TipTopK9.com | Legendary Leadership Expert John Maxwell Shares The Leader’s Greatest Return – Attracting & Developing Leaders + The TipTopK9.com Success Story & the Ginny & Mike Mingione 8X Growth / NewConcept.HealthCare Success Story

Audio Transcription

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 a few years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See? It’s nice, right? So this is my old van and our old school marketing. And this is our old team. And by team, I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing. And this is our new team. We went from four to 14. And I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past, and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman, so we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts, and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month, and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship, and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, times a thousand. Excuse me, Thrive Nation. I have to take this call real quick. Hello, and thank you for calling Clay Clark’s podcast and taxidermy. If you’ll kill it, we will make it look great for a very long time. How can I help you? Hey Clay John Maxwell, how are you doing today? Great, I didn’t recognize the number and so I thought you might have been calling about my other side hustle there. 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 Thriving Timeshow. Now, three, two, one, here we go! Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, and we’ll show you how to get there. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Thrive Nation on today’s show, we introduce you once again to Mr. John Maxwell! And John, we have a live studio audience in the background who’s fairly excited for you to be on the show. Wow! That’s our office staff here. Hopefully you can hear them on your end. Oh, I can hear them. They’re wound up. They’re ready to go, aren’t they? Absolutely. Absolutely. They’re excited for me to mute my mic and to just let you talk, my friend. Again, we’re so excited to have you on the show. Since we’ve talked to you last, you’ve been working on a new book here. Can you tell us about the new book? Well, I’d be glad to. Thanks first of all. You do just such a great job on Thrive Time, and so thanks for having me. This is an interesting… I’ve written a lot of books, but the creation of this book was very interesting in how it happened. Twenty-five years ago, well, about 28 years ago, I wrote a book called Developing the Leader Within You, and then afterwards I wrote a book called Developing the Leaders Around You. My publisher, HarperCollins, came to me and they said, John, if you would, I mean, it’s 25 years old, we’d like you to revise developing the leaders around you.” And I said, oh, I’d be glad to. So I went back into the book, and I hadn’t, of course, looked at it for a long time, and I’d written it 25 years ago. So I went into the book, and I thought, oh my gosh, this isn’t very good. I mean, wow, I’ve learned so much more than what, I mean, it’s always disappointing to read a book that’s not very good, but it’s extremely disappointing when it’s your book. It’s kind of like, wow, I’m the author. I had just developed and grown so much in the 25 years. When I started revising Chapter 1, there wasn’t one thing in the original book that I used in this one, and I got to the second chapter, there was a story and a quote I used in that one. The third chapter, again, nothing. And by the fourth chapter I thought, I’m not revising a book here, I’m writing a new book. And so this is how really the Leader’s Greatest Return really evolved. It was going to be a revised Developing the Leader Around You, like a 2.0. I’ve learned so much and I’ve grown so much. In developing leaders, when I wrote that 25 years ago, I was kind of a young leader and I didn’t have a lot of experience in developing people, but I’ve had an amazing amount of experience in the meantime. I just wanted to write a much better, more mature book on how do you develop leaders because I’m passionate about this. When people walk to me and they’re in a leadership position or they’re a leader, they say, Clay, they say to me, John, I really want to become a great leader or a better leader. What do I do? And I tell them that you become a better leader by developing better leaders. And there’s an addition there. But when you really develop other leaders and you develop better leaders, there’s a multiplying, compounding, ridiculous return from that. So I’m very excited about the book. And I’m very excited about the book because there’s a lot of leadership books out, but you won’t find very many leadership books that talk about developing other leaders. Most leaders, Clay, don’t develop other leaders. They just develop themselves and then they have followers. They’ve got a lot of followers. That’s good. Nothing wrong with that, but there’s no multiplication with followers. There might be some addition, but there’s no compounding. But the moment that you start really working and developing intentionally other leaders, then everything begins to compound. So I’m very excited about the book because of that. One of my clients, Pastor Brian Gibson, is a big fan of yours. He has four campuses. His church is called His Church. He has four campuses. And I know he has a ton of leadership questions for you. He has thousands of members. But one question that I would ask on behalf of Brian and all the pastors out there listening and all the business leaders is, where do most people get it wrong when it comes to attracting and developing and multiplying leaders as opposed to followers? Well, where they miss it is, well, there are a couple things that they miss. First of all, Clark, you know there are some leaders that they don’t want other leaders around them. You know there are some leaders that they don’t want other leaders around them. You know there are some leaders that they don’t want other leaders around them. They’re insecure and they’re maybe a little bit threatened by other people who maybe have a better idea. And so there’s a certain amount of leaders who just want followers. That’s one. Number two is we miss it in the fact that developing leaders is not easy. If you yourself are a pretty good leader, attracting followers is very easy. You can do that very quickly. But there’s a difference between attracting followers and developing leaders, because followers, they’re just looking for somebody that has a vision and they wanna get on that leadership train and take the trip. But you start developing leaders. I have always said, leading leaders is like herding cats. I mean, it’s just not an easy thing to do. They don’t fall in line. They don’t get up every day and say, what do you have for me today? They’ve got their own ideas and they’re doing their own thing. And so many leaders don’t develop leaders because it’s much more difficult. It takes more time, it takes more energy, and you’ve got to be a pretty good leader yourself. Like begets like. The law of magnetism in my book, the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, just says we attract who we are, not who we want. So for me to develop other leaders, I have to be, one, a good leader myself, and then I have to put up with the uphill issues of developing leaders because it’s not easy. My friend Art Williams who started Prime America, I love it when he would develop his leaders and he built that incredible company. He would tell his leaders, he’d say, I’m not telling you this is going to be easy, but I am telling you it’s going to be worthwhile. There we go. There we go. That’s what this book is all about, Clay. You know, chapter one of your book, you write about identifying leaders. Find them so you can develop them. What can readers expect to find in this chapter, and where do people get it wrong when it comes to identifying leaders so that they can develop them? Well, it’s in the area of awareness of what a leader looks like, Clay. I have people all the time that say, we’d like to raise up a bunch of leaders in our organization or we need to recruit some leaders. And the question I always ask them is, well, I love that. I say, do you know what a leader looks like? Ninety percent of the time, they want leaders but they have never had a clear picture of what a leader looks like. And so in the book I talk about, I talk about you’ve got to have a clear picture. If you don’t know who you’re looking for, you don’t know if you’re going to find them. And it’s kind of like when I go to the airport and people don’t know who I am, so they have some chauffeur to pick me up. And so that person’s in baggage claim and they’re just standing there by the bags and they’ve got their hand and arm in the air and on the end of their hand they’ve got my name. I get off the plane, get through security, go down to the baggage area. I look for hands in the air and I see my name. I go up and say, Hey, I’m John Maxwell. They’ll look at me and they’ll say, Oh, I found you. And I want to say, You didn’t find me at all. I found you. All you did was stick my name in the air and hope. I could have walked right by you, and you would have never known that you missed me because you didn’t know what I looked like. For all the chauffeurs out there, I just want to put this out here. Just look for a beautiful man. Just look for a beautiful man, and you’ll find John Maxwell. Just look for a beautiful man. There he is. OK, back to you, sir. Look for an old man with a smile and you’ll have it. But they didn’t find me, they just put my name up there and honestly they hoped I would find them. And hope is not a strategy, but I have other people, they pick me up and they either have a book with my picture in it, so they know what I look like. And so all of a sudden they say, hey, you’re John Maxwell, hi, I am. Wow, how’d you know me? Well, I got your picture here. Well, they found me because they knew what I looked like. In chapter one, I talk about what does a leader look like? And I talk about awareness. And I talk about six A’s there that you kind of look for that just helps you know what a leader looks like. Chapter one is all about helping the reader know what a leader looks like so they know who to go get. For a guy like Pastor Brian Gibson, I want to harp on this because his church is exploding. I mean, it is growing. His church, they have a campus in Amarillo, one in Owensboro, two other locations. I mean, they are just growing on a very practical level and maybe even on a daily schedule level. I know you’re a big fan of having a calendar and a very intentional agenda. How does a guy like Pastor Brian go about developing leaders? Should he have like a weekly class? Is it a monthly class? Is it a daily thing? How can he develop leaders? Well, he first of all doesn’t try to develop leaders. He develops a leadership culture. He creates an environment as a leader that is conducive for people to learn leadership, practice leadership, that’s also kind of a magnet that attracts people who like to lead. And he sets that leadership culture up. And a leadership culture, wow, It’s kind of like Chick-fil-A, who has done such an incredible, outstanding job of developing leadership culture. A leadership culture is a place where people really can find leadership development conducive. Mark Miller, who’s a key executive at Chick-fil-A, he’s a good friend of mine, he literally says, their slogan at Chick-fil-A is leaders made here. And how does that happen? This is a fast food restaurant, how does that happen? Well, you develop a leadership culture by letting people, I talk about this in chapter three a little bit, about inviting them to the leadership table and allowing them to come and be a part of an environment of leaders. And you develop leaders and develop a leadership culture by letting them practice leadership. So leadership is not learned in a classroom, although you can learn characteristics of But leaders become leaders because they get to practice leadership. So a leadership culture is a place where you take people and give them a chance to lead and say, okay, here’s your responsibility and I just empower you. Go for it. And you really just help them engage in practicing leadership of which they learn what’s good, what’s not good. Let me give you an example that we have a non-profit organization, EQUIP, well I have two non-profit organizations, John Maxwell Leadership Foundation and EQUIP, that does transformation of countries. We’re invited by the presidents of countries to come in and teach values to the country to help bring positive change. So we’re in three countries now, we’re getting ready to go into two more countries, and we have 22, literally 22 presidents of countries who have sent us letters. I mean, they’re on the waiting list. And we have a very effective process of knowing how to bring positive change in the community. And we start by getting permission from the top of the eight streams of influence, government and then business, education, media, arts, religion, health and sports. We get buy-in from them that they’ll let us come in and do these leadership roundtables. We have millions of people in these roundtables now. It’s an amazing story, but I don’t want to get sidetracked when we’re talking about this, how to develop a leadership culture. So one of the things we do is we have a junior high curriculum for kids, on three years of curriculum, for seventh, eighth, and ninth, on values. And the whole thesis is when a person learns good values and then they begin to live them out, they become more valuable. They become more valuable to themselves, they become more valuable to the family, they become more valuable to their community. Their whole value increases because they’re learning and living out good values. And so we do them in round tables, and so we do them in classrooms, again, round tables of six to eight, but the kids lead and facilitate the round tables, not the teacher. And so what’s happening is these kids in school, and this is not before or after school, this is in the regular curriculum of a class, they’re practicing leadership. And all of a sudden, teachers are just seeing kids, some kids are popping up and they’re saying, wow, this child has some leadership potential. Well, how did they discover that? They let them practice leadership. And so when anybody comes and says, I want to have a leadership culture, you’ve got to give them, you’ve got to do two things. You’ve got to let them practice leadership and you have to equip them. Chris Hodges is a very close friend of mine and has Church of the Highlands and has an enormous church. I think it’s the second largest church in America. I think they average about 55,000, 60,000. And they have many campuses, you were talking about, Brian having four, he has maybe 15. And what they do is at each campus, it’s another chance for them to put people in leadership positions to practice leadership. And he said, John, we found two things. If we let them practice leadership, and then we speak leadership into them as far as we see these things happening to you as a leader. He said we just find that they’re just raising up and we’re raising up hundreds of leaders. So you’ve got to develop a leadership culture. Leadership culture is where there’s a bias towards leadership and everybody gets to practice it. When you say practice, would you advise maybe to let somebody lead maybe a youth group service or to lead like a home fellowship group or what? Yes, yes, all of it all of it all of it. Whatever that see what I tell person whatever you’re doing has leadership potential and And leadership is the ability to influence people. So let’s look at your job and ask ourselves a simple question How can you do your job? Well, and while you’re doing your job well, how can you influence people in a positive way? And one of the ways we help people is say, we want to empower you to make decisions. So you’ve got a receptionist out there, but we say, okay, yes, you have a job of kind of directing traffic in this company and in and out of the lobby, yes, that’s your job, but now let’s talk about how can we help you to lead well in this job? And what I do is I let them have the job for a few months, and then we come around and we say, okay, talk to me, what doesn’t work here? What do you love about your job? What’s not working? What frustrates you? This front desk here. And they’ll tell you what frustrates them, and almost everything that frustrates them is because they haven’t been empowered to be a leader. And they may say, well, you know, I’ve got a person waiting in the lobby sometimes for 30 minutes and I’m kind of embarrassed about that. So we said, well, we’re going to empower you to do some leadership with them. Go over there and serve them. Ask them, get you a cup of coffee. We just empower them to make decisions on the job which positively influence people which is practicing leadership. And every job has that. And the problem is too many times we look at our job as a job and don’t see beyond the things that we’re required to do. And in fact, I had a, you know, in the book, in this book, there’s so many practical things I have in the Leaders Raise Return, but one of the things I teach is the fact that in our companies, I have seven of them, but in our companies we teach our people, when we give them a job we say now we want you to do your job with excellence, but we really want you to work yourself out of this job. When we give them a job we say now we want you to do your job with excellence, but we really want you to work yourself out of this job. When we give them a job we say now we want you to do your job with excellence, but we really want you to work yourself out of this job. So, you do excellent, but while you’re doing excellent, go start developing people to do your job and find somebody of that group that you develop that can do this job really good. And when you can develop somebody to do your job, and I’ll give you another one, but if you can’t work yourself out of a job, you have to take it away from you. And that just develops a huge leadership culture. Mark Cole, who runs all of my seven companies, has had nine different jobs. He started in the stock room, but he worked himself out of a job, worked himself out of a job, and practiced leadership, practiced leadership, and he practiced leadership all the way to the top. Now, John, I want to ask you this next question with the subtlety that only a megaphone can provide. You’ve written 84 books. I repeat, you’ve written 84 books. And you own seven companies. How do you create the time needed to write your books? What is your process for writing the books? There’s so many business leaders that say, I can’t find the time to do it. I’m just overwhelmed. I can’t find the time to write my book. How do you? How do you find the time to write 84 books while running 7 companies? You’ve written 84 books? Yeah. Wow. Okay, back to you, sir. Which is nothing except it proves you’re old. You can’t write that many books if you’re young. It takes a while. So it just means I’m an old man. But also when you ask how do I do that, I’m very intentional. And every day I do five things. Every day I read. Every day I think. Every day I file. Every day I ask questions. And every day I write. I’m very intentional. And every day I do five things. Every day I read, every day I think, every day I file, every day I ask questions, and every day I write. And the reading, the thinking, the filing, the asking questions are all resources for me to write books. So every day, every day I read and then I take what I read that’s good and I file it so that I don’t lose it. Then I think about what I file and I think, I say, okay, how can this help people? Sometimes I immediately know what the answer is and so I put it in somewhere where it’s a potential book somewhere down the road. I ask questions continually because whatever I’m writing on, whatever book I’m writing on, I ask questions on that subject. When I was writing The Leader’s Greatest Return, when I was with the leader, I’d say, now talk to me how you develop leaders. What do you do? And I just ask questions and I get more answers and get more enlightenment and become more aware. But then the key is every day I write. And somebody says, well, what do you mean by every day you write? What I mean is every day I write. I don’t ever miss a day. Where do you write and what time of the day do you write? Well, I write everywhere because every day I write and I travel. So, you know, I write in hotel rooms. And I don’t even use a computer. I just use a legal pad and a four-color pen. And I prefer, I don’t always get to do this, but my preference is writing in the morning. I’m up. And, four o’clock to five o’clock in the morning sometime there I’m up. And, four o’clock to five o’clock in the morning sometime there I’m up. And, I love this, John, because I’ve interviewed so many super successful people and all of you guys are up before 5am. Can you help somebody out there who says, John, I want to be successful, I’m just not a morning person. What would you say to them? Well, I tell them that they can be successful and not be a morning person, but they increase the odds of not doing that well because, first of all, if you’re a night person, then if you’re right, you’re right between midnight and three in the morning. I don’t care. Nobody wants you at that time either. You’ve got to ask yourself, what am I? I happen to be a morning person. But here’s the key. The fastest person doesn’t win the race. I was with Gail Devers having dinner one night and of course she was a big Olympic champion, won medals in three different Olympics and probably a female track star in America, probably the number one athlete in Olympic history. I said, Gail, I’ve been thinking about the dinner. I think if you and I ran a hundred yard race, I could win. She looked at me and said, you’re kidding. I said, no, I’m not kidding. I think I could win. She was with her husband. She said, did you hear him? Yeah, I heard that. Anyway, I got her competitive juices going. She’s about ready to take her high heels off in that restaurant and go take me out in front of it. We’re going to run a block. I mean, she was ready to let me eat dust. I got her right to the tibia point. I said, Gail, listen to me carefully because I have thought about this. If you and I had a fight, I would have a fight. I would have a fight. I would have a fight. I would have a fight. I would have a fight. I would have a fight. I would have a fight. I would have a fight. I would have a fight. I would have a fight. I would have a fight. I would have a fight. I would have a fight. I would have a fight. I would have a fight. I said, Gail, listen to me carefully because I have thought about this. If you and I had a 100 yard race, I said, I think I could win if you gave me an 80 yard head start. She started laughing and said, well of course if I gave you an 80 yard head start you could win the race. By the way, Clark, I wanted to say 70 yards but I wasn’t sure I could win with 70 yards. But for 80 yards, this fat boy could get across the line first. I knew that. And here’s the whole point. This is what I want your listeners to catch today. It’s very simple. The fastest person doesn’t win the race. It’s the one who gets started first. Always. That’s good. You mentioned that you write your books methodically using a pen and a pad. You’re using a pen and a pad. Is that the technology you’re using to write your books typically? Yeah, it’s just a legal pad and a four color pen, black, blue, red, and green ink. And each color means something different. Yeah, I just, you know, when I finish a book, I’ve got 240 legal pages written and That yeah, that’s how I do it. How many times I love how many times do you typically edit a book before? It’s ready to go. I mean how many times does it go back between you and an editor before it’s it’s ready to ship? twice Twice just this twice, you know, okay, that’s that you’re blowing my mind my mind might explode Well, well it first of all, I’ve done it a long time and pretty well. I don’t give them a product until it’s already pretty good and done. I’ve got a team of three people that help me with the book. It’s different eyes looking at the book and different input. So it’s not just me. If the four of us can’t get a book, a manuscript pretty well done for the publisher that is pretty good, then we’re in the wrong business probably. Well, John, we have so many of our listeners that love your books. One of our listeners who really loves your books, his name is Cory Minter, M-I-N-T-E-R, and he owns a company called Trinity Employment Specialists. These guys do staffing for hospitals, so hospitals needing doctors and really high-level professional staffing. And so, Corey wanted to ask you a few questions on today’s show. So Corey, meet John Maxwell. Mr. Maxwell, it’s great to meet you. I can’t believe I’m talking to you right now, actually. It’s my privilege, Corey. Nice to meet you. I think I’m the one that’s privileged. I want to jump into this real quick because we only have so much time. I love asking really great leaders this one question, what are your limits? And so that’s such a big, deep question, but for this show, how do you set your limits specifically with your schedule? Well, first of all, Cor, I probably am going to disappoint you. I have a lot of limits. I think the first thing that a leader needs to do is be very aware. I’m very aware of what I do well and I’m very aware of what I don’t do well. And basically, I do three things really well. I lead well, I create well, and I speak and communicate well. Those are the three things I do well. So I do those three things, Corey. Period. And people say, well, what do you mean you just do those three things? What I mean is I just do those three things. Very simple. Everything else, everything else is done by people that are just better than I am. And they come around me. The people around me complete me. The people around me compliment me. The people around me allow me to stay in my strength zone so that I can be productive. And I’m incredibly grateful for those people. My executive assistant, Linda, has been with me for 32 years. Mark Cole, who runs everything with me, has been with me for 20 years. My Charlie Wetzel, the lead guy on my writing team, has been with me for 24 years. They just really make up all the difference. And I allow them to. I don’t try to control. I just basically say, you do this better than me, so you do this. And then we come together and we just add value to one another, and I just stay in that sweet spot. And so when people ask me, again, how can you write that many books? Well, it’s very simple, I do it every day. Well, why do I do it, how can I do it every day? I don’t have 17 things to do. That’s why I do three things, and I do them well, and then I bring everybody else around me, and they do the rest, and then I point to them, and I give them the credit, because they’re the ones that deserve the credit. So, great leaders take the vision or the work from me to we. And so I don’t have any me work, I have we work. Everything that you see that I do is a result of a lot of people who care for me and are very competent that just allow me to be good. And it’s that, really, Corey, it’s that simple. John, I want to ask you this because I’ve heard you say that we all have uphill hopes and downhill habits. Yeah, habits. What do you mean by that? Well, what I mean by that is that most people have hopes for their life and dreams for their life. And all those dreams and hopes, whatever they are, they’re all uphill. It’s not easy. It doesn’t happen fast. If success were easy, everybody would be successful. And so it’s all uphill. All the good stuff, everything worthwhile, it’s uphill. There’s nothing worthwhile. I mean, if you have a good marriage, it’s because you worked at it. I mean, marriage is difficult. I mean, building a business is difficult. Being successful, it’s all difficult. There’s nothing easy about it. I don’t understand anybody thinking, well, you know, it’s just easy. It’s easy to make a lot of money. Well, if it is, then everybody would have a lot of money. If it’s easy to have a great marriage and people would be married for 50 years. It’s not easy. So, it’s all a struggle. By the way, to go uphill, Clark, you have to be intentional. You don’t accidentally, no one ever accidentally climbed a hill. I mean, nobody ever got to the top of a hill and then looked at their friends and said, my gosh, how did we get here? It’s intentional. You are very intentional. You’ve worked uphill to write this new book, The Leader’s Greatest Return. And in chapter two of this book that you worked tirelessly on to create, you talk about attracting leaders and inviting them to the leadership table. What does the process of attracting leaders look like? And where do you see people getting it wrong? Well, I think where people get it wrong is that I think leaders stay too isolated. And there’s something beautiful about a table. I mean, I love a table. And I could go on for a long time lecturing just on the beauty of a table, whether it’s a table where you sit down and have a meal together with friends, or whether it’s a table where you sit down and think of ways to improve people’s lives, you know, to have a creative table. But there’s a leadership table, and that’s where you invite people to sit down and talk to other leaders and discuss the subject of leadership and ask questions. And I think it’s a very engaging term. And in this chapter, I talk about everybody needs to create a leadership table, and that’s just a place literally where potential leaders, they’re not there yet, but potential leaders can sit close to better leaders. And while they sit there, they can learn from them, they can listen, they can participate, they can ask questions. And so I just think it’s very important in a leadership culture to not exclude anyone, just let them sit at the table. Now, once they start practicing leadership, they begin to set themselves apart as far as who are what you might call your A-list leaders and your B-list leaders, maybe even your C-list leaders. But they begin to set themselves apart. But they don’t set themselves apart until they get to practice leadership. And I say the first step of practicing leadership is let them get into a leadership environment where they hear lead discussions. Because what happens is people grow into the conversation that you have around them. And so if I’m around conversations where leaders are talking about solving problems and creating solutions, after a while I’m going to think about solving problems and creating solutions. And so it’s that environment. And I love this second chapter of the book because I’ve never read anybody else talk about it, but it’s just a very simple, practical idea of to have a table, and you get somebody new on your team, say, hey, you know, sit for a couple of months at our leadership table and let them hear the questions and let them participate. And very soon, you’ll see the ones who kind of lean in toward leadership. And you’ll see the ones who kind of lean back and lean away from it. They’re anti. It just doesn’t attract them. And so you begin to visually see who your potential leaders are going to be. And then that’s when you begin to invest time in those potential leaders to get your return. Well, John, we’ve got a kind of a virtual leadership table here, and Corey has another question for you. He’s just a huge fan of yours. And Corey, just feel free to see if you can paint John Maxwell, the leadership guru, into a leadership corner. See if he can fight his way out of it with his ninja leadership skills. I’m going to try. I’m going to try. Thank you, Clay. At this point in your life, John, who do you most want to help do what? Just Cubans or Americans or who do you think? Well first of all, kind of my mantra is that I add value to leaders who multiply value to others. So everything I do has a bias and an intention toward developing leaders. So, Corey, I have a non-profit organization that for 19 years just trained leaders around the world. We were pretty successful. We trained 6 million leaders in every country in the world and became the largest leadership training company in the world. And when we finished that, we went back to the table and said, okay, let’s help these leaders know how to lead now. So they know leadership skills and leadership principles. Let’s help them become transformational and bring positive change into people’s lives, which is beyond just knowing how to lead. So we now are focused on transformation in countries. We started seven years ago in Guatemala as our first country. We only come into the country when the president of the country invites us in. And we’re now in three countries. We’re going to go into two more this year. And we have 22 presidents and prime ministers of countries that have invited us by letter in to come in and do leadership transformation. And so we do that through small groups, through what we call transformation tables, group of six or eight, and over the course of time, they discuss 16 different values, and what we’ve discovered is when people learn good values and they live them, it begins to make them more valuable, makes them more valuable to themselves, makes them more valuable to their family, to their community, and so we’re doing country transformation, and then next year, I’m going to launch community transformation in America. I have a coaching company that has 30,000 coaches. It’s the largest coaching company in the world in 162 countries. We add 150 new coaches every week. Wow! Wow! And so it’s amazing. If any of your listeners want to know more about it, just tell them to go to johnmaxwell.com and look up. It’s called the John Maxwell Team. But I’m mobilizing those people. Jack Welch and I had a conversation several years ago in which we were talking about legacy and he and I came to the same agreement that legacy is not in a company or an organization, it’s in people. And so I literally started the John Maxwell team, which is our coaching company, to