Entrepreneur | Power Of Social Proof: 7 Moves For Generating Massive Momentum – How to Generate More Sales Through Social Proof

Audio Transcription

Get ready to enter the Thrivetime Show! We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re on the top. Teaching you the systems to hear what we got. Cullen Dixon’s on the hooks, I’ve written the books. He’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks. As a father of five, that’s where I’mma dive. So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi. It’s C and Z up on your radio. And now, three, two, one, here we go. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, and that’s what we’re about to do. Jill, the thrill. How are you, my friend? Hi, Mr. Clark. How are you? I am doing well, and I am in rare form. I have slept a little more than five hours. I’m feeling good. You’re looking good. You’re looking good. Well, I appreciate that. I know that. So we’re moving on. So there we go. We were talking about the power of social proof, seven moves for generating massive momentum. Now, Jill, I know you’ve got a really busy schedule. So seriously, I appreciate you coming in because I know there’s a few thrivers, in particular Julie in Las Vegas, who she has a business where she does online sales there for Etsy. And I know a lot of what we’re talking about today is gonna help her a lot and people just like her. So I’m really excited. So Julie, hopefully you enjoy this one, my friend. And Jill, we’re talking about this whole thing of social proof and kind of how it can help you generate more sales for your business. And before we do that, I wanna kind of go into just kind of a lightning round here. Let’s do it. Where it’s like, is this a rumor or is this truth? Okay, do I need to tell the truth? Yes. The rule will be that you will tell the truth. Okay. I am going to ask a rumor that might or might not be true in kind of a lightning round format because we want to give the thrivers an idea about whether these certain social proof rumors are true or not. So here we go. Exciting. One, have you had your products worn by Britney Spears? True. Have your products been worn by Miranda Lambert. True. Are you a member of the Michael Bolton fan club? Maybe. Maybe, okay, well it’s a definite maybe. We cannot get a verifiable answer on this one here. Okay, I say Barry Manilow, you say what? Michael Bolton. Okay, moving on. Oh, sorry, no, go back, oh, that is a question. I’m sorry, let me try again. Have you ever been on a date with Barry Van Ilo? True. True, wow, okay. Your products, have your products been worn by Harry Connick Jr.? True. Have your products been featured on Good Morning America? Affirmative. Affirmative, affirmative. Have your products been featured on the Today Show? True. Have your products been featured on The View? Yes. In high school, did you ever date Michael Bolton? Once and one time only. One date only. Yes. One date only? And this is this Michael Bolton or Michael? It was the night after Barry Manilow. Really? Now being serious though, the Thrivers deserve to know this information. Have you really been on a date? Don’t take advantage of my gullibility here. Have you really been on a date with Ray Manilow? No. No. Right here, in my head. In your head. OK, moving on here. Have your products been featured on E! News? Yes. OK, so just to make sure that we’re all on the same page here, are you a massive fan of Michael Bolton? Maybe. Maybe. OK, but you have, just to clarify for the thrivers watching this here, just so we’re not giving you ambiguous hoo-ha here, her products have been worn by Britney Spears, Miranda Lambert, Harry Connick Jr. They’ve been on Good Morning America, The Today Show, The View, E! News. Why does this matter? Because Jill Lithriel has been able to use social proof in combination with a great product and great marketing to have a lot of great results here. And so we’re going to get into this concept of social proof and how you can use it to grow your business or to help you start a successful one. Before you do that I just want to say one thing about the lightning round, which I loved by the way. We should do that every time. It’s nerve-wracking for me. Clay was featured, you were featured in Tulsa People, one of my favorite magazines here in town. You know that you were, didn’t you? I knew that I was in there. I felt good about it. Yes, and anyhow we had that magazine in our office and it was open to the page where your picture was on. And I have 11 girls working for me. And nine of those 11 girls actually looked at that picture you and said, that looks just like Michael Bolton. So I think it’s so funny that you put Michael Bolton in here because they all thought that you looked just like him. Anyhow, I just had to tell you that. Is that true? No. OK. OK. The second time, the second time. You do look a little like him. OK, you’re not. I am not going to fall for the next one here. So here we go. All right, here we go I’m gonna read the definition of the word social proof social proof also known as information informational social influence is a psychological phenomenon where People assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation Jill from your perspective, how would you define social proof? Probably, Clay, what I like to phrase it, how I phrase it, is sort of my own grassroots PR. So when I first started, I didn’t have money to hire a PR rep, and so I thought, you know what, I’m going to do this myself. I’m going to figure out a way to get my product in the hands of the people that can advertise for me. And usually those people are people that are in the spotlight, whether it’s celebrities, newscasters, however, you know, whatever it relates to in your industry. And so for me, it was having a plan and figuring out what steps I was gonna take to get that product into the hands of other people. You know, an example, I think, for the people watching this who maybe, this is kind of an abstract thought to you, but one of the businesses I invest in is a men’s grooming lounge called The Elephant in the Room. And one day, one of the weather guys bought some of the socks we sell there. And he wore them on the air. And I guess it was raining or something, but somehow he mentioned, oh, well, I wore my boots today, so I didn’t get my socks wet, which I bought from Elephant in the Room or something like that. He just said it. Well, I’m sure he didn’t necessarily make the station happy that he mentioned a product on the air. But what happened was we got a ton of calls and people actually listened to what he said and I think it’s if you’re watching this Success is not for other people. It’s for you. You don’t have to think that like these celebrities are untouchable I mean, you never possibly Yeah, reach them and that’s what I love about your story That’s to me super powerful for people watching this is you’re one of the most relatable People I’ll be intimidating in your in your keen sense of style. But I mean you’re a relatable person. You’re a normal person, but there’s so many people watching this who I know right now are going, gosh, you know, success is for other people. I just don’t have what it takes. But you went out there without a PR firm and you just built that social proof. You built that grassroots campaign. I just love how you’ve done that. Well, there’s a way to make things happen. I think sometimes you know when you’re reading the magazines and you know be it Forbes, be it people, whatever, you think it’s such a a world that’s so far away but really it is, this world is so small that thing, there is a way to make things happen that you want. You just have to have the plan to get it there and sometimes that plan takes different curves and it happens organically and to get to your ultimate goal but it myself without hiring a PR firm. And the plan was not always straight from point A to point B. It took a lot of different curves. Can I give a quick example? Yeah, please. Okay. Last year, I had, as one of my goals, I have a whiteboard and I always put my goals on the whiteboard at the beginning of the year and then I write out how that plan is going to happen. And when I go back at the end of the year, very rarely, even though a lot of that happened, it very rarely was the plan that I had thought it was going to, or the path that I thought it was going to take. Last year, I wanted to, I envisioned that every girl in Miss America was going to come out the night of the pageant and be wearing a rusted cuff. Well, in their bathing suit. I wanted that to happen. So I thought, why can’t this be me? Why can’t, why can’t rusted cuff? And not that I’ve ever been a pageant girl, and I never have, but for me, that’s sort of just like an iconic thing, Miss America Pageant, and so I thought, what a great way to get it out there and advertise. And so I called the pageant, and I called the organization, and talked to the top executive that I needed to talk to for that, and found out that I could. I could actually get my cuffs on the girls for $500,000. Whoa, that’s a great deal. About as much as you’re paying me