Clay Clark | The Early Years With Clay Staires, The “Millionaire Teacher” + The Four Humans Involved In Commercial Lease Transactions With Braxton Fears

Audio Transcription

Get ready to enter the Thrivetime Show! We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re on the top. Teaching you the systems to get what we got. Cullen Dixon’s on the hooks, I’ve written the books. He’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks. As the father of five, that’s what I’m about. So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them. I see and see up on your radio. And now three, two, one. Here we go. We started from the bottom, now we hit it. We started from the bottom, and that’s what you gotta do. All right, today we are joined by Clay Stairs, the millionaire schoolteacher. Clay, thank you for being here, my friend. Hey, it’s great to be here, Clay. Well, first off, a little background. You are a school teacher who’s gone on to achieve massive financial success, and you travel around the country as a leadership speaker, motivational speaker. It’s amazing what you’ve been able to do, and so I’m just going to dive into it here. Let’s go. Where did you grow up? In Avant, Oklahoma. Really? Yes. It’s like 300 people, but everybody knows it pretty much because it’s on Bird Creek. Bird Creek? Is that kind of like the tourist capital of Oklahoma? Well pretty much. Pretty much. Yes. Bird Creek floods all the time. Everybody knows it because it’s flooding all the time. That’s why you’d want to probably book a trip. Yes. Let me get the Johnny boat. What was your childhood like? Wow. Well, it’s kind of the classic Andy Taylor. I was Opie type of thing. And so it’s a small town, again about 300 people in the town, and grew up on a hundred acre ranch. We had horses, ton of dogs, goats and things like that. You said a ton of dogs, like how many dogs did you have? We had several and they were all stray dogs because we kept finding out that if you buy a dog it dies. So we just went with stray dogs. Which was wonderful. Okay, so I grew up with a bunch of stray dogs, but I tell you, just living in the country, constantly outside. This was back in the day before anyone really was concerned about insurance or concerned about injuries. So I just spent all day just out playing around in the woods. I used to be up in the woods, and I would lift up rocks to see if I could find snakes. Really? Yes. Doesn’t seem really smart, but that’s what I used to do. Never did find one, though. That’s a strategy that I haven’t employed in my quest for financial success, but I might just start doing that if that’s how you do it. You just look under the rocks for snakes. Well, it seems to me that maybe it is a part. Maybe it’s a kind of assignment part that I wasn’t aware of. Now, did you start out wanting to become a leadership expert, or what kinds of activities were you involved in during high school? Well, I think probably where the leadership piece came in for me is that I grew up, I was the youngest of four kids, and so I grew up in a family of leaders. My mom and dad had started a nonprofit. I grew up in the ministry. I grew up on a summer camp. Really? So I was always looking at my big brother, six years older than I was, and he was always funny. You know, and so I thought, oh, I want to be like him, want to be like him. And my dad always had so much influence with people that were all over the place. It seemed like everywhere we’d go, well, you’re Don’s boy. He just knew everyone. Now for the folks at home who might not know what camp you’re referring to, but they want to Google it or check out, what was the name of the camp? Shepherd’s Fold Ranch. And how many people would, how many kids would go to that ranch on a typical summer? Probably around 1,500, 2,000 kids. Wow. Yeah, I think over the years, when did we start? Like 1972 was when we started. I think we’ve had about 25,000 kids since then. So did you have some adversity in high school you faced or was it a pretty easy, smooth kind of deal? My adversity didn’t hit until just after college. But up through there, everything was going pretty smooth. I was the guy, I had a lot of natural likability. I was good looking, not unlike today at all. It’s actually probably too good looking now. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let’s bring the lights down a little bit. But also, I made good grades. I was very likable by all the teachers. I knew how to manipulate really well, probably unlike you. And so I got a lot of things to go my way. I had some very natural athletic talent. And so I was able to have success in athletics without really having to work at it. And ended up going to college playing football in college, which was a lot of fun. Where did you go play? University of Oklahoma. Were you any good? I was good enough to travel. How about that? But not good enough to get in a game. So how tall are you? At that point I was like, what, 5’8″, 5’9″? And so you were playing… I’ve grown a lot. I’m 5’10”. You’re playing Division I college football. Yes. Were you getting just rocked? Oh, I was getting killed. Because not only was I small, but I weighed like 150 soaking wet. Are you serious? I’m totally serious. So you weighed 150 pounds? 150 pounds. And you’re 5’8″. And I’m 5’8″. I don’t know if we can do this part, but I was a white boy playing in the wishbone offense with Barry Switzer back in the early 80s. So you ran across the middle and just get smacked? Oh yeah. They would say, Clay, we’re going to have you go crack back, because this is back in the days of crack back. We want you to crack back on the linebackers. At that point, Jackie Shipp and Thomas Vinson that were playing for OU. They would catch me in the air and throw me to the side and then go make the catch. So you were kind of like practice fodder. Oh, totally. What’s a crack back, just so I don’t know what that is? That’s when a linebacker is watching the quarterback. Quarterback’s running this way, the linebacker is following and tracking the quarterback, and I come here and try to take him out. You try to hit high, but of course I’m 150 pounds, so if I hit high I’m just going to bounce. So I always try to go low, but then I’d just get caught in their legs, and it was just blender time. So when did you start to encounter some adversity? Did it start when you started getting just crushed every time you caught a pass? I think that’s when things started for me because up until that point things had come really natural and I’d spoken with Barry Switzer and the staff there at OU and by the time I was graduating there weren’t any scholarships left for me but I came as an invited walk-on. Kind of a glorified walk-on. So I got some perks and they didn’t treat me too bad but all of a sudden things weren’t coming really natural. I was having to work for things. They didn’t notice me. And I didn’t have a scholarship so I was number four on the depth chart. But I don’t know, even if the first three guys had gotten shot in the middle of the game, I think somebody else would have gotten there. You know, Clay, sit down, you know, type of thing. But I had a lot of fun doing it. But that was probably the first time that I encountered this concept in my life of, I’m going to have to work for something. And Clay, I just didn’t have the capacity for that. And so when the struggle hit, I didn’t know how to get through it. I didn’t have the tools. I didn’t have the resources, emotional, mental, physical. I just didn’t have the resources to work through that. So I played for about a year and a half and then ended up quitting and joined a fraternity. Woohoo! There’s capacity! Did you graduate from college? I did. I did. I graduated from OU. And then what did you do after OU? Scared to death, Clay. Yeah, scared to death. Graduated and I remember walking across campus after my last final. And it kind of, you know, the realization kind of set in on me and I felt it across my back and in lower places. And all of a sudden was just like, oh my, what am I going to do? And I began to panic because I didn’t feel like I was ready. Once again, all of a sudden encountering that I was getting ready to move into a place here that required this level of capacity, but I was still here. And so I just felt overwhelmed. So I panicked and became a youth director. You became a youth director? Youth director right out of college. That’s the degree put to good use. So what was your plan? What was your plan at that point? You’ll be a youth director. What does it mean to be a youth director? Yeah, not a whole lot. It’s hilarious