literally, literally to develop a legacy of leadership and values. And so we’re going to start community transformation next year in America. And we’re going to mobilize those coaches to be catalytic in their communities to bring about transformation. We’ve got curriculum of round tables for adults. We have leadership curriculum for junior high kids. We’ve got over a million and a half kids going through our curriculum in junior high right now. And it’s values, it’s all about values. And so that’s my passion, Corey. If there’s one thing I’m putting my time in is transformation of countries. And then I want to bring it back to America because the answer is not going to happen in government or in DC. It’s going to happen when people take their own communities back and say, I’m going to make a difference right here where I am with people that I already know. And so it’s very exciting, Corey. And as much as you read and hear my stuff, you need to become one of my coaches. You need to quit fooling around. I need to get busy, right? No, John, I want to ask you this real quick. You talk a lot about the power of intentional living. I’ve heard you talk about it, write about it. You’ve definitely talked about it. What happens, I find as a consultant for people, I work with a lot of churches and business owners, is a business owner says, you know what? I’m going to be intentional. The pastor says, you know what? I’m going to be intentional. And then they get to work, it would say 7 a.m., they’re bombarded with 13 hours a week of emails on average. They’re bombarded by got a minute meetings, they’re bombarded by everyone’s got a different opinion. What advice would you have for the pastors out there who have a church of a thousand plus members and they’ve become reactive? They used to be proactive, now they’re very reactive. Because you come from the ministry world, what advice would you have specifically for the pastors out there about being intentional about their church after they grow over a thousand members and it can become easy to become reactive by default? Well, that’s a great question, Clark, and the answer is that you have to be intentional in your priorities. Just living an intentional life, I can intentionally go to errands every day and say, I know what I’m doing. I’m doing errands intentionally, but there may be no return there. So this is going to be very helpful. When I went to San Diego, for 14 years I pastored a large church. In fact, it was written up as one of the 10 most influential churches in America. I sat down with the search committee before I ever became the lead pastor there. They asked me questions for three hours. I answered their questions. Finally, they said, we’re done. Do you have any questions? I said, well, I just have one. I said, you know, we’ve covered most of the stuff. I said, this is a very important question and it may take us a while to answer it tonight, but I’ve got to have an answer. I said, if I become the lead pastor of this church, what do I have to do that no one else can do except That’s the question. Now this is a huge question. This will change everybody’s life. All of your listeners, I don’t care what business, whatever you’re doing, this question changed your life. And of course in the beginning they gave me a whole bunch of stuff that I had to do and I followed the founding pastors so if anybody knows anything about a founder, founders do everything and I knew I couldn’t build, the church had stagnated for a dozen years. I knew the problem. The problem was that they weren’t intentional in their priorities enough. So that became a two-hour discussion, Clark, and when we finished, basically they said I had to be responsible for the health of the church. That’s fair. They said I had to be the primary communicator on the weekends. That’s fair. They said I had to obviously be responsible to live a good life, a good moral life, etc. Only I can do that. That’s fair. And then they said I needed to be responsible to develop the staff. And that’s fair. And that’s the only four things I had to do that I couldn’t delegate, equip, empower someone else to do. So now that’s on my list. That’s my list. Got it. Maxwell has to do those every day, be intentional with them. Everything else is not on my list. Everything else, I’m going to find people, equip them, develop them as leaders, and they’re going to have it. It’s going to be theirs. And so I spent the first 18 months getting all those other things handled by other people, of which I didn’t do any of it, and then I just stayed in my sweet spot of those four things. I never had to be reactionary because I had everybody. You get reactionary when you don’t have anybody else to carry the load except you, and that’s a leadership issue. Hey, that’s the reason I wrote the book, The Leader’s Greatest Return. You’ve got to develop other leaders to help you carry that load. John, you know, a smartphone can make people dumb. Again, a smartphone can make people dumb. According to Nielsen Media, the average person is now interrupted by or interacting with their smartphone 11 hours per day, which to me seems just crazy. 11 hours per day. What would you say to a business owner out there or a leader of some kind who has found himself surgically attached to the smartphone which is interrupting them constantly? What would you say to that business owner who’s trying to lead a staff meeting but can’t stop looking at their phone and all the emails coming in, all the interruptions, what would you say to them? I would tell them that they don’t prioritize well, and they’re very discourteous to the people that they’re trying to give their attention to. What would you say to that business owner who’s trying to lead a staff meeting but can’t stop looking at their phone and all the emails coming in, all the interruptions, what would you say to them? I would tell them that they don’t prioritize well, and they’re very discourteous to the people that they’re trying to lead a staff meeting but can’t stop looking at their phone and all the emails coming in, all the interruptions, what would you say to them? I would tell them that they don’t prioritize well and they’re very discourteous to the people that they’re trying to give their attention to. This isn’t Every distraction keeps a person from having traction. Traction is to pull in for a cause and distraction is to pull away from the cause. I have no idea why people would do that except the fact that they’re discourteous to other people. When I see people, they’re trying to talk to me and they’re looking at their phone a dozen times after a while, I look at them and say, maybe we need to shorten the conversation. You want to talk to the phone or you want to talk to me? Let’s make a decision. If you want to talk to the phone, I’ve got other things to go do. That’s powerful. It’s ridiculous. So, I want to say it’s stupidity, but it’s probably just discourteous. And so, when people have their phone attached to their, I mean, I’ve got an iPhone and I got people wanting me, when you have seven companies, you probably have enough people like to have your attention for something. And so you’ve got to really, you’ve got to say, for the next three hours, I don’t even have my phone with me. It’s not complicated. It’s very easy to do. I always tell people they get distracted because they’ve never gotten enough traction on what they really want to accomplish in life. When you know what you want to accomplish in life, you really don’t care about that other stuff. That is powerful. You are just full of knowledge bombs. I want to respect your time and we have a chance here for 90 seconds and two final questions. Corey, you have one more question for John Maxwell. Thanks, Clay. This is a Corey show today. Oh, man. He’s a huge fan. Hey, and thank you, Clay. I really appreciate it. Corey, Corey, you need to be a coach. Go to JohnMaxwell.com. I’m going to zoom my internet there as soon as this show is over, John. Hey, if you were a coach, I’d certify you and you’d get all these questions answered a lot quicker than being on Clark Shill’s. Go ahead, I’m on there. I’m having fun, I’m having fun. I love it, I love it. You have moved over into the business world, but you’re a man of faith. What is the best advice that you would like to share with other businessmen who are also very strong in their faith, but they work in a secular world. Well, I love that question. I honestly wish I had an hour to discuss it with you, Corey, because it’s the world that I live in and it’s the world that I love. And I would say three things quickly. One is, you unconditionally love people, period. End of story. And so I said, well, what does it mean to unconditionally love somebody? It means that you don’t put any conditions of love on them. You love them who they are, as they are, where they are. Period. Discussion’s over. That’s the first thing. Because you can never be salt and light into a secular community if you’re drawing lines and judging and trying to fix people. I love it. Christians love to fix people. I don’t know. Last time I knew Jesus saved, but anyway, they’re trying to fix people. So unconditionally love people. That’s number one. Number two, become excellent in your field of business. In other words, with fellow believers, the relationship we have through Christ pulls us together. That’s not true in the business community. You don’t get a relationship first, you get respect first, and then you get the relationship. And you get respect for being able to help people and provide and meet needs and be excellent in exceeding expectations, and number three, intentionally add value to them every day. And this is what connects you relationally to people when they wake up one day and say, you know, John is just, he’s an asset to me. He’s just, he’s an asset to me. He’s constantly helping me and making a difference in my life. And that’s the relational connection you get. Then hopefully, in the right time and the right place, you have an opportunity to share faith with them. But those three things are essential. John Maxwell, I appreciate you so much for taking time out of your schedule to invest in the lives of our half a million listeners. It’s just been an honor for John Maxwell part two. Again, thank you so much. Thank you, Clark. Have a great day and blessings to all your listeners. And if you’re out there today and you’ve learned something, I encourage you to buy The Leader’s Greatest Return. Maybe you need to not buy a regrettable burrito today at your local convenience store. Maybe you need to fast for one day in a row. Save the 20 bucks, buy the book The Leader’s Greatest Return. I’m not going to say, John, I’m not going to say people out there are being cheap if they don’t buy the book. But I would just say some would suggest, I should say, that you’re being cheap. If you don’t buy The Leader’s Greatest Return, what an incredible book. Pick it up right now. John, you take care, my friend. Thank you, Clark. Blessings. Happy New Year. Thrive Nation, that was the goat of leadership development. The number one, the greatest of all time in the field of leadership development, John Maxwell. You know, a lot of times people get fired up about what somebody says, and then they want to get a tattoo of their favorite Bible verse or their favorite quote. I want to embroider those knowledge bombs on my forehead. The stuff he just taught was awesome. I mean, he talks about how, as a leader, you’ve got to turn your smartphone off in your staff meetings, or you’re being discourteous or prioritizing. He talked about turning your phone off in the meetings. He talked about how to develop leaders He just explained to you that he gets up at 4 in the morning to write his books He just explained to you every day. He does five things every single day this show was hot However, it was Napoleon Hill that once said that that action is the real measure of intelligence. So, don’t be just a hearer of this show, because Thomas Edison once said that vision without execution is hallucination. Remember, action is the real measure of intelligence, according to Napoleon Hill, and vision without execution is hallucination, according to Thomas Edison. So let’s not hallucinate. Let’s not be unintelligent. Let’s go out there and implement what we’ve learned. Let’s be both hearers of these words and doers of these words. And I just, I encourage you to take notes today, put it into your calendar. What gets scheduled gets done. You can absolutely live an incredible, epic, super successful life, or you can just be the guy who knows a little bit about everything, but who never actually implements anything. Let’s go out there and be hearers and doers. Share this show with a friend and now without any further ado let’s end this show with a big thrive time boom a big boom because boom stands for big overwhelming optimistic momentum it’s big overwhelming optimistic momentum and now without any further ado here we go three two one boom 3, 2, 1, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! I wake up at 3 to get it all done, got money on my mind and my watch number 1, got a cultural role cause I am a Christian, in it for the long game or nothin, get rich quick nah, I don’t do it, but if you got a real good I’ll help you pursue it, like Robbie Snyder I’ll be sayin you can do it, you can do it, you can do it, you have to seize the day at Carpe Diem son, you don’t ever want to make them Benjamin’s, success requires self discipline, self discipline, self discipline, I just said it 3 times in a row, in a row, cause if you’re looking for a real hero, you gotta look into me and my bro, will you be a victim or a victor? I think we’re missing it all, how bizarre, the resources you need aren’t there before, you gotta get three jobs like I once did, target Applebee’s and direct TV, which meant I never watched TV, cause I was on my grind like a 2-3, or like that 12 to the TV, do you feel mad? Like a pet, stick to your goals like glue Like 80 hours to p-p-p-p-p-p-week, what’s new? And I am so to the serious Because I ain’t smoking delirious I’m aware of cause and effect And I know that your life could be great Or your life could be good and great So what will you do today? Will you fill the schedule with nothingness? Or the middle with somethingness? What you’re waiting for is Santa and an elf? This just in, you could be helping yourself Say no to the handouts Cause they hurt your pride Or you could be out working the other guy What? Or you could be out working the other guy Who? Or you could be out walking to other guys. Yes, ah yes, it’s time to rise and grind. Ah yes, before the rooster crows. Ah yes, it’s time to rise and grind. Ah yes, everybody sing it now. Ah yes, ah yes, it’s time to rise and grind. Ah yes, before the rooster crows. Oh, yeah It’s not too right Life is to get started cuz there’s no redo 38 integrate. I’m half dead dude. I’m half dead dude. Well hell’s bells I’m gonna go take a nap The thrive time show today interactive business workshops are the highest and most reviewed business workshops on the planet You can learn the proven 13-point business systems that dr. Zellner about 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 gonna teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re gonna 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 going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because, as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness and I wanted the knowledge you’re like, oh But we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell at every workshop We teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big Get rich quick walk on hot coals Product it’s literally we teach you the brass tacks the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, but I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert, Zellner & 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. All right. And now, ladies and gentlemen, I’m going to bring up my good friend Ryan Wimpey, my good friend Ryan Wimpey, and his dog, Odin, this dog has the ability to eat me, so I’m sort of concerned. I’ll pass the mic to you, and Odin, you can have your own mic if you want, whatever you want, Odin. Okay, I’m a little bit afraid of Odin. Hi, I’m Ryan Wimpey. And I’m Rachel Wimpey, and the name of our business is Kip Talks Tonight. Our business is a dog training business. We help people with behavioral issues and teach their dog how to listen. When I was learning to become a dog trainer, we didn’t learn anything about Internet marketing or advertising or anything at all. It’s just dog training. And that’s what’s so great about working with Clay and his team because they do it all for us. So that we can focus on our passion and that’s training dogs. Clay and his team here, they’re so enthusiastic. Their energy is off the charts. Never a dull moment. They’re a thread. We’ve been working with Clay and his team for the last five months, two of which have been our biggest months ever. One, our biggest gross by 35%. Clay’s helps us make anything from brochures to stickers, new business cards, new logos, scripts for phones, scripts for email, scripts for text messages, scripting for everything. How I would describe the weekly meetings with Clay and his team are awesome. They’re so effective. It’s worth every minute. Things get done, we’ll ask for things like different flyers and they’re done before our hour is up. So it’s just awesome, extremely effective. If you don’t use Clay and his team, you’re probably going to be pulling your hair out, or you’re going to spend half of your time trying to figure out the online marketing game and producing your own flyers and marketing materials, print materials, all the stuff like that. You’re really losing a lot as far as lost productivity and lost time. Not having a professional do it has a real sense of urgency and actually knows what they’re doing when you already have something that’s your core focus that you already know how to do. You would also be missing out with all the time and financial freedom that you would have working with Clay and his team. We would recommend Clay and his team to other business owners because they need to be working on their business, not just trying to figure out the online game, which is complex and changing daily. So, no one has a marketing team, too. Most people don’t. They can’t afford one and their local web guy or a local person that they know probably can’t do everything that a whole team and a whole floor of people can do in hours and not just weeks or months. There’s a definite sense of urgency with Clay and his team. I used to have to ride other web people, I mean really ride them to get stuff done and stuff is done so fast here. There’s a real sense of urgency to get it done. Hey, I’m Ryan Wimpey. I’m originally from Tulsa, born and raised here. I’ve definitely learned a lot about life design and making sure the business serves you. 