to come here and talk. $500,000. Yeah. And so I thought, okay, well, I’m going to leave that goal up there, but I’m going to figure out how I can get this done in a different way. Anyhow, fast forward to a few weeks ago, we had an opportunity to sponsor Miss Oklahoma, who’s on her way to Miss America in four weeks. And I just had this idea, you know what, she’s going to a luncheon five weeks before the pageant, why don’t we just gift her, that’d be fun for her, let’s gift her rustic cuffs for her to gift to every single contestant. So we made three cuffs, personalized cuffs for every single contestant. She goes to a luncheon four days ago, hands out these cuffs to all the contestants who now have rustic cuffs. They’re not walking out on stage, but for me, it was so much fun to see her to be able to do that for her sake. And then for us, now we get to have our customs in the hands of every girl in every state who is the Miss of that state. I love how you got no for an answer. First off, the action items I’m hearing here, if I’m a thriver watching this, is one, you have a whiteboard where you’re writing down your goals. I couldn’t afford a whiteboard when I first started, and so I bought those sticky white things that you could just stick up on the wall. If you’re watching this though, I’m telling you, no matter if you can afford a white board or not, I would say I’ve maybe only interviewed a handful of people so far who are top level success people that don’t have some sort of visualization board. I mean this is super important. So you have the white board or some type of board to put your notes down But then you you got to know and rather than saying yes Yes for five hundred thousand thousand, but rather than taking that as a sense of rejection. You’re you said well I’m gonna find a different way. Yeah, pretty resourceful. You’re you’re you’re you’re like a honey badger I mean you’re coming back in there multiple times I’m gonna figure it out Actually, I left it up there and I let it simmer because all you know Oftentimes it’s not gonna be right away that you’re gonna come up with the next plan Yeah, I just let it simmer until another opportunity came up and it was still up there. So I recognized that and said, let’s do it this way. Well, as we’re hopping into this here, and Thrivers, as you’re thinking about this Miss America pageant as an example, just kind of top of your head here, we’re going to get into these super moves. There’s seven super moves. You can consider them super moves for grassroots, you know, VR, or you can consider them a super move for social proof, but the point is what we’re trying to do is it’s kind of in my mind I’m social proof is grassroots PR. I mean, it’s the same thing So we’re gonna get into the seven social proof super moves for the social proof. So here we go The first one is public relations now Jill according to Webster the definition of PR is the activity or job of providing information about a particular person or Organization to the public’s that people will regard this person or that person or organization in a favorable way. Basically like getting featured on major publications, national TV shows. Jill, why do you think this super move matters so much for business? I think that we, the consumers, when they see a celebrity, somebody in the national spotlight wearing something, for them it’s an endorsement of that product. Then it makes it okay to buy that product because they must know what they’re talking about or what fashion is or what style is or if they’re using it then it must be good. And it’s just how we think as consumers. So being the person that’s making that product, the person you want to get it into the hands of the most influential people. So public relations for me is, okay, what hands do I want the product in that will make the most influence in my consumer? And so let’s play a game for a second. Let’s, because you’ve had some major celebrities wear your stuff. Let’s say that you had though, like maybe like a princess of a big country, you know, like, or you had a, you know, how much does that affect sales when somebody who’s on the tabloid covers is wearing your product? I mean does that really yeah push sales up that much you know it is pretty big it When you get your product into the hands of somebody who has three million followers on Twitter Yeah, actual followers not bought followers, but three distinction. Yeah when you get your product in the hands, you know it’s for a period of time the impact that that can have is huge, especially if you’ve never really, if nobody’s ever heard of you before, but what happens is, and it can’t end there, it has to be the snowball effect where it has to keep adding to it. Your one claim to fame cannot be just because somebody tweeted about you a year ago. So it’s really, really, on how others view your company and how often they’re coming to the website, because it’s all a game of numbers. You get X amount of people come and you get X amount of people buy. And you’ve got to get the people to come to your website or to your product in order to purchase first. So an action step for the thrivers watching this is they might be able to take a time out here and go, well, what celebrity should buy my product, wear my product? If you have a product right now, it’s different for everybody, but what would be the person who would be the ideal person who would use your product, wear your product, tweet about your product, use the product, and then maybe start there? Yeah, yeah. And you get a list of, you know, when I first started, I thought, okay, I’m going to write down 15 to 20 people that I think would be the most influential. Maybe not, you know, not all A-list movie stars, but there are a lot of people that are still very influential who are in the spotlight more than somebody if you think okay I got to have you know this movie star who’s only seen once a year Yeah, it’s it’s a lot. It’s also about repetition about seeing somebody also consistently using your product Well, can you give me a little story time? Okay Can you give me a story about how you’ve been able to take advantage of this super move person without giving away your trade secrets, you know, but can you give me an example of maybe one time where you’ve been able to benefit from being on like, maybe like the Today Show or some things that you’ve done in your past? I mean, what are, give us a story, give us an example. Okay, last year I’m having, I flew to Chicago with my husband having brunch, a breakfast actually, it was like 10 o’clock in the morning, sitting there, and walking towards me was, with her husband and baby, with Julianna Rancic. For those of you who don’t know, she’s one of the hosts on E! News and a very big, in our country, probably internationally, fashion icon. She’s a lot of people who follow her and who respect what her ideas on fashion. She’s on the red carpet, she’s interviewing a lot of celebrities, but just a great girl all around. But I was sitting there and she was walking towards me, just strolling her baby. You saw her, just tell me. The crazy thing is that that morning, I didn’t tell my husband, I had a weird feeling that that weekend in Chicago, I was going to see her. She lives in LA, but she also spends some time in Chicago. And I’d never met her before. And I thought, I feel like I’m gonna see her this weekend. You know, you just know sometimes. You just have like a dissonance. You’re like a mystic. Yes, capital M. I didn’t know, I just knew it was weird. I didn’t tell Terry, my husband. And so all of a sudden I see her walking towards me, or who I thought she was. It was a girl with her husband and a baby, and I was getting ready to say something, and I realized, oh, not her. Totally wasn’t her. Not her. Not her. False alarm. False alarm. That was my, that was my no, and I was like, okay, but my no are still no’s. I’m going to, I felt like I was going to see her. Twenty minutes later, all of a sudden, my husband says, you’re not going to believe who’s walking behind you right now. And I said, who? And he said, Julian and Bill Rancic. And I was like, but it was a totally different couple than the couple that I had. And I said, then it’s a sign. And so packed outside, packed restaurant. And I was like, you know what? I’m just gonna get up and say hi. I’m just, cause she was one of the people that I really admired, her fashion sense and just who she was. And so I stand up, leave my phone on the table and my phone’s like my third kidney. Like I, you know, it’s just, it doesn’t leave my side. It’s a big deal. I left it, and I’m glad I did now, but I followed her and I just said, Juliana, Juliana, and I know everybody’s looking at me like I’m crazy. Were you shaking like a wet squirrel? That is so weird that you said that. I love that saying. I think I came up with that saying. Okay. Okay. Anyhow, now, see, you got me the squirrel thing. Okay, so I’m walking, I’m like, Juliana, Juliana, and I realize everybody’s like, seriously, sit down, lady. She’s a local celebrity. You don’t bother. And I’m like, you know what? I’m just