Clay Clark | Business Podcast | “The Fish Don’t Just Jump In the Boat. You Better Go Out There & Do It Yourself. Go Do Some Work.” – Tom Brady + Interview with Best-Selling Author Jon Gordan On How to Create Traction In Your Life

Audio Transcription

The fish just don’t jump in the boat. Meaning, you better go out there and do it yourself. Don’t wait around and wait for someone to hand deliver something. Go make it happen. The fish don’t just jump in the boat. If you want to go catch them, go catch them. Throw that line in the water and go do some work. And if it doesn’t work that day, do it again the next day. I think the procrastination, that’s probably not good for any of us. I think we want to go out there and do it. Go out there and make it happen. Some days it gets tough. It does. Some days it gets tough. And I think a part of it, that noble mentality is, you know, f*** tired body, f*** unmotivated mind, and get out there and do it anyway. You know, you better fight yourself, because you’re not only winning when things are going your way. You gotta figure out how to win when things aren’t going your way. You gotta figure out when your body’s fighting you, when your mind’s fighting you, how do you still, you know, just say, I’m going to beat my mind today. Or do you just give in your mind and say, Oh, I’m tired today. I’m lazy. I don’t want to do it. It’s too hard. No one else is doing it. It’s a weekend. It’s too late. These are already off hours. Oh, exactly what I want isn’t happening right now. Like, okay, great. You know who that’s great for your competition. You want that attitude to permeate the people that you’re competing against you want them to give in to their mind You want them to say? Oh, it’s too hard. I can’t do it, but you want to be the one that says to do it Anyway, I know I don’t feel good today But I’m gonna go out there and I’m gonna prove to myself that even on days that it doesn’t feel right I push myself the only way to gain confidence in yourself is to build something It’s not to wait for it to happen. Hey, Vic, your life just happened in front of you. I just show up today and make it happen. Tom, no, you had to do a lot of today to get to this day that no one really knows except you. So that’s why you appreciate it, because you had to go through a lot of stuff to get to this day. Not only you know what it took to get here, and that’s why you value it. So other people on the outside in, they say, Oh, Vic, you’re so lucky you get to do this and you get to be you know you have all these followers You these people that pay attention to you you get to do these cool things well Yeah, but in your mind You’re probably still the same kid you know with your brother and the other brother and your sister and your dad and your mom You’re like no no you guys don’t know remember I came from and this is why I value this because I have perspective Yeah, I knew where I came from I knew where I started now I appreciate where I’m at and that’s the beauty of life to continue to appreciate where you’re at. On today’s show, we are interviewing the New York Times bestselling author, corporate trainer, and speaker who specializes in the topics of leadership, culture, sales, and teamwork. John Gordon is most widely known for his bestselling books. Although he’s not actually very wide at all. I just want to get that clarity out there for the Thrive Nation. Visually speaking, he’s a very thin man. Back to you Clay. Thank you for that clarification and so as I was saying he’s best known for his best-selling books The Energy Bus, 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy and he’s the best-selling author of The Power of a Positive Team, Proven Principles and Practices that Make Great Teams Great. Oh Clay just just quick time out here I just want to tell you I’m not feeling I’m not picking up the energy. This guy wrote the book called The Energy Bus. Come on man, bring the sizzle. Sure, okay, fine, I’ll step it up a little bit here. Throughout John’s career, he has worked with so many top tier athletic organizations, it’s mind blowing. He’s worked with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Okay, I hate to do this to you, but I hate to throw you under the energy bus, but so far I’m not very impressed. You could have thrown in like a pirate joke there. As an example, Clay, what’s a pirate’s favorite question? I-I-I have no idea. I don’t know. Arrr! You’re wrecky for John Gordon. You see what I did right there? See, he works for the Pittsburgh Pirates. And I-I made it into the pirate joke. I said, arr! And it was just, it only took me like three hours to come up with that. Come on, Clay! Listen, if you-if you interrupt me one more time, I’m going to come behind that glass and I’m going to gouge out your eyeballs. Well, it sounds like you’re motivated now, Tiger. Where did the energy come from? I don’t want to throw you under the energy bus, but I’m glad you could join us. I’m glad you finally woke up and brought some energy to the track! The San Diego Padres, the Miami Heat, the Philadelphia Eagles, and many, many Fortune 500 companies, including Wells Fargo, Publix, Campbell Soup, Southwest Airlines, Bayer, West Point, Academy, Northwestern, Mutual, and more. All right, we’ve got to change up the music here. We’re, we’re, listen here. We’re introducing John freaking Gordon. This guy’s the big deal. I want you to bring your best rap flow ever. Let’s do it. Come on. All right. I’ll do it So what on the microphone now? We’re recording doing a show with a man junk or oh He helps keep to win like my daughter. No exaggeration. I’m just just report in fact He’s been on the sedation now he’s on the show with me Oh, yeah, but about building a team for what intro any long. I’d have to charge a fee. My mind exploded. Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show. But this show does. Two men. Eight kids. Co-created by two different women. Thirteen multi-million dollar businesses. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Thriving Time Show. Now, 4, 2, 1. Here we go. Started from the bottom, now we here. Started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. Started from the bottom, now we here. Started from the bottom, now we here. Started from the bottom, now we here. Started from the bottom, now we here. Oh, it is ecstasy every time Dr. Z is next to me. Sir, how are you doing today? I am fantastic. You know what just made my day better? What? I got on our guest that we’re going to have on the show. I got on a guest that we’re going to have on the show. I got on a guest that we’re going to have on the show. I got on a guest that we’re going to have on the show. I got on a guest that we’re going to have on the show. I got on a guest that we’re going to have on the show. I got on a guest that we’re going to have on the show. I got on a guest that we’re going to have on the show. I got on a guest that we’re going to have on the show. I got on a guest that we’re going to have on the show. I got on a guest that we’re going to have on the show. I got on a guest that we’re going to have on the show. I got on a guest that we’re going to have on the show. I got on a guest that we’re going to have on the show. I got on a guest that we’re going to have on the show. I am fantastic. And you know what just made my day better? I got on, our guest that we’re going to have on the show, I got on his website, John Gordon. And even though you may not buy something off of here, one of his books or whatnot, just a picture of him. It’s eye candy. I mean, it’s just eye candy. All the Thrive Nation, you should get on his website and check it out. And you know what? You’re welcome up front. In addition to the eye candy, let me tell you about this guy, okay? He’s going to teach us today about how to create a sustainably positive atmosphere in our workplace. Which is good. Which is good. And he’s worked with, he’s been the consultant of choice, the speaker of choice for the Los Angeles Rams. Have you heard of the LA Rams? Yeah, they were. Southwest Airlines? Yeah. Campbell’s Snoop? Ever heard of that company? I eat it regularly. Los Angeles Dodgers? Yeah, Brooklyn. They’ll work it there. I’m glad you have, because I’ve never heard of any of these companies, or this thing called the Fortune 500, which apparently he speaks to these companies as well. So John Gordon, whoever you are, welcome onto the show. How are you? Hey, guys. Great to be with you. You’re cracking me up. Well, hey, we are super excited to have you on the show. And for the listeners out there that are not familiar with your background, previous to becoming the best-selling author, speaker, guru that you are today, could you walk us through your background to becoming the quote-unquote John Gordon? Sure. Well, I was I was really negative actually years ago, even though it I speak about positivity It’s ironic that I do this because I grew up in Long Island New York and a Jewish Italian family a lot of food a lot of guilt and I had a lot of but a lot of negativity growing up and then You know, but a lot of love, but a lot of negativity. And then I like 20s, early 30s, I really struggled. And so much so my wife threatened to leave me. She said, if you don’t change, I’m leaving. Like I’m not going to spend my life with someone who makes me so miserable. And so you have to change. So I begged her to stay. I agreed to change. And that began this journey of researching all these ways that I could be more positive. And at first, it was just me wanting to be more positive. And then I started sharing these tips on a newsletter, a weekly positive tip every week. And I had five subscribers in the beginning, my mother, my brother, my best friend from college really getting the newsletter, whether they liked it or not. I would just put that out there. But then people started to share it. And that led me to get my first book deal. And I started writing and started speaking from there. I didn’t want to speak at first. I was terrified to speak and I wasn’t a very good speaker. So it was this long journey of, again, feeding myself, learning how to feed others in a positive way. And now here we are years later, I’m 47 years old and I get to do the work that I love. And I realized that I was meant to do this, to inspire and encourage others. And it’s not, again, cheesy positivity. It’s really about the real positive stuff that makes great leaders and great teams great. John, I’d like for you to speak about this because I, Z, your sister Mary Ann is the producer of the Today Show up there in New York. Yeah, one of the lead producers. And I’ve been to New York many times. I’ve spent a lot of time, John, with New Yorkers. And they’re sort of a hardened, calloused, sort of an aggressive, sarcastic undertone to many conversations. You know, so a guy like John might say, you know, mom and dad, at some point I want to become an author. And they go, well, that’s good. Are they going to put it on toilet paper? Ha ha ha. You know what I mean? And it’s like there’s like this is it not this aggressive, sarcastic? I mean, can you explain that that attitude that’s prevalent? Because you’ve had to I mean, obviously, not everyone’s like that, but there is a kind of an intense intensity there of sarcasm. Can you explain that background? Totally. Well, first, I was on the Today Show this summer on Kathie Lee and Hoda. Oh! And it was one of the special moments of my life, just meeting Kathie Lee for the first time. Hoda, they were amazing people. Who produced, you remember whoever produced you? I don’t, I don’t. Was it Mary Ann? Was it a blonde by the name of Mary Ann, by any chance? That’s my sister. I don’t know. I had a great PR company that Rogers and Cowan was dealing with. PR. She’s the best person in the world. Rogers and Callen I was dealing with and they were the ones who booked it. All right. All right Cool, but but back to that yet New Yorkers But yet being up in New York and and being from New York, they do want positivity They just are so stressed and busy that during the week, you know They’re all just trying to survive and yet that same person when they’re in at home Perhaps with their family or friends they tend to be a little bit more positive. But there is a little bit of a sarcastic nature, a little bit of a cynicism there as well, you’re right. And so I told my dad I wanna be a writer and speaker. And again, he’s a former New York City police officer, undercover narcotics. So my dad was, he was shot a few times. He wasn’t too big on positivity, my dad. And he was fighting the drug cartels in the street of New York City. And so years later, I said, dad, I want to be a writer and speaker. So what the heck you want to do that for? That’s a load of junk that won’t amount to anything. He said, just focus on your restaurant. At the time, I had a burrito shop, a Moe’s Southwest Grill burrito place. I was the first Moe’s Southwest Grill in Florida. Well, fast forward a few years later, I get on the Today Show for the first time. Carrie Burns was able to get me on years ago. She was a producer. I got on for the first time. My dad saw me on TV, and I remember getting the call from him. He was like, your mother, I just saw you on TV. You really made a difference. We’re so proud of you. We always knew you could do it. I didn’t even remember being negative. Okay. That’s nice. We had a question earlier, and I just want to touch on this as we go on, but Clay brought this up. He said, for Christmas, a lot of people get soap on a rope, but nobody gets a burrito on a rope. And since you’ve on a burrito, I mean, why is that? Can you answer that age-old question? Please answer the question. I mean, gosh, we just want to know. The soap is solid, and the burrito would fall apart. That’s why we’re doing it. Clay, I knew there was a reason. This just in, page two of our deep interview here. John Gordon, what inspired you to first write the book, The Power of a Positive Team? Proven principles and practices that make great teams great. Well, I wrote The Energy Bus in 2006. It came out in 2007, and that’s been my biggest best-selling book. And that book has been used by a lot of sports teams, a lot of Fortune 500 companies. Again, LA Rams, Dodgers, Clemson Football. I’ve worked with Clemson for the past seven years. You name it, most of the coaches have used it with their teams. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to speak to all these different teams and get to learn from them, get to learn from these coaches, from these great leaders both in corporate America, educators in schools, nonprofits, hospitals, you name it. I wrote The Power of Positive Leadership a couple of years ago, wanting to share what I learned over the years about great leadership. So Power of Positive Leadership is everything I’ve learned since the Energy Bus came out. Well then, I also wanted to share what made great teams great, since I’ve worked with so many teams, and that came out just recently about the power of a positive team. And these are the proven principles that I know work with teams. And the great news is you can also use this at home too with your team at home. So you have some strategies in this book that you lay out. And I’d like to go through four of the, I wanna go through the four strategies here. So strategy number one, the no complaining rule. What does that mean? The no complaining rule? You’re not allowed to complain unless you come with a solution. So if you have a justified complaint, bring it, but also bring a solution that’s going to make everything better because every complaint represents an opportunity to turn something negative into a positive. We want to get rid of the mindless complaining. I say that complaining is like throwing up. Afterwards, you feel better, but then everyone around you feels sick. We want to get rid of that mindless complaining. I know that’s gross, but we’ll never forget that analogy. Let’s talk about the kind of complaint that I deal with in some of my companies, someone will say, I freaking don’t like my schedule. You know, that kind of thing. I freaking don’t like, and you’ll see, wherever, the break room could be renamed the complaint room. People will gather. Or the throw up room. So we try to stagger it so there’s never two or more gathered. But some people go in the break room and immediately they go, how’s your freaking day? My day’s pretty good. Well, I freaking, I hate my schedule. Do you hate your schedule? What do you get paid per hour? I’ll give you that. And it begins with, so how would you, if you’re managing a company with