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. 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. Play is hilarious. I literally laughed so hard that I started having tears yesterday. And we’ve been learning a lot, which, you know, we’ve been sitting here, we’ve been learning a lot, and so the humor definitely helps. It breaks it up. But the content is awesome, off the charts, and it’s very interactive you can raise your hand it’s not like you’re just listening to the professor speak you know the wizard teaches but the wizard interacts and he takes questions that’s awesome. If you’re not attending the conference you’re missing about three quarters to half of your life. You’re definitely it’s probably worth a couple thousand dollars so you’re missing the thought process of someone that’s already started like nine profitable businesses. So, not only is it a lot of good information, but just getting in the thought process of Clay Clark or Dr. Zellner or any of the other coaches, getting in the thought process of how they’re starting all these businesses, to me, just that is priceless. That’s money. Well, we’re definitely not getting upsold here. My wife and I have attended conferences where they, where it was great information and then they upsold us like half the conference and I want to like bang my head into a wall and she’s like banging her head into the chair in front of her. Like it’s good information but we’re like oh my gosh I want to strangle you, shut up and go with the presentation that we paid for and that’s not here. There’s no upsells or anything so that’s awesome. I hate that. It makes me angry. So glad that’s not happening. So the cost of this conference is quite a bit cheaper than business college. 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. I would definitely recommend that people would check out the Thrive 15 conference. The information that you’re gonna get is just very, very beneficial. And the mindset that you’re gonna get, that you’re gonna leave with, is just absolutely worth the price of a little bit of money and a few days worth of your time. Oh, look at this cute baby. What a great baby. Quality baby. That’s a healthy baby. Bright Nation, on today’s show, I’m very excited for you to hear this success story about this wonderful couple that, Sean, I would describe them as they are killing the game in the most nonviolent way possible. They’re killing the game in the most nonviolent way possible. They are blowing up in a good way. Folks, I’m telling you, these folks are really growing their business. And what makes them great is they’re really kind, hardworking, diligent people. And we’re honored to serve them. We’ve got Jenny and Mike here joining us. Jenny and Mike, welcome to the Thrive Time Show. How are you two? Hi, thank you. Good, we’re doing well. Okay, I’ll start with you, Jenny, because frankly, Sean likes you more. No, I’m just kidding. So, how did you first discover us in the business coaching that we provide? So I was listening to different podcasts about business. I was starting up our business, and so you were the first one to pop up on our podcast on Apple. I think Apple is what I was on. And so I started listening to you. I got on your website, and I was just a little girl starting a business, and I said, I’m going to ask this guy to be my coach, and I don’t think I’m going to get a shot. But sure enough, within a week, you got me. Now who is this cute, cute child here? But Micah, who is this cute kid here? It’s Lennon Rose. She is about to be 10 months old. I hate to do this to you, but can you kind of hold up the baby to the camera a little bit? This is probably… Oh, look at this cute baby. What a great baby. Quality baby. That’s a healthy baby. Okay. So, so Mike, can you tell us what’s the name of your website there? I think people want to look you up and verify you’re real people that don’t just happen to have a cute baby. Yeah, our website is newconcept.healthcare. Newconcept.healthcare. So newconcept.healthcare. I’m going to pull it up right now, folks, so we can all verify that they’re not just a couple who’s taking advantage of the cute baby they have to get a podcast here. This is a real couple. I’m going to pull that up here. So this is the website, it’s newconcept.healthcare. And can you tell our listeners, what services do you guys provide at newconcept.healthcare? So we offer more functional medicine, so we offer IV therapies, we offer hormone replacement therapies, we also do acute care, we do pretty much everything, but we’re very much alternative. So we believe in medical freedom, and that’s what we offer. And you guys, you reached out. Do you remember that initial consultation there? Do you remember, Mike, that initial consultation? Do you remember what that was like? Yeah, it was actually pretty overwhelming that we started in this business with absolutely nothing and we had the opportunity to work with a five-time check. Well, you know, the one thing I always try to do is, you know, my father, great guy, may he rest in peace, he worked his tail off like so many people do, and there was no real economic result that was achieved from it. There wasn’t any, you know, he had a college degree, he’s working two jobs. I remember he’s late 30s, he’s working at Domino’s delivering pizzas, working at Quick Trip, he worked at furniture stores. And I always try to look at every new client we have as though I’m talking to my dad, you know, because like, what would, what would my dad, you know, what could he have learned at the age of 37 that could have changed the financial trajectory of his life? You know, and I try to look at it that way. And, um, so you guys, I paired you up with Sean. You’ve been working with Sean, I believe Sean, since, uh, October of 2020. Is that correct? Sean, I think that’s when they started their business. It wasn’t until about April of 2021 and at that point, from that point to now, Sean, how much growth have you guys achieved from 2021 to now? Do you know that number? Yeah, I mean, we’re sitting at 2023 revenues were $821,000 and there in October of 2020, like they only had a few months, they made about $95,000 by the end of 2020. And then we grew significantly that first year, about 375% to $588,000. And we continued to grow there ever since, all the way up to where we’re getting close to the million dollar mark at this point here, just like three years in. Jenny, how would you describe the growth? Would you say you’ve doubled, are you at five times larger? How would you describe that? Oh, no, I definitely feel the growth. There’s been some growing pains, and you guys have helped us through that, too. So it’s been amazing. It’s been amazing to help people, because that’s what I’m passionate about. And you guys have really helped us expand and tell people what we’re about. So step one here, we did this with all the clients. I’m going to walk people through the steps. We really needed to nail down your branding. And that’s a big thing because, you know, branding is to humans what clothing is. So as an example, you know, you wake up today, folks, if you run around and you’re streaking through life, you’re probably not going to get a lot of conversations started. So we all have to be intentional about, you know, what are we going to wear? Are we going to wear a tie? Are we going to wear a polo? Are we going to do makeup? Are we not? So people, they judge us based on our appearance. And so we really had to get a website built. We had to optimize the online brand. Jenny, we do it all included for our clients. So we don’t refer you to another vendor. We do it all. Can you talk about the impact that that has made on the business? Oh, for sure. Just the website itself, it looks so great. We would never have been able to make it look that great. The way y’all optimize everything and keep us with Google, just where people search us and we’re the first people that come up. And that’s actually how we’ve established our business and started offering some of the things that we offer is because of the tags that we have. I didn’t originally start off as doing IV therapy, but due to people Googling, you know, health care, functional medicine, I had three phone calls in a week that said, hey, do you offer IV therapy? And it was very interesting. And I was like, well, no, but I can. And so it was because of you guys that that kind of snowballed and took effect. So yeah, there’s a lot that you guys have done for us. Now, Sean, we’re working with these wonderful clients here. I’ll pick on Mike here. You know, you always say great things about Mike and Jenny. What makes them good to work with? Because I want to make sure for anybody out there, if you go to thrivetimeshow.com, I consistently offer a free 13-point assessment. I’ve been doing that since 2005. I do it without reservation. There’s no obligation. But there’s usually about one to two knuckleheads a week that will fill out the form and probably 20 really great people that fill out the form. And then we only take on 160 clients. So I don’t want anyone to waste their time. What makes Mike so great to work with? Well, Clay, I mean, when I first started coaching, you taught me about these two types of business owners. There’s the happy hopers out there, and then there’s the diligent doers. I think these guys are a great example of the diligent doer. They continually apply effort to work on their business, not just in their business. They consistently show up to their meetings. They track all of the critical numbers of their business, and they’re aware of what’s going on with all of their employees. They’re paying attention to all the little things going on, they’re keeping all the plates spinning, and they ask great questions. They actually really do make a great effort consistently to apply our systems and help their business grow. It’s been working. So step one, we get the branding nailed down. That’s the website, the print pieces, the logos, the business cards. But then you have to develop that online reputation. Now that can be a tough thing to do, Jenny, and I’m not, this isn’t a backhanded compliment. I’m just saying, but for people that are humble and very kind of which I would put Jenny in that category, sometimes asking for reviews is more difficult because you almost feel like you’re self-promoting. I’ve never had this conversation with you. But when you, has that been difficult for you to ask people to give you video reviews and Google reviews after you provided the service? Or was that easy for you to do? It was not it’s not easy. It still isn’t easy It is it’s difficult because you you feel like you’re begging for something even though, you know, you did the right thing So it is it’s difficult for me. It’s just my personality type, but we we get it done. Anyways, I’ll find this for the diligent kind customers we work with it’s very difficult sometimes to ask for those objective reviews from real customers. And I find that from my clients I’ve worked with that are sort of like self-described barbarians. I had a guy years ago I worked with, I won’t mention his name or his industry, but I’ll just say he’s obsessed with physical fitness. And he told me, he says, I’m kind of a business barbarian. You tell me what to do and I will slay the dragons. And I’m like, okay, you need to get Google reviews from everybody you’ve ever worked with. And he’s like, oh, I’m on it. And this guy’s just shamelessly calling through his phone and just lighting people up going, give me a review. Come on, give me a review. Why will you not give me a review? He’s like, go ahead, dial it down a little bit. So again, you guys are humble, diligent doers. You’re the ideal person here. So I appreciate you sharing that. The next thing we had to do is we had to create a no-brainer. Now, a no-brainer is an offer so good, so amazing, that people simply cannot say no to it. Now, I won’t mention the name of the company, but I worked years ago, and I still work with this company. They’re a medical company. They’re doing well now. And for whatever reason, they put on their website, first initial consult, 497. And he went to one of these borderline spiritual motivational conference things where Jesus isn’t described, but they kind of talk about metaphysical alignment and getting your woosaw, getting in your groove, alignment, no friction. And he came back and he’s like, Clay, I believe in the seventh number of completion. I go, I agree. He says, four is the number that’s urgent. I’m like, okay. Not, and I go, what? He’s like, I don’t want tire kickers. So I’m going to do 497 for my first consult. That way I don’t deal with the tire kickers. And I’m like, doc, I love you so much. You’re a doctor. I love it. You don’t have any customers. That’s why you came to me. You don’t have any customers. So why don’t you do a first free consult? Say, I’m not going to do it. I’m going to kick out Sean the tire kicker. So I’m sure you’ve never seen this with a client. Oh, never. And so now what makes it worse is his wife also went to the Metaphysical Alignment Motivational Jackassery Festival, and she was like 497 is the number. I had a dream about it. I’m like, yeah, you probably talked about it all weekend. You probably are subconsciously thinking about it. You’re probably creating a neural pathway related to 497. And so anyway, after about a year, he finally says, okay, I came to your conference and I saw a person that did the first consult for a dollar, I’m gonna go with that. And now his business is blowing up. Could you talk about your no-brainer, your first consult for a dollar? How has that helped you having that no-brainer offer? Yeah, so it gets people in. And so when we get people in, we know that we’re doing a good job and we know that we’re trustworthy and our health care is superior to most. So, just getting people in for that dollar, because a lot of people are nervous about going to the doctor or they don’t trust health care system, and so they know that they can come in, they’re only going to spend a dollar, they can figure out whether or not they trust us, figure out whether or not we’re the place for them, and we know 100% of the time we will be. So, it’s really helped us just get people in and get people to trust us more. Now, once somebody fills out the form, folks, there’s a linear pathway here. I’m trying to give you a visual here. So you establish your revenue goals. You figure out your numbers to break even. You figure out how many hours a week you’re willing to work. Even though you have a cute baby, you got to figure out how you’re going to get it done. Step number four is you define your unique value proposition. What makes you unique? That’s something you and Sean have worked on together. You improve your branding. Now you’re coming in contact with humans. Business is a contact sport. I love this part. That’s when you start marketing. You launch your marketing. You have your online ads. You optimize your website. You begin to come up top in the search results. You start to get leads. Do you remember what it was like, Jenny, when you first got your first online lead? Do you remember the first one where you’re like, it’s working? Do you remember that moment? Yeah. It was almost like we wanted to, well, we did celebrate