Tim Tebow | The 10 Steps for Building a Super Successful Best-Practice Call Center + Tim Tebow Joins June 27-28th Clay Clark Business Workshop + Branding 101 with Michael Levine

Audio Transcription

A globe completely engulfed in flames. You want your logo to signify the end of the world? No, no, no, no, no. It’s like we’re driven. Like we’re taking over the world. Like we’re spreading like wildfire, but in an elegant way. I mean, understated. It should communicate integrity, honesty, classiness. A love for the community. A love for the whole world, really. Humble. But not too humble. You know, you want to exude pride, like humble pride. A bald eagle wrapped in an American flag, in his talon a stack of $100 bills. We’re financially successful and patriotic. Something like this? That’s incredible. That is amazing. With a logo like that, we’re going to sell a lot of beard combs. Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show. But this show does. In a world filled with endless opportunities, why would two men who have built 13 multi-million dollar businesses altruistically invest five hours per day to teach you the best practice business systems and moves that you can use? Because they believe in you. And they have a lot of time on their hands. This started from the bottom, now they’re here. It’s the Thrive Time Show, starring the former U.S. Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark, and the entrepreneur trapped inside an optometrist’s body, Dr. Robert Zilmer. Eight kids co-created by two different women. Thirteen multi-million dollar businesses. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We took flight, started from the bottom, and now we’re at the top. Teaching you the systems to give what we got. Colton Dixon’s on the hooks, I break down the books. Steve’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks. As a father of five, that’s why I’m alive. So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi. It’s the C and T up on your radio. And now 3, 2, 1, here we go. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom and 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 going to talk about how to build an effective customer service slash call center. Now, the great thing is if you buy an Oxifresh franchise, they already have a call center built for you. But for those of you that already own a business, but you don’t have a call center, I’m going to walk you through the 10 steps that you need to take to build an effective call center and customer service center. And I’m going to have Matt Klein with Oxifresh, the franchise brand developer, tell us why you need these systems in place. And again full disclosure Oxifresh the franchise already has these systems in place for you. So if you buy an Oxifresh you’re buying these systems as part of the franchise experience. But I want to get his feedback on why these systems are super critical for any effective customer service slash call center, sales center. Matt Klein welcome to the Thrived Time Show. How are you sir? I am doing good. It’s a great Monday. I appreciate the invite. So item number one, Matt, you gotta have a call script. You gotta have inbound scripts and outbound call scripts. Why does every call center need to have call scripts in place? Because if you are a true scheduling center where you are hiring people and you’re growing, you need to have some consistency with the calls. You need to give your employees that work in that scheduling center some tools to be successful, right? If you train the same thing over and over and over, you’re going to get really good at that. You’re going to also get good at doing your KPIs, key performance indicators on answering the phones, time of picking up, right? Then ability to close, ability to upsell, things like that. So if you don’t have something, you can’t measure it. You have to measure it. And that call script will allow you to actually have some consistency with your hiring. I would argue that nine out of the ten people I worked with, you know, today Matt I was working with a medical business we’ve worked with for years and their leads are flying in right now, their growth is tremendous. And the owner of the business who I’ve had the opportunity to work with for years, he just said on today’s call, he said, Clay, how honestly, when you’ve talked about the importance of having call scripts. I’ve always just sort of blown it off and thought, and I’ll just give my people an outline of things to say. And I don’t have time to focus on the details because I just, I’m too busy. But at the last conference I came to, Clay, I really dialed in the call script. We started using it. And I discovered that it changed everything. It made everything so much better. And you guys have a great call center in place at OxiFresh. The second system you have to have in place is you have to have call recording. Now I recommend a company called ClarityVoice.com, ClarityVoice.com, whether somebody uses Clarity Voice or not. You need to have call recording in place and you do have call recording in place at Oxifresh. Why is call recording an important thing to have in place for every call center? Yeah, because you’re, you know, it’s like the one percent rule. One percent of your customers are going to claim something’s not right or make your day difficult or you know you could even have maybe like a rogue employee. So it just allows you like it allows me as the owner if I have an issue I can go back to where it started. What would the customer ask for? What did we promise them? What was the dialogue? Make sure that conversation was correct because if there is differences of opinion as to what’s happening there I can cut that off right there. And I can say, here’s what you asked for. Here’s what we quoted you for. If you want something more, we can certainly do that. So it just allows you to have management through facts, not opinions. Now, again, I don’t know that most business owners have call recording in place. In fact, I can tell you every carpet cleaning brand, every service brand I’ve ever worked with before they became a client didn’t have call recording in place. It’s just a fact. I mean, I’m working with a wonderful wood flooring installer right now, and I’m working with a wonderful roofing company right now, both of which did not have call recording in place when I started working with them years ago. Matt, without call recording, I would argue, again, it’s very hard to know what your team is doing, and you have that in place for all the Oxifresh franchise owners. Third, you gotta have pre-written emails. Every time that Oxifresh emails people a receipt or a confirmation, everything has been work flowed out. Talk to us about the importance of having pre-written emails. Well, one, it’s gonna be a huge time saver. You’re not customizing an email every single time. If you’re busy, these things are gonna come up over and over and over again. So the more automation you can build and the things that are gonna be consistently like invoices or thank yous or whatever, it’ll allow you to be more efficient as a company, get your time back, and it’ll actually, it’ll complete the purpose of what it’s used for. It’s like, if you’re gonna bill someone, you need to get paid. If you’re doing a lot of jobs, it’s gonna be a lot of transactions. So yeah, I mean, what you’re doing is you’re eliminating the human time it’s going to take and automating the task at hand. And so it’ll allow you to essentially make your business way, way more efficient. Item number four, you gotta have pre-written text messages. Now a lot of business owners don’t think about that, but you know a lot of people today they’ll go to the oxyfresh.com website, they want to schedule their carpet cleaning and maybe your team has to interact with that potential customer via text, via email, via phone, via whatever platform. Matt, talk to us about just why you want to have a pre-written everything. Same thing, I mean, I assume if you’re going to text one customer, you’re going to text all of them. And if you’re a busy company, these transactions are going to happen over and over and over. It could be 5, 10, 20, it could be 30, 40 interactions a day. Anything you don’t automate that’s consistently happening will essentially not allow you to scale. Because if a human being has to take, even pushing a button, right, if you haven’t automated that point, that means that you can’t actually grow to the next employee or the next truck or the next building or whatever your scale is. Because if you have to just replicate tasks every single time something happens, you’ll essentially get to a plateau of business where it’s not going to be worth it for you to grow. It’s going to be too painful. Now, Matt, the next thing you want to have, and you guys have this at OxiFresh, is you want to have a profitable pricing model and a sustainable sales structure. I actually know of carpet cleaners, these are real examples, lawyers, doctors, folks, come on now. I know of home wood floor installers. I know of home cleaners who actually have a pricing model that isn’t profitable and they scaled it for a quarter or two. The sales rep was quoting customers over the phone. What am I saying? I’m saying I know of actual clients that I’ve worked with before helping them, where their sales rep and or the owner of the company was quoting people a price that caused them to lose money at scale. You guys at Oxifresh have already thought about the pricing model and it’s sustainably profitable. Talk to us about that, because I believe that’s a huge benefit of the Oxifresh franchise. Yeah, and I think what you’re actually talking about is most people don’t know how to get business or get consistent business. They’ve never learned the marketing portion of their company. And so to combat that, they lower their price to a level where it’s so appealing to the customer that it seems like a deal that’s too good to be true. Well, the problem for the actual business is that deal is too good to be true, and they actually go backwards every time they get a job. They’re trying to stay above water by price gouging instead of marketing. And so you have to know what it costs you to do whatever service or product that you’re delivering. And you got to price accordingly. You got to look at how much your insurance costs. You got to look at how much, if you’re in a brick and mortar, how much your rent costs. You got to know what your payroll is, what’s your workers comp on top of that payroll. You got to understand what gasoline costs is. Like running a real business is not just giving, you know, that to the customer, whatever your services, it’s understanding how your business can actually stay afloat. Because if you price yourself under the profitability line, it’s just a matter of time before you’re out of business. Like it’s just numbers. It’s very simple. Next is you have to install a weekly staff training. Now, I’m not saying that you only have a weekly meeting with your staff at Oxifresh. But what I’m saying is, at Oxifresh, there’s ongoing training. It never ends. I find that most companies never even start training unless there’s a burning fire. What am I saying? Again, let me try this again. At Oxifresh, if you go up to Oxifresh for a discovery day or you visit the Oxifresh offices, as I often do, you guys have a culture of ongoing training. Now, most business owners I know, they never train their staff unless there’s a burning fire. Talk to us about the importance of the ongoing training of your specifically your sales slash call center team. Yeah, the bigger you get and the more levels of management you put in there, the harder the consistency of a business becomes, right? If you aren’t consistently training your employees on best practices and the things that will allow them to be successful and you just say, okay, I trained someone in July and I didn’t have another touch point of training until like December. You just gave them five, six months to create behavior that’s not going to be beneficial for your business. And it’s not even their fault. They’re left to their own devices. They’re going to put their own spin on it. And then that spin is going to become a totally different language. That language is going to become less efficient in terms of how they answer the phone, how they actually bid the job, right? And what they think is good is only good because it’s comfortable for them. It’s not efficient for the actual business, right? And so you have to do that consistent training because it’ll allow you to see the holes in individual people’s kind of techniques and get them back on track. I mean, it’s really, really important. I mean, I don’t even know how you would do it without that, to be honest. Now, the next is accountability. Accountability is a big thing. You have to install daily accountability. Now, if you go to OxyPress, you’re gonna find there’s sort of a cubicle city, a cubicle community, where there are many, many call reps up there. Sometimes during peak hours, you have a ton of people. Sometimes in lower hours, like you have, you know, at four in the morning, you probably don’t need a lot of call reps, whereas like 5 p.m. it’s busier. Sometimes there are certain holidays, like Christmas, where you probably need less call reps on Christmas day, if not, no callers. Some days of the week, you need more people, less people, whatever, but you need accountability. And I see so many business owners that let the front desk lady, front desk guy, answer their phone from home in their pajamas while driving their car on the road. What am I saying? This is big, I’m not kidding. I know of so many businesses, Matt, where they say, you know, to cut costs, to make it more efficient, we’re gonna let our staff work from home. And then that devolves into our, we’re gonna let our staff answer the phone while driving. So that devolves to the employees no longer follow any script at all. And there’s a kid crying in the background. Because there’s not a culture of accountability. Talk to us about the culture of accountability that you guys have created and are continuing to create there at oxyfresh.com. Yeah, I mean, I’m with you here, Clay. I feel like working from home is basically a, you know, a passive income that is not the most important thing to you. I just think you put yourself in a scenario where the job at hand, it becomes secondary. If you’re trying to answer the phone, you have noise in the background, you’re trying to get your food out of the fridge, or if you know you’re doubling down as your, you know, caretaker for your children and you’re answering phones. I just, I mean, you can do, you can just do this yourself. If you’re trying to call as a customer, right? And you call someone, you can tell their home and there’s noise in the background. You can hear the TV and you can hear the kids, right? That’s not going to seem like a professional company that you want to do business with. It wouldn’t be for me. And so it’s pretty easy to put the shoe on the other foot for that, right? What, what environment do you want to put your customers in so that they can actually want to use you and keep using you. And I would say that’s where you should look at those things. What is the actual engagement from a consumer side? And you’re going to learn pretty quickly. I mean, people are just going to hang up on you. They don’t have time to deal with that. And they’re just going to go to the right, the very next company on the Internet. And I’m just going to give an example. When I traveled out to Denver recently to hang out with you guys and spend some time with you, John Barnett and your staff invited me to attend a Denver Nuggets game. Now, when I was attending the Denver Nuggets game, I turned my phone off and I actually gave the phone to the driver, for the OxyPress driver. So I didn’t even have my phone with me. I just said, hey, bring that to Barnett’s house and I just want to be mentally present. You know, I wanted to be able to get a chance to talk to you and talk to Barnett and talk to the staff and be uninterrupted, you know, because I wanted to, you know, I was there with you guys for a couple hours and I wanted to be there. But I know a lot of people that, I’m not attacking the people in that box or people that are out there golfing, but I discovered a lot of people, they go golfing while they bring their phone with them. And then when the phone rings, they try to answer the phone while also golfing. We’ve all played basketball with a guy who tries to answer his phone while playing basketball. Oh guys, give me a second, I gotta get that. We all know people that are in the basketball game taking calls. And I just don’t do that because I don’t wanna have a divided mind. I believe being present isn’t present. And so I just told the driver, take my phone. I’ll see you when I get back to Barnett’s house. I don’t know how many people do that. In fact, I know almost nobody does that when they’re answering the phone for work at home. And so I do that at home. When I go home, I turn my phone off. I know that’s why over the years I’ve texted you maybe on a weekend. And I’m not offended that you don’t respond. I’m figuring you’re probably on a date with your wife. And if you want to stay married, and I know you do, you probably turn your phone off. That makes sense to me, and you’ll get it when you get it. But I find that a lot of people, they don’t turn their phone off at home. When they go home, they’re trying to do the work thing. And when they’re working from home, they’re just in this perpetual divisive mindset. And again, the idea of the OxiFresh allows your customers to experience call reps that are focused on them. It’s so important for you folks if you’re building a call center out there to not set up a work environment where your staff is perpetually distracted. You don’t want the person answering the phone to have a divided mind where they’re not paying attention and I just want to celebrate the Oxifresh call center for making the main thing the main thing. Now next is you want to install merit-based pay. Now we don’t have time to get into all the details of this but essentially some of the people who are in key leadership positions now at Oxifresh started out answering the phone. And so people actually get promoted based upon their skill. It’s a merit-based pay organization. You promote character there at Oxifresh. A lot of companies, corporate America, people can work in a call center for 10 consecutive years and never get promoted. Can you talk about that culture of having a merit-based pay system where you guys actually recognize who’s doing a good job because you measure the results and you actually promote the people from the call center into leadership positions. Yeah, I mean, it starts with being able to track it, like we talked about tracking the key performance indicators. But once you have those things in place, you do need to pay off performance because if everyone gets paid by the hours they work, you can’t actually understand who’s doing a good job or not. Right? So, if you have five people working and one person’s booking 90% of the jobs that day, you have four people booking 10. You know, why should the person spending all the time on the phone booking all the jobs, why should they get paid the same amount? They’re taking five to six times more calls than the other four people, right? But also, too, you want to build from within. You want your staff to get better every year, every hiring cycle, you want them to get better. And you do that by promoting people that have shown their work ethic, shown their ability to be above the normal other employees. I mean, I think it’s so, so important to hire folks that deserve it. You’ll also get a ton of people that are loyal to you as well, right? So everything will help if you actually pay for performance, not for hours worked. Now Matt, we all know that you got into the position you’re in just based upon your shameless, raw, rugged, good looks. And that creates a toxic culture. If everybody who works in the company is only there because of their raw, rugged, good looks. I mean, Matt, if everybody was given a hall pass and promoted just because of their raw, rugged, good looks like yourself, I mean, just because you led the state of Colorado in scoring in high school doesn’t mean that you can always, I mean, that’s why clearly why you were promoted to the position that you’re in is because you did believe the state of Colorado in scoring and you are a beautiful man, but not everybody within your company could be promoted for those reasons or it creates a toxic passive aggressive culture. And that’s not the kind of culture we create over there at OxyFresh. So we move on here, folks. Now the staff recruiting, ongoing staffing, ongoing recruiting. I remember when John Barnett, the founder of OxiFresh, told me about you. And I remember we were talking and he says, I got this guy, all jokes aside, he said, I got this guy, I’ve known him through the gym, he’s a super hard worker, he’s passionate about sales. I think he described you, or we agreed that you were like a human bowling ball, a modern Viking. You’re just absolutely a relentless person. And I remember Barnett said, if I hire this guy, I don’t exactly know where I’m going to put him, but I think I want to put him in sales. But he was actively trying to recruit you to come join OxyFresh, even though there wasn’t quite yet a position. And I know even to this day, when you’re out around town, you’re meeting people you’re always recruiting. I mean, it’s a constant culture of always bringing in more talent. Can you talk about that? Why it’s important to have a culture? I mean, now that you’ve been there for a long time, you’re one of the guys out there recruiting. Why is it important to have a culture where you’re always recruiting? Well, one is that you always have a hole to fill if something happens, right? I mean, the bigger you get as a company, the longer you’re in business, people are gonna leave for a lot of different reasons that are out of your control, right? So you fill that hole, that void very quickly. The people that you already know are potentially good or better fits than who you had. But also, if you’re trying to grow your business, you should always be hiring. Because, you know, I say this all the time, my first group of hiring when I was running my franchise, compared to my employees now, they’re vastly different. I have self-starters, I have very aggressive sales, because I have people that are really working hard, they make a good living. That position got there because I had to go through hiring bad people and replacing bad people and getting better people and then replacing those people. And so, you know, every single time I’ve got a hire, I’ve got to start from scratch. It just, that ticker of me being able to create more money takes forever. That ticker for me to be able to train them gets longer. And so, you know, all you’re doing is you’re doing yourself a really good service by actually keeping those, that tab of who could work for you, because it’s not a matter of if you need to hire at some point, it’s when. It’s always when you need to rehire, not when. Now, point nine and 10 here, folks, for the sake of time, you want to install a culture where you have employee retention. Oxifresh, you have an annual conference. Your staff often goes on trips or trade shows together. There’s a lot of events that you guys do together that build bonds, they build camaraderie. And the people that work at Oxifresh, the leadership team at Oxifresh has been there as a cohesive team for a long time. But just like an NBA team, you know, people do move on from time to time, but that core nucleus at Oxifresh has been together for a long time. And that’s a very intentional thing. And that’s something you’re getting when you buy an Oxifresh franchise. And then finally, you have to have a vision that inspires people. And I’ll just tell you a little story about John Barnett. I remember going to college with John Barnett. I didn’t know him super well. We went to the same college, Oral Roberts University. I had a chance to meet him in college. I got a chance to check in with him. He would check in with me from time to time. I was building a brand called DJConnection.com, which I sold, but it went on to become America’s largest wedding entertainment company. We were booking about 4,000 weddings a year. And John Barnett was building this brand called Oxifresh. Now, as the brand continued building, John had this vision to become the world’s greenest carpet cleaner. He had this vision to become the highest rated, most reviewed carpet cleaner in America. He had a vision to open up 300 locations. I remember when he told me that, he said, I want to have 300 locations. Today, how many territories do you have open there, Matt Klein? About 500. It’s incredible stuff there, folks. So again, if you want to be part of a growing team where there is a vision, just go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash oxyfresh, thrivetimeshow.com forward slash oxyfresh. And Matt, as far as buying a franchise, final questions I have here for you. How much money does it cost to buy an Oxyfresh franchise? And what are the steps that we need to take? And then on part two of today’s show, we’re going to do a deep dive into more of the nuances and details needed to build a call center. But how much does it cost to buy an Oxifresh franchise and what are the steps people need to take to learn about buying an Oxifresh franchise? Yeah, first and foremost, you need to fill out the form that will give us your information. We’ll reach out to you via email, text and phone, set up that initial call. In those discussions, we’ll talk about the business, the finances, we’ll talk about the agreement, we’ll talk about the timeframe, income potential, all that. But in there, we’ll also talk about the investment, which is $44,900 to become a franchise, which includes equipment, product, territory, seven-year agreement, and training. And then I’ll ask that you have at least $25,000 in additional income, or not income, but additional money for your operating capital, okay? Because when you become a business, now you need to pay for things like insurance and local marketing and monthly vehicle costs and gasoline and hats and shirts and the things that will get your business to a cashflow positive state. Matt, I’m not saying this to make it awkward, but it might get awkward. You are one of my favorite people. I mean this, though. I meet so many people. I love your consistency. I love your kindness. I love the fact that you’re a hardworking guy. I love the fact that everybody who knows you, respects you. I just love, I’m a big buyer of the Matt Klein brand, and I mean that sincerely. There’s a lot of people I’ve met in my life that are complete jack wagons and jackasses that are not consistent. And even the things that I’m sure you don’t like about yourself, you’re consistent in, and it makes it easy to do business with you, and I think folks are going to enjoy working with Matt Klein because you’re just a consistent guy, and I think that’s what people are gonna experience when they work with you. How would you describe what that initial consultation is like? Because again, I think you’re a fun loving guy, but you’re also very candid. What can people expect when they pick up the phone and if they do fill out the form and schedule that consultation with you? Yeah, I’m just gonna ask you some very direct questions. Like, what have you been doing the last couple of years? What are your goals? What’s your family dynamic? Right, what’s your time commitments at the moment? What are you looking for out of a business? We’ll just start to build that relationship. We’ll start to discuss what your goals are. And more importantly in those goals, does OxyFresh fit in that picture? Because I do believe that our business should fit into your life. I don’t think you should have to change your entire life to run a business. I think that’s one of our advantages. And I’ll be very upfront and forward with you. If I don’t think it’s a good fit, I’ll tell you. Because business is not for everybody. And I think being very honest with people is good. And if I’m proven wrong, that’s great, right? That just means that you’ll be, you know, get some fire underneath you. But yeah, I appreciate kind words, Clay. And I would tell anyone that is interested in owning a business or maybe getting out of their current kind of rut to make that call because you just don’t know what’s out there until you start exploring it. It doesn’t cost any money, just a little bit of time. Matt Klein, you’re a great American. I meant every single word that I said. I’ll not compliment you again for the next 12 consecutive months, but thank you so much, brother. Have a great day. All right. Thank you very much. See you, brother. Bye. Dr. Z, on today’s show, we are interviewing a man who is intense. He is perhaps one of the top publicists, PR experts of his time. He’s a New York Times best-selling author himself. He’s represented 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestsellers. Z, how would you describe this interview with Michael Levine? Intense! I love the way you get him all fired up. I mean, he gets, you get him. It’s like poking the bear. On today’s show, he breaks down the Tiffany theory and why broken windows are a sign of a broken business. All this and more on today’s interview with Michael Levine, the great one in the world of PR. Zee, I think all the listeners should put on a helmet. Yes, strap on. Make sure no arms outside the ride and wear your safety belt at all times. Here we go. Here we go. Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show. But this show does. Two men, eight kids co-created by two different women. Thirteen multi-million dollar businesses. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Thrived Timeshow. Now, three, two, one, here we go! We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get there. 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 here. Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Dr. Z, it’s not often that we have a guest on the show who’s represented 58 Academy Award winners at last check. Wow. At last check. 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times best-selling authors, and the likes of Barbra Barbara Streisand, George Carlin, Michael Jackson, the late great Prince, President Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, President Clinton. This guy’s been featured on Forbes, Fox News, the New York Times, the USA Today. Michael Levine blows my mind every time. Michael Levine, welcome on to the Thrive Time Show. How are you, sir? And you have achieved that level of greatness, I believe, with this podcast that you have turned into really a national force. It’s really, maybe international, it’s really exceptional what you’ve done. I’ve watched you build it, and it’s quite something. Well, thank you. We’re having a hard time penetrating North Korea. Other than that, we really… Right, we’re having a hard time. The penetration is tough. And that’s one country that we’re just having a hard time getting into. Got it. Got it. We had a basketball player, Dennis Rodman. We tried to have him smug this run, but that didn’t work out so well. Right. It turns out that the North Koreans are struggling with the concept of capitalism right now. But Michael, in this capitalistic country we live in, there’s a lot of PR people, a lot of public relations people trying to have success in the field of public relations. A lot of entrepreneurs listening that really don’t know what public relations is, could you share what public relations is all about and what that means to be a public relations expert? Using an analogy that I created some years back, which I think works as a definition, I would use the analogy or do use the analogy of gift wrapping. And so if I gave you a present today, and I gave it to you in a box, maybe a Tiffany box, and it was wrapped beautifully, in your mind, that gift would have a higher perceived would be the exact same gift in a box unwrapped or wrapped with a less prestigious label. Now that’s true not because you are a psychological fool, but it’s true because we live in a culture in which we gift wrap everything. And so we gift wrap our politicians. Yes, we can. You’re fired. I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knock these buildings down will hear all of us soon. We gift wrap everything. And so we gift wrap our politicians and our corporate heads and our movie and TV stars and even our toilet paper. And so there we are. Gift wrapping is what I believe to be the best operational definition of what public relations is. And so if you have a product, a person, a service, and you want to give it value, one of the best ways you can do that is by gift wrapping it in an important public relations message. Get your story out. We’re living in a world, for better or worse, in which there is an umbilical link between credibility and visibility. Michael, during your career, you’ve covered so much ground, worked with so many big people, and before we get into the broken windows as being a sign of a broken business, I really would like to ask you about, on a practical level, when you’re working with an artist like a Prince or Michael Jackson, I mean, these are huge names. Huge. I know some of the specific details of those interactions. But could you share with us what it’s like to be in the presence of the man in purple, Prince? Well, I think that, first of all, I don’t want to imply that, though I represented Prince for a period of time, that I spent a vast amount of time with him. I did not. Many other clients I did, but he was one I did not. Mysterious kind of elusive guy in certain ways. But the point here, I think the greater point about greatness, and what I’ve learned about it is that we mere mortals cannot or shouldn’t judge geniuses in the same way that we judge mere mortals. They are playing a different game of life. They are often very eccentric, as we know, right? we often find that there’s an eccentricity to them. So Jesus, who is exceptional, is having a conversation with ordinary. And exceptional and ordinary always have a conflict. Anytime exceptional people dwell in the midst of ordinary thinking people, there’s always going to be conflict. And I’ve discovered that throughout my life and my career that they’re often quite eccentric. And so we would be unwise, I believe, to judge geniuses in the same way we judge mere mortals. The definition of genius is an exceptional intellectual or creative power or other natural ability. A person who is exceptionally intelligent or creative, either generally or in some particular respect. So when you’re working with somebody who’s a genius or somebody who is a true expert Maybe someone you spent more time with. Can you share about that deep… You shared this, by the way, last year at the Thrive Time Show conference. You talked about this deep, maniacal rage or will to win they have. This just deep, vile, just, I’m not going to lose. to succeed, to create, to excel. It’s not merely an ambition. It’s something deeper, more primal, more intense. It’s almost as if their life depended upon it. We can imagine that reasonable people can understand that when your life depends on something, you’ll do just about anything to achieve that particular goal. One of the qualities that I’ve noticed present in all super successful people is this burning maniacal rage, this obsession, if you will. And I think it’s an interesting observation, at least I hope it is. Z, I totally relate to this. I remember starting my first company, DJ Connection, and people would say, how many hours did you work on it? All of them. All of them. When you started your optometry clinic, people would say, how many days a week did you work to grow them? All of them. All of them. And that’s why I resent, or resist, I should say, I resist people making subjective statements like, well, if you want to be successful, you’ve got to work hard. Well, I would encourage against a statement like that, because hard is subjective. I know people in America that think working 30 hours a week is working hard. Take you Bernie Sanders. Almost all of the wealth and much of the income is going to the top 1%. Bernie, it’s because they wake up at 3 a.m. and they work hard when the rest of the world is sleeping. This show is created for people who want to become the top 1%. not hard. Particularly in the beginning, think about a rocket launch. We’re just here now on the anniversary of the moon, successful landing of a man on the moon 50 years ago. Well, 80-90% of that rocket fuel was really expelled at the launch, right? A rocket launch. When you launch a rocket to the moon, you use a tremendous amount of rocket fuel in the beginning. And so if you’re going to start a business of any type, right, you better be prepared in the first year or two to expend a massive amount of rocket fuel. And that means, as you well know, Clay, not a five-day week, not a six-day week. It’s a seven-day a week. If you want to become super successful, well, guess what? Everybody else does as well. But if you are going to achieve massive success by working a 40-hour workweek. You’re going to have to embrace the idea that you’re going to have to outwork the competition. And you don’t get two weeks off for Christmas and you don’t get a week off for Easter. It’s just it’s unrealistic. No wonder so many businesses, you know what the odds of a business succeeding over the first year, 18 months, very poor. There’s a number of reasons for that, but one of them is you’re not willing to expend the rocket fuel necessary to launch the rocket. Dr. Z, we’re going to get in now to this concept of the broken windows are a sign of a broken business. Now Michael, share with us about the book and what first inspired you to write a book about this subject. Well, first of all, let’s go way, way, way, way back to August of 1982 in which a brilliant criminologist named James Q. Wilson wrote a theory of criminology called Broken Windows Theory. The Broken Windows Theory of Criminology, written back by UCLA professor in 1982, a brilliant criminologist who’s no longer with us, he wrote a theory that said that if you go into a neighborhood and you see a broken window or graffiti. Dr. Z, on today’s show, we are interviewing a man who is intense. He is perhaps one of the top publicists, PR experts of his time. He’s a New York Times best-selling author himself. He’s represented 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestsellers. Z, how would you describe this interview with Michael Levine? Intense, and I love the way you get him all fired up. I mean, he gets, you get him, it’s like poking the bear. On today’s show, he breaks down the Tiffany Theory and why broken windows are a sign of a broken business. All this and more on today’s interview with Michael Levine, the great one in the world of PR. Z, I think all the listeners should put on a helmet. Yes, strap on. Make sure no arms outside the ride and wear your safety belt at all times. Here we go. Here we go. Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show. But this show does. Two men, eight kids, co-created by two different women, 13 multi-million dollar businesses. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Thrived Time Show. One, two, three, four. 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. Yes, yes, yes, and yes. And not often that we have a guest on the show who’s represented 58 Academy Award winners at last check. Wow. At last check. 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestselling authors, and the likes of Barbara Streisand, George Carlin, Michael Jackson, the late great Prince, President Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, President Clinton. This guy’s been featured on Forbes, Fox News, the New York Times, the USA Today. Wow. Z, Michael Levine blows my mind every time. Michael Levine, welcome on to the Thrive Time Show. How are you, sir? Thank you, friend, and you have achieved that level of greatness, I believe, with this podcast that you have turned into really a national force. It’s really, maybe international, it’s really exceptional what you’ve done. I’ve watched you build it and it’s quite something. Well, thank you. Well, we’re having a hard time penetrating North Korea. Right, we’re having a hard time. The penetration is tough. And that’s one country that we’re just having a hard time getting into. Got it. Who was the basketball player? Dennis Rodman. We tried to have him smuggler run, but that didn’t work out so well. It turns out that the North Koreans are struggling with the concept of capitalism right now. But Michael, in this capitalistic country we live in, there’s a lot of PR people, a lot of public relations people trying to have success in the field of public relations, and a lot of entrepreneurs listening that really don’t know what public relations is. Could you share what public relations is all about and what that means to be a public relations expert? Using an analogy that I created some years back, which I think works as a definition, I would use the analogy or do use the analogy of gift wrapping. today and I gave it to you in a box, maybe a Tiffany box, and it was wrapped beautifully. In your mind that gift would have a higher perceived value than if I gave you the exact same gift in a box unwrapped or wrapped with a less prestigious label. Now that’s true not because you are a psychological fool, but it’s true because we live in a culture in which we gift wrap everything. And so we gift wrap our politicians. Yes we can. You’re fired. I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people… And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. We gift wrap everything. And so we gift wrap our politicians and our corporate heads and our movie and TV stars and even our toilet paper. And so there we are. Gift wrapping is what I believe to be the best operational definition of what public relations is. So, if you have a product, a person, a service, and you want to give it value, one of the best ways you can do that is by gift wrapping it in an important public relations message. Get your story out. We’re living in a world, for better or worse, in which there is an umbilical link between credibility and visibility. Michael, during your career you’ve covered so much ground, worked with so many big people. Before we get into the broken windows as being a sign of a broken business, I really would like to ask you about, on a practical level, when you’re working with an artist like a Prince or Michael Jackson, I mean, these are huge names. Huge. I know some of the clients you’ve worked with are no longer with us, and I know you also have this very, almost a fiduciary duty to not share any of the specific details of those interactions, but could you share with us what it’s like to be in the presence of the man in purple, Prince. First of all, I don’t want to imply that though I represented Prince for a period of time that I spent a vast amount of time with him. I did not. Many other clients I did, but he was one I did not. Mysterious, kind of elusive guy in certain ways. But the point here, I think the greater point about greatness, and what I’ve learned about it is that we mere mortals cannot or shouldn’t judge geniuses in the same way that we judge mere mortals. They are playing a different game of life. They are often very eccentric, as we know, right? If we think about the greats, we often find that there’s an eccentricity to them. is having a conversation with ordinary. And exceptional and ordinary always have a conflict. Anytime exceptional people dwell in the midst of ordinary thinking people, there’s always gonna be conflict. And I’ve discovered that throughout my life and my career that they’re often quite eccentric. And so we can, we would be unwise, I believe, to judge geniuses in the same way we judge mere mortals. The definition of genius is an exceptional intellectual or creative power or other natural ability. A person who is exceptionally intelligent or creative, either generally or in some particular respect. So when you’re working with somebody who’s a genius, or somebody who is a true expert at their craft, maybe someone you’ve spent more time with, can you share about that deep… You shared this, by the way, last year at the Thrive Time Show conference, you talked about this deep, maniacal rage or will to win they have. This just deep, vile, just, I’m not going to lose. Yeah, burning, maniacal rage to succeed, to create, to excel. It’s not merely an ambition. It’s something deeper, more primal, more intense. It’s almost as if their life depended upon it. And so we can imagine, I think reasonable people can understand that when your life depends on something, you’ll do just about anything to achieve that particular goal, right? And so, one of the qualities that’s present in all super successful people is this burning maniacal rage, this obsession, if you will. And I think it’s an interesting observation, at least I hope it is. Z, I totally relate to this. I remember starting my first company, DJ Connection, and people would say, how many hours did you work on it? All of them. All of them. When you started your optometry clinic, people would say, how many days a week did you work to go to them? All of them. You get it. And that’s why I resent, or resist, I should say, I resist, you know, people making subjective statements like, well, if you want to be successful, you’ve got to work hard. Well, I would encourage against a statement like that, because hard is subjective. I know people in America that think working 30 hours a week is working hard. Thank you, Bernie, Seth. Almost all of the wealth and much of the income is going to the top 1%. Bernie, it’s because they wake up at 3 a.m. and they work hard when the rest of the world is sleeping. This show is created for people who want to become the top 1%. It’s not hard. The kind of, particularly in the beginning, think about a rocket launch. We’re just here now on the anniversary of the moon, successful landing of a man on the moon 50 years ago. Well, 80, 90% of that rocket fuel was really expelled at the launch, right? A rocket launch. When you launch a rocket to the moon, you use a tremendous amount of rocket fuel in the beginning. And so if you’re going to start a business of any type, right, you better be prepared in the first year or two to expend a massive amount of rocket fuel. And that means, as you well know, Clay, not a five-day week, not a six-day week. It’s a seven day a week. If you want to become super successful, well, guess what? Everybody else does as well. But if you are going to achieve super success, you must understand that I have never interviewed a billionaire or a millionaire who’s been able to achieve massive success by working a 40 hour work week. You’re going to have to embrace the idea that you’re going to have to outwork the competition. And you don’t get two weeks off for Christmas, and you don’t get a week off for Easter. It’s unrealistic. And so no wonder so many businesses, you know what the odds of a business succeeding over the first year, 18 months, very poor. Well, there’s a number of reasons for that, but one of them is you’re not willing to expend the rocket fuel necessary to launch the rocket. Dr. Z, we’re going to get in now to this concept of the broken windows are a sign of a broken business. Now, Michael, share with us about the book and what in person inspired you to write a book about this subject? Well, first of all, let’s go way, way, way, way back to August of 1982, in which a brilliant criminologist named James Q. Wilson wrote a theory of criminology called Broken Windows Theory. written back by UCLA professor in 1982, a brilliant criminologist who’s no longer with us. He wrote a theory that said that if you go into a neighborhood and you see a broken window or graffiti, and maybe 72 hours, it sends a psychic signal to the residents, the visitors, the shoppers, that the bad guys are in charge and you can pretty much bank on carjackings, rapes, murders, quickly ensuing, because that is the rapes, murders quickly ensuing because that is the progress of the broken windows theory of criminology. So all I did – and this theory, by the way, this theory of criminology is not very well known except within the law enforcement arena. It was very well known in law enforcement but not very well known amongst consumers. And it became much better known when a mayor of a major American city used it effectively to restore sanity to a terribly, terribly broken and And that mayor’s name was Rudy Giuliani, and that city was New York. And it just so happened that I had been born in New York. And so I watched Mayor Giuliani use the broken window theory to restore New York to sanity after a period of time in which New York was really, really in trouble. And I wondered about this theory of criminology, if it could be used in business. And so what I did is I took it. I dragged it into business. And I found that in exactly the same way that the broken windows theory works in criminology, so too it works in business. And so if you go on an airplane, for example, and you see a coffee stain on the tray in front of you, the tray that pulls down, and there’s an unclean coffee stain on the tray, it sends a psychic signal to your brain that maybe the maintenance of the engines isn’t being done too well. If you go into a restaurant and the bathrooms are filthy, it sends a psychic signal to your brain that just perhaps the kitchen isn’t too clean. And so I wrote a book 12 years ago that became, I guess fortunately for me, a big business bestseller and it has been a bestseller for all 12 of these years, still remains internationally so. And it just talks about how little details matter a lot. And of course, I think the message is more important than ever because we’re living in a culture in which people are not paying attention to the details, particularly the human relation details. We’re trying to automate everything. So I think the broken window theory is very, very, very important for business owners. Z, I would like for you to talk about a theory. I don’t know that you’ve ever written a book about it or really penned a title, but I would call this the unthrown away box theory. Now, we’re going to edit the show. So Zee, you’re a man who is very careful with your language, but should you feel the need to say… In the way, Michael, that cats love boxes, Dr. Zee hates boxes. So when a box gets shipped to one of his businesses, and the contents of the boxes are taken out of the box, and the boxes are left somewhere, Zee, within viewable area, in the viewable area in the back room, wherever. I feel my blood pressure rising already. And you can sense, and Z, why do you hate boxes that are not thrown away after the contents have been purposely put in the right place? Why do you hate it when boxes are not thrown away? Even worse than that, when people just kind of take, they use the box, they almost live out of the box, you know? It’s kind of like, I don’t know, it’s a broken window. When people walk down the hallway and they see an open box. It bothers you. It bothers me, because the goods should be put where they need to be put, the boxes need to be taken out. So it’s just lazy, it’s sloppy, it’s exactly what it is. I agree with him. I agree with the doctor, I think he’s totally right. And I think is powerful, which is if they can’t throw away a box, what else can they not do? And so I would say that what he is describing is totally consistent with the broken windows theory. Absolutely. And as a business owner, you really have to go in with a set of eyes every day and look around your business. Every day. From the start to the beginning. Don’t go in the back door like you always do. Your little private office entrance. You’ve got to go in the front door and actually walk through it with a new set of eyes because you’re looking for those broken windows, right, Michael? I mean, that’s a beautiful analogy and a great picture for business owners. Well, you should be. Yeah. You should be if you want to succeed and if you want your business to be around in three to five years, you better be doing it. You better be doing it in all kinds of ways. Don’t just do it when the staff’s around. One of the things that I would encourage somebody like perhaps a dentist to do or a doctor is call your office. Just go outside and call your office and watch the eight, ten, twelve rings. Commonly, I’m of a certain age that I’ve been calling doctor’s offices all my life. You used to call a doctor’s office and it would maybe be picked up in two rings or three rings. Today, common, common, 12, 10, 8, 15 rings, the first thing you hear is not hello, can you please hold? Correct. So this is not a way if you’re calling your dentist, your lawyer, your CPA and you have to wait 12, 14 rings to get them off, get somebody to pick up the phone, and the first thing you hear is, can you please hold? It’s not good, and I think that inspecting yourself, holding yourself to a high standard, and declaring war, if you will, you need, these are not problems that need to be handled. These are problems that need to be obliterated. They need to be destroyed. You can’t handle certain problems. You have to destroy them. In this book, which you would love, by the way, there’s a lot of great chapters here, but Michael, I want to tee it up. I’ll put the ball on the teat, and I’m going to let you unleash your inner Tiger Woods here. Chapter three of your book is titled, Obsession vs. Compulsion. What is this chapter all about at its core? Maybe it’s about a bunch of things, but one is, you are sending signals as a business owner. You’re sending signals to your customers all the bloody time, whether you recognize it or not. So for example, let’s imagine in Los Angeles, where I live, you go to a restaurant and very frequently you have a valet parking person. There isn’t much parking here in LA, so that’s common. Not as common in other parts of the country, but it is in LA. Now, if the parking attendant, the parking attendant for the restaurant is usually what’s called a concession. Usually the restaurant has hired a company to park the cars, right? But the problem is that the customer doesn’t delineate the difference between the parking attendant and the restaurant staff. They think the experience of going to a restaurant begins with the parking attendant. And if he’s rude or cold or unkind or unwelcoming for any reason, often because he may not speak the language, then it creates a feeling around the dining experience that’s negative. Now, if you go in and you tell the manager of the restaurant about that, and the restaurant manager says, well, that parking attendant doesn’t work for us, he’s a concession, that’s a bad answer, because the experience is the same. You have to have an obsession with what Jeff Bezos from Amazon calls a frictionless experience and radical, notice the use of the word radical, hospitality. so necessary is radical hospitality and a war against friction. And if you don’t do that, you are going to find yourself, as many business owners have, as a casualty of Amazon, because Amazon has created a very frictionless experience. Now in chapter 5 of your book, you talk about expectation versus reality. Educate us about what you mean by this, and then I’ll let Zee interrogate you about it. Yeah, I think that, look, every person, every customer yearns to feel valuable, special, important, right? The expectation bar of every human being is please make me feel important, right? And if in our increasingly automated age, right, we don’t do that, then we create friction and unhappiness because human nature, you know, the technology has changed the world greatly, but it hasn’t changed human nature an ounce. People 50 years ago wanted to feel valuable and important, and today they want to feel valuable and important. A lot of modern life has been a war making them feel unvaluable and unimportant. Z, I love having guys like Michael on the show. I love having guys like Wolfgang Puck on the show. I love having John Maxwell. I love having people who are the best at what they do. Wolfgang Puck, by the way, I know Wolfgang Puck. And Wolfgang Puck, as you know, may be America’s most successful restaurateur and chef. in a very, very, very primal way, the concept of radical hospitality. It begins right out the front desk. That maitre d’ it may be, if the chef is the most important person in a restaurant, who’s the second most important? Could be the maitre d’, could well be the made for D. Wolfgang Puck is a great example, a shining example of radical hospitality. I want to list off, because I want to put Michael in this category, and then I want to let you interrogate him. Think about this. One of the best hotel chains you can think of is Ritz-Carlton. We’ve had the founder of that company, Horst Schultz, on the show. You think about Walt Disney World, the top resort. By the way, can I just mention something about Ritz-Carlton? I am told, I’m not a Ritz-Carlton employee, but I am told that every Ritz-Carlton employee carries in their uniform a little card, a little pledge card. The card says, I’ve never seen one of these cards, but I’ve been told about it, been mentioned to me, we are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. There it is. There you go. Isn’t that interesting? We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. It’s the expectation that you guys have. You guys have this expectation level. The Wolfgang Puck has this expectation level. John Maxwell, the top leadership expert, he has a certain expectation. Russ Golan, head of the top 40 music industry right now, certain expectation. Ritz Carlton, certain expectation. See, we’ve got the founder, the owner of the Houston Rockets will be on our show. Certain expectation level. Craig Rochelle, top pastor in America. And here’s what the expectation level isn’t among any of them, right? Mediocrity. That’s what I’m saying. They’re not looking for shortcuts. Too many Americans own businesses, right? Too many Americans in every area of life are looking for shortcuts. And I think that one of the things that I most respect about you, Clay, and your show, and your whole way of being in the world is that you have been at the forefront of a counterculture that has been a war against shortcuts. There are no shortcuts, you jackass, and you shouldn’t be looking for one or several, or you shouldn’t be in business. If you want a shortcut, go work at some minimum wage job, which, by the way, is a dignified way of earning a living if you choose. There’s nothing wrong with working at a minimum wage job. I think many people who work in minimum wage jobs are providing a very honorable service, but if you don’t yearn to stay for the rest of your life in a minimum wage job, even though there’s plenty of dignity in doing that, then you have to stop looking for shortcuts. Z, I just got both of you guys warmed up now. I give you the mic, Z. Well, you know what we teach in the Thrive Nation, when everybody’s out there listening, we talk about mystery shopping your competition. And I think more importantly, you need to mystery shop your own fricking business. Yes, of course. But you got a mystery shop. I think the mystery shopping is great. I would invite it to be done in three tiers because when you hire a mystery shopping company, right? You’re relying on the mystery shopping company. If you ask friends and family to mystery shop, you’re relying on friends and family. If you mystery shop you’re relying on you. I personally recommend all three approaches. I think it’s so vital that you mystery shop yourself and your competition but yourself that you do it on three tiers. Hire a company and here’s a great opportunity. Every customer has ever complained. If you could recruit 50% of every customer has ever complained about a product or service that you produce and recruit them to be a mystery shopper for you, you’d be, you’d be in great shape. Z, I’m back to you, my friend. Undercover boss, I, I, you, that show the concept of it is so powerful, you know, because you, it helps you find all those broken windows in your business, right, Michael? Yeah, yeah. And then once you find them, you have to be just aggressive and radical in fixing them. I want to bring this up. Radical, radical, more than aggressive. More than radical. You guys are both radical. You have to kill them with the same, you have to go after them with the same intensity that the Navy SEALs went after Bin Laden. Come on, Michael. after bin laden. There’s no negotiating, there’s no, well, maybe you’d like to discuss this, could you step outside? No, no, no, no, no. It’s a war, and one side is going to win and one side is going to lose. And too frequently, the side of shortcuts is winning in today’s world. Now, Michael, I’m going to ask you to refrain from answering as I irritate you, second by second, and then Zee will pile on and we’re going to tee up the question to you. So it’s going to be a gradual irritation, okay? I’m just going to throw out different names, certain trends, let it just happen and Zee, you kind of one-up me. Here we go. Okay, here we go. This will be fun. It’s overtly casual. It’s an attitude of 10 minutes late. It’s an idea of living with your parents until you’re 30. It’s an idea of Bernie Sanders. It’s an idea of Lowering standards. It’s an idea of being consistently inconsistent. It’s about focusing on how we feel instead of getting things done Z it’s this attitude of many mediocrity Do what you need to do, but you gave it your best shot and now someone like that sitting with you now Okay there, and they’re sitting there 26 their parents are out of money. They can’t support him anymore. They got kicked out of their house They’re sitting right in front of you. They’re 26 or 27 years old. They just turned 27, Z. Okay. They’re meeting Michael Levine at the Starbucks, and they’ve got their baseball hat on, turned around backwards. They have a shirt on that says, okay, or awesome. It says awesome, hashtag awesome. Hashtag awesome. Yeah. And they’re going, bro, bro, I just don’t understand why I’m not having super success, bro. If they actually asked you that question, and they were being sincere, and they wanted you to straighten them out. What would you say to that person, Michael Levine? Well, first of all, I have to be honest with you. In answering that, I would tell you that if I got that person at age 27, I would say that potential odds for a breakthrough at 27 are massively lower than, say, 18 or 20. If you’ve gotten yourself to a place of distress and you still haven’t figured it out by 27, it’s not impossible to turn it around, but it’s damn hard. So I guess rule number one is son, if I’m talking to a 27 year old son, I wish I had gotten you 10 years ago and you wish if turning your life around were important to you, you wish I’d gotten to you 10 years ago because the reality is by 27 it’s awfully… and if you cross 30, it’s over. I mean, it’s just too late. It’s just too late, absent a miracle. The second thing I would say to a 27-year-old in a Starbucks is, if I don’t hear from this nice person a level of desperation, almost begging, right, then I become even more convinced that the person is not ready. If they’re asking me a question with very casual inquiry, right, as opposed to a pain that would be synonymous to a massive throbbing toothache, then I would say to the nice person, you’re probably not ready yet. What if he stands up straight? What if he sits up straight now? He says, sir, you’re connected to me. He’s taking notes now. So all of a sudden you get that energy. You sense this person is actually waking up. Now, you say, can you turn your hat around, please? Can you show some respect here? So he turns around under the hat and the hat says Bernie Sanders. What do you say? I’d say, son, I think I can understand. I can understand the, the frankly, the immature allure of free stuff. I mean, kids, remember, any parent knows that a child, when you take a child to Disneyland, first 10, 12, 14 years of life, who pays for the Disneyland ticket? Well, the parents do. The kids don’t pay. And so the definition of maturity for a young person may be the day in which they recognize that Disneyland is not free. A man or woman at the front desk says, that’ll be $108. And mommy and daddy don’t pay. So I understand that young people, college students, are very, very seduced by… The man worth more than a billion dollars, Peter Thiel, who’s one of the venture capitalists behind Facebook. capitalists behind face book was actually the first venture capitalist behind face book has this to say about formal education uh… and the tuitions four times as much roughly what they’ve risen since nineteen eighty adjusted for inflation you dot you’d end up with a very different uh… different uh… set of questions we now have no one point three trillion dollars of student debt it was it was only three hundred billion in two thousand dollars of student debt. It was only 300 billion in 2000. It’s gone up by something like a factor of four in nominal dollars in 15 years. And so I think at that level, we have to ask far more critical questions about, you know, is the education worth the debt that people are assuming? And it’s a very pernicious form of debt because under President Bush, 43, they rewrote the bankruptcy laws so you can never get out of student debt, even if you go personally bankrupt. And you pay off your student debt for the rest of your life, and if you haven’t paid it off by the time you’re 65, they garnish your social security to pay off your student loans. And so I think it’s sort of incumbent very tough questions about how well education is actually working, because it has taken on these very different roles, because of the enormous costs that are being attached to it. The way that I’ve, the way I’ve, the economic sort of description of it is often, what kind of a good is education? Is it an investment? So you’re going to college as an investment into a future? Or is it a consumption good, where it’s like a four-year party? And so, these are two very different kinds of things. And often, when I started my critique of colleges, I thought it was sort of a weird superposition of an investment good and a consumption good, which is why people were confused. So they thought they were investing, but they were really consuming. But I’ve now come to think that it’s actually a combination of two things that are much crazier than those two, even. It’s on the one hand, it’s the main reason people go to college is actually as an insurance product, where people go to college because they’re scared of falling through the very big cracks in our society. And so, even if it’s not a great investment, it’s still important to buy insurance. That’s why parents save up so much money to send their kids to college, and then why the kids take out so much in student debt. This con game of free stuff. I get it. You know, it’s part of the youthful, romantic fantasy thinking, but it’s utterly and completely immature and idiotic. There is no free. Now, certainly get much past 15 or 16 to know that. Hopefully your parents have drilled that into society. You’d like to think that society has drilled that into your head by 15 or 16. If you’re floating around between 18 and 22 in college listening to some very well-educated, college professor trying to get you hooked on the crack pipe of free stuff and you haven’t figured out that that’s a bad plan. It’s a bad plan one because it doesn’t work, it’s a bad plan because it doesn’t exist. Yep. Right? And so but what happens to people is they go through college usually educated by people who have a very, very, very radical, liberal view of the world. People that can’t compete in capitalism typically teach capitalism on the college campuses. It’s as if you’re going, when you go to college today, it’s as if you’re paying money, sometimes $40,000, $50,000 a year. And imagine if you paid $50,000 a year to go to a school, and the professor said, you see that traffic light up there, son, or young lady? That green means stop and that red means go. How stupid would you be to pay $50,000 a year to hear that green means stop and red means go? I mean, a bright 10 year old would go, not stop, right? And yet, college students are being educated in America today with rules of life that are equally stupid to red means go and green means stop. At least as stupid. Maybe stupider. And so this free stuff, this free, free, free, who’s going to pay for it? You know, you hear it all the time, it’s just a bunch of hustlers, politician hustlers, trying to get you hooked for purposes of their own aggrandizement or success, votes. They’re trying to buy votes with fake money, with monopoly money. But we all grew up robbing money. And if you’re not brave enough to figure this out, you really are a jackass. JT, do you know what time it is? 410. It’s TiVo time in Tulsa, Oklahoma, baby. Tim TiVo is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 27 and 28. We’ve been doing business conferences here since 2005. I’ve been hosting business conferences since 2005. What year were you born? 1995. Dude, I’ve been hosting business conferences since you were 10 years old, but I’ve never had the two-time Heisman Award winning Tim Tebow come present. And a lot of people have followed Tim Tebow’s football career on the field and off the field. And off the field, the guy’s been just as successful as he has been on the field. Now, the big question is, JT, how does he do it? Well, they’re going to have to come and find out, because I don’t know. Well, I’m just saying, Tim Tebow is going to teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s going to walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is going to be a blasty blast in Tulsa, Russia. Also, this is the first Thrive Time Show event that we’ve had, where we’re going to have a man who has built a hundred million dollar net worth. Wow. Who’ll be presenting. Now we’ve had a couple of presenters that have had a billion dollar net worth in some like a real estate sort of things. Yeah. 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 9 Round Boxing. He’s going to be here in Tulsa, Russel, Oklahoma, June 27th and 28th. JT, why should everybody want to hear what Peter Taunton has to say? Oh, because he’s incredible. He’s just a fountain of knowledge. He is awesome. He has inspired me listening to him talk and not only that he also has he practices what he teaches so he’s a real teacher he’s not a fake teacher like business school teachers so you got to come learn from him. Also let me tell you this folks I don’t get this wrong because I get it wrong someone’s gonna say you screw that up buddy so Michael Levine this is Michael Levine he’s gonna be coming he said who is Michael Levine I don’t get this wrong this is the PR consultant of choice for Michael Jackson, Prince, for Nike, for Charlton Heston, for Nancy Kerrigan, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times best-selling 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 gonna be in the house performing. The lineup will continue to grow each and every day. We’re gonna add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup, but I encourage everybody out there today, get those tickets today. Go to thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s thrivetimeshow.com. And some people might be saying, well, how do I do it? I don’t know what I do. How does it work? You just go to thrivetimeshow.com. Let’s go there now. We’re feeling the flow. We’re going to thrivetimeshow.com. 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 and 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, Russell Oklahoma. It’s Tulsa, Russell. I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa, Russell. I’m sort of like the Jerusalem of America. But if you type in Thrive Time Show 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 to 28th. Who? You. You’re going to come. Who? I’m talking to you. You can just 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 Tebow time right here in Tulsa, Russia. Get those tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s thrivetimeshow.com. Hello, I’m Michael Levine, and I’m talking to you right now from the center of Hollywood, California, where I have represented over the last 35 years, 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestsellers. I’ve represented a lot of major stars and I’ve worked with a lot of major companies. And I think I’ve learned a few things about what makes them work and what makes them not work. Now, why would a man living in Hollywood, California in the beautiful sunny weather of LA, come to Tulsa. Because last year I did it and it was damn exciting. Clay Clark has put together an exceptional presentation. Really life changing. And I’m looking forward to seeing you then. I’m Michael Levine, I’ll see you in Tulsa. James, did I tell you my good friend John Lee Dumas is also joining us at the in-person, two-day interactive Thrive Time Show Business Workshop, that’s Tim Tebow and that’s Michael Levine. Have I told you this? You have not told me that. He’s coming all the way from Puerto Rico. This is John Lee Dumas, the host of the chart-topping EOFire.com podcast. He’s absolutely a living legend. This guy started a podcast after wrapping up his service in the United States military, and he started recording this podcast daily in his home to the point where he started interviewing big time folks like Gary Vaynerchuk, like Tony Robbins, and he just kept interviewing bigger and bigger names, putting out shows day after day, and now he is the legendary host of the EO Fire podcast, and he’s traveled all the way from Prince Hill, Rico, to Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend the in-person June 27th and 28th Thrive Time 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 in and 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 four enthusiasts. Thrivetimeshow.com. Don’t go forward, this moment, we own it. A, I’m not to be played with. B, cause it could get dangerous. C, these people I ride with, this moment, we own it. 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 systems that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. We get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan. We teach you everything you need to know here during a two day, 15 hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems, so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re gonna leave energized, motivated, but you’re also gonna leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and they’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get-rich-quick, walk-on-hot-coals product. It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. 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’re going to give you your money back if you don’t love it. We’ve built this facility for you and we’re excited to see it. And now you may be thinking, what does it actually cost to attend an in-person, two-day, interactive, Thrive Time Show business workshop? 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 got to do is go to Thrivetimeshow.com to request those tickets. And if you can’t afford $250, we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. Kings Point in New York. Octa non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvard Kiyosaki, The Rich Dad Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re close, but they’re completely different worlds. And we have a special guest today. Definition of intelligence is if you agree with me, you’re intelligent. And so this gentleman is very intelligent. I’ve done this show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts. And so Mr. Clay Clark is a friend of a good friend, Eric, Eric Trump. But we’re also talking about money, bricks and how screwed up the world can get in a few and a half hour. So Clay Clark is a very intelligent man. And there’s so many ways we could take this thing. But I thought since you and Eric are close, Trump. What were you saying about what Trump can’t what Donald, who is my age, and I can say or cannot say what I have to 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 wanted to take a moment to tell you, thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success. And I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump. 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 too, or bad influencers. Yeah. Anyway, I’m glad you and I agree so much and thanks for reading my books. Yeah. That’s the greatest thrill for me today. Not 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 in getting everything out on paper and documented is really important. We have workflows that are kind of all over the place. So having linear workflow and seeing that mapped out on multiple different boards is pretty awesome. That’s really helpful for me. The atmosphere here is awesome. I definitely just stared at the walls figuring out how to make my facility look like this place. This place rocks. It’s invigorating. The walls are super, it’s just very cool. The atmosphere is cool. The people are nice. It’s a pretty cool place to be. Very good learning atmosphere. I literally want to model it and steal everything that’s here at this facility and basically create it just on our business side. Once I saw what they were doing I knew I had to get here at the conference. This is probably the best conference or seminar I’ve ever been to in over 30 years of business. You’re not bored, you’re awake, you’re alive the whole time. It’s not pushy. They don’t try to sell you a bunch of things. I was looking to learn how to just get control of my life, my schedule, and just get control of business. Planning your time, breaking it all down, making time for the F6 in your life, and just really implementing it and sticking with the program. It’s really lively. They’re pretty friendly, helpful, and very welcoming. I attended a conference a couple months back and it was really the best business conference I’ve ever attended. At the workshop I learned a lot about time management, really prioritizing what’s the most important. The biggest takeaways are you want to take a step-by-step approach to your business. Whether it’s marketing, 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 roadmap out step by step. He’s 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’ll be answered. This conference motivates me and also gives me a lot of knowledge and tools. It’s up to you to do it. Everybody can do these things. I can see the marketing working. It’s just an approach that makes sense. Probably the most notable thing is just the income increase that we’ve had. Everyone’s super fun and super motivating. I’ve been here before, but I’m back again because it motivates me. Your competition’s going to come eventually or try to pick up this tactic. So you better, if you don’t, somebody else will. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9 and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey guys, I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys, we appreciate you and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old house. This is where we used to live two years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See? 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 me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing. And this is our new team. We went from four to 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, times a thousand. 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 Place 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 Clay presents and teaches. It’s a way that not only allows me to comprehend what’s going on, but he explains it in a way to where it just makes sense. The SEO optimization, branding, marketing. I’ve learned, 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’ve learned is that you can’t just go to a website and say, hey, I want to do this, I want to do that. You have to go to a website and say, hey, I want to do this, I want to do that. You have to go to a website and say, hey, I want to do that. You have to go to a website and say, hey, I want to do that. You have to go to a website and say, hey, I want to do that. You have to go to a website and say, hey, I want to do that. You have to go to a website and say, hey, I want to do that. You have to go to a website and say, hey, I want to do that. You have to go to a website and say, hey, I want to do that. You have to go to a website and say, hey, I want to do that. Search engine optimization, helping us really rank high in Google. The biggest thing I needed to learn was how to build my foundation, how to systemize everything and optimize everything, build my SEO. How to become more organized, more efficient. How to make sure the business is really there to serve me as opposed to me constantly being there for the business. New ways of advertising my business as well as recruiting new employees. Group interviews, number one. Before we felt like we were held hostage by our employees. Group interviews has completely eliminated that because you’re able to really find the people that would really be the best fit. It depends on how to hire people, how to deal with human resources, a lot about marketing and overall just how to structure the business, how it works for me and also then how that can translate into working better for my clients. The most valuable thing I’ve learned here is time management. I like the one hour of doing your business is real critical if I’m going to grow and change. Play really teaches you how to navigate through those things and not only find freedom, but find your purpose in your business and find the purposes for all those other people that directly affect your business as well. Everybody. Everybody. Everybody. Everyone. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get an opportunity to see that it’s real.