let’s say about 90 employees in this particular scenario, you come into one of our companies, let’s just say someone’s complaining in the break room. I know how we handle it, and I think you and I are very much aligned in our strategies, but how would you handle it if you encountered somebody complaining in the break room? Well, first, I would do it at the cultural level, just like PPR did. They’re the one who invented the rule. I wrote a book called The No Complaining Rule and it outlines what to do, how to do it in a fable format. It’s a story. So PPR basically implemented this rule at a cultural level. They said it’s not okay to complain. It’s just not okay. We’re not going to do it. When they look to hire people, they tell them in the employee interview process, if you’re a complainer, this is not the right place for you, so do not come here. So they weed out the negative doing that. They share it at company meetings. They talk about it. It’s reinforcing their culture. So that wouldn’t even happen in the company that I joined or that I was leading or managing because you would know that it’s not okay to just come in and complain. But if you don’t like the schedule, okay, what can we do about it? Is there a solution where we can give you a better schedule? Is there a more flexible schedule? And we would talk about if it’s possible. And if it’s not possible, then you would just have to do what you have to do in this moment. You either leave or you stay and be positive at this time while we go through the process. And then perhaps we can find a solution later on. Strategy number two, replace have to with get to. John, what do you mean by this? Right. So often we say, I have to go to work, I have to go to this meeting, I have to do this job, I have to go pick up the kids here and there. We don’t have to, we get to. And when you change have to to get to, you change this complaining voice to an appreciative heart. And I’m convinced that abundance flows into your life when gratitude flows out of your heart. My mom passed away 12 years ago, so she doesn’t get to do anything anymore, but I do. So every day is a gift not an obligation and it’s really about focusing on appreciation and gratitude and when you appreciate you elevate you elevate your mood you elevate how you feel and you elevate the people around you. See there’s so many good knowledge bombs per capita I just want to I want to marinate on it. Did you ever marinate burritos or does that not a move? Yeah are you asking me that? Yeah I mean did you ever marinate meat in the bag? So the one that I own I always worked the tables and would bite the table down No one even knew I was the owner I think I was like 29 at the time and so I would just wipe the table down But I never actually made a burrito. It’s my claim to fame But I I was the host the greeter and the table wiper. You know what I in this politically correct time Yes, I respect that sort of non-answer about marinating burritos. We move on that is that we know what with positivity with positive We’re gonna positively we get to move on we can we don’t have to we don’t have to we get to we get to me Or we before me we before me we before me. What does that strategy mean there John? Well, it means that From a leadership standpoint you have to put the team first right it has to be about we, not me. Great leaders see greatness in others. They don’t focus on themselves. So if you focus on yourself and you’re not a servant leader, you can’t be a great leader. And so great leaders are all about commitment. Everybody wants a committed team, but you have to be committed to the people that you lead if you want them to be committed back. Leaders go first. Leaders commit first. And when you commit, you’ll get commitment back. As a team member, it means I’m going to put the team first. I’m going to focus on we, not me. The team, our growth, our success matters. And when I selflessly serve the team, when I help the team get better, I get better, we get better. And we live in a world that says you have to get yours, you have to fight for yours, but we see over and over again, and I see it too, that the team that comes together, that serves each other, commits to each other, winds up becoming a great team. And then it elevates everyone around them. I know the Rams lost the last two games, and they’re having a tough time the last two, but throughout the season and all last season, their motto has been, we before me. It’s one of the key cultural changes that they did to establish themselves as a great team. Strategy number four, John, talk to yourself, which is good, Z, because the other day when I got arrested running around nude by the river, I was talking to myself. I thought you had socks on. I did. I was trying to point out to the officer, look, look, I have socks on. What’s the big deal? I think the moment you talk about talking to yourself, people immediately go to kind of a woo-woo place, John, and they start to say, that’s so weird. But yet when you’re around super successful people, you hear them all say as a tip, talk to yourself. John, talk to ourselves about talking to yourself. Well, it’s the best advice I ever heard from Dr. James Gills. He’s the only person on the planet to complete six double Ironman triathlons. That’s a double Ironman, which means you do an Ironman and after that you do another one. And the last time he did it, he was 59 years old. So I was asked how he did it at 59. He said, I’ve learned to talk to myself Instead of listen to myself if I listen to myself I owe the negative the fear the doubt and the complaints But if I talk to myself, I can feed myself with the words and the encouragement that I need to keep on moving forward And so the mindset here is that negative thoughts are always going to come in and I ask this of professional athletes all the time I said, okay when your negative thoughts, you know comes you are they are they coming from you? And they’ll go, yeah. And I go, really? Who would ever choose to have a negative thought? You would never choose one. So those negative thoughts are not coming from you. They always come in. It’s a consciousness thing. They just come in. But here’s the key. Do not believe those negative thoughts. Negative thoughts are lies. And then what you do is you speak truth to those lies. You speak encouragement to those lies. Because we don’t give up because it’s hard we give up just to get discouraged so if we can people help people stay encouraged if we could speak truth to ourselves on a daily basis and Encouragement to ourselves we’re able to move forward and I think a lot of people lose the battle in their mind first and one of my key goals in life and mission and admissions in life is to share this message because I know it’s helped thousands and thousands of people and Some of the some of the top performers you see in sports. And it works. So talk to yourself, don’t listen to yourself. You know what? Finally, a question I’ve had on my mind for the last few years has been answered on this show, which is really pretty cool. The whole burrito thing? No, no, no, no. No, no, no, the question is, I’m a big Oklahoma Sooner fan, by the way, and I thought to myself, where in the heck did the Clemson Tigers come from? Why has this bright orange-purple team been relevant over the last seven years? I’ll tell you why. What happened? Let’s think about this. You think about the Rams. You think about Clemson. You think about the game of football. You think about two winners. And you say, what is the common denominator? What? It’s not orange or purple. You know what it is? It’s John Gordon. And a ram and a tiger are about as far apart as you can get in the animal spectrum. It’s John Gordon. It’s John Gordon. Okay, so here’s the move. Here’s the, just between us, nobody’s listening. Just a couple, there’s a hundred thousand people on average. It’s okay. I’ve got a little under the, I’ve got a little something to make it right. Here we go. Can you, can you get down to Norman here in the next little bit and get my boys a little pep talk. We’re kind of in a big game here on the 29th, you know, against… I believe they’re going to win. It’s just first off. I believe they’re going to win. Wow! Prophesy it, Gordon! I spoke to the Sooners basketball team, women’s basketball, a number of years ago. Sherry Cole brought me in. Great, great coach. Oh yeah, well, no wonder. And they had a great run. That’s a thing. Did you just get that? I had a chance to sit down with Landry Jones when I was there. You know, great young man. I was hunting with him last week as a matter of fact. What? Seriously? Oh really? Yeah, I got cut by Jacksonville so he had to dive off so we wouldn’t hunt. Really? Oh no, that’s awesome. You’re a unicorn. You’re a unicorn. Seriously. Great guy. Anyway, go ahead. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt you. But I want you guys to know, and the listeners, I do not take credit for anyone’s success because here’s the deal. I spoke to the Cleveland Browns two years ago and so I did not help them at all. But you get a guy like Baker Mayfield comes in, and what he does is he shares his belief. He has a tremendous amount of conviction and belief. So I think I’m brought in by these coaches who are great leaders. Dabro Sweeney is the real deal, an incredible leader. Sean McVay, incredible leader. Dave Roberts with the Dodgers, incredible leader. Eric Scolsh with the Miami Heat, rather incredible leader. So it’s these great leaders who reach out and then I work with them and I’m basically just sharing principles and tools, but they’re the leaders that are reinforcing it. And it doesn’t work unless you have a leader, unless you have a great leader to begin with. And I think that’s the kick. Well, here’s the deal, okay? I’m a huge Patriots fan and I was thinking, and again, I don’t know if you take this kind of offer, Z, but if we were to pay John, I’m not sure if you feel okay with this offer. It probably doesn’t do it for free, I don’t think. Well, we’d pay you, and you’d go give a talk to the saints, right? And we would call this the reverse… Our negativity. Yeah, and so here are the strategies we would teach. One, guys, I want everyone to complain. If you did not catch the last pass, you complain. Strategy two, I want you to replace have to with have to. You all want more have to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Strategy number three, we’re going to go from we to me. Yeah. Right? Talk about your contract next year. Right. Strategy number four, no one talk to yourself. Shut up by yourself. Shut up. There we go. Would you be willing to do that for a few dollars? Just go in there and kill that culture. I don’t think I could do it. I don’t think I could. Okay. Okay. Well, we asked. We asked. Billichick said, could you film? We said we’ve already tried that coach. So could you deflate a ball? We’ve already tried that coach. Could you hire a reverse motivational speaker? We tried that coach. We tried. Okay, we move on now. All right, so now. You know Billachek’s secret to success, by the way? He is such a great coach that he coaches that team. He coaches all of the coaches in such a way that they know what, most of the time, except for the Miami game, but most of the time, really what to do in every situation, how to anticipate. And the key is they have a game plan for every game and everybody knows the game plan. Everybody on the team knows exactly what they have to do. And this is how we’re going to win the game. This is what we’re going to do in offense. This is what we’re going to do in defense. This is how we’re going to approach the game. This is everything we’re going to do to win. And then everyone knows what they need to do. And a lot of times a coach may have an idea, but it’s not conveyed and communicated with. Everyone truly understands that this is how they win the game. And it’s just by doing that and coaching up his coaches. A lot of leaders do not coach up their coaches. And again, he’s got a new defensive coach, so maybe they’re having some issues when you lose Patricia. It’s going to take him maybe a year or two to get that close to a certain level. So anyway, I’m not a huge Patriots fan, I have to be honest with that, but I do admire the way he coaches his team. Well, if you do happen to get a call from him, and Mr. Belichick wants you to come up and give a few kind words and do all that, could you put a good word in for Clay Clark and the Thrivetime show? Because that’s one of Clay’s unicorns that he would love to have on the show. I mean, if it’s possible. You’ve got it. Now that we’ve bonded, we’re like BFFs, you know? So I mean, just saying. Nothing weird. I just wanted to hear it. I mean, that entire house is covered in Bill Belichick fatheads. Nothing weird. And Tom Brady above your bed, which is really weird. That was weird the first five or six years of my marriage, but now it’s fine. Now we move on. So I want to ask you this. You have become a huge author now, major success. Somebody out there listening is going, I would like to do that. But it feels overwhelming. It’s like the success, and I would like to do that. Can I ask you what was your process for landing a literary agent? You know, who’s your agent? How did you get into the world of speaking and world of being an author? Well speaking I just went out there and just started doing it and I created a website and I basically said I’m John Gordon. I’m nobody but this is who I am. I put up news sections, speaking section, event section, consulting. I didn’t have any of it at the time, but I literally created my website. Did you say nude section? Whoa! Did you say that? No, nude. Oh! I was going to say, well, I could see where that would work. He’s a handsome man. I’m sorry, I was thinking of the optional quote. My life would not allow that. And so I started, we don’t want to scare people away. So I started to do that. And then for the agent section, I basically looked at who I thought was the most likely to be a good fit for me. And I was like, well, I’m going to have to look at the agent section. I’m going to have to look at the agent section. I’m going to have to look at the agent section. I’m going to have to look at the agent section. I’m going to have to look at the agent section. I’m going to have to look at the agent section. I’m going to have to look at the agent section. I’m going to have to look at the agent section. I’m going to have to look at the agent section. I’m going to have to look at the agent section. I’m going to have to look at the agent section. I’m going to have to look at the agent section. I’m going to have to look at the agent section. The agent section, I basically looked at who I thought would be perfect to represent me and would be great. I literally reached out to them and just said, hey, I’m going to be in town, would love to meet. They were open to meeting. Again, it doesn’t always happen like that, but it happened. I had an agent on my first book. After that, I don’t have an agent anymore, so I don’t really know anybody in the agent world. Now, I pretty much just represent myself to my publisher. Again, it’s been 18 books, so I just have a direct relationship with them. But to find that first agent was I just reached out, and we’ve actually been friends ever since. So that was definitely a fortuitous meeting. I would say a God-divine appointment. So that’s how I did it. But for someone else, you want to build your platform, you want to put stuff out there, you want to start sharing your ideas on a blog, on Twitter, on Instagram, social media. You want to start putting your information out there. You have to start growing your platform or else no one’s going to even look at you in today’s world. So you have to put it out there and actually do the work. You may have a great idea. You may have a great book. You may have a great message, but you have to build the platform. In addition to your book, in addition to your new book, The Power of a Positive Team, what’s one book that you’d recommend for all the listeners out there? What’s a book where you say, that book really helped you to turn on the jets to figure out how business works? I only talk about my books, guys. No, I’m just kidding. Okay, I respect that. It seems like a Belichick move. It’s a positive move. That’s a positive move. Hey, we to me. There we go. We to me. No, I’m just kidding. So yeah, a lot of books have impacted me on this journey. I just wanted to share with you guys. I, John Orberg, his book, Soulkeeping, was just incredible. I love that book. Donald Miller wrote a book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, that I just love. Erwin McManus wrote a book recently called The Last Arrow. I just love that book. So there’s been just so many books on the journey, it’s hard to share them all. I’m gonna put these on the show notes real quick. Could you repeat those three one more time? I just wanna make sure I put these on the show notes. Our listeners are voracious readers. John Orberg wrote a book called Soulkeeping, just an amazing book. And then Donald Miller, A Million Miles and a Thousand Years, which is just an incredible book I love. Erwin McManus, who’s a pastor in LA, he wrote a book called The Last Arrow, which is a great book. He has a new one coming out that I just can’t wait to read. It’s called The Way of the Warrior. Amazing book on that. Now, my final question for you. You see, my final question. My final question. This just in. The power of a positive team. This is a book you’ve been working on for a while. People can pick it up. Talk to us about the next 12 months. Are you going to be out promoting the book, speaking? What does your vision look like for the next 12 months of your life? Well, it’s mostly just continually to do the work I’m doing. So I already have a lot of events lined up, so it’s not like I go on a tour, but I speak at all the various events that I’ve been brought in to speak to and hired to speak with. And then from there, I’ll work with teams for training camp next year. I work with the University of Washington football team. They’re playing in the Rose Bowl, so they’re coming to L.A. So I’m going to go see them sometime before the game. And if Clemson goes to the national championship, I’m going to go to that game. And then I just really continually write and speak, and I’m working on a bunch of – I have a new book coming out in the spring, in April. So that’s coming out. And my vision really is to inspire and empower as many people as possible, one person at a time. So it’s not like I have a five-year plan or have any external goals. That’s just what I want to do and every day just show up and try to continue to do that. Z, with 30 seconds left on the board, what’s your final question? If you could go back, you said how old are you now? 47. 47. You could go back 20 years. You’re 27 years old. What advice would you give that young man? I would say don’t worry so much and don’t stress so much and don’t fear it. I would say what I wrote about in The Carpenter, to love it and love casts out fear. So if you focus on the love that you have of the work you’re doing and the love you have for others and the love of even again in sports or anything competing, if you love it, you won’t fear it. So just get back to love and it will dissipate. And I think that’s the key. Because I worried a lot when I was younger. I had a lot of fear. And once I overcame that fear battle, that changed everything. That’s awesome. That’s a great word. John, we’d like to end each and every show with a boom, which around here stands for big overwhelming optimistic momentum. And so Z, are you ready to bring the boom? Yes, I am. John, are you prepared to bring the boom? I thought we were doing that, but I’m ready. Let’s do it. On the count of three, we’re going to bring the boom. Z, are you psychologically prepared? Oh, here we go. Three, two, one, boom! Oh, that was good. That was awesome. That required minimal editing. That was perfect. Good, boom. Our boom was not good. That was a good boom. That was a great boom. It was borderline great. If you laughed and you learned something today, I would encourage you to share today’s show show with a person in your life who is maybe a leader of a team, somebody you know who’s in business, anybody that you can think of that leads a team of people needs to hear today’s show. In fact, anybody who you know who doesn’t lead a team of people, but who aspires to someday lead a group of people needs to hear today’s show. So share it with them on Spotify or iTunes or up there on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, send them a link and I would greatly appreciate it. And I’ll see you tomorrow. JT, do you know what time it is? Um, 410. It’s TiVo time in Tulsa, Oklahoma, baby. Tim TiVo is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma during the month of Christmas, December 5th and 6th, 2024. Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and 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? Well, they’re gonna have to come and find out cuz I don’t know Well, I’m just saying tip team is 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 want to learn branding you want to learn marketing you will learn search engine optimization. You want to learn social media marketing. That’s what we teach at the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive workshop. If you want to learn accounting, you want to 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. 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 rusticcuff.com, a company that creates apparel worn by celebrities all throughout the world. Jill Donovan, the founder of rusticcuff.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 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 two-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 going to 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 have 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 going to see thousands of people just like you who have been able to go from just surviving to thriving. Each and every day we’re going to add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup, but I encourage everybody out there today, get those tickets today. Go to thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s thrivetimeshow.com. And some people might be saying, well, how do I do it? 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, anything like that. I had to work for it. And I’m super grateful I came to a business conference. That’s actually how I met you, met Peter Taunton. I met all these people. So if you’re out there today and you want to come to our workshop, again, you just got to go to thrivetimeshow.com. You might say, well, who’s speaking? We already covered that. You might say, where is it going to be? It’s going to be in Tulsa, Russia, Oklahoma. It says it’s Tulsa, Russia. It’s 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 and Jinx, you can get a sneak peek or a look at our office facility. This is what it looks like. This is where you’re headed. It’s gonna be a blasty blast. You can look inside, see the facility. We’re gonna have hundreds of entrepreneurs here. It is gonna 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! I’m talking to you. You can get your tickets right now at ThriveTimeShow.com. And again, you can name your price. We tell people it’s $250 or whatever price you can afford. And we do have some select VIP tickets, which gives you an access to meet some of the speakers and those sorts of things. And those tickets are $500. It’s a two-day interactive business workshop, over 20 hours of business training. We’re going to give you a copy of my newest book, The Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. You’re going to leave with a workbook. You’re going to leave with everything you need to know to start and grow a super successful company. It’s practical, it’s actionable, and it’s Tebow time right here in Tulsa, 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. Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshops are the world’s highest rated and most reviewed business workshops because we teach you what you need to know to grow. You can learn the proven 13-point business system that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. We get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the 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. Get rich quick walk on hot coals Product it’s literally we teach you the brass tacks the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, but I want you to Google the z66 auto auction I want you to Google elephant in the room Look at Robert Zellner and associates look him up and say are they successful because they’re geniuses Or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever and we’re going to give you your money back if you don’t loan it. We’ve built this facility for you and we’re excited to see it. And now you may be thinking, what does it actually cost to attend an in-person, two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop? Well, good news, the tickets are $250 or whatever price that you can afford. What? Yes, they’re $250 or whatever price you can afford. I grew up without money and I know what it’s like to live without money, so if you’re out there today and you want to attend our in-person, two-day interactive business workshop, all you got to do is go to thrivetimeshow.com to request those tickets and if you can’t afford $250 we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. I learned at the Academy at Kings Point in New York, octa non verba. Watch what a person does not what they say. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvey Kiyosaki, The Rich Dad Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re close, but they’re completely different worlds. And we have a special guest today. Definition of intelligence is if you agree with me, you’re intelligent. And so this gentleman is very intelligent. I’ve done this show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts. And so Mr. Clay Clark is a friend of a good friend Eric Eric Trump but we’re also talking about money bricks and how screwed up the world can get in a few and a half hour so Clay Clark is a very intelligent man and there’s so many ways we could take this thing but I thought since you and Eric are close Trump what were you saying about what Donald, who’s 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 Thorn, who was my boss at the time. I was 19 years old, working at Faith Highway. I had a job at Applebee’s, Target, and DirecTV. And he said, have you read this book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad? And I said, no. And my father, may he rest in peace, he didn’t know these financial principles. So I started reading all of your books and really devouring your books. And I went from being an employee to self-employed to the business owner to the investor. And I owe a lot of that to you. And I just want to take a moment to tell you, thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success. And I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump. I just want to tell you, thank you, sir, for changing my life. Well, not only that, Clay, thank you, but you’ve become an influencer. More than anything else, you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. That’s why I congratulate you on becoming. 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, changed my life, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this. I learned at the academy, King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say.