because it finally had happened. And then as soon as the first one came in, the second one came in. And like I said, it was almost a growing pain experience. We would have so many leads so fast. So it was great. And we still celebrate every lead that we get. Now, Mike, the next step is you have to make sales scripts. We recommend to every client that the calls are recorded for quality assurance. You have a sales script, call the calls are recorded for quality assurance. You have a one sheet that tracks your pricing. You have pre-written emails. You begin tracking. Sean’s always bragging about you guys with tracking. Mike, how has it helped to have tracking in place where you can see, you know, how does that help you? Well, it’s really a good benefit because, you know, at the end of the week, you know what your income was, you know what your leads was. was say wherever we’re lacking in, we can quickly adjust and make that adjustment to make it work for the next week. Now when you, if you don’t have tracking, uh, folks, this is a true story. It’s kind of a sad story. So I’ll, I’ll speak in generality. Sean, I talked to a guy the other day and this terrible story, long time client and he got motivated. He said he set up a trade show. He didn’t tell me he’s doing that. It’s fine. You don’t have to tell me, but he set up a trade show. I think he was going to try to surprise me with the fruit, the trade show. So he set up the trade show and he gets on the call. His energy is kind of off and I’m like, are you okay? Yeah, dude, fine. What’s wrong? Hi, just, I don’t know. I’m like, you’re, we’re getting, you know, 10 to 15 leads a week. It’s very consistent. Revenue looks good. He’s like, yeah, I’m in a tight spot. We are in a tight spot. Why are you in a tight spot? He says, I did a trade show. You did a trade show? Yeah, I got roped into four. I did a thing where you get the billboard, you get the trade show, you get the magazine ad. And I did the trade show and we got no leads. And I go, what kind of trade show did you do? And he says, well, I went to the whatever trade show. And Sean, what I find is that there’s the emotional excitement about being on the billboard, being on the magazine cover, be, you know, and he got called probably by one of these kind of scam. I call it a scam mockery or jackassery. They call you and they go, hey, is this Sean? Yeah, this is Sean. Sean, yeah, I noticed that you have an incredible health care company. And we want to honor you by giving you the Yadda Yadda of the Region Award. It’s the Yadda Yadda. It’s a regional, it’s a prestigious award. We’d like to meet with you. Can we meet with you? Yeah. So now I meet here. Now, Sean, again, I’m not going on the phone, but I still like the phone voice here. Now, Sean, so because we’re so honored, we’re inviting you to a plated dinner to honor your, just your honor, your honoredness, your greatness, your humbleness. And it’s going to be a thousand dollars a plate, you know, for you and your wife. And did you want four seats or eight? Because most people do eight. Oh, I guess just four, four. Four, and that does include a glossy magazine feature and we’ll just call it like Missouri local top doctor, Jack Assery. It’s a great magazine. And you’re also on the cut. You’ll be on a billboard. We’ve teamed up with the billboard. It rotates through your face. Hey, don’t get too excited. And just because we’re honored. We’re not, you know, again, we’re just honored now. Did you want to do the four four tickets? Yeah, absolutely. Now the way it works is it’s going to be a four payments of 4000 for a total of 16000. And that’s, no, I’m serious. And now they’re in the trade shows and he’s going to the trade show and there ain’t nobody there. There is nobody there. It needs to be technical. Nobody was at this trade show. I mean, everybody was not at the trade show. He’s got photos of like him and his wife and his team in an empty booth and he’s got a magazine and no leads are coming and he was so excited to tell me. I’m sure you’ve never encountered this sort of thing, Virginia. Have you, you know, Jenny, have you ever seen a situation where that sort of shamockery advertising has been entered into your world in some capacity? I’ve been there. I’ve been exactly where, what you’re talking about. And I’ve set up everything and paid employees and I felt like I was nothing more than a free pin show. The only people that were there were people looking for free pins. Oh, I know. And it feels terrible. And then you kind of have to sell it to yourself all day. Guys, we’re getting our name out there. Sean, can you pass the megaphone back there? Right behind you. Yeah, because I always tell people, if you want to get your name out there, what you do is you just run outside and say, all right, come visit New Ponce Health Care. And people go, why are you yelling at me? I’m trying to shop for my groceries. New Ponce Health Care, my name out there. Getting my name out there. Is this effective? It’s of course it’s effective. I’m getting my name out there. That leads to buying frisbees, branded frisbees, boozees. You know what I’m saying? Branded pens. Yes. All of a sudden you buy these things. Sean, you know what I’m talking about. Oh, yeah. Okay. So now we have to do, and I’m going to show you, this is kind of the back end of one of my companies called Elephant in the Room. And you do a search for eitrlounge.com. And then you go to forward slash staff. I’m not going to give you the password, folks, but you log in. And these are all the systems needed to run the haircut chain. Now, one thing I thought was very interesting is Truth Social, President Trump’s social media platform. The other day they were disclosing Newsweek was disclosing the revenue of it. And I just want people to know this because I think I just full disclosure, I’m a very conservative person, but I want people to see this. This is just something to look at. Truth Social, they declared in their filing that they did $3.3 million of revenue and had $49 million of losses, which by the way, that’s very normal for a tech startup company. And their users are going up and they’re having an app. There’s like a reaction in the marketplace. People are actually putting more money in. They’re investing. The stock price is going up. But I don’t know anybody that I’ve met in my life, but I’ve never met a client that can afford to bring in 3.3 million and lose 49 million. So like for my haircut chain, we have five locations. We bring in more than 3.3 million and this just in, we don’t spend 49 million. So we have to, we call it a lean startup. You got to keep that thing lean. And so when you go to eitrlounge.com forward slash staff, every document needed to manage the business is here. So the opening checklist for the manager, you click here, boom, this is what the manager has to do to start the day. Everything is documented. And that’s kind of where we’re at right now with Jenny and Mike’s business. We’re in the process of building all those checklists. Yeah. Sean, what kind of checklists have you built so far? Oh man, we have a whole page. Their staff page is pretty built out. We’re really getting there. I think more right now, it’s getting, correct me if I’m wrong, we need some managers in there so we can free you guys up from the business. And so we have a lot of the worker level systems. We’re just now working on more of how do we get those manager level systems and find those high quality managers. Now let me give Jenny a little mentor moment here. This will be helpful for you. I’m gonna hop on a flight in about two and a half hours, three hours to go to Denver. All right. And I got to go to Denver to meet with the founder of oxyfresh.com. This is a brand we’ve worked with and helped them to grow to 550 locations now. 550 locations. Okay. And if you type in carpet cleaning floats, we’re the world’s highest rated and most reviewed company in the world, in the world. Okay. 274,000 reviews. We’ve been holding this idea in our mind for 15 consecutive years. I’ve been working on this, Sujan, before I met you, we just were grinding, okay? Yeah. And the biggest challenge that the locations have is managers. Finding a good manager. And I tell people this, and it never goes over well, but hopefully eventually it will. I’ll keep refining it, refining the idea. The kind of person that enjoys conflict, but also likes people, is a good manager. Let me try that again. The kind of person that enjoys conflict, but also likes people is a good manager. And I have found it’s not so much trainable as it’s findable. So as an example, where we’re getting ready to head out to Denver, Sean, you know my personality type. You know that I have to pack all this stuff to get ready to go. You saw my suitcase out there. Yep. How many times do you think I followed up with the people involved in the trip so far before leaving? Oh man, it’s probably on your to-do list and you’ve checked it off like probably at least five times today I would think. And what kind of things do you think I might have put on my checklist to travel to Denver? First off just making sure that the timing is working, making sure that you have all the stuff that you need, making sure that you have double of the stuff that you need in case something gets broken, making sure that the people who are there know you’re coming and when you’re going to be there. You don’t expect from them. Do you think I’m checking a bag? Oh, yeah. You’re probably not checking a bag. There it is. You’re going to get lost. Right. No. And am I, am I, you think I’m catching a flight a lot earlier than I need to be there? Way earlier. Yeah, if I’m having a meeting tomorrow, which I am, I’m leaving today at 1230. Yeah. So this is, that’s the sort of paranoia that makes management possible. So I have literally called. I said, all right, I’m getting on the 1230 flight. We’re meeting tomorrow. I should be in by like four o’clock Denver time. Our meeting’s tomorrow. If that flight gets delayed and the next one gets delayed and the next one, I’ll still be there. I’ve got backup phone chargers. I have a rule, everybody going with me, you cannot check a bag. I want to check a bag. Can’t check a bag. Why? Because it could get lost. This is real. I’m not, I am completely paranoid. And that is the paranoia is what makes the businesses run. And I ask my staff every day, guys, elephant in the room, did you guys get a review? And they say, yeah, we got a review. You asked me 10 minutes ago. Okay, I’ll talk to you in four minutes. You hear me say that, I’ll say, I’ll talk to you in five minutes. And I’ll do it, and it’s a follow-up of, because I have to make sure that the checklists are being followed, the reviews are being followed. We’re a licensed business, people don’t know that. Haircare, you’re licensed by the state, so we have certain cleanliness standards. We could have random people from the state show up. So we got checklists. And I follow up, and it doesn’t bother me to follow up with the same adult who’s in their 40s six times within a 50-minute span of time. It doesn’t bother me. But most people, that bothers them. And so have you found that, Jenny, that a lot of people don’t like to follow up? Have you found that, or is that just something unique to me? I’ve found that they don’t like to follow up. No, people don’t like to follow up. It’s almost like an awkward communication thing that people try to avoid, yeah. And it’s not necessarily that you’re being mean or any type of way, but I feel like that’s probably the way that we feel when we continuously follow up, like we’re having to step on people’s toes, but really we’re not. We’re just getting the job done. So my mentorship moment for you is it’s probably the same feeling you have when you ask for reviews. Yeah. It’s probably the same. So I’m just saying and then and if Mike, did you ever play football or a sport of some kind? Yeah, I used to play soccer. Okay, soccer. So like when you what position did you play? Goalkeeper. Goalkeeper. Okay, so is a goal. This is a great, great example. I didn’t know you’re a goalkeeper, but when you’re a goalkeeper and someone’s kicking that ball at you fast, I mean, just the balls coming in there. I mean, people can really kick a soccer ball fast. There are certain people that want to be a goalkeeper, but they kind of avoid the ball. They try to hide from it. They flinch. You know what I’m talking about? But you actually would lunge into it, am I correct? Right. I mean, you’re aggressive, right? I mean, you’re like, you had, for some reason you enjoyed it. Yeah. Right? I’m getting a hundred miles an hour fastball. Have you ever seen somebody who tried to be a goalie? I’m not looking for a name here, but somebody who would kind of hide from the ball. Yeah. This is the same thing for management. Like as a manager, you have to want, like you have to sort of seek out conflict, but like people. So I’ll say things like, okay, it’s eight o’clock. I need to make sure you put out the flags in front of the elephant in the room store today, Mr. Manager, put out the flags that draw the attention by the road, put out the flags. And I’m going to call you in 10 minutes to follow up. Call him in 10 minutes. Are the flags up? Can you send me a picture? They’re like, do you not trust me? Absolutely not. I trust nobody. Go ahead and send him. And then I’ll call him back 30 minutes later. Hey, did you get Google reviews? Yeah, we got one Google review. You know, the quote is 10. Yeah, I’ll call you back in two minutes. You know, call him back. Hey, did you get a review? It’s been two minutes. I know. I’ll tell you what, I’ll call you back in an hour. And my whole day is just following up. And then over time, the culture happens where people go, he’s going to follow up. And now the people that like the follow up like to work there, and it’s become a great thing. And that’s where we’re kind of at right now, I think, is we’re getting into the follow up phase. Do you have call recording in place there, Mike? Do you have the call recording for quality assurance installed yet? Yes, we do. And are you learning some things? Yes. It is very hard to train people on recording experience. Yeah. OK, that’s something we got to do. Now we’re just going through the workflow and then the wowing the customers. What Sean is saying is that your patients are consistently wowed. Now I don’t know if that’s because Sean is your hype man or if that’s a real thing, but it seems like people are actually wowing. They’re being wowed right now. People, when they come in, this is, if you look at the workflow, they buy something right here. We have to wow them. You’ve got to create that wow moment. And again, if you want to download this diagram, folks, just go to thrive timeshow.com forward slash millionaire thrive timeshow.com forward slash millionaire. You can download it from my newest book called A Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. You’ve got to create that wow moment. I mean, amidst the checklists and the tracking, at some point here, you’ve got to create a moment that wows people where they go, wow. So I’m trying to get everybody’s creative juices flowing here. So if you have a restaurant, I work with a restaurant in Florida right now, a great restaurant, they say, welcome in. Is it your first time? They say, yeah, it’s my first time. Oh, well, hey, you get free appetizers on us today and one free adult beverage. Welcome in. And every time it’s that, wow. And then when you come back later and ask for a review or, hey, what entree do you want? Guess what? People become generous with how they buy. Another example, I work with an auto auction. The auto auction says, your first time that you buy from the auto auction, you only have to pay a dollar more than the actual cost of the vehicle just to wow people, to get that going. I happen to work with a carpet cleaning business, carpet cleaning business, and what they do is they say, hey, the first time we clean your carpet, we’ll beat any competitor’s price and it will be at least half off of our normal price. And they go, okay, great. You got to have that wow moment. What are you guys doing, Jenny, to wow your customers there? Well, there are things that we do. We will oftentimes give samples of certain things because we know they work. We have a lot of supplement sales that we do. Again, the dollar consult is a wow moment because we will spend some 10 to 15 minutes explaining how we’re different. I feel like they’re wowed because of that. Also, our services are so much different. We spend time in the room with our patients. We listen to them. They’re not just a number. And a lot of times, people have never experienced that. So there’s a lot of wow moments, I think, for all of our patients. I understand that 59% of your customers are now from word of mouth. Is that accurate? Yeah. That’s huge. Yeah, well, and with the customer acquisitions cost, too, I’ve heard you say this before, Clay, that if you’re advertising and you’re doing a good job wowing at the same time, they compound each other. And you’ll end up having two to three word of mouth referrals from those patients that are wowed for every one lead you have from advertising. We measured and tracked that they had this last year. For every dollar they spent on advertising, they were able to bring back in $4.61. So that’s a 461% return on their marketing investment. It’s incredible stuff. And the great news is as we build these systems, if you guys ever wanted to franchise or license or open up multiple locations, if done properly, you should be able to scale it. It should be very repeatable, very duplicatable. Other things you guys have done, you’ve implemented a database to keep track of your customers, you’re gathering objective video reviews. You guys are really checking all the boxes. I’d like for you, if you can, Jenny, here, to give a word of encouragement for any of our listeners out there that are a little bit on the fence right now and they’re going, you know, I have thought about scheduling a free consultation, but I don’t know, I hear it’s $1,700 a month. Can you maybe explain your thoughts, what you’d say to anybody who’s a friend of yours or family that asks you about the value about the business consulting? Oh, well, I would say that the $1,700 a month is an excuse not to have someone to mentor you. It’s kind of like being in a gym when you need a trainer. We’re not always perfect and business owning is not easy and you need a mentor. I’ve never missed the $1,700 a month, even when I was only six months in when we started with you guys. I’ve never even considered it a loss. It was scary at first to make that, but that was an excuse. I knew I needed someone to guide me through this, and you guys have guided us through this through the entire thing, through employees, through income, through spending, through all of it, and we come through so many problems. There are a lot of problems that are established when you have a business. I mean, you become very overwhelmed very fast, and you need somebody that you can call who’s successful, who’s been there, that says, you’re not crazy. This happens to all of us. Here’s what you do about it. It’s been the best decision that we’ve made. Final question I have here for you. As far as having a turn, like a one-stop shop, years ago I hired a business consultant who was great. And he would say things like, and I’m not ripping him, I’m just telling you what would happen. He would say, Clay, you got to work on your business and not in it. I’m going, that’s true. He goes, you got to delegate to elevate. That’s true. Clay, your website is not optimized. And I’m going, this is great, fresh perspective. I go, Bruce, could you help me optimize? No, I don’t optimize. Could you help me work on it? No. Could you help me make a checklist? No. Do you help me with the print pieces that I need to make? No. Can you make a video? No. Do you help me with my online ads? No. Clay, and he would use to, he was kind of an Eastern, he’s a Northeastern American guy, and he used to say, Clay, baby, let me tell you what. I don’t make print pieces. What am I, a print piece guy? I’m not a web guy. We know what I am. I’m a work on the business guy. You got to find a good web guy. So every meeting we would have would result in me having to find another vendor to pay another $8,000 to build the website, $4,000 to make the video, $5,000 to do it. So every time you give a recommendation, it would lead to another cost. Can you maybe explain the value of having a flat monthly fee? Yeah, I don’t have to ever worry about it. Like, I know if I need the website updated, it’s a text away. I know if I’m having trouble with an employee, it’s a text away. I know if I need financial advice, it’s a text away. And again, we meet every single week and all our questions are answered and we’re held accountable to what we need to be held accountable for. So it really works for us. Jenny and Mike, thank you guys for your time so much. I really do value your time. I appreciate you guys being here today. And on part two of today’s show, we’re going to tee up another success story because we want people to know it is possible, despite the financial jacarand jackassery plaguing our nation right now, it is possible to become successful and you guys are a living example of it. Thank you guys for bringing your baby on the show. We’ll talk to you soon. Bye. All right, Sean, we’ve got three people in a very small space here in the studio. Sean, introduce us to today’s guest there, sir. OK, so this is Kendra Sapansky. And it’s quite a last name, folks. Yeah, you play hockey? No. Okay. That’s a hockey amateur. So we were going over some of the stats before, and she owns an eyelash extension salon. What’s the web address where I can go pull it up if I want to look at it? It is, there’s, yeah, so there’s two. Which one are we going to? She has the extensionist, which is T-H-E, and then X, tensionist. Tensionist. Yep, got it. Okay, that’s right. There we are. Okay, got it. Okay, so what are the services, Kandie, that you all provide here? Mainly just eyelash extensions. Eyelash extensions. We do other stuff, but that’s been the main thing for years, and then we started adding things like permanent makeup, brow stuff. And how long have we worked with you? How long have we had the opportunity to work with you? Since 2019. So tell us, what kind of growth have you had from 2019 versus now we’re in 2022? So 2019, it was 880. Yeah, it was like 880,000 is what the tax returns. That’s great, yeah, okay. And then what’d you get to this year, or 2021, I guess? 2021, 1.4. Oh, 1.4. Yeah. 1.4. 1.4. Okay. And when we work with a lot of clients, you know, a lot of clients, if you’re out there listening today, what we want to do is we want to help you grow your company. And so I want to walk you through the process of how to grow a company, because a lot of people watching go, I want to grow my company. It’s kind of a big, vague idea, but I want to dial into the specifics of what we’ve had to do to grow the business and what we’re doing moving forward here. So first off, when we started working with you, you’ve always had a product that people love. I mean, is that an accurate statement? Yes. People love it, I think. So what we’ve had to do is build the online reputation so that people that don’t know about your business, who haven’t been in the business, they can hear about it before they, they can go online and build an online opinion about your business before they come in. How have you been doing on gathering objective Google reviews? Has that been something you guys have been hammering on there, Kendra? How have you been doing on that? Every stinking week she hits the key performance indicator at each one of her locations. We have nailed that. Like they just do it now. It’s awesome. Okay, so step one, we want to improve the online reputation. There’s a lot of detail. Have you guys gotten into video reviews yet? Oh, they have an ungodly amount of them. It’s ridiculous. They’re on the website. Yeah, if you go to the testimonials page on theextensionist.com, theextensionist918.com, you’ll find them. Now, when people go to the website, then you want to create some sort of a no-brainer, some sort of a hot deal, so that way people that don’t know who you are don’t hesitate to do business with you. Now, again, you guys have, in my opinion, you’re branded as one of the top, aka premier brands in Oklahoma right now for what you do. What’s the no-brainer offer that you now offer for some customers? So we’ve just been doing a discounted classic full set, but Sean and I were just talking about doing a $1 full set and trying that. So $1 for a full set maybe. Yeah. Okay, okay. Yeah, I’ve always been afraid to do that, but I think we’re gonna. Well, and two, we’ve got the memberships going now too. You didn’t have a membership model. Now we have membership packages we’ve developed that make it make a little more sense to get somebody in for a dollar because just like with Elephant in the Room, Clay, if you can convert the majority of them to a membership, it makes a lot of sense to give away 25 or 40 bucks on the first service. Right. And for people that don’t know, Elephant in the Room is a haircut chain that I own and founded. But again, regardless of whether you have a business that’s an eyelash extension business or a haircut business or a dog training company or a home building company. The step one we got to do is we got to improve that online reputation. Now, step two, we got to get those video reviews. Step three, we got to enhance the website. Step four, we got to enhance a no-brainer. Come with a no-brainer that gets people excited and off. It’s so hot, people will not reject you. And then step five, if we can make a membership model for certain services, you can do that. Has a membership model helped you with the sustainability of your finances? So far, no, just because I feel like we weren’t offering a good enough no-brainer. It’s only been a couple of months. Oh, so it’s kind of a new thing. Yeah. Kind of a newer thing. Now, the hiring process, next thing is you want to create a hiring process. Now, one of the things that’s tough about your business or my business or any company out there, it’s finding good people. Now, if you have a system in place to find good people, then it’s not so challenging. Have you guys started the group interview process? How’s that going? It’s good. Has it helped you? It’s a lot of fun, actually. Yeah. Okay. We went from, in 2019, you had 14 employees and now you have 40. Wow. Okay. So you went from 40, from 14 employees, okay, from 14 employees to 40 employees. Now, people who work with me, it’s very interesting, I was just talking to a guy, literally, probably 39 minutes ago. Who I’ve worked with for years. And the one thing that he mentioned to me, it’s interesting, he goes, you know, Clay, I’ve worked with you now for almost a decade. And he’s like, my business is now 10 times what it was 10 years ago. And he’s like, it’s just a consistent application of effort. I just go down that boom book, I follow it. And every week we just get 2%. And he’s like, I try to explain that to people and they don’t often get that it’s not like a one big idea. All these things are big ideas, but it’s the implementation. Can you talk about what it’s like working with our team and Sean on a weekly basis now since 2019? Well, I feel like talking to him every week, I have someone who can help me with ideas and stay on my ass about things. Yeah. And like you said, the consistency. So that’s, I feel like, the biggest thing that Sean helps me with. Just the consistency. Right. And the tracking. Because before, I didn’t do any kind of tracking at all. And that’s been probably the biggest thing for me. Now, tracking, what it does is it takes the feelings out of things. Now, let me just give you an example. This is kind of a funny thing. One of these clients I’ve worked with for years, I was talking to him on Monday. And it’s really funny, because on the tracking sheet it shows how many outbound calls did you make? How many appointments did you set? So again, in his particular business, it’s a different industry, but it’s how many calls did you make? How many appointments did you set? How many leads did you get? We just try, how many Google reviews did you get? How many dollars a week did you spend on your Facebook ads? And we just track every week. And that tracking allows us to see obvious patterns. So we get to the part where the calls, it shows the number of calls being made and I know his caller. Like I know the caller because I’ve been around the guy and the owner brought the caller to the meeting. And so I’m going, so you made that many calls? Because I don’t think he did. And he’s like, no, no, I didn’t do it. So sometimes people, even with a tracking sheet, they’ll put in information that’s kind of bogus. Yeah. Has the tracking sheet, I’m not looking for specific names, but has it allowed you, Kandra, to expose bogusness in your business, like gaps? Yeah, for sure, yeah. Yeah, someone that was just copying and pasting. Really? She does the appointments booked weekly part. Yeah. She tracks a lot of the lead sources. She tracks, she’s also tracking whether or not the people are in fact getting the reviews to put onto the sheet, which we can go and verify ourselves. But still, this person is supposed to be supplying, we just got this in the last week or two, because when you delegate a lot of stuff you got to follow up on it regularly, and this person went two weeks or so just copying pasting the same amount of leads. Wow. Now installing a quality control loop, I’m not sure if we’re there yet in the system, but for the elephant in the room, as an example, it’s a haircut chain. And we have mystery shoppers that we pay to come in or they get a free haircut to come in and get a haircut. And then what we do is we try to get feedback from them. And they have a checklist. It’s very simple. They go over, but it’s sights, sounds, smells, experiences, just so that we know. And then they text me how it’s going. Well, it’s interesting because when you have mystery shoppers, you pick up on things you wouldn’t pick up on. So like recently, this past week, we found out that there were smudges on one of the windows that had been, you know, not addressed since the last mystery shopper. Or we have, we’ll find out, we have, you know, five stores. So we found out that the bathrooms at one of the stores were dirty. Have you guys started putting in the, okay, a mystery shopper yet? Has it started yet? No, okay. So we’re still kind of, now, where do you, like right now, how many locations do you have open now? Five. Okay, so now as you’re scaling the systems, that’s kind of the next process, the systems and the checklists. Yeah. How are you doing on that process, Kandra? How are you on implementing, building scripts and checklists for everything? We’ve made a lot of scripts within the past couple of months, just for every little thing, mainly on the phone. So where do you see the vision going now? Cause how many locations, do you have five? Five. Where do you see the vision going? What’s the plan? Are you looking to license now? Are you looking to franchise? What do you see as the future? I would like to license. License it, okay. Yeah, so no more stores that I open. Yeah, there’s still room. We can fit about 14 more stylists in the space that we have, which will bring in a minimum of a half a million dollars more just with the space that we have. But it’s important to mention that we are maintaining a very healthy 20% profit margin in this business as well. Well, let’s talk about that for a second, because a lot of times people forget that part. You know, you got to get the accounting done. And I kind of view this as part of the tracking process. But when you start tracking and you start to go, well, this is how much money came in. And this is how much money went out. And you go, wow. You know, you can discover real quick, wow, there’s maybe not enough there. Tracking, did you end up having to maybe raise prices or cut any expenses or did that help you kind of seeing where the income in and the expenses were going? I think for me, it was a lot of the just not knowing, like being a business owner and waking up every day and not knowing if you’re gonna have enough money for payroll or if you’re gonna have enough money to pay the bills. And so doing that just gave me the mental picture, the physical manifestation of how we’re actually doing. And that was not as bad as I thought. Now, everybody’s got their own flow, you know? So what I do with my businesses is, I know how big I wanna get. I’m very happy with where we’re at, so it’s good. And people all the time, they go to Thrift Time Show and they’ll schedule a consultation. I just talked to a guy today and he was like, I don’t understand why you have 160 clients. Why not take on 400? And I just know, because our business is very involved. Like every business owner we work with, it’s like, we have to really get to know you. Where the haircut business, I don’t have that. You know, it’s like, I don’t know most of the customers and we scale it out. But you ultimately, no matter what kind of business you’re in, if you’re in a high touch business, like a dentist or a cosmetic surgeon, I mean, Dr. Whitlock, one of my clients, it’s very high touch. We eventually have to get to a place and space where we figure out our ideal schedule. A schedule that works for our family and one that’s kind of, where do you, are you happy currently with your schedule? Have you optimized it? I’m not saying it has to be, check all the boxes that the world approves, but I mean, do you like your schedule now? That was also another thing that I started doing because of Sean was my calendar. And I’ve expected it for a long time, but now I… She has every minute of her day blocked out every day. And so you feel good about where you’re headed now? Yeah, I do. I pretty much don’t have to do anything with this business anymore. So I just opened a Daylight Donuts. Really? I’ve been spending time doing that. Last Monday. Bam! Awesome. Is it a little crazy? Yeah, just because the person that was supposed to work in Open… Yeah, bailed. Bailed, so I’ve been having these. Yeah. Now for entrepreneur, if you’re out there today and you are, let me just pull this up real quick here. If you’re out there today, and you’re in the Northeast Oklahoma, Tulsa area, one, you can visit the business here, the extension is 918.com. You can check it out. You can learn more about it. I encourage you to do so. Also, you know, we have workshops that we do and the workshops, why I like the workshops is that we’re able to work in kind of a shop-like environment on somebody’s businesses, on their business for a window of time. So people will come to the workshop, we start at seven, we go till three, and they’ll go, I learned more in a day than I’ve learned in years. And we hear that all the time. How would you describe the actual business workshop experience? It’s pretty much everything that’s in coaching, just like packed in two days. Got it. And so is that helpful for you? Is that kind of a reinforcement thing for you? Yeah, sometimes when I’m getting up super early, I’m like, why am I going? I already got a coaching, but every time that I go, it like gets me going again. By the way, I have a question for you. This is not dogging any of our attendees, but we have one guy who attended the past workshop and he is brand new to business. And he asked a ton of questions that I would have asked when I was 20 years old. And to me, it was great to hear it because I’m like, ha ha, I remember when I had those questions. And it almost reaffirms what you’ve learned. Do you learn stuff from other people that have questions? Do you kind of get learn stuff from their questions? Yeah. Yeah. So, Sean, people like Kandra are not a dime a dozen. I really do believe, you know, we work for, we look for diligent doers to help people that show up, people that knock out the homework, people that are not super high emotional. It doesn’t mean you can’t have emotions, it doesn’t mean you can’t be excited, but you know, people that can just knock it out. What makes Kandra a great client to work with? Just for anybody out there that’s thinking about reaching out to us. She is just very stoic in that if something is going wrong or is just like, it doesn’t matter if it’s a small thing or a large thing, she comes in very even keeled and goes, we got to like fix this thing. And it’s just a very unemotional process. She’s also very realistic about timelines. She blocks her action items into her calendar, which is a big deal. She actually does that. So she gets stuff done. And she’s also a client that, you know, she can operate very consistently with this business and build another business and still not be emotional and freaked out. So it’s just it’s very rare and that’s what we would look for in a great client because you never know in business like what emotional turmoil is headed your way. It’s more about your mindset towards when things come up and she’s really mastered that. Now, now Kandra, you know, according to Inc magazine, I’m gonna pull this up for a second, you know, Inc magazine reports that 96% of businesses fail. And it blows my mind, but I talked to a guy at the last conference and he was like, you know, I love the idea of coaching, but the thing is, and he said, Clay, I’ve tried other coaching programs in the past. And the issue is I’m not gonna meet with somebody every week at the same time. That’s just not, I’m not, and I’m not a guy who uses a to-do list, okay? And I’m not a big calendar guy. And that’s the problem with other coaching programs. And I kind of like your program because I think I go, no, no, no, no, no, no, that’s not us. That would not be a good fit. So if you were out there telling people who would be a good fit to become a client, because we get our clients grow by default, 96% of businesses fail according to Inc Magazine. So by default, we know most businesses fail, but we don’t want to take on every single client. Who would be a good fit for us and who wouldn’t, kind of from an outsider’s perspective? Someone who knows that they have to put in the work to do it, because that’s what it takes. I feel like a big reason that that 96% is 96% is because they don’t do anything to grow or take responsibility, because it is your responsibility and no one else’s. I love it, and again, I’m not gonna get into your personal life, but I do wanna point out something. Everybody likes to say that I can’t become successful because I have this going on in my life. And I see people that are newly married. They say, I want to grow my business, but I just got married as a kid, just as a kid. I see people, people that, one of our clients this year, her husband passed away and she had her best year of all time. And I asked her why, and she said, because we worked really hard as a couple to build the business. And when he passed, I recognized that, you know, it didn’t help to pout about it. I was just gonna focus on growing the business to kind of honor what we had built together. I think of another client that recently they’re growing their business and a weather situation attacked their business in a way that, you know, if you live on the coasts, weather can hit you. And their business was ravaged years ago by disastrous hurricane weather. And they went on to have their best year of all time. And I’m talking to the owner and he’s going, man, I, you know, now the challenge for him with his particular business is staffing because more and more people are harder to find to work in his particular industry. But again, we can all make excuses or we can all step up and make it happen. So I encourage everybody out there, if you’re looking to grow your company, you can go to Thrivetimeshow.com, Thrivetimeshow.com, and you can click on the little consulting button here. Let me see here. You can schedule a free 13-point assessment. Let me go there right now. Feeling the flow, working it, going to Thrive Time Show. If I spell it right, it helps. Go in here, awesome. And I click here, boom. And you can schedule a free 13 point consultation with myself and I’ll teach you all the systems that I have in place to help you grow your company. Or if you’re looking for eyelash extensions, and I know that I’m not, but if you are, you can go to theextensionist918.com. Kendra, thank you so much for joining us. I really do appreciate you. Thank you. Take care. Now, Sean, a lot of people reach out, they go to thrivetimeshow.com, and they always ask me, they say, Clay, what do you do? And so I’ve tried to explain it in as succinct of a way as possible. But first thing we do, you know, Sean, a lot of people go to thrivetimeshow.com or I’ll see people at a tour, I’ll see them at an event, people will reach out to us and they’ll say, what exactly do you guys do? And if I had to explain it to you succinctly, we essentially grow businesses seven times faster than the average business that doesn’t fail. Although Inc. Magazine does show that 96% of businesses fail by default. So if you go to Inc. Magazine, you see that 96% of businesses fail by default. So I guess one benefit is our clients don’t fail, but the next thing they do is they grow seven times faster. So what we do here is we help you reduce the working hours that you’re working and decrease your costs while increasing your sales and your profitability. And then since 2006, we’ve got a team now that does graphic design, photography, branding, print media, photography, videography, digital marketing, systems creation, public speaking, coaching, booking, workflow mapping, search engine enhancement, PR, marketing. We do a lot of PR, a lot of monetizing. We help people to grow their business, their podcast, their dentistry, their law firm. But what we do is we document those success stories over here at Thrivetimeshow.com. If you click on the testimonials. And since 2006, I have over 2,000 success stories. So if you’re out there today and you want to become the next success story, what you have to do is you go to Thrivetimeshow.com and you click right here on growth consulting and you schedule a free 13-point assessment. And that free 13-point assessment, what that does is that schedules you a time to meet with me so that you and I can go over where you’re at versus where you want to be. And then if you want to work with us, I charge $1,700 a month. It’s a flat rate of $1,700 per month to help you grow your company. And again, folks, if you want to learn more about that, we’ve got the in-person workshops, we’ve got the one-on-one coaching. Sean, how long have you worked here as a consultant? How long have you worked here? Doing consulting, it was about 18 months after I came on board, so it’s coming up on five years. Five years! And just think of a few clients off the top of your head that have had massive growth. I mean, I think about Levi Gables. Oh yeah, Levi, he’s working on company number three and four right now. What’s his company called? His original company came to us called GEI-USA.com. GEI-USA.com. That’s a client you’ve worked with. He’s had tremendous growth. We just did an interview with Kandra. The attorney James, we worked with him. Who else can you think of? Nick Holman. We grew his business by five-fold and we decreased his workload. That’s a cabinet company. Yeah, the cabinet guy. Yeah. So again, if you’re out there and you’re saying, I need to see the success, I need to see the documentation, I need to see the proven plan, all you gotta do right now is go to thrivetimeshow.com, thrivetimeshow.com, and you click on testimonials, and bam, you can see what we do. My name’s Clay Clark, I’m the former USSBA Entrepreneur of the Year. I built all the systems, built all the processes, and I’ve been, since 2006, coaching clients, and along the way, I’ve started to discover great people like Clay Stairs or Sean Lohman or Andrew or different members of our team. And we teach them the processes so that they can help you grow your business for less money than it would cost you to hire one minimum wage employee. If you hired one minimum wage employee out there full time, it’s going to cost you about two grand a month after taxes, insurance, et cetera. It turns out we’re less. It turns out. This just in. So schedule that consultation today by going to thrivetimeshow.com. Click on the business consulting button right there. Click on the red button that says schedule your free 13-point assessment with me. And you can schedule that today. Sean, I appreciate you. I want to remind everybody out there, Sean, you smell terrific. All right, JT, so hypothetically, in your mind, what is the purpose of having a business? To get you to your goals. So it’s a vehicle to get you to your destination. And would you need profits to get there? I mean, when you have a business that’s successful and you’re in your mind your expert opinion would you need profits to get your to you to get your to your goals yeah because if you have a 15 million dollar business but you have 15 million dollars of expenses it’s kind of pointless holy crap all right so the question I would have here for you if you could take like 10 minutes or less and see if you could save 3,000 bucks a year by reducing your credit card fees, would you do it? Yes, absolutely. Holy crap. Why would somebody out there who’s listening right now, who has a sane mind, why would they not go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card, thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card to schedule a 10-minute consultation to see if they can reduce their credit card fees by at least $3,000 a year? Why would they not do it? Yeah, why would they not do it? Maybe because they don’t understand how you set the website. This tree is a symbol of the spirit of the Griswold family Christmas. That’s clear. That can be true. So I encourage everybody to check out Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. What would be another reason why someone would not be willing to take ten minutes to compare rates to see if they could save $3,000 or more on credit card fees. Maybe they think it is a waste of time and that it won’t. It’s not possible. There’s somebody out there that’s making more than $3,000 every 10 minutes and they’re like, nah, that’s not worth my time. We getting there, right buddy. There’s probably some someone out there. Okay. They would think that. Well, I’ll just tell you folks, if you’re out there today and you’re making less than $3,000 per 10 minutes, I would highly recommend that you go to throttletimeshow.com forward slash credit dash hard. It because you can compare rates, you can save money. And, you know, the big, the big goal, in my opinion, of building a business is to create time, freedom and financial freedom. And in order to do that, you have to maximize your profits. Holy crap. Now, one way to maximize your profits is to increase your revenue. Another way to do it is to decrease your expenses. It’s a profit deal. It takes the pressure off. JT, is there any other reason why somebody would not be willing to take 10 minutes to compare rates, to see if they could save a total of three thousand dollars a year on average. I am at a loss and I cannot think of anything else. Shampoo is better. I go on first and clean the hair. Conditioner is better. I leave the hair silky and smooth. Oh really fool, really. Stop looking at me swan. Let me tell you a good story here real quick. I actually years ago compared rates with this company here called IPS. It’s Integrated Payment Services. And I scheduled a consultation. I don’t know if I was skeptical. I just thought, whatever, I’ll take ten minutes. I’ll compare rates. I can’t tell. You can tell me I’m a doctor. No, I mean I’m just not sure. Why can’t you take a guess? Well, not for another two hours. You can’t take a guess for another two hours? And in my case, in my case, my particular case, I save over $20,000 a year. Holy crap! Wow. Which is like groceries when my wife goes to the organic stores. Find everything you need today? Yeah. Great. OK. Yeah. Oh, God. No. Everything OK, ma’am? It’s just that you’ve only scanned a few items, and it’s already $60. I’m so scared. OK, I’m a trained professional, ma’am. I’ve scanned a lot of groceries. I need you to stay with me. It’s just that my in-laws are in town, and they want a charcuterie board. This isn’t going to be easy, so I need you to be brave, all right? What’s your name? Patricia. Patricia, all right. I need you to take a deep breath. We’re about to do the cheese. You know, that’s the difference between eating organic and not organic. So because my wife eats organic, I had to take the 10 minutes needed to compare rates to save the $20,000 a year on credit card fees just for one of my companies. One question. What’s the brand name of the clock? The brand name of the clock, Rod. Do we have a name of the clock and sell the fireplace. I encourage everybody out there, go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. You schedule a free consultation, request information. A member of our team will call you. They’ll schedule a free consultation. It should take you 10 minutes or less. And they’re going to compare rates and see if they can’t save you more than $3,000 a year off of your credit card processing. You were hoping what? I would know you money. Oh, you don’t owe us money. Because at the end of the day, at the end of the day, the goal of the business is to create time, freedom and financial freedom. In order to do that, you need to create additional profits. The number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. We are Jared and Jennifer Johnson. We own Platinum Pest and Lawn and are located in Owasso, Oklahoma. We have been working with Thrive for business coaching for almost a year now. Yeah. So what we want to do is we want to share some wins with you guys that we’ve had by working with Thrive. First of all, we’re on the top page of Google now. Okay, I just want to let you know what type of accomplishment this is. Our competition, Orkin, Terminex, they’re both 1.3 billion dollar companies. They both have two to three thousand pages of content attached to their website. So to basically go from virtually non-existent on Google to up on the top page is really saying something. But it’s come by being diligent to the systems that Thrive has by being consistent and diligent on doing podcasts and staying on top of those podcasts to really help with getting up on what they’re listing and ranking there with Google. And also we’ve been trying to get Google reviews, asking our customers for reviews, and now we’re the highest rated and most reviewed Pest and Lawn company in the Tulsa area. And that’s really helped with our conversion rate. And the number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. Wait, say that again. How much are we up? 411%. Okay. So 411% we’re up with our new customers. Amazing. Right. So not only do we have more customers calling in, we’re able to close those deals at a much higher rate than we were before. Right now our closing rate is about 85% and that’s largely due to first of all like our Google reviews that we’ve gotten people really see that our customers are happy but also we have a script that we follow and so when customers call in they get all the information that they need. That script has been refined time and time again. It wasn’t a one-and-done deal. It was a system that we that we followed with Thrive and in the refining process, and that has obviously, the 411% shows that that system works. Yeah, so here’s a big one for you. So last week alone, our booking percentage was 91%. We actually booked more deals, more new customers last year than we did the first five months, or I’m sorry, we booked more deals last week than the first five months of last year. It’s incredible, but the reason why we have that success is by implementing the systems that Thrive has taught us and helped us out with. Some of those systems that we’ve implemented are group interviews. That way we’ve really been able to come up with a really great team. We’ve created and implemented checklists. Everything gets done and it gets done right, it creates accountability. We’re able to make sure that everything gets done properly, both out in the field and also in our office. And also doing the podcast, like Jared had mentioned, that has really, really contributed to our success. But that, like I said, the diligence and consistency in doing those in that system has really, really been a big blessing in our lives. And also, you know, it’s really shown that we’ve gotten the success from following those systems. So before working with Thrive, we were basically stuck. Really no new growth with our business. And we were in a rut, and we didn’t know. The last three years, our customer base had pretty much stayed the same. We weren’t shrinking, but we weren’t really growing either. Yeah, and so we didn’t really know where to go, what to do, how to get out of this rut that we’re in. But Thrive helped us with that. You know, they implemented those systems, and they taught us those systems, they taught us the knowledge that we needed in order to succeed. Now it’s been a grind, absolutely it’s been a grind this last year, but we’re getting those fruits from that hard work and the diligent effort that we’re able to put into it. So again, we were in a rut, Thrive helped us get out of that rut, and if you’re thinking about working with Thrive, quit thinking about it and just do it. Do the action and you’ll get the results. It will take hard work and discipline, but that’s what it’s going to take in order to really succeed. So I just want to give a big shout out to Thrive, a big thank you out there to Thrive. We wouldn’t be where we’re at now without their help. Hi, I’m Dr. Mark Moore. I’m a pediatric dentist. Through our new digital marketing plan, we have seen a marked increase in the number of new patients that we’re seeing every month, year over year. One month, for example, we went from 110 new patients the previous year to over 180 new patients in the same month. And overall, our average is running about 40 to 42 percent increase, month over month, year over year. The group of people required to implement our new digital marketing plan is immense, starting with a business coach, videographers, photographers, web designers. Back when I graduated dental school in 1985, nobody advertised. The only marketing that was ethically allowed in everybody’s eyes was mouth-to-mouth marketing. By choosing to use the services, you’re choosing to use a proven turnkey marketing and coaching system that will grow your practice and get you the results that you’re looking for. I went to the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry, graduated in 1983, and then I did my pediatric dental residency at Baylor College of Dentistry from 1983 to 1985. Hello, my name is Charles Kola with Kola Fitness today I want to tell you a little bit about clay Clark and how I know clay Clark clay Clark has been my business coach Since 2017 he’s helped us grow from two locations to now six locations We’re planning to do seven locations in seven years and then franchise and clay has done a great job of helping us navigate anything that has to do with like running the business building the systems the checklist the workflows the audits how to how to buy property, how to work with brokers and builders. This guy is just amazing. This kind of guy has worked in every single industry. He’s written books with like Lee Crockrell, head of Disney with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with like Mike Lindell. He does Reawaken America tours where he does these tours all across the country where 10,000 or more people show up to some of these tours. On the day-to-day he does anywhere from uh… about a hundred and sixty companies he’s at the top he has a team of uh… business coaches videographers and graphic designers and web developers and they run a hundred and sixty companies every single week so think of this guy with a team of business coaches running a hundred and sixty companies so in the weekly he’s running a hundred and sixty companies uh… every six to eight weeks he’s doing reawaken America tours. Every 6-8 weeks he’s also doing business conferences where 200 people show up and he teaches people a 13 step proven system that he’s done and worked with billionaires helping them grow their companies. I’ve seen guys from start ups go from start ups to being multi millionaires. Teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom through the system. Critical thinking, document creation, making it, putting it into, organizing everything in their head to building it into a franchisable, scalable business. One of his businesses has like 500 franchises. That’s just one of the companies or brands that he works with. Amazing guy, Elon Musk, kind of like smart guy. He kind of comes off sometimes as socially awkward, but he’s so brilliant and he’s taught me so much. When I say that, Clay is like, he doesn’t care what people think when you’re talking to him. He cares about where you’re going in your life and where he can get you to go. And that’s what I like him most about him. He’s like a good coach. A coach isn’t just making you feel good all the time. A coach is actually helping you get to the best you. And Clay has been an amazing business coach. Through the course of that we became friends. My most impressed with him is when I was shadowing him one time. We went into a business deal and listened to it. I got to shadow and listened to it. When we walked out, I knew that he could make millions on the deal and they were super excited about working with him. He told me, he’s like, I’m not going to touch it. I’m going to turn it down because he knew it was going to harm the common good of people in the long run. The guy’s integrity just really wowed me. It brought tears to my eyes to see that this guy, his highest desire was to do what’s right. And anyways, just an amazing man. So anyways, impacted me a lot. He’s helped navigate. Anytime I’ve gotten nervous or worried about how to run the company or, you know, navigating competition and an economy that’s like, I remember we got closed down for three months. He helped us navigate on how to stay open, how to get back open, how to just survive through all the COVID shutdowns, lockdowns. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9 and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey guys, I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys, we appreciate you and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old 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 4 to 14 and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman. So, we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts, and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month, and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship, and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, times a thousand. The Thrive Time Show, two-day interactive business workshops are the highest and most reviewed business workshops on the planet. You can learn the proven 13-point business systems that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. When 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 with no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and they’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get-rich-quick, walk-on-hot-coals product. It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, but I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever, and we’ll even give you your money back if you don’t love it. We built this facility for you and we’re excited to see it. If we go back eight years ago, think about the number of clients you had back then versus the number of clients you have now. As a percentage, what has been the growth over the past eight years, do you think? We’ve got to inspire somebody out there who just doesn’t have the time to listen to their call. Okay, so Clay, it’s like I would go up and down from about $10,000 a month up to about $40,000, but it’s an up and down roller coaster. So now we’ve got it to where we’re in excess of 100 clients. That’s awesome. So I would have anywhere from 5 clients to 20 clients on my own with networking, but I had no control over it. And without the systems, you’re going to be victimized by your own business. For somebody out there who struggles with math, if you would say that your average number of clients was 30 and you go to 100, as a percentage, what is that? I have doubled every year since working with you. So I’ve doubled in clients. I’ve doubled in revenue every year. It’s 100% growth every year I’ve worked. So I’m looking. We’ve been good friends 7, 8 years and I’ve got doubled 5 times. Which is just incredible. I mean, the first time you do it, that’s one thing, but when you do it repeatedly, I mean, that’s unbelievable. We’re working our blessed assurance off this year to double. We’re planning on doubling again. We’re incorporating some new things in there to really help us do it, but we are going to double again this year. I started coaching, but it would go up and down, Clay. That’s when I came to you, as I was going up and down, and I wanted to go up and up instead of up and down. And so that’s when it needed a system. So creating a system is you have nailed down specific steps that you’re going to take no matter how you feel, no matter the results, you lean into them and you do them regardless of what’s happening. You lean into them and it will give you X number of leads. You follow up with those leads, turns into sales. Well I tell you, you know, if you don’t have a script and you don’t have a system, then every day is a whole new creation. You’re creating a lot of energy just to figure out what are you going to do. Right. And the best executives, Peter Drucker is a father of modern management. He said, the most effective executives make one decision a year. What you do is you make a decision, what is your system, and then you work like the Dickens to make sure you follow that system. And so that’s really what it’s all about. So with a script here, we have a brand new gal that just came in working for us. She nailed down the script and she’s been nailing down appointments. Usually we try to get one appointment for every 100 calls. We make 200 to 300 calls a day per rep. And she’s been nailing down five and eight appointments a day on that script. Somebody out there is having a hard time. On that script. So she’s making how many calls a day? She’s making between 200 and 300 calls a day. And our relationship is weird in that we do, if someone were to buy an Apple computer today, and or let’s say you bought a personal computer, a PC, the computer is made by, let’s say, Dell. But then the software in the computer would be Microsoft, let’s say, or Adobe or whatever that is. So I basically make the systems and you’re like the computer and I’m like the software. It’s kind of how I would describe our relationship. Tim, I want to ask you this. You and I reconnected, I think it was in the year 2000 and what was it, maybe 2010? Is that right? 2011 maybe? Or maybe even further down the road, maybe 2013? 2012. Okay, so 2012, and at that time I was five years removed from the DJ business. And you were how many years removed from tax and accounting software? It was about 10, 11 years. We met, how did we meet? What was the first interaction? There was some interaction where you and I first connected. I just remember that somehow you and I went to Hideaway Pizza. But do you remember when we first reconnected? Yeah, well we had that speaking thing. Oh, there it was! It was Victory Christian Center. I was speaking there. My name is Robert Redman. I actually first met Clay almost three years ago to the day. I don’t know if he remembers it or not, but I wasn’t working with him at the time. I asked to see him and just ask him some questions to help direct my life, to get some mentorship, but I’ve been working with Clay for now just over a year. The role I play here is a business coach, business consultant. I work with different businesses implementing best practice processes and systems that I have learned here by working with Clay. And the experience working here has, to put it real plainly, has been just life changing. I have not only learned new things and have gained new knowledge, but I have gained a whole new mindset that I believe, wherever I end up, will serve me well throughout the rest of my life. Since working with Clay, I have learned so much. I mean, I would like to say almost everything about business in terms of the different categories. I haven’t learned it all, but I’ve learned all about marketing. I’ve learned about advertising. I’ve learned about branding. I’ve learned how to create a sales process for organizations in any industry. I’ve learned how to sell. I’ve learned how to create repeatable systems and processes and hold people accountable. You know, how to hire people. It’s almost like every aspect of a business you can learn. I have learned a lot in those different categories. And then, again, the mindset that I’ve gained here has been huge. You know, working here, you can’t be a mediocre person. You are a call to a higher standard of excellence, and then as you’re called to that standard here, you begin to see those outcomes in every area of your life. That standard of excellence that you want to implement, no matter what you’re involved in. I would like to describe the other people that work with Clay are people that are going somewhere with their life. Marshall, in the group interview, talks about how, you know, the best fits for this organization are the people that are goal-oriented. So they’re on their own trajectory and we’re on our own trajectory. And the best fits are those people where there can be a mutually beneficial relationship that as we pursue our goals and we help the business pursue those goals, the business helps us pursue our goals as well. And so I’d say people that are driven, people that want to make something of their lives, people that are goal-oriented, they’re focused, and they’re committed to overcoming any adversity that may come their way. Clay’s passion for helping business owners grow their businesses is, it’s unique in that, I don’t know if there’s anyone else that can be as passionate. You know, whenever a business starts working with Clay, it’s almost as like Clay is running that business in the sense that he has something at stake. You know, he’s just serving them. They’re one of his clients, but it’s as if he is actively involved in the business. Whenever they have a win, he’s posting it all over his social media. He’s shouting it across the room here at Thrive. He’s sending people encouraging messages. He can be that life coach and business coach in terms of being that motivator and that champion for people’s businesses. It’s again unique because there’s no one else I’ve seen get so excited about and passionate about other people’s businesses. The kind of people that wouldn’t like working with Clay are people that are satisfied with mediocrity, people that want to get through life by just doing enough, by just getting by, people who are not looking to develop themselves, people who are not coachable, people who think that they know it all and they’re unwilling to change. I would say those are the type of people and in short anyone that’s content with mediocrity would not like working with Clay. So if you’re meeting Clay for the first time the advice I’d give you is definitely come ready to take tons of notes. Every time Clay speaks he gives you a wealth of knowledge that you don’t want to miss. I remember the first time that I met clay I literally carried a notebook with me all around. I was looking at this notebook the other day Actually, I carried a notebook with me all around and I just took tons of notes. I filled the entire notebook in about about three or four months just from being around clay following him and learning from him and Then I would say come coachable. Be open to learning something new. Be open to challenging yourself. Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted.