Clay Clark | Business Conference | Dr. Zoellner Teaches His Proven Management Principles He Used to Build Successful Businesses + Steve Jobs & Jack Welch On Management + Join Tebow At Clay Clark’s Dec 5-6 Business Workshop!

Audio Transcription

The greatest people are self-managing. They don’t need to be managed. Once they know what to do, they’ll go figure out how to do it. They don’t need to be managed at all. What they need is a common vision, and that’s what leadership is. What leadership is, is having a vision, being able to articulate that so the people around you can understand it, and getting a consensus on a common vision. We wanted people that were insanely great at what they did, but were not necessarily those seasoned professionals, but who had at the tips of their fingers and in their passion the latest understanding of where technology was and what we could do with that technology, and who wanted to bring that to lots of people. So the neatest thing that happens is when you get a core group of, you know, ten great people, it becomes self-policing as to who they let into that group. So I consider the most important job of someone like myself is recruiting. You could be anywhere doing a lot of different things, but you chose to be here. Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show. But this show does. In a world filled with endless opportunities, why would two men who have built 13 multi-million dollar businesses altruistically invest five hours per day to teach you the best practice business systems and moves that you can use. Because they believe in you and they have a lot of time on their hands. They started from the bottom, now they’re here. It’s the Thrive Time Show starring the former US Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark, and the entrepreneur trapped inside an optometrist’s body, Dr. Robert Zuckner. Two men, eight kids co-created by two different women, 13 multimillion dollar businesses. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We should fly. Started from the bottom, and now we’re at the top. Teaching you the systems to give what we got. Colton Dixon’s on the hoops. I break down the books. Steve’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks. As the father of five, that’s why I’m alive. So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi. It’s the C and Z up on your radio. And now, three, two, one, here we go. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. You have questions? America’s number one business coach has answers. It’s your broda from Minnesota. Here’s another edition of Ask Clay Anything on the Thrive Time Business Coach radio show. Welcome back to another exciting edition of the Ask Us Anything segment of the Thrive Time show. And on today’s show we are answering the question what would Z do? And we are going to be breaking down 10 knowledge bombs that I know are going to bless you. What I want to do, I want to ask all the listeners for a quick ask, a quick favor before we get started here. I think it’s only fair. Everybody out there, I want you to get a piece of paper or a notepad, maybe an Etch-A-Sketch. Get something that will allow you to take notes because what you are teaching now… How old are you right now? I’m 54. Or, I was going to say, if you’re a millennial, you could use a notes section on your smartphone. Talk to text. Yes. Right. Okay. So just clarify. You’re 54 right now. Correct. For the people out there that maybe won’t have an appreciation for what we’re going to teach you in just a second. I wanted to get up here. Okay. Throughout your career, Dr. Z, you first built a what kind of business? Optometric clinic. Which your first location, where are your two locations now? Approximately 31st and Harvard and 71st and Memorial. How would you describe the size of these compared to the average optometrist? They’re above average. Okay. That’s humble. Yeah. I mean, you know. What was the second business that you started? The second business was a diagnostic sleep center. Okay, and what is that called? Dr. Z’s Sleep Center. Get it? I see what you did there. Now, nine out of ten startups fail, according to Forbes. That’s true. And Z, did any of those fail, the first two? Did they fail? No, they became, in fact, the largest in the region. Okay, so what was your third business that you started? I started an auto auction. What’s that called? Z66 Auto Auction. Okay, and does it do well? Is it okay? Yeah, it’s the largest in the state currently. Okay, and what was your next business you started? A DME company, which stands for Durable Medical Equipment Company, and we do several things, but the main thing we do are the CPAP machines that for people that have sleep apnea that we diagnose in the Dr. Z Sleep Center. Did you not invest early on in Regent Bank, you and Sean Copeland? It was funny because Sean, actually a good friend of mine, approached me to use their bank and I said, I’m tired of switching banks, let’s go buy a bank. He said, great idea, let’s go buy one. So Sean, did you know Sean previous to him approaching you? I was doing a lecture or I was speaking at one of those organizations, one of those lunch groupings I think could have been, I’m not sure if it was Fellowship of Christian Businessmen or business dudes that are really serious dudes. I forget the name of it, okay? I was speaking with one of those… Luncheon? Men of Integrity. Men of Integrity Luncheon. Men of Integrity Luncheon. Yes, yes, yes. Like red cars. I was speaking with that and he came up to me afterwards and handed me his card and introduced himself. From that point on we became friends and built a relationship and then he was trying to woo me to start using the bank he was working currently at and I said, forget that, let’s go buy one. So we did. My little back story with Sean is if you’re out there and you don’t know who Sean Copeland is, one, Google search the guy. It’s Sean, S-E-A-N, Copeland, K-O-U-P-L-E-N. He is a guy who’s kind of like the Joel Osteen of banking. No doubt about it and he’s an author, he’s a lecturer, he’s a great guy. He’s one of the nicest guys ever. He also gives you a bro hug when he meets you. An appropriate bro hug. Does he not? Yes, it’s certified. One of the only bankers I know that gives a basketball-style handshake-hug combo. Well, he was a basketball player back in the day. It’s true. It’s an amazing combination. So, Sean Copeland, I knew him when he was at Citizen Security Bank. He was one of the youngest people at that bank rose to the top. He became the president of the Bixby Chamber of Commerce. I knew him when he moved to Grand Bank and then now Region Bank. So you said, hey buddy, I know you’re going to move to different banks and try to drum up deposits. You’re always going to be a top performer, but why don’t we just buy a bank? The thing about a bank is this, is that I’ve said on different shows that I don’t get involved in a business unless I can control it. But a bank is so controlled by the federal government, by the organization that they’re under, that I felt comfortable owning a minority piece of a bank, because we decided when we went to buy it, Sean and I set up a format that nobody would have a controlling interest. Everybody would have, say, 10 guys each own 10% kind of thing. And as part of the Illuminati, don’t you control the government? Okay, all right. So now here is- Can I tell a funny Sean Copeland story? Yes, please, please, please, Tate, out there. Well, his grandfather was a cattle farmer out by where I had my horse ranch. They’re actually neighbors of mine out there. Oh, really? Yeah. And so, anyway, he was telling me a story that some land came up for sale next to their ranch and the grandfather said, we’ve got to go buy that. You know, we don’t want your mobile home parks moving in. It’d be the worst. I mean, we’ve got to protect. We don’t want our mobile home parks moving in. We’ve got to watch our flanks. We’ve got to protect our flanks. They’re coming to get us. We’ve got to protect our flanks, family. And they looked at him at the dinner table and said, Grandpa, you know that’s three miles now from where we live? We’ve protected it pretty well. That’s seven layers deep. That’s across a moat. Yeah, it’s kind of far away. So the reason why I say all that is because, yes, you’re my friend. Yes, in many respects, I consider you to be kind of like my business dad. You’ve been there for me. You’ve been more than a brother, more than a friend, it’s awesome what you’ve done for my wife and I and our family. First, hiring my wife, and it’s just little things, but my wife worked for your optometry clinic and I didn’t know you super well, but the standard of excellence that you guys created there was inspiring to me. So I would go in the lobby and I would spy on the business and look at the checklists and I didn’t have a we didn’t have smartphones yet where I could take pictures but I would actually draw mentally I’m just I would draw pictures of the checklists I would go in there I would like why does he set up retail this way that way I just I studied your company and it created a source of inspiration for me to see a guy killing the game in optometry then at a time in our life where we didn’t have a lot of money we’re starting DJ connection calm I worked at Applebee’s, Target, and DirecTV, a time where you probably should not have said yes. You agreed to meet with me for lunch and taught me a lot of things about the game of business. One of the first guys who was adamant about advertising. And I can say, Chuck, this is the easiest part of business, is marketing and branding so easy. Fun stuff. Sales so easy. No, just be good. Isn’t marketing and branding so easy? It’s fun. Sales is easy. But then you get into managing people and you have to get to a place where you have core principles that you that you adhere to Pretty much a hundred percent of the time you have core principles that you adhere to and dr. Z said well You know clay I have these ten rules for success. I want to teach you ten business pig rules Z when did you come up with these rules? This is better enough. You know I formulated them over the years of business I’m gonna go back to one thing you said first of all thank you for all the kind words. No, I mean it though. And I do see you as a business younger little brother or son. I like both of those. And when your father passed from ALS a few years ago, it was a really bonding moment for the two of us in time we spent together, getting you through the grieving emotion of that. But I will give hats off to your wife, Vanessa. That used to work for me. Yep. And that’s how we met was through her. Yep. The fact that she could see the inner man that you were, because the dude that you were when you came to pick her up was a dude that we all sat around the break room and thought, what on earth is she with him? The combination of both dumb and aggressive made it tough. I mean, really, the fact that she could see through your crusty outer shell, into the You’re a soft little inner jelly goodness that you are. If you’re, Jason talked about this morning in one of our meetings, but if you’re Kanye West and you’re known as having the Kanye scowl, that’s cool because you’re Kanye West. If you’re Eminem and you’re known as being intense, but in your Eminem, that’s cool. But if you’ve got nothing, you’re just dumb and aggressive. That’s not a move. I mean, you pull up in your car and the walls would rattle. You had that thing cranked up so loud. He’s like a clam, right? There was a pearl in his side. You’d come in all spunky-eyed and pick a fight. I’ve got to ask you this, though. When did you finally distill your observations from years of experience running companies into these ten rules? Well, what happened was I got, like you, except I didn’t get paid, I got asked to speak at an event. And so, you speak and then you keep your notes and the next time you work on it, you keep your notes. People love, you know, hey, I’m going to teach you on my 10 points today. They just light up. They’re like, oh, I have 10 points. I don’t want to miss one of these. They’re writing them down and they’re focusing on it. And it kind of helps direct your conversation. And then you get a theme. I themed it up. I got one that’s a little unusual. It’s not unusual to have a pig as your theme. Whoa, let me get a wood block. It’s not unusual. Okay, back to you. So I kind of, through speech writing, I formulated these ten, this was a speech that I gave. And so it kind of forced me to sit down and go, what are my, what are my, okay, here’s what it looks like, how can I put that into this format? And so. And all of this goes under the title of what would Z do in my mind. So I’m going to read the principle and then the business pig principle. I’m calling these these are Dr. Z’s 10 business pig principles for success. Right, exactly, and I would tell everybody out there that owns a business, if I walked up to one of your employees and said, hey how would you handle this situation? One of the things that should go through their mind is, how would my owner slash boss handle this situation? And if you haven’t taught them or given them the ability or the action steps in order to do that, I would encourage you to do that. Because it got inspired by those little bracelets years ago that came out, those little rubber band bracelets. The WWJD. Yeah, what would Jesus do? And that’s a really good way to kind of think through it. You’re at a fork in the road, and which way would he go? What would he do? You don’t know what to do, right? What would he do? And so that’s just a real kind of principle that I’ve always enjoyed having. Because a lot of times I’ll have an employee come to me with a problem and I’d look at them and I’d say, well, what would I do? And they go, oh, well, you do this. Just to demonstrate the mastery of how locked in you and I are now, we’re going to teach a principle and then I’m going to play a song on the cowbell and you can guess what song it is. Perfect. See if you feel locked in. Oh, this is one of my favorite songs. Yeah, this is one of my favorite games I’m in. Here we go. So principle number one. Name the tune. Pigs get fat, hogs get butchered. What does that mean? What does that mean? I was taught by that from a judge that I met from Racing Pigeons, which is a whole other show. We’ll get into that. You’re making this up. No, no, no, no, no. It’s a thing. Google it. It’s a thing. Racing Pigeons. I did that for years. His name was Dick Ott. And anyway, he pigeons. No, no, no. He taught me that saying. And as soon as he said it, it was just like a light bulb went off in me. It’s like my blood started to boil. I just thought it was one of the coolest things ever because what it deals with is greed. It deals with greed. There’s a lot of ways business owners can be greedy. One of the ways business owners can be greedy is pricing their product or their services. So high. So high. Hey, how much does your smoker cost? $1.2 billion. What do you think about the philosophy that has been taught by many consultants all around the world. If people are willing to pay for it and not complain about the price, you should just keep raising it. Well, there is something about that. But then the point is that the pig raises it until he gets one or two complaints and then goes, okay, I know I’m probably there. The hog continues to raise it until he stops selling it. You see the difference? So the pig goes, you know what, hey, I raised it five bucks, no one complained. Hey, I’m going to raise another five bucks.” No one complained. Right. And then when he starts to get a little bit of pushback and some complaints, he probably knows they were kind of wanting to complain before, but they just didn’t know how to verbalize it. I want to stay alive. Now he’s at the, you know. But my philosophy was this, is why raise the price when you can expand the building, when you can hire more doctors, when you can do more, when you can just expand that. I mean, there’s always a limiting membrane. Don’t let the price or the greed be your limiting membrane. And the other thing too is with employees. I know so many people that just beat up their employees on price. They will not pay them well. They won’t pay them well, yeah. Yeah. Listen, if you don’t take good care of your employees, especially your good ones, somebody else will. Oof. And that’s another component. It’s also a dating tip. Yeah. Okay. But that’s another component of greed. The third area that I see so many times is people that own a business just want to beat their vendors up. They want to get in there and the sales rep comes in the door, and pretty soon they come in every two weeks, and now they’re every month, and now they’re every six weeks, and now you don’t even see them anymore because they’re tired of getting beat up on price. They come in and go, well, you need to knock that thing down another two points, two percentage points. Thinking about making a switch. I mean, I’m thinking about setting this back up for negotiations. The thing about it, it’s got to be a win-win. Let me give some specifics to this that I’ve asked Dr. Z about over the years that I think Chip will be helpful to add to the show notes. One, as you just said, we need to make a win-win in all scenarios. It can be a win for the customer, a win for the employee. Right. We call it the three Ps. You want to have a business that’s profitable. Yes. You want to have a product that you’re proud of, right? Yes. And you want to have people that you like working with. Absolutely. Also, you want to make a profit of about what, Z, 20%? 25%? Is sort of that target. Some industries are higher, some are lower, like home building. Somewhere between 20 and 30 is a pretty healthy margin. If you’re shooting for more than 30, you’re kind of getting a hug. You see guys are like, I made a 70% margin on this new home remodel. It’s my only one I’ve ever gotten though but I swear I crushed it. Right, right. And it just, okay that’s not going to work. The Johnson’s are not god damn good suckas. Now Zee I’m going to cue up our first song on our show, Name That Tune. I want you to think about the song. I’m going to play it and as I play it on the cowbell I want you to ask yourself to see what song is this on this edition of Name That Tune. Think about this, I’m a former DJ. I know a catalog of hundreds of thousands of songs. And I’m not. It could be any song. I know. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to give you a genre. That way we narrowed it down. No, no, no. Don’t even. Don’t keep in this moment. No, I just want to get. It’s a song that was sang by a male artist. Okay, got it. I think I narrowed it down pretty easy. I think I already know this. I already gave it away. Okay, here we go. Oh, that’s easy. Michael Jackson, Beat It. Yes! Oh! Ba da da da da, ba da da da, ba, ba da da da da, ba ba da da da. That was impressive. Oh, well, thank you. I don’t know how you do that every time. It’s crazy. It’s crazy good. To demonstrate how out of sync Chup and I are now, Chup, I’m going to tee up a song here. This song was sang by a male artist. OK. And I’m going to play it. I want you to see if you can guess what it is. I’m ready. Ready? I know it. On top of old Smokies. No. What? Purple Rain. Come on. Purple Rain. smokies no my purple rain purple rain so obvious you just we haven’t spent enough time you get more in osmosis all right more to flow okay principal number two from dr. Z’s business pig principles for success yes principle number two be the pig at breakfast not the chicken what does that mean what does it mean well let’s look at the rolls at breakfast. I love rolls. Oh, yeah I went there on Friday. Let me celebrate this moment Possibly gone to how did that happen? Z and I are in Okay, so be that pig means you gave your life for bacon ham ham sausage sausage That means fully committed in other words you were all in all in lays an egg And you know it’s kind of maybe I’ll lay an egg tomorrow if I feel like it Let me let me let me go off for a second. Let me go This is something I hear all the time. I see people say all the time I’m gonna try out this idea. Come on and see if it works cuz if this idea works Can I get a name then I’ll go ahead and keep pursuing it I’m just gonna try this but my fallback position is this other job? I put a little bit of money into this coffee shop, but if it requires work, and I don’t get traction, I am going to stop. See, why is that such jackassery to not be the pig at breakfast? I’m going to tell you an example. I was mentoring a young man who wanted to open up a swanky clothing store. You know, that kind of swank that they have, those pants with swagalicious swag. The kind of stuff that Kayla would buy. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, the kind of cool t-shirts, very stylish, you know, crazy socks and all that stuff and Few months later, you know, we have another meeting and he comes by to kind of Commiserate and I’m like, what’s that because I think I have to shut it down down bro, I’m like What’s going on? He goes well try to find good help and I’ve got this dude on Saturdays just keeps stealing from me I think you know man, just giving free stuff away to his friends. Ah Robin the kitty and all that kind of stuff Robin the Kitty and all that kind of stuff. I’m like, well, why don’t you just I want to make sure it was the clothing company, because I mic all conversations. It’s hard to sort through my audio files. But this is what he said to you. You said to him, you said, buddy, you got to be willing to do whatever it takes. And this is what he said to you. Surely you can’t be serious. I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley. I don’t quite understand the exchange, but that’s what happened. Well, that’s the thing about it is that when you, in Napoleon Dynamite’s book, he talks about burning the boats. Burning the boats. And what that means is that from one island, they would go and attack the next island. Yes. And what that means is that from one island, they would go and attack the next island. And the idea was that there was no retreat, there was no plan B. We’re either going to take this island or die. I mean that’s a huge… Think about that. Just the mindset of that. Think about that. Think about this. After reading that book, I read that book 2000-ish. Then I had a lunch with you, teed up by Kylie, our manager, who’s still there. By the way, super excited for the holiday party. Christmas party’s coming up very soon. Clay, I just want to point one thing out. When you pulled up for lunch and you lit your car on fire, it’s not the same thing, okay? You’re going to have to burn your car. Bro, to be literal, burn the Buick. That’s not the same thing. I was also one of the early jihadi recruits, and so I just went ahead and pulled out the manual for car bombs. Okay, now the point is, seriously, I had just finished reading that book and I met with you and I remember this. You said, Clay, can I be frank with you? And I go, okay. I thought you were Robert, but okay. But you said this. You said, you have got to advertise. You eventually have to buy an ad. And I remember kind of like having, well, but yeah, but I can’t afford it. And you’re like, listen, I’m not a paid consultant. Just buy an ad. You were just very direct on that. I remember going, this guy’s a jerk. You got up and went to the salad bar. I remember going, I wrote that down. I’m like, this guy, what the? Because Vanessa and I were in a spot where I worked at Applebee’s, Target, and DirecTV, three jobs. Vanessa had a job at Office Depot and Oral Roberts University. I remember going, I don’t know how we’re going to do this. I went and talked to Vanessa and I’m like, I burned the boats, Dr. Z, it’s like an hour long windup. And I’m like, we’re gonna have to turn off the air conditioning or the heat. We gotta do something. I don’t know. It was a powerful moment in your life. No, seriously. And we actually, we sold, we had a white car. I cannot remember, it was like a, I wanna say it was, it was American model, like a Buick or something. My parents had sold to me, I think my parents sold to me for like nothing. It was very low cost. I sold that and we just had the Mazda MPV and she started walking to work and she would drop me off at my jobs and we decided to buy a yellow page ad from Sally, who is the mother of one of your clients, Kevin Lewis, and it was like two grand a month. Has there ever been a better time in American history? Right now, you can turn on your YouTube ads or your Facebook ads month to month, man. Week to week. See, do you remember the times when you had to commit to an agreement for like a year to buy a Yellow Page ad? I know. I tell you what, business owners starting today have got that part of it much easier. Oh, it’s so easy. It’s so much easier than we had it back in the day. But I remember, I’ll tell you what, you put that picture in there and you made sure you had the big ones up front. I mean, come on now. I was like, stop it now. Full page of the hot. It’s like fishing for fish in a barrel. Jeff Ramsey was my first inbound call ever. You remember? Jeff Ramsey. Oh yeah. It’s crazy. You were saying the other day on the show, Clay, you had to commit to whatever marketing strategy you were going for for a year. There was no A-B testing. Dude. There was no trying things out. It’s like- Let me tell you how I did it. Here we go. Dr. Z said if your ad doesn’t grab somebody by the throat- Z, can you explain what kind of ad you want? If you’re going to launch an ad, what your ad has to do in terms of getting the attention of your ideal and likely buyers. You’ve got to have a call to action. The ad has to inspire you. How many times right now you’re listening right now, you’ve heard an ad on the radio, you’ve seen an ad in a magazine or newspaper, you’ve watched an ad on TV and you go, huh, yeah, I don’t know. And then the ad comes along that makes you laugh, makes you remember it, makes you go, I’ve got to have that thing. If I don’t have that thing, I may not make it. I might not. I might not. I do. My quality of life would be horrible without that. I do need a ham from the Hamlet. I need a ham from the Hamlet. Honeycutt ham. I mean. Honeycutt ham from the Hamlet. That’s what you need. You have to have a call to action, and in order to do that, you have to have some kind of component of a deal that just is so awesome, so incredible. Back in the day, now it’s like you want to drive them to a website, you want to drive them to something else, but back in the day, my whole goal was to get them to pick up the phone and call me. I thought, I’m going to have something so crazy, so outlandish, so over the top, call to action, they have no choice but to pick up the phone and call. Because that was the move back in the day. All I did was I looked at my competition and they had an ad that said something like, started in 1984, founded in 1984. So I’m like, okay, I got that. And then it said, we have over 100,000 songs. And I thought to myself, talking to Z, I mean, I could conceivably get up to a million songs. So I wrote something like, we can get up to 110,000 songs, or something just more than that. And I just one-upped them, and I said, we’ll be any competitor’s price. And my ad was smoking hot, dude. It worked. It got attention. I put my head… That’s what advertising does. If done correctly, it makes a phone drink. I… literally, all the ads were kind of conservative. I took my head and put it on a body of a person in a suit using Photoshop. So it was like a caricature head, like a bobble head on a normal sized man body, but like a five times larger head. And it worked, dude. Clay, I don’t want to be mean, and I don’t want to be disrespectful. And you know, you know, I’ve got a lot of man love for you. You know that, right? Yep. But your head is really, really big. No, I’ve got to be honest with you. I did not enlarge the photo at all. Thank you. Spin your picture. But I mean, when I went out there and launched the ad, I had to be the pig. Brett decided to commit to it. And that’s one of the things that I think, you know, why we have such a high fail rate on businesses. According to Forbes, which is kind of our business Bible, we like to quote Forbes a lot because they’ve done a lot of the research and it’s the easy button. We don’t have to go do it. Let’s be honest with you. They’ve already done it. And 90% of business fail up to 80% of startups and then 80% of businesses fail and that rate is way too high. That’s one of the things that started us down this pathway of building a business school online, of doing in-person workshops, doing the radio show, which is now a podcast, having one-on-one, now even one-on-one coaching, business coaching. A quick clarification. A lot of people might have misunderstood what you just said. When you said Forbes, you weren’t saying F-orbs. No, I was saying Forbes. Spirical bodies or globes, you have no problem with those. When I meet an entrepreneur that has that fire in their eye and says, I’m going to do this no matter what, studies show that people that say, I have a plan B, I might fall back, I’m not going to burn my boat. I have an escape door. I have a parachute. You think, well, that’s wisdom. That just sounds wise. That sounds good. A prudent man has his… Wouldn’t be prudent. No. No. Be the pig. Fully commit. Get your mindset wrapped around because 67% of you out there, according to Forbes again, want to start a business. We want to help you start it and grow it, be committed to saying, you know what, I’m going to do whatever it takes to make it happen. We’ve talked about this in the past on the show, but the thought of a founder’s mentality, that means there’s urgency within your actions. And if you’ve only dipping a toe in the jacuzzi, if you’re only trying out the waters, yeah, if you’re only testing out the waters, you pull out the toe, I tell you what, you brought it on yourself right now. I got a nice double dip. I’m taking my shirt off right now. Z! Whoa! Z! You’re ripped, bro! Z, remember, today’s show, the entire focus of today’s show is, what would Z do? Yeah, I get the jacuzzi. What would Z do? The business picks 10 business principles for success. So Z, I’m going to cue up my next song from Name That Tune here. I’m going to play this song. This song is a male artist from the 80s. Male artist, think about it for a second. Think about it. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I transmit the signal. Is it an individual or is it a boy band? I couldn’t give that much information. I got you, I got you. This is magical. So I’m going to go ahead and play the beat and you can tell me what it is. Here we go. Name that tune with Dr. Z. To demonstrate how in sync we are mentally. Here we go. Oh, that’s easy. Bobby Brown, Don’t Be Cruel. I don’t be cruel. I would never be that cruel to you. It’s so simple. No, no, no. You’ve got to do the harder one. I’m sorry. I’m trying over here. Okay, so principle number three. Business pig principle number three that has allowed Dr. Z to build multiple multi-million dollar businesses. It’s know when to cook the pig. What? What does that mean? Z, audio. Quick audio. Let’s do quick audio here. Okay. You’re saying it weird. Saying what weird? All of it. Where do you get off? I just don’t get why you’re saying it that way. Why I’m saying what what way? Okay, now we’ve clarified what you’re saying see what you’re saying talk to me Talk to us about what you mean when we say no when to cook the pig well I always love those scenes in Hawaii of course. He doesn’t love Hawaii. I mean you know come on So they have the luau and in the luau one of the with the when the standards in luau is a pig. You know, with an apple in its mouth. I mean, the whole, like, the whole pig being cooked, right? And it’s always a celebration. They’re always a big family celebration. It’s a wedding. It’s a… There we go. There we go. Uh-huh. Keep going. So the idea that you’re going to cook a pig means you’re partying. Oh! Means you’re having fun. Means you’re celebrating. Means you are having a good time to the season. And so for me, it’s very important. Okay, sorry. So, for example, this December 8th, we are going to have a probably more than 500 people at our Christmas party. It’s going to be epic. Employee Christmas party. It’s gonna be up there at the famous Mayo Hotel the iconic iconic in the crystal Rick yes in the crystal ballroom Oh, wow where they actually have original. It’s like Original old-school marble crown molding the detail there. I mean you talk about they don’t make hotels like that anymore They don’t the history so I’m gonna take your business center out there and your team has you have some wins go celebrate it Hey, take them to a pizza joint go bowling go to a billiards. You took my wife and I to Magoo’s. Yes, which is a billiards. You took all your employees to Magoo’s. We shovel board in billiards. We