going to say hi. I’m going to say hi to her. I normally wouldn’t do that. I like to leave people alone. And I’m just like, she’s I’m not gonna let this opportunity go. She turns around and I’ve seen her wear my cuffs a couple of times on the news, which is why I felt like I at least had a little in. So I said, she turns around and finally, and I said, hi, Juliana, I’m Jill Donovan, Rusty Cuff. And she goes, Rusty Cuff, you’re the one who’s made me the cuff. Bill, come here. And she throws her arms around me in front of everybody, 100 people, and I was like, see, people? See, people? See? And so, she said, come take a walk with us. So we took a walk. Anyhow, I wound up the next month going to E! News, getting to be with her on the set. Had a great, great time with her, got to know her a little bit. So that meeting alone has really, you know, it’s not the end-all be-all to getting customers here, but it really is just part of letting people see that Rusticuf is okay because Juliana… I want to share an example of this for the Thrivers because I think sometimes there’s a little bit of a disconnect between the theory and the doing, you know, the executing. And I remember when I was in college, Ryan Tedder, who’s a songwriter for OneRepublic, and neat, neat guy, Tulsa guy. He’s from Tulsa, now he lives in the Denver area. I remember where he told his roommate that he was gonna be going to Nashville to basically intern for, I think it was Industrial Light and Magic. And everyone was like, yeah, sure, whatever. Well, he was over there, you know, working in Nashville, and Ryan’s very talented. And he’s not a guy who just lucked into success. I mean, he’s a grinder. He works very, very hard. And I remember when he told somebody, yeah, I’m gonna be on this show with Carson Daly, some sort of talent show. It’s put on by Lance Bass from NSYNC. And people were kind of like, whatever, that’s crazy. You probably made that up. Because it doesn’t seem real, like this person from E! News. You probably didn’t really see him. Maybe you thought you did, or maybe, because I don’t know, we think they’re on a different planet. Well, then he comes back and there’s photos of him and the dude from Black the Backstreet Boys AJ and then we’re like what well then a couple years later that song I too late to apologize ends up on the radio and Timbaland, you know was remixing the song with him and everyone was like Sure enough. He really was rubbing shoulders with those people and I just think it requires an audacious dream though. I know how much a lot of people thought that Ryan would never hit it big. Like you’re just from Tulsa, how are you going to become a pop songwriter? But he did it. He did it. And I think it’s really, I mean, and but having that influence there, that’s led to him now doing songs with Beyonce and all these different, you know, major artists. It’s just interesting how that social proof there, it’s like just getting in the right group there. It really takes the product off there. Have you stayed in touch with her since this time? Yeah, I’m friends with her manager as well. Yeah, she actually had emailed and asked for some, she wanted some gifts for her nieces. What? Yeah, so that has been kind of fun. But you know what? The thing is, my husband always says, okay, so you send it out and so you see somebody wearing it, what does that do for sale? Like, you know, he’s the numbers, like what does that do for sales? And I always say, you know what, it’s not always quantifiable, like you can’t always say because of this, then this, but it’s really just all part of the big picture. But really, for me, it’s not even a that part’s not even about the money. For me, it’s just been about the relationships that I’ve gotten to form because of that. What’s your husband’s name? Terry. Terry, if you’re watching this, I often try to quantify my humbleness, and it’s hard. It is, for you, I can imagine. Yeah, it’s like you just like, well, 99, 100, 101, where do you, how do you quantify it, right? Where do you stop? Okay, now I’m gonna ask you, what’s an action step for anybody watching this who says, okay, I feel it, I feel it, you spoke to me, I want to reach into this world, I want to take advantage of this public relations super move, this grassroots PR thing. Do you recommend just making a list and going for it? Yeah, I I really think that part of it needs to be people that you actually like Okay if somebody’s gonna endorse your product whether they’re wearing it where they say something like I’m I like these socks on the newscast Yeah, it needs to be somebody that you like and that you would want then to show your customers So and so is wearing it So identify the list of the people you like as well as the people that you feel would be good representatives of your brand. And then you’ve got to figure out a way, and there’s not a book that tells you exactly how to do it, but you’ve got to figure out a way how to get that product to that person. There are ways. There are ways. If you’re watching this, just know that she has said there are ways, and the tenacious humans out there will find the ways. No, there’s a way. I mean, these people, they don’t live on an island where you can never reach. There are ways to get your product to the people that you need to get it to. We’ll just leave it at that. We’re not going to say the specifics because that’s trade secret, top secret information. All right, moving on. Social proof move number two. So one, it’s kind of getting on the show like the E! News, that kind of thing. The second one is a specific celebrity endorsement. I know for your product it’s a little different because you’re not having Michael Jordan paid to endorse the product. You’re not paying Kathy Lee who’s worn your product. You’re not paying her, hey, here’s $500,000 a year to wear my product, that kind of thing. I’m going to read this little excerpt for you. There was a May 11, 2011 article that appeared in Business Insider, and this article is written by Larry Kramer. It said that 64% of adult US Internet users who follow a celebrity also follow their brand, or follow a brand they endorse, which means that the celebrity follower is four times more likely to follow a brand than the average US adult online. Long story short, what we’re saying is that people do listen to what celebrities say. Why do you think it matters so much of a specific, even if people know they’re getting paid, like George Foreman. We know George Foreman’s getting paid to endorse Meineke or he’s paid to endorse the grill. Why does it matter even when we know they’re getting paid? I know I thought that myself like okay I know that they are on this commercial because they there’s money involved. Yeah. Why would I listen to them? Because I I actually believe that they wouldn’t and this might not be this might be a false belief, that they would not accept that, to do that actual ad if they didn’t like the product. I’m not saying that that’s true, but that’s what I believe. And if I believe that, there are countless other people who may also believe that. You know, we’re in this like gluten-free world, this organic world. We’re trying to avoid the chemicals, and you know, we’re going to Whole Foods. And my wife and I, every time we go to the store, it’s like we’re doing battle with the non-organic food sources out there. But it seems like if I am a man-bear pig, I’m not really the most educated shopper, and I’ll go into Target or something, and I’ll notice there’s the biggest loser carrots. They’re endorsed by the biggest loser. And I don’t know whether they’re organic or not. I’m not saying they’re good or bad. I don’t know. Yeah. I just buy them. And I feel like, well, the biggest loser’s worse. And they’re probably good carrots. Exactly. Regardless of whether they are or not. You have to have an affinity for the person that’s endorsing it in the first place. But, you know, a good example of a celebrity endorsement, and this is not even, this is not paid, this is just organic. Yeah. Speaking of organic, Duck Dynasty. Yeah. Huge. I mean, it’s got crazy sort of just, yeah, it’s been a little nuts how fast that has grown. But we got a couple cuffs to Corey Robertson, who is the wife of the Duck Dynasty. The guy. The guy, we’ll call him the guy. The guy with the duck calls. The guy. Anyhow, I was driving home from Little Rock a couple weeks ago, and my phone starts blowing up. Blowing up. Blowing up. I’ve got one of those phones where the light on the back flashes if you get a message Oh, man, I’m out. Oh, it’s boom while you’re driving. It’s crazy So it starts blowing up and I look and and Corey Roberts Robertson who has I don’t know a couple million followers I think on Instagram people know him and Twitter her her. Yes. That’s how well People know her That we called her a him So So she posted a picture of herself on Instagram with this camouflage cuff that we had customized for her and she said, thanks for the cuff, for you know, whatever. Just sent it to her, was not planning on an endorsement or anything. Within like, I don’t know, an hour, 20,000 