Clay Clark | Entrepreneur | The 7 Most Common Areas Where People Make Mistakes When Managing Their Credit – David Nilssen + The 6th Day Principle: The Art Of Getting Ahead

Audio Transcription

Get ready to enter the Thrivetime Show! 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 on the top. Teaching you the systems to hear what we got. Cullen Dixon’s on the hooks, I’ve written the books. He’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks. As the father of five, that’s what I’m a dive. So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi. It’s C and Z up on your radio. And now 3, 2, 1, here we go. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, and that’s what we gotta do. David, I appreciate you letting me come harass you in your castle here in Seattle. Yeah, thanks for coming. Hey, I want to ask you this before we get going, because I think a lot of people, we’re talking about the seven most common areas where people make mistakes when managing their credit. How important is your credit score? Just as like a broad brush, is this like, eh, or is it super important? As an entrepreneur, it’s extremely important because we rely on capital to acquire and then build our businesses. Access to capital is highly dependent on your credit score. So I think it’s imperative that people manage those well. Well I’m going to read the definition from our good friends at Investopedia about the credit score. It says it’s a statistically derived numeric expression of a person’s credit worthiness that is used by lenders to access or to assess the likelihood that a person will repay his or her debts. A credit score is based on, among other things, a person’s past credit history. So it’s a number where, what, it goes up to 850? Yeah. Is that the highest number you can get? I mean, are you on fire if you’re at an 850? You are. Yeah, I mean, typically you look at the range can go from about 350 on the low side to 850 on the high side. If somebody has a credit score, a FICO score above, say, 720, then you’ve got excellent credit. OK. OK, now what I want to do is I want to kind of break down some of these terms. Because I know a lot of people, I talked to one business owner the other day, and they’re looking to expand to their second location. Business is good, and they’re expanding to the second. They go and they talk to the first one, the first place they leased, well, they leased from a friend. The second place, though, they say, well, I want to see your credit. I want to, and they mentioned this thing called the FICO score. Now, I know the FICO score is the most widely used credit scoring system. The definition is it’s an acronym for the Fair Isaac Corporation, the company that provides a credit score model to financial institutions. But really, what is the FICO score? What does it mean? Well, when you talk about a credit score, that really is the FICO score. I don’t know this number to be exact, but it’s somewhere like 90 to 95 percent of financial institutions use the Fair Isaac Corporation scoring model, which is what FICO is. So there are many different bureaus out there. There’s three specifically that are the most widely used. But at the end of the day, the FICO is the credit score. And it really is a representation of how well do I manage my finances. So if you’re an entrepreneur watching this and someone asks for your FICO score, don’t get scared. I think she was like, what’s a FICO? FICO? No. They’re just basically talking about credit. OK. Now, there’s three major credit bureaus, is my understanding, that basically help determine your score or help kind of keep track of your score there. We have Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Are there any other credit bureaus that I need to be aware of? Those are the three major ones. How do these guys get our credit information? Are they sifting through our mail? Are they tapping our phones? What do they do? Yeah, so we’re electing as part of when we get a credit card, when we get a mortgage, we’re authorizing that information to be reported to the credit bureaus. And so we’re electing into that process. I’m going to ask you some different areas. There’s a lot of myth about, well, this does affect your credit, or this doesn’t. So I just want to off the top of my head ask you a few here. If you don’t pay your phone bill, and you say, ah, phone bill, schmone bill, I’m not paying my phone bill, does that affect your credit? I don’t believe so. Well, now I should say that if you get sent to collections, that can always affect your credit. But I don’t believe that it would. The reason why I mention that is because I see a lot of entrepreneurs who are in collections. And then they’re like, I don’t understand why my credit score is low. I don’t get it. I did commercial real estate consulting for years. And so you really don’t want to ever go to collections, right? No, you don’t. I mean, but you’ve also seen people that, when you go to the doctor, right, and you make that visit and forget to pay, and then you get people that are sent to medical collections, those medical collections will go towards your credit. So David, I want to ask you this here now. We’re going to get into these seven areas where people make mistakes commonly. This first one is consolidating balances. Where do most people make mistakes here when it comes to consolidating balances with their credit? Where do people make go wrong here? Well, so I should probably note that I’m not a, quote, unquote, credit expert, right? These are things that we’ve seen that affect people’s ability to access credit. So when you think about consolidating balances, I mean, we all get, if you’ve got a credit card, you get mail all the time that says, hey, if you consolidate your balances, put these all into one credit card, we’ll do it at a very low interest rate for the life of the balance transfer, or maybe 0% for the first two years. We get these all the time. And from a fiscal perspective, that makes a lot of sense. So I’ve got $5,000 here that I’m paying 13% on. I’ve got $5,000 here that I’m paying 18% on. But if I combine them onto another credit card, I can just make, I put $10,000 on to this one credit card and I’ve got a zero percent interest rate for the next 24 months, right? All of a sudden that makes tons of sense. The challenge is when you look at lending, some of the lenders will want to see that your credit utilization rate is under 40% on every line, okay? So what that means is that if I have a $10,000 credit line that they don’t want to see any more than $3,999 charged to that credit line. Otherwise, my credit utilization rate has gone up to or above 40%. Boom! Okay. So what happens is if I’ve got $5,000 here and $5,000 here, and in those separate credit lines it’s under 40%, that’s okay. It’s not having an impact. But the moment I consolidate those, if it pushes that credit utilization rate on that line above 40%, it could impact my ability to get financing. Really? Mm-hmm. OK, so you want to keep your credit utilization rate roughly around 40%. We know you’re not a credit expert, but we want to keep it down below that 40% line. OK. Now, as it relates to consolidating balances, what are the things that people do all the time that you say, stop doing that? Is it basically just putting them all on one card? Is that the thing you just kind of stop doing that? Yeah. Again, it makes sense fiscally. So after you’ve obtained financing, that wouldn’t be a big deal, right? And it’s not something that can’t be solved anyways. If somebody comes to us and has that issue today, you can always balance transfer away. So the same company that you balance transfer from, you can balance transfer back too. But in general, like I said, when you’re going through financing, you want to make sure that every single one of your revolving credit lines is under a 40% rate. How much does that impact your score? Let’s say that everything else is perfect. You’ve together, you are a credit guru. But you’re 90% on this one card, two cards. How much does that mess with the flow? The credit algorithm is kind of like Google’s algorithm. It’s one of those that we’re not, there’s no hard, fast rule that anyone can specifically cite. What I do know is that once you go, the higher you go as far as utilization rate, the more that will impact your score. We’re moving on to the second most common problem area here, this mistake area, is using personal credit cards versus business cards. Let’s talk about that. So most business owners watching this, they probably, if you’re a small business owner, let’s say you own a bakery. Every month, you’re paying $4,000 or $5,000, let’s say, for online advertisement or to ship your goods, whatever you’re doing. Every month, you’re putting on a credit card so you can manage it all. And where do we get it wrong? So this is where I see a lot of entrepreneurs who will call. I’m an American Express fan, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of, most of my credit is in American Express. So when we first started our company, I called American Express and said, hey, we started this business. I’d like to get a corporate credit card. So they went ahead and issued me a credit card. They overnighted it to me. I had it within a day and a half and this credit card says David Nilsson, Guidant Financial. What’s interesting is yes, I had to personally guarantee that debt. So I’m still saying that financially I’m on the hook for this. But it doesn’t show up on my personal credit account unless I default. So when we talked about consolidating balances and having more than a 40% credit utilization rate, that’s because that has an impact on my personal score and it signifies challenges or increased risk to a potential lender. But if I have a business credit card and it’s not showing up on my individual FICO report, I could charge up 100% of that and it’s not technically having an impact. Okay, so let’s say that I’m a bakery, I’m watching this and I’m going, this is some knowledge I did not get in college. This is, I’m doing this, I’m going to get this Amex card. Can anybody get a business card with a big limit on it? I hear stories of people say, I applied for my business card and I was given a thousand bucks, so I have to use my personal for right now until… Tell me about that. The credit cards, the limits are going to be issued based on someone’s perceived risk, so their credit score. So if you’ve managed your credit very well in the past, you’ll potentially get a much higher limit. Some of the institutions are more liberal than others. So I’ve heard, although I can’t confirm, that Discover is more liberal than American Express. But American Express is amazingly friendly when it comes to fraud and service and so on and so forth. So you just have to decide what’s most important to you. But at the end of the day, they’re going to look at your income. They’re going to look at what your potential income will be for the business that year and then your credit score and then make a determination based on that. Now obviously this is not an advertorial for American Express but you said that you like American Express. What do you like about these guys? What do you like about them? I personally like a couple things. First is I think they’re a very friendly point system so I’m charging a lot of things on my credit card all the time right so I want to make sure that I’m getting some benefits out of that. The second thing is that when I have a service need, they are amazingly prompt, extremely friendly. There have been times where my credit card has been compromised, and they are amazingly effective at understanding which of your transactions don’t meet the normal patterns for yourself. And then they’ll also take those charges, any false charges, off your bill until they can either confirm they’re yours or confirm they’re not. Talk to me about this real quick. This is a little bit off-road, but I want to ask you this. In the last month, I have talked to two business owners who have been putting everything on their debit card. Hear me on this. They got charged, so they actually went over, they basically bounced a charge, or they got to a point where they ran out of funds. And they said, well, I didn’t know the vendor was going to charge me $3,000 or $6,000 or whatever. Would you recommend, as just a best practice, never put any recurring billings, that kind of thing, on your debit card? Would you recommend putting on these corporate cards, like an Amex, so you could challenge them and that kind of thing? So I’m a fan of using corporate credit, for sure. I’m also a fan with vendors who are going to be billing us on a very normal cycle, I like for them to invoice us so we can just cut them a check. But we can always pay with a credit card. I think credit is a great way to manage cash flow, too, because as you know, in small businesses, cash flow can ebb and flow. So using a debit card just means that you feel very secure in the potential cash flow going forward. OK. Now, the third most common mistake area is canceling credit lines, where you say, well, I’m not going to use this. I’ll go back to the bakery example. You say, things are good. I’ve got my one awesome Amex card. Life is good. And we say, I’m done with this MasterCard. That was the old days. I’m done. I’m going to my Amex black card. Why is it bad to cancel a card? Or is it bad? Yeah, so in general, it’s not necessarily bad. I mean, it’s not like there’s anything wrong with canceling a credit line. The challenge is that in today’s environment the difference between being approved and not being approved could be one point on your FICO score. What? Okay, so if knowing that you don’t want to do things that could adversely affect your credit score. Well, credit score is coming from a look at the way you’ve managed your credit historically. So the longer you have a credit line, a trade line on your credit score that has been effectively managed over a period of time, the more history, the more value it’s providing to your credit score. So I made this mistake when I was younger. I had had a Discover card to start, never used it, but it had been sitting there for a while, and I canceled that because I wasn’t using it. And it was at the same time that I was trying to buy a home. And it did, and it wasn’t dramatic, but it did have an impact on my credit score. So it was funny because by the time I started the purchase process, the time that we actually went to fund, my credit score had changed. And the only thing that we could see in that that had changed at all was that I had canceled that credit line. So I think it’s important that when you’re going through a financial event, like financing a business, buying a piece of property, be very careful about any kind of macro changes that you make to your financial landscape. I’ve heard if you have too many open credit lines that could be a bad deal. Is there any truth to that from what you’ve seen? I mean, I’m not a lending expert, or a credit expert, I guess. But do you feel like there’s any value to that, or is that sort of just hoo-ha? I’ve heard the same thing. So I personally have eliminated all department store credit. So like, you know, when you’re younger, you go to the Gap or the Macy’s or Nordstrom’s or whatever, and you open up these department store credit cards, but then you don’t ever use them. Yeah, I did eventually eliminate those from my own credit profile. But the major credit card, major trade lines, I don’t know. I would be surprised to say that those are having an adverse impact. Now, let’s talk about this fourth common area, this common area of mistakes that people make there. It’s seeking restoration or disputing claims. So let’s say your credit is jacked. I mean, you’ve done some weird stuff. Let’s just say you went out and you said, I’m going to buy a car. I’m not going to pay for the car. And then you get the car taken back. Or you did. We all make a mistake at one point in our life in some area. But let’s say that yours was just not paying stuff. Should you seek restoration? Should you not? Should you dispute claims? Should you not? Tell us about this. Well, so the reason I put that in there is, so there are times where people have just deliberately poorly managed their credit or finances. I’m not speaking to those people. That is a bet you made, you’ve got to lie in it. So the people that I’m really referring to when I say, hey, seeking restoration is, I happen to know an individual who was sent to collections for a medical bill that was under a hundred dollars, okay, but they never to their knowledge received any notices on it, didn’t know they owed it, all of a sudden they just started getting calls from a collection agency. And I’ve heard this many times, so I’m, this is not an uncommon situation. So in that particular situation, when you’re negotiating with a collections agency, when you go to settle with them you can certainly ask for restoration. Now it doesn’t always happen but if it if it does you I mean ask for it because if it does happen it can seriously impact your credit in a positive way. Now let me ask you this here if I have a credit that’s not awesome let’s just say that you know you’re say a guy’s 50 and when he was 40 he went into foreclosure. He went into bankruptcy when he was 40 years. Some major event like the foreclosure or the bankruptcy, in my mind those are the kind of extremes. How long does it take, now that he’s 50, so it’s been a full 10 years, how long does it take if he’s been doing everything else right, how long does it take until someone like that can secure financing again, or ever? Well it kind of depends. I mean, I’ve seen people who have filed a bankruptcy and two or three years later their credit has rebounded to a place that technically could be financable. Now, the banks are going to underwrite a transaction based on their perceived risk. Their credit score is a piece of that. Their credit history is a piece of that. And their financial wherewithal is another piece of that. So all three of those things have to align in one way, shape, or form. So from a scoring standpoint, it can rebound relatively quickly. Still from a financeability standpoint, it can take more time. Having helped 10,000 people get financing and help them find funding solutions over the course of the years here, I mean you’ve done this so much. Do you feel like it’s about a 10 year window or a 20 year window before somebody can start to go, hey I could, you know if a guy wanted to borrow money to open up a vodka distillery and he had some mistakes he made in his 20s, in his 40s it should be good to go at that point or is it 10 years later usually? It definitely depends on the type of event and the circumstances around it. So sometimes when we have somebody who has an imperfect credit history, but a great credit score, then it’s something that we support with a letter of explanation around it. Because the banks are going to make the decision themselves. So there’s no science behind it, just a little bit of an art. That being said, yeah, I would say that any major catastrophic financial event that occurred typically is going to have less impact five years later, significantly less after 10. Let’s talk about submitting multiple applications, this next problem area here. So this is problem number five, submitting multiple applications. What do you mean by this? So one of the things that’s been fantastic about the internet is the access to potential lenders or capital sources has increased exponentially for us as borrowers. What it also has done is made it very easy for people to apply for credit online. And oftentimes what you’ll see is people will come to us after they’ve gone online, submitted for capital, allowed the lenders to actually check their credit. And so what will end up happening is when you have a lender that pulls your credit, an inquiry shows up on your credit report. That’s fine. Not a big issue. But if two show up in a very short period of time, now it’s interesting. If three, four, and five show up, all of a sudden those inquiries can start to not only impact my credit score, but signify desperation to a lender. Wow. So this becomes really, and that’s really one of the value propositions that Guidant provides is that someone can talk to you and they’re not going to have their credit score checked 10 times, or you know what I mean? They can do the research for them. Yeah, so one of the things about our model that I think is attractive is that we work with hundreds of capital sources around the country. So if somebody is interested in a capital event, whether it’s to acquire or maybe provide subsequent investment into a small business, we can do a soft pull on their credit, which does not show up as a hard inquiry. So we understand where their credit is in that moment. And then based on that and our knowledge of the different lenders that we work with, we can help to pair them with people that best suit their needs. Can you explain this to me in a term that my third grade mind could handle? Soft pull, hard pull, what are we talking about here? Yeah, so those are industry terms. A soft pull is when you can look at someone’s credit in the current state without submitting a hard inquiry. So it actually, it provides basically the same benefit it just gives us a snapshot as opposed to a full report. So how many applications is the most you ever want to submit at one time? In an ideal world, one. If I’ve ever done way too many in the past, like if I’m going whoa, last night I had, I believe I had quite a bit of wine and I believe I applied for quite a few credit sources. What do they do now? Well, I mean those things are going to be there. So unfortunately, in the age of transparency, if you’ve made that mistake, that’s what we have to deal with. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s insurmountable. Because again, it may not affect the credit score in a way that means that they’re not financeable. But we’ll just have to make some determinations on whether we have to explain the circumstances. Now, we’re moving on to number six, big area number six. This is co-borrowing. This is one of the most common mistakes you see all the time, co-borrowing. What do you mean by co-borrowing? Co-borrowing is when we are partners per se and we are borrowing together. If the bank requires it, you have no choice. But sometimes the bank won’t. So diversifying the risk, diversifying the liability, there may be a point at which the business needs more capital and if everyone is tied to all the same liabilities, it may be that you’re not capable of getting additional capital. But if you and I are business partners and I’m on the hook for the initial amount of debt that was brought into the business and now we need more, it may be easier for you to get that subsequent transaction completed because you’re not tied to it. Let’s say that I’m married to somebody. Should she get credit over here? So she applies for funding over here. And then if I apply for funding, does that count as not co-borrowing, or are we both on it together if we’re married? Well now we’re getting into family law. No, it’s okay. Your spouse and you are typically going to be bound to the same debts. But you were sitting together with two dudes or a lady and a dude or whatever combo we were in, and they’re partners. You’d say, hey, you go ahead and apply for the capital, the working capital, and this other person you can apply for this capital here and we’re not going to do it together so you both get more money. If they can, it may make sense. Yeah. Okay, awesome. Now, the seventh, this is the final one here. Okay. This is the most common, one of the most common areas of mistakes that people make with managing their credit, is monitoring your credit. How do most people get it wrong when it comes to monitoring their credit? Yeah. So I think this is the most important piece in general, and it’s probably just a good lesson for entrepreneurs in general. What you measure gets managed, period. So I wear a Fitbit. I do that because I want to measure whether I’m sedentary or I’m getting new steps in every single day that I want as an individual. I set a goal, and I measure that every single day. With credit, the same thing. In a business, you might have a corporate dashboard, the key metrics that are most important to you for being successful. So when it comes to credit, there are companies out there. I personally subscribe to myfico.com. There’s another one, creditexpert.com. These are organizations that allow you to see your credit in real time, allows you to dispute any inaccuracies that you find on it straight through that