Clay Clark | Learn How to Write And Articulate Your Own Mission Statement

Audio Transcription

So many different times in my life, I’ve played with broken or hurt things, broken foot, broken leg, broken hand, broken arm, broken sternum, broken collarbone. I could keep going if I just thought more about bones. Why, man? Because I loved it. I loved playing the game. I was passionate about it. One of the reasons I even get encouraged at seeing all of you here, you know why I get encouraged by that is because you could be anywhere doing a lot of different things, but you chose to be here Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show But this show does in a world filled with endless opportunities Why would two men who have built 13 multi-million dollar businesses? five hours per day to teach you the best practice business systems and moves that you can use. Because they believe in you. And they have a lot of time on their hands. This started from the bottom, now they’re here. It’s the Thrive Time Show starring the former U.S. Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark, and the entrepreneur trapped inside an optometrist’s body. Dr. Robert Zulman. Two men, eight kids, co-created by two different women. Thirteen multi-million dollar businesses. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, and we’ll show you how to get here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, and now we’re at the top Teaching you the systems to get what we got Colton Dixon’s on the hoops, I break down the books Z’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks As a father of five, that’s why I’m alive So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi It’s the CNC, up on your radio And now, 3, 2, 1, here we go! Started from the bottom, now we’re here Started from the bottom, let me show you how to get this Okay, so the first step is define your ideal and likely buyers. And Clay, I’m going to tee it off with a notable quotable here from The Ultimate Sales Machine, okay? That book is awesome. It’s kind of like a guidebook or like a handbook. And just to clear the lineage of that book, Warren Buffett, who obviously everyone knows who he is, his partner is Charlie Munger. So Charlie Munger is the guy that’s kind of like, no one knows who he is, but he’s behind the scenes. He’s kind of like Josh McDaniels, the offensive coach for the Patriots. He’s Bill Belichick’s guy. People don’t talk about him, but when he left for the Broncos, had a little bit of some issues, they brought him back. He’s the unsung hero sort of thing. And Chet Holmes worked for Charlie Munger, and so everything he talks about in that book is just validated, and it’s unbelievable, it’s proven. And so I’ll let you read the notable quote. Okay, so Chet Holmes says, best buyers buy more, buy faster, and buy more often than other buyers. These are your ideal clients. Have a special effort dedicated to just the dream clients. Okay, so Clay, can you explain to John and I, why is that so important? What is he really saying there? Well, I want to pick your brain on this, John. Do you, you’ve been biking for four years? Yes. Okay, so with the biking, I mean, is there a certain store you now go to to buy said biking materials or a website you found or how’s that going? Yes, I mean, look to the local bike stores because they’re experts. I mean, I don’t run down to Walmart. I mean, they’ve got bikes, but you get to a level where you want the good stuff. So talk to me about the seat because I imagine that to me, biking, that’s got to be like a sort of a love-hate relationship with your bike, because you’re sitting down for a long time. That’s right. What’s the brand of seat that you think is amazing? Do you have one that you like a lot? No, not particular. I just figured out that I was going to have to deal with it. So there’s a process and pain of going through getting comfortable with your seat, regardless of what kind of seat. I’ve heard guys that get into, you know, buy this expensive seat with expectations, but they have the same discomfort. So… Is there a certain kind of shorts you wear, biker shorts? Oh yeah. That are padded? Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. Okay, so, and just as an example, this might be a little bit nerdy for the thrivers out there, but I’m not going to run around buying padded shorts. Right? I mean, it’s just something, it’s like a need that I wouldn’t even know existed if I wasn’t into biking. I have buddies who are into biking, so I kind of know a little bit about it. But I mean, how long were you into biking before you discovered the need for these sorts of shorts? The need existed long before I got into it, because I was the same way. I was like, I’m not going to go down that road. But at some point, you have to decide, hey, if you’re going to do this long term. This is the best practice. All right. So all I’m saying is you are an ideal and likely buyer for biking-related products. So talking to you about those products makes a lot of sense. Now here’s where most people get this wrong. They talk to anybody about their product idea. This is not healthy. This is not good. So as an example, I really, really, really love the Patriots. I mean, I have their tithes on my desk, and I’m just a homer for it. Most Americans dislike the Patriots. So if you’re running around going, hey, Bill Belichick’s going to come speak at the Mabee Center or going to come speak at the Dallas Mavericks Arena, American Airlines Center, do you want to come see them? Do you want to come see him? It’s probably no. But if you’re in Boston and you’re saying, hey, Bill Belichick’s going to do a seminar on how to run an effective meeting, do you want to come to the… Most people in Boston probably say, yeah. So I’m just saying, don’t get discouraged. I see so many people, so many thrivers we talk to, literally thousands of people we’ve talked to, who get discouraged because they’re out there trying to market their idea to everybody. So step one for you, homework, is definitely define your ideal and likely buyers. Write out who they are, write down how much money they make, write down where they live. Write down their religious beliefs. Write down their gender. Write down all the profiling stuff you shouldn’t do. Do that. Because what you’re going to do is, frankly, if I have a store and I sell Koran, I sell the Koran, copies of the Koran, I’m probably not going to open up, probably not going to do too well at Lifeway Christian Store. I’m probably not going to sell too many copies of the Quran there. If I’m selling overpriced food, you see my bias, overpriced food, probably not going to sell a lot of that at Walmart. But if you get a Whole Foods, my wife buys these candy bars for $4 or something. They’re handmade by some dude. They’re handmade by a dude. So all I would just say is make sure that you define your ideal and likely buyers. Do you have any questions on that or does that seem pretty self-explanatory? No, I got it. In your mind, who are, can you kind of flesh out a little bit Who are your ideal and likely buyers for your product? Do you think well anybody that’s? interested in biking and like to start with But I’m going for the guy that’s that’s going to be more dedicated to it They they’re looking for a way to say hey, how can I better myself as I ride? And so that’s that’s my big thing is bikers in general. There’s a lot, there’s a market for it, but yet it’s targeted. I’m going to help you. I’m hoping you feel very encouraged today. If only 1% of the world thinks your product is a good idea, you’ll probably make a million dollars. So, it’s just so many people get discouraged because they’re talking to everybody. Let me give you an example. I love entrepreneurship in the way that my wife loves these Beth Moore Christian devotional kind of books. My wife is into that whole thing. She is really into that stuff. I love entrepreneurship. So if I have any down time at all, I immediately grab a case study and I read it. This is what I do. I just can’t wait to read the next one. So when we built Thrive15, we had to define who are our ideal and likely buyers. It’s crazy when people find you in New York, Ireland, Singapore, and Australia and they go, finally, a website where you’re obsessed with it like I am. They feel like, wow, you guys get me. My mom doesn’t get what I’m doing. She still does not really get why anybody would want to go onto a website to learn about how to start or grow a business. For her, a job is kind of like, eh, it’s a job. For me, it’s like a passion thing. So all I’m saying is don’t get discouraged by showing it to the non-ideal and likely buyers. You have to define that and put it on paper. Put it where you can see it. Put it by your mirror, put it by your desk, wherever you’re going to see it. And make sure you always focus everything you do by asking yourself, what do they want? What do those people want? Don’t, and I’ll give you one final example because I just don’t want anybody to get out of here and just have no idea what we’re talking about. I had a speaking event two years ago in California. It was awesome. I’m in LA, and this is the craziest story. The event planner, she goes, ladies and gentlemen, tonight we’re going to have a great seminar. It’s going to be awesome. Tonight we’re going out for dinner. We have a great seminar planned for you, and then we’re going out to dinner. The demographic was moms and dads, people that own an appliance store. So you can imagine that profile. They’re mostly 40s to 50-year-old people with kids that are about ready to graduate high school and they’re all like, okay. The lady’s like, tonight’s entertainment is going to be awesome. So I think the people in their mind were thinking like, who’s the guy who’s, you know, the James Taylor. I think they’re thinking like James Taylor or- A magician? Michael McDonald. They’re thinking like that kind of thing. So, whenever you want, man. But they’re thinking about that. So then we get to the House of Blues, and they literally introduce the performer. They go, today’s performer has been a part of a group called the Wu-Tang Clan for a long time, and his name is GZA and Dan and I are looking at each other going, they brought in the most hardcore rapper of all time to entertain. So he puts his mic up and he’s like, all right, everybody, how are we doing? He drops an F bomb within like the first 10 seconds. And people were like, and he’s like, all right, let’s get crazy. And just the wrong fit and everyone the entire night, he was like, put your hands in the air. And everyone’s just like, I don’t know if we want to do this. It was so awkward. And so, I mean, I guess he’s talented for his fans, but the average person there just was, and you could see it was rocking his confidence. Seriously, he was like, I don’t know if I’m good anymore. I mean, because people just, whoever booked it, I don’t know how that happened, but it was the weirdest thing. So that’s what I have for it. So that’s when defining your ideal and likely buyers, that’s what not to do. Okay, but John, do you have any other questions on this first step? No, not now. Okay, cool. So, you know, creating this mission statement is basically the cornerstone for your business, okay? And that’s why it’s so important. That’s why we’re getting into all these different things. And so the next training is going to be how to specifically write it, actually constructing and getting into that. So the first couple principles here of understanding why this mission statement is so important, the principle number one is your values must be real. And so the lesson nugget for this is to create authentic values. Don’t create values that sound generic, bland, and just bogus. Get specific to what you’ve been known to do. Yeah, well, that’s… I’m going to read here from the mission statement that Marshall wrote early in his career. He’s matured since then. But, to make our company the greatest place where customer service and integrity shine together forever, amen. It’s like a prayer mixed with a mission statement. It’s so weird how you wrote that. That was part of my former life. Weird. Weird. Back to you. Why are you saying that weird? I’m not. Anyway, so the point is here, folks, Thrivers, you want to make a mission statement that’s powerful, that’s real, that has the opportunity to absolutely energize your organization because if not you’re just wasting your time and your business and your life deserve more than that. Okay, in summary, the second