Clay Clark | Part 1 – The Story Behind The Story: Famous Entrepreneurs’ Success Stories With Deedra Determan

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 here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, let me show you how to get here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. All right, Deidre, how are you? Good. Hey, we are joined today by Mickey Mouse here. He’ll be a visual aid. And in this book written by a Conrad Hilton called Be My Guest about how Conrad Hilton built the Hilton Hotel Empire. It’ll all make sense in a little bit. It’s just there for building some suspense right now. And those of you who don’t know, Deidre is a PR guru. She’s a marketing… just really you’ve been kind of a someone who’s went from a mom to the mompreneur, started a marketing company. And I just appreciate your time being here. Thank you. I’m happy to be here. So we’re talking about is the story behind the story, how some of America’s most successful entrepreneurs got from where they were to where they wanted to be. I think right now as you’re watching this, I know I did this. We might not be aware of the hell and the tough situations that some people went through to get where they are. So I’m going to read this to you. Have you ever taken the time to think about, have you ever taken the time to think about your own biases and your own core beliefs if what we think about these people who became successful is actually true? Or have we ever just taken the time to take all those biases aside and really get into it and figure out how did these people become successful. Because as a culture, what we hear all the time is what? The rich get richer. Right. I think we’re a little bit of the other ones. The rich get richer. You say, well, the poor get poorer. The rich get richer. It takes money to make money. Luck. Luck. They’re all lucky. I’ve heard people say, well, if I had that much money, I would… Must be nice. There’s all that stuff. So we’re going to get into some people that we maybe it would it would be nice. Yeah. So I’m gonna give you we’re gonna start we’re gonna go over Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, the Hines family, George Foreman, Donald Trump, Steve Martin, Conrad Hilton, and Ryan Tedder. All right. So when you hear these names what comes to your mind? Awesome? Yeah, awesome. Empire. Empire. Hilton Hotel. Paris Hilton gallivanting around the world, spending money. Ryan Tedder. I’m thinking of one Republican songwriting and music. But they all have a story. So let’s get into Abraham Lincoln. This guy battled depression his whole life. He went into bankruptcy and lost it all at one point. This guy became a lawyer without formal training. Self-taught lawyer? What? This guy’s fiancé died. Your fiancé died. Think about how that would feel. This guy lost more elections than he won. At one point, this man had such conviction in his belief, he decided that slaves should be freed when over 50% of America disagreed with him. I don’t care what political side you’re on here. Let’s just pretend right now that President Obama says, I’m going to move forward with this. As a country, Fox News and CNN are like, oh, 55% of people don’t want it. Right. Well, over half the world didn’t want to end slavery, but he’s like, I’m going to do this thing. This man knew that his decision to free the slaves would cause America to plunge into a civil war. This man experienced so many setbacks he had no choice but to begin viewing each setback as a stepping stone to get him from where he was to where he wanted to be. That’s Abraham Lincoln. So when it comes to overcoming failure and rejection you have built a successful company, you sold it, you’re doing your own thing now. How have you been able to battle through, or what kind of stuff have you had to battle through as far as adversity or anything? What have you dealt with? Well, I think there’s always gonna be adversity when you first start something out, because you’re going down that road by yourself. And that maybe is one of the hardest things as an entrepreneur, is being alone. You’re alone in this world in the beginning. So yeah, stress, I mean, starting my company and going out from working in the corporate world and making great money to going on my own, no money. My husband loses his job right about the same time and we’re building a house. So lots of things I think come into play. I would like to ask you this if you’re watching this right now. I’m just kind of circling a few things here. Fiancee. If you’ve ever lost a loved one, that’s terrible. Mom, dad, fiance, brother, everybody is somebody’s son or sister or brother or mother. There’s somebody. Everyone matters. That’s terrible. But I know a lot of people I meet today who somebody died 25 years ago and they’re still unable to get over it because they say, well, my wife died. And I’m telling you, if that’s you, you’ve got to pick yourself up. It’s not easy. I had one of my best friends die in college. We knew each other since we were allegedly in the cribs together at church. We were roommates in college. He died. That’s terrible. It feels bad. But Abraham Lincoln, if he would have just stopped right there, we wouldn’t have had the freedom we enjoy today. The guy lost more elections than he won. I did all this is news to me. Every time I read it I’m like what? If you guys get a chance to just google this mess or watch some more Thrive episodes on this, it’s amazing. If you want to feel good about your life, read Abraham Lincoln’s life. That guy was going through such depression. He actually at one point, I’m paraphrasing, but he basically made the statement, if I decide to free the slaves, more white people will have to die than the number of people we will free. I mean, imagine that sort of wrestling with that. And then you cut a line across America. We forget it wasn’t too far ago, too far long ago. You’re saying families are ripped apart, and now brothers and sisters are fighting each other in a civil war. And the guy already had depression. That’s craziness. I mean, I can’t tell you the kind of struggles he went through. And then to be a lawyer? Yeah. And to have not had formal education? Self-taught, yeah. What? I mean, so no matter what you’re dealing with right now, we have nothing to complain about. Mm-hmm. I have some stuff I’ve dealt with. You have some stuff you’ve dealt with. I know I’ve mentioned on some of these Thrive episodes, but, you know, with my dad battling cancer right now, it stinks, because you feel guilty. You should think, every second, I need to be with my dad. And my dad and I have had that talk. And he’s like, no, you know, you need to… Dad, am I being a good son? Am I doing a good job? And he’s like, yeah, you are. You just got to… You battle guilt. We’ve all battled financial issues. We all know something. But we got to push on through it. Now, what’s the trick to stay positive when things get challenging? Because you strike me as a high-energy person. So my bias, and I’m not saying I’m right, but people say this to me, they’ll say, usually rich people who are contemplating investing in my businesses will say, you’re high energy, I bet you have major mood swings. I bet you’re like, eee, boof. I bet you’re up and then down. I honestly tell them, I say, as a general rule, I’ll bottom out about once every 90 days, I’ll have like a boof, but I don’t stay there for more than a quick an hour or two. But how do you stay up? I mean, you try to be up as much as you can and surround yourself with positive people. I mean, honestly, working out helps me because that first thing in the morning gets me going. You’re a boot camper. Boot camper. But it gets me going and it gets me in that positive mind frame. It’s doing something for myself, for my health. I think it makes me a better mom, a better worker, better entrepreneur, all of that. So kind of get in that mind frame. But definitely, I mean, you get overwhelmed with life. I think every mom that works, you have that, am I doing good at home? Am I doing good at the office? How am I giving 110% both? Something’s giving if I’m at the office. Is there any guilt? Yeah, I think there’s always guilt with working moms. If I’m doing really great in my business and doing everything right and things are thriving there. What’s suffering at home? Well, you know, I might be working late, working more than I should. We all battle it, and I’m trying to give you the story behind this story. Now let’s go to Henry Ford. This man decided to start an automobile company and then lost it all. He actually lost it all. He picked himself up, started his company again. The man tried to introduce his new vehicle into the market at a time when the current laws made it illegal for him to do so. You might not know this. It was illegal for him to make automobiles at the time that he started Ford. Like they had a patent going on where they said it was illegal to make any new automobile technologies. You could not do it. But he did. Broke the law. This crazy dude decided to build his vehicle and begin selling it before he had legal permission to do so. This man was so filled with a passionate belief that his vehicle is going to change the world that he wouldn’t let legislation stop him. In order to win public support for opening up the automotive industry to competition, he challenged the nation’s automobile monopoly to a race. And who did he think should be racing the vehicle with no racing experience? He thought himself. Yeah. So he put himself behind the wheel of the racing car and when he won the race he won public support for his vehicle. In fact he won so much public support that the laws were changed to allow him to sell his vehicle. Did he break a few existing laws? Oh yeah. Did he have any previous experience in the industry? No. Did he lose it all at one time? Yes. But did he stay down when he fell? Absolutely not. So when I hear the word Henry Ford, the name Henry Ford, it means to me much more than success. It means tenacity. It means PR. It means media genius. It means focus. It means imagination and a rebellion against the establishment. When I hear Henry Ford, I get pumped up. But we take it back to our own life. I mean, you’ve worked with a lot of successful entrepreneurs in your time. What makes people like Henry Ford get up? What makes those people get up and get up and get up? Because they all get knocked down. Right. I mean, I think you have to be a confident person. Can you learn it? I think you can learn to be positive and have that positive mindset. Have you learned to be more positive? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I mean I’m a pretty happy person as a whole, but… I’m not looking for a specific because I don’t want to make any… I don’t want this to become like a Jenny Jones show, but we respect that programming for what it is and what it was. But, Jenny’s a phenomenal talent. But in the last five years, have you ever had just something where it just rocked you. Yeah. Just, what the? Yeah. You know, usually for me, if you guys ever been on, if you ever been somewhere you were dressed up nice and then a bird poops on you. Yeah. Have you ever had that happen? I haven’t had that. Maybe I just have a big head. But I’ll be, I’ve been dressed up nice quite a few times. Yeah. And I’m like, feeling good, going on a date, going on a date. What the? Yeah. Did a bird just poop on me? What are the chances of this bird butt dropping its poop on my… What? That’s kind of what happens in entrepreneurship though. You’re doing great and all of a sudden you get sued. All of a sudden an employee quits. All of a sudden there’s something… Yeah, someone has to get fired. Yeah, there’s definitely, you know, and I think you have to change course and figure out, you know, the best method to do. How tenacious in your mind, if on a scale of 1 to 10, if 10 is like the most tenacious ever, like Henry Ford, and a 1 is like terrible, how tenacious is the average entrepreneur in your mind? I think you have to be the average entrepreneur or successful entrepreneur. Well, I’d say the average, because 9 out of 10 of them go out of business. Yeah, I mean, I would say you have to be pretty tenacious to get up and keep going every day, because you’re going to get the no’s, you’re going to get the negative. You know, you have to be… Is that a swing factor between success and not success, is tenacity in your mind? I think so. Okay. Yep. I want to I want to encourage you guys look at the story of Airbnb the website Airbnb. Those dudes ran out of money so they started a company selling cereal where they went out to the grocery store and bought cereal and they just took the cereal out of one box and put it into their own box and they started calling them Obama O’s and they started selling cereal as a way to make enough money to keep their side afloat. I mean, that’s the kind of stuff that’s going to get us through. Now Walt Disney. When I hear the name Walt Disney, I think of the military ambulance driver who decided to turn his ambulance into a canvas for his cartoons. When I think of Walt Disney, I think of the animator who started a studio that failed when I think of Walt Disney I think of the man who had the courage of his belief to actually ask his friends family and outsiders for Investments in his business when it failed Are you kidding me? You mean that he went on to ask so he took it up He asked all his friends and tell me for money. He lost it all then he asked him for money again And he lost it all again. Are you kidding me? Yeah, but he kept going so when I think of Disney I think of a man who loved his parents so much that he bought him a new home And he moved so he moved them to actually live in the the same Town as him because he did see Walt Disney World was taken off and he or Walt Disney I mean Disneyland was taken off He buys his parents a home and then he actually accidentally killed them because the home had a gas leak and so it killed, he ended up killing one of his parents. And then I think of a man who was picketed and booed by his own employees at the very time that Disney Studios finally became profitable, because he forced cartoonists to draw the same pictures over and over and over. I think of the man who had the intensity needed to drive countless animators, cartoonists, and artists to complete their movies on time in a day when animated movies required drawing thousands upon thousands of nearly the same pictures in a kind of a movie flipbook style. When I think of Walt Disney, I think of the man who the world called crazy, but whom the world, but for whom the world eventually cheered. When I hear the name Walt Disney, I just don’t think, that must be nice to have money like that. When I think of Walt Disney, I think of a champion of life, a man who burned his bridges of retreat, and a man who was committed to build something great. I think of a man who built this the whole his whole empire by the drawing of a mouse. Yeah. And again I mean let’s look at this here. He accidentally killed one of his parents because of a gas leak. Awful. How would you… I’ve never done that. How would you feel? That’s awful. Yeah. You know so okay that’s that’s reason to quit right there. Then could you imagine your company is finally profitable? Go look this up. You have to YouTube this stuff. All the employees are booing him. People who he’d been working with forever because they decided to boo him because they finally knew that he’s finally making money. We got to pick it. Could you imagine what it would be like to have all your staff in front of your building booing you? It’s unbelievable. What would it be like to raise all the money, maybe you’ve done this, you’ve got money from everybody, you know to invest And then you have to ask him again, what does that feel like you know, hey bird man, I know I lost all your money But I have another idea This time the mouse is not named Mortimer. That was the first house by the way Mortimer. The new mouse is Mickey It’s he’s a little fatter a little more round. Do you want to put in some money? Come on now! Oh yeah. And then to lose it again! And then to come back. Hey Birdman. So Mortimer didn’t go too well. I know Laugh-O-Grams wasn’t a big hit, but I’m gonna build an amusement park. What? I mean, based around my cartoons. I mean, it’s just, it’s insanity. Tenacity. That’s tenacity. You know, when you look at, think about Walt Disney and the stuff he went through, you know, a lot of these books you hear about entrepreneurs, famous people who’ve had no way of retreat. Have you, I mean, have you seen this trait common amongst a lot of your business clients where they basically put every dime they had into a business and they didn’t have a backup plan? Yes, I think a lot. You know, people are putting their houses, putting their mortgages on the line and borrowing money from family members and all of that, just try to make it work. I see it all the time, and I want to encourage you if you’re watching this and you’re like, I would have to put every… We have to sell our house. There’s a lady by the name of Lori Montag, M-O-N-T-A-G. I want you to Google that, Lori Montag, and check out. Just put Lori Montag CNN money in your Google search. This lady’s like… She’s one of my mentors, and she’s in her late 40s, almost 50, and she was working with me as a consultant for the mortgage company. I brought her on to help with the team, marketing genius. She decides to sell her house in her late 40s and to move into an apartment to take all of the money she has and to buy little rubber band bracelets called Zany Bands, in the shape of little pirate ships and like a boat and a house and a tree and a bird. And then she decides to sell these things. She sold her house. I didn’t know that I would do that. She sold everything. Sold the house, it was paid for by the way. Turns it all into rubber bands. Her whole life savings is turned into rubber bands. And then she proceeds to sell $60 million of them. Now I’m gonna say this, and I’m not arguing with my friend Deidre, but if you approach life as if death is around the corner, sometimes all of a sudden the sense of urgency is there. Like, well if I only had a year left to live, yeah I would sell my house. And I think that as we get older, we sometimes feel like we have more to lose, and so we play it safer, and therefore we miss on some big stuff. And as I’ve met the founder of Hobby Lobby and the Quick Trip guys and George Foreman, I’ve discovered that as they’ve got older, they’ve continued to not be riskier, but to be more all in. And it’s a balance. I know you don’t wanna lose everything. And especially if you have kids at home and there’s a lot of things to factor in. But I would encourage everybody watching this that we have got to have a sense of urgency about our life and to be sold out like Walt Disney was. Maybe not sell your house but you’ve got to be into that right? I mean yeah the passion. Now entrepreneurs like Walt Disney seem to have boundless energy that they seem to pull from their passion. It’s like oh I’ll get some more here. I got this endless passion supply. They pull it from the cloud of passion. They pull that energy. Where do you find your energy? Because you’re always energetic. I think surrounding yourself with people that are like that, you know, that are like you. If you are around positive people, I think you’re reflected that way as well. So that’s part of it, finding a positive mentor, doing positive things in your life. You have to take care of yourself. You know, you’re not gonna be a good entrepreneur, successful in business if you don’t take care of yourself, your health and all of that. I just will say this, if you are watching this right now and you don’t have a whole lot of passion, if you’re finding yourself passionless, it’s a dangerous place to be. It is. You’ve got to get up every day and love what you’re doing, because you’re not going to make money for a long time. It’s going to take a while, and there’s that risk factor and everything else, so you’ve got to get up and love what you’re doing. Got to love it. I’m just being real. You’ve got to love it. You just… I don’t know how else to explain it, you have to love it. I said love it. There might be parts that you don’t love, but you have to love it overall. It’s very important. Now we’re going on to my main man, Milton Hershey. Milton Hershey. When I hear the name Milton Hershey, I get hungry. Then I get a little hungrier, and then I reach for a taser to calm myself down. Then I think of a man who lost everything while building his chocolate empire. I think of the man who bet it all on the candy and ultimately won, but not before losing it all. Again, losing it all. I don’t know if I can articulate emotionally without crying here. These people lost it all. Walt Disney lost it all. Henry Ford lost it all. Milton Hershey lost it all. Can you imagine what that would feel like? Perhaps you already know what it feels like to lose it all. Perhaps this story is what you needed to hear to motivate yourself to get up and go after it again. My friends, when I think of Milton Hershey, I think of a bold young man who stared directly into the face of defeat and yelled, bring it on! Here comes the king of chocolate! I’m sorry, but I cannot get anything less than Tim Tebow-esque excited when I think about the passion that this guy had to start this company. I mean, it’s awesome. So when I go to the store and I see some Hershey’s, I get pumped. And I’m hoping that when you go to Disney World, you get pumped. And when you see a Ford car, you get pumped. Now, Deidre, can you describe how hungry for success you were when you started 918 Moms? I mean, were you pumped? Oh, pumped. I mean, definitely. And I think, you know, as we started getting more users and more users and people were interested in it, that’s what kept us going. Getting emails from people saying, you know, wow, I haven’t had anything like this. You know, you’ve saved me in a time when I was really down and I could, you know, connect with these other moms. This was really before Facebook and people were doing social networking. And at the peak, you were doing about $70,000 a month of advertisement revenue? Revenue. I mean, $70,000. Think about this. Here’s a mompreneur. I’m not trying to be sexist or try to be anything. I’m just saying here a lot of people could say, she’s a mom, how is she qualified to start this? She’s in the corporate world, how is she qualified? A lot of people will say to you, you need to go back to college and get your entrepreneurial degree, there’s entrepreneurship degrees now. You need to get your MBA, Deidre. How are you going to start a business without an MBA? But you did it. Yeah, I mean it’s all about the passion and I was that mom at the time, you know, the young mom with new kids, so it was all the questions I had, which I think makes it easier. I was obviously passionate about it because I had young kids at home as well. Full disclosure, Deidre was born in 1994. Now, so many of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs have failed and failed before they have achieved success. As a PR and media marketing guru, how many rejections would you say you typically would get on a pitch? You’re sharing a story with a media outlet. How many rejections do you get before you get one yes? I would probably at least 10, 15. No! 10 or 15 no’s? To one yes. That’s a lot of no’s. It depends on local or national. You know, what you’re pitching national is harder. But yeah, definitely. You know, you’re throwing it out there, not everyone’s going to love your story. I’m going to just throw out this number here. I don’t know that a lot of people mentally can handle 15 no’s for every yes. Unless you know going into it. You’re going to get that. It’s crass. It’s terrible. But I always tell people, embrace the worst case scenario. Like, know that it’s going to be terrible. It’s maybe not a good idea. But it’s not as if it doesn’t feel positive, I guess. But I’m like, I’m going to get 50 no’s. We’re talking today about venture capital. And I was like, I have to believe that these people will not invest. Because they promised they will, they said they will, they’ve emailed, they’ve met with me, so I don’t feel good about it. I got to get more leads. And if that’s how it works, and then when I get somebody, it always works out that way. So we’re doing Thrive, we’re raising capital for Thrive. And one guy who I, I don’t even know why he’s excited. He doesn’t fit the demographic, but he’s pumped. Yeah. He loves it. Thrive! He’s pumping me up. I’m like, thrive. He’s like, no, thrive! You know, it’s crazy. He’s pumped. He’s going Jumanji about thrive. And then people who I thought would say yes, say no. It’s just bizarre. And it only takes, you know, a few. So if you cast your net wider. Wider. Wider net. Yeah. More fish. Yeah. Now, moving on to H.J. Heinz. Heinz ketchup. You ever had some of that? Heinz sodium. My wife says it’s horrible for me. It’s got more sugar in that than a candy bar. But I’m not trying to rip Heinz. My wife’s just telling me. Non-GMO all the way. I’ve got to stop eating that ketchup. I love that sweet ketchup. I love it. I love that salt. Salt, too. I want an adult salt lick for my kitchen, right? Like after every meal, just salt lake. I love it. All right, so the king of ketchup. Today is, he is known as the czar of condiments, but when you hear his name, what comes to mind? When you see his ketchup bottles, what are your thoughts in your brain? For me it’s steak. Recently I actually heard someone say, you know, it was easy for him because he found an easy niche with little competition and was able to make a name for himself. When somebody told me this about the Ketchup King, I was like, I’m going to research the Ketchup King and just to see if that’s true, because it’s not true. I just want to have some facts so I can call Jack and tell him this thing. So I didn’t slap this person, but I wanted to. I just poured ketchup on them. No, I’m just kidding. I researched him and here’s what I found out. My main man, Heinz, went into bankruptcy. He lost it all, again, you’re in a pattern here. He literally ran out of cash on his way to building something big. My friend, you simply must feed your brain this sort of information if you’re going to get to the top. You and I must know these stories to start to build up the emotional stamina needed. We’ve gotta feel like H.J. Heinz. You gotta feel like you’re one step closer to victory because you’ve learned what does not work. We have already talked about Hines. We’ve talked about Ford. We’ve talked… Abraham Lincoln. He… this guy… Hines lost it all. Hines was a hustler though. That guy could hustle. How are you doing that? I always see you and you always bring that energy. How do you do it? I think it’s all the little things you do every day to get you to your end goal. So if you’re not hustling every day, you’re not going to get there fast enough. I think you’ve got to set down your goals of everything you’re going to do and get through that. Because it’s all the little things. You’re not going to have big epiphanies every single day or big things happen. I got to be real with you. I was talking to my wife about today because I’m going to have to like go to maybe therapy over this or something. Low energy people just piss me off. Right. Because it’s it’s they’re they’re not going to be successful. Yeah. And I’ve never met a we interviewed Tim Redmond, high energy. Interview you, high energy. I’ve met people who are calm on that their passion like they might talk calmly. Right. But there’s a passion. Right. A fire just like right below the surface. I’ve never met an entrepreneur who’s like, well, you know, basically, I, and then, but you see people, they come to meetings like that. Well, I suppose that sort of energy doesn’t work. You know, if you don’t have that going on and get that excitement for your own business, how’s anyone else gonna be excited about it? No, I think it’s tough. As an entrepreneur, you take a team, you got to have that hustle of boss, but you also have people on your team who are able to not have the ambition needed to run their own business, and they were perfectly content working for someone else. Right. And you have to, it takes a team. It does take a team. I have to learn to like calm down, man. And no one cares about your business like you do. I mean, I think that’s something to remember. So you’ve got the hustle and you’re going, and it’s hard to get everybody else to care as much as you care about your… When I go to a company and I see somebody yawn, and they’re the business owner, I want to reach in and just grab their tongue and just yank it a little bit. You know, it’s so frustrating. Now in your mind, do most entrepreneurs bring enough hustle to their job? You know, I think the successful ones do, but a lot of them, you know, I talk to people all the time, well I just want to work a few hours, or I just want to do this or just want to do that. In the beginning, you kind of have to do it all. You’ve got to do it all and bring the hustle, even the things you don’t like. And then as you grow and scale, then you can start delegating that. I hate to reference Shawshank Redemption because it’s not a true story. But you know how he digs his way out with like a spoon, I think. Was it a spoon? Was it a knife? Was it a shiv? A chisel? He works his way out though of the prison by digging his way out over a little bit every day. That’s what success is. You dig your way to freedom with the spoon. That’s what it is. And it’s that daily hustle. Every day. It’s a daily application. Now, we’re moving on to my main man, George Foreman. I’ve met George Foreman, shook his hand. Each finger of George’s is like two times the width of my finger. No, I’m not kidding. I remember when he shook my hand, I was like, that is sick. He could break my head with that. And then you just see the fist, like, oh man, he’s just, you can just see, like, if you were boxing with him, just, poof, I’m done, I mean, just unbelievable power. And, but George Foreman, so, big George, I met this guy, and he actually held my son, back, it’s a different story, but he actually held my son, and this man was the former heavyweight champion of the world, but when he was young, people didn’t know his name. And we now think of him as being lucky. We think of him the guy who sold the grills. We think about him as being the guy who’s held his success. But here’s the story. As a kid, he grew up in the projects. And he discovered boxing when he joined the Job Corps because he could not find work. When I think of Big George, I think of a man who battled his personal demons of anger for years before discovering God during a low point of his life. I think of a man who was praying for a personal miracle and who directly challenged God in his book, God in My Corner. Whether you believe in God or not, this is what happened. He said, God, if you will heal this person, I will retire from boxing and serve you and become a pastor. The kid actually came out of the coma, and that’s why he retired from boxing and then he became a pastor. Then when he was 39, he came back to box again because he felt God told him to do it. I personally don’t feel like I get a lot of direct verbal commands from God. I would love to have them, but this is what George said. And so when I think of George Foreman, I think of a man who today is a pastor of a church. I think of a man who didn’t return to boxing until he felt the Lord told him to. When I think of George, I think of a man whose infomercial has stimulated enough sales to give him a net worth of their estimating 300 million dollars When I think of George Foreman, I think of a man who listens to God a man who inspires me every time I hear his name. I think of a man who just I love George Foreman George Foreman I love you, but it’s just amazing because I was going through a low point in my life I read his book and he encouraged me I don’t think a lot of people realize that George Foreman though basically felt abandoned and grew up in the projects and felt like a loser. And he only found boxing through the Job Corps. JT, do you know what time it is? Um, 410. 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. 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 going to have to come and find out, because I don’t know. Well, I’m just saying, Tim Tebow is 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. You know, over the years we’ve had the opportunity to feature Michael Levine, the PR consultant of choice for Nike, for Prince, for Michael Jackson. The top PR consultant in the history of the planet has spoken at the Thrive Time Show workshops. We’ve had Jill Donovan, the founder of rusticcuff.com, a company that creates apparel worn by celebrities all throughout the world. Jill Donovan, the founder of rusticcuff.com, has spoken at the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshops. We have the guy, we’ve had the man who’s responsible for turning around Harley Davidson, a man by the name of Ken Schmidt, he has spoken at the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshops. Folks, I’m telling you, these events are going to teach you what you need to know to start and grow a successful business. And the way we price the events, the way we do these events, 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 going to blow your mind. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshop is America’s highest rated and most reviewed business workshop. See the thousands of video testimonials from real people just like you who have been able to build multi-million dollar companies. Watch those testimonials today at Thrivetimeshow.com. Simply by clicking on the testimonials button right there at Thrivetimeshow.com, you’re going to see thousands of people just like you who have been able to go from just surviving to thriving. Each and every day we’re going to add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup. But I encourage everybody out there today, get those tickets today. Go to thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s thrivetimeshow.com. And some people might be saying, well, how do I do it? 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 Thrive Time Show. Thrive Time Show. Thrive Time Show. 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, 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, Jerusalem, Oklahoma. It says Tulsa, Jerusalem. I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa, Jerusalem, sort of like the Jerusalem of America. But if you type in Thrive Time Show in Jinx, you can get a sneak peek or a look at our office facility. This is what it looks like. This is where you’re headed. It’s going to be a blasty blast. You can look inside, see the facility. We’re going to have hundreds of entrepreneurs here. It is going to be packed. Now for this particular event, folks, the seating is always limited because my facility isn’t a limitless convention center. You’re coming to my actual home office and so it’s going to be packed. Who? You! You’re going to come. Who? You! I’m talking to you. You can get your tickets right now at ThriveTimeShow.com and again, you can name your price. We tell people it’s $250 or whatever price you can afford. And we do have some select VIP tickets, which gives you an access to meet some of the speakers and those sorts of things. And those tickets are $500. It’s a two-day interactive business workshop. Over 20 hours of business training. We’re gonna 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, 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 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. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because, as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge. They’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. 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 gotta do is go to ThriveTimeShow.com to request those tickets. And if you can’t afford $250, we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. I learned at the Academy, King’s Point in 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, first of all, I have to honor you, sir. I want to show you what I did to one of your books here. There’s a guy named Jeremy Thorn, who was my boss at the time. I was 19 years old, working at Faith Highway. I had a job at Applebee’s, Target, and DirecTV. And he said, have you read this book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad? And I said, no. And my father, may he rest in peace, he didn’t know these financial principles. So I started reading all of your books and really devouring your books and I went from being an employee to self-employed to the business owner to the investor and I owe a lot of that to you and I just want to take a moment to tell you thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success and I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump. I just want to tell you thank you sir for changing my life. Well not only that Clay, 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 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, at King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say.