as a youth director. You know, you get this job and everything, but really you’re supposed to go hang out with kids, get to know them, build relationships and stuff like that. But probably the primary purpose of a youth director obviously is to engage with the kids and help them navigate through struggles and difficulties. Who was the employer? Was it the camp that was employing you or the school? No, see it was a church. It was a church in Oklahoma City as a youth director. But the whole idea, kind of my plan, was I was just buying time. And really that was kind of the thing why I went to college too. Because my whole plan in life was to go to college, get the degree, but then go out to Shepherds Fold, work with the family business for the rest of my life. My dad would be the executive director, my brother would be the camp director, and I would be the other guy. What point in your career did you decide to get serious about saving up some money and serious about starting to earn money and take your career more seriously? Wow, great question. The point of my career was when I was probably 47 years old. Really? Yes, because up until that point Clay, I mean I was trapped. I was locked in this place called the wage cage. Eventually I put my degree to work and I took a job as a teacher. After I’d been up in Massachusetts doing this job and I was a personal trainer and things like that and doing some substitute teaching in a school. But eventually I put my degree to work and I became a teacher. And, you know, it’s the classic thing of, I’m going to teach, and it doesn’t take, it’s not rocket science to find out, if I stay here for 35 years, all I’ve got to do is look at the little salary scale there and go down to the bottom right. After 35 years, I can retire at 50 grand. And I was thinking, hey, it sounds like a good deal. So I jumped onto that boat or jumped into that trap and in a big sense really got stuck. So I’m a teacher for 15 years but the idea there is that I get trapped. I think it was wonderful for me to be there to learn my unique special gift, my wonder twin power that I’ve been given in my life is to teach and develop and train and coach. I mean, that’s something I’ve been doing since I’ve been a little kid. Yeah. So being in the classroom and being a coach out on the field gave me wonderful experience in doing that, being up in front of folks, being able to answer questions really quick. So if you have any questions on the integumentary system, I’d be glad to go there. Yeah. I have a lot of those questions. Good. We’ll be getting up to that later. So it gave me some wonderful years of experience. And I found out, Clay, that I was good at it. I could teach and I could engage the kids. And kids like me and other teachers like me and things like that, it was like all of a sudden I was kind of finding a groove. I was discovering, again, some of these wonder twin powers that I was born with, kind of that unique special gift that I had. But unfortunately, even though I was doing well and I was even winning awards. My salary wasn’t changing. And so I wasn’t moving anyplace. I wasn’t getting where I wanted to get. And even though I had another year’s experience and a little bit more money, I was still spending about everything that I was making. And so to look forward and to try to make plans of where I was heading in the future was really difficult. Were you a big saver? Did you buy stocks and bonds? No, it was terrible. I mean, I’m a last born. It will be fine. Someone else will take care of it. So again, always spending pretty much everything that I was making. If I was saving, here’s a great thing. To Clay, you’re saving money. Well, of course I am. I’m a great saver. But really, I’m just saving money to spend it later on because I’m saving it for a washer. I’m saving it for a car. I’m saving it for something else. So I’m going to save a little bit, but then I’m going to blow it all on something. So you started making the change in your life financially when you were in your 40s? Yes, yes, late 40s. Really? Okay. Late 40s. And so how did that transition happen? What did you do? After 15 years of teaching, I’m 37 years old, and it’s time for me now to move on into the next thing. It just so happened that my brother, it was time for him to move away from the ranch, from Shepherds Fold. And so boom, finally I’m gonna get my chance to take over the world type of thing. And so that was the first step, kind of broke me out of the the the trap of the the salary that I had found myself in at that point. And so I became the executive director at Shepherds Fold Ranch. And what was interesting is as soon as I became the director at Shepherd’s Fold, I began to function in all of the ways and all of the again the wonder twin powers that I had. I began to teach, I began to train. Another gifting that I have is just visionary and being a pioneer. So I started new things, new programs. We actually started a discipleship training school at the ranch at this point. I was writing curriculum and doing a lot of teaching. And so that broke me out of the classroom. But I jumped out of the classroom in the salaried world right into the nonprofit world. You know, that was a good time. So once again, here I am. Kind of my progression here is I learned growing up, if you need money, you ask for it. Because I grew up in a nonprofit world. Right. And I noticed, you know, hey dad, need some money? You know, and he’d go, okay, here you go. As you get a little bit older, you have to go through the guilt trip. Oh man, are you kidding? What do you think? Money grows on trees? And so you go through the guilt trip, but eventually give you the money. The same thing in my parents, since they were running the nonprofit, if we needed money for the business, what did we do? We did a fundraiser, and we asked people for money. So that’s kind of how I learned if you need money, ask for it. But then I moved out of that into the salary world. So now if you need money, well you work more. You put in more hours. And you know, Clay, we need you to take tickets at the football game or something like that. How much does it pay? Type of thing, you know, because I’m going to be there for a while. Well, it pays $25. You’re on! You know? And so I do those different things. If I needed more money, I’d have to work more for it. And so now here I come back into the non-profit world again and I found that I had a gift to influence people. I had a gift to be able to sit down to explain and paint a picture, cast a vision in people’s hearts. So all of a sudden I’m able to raise some money. And I’m like, hey, I’m set. This is going to be awesome. You know, I was thinking, okay, I’m set. This was my goal from the very beginning. But then Clay, after about eight years there, I began to feel the itch again. I began to feel like there’s something more. There’s something more. And we’ve been able to take the ranch from a place where where it was struggling, where they were having some difficulties. We were able to bring it to a point where we were winning some awards, doing really good, a lot of notoriety. But I definitely understood it’s time for me now to turn this thing over because now I’m in my mid-40s and I’m realizing, okay, there are some things I’m really good at and there are some things that I’m not really good at. And one of the things that I really struggled with was just the daily grind of management. You know, just all the little weeds, all the little details of management. And I knew for the ranch to go further, to be able to grow, they needed a manager. So I was able to hire a manager to take my spot. Well, you know, you hear all the time, it says that there’s a book called The Millionaire Next Door. And the research in that book shows that 80%- I read that book. You did? Yes. All right. Oh, yeah. My brother-in-law told me about it. Well, it says 80% of America’s millionaires are first-generation affluent. Does that surprise you? Not at all. So I mean, for you, I mean, the transition from being poor to not poor, was it a road that involved a lot of just saving consistently over time? How did you get to where you are now? Again, I think the key thing, when I moved from Shepard’s Fold and had turned the reins over to a new person, all of a sudden it was like, okay, if I hire you, there’s no money for me to have a paycheck. And my next thing is not to go back into the classroom. And it felt compelled to move out into my own thing. You begin to take all of the skills, all of the talents that I had learned and gained through each of these different jobs that I had had, and now begin to use them for my own power, begin to take over the world for myself rather than for other companies. So not unlike yourself, Clay. So really, the road to self-employment has proven to be very successful for you. That’s where you’ve, do you feel like you’re thriving now that you’re in self-employment? Oh, definitely. It has provided a freedom for me. And what is it that we hear so often with entrepreneurship? That either we’re going to choose safety, we’re going to choose freedom. And so the whole idea is that you can choose security if you want, but the more security that you want, if you continue to grab hold of more and more and more security, you will have to give up more and more and more freedom until eventually you find yourself in what we call maximum security, where you have lost all of your freedom. So you felt like for a lot of your career you were giving up the potential to make really good money and to offer a lot of value for salary Definitely, so if I’m watching this and I feel like maybe how you felt where I’m kind of stuck in a wage cage Or I’m so I’m I guess I’m sacrificing The potential to make the potential to make a lot of money for this maximum security of a salary What would you encourage me to do or what should I do if I want to make that jump from being a school teacher to becoming a millionaire? What would you recommend I do? Well, I think first of all I would be doing cartwheels just in celebration that if you were in the wage cage that you even knew that it was possible to do better. See that’s where I was trapped. It’s not like everybody out there in the wage cage is going, oh I wish I could get free and and you know use my wonder twin powers and do it. They don’t even know. They don’t even catch it, Clay. I mean they are locked in. This is how the world works. You know, this is my paycheck and I have to make my life fit in this paycheck. And if somebody else comes along and says, well you know you can do better than that, they go, no you’re trying to sell me something, you know, get away type of thing. Because my brain was so trapped, I didn’t even know that there was another world. I didn’t know that there was another world available to me. Let me ask you this, if I’m watching this, I know you’ve read a lot of books that have made a big impact on your life. Is there a book or two you might recommend that I read if I’m watching this that might help me sort of break out of that wage cage? I mean, do you like T. Harv Ecker’s books? Or what’s a book that you might recommend? Yeah, I would say, I mean, the very first book that I dove into was a book called Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill. You may have heard of that book. Yeah, there you go. There you go. I might have heard of that. And as a matter of fact, I just went to a birthday party this evening and gave that book to a kid that was turning 30 years old. Boom. Bam. On the move. Because his whole idea is he’s wanting to be an entrepreneur. He’s wanting to move forward He’s beginning to feel this wage cage himself. I said man to start your journey do as I do I’ve interviewed so many people about their path from You know poverty or their past or a path from kind of average income to something sensational And I hear that book all the time think and grow rich and play I’m reading that book down I’m sitting on the beach down at Mobile, Alabama. I’m sitting down there and I’m reading this thing and it is so offensive to my brain. It just doesn’t fit. I actually scream a few times and my wife is, hey, you okay? I’m going, I’m going to be fine. And I throw the book down into the sand and I’m picking the thing back up because I’m going, ah, I’ve got to get this thing into my head because it was so outside the box for me. I mean I was chained in the wage cage and so I never did know that there was a world available to me. Now for you that’d be great. You know for other people it’s like everybody else had this pixie dust and it was possible for them. I know when I read the book for the first time it felt like you know I have pretty poor vision but when I got glasses and I put on my glasses for the first time. It allowed me to see clearly where I was going, wow, I can’t believe what I’ve been missing. That’s how I felt when I read that book. It just pissed me off. The whole thing. The whole thing just pissed me off. It just made me mad. And then after that I jumped into The Millionaire Mindset by T. Harv Eker. That came across a little bit better. All of a sudden I was going, okay, that thing got me all worked up. The first book got me all worked up. T. Harv Eker came in and actually started putting some legs on it. And then I ended up going to a weekend intensive down in Dallas. Holy cow! Was that good? Oh yes. That weekend I know will continue to be for the rest of my life a real signpost, a real change of direction for me. Does your wife recognize, did she recognize there was a huge change when you went to that conference? Oh, definitely. Oh, definitely. Because I came back and I was all T-Harf. Really? I was kind of wearing a shirt, had the face on. It’s kind of scary. But, you know, I came back and I spent the first four months when I came back, every morning out on our back porch, sitting there with my hand over my heart, just speaking all of the wealth mindset to retrain my brain. Because I mean, that thing rocked me, just really messed me up. And it was when I came out of that that I actually saw for the first time that it was possible. I think what’s amazing is that we can be going through life and there can be something that can be introduced, just a new thought, and it can serve as a catalyst that can forever change the direction that we’re headed. Oh yeah. And that is just awesome. And Clay, now you have a great website people can go to if they want to get your book and learn more about you. It’s claystairs.com. That’s right. What’s the title of your book up there? My book is entitled Grow, and it’s a field guide to personal development. And so Clay, if you’re wanting to grow, if you’re wanting to expand, if you’re wanting to increase your capacity to process more complexity, then I can guarantee you this is the path you’re going to go on. It might look a little different for you than it did for me, but the signposts are going to be the same for every single person. It’s a wonderful field guide to know what should I expect. And even as you read through the book, you’re going to be able to discover I’m right here in chapter 4. This is where I am. And you can look at chapter 5, 6, and 7 and say, okay, now this stuff is coming up. I can be prepared for it so when it does come up I don’t just, whoa, you know, and just kind of fall apart and start sucking my thumb. Not that you’ve ever done that. No, no. Here’s the, I appreciate you so much for giving up your time here. I know you’ve got a lot of things going on with the family and the business and the speaking and the traveling, but I just want to tell you, thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to mentor people that maybe haven’t had that epiphany yet, or maybe feel like they need to hear a story like this. So thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. It’s great to be here, Clay. Thank you. All right. We’re here today with Braxton Fears. And Braxton, now a lot of people watching this, they’ll probably go, this is the guy with the, that has the most incredible hair that an American man has ever had. But despite your hair, or I guess in addition to your hair quality, there are other things you do. There are other things. You have been a successful commercial real estate broker. You have worked in ministry. You have worked in the accounting profession. You have worked in the landscaping industry. You have done a lot of different things in your career. You’re basically at a point in your life where you don’t really have a house payment. You’re kind of this quasi-retired yuppie guy who lives in the woods basically, right? Yeah. Okay. And so we’re going to really drill down today and pick your brain about the four humans that are involved in every commercial real estate lease transaction. And if there’s five humans too, we’ll let you add some humans in here. Okay. Let’s get into human number one, the tenant. Yes. The tenant. We hear a lot, you know, I know when I went to lease my first space they said, well, what’s the name of the tenant that will be leasing this building? And I’m going, what’s the name of the, what does tenant mean? So what is it, who is a tenant? Yeah, the tenant is the business. If you’re watching this, you’re most likely going to be a tenant at some point, or you already are. A tenant is the business that moves into another person’s building and occupies that space and pays rent. So let’s just make sure, the tenant is usually the business. That’s correct. So if my name of my company is called Clay LLC, the tenant is Clay LLC? Yes. Is the tenant Clay? The tenant is Clay. If you’re Clay LLC, that landlord or owner of the building is usually going to ask you, okay Clay LLC, that’s great, but it’s really you. You’re going to personally guarantee that. So I have to personally guarantee this. As that owner, most of the time. Most of the time. And can you explain to me what a personal guarantee is, just so we can get into that? That means even if you have a business, if you’re the owner, then you are personally responsible for it. So if you leave in the middle of the night, they’re not just going to come after your business because that’s going to do them no good. They’re going to come after you and they’re going to ask you to, not ask you, they’re going to make you pay part of all of the lease and invariably you’re going to get penalized for it. And here’s something I see all the time in business consulting. I see a lot of people that have either a degree or they’ve read a bunch of books about LLC’s and legal and they say well I’m gonna just guarantee with my company. I don’t want to personally guarantee it. And I’ve read that’s better. And you’re like well that’s great but the landlord wants somebody to be accountable to pay for the building. And if any landlord is smart, and most of them are, you’re not going to come across somebody who’s a dummy most of the time. They’re going to make you do that. So I just want to throw it out for you. If you had this mentality that you’re going to form an LLC, and just because you’ve heard about it on some midnight infomercial, well, get an LLC and just leave space with no liability. Any landlord with a functional mind would not let you do such a thing unless your company has such strong financials. Let’s say Microsoft. Yeah. They might let Microsoft lease the building, but for the average entrepreneur they’re gonna make you personally guarantee that. That’s correct. Okay, now as a tenant, just getting into this here, what kind of rights does a tenant have? Once I lease the building what kind of rights do I have? Yeah, I mean you’ve got lots of rights. The leases that are in place in every state, they’re favorable for the tenant. You just got an interesting dynamic with your landlord. You’re going to have a relationship with them, regardless of what type of lease it is, you’re going to have a relationship with them. You have the right to do what the use of that building is, and you have a right to have that space where they can’t just come in whenever they want, unless you’re in an office building. But you’ve got, that’s your space and whenever, even if they sell that building, if you have a five year or three year lease, they can’t just kick you out, even though they’ve sold the building. And I want to bring this up for a second, because this is big. We’re in a building here that you helped us find. And the landlord and I have a very good relationship. We might not get to agree on every single subject. Who does? But he’s a great guy. And so if the landlord is over here, and you’re over here, so if this is the tenant, and this is the landlord, starting off the deal here, if you guys don’t agree with each other right away, I mean if you just do not see eye to eye from the very beginning when you first interact with this person, is it a good idea to lease? It’s not a good idea because even though you’ve got it on paper, that paper’s worth about as much as what it is. It’s paper. And yeah, there’s some enforceable stuff on there. Nobody wants to go through the whole legal process of stuff. So having just a good personal relationship with your landlord, like you said, you don’t have to be best buds. You don’t have to invite them over to your house for coffee or whatever. But you do want to have a good working relationship. You know, hey, there’s a buy-in. They’re going to treat you fairly, you guys are going to figure it out one way or the other, because there will be issues. Now, I know a guy, know a guy, and this guy, hypothetically not me, but this guy, he leased a ton of space, and then the landlord just said, and hey, by the way, we know we used to give you free parking, but now you need to start paying for parking. We’ve changed our mind. Yeah. And the tenant on paper says, well this is not what you agreed to. Yeah. But it really comes down to who has the bigger wallet and who can sue who, right? Right. So in that situation this person had to start paying $7,000 a month for parking that they never agreed to pay because the landlord changed their mind. Right. Another person I know, they used to have a restaurant and the landlord said, we will definitely pay for any repairs related to the roof and related to the building, the ventilation, whatever. Well, just a couple of months into moving in, the ventilation system goes out. Landlord says, I’m not going to pay. You can’t make me whatever. But in both situations, both people discovered a little bit of sketchiness with the landlord between the time they first found the property and when they leased it. And I know that I’ve done this in my career before as well. It’s always better if you just don’t see eye to eye with the landlord philosophically, functionally. If you just don’t like them, you’ve got to move on. You’ve got to move on because it’s going to cause you headaches. They’re going to ask for references for you. And I would suggest, even if you’re a new business and you’ve got the money to pay the lease, you’re ready to go, you’re ready to sign a lease, you think this is great, but go ahead and get references on them. And don’t necessarily ask them for their references, but ask around, maybe some neighbors or some people, maybe that people that have leased there before. Maybe, the most likely that landlord owns multiple properties and find out about them. If you don’t know them or you don’t know the reputation, do a little research and figure it out because there are, not to scare you, but there are lots of situations like this where the landlord will say, well, this doesn’t work for me anymore. Well, I’ve got a five-year lease here, and I’m going to sue you. Well, go ahead and sue me. That happens quite a bit, and you end up going, it’s not worth it for me to sue them. What do I do here? And so you’re going to have issues, but do some research, even when you’re moving into a space. One of the things about real estate I’ve discovered, too, is that I went into business being naive, believing that if the law says this, then this is what will happen. I’m telling you, you can get a contract all you want, but if you don’t trust that person, it doesn’t matter. I’ll give you two other examples that have happened. I know that one particular landlord that I had had to work with, you Google the guy’s name, I should have done it before, and you find out that he is going to jail for fraud. Had I had known that, had I had used Google, would have discovered that before entering into some kind of engagement. Those are things that we should all do. We should do our due diligence on them like what you said. Yeah, and the property management company as well. If there’s a property management company working for the landlord, figure out. Just because they’re a big company doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to work out well, but just do some research. Figure out who are these people that are behind this, who’s the property manager, meet with the property manager that you’re going to be dealing with on a regular basis. This happens a lot where the broker helps you out, the landlord, they do the deal and then they pass you off to a property manager who you’ve never met and you don’t know. It’s nice to ask up front, hey, who’s the property manager on this? The owner might say, it’s just me. That can work. But most of the time it’s another company and you would want to meet with them before you sign a lease. Another example, I’m just trying to give you some examples that will save you some heartache later. The other example that I can think of is recently I worked with a guy who he insisted that he had called and done references on the landlord. And when we talk about this, like you said, it’s not like you have to be a sleuth. Just call the people who lease space in the building. So I called, boop boop boop boop boop. Hey, I’m just curious, do you enjoy leasing from this guy? No, he’s very difficult to work with, never comes out and does the landscaping. If something is a problem, he never fixes it, constantly raising our rates. No. Next person I call, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Would you work with this person? No, I would never work with this person. Again, I’m stuck in this lease. Boop, boop, boop, boop. Well, I don’t want to get in trouble, but no. And you hear that. Yeah. And I go to the guy, and I say, guy, we do not want to be here. And he says, no, those people are just upset. I will tell you that I have a great relationship right now with my landlord and I’ve had great relationships with other landlords. And I can tell you, it’s not like a landlord and tenant have to just fight. Right. If there’s a friction, it’s usually because it’s based on something. So just do your due diligence and do some, you know, apply some wisdom here. But you really need to check. Moving on to human number two that we have to interact with on every commercial real estate. You have a tenant, now we move into the owner, which we obviously talked about the owner, but I think it’s important that we really mine into the owner and kind of the role that they play there. This is the man or woman who owns the property. Now, owns. You get a lot of fluff in commercial real estate. Oh, I’m a partner. Oh, I’m an investor. Oh, I’m a… Who owns the building here? When the problem happens, where does the buck stop? Who’s the owner? And the entrepreneur who’s typically leasing the property, you probably won’t interact too much with the actual owner, but it’s important to know something about them. So why is it that the entrepreneur who’s leasing space typically does not interact much with the owner? Well, usually the owners of buildings are their entrepreneurs themselves. Maybe it’s a group of them. And they’ve figured out that real estate is a good core business to be in, but it’s not a good position for them to be meeting with tenants ever on a regular basis. So they hire a property management company. If you’re in the real estate business, it’s a good strategy to take. Now, if you’re the tenant, you need to understand who is this owner, what kind of reputation they have. But really, it’s important to know the property manager that you’re going to be dealing with, because that’s the person that can make your life difficult or not difficult. Sometimes the owners are out of state or they’re investors that are just putting money somewhere in an investment, sort of like a stock or a business of some sort, and that’s the way they see the building and they don’t want to be reachable, they don’t want to be held liable for anything that they’ve said. So they hire that property manager. That property manager can make it very difficult or easy on you. But you need to have a good relationship with them as well. Now, just something that might blow your mind. I know it blew my mind starting out, but I was first leasing space. But one owner, one of the first guys I leased from, I think the guy had something like 50 properties. He owns 50 buildings. Just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And this guy’s worth like $50 million. Craziness. Yeah. Well, so as a general rule, the owner might have 50 properties. And if he were to even just take one call a week from each tenant, I mean, he might get 300 calls a week. Because every building, he might have multiple tenants. So he’ll hire a property manager for each building, or maybe for a few buildings, to try to create a buffer between him and the tenant? That’s correct. And then again, this is different from the broker. It might be the same company, but that broker that you like, they’re usually not also the property manager. It can happen, but it’s more rare. So it’s a good question to ask in every building, who is going to be the person I’m going to be dealing with on a regular basis. Sometimes the owner will say, it’s just me, I’m a local owner and it’s just me. But majority of the time it’s going to be a property management company and you want to meet that person before you sign a lease. So I’m just going to throw out some weird stuff that can happen. It’s happened to me, it might happen to you. If you’re leasing a property from an owner who you find out through Google or through research or whatever, who has bad financials, is in a bad financial situation. I have had situations where the owner has actually not made their own mortgage payments for a building. Yes. Or has not paid their utilities or has not paid. So literally I as a tenant over here have been told, hey we’re going to turn off your water. We’re going to turn off your electricity. Not even we’re going to, but we just did. I’ve literally had it happen where the water or the electricity’s been turned off in my building because this person here did not make their payment. So when I call this person, I have to have faith that this person here is a quality person and that this person is a quality person. And it really comes down to the quality and the integrity of these people is a big deal. Yeah, I think it was Ronald Reagan that said, trust but verify. And you don’t want to just look for the devil in every corner, but you do want to verify that these people are humans that want to have a reputation that is viable and good. And I’d say most people want that, but you still have to be ready for the worst. In that situation, you probably called up and had to pay for your own water and electricity for a while and eventually figure it out. But you had a deal that said you were not going to pay for your own water and electricity, and so that happens. What are you going to do? Are you going to sue or are you going to pay the water and electricity bill for a little while? Be ready for that kind of thing. So Braxton, as a general rule, what is the personality type of the owners? Are they guys who are like, hey, let’s get together and I want to meet every tenant? Or are they more of like, hey, I’m going to hands off here? Yeah, they’re more of, hey, I’m in the Bahamas and I don’t have my cell phone. And I won’t take a call from you, which you can understand. That’s the way that that’s why they’ve invested in real estate and they’ve hired a property manager. But most owners are that same person. They’re typically an older person that’s gained some wealth and they don’t want to deal with day-to-day stuff. There are exceptions to that rule but the manager, the property manager, is going to be the person you’re going to be dealing with. The kind of person that I would say anecdotally, the kind of person that wants to buy a property is somebody who’s, like you said, built a business, they’ve built some wealth, they’re now wanting to exchange, they’re trying to get their money to make money for them, not their time. That’s right. And so they’re just wanting to be off the map. Yes. And so don’t get upset if they won’t return your call. I know I’ve been upset before. Just understand that’s what you’re dealing with. But you do want to do your due diligence to make sure they’re a good fit for you. Now as we move on to our next human we deal with, is this is the person called the investor. And the investor, it’s an interesting concept here, but this is the person who’s looking to get their money, working for them, and make money using their existing money and credit. It’s also somebody in the world of transactional commercial real estate who is usually big hat, no cattle. So usually when I run into people who are like, well, I’m an investor in this particular property, and you’re like, are you the owner? Well, I’m an investor and it to me puts up all sorts of red flags when you have somebody who’s not clearly the owner and they’re not clearly the property manager and they’re in the property, they’re in the process of trying to acquire a property and there’s sort of this nebulous relationship here. In my mind, all I care about is the owner and the manager. Yeah, yeah. And if you’re, there are investors that actually do invest in properties that you’re probably not ever going to meet that person because they’re not bragging on themselves. The investor that says, hey, come lease this space from me. I’m an investor. Are you the owner? No, I’m an investor. That person you want to probably stay away from. Most likely they’re talking a big game and they don’t really have anything to back it up. But an investor is someone that most likely you’re not dealing with. They’re just part of an ownership group and they’ve hired a management company. So I just want to throw that out. I want to make sure you’re hearing this because I’ve been to coffees. I’ve been to breakfast networks. I’ve been to chamber events where you have a guy who says, I’m an investor in this property here and I would like for you to be interested if you’d want to invest with me or if you want to lease with me or if you want to… And it just throws up all kinds of red flags to me because an investor, as a general rule, is not out there soliciting tenants. That’s correct. So I just want to make sure, I want to hit on that briefly because there’s all sorts of scandals and frauds and things that are kind of. So again, if you’re leasing space, you really care about the actual property manager and the owner. OK, now moving on to the fourth person. This is somebody who really does matter. And I think we give brokers a bad name. Unfairly, I used to, I know I used to say, well, I don’t want a broker because I don’t want to be broker, you know, and then so I thought that was awesome, but really what a broker is, if you get the right one, you have two kinds of brokers. You have one over here that represents the buyer, in this case the tenant, and another broker who represents the seller. So you have one that represents the tenant, one who represents the seller. Yeah, yeah, or the landlord. And you think of a broker like a stockbroker who’s going to take a little bit of your money whenever you buy a stock. And this is in the… that does happen on the landlord side. Brokers make their money from landlords. But if you’re a tenant, you’re never going to have to pay a broker. Now, you’re going to be… want to be aware that brokers typically make about 6% of the full lease. And if there’s two brokers, one on the landlord’s side and one on the tenant’s side, which is ideal for you as a tenant to have your own broker, they’re going to make 3% of whatever you sign up for. So if you sign up for a three-year lease that’s altogether worth $100,000, they’re going to make $3,000, the other person’s going to make $3,000, and the landlord is going to pay that fee to them for bringing you to the building. But that person is a good representation for you because they want to, hopefully, and you need to be discerning of this, are they trying to build a long-term relationship with me or are they just trying to make a quick buck? And if you can trust that broker and you know that, yeah, they’ve got a way of making money, I’m not necessarily paying them, but they’re gonna make money and if they do the right thing, they’re gonna have a long-term relationship with them, they can be very valuable to you. And helping you find stuff, helping you find stuff within a lease to negotiate that lease and make sure that you don’t get screwed on the other end. And just making sure that I’m distilling what you’re saying properly and I get it, basically the broker for 6% total that’s available. So if my lease was approximately $3,000 a month roughly, I would pay $100,000 of total payments over the next three years. The guy who represents the tenant gets 3%. The guy represents the landlord gets 3%. For a total, this broker makes of $6,000 for connecting both the over here, but the tenant and the landlord. The landlord broker is the guy that has the available sign in front of all of the buildings around town that you’re, wherever you are, there’s all those available signs in front of the strip centers and the office buildings. That’s the landlord broker. If you call them up, they’re going to, they’re going to want to get you to get into their building. But if you call somebody up that you know well that does this, then you’re going to want to use them to find multiple buildings and you might visit multiple buildings with all different brokers. And once you get a deal that you like, that broker is going to deal with the landlord broker. But that broker that’s working for you is helping you out, hopefully they should be, in getting the best deal for you. I just want to make sure that everybody watching this gets this and you hear it and you really resonate with you. property that you like. And let’s say that you own a bakery, you own a DJ company, you’re in the insurance business, I don’t care what it is. If you want to get from here to here, you really need to call a broker. I’m telling you, you will be thankful that you called a broker and you say, I want to make sure we get it right, we say, I’m looking for tenant representation. Yeah. It’ll help you because rather than driving all over town and doing all this, they’re gonna do that for you. They’ve got databases and things set up in order to do that. But you don’t want to deal with somebody that is just sort of random. If you don’t know a broker, you don’t have a relationship or friends with somebody who knows one, call up four or five signs that you see. Tell them what you’re looking for and just meet with them and interview them. Ask them how they can help you out. And somebody that connects with you, that you just have some chemistry with, tell that person, hey, this is what I want, here’s what I’m willing to do, I’m willing to work with you exclusively if you’ll help me find this. And here’s my timing, here’s what I’m looking for, and be very specific with them. And the broker’s not going to charge you an upfront fee, if he’s legit, I want to make sure you get this, they’re not going to charge you a fee to look and they don’t even get paid until you find a property. And move in. And move in. And furthermore, you don’t pay any more. That 6% is going to get paid out to a broker. So that same amount of money is going out either way. Yeah, and here’s one thing I’ll say. If you want some flexibility and you want to negotiate, hey, I’ll sign a five-year lease, but I want an out, this can happen. I just did a deal like this not too long ago where somebody gets an out and they have to pay a penalty. They don’t just say, hey, I want out, let me out. But they have to pay a penalty. In this case, it’s a $10,000 penalty. Rather than paying their entire lease, they pay, hey, I need to give 90 days notice and I have to pay $10,000 if I want out of this lease. And usually that covers the landlord for any money that they put into the space to make it work for you and leasing commissions. So you want to be aware of what’s the landlord paying out to get me into this space. That’s generally a good range of what you could try to negotiate in to get out early and to use some flexibility rather than to take leaves. You can take steps. Why is it almost always bad for a business owner just to start randomly calling buildings and driving around town on their own without a broker? Why is it bad just to do that? You’re going to waste a lot of time. You’re going to get frustrated talking to all these people and trying to get callbacks from all these people because chances are just randomly calling a building that you like, chances are they don’t have the space that you need or the space that you like unless you’re able to drive right up, look in the window, and say this is ideal for me. This is perfect for me. And you know it just by looking at it, because you know the area you want. It can be a waste of time, a waste of energy. And those brokers, they know the language. They know how to deal with those landlord brokers and the landlords themselves. Two final questions for you. One is, who decided that the amount was 6%? Because I know people that do this and have had zero success. They will call a broker and say, hey, I would love to get a space. I’d like to have you represent me. But I just want to pay less broker fees. I want to pay, instead of paying 6%, I want to pay 5%. I want to negotiate that into my deal. Who decides that it’s 6% and why is it sort of a kamikaze strategy to try to negotiate with a tenant representation broker to get a better deal? Yeah, it’s kind of between them. And unless you find a building that maybe your friend owns that isn’t, that they own just one building and they’re not really, this isn’t really their core business and they might be able to lease you a space without a broker involved. Hey, that’s great if you can figure that out, but that’s pretty, that’s one out of 50. Okay, so as far as our four main characters we talked about, as you have the owner, just to clarify, we have the owner, and the owner is that person who owns the actual building. I just want to make sure there’s no confusion on that because if we do not know who the actual owner is, that’s a problem. You have the tenant, who is the person who’s going to be ultimately, yes, you, you’re leasing the space. Okay? Now, but with the owner comes their sidekick, which is the property manager. Then you have this investor who you really should never interact with. And if you find yourself interacting with this guy who’s, I’m an investor but I’m not the owner but you can pay me, it’s a weird deal. Yeah, and you get out of that conversation and just say, hey, have your property manager or your broker give me a call. And if they don’t have one, they’re probably not that legit. I’m only stressing this because I’ve known now probably a half dozen people who’ve just lost hundreds of thousands of dollars with investors. And it’s just really important that you just don’t go down that path. And then there’s the broker. And the broker is that person who would represent either the buyer or the seller. And you want to make sure you have one working for you, trying to get you the best deal, looking out for your best interests. Braxton, I appreciate your time and sharing some of these things. I know some of these things are common sense to you. But I know for a lot of entrepreneurs watching this, if you feel like you just don’t know enough, we have a lot more powerful training here for you about real estate transactions. But eventually I would encourage you to get in the game, go ahead and get started, and step one, call three or four brokers, meet with these guys, and just see what you can find that’s a good office space for you. Yeah. Hey, thanks a lot for your time. Thank you. Appreciate it. JT, do you know what time it is? 410. It’s T-Vote time in Tulsa, Roseland, baby! Tim Tebow is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 27th and 28th. We’ve been doing business conferences here since 2005. I’ve been hosting business conferences since 2005. What year were you born? 1995. Dude, I’ve been hosting business conferences since you were 10 years old, but I’ve never had the two-time Heisman Award winning Tim Tebow come present and a lot of people 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? Mmm. Well they’re gonna have to come and find out cuz I don’t know Well, I’m just saying Tim Tebow is gonna teach us how he organizes his day how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s 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. Also, this is the first Thrive Time Show event that we’ve had where we’re going to have a man who has built a $100 million net worth. Wow. Who’ll be presenting. Now, we’ve had a couple of presenters that have had a billion dollar net worth in some real estate sort of things. But this is the first time we’ve had a guy who’s built a service business, and he’s built over a hundred million dollar net worth in the service business. It’s the yacht-driving, multi-state living guru of franchising. Peter Taunton will be in the house. This is the founder of Snap Fitness, the guy behind nine-round boxing. He’s going to be here in Tulsa, Russia, Tulsa, Russia, Oklahoma, June 27th and 28th. JT, why should everybody want to hear what Peter Taunton has to say? Oh, because he’s incredible. He’s just a fountain of knowledge. He is awesome. He has inspired me listening to him talk. And not only that, he also has, he practices what he teaches. So he’s a real teacher. He’s not a fake teacher like business school teachers. So you’ve got to come learn from him. Also, let me tell you this, folks. I don’t want to get this wrong because if I get it wrong, someone’s going to say, you screwed that up, buddy. So Michael Levine, this is Michael Levine. He’s going to be coming. You say, who’s Michael Levine? I don’t get this wrong. This is the PR consultant of choice for Michael Jackson, for Prince, for Nike, for Charlton Heston, for Nancy Kerrigan. 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestselling authors he’s represented, including pretty much everybody you know who’s been a super celebrity. This is Michael Levine, a good friend of mine. He’s going to come and talk to you about personal branding and the mindset needed to be super successful. The lineup will continue to grow. We have hit Christian reporting artist Colton Dixon in the house. Now people say, Colton Dixon’s in the house? Yes, Colton Dixon’s in the house. So if you like top 40 Christian music, Colton Dixon’s going to be in the house performing. The lineup will continue to grow each and every day. We’re going to add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup. But I encourage everybody out there today, get those tickets today. Go to 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. 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 gotta go to thrive timeshow.com you might say well when’s it gonna be June 27th and 28th you might say well who’s speaking we already covered that you might say where’s it gonna be it’s gonna be in Tulsa, Russia Oklahoma, Tulsa, Russia, it’s I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa, Russia, I’m sort of like the Jerusalem of America. But if you type in Thrive Time Show and Jinx, you can get a sneak peek or a look at our office facility. This is what it looks like. This is where you’re headed. It’s 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 so when June 27th and 28th who you you’re gonna come who you I’m talking to you you can get your tickets right now at thrive timeshow.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 gonna leave with a workbook, you’re gonna 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 an exceptional presentation, really life-changing. And I’m looking forward to seeing you then. I’m Michael Levine. I’ll see you in Tulsa. James, did I tell you my good friend John Lee Dumas is also joining us at the in-person, two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop? That Tim Tebow and that Michael Levine will be at the- have I told you this? You have not told me that. He’s coming all the way from Puerto Rico. This is John Lee Dumas, the host of the chart-topping EOFire.com podcast. He’s absolutely a living legend. This guy started a podcast after wrapping up his service in the United States military and he started recording this podcast daily in his home to the point where he started interviewing big-time folks like Gary Vaynerchuk, like Tony Robbins, and he just kept interviewing bigger and bigger names, putting out shows day after day, and now he is the legendary host of the EO Fire podcast, and he’s traveled all the way from Trujillo, Rico, to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to attend the in-person June 27th and 28th, live time show, two-day interactive business workshop. If you’re out there today, folks, if you’ve ever wanted to grow a podcast, a broadcast, you want to get, you want to improve your marketing, if you’ve ever wanted to improve your marketing, your branding, if you’ve ever wanted to increase your sales, you want to come to the two-day interactive June 27th and 28th Thrive Time Show Business Workshop featuring Tim Tebow, Michael Levine, John Lee Dumas and countless big-time super successful entrepreneurs. It’s going to be life-changing. Get your tickets right now at thrivetimeshow.com. James, what website is that? ThriveTimeshow.com. James, one more time for the boys. Thrivetimeshow.com. People I ride with this moment Thrive time show two-day interactive business workshops are the world’s highest rated and most reviewed business workshops Because we teach you what you need to know to grow You can learn the proven 13-point business systems that dr. Zellner about 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, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and they’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get rich quick, walk on hot coals product. It’s literally we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, but I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever and we’re going to give you your money back if you don’t loan it. We’ve built this facility for you and we’re excited to see it. And now you may be thinking, what does it actually cost to attend an in-person, two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop? Well, good news, the tickets are $250 or whatever price that you can afford. What? Yes, they’re $250 or whatever price you can afford. I grew up without money and I know what it’s like to live without money. So if you’re out there today and you want to attend our in-person, two-day interactive to request those tickets. And if you can’t afford $250, we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. I learned at the Academy at Kings Point in New York, octa non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvard Keosak University Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re close, but they’re completely different worlds. And I have a special guest today. Definition of intelligence is if you agree with me, you’re intelligent. And so this gentleman is very intelligent. I’ve done this show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts as Mr. Clay Clark, he’s 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 hours. So Clay Clark is a very intelligent man, and there’s so many ways we could take this thing. 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? What was- 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 Thorne, who was my boss at the time. I was 19 years old, working at Faith Highway. I had a job at Applebee’s, Target, and DirecTV. And he said, have you read this book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad? And I said, no. And my father, may he rest in peace, he didn’t know these financial principles. So I started reading all of your books and really devouring your books. And I went from being an employee to self-employed to the business owner to the investor. And I owe a lot of that to you. And I just want to take a moment to tell you thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success. And I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump. I just want to tell you, thank you, sir, for changing my life. Well, not only that, Clay, thank you, but you’ve become an influencer. More than anything else, you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. 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, Kings Point in New York, acta non verba, watch what a person does, not what they say. Whoa! Hey, I’m Ryan Wimpey, I’m originally from Tulsa, born and raised here. I went to a small private liberal arts college and got a degree in business and I didn’t learn anything like they’re teaching here. I didn’t learn linear workflows. I learned stuff that I’m not using and I haven’t been using for the last nine years. So what they’re teaching here is actually way better than what I got at business school. And I went what was actually ranked as a very good business school. The linear workflow, the linear workflow for us in getting everything out on paper and documented is really important. We have workflows that are kind of all over the place so having linear workflow and seeing that mapped out on multiple different boards is pretty awesome. That’s really helpful for me. The atmosphere here is awesome. I definitely just stared at the walls figuring out how to make my facility look like this place. This place rocks. It’s invigorating. The walls are super, it’s just very cool. The atmosphere is cool. The people are nice. It’s a pretty cool place to be. Very good learning atmosphere. I literally want to model it and steal everything that’s here at this facility and basically create it just on our business side. Once I saw what they were doing, I knew I had to get here at the conference. This is probably the best conference or seminar I’ve ever been to in over 30 years of business. You’re not bored. You’re awake and alive the whole time. It’s not pushy. They don’t try to sell you a bunch of things. I was looking to learn how to just get control of my life, my schedule, and just get in control of the business. Planning your time, breaking it all down, making time for the F6 in your life, and just really implementing it and sticking with the program. It’s really lively, they’re pretty friendly, helpful, and very welcoming. I attended a conference a couple months back, and it was really the best business conference I’ve ever attended. In the workshop, I learned a lot about time management, really prioritizing what’s the most important. Biggest takeaways are you want to take a step-by-step approach to your business. Whether it’s marketing, what are those three marketing tools that you want to use, to human resources. Some of the most successful people and successful businesses in this town, their owners were here today because they wanted to know more from Clay and I found that to be kind of fascinating. The most valuable thing that I’ve learned is diligence. That businesses don’t change overnight. It takes time and effort and you’ve got to go through the ups and downs of getting it to where you want to go. He actually gives you the road map out. I was stuck, didn’t know what to do and he gave me the road map out step by step. We’ve set up systems in the business that make my life much easier, allow me some time freedom. Here you can ask any question you want, they guarantee it will be answered. This conference motivates me and also gives me a lot of knowledge and tools. It’s up to you to do it. Everybody can do these things. There’s stuff that everybody knows, but if you don’t do it, nobody else is going to do it for you. I can see the marketing working. It’s just an approach that makes sense. Probably the most notable thing is just the income increase that we’ve had. Everyone’s super fun, super motivating. I’ve been here before but I’m back again because it motivated me. Your competition’s going to come eventually or try to pick up this package so you better, if you don’t, somebody else will. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9 and we just want to give a huge thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys. We appreciate you and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old house. Right, this is where we used to live a few years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See, it’s nice, right? So this is my old van and our old school marketing and this is our old team. And by team, I mean between another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing, and this is our new team. We went from four to 14, and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past, and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman. So we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grew to 13 grams for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month, and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship, and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, The SPR plays office is very lively. You can feel the energy as soon as you walk through the door. And it really got me and my team very excited. If you decide not to come, you’re missing out on an opportunity to grow your business. Bottom line. Love the environment. I love the way that Clay presents and teaches. It’s a way that not only allows me to comprehend what’s going on, but he explains it in a way to where it just makes sense. The SEO optimization, branding, marketing, I’ve learned more in the last two days than I have the entire four years of college. ♪ The most valuable thing that I’ve learned, marketing is key, marketing is everything. Making sure that you’re branded accurately and clearly. How to grow a business using Google reviews. And then just how to optimize our name through our website also. Helpful with a lot of marketing, search engine optimization, helping us really rank high in Google. The biggest thing I needed to learn was how to build my foundation, how to systemize everything and optimize everything, build my SEO. How to become more organized, more efficient. How to make sure the business is really there to serve me, as opposed to me constantly being there for the business. New ways of advertising my business, as well as recruiting new employees. Group interviews, number one. Before, we felt like we were held hostage by our employees. Group interviews has completely eliminated that, because you’re able to really find the people that would really be the best fit. Hands-on how to hire people, how to deal with human resources, a lot about marketing and overall just how to structure the business, how it works for me and also then how that can translate into working better for my clients. The most valuable thing I’ve learned here is time management. I like the one hour of doing your business is real critical if I’m going to grow and change. Play really teaches you how to navigate through those things and not only find freedom, but find your purpose in your business and find the purposes for all those other people that directly affect your business as well. Everybody. Everybody. Everybody. Everyone. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get an opportunity to see that it’s real. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get an opportunity to see that it’s real. you