had a great time. Fabulous time. Dude, and I’m just telling you, at the time, though, when you did it, Vanessa and I couldn’t afford to go on dates. It was a huge highlight for us, man. It’s a win-win. One, selfishly as the employer, I get my team bonding together, even tighter, better friends, and fired up. And they also know that if they work hard and they hit the numbers and we have a successful month, guess what? Chicken butt. Exactly. No, it was huge. They had a great night out. It was exciting. It was. Very fun. Also, I remember the Christmas party. It was the first time we had a formal event since we got married. It’s so much fun. And the casino theme going on. Do you remember back in the day, bro? I know. It was so much fun. I’m telling you out there, business owners, if you’re not celebrating the victories with your staff, you’re missing an opportunity to not only bond with them, but also show them that they’re in the boat with you. I have a question on behalf of a listener who couldn’t be here today. And, Shep, I’ll kind of tee it up here. So, Dr. Z, why can’t you have a cheap-ass Christmas party? Why can’t you have just the cheapest-ass thing, you know, the cheapest, the most unbelievably tacky, because for years I’ve been buying my employees, I’ve been regifting. You know what I mean? I regift and it’s been kind of a secret thing, no one really knows, but I’ve been regifting and it’s been working well. Why do I have to spend all the time and the money to put together a holiday party? Here again, these are one of the things that help you build a culture of the environment of your workplace. Come on now. And when your staff knows that there is something, there is something at the end of the rainbow. I mean, it does suck if you ever get to the end of the rainbow and there’s no pot of gold and you’re like, oh, I was fine, I was old. He’s after me like a charm. So the idea is that you’re team building, at the same time you’re celebrating the victory. And so when I went to listen to one of my favorite business gurus of all time, Jack Welch, one of my favorite business books, Winning. I just love that. Winning, because that’s what’s about people like well Don’t you think we need a shit? No win win win win more about winning? And when he got up there on stage and basically said the same thing he said listen You got to go out there You know make sure you hire people you want to celebrate things with because you want if you don’t want to go and hang out With him then you shouldn’t have hired him to begin with amen. There’s a caveat, but he said go out and celebrate Celebrate victories, and I thought resonated with me. This coming Friday, Jack Welch will step down from a top General Electric, a global powerhouse encompassing everything from light bulbs to locomotives to consumer loans to our competitor NBC. As perhaps the most influential and imitated, not to mention controversial corporate CEO of the last half century, his thoughts on business are so coveted that he’s being paid nearly $10 million to put them in a book. He’s giving the money to charity. As we found when we profiled him last fall, Jack Welch is less interested in making deals and crunching numbers than he is in people, picking them, promoting them and challenging them. Don’t let anybody get between you and your suppliers or you and your customers. Don’t let somebody show up with a dot-com. It’s nothing. It’s meaningless. They got nothing. In monthly sessions at GE’s training center, Jack Welch is teacher, motivator, and performer. It’s where he loves to be, surrounded by his young managers, quizzing and being quizzed. What keeps you awake at night saying, this is the one thing I want to get done before I leave office. I want this to be a young company and I want it to get young in less than a year. To make GE young he’s making it embrace the internet. Every division, every one of his 350,000 employees is under Welsh orders to use the web for buying, selling, customer service, everything. The internet offers a chance to change everybody’s job. You said that you can’t push this initiative moderately. You have to almost be on the lunatic fringe. Absolutely. You can’t say, let’s take on quality. Quality’s good. I mean, of course quality’s good, but you’ve got to say, I’m not going to pay anybody if they don’t get quality, I’m not going to give stock options. So you’ve got to go nuts. Is that the way you always are or is this, I only have a short time? No, I’m always nuts. He’s been nuts since the day he took over in 1981. Tradition Bound GE, founded by Thomas Edison, suddenly had a revolutionary as CEO. We had to get competitive. The Japanese were eating our lunch in the 70s. As a country, we had gotten too sloppy. The whole system didn’t work. It was a command and control system that came out of World War II. All these things from the military that we had learned, and layers and bureaucrats and parking spaces, trimmings of office. Oh, horrible. Get rid of it. Get rid of it. He got rid of bureaucracy, and he got rid of 100,000 GE employees. That earned him the nickname Neutron Jack after the neutron bomb that was designed to leave buildings standing, but eliminate all the people. You were criticized. You were hammered, in fact, because you got rid of so many people. And you didn’t pull back. You went forward with it. Hotter. You know what surprises me? How many businesses you sold off that were GE? You sold off toasters. Right, right. Irons. Irons. You had to get out of those businesses. They were Yes City’s businesses. His bold moves didn’t just change GE. A lot of his peers call the last 20 years of world business the Welch era. I think he did a number of things that changed the way you run business in the world, if not at least in this country. Larry Bossetty worked under Welch at GE, then left to run Allied Signal and briefly Honeywell. If you were to rank Jack Welch in a list of businessmen in the last 50 years, where would he rank? Oh, I think Jack would be one, and the second person would be far distant second. You could argue that we’re the most competitive country in the world now. Well, it isn’t all attributable to Jack, but I think he’s done a lot of things that other people have emulated in businesses that gets us to that position of being the most competitive. He made GE competitive, not just by downsizing, but by pushing aggressively into financial services, strengthening high-tech divisions like jet engines, and buying scores of new businesses like medical equipment, even a TV network, NBC. And he transformed all of GE into a brutally honest meritocracy in which every employee is ranked from the very top down to the bottom 10%. And you look at that bottom 10 and we can’t carry the bottom 10. We got to keep… Who said it today here raising the bar? People call that Darwinism. Why is that Darwinism? Well, the survival of the fittest. But it’s not survival. Sink or swim, you know. In the end, if they don’t improve, they can’t… They’re out of here. The best thing you can do to an employee is early on, as early as you know they’re the bottom ten, let them know, so they can go on and adjust their life and get in the right game, in the right level of company. gentler company than the company that winks at the truth. JT, do you know what time it is? Um, 410. It’s T-Bo time in Tulsa, Roselam, baby. Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma during the month of Christmas, December 5th and 6th, 2024. Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma in the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show Business Growth Workshop. Yes, folks, put it in your calendar this December, the month of Christmas, December 5th and 6th. Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma and the Thrive Time Show Two Day Interactive Business Growth Workshop. We’ve been doing business conferences here since 2005. I’ve been hosting business conferences since 2005. What year were you born? 1995. Dude, I’ve been hosting business conferences since you were 10 years old, 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? Hmm, well, they’re gonna have to come and find out because I don’t know. Well, I’m just saying, Tim Tebow’s gonna teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s gonna walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is gonna be a blasty blast in Tulsa, Russia. Folks, I’m telling you, if you wanna learn branding, you wanna learn marketing, you wanna learn search engine optimization, you wanna learn social media marketing, that’s what we teach at the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive workshop. If you wanna learn accounting, you wanna learn sales systems, you want to learn how to build a linear workflow, you want to learn how to franchise your business, that is what we teach at the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show Business Workshop. You know, over the years we’ve had the opportunity to feature Michael Levine, the PR consultant of choice for Nike, for Prince, for Michael Jackson. The top PR consultant in the history of the planet has spoken at the Thrive Time Show workshops. We’ve had Jill Donovan, the founder of Rustic Cuff.com, a company that creates apparel worn by celebrities all throughout the world. Jill Donovan, the founder of Rustic Cuff.com, has spoken at the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshops. We have the guy, we’ve had the man who’s responsible for turning around Harley Davidson, a man by the name of Ken Schmidt. He has spoken at the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshops. Folks, I’m telling you, these events are going to teach you what you need to know to start and grow a successful business. And the way we price the events, the way we do these events, is you can pay $250 for a ticket or whatever price that you can afford. Yes! We’ve designed these events to be affordable for you and we want to see you live and in person at the two-day interactive December 5th and 6th Thrive Time Show Business Workshop. Everything that you need to succeed will be taught at the 2-Day Interactive Thrive Time Show Business Workshop December 5th and 6th in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And the way we do these events is we teach for 30 minutes and then we open it up for a question and answer session so that wonderful people like you can have your questions answered. Yes, we teach for 30 minutes and then we open it up for a 15 minute question and answer session. It’s interactive, it’s two days, it’s in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We’ve been doing these events since 2005 and I’m telling you folks it’s gonna blow your mind. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshop is America’s highest-rated and most reviewed business workshop. See the thousands of video testimonials from real people just like you who’ve been able to build multi-million dollar companies. Watch those testimonials today at Thrivetimeshow.com. Simply by clicking on the testimonials button right there at Thrivetimeshow.com, you’re gonna see thousands of people just like you, who’ve been able to go from just surviving to thriving. Each and every day we’re gonna add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup, but I encourage everybody out there today, get those tickets today. Go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s Thrivetimeshow.com and some people might be saying well how do I do it? I don’t know what I do, how does it work? You just go to Thrivetimeshow.com let’s go there now we’re feeling the flow we’re going to Thrivetimeshow.com 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. Did you start out with a million dollars in the bank account? No, I did not. Nope, did not get any loans, nothing like that. Did not get an inheritance from parents or anything like that. I had to work for it. And I am super grateful I came to a business conference. That’s actually how I met you, met Peter Taunton. I met all these people. So if you’re out there today and you want to come to our workshop, again, you just got to go to thrivetimeshow.com. You might say, well, 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. I suppose 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. Who? You. You’re going to come. Who? You. I’m talking to you. You can get your tickets right now at Thrivetimeshow.com. And again, you can name your price. We tell people it’s $250 or whatever price you can afford. And we do have some select VIP tickets, which gives you an access to meet some of the speakers and those sorts of things. And those tickets are $500. It’s a two-day interactive business workshop, over 20 hours of business training. We’re going to give you a copy of my newest book, The Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. You’re going to leave with a workbook. You’re going to leave with everything you need to know to start and grow a super successful company. It’s practical, it’s actionable, and it’s TiVo time right here in Tulsa, Russia. Get those tickets today at Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s Thrivetimeshow.com. Hello, I’m Michael Levine, and I’m talking to you right now from the center of Hollywood, California, where I have represented over the last 35 years 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestsellers. I’ve represented a lot of major stars, and I’ve worked with a lot of major companies. And I think I’ve learned a few things about what makes them work and what makes them not work. Now, why would a man living in Hollywood, California, in the beautiful, sunny weather of LA, come to Tulsa. Because last year I did it and it was damn exciting. 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. I start my day at 3 a.m. I went through school and it just wasn’t positive for me. I don’t And then I discovered business. Everybody at school wants gum, and no one has gum. If I sold everyone gum, I could make some money. My whole brain works, find a problem, there’s four steps. Find a problem, solve the problem, sell the solution, nail it and scale it. So when I’m like 14, 13, I’m selling gum in quantities. I’m going to Sam’s in bulk. And then the principal calls me and says, Mr. Clark to the principal’s office, Mr. Clark. I’m like, what is going on? Sir, Clay, are you selling gum? I am selling gum. And he said, you can’t sell gum. I said, okay, I’ll stop. Then I found out people wanted cassette tapes. Remember Milli Vanilli, Paula Abdul? Everybody wanted, it’s like, straight up now tell me, do you really wanna love me forever? And people always wanted that Milli Vanilli. Blame it on the rain that was falling. And then we had tapes, cassette tapes. So I bought a cassette. I’m like a 13 year old kid. I’m high speed dubbing tapes. You got the tape? I got the tape, so I give you the tape. I’m not selling drugs, but it’s kind of like a drug thing because it’s illegal tapes. I’m giving you tape, $15. And I’m buying more tapes. I got some black market candy and music career going on. And then when I went to the worst event of my entire life was the Students Against Drunk Driving. The people planning Students Against Drunk Driving were drinking vodka during their water bottles and in class. So I put my hand up, I said, Miss Page, I think that that DJ was terrible. She says, well, why? I said, you can’t play Cotton Eye Joe after Regulate. That’s why no one’s dancing. The guy’s horrible. And he’s like in his fifties and he’s a chain smoker. All right, ladies and gentlemen, up next, our next song, it’s gonna be an incredible hot song. It’s called Regulate. And he goes and smokes. That kid’s a ridiculous. Anybody could do better. So she says, well, if you can do better, then you do it yourself. And I said, I will. We’ve never had more than 300 kids attend a dance, approximately. For every student that comes after 300, can I keep the door? I’ll take care of the food. I’ll take care of the beverages. I just want $5 per person that comes in after 300 and all the food and beverage. She says, it’s on, Mr. Clark. I go, oh, it’s on. So I’m passing out flyers, and I didn’t know you couldn’t invite other schools to your school dance. The night of the event happened, the people show up, and there’s maybe a thousand kids, or there should be like three hundred kids, and they’re not from our school. And the energy is epic now. People are crowd surfing, and I’m making crazy amounts of money. I’m going, I’m going to make five thousand dollars tonight. The crowd surfing was out of control, and the principal asked me to stop, and I said no. And I asked the crowd, do you want to stop? And they said no. I said, do you want to stop? No. Do you want to fight for your right to party? And then the principal kicked me out. I met Vanessa when I was going to Earl Roberts University. She was a cheerleader, and I thought she was super attractive. And she’s super smart. And so even to this day, she’ll say stuff, and I’m going, oh, I should write that down. So I feel like I’m kind of married to an attractive Yoda. He’s allowed it in his grace and goodness and mercy, right? Because he has a plan for good, for goodness. And so I get so excited about everything. She does. I do, that the God is doing right now. We had our first business, DJ Connection, which is a mobile entertainment company. And we grew that to be doing 80 events a weekend. It was crazy. We ended up selling that and we started something called Make Your Life Epic. And that’s what Clay does is coaches people and their businesses and helps them grow their businesses. He sees patterns like no one I’ve ever met in my life. I remember he kept telling me things I needed to do and I kept going, you don’t understand my business very well. Like you may understand other businesses because I know you coach a lot of successful companies, but you don’t understand the business we do. What I later found out is that every business owner he coaches tells him that in the first three months. After a little while, finally, things were kind of rough that I was dealing with and I went back to him and I was like, what was that you told me to do again? Things just took off from that point. I achieved a certain level of success and people kept asking me if I could coach them or teach them how to build a scalable business. I said yes to 160 clients. One of the greatest parts about Clay is he’s not just a guy that builds your website, but he coaches you. He’s the only one I’ve seen with his level of expertise. Clay and I sit at his desk one month ago and he put together a video just for my Facebook marketing himself. And that was just his focus is helping his clients, helping them grow their businesses. That’s 100% of his locked and loaded focus. So I’m working with clients on a one-on-one basis and then it occurred to me that I didn’t want to grow beyond that point. When someone says, hey, can I pick your brain and can you teach me how to grow a company? I thought, well, what if I could record a show? That way I could say, yes, I could say I can’t sit down with you personally, but I could say you could listen to my show about how to build a workflow or my show about how to do accounting or my show about how to do branding or sales or marketing. We have the incredible opportunity to interview this celebrity chef, Mr. Wolfgang Puck is now on the Thrive Time show. Gretchen Rubin, 24 year NBA coach, Paul Press, exclusive interview with Lee Cockerell, basketball player David Robinson. On today’s show, entrepreneur Seth Godin. I learned at the Academy at Kings Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Alright, Thrive Nation, on today’s show we’re going to be breaking down what Robert Kiyosaki, the best-selling author, the New York Times best-selling author and real estate investment guru, has recently been talking more and more about octa-non-verba. You say, what’s octa-non-verba? Well, one, it’s Latin, so don’t get too concerned there. But it’s octa, again, it’s octa-non-verba. What it means is action. You need to watch what people do and not what they say. That’s the idea. Watch what somebody does and not what they say. Hi, I’m Ryan Wimpey. And I’m Rachel Wimpey, and the name of our business is Kip Top Training. Our business is a dog training business. We help people with behavioral issues and teach their dog how to listen. When I was learning to become a dog trainer, we didn’t learn anything about internet marketing or advertising or anything at all. Just dog training, and that’s what’s so great about working with Clay and his team because they do it all for us. So that we can focus on our passion and that’s training jobs. Clay and his team here, they’re so enthusiastic, their energy is off the charts. Never a dull moment, spirit thrive. We’ve been working with Clay and his team for the last five months, two of which have been our biggest months ever. One, our biggest gross by 35%. Clay’s helped us make anything from brochures to stickers, new business cards, new logos, scripts for phones, scripts for email, scripts for text message, scripting for everything. How I would describe the weekly meetings with Clay and his team are awesome. They’re so effective. It’s worth every minute. Things get done, we’ll ask for things like different flyers, and they’re done before our hour is up. So it’s just awesome, extremely effective. If you don’t use Clay and his team, you’re probably going to be pulling your hair out or you’re going to spend half of your time trying to figure out the online marketing game and producing your own flyers and marketing materials, print materials, all the stuff like that. You’re really losing a lot as far as lost productivity and lost time. Not having a professional do it has a real sense of urgency and actually knows what they’re doing when you already have something that’s your core focus and you already know how to do it. You would also be missing out with all the time and financial freedom that you would have working with Clay and his team. We would recommend Clay and his team to other business owners because they need to be working on their business, not just trying to figure out the online game, which is complex and changing daily. So no one has a marketing team, too. Most people don’t. They can’t afford one, and their local web guy or local person that they know probably can’t do everything that a whole team and a whole floor of people can do in hours and not just weeks or months. There’s a definite sense of urgency with Clay and his team. I used to have to ride other web people, really, I mean really ride them to get stuff done and stuff is done so fast here. People, there’s a real sense of urgency to get it done. Great. I learned at the Academy in Kings Point in Octa non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Hi, I’m Aaron Antis with Shaw Homes. I first heard about Clay through a mortgage lender here in town who had told me what a great job he had been doing for them. And I actually noticed he was driving a Lamborghini all of a sudden, so I was willing to listen. In my career, I’ve sold a little over $800 million in real estate. So, honestly, I thought I kind of knew everything about marketing and homes. And then I met Clay, and my perception of what I knew and what I could do definitely changed. After doing $800 million in sales over a 15-year career, I really thought I knew what I was doing. I’ve been managing a large team of salespeople for the last 10 years here with Shaw Homes. We’ve been a company that’s been in business for 35 years. We’ve become one of the largest builders in the Tulsa area, and that was without Clay. When I came to know Clay, I really thought, man, there’s not much more I need to know, but I’m willing to listen. The interesting thing is our internet leads from our website has actually in a four-month period of time has gone from somewhere around 10 to 15 leads in a month to 180 internet leads in a month. Just from the few things that he’s shown us how to implement that I honestly probably never would have come up with on my own. So, I got a lot of good things to say about the system that Clay put in place with us, and it’s just been an incredible experience. I am very glad that we met and had the opportunity to work with Clay. So the interaction with the team and with Clay on a weekly basis is honestly very enlightening. One of the things that I love about Clay’s perspective on things is that he doesn’t come from my industry. He’s not somebody who’s in the home building industry. I’ve listened to all the experts in my field. Our company has paid for me to go to seminars, international builder shows, all kinds of places where I’ve had the opportunity to learn from the experts in my industry, but the thing that I found working with Clay is that he comes from such a broad spectrum of working with so many different types of businesses that he has a perspective that’s difficult for me to gain because I get so entrenched in what I do, I’m not paying attention to what other leading industry experts are doing and Clay really brings that perspective for me. It is very valuable time every week when I get that hour with him. From my perspective the reason that any business owner who’s thinking about hooking up with Thrive needs to definitely consider it is because the results that we’ve gotten in a very short period of time are honestly monumental. It has really exceeded my wildest expectation of what he might be able to do. I came in skeptical because I’m very pragmatic, and as I’ve gone through the process over just a few months, I’ve realized it’s probably one of the best moves we’ve ever made. I think a lot of people probably feel like they don’t need a business or marketing consultant because they maybe are a little bit prideful and like to think they know everything. I know that’s how I felt coming in. I mean, we’re a big company that’s definitely one of the largest in town. And so we kind of felt like we knew what we were doing. And I think for a lot of people, they let their ego get in the way of listening to somebody that might have a better or different perspective than theirs. I would just really encourage you if you’re thinking about working with Clay. I mean the thing is it’s month to month. Go give it a try and see what happens. I think in the 35-year history of Shaw Homes this is probably the best thing that’s happened to us and I know if you give them a shot I think you’ll feel the same way. I know for me the thing I would have missed out on literally an 1800% increase in our internet leads. Going from 10 a month to 180 a month, that would have been a huge financial decision to just decide not to give it a shot. I would absolutely recommend Clay Clark to anybody who’s thinking about working with somebody in marketing. I would skip over anybody else you were thinking about and I would go straight to Clay and his team. I guarantee you’re not going to regret it because we sure haven’t. I learned at the Academy at Kings Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. I’m Rachel with Tip Top Keynight and we just want to give a huge. Thank you to claim Vanessa Clark Hey guys, I’m Ryan with tip-top canine. Just want to say a big. Thank you to thrive 15 Thank you to make your life epic. We love you guys. We appreciate you and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us So this is my old van and our old school marketing and this is our old team and by team I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing and this is our new team. We went from four to 14 and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman, so we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts, and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month, and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship, and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, times a thousand. So we really just want to thank you, Clay, and thank you, Vanessa, for everything you’ve done, everything you’ve helped us with. We love you guys. I learned at the Academy, at King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. A favorite aspect is probably just how entertaining it is. And the fact that I pick up one or two or three things every time I come to take my business to the next level. Well, if people are missing out on basically a plan, a guaranteed plan, pretty much, if you’re willing to work it, to be successful. Most people, I think everybody should attend one of these workshops at least once because you don’t know what you don’t know. And we’re not taught to be successful in school. I learned at the Academy, at King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. A lot of people, they have a fear or a phobia of scaling their business or building the process. They feel like they don’t know what to do or they need kind of a coach or a mentor to guide them down the path. And so on today’s show, you’re going to see people that came to a conference, step one. Step two, we taught them how to apply these principles at the conference. Step three, they hired us to help them scale their company. Step four, you’re going to hear their success stories. Now James, money is a magnifier. We have a little bit of news for you guys. It’s now what, May 31st at 621, you’ve been closed for 20 minutes? Right. No, it’s now June. Let’s run the numbers for May. Let’s see what it’s got. Total’s 102,837. What’s last year to date? 102,837 this year? And last year was 60,667. Whoa! Coming out of the weeds now! Boom, baby. Boom! Out of the weeds, onto the pavement. I learned at the Academy, at King’s Point, New York. Octa non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Now what does that mean? Because we’re going to share with you some stories today of an accountant who grew a business from $3 million to $20-plus million, of a home builder who grew a business from $15 million to $150 million, of a dog trainer that was able to scale his business from a stagnant business to 15 plus locations to grow the business that was perpetually stuck at 400,000 ish, grow that into a million dollar plus annual revenue. This year’s sales for this week. So this is the same week last year. Do you see the difference? What? I can’t really tell. One is… Michael, can you… can we just… Jason, can you kind of pull this in maybe? Just so you can see it. Kind of pull it that way. Let’s get the link. I can’t tell without the link. It’s hard to tell. So that’s last year’s sales. This is last year’s sales. And the total is a mere $4,711.73. Same week this year, 2015. The total is, read it, Michael. 11,313.50. Oh, boom! Woo! There it is! Yes! What? Awesome! Hello, my name is Charles Colaw with Colaw Fitness. Today I want to tell you a little bit about Clay Clark and how I know Clay Clark. Clay Clark has been my business coach since 2017. He’s helped us grow from two locations to now six locations. We’re planning to do seven locations in seven years and then franchise. Clay has done a great job of helping us navigate anything that has to do with like running the business, building the systems, the checklists, the workflows, the audits, how to navigate lease agreements, how to buy property, how to work with brokers and builders. This guy is just amazing. This kind of guy has worked in every single industry. He’s written books with like Lee Crockerill, head of Disney with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with Mike Lindell. He does Reawaken America tours where he does these tours all across the country where 10,000 or more people show up to some of these tours. On the day-to-day, he does anywhere from about 160 companies. He’s at the top. He has a team of business coaches, videographers, and graphic designers, and web developers. They run 160 companies every single week. Think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. In the weekly, he’s running 160 companies. Every six to eight weeks, he’s doing Reawaken America tours. Every six to eight weeks, he’s also doing business conferences where 200 people show up and he teaches people a 13-step proven system that he’s done and worked with billionaires, helping them grow their companies. I’ve seen guys from startups go from startup to being multi-millionaires, teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom through the system. Critical thinking, document creation, organizing everything in their head to building it into a franchisable, scalable business. One of his businesses has like 500 franchises. That’s just one of the companies or brands that he works with. So amazing guy. Elon Musk, kind of like smart guy. He kind of comes off sometimes as socially awkward, but he’s so brilliant and he’s taught me so much. When I say that, Clay is like, he doesn’t care what people think when you’re talking to him. He cares about where you’re going in your life and where he can get you to go. And that’s what I like him most about him. He’s like a good coach. A coach isn’t just making you feel good all the time, a coach is actually helping you get to the best you. Clay has been an amazing business coach. Through the course of that we became friends. I was really most impressed with him is when I was shadowing him one time. We went into a business deal and listened to it. I got to shadow and listen to it. When we walked out I knew that he could make millions on the deal and they were super excited about working with him. He told me, he’s like, I’m not going to touch it, I’m going to turn it down, because he knew it was going to harm the common good of people in the long run. The guy’s integrity just really wowed me. It brought tears to my eyes to see that this guy, his highest desire was to do what’s right. And anyways, just an amazing man. So anyways, impacted me a lot. He’s helped navigate. Anytime I’ve gotten nervous or worried about how to run the company or you know navigating competition and Economy, that’s like I remember we got closed down for three months he helped us navigate on how to stay open how to how to get back open how to Just survive through all the kovat shutdowns lockdowns because our clubs were all closed for three months and you have three hundred fifty thousand dollars of bills you’ve got to pay and We have no accounts receivable. He helped us navigate that. And of course we were conservative enough that we could afford to take that on for a period of time. But he was a great man. I’m very impressed with him. So Clay, thank you for everything you’re doing. And I encourage you, if you haven’t worked with Clay, work with Clay. He’s gonna help magnify you. And there’s nobody I have ever met that has the ability to work as hard as he does. He probably sleeps four, maybe six hours a day and literally the rest of the time he’s working and he can outwork everybody in the room every single day and he loves it. So anyways, this is Charles Kola with Kola Fitness. Thank you Clay and anybody out there that’s wanting to work with Clay, it’s a great, great opportunity to ever work with him. So you guys have a blessed one. This is Charles Kola. We’ll see you guys. at the Academy at Kings Point in New York. Acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. When I say money is a magnifier, James, what does that mean? It means if you’re already a great person, the money will allow you to do greater things. And if you’re not a great person, you’re going to do things that are just, you’re going to do more of the bad stuff, right? Because money’s a magnifier. That’s what it is, right? So if you’re a Greedy, I don’t want to I don’t want to say a greedy bastard because that would infer Just because you don’t have a father in your life. That means you’re greedy. I’m not gonna say that But if you’re somebody who’s who’s greedy, you know The Bible states for the love of money is the root of all evil. Not money itself. Money is just a tool. And people that are obsessed with money itself become a tool of the money. Hi, my name is Josh Sperl from Sperl and Associates, chartered professional accountants based out Alberta, Canada. And I started, I met Clay at a conference, at his conference in Tulsa in June of 2018. Started working with the coaching program shortly after there. You know, the experience has been great. You know, you really have a partner in the grind. You know, most people, I like to say most people are wrong about most things about business most of the time. And it’s very difficult for entrepreneurs to connect with other entrepreneurs who actually know what they’re talking about when it comes to business. But Clay and his team really does understand. The tangible improvements that we’ve seen is we’re up over 50% since starting with the coaching program. And they’re helping to help business owners create time, freedom and financial freedom. And I know what you’re going to think. You’re going to say, what the heck are you going to do with your time freedom and financial freedom when you’re in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, that’s the most northeast city in North America with a million people. You know, we’re probably just sitting in our igloos, hoping for some television. But I’ll give you an idea of what we’re doing in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. So over here we have Sandra and we have Emma. Emma say hello. Hi everybody this is my daddy’s channel. Emma really likes any video. So let’s give it a let’s see what actually the time freedom financial freedom can do for you in Edmonton. So believe it or not we have a beach here guys. And I’ll take you on a little tour of Edmonton’s beach. Now it’s not what you Americans are going to think of as a beach. This is a northern beach. We’ve got a really cool slide here. I don’t know if you can see this purple slide. This purple slide that you’re looking at here is a full loop-de-loop. It’s not completely upside down when you go into it. Let’s see if I can get the right angle here. Now that does not appear physically possible, but it really is gonna knock you upside down when I went on it last time. And here is the Edmonton Beach. This is the Northern Beach. You guys out in Tulsa, the Americans think you have all the beaches here, but here is the Northern Beach, complete with waves. We got 30 degree weather inside here. I’m sorry 30 that’s 90 for you guys over there. I gotta do the translation, the math in my head. And we even got a zip line that we can ride down here and this is what we’re doing with our time freedom and financial freedom in Edmonton Alberta, Canada. Thanks to the Thrive Time team. Thanks very much guys. I learned at the Academy in Kings Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. But money’s just a tool. Money’s like a hammer, money’s like a tire, money’s like a sock, money’s like a car. You could use a car for bad things, you could use a hammer for bad things. A lot of people can kill somebody with a hammer. You can kill somebody with a sock if you wanted to, you can kill someone with a tire if you wanted to. But I mean, there’s a lot of creative thoughts going through people’s minds right now. But the thing is, is that money is just a magnifier. And 1 Timothy 6.10 reads, For the love of money is the root of all evils, which while some covet it after, they have erred from the faith and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows. And so what happens is, is that money is a magnifier. And so if you’re somebody who’s greedy and nefarious and will throw somebody under the bus to make an extra dollar, money’s going to allow you to be more of a greedy personality type that will throw somebody under the bus for a dollar. That’s what money will allow you to do. The number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. We are Jared and Jennifer Johnson. We own Platinum Pest and Lawn and are located in Owasso, Oklahoma. And we have been working with Thrive for business coaching for almost a year now. Yeah. So what we want to do is we want to share some wins with you guys that we’ve had by working with Thrive. First of all, we’re on the top page of Google now. OK? I just want to let you know what type of accomplishment this is. Our competition, Orkin, Terminix, they’re both $1.3 billion companies. They both have 2,000 to 3,000 pages of content attached to their website. So to basically go from virtually nonexistent on Google to up on the top page is really saying something. But it’s come by being diligent to the systems that Thrive has, by being consistent and diligent on doing podcasts and staying on top of those podcasts to really help with getting up on what they’re listing and ranking there with Google. And also, we’ve been trying to get Google reviews, asking our customers for reviews, and now we’re the highest rated and most reviewed Pest and Lawn Company in the Tulsa area. And that’s really helped with our conversion rate. And the number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. Wait, say that again. How much are we up? 411%. Okay. So 411% we’re up with our new customers. Amazing. Right. So not only do we have more customers calling in, we’re able to close those deals at a much higher rate than we were before. Right now, our closing rate is about 85% and that’s largely due to, first of all, like our Google reviews that we’ve gotten. People really see that our customers are happy, but also we have a script that we follow. And so when customers call in, they get all the information that they need. That script has been refined time and time again. It wasn’t a one and done deal. It was a system that we followed with Thrive in the refining process. And that has obviously, the 411% shows that that system works. Yeah, so here’s a big one for you. So last week alone, our booking percentage was 91%. We actually booked more deals, more new customers last year than we did the first five months, or I’m sorry, we booked more deals last week than we did the first five months of last year from before we worked with Thrive. So again, we booked more deals last week than the first five months of last year. And it’s incredible. But the reason why we have that success is by implementing the systems that Thrive has taught us and helped us out with. Some of those systems that we’ve implemented are group interviews. That way we’ve really been able to come up with a really great team. We’ve created and implemented checklists. Everything gets done and it gets done right. It creates accountability. We’re able to make sure that everything gets done properly both out in the field and also in our office. And also doing the podcast like Jared had mentioned that has really, really contributed to our success. But that, like I said, the diligence and consistency in doing those in that system has really, really been a big blessing in our lives. And also, you know, it’s really shown that we’ve gotten a success from following those systems. So before working with Thrive, we were basically stuck. Really no new growth with our business. And we were in a rut, and we didn’t know. Okay, the last three years, our customer base had pretty much stayed the same. We weren’t shrinking, but we weren’t really growing either. Yeah, and so we didn’t really know where to go, what to do, how to get out of this rut that we’re in. But Thrive helped us with that. You know, they implemented those systems, and they taught us those systems, they taught us the knowledge that we needed in order to succeed. Now it’s been a grind, absolutely it’s been a grind this last year, but we’re getting those fruits from that hard work and the diligent effort that we’re able to put into it. So again, we’re in a rut, Thrive helped us get out of that rut, and if you’re thinking about working with Thrive, quit thinking about it and just do it, do the action, and you’ll get the results. It will take hard work and discipline, but that’s what it’s gonna take in order to really succeed. So, we just wanna give a big shout out to Thrive, a big thank you out there to Thrive. We wouldn’t be where we’re at now without their help. I learned at the Academy, at King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Now, if you’re a grateful person, if you’re a kind person, and James, that’s why we only work with grateful kind of people. That’s why when we share these testimonies of wonderful great kind of people it’s a blasty blast. That’s what’s fun about capturing these these success stories is that real people at the peak of their success are explaining to you how they did. And luckily James we’re able to actually gather footage of some of these people at the beginning when they first came to a conference and then at the peak when they achieve massive success. So James, I am fired up for people to watch this, this testimonial, but let’s make sure I’m being a good teacher here. The two concepts I want to teach you, one, for everybody out there, it’s called acta non verba, which in Latin means acts, not words. That’s the idea, acts, not words, okay? That’s what it means. And then I want to teach the second concept, which again, money is a magnifier. I learned at the Academy in Kings Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. James, in your own words, what does it mean? You say, octa non verba, you go, I don’t understand what you’re saying. You say, well, it’s Latin, it means, well, in your mind, what does it mean? It means you can’t just talk about it, you have to be about it. That’s how it works. And somebody says, well, Clay, I can’t afford coaching with you guys. Well, good news, we only take on 160 clients, so we might not be available. But we do have scholarship pricing. Now, this is how I make money. This is the secret sauce that allows me to be the boss. One, I make the big obstacles seem small. And two, a lot of my clients, I get a small percentage of the growth. So, James, why would I be so motivated to help somebody who is struggling and they’re stagnant. Why would I want to invest the time for my own? I mean, if you take the altruism out of it, the fact that I grew up poor and I want to help people be successful, why would I want to help somebody to scale a company if I get 2%? We are joined by none other than my brother from another mother, Mr. Josh, the founder of Living Water Irrigation. Mr. Josh, welcome onto the show, my friend. How are you? I am awesome, Clay. How are you, sir? Well, I’m excited for the listeners to get to know more about you. Could you share the name of your company a little bit more about what you guys do at Living Water Irrigation, where the name comes from? Absolutely, positively. So, Living Water Irrigation, the most important part of that to me is John 738. So it’s mentioned in the Gospel a number of times, where the living water, but our specific scripture that we drew our name from is John 738. It says, whoever believes in me, rivers of living water will flow through him. We have a very distinct vision as a company on who we are and what we want to do. And I believe that I was put here to go make some money to give it away. And I’m not going to ask you for the specific details of your career and how you started the business as far as a linear timeline, but how long has this particular business been around? We’ve been around just two years, sir. Two years. And you guys, we first met, how did we first meet? I came in and y’all started coaching me over the Thrive Time, over Thrive 15. And what, do you remember when that was approximately and how you first heard about us? So it would have been October or November of 17. October or November of 17? Yes sir. And in terms of your growth as a company, how much have you grown this year? This year we’re up 450% year over year. Now that you’re implementing this program, you’re getting more calls, right? Are you getting more calls? Absolutely. Sales are going up. You’re gathering reviews from your real customers, adding content to the website, adding a gallery of work. I’m going to actually take a minute and make you really uncomfortable, Clay. Nice. When we started with y’all, it was awesome. We had a little company, just me and one dude and one little van. And 17 was great. I ate more than ramen noodles, but not much more. 18 was really good. We started to implement the systems, got start here, got the boom book, went to a couple conferences and said, okay, I’m going to buy in. I’m going to sell out. We went to the coaching, got coached by Marshall and Victoria and started to implement as opposed to just listen to actually be doers. It’s in James. It says don’t just be hearers of the word, but be doers as well. We implemented scripts. We implemented systems. We implemented checklists. We implemented a pro forma for quoting and all these things that you talk about. Just as a real person, and I’m real, I promise you, there’s a bunch of Josh Wilsons out there. I’m a famous baseball player and football player Oh, wow, and a gospel singer. Oh, but this Josh Wilson. Yeah, just digs ditches for a living, but I just want to say thank Standing here for all the systems. I encourage everybody out there Go pick up start here. Go pick up the boom book the stuff you hear on this show. It actually Sincerely works. I learned at the Academy at Kings Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Why would I want to help somebody to scale a company if I get 2%? Because when they grow, then you win too. Right, it’s a win-win. It’s called shalom. Look it up, folks. The shalom, it’s a biblical concept, the idea of a win-win. It’s not a zero-sum negotiation. If you’re out there and you’re a decent person, you have a soul, you want to create a shalom relationship, a win-win relationship with your partner. I make more as my clients make more. That’s how that works. It’s a win-win kind of thing. That’s the idea. Again, James, people can go to thrivetimeshit.com. They can request a ticket. We let them name their price, and we do these conferences every two months. Every two months, we do a business conference. You’ve met these people, James. I do. You know what? I’ve met them when they came in and their business is struggling and then I’ve seen how they’ve Transformed after a few months. It’s like getting a haircut You know when you go in and you look real dirty and you come out you look like the top of the world Money is a magnifier and act a non-verbal this idea that acts not words Okay, it’s all about action and gaining traction It’s not about just learning new concepts because knowledge without application is meaningless to quote the great Napoleon Hill. James you’re a beautiful man you smell terrific I can’t wait for people to see you at our in-person workshops again folks get those tickets at thrive timeshow.com thrive timeshow.com there are two days they’re interactive we open up the doors at 7 a.m. we go until about 3 p.m. each day we do a 30 minute teaching sprint a 15 minute Q&A session and then we break and then we do 30 minutes of training 15 minute Q&A and then we break and then 30 minutes of training and then 50 so you’re gonna learn branding marketing search engine all these things and then James we have helicopter rides we do the helicopter rides from time to time we have I think we’re roasting a pig at this next I’m not sure when you’re gonna hear this podcast but we have a roasting a pig we’re giving away cash prizes we’re giving away it is a it is a blasty blast looks it’s like the opposite of business college it truly is business school without the BS. James, again, you’re almost like a benefit we should add to the package. When people go to Thrivetimeshow.com, it’s like, and you get to meet James. So get those tickets again, folks, at Thrivetimeshow.com. James, I really do appreciate you joining me today. And folks, again, get those tickets at Thrivetimeshow.com. I just think people with these words, watch what a person does, not what they say. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9, and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey, guys. I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys. We appreciate you, and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old house. Right. This is where we used to live a few years ago. This is our old team and by team I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing and this is our new team. We went from 4 to 14 and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales which is awesome but Ryan is a really great salesman so we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts, and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month, and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship, and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, times a thousand. The Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshops are the world’s highest rated and most reviewed business workshops because we teach you what you need to know to grow. You can learn the proven 13-point business systems that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. We get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise cap? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this, and because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and they’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big, get-rich-quick, walk-on-hot-coals product. It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, and I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s gonna be the best business workshop ever and we’re gonna 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 gotta do is go to Thrivetimeshow.com to request those tickets and if you can’t afford $250 we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvard Kiyosaki 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. The definition of intelligence is if you agree with me, you’re intelligent. And so this gentleman is very intelligent. I’ve done this show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts. And so Mr. Clay Clark is a friend of a good friend, Eric Trump, but we’re also talking about money, bricks, and how screwed up the world can get in a few and a half hour. So Clay Clark is a very intelligent man, and there’s so many ways we could take this thing. But I thought, since you and Eric are close, Trump, what were you saying about what Trump can’t, what Donald, who is my age, and I can say or cannot say? 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 but I just wanna tell you, thank you sir for changing my life. Well not only that Clay, thank you but you’ve become an influencer. More than anything else you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. So that’s why I congratulate you on becoming. Because as you know, there’s a lot of fake influencers out there, or bad influencers. Anyway, I’m glad you and I agree so much, and thanks for reading my books. That’s the greatest thrill for me today. Not thrill, but recognition is when people, young men especially, come up and say i read your book change of life and doing this and doing this and doing this i learned at the academy king’s point new york octagon verbal watch what a person does watch what a person does not what they say