dashboard, and it also will alert you when any change has been made. If somebody has inquired on my credit, I get an alert. If a balance has gone up, I get an alert. If one’s gone down, I get an alert. And it helps me understand what is happening in my credit real time. If there is something on your credit that’s inaccurate, it can take up to six months to get that off. So if you’re in the middle of a funding event and you go to apply for credit you realize, oh I have something I need to fix, that can set you back a long time. So it’s being proactive about managing what I think is one of the most important financial tools we have as people. So you really do believe that we need to measure this to manage it. How often? Should we check it every day, every month, every week? Well the good news is it’s a push system. Oh, so I’m in fact it’s funny I was doing a I was doing a speaking event maybe three or four months ago and I’m talking about this exact thing and I felt a buzz in my phone and I thought oh shoot I should have turned my phone off so here I go I go to turn my phone off just to be polite to the audience and there it is I got an alert. Credit balance had changed on one of my credit accounts so really the report that had gone in and it comes straight to me. So I don’t actually have to go in every single day and look at it, but I’m being proactive about seeing as changes made, sorry, I’m being proactive in the fact that as changes are made, I can react to those if necessary. I don’t expect you to be like the pricing Moses for myfico.com, but roughly what does that cost per month? There is a 20 bucks. 20 bucks, awesome. That’s a good investment in your mind. It’s an imperative investment in my mind. OK. Now, final question. This is the one that the thrivers really want to know. I’m sure that they’re motivated to hear this one. So I’m going to ask. It’s a tough one. It’s a tough one. We’re in Seattle. Obviously, Bill Gates, Microsoft, it’s all here. I mean, very near here, Microsoft. If you had to choose, though, mayor of Seattle, it’s up to you, Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. And when Steve was alive. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, who would be the mayor of Seattle in your mind if you had to choose? Who would I choose? Yeah, I mean, if you had to choose. You’re the sultan. You’re the head of the mayor. You can choose the mayor. Is there a C option? Yeah. What’s okay. So you have to try again. You have Bill Gates. You have Steve Jobs. You have Howard Schultz. And you have Ichiro Suzuki. Who would you choose? So, yeah, I’m still going to go with Bill Gates. I think Bill is a phenomenal businessman. I think he’s done some amazing things for this community and I love his personal vision for philanthropy. Awesome. Hey, thank you so much, my friend. I appreciate you. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Mr. Clay Clark, how are you, my friend? I am feeling effervescent. Wow. Would you describe to us, I think I know what that is. It’s gassy? That is actually definition number two. But the original one, it’s kind of that energetic, sort of vivacious. I’ve heard it’s bubbly or gassy. We had an event we just did in San Diego where the event planner introduced me as effervescent. That’s true. And so I’m trying to wear that proudly. We’ll get the, we’ve got the description here. You’ll see it’s kind of gassy. It’s part of it. But that’s fine. It’s part of the definition. Move on. Today, we’re talking about the six-day principle, okay? The art of getting ahead. Now, to me, this is interesting because I want to ask you, you’re leading this. You’re the mentor here. Did you ever think that you would be teaching an art class like this? One is I do have a bias towards art. I draw some cartoons when I’m in church. I’ve seen it. I doodle often. So I do those things. I never thought, I guess if I was teaching an art class, I thought it would be more like the movie Ghost, where there’s the pottery and the whole, if you’ve ever seen that movie, I apologize if I’ve analyzed you, but that’s kind of how I visualize my art class. I just feel like you need a hat or something more if you’re teaching the art class, you need an art hat, but it’s fine for now. We don’t have it, we’ll just dive into it. We’re talking about the art of getting ahead and the six day principle. Why does this matter? Why is this something that we’re going to devote a whole episode to right here? Well, in the world of business, in the world of life, there’s just, on this planet, there’s a thing called trade-offs. And then there’s this completely false concept of life balance. And trade-offs are where you’re choosing to do something and therefore you’re not doing something else. So as an example, yesterday I watched a playoff game of the NBA, and when I was doing that, I was not doing something else. And so in business and in life, people, we want to get ahead, but sometimes we aren’t willing to make those tradeoffs. So in my life, I say I want to have a great marriage and a great family and a great business, but there’s things I can’t be great at if I’m going to do all those things. And one of those things is really keeping up to date with sitcoms. I just don’t watch a lot of them because I’m so busy doing something else. So we’re kind of teaching this concept of the trade-off known as the six-day principle. All right, so we’re gonna dive into the six-day principle, teach you how to get ahead, and teach you how to achieve what we’d call the American Dream. I know in your book you’ve set out you believe in the American Dream, you believe it’s possible, you’ve already started to achieve it, you’ve got huge goals, but I found that reading statistically a lot of people don’t believe that the American Dream is even possible. Well, let’s make sure we’re clear on this. The American Dream is not my dream for you. It’s not anyone else’s dream for you. It’s your dream for you. I have a very, very good friend of mine whose American dream was being able to travel and being able to work from on the road and have no geographical limitations. So he doesn’t want to own a house. He doesn’t want to lease a house. He wants to be able to get up and go and go to the beach and work from the laptop. That was his American dream. And he’s done that. So I would just ask you to take a moment think about what is your American dream? Ask yourself what is your American dream? Because this it’s not worth putting in the effort needed to get ahead if you don’t know why you’re where you’re going. If you don’t know where you’re going there’s no point of trying to get there faster. And what is not the American dream would be showing up to a job that you absolutely hate and abhor and then not being able to save enough money to retire. That is not the American dream. That is not well that is not my American dream. That could be yours and that could be awesome. This is something interesting though. This is what the Huffington Post article said when he was talking about how many people believe the American dream is possible. They said only 43% of surveyed respondents said that achieving the American dream is possible in this economy. This is the first time, if I understand, first time it’s ever dipped below 50%. Yeah, and I don’t mean to offend you, but I think sometimes if you’re mentoring somebody, you have to care enough to not let the person get stuck. But if you don’t believe the American dream is possible, I 100% disagree with you. And I took my ACT three times and had to struggle with algebra. I took it three times. And I know that I certainly financially didn’t start off with a lot of advantage. And I’m living my American dream. And I know that if I can do it after being expelled from college, kind of just a little expelled from college, if I can do it, then you can do it. So I know you absolutely can. But very few people are doing that right now. According to Forbes, 19% of surveyed workers said that they were satisfied with their jobs. These people who are going to work every single day, at least nine to five, hate their jobs. And most of them don’t even believe that it’s possible to achieve the American dream. And I choose to believe that not just 19% of America has to love their job. I know that no matter what country you’re in around the world, you can love your job, you can do it, and we’re going to show you how specific. Why do Americans stay in their job? If they hate their job, why do they stay in the job? Why not try to find something else, create something else? Well, we are loyal to dysfunction. And so if something doesn’t work, a lot of times you just want to keep doing it because it’s something that we’re used to doing. So a lot of times, you know, why is it, I mean, one of the businesses I invest in, it’s a men’s grooming lounge. Why does a guy have a haircut that he’s had since like the 80s? There’s a guy right now, if you’re watching this and you’re offended, just kind of deal with it. But there’s a guy with a bowl cut right now. He’s, I don’t know who you are right now, but if you have a bowl cut, we can make a change. We can help you. But you might be loyal to the dysfunction of having a bowl cut. And people who love you have just decided not to tell you anymore. And you’re just going to keep on growing that bowl cut, just getting that mop. You just don’t want to chop it. You want to keep it just that way. But you know, eventually we have to get a haircut. But a lot of us, we just don’t want to get a haircut. We don’t want to switch schools. We don’t want to move states. We don’t want to switch careers. We love to stick where we are. We don’t want to do anything that’s going to involve change. So we’ve looked at the statistics, though. This is a huge problem. But we’re saying that the way to get out of this, to get ahead, is the six-day principle. Now, a broad overview here. We’re going to dive into a broad overview. The six-day principle. What is that? The six-day principle is essentially putting in enough effort that you logically have a chance to get ahead. If you and I are competing in a race and I start 15% early. So if I work five… if you work five days a week and I work six and our job is running, no matter how slow I am, I probably will beat you or at least be close to ahead of you if I’m running a full extra day a week than you are. And the six-day principle is a principle that most millionaires, mentors, and everyday success stories that we’ve interviewed, I say most, all of them are doing. I cannot think of an example of somebody who got ahead who wasn’t spending more time running than the average person. Right. And here’s a great example of this Elon Musk, very successful entrepreneur, you know him, PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, those are all his babies that he started here. This is what he has to say about the six day principle. He says, the minimum is really a 50 hour work week and there are times when it’ll be 60 to an 80 hour week. Now the general understanding is that if you’re at Tesla, you’re choosing to be at the equivalent of special forces. That has pluses and minuses. It’s cool to be a special forces, but it also means you’re working your ass off. It’s not for everyone. This is the standard he set at Tesla. And I know you’ve set a similar standard at Thrive. He’s saying if you’re looking for a nine to five job and you’re not willing to go ahead or over deliver, this might not be the best place for you. Well, the thing is, if you want to have a career and you want to be stuck in the middle, then you don’t want to put in the extra effort needed to get ahead. And maybe if you’re watching this, we’re talking about trade-offs, and maybe you’re saying, hey, thrive. I don’t want to thrive. I just want to survive. I just want to get to work barely on time and not get promoted. And my American dream is just to be average. I don’t know if there is a website, survive15 or survive. Yeah, there’s an offshoot we’re starting called beambiguouslymediocre.com. It’s hard to spell it, but the point is, if that’s your goal, but if your goal is to have success, here’s the problem, and I don’t mean to get psychologically too deep here, but if your goal, if you’re professing with your mouth and your mind that your goal is to be here, but you’re doing effort that’s taking you here, you’re going to have this thing called dissonance, which is where you are disagreeing with what your values don’t align with your actual actions. And if that is the case, when you have dissonance, that leads to depression and feeling just kind of down and out, and that’s not a good place to be. So that is deep. So you’re saying that it’s not, I mean, there’s people out there, I’ve been guilty of this many times, of professing something that I want, but not doing the necessary actions to make that a reality. Is that what you’re saying, dissonance? And I’ll rip on myself for a minute. I have this company called DJ Connection. I wanted to grow this multi-million dollar business. So I bought the equipment. I bought the speakers. I bought the lights. I bought the vans. I had all the accoutrements, all the stuff, all the gizmos. And I wanted my phone to ring. So I would look at it. And I would focus like a laser beam. Did that work? I would use this thing called osmosis. And I used telepathy. ESP. I’m just… And the phone rang. And the phone never rang. And so I would, you know… And over time you start to realize this industry isn’t working. The DJ industry is too tough. The market is too tough. The economy is too tough. These are things I would say to myself. And then my beautiful wife would say how come you’re not on the phone right now. And I said, well, uh, uh, you know, and I have a whole series of excuses. And the problem with excuses is that over, is that over time with, with excuses, if you state an excuse with enough emotion and enough, then over time you start to believe it as a way to justify your behavior, to avoid dissonance and feeling bad. Okay. So I believe what you’re doing here is saying, if we really do want to become successful, if we’ve defined the American dream, we have our own goals, we’re trying to be successful in this way, but we’re not willing to do the six-day principle, there’s probably going to be dissonance. Yeah, well, there’s a couple other examples, though, just to help you, if your American dream is different. There’s one person I know who, her American dream is to work three days a week, and I helped her on this. And so she built a business where literally she only works three days a week. So she set up the expectations, the customers, hey, I’m just going to work three days a week. She adjusted her lifestyle where she only needs to work three days a week. And everything she does is adjusted to achieve that goal of working three days a week. With three days a week? Or did she have to put in more time at the beginning? How did that work? She cut the cost of her lifestyle so low that she could completely be terrible in almost every discernible area and still be able to achieve that goal of time freedom. And that’s because with her life and some of the obligations that she had, she just couldn’t… she had a child with some physical disabilities. And so she had to find a way to be able to take care of the child and be there enough, but also to be able to provide. So she cut her cost of living and cut those things down so she could achieve her own version of the American dream. But it’s a trade-off, like you said in the beginning. And I think it’s interesting, we’re going to do a little notable quotable here. It’s from the Bible? No! It’s from the Bible. It’s controversial. You’ve heard of it though. Okay. Many of us have at least heard of it. I won’t censor you. This is a quote here from Genesis 2, 1. It says, by the seventh day, God finished what he’d been doing and stopped working. That’s it. That’s the quote right there. Because he worked for seven days and kind of, I believe, was the first one to establish the six-day rule. Would you agree? Yeah. Allegedly, allegedly, according to that controversial book called the Bible. Right. That the planet was created in, you know, six days. On the seventh day he rested. But if you don’t believe that, we go to Elon Musk. We go to Elon Musk. And Elon Musk, I mean, he’s totally not in the Bible. I mean, I don’t think he’s in the Bible, is he? He is not, no. No, he’s not in the Bible. So Elon Musk, you can go with that. But the point is you’re going to have to put in the extra effort if you want to get ahead. It wasn’t always a 40-hour workweek. That wasn’t the norm. What? No. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was that was when the it was first introduced that the maximum hours that was normal for a person to put in was 44 hours I believe. What? Yeah, but until then, until 1938, it was normal to do this six-day principle on a regular basis. Are you trying to say that the pilgrims who started this country and that, no, they they did this in more than 44 hours a week? They didn’t just work the 44 hours and say I’m done, I’m going on break. It was FDR that introduced it. He was the one that said, hey, great idea. You can achieve success in 44 hours. Well, one thing I’ll tell you, and I’m sorry to disagree with a man who’s no longer with us and a man who helped lead America through World War II. Yes. But I have yet to interview a millionaire or everyday success story who’s working, who worked less than 44 hours a week at the onset to start the business, to grow the business. I’ve just never seen it happen. But like you said, you might have a goal and a dream to work less than 44 hours a week. True. But that’s why you do the six day principle and work a ton beforehand. Boom. Okay. So let me ask you this though. Truth canon here. What percentage of, we’ve already touched on successful people that go above 44 hours a week. What percent of people that I guess wouldn’t be able to say that they’ve achieved their dreams, whatever they are, that work more than 44 hours a week. I find it hard to become, I find it hard to not become successful if you are working hard, if you have a great work ethic, and if you have great character. I mean, if you have a great character and a hard work ethic, I find it hard to be stuck. Now, if you work hard and you just do what you’re supposed to do, then you won’t get noticed. But if you work hard and go over and above, then you’ll get noticed pretty quickly if you have character and a good work ethic. Or maybe if you work hard and you do illegal things, that could also lead to not. The character is a big part of that. Sometimes I can’t relate to you and your millennial cynicism. So right now, I’m watching this, Thriver’s watching this, he’s on the other side of this camera. What do you say to him? What action step does this Thriver take right now from watching this episode? Let’s just get real. Let’s just be real right now. Say, am I putting in the work needed to get ahead? I mean, it’s ridiculous. I’m just telling you, real talk. I get up most days at what, four or five in the morning? And I get up, and by the time the average person’s got to the office, I’ve already been there for four hours. So if we’re in a race, I’m going to beat you every single week by 20 hours. And I’m still home with my kids by 6. I just get up at 4 or 5 every day. And back before I did that, I was working at Applebee’s, working at Target. And what I did there is I’d work at Applebee’s and work at Target. And then at night, I would work on growing my business. But you have to put in that extra effort if you want to get those extra results. This whole zero impact fitness flyer, the shake weight deal where I’m not really working out and I’m just holding the weight and it’s shaking. That doesn’t work. You just can’t. Have you ever met somebody who’s in great shape who’s been using the shake weight? I have not, no. I know. I’m sorry if I’m offending you if you are the shake weight fitness champion of the world, but I’ve yet to meet somebody who says, I have no soreness, no impact, haven’t changed my diet at all, and in just three minutes a day I’ve got these amazing thighs. You know what I mean? Outside of myself. I say that to you a lot, but that’s just not normal for people to say that. But what’s interesting is that everybody has a dream. People have goals, but it’s different when you’re just verbally announcing these goals. And Brian Tracy touches on that. So tell us, first of all, who’s Brian Tracy? Why should we care what Brian Tracy has to say right now? Brian Tracy is a best-selling success author who’s written numerous best-selling books. But what I like Brian is he has devoted his life to studying successful people and figuring out how they did it. But then he applied it in his own life and he became a multi-millionaire through his different business ventures. And now today, he basically travels around the world as kind of like a evangelist or we call it a gospel of wealth kind of guy, where he’s teaching the good news of how to make more money. He’s consulted with thousands of companies, spoken to over 5 million people. He’s a good one to listen to. Yeah. This is what he says, all successful people, men and women, are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day towards their distant vision, that goal or purpose. That’s what we need to be doing. You need to be working on a daily basis to achieve that goal, not just verbally saying it and not being willing to put in the extra work. I would say as an action item right now for everybody watching this, is what we want to do is you want to take a second, go ahead and type in the notes section, or maybe you want to write it on a piece of paper. I highly recommend you type in the notes section so you can find it later. But ask yourself, how are you… Lee Cockerell, one of our Thrive mentors, talks about this. He used to run Walt Disney World Resorts. But he says every day ask yourself, in what way are you not happy with where you’re at physically? In what way are you not happy with the way you’re at, where you’re at in your relationships and your finances, in your career? Ask yourself right now, in what way am I not satisfied? And then make sure you’re putting forth the effort needed to get the results you want in those areas. Because usually, we’re just not putting in the effort needed to get ahead and to have success in those given areas. So in this art of getting ahead here, you’re saying that it’s going to take some extra work. It’s going to take some extra work. Might take that six-day principle. And you’ve got to be willing to put in that extra work if you actually want your dreams to become a reality. I promise you, regardless of education level and regardless of what skills you have right now, if you’re willing to do this, you can achieve whatever you want. And if you think about Walt Disney, that’s a high school dropout. Think about Henry Ford, high school dropout. You think about Richard Branson, who started Divergent Companies, high school dropout. Elon Musk, Steve Jobs. It’s not about your intellect. It’s not about the college degree that Steve Jobs did not have or Bill Gates. It’s about learning the practical skills needed to get ahead. And I promise you, if you’re willing to diligently apply this principle, the six-day principle, you can have big success. In fact, I can guarantee you’re going to have big success. I love it. And I appreciate this. And I believe that you’ve taken this into every area of your life. I know that you work at least six days a week to maintain your skin color. Yeah, well, you don’t want to go outside. I try to stay inside. That’s dedication. Yeah, and I appreciate sort of that. I appreciate your appreciation about my lack of pigmentation. That’s not easy to do. So well done. Boom. JT, do you know what time it is? 410. It’s TiVo time in Tulsa, Roseland, baby. Tim TiVo is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 27th and 28th. We’ve been doing business conferences here since 2005. I’ve been hosting business conferences since 2005. What year were you born? 1995. Dude, I’ve been hosting business conferences since you were 10 years old, but I’ve never had the two-time Heisman Award winning Tim Tebow come present. And a lot of people have followed Tim Tebow’s football career on the field and off the field. And off the field, the guy’s been just as successful as he has been on the field. Now, the big question is, JT, how does he do it? Well, they’re 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. Also, this is the first Thrive Time Show event that we’ve had where we’re going to have a man who has built a $100 million net worth. Wow. Who’ll be presenting. Now, we’ve had a couple of presenters that have had a billion dollar net worth in some real estate sort of things. But this is the first time we’ve had a guy who’s built a service business, and he’s built over a hundred million dollar net worth in the service business. It’s the yacht driving, multi-state living guru of franchising. Peter Taunton will be in the house. This is the founder of Snap Fitness, the guy behind Nine Round Boxing. He’s going to be here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 27th and 28th. JT, why should everybody want to hear what Peter Taunton has to say? Oh, because he’s incredible. He’s just a fountain of knowledge. He is awesome. He’s inspired me listening to him talk. And not only that, he also has he practices what he teaches. So he’s a real teacher. He’s not a fake teacher like business school teachers. So you got to come learn from him. Also, let me tell you this, because I don’t get this wrong, because I get it wrong. Someone’s going to say, you screwed that up, buddy. So Michael Levine, this is Michael Levine. He’s going to be coming. He said, who is Michael Levine? I don’t get this wrong. This is the PR consultant of choice for Michael Jackson, Prince, for Nike, for Charlton Heston, for Nancy Kerrigan. 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestselling authors he’s represented, including pretty much everybody you know who’s been a super celebrity. This is Michael Levine, a good friend of mine. He’s going to come and talk to you about personal branding and the mindset needed to be super successful. The lineup will continue to grow. We have hit Christian reporting artist Colton Dixon in the house. Now people say, Colton Dixon’s in the house? Yes! Colton Dixon’s in the house. So if you like top 40 Christian music, Colton Dixon’s going to be in the house performing. The lineup will continue to grow each and every day. We’re going to add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup, but I encourage everybody out there today, get those tickets today go to thrive timeshow.com again that’s thrive timeshow.com and some people might be saying well how do I do it I don’t know what I do it but it has it work you just go to thrive timeshow.com let’s go there now we’re feeling the flow we’re going to thrive timeshow.com and you just go to thrive timeshow.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 yep or whatever price that you can afford. And the reason why I do that is I grew up without money. JT, you’re in the process of building a super successful company. Did you start out with a million dollars in the bank account? No, I did not. Nope, did not get any loans, nothing like that. Did not get an inheritance from parents or anything like that. I had to work for it and I’m super grateful I came to a business conference. That’s actually how I met you, met Peter Taunton, I met all these people. So if you’re out there today and you want to come to our workshop, again, you just got to go to thrivetimeshow.com. You might say, well, when’s it going to be? June 27 and 28. You might say, well, who’s speaking? We already covered that. You might say, where is it going to be? It’s going to be in Tulsa, Russell Oklahoma. I suppose it’s Tulsa, Russell. I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa, Russell. I’m sort of like the Jerusalem of America. But if you type in Thrive Time Show 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 gonna have hundreds of entrepreneurs here. It is going to be packed now for this particular event folks The seating is always limited because my facility isn’t a limitless Convention center you’re coming to my actual home office and so it’s going to be packed So when June 27th and 28th who you you’re gonna come who you I’m talking to you. You can get your tickets right now at thrivetimeshow.com and again you can name your price. We tell people it’s $250 or whatever price you can afford and we do have some select VIP tickets which gives you an access to meet some of the speakers and those sorts of things and those tickets are $500. It’s a two-day interactive business workshop over 20 hours of business training. We’re going to give you a copy of my newest book, The Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. You’re going to leave with a workbook. You’re going to leave with everything you need to know to start and grow a super successful company. It’s practical, it’s actionable, and it’s Tebow time right here in Tulsa, Russia. Get those tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s thrivetimeshow.com. Hello, I’m Michael Levine, and I’m talking to you right now from the center of Hollywood, California, where I have represented over the last 35 years, 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestsellers. I’ve represented a lot of major stars and I’ve worked with a lot of major companies. And I think I’ve learned a few things about what makes them work and what makes them not work. Now, why would a man living in Hollywood, California in the beautiful sunny weather of LA come to Tulsa? Because last year I did it and it was damn exciting. Clay Clark has put together an exceptional presentation, really life-changing, and I’m looking forward to seeing you then. I’m Michael Levine. I’ll see you in Tulsa. James, did I tell you my good friend John Lee Dumas is also joining us at the in-person, two-day, interactive Thrive Time Show Business Workshop? That Tim Tebow and that Michael Levine will be at the… Have I told you this? You have not told me that. He’s coming all the way from Puerto Rico. This is John Lee Dumas, the host of the chart-topping EOFire.com podcast. He’s absolutely a living legend. This guy started a podcast after wrapping up his service in the United States military and he started recording this podcast daily in his home to the point where he started interviewing big time folks like Gary Vaynerchuk, like Tony Robbins, and he just kept interviewing bigger and bigger names, putting up shows day after day. And now he is the legendary host of the EO Fire podcast and he’s traveled all the way from Puerto Rico to Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend the in-person June 27th and 28th Thrive Time Show 2-Day Interactive Business Workshop. If you’re out there today, folks, if you’ve ever wanted to grow a podcast, a broadcast, you want to come to the two-day interactive June 27th and 28th Thrive Time Show Business Workshop featuring Tim Tebow, Michael Levine, John Lee Dumas, and countless big-time, super successful entrepreneurs. It’s going to be life-changing. Get your tickets right now at thrivetimeshow.com. James, what website is that? ThriveTimeshow.com James, one more time for the four enthusiasts. ThriveTimeshow.com Everything rides on tonight. Even if I got three strikes, I’ma go for it. This moment, we own it. I’m not to be played with because it could get dangerous. See, these people I ride with. This moment, we own it. Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshops are the world’s highest rated and most reviewed business workshops because we teach you what you need to know to grow. You can learn the proven 13 point business system that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. We get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to 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. It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, but I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same system that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever, and we’re going to give you your money back if you don’t love it. We’ve built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see it. And now you may be thinking, what does it actually cost to attend an in-person, two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop. Well, good news, the tickets are $250 or whatever price that you can afford. What? Yes, they’re $250 or whatever price you can afford. I grew up without money and I know what it’s like to live without money. So if you’re out there today and you want to attend our in-person two-day interactive business workshop, all you got to do is go to thrivetimeshow.com to request those tickets. And if you can’t afford $250, we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. I learned at the Academy at Kings Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvard Keosak University Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re closed, 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 his show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts. And so Mr. Clay Clark is a friend of a good friend, Eric, 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? 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 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, you know thank you but you’ve become an influencer. You know more than anything else you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. So that’s why I congratulate you on becoming. Because as you know, there’s a lot of fake influencers out there, or bad influencers. Yeah. Anyway, I’m glad you and I agree so much, and thanks for reading my books. Yeah. That’s the greatest thrill for me today. Not thrill, but recognition is when people, young men especially, come up and say I read your book changing a life. I’m doing this I’m doing this I’m doing this I Learned at the Academy at Kings Point in New York Octa nonverba Watch what a person does not what they say Hey, I’m Ryan wimpy. I’m originally from Tulsa born and raised here. I Went to a small private liberal arts college and got a degree in business. And I didn’t learn anything like they’re teaching here. I didn’t learn linear workflows. I learned stuff that I’m not using and I haven’t been using for the last nine years. So what they’re teaching here is actually way better than what I got at business school. And I went what was actually ranked as a very good business school. The linear workflow, the linear workflow for us in getting everything out on paper and documented is really important. We have workflows that are kind of all over the place, so having linear workflow and seeing that mapped out on multiple different boards is pretty awesome. That’s really helpful for me. The atmosphere here is awesome. I definitely just stared at the walls figuring out how to make my facility look like this place. This place rocks. It’s invigorating, the walls are super, it’s just very cool. The atmosphere is cool, the people are nice, it’s a pretty cool place to be. Very good learning atmosphere. I literally wanna model it and steal everything that’s here at this facility, and basically create it just on our business side. Once I saw what they were doing, I knew I had to get here at the conference. This is probably the best conference or seminar I’ve ever been to in over 30 years of business. You’re not bored. You’re awake and alive the whole time. It’s not pushy. They don’t try to sell you a bunch of things. I was looking to learn how to just get control of my life, my schedule, and just get control of the business. Planning your time, breaking it all down, making time for the F6 in your life, and just really implementing it and sticking with the program. It’s really lively, they’re pretty friendly, helpful, and very welcoming. I attended a conference a couple months back and it was really the best business conference I’ve ever attended. At the workshop I learned a lot about time management, really prioritizing what’s the most important. Biggest takeaways are, you know, you want to take a step-by-step approach to your business. Whether it’s marketing, you know, what are those three marketing tools that you want to use to human resources. Some of the most successful people and successful businesses in this town, their owners were here today because they wanted to know more from Clay and I found that to be kind of fascinating. The most valuable thing that I’ve learned is diligence. That businesses don’t change overnight. It takes time and effort and you got to go through the ups and downs of getting it to where you want to go. He actually gives you the road map out. I was stuck, didn’t know what to do and he gave me the road map out step by step. He set up systems in the business that make my life much easier, allow me some time freedom. Here you can ask any question you want, they guarantee it will be answered. This conference like motivates me and also give me a lot of knowledge and tools. It’s up to you to do it. Everybody can do these things. There’s stuff that everybody knows, but if you don’t do it, nobody else is going to do it for you. I can see the marketing working, and it’s just an approach that makes sense. Probably the most notable thing is just the income increase that we’ve had. Everyone’s super fun and super motivating. I’ve been here before, but I’m back again because it motivates me. Your competition is going to come eventually or try to pick up these tactics. So you better, if you don’t, somebody else will. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9 and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey guys, I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys, we appreciate you, and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old house. This is where we used to live. This is our old neighborhood. See? It’s nice, right? So this is my old van and our old school marketing and this is our old team. And by team I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing. And this is our new team. We went from 4 to 14. And I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past. And they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales. Which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman. So we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts, and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd. We’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month, and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship, and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, times a thousand. So we really just wanna thank you, Clay, and thank you, Vanessa, for everything you’ve done, everything you’ve helped us with. We love you guys. If you decide to not attend the Thrive Time Workshop, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. The Atmosphere Place office is very lively. You can feel the energy as soon as you walk through the door. And it really got me and my team very excited. I love the environment. I love the way that Clay presents and teaches. It’s a way that not only allows me to comprehend what’s going on, but he explains it in a way to where it just makes sense. The SEO optimization, branding, marketing, I’ve learned more in the last two days than I have the entire four years of college. ♪♪♪ The most valuable thing that I’ve learned, marketing is key, marketing is everything. Making sure that you’re branded accurately and clearly. How to grow a business using Google reviews and then just how to optimize our name through our website also. Helpful with a lot of marketing, search engine optimization, helping us really rank high in Google. The biggest thing I needed to learn was how to build my foundation, how to systemize everything and optimize everything, build my SEO. How to become more organized, more efficient. How to make sure the business is really there to serve me, as opposed to me constantly being there for the business. New ways of advertising my business, as well as recruiting new employees. Group interviews, number one. Before, we felt like we were held hostage by our employees. Group interviews has completely eliminated that, because you’re able to really find the people that would really be the best fit. Hands-on, how to hire people, how to deal with human resources, a lot about marketing and overall just how to structure the business, how it works for me and also then how that can translate into working better for my clients. The most valuable thing I’ve learned here is time management. I like the one hour of doing your business is real critical if I’m going to grow and change. Play really teaches you how to navigate through those things. And not only find freedom, but find your purpose in your business, and find the purposes for all those other people that directly affect your business as well. Everybody. Everybody. Everyone needs to attend the conference because Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get an opportunity to see that it’s real.