plus likes. Just people like, the emails start coming in, I want that cuff, I want that cuff, wait, and all the new likes are coming in. So, very, that was sort of organic because that was not even necessarily intentional. So you generated actual sales from that kind of thing? Absolutely. But really for that, for me, and I know this is hard to believe because you’re an entrepreneur and you’re thinking, you’ve got to make money that way, but for me, a very, very large part of the enjoyment of this is just that, getting it into the hands of other people and seeing them wear it. It’s not even, it leads to sales, but for me that’s not always the, this is going to be sales, it’s not sales driven necessarily for me, it’s more of a game. If you’re watching this because I’m inherently, I think, I’m fixated, I cannot get off, get this off my mind, uh, Cori is, is, is the lady, but who’s the dude? Well that’s why I fumbled there for a second. Do we know on set, does anyone know? Willie. Willie? Willie, thank you. Willie’s wife. Program observer, he says it’s Willie. OK. Willie’s wife. Did you guys work together on that, or was that solo? OK. Spence gets one point on the Thrive score. Yes, he does. Willie. He gets one tough today. I could not. I just could not think of it. I just went into a funk there. OK. I know. All right, Jill. We’re talking about super move number three. Here we go. This is trust symbols. Jill, this is basically like those security symbols they’ll put on the screen, like on a shopping cart, where it says VeriSign, or the McAfee logo, so customers know their transaction is safe. In your mind though, why does that matter in this internet age? Why do we need those security logos or how does that help at all the buyer? I think it gives a sense of security for the consumer. I know I feel it when I go to a website. It just is that added sense that, okay, they know what they’re doing this is a brand it just is another layer in feeling comfortable with that brand and makes you feel secure and staying with them and continuing on the process of purchasing with them. And this isn’t really a thing that we have to spend a whole lot of time getting into but I can just say if you’re watching this right now and you have a website just make sure that it passes the smell test and you maybe you’ll have these securities obviously you have to have certain certifications to get those security badges, but I would make sure that you put those on your website, those are there, because it helps take down the amount of skepticism that the potential buyer has, you know, especially in an era of like credit card fraud and that kind of thing. This is not that hard to do. It doesn’t, yeah. Now we’re moving on to social proof super move number four. Super move number four off the turnbuckle BAM with the power of a large iguana which I’ve almost stepped on during my Cancun trip. Wow. I believe that like iguanas they’re large or powerful that’s a belief I have can’t prove it but we’re moving on. Slightly bigger than a squirrel. No this thing yeah it’s better than a it’s actually bigger than the the wet shaking squirrel. What crazy. Okay so here we go social proof super move number four social media likes and shares. Why does it matter, honestly, why does it matter if I have a like or a tweet or something was shared by a celebrity or if I have 50,000 likes, why does it matter? It matters. I’m going to tell you why it matters. Okay, tell it to me. I’m going to step it. Okay, I’m going to tell you just as, I’m going to step aside from my role as Rusty Cuff. I’m just going to tell you as a consumer, to me, why it matters. I hear about a product. I see it on TV. I read about it. One of the very first things that I do now, I go to Facebook, I go to the social media channels of Facebook, the Instagram, Twitter, and I see how many people are following. Really? And I’m not saying it’s the end all be all that you have to have X amount of followers, but I’m telling you, I’m a judger. I’m telling you that for me, it doesn’t tell me whether a product is good or bad. It only tells me where it is in the level of popularity. Not saying popularity even makes a product good or bad. It just is my first, it’s my first idea of where this company is. You know what you are? Tell me, a judger. You’re a judger, that’s for sure. Right, because I learned that from you, but go ahead. Okay, yeah, here we go. Here’s the thing. I remember when I was starting my business, my first company, the DJ business, I was in the dorm room, and I had to pay my way through college. To go to the college I went to, Oral Roberts University, which I know if you’re watching this you’re going, is that a real school? Yes, it is a real school. But this school, it was about $15,000 or $16,000 a year to go there. I had to pay my way through school and I paid my way through school by DJing. So I would invite people to my dance parties at the Marriott, where it was very hot. Hot at the Marriott. Awesome. And I would charge $5 a head to get in there. And the first thing people would ask when I gave them a flyer was, who’s all going? Who’s going? Who’s going to be there? It matters. And it matters. And so I realized I’m going to have to get the influencers there first, and everybody else will show up. That’s when you started asking me to come. Well, that’s when we met up. We met up at the Marriott. Yeah. So, now let me ask you, though, real quick. So, do you feel like, I mean, if I say with your product or another product, if I’m watching this and I’m dead in the water, I have no likes, no tweets, no, I don’t even have a social media presence yet. What do you recommend I should do if I’m watching this? Very important. I would first sign up. Sign up. Sign up. Do it. Hit the sign up button on the social media. And you know, you don’t have to do all of them. I just I would start with one. Start somewhere. Have some sort of a social media presence. There are ways to increase your likes. There are ways to collaborate with other companies who have a lot of, who have a large social media presence. You can collaborate with people who run contests, who do things to generate more of that. But I’m telling you it is whether, like it or not, is how people initially judge you and whether or not they even want to buy the product When social media going away, it is not going away going away is tripling. It is not going away What if I’m watching this and I’m shaking like a wet squirrel just thinking about the idea Launching a social media campaign I’m going I don’t know about Facebook. I don’t know they’re taking my information Yeah, they’re taking my photos and they’re using the facial identification software. They’re tracking me Jill. I’m afraid what would you say to me? I would say get educated. Get educated about what social media can do for you and lose the fear because it’s a very, very, very important part. If you were, I’m not saying every, you know, my husband owns his own company and he designs and sells equipment for hospitals and doctor’s offices. That’s a way too long, I’ve got to cut it. But he doesn’t need the type of social media presence that I would in the industry that I am. So, I’m not saying every person watching this has to have a very large social media presence. But, it is imperative that if you are in the type of industry that needs it, that you get started. You just got to get started. Is your husband the kind of guy who does social media where he just tweets up there, I’m a boss. He doesn’t tweet, doesn’t have a Facebook page, no Instagram, nothing. But he’s a creeper. Really? He creeps on mine. Really? Yes, I’ll see him sometimes on my Facebook page going, oh yeah, that’s what she’s doing, or that’s what he’s doing. You know my super move I do with my wife sometimes? Is I’ll sign in her account, and I’ll respond to people, and saying things that she would never say. And it is awesome, but then she blocks me, so I can’t do it. Let me tell you what I first used to do when I started Rusty Cuff and I had like 10 likes on Facebook. 10 people who liked it. I, oh my gosh, I really hope this does not come to bite me like a bad squirrel. This is going to bite me like a bad wet shaking squirrel. Well those are mean. This is going to bite me but I’m going to tell you. I signed up a Facebook account under the name of Joe Johns. And every time I would post a cuff, a couple years ago, I would then log out and log back in as Joe Johns, and Joe Johns would comment how awesome that cuff was. So if you go back to my rest of the cuff at the very beginning, Joe Johns liked a lot of my cuffs. But it sort of got other people like, hey, Joe Johns, she’s getting some feedback. Joe Johns is a big deal. He’s big on other planets. But the Joe was spelled J-O, so you didn’t know if it was a guy or a girl. Oh. John. Gender neutral, like my flavor neutral water here. Let me tell you. We can do some more information, because this is good. For the thrivers watching this, I’m going to give you some true stories so you don’t start judging Jill, because Jill will judge other people. OK? You’re going to judge her. But here’s the deal. Here’s an example. One is Russell Simmons. He was having a hard time getting music, the hip hop music, on the radio. He paid dudes who called and called and called and called and called to request certain songs. And that’s how that music became popular and worked its way onto the radio, was they were basically paying people to call in. Back in the day when you would call the radio station and request music, he did that. That’s what he did. Another example is the Beatles when they landed in the United States. This is in the book, it’s called the PR Bible, PR 2.0 by Michael Levine. It’s in that book talks about it, but the Beatles landed and there was no There was no British invasion. There was no Crowd nobody was excited for them. So he’s like the publicist says now go back up. Come on down again We’ll come back with more hype. We need more We need we need people to be cheering for you and in my mind there’s gonna be video footage of it It’s gonna be awesome front page news So he paid high school students to yell and scream for people they didn’t know about Another example is Frank Sinatra his publicist paid women to scream in the concerts. Yeah, because people were not screaming I love it to create our way energy. This is these are just this is you talk about black helicopters and conspiracy theories Poisoning our food supply. This is the kind of thing that you need to, I don’t know how much of it’s real or not, but I will tell you that sometimes you have to create the momentum before something begins to take off. I agree, for me, I always envisioned it as a snowball. You gotta keep getting a snowball bigger so you can keep, so you can have more people that get lost in the avalanche. Boom, and then the sheeple like me, this is what I do, I go into Target, like I was telling you, I go into Target, I don’t even know what’s going on, I don’t even know how to watch TV. And there was an iguana. Well, yeah, I luckily I avoided the iguana at the, I go into Target and I’m going in there and I’ll just say, well, biggest loser carrots, I guess I’ll get those. Yeah. And no thinking at all. That’s just how I do it. So I represent the sheeple. No, I’m a sheeple too. If Mary Lou Retton is my all time favorite, like my, besides Michael Buble, is the one person I would love to meet. Have always been, since I was a little girl. If anything said Mary Lou Retton on it, I’d buy it. I don’t even like carrots, but if it said Mary Lou Retton carrots, I’d buy them and eat them because she is endorsing them. It just goes to show you the power of a name. The power of the name. We’re moving on here. We’re moving on here to social proof super move number five, customer reviews and ratings. Jill, according to a Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising report, which came out in April on April 10th of 2012, they surveyed 28,000 internet respondents in 56 countries and 70% of the global consumers surveyed online indicated that they trusted messages on this platform. I mean they trusted reviews. That is an increase of just 15% in just four years there at that time. Now it’s even higher. Why is it that people, I mean, why is it that people trust online reviews? What’s that all about? Do you? No. You don’t? No. You don’t trust online reviews? I do. Yes, you do. I wouldn’t even stand against it. Because it’s all that you have to go by sometimes for a company. If I want to buy a book, I go to Amazon, I read the reviews, and I’m not doing that anymore because it’s too influential on me. I will buy it or I won’t buy it based on three people who said, I was on the beach and I hated this book. And so I really would like to get my own opinion sometimes But I can’t help it. I am influenced by the reviews of other people Real deal story. Okay one time I went for online review. I should like, you know, this is me being stupid But this is why it works. I’m in a city. What do I do? Google it read the review. Oh, it’s so great It’s such a great place. I go and eat there worst place ever Yeah, you know what their family and friends and the other 12 people with Google accounts who wrote reviews were going, oh yeah, and it worked. It does work because you were in, you were in something. I was. I was infiltrated by the black helicopters. Let me tell you a quick story about. They told me about food supply. Why I think that this is so important, when I was an adjunct law professor for eight years before I started Rustic Health, my very first year that I started, I realized there was something called RateMyProfessor.com or RateYourProfessor.com. Is that where people are like, she is hot? Yes, that is where people can say whatever they want to about the professor. Other people can go and say, do I want to take this professor’s class the next year? So Joe Johns got on and gave me an awesome review. Joe Johns is everywhere. He is everywhere. Ambiguous. Or she is everywhere. Gender neutral. Like Corey Robertson is she he doesn’t matter. We now know. Hey Corey if you’re watching this we know what gender you are. We’re very confident. If Corey if you’ve become a thriver Clay’s very sorry. I’m very sorry. I’m also sorry that Willie we’ve forgotten your name entirely but now we know. This is what happens when you don’t have any sleep. All right. Okay, so Joe Johns got on and said I’m gonna rate Jill Donovan as a professor. And this is like after the second year I taught. And he gave me an awesome review. So I was funny. So gorgeous. I wore cute clothes. It was his favorite professor ever. Everything. Nothing about my actual teaching skill, just about me. And you know what? It was the next year. Do you know how many kids I had in that class? I don’t know. Same amount as I had the year before because they capped it a certain amount. But I had quality. How do you do that to me? You always do that to me. I’m so proud of you. I had such quality. They were all 18 year old kids, guys, but it was a great, great class. I have never been outwitted so consistently by another human. Check. Check. Unbelievable. It’s that legal mind. I’m tired of it. Have you ever Googled yourself? Yeah. Okay. I haven’t. I Google awesome. I pop right up. Okay. Oh, wow. Well, humility too. I would Google that. But I am a long time ago I googled myself and by long I mean last week and that right my professor thing comes up and it’s still the exact same One but I will tell you that probably has influenced so many college kids thinking then when they walk in the class now They’re already influenced because they have an idea about me before they even came Okay, let me ask you this here. So short of Googling awesome to see my picture, or Googling humble to see another picture of mine, what is an action step that the Thrivers can do out there right now who own a company, who want to increase their customer reviews and ratings? Would you recommend that we get Joe Johns back in the game? I think that is a very deceitful way to do it, and I would pay your friends to do it. Oh, there we go. You know, I think you have to be aware of what is out there first. If your product’s already out there, you have to be aware if there’s anything out there. You have to be aware of where the delete button is to take it off, if you can. Not really, I wouldn’t take it off. You’re not going to be able to take other people’s reviews off. But first, be aware of what’s out there. Secondly, I would start conversing with some of your customers saying, hey, if you enjoyed this product, would you mind going to XYZ and giving me a good review? I’m telling you, the power of one good review and the power of one bad review is huge. So be aware of what is out there about your product. I really, I mean this is an action item anybody here can do. Yeah. Especially I want to give you one final example. If you’re watching this, you have a local restaurant or a tire repair company or just any kind of business at all that’s a local brick-and-mortar business. A lot of times you start thinking, well I don’t need to worry about internet marketing because I’m a local business. But I’m telling you, those reviews are huge. Everybody here, we have a responsibility to do this because if you don’t do it, usually what happens is you get one person who’s upset. They’re the only person who writes reviews. They love the reviews. Because how many times have I gone to a restaurant where I loved it? I’m like, well, what I’m going to do is I’m going to form a user account, and I’m going to go up there, and I’m going to rate it. And if it takes me up to a half hour, I’ll do it. I’m going to do whatever it takes. Very rarely. But when somebody’s mad, they’re instantly like, I’m forming an account. I’m going to get it done. You know, they’re pushing through. I’m taking them down. I’m taking them down. Everyone will know about this restaurant. So that’s an action step we can all do. We can all really get, be aware, Google yourself, be aware of your reviews, and then make sure those reviews are looking sharp, courtesy of Joe Jones. OK, moving on to social move, super move, social proof, super move number six, video testimonials