Clay Clark | Farnoosh Torabi | Understanding the Emotional Relationship That Most People Have With Money + Celebrating 5 Long-Time Clay Clark Client Success Stories + Join Tim Tebow At Clay Clark’s December 5-6 Business Workshop!

Audio Transcription

I started a business because I couldn’t work for anyone else. I do things my way. I do what I think is in the best interest of the patient. I don’t answer to insurance companies. I don’t answer to large corporate organizations. I answer to my patient and that’s it. My thought when I opened my clinic was I can do this all myself. I don’t need additional outside help in many ways. I mean I went to medical school. I can figure this out. But it was a very, very steep learning curve. Within the first six months of opening my clinic, I had a $63,000 investment. I lost multiple employees. Clay helped us weather the storm of some of the things that are just a lot of people experience, especially in the medical world. He was instrumental in helping with a specific written business plan. He’s been instrumental in hiring good quality employees, using the processes that he outlines for getting in good talent, which is extremely difficult. He helped me in securing the business loans. He helped me with web development and search engine optimization. We’ve been able to really keep a steady stream of clients coming in because they found us on the web. With everything that I encountered, everything that I experienced. I quickly learned it is worth every penny to have someone in your team that can walk you through and even avoid some of the pitfalls that are almost invariable in starting your own business. I’m Dr. Chad Edwards and I own Revolution Health and Wellness Clinic. Hi, my name is Tim Johnson. I’m the owner of Tuscaloosa Ophthalmology, as well as Southern Eye Consultants, two ophthalmology practices in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. And I’m a client of Clay Clark. He asked me to answer a couple questions. The first question was, how did I hear about Clay Clark? I am a big fan of business podcasts, and his podcast popped up as a recommended listening so I started listening to the podcast. I was a little suspicious or skeptical because I thought there was going to be like an upcharge or an upsell but the idea of the month-to-month canceling really appealed to me and I kept waiting for the shoe to drop and for the upsell or for the scam to come in but it never did. It’s very legitimate. Since working with Clay, I’ve gotten a much firmer grasp on how business works. Even in medicine, business is business. I’ve learned a lot about marketing, especially how Google reviews work and how important that is. That’s very important, even in medicine. At least once a week, if not every day, I get a new patient because somebody Googled eye doctor in Tuscaloosa or ophthalmologist in Tuscaloosa. And you’d be amazed how many patients just look for an eye doctor that way. And so he’s really changed our business. Our business has grown a lot, maybe 15 to 20% this year. And so we’re really grateful for the things he’s done for our business. And the last question was, when did I perfect the laugh? I would say that you can never perfect the laugh. You just keep working at it and it just keeps getting better and better each day. But you’ve got to keep working at it. 10th of 2016 Today’s guest was nice enough to feature me as a guest on her super successful podcast so money with Farnoosh Tarabi Farnoosh is a best-selling author and is considered by many to be the voice of financial planning and financial independence for the modern woman Throughout her career Farnoosh has been featured in the Wall Street Journal Fortune magazine live with Kelly and Ryan and many other leading media publications. Throughout her career, she’s interviewed the likes of Seth Godin, Robert Kiyosaki, Tim Ferris, Ariana Huffington, Gretchen Rubin, and other industry and thought leaders. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s my pleasure to introduce the show. But this show does. Two men, eight kids co-created by two different women, 13 multimillion dollar businesses. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Thriving Time Show. One, two, three, yeah! We started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, and we’ll show you how to get there. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Yes, yes, yes, and yes! Thrive Nation, on today’s show, we have an incredible guest by the name of Miss Farnoosh. Miss Farnoosh, welcome onto the show. How are you, ma’am? I’m doing really well. Thank you for having me. What an honor. Hey, you have had massive success. When I first connected with you years ago, you’ve gone on to have even more massive success. So before you overwhelm everybody with the success, can you share with the listeners out there your beginning and your childhood and where it all started? Worcester, Massachusetts. Whoa. Yeah. Anyone out there familiar with WUSTA? We dropped the R’s where I’m from. My parents flew here in 1979 from Iran and my dad came to the States with a university scholarship to study physics and get a PhD in physics of which I have zero genes. I did not get that DNA, unfortunately, but he and my mom moved here, classic immigrant story of coming here to achieve the American dream. I was born in 1980, and really, I think that experience of seeing my parents build their lives up from the ground up was huge for me in terms of understanding the power of money and what it can do for you and what it can’t do for you, the importance of family, the importance of working hard. And so I’m a byproduct of the sort of American Dream immigrant story. And fast forward to today, as you know, financial advice is my forte. But at the end of the day, I think I just like to consider myself as somebody who likes being in service, to in service of other people. I like to help and money is my medium. You like so many people found yourself at the age of 22 if I’m correct with about a $30,000 debt there and you’re making $18 an hour with a master’s degree. How did you get there and how did you get out of that dynamic where so many people are stuck burdened with that student debt with very little income? Well, how I got there is that I really, really wanted to get this degree. As someone who was transitioning from college to the real world, I wanted to then go immediately into graduate school to learn the ropes and to get my journalism degree. I had this big dream of becoming a big journalist one day, and I felt like a graduate degree would really help me transition. And it did, and it was going to cost me a lot. It was about $30,000 in total. Well, actually, part of that was also credit card debt. So it was a lot of student loans, part credit card debt. I really, at the time, believed that it was an investment in myself. I rolled the dice a little bit with that large amount of money, but I was also very committed, as soon as I got out of graduate school, to make the money to be out of that debt sooner than later. And I, you know, unfortunately, all that was available at the time was an $18 an hour job of working for a magazine as sort of a glorified intern, but I supplemented that income with side hustles, babysitting, copywriting. I bird sat over a July 4th weekend. Bird sat, right, bird sat. And I wouldn’t do that again, but I did it. And I made a quick, you know, $75. And every little bit of money that I could squirrel together from these side hustles went to pay off this student loan debt. Actually years later, I got a book deal and I got a nice advance and rather than go and blow that on who knows what, I took a large chunk of that and paid down all of my student loans which honestly didn’t have a huge interest rate at the time. I could have probably put that in the market, made a little bit more money over time, but for me it was really important to be debt free and it helped me from not just a financial standpoint but like an emotional standpoint. I could sleep better at night and so for me that was important to do. When did you first have the vision to become a financial expert and when did you start to gain some traction? I think it all started to come together for me in my early 20s. I was, you know, as I said, I graduated from journalism school and my first job was working at Money Magazine as an editorial assistant and that was a real, that was a real learning experience for me, getting to know how to actually write to help people with their money. What are the elements of a good financial advice piece? And then there, I was able to meet so many different editors and people who were doing the good work of giving advice to their audience about money. And I guess I was gravitating more and more towards that. I didn’t initially think this was gonna be my path. I thought I’m gonna just kind of work here, learn how to be a good reporter, and then transfer those skills maybe to a different type of reporting. Maybe it would be political reporting or international news reporting. But I really still felt that money was, for a lot of reasons, a place that I should hang out a little bit more in. So one, I felt like I had a fluency around money that most of my peers did not. I grew up again in that Middle Eastern family where money was something that we talked about a lot and I grew up with a comfort level around money discussions that I think was unique to me and was in some ways sort of a leg up. And then the other thing is that I thought money is where it’s at. You know, people need to know how to manage their money before they can really learn how to run their lives in a way that is meaningful. That if you have debt, if you’re mismanaging your money, that can really hinder you from being able to achieve your goals, achieve your dreams. And so, foundationally, I found money to be really important, and if I could be the person to help people in that way, it was very gratifying to me, and it still is. And I know there’s a lot of ground to cover here, but from the time of your first book, or what I believe to be your first book, You’re So Money, Live Rich Even When You’re Not, from there to now your newest project, the She Stacks Project, can you walk us through what inspired you to write that first book? And how did you get into your newest project? So what inspired the first book was really me feeling like there wasn’t enough advice out there for the younger generation how to manage their money in a way that made sense to them. So a lot of the advice at the time, and this was mid-2000s, was catered to our parents’ generation and the advice that was given was often given by, you know, white men to be very frank. And I felt that there needed to be more diversity and not just who was giving the advice but also who we were talking to and who we were helping. There was a huge service gap for the Millennials and for the young adults and I felt as somebody who was working in the trenches as a financial writer and as also a member of this community, that I wanted to be a leading voice for my generation. And so that was really the impetus for You’re So Money, this book that was really in service of young people as they were grappling with things like student loan debt and stagnant wages and wanting to have a lifestyle and a life, but on a budget, obviously, and how to kind of, you know, tread their financial life in a way that addressed all of these sort of immediate concerns, but also allowed them to plan for their future. And from the voice of somebody who is in it with them, I think was also a key thing. And then, of course, fast forward to today, thank you for bringing it up. I’m starting a new company called SheStacks with two female founders, in addition to myself, where we really want to build this sisterhood for women to come and feel like they’re supported around their financial goals and their financial questions. And it’s called SheStacks, but our first offering is this year in the spring, a venture that we have called Stacks House. It’s a pop-up that maybe you’re familiar with Museum of Ice Cream or Museum of Pizza or Color Factory. These experiential pop-ups are very popular right now. People love going to them, taking photographs, putting them on Instagram. They’re creating a cultural wave. We thought, what if we took that format and instead of pizza and ice cream, catered this pop-up to financial literacy for women and financial empowerment for women. So Stacks House is a pop-up with a purpose to drive financial independence and literacy within the female population. And we’re launching in Los Angeles this spring for a month. You can visit us there for a month. You can go to StacksHouse.com. And then the goal is to travel throughout the country with this activation, all the time learning what women need, what they want, how they’re reacting to things, and also building community. Because that’s what’s really missing from this bigger conversation about, you know, women and wealth. I think that I have done a lot of work in this space and I’ve done content, I’ve done videos, I’ve done, I have a podcast. But what’s really missing, Clay, is sort of this experiential community layer. Well, you know, we have a human pop-up here, my partner in crime, Dr. Robert Zellner. A pop-up experience. Dr. Z, you popped up, you’re on the show. What question do you have for the financial expert, Ms. Farnoosh? Well, to be accurate, since she dropped her R’s, are you? Is it just a freebie? It’s a ticketed event, so that’s one revenue stream. We also are working with brand partners who are helping to support the build and that’s going to help to make this experience incredible. We have partners including Zelle, which is the person-to-person payment service. They are our presenting sponsor and they are dedicating a large portion of the to helping women really ask for what they want, which we believe should be money, and to learn how to empower themselves with their money. And then we also have Charles Schwab as a partner who’s going to be presenting our retirement rodeo. So you get to come to the event and learn about compound interest and the importance of riding the volatility of the market over time on our mechanical savings pig. That’s awesome. So this is what I mean about, you know, making this such a dynamic experience. We couldn’t do this alone. We have brand partners. We’re gonna have the women who attend who are gonna give us feedback and it’s a ticketed event. And of course we’ll have some merchandise, but we are hoping that more than anything, this is going to be our way of learning what the market needs because she stacks the parent company has a lot of ambition to build a lot of different products and services and events for women but we didn’t just want to throw ideas against the wall and we didn’t want to just build another app right we wanted to first do this listening tour through the form of this pop-up to then give us a more informed direction as to what would be the next kind of the next iteration well this second of a sidebar little known fact about Clay Clark. He’s always wanted to perform as a clown, as a rodeo clown. So really? This just in. Well, I’m just saying, you know, we’ll be in LA for a month, Clay. Come on. I’ll come out with you. We could, you know, put the face paint and oversized, you know, britches. Well, with an oversized head like I already have, I could just be a human bobble head. Now, for a news show, I want to ask you this, because you have said this either on a podcast or a book I’ve read, or I mean, I just hear you say this theme, so if I’m paraphrasing and getting it incorrect, please correct me here. But I believe you’ve said that money isn’t just about dollars and cents. It’s more of a deeply layered issue, if I’m paraphrasing that correctly. What does that mean? Well, money is emotional, right? And I think we’re at a place in our world and where we are in our timeline of events, and historically speaking, like we’re in the communications world, we’re in the world of the internet. You can just Google a definition of Roth IRA or compound interest and index funds, and I don’t think the issue is like understanding the definitions or the technicals of money. Of course, there is a bit of a learning curve still, but I think like that stuff is out there. But what makes money really hard for people in my experience, in my personal life, and in other people’s lives that I’ve encountered is the emotional gap. Money brings about a lot of, for some people, anxiety, fear, confusion, insecurities, and so that needs to get addressed. I think that’s foundational. I think that managing your money is like 10% math, 90% mindset. And that’s kind of my second book, really is where my second book comes in, is Psych Yourself Rich, is it’s more about the behavioral tendencies that we have around money and how to address them and how to kind of develop the disciplines and the right healthy mindset to be able to manage your money well. If you think, for example, that you’re not worth it, guess what, you’re not going to make the money. If you think that you’re bad with money, guess what, you’re not going to be good with money. What we tell ourselves and the emotions that we harbor around money are often what keeps us from achieving financial independence, from making the right kind of money moves. You’ve been interviewed on the Today Show, Oprah Magazine, so many different media publications and outlets, and nobody ever receives universal praise. You know, I’m a big fan of yours. We like what you do. But I’m sure there’s somebody who’s left you a bad iTunes review or a bad Google review or hates on you on social media. I know you’re dealing with that criticism. As a female entrepreneur, you’re a financial management expert, but you’re niched to help the women out there. How do you personally handle that kind of adversity and criticism? Well, I think it helps to have been doing this for as long as I have. I think in the beginning I was much more sensitive to criticism, but I think as I’ve gotten older and I’ve also experienced criticism, I’ve become a little immune to it. But I also think that criticism is great. When I meet people who are often afraid to share their ideas with the world because they worry what people are going to think, I often think, you know, what would be worse is that you share something with the world and no one reacts. What’s better is if you share something with the world and then what happens is there’s discourse, there’s conversation, there’s debate, because then you know that you are moving the needle. Then you know that you’re saying something that is striking a chord. For every person who disagrees with you, there are probably a hundred that agree with you, but it’s more in our human nature to be outspoken over things that we don’t like. Things that you like, you like. You know, think about it. When you have experienced a bad, let’s say, I don’t know, restaurant or hotel experience, you’re more likely to go on that website and complain. If it was pleasant, if it was great, you’re not going to say anything. So I actually had a mentor of mine years ago say, Farhanoush, for every negative criticism you get, whether that’s in a comment section of a blog or wherever, in your email inbox, there are probably a hundred people that loved it but just didn’t think that it would matter for them to say anything. So let’s talk about financial feminism. What do you mean by that? Well, I mean that to some extent, you know, money has no gender. I want to just say that. But I think that when it comes to women and money, there are certain things that we have to care more about. You know, we are living longer than men. And unfortunately, there is this thing called the pink tax, which is that some of the everyday common goods that we all have to purchase, whether that’s dry cleaning, a haircut, deodorant, there’s often a higher price that women pay for those things. Automotive repair, you women pay through the nose for automotive repair. I know this to be a fact. Well, yeah, because we’re taking advantage of it. The person who’s charging us assumes that we don’t know anything and therefore takes advantage of us. And so we live longer, we pay more for things, we also make less on average than men over our lifetimes. And so we need to identify with these gaps and we need to combat them head on. And we need to understand that there is, we need to rally as a gender, but also I think men are important to come into this conversation too and into this movement too. We need everybody to get behind the importance of helping women advance in their financial lives. That to me is sort of where financial feminism comes into place, like really believing that there are some special steps that need to be taken to make sure that women can achieve financial equality, that we’re very much behind in some ways and taking the sort of the viewpoint and the stance of being a financial feminist for that reason is very important. I think we have to be really loud and really conscious and deliberate about how we are working with women to help them get ahead. I just had a guest on my podcast recently who talked about how you can’t actually be a feminist if you’re broke. Because guess what? When you’re broke, you don’t have money to make choices. You don’t have the ability, the agency, to walk away from something that is harmful to you sometimes or that is threatening to you. And so that’s again where financial feminism comes into play. And I agree with that too. I think that that’s a bold statement and it’s probably gonna have some critics coming at her, but I think that that is something that needs to be said. And that’s financial feminism. Now, Farnoosh, I know you have a hard out. You have a lot of things going on today. So I have two final questions for you. And I know Dr. Z has one. So my lightning round question for you, number one, you’re a very intentional person. What do the first four hours of your typical day look like? What do the first four hours of your typical day look like? And what time do you typically wake up? I’ll answer the second one first. I typically wake up when my kids wake up. They are my alarm clock. I have a five, almost five year old and a two year old, and they typically wake up between six 30 and seven. I prefer seven. And the next four hours from there is first with getting them ready for the day. So my son goes to school, my daughter is at home, but they have needs. And so I’m really just here for them in those first two hours. It’s just getting them ready for breakfast, getting them dressed, all the things that parents do with their children in the morning, taking them to the bus stop. Following that, I like to have a little bit of downtime. I just don’t try to schedule anything really before 10 a.m. just so that I can have that couple of hours between my son going off to school and my nanny arriving for my daughter to sort of get into work mode or even just exercise mode or just stare at a wall mode because I don’t have a lot of time to myself day to day and I try to carve out a little bit of time in the morning to just have freedom and flexibility to do whatever I want and kind of make a game day decision. Now my final question I have, I know Dr. Zellner has one more question for you, Stacks House. If somebody out there is listening right now and they hear about Stacks House and they want to find out more about it, how do they do that? Well thanks for the opportunity to share this with everybody. So Stacks House, you can go to StacksHouse.com. Tickets will be available soon. Again, we’re launching in the spring in Los Angeles. And you can also follow us on Instagram at Stacks House. And bonus, if you follow us, every Monday I go into our story and answer people’s questions. So free money advice on Mondays at Stacks House on Instagram. Oh, it’s like Christmas. It’s just like Christmas. It’s like Christmas, yeah. Or Hanukkah, whatever. Yeah, whatever you’re playing with. So give us another gift of a great question. Now, if you could go back in time, 20 years, and sit down with yourself, what advice would you give yourself? I would definitely, oh, I can answer this. I would definitely tell myself to have more fun and not get too caught up in what other people think. You know, that I was really almost to a fault, super focused growing up and I just was a list master and I just got to have to get the A and I, you know, I was a very rule follower and it’s incredible that now I’m like an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs typically aren’t, they’re rule breakers and I’m breaking rules now but I wish I’d broken a few more rules when I was younger. I wish I had tested myself a little bit more and maybe even tested my parents a little bit more. I gave them too easy of a ride, I think. And yeah, I think looking back, I wish I had just been a little bit more whimsical because life is too short. And I think I could have had a lot of learning even through that experience. I almost to a fault associated having fun with like maybe there was something wrong with that. Like if you’re having too much fun, that can’t be a good thing. You know, you need to study hard, work hard, do the right thing, follow the rules. And part of that is in my DNA. I come from a family of rule followers. But I also think that, you know, I just somehow assumed like if you do the good work and you’re goody two-shoes that good things will happen. No, you can also break some rules and good things will happen. You know, Farnoosh, I regret not having you on the show earlier because I was on your show February 10th of 2016. And Z, it’s taken us this long to have a reunion here. I know. What’s going on here? What is the deal? I’m here to buy you a moment, I know. Unbelievable. It was never too late to join with Clay. Well, thank you for agreeing to be on our show. We’re so excited for you. We encourage all of our listeners to check out your new website and we’ll put a link on the show notes so they can check it out. And again, thank you for your time. I know you have so many great things to do today, but thank you once again. Thank you so much. You bet. Great job. Thrive Nation, I would ask you this question here. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most proactive you could possibly be with your finances, you know where every dollar is going. And one is, frankly, you have no idea where your money is going, you have no real discernible plan. I would encourage you to rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of your contentment and your confidence that you are headed the right way financially. And if for any reason you feel stuck or you just don’t know what to do, I would encourage you to go to Thrivetimeshow.com today and book your tickets for our next in-person Thrivetimeshow workshop. Now here’s the deal. The tickets are normally $250, right? But let’s just say that you’re listening today and you say, I know I need to attend, but I don’t have any money, which is why I need to attend. If that’s the kind of the situation you say, I know I need to attend because I don’t have any money, therefore I can’t afford to attend. I get it. So here’s what you got to do. Just go to Thrive Time Show on iTunes, subscribe to the podcast. That’s free. So step one, it’s free to look it up on iTunes. It’s free to leave a review there. Step two, subscribe and leave an objective review. Step three, this is all still free stuff. Send us a screenshot of your review and email it to info at thrive timeshow.com. Email info at thrive timeshow.com. That’s free as well. All these steps so far are free. And once you do that, you can attend our workshop for as little as $37. Now that includes the workbook, food for both days of the conference. And for $37, you can experience a life-changing event. And don’t just take my word for it. As of right now, we are the world’s highest and most reviewed business workshop. How do I know this? Just Google search Thrive Time Show Conference and start reading the reviews. We have over 582 reviews on Google. To be exact, 582 reviews on Google today right there on the Google map. Over a thousand reviews on iTunes. And on YouTube, which is to me the most impressive, we have over a thousand real people on camera talking about their experience at the Thrive Time Show workshop and how it changed and impacted their lives. We want to help you, but we can’t help you if we don’t get a chance to know you. So again, if financially you feel stuck today, be a person of action. Be a doer. Because vision without execution is hallucination. And now without any further ado, 3, 2, 1, Boom! The number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. We are Jared and Jennifer Johnson. We own Platinum Pest and Lawn and are located in Owasso, Oklahoma. We have been working with Thrive for business coaching for almost a year now. Yeah. So, what we want to do is we want to share some wins with you guys that we’ve had by working with Thrive. First of all, we’re on the top page of Google now. I just want to let you know what type of accomplishment this is. Our competition, Orkin, Terminix, they’re both 1.3 billion dollar companies. They both have two to three thousand pages of content attached to their website. So to basically go from virtually non-existent on Google to up on the top page is really saying something. But it’s come by being diligent to the systems that Thrive has. By being consistent and diligent on doing a podcast and staying on top of those podcasts to really help with getting up on what they’re listing and ranking there with Google. And also we’ve been trying to get Google reviews, asking our customers for reviews, and now we’re the highest rated and most reviewed pest and lawn company in the Tulsa area. And that’s really helped with our conversion rate. And the number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. Wait, say that again. How much are we up? 411%. Okay, so 411% we’re up with our new customers. Amazing. Right. So not only do we have more customers calling in, we’re able to close those deals at a much higher rate than we were before. Right now our closing rate is about 85% and that’s largely due to, first of all, like our Google reviews that we’ve gotten. People really see that our customers are happy. But also, we have a script that we follow. And so when customers call in, they get all the information that they need. That script has been refined time and time again. It wasn’t a one and done deal. It was a system that we followed with Thrive in the refining process. And that has obviously, the 411% shows that that system works. Yeah, so here’s a big one for you. So last week alone, our booking percentage was 91%. We actually booked more deals, more new customers last year than we did the first five months, or I’m sorry, we booked more deals last week than we did the first five months of last year from before we worked with Thrive. So again, we booked more deals last week than the first five months of last year. And it’s incredible, but the reason why we have that success is by implementing the systems that Thrive has taught us and helped us out with. Some of those systems that we’ve implemented are group interviews, that way we’ve really been able to come up with a really great team. We’ve created and implemented checklists that when everything gets done and it gets done right, it creates accountability, we’re able to make sure that everything gets done properly both out in the field and also in our office. And also doing the podcast like Jared had mentioned that has really, really contributed to our success but that, like I said, the diligence and consistency in doing those and that system has really, really been a big blessing in our lives and also it’s really shown that we’ve gotten the success from following those systems. So before working with Thrive, we were basically stuck. Really no new growth with our business. And we were in a rut. And we didn’t know… Okay. The last three years, our customer base had pretty much stayed the same. We weren’t shrinking, but we weren’t really growing either. Yeah. And so we didn’t really know where to go, what to do, how to get out of this rut that we’re in. But Thrive helped us with that. You know, they implemented those systems, and they taught us those systems, they taught us the knowledge that we needed in order to succeed. Now it’s been a grind, absolutely it’s been a grind this last year, but we’re getting those fruits from that hard work and the diligent effort that we’re able to put into it. So again, we were in a rut, Thrive helped us get out of that rut, and if you’re thinking about working with Thrive, quit thinking about it and just do it. Do the action and you’ll get the results. It will take hard work and discipline, but that’s what it’s gonna take in order to really succeed. So, we just wanna give a big shout out to Thrive, a big thank you out there to Thrive. We wouldn’t be where we’re at now without their help. On today’s show, we have the opportunity to share the real success story of Jared and Jennifer, the founders of Platinum Pest Control. They are real people, just like you, experiencing real success. You see, with our business coaching program, we’ll teach you the proven systems, we’ll hold you accountable, and we’ll help you do what you can’t do yourself for less money than it would cost you to hire even one $10 per hour employee. However, nothing works unless you do. Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show. What this show does, two men, eight kids co-created by two different women, 13 multi-million dollar businesses. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Thriving Times show. Yes, yes, yes, and yes. On today’s show, just a little back story for you. Jared and Jennifer Johnson have been members of the Thrive Time Show business coaching program now for a little over a year. During that time, they have grown their company, I believe, more than 400%. I mean, it is unbelievable success. And we asked if they would come in to the offices at our 1100 Riverwalk Terrace office to speak to our employees, to share with the entire team that’s helping support their growth and success. We have graphic designers, photographers, web developers, coders, search engine optimization, content writers. There’s so many people behind the scenes executing and building the systems and processes needed to grow their company. Yeah, Jared and Jennifer have a coach who meets with them every week, but there’s a whole team that is supporting Jared and Jennifer. We wanted our team to be able to meet Jared and Jennifer so they could share about the wins they’ve had this year and that way our team could actually meet the people that they that they help. And so the audio on this portion will not be like a typical audio from a Thrive Time show. It was recorded at our offices in our conference room. So a little different audio quality than normal, but the message is incredible. Grab a pen and a pad, take some notes, because if you’re on the fence right now about taking your life and your business to the next level, this may be just what you need to hear to kick this year in gear. So how did you guys first hear about us? Well actually I hopped in there, it’s talking about burning fires, there’s a burning fire, so I had to hop in one of our technicians vehicles and go get it taken care of whenever I was in the vehicle. You came on the radio, right? And I started listening, I said, wow, who is this guy? What’s he talking about? These are things that, man, I can relate to that. And so, and then I realized that, hey, you come on every day. And so I started listening to you every day. And the things you were saying were things that we needed help with in our business. We felt like we were stuck, and everything that you’re saying, issues that had happened to you in your previous companies, and how you’ve kind of overcame them, I realized, hey, those were things that we could really benefit from and really need help from. I think we first met at a conference when the room was facing that way. Yeah. So a different shape, and with the time we were capping about 50 people. I remember meeting you and your wife there. It was maybe November. Was it on November? It was May. May? Close. But it was the other shape, right? Yeah. Who remembers when it was that way? How did you decide to come to the conference and what was the conversation at home before deciding to come to it? Well, after listening to you for a while, you know, I really thought, hey, we could really benefit from coaching, get something that we needed. However, I knew that if I just threw that on Jen, it wasn’t going to go very well. Why is that? And so and so I realized, hey, I had to kind of ease her into it, because I’d been listening to you for a while. I don’t know how long it was, but time after time after time, it all kind of made sense and came together. And so I figured. I think you’d even kind of mentioned it a couple times, and I was like, no, no, no. Test the waters, right? It failed. Yeah. And I wanted to come to a conference anyways, and I knew that if she could come to a conference and just kind of listen to everything that you talked about in the conferences, then she would see how it all logically made sense and it would be able to make it. What were your reservations about coming to the conference just so I can hear your mindset or your take? I didn’t want to spend the time. I didn’t want to have to get a babysitter for it. It was two days and I was eight months pregnant. So like sitting all day didn’t sound very attractive and I didn’t really see the value in it but we’re a team and so I figured I’d trust him on this and just try it out. Had you been to conferences before where there’s like a big upsell at the end? Like the big, come on down. I hadn’t been to them. We really hadn’t been to conferences. You guys are missing out. Oh, I’m sure we are. That’s what I don’t know. Those are awesome. I’ve talked to lots of people who have been to them. Okay, so you came to the conference and what was your experience like at the conference during those two days? It was great. It was a lot less formal than I thought it was going to be. There were some great ideas. There were some things that we had even talked about like we really need to do this and that’s as far as it had gone. Everything just really made sense and there was it was high energy. Yeah it was great seeing light bulbs go off with her. It’s like, aha, hey this makes sense and that was great because I had those same light bulbs as I was listening to the radio before. And then also of course there’s a lot more information there in the conference and it was great to be able to have those come together. And everything was really applicable too. It wasn’t anything that was like, well you’d have to be like a really big company to do that. Like everything was actionable. Yeah, it’s specific. It wasn’t big and vague. You know, just more information than you know. Now the one thing that’s interesting about our conferences is that when you guys were coming to the conference to learn, we’re also trying to learn from you as attendees. Like, what do we need? I’ve spoken at so many and attended so many, but we want to make it better every time. Have you come back to it? You did come back to one of them, right? I did. I went to December. How was that different versus the first one in your mind? And which one did you like better? I don’t know. They were both good for different reasons, at least for me. Like, after the first one, it was just so much. And there was so much that we were like, okay, we need to do this, we need to do that, but there’s only so much time. And at the time we were working in the business, we didn’t have time to do, well, say we didn’t have time to do all that. But then after doing coaching for a while and then coming back in December, there were things that we had talked about before that we’re kind of reminded of, or as we’d implemented the systems, just different things that we heard or were reminded of. Oh yeah, we need to do this or I don’t know if that makes sense. Yeah, Jen mentioned it after I attended the second one, she’s like, hey it’s kind of like we’re renewing our vows for the business. Yeah. Like come back from a retreat. Re-energize, like get, I don’t know, more diligence. Yeah, they’re both fantastic. I mean there were a lot more people at the second one. You had more guest speakers. It was great hearing their perspectives as well. But I mean they’re both outstanding. Now you guys started the coaching program with Marshall. Yes. And for people here that don’t know your relationship with Marshall, can you kind of share what it was like working with Marshall those first couple weeks, first couple months, maybe some of the first actionable wins? You know, where you first started seeing some results or fruits or you know, what did that start of the relationship look like and what were some of the early wins? Yeah, well, I mean, that’s going to go way back here. Let me pull it way back. And Jared started going to the meetings just himself. I didn’t attend in the beginning. Yeah, we didn’t start getting real success until she started coming, right? And part of it is like three weeks after we started coaching is when I had the baby. So it kind of prevented me from doing the things. Which goes back, I’ll back track a little bit, which I knew that if we didn’t get to that conference before she had the baby, then who knows when it would have… I mean there was really no good time to start, but it just had to start, right? And so I pushed everything that we could to get it done before the baby came. But there was no good time to start? No, no, there was no good time to start. You just had to start. There’s no perfect time. That was another thing with the conference, like however many hours… I could have been doing other stuff. If we’re gonna be working, like I have other things to do than sit and listen to someone. That’s kind of an idea too. Now you guys, you’re working with Marshall and he starts teaching you things. What are some of the things that he started doing or implementing first? Yeah, so it started, you know, I wanted to get up on the SEO, so I started implementing podcasts and doing those right away. And you did those? During bedtime. I do my best to do them in the morning right whenever I was on the way to do some appointments because I was still doing a lot more work in the business that time. I would bust those out while I was driving, while I was on the road. What time were you waking up at that time? It was probably between 5 and 6. So you’re getting up every day at five or six, recording podcasts. Do you ever have a thought like, why am I doing this? Does this season get over? Does this split waste my time? Why am I doing this? Well, I knew, by listening to you before, I knew that, hey, it had to be done in order to get this. So we had our goal. So what happened if it went through the day and I didn’t, if I wasn’t able to hit my goals on the podcast, well, then it was half an event time. And this is where Jen was so awesome, right? I mean, she’s so awesome everywhere, right? Good thing. I heard what you meant. But on top of that, I mean, we were in it together, so she saw the goal, that was in mind. So as she’s putting to bed a newborn and two other kids, I’m in a room busting out podcasts, that’s got to be pretty frustrating, right, as I’m working while she’s taking care of the kids and putting them down, which was a handful, which was a juggle without my help. When did you get your first leads that came in from the internet. First time we were like, what? Somebody found us on the internet? Holy crap, this works? I mean, I can’t recall. It did take a little while, which we totally expected. We knew that we had a lot of work. We had a lot of organization, a lot of systems that we had to implement. And we just knew it was going to take time. How long did it take you to see any fruit at all? Three months, four months? Now, I want to ask my wife these questions now. When we were doing SEO, nobody visualized this, please, but it has to be said. I would do all my SEO in the back. I was typing. I was doing this for days. We hired a company in Tulsa. I don’t remember the name. I will mention the name of the company, but we pay I think 10 grand for the website. After we paid three grand for another company to build a website, so it’s 13 grand. And then we pay, it was like three or four grand a month, every month for them to write like a couple articles. But we got to tell us the world, but we always wrote articles. That was their big thing, but we got to tell us the world. So we spent, I want to say, probably a hundred thousand dollars on SEO before we got to the top of Google. And then after that we had to pay ongoing fees and so that was just for the SEO and then for the video people they would charge us like five to seven grand per video the last video I spent five grand on was like two years ago there was like five grand every time and then I think so I think and what what did we charge you guys you remember we What are we charging? Well on the, yeah just the coaching. If y’all are doing, if y’all are writing our SEO, I think it’s 15 bucks an article. Okay. Yeah. So I’m just saying like we, I just want you guys to understand this, everybody who works here, because I know you don’t get a chance to meet great people like these guys, but we are now providing for these guys ten times the value at one tenth of the cost. You know what I mean? But it doesn’t work unless they work. So talk about getting reviews. When did you start to get on your review game and start gathering reviews? Well this was so great. We had I think 13 reviews, but we were five stars. We were a five star company. That’s right. And so we had 13. There’s other guy in Owasso too, and he started the company about the same time we did and we were kind of like neck and neck and he got to like 18. No he’s not. No, we don’t have him, we can’t make him lose. Yeah, absolutely, yeah. But he got to like 18 reviews, we’re like, no, right? And then we started. I think the idea of asking for reviews never really occurred to us, which is so silly. Now the mental block, there’s somebody in this room who probably has this problem, where you have not, because you ask not, but you don’t ask often, because you’re afraid of a rejection. How did you get over that mental block of just asking? I knew people would give them to us if we just asked, right? We have happy customers. Yeah, and so, you know, I mean people would, I mean they’d call us and they’d thank us and you know and tells me you did a great job and then well that seems pretty easy just ask for a review. So we started doing that and then we just started asking all the time. And then doing surveys. Yeah, surveys. We would do follow-up surveys the day after the service and then they would say how much they loved us which is a natural segue into, well hey, would you leave us a Google review? They already said they liked us. So this is how we got over it, we wrote a script. Right? My script, yes! So we wrote a script on the customer surveys and it just flows and then you just ask for it and it comes. So as far as a percentage wise, I’m not asking you necessarily for a dollar amount, but as a percentage, how much bigger is your company now than it was previous to coaching, like 18 months ago? Yeah, so. I know, so we didn’t keep track. One of the other things that we started doing that’s been really helpful is keeping a list, a sheet of all of our leads, and it’s color coded. You guys are probably familiar with that process. And in the, like before, we started working with Thrive, like we never did that, so all we had was our software to tell us, but, so we started in June of 2017, but our busy season, it starts, well, like April-ish. April to June are like a really big blowing up months. So we compared 2018 before we started coaching 2018 and our number of new customers like not just people called our number of new customers increased by 485 percent. It increased by almost 5 percent. Now if you are here you’ve done something for Blackham in the past. Thank you, you’re awesome. Johnny, what have you done for PlatinumFest? Lots of graphic design stuff. Okay, such as business cards? Anything that comes on my list, I know I’ve done website stuff, landing pages, one sheet. Just anything that has ever come on my list, basically just see what you guys need. Who else has worked with PlatinumFest? Let’s go with Felicia. What have you done? I think I made a header video, maybe some testimonials. Amanda, what have you done for PlatinumFest? I know I’ve uploaded some articles. I may have written some too, but I know I’ve uploaded. Who else has done work for PlatinumFest? Carter, what have you been doing? Lots of articles written, and then back in SEO work. And then, who else? The same thing, we’re just writing articles. Matt, what have you got? I transcribed all of his podcasts. I’m sorry, man. I don’t think we’re reading those. We’re going to make sure we’re getting this. Can you put your hands up again if you can help me out? Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Samantha, what have you done? I’ve set the app. So there’s ten people that have gone to work and helped you guys. And they, because they’re diligent doers, are actually appreciative, which is so bizarre. Right? It’s a win-win. You get this idea like we charge them, they pay us, we make a 20% profit, you guys are doing it. It’s a mutually, it’s a win-win. But people that can’t grasp that idea that you’d have to hire 10 people to do what you guys do are not a good fit for us. Does that make sense to you guys? Because it would take ten people. I first started consulting in 2009, but as it goes, I would personally do website edits and the Photoshop and the photography and the video and the edit, all of it. So my whole day I’d do it all myself. And I could do it, I’m like a business ninja guy, but I would take my entire week to work with one client on one thing. So John’s built these systems that allow us to go faster and faster. So when you guys started getting leads, you’re top of Google, you’re getting reviews, you’re top of Google, you’re doing podcasts, you’re top of Google, your leads are coming in. When did you guys start recording calls? Oh. It was pretty early on. Yeah, it was pretty early on, once we started working with y’all. Yeah, I heard you talk about it a lot, it’s like, I need to do this. And what did you learn the first day you recorded those sweet calls? Oh my gosh, what is actually said? It’s, yeah, it’s kind of shocking what can come out people’s mouths. So and then we’re like wow we’ve got to we got to get him on this. And the thing is we had recently hired someone because our previous officer said she had a baby right? So we’re in a pinch right? So we hired someone right away and and then we had a script and I just she just couldn’t read the script for whatever whatever reason it was right and so I listened to the phone call it was just amazing to see what was said and it was all right and I just couldn’t I just couldn’t get her to read it you know and so for she didn’t last. People here that I’d say clear in this category, Harley, Junior, those of you who are coaching clients or aspire to, Ben, what questions do you guys have for these guys? Because if I could say, how old are you guys by the way how old are you? 36. So when I was 38, when my dad was 37 he was delivering pizzas and the neighbor kids used to actually call and request him just to mock us. So we were super super poor and so my only reason I help you is I kind of want to help like the younger version of my dad I couldn’t help but my highlight was I was 27 I told Vanessa like this I’m gonna hire my dad said he got laid off again so I was 27 I called my dad dad you are now hired he says to do what like anything I don’t even care come on he’s like are you kidding so he moved here from he visited for a month from Minnesota drove down here he lived in our house and he’s like son do I have to do anything I’m like no I mean you do something because otherwise it’s like a handout just figure out what you’re gonna do so you have to be up for the counting because we had a our first baby if it has someone to spend more time okay so it’s too verified bonafide babies but all I’m saying is like that was I had to go through hell growing up super poor seeing that people say, well did you know you were poor? I mean, yes. Yellow boxes everywhere, holes in the carpet, we have, these are clues, you know, we have the couch with the plastic on it, you know what I’m saying? Yeah. You got plastic on it. I got the yellow boxes everywhere, you know, trying to find creative ways to eat oatmeal every day, you know and it’s just and so I was very aware of that so I’ve always wanted to like help that version of my dad my dad had a degree you can check that box graduated second in this class and we’re opposite versity check that box had all the 4.0 stuff but no practical skills so you guys are these guys are like the personification of why we started this while we do what we do so what questions do you guys have for these guys about implementation Harley you know you’ve got clients that won’t implement their stuff. And you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to take this audio and I’m going to send it to them. So what’s your question? Alright, so I believe Jen, is your name correct? Yep. So Jen, you made a very quick comment. When I heard it, I was like, oh my God, this is awesome. You said we needed to spend time working on the business. And we just didn’t think we had the time to work on the business until we did. So when was that moment where you thought to hell with it, we just, we gotta delegate time to working on the business. We believe there’s a hell. Was it something Marshall worked through with you, or was it just something you had a life moment you realized? When did this occur? Being here in person is really helpful for me, because I went to the financial conference with Paul Hood. I don’t know if it was the first one, but I think it was one of the first. And I realized that I, because we had kind of tried to work me out of the business. And so it would just be Jared. So I could just be at home with the kids because being a mom is important to me. And I felt like I was never doing anything all the way well. Like I was always falling short in every area. And so I went to the conference and I realized that Jared and I are partners in this and that I needed to be more involved. And that’s when I started coming to the coaching meetings. And part of that was that I realized that I had certain skills that Jared didn’t have and never would have. Lots of skills. All the skills. Oh yes. Like I’m very much a numbers person, and like even last night I was telling him something about like our credit card statements, and he’s like, can you just start over? Oh she created this awesome Google sheet, yeah, oh yeah. And so it took, what I realized is that it’s gonna take both of us, and that we’re gonna have to sacrifice and figure stuff out. Like we had to figure something out to make it to where I could be in the office more, come to the coaching meetings, be more dedicated to the business now so that later I could have that time to be with the kids later, once we got that time freedom. But that time freedom doesn’t just come because you want it. Like you have to do something. And so thankfully my sister was here at the time. So she’s someone I trust my kids with that she had them a lot. And so I was able to sacrifice time with my kids at the time, so I could work on the business. Whereas now, I’m able to do a lot more in a less amount of time. I don’t know if that makes sense. Well, it does, because we were talking last night about systems that we have now that have created that time. So it’s working hard and creating that in the middle of energy. And sacrificing. I will say this, and summarize it here. You two, much like me, I have won the game of life, you know? My wife is awesome. So I, if you’ve met her, you might ask yourself, why would you throw your wife away and marry that guy? But she is very good. And so you are, you guys are a great team. And I think that that is what they’re doing as a team. And if you have clients where there’s couples and they’re willing to work with each other, that is a superpower that is like awesome also impossible when the two people don’t agree on their life goals and they’re going against each other that’s a weird zone so you guys are like the super couple this is don’t see that for marital tips okay it does also help marriage though working together you have to be able to work past you know the things that Melissa’s a question for you were there any like major daily bad habits that you had to kick in order to pursue your goals and maybe a new daily habit you added to help you stay on track? Number one was alcohol and drugs. We had to, we just couldn’t, we got enough. But, but yeah. No. Let’s see. Or maybe not even a habit, maybe just like you’re going, this is a waste of time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So OK, here’s one. It’s actually, you know what? I mean, it sounds so simple, right? Is making the to-do list right in the morning. Sitting down, taking the time, and focusing on what’s going to happen that day. If not, you’re just letting the day run you, right? Because things are going to happen, right? You’re left at the mercy of whatever fires happen, which there’s a lot if you don’t have stuff in place to handle, which we didn’t, right? So just sitting down, having to do lists, you know, to be productive and really focused on what’s happening that day. In fact, you set aside one day, was it to, for instance, like to work on drive assignments and that type of thing. Oh, yeah. So, Marshall, for a long time, has been encouraging us to set a schedule where you do the same thing all the time. Almost right. And we’re slow learners, but we got a little bit where, so I set aside a certain time, so I’m in our office twice a week, and on Tuesday, there’s things I do, and then on Thursday, there’s certain things I do, and then other things fill in the gaps, but I have to do those things. Those are like the top priority, because they’re the things that are going to get us to our goals. Have you ever fired somebody as a couple so far? Yeah. Yeah, we’ve fired people. The first time, did you fire your first person after you started working with us or had you previously fired people? It was before. Yeah, we had fired someone before, yeah, but it wasn’t… When you were still recording calls and you recognized the level of jackassery that was occurring, did you feel bad when you had to fire somebody or how did you do that? How did you feel? She left. We reassigned her. And then she left, but it was going to happen. Now, if you, what other questions did you guys have? Can I, sorry, can I add one more thing? Like, I used to make a ton of excuses, like Marshall would be like, how’s this, and I’m like, oh, my kids are up late, or sometimes kids this, kids that. And very gently, Marshall kind of, he said, like, you’re going to have to decide to let these excuses affect things or figure out a way. He said it much nicer and gently. But it made a huge difference because I started, I could hear my own excuses to myself and they were ridiculous. I’m like, well just figure out another way. So don’t do, I don’t know what, I can’t think of a good example. But stopping, stop making excuses was something that was really big for me because then I was able to kind of figure out why I actually wasn’t getting things done. And then I was able to find a way to get those. One thing that was interesting about excuses is I remember meeting with Jim Stovall years ago and he was talking about reading books, which he’s a blind man, so I was thinking, what are we talking about here? You know, and he’s like, he explained it in the book, he explains it too, but he will listen to a book and he’ll listen to the audio of the book and it usually takes, has anyone here listened to an audio book before? But for him, it’s kind of hard to read a book so he’s Braille’s not his deal so he decided the audio books but the guy and Jordan how many books that the day is he listen to the book every single day now it takes him about four hours or three hours he speeds it up so much but like I remember being a time in my life where I was around people that said, I just cannot find the time to read a book. I struggle with reading. I don’t do well. And then I remember a week with Jim Stovall. He’s telling me how he does a book every day. And I remember just, I didn’t have an excuse for anything. You could easily say, I’m blind, therefore I don’t read books. I don’t think anybody would be like, that guy’s a weasel. I don’t think anybody would be like, blind guy can’t read. I don’t think anyone’s going to do that. Right? Blank. I can’t read. But he, in fact, writes books, which requires him verbally communicating. And then he has to listen to his own book again. I mean, the process of writing a book when you’re blind is really hard. But the process of writing a book at all is very hard. But I think we all have an excuse we can make. It could be reading. I just don’t have time to read a book. Whatever. I don’t know what that is. But I think whatever excuse that is, you can totally make that an excuse and if you post it on Facebook someone will usually say you’re right because everyone has excuses and they all want to have excuses with you you know so you put I struggle with whatever if you’re like you’re right you know and it’s just you can be like an awesome mom or a bad mom or an awesome dad or bad now I’m awesome business bad it’s a choice thing you know um what are questions do you guys have for these two these are the super cool like leprechauns that’s a great question Do you think any with the office with Casey at all? I mean, because… The office is pretty awesome. Okay. Yeah, it probably… Okay, here was… It’s technicians and checklists, okay? That would be the most difficult, although it sounds simple. But, you know, every day, they have their checklist of what to… You know, make sure they have everything they need on the truck, make sure they go over all their appointments and everything else, and make sure that they’re completing those checklists. Because at first, I think, you know, the technicians thought, hey, it wasn’t necessary. But before that, I can’t tell you how many times, how much time was wasted because they forget something for an appointment, they have to drive all the way back, grab it and go all the way back. Right. But I think the checklist and implementing that because they didn’t think it, I feel they didn’t think it was necessary. This is what’s crazy is that working with business owners, I don’t, I don’t understand I think most people are normal and I’m probably not so that’s probably the difference but I think most people don’t want to eat the exact same meal every single day the exact same time but I prefer that so I was a single man I would eat the exact same time the same meal no variety but the exact same schedule I don’t even seek new things which I think is my superpower for business because I just don’t care. So if I moved in over here with Larry, I’m like, Larry, moving on your couch buddy. We auto ship the same meal every single day because I have no desire for variety of any kind, which is I don’t think is normal. But most people who are normal do want a little variety. I think therefore people hate checklists, they hate systems, they hate doing the same thing every day. How have you been able to focus on doing the same repetitive things over and over you know and work which gives you by the way the money to experience variety in life you know I mean that you can go to whatever movie you want to or go on vacation or put your kids whenever school but you got to be consistent at work how have you guys been able to say no to all these new ideas and focus on the things that work how do you know do that oh I think one of the things is as we’ve done that, we’ve seen the success from it, and that’s kind of addicting, is like when something works, you wanna keep doing that. And so we’ve been able to, as we’ve created the systems and they’ve worked, we’re more incentivized to create systems for other things because we know that they’re gonna work as long as we hold our employees accountable as well. Because we can come up with great systems, no problem. But like implementing them and holding people accountable is what’s hard for us. And but as we do that, the business improves, everything. What’s the hard part of holding people accountable? What’s the hard part of holding people accountable? Well, I mean, I do. I don’t like making people mad. Yeah, but I mean, that’s changed. You know, that’s changed as we implement it. You know, then it’s, you don’t really care as much. Who here loves to say, I told you so? I lived before I told you so. Who here is energized by conflict or rejection? It’s somehow fire and blood. And that is something I have found that like, it’s interesting if you listen to the story, John’s listening to Henry Ford you know or Thomas Edison imagine what it would be like to be married to Thomas Edison when he was 38 he had invented this point the light bulb and it took him like 10 years to come to life oh could you imagine what it’d be like to be married to somebody who for 10 years is trying to work on one thing with no success then when he’s 38 years old you saw it in the show last night, he’s 38 years old. He’s like, he finally has money. First time in his life, the dude’s got money. He’s famous, and he’s like, I really want to transform the concrete industry. What? And he goes back at it again, and homeboy loses it all again. Then he comes on back. And for him, money is not the goal. It’s the process of grinding it out that he liked. Like, think about this. Walt Disney, he lost it all twice. Could you imagine what it would be like to be his friend? He’s 38, with Walt Disney. I always picture myself in the same conversations these people, so I know their ages, but Disney was 38, lost it all again. Could you imagine what it would be like to work for a guy who comes up with a mouse named Mortimer and Mortimer was the mouse that everyone loved oh yes great but he didn’t file the paperwork needed so he lost his character because his partner stole from him so he went to bankruptcy again so he’s like here we go you know and I think it’s a certain resilience spirit you have to have to be an entrepreneur that is not normal have you got better at that Jennifer getting over like when you have to hold someone accountable and they get mad? And does it bother you anymore? How do you deal with that? Not so much, because one of the things was in the beginning, a term we learned was being held hostage by our employees, because we depended so much on them. We didn’t have systems written out. We didn’t have very many instructions written out. So if they didn’t do the job, then we were going to be doing the job. So we let them do a terrible job. Because we dreaded letting them go, because we knew what would work here like having a four-day workweek okay you’re working you’re working Friday and I work six days, that’s my word to you. But six days is the thing. Exodus and Genesis is six days. I’m all about six days. Four crushes my soul. But if I were to run it by everyone and say, who here wants to work six days? Probably not a lot of people are excited about that idea. Furthermore, if I said, hey, let’s all agree on a playlist. What do you want? Daisy, you get to choose the playlist. What’s your favorite artist? Group love. What? Group love. Who knows what that is? Who does not like that? See? Felicia, you’re in charge of the play today. What song? Sam Smith. Who likes Sam Smith? Who finds Sam Smith to be whiny? I like Sam Smith, but the thing is, if you run around asking all of your employees or teammates, what song do we all want to play, you’re never going to get consensus. you’re never going to get consensus. So the key is to kind of be okay with designing a business how you like it. So what’s your goal now with PlatinumPest this year? What are some goals? What are you guys working towards? Where are we going with PlatinumPest? Yeah, so our goal, I mean right now, our goal this year is to put, what was it, 20% back into the business for marketing. About 20%. So what we’re doing is we’re tightening up on ourselves, you know, and make sacrifices to free up the money, right, to implement back in and to bring in more and get that slack. And we know that these systems work, and so by putting money into something that works, we know that’ll be fruitful. Yes, we’ve been able to measure, which before we never did, but we didn’t really do any marketing before. We didn’t measure anything with business. Now, one of the things I’ve been interested in is I don’t really believe this building is going to be on my house, and it was Hyde and Lovett and Tarson. But one of the criticisms that I hear a lot online is 13-point assessment calls. People feel, when I’m on the phone, I’ll ask if you have any concerns before you decide to move forward or not. I like to ask that question. And a lot of people are like, well, I heard you’re shady, or you’re a terrible person. Or I’m sure if you go on the internet, you read about it, you’ll find it. You’ve seen this. You’ve run into this. You’ll learn all sorts of great things about me that aren’t true but they’re online. When do you see this? It’s just what happens. If you fire someone for being late then they go online and say you’re a racist. That’s a fun one. That’s a fun one. You know? So I explained to Daisy because I am racist she has to be in charge. But you see that though that you get that. Hey, another thing we get a lot is people will say that our systems are too simple. We’re too simple. We’re simple people. We’re just like Billy Madison’s of business. Jason Penguin’s running around. Do you like the fact that the systems are simple or do you wish they were more complex and have more like TED Talks sort of verb, you know, TED Talk. Simple is gonna be, simple is better. You know, simple is better. Yeah, but that’s the hard part. You know, that can be the difficult part. It’s taking something that could be complicated and breaking it down to simple means where a third grader can do it. Where a third grader can do it. Where I could even follow it. You know, if it can be that simple. today capitalism in America are we gonna make it I so I think people look for like complex solutions because they think it’s like there’s got to be a secret but the secret is diligence yeah is that that’s what it is it’s a simple system but like you just have to do it and keep doing it and keep doing it which I struggle with but but when we do it works and I think that’s probably why people think that if it’s too simple that’s a problem because there’s got to be a secret. Any other questions you guys have for Daisy? So are there any, has there been any times since you started coaching that you found yourself having to work in the business instead of on, like kind of reverting and what kind of systems did you put in place? If you had somebody that quit and now you’re like, oh now I’m in the office. You call the snake out of the lake yourself? What do you guys do so that you guys keep yourselves working on and not in? Well, I mean people were, they were used to me, clients were used to me, you know, being out there. We want Jared to come. Especially home inspectors, right? So, you know, we have home inspectors subcontract us out for termite inspection for people buying home. They’re our big clients, you know, we make good money from them, right? And so, usually with me on there all the time, all the time, all the time with that. And so they would request me and I’d kind of ease it out and I’d let them know, Hey, we’re working on, on building the business. I’m working on the business so we can grow. So I’m not going to be in here as much. Final story you have to share before we go about two minutes here. Yeah. The group interview guy who you interviewed, he didn’t get the job and he emailed you like, can you stretch story? So beautiful. Yeah, absolutely. So we started a group interview, by the way, group interviews have changed the business. I mean, they, I mean, we have people, so we’re not held hostage, as you’ve seen. We can let people go. No fear of letting people go because we have replacements, right? But anyways, we’re holding a group interview, and so the group interviews start at 5, and then someone, it was like 5.02, and the door and I said, Hey, are you here for the interview? He said, Yeah. I said, Well, I’m sorry. The interview’s closed. It closes at 5. Like, it’s 5.02. I said, Exactly. And so… He wasn’t exactly dressed to impress. People that are late for interviews are late for everything, by the way. But… Yeah. Yeah. And so he took off. We heard him speed off. Next thing you know, we got a… When I showed up the next day, our assistant said, Hey, did you have an interesting situation at the interview? I’m like, well I turned someone away. She showed me the email this guy wrote. And he left a voice mail. And he left a voice mail. You know, both equally as impressive. You know. Very colorful. Yeah, just full of F-bombs. And you know, I’m an F-nut apparently, so if y’all can let me know what that is, I’ll. That’s a good one. I’ll. So. And just all sorts of colorful language, which made me really want to hire him afterwards. And then after the voicemail, same thing, just all sorts of colorful information about how, I don’t know, we’re not professional and everything else. But anyway, it was great. It was a great experience. But I mean, that stuff’s gonna happen. You’re gonna have people that. You’re gonna make people mad. We have one more question. I do have a question. What big dream or goal have you seen come true as a result of your business growing successfully? And what was it maybe? More time. The reason why we started the business in the first place is I wanted time freedom. And I saw that could happen with the pest control business because you have a lot of repeat business. Boom, boom, boom, boom, just people coming back and back and back. And that’s what we wanted. And after being in and trying to do it ourselves, we were in that rut and it was scary because we were just stagnant, just stagnant. And now we have the staff in place, we have the systems in place, so like one of the things he likes to do is go hunting, but he can also take our kids. And they love being outdoors, and so this year he was able to do that and the office ran just fine without him, you know, without cell service. I didn’t get any calls, so it’s like yay, because before, it was like whenever he’d leave, everything would happen. The fires would happen, the fires would happen. I wouldn’t have reception, and it would be. So it’s nice. But we don’t have that anymore, because everything’s replaced. Yes, the fires aren’t, I mean, when we get a fire, we try to do something where it doesn’t come up again, and it’s been great, I can’t tell you. Great assistance. The stress level is way down you know it’s a more balance with home life family life and the stress and so it’s happier but that comes through creating the system. You guys know this, we talked about the F6, the whole point is business is just a vehicle to get you from where you are to where you want to be just like the car you drove to work today was just a vehicle to get you there. At any point your car becomes the destination that’s the problem with your life. You know what I mean? Or if you’re spending your whole day in your car like oh, man I don’t want to get out on my car. That’s that shouldn’t maybe maybe your car is your goal Maybe that is your destination, but these guys have goals for faith their family their finances their fitness their friendship They’re fun. Are we perfect in every area? No But it’s really cool to see what difference a year and a half can make and I just want to give you guys a huge round of applause Hi, I’m Dr. Mark Moore. I’m a pediatric dentist. Through our new digital marketing plan, we have seen a marked increase in the number of new patients that we’re seeing every month, year over year. One month, for example, we went from 110 new patients the previous year to over 180 new patients in the same month. And overall, our average is running about 40 to 42 percent increase month over month, year over year. The group of people required to implement our new digital marketing plan is immense. Starting with a business coach, videographers, photographers, web designers. Back when I graduated dental school in 1985, nobody advertised. The only marketing that was ethically allowed in everybody’s eyes was mouth-to-mouth marketing. By choosing to use the services, you’re choosing to use a proven turnkey marketing and coaching system that will grow your practice and get you the results that you’re looking for. I went to the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry, graduated in 1983, and then I did my pediatric dental residency at Baylor College of Dentistry from 1983 to 1985. I established my practice here in Tulsa in 1985. One of the things that I hear in my world a lot as a business consultant from business owners is they will tell me, Clay, I want you to help me, but my industry is different. And so on today’s show, I’m going to introduce you to a wonderful client who’s a pediatric dentist. And I also am going to introduce you to a wonderful client who’s a real estate agent. And I’m also going to introduce you to a wonderful client who does mortgages, and a wonderful client who’s a family doctor, and a wonderful client who trains dogs, and a wonderful client who runs the UPS stores for all of Canada. Then I’ll introduce you to a wonderful client who has a massive real estate empire, real estate franchise empire. Then I’m going to introduce you to a wonderful client that sells new homes. Then I’m going to introduce you to a wonderful client who sells insurance, and then a wonderful client who runs a church, and a wonderful client who sells insurance. I think I mentioned that. A wonderful client that has a research lab. At the end of the day, you’ll discover that if you will follow the proven systems that I will teach you at our in-person workshops or through our one-on-one coaching program, it’s like bumper bowling for business. It’s like if you’re tired of throwing gutter balls and you wanna have success, this system will absolutely change your life. It’s a step-by-step system, it’s a linear workflow, it’s gonna absolutely change your life. And without any further ado, here is Dr. Morrow sharing about how this system has changed his life and his business’s life and the lives of his employees and the the growth of his pediatric dentistry. So here we go. Hello, my name is Charles Colal with Colalaw Fitness. Today I want to tell you a little bit about Clay Clark and how I know Clay Clark. Clay Clark has been my business coach since 2017. He’s helped us grow from two locations to now six locations. We’re planning to do seven locations in seven years and then franchise. And Clay’s done a great job of helping us navigate anything that has to do with running the business, building the systems, the checklists, the workflows, the audits, how to navigate lease agreements, how to buy property, how to work with brokers and builders. This guy is just amazing. This kind of guy has worked in every single industry. He’s written books with Lee Crocker, the head of Disney with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with Mike Lindell. He does Reawaken America tours where he does these tours all across the country where 10,000 or more people show up to some of these tours. On the day-to-day, he does anywhere from about 160 companies. He’s at the top. He has a team of business coaches, videographers, and graphic designers, and web developers, and they run 160 companies every single week. So think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. So in the weekly, he’s running 160 companies. Every 6-8 weeks he’s doing Reawaken America tours. Every 6-8 weeks he’s also doing business conferences where 200 people show up and he teaches people a 13 step proven system that he’s done and worked with billionaires, helping them grow their companies. I’ve seen guys from startups go from startup to being multi-millionaires, teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom through the system. Critical thinking, document creation, organizing everything in their head to building it into a franchisable, scalable business. One of his businesses has like 500 franchises. That’s just one of the companies or brands that he works with. Amazing guy, Elon Musk, kind of like smart guy. He kind of comes off sometimes as socially awkward but he’s so brilliant and he’s taught me so much. When I say that like Clay is like he doesn’t care what people think when you’re talking to him. He cares about where you’re going in your life and where he can get you to go and that’s what I like him most about him. He’s like a good coach. A coach isn’t just making you feel good all the time. A coach is actually helping you get to the best you and Clay has been an amazing business coach. Through the course of that we became friends. My most impressive thing is when I was shadowing him one time, we went into a business deal and listened to it. I got to shadow and listen to it. When we walked out I knew that he could make millions on the deal and they were super excited about working with him. He told me, he’s like, I’m not going to touch it, I’m going to turn it down because he knew it was going to harm the common good of people in the long run. The guy’s integrity just really wowed me. It brought tears to my eyes to see that this guy, his highest desire was to do what’s right. Anyways, just an amazing man. Anyways, impacted me a lot. He’s helped navigate. Anytime I’ve gotten nervous or worried about how to run the company or navigating competition and an economy that’s like, I remember we got closed down for three months. He helped us navigate on how to stay open, how to get back open, how to just survive through all the COVID shutdowns, lockdowns, because our clubs were all closed for three months and you have $350,000 of bills you’ve got to pay and we have no accounts receivable. He helped us navigate that. And of course we were conservative enough that we could afford to take that on for a period of time. But he was a great man. I’m very impressed with him. So Clay, thank you for everything you’re doing. And I encourage you, if you haven’t ever worked with Clay, work with Clay. He’s going to help magnify you. And there’s nobody I have ever met that has the ability to work as hard as he does. He probably sleeps four, maybe six hours a day, and literally the rest of the time he’s working. And he can outwork everybody in the room every single day. And he loves it. So anyways, this is Charles Kola with Kola Fitness. Thank you, Clay. And anybody out there that’s wanting to work with Clay, it’s a great, great opportunity to ever work with him. So you guys have a blessed one. This is Charles Kola. We’ll see you guys, bye-bye. Hi, I’m Aaron Antus with Shaw Homes. I first heard about Clay through a mortgage lender here in town who had told me what a great job he had been doing for them. And I actually noticed he was driving a Lamborghini all of a sudden, so I was willing to listen. In my career, I’ve sold a little over $800 million in real estate. So honestly, I thought I kind of knew everything about marketing and homes. And then I met Clay, and my perception of what I knew and what I could do definitely changed. After doing $800 million in sales over a 15-year career, I really thought I knew what I was doing. I’ve been managing a large team of salespeople for the last 10 years here with Shaw Homes. And we’ve been a company that’s been in business for 35 years. We’ve become one of the largest builders in the Tulsa area, and that was without Clay. So when I came to know Clay, I really thought, man, there’s not much more I need to know, but I’m willing to listen. The interesting thing is our internet leads from our website has actually, in a four-month period of time has gone from somewhere around 10 to 15 leads in a month to 180 internet leads in a month. Just from the few things that he’s shown us how to implement that I honestly probably never would have come up with on my own. So I got a lot of good things to say about the system that Clay put in place with us and it’s just been an incredible experience. I am very glad that we met and had the opportunity to work with Clay. So the interaction with the team and with Clay on a weekly basis is honestly very enlightening. One of the things that I love about Clay’s perspective on things is that he doesn’t come from my industry. He’s not somebody who’s in the home building industry. I’ve listened to all the experts in my field. Our company has paid for me to go to seminars, international builder shows, all kinds of places where I’ve had the opportunity to learn from the experts in my industry. But the thing that I found working with Clay is that he comes from such a broad spectrum of working with so many different types of businesses that he has a perspective that’s difficult for me to gain because I get so entrenched in what I do, I’m not paying attention to what other leading industry experts are doing. And Clay really brings that perspective for me. It is very valuable time every week when I get that hour with him. From my perspective, the reason that any business owner who’s thinking about hooking up with Thrive needs to definitely consider it is because the results that we’ve gotten in a very short period of time are honestly monumental. It has really exceeded my wildest expectation of what he might be able to do. I came in skeptical because I’m very pragmatic and as I’ve gone through the process over just a few months, I’ve realized it’s probably one of the best moves we’ve ever made. I think a lot of people probably feel like they don’t need a business or marketing consultant because they maybe are a little bit prideful and like to think they know everything. I know that’s how I felt coming in. I mean we’re a big company that’s definitely one of the largest in town. And so we kind of felt like we knew what we were doing. And I think for a lot of people, they let their ego get in the way of listening to somebody that might have a better or different perspective than theirs. I would just really encourage you, if you’re thinking about working with clay, I mean, the thing is, it’s month to month. Go give it a try and see what happens. I think in the 35-year history of Shaw Homes, this is probably the best thing that’s happened to us. And I know if you give them a shot, I think you’ll feel the same way. I know for me, the thing I would have missed out on if I didn’t work with Clay is I would have been a huge financial decision to just decide not to give it a shot. I would absolutely recommend Clay Clark to anybody who’s thinking about working with somebody in marketing. I would skip over anybody else you were thinking about, and I would go straight to Clay and his team. I guarantee you’re not going to regret it because we sure haven’t. My name is Danielle Sprick and I am the founder of D. Sprick Realty Group here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After being a stay-at-home mom for 12 years and my three kids started school and they were in school full-time, I was at a crossroads and trying to decide what do I want to do. My degree and my background is in education, but after being a mom and staying home and all of that, I just didn’t have a passion for it like I once did. My husband suggested real estate. He’s a home builder, so real estate and home building go hand in hand, and we just rolled with it. I love people, I love working with people, I love building relationships, but one thing that was really difficult for me was the business side of things. The processes and the advertising and marketing, I knew that I did not have what I needed to make that what it should be. So I reached out to Clay at that time, and he and his team have been extremely instrumental in helping us build our brand, help market our business, our agents, the homes that we represent. Everything that we do is a direct line from Clay and his team and all that they’ve done for us. We launched our brokerage, our real estate brokerage, eight months ago. And in that time, we’ve gone from myself and one other agent to just this week, we signed on our 16th agent. We have been blessed with the fact that we right now have just over 10 million in pending transactions. Three years ago, I never would have even imagined that I would be in this role that I’m in today, building a business, having 16 agents, but I have to give credit where credit’s due. And Clay and his team and the business coaching that they’ve offered us has been huge. It’s been instrumental in what we’re doing. Don’t ever limit your vision. When you dream big, big things happen. I started a business because I couldn’t work for anyone else. I do things my way. I do what I think is in the best interest of the patients. I don’t answer insurance companies. I don’t answer to large corporate organizations. I answer to my patient and that’s it. My thought when I opened my clinic was I can do this all myself. I don’t need additional outside help in many ways. I mean I went to medical school. I can figure this out. But it was a very, very steep learning curve. Within the first six months of opening my clinic, I had a $63,000 embezzlement. I lost multiple employees. Clay helped us weather the storm of some of the things that are just a lot of people experience, especially in the medical world. He was instrumental in helping with the specific written business plan. He’s been instrumental in hiring good quality employees, using the processes that he outlines for getting in good talent, which is extremely difficult. He helped me in securing the business loans. He helped me with web development and search engine optimization. We’ve been able to really keep a steady stream of clients coming in because they found us on the web. With everything that I encountered, everything that I experienced, I quickly learned it is worth every penny to have someone in your team that can walk you through and even avoid some of the pitfalls that are almost invariable in starting your own business. I’m Dr. Chad Edwards and I own Revolution Health and Wellness Clinic. Hey Clay Clark and my Thrive peeps, Steve Carrington as you can tell. Although I’m not wearing my signature green shirt as usual, but I am riding in my signature green Lamborghini. And I just wanted to say how appreciative I am of Thrive and all the guys at Thrive Time and the show and everything that you guys have done. At Total Ending Concepts we have had tremendous growth and a lot of things changing, especially on the marketing front. And from a coaching perspective and from a web presence and branding and our internet leads are up, everything is hammering on all cylinders. And really, we’re just trying to figure out how we can leverage the systems and the processes that we’re learning at Thrive more in our business. So now we’re setting up a lead tracking system that has been long overdue. And we’re doing lots of stuff. But I want to take a minute and say thank you, thank you, thank you to Thrive and Clay Clark and Dr. Z and everybody for all the help in helping us grow our business and hopefully buy more Lamborghinis like this the more we sell. So appreciate it guys, see ya. 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 wanna 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, right? This is where we used to live years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See? Nice, right? So this is my old van, and our old school marketing, and this is our old team. And by team I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing and this is our new team. We went from four to fourteen 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 ten locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month, and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship, and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, times a thousand. So we really just want to thank you, Clay, and thank you, Vanessa, for everything you’ve done, everything you’ve helped us with. We love you guys. They said it couldn’t be done. They said you couldn’t fill up to be OK. They said it was impossible. But yet, if you look, it appears to be full. Oh, we’re making America boom again. Very full. Oh, very full. Lots of marketing, courtesy of John Kelly and Devin and Garland and this mind and this hat. So, there it is. F.B.M. Oilers. Strolled out, baby. Oh! Oh! Oh! My name is Taylor Hall. I’m the general manager of the Tulsa Oilers professional hockey team. You know, our goal every night here at the BOK Center is to try to fill the seats with lots of people and create an exciting environment so when somebody comes to a game, they want to come back. Working with Clay and the staff at Thrive, they’ve really helped us in many, many ways, website and graphic design and video production and a lot of things that go along. And a lot of businesses, including ours, doesn’t have a staff or a full-time videographer or graphic designer. But the biggest thing that we noticed was the needle mover. More sales, more attendance, more successes in business. We had a record year last season working with Clay for the first time. Our average attendance is higher than it’s ever been. So there’s a lot of really cool things that we did and they worked. That’s the nice thing about working with Clay and the team over there. It’s just not one person, you get the entire team. If you need video design and editing and production, they’ve got that. Clay was instrumental in helping guiding us and getting us on the right track so that we could really raise the bar and become ultra successful. So it’s been an amazing experience for us. My name is Nick Smith and I’m an agency owner with Farmers Insurance. I grew up in a middle class family all the way up until I was about 13 and then my dad lost his job and then all of a sudden he was gone and I was being raised by my mom by herself. She was probably making 20 grand a year, you know, in order for me to have a car I had to pay for the car, I had to pay for the gas, I had to do everything on my own. So the independent thinking had to come early and if I wanted to do anything. A couple years ago, man, I was stuck in a rut. I really honestly was, and I couldn’t see it. Not because I was doing it wrong, it’s because I didn’t know any better. Rates were not good, selling was difficult, staffing was just unbelievably difficult to keep good staff in here. I was having a ton of turnover, and I was about ready to hang it up and sell out. I was just done. And that’s about when I got introduced to the concept of the will of wealth and thrived. Some of the specific things I’ve learned about running my business is systems and being organized. Before, I think I just kind of shot from the hip a lot of times, but man, since I started this whole journey, I’ve developed systems for each of the employees, but not just the employees, but for the position. So the fear of wondering when I’m gone, wondering if things are being done, I don’t have to worry quite as much. Business-wise, finally got over the hump and we’re actually growing again, whereas before we were just declining, declining, declining, and now we’re back up and we’re back over where we were a couple of years ago now. The training’s ongoing, even from where I’m at now. I still feel like I need to get further. The training itself is just it’ll rock your world. It really will change the way you think and look at business. So all those things just kind of culminated into this big successful business I feel like I have now. All that stuff has just been life-altering. Clay’s awesome, you know, he’s very entertaining, very energized, does some quirky, unique ways to sort of get engagement with the audience. So I’m really pleased to have Clay do our keynote today. Well, I think it was being willing to take some risks on stage, taking some risks relative to how to set the audience up. I think that kind of created a unique tension that I think ultimately resulted in a great experience. Well you know I think Clay would be an awesome presenter for for number group. One I think that the material that he delivers is spot-on but he also can deliver some additional products and services to the organization even beyond just the things that he does on stage. My name is David Drucker. I’m the president for UPS Stores Canada, also a member of the AFA board and an honorary position, so kind of a crossover with both sides. I thought it was great. I thought Clay did a wonderful job. I think any time you’re able to get a diverse group together to start finding the commonalities, you’re starting to pull the threads together that are going to make something for the future. I think that was the objective for today, and I think Clay was really able to pull that out. I thought Clay was really good at shifting speeds. He was fast when he needed to be fast, detailed when he needed to be detailed, was able to read the room every so often if we started drifting off too far to the left or too far to the right. He was right there to rudder us back on course. So, I mean, really, I don’t think we could have chosen a better guy for the day to lead us. My impression of Clay was his energy and just like the energy that he had on stage and how passionate he is about his message and I really felt like I could connect with that because it was very genuine and believable and sincere and I really appreciate the sincerity of it all. So the lesson nugget is in fact the action nugget. It’s like you can think of things all day long, you can read books all day long, you can do whatever you’re going to do as far as business planning, but if you don’t implement and actually take action, then it doesn’t mean anything. It is all about taking the steps and standing up and going forward and engaging in an action activity. Well, what was so different about this is the sense of humor. They’re really great sense of humor, very lively, very engaging and interesting. And a lot of presentations you just kind of sit there and go, oh no, no. But this was fun, this was fun and interesting and engaging. Oh, I love Clay. Very funny. You never know, right, with a keynote speaker. You don’t know, you know. So you’ve got to kind of open up. He’s got a good sense of humor. I liked the video at the beginning. It started out perfect. I’m like, oh, great. Another speaker that’s been to a million corporations. I liked it. I like it. It was really well done. The guy’s good. Clay’s fantastic. I mean, the guy is hilarious. Captivating, kept the room moving. I mean, I love the fact that he got everybody up and moving. The fact that you could get John Tanney up, dancing in his seat like that is worth the price of admission right there. You know, it just reinvigorates you. You know, you hear somebody talk about how, you know, you put it in systems into your business, how you got to seize the day. I mean, all that stuff is stuff you know deep down you should be doing, but those reminders help. And it really, it’s the right time if you’re open to it. I mean, that’s what it’s all about. Because I’m a product of the 90s, I liked his, you know, notorious B.I.G. rap a little bit, but I get it, man. He’s exactly right. I’ve got a ton of buddies that are sitting around playing PlayStation every day, and they’re not studying success, and I think that’s the thing. Because to me, the one thing I really take away from that conversation is poverty is our baseline. Everybody knows poverty. You don’t need to teach poverty. You need to teach success, and the fact that he said that was like music playing. I think he just really gets our industry. You get a lot of realtors that try and be motivational speakers, but he truly is a motivational speaker. He’s a businessman. He’s obviously been around the block and done a lot of things. I think all those applications, because real estate at the end of the day is the business of business. I love Clay. I’ve known Clay just socially, but I’ve never heard him speak before. I was probably most taken by the fact that he was just common in so many ways and made fun of himself, but also brought that aspect of these are my lessons and these are lessons from some very influential people who I’ll recognize. So probably what I took away from him the most was the Net Promoter Score and the fact your wow factor from what you provide to your clients really creates that score. And you really have to go the extra mile to bring people to that level of impression. I appreciated Clay’s story about his father and the picture with the kids, with the girls. I thought that was very meaningful. And it takes the whole thing, the rest of his message and stories and things that he’s sharing and really puts them in perspective for people who are listening. You can tell he enjoys what he does and believes in what he’s presenting. And that’s a connection with an audience that is more important than the name or even what’s being presented. It’s real. It’s transparent and it’s genuine. My name is Josh Wilson. I’m the owner of Living Water Irrigation. So I’ve been working with Thrive since December of 2017. So the biggest changes we’ve seen as a company is first of all, just systematically how we do things, how we present things. Our Google presence is phenomenal. Our website’s a million times better. And just the overall accountability and the process by which we’re conducting ourselves. So our biggest win since working with Thrive is we have we literally March was a record month for us It was almost twice as much as our biggest month prior to that in the last Week or so we’ve closed about 250,000 hours of the business I was such go dig a bunch of dishes and get it done But we signed about 250,000 hours of the business with the relationships we built The things that they’ve implemented through Victoria and clay and everybody here at Thrive. So I would recommend Thrive to other business owners simply because they can point out where you’re flawed and what you need to work on. You just have to be real and honest with yourself on what you need to improve upon. So that would be first and foremost. And the other, the huge reason why I would do it because it works. It actually, everything that they said when we came in for our initial meeting to today, absolutely positively has been accomplished. JT, do you know what time it is? 410. It’s It’s Tebow time in Tulsa, Oklahoma, baby. Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma during the month of Christmas, December 5th and 6th, 2024. Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma in the two-day interactive Thrive Time show business growth workshop. 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 in 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 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 going to walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is going to be a blasty blast in Tulsa, Russia. Folks, I’m telling you, if you want to learn branding, you want to learn marketing, you want to learn search engine optimization, you want to learn social media marketing, that’s what we teach in 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 rustic cuff dot com has spoken at the two day interactive thrive time show business workshops. We have the guy we’ve had the man who’s responsible for turning around Harley Davidson a man by the name of Ken Schmidt. He has spoken at the thrive time show two day interactive business workshops. Folks I’m telling you these events are going to teach you what you need to know to start and grow a successful business. And the way we price the events, the way we do these events, is you can pay $250 for a ticket or whatever price that you can afford. Yes! We’ve designed these events to be affordable for you and we want to see you live and in person at the 2-Day Interactive December 5th and 6th Thrive Time Show Business Workshop. 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. 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? I don’t know what I do, how does it work? You just go to Thrivetimeshow.com, let’s go there now, we’re feeling the flow. We’re going to Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, you just go to Thrivetimeshow.com, you click on the business conferences button and you click on the request tickets button right there. The way I do our conferences is we tell people it’s $250 to get a ticket or whatever price that you 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, 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. It’s supposed to be 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 Thrivetimeshow in Jinx, you can get a sneak peek or a look at our office facility. This is what it looks like. This is where you’re headed. It’s going to be a blasty blast. You can look inside, see the facility. We’re going to have hundreds of entrepreneurs here. It is going to be packed. Now for this particular event, folks, the seating is always limited because my facility isn’t a limitless convention center. You’re coming to my actual home office. And so it’s going to be packed. Who? You! You’re going to come! 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 T-Boat 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, 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’ve built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and they’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big, get rich quick, walk on hot coals product. It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, and I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s 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 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 in Kings Point, New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Herbert Kiyosaki, The Rich Dad Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re closed, but they’re completely different worlds. And I have a special guest today. Definition of intelligence is if you agree with me, you’re intelligent. And so this gentleman is very intelligent. I’ve done this show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts as a 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’s my age, and I can say or cannot say Well I have to, 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. He said, ìHave you read this book Rich Dad, Poor Dad?î I said, ìNo.î My father, may he rest in peace, he didn’t know these financial principles. I started reading all of your books and really devouring your books. I went from being an employee to self-employed to the business owner to the investor. I owe a lot of that to you. I just want to take a moment to tell you thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success. I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump, but I just want to tell you thank you, sir, for changing my life. 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. Because as you know, there’s a lot of fake influencers out there too, 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 a thrill, but recognition is when people, young men especially, come up and say, I read your book, changed my life, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this. I learned at the Academy, Kings Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say.