Entrepreneur | S.H.O.W. | How to Find Capital or Sell Your Business

Audio Transcription

Get ready to enter the Thrivetime Show! We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re on the top. Teaching you the systems to get what we got. Cullen Dixon’s on the hooks, I’ve written the books. He’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks. As the father of five, that’s where I’mma dive. So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi. It’s C and Z up on your radio. And now 3, 2, 1, here we go. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, and that’s what you gotta do. All right, Tulsa, green country, welcome back to your favorite radio show and mine. It’s the Thrive Time Show. It’s Tulsa’s only local business radio show. And yes, it is, it is, as rumor has it, it is Business School Without the B.S. My name is Clay Clark. I’m the former SBA Entrepreneur of the Year. And with me here, present inside the box that rocks, is none other than Dr. Robert Zellner. Sir, how are you doing? Dude, I am still kind of on a tad bit of a high. Still on a tad bit of a high. Yeah, I’ll tell you what, the last two day shows, Monday and Tuesday, if you didn’t catch them, they are like my baby. They are your baby? I mean, they’re like a baby. Like a baby. Like they have extra body fat and they’re unable to walk? Is that what you’re saying? No teeth, and they just, no, it’s a, you know, it really was my heart the last couple days. We did my top ten business rules. You know, I’m writing that book about halfway done with it called Business Pig. Yeah. And if you missed Monday and Tuesday’s show, I just felt like it was a little part of me that I just gave to the Thrivers. I’m going to tell you why I was so excited to have the show because you run your optometry clinic, you run A to Z medical, you mentor many, many people personally, you run the auction, and you run them all by those ten core principles. And that kind of guides you. Those are like your values. And you make decisions. I see you make decisions based upon your rules that you’ve almost now canonized in your upcoming book, The Business Pig. It’s just beautiful. It’s beautiful. And so, like I said, I’m still a little bit of a high. Today’s really fun because we’re going to talk about money. Now, I’ll tell you what. I’m not saying that your business rules weren’t incredible, but I am going to say the guy next to me, he’s a beautiful man. This is a beautiful man. If you’re on Facebook Live right now, if you’re not, you shouldn’t be. If you’re not on Facebook Live, you really need to be. We have Mr. Jared Powelka on the show today. Many people want to know, who is Jared Powelka? What does he do? What does he do? Well, he’s an investment banker, which he basically helps guide business owners on how to raise capital, how to sell their business, how to acquire other businesses. Jared, for the people out there who do not know much about you, can you describe what it is that you do, my friend? Sure. We help build great businesses and then market them in a way that… In a way that… You make it easier for people to raise capital? Is that what you do? I mean, do you kind of make it… Is it… Do people… I mean, is it… Without a guy like you, is it hard to raise capital? It’s a lot harder. See, it can be distracting. People tend to get off their core competencies, and somebody like us steps in, helps them market that business, talk about it in a way that’s effective to the market, and they end up getting what they want a lot faster. Now, I was looking through your resume, and I’ve known you here for a while, but rumor has it, my friend, is that you actually used to work with J.P. Morgan. Is that correct? That’s right. Yes, I was in the private bank and worked really closely with the commercial bank. And you actually helped structure over $100 million in capital raises. What does that mean? So, I’ve been a part of putting together the capital structure, seeing it from a lot of different angles, both the lending from a traditional banking standpoint and an investment banking standpoint, so thoroughly understand what the concerns are of operators and of course the lenders as well as investors. So here’s kind of the situation, Z. I see this all the time. I see it where you have an existing business and the guy’s making about $300,000 a year of gross sales. Maybe he’s a printer. He prints signs. I print signs. If you have a sign you need printed, I will print your sign. And I print wonders. Signs and wonders. This is a guy who prints. He has a printing business. He’s got about $300,000 in gross sales. And he wants to grow the business. He needs to raise capital. The local bank turns him down. You know, he says, the local bank says, I’m not going to lend you money right now. So he needs to get money from another source. You know, and the thing about it is that that just wears me out, you know. It’s kind of like the stock market. You know you have a business that’s making money and they say, well, we’re not going to make quite as much as we thought we were going to make in fourth quarter and their stock just goes right off the cliff. And a little quick, I’m not going to try to paint you into a corner and get you in trouble, but you’ve actually served on the board of a bank. You’ve actually had to be a part of the board that has turned down people. You’ve actually been a part of that team who’s rejected people for small business loans. What’s wrong with you? It breaks my heart. I’m not a good banker because I want to say yes to everybody. I’m like, yes, of course I believe in you. Of course that’s a great vision. Of course you’re going to do it. Let’s just say yes. Give him the money. Give him the money. Give him the money. So the thing is that you, you know, that’s one situation. Someone’s listening, someone who’s listening right now, you have an existing business. You’ve been told no by everybody in the world and you need to raise money. Another person is listening right now and you want to sell your company, your business is doing great and you want to sell that thing. But by the way, you don’t want to put a for sale sign on your menus at your restaurant going we’re going to sell the company. Because if people know that you’re going to be for sale, it might be hard to book holiday caterings. Right? People think you’re not going to be in business anymore. Exactly, exactly. And you know what’s so frustrating as a business guy? You think, hey, I would like to own a business in X category. But they just don’t put a for sale sign out in front of it. So you’ve got to be very proactive, and that’s probably something we’ll get on the show today about being proactive about finding a business to buy, because a lot of people, if they have an existing business, they’re not just going to put a for sale sign. It’s a Remax or whatever out the Caldwell Bank or a for sale business. They don’t do that because the value then really plummets off the heel because then people have to lose faith in them. They think, well, they’re shutting down, and it’s a bad deal. And also if you’re listening right now and you want to go out there, you know, you want to buy a business. You’re going, my business is doing great and I want to acquire my competition. A lot of times you don’t want to tell your competition that you want to buy them because then that drives the price up and that kind of thing. Yeah, you got to be sneaky, make sneakers. Now you, years ago you sold your auction, did you not? I sold an auction, yes. That was an auto auction, yes. Okay, and did you end up using a broker in that process? Or did you do it yourself? Did you have a banker involved? Who helped you sell that thing? They approached me. So their team approached me and I just did the negotiating on my side. Really? Okay. When something is not for sale and someone approaches you, you get a premium for it. So that’s the best case scenario. If you’re selling, if you’re buying, not so much. Have you ever tried to raise money through a bank and a bank has ever told you no. Have you ever tried to get funding to start a business and you’ve ever been told no by a bank? Oh, I’ve got a great story. You want me to unleash it now? Go ahead and unleash it because Jared’s going to be walking us through the nitty gritty here and I want to make sure everybody understands, this is a thing. People need what Jared does. This is a common thing. So sweat this. You ready for this? I’m ready. True story. This is my true story. So I’m getting you out of Bob Thomas School in 1990, out of Northeastern State University. That’s a hot university. Hot university. Go River Hawks. They were the Redmen back then, but now they’re the River Hawks, okay? Yeah, it’s more politically correct. Oh, yeah, yeah. And a great school, and just as Steve Turner’s the president of it, they do a great job. So well done, NSU, Northeastern State University. So I’m getting out of NSU College of Optometry, and I found a man who wanted to sell his optometry business. And I’m like, oh, this is just the ultimate. You know, be in business by myself. Was this in the 80s? It was the 90s. I said I got out of school in 1990. You got out of school in 1990. So this wasn’t like 89. This is 90. This is 90. Well, I mean, I graduated May of 90, and so I think most of the negotiations actually happen in 90 if you’re going to get taken to Columbia. This is a radio show, but this is how I picture you. This is the soundtrack of that time. Oh you wanted to go to the 80s song. Oh here we go. Oh yeah. Just go to the 90s. It’s kind of a transition. Hey you don’t want to buy your business. Come on. You want to buy your business? Let’s do a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a-ha. After we buy the business, let’s go horse skating. So I approach him, we negotiate the deal, right? And it wasn’t, you know, in today’s standards in my mind, it’s not that much money. But back then it was, you know, it was an arm and a leg. It was like $250,000. What? Oh, Billy! Which is like a quarter of a million. A million dollars! A quarter of 50,000 big ones! And so he said, okay, here’s the deal, here’s the price. And I said, oh, that’s awesome. So I put on my finest suit I have. The finest suit. The finest suit, because you know why? Why? I wasn’t selling. I mean, I wasn’t buying, I was selling. So I mean, I slicked up and I mean, I got as groomed as I could get. You looked good. Well, good with. You walk in there looking almost spiritual. I walked into the bank and I had my briefcase in my right hand. Look at that guy. And I nod to all the tellers and all the bank people. Do you want to suck our sucker sucker? It’s my appointment at 2 p.m. and I’m there at 153 to make sure that they know I mean business. Wow, Smith, that guy’s early. He must be a big deal. He’s he obviously wants something. All right. So I go in to sit out and tell him my plan. I tell him the deal and and bank after bank after bank. I mean, I went through every bank in Tulsa, every bank. Really? And they said the big in, oh, you have no collateral. We you’re you’re new. You don’t know what you’re doing. You’re young. You’ve never done this. We you know, we don’t believe in you, get out of here, security, I mean they hit that security, underneath the table security button, I knew that was my, I knew that’s the time to leave, the red light, the light would flash, time to get out. I finally found a bank. Finally found a bank. And they said here’s what we’ll do. Here’s what we’ll do. We like you, for whatever reason, there’s something about you we like. We love your body, you’re such a beautiful man. Your tie choice is really, really good. Is that a holiday tie? Wow! Did you get that from Dillard’s? Who brought the wassail? Okay, so, they said, listen, here’s what we’ll do. We’re going to do the loan. How’s this? I mean, I about passed out, but there’s caveats. We’re going to release half the money up front, and the other half, the gentleman selling the business, will have to keep it in a CD at our bank where we can hammer on it for six months and then you prove you can do this thing and six months we’ll release the money. I thought, oh my gosh, that’s a great deal. Where do I sign? Let’s do it. Let’s do this thing. So then I went back to the gentleman I was buying the business from, who by the way, I agreed to work at a nominal fee until I purchased the practice so that I can learn the business, learn the patient, and get my feet kind of underneath me. This sounds like a virtual no-brainer. Yes. So I go to him and I am so excited. I’ve got my briefcase in my hand. I come running in, got my suit, and I’m like, oh, yeah. And I say to him, hey, I got the deal. I got the deal. You got the deal? You got the deal? And I told him the deal and I told him what it would require, and he looked at me and he goes, hmm. I know, that’s not, I don’t know. I know it’s crazy. You know if Bernie Sanders were here He would totally just so you go to the government and ask the government for help You never want to get another job. You never want to work more than 36 hours a week Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders no no no that’s the other that’s the other that’s the other station. We’re not on behalf of the Rush Limbaugh show I’m sorry for Politics or home and gardens or when you pinch your you me plant your tulips. We’re not talking about sorry for the Bernie outbreak So anyway, I was just shocked. I was like, oh my gosh. So I realized pretty soon that I don’t know that he was that serious. I thought that was a pretty good deal. I mean, you’re really for a guy coming out of college. So I worked for people for a year. Saved my money, worked seven days a week because I could. Because you could. Because I could. Because you could. Saved up my little money, delayed my gratification, saved my money, got my little war chest. And then about a year and a half later, roughly, I opened up Dr. Robert H. Zellner & Associates. I’ve heard about that. PC. By the mall. Well, my first place was at 31st and Harvard. Yeah, which is kind of by the mall. Which is by a mall. Somebody fact check this. Anyway, the thing is, if you’re listening right now and you’ve ever wanted to raise money, buy a business or sell a business, you definitely want to come back. Because the guy we have on the show is sort of like your broda. There’s Yoda, but he’s too beautiful to be Yoda. He’s kind of like your broda. This guy is, he knows how to raise money, buy businesses, and sell businesses. When we come back, he has a four-step process that he’s going to walk us through very detailed. You and I are going to be interrogating him nonstop, and I’m just telling you the four steps you don’t want to miss out on. Hey, you mentioned earlier that he’s helped fund a raise over $100 million. Did he? $100 million? Jared, did you bring any of that with you tonight? Only today. Only on my debit card. Oh, wow. That’s very generous. We don’t carry cash. I saw a big bag that he was carrying, and I thought, I lost part of that $100 million. He probably brought the $100 million with him. Probably did, just to show us on Facebook Live that he has it. Now, Thrivers, when we come back, if you’ve ever wanted to raise money, raise capital, sell a business, you want to stay tuned, Thrive Time Show. Bada-bing, bada-boom, we are in your room. My name is Clay Clark. I’m the co-host with the most of the Thrive Time Show. You are listening to the audio dojo of Mojo, where we provide you more information per show than any other business show on the planet. In fact, Dr. Robert Zellner, we are Tulsa’s number one local business radio show. This just in. Sir, how are you? This just in. We’re broadcasting from the left coast of the Arkansas River, which is a very exciting place to be. Beautiful place to be. It’s like beachfront property, actually. The sand, the volleyball games out there currently on the day. Yeah, I mean, I tell you what, on a day like this, with the weather this cold, people are out there, they’re still out there playing volleyball. We can’t see them physically, but we’ve heard rumors of them being out there. We’ve heard rumors of them, that’s for sure. And I’ll tell you what, you’re right. We are rated the number one local business talk show in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Number one right now in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Woo! Big round of applause for that. But you know what? What’s happened? I think we’re the only local business. See, you always bring the room down. We’re just starting to feel good. I’m sorry, I hate to use truth. You’re telling me about the numbers. I’m feeling good. I know, facts. Wow, okay. I hate, I hate, I tell you what, the rest of the show, I will try to, well, no, I don’t got to, we owe it to our, we owe it to our thrivers. We owe it to the thrivers. We have to bring them facts. We have to bring them action steps that they can do, and we have to help coach them up because you know what? We’re going to wipe out this 80% failure rate in entrepreneurship. According to Forbes, 80% of businesses fail, and that’s going to stop right now because we have a super guest on the show, Mr. Jared Powelka. He’s going to teach us how to find capital or how to sell your business. Now, Jared, let’s get into you have this four step process. Step number one, you said is stick to your role. What does that mean, my friend? Yeah, we love to use acronyms show whether you’re raising capital or selling your business show. Think about show the first in that is S. Stick to your role. Stick to your role. What does that mean? So, you know, it’s simpler than business owners make it and management teams make it. You’ve got to stick to your knitting. If you’re on a baseball team, you’ve got to play your position. So it’s a little bit counterintuitive for a lot of guys trying to raise capital and sell their business. You’ve got to run the business. If you’re Ray Charles, you’ve got to sing this song. We get that song, is that going to go? Is Ray not going to play right now? Z, is that Ray? Oh, the Ray Charles button is dead. I can’t believe that. I’ll tell you what, I’m not going to stand for this. Let me just, Thrivers, you’ll bear with me. I have the perfect Ray Charles song. There it is. There it is. I got you as always. You always save the day. I got you, Clay. If you’re Ray Charles, you’ve got to sing that song. So if you’re a business owner listening right now, though, this is what I see, Jared. You tell me if you see this a lot. I see business owners who, they’re really good at coaching basketball. They’re maybe very good at selling commercial real estate. They’re very good at baking cakes. They’re very good at cutting hair, whatever. And they get all distracted. They spend all of their time trying to raise money, and then their core business falls apart. Is that what you’re talking about? It’s all too common. So you find people that are great at what they do, and that’s the problem. They get away from what it is they’re good at. And Mark Cuban. Now Mark Cuban, some of you are going, who’s Mark Cuban? He’s a guy who, oh by the way, before he became a billionaire, he did become a millionaire. And you go, that’s obvious. No, no, he had one business that did very well, and then he had another business that did very well, and he sold that business and he became a billionaire, okay? But this is, he also owns the Dallas Mavericks, but he says this, know your core competencies and focus on being great at them. So Thrivers, this is an action item right now. What are you great at? What are you not great at? Z, you’ve seen this all the time. You see people who are clearly not good at one aspect of the business. We’ll call it maybe sales or marketing, and they continue. Maybe they’re a great dentist, but their marketing is terrible. But you see them continue to just go, I made all my print pieces myself. My wife and I, we did our own website. We made our own print pieces. In fact, I shot that video on my cell phone. What’s wrong with that? I’m doing it myself. And then you realize, whoa, bro-town, you, you, I mean, see, where do people get that wrong from your perspective? Well, they get it wrong because they don’t know what they don’t know and they’re not honest with themselves. That’s one of the most difficult things because what happens is that if you find success in certain areas of life, you just assume everything that you’re doing is successful. And that’s why sometimes, just like at Thrive15.com, if you email us and send us a link to your website we’ll do a 37 point analysis of your website. You may go, I built my website myself and it’s really awesome. Well, is it? We can help those experts out there that can look at what you’re doing, seriously, and they can say, hey, okay, a little constructive criticism? Oh, we don’t take this wrong. One thing about Schmitzky’s optometry is I built my website with my bare hands. I did it myself. I pulled it all out. I like the Oswald’s bagels. Oswald’s bagels. Yes. I’m Oswald. I made the bagels and I built my website. Yes, and I make all the bagels and it’s just me and Every day, it’s all right So Jared smarty pants did Jared when people call you and by the way, we’re gonna find information about you What’s the name of your website my friend? You got to get to mid america GC.com that’s mid america GC calm You’re listening to the thrash on show on talk radio 11 So Z you said you don’t know what you don’t know. How many times do you help a business, Jared, where you sit down with them and you help them discover a blind spot where you’re going just through the process of discovering and getting to learn more about their business, where you discover you guys have a horrible website or you guys are really awful at this area they thought they were awesome at? I’d say plan on it every single time. Embrace that. That’s fine. That’s what we come to expect. So you come in there and offer an honest, candid, third-party perspective. Absolutely. And the best thing is, I’m leaving soon. So we’re going to be candid. We’re going to be brutally honest with each other. We’ll do some work, and then I’m out of there. Do you charge people for this, or do you just kind of hang out for free? Are you part of the government? I mean, is this a thing that you… What does it cost to have somebody come in and explore the innards of their business and to see if it’s ready to be sold or to be purchased or to raise capital. And what does it cost to get going? You know, nominal fee. It’s easily $500 just to get going. $500 to get going. Yep. And you’ll help them kind of get a transparent light onto the business and to figure out what they’re doing well and what they’re doing wrong. Absolutely. We’re there to shed light and move quick. We don’t want to spend any more time than you do. Now back to Mark Cuban. He says, know your core competencies and focus on being great at them. Pay up. Here we go. Pay up. Pay up. Pay up for people in your core competencies. Get the best outside the core competencies. Hire people that fit your culture that aren’t as expensive to pay. Okay, so Z, why would you recommend, for any business owners listening right now, why would you recommend they hire somebody like a Jared or somebody who knows how to raise capital to do it for you rather than diverting your attention to becoming an expert in everything? Why would you recommend? I mean, Z, you don’t do all your own legal work. I mean, you hire an attorney. Why would you recommend paying for an expert? Well, I love what he said, stick to your role. You keep doing what you do, and that is, if you’re a dentist, you’re cleaning teeth, you’re fixing cavities, you’re doing the orthodontics, or whatever it is that you’re doing, you stick to what you’re doing, and let a professional come in and help you with that. That’s one of the main reasons why businesses fail, which we’re going to change on this show, we know already. 80% is unacceptable, but a lot of them fail because they’re under-capitalized. They don’t have enough capital, and so they get a cash flow slowdown, or they get a problem, or they get a little bump, or all of a sudden they get a new insurance plan that doesn’t pay them out for so many days. It’s a problem. And then all of a sudden they’re like, oh my gosh. Panic. Panic sets in. It’s panic mode. Panic mode. Now, Thrivers, if you’re listening right now, there’s an action step I want you to take right now. I want you to get out a sheet of paper, and I want you to rate your business on a scale of one to 10 on these four areas. Sales, sales, accounting, accounting, customer service, customer service, and capital. Go ahead and rate yourself on a scale of one to 10 on those four areas. When we come back, we’re gonna teach you how to raise that capital that you need. All right, Thrive Nation, welcome back to your inspiration station. Welcome back to the audio dojo of mojo and welcome back to the show that’s all about you This show is all about you helping you start a successful business helping you grow a successful business and today Specifically we are teaching you how to find capital or how to sell your business see why would dr. Zellner why would anybody ever want to find capital or sell a business, okay? And then to sell a business because you’ve grown it to the point now. You’re like okay. I’m gonna sell it I’m gonna pull some profit off, and then I’m gonna go the next stage of my life, which could be retirement Oh, well could be a beachfront condo in Port Aransas, Texas I’m going to live with my mother on her couch doing couch surfing now that I’ve sold my food truck for $17 to my friend Troy yes of course the Troy’s you’re going to take it and blow it up But the thing about it is is that you know, it’s options And so anytime you’re building something anytime you’re growing your business You’ve always got to be thinking about that. I had somebody the day come up to me and said hey Do you want to sell this business? No, I was like, well, I’m not really but you know, and then and then a month later Hey, do you want to sell that business? And then I’m just kind of crazy like three months later the third person want to sell that business. You know what? I better get my head wrapped around a price on it because everything in life is for sale. Wait a minute. You just said… You can’t handle the truth. You just said something powerful. You’re saying every business has a price? Everything has a price? I mean, eventually somebody could buy any of your businesses? Yes, of course. What? They bring a sack full of cash and everything has a price tag on it for sure. I thought you were a man of principle. Well, that is probably everything. I mean, there’s very few things in my life that aren’t for sale. And businesses are for sale. Businesses, you know, buildings are for sale. I mean, everything’s for sale. I get so emotional knowing that you can sell a Thrive Time show. Oh, no. I don’t know. We were going to be here forever, man. We’re not this show. OK. Now, Thrive is listening to us. Seriously, we have a special guest today, Mr. Jared Powelka. Jared, for anybody who’s listening who has no idea who you are, could you kind of explain to America what is it that you do and how do you help business owners? Well, we primarily work with manufacturing, distribution, and service companies to raise capital to sell their businesses or to buy another business. Sometimes you’re buying part of a business, sometimes you’re selling some of a business, all of a business. We’re helping people at the intersection of growth and change. Do you have a website? Where can people find out more information? Absolutely. Go to midamericagc.com. Alright, midamericagc.com. I like that, by the way. We’re at the intersection of growth and change. That’s powerful. Are you running for office? That’s powerful. He’s got a blue suit on. We’re in an off-season. I’d vote for him. I’d vote for him. I tell you what, if you’re on Facebook right now, this is what you’re going to see. Holy cow! I mean, just beauty. I don’t believe it. Like a pageant, a man pageant here. Okay, now we’re moving on here. You’re on those buttons tonight. It’s impressive. It’s impressive, yeah. I mean, are you going to try to set a record on button knowledge? No, but I have 14 more. Okay, so principle number one is stick to your role. You’re saying, what does that mean, Jared? So you’ve got to play your position. If you’re running the business, stick to the business. Stick to running it. You want someone else who’s going to come in there, understand the business for the purpose of helping you raise capital or sell the business. Their job is to understand what you do and then communicate that to the market. And why should I let an investment banker interview my team and interrogate me? Why is that not a complete waste of my time? Because you’ll sleep at night. What? Yeah, you will lay in bed and if indeed they have gained your confidence, you’ll be able to sleep at night, run the business. Statistically that year where you’re selling the business, statistically performance falls off. That’s why we really have to prevent against managers getting out of their lane. You’re saying that when you get to a point where you’re ready to sell the business, statistically across the board, performance will fall off. The business will struggle when the owner is trying to sell it? Just plan on it. It’s something we need to fight against. But absolutely, yeah, it’s known in the industry that performance tends to fall off in that year. I’m going to ask you some rude questions. Are you ready? You bet. And none of them are about our, we don’t want to talk about religion. We don’t really get into politics on the show too much, so those are off, but I’m going to ask you some rough ones here. I’m listening right now, and I’m like, listen, buddy, I built my landscaping business into a $4 million business. Why do I need you to help me sell my business? I’m going to sell my own business. I don’t need you. My core competency is awesome. That’s what I do. I’m just awesome. I’m just me being me. I’m kind of a big deal. Mow that yard. I build my mow town mowing and plumbing. I do it all. I build a plumbing company. I build the mowing company. I do them all. I answer the phone. I do all the accounting. I do all the sales. I do the marketing. They’re big businesses. I work 80 hours a week, baby. I don’t need you. I work 80 hours. Let me repeat. I wake up at 3 a.m. and I work until 9 p.m. Every single night, I don’t need you. I have built the business completely predicated on me and my effort. I’m the man. I’m at the top of Mount Awesome. Why do I need you? Well, first of all, let me tell you, I want to work with you because I like those kind of guys. Our team wants to work with guys that are business owners who have built things with their own two hands. So you work with us because we’re going to amplify your message, plain and simple. We will communicate the value that your business presents to the market. That’s why you work with us. Okay. Now, specifically, if somebody does hire you, okay, they reach out to you, walk me through a story, kind of a story, an example of kind of what that would look like. Sure. So, it’s very clear. People come to us, they say, I’m ready to sell the business. We’ve got to slow them down. We say, slow down so you can speed up. So you slow down to really build the, to uncover what we call value drivers in the business. Uncover what makes your business great. That’s a great exercise. That’s what I think a lot of business owners do though, don’t they? Don’t they say that? I’m awesome. I mean that’s what makes me, you know, that’s what makes me my business. How often would you sit down with someone, does this happen? I would say 99% of the time. And it gets, and you realize the business is completely dependent upon the owner. It often is that way. But you know, most of the time we sit down and there’s some work to do. You’re listening to the Thrash Time Show on Talk Radio 1170. I have a story I’d like to share at this point. I have a story. This is a Z. Are you ready for the story? Are you emotionally ready for this? I think I’m emotionally ready. I don’t know. I mean, you’re… Okay, here we go. Back in the day, I was working with a small business owner that reached out to me for coaching. And the business owner, whoa, I’m getting emotional, getting all emotional. That happens, that happens. Okay, here we go. So the business owner says to me, I want coaching. I don’t think I knew enough to realize they were capped at about $2 million a year of sales. So I said, okay, cool, here’s how it works though. You need to come to our offices, that’s ri15.com, world headquarters. Back in the day it was the Make Your Life Epic office. They came to the office. Okay. And I said, I’m going to sit down with you for an hour and I’m going to run through a 13-point analysis of the proven business system that you and I have, the 13-point system. Yes, yes. I’m going to go through this with you and then we’re going to determine your biggest limiting factors and the things that you need to improve upon to scale the company, where you’re stuck. And the guy goes, well, I’ll tell you what, I work, you know, I mean, I’m from 3 a.m., 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. I never know, man. I’m just, I mean, I’m on. And he’s got a multi-million dollar business He’s like I answer the phone man. I do customer service. I mean every day is different man I can’t I can’t block out time for it And I’m going you can’t block out an hour once a week not even one hour To meet to potentially double man. I’ll tell you what man. I do everything myself man. I fix everything I do maintain everything I do it all myself and he and that and I saw that I’m going you don’t have a business Baby, you have a job. Yes a job. I didn’t say baby. It didn’t get weird. I didn’t say you don’t have a job. You don’t have a business. You’re the box that rocks. This is a safe spot. When I did say baby, this is what he said. What? You’re saying it weird. Saying what weird? All of it. You are like the butt man tonight. You can’t stand it. No, but seriously, when I said, you didn’t build a business. You built a job. I’m serious. It was like a thing where the light bulb went off for him. It was like a thing where the light bulb went off for him. It was like a thing where the light bulb went off for him. I said, you didn’t build a business, you built a job. I’m serious. It was like a thing where the light bulb went off for him and he’s going, that’s so true. And he goes, how many hours a week do you work in your business? And I said, oh, like an hour. He couldn’t believe that. He goes, are you kidding me? You work an hour a week at the DJ company. Yeah, I don’t DJ. I don’t sell anything. I just built the systems and I hold people accountable. Now the systems, it took me hundreds of hours to build those things. But now I… And Z, I mean, how many patients a week do you typically see now at the optometry clinic? Myself? Yeah. All right, Thrive Nation, welcome back to the Thrive Time show. And I’m telling you what, today has me pumped, it has me excited. We’re teaching you how to raise capital and how to sell a business, how to buy a business. We’re getting into that brass tacks, some of that detailed stuff where once you’ve built a business to a certain point, trying to buy another business, it’s something you do. Trying to sell a business is something you do. Trying to get capital is something you’re trying to do. And on the show today, we have Jared Puelka. He’s done it. He’s literally helped, did you say raise a hundred million dollars? We’ve helped put together over a hundred million, yes. What does that mean when you say put together a hundred million? What does that mean? So from the lending standpoint, from the investing standpoint, both from banks and private investors, private equity, we’ve seen it from a lot of different angles. Help businesses capitalize over a hundred million. That is nuts. And Dr. Robert Zellner, I tell you what, a guy who knows something, he’s probably seen a hundred million patients at his optometry clinic. Not to exaggerate, I mean, he’s probably seen like 200 million. We don’t exaggerate on the Thrive Time show. We never exaggerate. But he’s probably seen 400 million patients this morning. I mean, he’s a big deal. He’s a boom. Dr. Robert Zellner. Dr. Robert Zellner. Boom. I tell you what, it’s Wednesday. It’s Thrive Time day. And you’re at lunch right now Oh, you’re thinking about I’m doing lunch right now I’m so hungry, and I want to suggest something to you if you’re sitting there in your car You got the radio on you’re sitting there thinking to yourself. I’m hungry, and I want I need some food any sustenance I’m I’ve got to have something to eat over lunch. Billy, where should we go? I’m going to make a suggestion. And it is a fabulously wonderful suggestion. And if you go there and you do these moves, you will email me and say thank you, Dr. Z. It’s going to be huge. And I’m just going to preemptively give you a you’re welcome right now. Go to Oklahoma Joe’s. True that. They’ve got one in Broken Arrow. They’re by the Bass Pro Shop. Yeah, I practically live there now. They’ve got 161st and Sheridan. And if you’re downtown, it’s still open Monday through Friday at the Canes, next to the Canes Ballroom there from like 11 to 2 I believe. You can go in and listen. Here’s my personal move. And you could try something else, but this is my personal move. But you’d be wrong probably. Well, maybe. I mean, you can’t be wrong at Oklahoma Chess. You get the burnt ends and the baked beans, and I’m telling you what, it’s a game changer, Clay. This is how it makes me feel every time I go in there. I feel like it’s a German-American festival inside of Oklahoma Jones. I knew that bug was going to get pushed in there. Now Thrivers, here’s the deal. Before we get into how to raise some capital, before we get back into that and how to sell your business and buy a business, one thing we need to talk about is it’s holiday business time, Z. Oh, it is. Yes, yes, yes. And I have a confession to make. And Vanessa, if you’re listening, that’s my wife. If you’re listening to the show right now, I do not want Aubrey to hear this. So turn it down. Do not let him hear this. My wife listens a lot while she’s driving around, okay? Here’s the deal, Z. My son, you know my son, he wants to start a landscaping business. And he’s not old enough to do it. And we work with Royal Landscaping. They’re a great client. We love working with them, helping them with their marketing. And so Royal Landscaping, if you’re listening to right now, I’m not going to compete with you, I promise. But my son, he’s decided he wants to start a company. He can’t wait for the idea. He’s calling it Motown. Motown. That’s his deal. Motown. That’s his idea. So he says to me, he says, listen, I want to buy a 48-inch Husqvarna riding lawnmower. He’s nine. And you’ve seen him. Like, you’ve seen him. This guy’s raking everyone’s… I know, I know. He’s got a great move. I mean, he’s going to be the next big deal. He goes to the next door neighbor and he asks, can I rake your lawn for free? He rakes all the leaves for free. She pays him $17. He’s like, oh my gosh. So he’s saving up all his money. He does all the cleaning here in the office. He’s just kind of our janitor up here at the office. We homeschool our kids. Oh yeah. That guy takes his money he saved up and he went into Atwoods and he bought a leaf blower with his own cash. Way to go. He’s nine years old. The guy’s like, are you kidding me? You know, he just whips out the cash before he buys it cash. So he wants this 48 inch husk of art. I believe in you. I just bought it for him. Oh, cool. Awesome. Yeah. So here’s the deal is that so Christmas Eve, I’m wrapping a box. I’m putting a lump of coal in the box. I’m not carrying it that far. The little guy is so mad because he’s like, I’m not even going to get it. I’ve been saving up and I’m like, it’s not going to happen. Santa’s not coming this year. I guarantee he’s not coming because you’re at the event. You can’t even carry a Husk-a-varna. What? A Husk-a-varna? Is that what you said? Husk-a-varna. And he knows. My son knows the model number. So I’m telling you what. Christmas Eve, Sam the Man, one of our executive producer here, he is going to be unveiling this. So Christmas Eve, he’s going to open up a box with the coal in it. He’s going to start to cry. Little man tears. And I’m going to go, I guess that’s all Santa wanted you to have. And then, coming out of nowhere, Sam the man is going to be pulling up with a ribbon on it and it’s going to be the most epic nine-year-old Christmas ever. Oh my gosh, you’ve got to film that. Dude, I want to do it. I want to film it. Put the ribbon on my mower. Thrivers, I’m telling you, if you want to see this video, we’re going to be putting it up on Facebook when it happens. Get emotionally ready. Now speaking of getting emotionally ready, if you’re going to be out there and selling a business or buying a business, you’ve got to focus on running the core business. You cannot get distracted. You’re listening to the Thrashtime Show on Talk Radio 1170. So, Jared Powell, give me an action item right here. Walk me through. What’s your principle, your show principle? What’s principle number one and what do I need to do? So, principle number one is stick to your knitting. Stay in your role. The action item is you gotta you gotta email me How can I email you if I want to email you? I mean do I have to do that’s to get on my computer Do I call you what’s your website? I’m gonna get hold of him. You can get you can reach us at midamericagc.com Mid America G’s, what was it again? They’re midamericagc.com and if I and if I do that my schedule a consultation Are you gonna have to pay before I even know if you’re real? No. Is it like a free consultation kind of a thing? Is it high pressure? You go, boom, my name’s Jared Pawelka, I’m here to help you raise capital. I’m going to make you a deal you can’t refuse. I swear, a thousand dollars, you get out of here alive. You give me a lot of money and I’ll tell you some stuff. In fact, this is what I want you to do. I want you to send me an email. Don’t go to the website first. Send me this email. This is no obligation. Here we go. Here’s the email. JP. JP. At midamericagc.com. One more time. One more time. I was doodling, I was trying to figure out, where do I put these remaining baked beans? These are like gold. Yeah, pull over and write this down. JP at MidAmericaGC.com. If I send that email, what’s the next thing that happens? Gotta have this subject line. Why I don’t have a CEO. Or CFO. Why I don’t have a CFO. Okay. Okay? You’re going to get two things. What am I going to get? I’m going to reply with my son’s favorite clever joke. Okay, nice. It’s really why you’re gonna email me. Oh, wow. But additionally, I’m gonna send you a link to practical resources to help you understand an opportunity you may be missing. Okay, so this is something you’re gonna do. You’re gonna help people out here. You bet. Okay, now, Jerry, we’re moving on to principle number two. Principle number two, which is hone your business. And do you pronounce that as hone, or are you saying hone, or is it, see, how would you say that? Honey hone, well the H maybe side may just be or name or I could be a silent H I don’t know. How do you hone your business? What are you talking about? However, the Japanese pronounce it because you’re honing it like a sharp samurai We get samurai sword, but that’s some swag we need to get in our box of rocks I don’t feel like with my temperament I would be allowed to have samurai swords. I’d have it on my side of the room. Don’t get me wrong. I want you to be able to reach it and touch it. He shouldn’t be near the samurai sword. So what do you mean when you say hone your business? So there are basic principles that get overlooked. You’ve got to work on a business that’s valuable. Hone that business. Hone that business. Yeah. So when you want to sell something, you’re trying to create something that’s valuable first. That’s the first step that a lot of times people miss. You’ve got to create something that’s valuable. Hone that business, systems, things that make the business run without you because eventually if you’re going to sell it and the whole business is dependent on you or your management team, what happens when you go? I want to break down those two things you said. One, hone your business. I want to give you an example of how I honed the, there’s a word I’m thinking of and I can’t say it on the radio, but I honed the boop out of my business. I honed the boop. I wouldn’t boop. And I went boop out of my business. DJ Connection. I’m sitting down with brides, booking their weddings. It was a company called DJConnection.com. Entertainment for weddings. Taking your event from ordinary to extraordinary. DJConnection.com. 4,000 events per year. Check it out. I’m sitting down. I’m talking to the bride. I said, now, is there anything else you need for the wedding? And the bride says, yeah, do you have a recommendation for a party rental company? And I go, yeah. I did it about, I don’t know, 4,000 times. Eventually it occurs to me, why am I recommending somebody else for the dance floor every time? It’s a dance floor rental. Can I afford to buy dance floors? Yes. Do we have the men? Can we train someone how to set it up? Yes. And that’s impossible. Why am I not doing this? I’ve never done it before. I’m not a party rental company. I’m a DJ. So by honing the systems, over time I trained my guys a system called HRI, Help, Recommend, Inform. I repeat, Help, Recommend, Inform. So after you take the deposit, after you book the wedding, the guys would say, Dr. Zellner, is there something else I can help you with? And you go, no, I’m fine. Do you need any recommendations? Yes, I am. I’m needing a recommendation for party rentals, for a florist. Well, here’s the deal. I know of a great party rental company. It’s our sister company. It’s called Party Perfect. What else do you need? I need a photographer. I know a great photographer. Our sister company, Epic Photos, and we went from like, check it out, a multi-million dollar company to a mega multi-million dollar company just by honing the systems. I like to refer to that as vertical integration. Vertical integration. It’s a business that is right there on your plate and you can shove it to the side like you might do your least favorite vegetable. You just shove all that stuff off to the side of your plate. It’s already there. It’s like a fish jumping in a boat. You’re like, ah, you know, and throw it back in the water. Or you’re like, hey, buddy over here on the bank, you want this fish? Because I don’t want it. Yeah, and now Thrivers, listen up here. You’re going to be learning more about vertical integration when we come back. All right, Thrive Nation, welcome back to the Thrive Time show where we are broadcasting from the left coast of the Arkansas River in beautiful Jinx America inside the thrive15.com world headquarters and within the box that rocks My name is Clay Clark. I’m a former SBA entrepreneur of the year I have five human kids and I am your pale male sent here to entertain you to educate you and to harass Dr. Robert Zellner, who may be one of Tulsa’s top business minds. And my job is to mine the information out of his mind. I mine the mind. To extract it every day from 12 to 2 here on Talk Radio 1170. We’re glad you tuned in. And what you’re going to get from this show, you’re going to get practical business steps. Because Forbes, which is kind of a big deal, Forbes says that 57% of you out there listening, I think it could be a little higher, actually, I’m just gonna say, because Tulsa is the number one city for entrepreneurship, so if you’re listening inside Tulsa, it’s in the water you’re drinking, it’s in the air you’re breathing, it’s in the river that’s flowing down the left side of Tulsa County, and that is entrepreneurship. So 57% of you out there wanna start a business, you say, how do I do that? Well, you do it with either mistakes or mentors. And Clay and I, through all the mistakes we’ve made and all the mentoring we’ve done and all the mentoring that’s been done to us, we’re going to share that for two hours a day while you’re having your lunch. At Oklahoma Joes. It could be at Oklahoma Joes and it probably is at Oklahoma Joes. You’re probably, if you’re not at Oklahoma Joes right now for lunch, you’re probably on your way to Oklahoma Joes. Mentally you’ve already started. Or you thought to yourself, I knew I should have Oklahoma Joes instead of this egg salad sandwich. Put the egg salad sandwich back, put it in the fridge, have it a month or two. Go to Oklahoma Joes right now. But seriously, we have a very special guest on the show. We have a very special guest. And I’ll tell you what, a lot of times we call guests and we go, hey, we’d like you to be a guest. And I hope it’s like proposing over and over, Z. It is. That fear. It’s like ask him to the prom time and time again. Yeah, and the thing is, it gets weird when you propose and then someone says no. The relationship is never the same. It’s never the same. Sarah, Sarah, I thought we could, they’re like, she says, we could still be friends. And that’s code for we’re never speaking again under any circumstance. We’re never speaking again. Yes, befriended on Facebook. You run into her at Sprouts, or she won’t make eye contact. She defriends you on Facebook. It’s a bad deal, see. It’s a very bad deal, but what we love to do here on the Thrive Time Show is get local successful business dudes and dudettes and have them come in, share their story, share their expertise because that’s what we do. I’m not an expert in capital raising. Are you an expert, Clayton? No, I’ll tell you this. I got down on bended knee like boys to men back in the day. I got down on one knee and I didn’t give him a ring because that would be super weird. Did you have a drone filming from above? Actually, I did give him a ring. I called him and I said, could you be on the show? Oh, a ring like that. I got down on one knee and I gave him a ring and he goes, okay, I’ll do it. And I’m like, oh, I won the Super Bowl. It’s Jared Powelka. I don’t know that I cried. It was more of my eyes secreting weakness But could be an allergies. Yeah, I don’t know what time of the year you so Jared Paulka You’re here telling us today how to raise capital how to how to sell a business how to buy a business in the first step Can you review what step number one is? What was the S of the show the show acronym here? Absolutely So it is stick to your position What does that mean stick to your role if you’re the CEO be the CEO if you’re the sales guy, be the sales guy. If you’re the CFO, which is a position we love, be the CFO. But if you need help raising capital, you let guys like you do that for you, and you focus on running the core business is what you’re saying. Absolutely. What I’m saying is there’s a lot of stuff that’s involved that you don’t want to do, and you don’t know that, but we do. We’re going to do that for you. Now, step two is hone your business. And you said you have to build systems that can work without you, repeatable systems, and you talked about honing the business, building repeatable systems. Dr. Zellner, talk to me about this because you see, your optometry clinic will see thousands of patients on a given week, in a given week, but you personally don’t look at the human eyeball and recommend frames and analyze retinas. You don’t do it anymore. Well, you have a round face, you need to go with a round frame, and the coloring on your face would suggest particularly a brown color. I don’t know how to tell you this, Mr. Smith, but I’m going to drop a knowledge bomb. You have what I would call an ovular face. An ovular face? It’s a face that’s like an oval, but I use the word ovule. It’s more syllables. It’s more syllables, and I can charge more for the frame then. That’s the way it works in this industry. No, the thing about honing is, is I like to think of it as kind of fine tuning. Is extracting profit out of it. Because here’s the bottom line, a business is worth what a business can make, ultimately. Come on now, repeat that one more time. A business is worth what a business can make, so by honing it, by fine tuning it, by cutting some fat out, by getting your systems a little tighter, and I love, Clay, before this last break, you talked about, you brought up a term, I did it, vertical integration. In other words, find out the easy, the low-hanging fruit that’s just walking in your business, just begging you to take it. I mean, here you are with all these brides, you’re selling them DJs, and then you’re giving away all this other business. Hey, we need to rent a dance floor. Oh yeah, I got a guy that owns a guy about that kind of thing. And you’re like, oh. You know why I didn’t start selling photography earlier? I have no idea. Because you were intimidated? No, I honestly felt like it would be maybe unethical to upsell somebody something else. Oh, you know what’s so fun about that? You have totally, totally gotten over that. Yeah, I love that. Well, here’s the deal is, I didn’t feel like it was an ethical move. And so I’d rise and say, who do you recommend? I remember this story. I recommended a specific photographer and she called me. This is a true story. She calls me and she goes, DJ Connection, this is Clay. The wedding is starting. As a DJ, you entertain for the reception. I am not DJing the ceremony. We played music for it, but for your daughter’s wedding. We actually played the music for the ceremony at the Golf Club of Oklahoma. I remember. But I’m not like on the mic going, oh, ladies and gentlemen, the bride is walking down the aisle. So I get a call. She goes, I’m not going to be able to be at the wedding. I go, what Miss Photographer? She goes, I totally forgot and I’m out of town. I go, what? She goes, I have a tennis tournament. I go, no. She goes, yeah, could you just tell them that I had an emergency? I’m like, no. You’re listening to the Thrash Time Show on Talk Radio 117. The mother of the bride comes to me and goes, did you know where our photographer is? Do you know where she is? Do you know where she is? I swear she was supposed to be here like three hours ago. I’m not making any money on it. And I’m like, I just talked to her. That’s what I said. Some of you listening right now are like, you’re a jerk. That’s what I said. I just talked to her and I know she is not here. Why don’t you call her? That’s what I said because I didn’t want to say, you know Yeah, I didn’t want to throw under the bus, but I didn’t want to be dishonest either So anyway, the photographer choose me out for telling the mother the bride that she was reachable If we’re not covering for her insane story I got yelled at and I didn’t make any money and I’m going this happened in the world of wedding photography This would happen about one out of every 50 weddings. The photographer wouldn’t show up. That’s crazy. I’m like, what am I doing? It’s criminal. Yeah, it is. And that’s why you find the light went off. Yeah. And you said, you know what? It is ethical and it is okay. And you know what? You’re on the line anyway, so you might as well, if you’re going to be responsible for it, you might as well, one, make sure it gets done. Two, make some, I’m going to use the P word, profit, off of it. Come on, come on, Billy. Good thing, that’s what he says. Come on, Billy. Billy, come on! And then that way you know that the deal gets done. Now John Wooden says this, Jared, John Wooden is arguably, I mean if you just look at the number of championships, who looks at the result to judge whether someone’s the best or not? I don’t know. But John Wooden, he won the most championships in the history of NCAA basketball. And he says this, he was a UCLA coach, he says, it’s the details that are vital. Little things make big things happen. I want to go on a little bit of a rant, Jared, and I want you to help me here. I see business owners all the time, and I say to them, I say, so you’re telling me your business is stuck at $400,000 a year. Correct. You’re calling me for help. Correct. So you want me to teach you how I did it. Correct. You want me to teach you how I do it. Correct. You want me to teach you how Dr. Zellner has done it. Correct. So you want me to teach you the proven system. Correct. You see the fruit of his business, Dr. Zellner’s businesses. You see the fruit of my businesses. You see his auction. You see our haircut business. You see my photography company. You see his optometry. You see the fruit of the businesses. You want us to teach you the system. Yes. And they, okay. So here’s what you need to do. And they go, well, I don’t want to do that. I wanted more motivation I thought this was gonna be motivational and they’re so you think business coaching is motivational. It’s not motivational It’s like I hope that you’re sufficiently motivated I mean Fixing the permalinks on your website and optimizing your website content to get to the top of Google is not an exciting thing You’re not like all this is so excited. That’s what I signed up for but that but it’s what makes you money Launching online ads aren’t it? It’s not sexy. It’s not exciting, but it’s what works in Z I see this all the time people don’t want to focus on the details They want to focus on the motivation so Jared help me out if I’m listening right now with my wife and my wife’s going That’s him that’s him. He’s in the car with me. It’s so awkward It’s also motivational, but he never writes anything down He has no systems And you know before we go beat up the husband who has no systems or the wife who has no systems. How common is it for you Jared when you sit down with a business owner to discover, uh-oh, you have no written systems? I plan on it. I plan on it. Really? The written systems it’s pretty key and we talk about it it sounds easy but practically doing it hardly anybody does. So making a workflow that’s a written down process that’s a script. Does anybody, I mean, at what percentage of the time will you meet with a business owner and do they not have any scripts for how they answer the inbound phone calls? I’m not sure I’ve met someone with a script this year. Oh my gosh! At what percentage of the time do they not have a checklist for opening and closing their business? Hmm. Can’t think of the last time I met someone who did. What percentage of the time do they have a pro forma? Uh, that’s, that’s good. We’ve got 75% of the time. What percentage of the time do they not have all their legal paperwork done correctly? Mmm, most of the time. What percentage of the time are… this is normal! This is normal! There is a bright light at the end of the tunnel here, right? Yeah, well walk us through. What’s the action item? What can you do to help us, my friend? So, easily, checklists. We’ve got checklists that can get you started. Don’t make it… Don’t let another day go by where you don’t have a checklist. We can send you one. Email me. Send us a… call us. How can I get a hold of you? You can email me at jp at midamericagc.com. Sorry, I was eating my baked beans from Oklahoma Joe’s. I, uh, sorry, I was… I’m there, sir. I’m there, sir. I’m there, sir. Can you repeat that one more time? You bet. jp at midamericagc.com. If you don’t email, you can call us. Do you want that number? Do you have a phone? Yeah. Weird. 844-643-2642. Now, Jared, I don’t use websites, I don’t get into the Facebooks, I’m not going to go on the Facebook, I’m not going to go on the Google, I like to use the phone, but my wife, you know, she’s all trendy, you know, she wants to use the Internet to find things. What website could you find, could she find, I’m not going to go on it, but what website could she go to? Theoretically, if you were going to go to a website, the best website would be… And I’m not. MidAmericaGC.com. Okay, now, Dr. Z, I’m going to read you a notable quotable, and please unpack it for me, my friend. Here we go. I’m getting ready to unpack. This comes from Eric Reese. This is the guy who’s one of the leading consultants for Kleiner Perkins, who, oh, by the way, funded Uber. Oh, by the way, funded Square. Oh, by the way, funded Google. He says this, I have learned from both my own successes and failures that those of many others, and it’s not the boring stuff that matters. Let me repeat that. I have learned from both my own successes and failures and those of many others that it’s the boring stuff that matters most. It’s the boring stuff that matters most. Z, unpack it. Well, I mean, there’s a lot of things in the category of boring in running a business. And just like Jared’s saying, the role that their company loves to play is the CFO. Oh man. You know, the CFO role. And that is, I mean, for me, that’s all the boring stuff in there. All the chief financial officer, all the accounting, all the accounts receivable, all the… But it has to get done. Paying the bills. I’m like, oh, do we have to pay bills? Did you know we make it exciting, though? Well, you see, that’s what I’m saying. You take something that to me is extremely boring, but yet is the core of a business It’s very important to business to the backbone of the business I’m like, it’s so boring and that’s why guys like Jared are so awesome because they come in they do it They enjoy it and they’re like See a foe here we go A lot of parties. Yeah. Okay. Well not thrivers We come back Jared’s gonna walk us to a story about how he helped a business hone their system. All right, Thrive Nation, welcome back to the Thrive Time Show. Green country and Oklahomies, welcome back to the Thrive Time Show. This is your audio dojo of Mojo Faux Show. My name is Clay Clark. I’m the former SBA Entrepreneur of the Year. It’s my job to join you every day around noon, specifically at 12 to 2. And I can tell you what, Dr. Zellner I can tell you I would not be anywhere else in the world right now if I anywhere else at all except for this is my this is my favorite place to be is helping the people of Tulsa learn how to start and grow a successful business I mean you know this is a passion for you and me we love we love doing it. We love it. I tell you what and here in the box that rocks with the great view of our of our nerve center of Thrive 15 behind us. So if you’re on Facebook Live, you can actually see it. And we’re waving to you right now. There it is. Hey, thanks for joining. But you’re the last two days. I mean, today’s Wednesday. But on Monday and Tuesday, I finally got to explain our website. Yes. If you go to thrivetimeshow.com, on the left-hand side of the website is Clay. And he’s kind of half robotic, which he really is. I mean, he’s like a robot with human flesh. We’re not sure what planet he came from. He’s just like, like a business. He’s a business nator. Why are you guys eating lunch? Why are you having fun? I will help you build your business. I will help you build your business. And on the right hand side is me and I have a pig in front of me and my friends are going, dude, what’s up with the pig? Yeah, what’s the deal? Is that a weird midlife crisis sort of thing? Most guys ride a motorcycle. You got a Harley, you got a pig. Play a hog, you bought a pig. And so on Monday and Tuesday, if you miss the shows, we talked about the book I’m writing, it’s called Business Pig, and all the chapters deal with stories about pigs, oh, they have pigs in them. So that explains it. I don’t want to pump you up, but many people have complimented the show and have told me they can’t wait to get a copy of your book when it comes out. So you’re sort of building up some hype here and I’m tired of it. I’m going to be on the Amazon pre-order number one list here pretty soon. But the thing about it is if you didn’t catch the shows, you know what? You’re like, oh, I missed it. Oh, I had a lunch thing. I had a Christmas party over lunch. I had a thing. I was at Oklahoma shows, having unlimited ribs that I had to pay for, but they were unlimited. Unlimited. Here’s the thing. Go to ThriveTimeshow.com. That’s all together. ThriveTimeshow.com, and we have all the past shows on there. And I tell you, if you want, you could just go crazy. You could just sit there and listen to show, after show, after show. Until your brain explodes. Now Thrivers, we’re talking today about how to raise capital, how to sell your business, how to buy a business. We brought in a guru, a guy, Mr. Jared Powell. Jared, for people of the great city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, who do not know who you are. Can you explain what it is that you do? What is your profession, my friend? Investment banking and CFO services. So, we’re at the intersection of growth and change in any sort of business. Businesses inevitably hit a point where they’re going to sell, they want to grow by acquiring another business, they need to capitalize, that’s where we help. Now, Jared, I’m asking you this. If I’m listening right now and I go, so you mean if I don’t have a CFO I can hire you? Absolutely. You do this? Yes. So you help, you can help many businesses at the same time be a kind of a interim CFO if you were. You could be an interim CFO. Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of businesses like that. The idea that they can kind of turn us on, turn us off as needed. I can’t afford to pay a guy $7,000 a month now. I can’t afford to do it. What does it cost? How can I dip my toe in the water? How much does it cost? Easily, we can get started with something as simple as $500. No way. Oh yeah. You know, you’re up Z, this guy, this guy. I tell you what, I’m going to make you a deal you can’t refuse. $500 is pretty easy. That’s the deal you can’t refuse. What was the deal? I pull up inside of the business and I’m going to put you back in. What we always focus on is the benefits though, not the cost. Oh, wow. Oh, OK. All right. We’re doing the mental Jedi stuff. Now, you just wait, wait, wait, wait. You will let them pass. You will not let them pass. I will let them pass. OK. I do. Now, Z, here is a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. OK. Let her rip. Let her rip. Martin Luther King Jr., by the way, he’s famous for helping lead the civil rights movement. But many people don’t understand how he did it. Many people don’t take the time to study how he did it. You’re listening to The Thrash Time Show on Talk Radio 1170. So if you have not watched the movie Selma, I encourage you to watch it, or read books about the guy. But here’s the deal. A lot of people don’t know this. This is a true story. Why is it that the media, Dr. Z, why did the media show up when the African-American people who were trying to create equality in the civil rights movement, why did the media happen to just be there when they were being shot with fire hoses? What was the deal? Did the media know? I mean, how did they know? How did they know? I’ll tell you what. You know that Martin Luther King Jr. actually tapped his own phones. He let people tap his own phones, and he intentionally pretended… He tipped them off! He tipped them off on purpose. He pretended like he wasn’t trying to tip them off. And so he organized a march across the bridge that they weren’t supposed to know about, and the media wasn’t supposed to know about it, and then they showed up, and then all of a sudden the sympathizers from the North realized the atrocities of the South, and BAM! Civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. was a methodical, plotting, detailed dude. He was a genius. Guerrilla marketing is what he did. He says this, rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There’s almost a universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think. I would argue, Jared, that is what you do. You think, you get in there, you get into the details, you’re a step beyond the motivation. You are helping people prepare their business to raise capital or to sell the business or to buy another business. Walk me through kind of a story of how you have done this, my friend. Well, it’s more than pointing out the steps, but it’s more than that. It’s walking people through them. So we first clarify what the needs are, talk to a business about what drives the value inside of it. And recently, you share a story, we recently signed a client that’s in the engineering and construction business. So they came to us wanting to raise capital. So people think they know what they’re after, but that’s part of how we step in. We clarify, really uncover what the needs are. They’re trying to raise money. Yep. They thought they were. In the end, they started with something totally different. So how do you do that? I mean, you sit down with them and you go through their financial goals. How long does this take? Are you going to throw them into a room without windows and put the one single light like an interrogation room? How long does this take? Absolutely not. No, we want to see results as fast or faster than they do. We might spend two weeks intensively really getting to know them, how their business works. Primarily understand we’re focused on the financial performance on marketing on basic stuff, but with a view in terms of how do you? Demonstrate the value in this business see why is it so painful for the kind of people who let me because if you’re not Entrepreneur you’re sort of a certain make and model if you’re crazy enough to start your own business and grow it You’re a certain make and model Why is it so hard is a general rule for that? personality type to get them to sit down and to look at the numbers and to really analyze where things are going and do what basically Jared does. Why is it so hard? Well, most entrepreneurs are big picture people. I mean, they’ve got the big dream, they’ve got the big goals, and they’re busy creating this over here. And so a lot of the analysis part over here, the nuts and bolts, you know, they look at the forest and not the trees. Most entrepreneurs are that way. And then they hire the lumberjacks to go in and kind of look at the trees independently. Kind of like Sam here that’s filming us. They hire the lumberjacks to get in there and analyze each and every tree. Well, this one you should cut down. This one you shouldn’t. And if we cut that way, it’s going to be harder to cut that way. I don’t know if it’s possible. Can you film? Is it possible to film Sam right now so people can see? A lot of people are wanting to know, who is this guy? Who is this lumberjack? Look how beautiful he is. Sam, I don’t know. I know you’re not mic’d right now, but how much can you? Shoulder press over your shoulders it over 300 pounds Over 310. It’s like a redwood tree over 350. You get an official redwood 375 You can push over 300 pounds over your shoulders. That’s unbelievable. Sam Sam Parker beautiful, man We come back Jared’s gonna walk us through step number three how to raise capital how to raise capital for your business Shimmy shimmy off, shimmy yam, shimmy yay. I’m on the microphone and my name is Clay. How you doing? My name’s Clay Clark. I’m the former SBA Entrepreneur of the Year. I’m known to rhyme all the time. And I am joined here with the man who has built a, he went, he had this idea and he says, I think I want to start an optometry clinic. And then he goes, I think what I’m gonna do, it’s going pretty well. I think I’m gonna start another business. And then I think that that’s going well, I’ll do another one. Oh, by the way, they’re all in different industries. I’m gonna do another one and another and people go and another and another and all of a sudden This guy’s got I don’t know five six seven things He’s involved in then people start reaching out to him going could you kind of teach me how to do it? And he says enough it’s time to build an online school. So we have an online school now with me. Oh, wow. I’m gonna help you see. Oh 2020 2020 for 25 years 25 years. It was really cool. I had my 20th anniversary on the actual physical date of 11 11 11 Now really pretty cool. Yeah, 11 11 11 was my 20 year anniversary. So we made these t-shirts. We had a big blowout we had all these radio stations doing the things. Live remotes? Live remotes and all that good stuff. All day long. We had free food catering. I mean, a couple of restaurants brought in food. I mean, it was a big deal. We did eye exams for $20, doing glasses for $20, and we had some t-shirts printed up that said, 20-20 for 20 years. But now we’re at 25, so. Yeah. 20-25 is not as good a vision, so I can’t use that. But you’re right it’s you know I tell you what it’s it’s a success is wonderful and what success does is it allows people to to look at you and say I want you to mentor me and and as a guy that loves to do that and I know you do too Clay yeah and so you start mentoring young people younger people maybe older people doesn’t really matter but younger people in business and you started help coaching them, cheer them on, give them the systems, give them the steps. And then pretty soon a little thing happens called you’ll run out of time in the day. And you’re like, I can’t, I can’t, hey, can we do lunch? I’m booked. I’ve got my family. I’ve got my kids. I mean, I can’t physically do it anymore. We’ve tried to see our kids. We’ve tried to stay in touch with our kids. We want to know our kids’ names. I like my kids. While helping other people who we don’t know who are starting to grow businesses. Right, exactly. So when you came to me a couple of years ago with this concept of scaling business coaching, it was beautiful, it was wonderful. I said to myself, that dog will hunt. And you saw it. You saw the vision. You saw the need. And the thing is, I’ll tell you this, Thrivers, you’re listening right now and you want to start a business. I call this the thing called scratch your own niche. So when you see a need over and over again because you need it, guess what? A lot of other people need it. And that’s really what our business coaching program is all about at thrive15.com, where we literally will build your website, we’ll teach you how to build your website, we’ll build your sales system, we’ll teach you how to build your sales system, we’ll help you fix your accounting, we teach you your accounting, we teach you all the business systems. And it’s literally the same Marine elite special forces team that helps Dr. Z and I is helping you offer less money than you would spend per month if you were going to hire a barista. A barista? Yeah, no offense to all the baristas out there, but seriously, if you’re going to hire a full-time $10 an hour employee to come help you, we put on a laser show at Thrive15.com. We’ll help you. Our business coaching program is legendary. It’s epic. It’s game-changing. But we have a special guest on the show today, Mr. Jared Puelka. He is teaching us today how to raise capital. He’s teaching us how to buy a business, how to sell a business. He’s teaching us his magic four-part system called SHO. S to the H to the O to the W. And we’re moving on to the O, which is offer it as their opportunity. Offer what as whose opportunity? Your business. Offer your business as an opportunity. Who? Absolutely. So if you’re raising capital, you are offering it as the investor or the lenders opportunity. That might sound revolutionary but it’s actually not too far off what you do for many other things. So people who have more money than time are going, hey wait a minute I’m trying to find a way to get my money to make money for me and it potentially investing in a deal could help them make more money without using more of their time. Absolutely, so if you’ve enjoyed your business what’s to say somebody else wouldn’t enjoy it as much or more? You’ve got to present it as an opportunity. Here’s an example. Years ago, my brother-in-law, Justin Moore, if you’re listening right now, he pulls me aside and he says, hey, I’ve got this idea. He says, I’ve got this idea. And I said, for what? He goes, a men’s grooming lounge. Men’s grooming lounge. Like total grooming. Yeah, and honestly, this is what I thought. I’m like, stupid idea. That’s what I thought. I really thought that and I love Love the guy. I love the guy. I love stupid idea stupid idea So he was at the time he was living with us at our house Okay, and you know, so I’m going that’s stupid and I said here’s the deal I don’t know. I just don’t think so. Anyway one day he he shark tanks me as you that’s the phrase you use shark tanking Yeah, I love the show because it explains what happens in my life a lot So I’m sitting in my living room and I’m glad you I like I’m home. I turn my phone off. You can’t reach me I’m at home. I’m with my wife I’m always trying to like hit on my wife trick my wife buy her gifts try her try to trick her to stay married married To me because she’s a wonderful lady. So I’m there and I’m just tried it he goes I’m gonna go ahead and give you the the experience and I go what experience next thing, you know I’m getting a hot towel treatment. I’m getting a straight razor shave Z. This is at my house. Okay, I’m going that’s cuz I’m going this is kind of bro-mantic little bro, but a little why me it’s kind of weird I mean when your brother-in-law is is giving you sort of a I mean it feels a little bit like Are you beat me to the button? He’s going? I want to give you the experience if you know what I mean, I’m gonna do it first off Yeah, I am definitely a heterosexual man. I’m definitely married to your sister. Why are you coming in here and give me a hot towel treatment? He’s like hey, no, it’s usually it’s the experience. And pretty soon I find myself going, I kind of like it. But I didn’t say it out loud. I like man’s grooming. Yeah. And so all of a sudden I’m like, okay, okay, I like it. In my mind I’m going, this is great. Out loud I’m saying, stop touching me. But inside I’m going, this is kind of great. But outside, well, you know. So anyway, that’s what’s happening. And so there’s kind of an inner struggle going on. Well, eventually I said, here’s the deal. Every dollar that you invest, I’ll match it. That’s fair. I like that because it’s a skin in the game. Skin in the game. You want to make sure the entrepreneur that you’re investing in is putting some money. Long story short, he comes and works with some of our businesses. Elephant in the Room, before we moved that business, he worked for Epic Photography. He learned photography. He was doing photography. We’ve built this thing. Now Elephant in the Room is now a three location men’s grooming lounge on the verge of franchising. We’re focusing right now on opening one in Oklahoma City and opening another one in Jenks here. So it’s getting exciting. We’re on the verge of actually going to be opening two here in the next year. We’re actually expanding our downtown location. And it’s a dollar for all the listeners. It’s a dollar for your first haircut. It’s exciting. But I’ll just tell you is that this concept of that he presenting me with the idea was actually an opportunity for me was one that I looked at it very much as an opportunity. I realized I could make some money as a result of getting my money to work for me. Profit! Profit! And Jared, where do a lot of people get that wrong? Well, they look at it as if they’re trying to… they make it harder. First of all, they make it a lot harder than it needs to be. See money flows to good projects, period. That’s… Oh, repeat that please. Money flows to good product… products… projects. Yeah. Money flows to good projects. Yeah. So, you know, raising capital, if, when you really get right down to it, if you have built a great business, you’ve honed it as we’ve talked about, you’re playing your position, money flows to it a whole lot easier. You work on the business, the capital flows to you. It’s sort of like a magnetism thing. Now, Napoleon Hill, the best-selling author, who, by the way, the number one top-selling, the best-selling self-help author of all time. By the way, any of the Oral Roberts University fans out there, he is actually, was the personal mentor of Oral Roberts. He was the personal mentor? I thought Jesus was his mentor. Yeah, Jesus and Napoleon Hill. Napoleon Hill taught him the business systems. And he says this, he says, there is plenty of capital available, just a shortage of good ideas. Z! That’s so true. There’s lots of money out there, a lot of venture capitalists, a lot of people that want to make more than 2 or 3 or 4 percent, putting it just in a CD or in a bank. And so there’s money out there, and you’ve got to learn how to shark tank that money into your pocket, into your business pocket. Shark tank that money into your pocket. Stay tuned. Drive time. All right, Oklahoma’s in T-Town. It’s about time to get down to the profound. We’re teaching you how to start and grow a successful business. And I’m telling you what, building a successful business is always an exciting thing for us to talk about because the Oprah, Dr. Robert Zellner, Oprah refers to money as a magnifier. Oprah has said this. She says, when you put wealth in the hands of somebody, you’re going to put money in the hands of somebody else. And she’s right. She’s right. She’s right. She’s right. money as a magnifier. Oprah has said this. She says, when you put wealth in the hands of somebody, it allows them to be the fullest version of themselves. They could basically, if you’re charitable, you can be very charitable. If you’re a bad guy, by the way, you can be a very bad guy. Money allows you to magnify whatever your visions and your dreams are. Z, why does money change things in a positive way for so many people? Well, because they’re positive people. I think a lot of people out there, especially our entrepreneurial spirit, they have a purpose, they have a goal, they have a dream that they want to do. It’s not nefarious. It’s not, I’m going to make all this money and then I’m going to… They’re out there going, hey, I want to affect something. I want to change the dynamic of my family. I want to change the dynamic of my… I want to leave an inheritance to my grandchildren. I mean, I want to… I’m tired of just punching the clock, and I know that just an hourly rate is not going to get me where I want to go. Because you know what? They may want a beach home down in Florida. They may want… According to Forbes, 57% of Americans want to start or grow a successful business. And according to Forbes, Tulsa is the number one city on the planet for young entrepreneurs. Google it. Don’t believe me. Google it. Verify it. Drivers, listen. Google it. Google that. Google that thing. Google that mess. And we have a guy, a guru, a guy on the show here. And I’m telling you, Jared Powelka, he knows where he’s teaching you specifically how to raise capital, how to sell your business, how to buy a business. That’s what he does for a living. And Zee, off air, you had a couple questions for the, you wanted to ask Jared kind of some rapid fire questions. So I give you the floor, my friend. Yeah, well, the thing about it is it’s our last, the last part of the show. You know, we’re only on two hours. There were several things I wanted to get to. And so a couple of those things that Jared, I know you go in and you help evaluate businesses for people that want to sell their business. So give me some rules of thumb on what a business is worth. I mean, you know, okay, so I’m listening out there, I’m just wrapping up lunch, I’m driving back to my business, and I’m sitting there thinking to myself, I wonder what my business is worth. Give us some rules of thumb for us out there. Sure, so, you know, quickly, this is a way to self-evaluate even before you’re ready to have a transaction. You may be thinking, I’m not ready to sell, but let’s talk about it. Let’s talk about what that would look like. So, people evaluate a business, three quick ways you can evaluate a business. You can look at it from the asset standpoint. What are the assets worth? So that’s some buyers. And assets are the hard, tangible things. You have a building, you have a lawnscaping business, so you own mowers, you have weed eaters, you have the actual tangible items you have. I mean, you have a picture of Donald Trump, but I put my face on it, so it looks as though my face is on Donald Trump’s body. Technically, it’s an asset. I don’t know how much it’s worth, but it’s an asset. I’ve seen a picture. Yes, yes. I’ve seen a picture that looks like Donald Trump. Okay, that’s the first one. So just assets. So if you’re just doing an asset sale, what’s my stuff worth, right? Okay. So that’s one. Another is you think of what that business earns, either in revenue or in a bottom line. We call that EBITDA. EBITDA is an acronym that ultimately measures the effectiveness of management. I don’t want to put you on the spot, but EBITDA, I don’t know what that means. What is the bottom line? What does that mean? So it’s earnings right before depreciation, taxes, and amortization. One more time, because I was eating my Oklahoma Joe’s baked beans, I had a lot of things going on, I was not paying attention. One more time. So it’s a bottom line metric. A few costs have been taken out. It measures essentially the effectiveness of management, and it stands for earnings before taxes, depreciation, and amortization. So you’ve got that number with the businesses earning. So then you multiply by a multiplier if you’re using your second rule of thumb. And so what’s the range of that? What is that? So to 10, three to five, three, what’s the range of that? You can imagine it varies, but a good starting point is two up to maybe six times EBITDA or earnings, let’s just say earnings. Okay, so that could be a, that’s a second. So out there listening, you know, before you take out your rent and before you take out some of your depreciation, so you have a, you have what we call a gross profit number and then you take that times a multiplier and that’s one way to evaluate a business. Okay, let’s go to number three. It can be as simple as a customer list. Maybe you don’t care so much about that business as it’s, as it stands right now, but somebody’s customer list. We have products that I think we could do better serving your clients. Sometimes people want to strip away most everything that you think is valuable. I want to interject something on behalf of Mount having sold a business a lot. I’ll tell you this, a business, I typically tell people, if you take the total profit the business makes times two and a half plus the assets, the machines, the tools, the whatever, that’s pretty easy. That’s kind of like a baseline low. But if you’ve got a business where you’re dominating the marketplace, people will pay a lot for your customer list. See, people will do that. You’re listening to the Thrash Time Show on Talk Radio 1170. Absolutely, because like you said, a lot of times I go, they want to put you in because they want to vertical integrate your business and your customer list to the products they have. They may have a superior product, or they may have a sister product. It’s kind of like clay back when you were doing your DJ stuff. And someone maybe had the party planning, they had the photography, they had maybe a wedding venue, they maybe have all this other stuff, but they wanted your customer list because they knew that they could sell them multiple things. And so they’re going to buy your business, not because your DJs are the best, not because you’ve got the best JBL speakers. My speakers are sweet. Oh good, and then the little boards that you change all the things. The mixers. Get that right. Unbelievable. No respect for the DJ game. All the DJs are offended. They know that you’ve done over 4,000 events through the year and they know that you have systems and they know that you have a certain way of going about it. It’s that customer list that the way that you guys have is what they’re, it is how they value that. You know what I bet your listeners really want to know is where can they have an impact on that valuation? Yeah. Yeah. And that’s part of the show is the honing, the cutting the fat out, making it more efficient, making it, make more money, increasing your assets by getting more capital, growing your business. All these things are part of making your business worth more money because eventually, eventually that business is going to get sold. It’s just the way that it is. You’re negative. You’re negative. No, no, no, I’m telling you. No, no, I mean like me, I mean, okay, let’s say I pass. I mean, one of these days, apparently I may die. I mean, I don’t know I mean, that’s kind of the rumor on the street. You’re my favorite. You’re my favorite living man Okay. Well, okay. That’s my plan is not to is not to but okay say I do with that plan Then my kids or my grandchildren someone eventually is going to not want to maybe be an optometrist. Maybe doesn’t want that building They’re gonna sell so this applies to every business and knowing the value of your business and then working on increasing the value of it is what this show is all about. But you know of those two things, this is what I think you’re driving toward, of those two things, what the, let’s just say, profitability and your multiplier, do you know what, what do you think in your experience, which can you have more impact on? One of them’s static and one of them you can have a big impact on. Oh, the profit, I mean, I think that the, you know, the multiplier, I mean, not the multiplier, but the profit. I would argue the multiplier. Oh, the multiplier. Well, you make it sexier, you make it more unique, you make it… You’re right. I mean, some of those dot-com things, when they were popping, they were getting 15, 15, 20 times their gross revenue. It’s perception, right? It is. It is about perception. Which is why I now wear pants in the office. The perception wasn’t good, right? I didn’t wear pants at all. Now, Z, I want to get into the final move. You want to weigh your options, Thrivers. Now, because we don’t have a ton of time, I want to make sure you get this. Jared, if people are going, okay, I want to weigh my options, I want to find out more, how can I get involved with you? What is your website, my friend? MidAmericaGC.com. That’s MidAmericaGC.com. So if I am looking to raise capital, sell my business, or buy a business, I reach out to you, and what happens? Well, we’re going to understand what your business is right now, talk about what it could be, and then communicate that value to the market. So we’re going to take it. It’ll be a process. Now, if you’re listening right now and you’re going zippity doo doo zippity day, I just want to start a business today. Z, how can they do it? We got three options here. One of them is thrive15.com. What’s that all about? Well, it’s I call it the Netflix of business coaching. What does that mean? You know, Netflix, you pay a monthly fee and you know, you can watch it as much as you watch that thing 24-7. If you want, you can search by category. Do you guys have any Kevin Spacey stuff on there about him being the president or something? I think so. I think so. So here’s the deal. So what we’ve done is we’ve gone out and found, I mean, the best of the best. I mean, these guys and ladies are just great mentors. They’re millionaires. They’re success stories. I hate to interrupt you, but I’ve got to say this. Our guy, David Robinson, one of our partners, he was the MVP of the NBA. He won two gold medals. But you go, yeah, but that was a basketball player. Now he went on to start Academy Sports right here in Tulsa. That’s his company. Center Plate, the top catering company for arenas, that’s his company. A $300 million venture capital fund. That’s him. David Robinson. By the way, he’s on our site teaching leadership and management. Yeah, and we have Lee Cockrell. He used to manage a little thing called Disney World. Never heard of Disney World. Yeah, of course not. 40,000 employees down there and all the systems and the way that they were able to. You know what? People, we hate this, you can’t have quality and quantity and they just prove that you can. You can. Every experience is great, you know. And so we have these great mentors on there. We filmed, we made it fun, we made it educational. And you can get on there and you can watch from mentors or you can watch from categories and you can learn for $19 a month how to start and grow a business. Is Disney World in Catoosa by the Blue Whale? I think that’s what… Okay, now the second option is you can go ahead and sign up for one-on-one business coaching. One-on-one business coaching, you mean I can have a guru who can teach me what to do? Oh, you can. You can. Step-by-step. Yep. We’re going to teach you what you need to do to start or grow a business. That’s a one-on-one mentorship. We have that available. Or I want to come to a workshop. I love workshops. I like to work with a group of people. I like to come out for a two-day. I want to work on my business, not just in it. Two-day workshops. Learn more about it at thrive15.com. Z, it’s the world’s best business school, the world’s best business coaching experience, and as always, three, two, one, boom! JT, do you know what time it is? 410. It’s T-Bo time in Tulsa, Russia, baby! Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 27th and 28th. We’ve been doing business conferences here since 2005. I’ve been hosting business conferences since 2005. What year were you born? 1995. Dude, I’ve been hosting business conferences since you were 10 years old, but I’ve never had the two-time Heisman Award winning Tim Tebow come present and a lot of people you know if I followed Tim Tebow’s football career on the field and off the field and off the field the guy’s been just as successful as he has been on the field. Now the big question is JT how does he do it? Mmm well they’re gonna have to come and find out cuz I don’t know. Well I’m just saying Tim Tebow’s gonna teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s going to walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is going to be a blasty blast in Tulsa, Russia. Also, this is the first Thrive Time Show event that we’ve had where we’re going to have a man who has built a $100 million net worth. Wow. Who will be presenting. Now, we’ve had a couple of presenters that have had a billion dollar net worth in some real estate sort of things. But this is the first time we’ve had a guy who’s built a service business and he’s built over a hundred million dollar net worth in the service business. It’s the yacht driving, multi-state living guru of franchising. Peter Taunton will be in the house. This is the founder of Snap Fitness, the guy behind Nine Round Boxing. He’s going to be here in Tulsa, Russel, Oklahoma, June 27th and 28th. JT, why should everybody want to hear what Peter Taunton has to say? Oh, because he’s incredible. He’s just a fountain of knowledge. He is awesome. He has inspired me listening to him talk, and not only that, he also has, he practices what he teaches, so he’s a real teacher. He’s not a fake teacher like business school teachers. So you’ve got to come learn from him. Also, let me tell you this, folks. I don’t want to get this wrong, because if I get it wrong, someone’s going to say, you screwed that up, buddy. So Michael Levine, this is Michael Levine. He’s going to be coming. He’s going to say, who’s Michael Levine? I don’t get this wrong. This is the PR consultant of choice for Michael Jackson, for Prince, for Nike, for Charlton Heston, for Nancy Kerrigan. 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times Bestselling Authors he’s represented, including pretty much everybody you know who’s been a super celebrity. This is Michael Levine, a good friend of mine. He’s going to come and talk to you about personal branding and the mindset needed to be super successful. The lineup will continue to grow. We have hit Christian reporting artist Colton Dixon in the house. Now people say, Colton Dixon’s in the house? Yes! Colton Dixon’s in the house. So if you like top 40 Christian music, Colton Dixon’s going to be in the house performing. The lineup will continue to grow each and every day. We’re going to add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup, but I encourage everybody out there today, get those tickets today. Go to thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s thrivetimeshow.com. And some people might be saying, well, how do I do it? What do I do? How does it work? You just go to thrivetimeshow.com. Let’s go there now. We’re feeling the flow. We’re going to thrivetimeshow.com. Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, you just go to thrivetimeshow.com. You click on the Business Conferences button, and you click on the request tickets button right there. The way I do our conferences is we tell people it’s $250 to get a ticket or whatever price that you can afford. And the reason why I do that is I grew up without money. JT, you’re in the process of building a super successful company. Did you start out with a million dollars in the bank account? No, I did not. Nope, did not get any loans, nothing like that. Did not get an inheritance from parents or anything like that, I had to work for it. I’m super grateful I came to a business conference. That’s actually how I met you, met Peter Taunton, I met all these people. So if you’re out there today and you want to come to our workshop, again, you just got to go to thrivetimeshow.com. You might say, well, when’s it going to be? June 27th and 28th. You might say, well, who’s speaking? We already covered that. You might say, where’s it going to be? It’s going to be in Tulsa, Russia, Oklahoma. I suppose it’s Tulsa, Russia. I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa Ruslim, sort of like the Jerusalem of America. But if you type in Thrivetime Show and Jinx, you can get a sneak peek or a look at our office facility. This is what it looks like. This is where you’re headed. It’s going to be a blasty blast. You can look inside, see the facility. We’re going to have hundreds of entrepreneurs here. It is going to be packed. Now, for this particular event, folks, the seating is always limited because my facility isn’t a limitless convention center. You’re coming to my actual home office. And so it’s going to be packed. So when? June 27th and 28th. Who? You! You’re going to come! Who? You! I’m talking to you. You can get your tickets right now at ThriveTimeShow.com and again, you can name your price. We tell people it’s $250 or whatever price you can afford. And we do have some select VIP tickets which gives you an access to meet some of the speakers and those sorts of things. And those tickets are $500. It’s a two-day interactive business workshop, over 20 hours of business training. We’re going to give you a copy of my newest book, The Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. You’re going to leave with a workbook. You’re going to leave with everything you need to know to start and grow a super successful company. It’s practical. It’s actionable. And it’s TiVo time right here in Tulsa, Russia. Get those tickets today at Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s Thrivetimeshow.com. Hello, I’m Michael Levine and I’m talking to you right now from the center of Hollywood, California, where I have represented over the last 35 years, 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestsellers. I’ve represented a lot of major stars and I’ve worked with a lot of major companies and I think I’ve learned a few things about what makes them work and what makes them not work. Now, why would a man living in Hollywood, California in the beautiful sunny weather of LA come to Tulsa? Because last year I did it and it was damn exciting. has put together an exceptional presentation. Really life-changing and I’m looking forward to seeing you then. I’m Michael Levine, I’ll see you in Tulsa. James, did I tell you my good friend John Lee Dumas is also joining us at the in-person two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop. That Tim Tebow and that Michael Levine will be at the… have I told you this? You have not told me that. He’s coming all the way from Puerto Rico. This is John Lee Dumas, the host of the chart-topping EOFire.com podcast. He’s absolutely a living legend. This guy started a podcast after wrapping up his service in the United States military, and he started recording this podcast daily in his home to the point where he started interviewing big-time folks like Gary Vaynerchuk, like Tony Robbins, and he just kept interviewing bigger and bigger names putting up shows day after day And now he is the legendary host of the EO fire podcast and he’s traveling all the way from Pluto Rico to Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend the in-person June 27th and 28th primetime show two-day interactive business workshop if you’re out there today folks you’ve ever wanted to grow a podcast a broadcast you want to get him you want to improve your marketing. If you’ve ever wanted to improve your marketing, your branding, if you’ve ever wanted to increase your sales, you want to come to the two-day interactive June 27th and 28th Thrive Time Show Business Workshop featuring Tim Tebow, Michael Levine, John Lee Dumas, and countless big-time, super successful entrepreneurs. It’s going to be life-changing. Get your tickets right now at thrivetimeshow.com. James, what website is that? ThriveTimeshow.com James one more time for the more enthusiastic ThriveTimeshow.com see these people I ride with this moment Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshops are the world’s highest rated and most reviewed business workshops because we teach you what you need to know to grow. You can learn the proven 13 point business 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 Edith Pick 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. And 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’ll even give you your money back if you don’t loan. We’ve built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see you. And now you may be thinking, what does it actually cost to attend an in-person two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop? Well, good news, the tickets are $250 or whatever price that you can afford. What? Yes, they’re $250 or whatever price you can afford. I grew up without money and I know what it’s like to live without money, so if you’re out there today and you want to attend our in-person two-day interactive business workshop. All you gotta do is go to thrivetimeshow.com to request those tickets. And if you can’t afford $250, we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. I learned at the Academy in Kingspoint, New York, octa non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Whoa! Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvard Keosoktah, The Rich Dad Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re close, but they’re completely different worlds. And I have a special guest today. Definition of intelligence is if you agree with me, you’re intelligent. And so this gentleman is very intelligent. I’ve done this show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts. Mr. Clay Clark is a friend of a good friend, Eric Trump, but we’re also talking about money, bricks, and how screwed up the world can get in a few and a half hours. So Clay Clark is a very intelligent man, and there’s so many ways we could take this thing. But I thought, since you and Eric are close, Trump, what were you saying about what Trump can’t, what Donald, who is my age, and I can say or cannot say. What was the- Well, first of all, I have to honor you, sir. I want to show you what I did to one of your books here. There’s a guy named Jeremy Thorn, who was my boss at the time. I was 19 years old, working at Faith Highway. I had a job at Applebee’s, Target, and DirecTV. And he said, have you read this book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad? And I said, no. And my father, may he rest in peace, he didn’t know these financial principles. So I started reading all of your books and really devouring your books. And I went from being an employee to self-employed to the business owner to the investor. And I owe a lot of that to you. And I just want to take a moment to tell you thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success. And I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump. But I just want to tell you, thank you, sir, for changing my life. Well, not only that, Clay, thank you, but you’ve become an influencer. More than anything else, you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. So that’s why I congratulate you on becoming. Because as you know, there’s a lot of fake influencers out there, or bad influencers. Anyway, I’m glad you and I agree so much and thanks for reading my books. Yeah. That’s the greatest thrill for me today. Not thrill, but recognition is when people, young men especially, come up and say, I read your book, changed my life, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this. I learned at the Academy, King’s Point in New York, acta non verba, watch what a person does, not what they say. Whoa! Hey, I’m Ryan Wimpey. I’m originally from Tulsa, born and raised here. I went to a small private liberal arts college and got a degree in business. And I didn’t learn anything like they’re teaching here. I didn’t learn linear workflows. I learned stuff that I’m not using and I haven’t been using for the last nine years. So what they’re teaching here is actually way better than what I got at business school and I went what was actually ranked as a very good business school. The linear workflow, the linear workflow for us and getting everything out on paper and documented is really important. We have workflows that are kind of all over the place to the having linear workflow and seeing that mapped out on multiple different boards it’s pretty awesome that’s really helpful for me. The atmosphere here is awesome I definitely just stared at the walls figuring out how to make my facility look like this place. This place rocks. It’s invigorating. The walls are super, it’s just very cool. The atmosphere is cool. The people are nice. It’s a pretty cool place to be. Very good learning atmosphere. I literally want to model it and steal everything that’s here at the conference. This is probably the best conference or seminar I’ve ever been to in over 30 years of business. You’re not bored. You’re awake and alive the whole time. It’s not pushy. They don’t try to sell you a bunch of things. I was looking to learn how to just get control of my life, my schedule, and just get in control of the business. Planning your time, breaking it all down, making time for the absinthe in your life, and just really implementing it and sticking with the program. It’s really lively. They’re pretty friendly, helpful, and very welcoming. I attended a conference a couple months back, and it was really the best business conference I’ve ever attended. At the workshop, I learned a lot about time management, really prioritizing what’s the most important. Biggest takeaways are you know you want to take a step-by-step approach to your business. Whether it’s marketing, you know what are those three marketing tools that you want to use to human resources. Some of the most successful people and successful businesses in this town, their owners were here today because they wanted to know more from Clay and I found that to be kind of fascinating. The most valuable thing that I’ve learned is diligence. That businesses don’t change overnight. It takes time and effort and you’ve got to go through the ups and downs of getting it to where you want to go. He actually gives you the road map out. I was stuck, didn’t know what to do and he gave me the road map out step by step. We’ve set up systems in the business that make my life much easier, allow me some time freedom. Here you can ask any question you want, they guarantee it will be answered. This conference motivates me and also give me a lot of knowledge and tools. I can see the marketing working. It’s just an approach that makes sense. Probably the most notable thing is just the income It’s just an approach that makes sense. Probably the most notable thing is just the income increase that we’ve had. Everyone’s super fun and super motivating. I’ve been here before, but I’m back again because it motivated me. Your competition’s going to come eventually or try to pick up these tactics. So you better, if you don’t, somebody else will. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9 and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey guys, I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys. We appreciate you and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old house. Right? This is where we used to live a few years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See? It’s nice, right? So this is my old van and our old school marketing and this is our old team and by team I mean it’s 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 fourteen and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales which is awesome but Ryan is a really great salesman so we didn’t need that we needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems into manuals and scripts and actually build a team so now that we have systems in place we’ve gone from one to ten locations in only a year. In October 2016, we 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, tens of thousands. So we really just want to thank you, Clay, and thank you, Vanessa, for everything you’ve done, everything you’ve helped us with. We love you guys. If you decide to not attend the Thrive Time workshop, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. The atmosphere at Clay’s office is very lively. You can feel the energy as soon as you walk through the door. And it really got me and my team very excited. If you decide not to come, you’re missing out on an opportunity to grow your business. Bottom line. Love the environment. I love the way that not only allows me to comprehend what’s going on, but he explains it in a way to where it just makes sense. The SEO optimization, branding, marketing. I’ve learned more in the last two days than I have the entire four years of college. The most valuable thing that I’ve learned, marketing is key. Marketing is everything. Making sure that you’re branded accurately and clearly. How to grow a business using Google reviews and then just how to optimize our name through our website also. Helpful with a lot of marketing, search engine optimization, helping us really rank high in Google. The biggest thing I needed to learn was how to build my foundation, how to systemize everything and optimize everything, build my SEO. How to become more organized, more efficient. How to make sure the business is really there to serve me, as opposed to me constantly being there for the business. New ways of advertising my business, as well as recruiting new employees. Group interviews completely eliminate that because you’re able to really find the people that would really be the best fit. Hands-on how to hire people, how to deal with human resources, a lot about marketing and overall just how to structure the business, how it works for me and also then how that can translate into working better for my clients. The most valuable thing I’ve learned here is time management. I like the one hour of doing your business is real critical if I’m going to grow and change. Play really teaches you how to navigate through those things and not only find freedom, but find your purpose in your business and find the purposes for all those other people that directly affect your business as well. Everybody. Everybody. Everyone. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get an opportunity to see that it’s real. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get an opportunity to see that it’s real. you