or amazing video. Jill, why do you think that video matters so much right now on the Internet? I think it’s really just as powerful. I mean there’s you know there’s so many new social media avenues that are going towards the short videos because it tells a story sometimes more than a phrase could or just a picture of the video, the very short clip video, can just sometimes be so powerful in just that 10 seconds. You have a video on your website right now. I’m not saying this because you’re here, so I’m going to look at you. There’s a video on her website right now that it looks like it’s a movie. It looks like it was shot like in a Hollywood movie. It is awesome. And my first impression of you when I was recommended to you by somebody who’s in the media and said, you need to know this person. It was unbelievable, awesome video. Thank you so much. How has that affected your brand? I wanted that video, you know sometimes when somebody comes to your website like you did, it’s really that’s all that they see. Our video was on the very front page and it started playing, it’s not at the moment, but it started playing automatically when you came to our website. And I wanted that to represent who we were. So I found a way to make this video, make us look bigger than we actually were at the time. And I think if that’s somebody’s only impression of you is the video, it tells a story about us than maybe just looking at one product or another product couldn’t do. Do you believe in the phrase, fake it till you make it? You do? Is the correct answer yes? I do actually. There are parts of that phrase that I believe in, yes. The reason why I’m asking you is like if I’ve been, like say I’m watching this and I’m going, gosh, you know, my company was just featured in the local news, the local media. Are you recommending I maybe take that video footage and put that on my site? Absolutely, yes. I was the most underqualified law professor there ever was. Really? Yep, I think I still am. But I’d faked it till I made it. Till I will make it someday as a law professor Is that kind of your goal is to get to a certain point of retail sales where you can then go and sue people on? Your own like you know have a legal problem I cannot wait so I can finally combine the two practicing lawyer slash retailer. I’ll see you myself Yes, no, I will tell a little story. I’m kidding about the law professor thing. I’m way over qualified for that really yeah Not really okay the one little quick story about fake it till you make it is that I got a phone call after I first started from Good Morning America, and she says to me the one of the correspondents there that did this segment called Steals and Deals and she said I just need to know how many cuffs you can make in a day. Like if we put you on air, how many would you be prepared to sell? Like could you sell and send out in a day? Time out. Yeah. Gulliver’s Travels. Is this a true story? Yeah. Okay. Did you really take a time out? I know, I’m just, I felt like I wasn’t sure whether I could be emotionally engaged in the story. Yes, engage. Okay, I’m ready. I’m back in. Okay. So she called me, I’m laying in bed, I’ll never forget it, and she said, I had met her a couple of days before, and she said, I just need to know how many you can sell. And it was just me still. And I, at that time, probably could make a hundred. But in my head, the fake it till you make it in my head, I was like, I think I could probably do a thousand. I just believed it. I somehow, I’m like, I’m going to, I’m going to, I think I can do it. You can do it. I said a thousand. Um, she said, okay, let’s get, let’s do it. And I believed that I could do it even though I hadn’t done it yet. I was going to get there. And um, two days later we sold 2000 that day. And so then I really had to make it. I mean, I had to make it happen. In my head, I believed it could, and then I had to make it happen. But yeah, I fully believe that. I want to share this real quick for the thrivers. Birdman is one of our lead editors, and he’s gonna edit out the name of the company that’s poisoning our food supply. He’ll take out that name. But there’s another- Can I say a name? What’s that? If I ever say anything bad about a company, we have to insert a ninja sound effect or something, so that way we don’t know what I’m talking about. But there was a company that recently, and we have to take out this name as well, but it’s called S.O.U.N. And it says that the product will ship between four and 12 weeks. And this product was on Kickstarter, and it got a million dollars of Kickstarter funding right away. Then a major VC company came in and matched it. And it just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And nobody’s really received the product. And so it sold millions of dollars of sales without having shipped anything yet. And it’s amazing how just the hype built on the hype, built on the hype, built on the hype. And now people are like, when am I going to get it? So I’m on that waiting list waiting for my bag of meal replacement food to show up. Is it going to happen? It’s supposed to be flavorless. It’s flavor neutral. I’m into that whole thing. Yes, you are. It’s flavor neutral. It’s going to be awesome. I’m excited about it. You said definitely video testimonials are something we should do. I think for me the power of a video, and I believe also the power of using humor in the video too, is what makes things go viral sometimes, not always, but if you can inject some of your personality, so you know what you do in everything that you do, but I think it’s really, really important and can be more powerful and not even all that expensive. I mean you can nowadays, you can do, I did a video, I’ve done videos And just based on my iPhone. I mean, there are ways that you can do it. Well, I was mentored by Hugh Morris and he helped me. Social proof super move number seven, awards. Love this one. Basically, this is posting quality or business awards that your company has won on your website or business cards, marketing materials, that kind of thing. Why do you think this super move matters? I think it goes along with everything else that we’ve talked about. It just adds to that snowball effect of like, OK, you know, she got endorsed by or she had this celebrity wearing it or she’s got the trust symbol. She has a video that makes her you know, it makes it look bigger than maybe it is. And the awards just kind of give people an affirmation. OK, so other people have bestowed something upon this company, so they must be XYZ. As far as an action item, if you’re watching this, I think a lot of times, again, we look at, wow, I could never get that award. The first step is you have to apply. And I know for me, in 2007, I was the Entrepreneur of the Year for the state of Oklahoma, from the SBA. And I had never filled out more paperwork. And they wanted to verify all my financials, because it’s the Small Business Administration, so it’s a lot of government stuff. They had to verify, they had to call customers, I had to get audited, all this stuff. Well-deserved though. Yeah, but had I had not done it, I mean, I definitely would have missed the boat on that one. We were having phenomenal growth, but I just remember all the paperwork. So if you’re watching this, I think an action step you could do is look for some awards you qualify for. In Tulsa, hypothetically, if you own a snow cone business, here’s one you could do. Yeah. They have a Fast 40 award, and it’s an award you can get for being one of the fastest 40 growing companies. Wow. And that’s an award that’s in Tulsa. But in whatever city you’re in, if you’re watching this in Las Vegas, Julie, if you’re watching this in Vegas, there’s awards you can qualify for. They’re all over the place. And literally, you can take a, give some on your staff, or you can just spend a weekend looking for all the awards and just filling out all the forms. You know, you might not win anything, but even being nominated is great. Sometimes you can win stuff, but you don’t know unless you’re actually nominated. So, it’s a big package you have to do and all that. But I would highly recommend anybody watching this that that’s something that you do. It’s definitely a big, big part of the arsenal. Well, Jill, kind of in closing here, I just want to tell you I appreciate being on the show today, and I don’t appreciate you taking advantage of my gullibleness. I don’t either, and I feel really bad about that. I feel bad about how bad you made me feel. We both did. She gets in sleep. Typically what I’ll do is I’ll shake someone’s hand, and then I end the episode that way, but instead I’m just going to walk off. I think you should. I’m just going to leave. I’m going to be done. I’m out of here. Well, then I can finish the interview myself. Come back Clay! Come back! Okay we’ve worked through our grievances. Boom. Boom. 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 mind, in your expert opinion, would you need profits to get you to your goals? Yeah, because if you have a $15 million business, but you have $15 million in expenses, it’s kind of pointless. Holy crap! All right, so the question I would have here for you, if you could take like, I don’t know, 10 minutes or less and see if you could save $3,000 a year by reducing your credit card fees, would you do it? Yes, absolutely. Holy crap! Why would somebody out there who’s listening right now, who has a sane mind, why would they not go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card, thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card to schedule a ten minute consultation to see if they can reduce their credit card fees by at least three thousand bucks a year? Why would they not do it? Maybe because they don’t understand how you set the website. This tree is a symbol of the spirit of the Griswold family Christmas. That’s clear. That can be true. So I encourage everybody to check out thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. What would be another reason why someone would not be willing to take ten minutes to compare rates to see if they could save three thousand dollars or more on credit card fees. Maybe they think it is a waste of time and that it won’t. It’s not possible. If there’s somebody out there that’s making more than $3,000 every 10 minutes and they’re like nah, that’s not worth my time. Hello, we getting there everybody, we getting there everybody. There’s probably some, someone out there. Okay. They would think that. Well I’ll just tell you folks, if you’re out there today and you’re making less than $3,000 per 10 minutes. I would highly recommend that you go to throttletimeshow.com forward slash credit dash hard. It’s 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. 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 and at a loss I cannot be camp who is better I go on first and clean the hair good yes I is a better I need to hear you key and more old me for really good that looking at me swan let me tell you a good story here real quick. I actually years ago compared rates with this company here called IPS. It’s Integrated Payment Services. And I scheduled a consultation. I don’t know if I was skeptical. I just thought, whatever, I’ll take 10 minutes. I’ll compare rates. I can’t tell. You can tell me I’m a doctor. No, I mean, I’m just not sure. Why can’t you take a guess? Well, not for another two hours. You can’t take a guess for another two hours. And in my case, in my particular case, I save over $20,000 a year. Holy crap! Wow. Which is like groceries when my wife goes to the organic stores. Find everything you need today? Yeah. Great. Okay. Oh, God. 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, all right? What’s your name? Patricia. Patricia, all right. I need you to take a deep breath. We’re about to do the cheese. You know, that’s the difference between eating organic and not organic. So because my wife eats organic, I’m going to eat organic. I’m going to eat organic. I’m going to eat organic. I’m going to eat organic. 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 the clock the brand name of the clock Rod do we have a name of the clock it’s an elegant from Ridgeway it’s from Ridgeway let’s let’s buy buy the clock and sell the fireplace. I encourage everybody out there, go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. You schedule a free consultation, request information, a member of our team will call you, they’ll schedule a free consultation. It should take you ten minutes or less, and they’re going to compare rates and see if they can’t save you more than $3,000 a year off of your credit card processing. You were hoping what? I wouldn’t owe you money at the end of the day. No, you don’t owe us money. Because at the end of the day, at the end of the day, the goal of the business is to create time freedom and financial freedom, and in order to do that, you need to create additional profits. The number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. We are Jared and Jennifer Johnson. We own Platinum Pest and Lawn and are located in Owasso, Oklahoma. And we have been working with Thrive for business coaching for almost a year now. Yeah. So, what we want to do is we want to share some wins with you guys that we’ve had by working with Thrive. First of all, we’re on the top page of Google now, okay? I just want to let you know what type of accomplishment this is. Our competition, Orkin, Terminix, they’re both $1.3 billion 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, asking our customers for reviews, and now we’re the highest rated and most reviewed Pessamon company in the Tulsa area. And that’s really helped with our conversion rate. And the number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. Wait, say that again. How much are we up? 411%. 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 and in the refining process. And that has obviously, the 411% shows that that system works. Yeah, so here’s a big one for you. So last week alone, our booking percentage was 91%. We actually booked more deals, more new customers last year than we did the first five months, or I’m sorry, we booked more deals last week than we did the first five months of last year from before we worked with Thrive. So again, we booked more deals last week than the first five months of last year. And it’s incredible, but the reason why we have that success is by implementing the systems that Thrive has taught us and helped us out with. Some of those systems that we’ve implemented are group interviews, that way we’ve really been able to come up with a really great team. We’ve created and implemented checklists, that way everything gets done and it gets done right. It creates accountability. We’re able to make sure that everything gets done properly, both out in the field and also in our office. And also doing the podcast, like Jared had mentioned, that has really, really contributed to our success. But that, like I said, 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. Okay, the last three years, our customer base had pretty much stayed the same. We weren’t shrinking, but we weren’t really growing either. Yeah, and so we didn’t really know where to go, what to do, how to get out of this rut that we’re in. But Thrive helped us with that. You know, they implemented those systems, they taught us those systems, they taught us the knowledge that we needed in order to succeed. Now it’s been a grind, absolutely it’s been a grind this last year, but we’re getting those fruits from that hard work and the diligent effort that we’re able to put into it. So again, we were in a rut, Thrive helped us get out of that rut, and if you’re thinking about working with Thrive. Quit thinking about it and just do it. Do the action and you’ll get the results. It will take hard work and discipline, but that’s what it’s going to take in order to really succeed. So, we just want to give a big shout out to Thrive, a big thank you out there to Thrive. We wouldn’t be where we’re at now without their help. Hi, I’m Dr. Mark Moore. I’m a pediatric dentist. Through our new digital marketing plan, we have seen a marked increase in the number of new patients that we’re seeing every month, year over year. One month, for example, we went from 110 new patients the previous year to over 180 new patients in the same month. And overall, our average is running about 40 to 42 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 Dentistry, graduated in 1983 and then I did my pediatric dental residency at Baylor College of Dentistry from 1983 to 1985. Hello my name is Charles Colaw with Colaw Fitness. Today I want to tell you a little bit about Clay Clark and how I know Clay Clark. Clay Clark has been my business coach since 2017. He’s helped us grow from two locations to now six locations. We’re planning to do seven locations in seven years and then franchise. Clay’s done a great job of helping us navigate anything that has to do with running the business, building the systems, the checklists, the workflows, the audits, how to navigate lease agreements, how to buy property, how to work with brokers and builders. This guy is just amazing. This kind of guy has worked in every single industry. He’s written books with Lee Crockrell, head of Disney, with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with Mike Lindell. He does Reawaken America tours where he does these tours all across the country where 10,000 or more people show up to some of these tours. On the day-to-day, he does anywhere from about 160 companies. He’s at the top. He has a team of business coaches, videographers, 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. So in the weekly, he’s running 160 companies. Every 6 to 8 weeks, he’s doing Reawaken America tours. Every six to eight weeks he’s also doing business conferences where 200 people show up and he teaches people a 13 step proven system that he’s done and worked with billionaires, helping them grow their companies. So I’ve seen guys from start-ups go from start-up to being multi-millionaires, teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom through the system. Critical thinking, document creation, making it, putting it into, organizing everything in their head to building it into a franchisable, scalable business. One of his businesses has like 500 franchises. That’s just one of the companies or brands that he works with. So amazing guy. Elon Musk, kind of like smart guy. He kind of comes off sometimes as socially awkward, but he’s so brilliant and he’s taught me so much. When I say that, Clay 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 the 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. I was really most impressed with him is when I was shadowing him one time. We went into a business deal and listened to it. I got to shadow and listen to it. When we walked out I knew that he could make millions on the deal and they were super excited about working with him. He told me, he’s like, I’m not going to touch it, I’m going to turn it down because he knew it was going to harm the common good of people in the long run. The guy’s integrity just really wowed me. It brought tears to my eyes to see that this guy, his highest desire was to do what’s right. Anyways, just an amazing man. 