Entrepreneur | Part 2 – How To Price Your Product Effectively With Jill Donovan

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. We started from the bottom, and that’s what we gotta do. So this is big stuff. Now, another area, Jill, that we can really focus in on and maybe factor into our pricing is a celebrity endorsement. Now, I’m going to give an example. Jay-Z won’t ever acknowledge this, but if you read this book called Empire State of Mind, it was written by a Forbes reporter, they kind of investigate and they discover and apparently Jay-Z makes money to endorse products like the Ace of Spades champagne, where he apparently gets paid money to endorse products like the Hublot watch. There’s a reason why he wears those. Now you’ve been blessed to have a lot of unpaid celebrities wear your products, but does it help your product sales that celebrities wear your products? Absolutely. Yeah. It goes back to, you know, and our culture as well, but legitimizing a product when they see A, B, or C celebrity wearing it, then it makes people feel, well it must be a good product. If, you know, this person that I would idolize is a fashion icon, or this person that I watch on TV every day, if they’re wearing it, it must be good. Not saying that for every product it stands to be true, but that’s how our culture… So let’s just give an example. If you’re watching this and you’re like, that’s not true, I don’t do that. Well, let’s just give an example. What is one celebrity that started wearing your product? That you didn’t, it just happened, but it greatly impacted sales. Was there an example where a celebrity wore it and all of a sudden the floodgates opened a little bit? I’d probably say one of the first was Miranda Lambert. So Miranda Lambert, she starts wearing it immediately. At all her, not all, but a majority of her concerts. She’s a musician, for those of you who aren’t into music. But seriously, I’m just messing with one of the camera guys. But Miranda Lambert’s a musician, and so she’s wearing your bracelets. And people are going, what is that? And they start kind of Googling it. What is she wearing? And then they find you, and boom. There are some websites. I think there’s one called CoolSpotters.com. And what they do is they tell people what celebrities are wearing. What? Mm-hmm. And so somehow they got a hold of what Miranda was wearing and so they would say this is Miranda wearing a rusted cuff. I also used that information and I would put it out on social media and I had a picture of the cuff. There was a picture in a picture. So a picture of the cuff and then a picture of Miranda wearing the cuff. And that doesn’t hurt. Now, so that can help your product. Absolutely. So I just want to give you an example. This is a true story. This is from, and if you get a chance to read the book called Empire State of Mind, it’ll blow your mind. What happened is Jay Z in one of his videos, he’s offering, somebody offers him champagne and Cristal at the time, it’s like the top stuff, and he says, I don’t want that. He pushes it away and they hand him another bottle and it’s the Ace of Spades champagne and he’s like, oh I’ll take some of that and that this because again websites like that are saying well if Jay-Z I mean Jay-Z the chosen one the best rapper that on the planet if he is going to drink this beverage we’d probably better drink this beverage too and then sales go up well he owns a little equity slice making some money on that the Hublot watch he’s like I could afford to have, you know, I could wear the most expensive watch, but I have chosen, I’m not going to wear the brands that you know. I’m going with a new brand. I’m wearing the Hublot watch. People are like, who, what? Hublot. Boom. All of a sudden, kids are wearing them. Beats, headphones. I have a friend of mine who I cannot use his name on this segment, but we’ll just hint who he is. But he’s required in his contract to wear Beats headphones when appearing in any imagery where he has headphones. Wow. So if he’s ever on camera wearing headphones, he has to wear Beats headphones. That’s a con that’s in his contract. And does that impact the sales of Beats? Absolutely. Yeah. So if you’re watching this, I would encourage you to think for a second, gosh, what would be a celebrity that could wear my product or use it or that I could pay as an endorser, maybe not even pay. Do you have a strategy for trying to, because I know you want all consumers to love your product. Do you have a strategy to try to share your product with celebrities? is initially was me being intentional. Okay. Because initially it’s not just going to just happen usually unless you have some sort of connection. So I think you have to be intentional. One of the things I thought about is okay what who would have the most impact from my particular product? Because I could have a celebrity that I like. I mean I love Matt Damon but at the time I wasn’t wearing that. I don’t, and just for a long, long time, but you know, at the time I wasn’t wearing men’s cuff, so it didn’t make any difference. Who I loved as a celebrity, but I think you have to think about, okay, for your particular product, who would never leave their house. Or who is… Yeah, this one right here. Clayton. So, you know, you have to be intentional about who you are selecting or who you would like to see photographed in your product. Did you send them nice samples? I did. Nice stuff? I did. I actually decided that sometimes the celebrities that I sent them to had just kids. And when you just have kids you want to wear anything that has anything to do with this show. How did you find this out? How do you know when they’re having kids? I’ll give you entertainment tonight. Any entertainment show, they know the blood type of that child. How do you find the address? How do you know who to send it to? Trade secrets. We can’t tell you the exact secret, but we can say if you’re resourceful you can find it. You can definitely find out. Yeah. So you have found a way to mail samples. Yes. Now I want to ask you this, and this could be a trade secret. Sure. If you want to plead the fifth, it’s fine. Okay. But how many samples will you send out? I mean, do you like to send out to hundreds of celebrities or like four? No, I think, you know, you don’t want to spin your wheels and waste a lot of time sending out 200 packages. So for me, I just initially I just decided, okay I’ll choose somewhere between 10 and 20 people that that I think may wear it or that I’ve seen photographed in cuffs before. You don’t want to select somebody that you know is a works for PETA and send them some snakeskin. So like you wouldn’t want to necessarily send the snake skin to the PETA people and say dry out this rustic cuff made of animals. Yeah that would not be good. So you select somebody that you know enjoys either custom pieces or wears jewelry like is bold, wears big cuffs. You have to do your research. If you don’t do your research then you waste a lot of time and a lot of effort on something that probably won’t. You killed my whole marketing strategy for a new company called Clay’s Meat. I was just going to send out meat samples. Primarily going to send out to PETA was my idea. It’s worth taking a second look into. Okay. Well, the reason why I mention this though is because we have to factor this into our costs. If you’re going to send out samples to celebrities or trendsetters or people of importance, you’ve got to factor it in. Yeah, that goes back to marketing then. That’s where I would put that piece into marketing. Yeah, it goes back to marketing and it’s something we need to factor in. A couple other areas that I want to make sure that we put in here is getting a profit percentage that is actually sustainable. I’m gonna just throw this out for a second. I have three very good friends who own banks and I never thought that I would ever meet anybody who owns a bank. I always thought like you know I watched… was it Mary Poppins where he owns a bank? Is that what it was? Mary Poppins? He’s a banker. Mr. Banks is a banker. But I remember, you kind of idolize a banker. You work at a bank as a kid. Then I’m going, you own a bank? I still this day, when I’m around these people, I’m like, you own a bank? I bring money to your house every day, and then you, I mean, this is awesome. You control the game. You own a bank. You’re the boss. And you have three of them. Yeah, three of these guys that own banks. And I remember talking to one of them, and this one guy in particular, he says, you know, we don’t ever do a small, we don’t ever lend money to a retailer if they’re not putting back, if they’re not profiting after paying everybody at least 20%. We don’t even talk to them. And I said, what? And he said, hey, listen, I love your DJ, I love you, I love your little DJ company. Little company. He said, I love your little DJ company, but we would never consider lending money to you to expand or to create operations if you don’t get that profit up to at least 20% Well at the time I think I’m doing like a 7% profit. I’m not sleeping, DJing every night at the holiday in select, trying to get money to buy equipment and he says well you’re a little company we wouldn’t unless you’re doing at least 20%. Is there a number in retail just a profit percentage when it’s all said and done that you want to try to get to? You know, a 7% is pretty low. Yeah, I mean that’s, again I’ve heard bankers say 20% is the lowest you ever want to go. I’ve heard other bankers tell me in retail you want to be like 40 or 50%. Yeah, I think if you’re not, I think you know, after initially spending a couple, a few years into it, if you’re not 20%, if you’re not at least in the ballpark there Yeah, then you’re more. Yeah, then you need yeah, you need to definitely reevaluate You know your pricing and some things that you’re doing if you’re not more than 20 because then I mean You’re just doing it for fun great And if you’re making a little bit of profit you just want to do it for fun But if you’re in the business, you know to make some money Then if you’re not 20 or more than you need to be evaluated and I know my main man the Jigga man, Jay-Z, is not going to like this, but this is more trade secrets. If you read this book, Empire State of Mind, again, it’s all like case study research. One of the Forbes reporters is like, you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to travel overseas to where these bottles are made, and I’m going to see if I can find out who makes these things. Yeah. Yeah. Well, he finds out that the company that was making this champagne, they were just literally putting the label Ace of Spades on champagne they had made before and marketed under a different name. And their markup was something like, I don’t wanna get the number wrong, if you read the book you can see the number, I think it’s like 40 times. Their markup was a 40 time profit margin. I love that secret that you just. Jay-Z, I’m so sorry. Love it. But still, you’re awesome, and I’m still gonna buy that because you’re awesome. But here’s the thing, it’s a 40 time markup. So I just want to make sure if you’re watching this, don’t feel bad if you have a product that makes a 40 time markup or a 10 time markup. You can charge what people are willing to pay. Yeah, it’s all about perceived value. I can make a product for $5, it cost me $5, just an actual product cost. And I could charge for that product $150 because I think the perceived value of that is at that point. Yeah And I think initially people are like well if it cost me five dollars to make it Then I should only sell it for ten dollars because I shouldn’t make more than I want to put this word up on the screen Here we’re gonna put the word on the screen here the word perceived what that means We’re perception, but the word perception is kind of like the objects aren’t what they appear sometimes. So as an example of a perception, just an example here, Toyota makes a luxury line of cars as well as a middle class line of cars. Same company. Toyota’s making a high-end brand that we all buy. It’s a luxury car. And they also make, now, they put extra bells and whistles on the luxury brand, but really the actual chassis or the actual just bones of the vehicle are the same. Toyota is not trying to hide it. You can look it up and see who they make cars for and you can see that. But it’s just important to understand the perception. One is perceived as a luxury vehicle, aka a $100,000 vehicle. One is perceived as an economy car, aka $30,000. So I think its perception is so big. And so don’t feel bad if you’re perceived… I mean I met a lady years ago who had a fabulous bakery. It was on the east coast. Fabulous bakery. And she’s charging four dollars a cupcake. Five dollars a cupcake. No big deal. Yeah. It’s perceived. Absolutely. I bought a hamburger for 22 dollars not too long ago. Really? A hamburger. Boom. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Gosh it sounds good already. Yeah. But it wasn’t you know a regular hamburger cost what? I don’t know. What is it? Well, 99 cents is at McDonald’s. Okay. And then when we, we, we were paying 99 cents, we’re gonna, might be some filler in that hamburger. Okay. But I can’t say that the $22 hamburger that I had was actually $21 better than the dollar hamburger I had. However, I felt better eating it because I was, I knew mentally I’m eating a $22 hamburger. Boom. Yeah. It’s, it’s about, and it feels like it must be a better hamburger because it’s $22. Are you kidding? If you’re watching this, this is not just freaking you out. I mean, this is amazing. I know growing up without financial resources. I remember, Jill, and just to show you how stupid I was, I’m out there DJing wedding receptions. And if you’re a bride and you’re watching this or if you’ve ever been married or know someone who’s ever been married and you’re watching this you get you’ll get the picture. Imagine you’re at a wedding and this dj is phenomenal on the microphone but you look at the setup and the skirting the linen that goes around the table is gross. Like it’s nasty. It looks like it’s wrinkled. There’s no showmanship at all but the guy in the microphone is just awesome. Yeah. You’re sort of going my perception is he good? Is he bad? What’s going on? and my big thing was I never forget and Nicole at five oaks your sweet mother told me this and and and This changed Claudia you changed my life Claudia. This is for you Claudia says That is nasty Your linens are nasty. Why don’t you get nicer lens and I said I can’t afford them and she said why don’t you charge more? What? Because I was charging people $400 for their wedding. She goes, you are good enough young man to charge three times more. Yeah. But that perception you have is affecting your price. Yeah. And she walks off and I’m just like, what did she say? Yeah. I’m just like, what? What, Yoda? What? And I’m trying to figure out what Yoda has said. And I ended up just basically doing just that. Yeah. Putting nicer linens, nicer equipment, nicer lighting, nicer perception. Same service. I could charge almost three times more. Thank you, Claudia. Yeah. Well, let me tell you one thing that I learned is that I, and I think a lot of people price something based upon what they think somebody will buy it for. And how you think, you know, the American public and what they will spend on your product. So what, that’s what I was doing. I would set it at a price that I thought a lot of people would purchase it because I wanted a lot of people to purchase it. When I learned from a very good friend of mine that about this perceived value and then I said well that means that I’m gonna I’m gonna cancel out two-thirds of the people that are purchasing my product and that means that if I raise the price on this particular style then And you know what has happened? So I decided to raise the price, kept some things lower, and I raised the price because it did take me more time. And it was a custom piece, and the perceived value of it should be higher. Our number one selling item is that item that I raised the price on because the perceived value of that now is higher. And it should be. It definitely should be a higher value. But when I went back last week and I looked at our sales for this year, and I looked to see what our top five selling products were a variation of that particular style. I want to hammer this home. If you’re watching this and you’re kind of going, I’m starting to get it, I’m starting to kind of have a breakthrough here. One lady that I’m very good friends with, she helps put products in retail stores. So she’s a rep who helps put products in stores. They had a line of toasters that was in a very, very prominent retailer that was not moving. It just was not selling. And they had a toaster, I’m making up the number, but it was maybe like $50. And they came up with a toaster that’s the premium elite toaster that was like $400. They just made it insanely priced. They added some bells and whistles to it. It’s like $400 or $500. What it did is it made these $50 toasters all of a sudden look like they were a screaming deal and people were buying them. So it’s perception. You can always perceive, you can always dress up something to greatly affect the perceived price. I want to ask you, is it possible to ever be too profitable of a product? Is it possible to have a product that’s just too, mark of it as too great? Is it possible? I don’t feel like it is, but you’re probably going to disagree with me. I don’t disagree with you at all. Okay, no, I don’t believe it is. And even if I do disagree for the record with her on camera, she’s always right. I’m always wrong That’s why I love Clay. Okay. Now here’s the thing What is the lowest profit percentage that I should ever charge my product? I mean, do you think it’s 20%? I think that You know, you could have a range of products and one could make You know 75% and there are the things what I call loss leaders, which I’m sure you know what that is But there are some… Can you explain what a loss leader is to people? And maybe if I don’t know what that is… Okay. So, for example, let’s say… Let’s just go that everything that I make costs $5. Okay. Let’s just go… It doesn’t, but let’s just say it is. $5. $5. $5. Okay. And let’s say I set one of my products at $200. Okay. Okay? And so I make $195 on that. Boom. Um, then I’m going to set another product, say for $750, because I know it’s going to get people wearing a rustic cuff. Okay. I’m not going to make, you know, after I ship, I’m not going to make hardly anything on that. So the loss leader would be that particular product because it gets people in, it gets them hooked. So you’re basically okay with not making a bunch of money, therefore kind of losing the opportunity to make a lot of profit. Yes. In exchange for the ability to really get in the market? In exchange for having them come into the family. Ooh, the family. The family, and sort of get them introduced to Rustic Cuff. There’s a, you know, so that’s what, in this instance is where it’s okay not to have that percentage, 20% is what you’re saying, or more. It’s okay because you have a product that you don’t mind losing some because you know in the end you’ll gain. I want to make sure you’re getting this guys. If you’re watching this, if you own a retail store, Sam Walton, his book is phenomenal. But he did a deal where he made pantyhose like as cheap as possible. And I’m reading his book and I’m like, what? As a dude, I’m sort of quasi familiar with the concept of pantyhose, let alone that this guy who I envy as being one of the wealthiest people and most successful people, I look at him as being like a hero and he’s going, what I did is I priced pantyhose for just nothing or watermelons and I’m losing money on every watermelon I’m selling, but what I did is that people would come in, the Walmart family, they would come in the store and then they would buy more. And so this guy, if you read his book, it’s phenomenal. He actually did like goats, where they had goats and donkeys in front of the place where you could make a petting zoo in front of the first couple Walmarts, free ice cream, just to get people in the door. So if you’re in a retail store, this principle still applies. Whatever you can do to get people in the door, then they’ll buy more. Yeah, absolutely. I love that. Now, here’s a question I have for you. Are there any rules that you have just kind of off the top of your head that you said you kind of just will kind of rules of thumb that you have to make sure that you don’t price a product too low now. Do you have like a rule of thumb? Do you ever walk around the office and say no because do you ever have like a rule of thumb? First of all, I have to get back what I put into it. You have to get back what you put into it. If you’re talking about that product, that loss leader, you have to get back what you put into it. You have to get back what you put into it. That’s Jill Donovan. Boom. Yeah, that’s true. Losing. Too low, you know, it goes back to that perceived by I don’t want to have a product that makes people that turns people away because they’re like it must be cheap because it is set at this price what about the other extreme is there a rule you have for not pricing something too high I think it’s fun to have something just crazy high just for the fun of it not really not really no no you know I think it has to I don’t know it see here’s what is what let me ask this question you do know Lori Montag? No, should I? Well, okay. This is a lady you got to network with. Lori created the Zany bands. Yes, okay. Yes. They sold like 60 million dollars of these bands in the shape of like pirate ships, the rubber bands. And well, she was one of my early, early mentors. And Lori was crazy enough during the summers, I was good friends with her son, they would let me live with them every summer. I’d fly back from Minnesota to Tulsa and I’d live with them for three months every summer. So I’m like this nerdy 12-year-old who’s asking this entrepreneurship guru questions all the time. How do you price things? I’m like 12 years old, just really mining into her brain. And Lori told me what you do. She said, Clay, when you have your wedding packages, what I want you to do is I want you to make one package that is so cheap that no one in their right mind would want it. It’s like you get a DJ but it’s like for two hours and you don’t get to choose your music and there’s no lighting. And I’m like why would I do that? She goes, just listen, stop. Second package, you include everything. We’re talking about unlimited time and I’m like unlimited time, Lori, but no one does unlimited time. She’s like, exactly. You’re the only DJ now that does unlimited time. And she just, within like three minutes, helped my whole life. She goes, do unlimited time, do customizable lighting, any music the bride wants, let them change their songs as much as they want, offer a free wedding consultation before they book, and price it two times more than your cheap package. And I’m going, okay, okay, yes, you know, writing this down. And then I want you to go with a third package. And this package is insane. This is like, whatever that is insane. I go, Lori, what do you mean? She goes, whatever that is for you. What is it? I’m like, subwoofers? She’s like, yeah, big subwoofers, like bigger than… I’m like, I don’t even own subwoofers. She says, it doesn’t matter. Take pictures of them off the internet, put them in your packages, say you can get a subwoofer the size of a truck. I don’t care. Huge subwoofers. You’ll teach line dances. I’m like, but I can’t do it. She’s like, it doesn’t matter. You got a guy, they have a bilingual guy who teaches line dances, the subwoofers, the lights, offer smoke, fog machines, and then charge like four times more than the cheap package. Five times more. And I’m like, what if someone buys it? It won’t. It’ll just make your second package look more affordable. So I go out and I put these packages out. Cheap package, middle package, top package. And because I’m a dude and I hadn’t met you and I hadn’t met Lori and I’m just living under a rock of dumbness, Lori said, what are you calling your packages, honey? And I said, A, B, and C. Yeah, something like that. It was seriously called like the gold package. The silver. I’m naming them after like Star Wars figures and stuff. And she goes, stop it. Stop naming products you’re selling to women after men’s stuff. Name it after women’s stuff like cherished love, civil elegance. So I named the package. Long story short, I end up booking almost tripling my bookings. And girls are all going, I think I’ll take the middle one. I think we’ll go with the middle one. I think, let’s do the middle. And it happens every, it goes over and over and over. And I see this in retail too. I was out shopping for rings for my wife. I wanted to surprise her with a really nice ring. And I went in and I was like, I want to double the size of the carrots, you know, as sort of a surprise gift. The guy’s like, what about this one? He keeps… the jeweler is a master of this. Joel, if you’re watching this, you’re a master. You know you are. But Joel’s like, what about this one? He keeps pushing the one that’s like two times what I’m willing to spend. Makes you feel better about the middle one. Yeah, absolutely. So I end up going from what I wanted to get up a level. Absolutely. So having that crazy package might be a good idea. When I first started, and you know what? I’m going to make a cuff and try over $100. I’m just going to try it. See what happens. So I think I set it at $110, and I think I made 100 of them. Totally sold out, just like that. Boom. Boom. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Big lessons you learn when you take a step and make packages A, B, and C like that. Love it. Yeah. Boom. I just want to say boom a lot now, I’m pumped up. Okay, so now for all the entrepreneurs that are watching this and we’re getting emotional about our pricing, I’ve met people who are emotional. Met a lady the other day who, do you like Dane Cook? Love. You know how Dane Cook does that comedy routine about the, fa fa fa fa fa fa? Dane Cook has a comedy routine where people are the crier in the office. And I met a lady who was literally getting emotional and almost crying about how to price stuff. who was literally getting emotional and almost crying about how to price stuff. And she’s like, And it was almost a poverty mentality. Yeah, where it was emotionally blocking her from pricing. Yeah, I did this a lot I mean seriously, I had to fight myself every step of the way with pricing Yeah, I just didn’t feel like I was worth it right right or maybe like I deserved it Yeah, or have you ever dealt with that at all with the pricing? Yeah, I felt like that really I don’t know if I’m worth it It feels a little bit like you you might be taking advantage of somebody because you know You know what it costs and what your time put in it. To charge somebody more than that initially seems like it’s just not right. But then I think when you realize that the more value that they place on it, the higher price that you can charge for it. There’s a story I want to share with you because this is big. One of our mentors on Thrive, Bill, tells me how he goes golfing. I believe it’s in Scotland. He literally golfs in Scotland. This is the way he does it. He goes to Scotland. It must be rough. He goes to Scotland. He golfs. And when he gets there, this is a true story, when you check into the course, there’s somebody who says, Jill, Clay, how are you? Well, how do they know who we are, first off? How do they know what our faces look like? Because they’re Thrive 15 members. Well, when they book, when you book the package to Golf in Scotland, they ask you to send over some stuff. Well, they research and they know what you look like when you get there. And then when they say, well, hey, you’ll head this way and the such and such will meet you in the golf shop. You get their shoes that are your size in the golf shop. Then you go to change after you golf. You go into like their little sauna area, robe with your name on it. You, your caddy, he says, Jill. And you’re like, how did the caddy know my name? Well, they walkie talkie, they say, Jill’s coming down the path, she has a red top on, she’ll be down there in just a second. Clay is wearing the blue suit thing. And so when you get down to your tee off, they’re like, Jill, Clay, I mean, they just know, and it’s that level of service. And Bill was pointing out to me, what if you made it your goal, Clay, to offer such an awesome service like that, that people would be willing to pay a huge amount? He said, so start with asking what is the maximum amount that you would like to charge? Sure. And ask yourself, what kind of value would you have to offer to justify that price? Absolutely. And I think another thing is that what we do now is if they purchase a certain category or a certain range of price, the packaging is different. Oh cool. So there’s an added value when it goes into a certain price range. And again, if you’re thinking this doesn’t matter, if you own an Apple product, ask yourself why you’ve continued to keep the packaging. Just ask yourself why is the packaging to the Mac still in your closet? It’s because this matters. This stuff, it does affect the Tiffany’s box. Yeah. You, dudes, dudes, dudes, if you’re watching this, this is what not to do. This is what I do. This is what you should not do. Um, if you propose to a girl, God forbid you, you take the, the, the, you know, the actual, say you bought a Tiffany ring and you took it out of the box and put it in like a Kmart bag. Yeah, I know. Because you lost the box and you put it in a Kmart bag and you and you say hey let me get to you and you pull it out of this bag you rummage through it and it’s all the plastic sounds you can kind of hand it to her. The emotional reaction that you will get from a woman when you give her a ring that you just pulled out of a Kmart bag she might go…now if you pulled the same ring out of a Tiffany box it’s almost like I mean it’s like that emotional reaction yeah just because it’s in a Tiffany box so person packaging totally everything totally affects it now the final couple things I want to ask you as far as pricing here Just that we really really mine in this I think we want everyone to leave here with an idea of like man I can I can do this if I’m watching this and my pricing is jacked If I’m watching this and I right now I own a restaurant or and I have been known I am known in my town you can come into this town and people are saying, how are they making any money? If you’re known as like the bakery that prices stuff so low, people know right now, you can go in there and you get a cupcake for a dollar. I don’t even know how they do it. I don’t even know how to make a profit. Or that guy’s a builder and he’ll give you a screaming deal. You’re known as like the screaming deal because you’re screaming because you’re struggling so much financially. If you’re known as being the low price point person and your prices are out of whack, you’re just messed up. How would you recommend I get out of that hole? I actually would recommend doing sort of what Lori told you. I wouldn’t say I wouldn’t raise your prices for everything. I actually would it wouldn’t hurt to have to start off with the test. Okay take a couple of your products, raise the prices on that and see what happens. Don’t come in and do a sweeping, all right let’s go 25% higher, 50% higher and everything, just because you’re the screaming deal guy. Take a few products that you believe could have a higher perceived value, raise the prices on those, and test it out. I think you’ll be very, very surprised. I literally, I want to tell you a story, this is big. One of the Thrive mentors, Tim Redmond, is a good friend of mine, and Tim is just awesome. But Tim grew this company from two people to 450 people. So he sort of has this confidence of like, I can just, he goes into construction companies all the time who are barely making it. And literally just helps them with their pricing structures. And these people are doubling and tripling their income in a year just by their pricing. So if you’re watching this, this could greatly impact your life. Final question I want to ask you. When it comes to actually pricing products, in your mind how important is pricing? I mean overall in the whole scheme of things. If I get everything else right, my pricing is wrong. Just talk to me about how important pricing is in your mind and just the overall and getting it right. Okay, if you don’t have pricing right, you’re either going to not make a profit, you’re either losing money, you could also, that’s too low on the other end, you could price yourself out. So people wouldn’t even be turned on to you at all because it doesn’t match up with what your product is with the price. So there’s that magic point in there, I think. And it takes some time to figure out what that is. This is not, like I said, there’s not a formula exactly for your product that you can say A plus B equals C. It does take some time to figure out where that spot is, where the magic spot is, where people are going to see the value of it and purchase it. So it’s important, it’s kind of a trial and error. Yeah. But it’s important you get it right. Yeah. Because if not, I mean, it can really mess you up. So if you’re watching this and you feel like gosh I just I don’t know how to how to price I just want to review some of these things real quick one Make sure you know the costs that go into it if you don’t yeah I mean literally take four hours and just sit down and write down every cost you can think of surprise just do that Yeah, um second is get that branding right make sure that the perceived value is very high Mm-hmm and then the third thing is make sure you have that trial and error period where you test some of these things and just get it right because you deserve it. And if you’re in business, I don’t care who you are, if you’re watching this, you deserve to be profitable and to live in abundance. You don’t have to just barely get by. And you can thrive, but you’ve got to get the prices right if you’re going to thrive. You just really have to get that price right. So Jill, I appreciate you being here. You are like a guru. And I just found out today that I can order a custom cuff for a dude that’s going to be manly. So I’m excited about this. I’m going to hook you up. I’m pumped up. So if you’re watching this and for some reason you’re like, I don’t even know whether Jill knows what she’s talking about. Well, I take the challenge here. Take the challenge. Go on to Rustic Cuff right now and just find yourself a rustic cuff and see what comes in the mail and see if the value doesn’t feel right because I promise you that when you see that the delivery of how she does the branding you’ll be amazed. You wowed my wife and my wife is my wife’s a judger and you wowed her. She loved it. So thank you so much for being here today. Appreciate it. Thank you. Alright 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 in expenses, it’s kind of pointless. Holy crap! Alright, so the question I would have here for you if you could take like 10 minutes or less and see if you could save 3000 bucks a year by reducing your credit card fees, would you do it? Yes, absolutely. Holy crap. Why would somebody out there who’s listening right now who has a sane mind, why would they not go to Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card to schedule a 10 minute consultation to see if they can reduce their credit card fees by at least 3,000 bucks a year. Why would they not do it? Yeah, why would they not do it? Maybe because they don’t understand how you set the website. This tree is a symbol of the spirit of the Griswold family Christmas. That’s clear. Okay, so that can be true. So I would encourage everybody to check out thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash cards right time show.com forward slash credit dash card what would be another reason why someone would not be willing to take ten minutes to compare rates to see if they can save $3,000 or more on credit card fees maybe they think it is a waste of time and then 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 We getting there, everybody. We getting there, everybody. There’s probably someone out there that would think that. Well, I’ll just tell you, folks, if you’re out there today, and you’re making less than $3,000 per 10 minutes, I would highly recommend that you go to thronetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash hard. Because you can compare rates, you can save money, and, you know, the big goal, in my opinion, of building a business is to create time freedom and financial freedom and in order to do that you have to maximize your profits. Holy crap. Now, one way to maximize your profits is to increase your revenue. Another way to do it is to decrease your expenses. It’s a profit deal. It takes the pressure off. JT, is there any other reason why somebody would not be willing to take 10 minutes to compare rates to see if they could save a total of $3,000 a year on average? I am at a loss and I cannot think of any other. Shampoo is better. I go on first and clean the hair. Conditioner is better. I leave the hair silky and smooth. Oh really fool, really. Stop looking at me swan. Let me tell you a good story here real quick. I actually years ago compared rates with this company here called IPS. It’s Integrated Payment Services. And I scheduled a consultation. I don’t know if I was skeptical. I just thought whatever. I’ll take 10 minutes. I’ll compare rates. I can’t tell you can tell me I’m a doctor No, I mean, I’m just not sure. Okay, 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 in my case my particular case I save over $20,000 a year Wow, which is uh, you know like uh, groceries when my wife goes to the organic stores Find everything you need today. Yeah, great. Okay. Oh Everything okay, ma’am. Oh, it’s just that you’ve only scanned a few items and it’s already 60 bucks. I’m so scared Okay, I’m a trained professional ma’am. I’ve scanned a lot of groceries. I need you to stay with me It’s just that my in-laws are in town and they want a charcuterie board. This isn’t going to be easy, so I need you to be brave, alright? What’s your name? Patricia. Patricia, alright. 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 ten 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. Brand name of the clock. It’s an elegant from Ridgway. It’s from Ridgway. Ridgway. Ridgway. Ridgway. Let’s buy. Let’s buy. Let’s buy. 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 a 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. 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, Terminex, they’re both $1.3 billion companies. They both have 2,000 to 3,000 pages of content attached to their website. So to basically go from virtually non-existent on Google to up on the top page is really saying something. But it’s come by being diligent to the systems that Thrive has. By being consistent and diligent on doing podcasts and staying on top of those podcasts to really help with getting up on what they’re listing and ranking there with Google. And also we’ve been trying to get Google reviews, you know, asking our customers for reviews. And now we’re the highest rated and most reviewed Pest and Lawn Company in the Tulsa area. And that’s really helped with our conversion rate. And the number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. Wait, say that again. How much are we up? 411%. So 411% we’re up with our new customers. Amazing. Right. So not only do we have more customers calling in, we’re able to close those deals at a much higher rate than we were before. Right now, our closing rate is about 85%, and that’s largely due to, first of all, like our Google reviews that we’ve gotten. People really see that our customers are happy, but also we have a script that we follow. And so when customers call in, they get all the information that they need. That script has been refined time and time again. It wasn’t a one and done deal. It was a system that we followed with Thrive in the refining process. And that has obviously, the 411% shows that that system works. Yeah, so here’s a big one for you. So last week alone, our booking percentage was 91%. We actually booked more deals and more new customers last year than we did the first five months. Or I’m sorry, we booked more deals last week than we did the first five months of last year from before we worked with Thrive. So again we booked more deals last week than the first five months of last year. It’s incredible but the reason why we have that success 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 contributed to our success with that, like the diligence and consistency in doing those in that system has really, really been a big blessing in our lives, and also, you know, it’s really shown that we’ve gotten a success from following those systems. So before working with Thrive, we were basically stuck. Really no new growth with our business. And we were in a rut, and we didn’t know. 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 going to take in order to really succeed. So we just want to give a big shout out to Thrive, a big thank you out there to thrive. We wouldn’t be where we’re at now without their help. Hi, I’m Dr. Mark Moore. I’m a pediatric dentist. Through our new digital marketing plan, we have seen a marked increase in the number of new patients that we’re seeing every month, year over year. One month, for example, we went from 110 new patients the previous year to over 180 new patients in the same month. And overall, our average is running about 40 to 42 percent increase month over month, year over year. The group of people required to implement our new digital marketing plan is immense, starting with a business coach, videographers, photographers, web designers. Back when I graduated dental school in 1985, nobody advertised. The only marketing that was ethically allowed in everybody’s eyes was mouth-to-mouth marketing. By choosing to use the services, you’re choosing to use a 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 Industry from 1983 to 1985. Hello, my name is Charles Colaw with Colaw Fitness. Today I want to tell you a little bit about Clay Clark and how I know Clay Clark. Clay Clark has been my business coach since 2017. He’s helped us grow from two locations to now six locations. We’re planning to do seven locations in seven years and then franchise. Clay has done a great job of helping us navigate anything that has to do with like running the business, building the systems, the checklist, the workflows, the audits, how to navigate lease agreements, how to buy property, how to work with brokers and builders. This guy is just amazing. This kind of guy is working every single industry. He’s written books with like Lee Crockerill, head of Disney with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with like Mike Lindell. He does Reawaken America tours where he does these tours all across the country where 10,000 or more people show up to some of these tours on the day-to-day. He does anywhere from about 160 companies. He’s at the top. He has a team of business coaches, videographers, and graphic designers, and web developers. They run 160 companies every single week. So think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. In the weekly, he’s running 160 companies. Every 6-8 weeks, he’s doing Reawaken America tours. Every 6-8 weeks, he’s also doing business conferences where 200 people show up. 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 startups go from startup to being multi-millionaires, teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom through the system. Critical thinking, document creation, organizing everything in their head to building it into a franchisable, scalable business. One of his businesses has like 500 franchises. That’s just one of the companies or brands that he works with. Amazing guy, Elon Musk, kind of like smart guy. He kind of comes off sometimes as socially awkward, but he’s so brilliant and he’s taught me so much. When I say that, Clay is like he doesn’t care what people think when you’re talking to him. He cares about where you’re going in your life and where he can get you to go. That’s what I like him most about him. He’s like a good coach. A coach isn’t just making you feel good all the time. A coach is actually helping you get to the best you. Clay has been an amazing business coach. Through the course of that, we became friends. My most impressive thing 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 any time 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 So this is my old van and our old school marketing and this is our old team and by team I mean it’s been another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing and this is our new team. We went from four to 14 and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome but Ryan is a really great salesman. So we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts, and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month, and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship, and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, times a thousand. The Thrive Time Show, two-day interactive business workshops are the highest and most reviewed business workshops on the planet. You can learn the proven 13 point business system that Dr. Zellner 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 small business loans? 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 from. 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 system that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever and we’re going to give you your money back if you don’t love it. We’ve built this facility for you and we’re excited to see it. If we go back eight years ago, think about the number of clients you had back then versus the number of clients you have now. As a percentage, what has been the growth over the past eight years, do you think? We’ve got to inspire somebody out there who just doesn’t have the time to listen? Okay, so clay it’s it’s it’s like I would go up and down from About ten thousand dollars a month up to about forty thousand was up and down rollercoaster and so now We we’ve got it to where we’re in excess of a hundred clients. That’s awesome And so I would have anywhere from five clients to twenty 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. So I’ve doubled in clients, I’ve doubled in revenue every year. That’s 100% growth every year I’ve worked with. So I’m looking, we’ve been good friends 7, 8 years and I’ve got doubled 5 times. Which is just incredible. I mean the first time you do it, that’s one thing, but when you do it repeatedly, I mean that’s unbelievable. We’re working our blessed assurance off this year to double. We’re planning on doubling again. We’re incorporating 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. That’s when it needed a system. So creating a system is you have nailed down specific steps that you’re going to take no matter how you feel, no matter the results, you lean into them and you do them regardless of what’s happening. You lean into them and it will give you X number of leads. You follow up with those leads, turns into sales. Well, I tell you, you know, it’s if you don’t have a script and you don’t have a system, then every day is a whole new creation. You’re creating a lot of energy just to figure out what are you going to do. 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. That’s really what it’s all about. 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. Right. And she’s been nailing down five and eight appointments a day. Somebody out there is having a hard time. On 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, 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. That’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 And then, what was it, maybe 2010? Is that right? 2011 maybe? Or maybe further down the road. Maybe 2013? 2012. Okay, so 2012. And at that time I was five years removed from the DJ business. And you were how many years removed from tax and accounting software? It was about 10, 11 years. We met, how did we meet? What was the first interaction? There was some interaction where you and I first connected. I just remember that somehow you and I went to Hideaway Pizza. But do you remember when we first reconnected? Yeah, well we had that speaking thing that… Oh there it was! So it’s Victory Christian Center. I was speaking there. My name is Robert Redman. I actually first met Clay almost three years ago to the day. I don’t know if he remembers it or not, but I wasn’t working with him at the time. I asked to see him and just ask him some questions to help, you know, direct my life to get some mentorship. But I’ve been working with Clay for now just over a year. The role I play here is a business coach, business consultant. I work with different businesses implementing best practice processes and systems that I have learned here by working with Clay. And the experience working here has, to put it real plainly, has been just life-changing. I have not only learned new things and have gained new knowledge, but I have gained a whole new mindset that I believe, wherever I end up, will serve me well throughout the rest of my life. Since working with Clay, I mean I would like to say it was everything about about business in terms of the different categories. I don’t learned at all But I’ve learned all about marketing. I’ve learned about Advertising I’ve learned about branding. I’ve learned how to create a sales process for organizations in any industry. I’ve learned how to sell I’ve learned how to create repeatable systems and processes and hold people accountable, you know, how to hire people. It’s almost like every aspect of a business you can learn. I have learned a lot in those different categories. And then, again, the mindset that I’ve gained here has been huge. You know, working here, you can’t be a mediocre person. You are called 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 the best fits for this organization are the people that are goal-oriented. So they’re on their own trajectory, and we’re on our own trajectory. And the best fits are those people where there can be a mutually beneficial relationship, that as we pursue our goals and we help the business pursue those goals, the business helps us pursue our goals as well. And so I say people that are driven, people that want to make something of their lives, people that are goal-oriented, they’re focused, and they’re committed to overcoming any adversity that may come their way. Clay’s passion for helping business owners grow their businesses is it’s unique in that I don’t know if there’s anyone else’s that can be as passionate. You know whenever a business starts working with Clay it’s almost as like Clay is running that business in the sense that he has something at stake. You know he’s just serving them they’re 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 and in short anyone that’s content with mediocrity would not like working with Clay. So if you’re meeting Clay for the first time the advice I’d give you is definitely come ready to take tons of notes. Every time Clay speaks, he gives you a wealth of knowledge that you don’t wanna miss. I remember the first time that I met Clay. I literally carried a notebook with me all around. I was looking at this notebook the other day, actually. I carried a notebook with me all around and I just took tons of notes. I filled the entire notebook in about 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 learning something new. Be open to challenging yourself. Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted.