Clay Clark | Benjamin Franklin Story | Why You Can’t Steer a Parked Bus + It’s OK to Change Your Logo, Branding 101 + Did Bolton or Franklin Invent the Skullet? Tim Tebow Joins June 27-28 Business Workshop (9 Tix Remain)

Audio Transcription

If you want to do anything worthwhile in life, you’ve got to be hungry. It’s better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared. So every day I was working to develop myself. And that’s what you must do. I promise you one thing. You have never seen any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the season. Get in here! Hey! We got 30 minutes for the rest of our life! 30 minutes! 30 minutes! 30 minutes for the rest of our life! There were none before me and there will be none after me. Therefore, that makes me the one and only. Young and single, love to mingle, certified, bona fide, and dutifully qualified to bring you satisfaction and a whole lot of action. Look at me, ma’am, your love, ma’am. I was hungry! I was hungry! You gotta be hungry! You gotta be hungry! You gotta be hungry! Broadcasting from the center of the universe and the Thrive50.com world headquarters. Let’s go! Presenting the world’s only business school without the BS, with optometrist and entrepreneur Dr. Robert Selner, and of course, all business administration entrepreneur of the year in your ear, Clay Clark. It’s The Thrive Time Show on talk radio 1170. Three, two, one, boom. Boom, boom, boom, and welcome back inside the room. It is the Thrive Time Show on your radio. My name is Clay Clark. I’m the former USSBA Entrepreneur of the Year, and I am fired up today because today it is all about the Benjamins, or well, about the single Benjamin. It’s about Benjamin Franklin. This is a super show. It’s a two-part show. This is a November we want you to remember, we are breaking down people of historical significance. And Benjamin Franklin, I mean, he, Dr. Z, he is the inventor of the skullet. I mean, Michael Bolton would have nothing without Benjamin Franklin. You know what? That’s why. I figured out why you have on your skullet cap. I mean, I didn’t know that you could have a, that’s a very good, you know, you’re really in character today. You’ve got on, for those of you, you can’t see this, I’ll just describe the beautifulness of the, and the fact that you found one that could fit that cranium is unbelievable. So he has on a bald cap with hair attached to it, so it looks like he has a skullet on right now. I’d order it a 9 and 7 8 head size. It’s really attractive. It’s a good look for you, by the way. Now the next thing you know, you’ll be on the $101 bill. You’ll do one better. I know you, you’re an overachiever. I know you. You’re thinking, I don’t want the $100 bill, I want to be on the $101 bill. Have I ever told you that you remind me a lot of the $3 bill? I thought you were. How’s that? Well, you just say it, and then you just let it settle, and then it leaves you unsettled. Alright, now, Thrive Nation, today we’re excited to be talking about Benjamin Franklin, but we have one of the members of the Thrive team. I’m going to impromptu, we grab a guy, we put headphones on him, chef, we slam the headphones on him. And this is the Ask the Z Anything segment. Because we have Andrew, who Andrew used to work for our company, Epic Photography, back in the day. We sold Epic Photography, we sold the business, and he’s a free man. He can come back and join the dark side after the sale of a business. He can do that. So he left, he’s back, and Andrew, how long have you been now back here on the dark side, the evil empire. About five or six months. Five or six months, and by the way you just have to eat that microphone. So you can ask Zee any question, right now you can ask him any question, there’s no out of bounds, you know, there’s only, we might call foul, we might call a penalty, we might kick you out of the game, but you can ask Zee any question on, you can hear early every day, you read, you invest in yourself, you’re kicking butt, you’re dressing to impress. He’s got a fine set of hair on his head There’s his photography game is improving quite a bit. I mean, he’s really he’s engaged. He’s a busy. He’s the pinnacle It’s just he’s the opposite of a skull up by the way. He’s got a Great lettuce. No, here’s the deal. He’s at the peak right now Z. I can just see it I can see where he’s gonna be now ten years from now. I can just see it Yeah, so he gets to do cuz remember back in the day. I had to sequester you at the at the restaurant I had to grab the I’d pull you aside at Ruby Tuesday’s oh yeah and I had to buy you tons great crew crew you love them they were incredible I took you there and I got like a whole plate of croutons I got 30 minutes to just ask you questions and it was like a huge unicorn event and you were just this is an Andrew unicorn event he can ask you any questions and rapid-fire you’re in the hot seat here we go Andrew what do you got all right um let me see what are some of the best book recommendations you have? Oh, you know, we did a whole show on that. We did a podcast on that. And for those entrepreneurs out there, Clay had pulled out six that were like must reads for every entrepreneur. And I’m trying to remember what those six are, but they’re coming to him. I think Clay’s looking them up right now. I’ll pull them up here because we got the guy and we kind of agreed on the top ones. I’ve kind of got, I had to add a super number seven to it. And it’s the, it’s a book that’s thousands of years old, and it’s called The Art of War by Shen Tzu. Basically it was the roadmap for generals back in China. He wrote the book on how to win at war. So many times people get into a business and I say to them, you know, it’s war. They’re like, oh no, it’s not. It’s not war. We’re all going to get along. There’s plenty to go around. No, I’m not aggressive like that and that’s not right. I’m going, well, no, it’s not actually. You’re not with the pitchfork and attacking their building and throwing rocks at them and it’s not that kind of, you’re just doing a drive-by. It’s more like the mindset of saying, hey, listen, I want to win and so I have to prepare myself and I have to, and it has 13 steps in that book and it’s like, know your enemy. And that’s true. You want to mystery shop yourself, you want to mystery shop your competition. You know, you want to know what their moves are going to be and that’s good scouting in war and so that’s the book I added to it. It sounds like a kind of a crazy book to read for an entrepreneur to start off business, but just get your mindset ready for battle and that’s what opening a business is. Good foundation. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So Clay, you’ve got the other six pulled up, don’t you? Yeah, I’ve got the books. I know we had winning. We’ve got the books here. Winning by Jack Welch is just a powerful, powerful book. If you haven’t read Winning by Jack Welch, really, what are you doing? I mean, what are you doing? I’d say what the Thrive Nation. I’m going to give you a couple of the books. I know what you’re doing. You’re losing. I want you to go to thrivetimeshow.com and you click on podcast. You can find them all, but Winning by Jack Welch is phenomenal. That book is great. It’s the number one management book out there. The Service Profit Chain by the Harvard. They do case studies of successful companies. Powerful book, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Great book. We talked about the Start Here book, which is a compilation of all the world’s best business books. You’ve actually read that book, Andrew. And it’s free to download at thrivetimeshow.com. And by the way, can you describe what the Start Here book is like? Because you’ve read the book. Can you kind of, for the listeners out there who are like, why is this book you speak of that you’re giving away for free? Yeah, so the Start Here book is, it’s a lot of coaching and there’s a lot of information in there on how to start and run a successful business when working on your business instead of in your business. Yeah, it’ll blow your mind. Absolutely. Now, Andrew, you get one more question for the Zolhan. You get to ask him any business question at all. I’m nervous. Here we go. What do you got? I’m nervous for you. All right, with scheduling and time blocking, what is the best way to time block and prioritize what to put first in your schedule? First of all, if you don’t have a list of the number one most important thing you need to get done right now, you need to make that list. You should have a list of things you need to do. Check them off after you do them. I don’t know how many times people are like, oh yeah, I forgot to do that. You just said, I’m going to let you just skip over that there, Zolhan. That was a business Yoda moment there. You said, if you don’t have the number one thing that you need to be working on right now, you need to go make that list. And your list is pretty short. I mean, it’s like, this is what has to be done today. Correct. And you do that every day. Right. You have to have that list because that’s how you get things done. If you don’t put it on the list, you won’t get it done. You’ll forget about it, you’ll push it off, you’ll procrastinate, you’ll find you don’t have time for it. Now scheduling, I think one of the things on scheduling is then you build your schedule around the things you need to get done, i.e., okay, I need to get my LLC formed, and so you know, whatever that is, and so then you schedule your meetings around that. And I think the key to scheduling meetings is scheduling them to end. Oh, come on now. You got to schedule them to end. You got to know the time block of those A lot of times people ask me for a meeting which you know makes me cringe more times than not Sorry for those of you out there asking for me But but what happens I always the question always ask me how much time do you need? And then I before I’d even determine whether they’re gonna get a meeting if they say well, you’d suck I have you don’t remember that it’s not gonna happen. You don’t remember this, but the day we met for lunch I remember it because it was the first time in my life it’s ever happened. Yeah. You have two phrases you say a lot, but it happened to me, and I was ready, but Kylie, bless her heart, prepared me for this. Okay. So I said, I’d like to meet Z, and she goes, well, okay, but no. And then I kept following up and following up, and then finally she’s like, okay, he’s agreed to meet you for lunch. He likes croutons, Ruby Tuesdays. But make sure that you have your questions written out, like do you know what you’re going to ask him? Because he just… it’ll be better for you if you just know what you want to ask him. And so you look, we sat down, and I remember this, it was like it was our first date. And you looked at me and you said, you said, you go, well let her rip, potato chip or something like that. Yeah, let her rip, potato chip. Yeah, and I said, okay. And then I kind of was kind of composing myself, because I’m like, he’s actually in front of me. He’s actually in front of me. And I got my questions, and you said, go. Like, I don’t know if you remember that, but you looked at me, and you said, go. And I was like, I never had a conversation to start with, go. And I think you must have been, like you had a meeting after that meeting, because you always did. During the work day, you’re very purposeful, you just go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and then you go home. And that’s why you have so much time freedom. And so you said, go, and I’m like, and I looked down at my list, and I’ve discovered the more you’re around successful people, they really do, they give you an allocated amount of time, and it’s up to you what to do with it, because that’s how they view their time too. They’re very purposeful in their time. And I just know with Z, a lot of times when you’re around Z, you’ll notice that he is not being mean, he’s just being direct, and that he wants to state your problem, state the solution, let’s move on. So if you’re coming for investment dollars, how many dollars? What do you need it for? What’s the deal for me? What’s the deal for you? Okay, great. Break it down. It’s not like a, there’s not a big rapport building two hour jam session. And the reason why you do it that way is because on a friend level, the very few people that you do let into your inner, the circle, the circle, you get the impression that you might be homeless and not have a job at all. Because you have all the time in the world. I’m serious. Yeah, you might get that impression. When you’re around you and you’re not at work, you’re like, does this guy have a job at all? Can I do anything? And so, as an example, Andrew, I go to his house. This is about two years ago. I go to his house. And I walk in and it’s one of these total moments from, what’s the movie? The Iron Man? So, you know, they talk about Elon Musk, how he’s very purposeful with his time, and that’s kind of how Z is. And so when you’re very purposeful, you have a lot of time freedom. So I get to his house, and this guy has like a claw, and he’s reaching into his massive aquarium that’s the size of like, I don’t know, it’s a massive aquarium. And you’re in there, it’s the size of like a backboard of an NBA basketball goal. You’re feeding this, you’re introducing the gym tang into its non-native environment so the other fish don’t pick on it. Oh yeah. And this is your number one thing that day. And I’m like, how long have you been introducing this gym tang to this fish? And that was what you were doing. And you’d been doing this for quite some time. And I’m like, do you literally take, this is the middle of the day. It’s the middle of a work day. I’m like, do you normally spend large portions of your day… A couple hours piddling in your fish tank. Right? And you’re in there super focused. You’re thinking as an optometrist, maybe this guy’s reading books about the human eye. Maybe he’s sitting there worrying about payroll and taxes. Doing practice eye exams on people. But instead, you’re in there introducing a gym tank into its non… What is a variety of saltwater fish, and jim is the subspecies of it. It’s a pretty rare fish. It’s only found in a couple of seas around the world. I think the Red Sea and the… There was like three in Oklahoma at the time. Yeah, there weren’t that many because there’s not that many in the world. And so, anyway, my son had bought that for my birthday, I think, or some event in my life. It could have been Father’s Day or my birthday or something. And so I was… You couldn’t let it die. No, I mean, it was kind of a big deal. So, I mean, for me at least, so… What I’m saying is, but you, the reason why you have time to do things like that and to spend time with your son and to do movie night with your son and to invest time in different entrepreneurs and do the things you do is because you don’t waste time, 15 minutes at a time, wasting time piddling around in stupid meetings. Oh, I know. Meetings by death is the worst form of death, I think. I mean, I’d rather be killed a number of different ways. Do you want to have a meeting or be hung? I don’t want to be hung. Is it a new rope? How long does it take to die? Yeah. You hate it. You hate it. And here’s what you hate too. You hate non-announcements. You hate when people say an announcement that’s not an announcement. They’re like, I want everyone to know this week I now know that what we’re going to do is do research. And that happens all the time. It happens all the time. And your brain almost explodes when I watch it happen. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Same with you. You don’t like that either. You’re a big non-announcer, non-meeting. Hey everybody, I just want to know, you’ll follow up with someone. Did you get it done? Yes or no? And then I’ll go, I just wanted to tell you, I’m right now beginning what I would call the research phase. And in your mind, you’re like, this is the beginning of the end. This is how it’s done. I’ve written you off in my mind. And they always pop up and say, what do I need to do to have you get that done? What do I need to do for you to do that? And mentally you’re not going to delegate anything to that person again. You’ve decided, okay, we’re moving on. They’re dead to me. All right. Now, Thrive Nation, when we come back, we’re going to be breaking down the life and times of Benjamin Franklin, but I wanted to take this rare opportunity to bring Andrew, the unicorn super employee who gets stuff done, to be on the hot seat, to ask Z any question he could possibly ask. So Andrew, thanks for being a great American. Z, thanks for letting me just to kind of set up this interrogation session. This is Thrive Time Show on the radio. We come back, we’re talking about Benjamin Franklin, who was not a business coach. Welcome to the Thrive Time Show, a show for the enemies of average. You know, people are not born with big thighs. You know, you’re born a fabulous little lazy baby. You know, it takes work to look like this. All right, Thrive Nation, we’re talking about Benjamin Franklin today. How did he achieve massive success? Well, I’m going to tell you this. Benjamin Franklin got to the end of his life and he wrote down this thing called his 13 virtues. So on day one of this show, segment number one of this show, it’s a two-day show, Benjamin Franklin, we’re going to break down his 13 virtues because he thought so much about it that he wrote them down. He wrote them down because he felt like they were like his Achilles heels and things that were keeping him from being successful. It’s really weird, his autobiography, because his autobiography is where he’s very aware of his failings and he’s not trying to hide from them. He’s more or less saying this is what I do great This is what I need to work on at an old age Yeah, and here are the 13 virtues that I’m convinced if you have them you will be successful You know what Clay it’s been kind of fun. I I know you didn’t preface it you did the other day But this month we’re going to deep dive into successful Historical figures and I’ve read so many autobiographies. This is so fun for me, going through the old books, going through the notes. Yeah, going through the old books and doing it. But it’s kind of fun because the feedback I’ve been getting, people love it. Well. And I was kind of sitting here thinking, you know, because we’re all about, you know, practical business applications. Get it done. To help you start and grow your business. Optimize your website. Here’s the pathway. Step one, step two, step three. Pop it off. Go back and do step three again. You didn’t do it good enough. So we’re all about coaching you up on how to start and grow a business. And so this is a little bit different, but people are enjoying it because there are life lessons or business lessons to be drawn from these great guys. Yesterday was fun. We did Lenny Kravitz and today we’re doing Ben Franklin. We’ve got a whole bunch of them coming up. So this is a fun month. This is a quick, just a summary of Benjamin Franklin. Okay. He’s born in 1706. At the age of nine, he quit school. That’s the last year he went to school was age nine, but he never stopped reading. At age 12 he gets an apprenticeship for his brother James and he ends up writing in James’s newspaper under a pen name called Mrs. Do-Good and his brother James finds out that his brother is the most popular author in Philadelphia but he’s popular but yet he’s been misleading people. I say Philadelphia, I mean New England. He’s called the New England Current, but he’s writing for the New England Current, and his brother realizes, wait a minute, our most popular article is written by you? You’re only like 12, and he’s like, yep. So his brother actually beats him, like just severely beats him over and over and over, and he ends up moving out and becoming an entrepreneur. But I wanna make sure you get this, at age 16 he realized he didn’t have enough money to afford buying books. Because remember, he only went to school until he was nine. So he didn’t have enough money to buy books. So he decides to stop eating meat because meat was more expensive. So he became a vegetarian so he could afford more books. There you go. So that’s a hunger for knowledge right there. Oh! Butter chop coming through. So here are the 13 virtues, though. And what we’ll talk about has history on tomorrow’s show. 13 virtues. Virtue number one, temperance. He wrote, eat not to dullness, drink not to elevation. Now, this is a guy known for loving to party. He loved to party. So he realized that if you party during the day, you can’t get anything done. But he had enough money. He was retired since he was basically 40, you know. So he had the time and the money to do it, but he realized like you just can’t eat until you no longer want to eat, and you can’t drink until you’re excessively drunk during the middle of the work day. These are just moods. I mean, these are moods. But there are people, and it’s sad, but there’s a lot of people who struggle with that during the work day. They really do. And you know what, we’re going to go through all 13, and all of us struggle with a different area. But, Z, can you explain, because I’m sure you’ve worked with someone who’s super talented, and you’ve seen the talent. You’re like, man, this guy, this gal, she’s super talented. But they just can’t get control of the gambling or the addictions or the alcohol during the work day. And they’re just spinning out of control. And you watch it, it’s kind of that Chris Farley, where it’s sad to see that much talent go to waste. Yeah, and I don’t know at what point, you know, when people don’t ask for advice and you give it to them, it’s unheated. They don’t… Unwanted is unheated. To go up to someone and say, hey man, I think you’re X, Y, Z, whatever they’re doing during the day that’s taking and sapping their creativity, taking their time. It’s sad. I don’t know at what point you do an intervention. I don’t know if it’s my job to do an intervention. If it’s an employee of yours, do you step in? Do you say something? Can I tell you my move? Tell me your move. We’ve grown the program and you’ve done this to me all the time. It’s just fun to kind of see it where the principles you’ve taught me, using them to help other people. It’s fun. Cool. But you a lot of times will say, can I be frank with you? Can I be candid with you? Can I coach you here for a moment? Can I be very frank with you? Permission to be candid. You’re asking that. Right. So you’re not saying, well, with all due respect, and then attacking. Because a lot of people use the phrase, with all due respect, to say anything. Right. Well, Eric, with all due respect, I don’t like you. I like your face, but it’s not offensive. But no respect. No disrespect there. Right. So you have to ask the person, you have to say, hey, do I have permission to be candid with you? Can I be honest with you? Can I do it? Because if I can, I want to help you. But if you don’t ask for permission first, people feel, and Carlton Pearson told me this, he said, you are mentally raping people, which is a strong word. It’s a very strong word. But he goes, when you’re forcing your will upon somebody else, they don’t want it. It leaves them feeling violated when you forced the knowledge. So if you’ve seen someone in your life, or if that’s you, and you’re struggling, you want to find somebody who you can have that relationship with. And we’d recommend professional help. We’d recommend, we’re not above having like a counselor or a therapist or someone to talk to, but see everybody, you’ve got to, if you realize that’s you, you got to reach out to somebody today, today. Yeah, and do, you know, kind of a little bit of an intervention mentally. And the problem is, is that if they’re an employee and they refuse to get help, then you have that decision to make, when do I part ways? Well you got to put your pants on on the radio show and remember not to be drunk in the hallway. Okay, all right, I’ll try. I mean once you get to that level where you’re like, you really need to wear pants, good tip. And always wear that Skulloch cap. Yeah, right. So now the second virtue is silence. This is huge. Two ears, one mouth. Benjamin Franklin wrote, he wrote extensively about this. He says, speak not, but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation. He basically didn’t say a lot. And this is something I found as I’ve gotten older, and I’m trying to get out of it, and I think if I go to enough social events with you, I’ll eventually get out of this. But the older I get, the less I speak in public. I just observe because I think the trifling conversation is normal for people. It is. It’s just like, let’s attack people or things we can’t control instead of finding a problem we can solve. Yeah, and the conversations that I find the most disturbing is just gossip. I just find that disturbing when two people are talking about somebody that’s not part of the conversation. It just, it, it irritates me. It’s tearing them down for no reason. It irritates me. Now, sometimes that’s necessary for certain situations. I understand that. Yeah. But for the most part, I try to have a rule of thumb, um, where, you know, if I need to talk to someone, I talk to them. If I don’t want to talk to somebody else about somebody else, you know, because… My rule is this, is that if, I want you to break this down more when we come back from the break, because I think there’s a lot of people who are trying to sort that out of when do you talk about stuff, when do you not. For me, is if there’s no action from me that’s needed, then I don’t want to hear it. If I can have no influence in the situation, then why use my gray matter? The gray matter. Why fill up part of my gray matter with that? You know what? We have Eric Chup on the show, business coach. And I want to tap into his gray matter as well, because you’ve managed a team of people, construction people, by the way. And there is ample time for gossip there in a construction crew. Stay tuned for the Thrive Time Show on your radio. We’re learning about Benjamin Franklin. Make sure you never miss a broadcast by signing up for the Thrive Time Show podcast. Two men, 13 multi-million dollar businesses, eight kids, one business coach radio show. It’s the Thrive Time Business Coach Radio Show. I belong to you. And you, you belong to me too. Oh, get your lighters in the air. Just put those lighters in the air. Oh, come on, Lenny. Oh, come on, Lenny. Come on, Lenny. Lenny Kravitz. What a great show. It was a great show and the most fun part of it is we got to revisit a lot of his old hits. You use them for your intro music. It was really fun. You know, I wanted to get some Benjamin Franklin themed music. All I could find was All About the Benjamins by Puff Daddy. But the song feels so dirty, the song itself, that I just didn’t feel… I thought there’s too much moaning on the track for a show, for a classic. Yeah, for a classic. Stay classy. Stay classy, Trap Daddy. We can’t have moaning on a… Our listeners, they appreciate good music, Grammy-winning music, like Lenny Kravitz. They expect more. Yeah, they expect more. That was the lowest common denominator there, Mr. Puff Daddy. Okay, so Eric Chupp, we’re talking about this topic, we’re talking about Benjamin Franklin’s life and specifically the 13 virtues. He said, virtue number one, you have to be successful. Temperance, you know, basically don’t over gamble, over drink, over whatever, just don’t over, don’t be excessive during the day, just get your crap together, man. Right. Two, silence. He says basically do not speak unless you’re trying to benefit yourself or others. Like don’t just talk to fill space. And if you’re ever around very successful people, you’ll notice they will sit in absolute silence a lot, and they’re very comfortable with it. And see, the first couple times I was around very successful people that did this, I was like, what are they doing here? Are they not right mentally? No, and they even, I’m serious, you see these people, they’re just observing. Jerry Seinfeld, the best comedian out there, is notorious for going to dinner engagements and not saying a word because he’s watching and he’s taking in material and he’ll grab out his napkin. Oh yeah, oh yeah. And those normal things are funny to him. Those observational humor, that’s what the whole Seinfeld show was. So Eric, you ran a construction crew. And how many guys are on a typical crew? Like two guys, ten guys? Oh, we’d have anywhere from six to fifteen. Okay, six to fifteen. And I worked construction. And this was typically the move, and I’ll try to keep it PG. But our boss would leave, and one of the guys on the crew, as soon as Peter would leave the job site. We’re in a hole because we’re pouring concrete. We’re down in the hole, 8 feet below the ground in Minnesota, below the freeze line, pouring concrete. And as soon as he leaves, one of the guys would go, I swear, I swear, if you could get me along with that guy, I would take him out. If I have to hear him one more time, then he would come by, hey guys, real quick, you guys want to get some Subway? They’re like, oh, what’s up man? Oh, you’re the man, Peter. Yeah, Peter. And so there’s that weird cognitive dissonance going on where people tend to attack those who are not in the room. And it’s hard because it’s a natural tendency. It’s a human tendency, which I believe is from the Diver. But it’s something that people, I really do, people, people, I mean, it’s a natural thing for people to just talk illy about other people. On your construction crew, was that a problem? And if so, how did you deal with it? It’s always a problem. And I would explain to the guys, especially if you’re in a leadership or management position, if you’re going around the job site and you’re gossiping about people, the person you’re talking to is, that’s then going to become your reputation to them. So they now in their head are thinking, as soon as I’m not in front of this guy, what’s he saying about me? And if you’re in management or you own your own business and you have that reputation, employees are going to stop being honest with you. They’re going to withhold information from you. And this is the hard part. I’ll give example in our organizations, typically, you know, because I have to decide who’s in charge of things. So we’ll come to me and go, I don’t like that guy. He’s a jerk. Don’t come to me and say that about someone else. And I’ll say, I think the person is a good person. And I used to be, I was like, that person’s a good person. They have room to improve. Yes, but they’re doing fine. You know what I mean? We need to improve. I try to always kind of say that you see me say it probably a lot, but I’m like, yeah, that person is, you know, going to get better because of whatever they’re working through some stuff, whatever. But then there’s times where strategically I have to go, hey, did you see that person do something squirrely? And then you go, yeah, I did see something squirrely. And I go, OK, it’s time to fire the guy. Yeah. And so I had to talk about the person behind your back for the same reason that you wouldn’t go knock, knock. Oh, is Mr. Osama there? Oh, Osama. Well, I am actually from the United States military. My name is Kevin Thomas. And on the third day of this month, we will be sending in what we call a secret team at exactly three o’clock p.m. You know, I just want you to know, be transparent. Yeah. And we’re going to drop in paratroopers. So you don’t know. I mean, well, I guess I mean, you know, but you know, so here, less aware we don’t like to gossip. And on the third day of December, I will be pulling out the troops at exactly eleven o’clock because I made a promise to the American people. You know what I’m saying? Sure. So I just want to… So there’s kind of a covertness, art of warness. So I want to get your take on that, Chup, and then your take on that, Z. Yeah. How do you balance it? Well, it’s basically like you guys were saying a minute ago. If it’s something that you need to take action on or something that you can correct within your organization, then by all means, go talk to the people you need to talk to. But if it’s just something to fill time or because you feel like talking about it or somebody’s trying to run their mouth, then you’ve got to shut that off. So like talking about someone’s personal appearance. I see this a lot, Z. People go in and go, man, I tell you what, Kevin looks like he probably ate a lot on that cruise. But I think he actually did. No, I’m just kidding. Oh, here he comes, everybody. Show up the seismic reading isn’t too much. Hi, Kevin. What’s up, buddy? You know, it’s just kind of weird. You know what I’m saying? You see it. So talk to me about because I think there’s somebody listening to the show here who has like seven employees, eight employees, maybe 20. And they’re going, gosh, I just I need to discuss about Kevin’s work habits when he’s not present. So I can verify from multiple sources that he is, in fact, screwing me over. But I also don’t want to be a gossip when I go to church on Sunday and I feel kind of bad for even asking. Well, and there’s the two categories. One, is it something, is it what’s best for the business? That’s the filter you put every question that comes off your table. And if someone’s sitting there talking about somebody and it is not what’s best for the business, i.e. it doesn’t help move the ball down the field, it doesn’t help correct a problem, it doesn’t help make something better, a system better, or a product better, then you’re wasting your time. And that’s this talk about, you know, you’re having just frivolous conversation. Now Kevin’s ears are so big. It’s like you could, it’s like, it’s like headphones on or something. Oh, there’s Kevin. Hank, what’s up, buddy? And so really you break it down to two things. There’s there’s a personal side of people and then there’s the business side. Business. It’s kind of like when you have a mullet, you know, you’ve got the. Party in the back. Yeah. But you’ve got the business in the front. Right. It’s like your lobby. So we can talk about the front. Your lobby. It’s gorgeous. We could talk about the front all you want. I mean, hey, you know, Kevin was late again today. We’re talking about Kevin. But that’s not saying, hey, Kevin, did you hear that Kevin is posting some stuff on Facebook about I think his girl broke up. You know what I mean. Or you know what I mean. Or on and on. I heard Kevin and that girl got it on. So when it’s personal, shut it down. When it’s business, investigate quickly. Go to Kevin. Go to whatever source you need to. Investigate it. And then if it’s something like you said, Chuck, I mean, you said it well, and Clay, you said it too. You know, if it’s something that you can fix, then you need to hear about it. I hate when a problem stirs and boils and then finally erupts. There’s a volcano. And then I hear about it and everybody’s like well you know we didn’t want to we didn’t want to rest we don’t we don’t want to bother you with it I go really now I’m really bothered with it because now it’s a huge problem and then I like I can’t fix it unless I know about we wanted the reactor to completely melt down before talking yeah we were you know we were thinking that you know well it might go away now when we come back I want to talk more about this but in the movie anchorman what made the movie so funny is that Will Farrell said all the things that you shouldn’t say directly. So he actually did an interview with Conan O’Brien, and he’s on the show, and he’s in the character of the Anchorman, and he says, how are you doing? And he says, I’m doing great. And he says, I want to tell you this, Conan, you look bad. And he says, what do you mean? No, I mean, you look like a Q-tip that’s on fire. And you’re not even that intelligent to compensate. You’re just bad. You know, and then he’s like, he’s saying things that you wouldn’t say to someone’s face, but that’s what made it funny. Yeah, sometimes I’ll say something, I’ll look around, everybody kind of looks at me with a cocked head, I go, did I say that out loud? Because I was thinking it, did I just say it? Stay tuned, it’s the Thrived Time Show, Benjamin Franklin. Was I just speaking? Was I talking? I think I said something I was just thinking about. Oh, thinking out loud on the radio show that’s a good thing as well but i’m sure when you’re in the house celebrate your americanism and listen to the thrive times show the This is the kind of spontaneous publicity, your name in print, that makes people. I’m in print. Things are going to start happening to me now. Oh, what a great, what a great segment of the movie The Jerk right there. Steve Martin, big shout out to you, Steve. So funny. So good. So good. Now, we’re talking today about the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, the life of Benjamin Franklin. Specifically, all month, we’re talking about successful entrepreneurs and how they did it. We’re breaking it into two parts though because at the end of his life he wrote down these things called the 13 virtues which he felt that every single person, including you, needs to know to be successful. Now one of the things he talked about was silence. Basically do not speak, period. Don’t talk unless you’re trying to benefit yourself or others. Wait a second, if we follow that, it’s going to be hard to do the radio show. Yeah. We’re trying to benefit others. Oh, oh, oh, oh, gosh, oh, that’s a whole different. Now we’re working on this. We’re good. The humor, humor, why I love humor so much is humor doesn’t happen unless you study human nature and you watch humans and what they do. And what’s funny is when people say, oh, that’s so true, that’s what humor is. That’s what humor is. Oh, that’s so true. So true. It’s something we all see, but no one notices and puts it together. So Will Ferrell, the character of the Anchorman, was a character developed based on his, and he’s a brilliant observer of human nature. But he studied and he discovered that people that are pompous, people that are super the opposite of humble, people that are super just braggadocious. They constantly brag about themselves in a way that’s more passive aggressive, where they talk about their achievements, they name-drop a lot, but they don’t, they try to play it down. Like they’re not name-dropping, but they are. So you’ll say, how are you today? And a pompous person would say, oh man, I just got the phone call with David Robinson, NBA Hall of Fame player. I mean, he’s just, it’s phenomenal that I have access to him, you know what I’m saying? And you’re like, so you just bragged on yourself. So what he did, and he took that character and he exaggerated it, which is where the humor lies. And he began to say stuff. He would walk up to a woman at a club or a bar at a pool and he’d say, hello, do you know who I am? And, you know, she doesn’t know who he is because he’s a TV host on a TV show in San Diego. There’s a news anchor. Yeah. And but I’ve known people who are anchors who do this stuff, and she’s like, no, I don’t. He’s like, well, let me just say, I’m the anchor man for Channel News 6, whatever. And then she’s like, I’m kind of a big deal. Yeah, and she’s not impressed, but he says, and I’m kind of a big deal. Yeah, so. And then she’s like, okay. And he goes, I don’t know how to put this. Throw it out there, throw it back if you want, but I want to be on you. And I’m like, nobody says those kind of things. It’s more of like a passive aggressive world. But there are people out there who do say these things and they lose in life because of it. And you say it. It’s such a turn off, isn’t it? It’s crazy. I met a person the other day who said things that weren’t true so fast and so consecutively. I had to write them off in my mind, but it was a networking event at our building, so I just had to laugh. But I said, how are you? This is my question, how are you? And he goes, oh man, I’m doing great. You know, I saw Steve’s Lamborghini out there and I actually just got a, and he name drops the vehicle, and I’m like, okay, that was kind of funny. And he goes, and I just closed this massive deal. I mean, it’s kind of my niche, and I’m looking for a few guys to invest right now because I’m really making so much money. The issue for me is just the time. So I can do it, I just don’t have a lot of time to round up the capital. You just closed a deal that, the way he talked about the deal, I know he doesn’t have the level of detail needed to close the kind of deal he just talked about. Sure. Let alone multiple deals, because you’ve actually sold a big piece of property before, Zeke. Well, yeah. But when you sell it, doesn’t it take a long time to make sure? It’s a process. It’s a process. But you wouldn’t sell like two in one day and oh by the way you’re at this networking event Exactly bragging on your car. Yeah, I mean you’ve had some oh so again Just don’t if that’s your move. That’s your Achilles heel. Please don’t show it to the world. Okay now move number three order He was fastidious. He wrote let all of your things have their places Let each part of your business have its time. What he’s explaining is that he’s an inventor in order to invent the Franklin stove or to invent the bifocals or to invent the flexible catheter. He actually invented the flexible catheter in order to. Oh, that’s that’s we can start the farmers almanac in order to start all these things he did in order to secure the funding. By the way, we would have lost to the British. We were losing the war and he secured the funding from the French. Yes. In order to do that he had to keep… Merci beaucoup. Oh wow. Is that a croissant? Is that a croissant? Croissant. It’s a very thin pancake. So in order to do that though he had to be methodical and track his experiments, like the progress of it. And he wasn’t running around going, I wonder where I put that experiment. I wonder where my remote is. I can’t find that person’s contact information. I don’t know. So there’s optometrists out there who are not keeping a tight database. It’s called data integrity. You’re not keeping your data tight. You’re not keeping things orderly. Are you calling me out on my data? How do you, because you’re a very detailed guy, but you’re also the vision guy. And I see a lot of entrepreneurs say, well, I’m kind of more of a vision guy. I don’t have time to mess with file organization. Do you even data, bro? Do you even data see how do you I mean this though? There’s somebody out there says well for me. I’m not more of a detailed guy I’m more of a more of a big vision The idea which is why I can’t find my business cards, but you can’t scale a business if you can’t find your files I’d take what we’ve all done this a few times in our lives where you can’t find your car keys Where’s my car keys? If you’re me you hide them you say what you do you say you’re hiding them To keep them from other people touching them and then you are the person who loses them. Exactly. I’m not even kidding. I’m not even kidding. I’m not even kidding. And my point is, is that having a simple system of where to put those keys every time you walk in the door, every time you know exactly where they are. Oh, preach it. Come on, where are they going to be? Preach it to my younger self. And if you take that philosophy and run it through your business, even though you may not be OCD like, oh, I’ve got to have it right here. Uh-oh. Which we both are. Oh, that’s, oh, the frame’s a little bit off. Someone frame that picture over there. But the point is that if you take that level of having order, having a place for a place, I mean a place for a thing, everything has its place. Kind of like Clay back in the day, if you’d go by his desk and rearrange it, he would freak completely smooth out. Don’t move my stapler. Well, Jason Bailey, one time, just to mess with me, he said, Hey, do you want me to get the guy’s pizza? And I said, No. He knows I checked my card every day. And I see this huge purchase of pizza. Okay. And he left an envelope with the cash to make his punchline. Okay. But he goes, Hey, man, I went ahead and got all the guy’s pizza. This is the day after. Like you said. And here’s the receipt. And he knows I’m like, I’m so, that kind of stuff. Use my card for something I didn’t approve of. I just lose my crap. As I lose my crap, he’s over there going… Because he moved my scissors. I sit down and I’m like, I don’t know what, there’s something missing here. Who am I going to fight? And he goes, I don’t know what it is, but I know that you are fastidious about people touching your things. And I don’t know what’s missing, but I don’t know. And I’m like, where are my scissors? I’m just like losing my stuff. Oh yeah. And then he’s like they’re right here. He just thought it was hilarious to do that because if you’re again if you’re gonna be successful as an entrepreneur you’re gonna have to be detailed but here’s the deal the world most people are not organized and they’re gonna quick they’re gonna quickly put a label on you they’re gonna say you’re OCD this guy’s so type A this guy’s and I want to talk about the balancing act because you’re a father and a business guy. And I guarantee you on a personal level, people will say, man, that guy’s so alpha, he’s so OCD. I want to get into the mind of Dr. Z and how you balance that, because I guarantee you that many times in your life people have said, dude, you’re so OCD, you’ve got to calm down. But if you did calm down, you wouldn’t be the one paying for the fishing trip. That’s right. Here’s how it’s done. You mentally, picture this. There’s a table in front of you, and it has about six different hats on it. They’re not all the same hats, they’re different hats. One’s a little beret over here, one’s a little baseball cap, one’s a trucker cap, a scullet cap, a trucker cap, a Tom Brady signature cap that you never touch, of course. No, you can’t wear it. You look at it a lot. You don’t take it out of the container. You think about wearing it. It’s in a glass container. But you have to, in my humble opinion, to be really successful in life, you have to know which hat to put on and then when to take it off and put the next hat on. I mean, if you’re treating everybody in your life exactly the same and treating every situation exactly the same, you’re not really wearing your different hats. You know, so your spouse, your children, your friends, people that aren’t friendly to you, business employees. I’m not saying you’re perfect, but one thing I’ve noticed, and again, every year you get better and every year you learn, and all those, so again, if anyone knows you and knows me, and we’re not perfect, what I’m saying though is that you have learned that because at work it’s like a 90 mile an hour zone of organization, fastidiousness, get things done, proper name, proper… When you come home, if you have young kids, it’s like, okay, who pooped on my shoes? I mean, that’s the kind of stuff you’re dealing with. Okay, who put my batteries in the toilet? Why is every joke related to the toilet? Why is remote, once again, not where I left it? So we come back, I want to talk about that, because I think it’s tough to be detailed enough and intense enough to run a successful company, but also knowing how to turn it off a little bit. Who touched the thermometer? Oh, who touched the thermometer? And I am guilty of wigging out about not being fastidious at home, and I need a tranquilizer dart. Make sure you never miss a broadcast by signing up for the Thrive Time Show podcast. Old school Janet Jackson. See, you’ve seen Janet in concert. We talked about it a little bit yesterday. Was there a magical moment in the concert? Was there any moment where you thought, you know what, this show is so good, this show is so historical, so epic, so awesome. It’s like Benjamin Franklin’s in concert. I’m trying to remember, you know, she was here at the BOK Center, and there was a couple of her songs that just took me back in time. And I don’t know, I kinda like the, I like the, the rhythm nation was kind of whatever. Come on baby, let’s get away. Yeah. Let’s save our troubles for another day. That was one of them, of course, yeah. Escapade? Escapade. But you like, you’re in Rhythm Nation, though, is probably your one. That was a pretty good jam. I like that album. That was a great, great dance moves, too. Oh, yeah. You have all the choreography nailed down, you’re a good dancer. Well, I don’t have it all nailed down, but I do enjoy dancing, and so I don’t act out music videos typically as a rule of thumb. video typically. Can I ask you, this is a question I want to ask because we’re talking about the life of Benjamin Franklin and we’re talking about winning, knowing when to turn it off and to turn it on, knowing when the balancing act, we’re talking about the Benjamin Franklin’s virtues that he taught and one of those is you got to be orderly, you got to keep things in order. Yeah. But when you’re super detailed, you know, and super accurate at work, super aggressive at work, I mean, you have to be a certain level of aggression to get stuff done, to get the sales done, to get the accounting right. If people are spending money they shouldn’t be, you’ve got to sometimes fire people. It’s intense. It’s like playing football. You know, I learned the hard way a lesson in life that if you’re a young entrepreneur out there and you’re hard charging and starting your business and you’re making things happen, And the lesson that I learned the hard way is that your family are not your employees. Oh, come on! What in the world? Who drank all the milk? You’re fired! You know, it’s like that. You see the movie Talladega Nights? Oh, yeah. The movie’s great. He was signing autographs, and then his personal assistant walks up to him to ask him a question, and he just signs her forehead. He goes, it’s me, it’s me. He goes, oh, you know not to bother me when I’m in sign mode. So it’s kind of like you get home and you’re maybe working on your business and so you’re still in kind of business mode at home and the kids come and ask you a question and you’re like, you treat them like an employee. You’re like, state your purpose. That’s gossip. That is gossip. How long is this meeting going to take? You know, whatever. And they’re your family, so you’ve got to be able to change hats quickly, the point you’re getting to. And also be proactive in thinking about it. Because you’ve got to, that drive time home is a good time to unwind your brain a little bit. Can I tell you my move? Tell me your move. I call it the flaps. The flaps. If you’ve ever been on an airplane, a 737, you’re looking out of the window on a Southwest 737 headed somewhere, and they’re starting to slow down. Now, typically the plane at the peak speed, Z, how fast is it? 737, we have 400 miles an hour, 500 miles an hour. That’s probably a little over, I would think 500 and something. So you’re 500, we’re not pilots. 10,000 miles an hour. But you’re there, you’re going fast. And they’re flying. Attention passengers, we’ll be descending here to, we’re flying into Las Vegas, Nevada. Thank you, welcome to Viva Las Vegas. And so, the plane, they put the flaps down to create more drag on the wings. The little things come down. It creates more drag, more resistance, and the plane begins to slow down. Yeah. The cabin going lower, the cabin, all the pressure’s changing, your ears are popping, the babies are, the alcohol, you can’t get any more. The alcohol carton is put away, the baby’s crying. Are you getting that, do you drive home with your doors open? Oh, I can’t, I can’t stand flying. I seriously, I’m trying to, we have tickets to go see the patients this week in Denver and I’m trying to cancel it because I can’t. I just can’t. Dude! I can’t. Dude! Dude, I’m serious, I’m flying there and like every time I go I feel awful. I feel physically sick for one day and my ears won’t pop. I’m chewing gum like a horse. I’m like trying to pop my… I just can’t. Yeah, so you can’t. If I’m going to go somewhere I have to fly there the day before. I have to be functional because the day I get there I’m a disaster. I feel horrible. I get a headache. And you’ve had 82 cranberry vodkas. Yeah, and that always throws it off. Get that way. Anyway, so the plane it slows down and then it hits the runway probably going what a couple hundred miles an hour, hundred miles an hour. It’s like and you hear and it’s a pretty violent shutdown. And then they kind of reverse things. They go and you’re trying to slow down as fast as possible. You’re trying to slow down quickly because you’re going to run out of runway. So as an entrepreneur, this is how I do my day. I come home and I’m putting the flaps down. Attention, you’re approaching a camp clerk in Chicken Palace. I’m going to interact with young kids here in several minutes, none of which will have a specific point or a purpose. They just want to love on you. Your wife’s going to want to talk about how she feels, and you don’t have feelings. So get ready. You’re going to have a bumpy landing. We have some turbulence. And then, I’m just, I pull the hummer in, and I come out and it just says, how was your day? This is the first test. Have we hit the runway slow enough? Yeah. And if I say, and this is how I could, this day, you’re going too fast. If I go, great, what are we eating? Then I’m like, when people are crying and people all of a sudden were ejecting. Chickens are running amiss. They put the slides out, the emergency slides. It gets crazy. There’s a red goose running around. Now I know if I’m going the right speed and my wife says, hey, baby, how was your day? And I go, my day was better because I see you. How was your day? Yes. Kind of like an old spice guy. And put a lot of feeling terms in there and tell me how you feel, baby. And she’ll say, I went to Whole Foods. That’s test number two. This is like, is it time? You know they have that little thing that pulls up to the plane so when you walk off, you don’t fall 20 feet down to your death. So you’re telling me in your mind, this is what you’re listening to, this is what you’re hearing right here is… Oh yeah yeah and then she’ll say… Oh babe my day was great. I’ll say so you went to Whole Foods. Yeah. Which because I know I know it’s time to get off the plane I say what Whole Foods did you go to? Oh. And then she’ll say I went to the Whole Foods at 91st. I’m like 91st and Yale? They didn’t get another one did they? She said no. I said what did you buy? She said I got some avocados and some organic Laura’s lean beef. And I said, Laura? Who was Laura? Tell me about Laura. Oh, that’s so funny. And she said, I ran into somebody by the name of Becky. I say, which Becky was it? Because there’s Becky Grothy. There could be Becky Edwards. There’s a lot of Becky. We know a lot of Becky’s. Which Becky? Which Becky was it? And then she’ll say, the one from boot camp. I said, which boot camp are you talking about? And then we start talking. And about six hours later, we’re still talking about that whole food. Whole foods and organic options. And I know it’s time to get off that plane when it’s time to get horizontal before bed. Oh my, okay, kids filter. That’s what I do. Air muffs. Air muffs. That’s how I do it. That’s what I move. I picture that mentally. And you know, the thing about it is I would, now I’m a tad bit, if you’re an entrepreneur you’re a gambler by definition. So I’m going to lay out a wager that there was probably a time in your life when you didn’t put the flaps down. Yeah, that would be Sunday. You came in hot. There was a family discussion, which I saw the problem and I wanted to solve the problem and I wasn’t going too fast. I was coming in 400 miles an hour on the Tulsa runway. It’s too bad. It’s not long enough. It’s too hot. It’s too hot. So I saw the problem, I stated the solution, and I pissed everybody off. And so I realized, well, that’s why my daughter, the other day, she said, Dad, why do you always buy Mom those Justin’s organic Reese’s peanut butter cups kind of thing? It’s not Reese’s, it’s the Justin’s organic brand. Yeah, yeah. Of course. And I’m like, well, maybe. Each one of those is a point. And I get three points a week that I deposit into the love bank, and then I make one wrong move and I lose seven points. So I’m always in a deficit here. I’m always in a hole. Sherry’s Berries is like seven points. Oh, that’s good. But every 30 days, I’m telling you, every 30 days I do something. Running out of credit. Chuck, have you ever found yourself running out of credit? Oh, yeah. Every 30 days I go, oh. Especially as a youngster. As a youngster, you know, you got all things going on. And now I’m like, you know what, I don’t need to do anything but work and see my family. Vanessa, I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry. Okay, so we move on. So move number four is Benjamin Franklin’s 13 virtues. He says, resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve. One more time for the mind. Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve. What he’s saying is when we have a meeting and we agree you’re going to do something, do it. Don’t passively, aggressively not do it. Whatever you said you’re gonna do do it if you have to pull an all-nighter to do what you said You’re gonna do do it If you think you can’t get it done say it in the meeting say right there when we’re meeting say you know what the the? extent of this project May be too much So I need another week But don’t say you’re gonna do it and then not do it because Z when you sit down on a stool and it collapses You know the ladies to happen one time before you lose trust. See, break down resolution. Well, the definition of revolution has two definitions. The first one is a firm decision to do or not to do something. To do or not to do. If you are an entrepreneur, if you’re starting a business, you have to, you have to, I’m going to say it one more time, you have to get it in your mind that you have to make a decision. You make decisions and the entrepreneurs that cannot make a decision. I don’t know I’m gonna think about that Dude just try no try just do The ability to make a decision and realize that if you’re the business owner the buck stops with you and that you ultimately have to Make that decision and to resolve yourself to it and to make it may not be a decision You want to make when you said the buck stops with you? Are you referencing a? a large Nordic man from like a Green Bay? No, no, it’s more of a… Like an uncle buck? No, it’s more like a deer, like a white tail, or what you would call a deer. Oh, so we head up north and we’re going to see some bucks. The family of antelopes, I believe. What do you mean when you say the buck stops? The buck. What does it mean? That means is that ultimately it’s your business. But I love to blame people as an employee and now I’m a business owner and I want to keep blaming people. It’s your responsibility. Good luck with that. You know because it all points back to you’re pointing one finger at somebody and guess what you got three or four of them coming back to you and that’s how it works. But as a business owner nobody’s going to care as much as you do. That’s just a hard fact. And so no one is going to also if that business fails no one’s going to be hurt as much as you’re going to be hurt. Now this ties into move number five a little bit here. Oh, wait, wait, I’m not done. I’m not done with resolution. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. And the second part of resolution is the action of solving a problem, dispute, or contentious matter. Break it down. Break it down. Get out the linoleum. Get out the boom box. Get out the quad skates. Get old school. Break it down. And that’s great leadership. In other words, for someone to come to you, that’s why I think I loved math so much because you had a problem to solve and I enjoyed Very much so when the problem was finished and you had solved it and it just felt like a little victory You’re just like yeah, I win. Yeah Take that two plus two Yes in your face now the next move move number five Benjamin Franklin 13 virtues Frugality he says make no expense, but to do good to others or yourself. Waste nothing. As an example, Dr. Z in business does not waste money on things that he shouldn’t buy. I see him all the time, very frugal guy. But when you go out to dinner with somebody, you’re very generous. And people get that wrong where they’re like they’re super generous on their car, super generous on their vacation, and then they’re like beating up their vendors, taking advantage of people, there’s a difference between frugality and greediness. Can you break that down, what it means to be frugal in your mind versus, because I think there’s a lot of people out there like, well I’m just being frugal, I’m being a good steward for the Lord, which is why I haven’t paid my vendors. It’s time for a little farm logic. You see that takes me down to the farm for my number one rule in business. Put your pants on, put your pants on. That’s my number two rule. My number one rule is, pigs get fat, and hogs get butchered. Hey man, could you repeat that again? I’m sorry, I was trying to… Pigs get fat, hogs get butchered. That makes me sizzle like some bacon. Now you may be saying to yourself, what in the world does that mean? Why are we talking about pigs and hogs and… what is this? Because it’s the focal point of the universe. Well, a hog is greed. Hog defines greed when people are greedy either in what they pay their employees how they deal with their vendors How they price their products if you’re being greedy in those that is a step towards failure Come on now come on now, and so you want to be if you’re the guy that always feels like you’ve won every dispute every dispute every contract negotiation every vendor meeting every time that you have a customer out there and you’ve got… That Boy Scout, he wanted me to buy those cookies for $4.25 and I looked at that seven-year-old kid and I said it’ll be $3.75 and I got him to give me what I wanted. I beat up that vendor. That Boy Scout will never beat me, Z. Yeah, and the thing about it is whenever you do that, you may win that time, but you know what? There’s not gonna be another time because that person’s gonna say, you know what, I don’t like that. I don’t like doing business with that company because they’re too greedy I’m charging too much I use that as example to be funny but I actually saw a guy at Atwood’s try to negotiate with a seven-year-old or eight-year-old to get a discount on Boy Scout cookies Wow and I thought it was pretty amazing to see the look of excitement on his face when he beat a seven-year-old in a negotiation game I thought wow wow that guy must not be successful at all impressive stay tuned it’s the Thrive This is Thrivetime Show. Get ready to enter the Thrivetime Show on Talk Radio 1170. You can try all you want. Your time is up, I’ll tell you why. You say you’re sorry, but it’s too late now. So say then, get going, try it out. Cause if you think I care about you, then you’re wrong. I’m not trying to be nice, I’m just trying to be nice. I’m not trying to be nice, I’m just trying to be nice. I’m not trying to be nice, I’m just trying to be nice. Oh, now see, that song right there is kind of a Tulsa connection. Do you know who Dua Lipa is? Dua Lipa? Dua Lipa? I’ve heard of, but Paul Klein is a Tulsa guy. He went to Oral Roberts University, and he has a group now that he performs in, and he happens to date the one Dua Lipa who has three songs in the top 40 right now. Very cool. Got an ORU connection. I’m a little young. Yeah, and so that was the person just singing that song, and the song is about, you know, how basically the boyfriend and the song, he said he’s gonna do some stuff. He said, I’m gonna do that, you can count on me, you can depend on me, I’m gonna do that. And he broke the promise. So she says, hey, basically sit down, shut up, because I don’t give a, you know, we move on. But the point is, so I think a lot of times in business though, if you don’t observe Benjamin Franklin’s 13 virtues and you don’t really resolve in your mind what it means to reach a resolution. If you really don’t know what it means to stand up for your commitments, people write you off. Well, if you’re a man of your word or a person of your word and you do what you say you’re going to do, so many times you have to judge people by not what they say, but just what they do. Because so many people will be like, yeah, I’m going to get that Fitcher valve fixed here tomorrow. Yeah, Fitcher valve to me is like a quick move. Yeah, it’s an easy thing. I can knock that out in no time. For me overall, I mean it’s like… And then a week later, it’s like, why has nobody fixed the Fitzervalve? Well, because what I wanted to do is I wanted to get the supplies from procurement when I wanted to wait for the meeting to bring them out. Well, I know, we’re absolutely sure it’s the Fitzervalve that needs to be replaced. I mean, why don’t we form a task force and do something… A committee. A committee. We do a deep, what I would call a deep dive. I think it’s the Johnson rod. Oh, the Johnson rod. Well, there you go. That’s why I didn’t replace the Fitzer valve, which is an easy move for me, by the way. I mean, it’s a slam dunk easy move. You know, avoid absolute accountability. Why don’t we leave this meeting and say we are going to knock it out? Yeah. Nobody in particular. Nobody knows. At some point we will knock it out. And why don’t we just say we’ll circle back so we don’t have to. Yeah. And what we’ll do is in the meantime, we’ll figure out whether it’s the Johnson rod or the Fitchin valve. This is hot. This is good stuff. This is good meeting guys. Good meeting. I want to make sure that nobody has written down anything that we just discussed so that next week the same spirit of vagary can get you. I got it. I got it. And you know what? It’ll all be better. It’ll be moving smooth. And the tyranny of checklists must stop. I’m tired of accuracy. Stop it. Yeah. I mean, what do you think? You don’t have a brain? I can’t remember. I remember everything. Unbelievable. Now, wait. Where’s your shoes? Oh, did you forget your shoes? Oh, come on. That’s a low blow, buddy. That’s my shoes. It’s below the belt. You know what I’m saying? Anyway, so we move on. So we move on. So the next move here is frugality. We talked about frugality. Okay, this is the next virtue, Benjamin Franklin, frugality, making sure you’re just not overspending on things you don’t need to spend money on. Now, this is industry. Now, industry, this is something I think a lot of people don’t get this. Industry means, Benjamin Franklin wrote, lose no time, be always employed in something useful, cut off all unnecessary actions. So here is an example. Somebody has told you at the chamber, not in the Oklahoma chambers, these are the chambers in like Alaska, they’re all screwed up. Alaska. Well, not even Alaska. That’s in America. I’m talking about, you know how Alaska used to be connected with Eurasia, with the land bridge? Uh-huh. That part that’s now under the ocean, those people. Those people, yes. The water people. The water people. Atlanto, the historic Atlantis. Yes, those people up there in the northern regions, those guys, they have these chamber meetings. Not our chambers, but those chambers. And at the chamber, there’s some guy who came with the Magic Money Moose. He wants you to form a, he wants you to update your Facebook account every day as an entrepreneur and to be super responsive to any comments that come in instantly. We’ve all heard this at our trade group. They go, you need to respond immediately to all social media posts. You as a leader need to be reduced to the level of an idiot and you need to run around and you need to respond every second to the Facebook comments. Yes. And Z, that’s totally opposite of what you or top entrepreneurs do. You don’t spend, yes you are responsive, yes you are thoughtful, but you don’t sit there and emotionally react to every single thing, every single second, all the time. You’re not responding to emails as they come in, swatting them like bees or flies. Talk to me about industry and not wasting your time doing stupid stuff. Well, I’ll tell you what, if you do, you don’t get the stuff you need to get done, done. And that’s one of the keys, I think, to being successful in business, is that, and we said it earlier on the show today, if you don’t know what the number one most important thing for your business is to get done right now today and put your focus on your blinders on it and your focus on that, then you get distrayed by these little rabbit trails. You said something brilliant a couple of days ago. You said that you turn your phone off for like, it was like a, I don’t know, it was a so many hour period. I think maybe a six or seven or four hour period. I turned off at 5 p.m. Yes, and then? And I woke up at 3 a.m. and I just checked for the sake of the exercise. I wanted to see how many notifications, how many communications I missed. So it was a 10-hour period and it was almost 300 and some odd, 400? I think it was 217. We have to go back and listen to the show. I think it was 217. I think it was more than 217. Chuck, you were on the show where I talked. It was a lot. It was in between 200 and 300. Let’s put it that way. A lot. A lot. lot and I remember back I’m so old Clay I remember back in the day hey real quick I just want to bring up if you died during this show your legend will carry you try to stay awake hope you can make it over done taping here to hopefully I remember back in the day would be sitting around the house and something magical would happen sitting around the house go for it and it’s called the phone would ring how the phone’s ringing and everybody would light up. Who is it? And you’d look at your brother and he’d look at you and the race was on and you just ran, stretching as fast as you could. And your mother, your mother, she body checks you and she gets it. Now here’s what’s happening, your family, your family is watching the television, you’re watching television. Oh yeah, oh yeah. And there’s a couple people who didn’t get up because they’re not ambitious. Your mom, she grabbed, her name was Pam, your mother’s name was Pam. Her name was Angela. She was a Brenda a Barbara your mother’s name was Marcia. No, she’s Marcia. That was your mother’s name. She was actually in Maryland Everyone’s here if you know this if you’re being honest with yourself, your mother’s name was Marilyn She could not be someone like Skylar today, and she says When you hear the shush from the mom, it’s all you said was just Clayton Thomas Clark. She’s calling from a distance that’s beyond our geographical 918 and the magic of it is still unveiling in front of you you know my gosh and then she’s shush and now she’s talking to a Bonnie to a Carolyn she’s talking to an aunt from enough she’s talking your aunt from Sarasota Sarasota Florida maybe Connie and what would happen is my point is is that we were controlled by that. If anybody wanted to get you to get up and run through your house, all they had to do was call your number. I had a couple of buddies that were brothers, and one, the phone was in the kitchen, and when you went to answer the phone, you couldn’t see the TV, because he knew he’d been in his brother’s house enough. And so during the football game, the brother’s favorite game, he’d be watching it, and he would time the call so the brother would have to get up at a very critical moment to answer the phone because we were slaves to that. When that phone rang, my point is we were slaves to that. When that phone rang, you had to answer it. Z, you were a slave to answering the phones, kind of in the way that you’re a slave to the groove. Ooh. Whenever you hear a good beat, a good Prince song, or a good Michael Jackson song, you don’t have control over your body your body. I lose it It just begins to do its own motions its own actions like my computer right now And I worry whenever you get in a groove because I worry are you ever gonna get out of it? Sometimes I feel like I may get stuck you’re right. I have a concern of last year. I tried to pull you out I said get out of the groove Stay tuned for the project show on your radio. Funny, funny story Thrive Nation. We’re talking today about the Benjamin Franklin life story. We’re breaking down his 13 virtues. And one of the things that I thought to be humorous as I was preparing for the show and reading through my notes of Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography was he was very self-aware, which is the key to humor. It’s being able to observe human behavior and to draw conclusions and patterns based off of it. And my wife and I had a conversation and it got a little deep there. She said, take off the waders, get out of the shallow end, let’s go down to the deep end. Down to the deep end. Okay, so I get down there, I got my scuba gear on, I’m ready to go down the deep end. And she says, I’ve noticed that you do not value money. And I’m like, okay, how so? She goes, I think you just like winning. Like you just like making the sale, making the deal, growing the company, getting bigger, getting faster, getting, but there’s no real end to it. And I’m like, I know, that’s like what I’m doing. I just wanna, I just kinda wanna bring it home. I know, yeah, okay, you’re right. So I’m kinda like a hunting dog. You know, these hunting dogs, you throw them a stick and they’ll bring it back and the dog’s got a big old smile on its face. And you don’t get the picture that it’s thinking about, I wonder what I should do when I retire. You know, it’s more of just like, let’s do it again. So we came up with the analogy, we agreed that I’m really a business bowling ball and if my wife can just go, the lanes are that way. You’re currently throwing the ball down, there’s no pins over there, there’s no pin over there. The lanes are over here. This is what we call a bowling alley. You’re currently just throwing it up a hill. Once she gets me going… Yeah. You knock those pins down, baby. So I think she is my life bowling coach. And she just says, what you want to do, put on those shoes. I know other people have been wearing them, kind of gross, whatever. We didn’t spray. It’s okay. Focus over here and you just go for those pins. And once I get focused, I can hit it. And Benjamin Franklin in his book, he’s talking about how he had to figure out where the lanes were. He wanted to figure out his goals, his chief aim and he said there’s 13 kind of guardrails or 13 rules that keep him on track, okay? These 13 virtues. And the next virtue we talked about was in industry. He says, losing no time. Again, he talked about this, you don’t wanna waste your time. So as an example, if you’re an entrepreneur, you should not be mowing your lawn. If you’re an entrepreneur, you should not be going to the laundromat. If you’re an entrepreneur, you should not be what? Z, there’s so many top level entrepreneurs who are doing stupid things during their day. And unless it’s therapeutic for you to mow the lawn, hire somebody. Talk to me about that. Paying a little bit of money to save a lot of time. Absolutely. The thing I see the most, though, is these new smartphones. These smartphones are making people dumb. They’re a slave to them. And that’s the story we were saying earlier on the break. And of course, if you’ve missed anything on the show, you can always get the podcast at thrive timeshow.com and listen to it. But the point was, is being a slave to your device. You know, back in the day when I was a kid, we were a slave to that phone ringing in the house and we did the story and you run to it and then you’re, who’s, who is it? You know, and no matter when it rang, I mean, you ran to it, but you don’t have to be that way with your smartphone. There are so many, if you’ve got a lot of push notifications happening, I mean all day long, I mean update, update, update, question, question, text, text, call, call. It can derail your day. If you’re spending all day long going, well what did you get done today? Well I got a lot of Facebook done. I changed my ringtone and downloaded some iTunes. And I got a new app. I found a new app. It’s a time management app. Oh yeah, that’s a good one. And it just shuts down your phone. You hit it, and it shuts down your phone. That’s it. No, no. Move number seven. That’s a good app there. Move number seven, sincerity. Use no harmful deceit. Think innocently and justly. And if you speak, speak accordingly. What we’re talking about, I’m not going to waste a lot of time on this, because if you cannot grasp this, I cannot help you. You must know that God is watching. And if you don’t believe in the Judeo-Christian God, just know, if you look at the American… pull out a dollar bill. If you’re listening to this show right now, pull out a dollar bill. Pull out a dollar bill. And there’s a thing called the Eye of Providence that’s on the dollar bill. And you say, well, that’s the Illuminati. No, it’s not. What they did is they made the eye on the dollar. The point was, the eye was supposed to show, it’s the eye on the dollar surrounded by the rays of glory, indicating that God is always watching. So if you don’t believe in that, you could always think Santa Claus is watching. Somebody’s always watching. Somebody’s always watching. We’re in a police state now. I mean, there’s cameras everywhere. Everyone’s recording your audio. They really, literally are always watching now. Yeah, so the thing is, just don’t be a jerk. Move number eight, justice. Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty. Justice means that in business, you want to do the right thing, even when you want to do the fair deal. Even sometimes when doing the fair deal isn’t something you want to do. And my best example of this is I have had to fire people in the past for being consistently inaccurate, but not a bad person. And it irritates the heck out of me that somebody is constantly not accurate, but I don’t need to tar and feather them and to rip their head off and run around the office and talk bad about them. I just need to say, you know what, we’ve written you up, we’ve talked about it, it’s time to move on. And I want to help them find another job because it’s the right thing to do. So if the new boss calls me and says, hey, is this a good guy? Absolutely. You know, because I’m trying to help them do well, even though on a personal level, we had one guy in the DJ company, his number one job was we bought the license to these karaoke discs. They’re called CDJGs or whatever, they’re CDs with graphics. And you buy the rights to them, and the way it works is that you can play like a Madonna song, you play Paula Abdul, you know, straight up now tell me are you really gonna love me forever, and then you’ve got the lyrics on the screen so you can sing along. We’ve all been to a karaoke bar, we’ve all seen it. That shouldn’t happen at a wedding, by the way, do not let it happen at a wedding. So what happens is people at the wedding come up and they’re like I want to sing and I will always love you by Whitney Houston it’s really something I want to sing for the bride and you’re going I thought I seen you on The Voice I feel like you’re the person who lost in the first round and no I’m not and they just get up and they just mangle the song mangle and so then people go oh my gosh that wedding was awful I want karaoke at my wedding too and so you end up having lots of systems and you buy the rights to it. One guy said, your job is to copy all these discs in this order, check it off this checklist, get them done. So he copies thousands of discs, uses all my licenses, makes the systems, and we go out to corporate holiday parties in December, and the first call comes in. DJ Connection Helpline, this is Clay, how can I help you? Clay, I’m at the show, I’m DJing here, and all my karaoke CDs don’t work and the ones that do work don’t correspond to the songs that said it says So I call the guy and he’s like, oh, yeah, bro like I was trying to do it and I was like trying to make the duplicate CDs but like I Guess I forgot to use the checklist. And so I just kind of went from more feel I’m like you went by feel I’ll mass duplicating licensed music And so we basically had to refund every single karaoke package that weekend. Uh-oh. It was probably 600 times 40. It’s probably $25,000 of refunds in one weekend. Ow! And I wanted to kill him, but it was, I figured, you know what, it’s time to let him go, and I need to do it in a just way. And that’s hard to do. For me, it’s hard sometimes to forgive chronic jackassery. And if that’s you, just calm down, understand that, you know, they’ll go get a job at Taco Bueno and they’ll figure it out over time maybe, you know, but it’s not up to you to sit there and right every wrong. You got to move on. And see, when we come back, we’re talking about move number nine, which is moderation. Moderation. Avoiding extremes, which is frankly very, very hard for me to do. This is the one right here for me. Oh really? That is it? Yeah, because like, I want to pull an all-nighter every single day working on every single work project because everything to me is immediately urgent once I Determine I want to get it done. I have such a hard time going to bed. Yeah, and that and that’ll do it Well, we come back. I’ll break it down like Russians. See you’re gonna help us everything down You’re gonna help the ultra alpha listen to the show Kind of insert a little moderation into their life. Is it possible? Take a chill pill a chill pill Let’s chill pill are those legal to get those from Mexico or Canada? Where are you getting them? I’ll tell you after the break. Oh, nice. It’s the Thrive Time Show on your radio. We come back. We’re deep diving into the virtues of Benjamin Franklin. Broadcasting live from the center of the universe, it’s Business School Without the BS. Featuring optometrist turned entrepreneur, Dr. Robert Zellner with USSBA Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark. Thrive Nation, we’re bringing a little bit of entrepreneurship in your ear and we’re so glad that you are here. It is always ecstasy when you are next to me and it’s even more ecstasy when Z is next to me. Z, how are you, my friend? I am fantastic and you have worn your skullcap the entire show. I love the way you get so excited and get into character and now you’re kind of even starting to, you know, you should have worn, I mean, you should have had Lenny Kravitz, you should have had you in like an old 70s kind of funk outfit or something, you know, just kind of get you really, you know, one of those like leather jackets with the fringe that hangs down, like you used to wear. Long scarf. Yeah, long scarf. I did pierce my nose. Maybe some fake body pictures. Multiple times. Or you could. I’m fully committed. The problem is we have the Dennis Rodman show coming up later next week. Oh, you might have to get started now. That’s going to be kind of hard to undo that. That’s going to change. You know, all right. We’re going to be talking today about the Benjamin Franklin story, but specifically all month we’re going to be talking about the success stories, real people out there who’ve had real success. How did they do it? What’s their story? We’re on part one of the Benjamin Franklin story. We’re talking about his 13 virtues, and on tomorrow’s show we’re talking about the timeline of Benjamin Franklin. So moderation, Benjamin Franklin writes, avoid extremes, forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve. Z moderation, break it down. Well I tell you what guys, I looked up the Google definition of it and I love this. It’s the avoidance of excessive extremes, especially in one’s behavior or political opinions. I didn’t realize it was or political opinions, I did not know that. They just threw that in there. They just threw that in there. But I think what happens is that, you know, there’s an old saying that I used to love to say. Oh, say the saying. And that is, all work and no play makes clay who is clay today. That’s just what it is. That’s what my name means in the Greek. Yes. All work and no play. I remember once, one of the early shows we did, we’ve done almost 300 shows, 270 or 275 or something like that. It feels like 400 in a good way. Yeah, it feels like a thousand. But I remember you introduced the Thrived Nation, a concept you have of the F5. It’s your life goals for your faith. You had family. Your family. Your fitness. Your fitness. Your friendships. Your finances. Yeah. And you had your F5 down. You were talking about it. It was perfect. Nothing could be better. Nothing could be better. I thought about it forever. I said, Clay, what about the most important one, or an important one? And I’m like, Z, you can’t say that on the radio show. You can’t use that word on the radio show. That’s not an F. No, and I said, hey, the F6 is one of the most important. And you look to me and you go, what’s that? And I go, fun. Frugality? No, fun. Fun. All work and no play. And that’s your deal. You are the definition of a guy who loves to work. Grinder. You love to work. It’s my worship. Rise and grind and get it done today, Clay. Oh, wow. Keep it going. So, the point is that taking that chill pill mentally, being able to find a place that you can go and just kind of relax, put the flaps down in your own work world, as you said earlier. Flaps down, flaps up. Kitchen passengers, calm the heck down. Yeah, and that may take, that may be some quiet time, some certain kind of music does that for you. Kitchen passengers, put down the handguns. We’re just going to Atwoods. Thank you very much. Put burning some pinion wood. I know that that’s very, you know, attention keyboard keyboard warriors. All caps emails. Go burn some pinion wood. Pinion wood. So in order to and the here again to put it on the different hat and understanding that that helps your sleep. It helps your life. It helps you relate to people and it makes you a more well rounded person and kind of a renaissance man if you will. The sphere is here. You know on the flip side of that though, sometimes people need to moderate their fun if they have a business to run. Oh yeah, that pendulum swings both ways bro. If you are spinning… Shirtless Tuesdays in the office! Come on! Are we not doing that? Shirtless Taco Tuesdays! Shirtless Tuesdays! We’re going to do drunken volleyball in the call center again on Wednesdays because that’s how I pump it up. That’s how we get things done. We need to moderate that stuff, Clay. Oh. We need to moderate that stuff. So like Dizzee said, that pendulum can go both ways. So if you’re having too much fun out there, then cut back a little bit and get back to work. Now, the final virtues that Benjamin Franklin wrote, because tomorrow we have an epic timeline we’re going to be getting through. I want to go through these with you. And I’m going to focus on humility, OK? But these are the final four. Cleanliness. He writes, tolerate no uncleanliness in your clothes, your body, your habitation. Don’t have a nasty office, right? Keep it clean. Move a leaf. Tranquility, be not disturbed at trifles nor at accidents. Don’t get all wigged out about everything. Calm down. Calm down. Chastity, he says, be chaste in matters of the opposite sex. Quit hitting on every single secretary. You don’t have to. You’re married, calm down. Stop doing it. Control yourself. You’re not married, you’re dating, quit hitting on every woman quit quit hitting on every guy Just calm down and in humility. He wrote he wrote imitate Jesus and Socrates I’m gonna hit on humility Z you can hit on whatever one you want here humility What the idea is you want to be coachable? I would just call it coachable. I’ll take out the religious aspects of it I’m just saying Be coachable that means be approachable and look for mentors and quit trying to just learn from mistakes. Quit running through the landmine of life being uncoachable. Z, of the final four virtues, is there one that you want to just hammer home that you feel like we got cleanliness, tranquility, chastity? I would have normally done, but since you stepped on that one, I’m going to do tranquility. And I think there’s something about being tranquil and having a peaceful aura about you. In other words, you know, bad stuff’s gonna happen. Yeah. It’s gonna happen. What? And your bad stuff may not feel bad to me, but it’s bad to you. You know, we all have our watermark of bad things that happen. I ordered a burrito, it was chicken, and they got me beef, and I’m going like, what? And their waiter’s like, no, and I’m like, uh-uh, and I’m like, bam, and boom. I mean, that’s horrible. Yeah, but you know, like the first time you get sued, the first time you’re served a lawsuit, it is very disturbing, and I hope that never happens to you in your life journey, but as a successful entrepreneur, the odds of that happening to you go drastically up. Or someone does a trip and fall on your property. You had nothing wrong. You didn’t do anything. It was their fault, and yet you’re now having to pay for it. You only shoved him a little bit. You were like, hey, look at that, Bernie. I put my foot out there. You didn’t see it? No, I mean, things like that happen. I mean, that’s not a lawsuit, but it’s like there was a trip and fall, and guess what? Now you’re responsible for it. But that didn’t seem fair, but it’s not all about being fair. That’s the law, and that’s the way that it is. It’s the move. And so the thing about Tranquil is that I think one of the things that when people see me and they comment on it, one of the comments I get is I go, wow, that’s some really bad news, and you seem to be okay with it. You’re meta, bro. You’re just- Meta. Now, meta, I mean this meta. Ron Artest played for the Indiana Pacers And what happened was is that he was awesome and then a fan taunted him He went into the stands and beat the crap out of the guy. Yeah, it was bad. He got suspended Yeah, and he came back and he changed his name to Meta World Peace Why he did it was he said that meta means above Yeah So he wanted to be reminded to be above all situations, to not emotionally engage, and to be tranquil. That was the idea. He said, above, and he said, world peace is that it’s obvious to everybody else that I’m trying to advocate peace, and it’s kind of hard for me to freak out all the time if I’m world peace. Yeah, exactly. So he’s like, the dissonance of my name, I couldn’t handle it, that’s why I changed my name. And I know it seems crazy, but he’s a guy who grew up in a really rough environment, a lot of knife fights, a lot of gangs, a lot of drugs, and he was like, I just grew up in that culture, and now I’m in the NBA, and it’s hard to turn it off. So he changed his name. And you think that’s crazy. Well, in the Bible, a lot of people change their name. Muhammad Ali changed his name. A lot of people, maybe that’s you. Maybe you just need to calm down and become, I’m Metta World Peace. Junior? I could be like, I’m Metta World Peace Junior. Dr. Metta World Peace Junior. Oh yeah, you’re a doctor. You’re a doctor. Which one of these four virtues do you want to hammer home? The final four from our main man, the inventor of the skullet, Michael Bolton’s precursor there, Benjamin Franklin. Well, I would just go back to that cleanliness. You guys hopped on those too that I was going to go as well. So back to the cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes, or habitation. And basically what that means is you’re showing the rest of the world that you’ve got your life in control. You’re showing the rest of the people that you have prepared. Oh, so you’re a control freak. I get it now. But for myself, yeah. Can I share with the Thrivers an invention? Because Benjamin Franklin invented a lot of things, and I have an invention I’ve been working on. I want to hear it. You can smoke meat. You can smoke cigarettes. You shouldn’t, but you could. Tobacco. Yeah, yeah, sure. I have recently started smoking my clothes, and it’s awesome. And pinyon wood? I’m not kidding. This morning I smoked them again. It’s my third or fourth day in a row. I think it’s my third day in a row I did it. So I get the pinyon wood going. Okay. I put charcoal. I put six pieces. So if you’ve seen this, I’ve got six pieces. I know the system. I put the pinyon wood on there, and I open the door so the smoke goes into the man cave. It comes in. I want it to be a smoky room. And I set my clothes out on the back of a chair, and it just wafts in. And I smell awesome all day. I literally have begun smoking my clothes. That’s part of my daily ritual now. Oh my gosh. I love it. So you smell kind of like a campfire then. Yeah, I mean, right now. Oh yeah, just a little bit. You stole that idea from Kramer. He used to put his clothes in the pizza oven to warm them up. Yeah, I know that. Nice. Now, Thrive Nation, there are four ways that we can help you. Come on now. There are four ways that we can help you, but we cannot help you if you will not take the first step. If you will not engage, we can’t help you do what the folks at Tip Top K9 did. They’re going to be tripling their business in one year. They’re already double, and we’ve got a month and a half left of holiday spending to see if we can triple the business. We can’t help you triple the business. We can’t help you grow your business significantly like the phone doctors. We can’t help you like total lending concepts if you do not engage. And it all starts at one website, thrivetimeshow.com. And when you go there, we have four tools for you. One is one-on-one business coaching. Two, we have the, somebody hates it when you make, when the radio show makes you pause. I know. There’s something wrong. Online business school without the BS. That’s what got this whole thing started three years ago, Clay. It’s a dollar for the first month, a $19 every month after. Third, we have the? Podcast. Podcast. Third, we have the, I’m giving you an awkward pause, it’s the in-person workshops, right? We have the workshops. And the fourth, and the fourth, we have this podcast, Thrive Nation. You definitely don’t want to miss that on a single episode. Subscribe today at thrivetimeshow.com. My name’s Clay Clark. I’m a business coach and you? And I’m doing awkward pauses. Oh, terrific. As always. 3, 2, 1, boom! Awkward pause. Business coach. Wait for it. Get ready to enter the Thrivetimeshow. We started from the bottom, now we’re here We started from the bottom, now we’re here We started from the bottom, now we’re on the top Teaching you the systems to get what we got Cullen Dixon’s on the hooks, I break down the books He’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks As the father of five, that’s where I’mma dive So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi It’s C and Z up on your radio And now 3, 2, 1, here we go! We started from the bottom, now we’re here One here we go Oh, yes, thrive nation welcome back to another exciting edition of the thrive time show on your radio and on today’s show we’re talking about a subject that I think that is near and dear to my heart that the subject is when You get kicked out of a college, and they ask you to come back and to speak to the students, what do you say? When you get kicked out of a college and they ask you to come back to speak to the students or to the people, what do you say? And our secondary topic is defining and protecting your brand. So here’s the little backstory for you. Many years ago, I went to Oral Roberts University. And when I went there, the school’s president, his name was Richard Roberts. And Richard Roberts, much like anybody out there, myself included, is not a perfect man. And I was going to college, and much like anybody who’s an 18-year-old, you’re looking for a utopia. You want there to be a world where everyone’s values align perfectly with their actions. And I did not see the actions aligning perfectly with the values of the school. But I also would say objectively now, as a 37-year-old man looking back at it, I don’t think there’s any organization or place in the world, any country, anything at all, where everybody’s values completely align with their actions. I think otherwise we’d all be in great shape. We would all just be the perfect parents. We would all just be billionaires. I mean, so you’ve got to, you could know what to do and then deciding to actually do what you know to do and aligning your actions with your values, that’s not an easy thing to do for everybody. But anyway, I wrote a song about Oral Roberts University that I thought was hilarious with my friend called the O-R-U Slim Shady. And I’ll put that on the show notes today. I thought it was going to be just hilarious. I’ll share it with some buddies. And that was during the time where Eminem came out with his song called Slim Shady. And I just thought it would be kind of a funny parody of Spoof. And I didn’t realize it would catch on so well. And so my buddy Adam Bagwell and I did the song together. And it resulted in me getting to have an interactive meeting with the dean of men, Devin. Wow. Devin, did you go to college anywhere? I went to Tulsa Community College. And did you have a… So you didn’t live on campus? No. Well, at Oral Roberts University you live on campus. Right. And so there’s like 35 guys on a wing, we’ll call it. Okay. And then there’s 35 guys on a wing, and then there are maybe, I don’t know, you have like three wings per floor, and you have like seven to eight floors. So you’ve got 24 wings, let’s say, on the brother wing, and then you have 25, 24 wings on the sister wing. So what happens is, you get kind of paired up with the sister wing. So my wing that I was on was called Covenant. The Covenant wing, when there’s 35 guys, kind of like a fraternity almost. And then the women, they have a female dorm, because it wasn’t co-ed dorms. So we were paired up with a wing, I believe, called Destiny at the time. And so, long story short, it’s a nice college campus, and then there’s like three or four different dormitories for men and three or four different ones for women. Well, there’s the dean of men who is in charge of your whole dormitory. So he’s in charge of all six floors or eight floors and all the wings. And I got a call from him, and he said, hey, I’d like to have you come on down and chat with me as soon as possible. And I’m like, okay, okay. And this is shortly after recording the ORU Slim Shady, okay? And I had given it on a CD to a friend of mine. Okay, I just gave it to him. I didn’t give it to everybody else. He said, I want to hear it. So I gave it to him, and he pulls me aside and he says, Clay, do you remember putting a song on the student voicemail? And I said, what? He goes, every single student at Oral Roberts University just received this voicemail. And it says, you have a message from Dean Boyd’s office, boop, and it played the song. I’m like, I don’t recall that, although that is hilarious. Who did that? He’s like, this is not good for you. And I’m like, okay, okay. And I didn’t ever want to graduate from college. I wasn’t really super disturbed by the whole thing. But then like the next day, I’m walking to campus, I’m walking to Chapel at Oral Roberts University. We had to go to Chapel twice a week, I believe it was twice a week. Walking to Christ Chapel and some guy that I’ve never met before is like, whoop whoop, whoop whoop, DJ Klee, all right. And I’m like, I promoted dance parties, that’s why I paved my way through college, but I don’t know him. And I was well known on campus, but I didn’t. And then I’m walking down, the next time I’m walking, I remember I was walking towards to lunch from my dorm room after chapel and everybody’s playing the song, you can hear it in different dorm rooms. Oh gosh. And I’m like, ah, this isn’t going to go well. So then I get another voicemail and I play it and it’s like, boop, boop. Clay, this is Dean Boyd’s office, you must report to the Dean’s office immediately. And I’m going, oh wow, I’m getting to meet all the deans, meeting all the people. And anyway, I got asked to leave that college. I got asked to apologize to the students. They asked me if I would stand up and chapel and apologize to all the students for writing the song. And I refused to do it. And so as a consequence, I got kicked out of college. And so I got kicked out of Oral Roberts University. And then recently, they’ve asked me to come and speak to them. And so I’m speaking to Oral Roberts University, and I think that is hilarious. And so I’m sort of excited that I’m speaking to them, but I’m also sort of saying, so ORU, if you’re out there, if you’re listening and you have an ORU connection, I’m really sorry that, you know, I wrote a parody that was very true and that it caught on so well. But I enjoyed writing it, and that’s the deal. So now they’ve asked me to come back and speak. And so I said, well, OK, what do you want me to talk on? And they said, well, we want you to teach your marketing and branding stuff. And so on today’s show, we’re going to be teaching defining your branding and protecting your brand, defining and protecting your brand. And so I have a lot of information ready to go, and I’m going to break it down for you. So first off, what is the purpose of branding? So Devin, from your perspective, if you had to explain to somebody, you do all the coding, you help code all the websites for our clients, you’re not so much on the graphic design side, although you can do that if you need to. Talk to me about what branding is on a very basic level from your perspective and why all of our clients, all the businesses out there, why they need to get their branding high and tight. Branding, from my perspective, is just how your company, how yourself, how you’re perceived by anybody. So if you have just a personal brand, you know, you’re going to, your personal brand is going to be reflected by the things that you do on the day to day. So for me in coding, you know, you probably don’t see necessarily my brand in the coding apart from the fact that things work well and the websites look good because I’m able to pull the things out that the graphic designers are able to give me. I’ll give you an example out there. If you’re listening right now, if you go to our show notes from today’s show, I’m going to give you a notable quotable and I’m going to give you a lot of examples. But Elon Musk, Devin, Elon Musk 100 percent agrees with you. Elon Musk! This just in, one point for you Devin. Elon Musk says, brand is just a perception. And perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product. Elon Musk. This is the guy behind Tesla, PayPal, SpaceX, SolarCity. So I’m going to give the Here’s some examples of this. If you think about Tiffany jewelry, Tiffany jewelry, what color do you associate, Devin, with Tiffany jewelry? Do you have a certain color you… People call it Tiffany blue, right? Tiffany blue. So if you go out there and you buy your loved one a gift from Tiffany’s and you present it to them, when they see the box, right away they assume it’s super high quality. Another example would be the Apple packaging. Steve Jobs said before he passed he wanted the Apple packaging to be so good that people would want to keep the boxes and not know why. Right, I definitely have four or five Apple product boxes. And why are we keeping them? Because they’re great. I mean are we going to use them as a regift move? Are we going, oh hey, hey, hey, just joking with you but I did not get you an iPad. I actually just got you some chocolates in an iPad box that I’ve kept for years and I use it as a regift move. No, I mean we don’t do that but at the same time the packaging was great we want to keep it. Right. Tiffany is an example and I would just ask the listeners out there what is your brand? What does your brand stand for? Let’s think about the world’s most iconic brands. We think about Harley, right? Harley, we’ll put links to the logos here for the world’s most successful company. But the world’s most successful companies, you have Coca-Cola, you’ve got McDonald’s, you’ve got the Harley, you’ve got Starbucks. You have big companies, but the brand is just the perception that you have of the companies. So Devin, talk to me about logos and why the logos don’t have to be super complicated to make a great brand Well because your brand is so much more than a logo a logo is one piece of the brand sure But your branding encompasses not only your logo, but it encompasses your website and cus and Yeah, it takes on also your customer service how you treat your customers the experience that you are giving them. So I’ll give you an example. For Elephant in the Room, the men’s grooming lounge, I’ve heard a lot of men describe that business, the Elephant in the Room men’s grooming lounge, as sort of like a country club for men’s hair. Yeah. And so we’re going to have the super manager from Elephant in the Room come on the show during the second segment, and he’s going to kind of break down for you what the experience is all about. And again, the branding of that company, yes, we have a logo of an elephant. That’s part of the brand. But the brand is simply, as you said earlier, the overall collective impression that people have, the perception they have of the business. And so if you’re out there and you have a small business right now, I would just ask you to, I’d ask you this rhetorically, what do most people think about your brand, collectively? What is your brand? Is your brand, are you being branded as prestigious? Are you being branded as a discounter? Are you being brand? What is your brand? And so we go back to where we started cuz it’s the circle at Oral Roberts University I was branded pretty quickly as a bad guy as a bat I was I was branded as a bad guy who branded me as a bad guy Myself as a bad guy because You had to wear a tie every day. And so I did wear a tie. What I did was I wore just the collar. I cut off, I was only wearing the collar of a shirt. And I wore that underneath my jerseys with a tie. I was literally wearing just a collar with a tie on it, but there was no rest of the shirt. And I did that all the time. I did that every single day. I never actually wore a long-sleeved shirt. I always wore just like baseball jerseys with a tie. The craziest thing ever, but it worked. I was a DJ on a school that didn’t allow social dancing, so I was a disc jockey. My entire income was made as a result of violating the school’s honor code on a daily, if not twice a day basis. All my dance parties I threw, all the events I organized were all a direct violation to the handbook that I signed. The handbook said, you’re not allowed to organize or attend student dances. And I’m like, okay, you guys want to come to my dance? That’s what I did. So I mean, again, then I wrote a song about Oral Roberts University that the school didn’t find to be very funny because it was very derogatory about the school at the time. And then I put it on a CD, no idea how mass distributed, but I did that. On campus, you couldn’t conduct business. You’re not allowed to have a business on the campus. I converted my dorm room into a studio where I very rarely did anything other than conduct business. I always had random guys show up in my dorm room at 3 in the morning sliding hundred-dollar bills underneath my door because they were paying for their sessions. You had to prepay. I mean, I violated every single rule that they had. It didn’t help the fact that I dressed like I was in the Wu-Tang Clan. So my brand was really not that awesome. And then when I went there to start my DJ company, I continued to dress like that while trying to meet with brides and trying to convince the mother of the bride to hire me to DJ for their weddings. And it didn’t go very well. It’s not because of some mystical habit force. It’s just simply the collective impression people had of me so if you’re out there just ask you on a scale of 1 to 10 How would you rank your branding is your branding a 10 is it awesome? What does it say about you? What is your logo? What is your website? What is your brand say about you stay tuned? It’s the Thrive Time Show on your radio Three two one boom You are now entering the dojo of mojo and the Thrive Time Show on the microphone, what is this? Top of the iTunes charts in the category of business. Drilling down on business topics like we are a dentist. Providing you with internship like you are an apprentice. And we go so fast that you might get motion sickness. Grab a pen and pad to the lab, let’s get in this. It’s time to bear some fruit like some Florida or Asians. 3, 2, 1, here come the business ninjas. I’m at Thrive Nation, welcome back to the conversation. This is the Thrive Time Show on your radio. And for those of you just tuning in, I want to re-T up today’s conversation. This is one of the funnier moments of my life here. Years ago, I was kicked out of Oral Roberts University for writing a parody about the school’s… about the school, all right? And I had a problem because I felt like the school’s values said one thing, but they did another. But now I’m 37, and I realized that if you’re listening out there today, and you’re not in shape, that’s what’s happening to you. Because nobody says, I want to be overweight. It just means that your values, you want to be in shape, but you’re not. Or if you’re out there, and you’re working all the time, and you’re spending more time at work than with your kids. You’re not really spending the time with your kids you want to, then that’s the same thing. Or if you’re out there and you suck at sales, but you want to do good at sales, but you just mail it in. Every time you do a sales call, you fall on your sword. If you are out there and you have a whacked haircut, I mean your haircut is just whacked, but you want to act like your haircut is not whacked, your haircut is bad. You’re cutting your own haircut with a bowl. You’re putting a bowl on your head, and you’re, you have a bowl cut, and you talk about how style matters to you, but you’re not, you know, you’re looking pretty rough there, buddy. If you’re out there looking like Darth Vader when he took his helmet off, you know, because you my friend are not taking care of yourself, but you talk about how you value yourself. If you’re somebody out there who says, I really care about my business brand a lot, but you’re not cleaning your bathrooms, we all have a form of cognitive dissonance. Everybody out there, myself included, we all have something that we’re not, and I’d say, well, Clay, what do you struggle with? We’re talking about your personal brand. For me, I’ll just say this. I’m not as nice as I want to be. You know, I want to be nicer. I want to be kinder, and I’m not as nice and kind as I want to be. And so I go out of my way each morning to reset, and I’m like, oh, that wasn’t good. Redo. Tomorrow, let’s give her another give her another world everybody here we go and so I wrote a parody song about oral Roberts University they didn’t like it very much obviously because it was very caustic derogatory and not positive so they kicked me out of the school and rightfully so and then I got asked about in 2013 so this would be 14 years later if I would come back to Oral Roberts University and I was very aware of it, but I charged them more than I paid for my college. And so they paid me back. I thought, yes! And then recently they asked me to come speak to a group of pastors and I thought, well, okay, that’s a good radio show topic is when you get kicked out of a college and they ask you to come back, what do you talk about? And they asked me to talk about defining brand. And so my brand as an Oral Roberts University student was sort of a bad guy, sort of a bad boy, sort of a rebel. And now I think my brand is I’m a 37-year-old man with five kids, 25 to 35 chickens, depending upon how many ravagist animals are out there. We have cats. And my partner and I have built 14 multi-million dollar companies. And so I think I have a confused brand. People are like, what is wrong with this guy? But I ask you this about your company today. Think about your company. Think about your business. What does your branding say about you? And I’m going to put it on the show notes so we can break down all the variables. So what we’re going to have Jason, our super manager with Elephant in the Room, on today’s show to break down this topic on branding. And so is Jason a branding expert? No. He’s a great manager, a great member of our team, but I want him to share with you from his experience. I’m going to have Devin share with you. We’re just going to talk about the elephant in the room, as an example. So the elephant in the room, let’s talk about the logo, the first variable. Jason, how would you describe the elephant in the room, men’s grooming lounge, the actual logo? It’s minimal and it’s an elephant. Okay, well, this just in. Why, Devin, is it minimized? Why is it simplified? Why is our logo not involving 17 different colors? Why is it not super complicated? Why do we simplify? Why are all the brands of the world’s top logos all very simplified? If they’re too complicated, you can’t put them some places. So you can’t make them very small and still have them recognizable. That’s part of it. Another part is whenever it’s simple, I think it’s Steve Jobs who says, simple is hard. So whenever you’re able to simplify something, then it’s more recognizable, easier to use, things like that. And we’ll put a link to it on the show notes. But the world’s successful brands, I mean, think about this. You have Apple, you have Coca-Cola, you have Amazon, you have Google, Starbucks, McDonald’s. All these companies have very simplified logos. Now, Jason, how would you describe the elephant in the room experience, the experience of the elephant in the room men’s grooming lounge. I would say it’s the opposite of the logo. It’s not minimal. It’s fully immersive. We want to offer a positive and amazing experience every single time to every guy that walks in. Why? Because that’s our brand. That’s what we want to, that’s how we want to be perceived. That’s how we want to represent ourselves. How is it different than like Great Clips or something? I’ve gone to a lot of great competitors of ours, but I’ll just use Great Clips because Great Clips is a successful brand, economically speaking. They’re doing a good job How is elephant in the room different different from great clips for all the guys out there listening? Different because we offer you a longer experience We’re gonna greet you as soon as you walk in we’re gonna make you feel like home like that that country club feel right It’s gonna make you feel Unique you’re gonna feel like the show is yours to run You become the most important person in the room every time you’re there. And think about this here at Thrive Nation. Think about the sights, the sounds, the smells, the music, the decor, the sights. We have a lot of man-centric, rustic decor. We have up-tempo music playing at, I’d say it’s like in the raw or Chipotle, that kind of vibe, that kind of energy. the smells. We’ve got a lot of essential oils and there’s a lot of smells that really, they awaken the senses. The music, like I said, it’s upbeat, up-tempo. The decor, everything about the elephant in the room is designed to create a certain look in a certain brand and a certain feel. I don’t think a lot of people are intentional about these sights, the sounds, the smells that make up your brand. And so Elon Musk, who could not be here today, he writes, brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some people have about a product. And I want to get Devin’s take on this. Steven Furtick is a famous pastor, and he recently spoke at a church, at his church, while wearing a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt. How do you perceive that? What do you think that says about his brand? What do you think? I just want to get your take on that. First time hearing it, what do you think about it? I mean, I guess he likes Jimi Hendrix. He’s trying to, from my perspective, he’s trying to appeal to a younger crowd who maybe is more forward thinking versus suit and tie, kind of more the older crowd. I’m going to put a link to Steven Furtick’s video on today’s show, that’s of him speaking where he’s wearing the Jimi Hendrix shirt, and I’ll show it to you guys during the break so you can see it. I want to get your take on what Steven Furtick is doing with his brain. He’s a pastor, Steven Furtick. I want you to look at his brain. I would like you to comment what you think about it there. In the meantime, Thrive Nation, as I show the guys the Steven Furtick video, I want you to go to onyximaging.com. If you’re in the Tulsa area and you’re buying office supplies or printer supplies, one way to save both time and money, one way to achieve time, freedom, and financial freedom is to stop spending time and money on things you shouldn’t be spending time and money on. Save money on your office supplies and your printer supplies by going to onyximaging.com. That’s onyximaging.com. Stay tuned. Get ready to enter the Thrive Nation, this just in. Now that we’ve hit the top of the iTunes charts, Devin, we’re starting to broadcast to other planets. Wow. Yeah, because, I mean, think about it. Who are we to discriminate against other planets? I mean, do the aliens out there have questions about branding? Absolutely. Yeah. Devin, I want to get your take on this, and then we’ll get back into our topic today about branding. Now, remember, the question I’m going to ask you today, if you answer it the wrong way, this will forever affect your brand. And if you get it the right way, there’s no right or wrong answer here, but if you answer it the wrong way, it might affect… if you answer it the way that a lot of the Thrive Nation… basically, I’m saying the Thrive Nation is judging your answer here, okay? So I’m going to ask you a tough question. I’m going to ask Jason the same question. He gets to one-up you, okay? This is a tough question and this will affect your brand forever. Okay. As hundreds of thousands of people listen to this, this question will affect your brand forever, but there’s no right or wrong answer. Okay. Here we go. Do you believe in alien life? Hmm. Do you believe in alien life? Because I’m telling you, we are now top on the iTunes charts. We were number one of all categories the other day. We broadcasted Portland and Tulsa, Oklahoma. We’re ranked in the top 20 or top 10 consistently there in the business category. And so we’re thinking about marketing now to aliens, other beings, other planets, other interstellar systems, other galaxies, people, the green guys are listening and going, how do we do our branding? How do we do our branding? I feel like that’s how aliens talk. They use English, but they just go, how do we use our branding? How do we do? So do you believe in alien life? I definitely believe that it’s possible. I’m not going to say that it is a thing, but I mean, God put us here, so I mean, could he not also put other things? Holy cow! OK, Jason, now you get to it. Now, Jason, we’re talking about branding on today’s show, but this answer to this question, if you answer this question, you can realize that half the listeners are like, this person’s crazy. Or they’re going to go, are you kidding me? It really, really, what a small mind, this guy. So what do you think? Alien life, do you think alien life exists, life outside of the planet Earth? Well my response is probably going to hurt my branding in the future. Here we go, here we go. I’m going to phrase it as much like a politician as I possibly could and kind of dance around the answer. It’s not that I believe wholeheartedly in life, you know, outside of Earth, but I do think it’s kind of crazy to think that there’s not sentient life anywhere other than one rock in the infinity of space. All right, I’m going to tell the listeners something that will, I think, blow their minds. I think there’s definitely aliens. I think God has created definite parallel universes, and I feel like that it’s going to be fun to meet these guys. That’s my take. I feel like, I mean, think about God. If we believe in the Judeo-Christian concept of God, he created the earth in like six days, you know? And like, what else is he doing? I feel like he’s like, alright, Monday I create this planet, you know, Monday through Saturday, next week another planet. I think there’s other parallel universes so you’ll see your crazy that’s fine it or anyway it either way it’s just branding and it’s a i’d i’d bring it up because it really is a branding thing on the center like click clark please aliens what a sick freak but i showed you guys the clip uh… during the break of a of a pastor and in steven ford f u r t i c k one of the a pastor of one of the fastest growing churches in america his church is called Elevation Church. So I’m going to play an audio sample so the listeners can hear Stephen Furtick preaching. Just a little 10-second, 15-second excerpt so you can hear Stephen speaking. But I’d like for you guys to talk about his brand and what you think he’s trying to communicate to his congregation. This is an announcement. You don’t need any other to be significant. I’m not against the term. I’m not against the term. But you don’t have to be a Duchess of Sussex to be significant. No, not to be significant in the eyes of God. If significance was predicated on marital status, Jesus was insignificant. When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand. Now Steve Currington, you can weigh in on this, it’s on the big screen behind you. We’re talking today about branding. And you know, Stephen Furtick now, one of the top pastors on the planet, his church is growing quite a bit, he’s wearing a Jimi Hendrix shirt while preaching. He’s got ripped jeans on, you guys heard him, right, you saw him there. So this isn’t a religious discussion, we’re talking about branding. And we’re bringing up Stephen Furtick because I was asked to speak at Oral Roberts University, and I’m breaking down for the listeners out there what I’m teaching to the Oral Roberts University pastors there, the pastors who are attending. I’m teaching them about branding and asking them the hard questions. When people think of you, what do they think about? So I’m going to start with you, Devin. Talk to me about branding. When you watch that video of Stephen Furtick wearing a Jimi Hendrix shirt. What are your thoughts? My first thoughts are just that he’s kind of just another guy, another dude. He just has the platform. That’s kind of my first perception, is that he’s just somebody I could run into on the street. Steve, Steve Currington there, Total Ending Concepts. What is your take when you see a pastor preaching from the pulpit wearing a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt. Well I think it’s real. You know? I think it’s just he is who he is and I appreciate somebody that can get on stage and just be who they are. Because I think a lot of people hop on stage and put on the act or put on the suit or put on something that’s going to display to people what they think the people want to see. Instead of just being who they are. You know? He wears jeans and he wears a t-shirt, so good for you. That’s who you are. It doesn’t change the message, it doesn’t change what you’re saying or what you believe. It just is who you are. It’s what you wear. All right, I want to get your take on this there, Jason. What is your take when you see the pastor of a church, a very, very fast-growing church called Elevation Church, and the pastor is wearing a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt? I think he’s honest and genuine and a lot of times that’s a lot easier for people to connect to than trying to relate to somebody who’s branding themselves based off of what they want people to see. Repeat that again please. Recommunicate that because I think someone out there just went, whoa I should write that down. No, seriously that was a great take. I want to get your take on that one more time. Yeah, so he’s honest and genuine and a lot of the times, you know, somebody being who they are and being completely genuine and honest with you is easier to embrace than the opposite. Somebody who is trying to, like Steve said, you know, they wear the suit and tie, it’s something that’s cookie cutter, it’s something that’s been done before, it’s a preconceived brand already, he’s branding himself, and I think that makes it a lot easier for the people to connect to him. Well, I have two big teaching moments that came out of that particular example. One, you’re gonna think about it. Whether you agree or not, whether you agree or disagree, you’re gonna remember him. So that right there is a purple cow. I’ve never seen a pastor wear a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt. And Jimi Hendrix is famous for such songs as Purple Haze, you know, or you got Foxy Lady, brr-brr-brr-brr-brr, you know. It’s, I mean, it’s, that’s pretty impressive that he would do that. I mean, to me, or regrettable, or whatever you want to call it, but it stands out. It’s remarkable. It’s not invisible. It’s remarkable. So I’d say, from a marketing perspective, that was pretty impressive. Two is I think it’s indicative of his overall philosophy. Because during that sermon, that particular sermon, he was talking a lot about Chris Brown, the singer who’s made a lot of mistakes, who hasn’t, but he’s made them publicly. And so he talked about Chris Brown was performing at a prison and he sang a song to one prisoner, just one song to a prisoner. So he personally is singing to one particular prisoner. And I think he’s all about forgiveness and I think that’s what he thinks the message of Christ is and that nobody’s perfect. And I think that if you listen to Stephen Furtick, that’s what he’s trying to communicate. But all I’m saying is he did stand out. So the question is for you, Mr. Thriver. When people think about your business, what do they think about? When they see your logo, what do they think about? What do they think about when they think about your business? And if you’re out there and you’re thinking about, I’m looking for a proactive CPA. I’m looking for a proactive CPA. A CPA who is proactive. A certified public accountant who is proactive. I encourage you to check out hoodcpas.com. That’s hoodcpas.com. You are now entering the dojo of Mojo and the Thrive Time Show. All right, Thrive Nation, welcome back to the Thrive Time Show on your radio. And Thrive Nation, I mean this sincerely, you are all looking foxy today. That’s one thing I want to communicate to the listeners. I don’t care what anybody says about you. I don’t care about the people who have seen you today, who are making a comment based upon actual visual interaction with your physical body. I’m just telling you on a metaphysical level, a level that’s way deeper than that, Steve. It’s above. It’s a very meta level. You are looking foxy. And today we’re talking about branding. Now, why are we talking about branding? Well, I was asked by Oral Roberts University to come in to speak to a group of pastors about the importance of branding. But this idea, this topic, can be… any business owner out there could benefit from this. And I’m using Stephen Furtick as an example. Stephen Furtick is the pastor of a church called Elevation Church, and I’m using TD Jakes as an example because they both are intentional about their branding. I’m using Craig Rochelle with Life Church as an example because they’re all intentional. All three of them are intentional about their branding. But if you are not intentional about your branding, by default people will not remember you. So let’s talk about the word brand for a second. Branding. Elon Musk says, this is an Elon Musk notable quote, well he writes, Brand is just a perception, and a perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind, but brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product. But this is how a brand sounds. Because you’re branding a cow. So that anytime someone would see a cow, they would know who actually owned the cow. You would sear the brand into the cow’s hide so that forever, if somebody ever saw that So that is a way to, forever people would always know who the cow owned, or who the cow was owned by. When you think about your business, when people see something, you want them to think about you all the time. You want them to, you want to be stuck, you want a visual image of your company to be stuck in their minds at all times. So I’m gonna play the branding game for 5,000 points with Steve Carrington. Steve, there are no right or wrong answers, but we’re going to go around the table. Hot take. Jason, you’ll be next. Devin, you’re next. Here we go. For five dozen mega points, not redeemable in heaven, when you think about a computer, what company do you think about? Apple. All right. Here we go. Here we go. All right, Jason, when you think about coffee, what is the company that you think about? Double Shot. Really? Well, it’s next door to him, right? Okay, but no, but that right there, that was, I mean, that was not the answer I was looking for, but that means that Double Shots did some great branding, and they’re located next to our 17th and Boston location. They’ve got great hats, great apparel, and great coffee. Oh yeah. I guess you get two shots. Right. Okay. Now, Devon, when you think about fast food, what company do you think about? Chick-fil-A. OK. Here we go. Steve Currington. When you think about motorcycles, what company do you think about? Harley Davidson. Jason, when you think about family vacations, what’s the destination you think about? Hawaii. That’s not what I expected. Disney World. He’s not impacted by big brands. I’ve also never been on vacation. Oh, okay. Alright, so Devin. I like him. His status just went up. No, this guy is great. No days off. No, Devin, when you think about… By the way, that’s a Bill Belichick. Bill Belichick, when he received the NFL championship, they had a big parade in Boston to celebrate the New England Patriots winning another Super Bowl, and he was asked to speak and he hopped on the mic and chanted, no days off to a crowd of over a million people who are off because the city of Boston gave all the employees the day off as a way to celebrate the victory and he chanted no days off to that crowd. So that’s what that was. Okay, so Devin, when you think about, we’re talking about branding, okay, when you think about it, you say, gosh, you know, I think about retail. I think about a retail store, a place I gotta go to buy all my goods, all my things I need. What’s a retail store you think about? Walmart. Walmart! Walmart. Okay, now, here’s what’s interesting. Why? I used to work there. Okay. That’s not what we were expecting. There are no right and wrong answers, but there’s no right and wrong answers, but I’m gonna play that sound when you get to the wrong one. The answers that I don’t like, the answers I do like get a… I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. The answer is I do like, you know. The answer is I don’t like, you know. No, but I want you guys to think about that. I’m going to sing a song to you, Steve, and you tell me what it goes to. Ba da ba ba ba, I’m loving it. McDonald’s. Right! Right? Unbelievable. So, all I’m saying is, branding is, all it is, is it’s the collective impression people have when they think about a product category. And if you’re branding effectively, you want people to think about your company, product, or service. And that’s why you have to be consistent with what you’re saying over and over and over. So elephant in the room, men’s grooming lounge, Jason. Now Jason, you better get this one right. I got my sound effect ready to go. What is the offer that we make for all first-time elephant in the room? For people who have never been to the elephant in the room before, for any man out there who comes into the elephant in the room, if it’s their first haircut, they always get a what? You want the full package, or do you want the finality of it? Like what they pay? Oh boy. You just get… I’ve got my buttons ready, so you just go for it. Okay, so for your first time, you get your complimentary beverage, you get your consultation with your stylist, you get your tailored haircut, you get a shampoo and condition both at the scalp massage, hot towel, a face moisturizer, a face massage, two free add-ons, paraffin hand treatment, and the essential oil scalp massage all for one dollar. Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! I’m so excited right now I have to cue up my therapy. Well this is my therapy audio. I cue up my therapy audio, I listen to this, I wear earbuds, Steve, I’m going around wearing this, and I’ll listen to this for like 12 consecutive hours. It helps me get out of that. If I’m too excited, I cannot contain it, I must. A lot of pressure. You gotta rise above it. You gotta harness in the good energy, block out the bad. Harness, energy, block, bad. Feel the flow, Happy. Feel it. It’s circular. It’s like a carousel. You pay the quarter, you get on the horse. It goes up and down and around in a circular circle with the music, the flow, all good things. That was so good. That got me so excited. Okay. So now that we’ve talked about what branding is, let’s talk about how to brand your business. Let’s talk about how to do that. Well, Steve Martin, the legendary comedian, musician, actor, writer, people always ask him, well, Steve, what’s the key to finding a good agent? How do I really break out as a comedian and he says this? And he says by the way, nobody ever likes it. He says become so good. They can’t ignore you so if you watch Craig Rochelle deliver a sermon or You watch TD Jake’s deliver a sermon Or you watch Steven Furtick deliver a sermon all three of them are so good, you just cannot ignore them. I don’t care what kind of branding you do, if your product sucks, and unless you’re selling a vacuum cleaner, you’re going to have some problems. I don’t care what your logo looks like. I don’t care all your jingles. I mean, if you can’t deliver in the short term when someone comes in to try the product or service, then you lose. If your product sucks and you’re not Dyson, you’re going to lose. I just want to say this out there. If you ain’t the dirt devil, if you ain’t Dyson, if you ain’t any of those vacuum cleaning companies, then you probably don’t want to be terrible and suck. That’s a big problem. So I want to now get into Devin’s take on this. Devin, you’ve seen this. There was a, I won’t mention the company’s name, but you’ve seen contractors you’ve worked with in the past where they’ve reached out to us for coaching and we’ve got them to the top of Google and their phone rings all the time. Right. But the one thing they can’t do is actually deliver a project on time and on budget. Why does that hurt your branding when you can’t deliver on time and on budget? It’s creating a mismatch between your actual branding on what people are seeing and what you’re actually delivering. So you’re actually killing your own brand. You’re creating cognitive dissonance among your audience. Do you remember the movie Godzilla, Steve? Yeah. It had the big soundtrack by Robert Plant and P. Diddy, and it was like over-the-top branding and every commercial you’re watching TV like every ad was you know come see Godzilla yeah you know Nick you’re watching any commercial it’s all co-sponsored McDonald’s is doing something with Godzilla and seemed like everywhere you would go there’s Godzilla posters and you’re getting all hyped remember seeing the movie you’re thinking to yourself this might be the worst movie ever but everyone went watched it right but yet the movie the movie Black Panther I feel like came out at first where it wasn’t like hype to be the best movie ever But that thing was good, so we come back from the break I want to talk about What made that movie so good that? Jason the super manager from elephant the room wanted to actually go out there and buy a Black Panther hat Oh, yeah, that he wears why so many people wouldn’t saw it twice Why people saw it three times why the movie is just that people can’t wait for the next one. What made the movie so good, because yeah there was great branding, but the movie also itself was so great you could not ignore it. And if you’re out there looking for a chiropractor that is so great you just simply cannot ignore him, you want to use the chiropractor of choice for Wayne Gretzky, the NHL Hall of Fame hockey player. That’s Dr. John Sibley. DrJohnSibley.com. What was that? DrJohnSibley.com. It’s DrJohnSibley.com. And now, broadcasting live from the box that rocks, it’s the Thrivetime Business Coach Radio Show. I’m serving up that knowledge like I was a servant. I cite what I say so you know I’m not a servant. Thrive Talks show, bringing the heat while fervent. Giving it to you straight in a real fashion. Stacking the cash, making the dash. Putting the plaques, bringing them back. Bringing the tracks so I can get up on them. I can speak the facts. Stacking the cash, making the dash. Putting the plaques, bringing them back. Bringing the tracks so I can get up on them. I can speak the facts. All right, Thrive Nation, today we are breaking down everything related to branding. Oral Roberts University is the only university in the world that has a brand. We are the only university in the world that has a brand. We are the only university in the world that has a brand. We are the only university in the world that has a brand. Alright, Tribe Nation, today we are breaking down everything related to branding. Oral Roberts University, the school that once asked me to leave the school, I got kicked out of the school, they asked me to come back, ironically, and to deliver a talk to a group of pastors to teach them how branding works. And so I want to make sure that we, everybody, as we wrap up this show, when you finish listening to this show, that you understand four main concepts, just four ideas I want to put in your head. One is, what is branding? Well, to quote Elon Musk, who I think said it best, branding, branding is just a perception and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind, but brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product. That’s Elon Musk. Now, if you’re looking for a different way of kind of saying the same thing, Michael Levine, the PR consultant of choice for Michael Jackson, for Prince, for Nancy Kerrigan, for George Bush, for President Clinton, for Charlton Heston. He’s been a frequent guest on the Thrive Time Show. Michael Levine. He says, if you give someone a present and you give it to them in a Tiffany box, it’s likely that they’ll believe the gift has a higher perceived value than if you gave it to them in no box or a box of less prestige. That’s not because the receiver of the gift is a fool, but instead because we live in a culture in which we gift wrap everything. Our politicians, our corporate heads, our movie and TV stars, and even our toilet paper. If you’re listening out there, you want to make sure that your logo, this is the checklist, get your logo looking sharp. Right away, get your logo. We’re putting a link on the show notes to the world’s most successful companies so you can see the logos of Apple, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Amazon, Google. You’ll see that your logo has to be tight. The second is your experience has to be awesome. This is the next big idea. You can’t just have great branding, but you actually have to deliver in the short term. You actually have to have a great experience that people have when they work with your product or service. And so Steve Martin, the legendary comedian, said on the Oprah Masterclass, he was asked, how do you become a successful comedian? He said, step number one, don’t worry about the branding, worry about becoming so good they can’t ignore you. Ryan Tedder, the Grammy Award-winning artist who I went to college with at Royal Roberts University, who’s written songs for Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and U2. He writes, when you’re around enormously successful people, you realize their success isn’t an accident. It’s about work. So again, you could brand and brand and brand and brand, but if you don’t deliver, it gets squirrely. So we’re going to talk about the Black Panther movie, and then we’re going to talk about contractors in general, because I’ve hired so many that are so terrible, so consistently that my mind is blown when I find a good one. There are great contractors out there, but I would just say, I’m honored to work with Shaw Homes, they’re a home builder, but I have been hired multiple times to do the branding, over a dozen times, the branding and marketing for a home builder, and I have literally had to call them and say I cannot accept your money I’m going to refund you because your quality is so shoddy I don’t want my name associated with any part of branding your company because your quality is awful So Jason when you went and saw the movie Black Panther What went through your mind? Why did you like that movie so much? Why did it resonate with you because obviously was well branded, but you liked it so much you bought the hat. Talk to me about it. How much time do you have? You have the whole floor, you have the whole segment, you’ve got all week if you want to. No, what was great about it was, I was a fan of the comic book, so typically when you have a superhero movie, they can do all the branding that they want, and then you come out of the theater thinking, much like Godzilla, that was the worst movie I’ve ever seen. Right. The first thing I would say they did extremely well, why I loved it, was they were true to the subject matter and on top of that it was really entertaining. All of the actors gave it their all. They became the characters they played so it was believable. What is the subject matter of Black Panther? For anybody listening who’s not familiar with that movie. So you have young Prince T’Challa who is the prince of the sovereign nation of Wakanda which is like a very wealthy technologically advanced secret kingdom in Africa got it typically keep to themselves, but his father ends up being assassinated He becomes the new interim king Basically has to prove himself in the process he has somebody who used to be from Wakanda come back to try to usurp him and Put Wakanda out into the world and fix all the world’s problems Right being the villain killmonger which the movie is so good that the villain halfway through you end up siding with him instead of the hero. So, that was a really cool trade-off. But, other than that, that was just visually pleasing to look at. The soundtrack is probably my favorite part of it. Came through with Kendrick Lamar, all the greats. Overall, it was just really well done, and that’s why I’ve seen it like four times. You’ve seen it four times? Yeah, I own it. When did you buy the hat? I bought the hat, the, actually, so I saw the movie in theaters, went to see Avengers Infinity War, bought the hat then, because of course, Black Panther was in Infinity War, and then proceeded to watch Black Panther two more times after that Now I want you to sum up in as few words as possible what the overall motto the slogan the mantra the elevator pitch You know what what the show that the central message that the show’s trying to communicate the one Message you leave going that’s what they’re trying to say hmm so it’s over to interpretation yeah sure but it’s about becoming the the king or the leader that you want to be whether it be killmongers interpretation of it being somebody who’s tyrannical because he has to be or to jealous father who is stern and cold because he has to be you know this is this is my take on it and you might disagree I think the movie hammered home the Gandhi quote where it says you want you need to be the change you want to see right and then I would add in parentheses the you want to be the positive change you want the world to see because the movies ends very positive but it’s all about like hey if you’re not happy with the darkness around you be the light I mean I thought that it’s all, it was an uplifting movie. All I would say is the branding of that movie was the audio, it was the logo, it was the experience, the movie itself, it’s all of that. And if you own a small business, you’ve got to get your logo, the experience, the sights, the sounds, the smells. So Steve, I want to get your take on this. How many times, you don’t have to list the number of times, but I mean, have you ever met a contractor that wanted to be marketed or branded as high-end, but when you hired them, you’re thinking, bro, you didn’t even invoice me. You didn’t charge me. You invoiced me three months after the job. You didn’t finish on time. You kept changing the price. You cut corners on the product. Have you ever worked with a contractor that was less than awesome? Every single contractor I’ve ever worked with has been like that. I mean, it’s just amazing to me. It’s amazing to me. That’s their mantra. I have a funny story about adding on an attic onto our house years ago. We had a house, we added on an attic. And the attic, I was told by the guy, this will be done in two weeks. Two weeks. And I’m only saying it this way because this is how the guy talked. But I said, so you’ll be done in two weeks? He goes, yeah, man. And I said, okay, great. So two weeks later. He hasn’t really started yet. He goes, it’s taking a long time, man, to get the supplies. So I’m like, you’re sure it’ll be done in two weeks? Because that’s like tomorrow. Yeah, man. Well, he just doesn’t care, the entire process. So then it’s like eight weeks, and we’re now into like 20 grand. And he’s like, it’s costing more than I predicted, but we’ll get it done. And this goes on for like three months, and finally I just had to kick him out of my house. Unbelievable. But he like pitched his, I’m high quality, I’m on time. He knew the words to say. And if Andrew Carnegie were here today, Andrew Carnegie said, as I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say, I just watch what they do. I would say, it’s very important what you’re saying, but it’s more important what you’re doing. Now here’s what happens is, people experience cognitive dissonance, which is where your values don’t align with your actions. When you see a company that offers awesome service, but you don’t have a website. And I see that a lot too, where you see a really great, they deliver, their company’s awesome. Like their actual product or service is awesome, but they don’t have a functional website, or they don’t have a logo, or they don’t have… Devin, have you ever seen that before? You have someone who has an unbelievably great product or service, but their marketing is so terrible, you really would assume they’re bad? Yeah, yeah. In fact, from what I’ve seen, that’s a lot of the clients that we end up working with are people who have a great product or service, but just their branding and their perception of their company just doesn’t match that. And I would tell you why I think a lot of companies out there have a great product or service but you don’t have great branding. It’s because these marketing companies, these branding companies are ridiculous in the way they charge. I mean, Steve, there’s one marketing company I used in Tulsa years ago. This is what they charged me to build DJ Connections’ website. $12,000. Yep. Plus $200 per change, ended up coming in right under $18,000, my total cost to build djconnection.com. And then they explained to me that the reason why it wasn’t ranking in search engines is because it hadn’t been built to comply with search engines, but for another three grand they could modify it to make it search engine friendly. And then every time I wanted to add content to the website, I had to email it to them and they’d charge me $200. I’m not kidding. Then they said, hey, you do need a solid marketing video though. And I said, cool, who should I use? They said, well, Video Workers is a great company. By the way, Video Workers is a great company. And they said, or Steelhouse, which, by the way, Steelhouse is a ridiculously awesome company. They make huge commercials for big time companies. So I called to get quotes. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Yeah, I’m just trying to get a quote to make a video. And they go, yeah, our video started about $8,000. How much are you wanting to spend? Not $8,000. I just got mentally and financially raped to the tune of $18,000. Branding can cost you a lot of money. That’s why our Thrive Time show, our business coaching program, that’s why we charge a flat rate. And I’m just telling you, if you’re out there listening, for on average $1,700 a month, $1,600 a month, and we give you a quote right down to the dollar, we handle all of your marketing, your branding, your search engine optimization, your photography, your videography. We coach you through workflows, sales systems, hiring and firing. We teach you all of that, all for less money than it would cost you to hire even one $10 per hour employee. Steve, have you ever hired a $10 per hour employee? Yes, every week. Do they provide you marketing insight? No. Branding? No. Coaching? No. Workflow optimization? No. No workflow comes with that. Any of those things, no. So for less money it would cost you to hire even one $10 per hour employee will absolutely help you get to the top of the search engine ranks, help you build sales scripts, help you learn all the hiring and firing systems. We’re going to teach you everything. But whether you hire us to coach your business or not, if you have awesome branding, it doesn’t matter if you don’t deliver. Now, let’s say you have great branding and you can deliver. Let’s say you can deliver and you have great branding. This next idea is, does anybody even know you exist? Because a lot of times you see companies that have a great product or service and they have great branding but nobody can find them. So when we come back from the break we’re going to talk about how to make sure that your company is findable. That people can actually know that you exist. Because if people don’t know you exist it’s going to be hard to hire you. This just in. Steve, this just in. So Thrive Nation, one company I encourage you to find, and one company that believes in advertising, one company that’s a great business coaching client is Williams Contracting. That’s Williams Contracting. They’re at will-con.com. They’re going to give you a realistic budget within three days. And you get a free copy of my book, Thrive, if you reach out to them. Now if you’re looking to add on to your restaurant, to build a new office building, to build a new restaurant, to expand your church, to build a school. Perhaps you want to add an annex onto your jail, which is what Okmulgee did. If you want to build your own jail, I mean, Steve, I’ll tell you what, their jail is so pristinely constructed that people are traveling to Okmulgee to visit the jail, and they’re staying there for years at a time to marvel at the architectural wonders. I actually sped through Okmulgee County hoping that I could get a night. Stay tuned. No negative emotion, cause that’s what business is. Always dominate, cause I got five kids. I will not lose, I don’t break for booze. They can talk about me, I can take that abuse. Here is the truth, while they make that excuse. I’ll be up grinding, cause the scoreboard’s the truth. He is my mentor, like my Yoda dude. He showed me the force, like I was a Jedi. I’m a Jedi, I’m a Jedi. I’m a Jedi, I’m a Jedi. I’m a Jedi, I’m a Jedi. Cause the scoreboard’s the truth. He is my mentor like my Yoda dude. He showed me the force like I was a young moose. All right, Thrive Nation, welcome back to the Thrive Time Show on your radio. And today we’re teaching you everything you’ll ever need to know about branding. But I think a lot of people overcomplicate this idea, so I’m breaking it down into four ideas that hopefully everybody can grasp. The first idea is what does it mean to have a brand? Well, before we move forward, Lee Cockrell, the former Executive Vice President of Walt Disney World Resorts, once looked me in the eye and said to me, he said, Clay, by the way, he looked me in both eyes, not just one. He said to me, he says, if you’re going to be honest, you’d better be funny. I thought to myself, okay, okay. So here’s the deal, Thrivers. I want you to rate the quality of your website on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being awesome and 1 being it looks like somebody you knew who was going through a bout of Tourette’s and blindness made your logo, made your website. If you’re thinking about clip art being a 1 and 10 would be like Apple, all the branding they do. How would you rate your branding? If Tesla is a 10, and there’s a place I went to in Amarillo, my wife would not allow us to eat there, but I pulled over to go there, and I’m not kidding you, my daughter took a picture of it, they serve meat and they sell tires, and the sign said, such and such as chicken and tires. I’m not kidding. This is great. Yes. And I thought, yes, let’s go support this local business. But it’s like, you’re not going in there. Because it says chicken and tires. This is right before you get into Amarillo. And so she would not let me pull over, but that was a real thing. And they offered on the sign, it was handwritten on the sign, it said goat, lamb, chicken, tires. And they had tires for sale. I mean, it’s a really…this just in. What was sad is that they were being serious. Now, I have an audio clip. I had a listener out there who is a branding expert who called in. They said, Clay, I really want to be on the show, and I’d like to talk to all the listeners out there about what’ll happen to someone’s business if they don’t have good branding. And I said, okay, could you call back later? They said, no, I cannot call back later. I’ll just tell you what needs to be said now, and then you can play the audio later. And I thought, fine, you demanding branding experts. With any further ado, this is a notable quotable from a listener out there, of what will happen to your business if you don’t have good branding. Your kids are probably saying to yourselves, hey I’m going to go out and I’m going to get the world by the tail and wrap it around and pull it down and put it in my pocket. Well I’m here to tell you that you’re probably going to find out as you go out there that you’re not going to amount to jack squat. That’s the deal. I mean, if you’re passing out a business card to somebody and it says, here’s my card, you can reach me at clay at AOL.com. It’s just not going to work, Clay, 473-276-87 at AOL.com. It just doesn’t instill credibility. So branding is just the collective impression people have about your brand. The notable quotable here from Elon Musk, he says, brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it’ll be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some people have about a product, branding. Okay, so branding has to be done well. The second thing is, even if you have great branding, you have to deliver. People aren’t going to tell people whether they like your product or service or not. That’s why an elephant in the room, it’s like every single customer, we treat them like it’s our only customer we’re ever going to have. And any time we get a complaint, it’s like to me, the end of the earth, which is why we put a white hot… I mean, Jason, do we not treat every customer like they’re our only customer? We’re not perfect. So when we miss the mark, what goes through your mind when someone’s not happy? It makes me so mad. It makes me feel like I’ve personally failed. I want them to feel, like you said, when they come in, they are our only customer. We could have all 10 chairs rocking, but I want every single person to feel like it’s their shop, they’re running the show, they’re the most important person. And that’s our entire vision, our entire focus is to make sure that every single customer is wowed, right? You have to deliver in the short term. You can’t just have an epic looking brand and logo and marketing. You’ve got to also deliver. Now, the next idea is if you are really good at something and you have a great brand, now people have to find you. So, Devin, are you aware that people are now going on the internet to find the products and services they’re looking for? What? What? Steve, are you now aware that according to Forbes, 88, that’s 88%, 88% of consumers now read reviews before buying a product or service? Where? Like on the World Wide Web? Steve, are you aware that now 9 out of 10 people start searching for something using their smartphone and this thing called Google? Devin, are you aware of Google? What is this? Google doesn’t work. So, how do you get to the top of search engine results? How do you show up top in Google? Well, this is how you do it. There are four steps you have to take to get to the top of Google. There are four variables that will impact your rank on the Google search engine results. Just four, and I’m gonna walk you through them. And we have other more in-depth podcasts that will teach you how to do that. Or if you go to Thrivetimeshow.com and you subscribe to the online videos, we have tutorials that will walk you through this. Step one, you have to have the most objective reviews. And by the way, Jason, that’s our goal today, the most objective reviews. Yes. Why do we have to be intentional, Jason Elephant and the Room, about gathering objective reviews from real clients? Well, because it’s going to put us at the top of Google, but also if we’re not diligent on it, nobody else is going to be. And the average person does it by default, go, wow, my haircut was good. I should go online and write a review. Exactly. And again, according to Forbes, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much or more than a personal recommendation. That’s variable number one. Variable number two, Steve, you have to have the most HTML content. HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language, the standardized system for tagging text files to achieve font and blah, blah, blah. The point is you have to have the most words on your website. Why do you have to have the most original words, Steve? Because the person with the most content and the most words wins. If you are the industry expert on a certain subject, like we talked about this with Wikipedia and the word cat. How many times is cat in the Wikipedia? Over 660 times the word cat is listed on the Wikipedia for the, it’s for the word dog. Oh, dog, that’s where it is. On the Wikipedia for the word, listing for the word dog, the word dog appears over 660 times. Yeah, I get my dogs and cats mixed up. Yeah, you have the most content and therefore you win. So again, now there’s only four ways that I know of to write content. So these are options that you could do. One is you could write a thoughtful blog, which I have never ever met a client that is ever willing to do that consistently. I’ve never met a client ever who’s willing to write a thoughtful blog. Ever. I’ve never seen it. If you do, you’ll be the first one. Big bonus points for you. Second is you’re going to have to… another option is you can record podcasts. You can record… Steve, you could record podcasts. Yeah. Right? I can. Yeah. Devin, you could do that. It’s possible. You could transcribe the content. Steve, how many podcasts have you recorded? A lot. I think almost 200 podcasts. Right. Third is you could have a team write content for you, which our Thrive Time team can do for you. We could write content for you. Or if you’re a pastor out there listening, you could just preach and teach and then just record that and transcribe it. But you have to create the most content. When we come back, we’re going to break down even more in depth how to get to the top of the Google search engine results. But if you’re out there and you’re driving a Ford automobile and that baby needs a repair, quit screwing around. Go to rcautospecialist.com to repair your Ford. That’s rcautospecialist.com and they’ll repair your Ford today. Attend the world’s best business workshop led by America’s number one business coach for free by subscribing on iTunes and leaving us an objective review. Claim your tickets by emailing us proof that you did it and your contact information to info at thrive timeshow.com. All right, Thrive Nation, welcome back to the Thrive Time Show on your radio. For anybody just tuning in today, we’re talking all about branding, and there are four big ideas I want everyone to grasp. One, what is branding? Branding is simply the collective impression that people have about a product or a service. To quote Elon Musk, brand is just a perception. And perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it’ll be ahead. Other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product. This is the guy behind PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX. All it is is what do people think about when they think about you, okay? Second concept, you have to deliver or people are going to say bad things about you. You have to deliver or people are going to think that you’re a flake. This is an example. One of my clients I work with is called Morrow and Lye Dentistry. Morrow and Lye Dentistry. We’ve been helping them with their marketing and their branding for this past year and they are absolutely growing at a phenomenal rate. So I’m going to play an audio excerpt, an audio interview we did with April Lye, Dr. April Lye, that’s L-A-I. Look him up. It’s Morrow, Lye and Kitterman Dentistry. It’s mlkdentistry.com. And I’m gonna play the audio excerpt so you can hear about the successes that they’re having this year. And the only reason they’re having these successes is because one, they asked us to help them and we taught them the system. But two, they’re actually doing the system. They’re actually delivering. So they are growing at a phenomenal rate. So without any further ado, our exclusive audio interview here with Dr. April Lai from Morrow, Lai and Kitterman Dentistry. Hi my name is April Lai. I started practicing pediatric dentistry in 2002. I went to Oklahoma State University for my undergraduate and I went to the University of Oklahoma. Graduated in 1999 then went on to the University of Colorado Children’s Hospital Pediatric Dental Residency, and started practicing with Mark Morrow in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We’ve always loved what we do. We love being pediatric dentists, but we just were not very good at putting our marketing ideas into practice. We’ve been able to implement our ideas and make them a reality. Since using the new approach, it’s just brought a lot of new life to our practice. It’s increased patients significantly, but it’s also just brought, and our staff loves the common goal that we all have, it’s just brought an excitement into our practice that we didn’t have before. For instance, last August we had 114 new patients, compared to this August we had 180 new patients. And it’s just, at the end of the month when you count that up, you just can’t deny what an impact that this new marketing approach has had on our office. Steve Currington with Total Lending Concepts. You have a hot take on that audio interview with Dr. April Lye about the growth of Maro Lye and Kitterman Dentistry. She went to OSU and OU. Right. Can you do that? When I see her, I want to talk to her about that. This just happened. I was super excited. I was like, she went to OSU? And then she’s like, but I graduated from OU. Now Steve, I went to Oral Roberts University. And one of the reasons I had a problem with Oral Roberts University, and by the way, I was just recently asked to speak at Oral Roberts University to teach pastors about branding. But this right here was the part that made me crazy about ORU. So I’m going to play an actual audio excerpt from a man who spoke at Oral Roberts University often. And I want you, Steve, you’ll go first, tell me the problem you have with this message. Because again, branding is all about getting your, it’s a collective impression, get your logo, get your website, get all your marketing materials, make sure they look good. But the second is you have to actually deliver a product or service that people want, right? That’s how you make money, you solve a problem for people that they’re willing to pay you to solve. That’s all you do. That’s entrepreneurship. Find a problem that people have and solve it at a profit. That’s all entrepreneurship is. But there’s a guy who would come and speak at chapel often. And this guy would make me so crazy every time he spoke that I had spent a little too much time here. And you had to go to chapel, right? And I had to listen to this guy. So I’m going to play an audio excerpt from this guy preaching. And you tell me if you have a problem with this. Okay. Somebody shout hallelujah. Hallelujah! I might preach in here like a wild man tonight in a few minutes. I’m telling you, the glory of God. I’m telling you, you’re going to get your money tonight. I’m telling you. Come on. Get up. Get up. Get on your feet. Hallelujah! Look, wait a minute. Look at somebody and tell them, it’s my breakthrough time. Tell them, say, things are about to turn around for me financially, tonight. Here it comes, get ready. I tell you it’s about to happen. I’m telling you there’s a prophetic anointing on this. And I’m telling you it’s about to happen. We’re going to pull this lever. This is what happens. I heard y’all call it a lever up here. We’re going to pull it three times. And when we pull it, something’s going to happen to you. We’re going to start a business, right? No, no, you’re just going to pull a lever. Why, you know, because the Holy Ghost said so. That’s why I know it’s not by might, no, by power. It’s by His Spirit. It’s not by my eloquent speaking. It’s not by me being such a great preacher. The Holy Ghost said so. That’s why I know. I think I hear you cheering in the background, bro. It gets better. Here we go. He works so excited. You will never be the same after tonight! Is he talking about branding or workflows or systems or accounting? No, you just have to claim it, I guess. Here we go. Look at somebody and tell them, my bill’s paid! In full! Oh, in full. Steve, you did debt collection. That’s how it works, right? Right. Okay, let’s keep going. This guy, he’s on fire. We’ll do a little bit more here, Tribe Nation. Try not to vomit. Here we go. Money! Coming to me now! Oh, wow! Hercules! Oh, wow! Hercules! And this guy used to preach that crap, and I went to churches growing up where they’d bring in these kind of morons. This guy’s name is Leroy Thompson. Leroy Thompson. It sounded like he stole an entire box of fortune cookies. Probably the biggest moron in the whole world. But people would go to chapel, and they had no skills, no business, no workflow, no accounting, no sales scripts. That’s how you build a business, is with the real systems. No, Clay, you go get a whole box of fortune cookies. Whenever there was pauses, he was turned around and he was smashing it on the table. My neck! Come inside now! What do you think about that kind of crap? You will come into a fortune! Yes! Seriously, you’ve heard these messages before, have you not? Yes. What do you think? I’ve met some people that don’t believe in Christ at all and they make millions because they have a product that solves a problem. I know people who do believe in Christ that are in poverty because they don’t solve a problem. Can you talk about these spiritual ramifications of not having a viable product or service? I think that people… the concept of just… there’s a book called The Secret. It’s the concept of having positive energy and positive flow and speaking things into your life. Right. Money cometh right now. Yeah. I agree that you need to have a positive attitude and that if you’re a positive person that you’ll maybe attract some positive things. Why don’t you just say, hey, step one, be positive. Now the rest of this sermon we’re going to talk about building a workflow. Right. Exactly. What’s funny is I didn’t hear the end of that, but I guarantee you I didn’t have to hear the rest of it because… Stay tuned, it’s the Thrivetime Show on your radio. And now, broadcasting live from the box that rocks, it’s the Thrivetime Business Coach Radio Show. All the time we’re high on learning and high on earning. Taking it to the top like we’re hiking Mount Vernon. We’re changing the mindsets like we’re incense burning. Passing on the magic like the name was Irving. Serving up that knowledge like I was a servant. Alright Thrive Nation, welcome back to The Conversation. My name is Clay Clark. I am the former United States Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the Year, the father of five kids, the owner of 25 to 35 chickens, depending upon how many predators we have in the backyard at any given time, and we have four cats. And why am I telling you that? Because I’m a dude. I’m an average dude, I’ve happened to have, my partner and I, Dr. Zellner, we’ve built, between the two of us, 14 multi-million dollar companies, and it’s not because we’re geniuses, we just understand the process. And the very beginning of the process is you wanna have great branding. So there’s four ideas I want all the listeners to get today. You wanna make sure your logo and your website and everything that people see looks world class. So just rate yourself on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being an awesome brand and one being terrible. And if you feel like you need some help with your branding, your logo, your website, your print pieces, anything people see or touch or interact with that relates to your company, just reach out to us today by going to thrivetimeshow.com. Schedule a one-on-one consultation, a 13-point analysis, and we can help you fix that. The second main idea, you have to deliver in the short term. You can’t just talk about having the world’s best pizza, the pizza has to be good. You can’t just talk about having the world’s best workshop, the workshop has to be good. You can’t just talk about offering a great haircut experience, the haircut has to be good. And when possible, make it great. Now the third concept I want to put in your mind, the third concept is you must make sure that people can actually find your product or service. And because the vast majority of humans start searching for the products and services they’re looking for with a Google search from their smartphone, I think it’s very important that everybody listening today knows how to optimize your website. So step number one, there’s variable number one that allows you to optimize your website, and that is you want to get the most reviews, objective reviews. According to Forbes, 88% of consumers now trust online reviews as much or more than a personal recommendation. Step two, you have to have the most original HTML, the most original HTML content on your website. That stands for hypertext markup language. And there’s four ways you can do that. You could have a thoughtful blog that you write every day. You could record podcasts that you transcribe. You could hire a team to write articles for you. Or if you’re a pastor or somebody who does a podcast or you preach, you teach, or whatever you’re doing, you can just transcribe what you’re doing on a daily basis and that will produce content for you. Now the third variable that impacts your search engine rank is you have to have the most canonical compliance. You must adhere to Google’s established rules. And so we have Devin on the show today. Devin is a member of the Thrive Time Show team. He’s the web developer. Devin, can you explain what it means to have a Google canonically compliant or a Google search engine compliant website? Sure. So there are several different pieces to this. The most recent, I guess, shift probably here in the last two or three years has been moving towards mobile compliance especially. That’s just making sure that your site looks good on phones. You know, people apparently are looking up things on your phone, and if it doesn’t look good or it doesn’t scale down or respond to it being on your phone, then Google’s going to start ranking those sites lower. You can’t have junky code. So if the person who’s built your website or it’s not built on WordPress, there’s a high chance that your code just isn’t going to be very clean, and it’s going to slow down your site. All right, and we can help you with that. So if you don’t know if your site is up to par or what you can do to fix it, just reach out to us at Thrivetimeshow.com. You can email us to info at Thrivetimeshow.com. We can schedule a one-on-one consultation with you and show you how to fix your website. Now, the next move is you’re going to have to have the most mobile compliance as Devin just spoke about. Okay, but it has to work in mobile. Now, the final branding concept I want to teach you today is you want to wow your customers. Steve, it’s not good enough just to do a good job. You have to wow the customer because when people are wowed, they tend to share now. The Harvard Business School did a case study, an article that appeared in the Harvard Business Review called The Number You Need to Grow. And it says here, it and loyal customers talk up a company to their friends, family, and colleagues. This just in. In fact, such a recommendation is one of the best indicators of loyalty and growth because of the customer’s sacrifice, if you will, in making the recommendation. When customers act as references, they do more than indicate that they’ve received good economic value from a company, but they put their own reputations on the line. Again, Steve Martin says, become so good they can’t ignore you. The brands with the highest, they call it the net promoter score, but it’s how likely is somebody to refer you to a friend or family member. So you want to start to survey your customers and ask them, hey, on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the highest and one being the worst, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or family member? And if they give you a score that ranks in that nine and ten range, you’re gonna grow. But, Steve, if you don’t wow people, they’re not gonna come back. Right. Can you think of a restaurant in Tulsa, Steve, that you really like here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where maybe you and Sally go out to it often and you just think, man, this is a good restaurant. Oh, man, we don’t go out to eat that much, but I will tell you in Bixby, which is where we live, the most popular is the Chick-fil-A. Like, and you can’t even go there between the hours of like 11 and one. Why? Because there’s a little like a line around the building. They literally they take your order in line halfway around the building and you don’t even order from the like the drive-up thing anymore and then right next to it Popeyes goes down. Hey real quick I have audio from the manager of one of the Popeyes chicken places who saw the huge line around the Chick-fil-a yeah and he realized there’s nobody in his line. I mean logistically if you want to get your chicken in like 10 minutes instead of 20, you could go over to Popeye’s. They’re next door. If you want to go to the Chick-fil-A and they’re busy, you could go to Popeye’s. And apparently, you know, people don’t want to do that. And so this is audio from and I can’t verify it, but people have said this might be the audio of the manager of the Popeye’s and what he was saying when he saw the line, how big it was at Chick-fil-A and how small his line. In fact, there wasn’t a line at all. I mean, this is the audio that someone has alleged was from the manager reacting to the contrast of the Chick-fil-a line versus his lack of a line. It’s like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing blue. It’s like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking. It’s like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking. It’s like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines. Quit amphetamines? It’s like I picked the wrong week. Oh, man. Oh, terrible. No, but seriously, why does anyone go there? Devin, why does anyone go to that Popeyes? Because they aren’t wowing anyone. What? You’re the opposite of wow. Really? Real quick, real quick. I have audio. I have audio from the assistant manager. And what he says, he gazed out the window and realized nobody’s going to Popeye’s, but everybody’s going to Chick-fil-A, and we’re next door to each other. This is what he allegedly said. Oh, Billy. No, I guess Billy’s the manager. Oh, he was so upset. I saw him, too. He was crying. Devin, what’s a restaurant that you go to that you absolutely love here in Broken Arrow or Tulsa, Oklahoma? One that my wife and I absolutely love is Number One Kitchen. What? It’s a Chinese restaurant. I’ve seen that there on Ellen. Oh, holy cow. Yeah. It looks like a hole in the wall, but fantastic Chinese food. Wow. What was the name of the restaurant that you like so much? It is Number One Kitchen. Number One Kitchen. Can I say something about Number One Kitchen? I heard that it’s actually twice as good as its closest competitor, number two kitchen. Psh, psh, psh, psh. What? Ha! Ha! Ha! The gap between first and second is huge. That is beating up the competition. It’s huge. You know, if you’re out there and you’re saying, you know what, I don’t want to go to the second best automotive repair shop in Tulsa for my Ford. No, I have a Ford. And my Ford is number one. And I want to fix that Mustang with class. I want to get it done the right way, at the right price, on time, on budget. I’ve got a transmission problem. I’ve got a battery issue. I’ve got a suspension alignment issue. Buddy, you’ve got a lot of problems. But if I’ve got all these problems, and I’m looking for 80 years of combined experience, you want to go and visit our good friends at RC Auto Specialists. Now, you might be saying to yourself, RC Auto Specialists? I struggle with memorizing names. And I would say to you, you just want to go check out RC Auto Specialists because they are so nice and so pleasant and they’ve been having over 80 years of combined experience. Their services are so nice and so, I wouldn’t say sexy, but I would say it is beautiful. They just do a great job and they’re just RC Auto Specialists. You might be saying to yourself, listen buddy, I’m not going to remember it unless you really go all out and really sell me on the dream of going to RC Auto Specialists. Fine. If you want your life to be amazing, and you want money to cometh to you right now, go to rcautospecialists.com. RC, I can’t guarantee money will cometh to you. You’ll probably, in fact, give them money, but go to rcautospecialists.com. We always want to end the show with a boom, so here we go. Three, two, one, boom! Boom! Oh my god! Yes! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey, guys. Luke Erickson here with the Thrive Time Show. As you can see behind me, we’ve got all kinds of energy going on. People are starting to show up for the conference. And it is hot in this place. We got grill guns over here. We’ve got people playing the drums. We’ve got a fire breather. And man, people are so excited as they come in. Woo! Gentlemen, let me introduce you to the grill gun. Woo! Hi, I’m Bob Healy. I’m the inventor of the grill gun and the civy gun. Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 27th and 28th. We’ve been doing business conferences here since 2005. I’ve been hosting business conferences since 2005. And a lot of people, you know, have followed Tim Tebow’s football career on the field and off the field. And off the field, the guy’s been just as successful as he has been on the field. Now, the big question is, JT, how does he do it? Well, they’re going to have to come and find out, because I don’t know. Well, I’m just saying, Tim Tebow’s going to teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s going to walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is going to be a blasty blast in Tulsa, Russia. Also, this is the first Thrive Time Show event that we’ve had where we’re going to have a man who has built a hundred million dollar net worth. Wow. Who’ll be presenting now. We’ve had a couple presenters that have had a billion dollar net worth In some like a real estate sort of things. Yeah, but this is the first time We’ve had a guy who’s built a service business and he’s built over a hundred million dollar net worth in the service business It’s the yacht driving Multi-state living guru of franchising Peter Taunton will be in the house This is the founder of Snap Fitness, the guy behind Nine Round Boxing. He’s going to be here in Tulsa, Russel, Oklahoma, June 27th and 28th. JT, why should everybody want to hear what Peter Taunton has to say? Oh, because he’s incredible. He’s just a fountain of knowledge. He is awesome. He has inspired me listening to him talk. And not only that, he also has, he practices what he teaches, so he’s a real teacher. He’s not a fake teacher like business school teachers, so you got to come learn from him. And now the best-selling author of The Carnivore Diet and the multiple-time Joe Rogan guest, Dr. Sean Baker joins our two-day interactive business growth and life optimization workshop. Also let me tell you this, folks, I don’t want to get this wrong because if I get it wrong, someone’s going to say, you screwed that up, buddy. So Michael Levine, this is Michael Levine, he’s going to be coming. He said, who’s Michael Levine? I don’t get this wrong. This is the PR consultant of choice for Michael Jackson, for Prince, for Nike, for Charlton Heston, for Nancy Kerrigan. 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestselling authors he’s represented, including pretty much everybody you know who’s been a super celebrity. This is Michael Levine, a good friend of mine. He’s going to come and talk to you about personal branding and the mindset needed to be super successful. The lineup will continue to grow. We have hit Christian reporting artist Colton Dixon in the house. Now people say, Colton Dixon’s in the house? Yes! Colton Dixon’s in the house. So if you like top 40 Christian music, Colton Dixon’s going to be in the house performing. The lineup will continue to grow each and every day. We’re going to add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup, but I encourage everybody out there today, get those tickets today, go to thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s thrivetimeshow.com. And some people might be saying, well, how do I do it? I don’t know what I do, how does it work? You just go to thrivetimeshow.com. Let’s go there now, we’re feeling the flow. We’re going to thrivetimeshow.com. Again, you just go to thrivetimeshow.com, you click on the business conferences button, and you click on the request tickets button right there. The way I do our conferences is we tell people it’s $250 to get a ticket, or whatever price that you could afford and the reason why I do that is I grew up without money JT you’re in the process of building a super successful company Yeah, you start out with a million dollars in the bank account No, I did not nope did not get any loans nothing like that did not get an inheritance from parents or anything like that I had to work for it and I I’m super grateful. I came to a business conference That’s actually I met you met Peter Taunton, I met all these people. So if you’re out there today and you want to come to our workshop, again, you just got to go to thrivetimeshow.com. You might say, well, when’s it going to be? June 27 and 28. You might say, well, who’s speaking? We already covered that. You might say, where is it going to be? It’s going to be in Tulsa, Russia, Oklahoma. It’s Tulsa, Russia. I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa, Russia, sort of like the Jerusalem of America. But if you type in Thrive Time Show in Jinx, you can get a sneak peek or a look at our office facility. This is what it looks like. This is where you’re headed. It’s going to be a blasty blast. You can look inside, see the facility. We’re going to have hundreds of entrepreneurs here. It is going to be packed. Now, for this particular event, folks, the seating is always limited because my facility isn’t a limitless convention center. You’re coming to my actual home office. And so it’s going to be packed. So when? June 27th to 28th. Who? You. You’re going to come. Who? You. I’m talking to you. You can get your tickets right now at thrivetimeshow.com. And again, you can name your price. We tell people it’s $250 or whatever price you can afford. And we do have some select VIP tickets, which gives you an access to meet some of the speakers and those sorts of things. And those tickets are $500. It’s a two-day interactive business workshop, over 20 hours of business training. We’re going to give you a copy of my newest book, The Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. You’re going to leave with a workbook. You’re going to leave with everything you need to know to start and grow a super successful company. It’s practical, it’s actionable, and it’s Tebow time right here in Tulsa, Russelam. Get those tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s thrivetimeshow.com. Hello, I’m Michael Levine, and I’m talking to you right now from the center of Hollywood, California, where I have represented over the last 35 years 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestsellers. I’ve represented a lot of major stars and I’ve worked with a lot of major companies. And I think I’ve learned a few things about what makes them work and what makes them not work. Now, why would a man living in Hollywood, California, in the beautiful, sunny weather of LA, come to Tulsa? Because last year I did it and it was damn exciting. Clay Clark has put together an exceptional presentation, really life-changing, and I’m looking forward to seeing you then. I’m Michael Levine. I’ll see you in Tulsa. James, did I tell you my good friend John Lee Dumas is also joining us at the in-person, two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop? That Tim Tebow and that Michael Levine will be at the- have I told you this? You have not told me that. He’s coming all the way from Puerto Rico. This is John Lee Dumas, the host of the chart-topping EOFire.com podcast. He’s absolutely a living legend. This guy started a podcast after wrapping up his service in the United States military, and he started recording this podcast daily in his home to the point where he started interviewing big time folks like Gary Vaynerchuk, like Tony Robbins, and he just kept interviewing bigger and bigger names, putting out shows day after day, and now he is the legendary host of the EO Fire podcast. And he’s traveling all the way from Puerto Rico to Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend the in-person June 27th and 28th Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshop. If you’re out there today, folks, if you’ve ever wanted to grow a podcast, a broadcast, you want to improve your marketing, if you’ve ever wanted to improve your marketing, your branding, if you’ve ever wanted to increase your sales, you want to come to the two day interactive June 27th and 28th Thrive Time Show Business Workshop featuring Tim Tebow, Michael Levine, John Lee Dumas and countless big time super successful entrepreneurs. It’s going to be life changing. Get your tickets right now at thrivetimeshow.com. James, what website is that? ThriveTimeshow.com. James, one more time for the Ford enthusiasts. ThriveTimeshow.com. Everything rides on tonight, even if I got three strikes, I’ma go for it, this moment, we own it, ayy, I’m not to be played with because it could get dangerous, see, these people I ride with, this moment, we own it. Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshops are the world’s highest rated and most reviewed business workshops because we teach you what you need to know to grow. You can learn the proven 13-point business system that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. We get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days, you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems, so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and they’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get-rich-quick, walk-on-hot-coals product. It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, 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’re going to give you your money back if you don’t love it. We’ve built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see it. And now you may be thinking, what does it actually cost to attend an in-person two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop? Well, good news, the tickets are $250 or whatever price that you can afford. What? Yes, they’re $250 or whatever price you can afford. I grew up without money and I know what it’s like to live without money. So if you’re out there today and you want to attend our in-person two-day interactive business workshop, all you’ve got to do is go to thrivetimeshow.com to request those tickets and if you can’t afford $250, we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. I learned at the Academy at Kings Point in New York, octa nonverba. Watch what a person does not what they say. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvard Kiyosaki, The Rich Dad Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re close, but they’re completely different worlds. And I have a special guest today. Definition of intelligence is if you agree with me, you’re intelligent. And so this gentleman is very intelligent. I’ve done his show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts. And so Mr. Clay Clark is a friend of a good friend, Eric Trump, but we’re also talking about money, bricks, and how screwed up the world can get in a few and a half hour. So Clay Clark is a very intelligent man, and there’s so many ways we could take this thing. But I thought, since you and Eric are close, Trump, what were you saying about what Trump can’t, what Donald, who’s my age, and I can say or cannot say. What’s this? Well, first of all, I have to honor you, sir. I want to show you what I did to one of your books here. There’s a guy named Jeremy Thorne, who was my boss at the time. I was 19 years old, working at Faith Highway. I had a job at Applebee’s, Target, and DirecTV. And he said, have you read this book, “‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad?” And I said, no. And my father, may he rest in peace, he didn’t know these financial principles. So I started reading all of your books and really devouring your books. And I went from being an employee to self-employed to the business owner, to the investor. And I owe a lot of that to you. And I just wanted to take a moment to tell you, thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success. And I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump. I just want to tell you, thank you, sir, for changing my life. Well, not only that, Clay, you know, thank you, but you’ve become an influencer. You know, more than anything else, you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. So that’s why I congratulate you on becoming. Because as you know, there’s a lot of fake influencers out there too, or bad influencers. Anyway, I’m glad you and I agree so much and thanks for reading my books. That’s the greatest thrill for me today. Not a thrill, but recognition is when people, young men especially, come up and say, I read your book, changed my life, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this. I learned at the Academy, Kings Point in New York, acta non verba, watch what a person does, not what they say. Whoa! Hey, I’m Ryan Wimpey, I’m originally from Tulsa, born and raised here. I went to a small private liberal arts college and got a degree in business. And I didn’t learn anything like they’re teaching here. I didn’t learn linear workflows. I learned stuff that I’m not using and I haven’t been using for the last nine years. So, what they’re teaching here is actually way better than what I got at business school. And I went what was actually ranked as a very good business school. The linear workflow. The linear workflow for us in getting everything out on paper and documented is really important. We have workflows that are kind of all over the place. Having linear workflow and seeing that mapped out on multiple different boards is pretty awesome. That’s really helpful for me. The atmosphere here is awesome. I definitely just stared at the walls figuring out how to make my facility look like this place. This place rocks. It’s invigorating. The walls are super, it’s just very cool. The atmosphere is cool, the people are nice, it’s a pretty cool place to be. Very good learning atmosphere. I literally want to model it and steal everything that’s here at this facility and basically create it just on our business side. Once I saw what they were doing, I knew I had to get here at the conference. This is probably the best conference or seminar I’ve ever been to in over 30 years of business. You’re not bored. You’re awake, alive the whole time. It’s not pushy. It’ll try to sell you a bunch of things. I was looking to learn how to just get control of my life, my schedule, and just get control of business. Planning your time, breaking it all down, making time for the F6 in your life, and just really implementing it and sticking with the program. It’s really a great experience. It’s a great way to get involved. It’s a great way to get involved. It’s a great way to get involved. the F6 in your life and just really implementing it and sticking with the program. It’s really lively, they’re pretty friendly, helpful, and very welcoming. I attended a conference a couple months back and it was really the best business conference I’ve ever attended. At the workshop I learned a lot about time management, really prioritizing what’s the most important. whether it’s marketing, what are those three marketing tools that you want to use, to human resources. Some of the most successful people and successful businesses in this town, their owners were here today because they wanted to know more from Clay, and I found that to be kind of fascinating. The most valuable thing that I’ve learned is diligence, that businesses don’t change overnight. It takes time and effort, and you’ve got to go through the ups and downs of getting it to where you want to go. He actually gives you the road map out. I was stuck, didn’t know what to do and he gave me the road map out step by step. He’s set up systems in the business that make my life much easier, allow me some time freedom. Here you can ask any question you want, they guarantee it will be answered. This conference like motivates me and also give me a lot of knowledge and tools. It’s up to you to do it. Everybody can do these things. There’s stuff that everybody knows, but if you don’t do it, nobody else is going to do it for you. I can see the marketing working. I can see the marketing working. It’s just an approach that makes sense.