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. This is our old house. Right? This is where we used to live years ago. 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. The Thrivetime 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 a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and they’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big Get rich quick walk on hot coals Product it’s literally we teach you the brass tacks the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, and I want you to Google the z66 auto auction I want you to Google elephant in the room Look at Robert, Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever and we’re going to give you your money back if you don’t love it. We’ve built this facility for you and we’re excited to see it. If we go back eight years ago, think about the number of clients you had back then versus the number of clients you have now. As a percentage, what has been the growth over the past eight years, do you think? We’ve got to inspire somebody out there who just doesn’t have the time to listen to their calls. Okay, so Clay, it’s like I would go up and down from about $10,000 a month up to about $40,000, but it’s an up and down roller coaster. And so now we’ve got it to where we’re in excess of 100 clients. That’s awesome. And so I would have anywhere from 5 clients to 20 clients on my own with networking, but I had no control over it. I didn’t. Without the systems, you’re going to be victimized by your own business. For somebody out there who struggles with math, if you 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. It’s 100% growth every year I’ve worked. Now so, so I’m looking, we’ve been good friends seven, eight years and I’ve got doubled five times. Which is just incredible. I mean the first time you do it, that’s one thing, but when you do it repeatedly, yeah, I mean that’s unbelievable. We’re working our blessed assurance off this year to double. We’re planning on doubling again. We’re incorporating new, some, some, some new things in there to really help us do it, but we are going to double again this year. I started coaching, but it would go up and down, Clay. That’s when I came to you, as I was going up and down, and I wanted to go up and up instead of up and down. And so that’s when it needed a system. So creating a system is you have nailed down specific steps that you’re going to take, no matter how you feel, no matter the results, you lean into them and you do them regardless of what’s happening. You lean into them and it will give you X number of leads. You follow up with those leads, it turns into sales. Well, I tell you, if you don’t have a script and you don’t have a system, then every day is a whole new creation. You’re creating a lot of energy just to figure out what are you going to do. Right. And the best executives, Peter Drucker is a father of modern management, and he said the most effective executives make one decision a year. What you do is you make a decision, what is your system, and then you work like the Dickens to make sure you follow that system. And so that’s really what it’s all about. So with a script here, we have a brand new gal that just came in working for us. She nailed down the script and she’s been nailing down appointments. Usually we try to get one appointment for every hundred calls. We make two to three hundred calls a day per rep. And she’s been nailing down five and eight appointments a day. Somebody out there’s having a hard time. So she’s making how many calls a day? She’s making between 200 and 300 calls a day. And our relationship is weird in that we do, if someone were to buy an Apple computer today, and or let’s say about a personal computer, a PC, the computer is made by, let’s say, Dell. But then the software. 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, 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 or some interaction where you and I first connected? I just remember that somehow you and I went to Hideaway Pizza but you remember when we first reconnected? Yeah, well we had that speaking thing. 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 direct my life, to get some mentorship, but I’ve been working with Clay for now just over a year. The role I play here is a business coach, business consultant, I work with different businesses implementing best practice processes and systems that I have learned here by working with Clay. And the experience working here has, to put it real plainly, has been just life changing. I have not only learned new things and have gained new knowledge, but I have gained a whole new mindset that I believe wherever I end up will serve me well throughout the rest of my life. Since working with Clay, I have learned so much. I mean, I would like to say it was everything about business in terms of the different categories. I haven’t learned it all, but I’ve learned all about marketing. I’ve learned about advertising. I’ve learned about branding, I’ve learned how to create a sales process for organizations in any industry. I’ve learned how to sell. I’ve learned how to create repeatable systems and processes and hold people accountable. You know, how to hire people. It’s almost like every aspect of a business you can learn, I have learned a lot in those different categories. And then, again, the mindset that I’ve gained here has been huge. Working here, you can’t be a mediocre person. You are a call to a higher standard of excellence, and then as you’re called to that standard here, you begin to see those outcomes in every area of your life, that standard of excellence that you want to implement no matter what you’re involved in. I would like to describe the other people that work with Clay are people that are going somewhere with their life. Marshall and the group interview talks about how you know the best fits for this organization are the people that are goal-oriented so they’re on their own trajectory and we’re on our own trajectory and the best fits are those people where there can be a mutually beneficial relationship that as we pursue our goals and we help the business pursue those goals, the business helps us pursue our goals as well. And so I say people that are driven, people that want to make something of their lives, people that are goal-oriented, they’re focused, and they’re committed to overcoming any adversity that may come their way. 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 that can be as passionate. You know, whenever a business starts working with Clay, it’s almost as like Clay is running that business in the sense that he has something at stake. You know, he’s just serving them. They’re one of his clients, but it’s as if he is actively involved in the business. Whenever they have a win, he’s posting it all over his social media. He’s shouting it across the room here at Thrive. You know, 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 mediocrity, people that wanna get through life by just doing enough, by just getting by, people who are not looking to develop themselves, people who are not coachable, people who think that they know it all and they’re unwilling to change. I would say those are the type of people and in short anyone that’s content with mediocrity would not like working with Clay. So if you’re meeting Clay for the first time the advice I’d give you is definitely come ready to take tons of notes. Every time Clay speaks he gives you a wealth of knowledge that you don’t want to miss. I remember the first time that I met Clay. I literally carried a notebook with me all around. I was looking at this notebook the other day actually. I carried a notebook with me all around and I just took tons of notes. I filled the entire notebook in about three or four months just from being around Clay, following him and learning from him. And then I would say come coachable. Be open to learning something new. Be open to challenging yourself. Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted.