidre’s handiwork. And really, you’re not manipulating anybody. What you’re doing is the media is looking for news, and you’re giving them a newsworthy… Right. Stuff that’s really relevant. You know, first of the year, January kicks in, and everybody’s thinking about New Year’s resolutions and losing weight and nutrition. Well, he’s the person they think of. They call up and go, hey, can you come talk about this? One more example of one where you’ve really been a PR hero. Right. There’s an elephant in the room. A company I have a full disclosure, a small investment in, please get a membership or eight over there. It’s awesome. But these guys, I think I’ve seen your handiwork produced. We’ve probably 22, 23 news features. We’re talking the Tulsa world. If you’re in Tulsa, that’s a big deal. The Tulsa people, they’ve been on Channel 6, Channel 2, Channel 8, I mean everywhere. You’ve pretty much just kept them out there. Yes. But that’s a different thing. That’s not fitness. That’s men’s haircuts. And I think, you know, it is a very unique product because it’s membership-based and they’ve created that atmosphere there. So it’s a perfect package by taking it and getting them out there in the news with, you know, men’s styles. Next week we’re going to be on for, you know, the latest spring styles for men. Always changing, always relevant, and beyond just haircuts, it’s the experience there that they talk about. But even beyond that, it’s head-to-toe styling for men. You’ve branded him though as the leader for men’s grooming in Tulsa. And we have the men who financially, honestly could afford to get a haircut anywhere. And they’re coming to this business that’s only been open for 23-24 months. And they’re choosing because they have the perception. Now when the perception is high, the business also has to deliver though. Absolutely. Can’t be all just smoking marijuana. When you get there, it has to be that same experience that we’re displaying on the news and on the radio. They do a very good job of that. A lot of it’s media coaching and talking about the way to address the audience and things like that. Now, we’re going to get into the brass tacks of the 14 steps of PR mastery. As you’re watching this, I encourage you to take some notes because we’re going to get into a lot of good stuff here. This is stuff that I wish I would have known this. I really didn’t discover this until about four or five years ago. Totally changed the way I do business. Has helped me produce a lot more revenue. Let’s get into step one. Gathering intelligence. We need to determine the target demographic of your business and to determine the media outlets your ideal and likely buyers consume. Real quick, let’s go with the bakery here. If I own a bakery, what are some of the media outlets or media areas that the idea, you know, that my buyers are going to be checking out? Well, I think you think about, you know, who’s going to be coming to the bakery? Women, 25-54. So 25-54? It’s mom. Mom. Mom is picking up, you know, the items for the classroom or the birthday party. Okay. So where are moms at in the media? Well, they’re watching morning news. Morning news, got it. They’re watching cable lifestyle shows. Cable lifestyle, got it. They’re reading kids magazines? Yeah, absolutely. Kids magazines. OK. They’re on blogs. Blogs. Popular blogs. Mom’s blog? Mom’s blog. My mom did a blog. So they blog? OK. And they’re on social media, absolutely. The fastest growing group on Facebook is Women 2554. Okay, so you’re going to get, we’re kind of defining, you want to ask yourself, no matter what business you have, where is my ideal and likely buyer, my target demographic hanging out? Right. So, magazines. Let’s just say that you got me featured in a magazine. There’s some local magazine written for moms. In Tulsa, it’s called Tulsa People, but it could be any, you know, every community has a local magazine. If you got me featured in a magazine, what’s the benefit to me? Suddenly, you’re an expert. You’re credible. You’re the go-to source. And if you’re featured rather than an ad, but you’re in a news actual article, a write-up about you, someone else talking about your brand and your product is way better than you talking about it. So an ad, you’re talking about it. A magazine writing a story is them talking about your product. I’m going to pretend I don’t get it for a sec, because I remember when I didn’t get this. I bought an ad, it’s in the same magazine, and then over here on the next page is a story. Why is it perceived differently? Well, everyone knows the ad was bought, so anyone could be in there, they’re not going to turn away the money, right? But not everyone gets an article. Can you buy an ad? Can you buy an article? There actually are magazines, advertorials, where you can buy an article, but the general public does not normally know that. So there are some magazines that do that. What if I’m like, I just want to buy an article in every newspaper. Can you do that or no? Newspaper typically not. I mean, newspaper stands on the side of that hard journalism. So let’s say that I’m in the newspaper, okay? You got me a feature in the newspaper, like the one I showed you over there in the newspaper. What’s the benefit of that to me? So, if your customers are there, if they’re reading, which I would say a newspaper is more 50 plus, What? So may not be the, you know, the cupcake, wouldn’t be my first choice for the cupcake place. But, I think you need to be everywhere. You need to be everywhere where, you know, blogs, kids magazines, radio, TV, you know, ten balls in the air, you know, it takes people seven times this year message to convert and to react. Seven times? Seven touches. You’ve been advertising for years. Right. So that’s kind of a number that’s been ingrained in your brain. Seven touches. Yeah. Seven times to see your brand. Online blogs. If I’m on an online blog and I’m on a blog by some local community tastemaker, somebody who’s like it’s, in this case, 918 Moms was your website. Right. It was talking about things that 918, moms in the 918 area could be doing. Right. Let’s say I get featured in a blog though, how does that benefit me? That’s even better because you’ve got all these influential moms that are on there reading it, this content. So if you have a blogger go on and talk about your brand to all of their followers, that’s huge. That can be very powerful and that could be as easy as calling up, you know, the blogger or sending a quick email through her blog saying, hey, I’ll do a trade for cupcakes or let me deliver, you know, 20 cupcakes for your daughter’s birthday. Now I want to ask you this. Does the media actually… Because I have a couple of friends who are reporters. And they’ve told me, honey, send me a story if you have one. Dude, send me a story if you have one. And I asked one of my friends, I said, Chris, are you looking for stories? Every day. Every single day. Every day I wake up looking for a story. Give me one. Right. And that was shocking to me. Have you found that to be true? Oh, absolutely. So I worked in television and every single day they come in and they’re pitching three or four stories because the news director is standing up there going, not relevant, not relevant, not relevant. You’ve got to have a turn that day. So it’s not like our job where we say, well, we might put that off till tomorrow. There’s no tomorrow. The five o’clock news is hitting regardless if you have a story. So you have to go out and get a story. So let’s wait real quick. If I’m a reporter, what time do I normally get to work? You work at the news station. Right, so it depends on if you work day side or night side. But if you’re working the evening news, you get there around, say, noon. So I get to work around noon if I’m a reporter, right? Right. And then when I get to work at noon, from when to when? I mean, I have to have a story ready to go on the news that night by when? Right, so 2 o’clock is probably your story meeting where you go in and everybody’s pitching to the news director what they’re going to cover. And they’ve got to be live at 5. So they’re in a meeting, you know, they may have two hours is about average. They have two hours to go out, get the story, come back, edit it, and be live at the location. Wait, wait, you’re saying go out. You mean go out and shoot that beast? Go shoot it, edit, everything. With a camera? Interview a dude? So we’re doing the fact finding, the whole process. Right. So this is just craziness in here between 2 and 5. So when you call and you say, hey, I’ve got a story for you, a lot of times they’re like, really? Right. And something that’s topically driven, what’s going on right now, what are people talking about? I mean, flu season, there’s a huge flu outbreak, people are dying, your medical facility, that’s a great time to pitch five ways to avoid the flu. You have an expert, it’s topically driven, everyone’s talking about that topic that night. You have a quick turn and help them do the work for them. Give them the five tips that you would discuss. Okay. So they can kind of vet it out before they get there. So when you call them, you already have it all ready for them? Everything’s ready to go, make their job as easy as possible. Okay, so step one, I want to make sure, step one we gather intelligence, we gather the intelligence. We are out there looking to find out who our target audience is. Then step two, step two here, is we gather the contact information of the reporters, writers, and producers who are the most likely to cover the story. Right. Time out. Let’s say that I’m a reporter and I’m just making up making up an example. Right. And my name is Wes and I am hard news. Right. I’m known for covering the facts. I’m like, right, I’m Wes, we’re here live. We had somebody that was just murdered, it was very sad, and then you know that’s all I do. Right. And then you’ve got somebody else, and her name’s Shelly. Right. I’m Shelly, and we’re here at the National Honey Badger Museum. And every week, she’s got some quirky story. Right. Do you kind of have to find which reporter is likely to cover? Absolutely. You don’t want to send anything to a reporter that doesn’t cover. They call it a beat. A beat. So there’s the health reporter that that’s all they cover. Education, crime. So who do you fit into? Where does your industry and your brand actually fit? How can I find that? Let’s say I live in Des Moines, Iowa. How do I find out which reporters cover which stories? The best thing today is Google. Google? Yeah, get on, Google it, you know, reporters in that area. Look on the news website, call the station, you know, verify, before you pitch anything, you need to know exactly who they are. And then I would go look on their LinkedIn, look on their Twitter, find out about them. I’m going to do something real quick. I don’t know if I can do this. Video guys, let’s see if I can do this. I’m going off road here. I’m going off road. Let’s see if we can do this here. Oh, yeah. Okay, here we go. Totally crushing the internet here. But if I do like Tulsa Cupcakes, and then I type in, let’s say, Tulsa World. That’s our newspaper here, you know. If I do that, I can pretty quickly here find a story of that somebody has written about cupcakes recently, right? So I come here, and I click this, because I wait about a half hour usually, a half hour, write a poem, or I could call my family and see how they’re doing. So this article was written by Nicole Marshall whatever, you know, it says who wrote this article. Yeah. So in your mind would it make sense if I have a bakery to send my article to Nicole Marshall Milton? Absolutely. Now how I do it now that I’ve kind of learned these things from people like yourself I will just call up to the station or to the paper. Uh-huh. Say hey do you have Nicole’s email I want to send her a story that we’ve been talking about. Right. Sure. I wanted to follow up with her. I want to verify her email address. Can you give me the correct email address? You actually do this? Right. Because I do this. Yes. So let’s say we live in Des Moines here. So we’re in Des Moines. Des Moines. So we’re in Des Moines, and now we have a bakery in Des Moines. So here we go. We’re in Des Moines, and I got to spell it right. Des Moines, Iowa. Birthplace of tourism and excitement. And I am looking for cupcakes. If you’re in Des Moines, you’re offended. I don’t know why you’d be offended. I was even joking. That’s a place I go for vacation. So here we go. Let’s see here. So we look in here. We’ve got to find their register. OK, makers go to Cupcake or Des Moines register. So we go up here again. I pull it up in the local news. Boom, it comes up there. And that’s how we do it. And the internet just takes like three hours when we’re filming. Even food bloggers, it’d be great to get all the food bloggers in your town. The food bloggers are becoming really popular. So if you’re a cupcake place, you want these bloggers talking about you. So we could contact Jackie Horman Horman right there. We could contact her. Right. Same deal, get that contact information, send it out. Right. All right. Okay. So is there anything more complicated than that really? I mean, it’s just about finding out who… It’s doing the facts, you know, getting the… don’t pitch a reporter that doesn’t cover that story, that type of story. So only pitch to reporters that are in that beat. I know a reporter right now who will only cover a story if you’re very conservative, if you have guns and you like gold. I know another person who, if you’re not currently going through some style crisis or some addiction, no interest in what you’re doing. And it’s interesting because every reporter has their own bias just like we do. I mean I have biases, you have biases. So if you’re a fitness place and you find a reporter, get the reporter that actually works out, that takes care of themselves, that on their personal Twitter talks about doing the 5K and running. They’re going to be interested in your story because they personally like to do that. So you have to know these people. Right. What I’m hearing is you have to be their friend. You have to kind of get to know them like you know your friends. Exactly. So I guess a good example would be like my wife has a really good friend that we share. Lydia is a good friend of my wife. And with my wife, Lydia has a connection on certain things. Yeah. But you would invite Lydia to certain things, but you wouldn’t invite like Sharita to the same thing. Sharita is a different, she’s in this different things than Lydia. Exactly. And Haley, and so it’s just it’s different friends for different activities. And then everyone who knows me knows I don’t go outside. Look at my patience. I don’t go outside. So you don’t invite me to go camping. You know, so it’s just a different thing. So that’s what you’re doing with these reporters? Right. Now, what are some of the activities that I would want to avoid while I’m gathering information? I know we said we Google the people, right? So find a bakery, I might type in bakery in the name of the local publication, right? Find the numbers. What are some things I don’t want to do to build a bad name for myself while gathering these things? Well, and I, you know, by sending information out to the media, the worst thing you can do is to blanket the entire media on your email, and you’ve got everybody on there and it’s not personal and you’re you know cover my story please this is what I’m doing. Why? They’re all gonna go out everybody’s doing that we’re not doing it. No real quick this is how I’ve discovered you know in high school, maybe your high school is different than my high school. My high school was like if you knew something that was like the currency like if you knew about the party before everyone else knew about the party, you’re the man. You know about the party, where’s the party? Well in the news it seems like if you know about the story before someone else they call that the scoop. Right, they want to be exclusive. They want to be the one covering it. They don’t want to everybody in the five o’clock news doesn’t want the same lead story. You know that’s not. That’s a reporter’s I mean that the reporter wins if they get the scoop before the competition. Right, so you send it to personally to you know Jackie. Yeah. An email address just to Jackie in a pitch just tailored to her newspaper. Not a blanket deal to everyone. Now you worked for a news station. Did that news station like the rival news stations? Well you’re trying to beat them every night. So you’re going for ratings. So you don’t dislike them, but you are trying to beat them. Absolutely. Ratings equals money and money pays jobs. So let’s just be real for a second. That’ll frustrate another reporter. It’s like cheating on somebody. Right. Right? I mean if you have the scoop and you know about the story first. So let’s just give an example. If I’m going to build the world’s largest iced tea like my main man Arthur, and I send it out to all the reporters, that’s a party foul. Party foul that you’re doing it all in a blanket that they know you’re doing it. Now I would contact everybody and maybe do it in different ways, different angles in the story, but don’t make it look like you’re sending a massive because they will delete as quick as they see that. Really? Yes. Okay. Other thing, anything else I should avoid doing while I’m gathering The information you know I think you can’t do enough research and finding out You know who is covering anything in your area anything in your industry I think it’s smart to do that all up front And then when you have something pressing ready to go you have the number right there Who that you know have I have a spreadsheet of each reporter what they like where they work You know if they’re a fitness buff what they’re about and I know how I can tailor That angle because you have about you have no time you have to be concise and quickly pitch boom. Yes, okay They don’t have time to listen to the whole story so you got to be quick, okay? So I’ve contacted these these people I’ve got the information right I have a little phrase I came up with and it’s probably stupid But I have from the time I get into like research mania. Right. And by the time I pitch it, it’s so long. Right. No, very concise. So you’re okay. You remember the two to four? They have basically two hours to turn a story. So if you’re, I try to call right when I know they get the end on their shift. They just got there, they’ve got to go into their meeting. What time are you calling? So if they, whoever, depending on the reporter, when they have their news meetings, but 2 o’clock is a lot of the local ones here, and so I know they get in at noon. I’m calling right when they get in. Is that standard across the country? Right. You can find out when’s your news meeting. You know, call the assignment desk. When’s your afternoon news meeting? Oh, we have it at 1.30. Okay, great. Okay, when do most reporters get in? They get in at noon. Okay, I’m calling right when they get in, because they’re like, I just got to work. I’m tired. Kids are sick. I’ve got to come up and stroll again. So you want to call as soon as they get there. As soon as they get there. Gosh, that’s a good tip. Morning show, 6 a.m., call. I didn’t know this tip. This is a better tip than I had. Now, step three. What’s news and what’s not news? Now, in Michael Levine’s book, PR, it’s Guerrilla PR 2.0, Waging of How to Effectively Wage a Publicity Campaign Without Going Broke, he basically lays out in great detail the kinds of stories that the media will and will not cover. And I’d like to go through those with you. Perfect. So, and as we’re editing this thing, I want to get these images up on the screen because this is good for the folks at home. So one, stories that the audience cares about. What’s an example of that? Right. So it’s not about you. That’s what I always tell my clients that I work with. We’re the number one mattress store in the nation. We make millions of dollars in revenue. Your customer doesn’t care about that. They don’t care that you’re the number one mattress store. They care what you do for them. So what customer service do you provide them? So always think of the customer. And the user benefit or the customer benefit is the most important thing. So you’re saying stories that people… This is news. I’ll make a column over here. This is news. And this is not news. So this is stuff that I care about, okay? So I care about this right here. This is a story. Why does it have to be a story, Deidre? Why can’t it just be like a fact? Why can’t it be two dudes talking where we’re like, you know, how was your day, honey? Good. Why can’t it be that kind of story? Why does it have to be like… Well, people love stories and they want to relate. And how are you enriching their lives and making them better? You’re educating them, you’re giving them a good feeling with a feel-good give-back story. So it’s all about the customer and the benefit to them. Now, what about charity? Right. Why is charity news? Why is charity always in the news? People always want to feel good about giving back in their community. So if you’re a business that really invests in the community and gives back to a local organization they care about, you have made that connection with them. Is it bad? Will the media ever talk about how much profit I’ve made? No, but they will talk about how much you donate to the local shelter. Now, real quick, I hope I’m helping somebody out here, because I was talking to a client a couple of weeks ago, and they were expressing great contempt for the biased media who will not write stories about their money. They’re like, we have a great business, we’ve been around since the Constitution was written, and we’ve been making a profit, why won’t they write a story about us? Why is it always about charity? And I guess I want to ask you that because a lot of people don’t, you know, understand that. Why? You know, because I think that’s what your customer cares about. That’s what the viewer at home cares about. It’s not about you making a million dollars does not help me, right? But you helping the local charity where my kids, you know, went to school or, you know, I benefited from, I like that. Now what about this emotional, emotional story? It’s like the story about the little boy. There was a story a couple years back about this boy who had overcome some severe disabilities. That national story, and I’m kind of foggy on the details. I remember my wife and I would talk about, like, oh my gosh, this little boy, it’s amazing. Why is that on the news? And why are those emotional tuggers? Why are those on the news? They capture the audience in. They get ratings. People like that. I have an example of a mattress store that I worked with that actually mattresses are fairly boring. And what are you going to talk about in the news? So we came up with a giving back campaign. And so we did single moms could write in and tell us why they deserve new mattresses for the whole family. You’d be surprised how many people didn’t have mattresses. Kids were sleeping on couches, mom was sleeping on the couch, and wrote these heartfelt stories in. So we got a video guy, went to their house, surprised them, did the publisher’s clearing house where you drive up and deliver mattresses. And it was that feeling. There wasn’t a camera crew guy there not crying. Everyone, even on the crew, it was that emotional. And so you thought of the company when you saw the giving back. What about a public announcement? What is a public announcement? I mean, when you say, is it like, you know, I mean, what is it? Like we’re giving away flu shots? What do we do? When you say a public announcement, schools are closed? What do you mean? Right. Important information that people need to know. So that’s very factual. A public announcement is the roads are going to be closed on 169 for the next, you know, 10 days. Okay. Important information people need to know you work for the city of Tulsa you need to get that word out. Stories of value like you know how to save money or how to… Right. Talk to me about that. Why is that such a big deal? Well anything that can improve your viewers, improve their life, make them, you know, educate them, improve their life. That is always going to be popular. Now there, this is kind of one that I get excited about. You know, Richard Branson used to always go up in like a balloon or he would always set something on fire. There’s always a guy in every city who chains himself to a billboard and won’t come down until something happens. These are the shocking stories. Why does that get coverage? Why is it that every single time that a celebrity does something crazy, basically if Miley Cyrus just shows up somewhere wearing what she chooses to wear, why is that getting the news? Crazy video always does well, and you’ll see it in newscasts all the time. You know, just making sure that you shed a good light on your company if you’re doing something shocking, that it’s not in too crazy of a way. Deidre won’t ever let any clients I’ve worked with do any streaking, which is just bizarre. I don’t understand how she, where she gets it. Now, stories with big visuals. This is somewhat kind of with, you know, shocking, but you can have one that’s not shocking. It could just be like the biggest Christmas tree in the history of New York. Right. And it’s downtown at Rockefeller Center. Yeah. You know, I remember being in Vegas one year and seeing all the cab drivers in Vegas had like AstroTurf. They covered the entire cab with AstroTurf. Really? So you just saw these crazy cars driving around. Well, they did that for a couple of days and then they came out with a new golf course. Oh, really? So it was just a cool, everyone’s like, what’s going on with the cabs in Las Vegas? So I think something like that’s a big visual. It’s a talker. It gets people going. Final couple ones here is you have world records. So, if I’m setting a world record, like I’m going to build, like Arthur Greenough, he loves the world records. That’s his move. I think he’s going to do another one soon. He’s all about world records. Why is that the story? It’s a talker. You know, everyone knows if you’re in the Guinness Book of World Records, that’s a big deal. You know, it gets people to talk. And if it in turn also gets your brand out there in a favorable light, then it’s a good move. Here’s one I’m worried about. Scandals, scandals. It’s like this person is, he slept with this person. Why is that always in the news? This person did this bad deed. He stole this money from the kids, from the school. Yeah. Why is it always in the news? It’s breaking news. It gets people to watch. It gets ratings. That’s why it’s in the news. You don’t want yourself to be in that light. Yeah, I’ve been trying to just avoid scandals for the last couple weeks. Now, celebrity, the final one, celebrities. Like if Brad Pitt is eating breakfast at IHOP with Jose Canseco, that’s in the news. Take a picture with your logo in the background. Celebrity always gets the buzz going. So anytime you can associate your brand with a celebrity, whether it’s a necklace that they’re wearing, that’s your product, it’s always… So I’m going to go across and kind of go into the reverse of this just to make sure that we’re getting all this here. So stories about, you know, that I care about, I guess the opposite of that would be like just factual stuff. Like we could put, I’m going to make up an example, but one of the companies I used to have was DJ Connection buys new chairs for the office. Right. Not a story. Right. Not exciting. No one really cares. Right. Charity. The opposite would be DJ Connection turns a $500,000 profit. Exactly. Can’t do it. Right. Emotional. What if I just go logic and I say, I guess the reverse of that would be like. Boring. Boring, I mean just a boring thing. It’s like DJ Connection fills out 1099s. Oh, geez. Public announcement. You know, the public announcement is, you know, that’s where they say that, hey, you get your free measles shots, you’re free. I guess it’d be an internal announcement, like a memo. This is like a DJC memo about stop littering to the staff. Look here, you little jerks, I know somebody’s littering in the bathroom. Now, stories of value. I mean, I don’t know what the opposite of that would be, but you just shouldn’t, you know, stories about saving and how to make more money. I mean, it was shocking. I guess the opposite would be like really sheepish. Yeah. Like a safe. We see companies all the time. They’re like, I would like to say something, but I just don’t want to offend anybody. Like example, there was one doctor I was working with who, there was a local news story, who desperately wanted to know about Obamacare. Like all the people want to know, Obamacare, how’s it going to affect your business, whether it’s good or bad. Just tell us how it’s going to affect you. Not gonna say. Yeah. You know, I just want to… well that’s not a news story. Right. So you got to comment a little bit there, right? Now, other ones here, big visuals. Talk to me about companies that want to make small visuals. What happens then? Like if it’s… Nobody sees it. Okay. World Records, a little small, little small. Yeah, nobody cares. Okay, you just did some small shrubbery out front of our building, you know. Scandals, you know, just something like… This is not a story. It’s like, Clay doesn’t cheat for 12 years. 12 years of consecutive marital bliss. It’s not a story, right? And then celebrity, you know, the opposite of that is like Mr. Thompson went outside. I mean, it’s not a story. Brad Pitt goes outside, it’s a story. Right. But hopefully we’re helping some people on that. Now, as we get into step four here, this is the stuff where it kind of gets me excited. There’s four moves for delivering powerful PR, and I’m going to go over them with you real quick here. It says, every day, members of the media wake up and ask themselves, what news story am I going to cover? In the PR 2.0 book, he says, as is commonly believed, the media are indeed hungry for stories, but just not any stories. To be newsworthy, a subject must have a distinctive quality. Give me something to talk about using. What is something that the media is hungry for distinctive stories that are newsworthy stories? Deidre, what are some of the mistakes that most entrepreneurs are making when they pitch a story? I always tell people to think of what people are talking about right now. We’re here in February and you’ve got March coming up. Spring break. Do you have a story about spring break? Spring lawns? You know, makeover spring haircuts? You know, go with what’s going on in the season. Is it getting ready to be Mother’s Day? Do you have a product that would be good for mothers? Do you have advice on ways to cherish the moment with your mom? Things like that. So for you, you’re saying that you’ve got to write as though you’re almost a reporter. Right. If you can do that, if you can write the story for them, it’s a shoe in that you’ll get one. Okay. Now, Michael Levine lays out these four moves. It only takes me like five or six times to make that work. Okay. So, here we go. Move number one that Michael Levine gives us, and I know every PR consultant has a little different take on it, but I’m going to go through the moves, and I want to get your feedback on how to do these. Okay? Utility. This is move number one. Give the viewers something they want and can use. A free guide to losing weight, a free e-book on how to get hired. What is an example of how you’ve seen yourself or how you’ve seen this work for a client of yours? I mean, utility. How have you seen this work? Free information is always good. If you can give free content that’s meaningful to them and it’s going to make their life better or make them save money, it’s perfect. So Coach JC is an example. He has a free pumpkin workout. Free pumpkin workout. So he went on the news with some pumpkins. It was a great visual and actually had an e-book that’s a free pumpkin workout. So if you’re at home, you don’t have enough money for a gym, you don’t need a gym, grab your pumpkin after you’re done, pick it up and do a workout. And that was something you gave the community free. Right. And again, following his rules, this is something that is, it’s giving people a, a, a something of value. Something of value and a reason to visit your website. It’s driving traffic. So this is a good utility move here. For the folks at home who are looking and saying, I don’t know, utility move, I can’t do that. Juxtaposition, this is my personal favorite. I want to give an example. Can you spell that? Yeah, I learned this at Dasyl Cucado schools. Okay, so here we go. This is where you attach yourself to a current news story. So the guy I think about who’s done this the most in my lifetime is Donald Trump. I remember when Rosie O’Donnell, she’s taken off, Rosie’s over here, her career has never been at a higher point. He waits until she gets at the point, and then here he comes, bam, he collides with her and then we all of a sudden we hear the name Donald Trump. Another example, President Obama is on his way up, and then bam. Donald Trump collides and says, show me your birth certificate. That’s funny, I’ve never thought of that. That’s like his move. It is. Or another guy I think about is Jose Canseco. He waits until steroids are at this all-time peak. People are like obsessed with steroids. And then he comes out of obscurity and he’s like BAM! I have done more steroids than anyone. Look at me. I currently do steroids and all these guys did too. He writes the book, he talks about it. It’s amazing to me. But what are some examples of how you would recommend, if I’m an entrepreneur, and let’s say again I go back to that example, maybe it’s a bakery. This time I’m moving to, I’m an insurance company. Right. How can I, as an insurance company, juxtapose the stuff that’s happening in the world, media, with my business to get in the news? One of the best things to do is take a national story and localize it. So say there is a real estate market or insurance, you know, suddenly there’s been a new law and insurance has changed. Yeah. Well, you can become the expert in your area and comment on that. So how does that locally affect me in Tulsa, Oklahoma? JT, do you know what time it is? 410. It’s T-Bo time in Tulsa, Roseland, baby. Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 27 and 28. We’ve been doing business conferences here since 2005. I’ve been hosting business conferences since 2005. What year were you born? 1995. Dude, I’ve been hosting business conferences since you were 10 years old, but I’ve never had the two-time Heisman Award winning Tim Tebow come present. And a lot of people, you know, have followed Tim Tebow’s football career on the field and off the field. And off the field, the guy’s been just as successful as he has been on the field. Now, the big question is, JT, how does he do it? Well, they’re going to have to come and find out, because I don’t know. Well, I’m just saying, Tim Tebow is going to teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s going to walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is going to be a blasty blast in Tulsa, Russia. Also, this is the first Thrive Time Show event that we’ve had, where we’re going to have a man who has built a $100 million net worth, who’ll be presenting. Now, we’ve had a couple of presenters that have had a billion dollar net worth in some real estate sort of things. But this is the first time we’ve had a guy who’s built a service business, and he’s built over $100 million net worth in the service business. It’s the yacht driving, multi-state living guru of franchising. Peter Taunton will be in the house. This is the founder of Snap Fitness, the guy behind 9 Round Boxing. He’s going to be here in Tulsa, Russel, Oklahoma, June 27th and 28th. JT, why should everybody want to hear what Peter Taunton has to say? Oh, because he’s incredible. He’s just a fountain of knowledge. He is awesome. He has inspired me listening to him talk. And not only that, he also has, he practices what he teaches. So he’s a real teacher. He’s not a fake teacher like business school teachers. So you’ve got to come learn from him. Also, let me tell you this, folks. I don’t want to get this wrong, because if I get it wrong, someone’s going to say, You screwed that up, buddy. So Michael Levine, this is Michael Levine. He’s going to be coming. And you say, Who’s Michael Levine? I don’t want to get this wrong. This is the PR consultant of choice for Michael Jackson, for Prince, for Nike, for Charlton Heston, for Nancy Kerrigan, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestselling authors he’s represented, including pretty much everybody you know who’s been a super celebrity. This is Michael Levine, a good friend of mine. He’s going to come and talk to you about personal branding and the mindset needed to be super successful. The lineup will continue to grow. We have hit Christian reporting artist Colton Dixon in the house. Now people say, Colton Dixon’s in the house? Yes! Colton Dixon’s in the house. So if you like Top 40 Christian music, Colton Dixon’s going to be in the house performing. The lineup will continue to grow each and every day. We’re going to add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup. But I encourage everybody out there today, get those tickets today. Go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s Thrivetimeshow.com. And some people might be saying, well, how do I do it? I don’t know what I do. How does it work? You just go to thrivetimeshow.com. Let’s go there now. We’re feeling the flow. We’re going to thrivetimeshow.com. Thrive is cool. Again, you just go to thrivetimeshow.com. You click on the Business Conferences button, and you click on the Request Tickets button right there. The way I do our conferences is we tell people it’s $250 to get a ticket or whatever price that you can afford. And the reason why I do that is I grew up without money. JT, you’re in the process of building a super successful company. Did you start out with a million dollars in the bank account? No, I did not. Nope, did not get any loans, nothing like that. Did not get an inheritance from parents or anything like that. I had to work for it and I’m super grateful I came to a business conference. That’s actually how I met you, met Peter Tong, and I met all these people. So if you’re out there today and you want to come to our workshop, again, you just got to go to thrivetimeshow.com. You might say, well, when’s it going to be? June 27 and 28. You might say, well, who’s speaking? We already covered that. You might say, where is it going to be? It’s going to be in Tulsa, Russell Oklahoma. It’s Tulsa, Russell. I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa, Russell. I’m sort of like the Jerusalem of America. But if you type in Thrive Time Show in Jinx, you can get a sneak peek or a look at our office facility. This is what it looks like. This is where you’re headed. It’s going to be a blasty blast. You can look inside, see the facility. We’re going to have hundreds of entrepreneurs here. It is going to be packed. Now for this particular event, folks, the seating is always limited because my facility isn’t a limitless convention center. You’re coming to my actual home office. And so it’s going to be packed. So when? June 27th and 28th. Who? You. You’re going to come. Who? I’m talking to you. You can get your tickets right now at thrivetimeshow.com. And again, you can name your price. We tell people it’s $250 or whatever price you can afford. And we do have some select VIP tickets, which gives you an access to meet some of the speakers and those sorts of things. And those tickets are $500. It’s a two-day interactive business workshop, over 20 hours of business training. We’re going to give you a copy of my newest book, The Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. You’re going to leave with a workbook, you’re going to leave with everything you need to know to start and grow a super successful company. It’s practical, it’s actionable, and it’s TiVo time right here in Tulsa, Russia. Get those tickets today at Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s Thrivetimeshow.com. Hello, I’m Michael Levine, and I’m talking to you right now from the center of Hollywood, California, where I have represented over the last 35 years 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestsellers. I’ve represented a lot of major stars and I’ve worked with a lot of major companies and I think I’ve learned a few things about what makes them work and what makes them not work. Now, why would a man living in Hollywood, California, in the beautiful sunny weather of LA, come to Tulsa. Because last year I did it and it was damn exciting. Clay Clark has put together an exceptional presentation, really life-changing, and I’m looking forward to seeing you then. I’m Michael Levine, I’ll see you in Tulsa. James, did I tell you my good friend John Lee Dumas is also joining us at the in-person, two-day interactive Thrive Time Show Business Workshop. That Tim Tebow and that Michael Levine. Have I told you this? You have not told me that. He’s coming all the way from Puerto Rico. This is John Lee Dumas, the host of the chart-topping EOFire.com podcast. He’s absolutely a living legend. This guy started a podcast after wrapping up his service in the United States military and he started recording this podcast daily in his home to the point where he started interviewing big-time folks like Gary Vaynerchuk, like Tony Robbins and he just kept interviewing bigger and bigger names putting out shows day after day and now he is the legendary host of the EO Fire podcast and he’s traveled all the way from Pluto, Rico to Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend the in-person June 27th and 28th primetime show, two-day interactive business workshop. If you’re out there today, folks, you’ve ever wanted to grow a podcast, a broadcast, you want to improve your marketing, if you’ve ever wanted to improve your marketing, your branding, if you’ve ever wanted to increase your sales, you want to come to the two-day interactive June 27th and 28th primetime show business workshop featuring Tim Tebow, Michael Levine, John Lee Dumas, and countless big-time, super successful entrepreneurs. It’s going to be life-changing. Get your tickets right now at Thrivetimeshow.com. James, what website is that? Thrivetimeshow.com James, one more time with a more enthusiastic… Thrivetimeshow.com I’m a go for it, this moment, we own it. I’m not to be played with because it could get dangerous. See, these people I ride with, this moment, we own it. Thrivetime show two day interactive business workshops are the world’s highest rated and most reviewed business workshops. Because we teach you what you need to know to grow. You can learn the proven 13 point business 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, and they’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get-rich-quick, walk-on hot coals product. It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, but I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates, look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses, or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever and we’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. And now you may be thinking, what does it actually cost to attend an in-person two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop? The tickets are $250 or whatever price that you can afford. What? Yes, they’re $250 or whatever price you can afford. I grew up without money and I know what it’s like to live without money. So if you’re out there today and you want to attend our in-person, two-day, interactive business workshop, all you’ve got to do is go to Thrivetimeshow.com to request those tickets and if you can’t afford $250, we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. I learned at the Academy at Kings Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvard Kiyosaki, The Rich Dad Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re close, but they’re completely different worlds. And I have a special guest today. Definition of intelligence is if you agree with me, you’re intelligent. And so this gentleman is very intelligent. I’ve done this show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts. And so Mr. Clay Clark is a friend of a good friend, Eric Trump. But we’re also talking about money, bricks, and how screwed up the world can get in a few and a half hour. So Clay Clark is a very intelligent man and there’s so many ways we could take this thing. But I thought since you and Eric are close, Trump, what were you saying about what Trump can’t, what Donald, who is my age, and I can say or cannot say. Well, first of all, I have to honor you, sir. I want to show you what I did to one of your books here. All right. There’s a guy named Jeremy Thorne, who was my boss at the time. I was 19 years old, working at Faith Highway. I had a job at Applebee’s, Target, and DirecTV. He said, have you read this book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad? I said, no. My father, may he rest in peace, he didn’t know these financial principles. I started reading all of your books and really devouring your books. I went from being an employee to self-employed, to the business owner, to the investor, and I owe a lot of that to you. I just wanted to take a moment to tell you, thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success. And I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump, but I just want to tell you, thank you, sir, for changing my life. Well, not only that, Clay, thank you, but you’ve become an influencer. More than anything else, you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. So that’s why I congratulate you on becoming. Because as you know, there’s a lot of fake influencers out there, or bad influencers. Yeah. Anyway, I’m glad you and I agree so much, and thanks for reading my books. Yeah. That’s the greatest thrill for me today. Not a thrill, but recognition is when people, young men especially, come up and say, I read your book, changed my life. I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this. I learned at the Academy at King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Whoa! Hey, I’m Ryan Wimpey. I’m originally from Tulsa, born and raised here. I went to a small private liberal arts college and got a degree in business, and I didn’t learn anything like they’re teaching here. I didn’t learn linear workflows. I learned stuff that I’m not using and I haven’t been using for the last nine years. So what they’re teaching here is actually way better than what I got at business school. And I went what was actually ranked as a very good business school. The linear workflow, the linear workflow for us in getting everything out on paper and documented is really important. Like we have workflows that are kind of all over the place. Having linear workflow and seeing that mapped out on multiple different boards is pretty awesome. That’s really helpful for me. The atmosphere here is awesome. I definitely just stared at the walls, figuring out how to make my facility look like this place. This place rocks. It’s invigorating. The walls are super, it’s just very cool. The atmosphere is cool, the people are nice. It’s a pretty cool place to be. Very good learning atmosphere. I literally want to model it and steal everything that’s here at this facility and basically create it just on our business side. Once I saw what they were doing, I knew I had to get here at the conference. This is probably the best conference or seminar I’ve ever been to in over 30 years of business. You’re not bored, you’re awake and alive the whole time, it’s not pushy, they don’t try to sell you a bunch of things. I was looking to learn how to just get control of my life, my schedule, and just get control of the business. Planning your time, breaking it all down, making time for the F6 in your life, and just really implementing it and sticking with the program. It’s really lively, they’re pretty friendly, helpful, and very welcoming. I attended a conference a couple months back and it was really the best business conference I’ve ever attended. At the workshop I learned a lot about time management, really prioritizing what’s the most important. The biggest takeaways are, you know, you want to take a step-by-step approach to your business. Whether it’s marketing, you know, what are those three marketing tools that you want to use to human resources. Some of the most successful people and successful businesses in this town their owners were here today because they wanted to know more from Clay and I found that to be kind of fascinating. The most valuable thing that I’ve learned is diligence. That businesses don’t change overnight. It takes time and effort and you gotta go through the ups and downs of getting it to where you want to go. He actually gives you the road map out. I was stuck, didn’t know what to do and he gave me the road map out step by step. He set up systems in the business that make my life much easier, allow me some time freedom. Here you can ask any question you want, they guarantee it will be answered. This conference like motivates me and also give me a lot of knowledge and tools. Everybody can do these things. There’s stuff that everybody knows, but if you don’t do it, nobody else is going to do it for you. I can see the marketing working. It’s just an approach that makes sense. Probably the most notable thing is just the income increase that we’ve had. Everyone’s super fun and super motivating. I’ve been here before, but I’m back again because it motivates me. Your competition is going to come eventually or try to pick up these tactics. So you better, if you don’t, somebody else will. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9, and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey guys, I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys, we appreciate you, and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old house. This is where we used to live two years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See? Nice, right? So this is my old van and our old school marketing. And this is our old team. And by team I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing and this is our new team. We went from four to 14 and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman, so we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship, and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, times a thousand. So we really just wanna thank you, Clay, and thank you, Vanessa, for everything you’ve done, everything you’ve helped us with. We love you guys. If you decide to not attend the Thrive Time workshop, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. The Atmosphere plays offense is very lively. You can feel the energy as soon as you walk through the door and it really got me and my team very excited. If you decide not to come, you’re missing out on an opportunity to grow your business, bottom line. Love the environment. I love the way that Clay presents and teaches. It’s a way that not only allows me to comprehend what’s going on, but he explains it in a way to where it just makes sense. The SEO optimization, branding, marketing, I’ve learned more in the last two days than I have the entire four years of college. The most valuable thing that I’ve learned, marketing is key, marketing is everything. Making sure that you’re branded accurately and clearly. How to grow our business using Google reviews and then just how to optimize our name through our website also. Helpful with a lot of marketing, search engine optimization, helping us really rank high in Google. The biggest thing I needed to learn was how to build my foundation, how to systemize everything and optimize everything, build my SEO. How to become more organized, more efficient. How to make sure the business is really there to serve me, as opposed to me constantly being there for the business. New ways of advertising my business as well as recruiting new employees. Group interviews, number one. Before we felt like we were held hostage by our employees. Group interviews has completely eliminated that because you’re able to really find the people that would really be the best fit. Hands on how to hire people, how to deal with human resources, a lot about marketing and overall just how to structure the business, how it works for me and also then how that can translate into working better for my clients. The most valuable thing I’ve learned here is time management. I like the one hour of doing your business is real critical if I’m going to grow and change. Play really teaches you how to navigate through those things and not only find freedom but find your purpose in your business and find the purposes for all those other people that directly affect your business as well. Everybody. Everybody. Everybody. Everybody. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get an opportunity to see that it’s real.