principle, your mission announces where you are going. Okay, so the lesson I’ll get here is create a mission statement that forces new potential and current team members to ask themselves, do I want to go where the company is going? It’s hard to know where you’re going unless you put it in the mission statement and for all the employees to be able to see it. Absolutely. Okay, then the third principle is look at goats, okay? The lesson nugget here is we don’t live long enough to reinvent every wheel, okay? Use mission statements of companies you like as a starting point for your mission statement. I am excited to get into our next training on how to specifically write the mission statement. But Marshall, I just want to say this. If you’re watching this for some reason and you have any question, you just don’t quite get it, maybe you want a sample mission statement sent to you, whatever we can do, we’re here to help you. Just click the Ask the Mentors button and we will be very responsive to respond to you because we want to mentor millions. That is our mission. Clay, thanks so much for beginning to dive into this subject of mission statements with us and I’m pumped to get into the next training. Clay, so excited to have you here today. We are in a pretty amazing studio here. We got the whole sound effects set up here. We got how to write, own, articulate, and implement your own mission. This is what we’re getting into today. So do you have any kind of like starting thoughts as we get into this? Well if you own a business or you run a business, you’re managing people, whatever you’re doing, if you’re pastoring a church, I mean no matter what you’re doing, you’re going to have to inspire people and get them to buy in to your vision because you can’t do it by yourself. And so I’ve worked with so many companies and it’s just so apparent the ones that have a mission that the team knows. And it’s so apparent when you go to a company where no one on the team knows the mission. So I’m just telling you, this is going to be an awesome, awesome training for you if you’re having a hard time getting your people to buy into your big mission and you feel like it’s you against the world, you want to make it where it’s your whole team against the world. You and your whole team are against the world, not just you. Yeah, so we have a training on the site. It’s how to assemble a dream team. And one of those points is you have to create this mission that your employees buy into and so that’s what we’re going to talk about today is how to write that we have thrivers all over the world that are asking us how do I cast that vision for my employees and for investors and for the media and this that’s what we’re going to get into so let’s start off with a notable quotable and this is from Jack Welch the former CEO of General Electric he grew the company by four thousand percent so I feel like he’s qualified to, you know, The way you said 4,000 made it seem like it was a big deal. Yes. But I mean really just 4,000 percent. I mean it’s just 4,000. It’s not like 40 percent or 400 percent. Just 4,000. Just 4,000. Whatever. I mean a lot of people watching this are probably growing their company at 4,000 percent anyway. They don’t need this training. Okay, so what Jack Welch says is, who doesn’t know of a mission statement that reads something like, XYZ company values quality and service, or such and such company is customer driven. Tell me what company doesn’t value quality and service or focus on its customers. He goes on to say, despite the good intentions that went into them, sound like they were plucked from an all-purpose list of virtues including integrity, quality, excellence, service, and respect. Come on! Every decent company preaches these things. Yeah, I’ll just say Jack Welch nails it. We’ve all worked at a company. We’ve all been a part of a company. You’re there and they’re talking about the company mission statement and it seems like the exact same mission statement from the other company that you worked at and then it seemed like the exact same one that was pulled from maybe the high school, like the banner they have on the wall that your local high school or college. It’s just, it’s such and such a company. We stand for quality and service and good things. Well, thank you, thank you for that enlightenment. You know what I mean? So we really wanna focus on making a real, tractionable mission statement that has a little bit of attraction for your people. That really can get your people inspired. Okay, and so why is having a mission statement, why is that so crucial for the business? Can you walk me through that? It’s a galvanizing force. I know with the DJ company, I remember this conversation vividly. I got a call from one of the event planners at the Gaylord Texan. That’s a wonderful hotel down there in Texas and kind of the grapevine Dallas area. And this event planner calls and she goes, every single one of your DJs is like hilarious. And if they’re not, they at least try. It just seems like they’re always trying to wow everybody. I remember her basically saying my values, saying my mission statement, without me saying it. She literally said, all your guys are just hilarious, or if they’re not, at least they’re trying. And they’re always trying to get there early. It’s like they’re trying to over-deliver or wow or something. Well, our mission statement was to over-deliver and to wow each customer with humorous enthusiasm. It was so awesome to see that that was happening. Before we sold the company, we were doing almost 4,000 events a year. So yeah, 80 guys going out to do events and it was fun to hear that. It was fun to see that. If you go to a quick trip gas station, you can see that they’re committed to being excellent. They’re committed to having a quick trip, a fast service, an unbelievably clean and prompt fastidious level of customer service. When you go to Southwest Airlines plane, it’s obvious they’re committed to having fun. A good mission statement should make everything within the company make sense. It should galvanize the team, it should unite the team, and get everybody excited to implement this incredible mission. Okay, and so when we talk about the different things that a mission, a mission statement includes, okay, there’s gonna be three main principles that you need to reference when you’re building this mission statement. And so we’re going to get into these throughout this series. The first is your values must be real. Okay, your values. Then your mission announces where you are going. Okay, we’re talking about like a big, broad, you know, where are we headed? What is the direction that we’re headed? And then the third is look at the goats, the greatest of all time. So those are the three principles that we’re going to operate around in terms of creating this mission. Do you know of the, just because it was a fourth bonus principle, do you know of the principle from the show Saved by the Bell? What was his name? Do you remember? If you’re watching this right now and you can think of the principle from Saved by the Bell, shoot us an email at info at thrive15.com and we’re going to send you something special. If you can name it. The first one to name it Okay, the first one to name the principle from saved by the bell. This is a little bonus just as a bonus Yeah, okay, let’s get into the first principle here for creating this Mission statement the first is your values must be real okay? And so what Jack Welch says you know the former CEO of General Electric? He says a good mission statement and a good set of values are so real that they smack you in the face with their concreteness. Jack Welch says that. Tell me a little bit about why this is important. Well, at Southwest Airlines, they are the low fare airline. Everything they’re trying to do is to offer you a great experience and to be low fares. Low fares. Make everything as inexpensive as possible. They’re also the most profitable airline over the past decade. They just get it done. Now, at Southwest Airlines, it’s abundantly clear to everybody who works there that they are the low fare and fun airline. They are the founder of the discount airline concept. So how does that affect the business? How does that smack people in the face? Well, Southwest Airlines offers peanuts and little crackers and stuff on the plane. Why don’t they offer a meal? Because if they offered a meal, that would raise the costs. Southwest Airlines says, we’re not gonna charge you for extra baggage. Why? Because if they did, they wouldn’t be the discount airline leader. Everything they do is designed to be low fares. They only fly 737s. Why? Because it’s easier to staff a maintenance crew that only maintains one kind of airplane, as opposed to all the different kinds of airplanes. Southwest Airlines only flies into new cities where they can offer low fare discounts. Why? Because they’re the low fare airline. That’s what they do. It is real. It smacks the customer in the face. It smacks everybody in the face because it’s so real. Everyone knows it. If you fly Southwest Airlines, you know that they’re all about having fun and they’re all about low costs, low fares. It’s awesome. You sound pretty passionate about this, Clay. Are you preaching here? You kind of get in on your altar here. Yeah, I mean, it’s just Southwest, ha! It’s the low fare airline, ha! I’m just telling you, they’re awesome. They’re awesome, Marshall. They just, you know how I get. I hate to get super preachy about it, but Southwest Airlines is the leader of the low fare airline movement there. Okay, so Southwest Airlines, so Southwest Airlines, one of the leaders here. What are the action steps for creating these values to build the mission statement upon? I recommend everybody watching this right now, what you’re going to do is Google the mission statement of Walt Disney World and Google the mission statement of Southwest Airlines and begin to think about what is your mission statement and use those as like the gold standard. Walt Disney World and Southwest Airlines and figure out how can you write a mission statement in as few words as possible that will be as powerful as those two guys, Southwest Airlines and Disney World. So action step, get into what other people are doing. What are the values that are founding this mission statement for your company? Just look at the big boys. Look at the guys who are dominating. To be politically correct, look at the incredible ladies of business. I mean, Sarah Blakely with Spanx. Look up her mission statement. Look up the leaders of… Just look it up. I mean, Sheryl Sandberg with the Facebook. Look up what are these mission statements. Find the mission statements of the best and then look at those and go, how can I make something that is just as powerful? Look at their mission statements and contrast that from your own. Okay, so principle number one, your values must be real. You got to have a sincere set of values for the mission statement. Yeah. Principle number two, your mission announces where you are going. It’s providing you the direction for the company, okay? And that’s consolidated into the mission statement, okay? So Jack Welch says the mission announces exactly where you are going, and the values describe the behaviors that will get you there, okay? So what does Jack Welch mean by this? Well, your mission, you’re saying this is the destination we’re headed to. So Southwest Airlines, we will make flying more affordable for the planet. We will make air travel more affordable. That was Herb Keller, the founder of Southwest Airlines, his whole mantra, his whole concept, I’m paraphrasing here, but he wanted to make flying affordable for people all across the world. It used to be, I remember I flew back to Minnesota in 1999 and my ticket was more money then than it is now. Airlines travel used to be so much more expensive, you know? And it’s because Southwest Airlines didn’t fly into that city at the time. It just is more expensive. It used to be super expensive. Only elite people could fly. And he wanted to make it more affordable for everybody. That’s the big mission. But the values explain how are we going to do it. And they’re going to do it by having uncompromisingly low fares. And they’re going to have a very simple system, low fares. And they’re going to make sure they’re funny, they’re having a good time, it’s a fun culture. That’s how they’re going to do it. The mission is kind of where are we going, and the values are how are we going to do it. Okay, so where are we going? And so for the thrivers that are out there, they’re putting together their mission statement right now, they’re constructing it. So the first part is the values from principle number one. The second thing is where are we going? How big of a vision do I need to have for where are we going? You need to have a vision that’s so big it inspires somebody. If your vision is like, we’re going to try to make a DJ service that’s pretty good. If your people aren’t excited about that, you’re like, alright everybody, are you guys excited to make a company? Pretty good. Then you’re probably not going to attract great people. You want to have a great idea. Disney World wants to be the most magical place on earth. I know it’s kind of like, wow, Disney World, they’re huge, I can’t even approach that idea. But no, Walt Disney started it. I mean, this is a guy who’d lost it all twice in business, and he decided he wanted to make a magical experience for families. Every great business has to start with a big idea. But you have to start with a big idea. If you’re not even trying to go to the promised land, you’re certainly not going to get there. You have to have a big, big vision, the kind of vision that’s a big, hairy, audacious goal. It’s got to be awesome, it’s got to be exciting, it has to be inspiring. If it’s not, redo. Okay, so principle number two, you have to announce where you’re going. You have to have that direction. You have to have that big, hairy, audacious goal for where you’re headed. That’s principle number two. Principle number three, look at the ghost. Look at the greatest of all time, okay? You need a mission statement, and one of the key principles is looking at these goats, okay? So tell me about the goats. Tell me about this. Well, first off, if you’re looking at the goat of hip-hop, one man who calls himself the goat is LL Cool J. So I think it’s important that we all know that LL Cool J thinks he is the greatest of all time. He even wrote a song about it, you know, the goat. He’s the goat. He’s the greatest of all time. He’s the what? He’s the goat. He’s the greatest of all time. And he basically says that for about seven minutes in a row. But anyway, the goats are the greatest of all time. You want to look at somebody who’s not struggling in an area to compare yourself with. You want to look at somebody who’s the best. You want to look at… The key to entrepreneurship and business success is you always want to find somebody who’s doing better than you are at any given area and ask yourself, how are they doing it? And then begin to implement their strategies and systems in your own life and business. That’s how you do it. So you want to think about the goats. Look at the companies that are doing it well. And as it relates to mission statements, I’m going to just fire off a couple more. Spanx, though, is huge. We talked about that. Southwest Airlines is huge. UPS, huge. I mean, these guys have unbelievably powerful mission statements. Whole Foods. Whole Foods. Let me tell you about Whole Foods. Whole Foods stands for whole check in my house because we spend our whole check at Whole Foods. But what we do at Whole Foods is we go in there, and we are committed to going into Whole Foods. It’s organic, or at least we believe it. If you work at Whole Foods, talk to me about Monsanto. If you work at Monsanto, and you work at Whole Foods, tell me about that. Or if you work at Monsanto, and you shop at Whole Foods, I want you to just email me and explain to me the relationship between Monsanto and Whole Foods. But the point is, Whole Foods is this natural, organic kind of an environment, and they’ve been focused on that since the very beginning, to be authentic and natural and organic and healthy. And so people like my wife, they just flock to it. And we used to drive, Marshall, like 12 miles into the belly of the beast. The belly of the beast is like high-traffic congestion, is what I refer to the belly of the beast. We had to travel into the belly of the beast in a suburban that’s getting like, I don’t know, 14 miles a gallon with five kids to go get some organic avocados. I remember specifically, I’m like, babe, we could just go get an avocado down the road. And she’s going, no, we’ve got to go to Whole Foods, baby. We’ve got to go to Whole Foods. You know what I’m going, okay, we will go to Whole Foods. She kind of uses the force on me. But we go to Whole Foods because the mission statement there, they live it out every day. It’s this organic, natural place to be. It’s a no-brainer for health-conscious people to shop. It’s just awesome. Okay, so Whole Foods is one of those examples. I want to read a couple mission statements from these top companies. Oh, man. You are prepared. I’m prepared. Here we go. So Starbucks mission statement. This is the CEO, Howard Schultz saying this, okay? Our mission, to inspire and nurture the human spirit, one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time. Clay, what? He’s talking about he wants to inspire and nurture the human spirit. That seems like a huge undertaking. Well, okay, let’s just break it down. You could say, you know, if you own a coffee shop right now that’s struggling, or maybe you’re just kind of in that mediocre zone, you could say, our mission at Clay’s Coffee Shop is to make good coffee. Well, how many people are going to wake up in the morning excited about that vision? Oh my gosh, I had this great idea! We’re going to make good coffee! I mean, it’s just not inspiring. But what Howard Schultz found out is that if he could create the third place, he calls it the third place. It’s not home, it’s not work, it’s kind of a place with a little bit of a romance there, there’s a little bit of a nuance, there’s a little bit of the accoutrements. There’s decor. There’s people called baristas. They’re not called coffee makers. They’re baristas. You can’t order a small or a medium or a large. What are they? It’s like a grande and a tall. Is a tall small? Yeah, a tall is actually small. It tricks you. I don’t know. I can’t even order there. But anyway, the point is, they’ve created this third place where people go, and we don’t even want coffee. We just go there to hang out. We go there to marinate as my as a thrive 15 mentor Paul Pressey, LA Lakers coach always says marinate We will go there just to marinate people go there to meet they go there to the converse They go there on first dates. They go there for date nights. That’s the kind of vision he had and that’s why Starbucks is one of the first coffee shops to create that environment all across the world. Well done Howard Schultz I want to read another one for you. So we have the Dicks Sporting Goods CEO Edward Stack. Edward Stack, this is his mission statement. Our mission statement is to be the number one sports and fitness specialty retailer for all athletes and outdoor enthusiasts through the relentless improvement of everything that we do. We need to improve everything we do all the time, just like athletes do. So embedded in their mission statement is that improvement in advancement, okay? But also they want to be number one. Yeah, they don’t want to be number two or number three. That’s the whole thing. A lot of times I go to these events where I get asked to speak at and if you’ve been at one of these events and I’ve offended you, hopefully we can work together and bridge that gap right now. But I’ll go to these coffee shops, they’ll ask me to come speak, and someone will put their hand up, and you can tell that they’re not an entrepreneur, or they don’t actually have a jobby job because they ask these kind of questions, but they’re like, what role do you feel like your business has in supporting the competitors you work with? To crush them? Maybe to make them finish third, fourth, fifth, sixth? There’s just enough money in the economy for me to have all of it in my industry. I mean, the whole thing is, if I’m in business or in sports, I want to win. I want to dominate. I don’t want to… But people put their hand up and go, what role do you feel like your company has in enriching the community for your competitors? What does that even mean? That’s a knowledge bomb. That’s just… I’ve never wanted to enrich my competitors at all. I’ve wanted to help them, you know, maybe go out of business and come work with me, but I don’t want to enrich their lives. If you’re in business, you want to win, and Dix is working with athletes. They want to dominate. Do you think that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates wanted to hang out? They made fun of each other publicly, even when they had to do shared… They did a couple of interviews where they were on the stage together, and you can just feel the animosity. It’s like the Patriots. I love the Patriots. Most football fans hate the Patriots. If you’re a Yankee fan, you hate the Red Sox. The Red Sox hate you. That’s the sort of competition that makes America great. We don’t want to be second or third. You have to have a mission statement that’s inspiring. Bam! I’m so excited about this. You’re pumped for this, and I love your passion. Okay, so what is the action step for looking at the Goats? How do you systematically go after these Goats to review their mission statements. Read these three goats right now. Read these three goat-esque mission statements. Read these mission statements. One more, but read these things, and then ask yourself, is your mission statement as powerful or as big of an idea as this? If it’s not, what are we doing? I mean, guys, being real, one of our Thrive mentors, he owns a Chick-fil-A, and the Chick-fil-A serves chicken, and people love chicken, but it’s not about just the chicken. They’re making an awesome experience where families want to take their kids. It’s safe. It’s fun It’s it’s a cool play area the chicken tastes great, but it’s about more than that It’s about a person who says it’s my pleasure every single time you’re going. I don’t like you and they go. It’s my pleasure Where’s the bathroom? It’s my pleasure. Can I get some chicken? It’s my pleasure. These people are like robots of awesome They’re there to serve you. I mean you got to have that kind of mission statement, or what are you doing? Don’t do that. Do not turn your business into a DMV. And if you have a DMV, for the love of all that is holy, please make it into a Chick-fil-A so that I can stop making it the butt of all my jokes. All right. So, the third notable quotable here, the FedEx Corporation. Okay, so FedEx here. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Perhaps. Perhaps. I don’t know if you’re aware, it’s a company that ships things. If you’re watching this from a different planet, they’re a company that ships products from A to B, but if you’re not familiar with it, then I get it. So this is the notable quotable from FedEx, okay. So FedEx Corporation will produce superior financial returns for its share owners by providing high value added logistics. Okay. transportation and related information services through focused operating companies. Customer requirements will be met in the highest quality manner appropriate to each market segment served. FedEx Corporation will strive to develop mutually rewarding relationships with its employees, partners and suppliers. Safety will be the first consideration in all operations and corporate activities will be conducted to the highest ethical and professional standards. Wow! So, I mean, FedEx is putting basically their top values into their mission statement. That blew my mind. Okay. I mean, just, the thing about it is… Oh, wow! That was a lot… Man, that was live audio from you this weekend testing your gun collection. I don’t know if you want me to mention that on the air. Yeah, they’re all registered, folks. Don’t get upset. Anyway, gun control, because Marshall controls all of them. So here’s the thing. The FedEx has this inspiring vision. They want to have the highest quality standard. They want to make great returns through shareholders. But they talk about it over and over and over. Guys, listen. This is like the Ten Commandments of your business. This is like the deal. This is huge. This is like your Magna Carta, to quote my main man, the Jigga, Jay-Z here, the Magna Carta. This is huge. This is like your Constitution. This is like your, this is it. You have to have an awesome mission statement. Without it, it’s just bunk. You have to do it. My wife and I have a mission statement with our family and our kids and some things we do. But my own personal mission statement, my big personal mission statement is to minimize the amount of time I spend with people that I don’t like. That’s my personal… So, you have to have it though, because every decision can be filtered off of that. I go, do I want to meet this person, do I not? It’s all filtered based off my mission statement. My wife wants to have a mission. Her mission is to have peace at home. Tony Hsieh was like that at Zappos. Yeah, Tony Hsieh at Zappos, he’s all about basically, if people are not alright cultural fit, he’ll get them out of there because he wants to have a work environment where everyone is friends. He wants to have an awesome work environment where people can’t wait to come to work, not a gossipy, political, nuclear chaos workplace. Alright, Thrivers, we are here today for an awesome training. We are getting into validating your business idea. Creating Your Business Idea. And so we are joined today with Clay Clark, the Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the Year, and one of our Thrivers of the Month, John Tucker. Yes! Thank you. Excited to be here. Absolutely. Awesome, awesome. And so, uh, can I start real quick with shamelessly promoting his items here? He has a book he dropped off for us called The Cup. It’s a devotional series. Good stuff. Thank you for the gift. You’re welcome. This is good stuff. I really appreciate it. And he’s a biking enthusiast, so if you are in the Midwest and you need a biking mentor, he’s your guy. So look him up there. Good stuff. All right. Okay, so Clay, we’re going to get into validating your business idea, and we have four steps, okay? So I’m going to run through the four steps, and then we’re going to get into it, okay? But before we get into the steps, tell me, why is validating the business idea a good first step as you’re trying to launch a business or launch a product? Why is this validation an important part of the process? Well, John, two things for you on that. One is you don’t want to make a product that the world does not want. Exactly. And so one of the guys who made a profound impact on my life was Maurice Kanbar. He’s the guy who invented Sky Vodka. And people go, so he made alcohol? Okay, yes. But he also invented the modern stoplight, the one where it strobes, so it reduces the amount of electricity used. You don’t even know you’re using it because it flashes so fast. He also invented the needle cover, the needle protector for nurses so they don’t prick themselves. He also invented this organic, what kind of cheese is this? Cottage cheese? This is organic cottage cheese, I guess it was. And he said that he went through and he tested it all. He was trying to validate the idea and he realized that at the price point it took to make it, he couldn’t possibly sell it. You know what I mean? So he was like, well, that’s probably not going to be a good idea. I thought it was really humbling and self-deprecating and really a great learning opportunity for me to hear about all the inventions that he came up with that did work, but that people weren’t willing to pay for. So, what we’re going to do today is really try to save you a whole lot of time by helping you either A, blow up your idea or two, validate your idea. And this is how I do it with other businesses. My wife right now is working on a product that she really is passionate about. And rather than saying, I know it works because you’re my wife and I believe in you, I’m going, hey, let’s go through this process. I do this all the time with clients. So this is a step-by-step system. Okay, so there’s four steps, okay? There’s four steps. The first is define your ideal and likely buyers. The second step is find best practice goats in your business or industry. The third is the rule of 50. Explain the problem you solved to 50 people and track how they respond. And the fourth is create online ads targeted at your ideal and likely buyers and track the results, okay? So, Clay, John, we’re going to get into it and it’s going to be awesome. JT, do you know what time it is? Um, 410. It’s it’s Tebow time in Tulsa, Roseland, 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 and the two day interactive thrive time show business growth workshop. Yes, folks. Put it in your calendar this December, the month of Christmas, December 5th and 6th. Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma 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, if I followed Tim Tebow’s football career on the field and off the field, and off the field, the guy’s been just as successful as he has been on the field. Now, the big question is, JT, how does he do it? Well, they’re going to have to come and find out, because I don’t know. Well, I’m just saying, Tim Tebow’s going to teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s going to walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is going to be a blasty blast in Tulsa, Russia. 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 at the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive workshop. If you want to learn accounting, you want to learn sales systems. You want to learn how to build a linear workflow. You want to learn how to franchise your business. That is what we teach at the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop. Over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to feature Michael Levine, the PR consultant of choice for Nike, for Prince, for Michael Jackson. The top PR consultant in the history of the planet has spoken at the Thrive Time Show workshops. We’ve had Jill Donovan, the founder of rusticcuff.com, a company that creates apparel worn by celebrities all throughout the world. Jill Donovan, the founder of rustic cuff.com, has spoken at the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshops. We have the guy, we’ve had the man who’s responsible for turning around Harley Davidson, a man by the name of Ken Schmidt. He has spoken at the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshops. Folks, I’m telling you, these events are going to teach you what you need to know to start and grow a successful business. And the way we price the events, the way we do these events, is you can pay $250 for a ticket or whatever price that you can afford. Yes, we’ve designed these events to be affordable for you and we want to see you live and in person at the two-day interactive December 5th and 6th Thrive Time Show Business Workshop. Everything that you need to succeed will be taught at the 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 gonna blow your mind Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the thrive time show today interactive business workshop is America’s highest rated and most reviewed business workshop See the thousands of video testimonials from real people just like you who’ve been able to build multi-million dollar companies. Watch those testimonials today at Thrivetimeshow.com simply by clicking on the testimonials button right there Thrivetimeshow.com. You’re gonna see thousands of people just like you who have been able to go from just surviving to thriving. Each and every day we’re gonna add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup, but I encourage everybody out there today get those tickets today. Go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s Thrivetimeshow.com and some people might be saying, well, how do I do it? What do 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. 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 am super grateful I came to a business conference. That’s actually how I met you, met Peter Taunton, I met all these people. So if you’re out there today and you want to come to our workshop, again, you just got to go to thrivetimeshow.com. You might say, well, who’s speaking? We already covered that. You might say, where is it going to be? It’s going to be in Tulsa, Russell Oklahoma. It says 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. Who? I’m talking to you. You can just get your tickets right now at thrivetimeshow.com. And again, you can name your price. We tell people it’s $250 or whatever price you can afford. And we do have some select VIP tickets, which gives you an access to meet some of the speakers and those sorts of things. And those tickets are $500. It’s a two-day interactive business workshop, over 20 hours of business training. We’re going to give you a copy of my newest book, The Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. You’re going to leave with a workbook. You’re going to leave with everything you need to know to start and grow a super successful company. It’s practical, it’s actionable, and it’s TiVo time right here in Tulsa, Russia. Get those tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s thrivetimeshow.com. Hello, I’m Michael Levine, and I’m talking to you right now from the center of Hollywood, California, where I have represented over the last 35 years 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestsellers. I’ve represented a lot of major stars, and I’ve worked with a lot of major companies. And I think I’ve learned a few things about what makes them work and what makes them not work. Now, why would a man living in Hollywood, California, in the beautiful, sunny weather of LA, come to Tulsa because last year I did it and it was damn exciting. Clay Clark has put together an exceptional presentation, really life-changing and I’m looking forward to seeing you then. I’m Michael Levine. I’ll see you in Tulsa. Thrivetime show two-day interactive business workshops are the world’s highest rated and most reviewed business workshops because we teach you what you need to know to grow. You can learn the proven 13 point business systems that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. We get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur I always wish that I had this and because there wasn’t anything like this I would go to these motivational seminars with 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’ve built this facility for you and we’re excited to see it. And now you may be thinking, what does it actually cost to attend an in-person two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop? Well, good news, the tickets are $250 or whatever price that you can afford. What? Yes, they’re $250 or whatever price you can afford. I grew up without money and I know what it’s like to live without money. So if you’re out there today and you want to attend our in-person two-day interactive business workshop, all you got to do is go to thrivetimeshow.com to request those tickets. And if you can’t afford $250, we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. I learned at the Academy in Kings Point, New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvard Kiyosaki, The Rich Dad Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re close, but they’re completely different worlds. And we have a special guest today. Definition of intelligence is if you agree with me, you’re intelligent. And so this gentleman is very intelligent. I’ve done this show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts. And so Mr. Clay Clark is a friend of a good friend, Eric 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. And he said, have you read this book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad? And I said, no. And my father, may he rest in peace, he didn’t know these financial principles. So I started reading all of your books and really devouring your books. And I went from being an employee to self-employed to the business owner to the investor. And I owe a lot of that to you. And I just wanted to take a moment to tell you thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success. And I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump, but I just want to tell you, thank you, sir, for changing my life. Well, not only that, Clay, you know, thank you, but you’ve become an influencer. You know, more than anything else, you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. So that’s why I congratulate you on becoming. Because as you know, there’s a lot of fake influencers out there, or bad influencers. Yeah. Anyway, I’m glad you and I agree so much, and thanks for reading my books. Yeah. That’s the greatest thrill for me today. Not thrill, but recognition is when people, young men especially, come up and say, I read your book, changed my life, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this. I learned at the academy at King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say.