Clay Clark | Thrive: Move Beyond Surviving 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. Deidre, good to see you again. Good to see you. How are you? Good. Hey, we are here to talk to you today about thriving, the concept of moving beyond surviving. And maybe some people on Thrive, maybe you’re familiar with Deidre, maybe you’ve Googled her, maybe you have not, but I want to give a little bit of an intro to get to know a little bit about you. You’re a mompreneur. What does that mean? I like that. I mean, mompreneur. I have a mom that does it all. No, I don’t know. Yeah, working mom, kind of juggle work, kids, family life. The word mompreneur has been introduced to me in the last few weeks here. I just think it’s awesome to see more and more moms, but the word mompreneur gets me excited. And you know, your success story, you’ve been a big-time marketing consultant, and you actually started a company, a couple companies. Can you really tell me about the companies that you started and subsequently sold or moved on from? Started a niche website for moms, so 918moms.com, here for the Tulsa area, and then moneysavingqueen.com. Wow, so you started these businesses and had you ever started a company before? No, I’d always done corporate America stuff and that was my first time to go out on my own. And so this is, you know, you’re a mom, you’re working in corporate America, and this is the first time out on your own. So I have to ask you this here, for you, when we talk about success, we’re talking about thriving and moving beyond surviving. What does success mean? Because you can’t get there if you don’t know where you’re going. Right. So when you were trying to start this business, how did you define success when you started 918 Moms? Well, I was a traveling consultant for a television station before I started it. So, dream job, loved it, went around the country and met with different TV stations and was just gone way too much for my family. So how much were you gone? Um, two weeks on, two weeks off, two weeks on. So half the time. Yeah. And so Jared, your super husband. Yes. And you were gone two weeks, you come back two weeks. And he traveled as well. He’s no. Yeah. So we both, I mean, we coordinated schedules, but it was really nutty. Did it get chippy? Yeah. It was kind of, we passed in the halls, like, remember me? Yeah. So, you know, leaving and starting 918moms.com, really the motivation behind that was to see my kids more. What can I do from home, make money, create an advertising model online, because that’s where advertising dollars were going, and pick up my kids from school at 3 o’clock every day and be the homeroom mom and go to the soccer games and do all the things I wanted to do that I missed when I was traveling. Well, I want to underscore this because you define success as being able to pick up your kids, being able to be there for your husband, but also financially being able to provide for everybody. I think a lot of times when we read about success we say, well success is having a million dollars in the bank. Success is, you know, you own your own business. Success is, I want a ton of employees. Success is having all these cars or a big house. I think it’s important if you’re watching this, you take time to ask yourself what success is because I know I consider you as a successful person but I think it’s important that you consider yourself a successful person. When you were growing the business, what kept you motivated? I mean as you were growing this thing, it had to have been tough. Yes, I mean definitely you know money was good. We got our first couple advertisers. It was like if we could just get two or three people to pay us to be on the site, it would be great. And you know, at the end we had, we’re making about $70,000 a month just on advertising, and that was a lot of money, you know, at the time. So that was great. So success was really just keeping us going, was the income coming in was nice, being able to stay home. Now I’m not, you know, gonna say that we didn’t work. We worked our tails off. So I’d pick up my kids at 3 o’clock and do the soccer and do all that and I still do this to this day. A lot of times kids go to bed at 8 o’clock and I’m up working. Yeah, you know, there’s still stuff that needs to be done. But as an entrepreneur, it’s on my time. Yeah. So I get to, you know, I choose to pick them up and have those few hours in the day where we’re doing dinner and soccer and gymnastics and all that good stuff and then, you know, get online whenever I need to. So you’re home with the kids now, and this is a tough question here. You’re home with the kids. You’re able to be with your husband. You’re able to work. So in terms of goal setting now, how would you define success today? Where are you going towards now? What’s your next big thing you’re aiming for? I mean, I think financial freedom is always good. You feel good. If you’re able to send my kids to private school, we go on vacations. We’re able to do, I feel like, live as a family like we want to do, make some money, and now that I have people helping me and working for me too, I don’t have to work those 12-hour days like I did in the beginning. So I was able to take a little bit of a breather and say, okay, you know, I can delegate more and all of that. So as we teach people today that basically the steps to go from surviving to thriving, you have to know where you want to go. Right. In your mind, because you meet with a ton of business owners, you meet with a ton of people. Yeah. If you had to speculate in your mind, what percentage of people do you think that you talk with actually know what they want? Very little, I would say. Or it’s a very short-term goal. It’s more, you know, the small business owner is thinking about, how am I going to pay the bills by Friday? How am I going to, you know, it’s very short-term this week, rather than thinking of what about, what am I going to do in six months? What about five years from now? Where am I going to be? Where do I want to be? I kind of look at it as like we’re hitchhiking through life or maybe I guess a bit better when I was in New York. I was having some fun with my wife but you know you just basically walk out in the road and you know either you get hit by a vehicle or the cab pulls over but you do the you know that’s the move and they pull over and if they said well where are you going and you said well I somewhere yeah successful um it would be very hard to take you there. But if you said, you know, we are definitely going to Times Square, then we can get you there. And I think it’s hard for a lot of people to get where they’re, to become successful because they don’t know where they want to be. So I think if you’re watching this, you might want to ask yourself, where do you want to be? And I guess the question I have for you here is, why don’t more people take time out in your mind, you know, to write down goals? Because I know that, you know, when you do that, why don’t more people do that? I think when you’re in it and you’ve just launched a business as an entrepreneur, your to-do list is so long. You’re just trying to make it through that. I’ve had mentors or business coaches help me do that. Let’s think about where you want to go. Let’s write down your goals for this year. Where you want to be and make you step back and go, okay, it is beyond my to-do list of today. I think either having that friend that is also an entrepreneur that you can lean on and kind of help each Other or that mentor yeah that really helps you know kind of give you the full perspective a different picture I would we were talking with Tim Redmond And he was talking about how you take you take a weekly hour set time to stop and to replan right basically You’re not replanting your life, but you’re you’re you’re five years Yeah, but you’re replanting maybe one month or replanning one week. You always take a time out to do that. Mm-hmm. You know, we know that the thrivers who are watching this show and who are looking to move beyond surviving, that they can do that. But how would you encourage somebody who says, I don’t know what I want? You know, I think if I go on vacation with family or whatever on the flight or in the car drive I always try to read a book because I’m away from work daily life And I can actually like think beyond you know what I’m just doing for work right now Yeah, I’ve removed from it can read and go oh I come back with ten great ideas for clients or for myself and one thing I have found with you That’s kind of fun as I find that when you benchmark against people or you through you build a mastermind, or some people call it a mentorship circle, or a group of people that are around you. I have found when I’m talking to you, sometimes this lady will have like this spike of ambition that’s a little bit higher than what I was thinking, and then I’m like, well, I’m going to do that too. Or next time I see her, and you kind of go back and forth with this benchmarking. And I think one of the most dangerous places to be is when you’re in a place where you don’t have people that are pushing up your ambitions. So I think good books are great. Showing yourself with positive people. Getting really specific here, how do you keep your definition of success right now out in the open? Like, okay, so right now, whatever your goals are, how do you keep them out in front of you so you don’t drift? Because I know as a PR consultant, this lady is sought after, people are always calling you, wanting to work with you and there’s always guys as you know I’m not ripping anybody by the way he’s from Western Oklahoma but this is kind of what you would hear if you were in like Tulsa you’d hear hey we got a business and we don’t have any money but we’re gonna we’ll treat you right and let’s get started you know and then everyone has that story right how do you keep your you know you could your goals this year while I was writing your kids right and then to provide how you keep those goals out front? Do you write them on something? Yes, I definitely write them all down. I have my screensaver on my computer is this really pretty pool. Because I want to pay cash for a pool. It’s one of those things. I want a fancy pool. Costa Rica has a lot of pools. So yeah. So I look at it every day. I look at my computer. I look at that. And not that, you know, at this point in my life, we have the house, we have the cars, we have our kids go to school, we’re there. Yeah. You know, we feel like the necessity. So it’s an extra dream to have that it’s like, you know, hey, I want that pool. So I open my computer and go, okay. But you put a visual out there. Right. And it’s not just a pool, it’s more the family time and the kids, you know, getting older, that age where I want their friends to hang out at our house. Have you seen a lot of entrepreneurs that you know that put their goals out front too? Yes, absolutely. I think the most successful people I’ve been around definitely know where they’re going, have their goals, write them down. You know you write them down three places, three places that you look all the time. So, you know, I tell people maybe that’s your bathroom mirror. You wake up every day and you have, you know, sticky notes of where you want to be on your bathroom mirror. I had a fun call with a client. Just so I’ll mess with times and places and names so I don’t get myself in trouble. But we’ll say his name is Jerry and it’s in Wyoming. But I’m talking and he is really difficult. And my goals are to maximize my happiness during my work day and to pursue projects that I love and then to see my kids. And so I have very clear goals for faith, family, finances, relationships. So this person is difficult. They’re caustic. They’re negative. And because I have my goals out there, I just said, hey, you know, Jerry from Wyoming, no matter how much money you pay me, I mean, frankly, if I don’t work for a long time, I’ll be fine. And I don’t really, this doesn’t fit my goals. And so if you don’t change your tone, I’m totally peacing out and I’m going to go work on another project. And he’s like, what? I was like, I really, I just want you to know, like you’re a great human, I’m sure, but I maximize my happiness is my goal. And I don’t want to be happy when I talk to you. So I need you to stop talking like that. And he’s like, what? But like, I’m telling you, and I know it sounds crazy for some of us I remember I started my business. I wanted any client I can take but having those goals and keep them out front It helps us to kind of not get in a funk and the positive just like you talked about positive out like if you surround yourself With people like that You’re more likely to be like that and there’s you know If there is that one Debbie Downer in your office or you know anywhere you’re at it’s it it really creates that negative vibe for everybody. Well, so step one, if you’re moving from surviving to thriving, is one, we have to define success. It sounds like you did that. Figure out where you want to go. Step two is we have to have a decision and commit to thrive. We have to say, I’m going to do it. When you decide, I’m going to start the business, sometimes I like, I mean, some people I know kind of go the Braveheart method, where they’re just like, I’m going to do it. And they kind of get excited and they send emails out to everybody and people are like, oh no, here they go, they’re gonna, this is not gonna last, you know. And then some people I know move, they move, they physically move across the country. I am, some people talk a lot about Costa Rica, but everyone has their own thing they do. What did you do to kind of, when you made the decision to start 918 Lounge, what was it? I mean, part of it’s, you know, like the pride thing It’s like I’m going out on my own had this corporate job, and you know going well people thought it was crazy That I would leave the money I was making and and go do that and start with zero you know start writing checks and still getting checks So there’s a little bit of the pride thing going you know and and I kind of think of things as like a game Like if somebody says you can’t do that. I have that competitive nature that I’m gonna do it times 10. Yeah, so I had that right when we launched my night mom’s the startup cup here I remember being in front of the panel and pitching the idea and there wasn’t any sites like that real quick startup cup Can you explain to the folks at home what that is? So startup cup was? Entrepreneurs you could go pitch your idea maybe like a shark tank Okay, local shark local shark tank where you could go kitchen. I think you could win $30,000 at the time It was a that would be a big deal for our business. So my partner and I went and pitched 918 Moms and we got to the last round, we were like top 12. And I remember specifically one person on the panel said, there’s no way this will ever make it. No one will pay advertising to be on a mom website. Whoever you are in your face. And he did come up to me a couple of years later and said that he was wrong and it was kind of like that. But you know what? That kept me going. Out of your face. I’m sorry for what I said. I have moved on. But it was that, you know, I was so upset at the time. I thought, I can’t believe he did that. And he humiliated me in front of that whole panel. But you know what? That was the burning drive that I had for the next two years just to prove him wrong. I always find if I want to feel more glad on any project I’m working on with you, I just have to make you mad. That’s why. Now, nearly every successful entrepreneur I’ve met over the years decided at some point in their life to become successful. They actually decided. They had that decision point. And it seems like these people always knew what they want. They feel like they kind of declared to the universe, like, I am going to do this. How? I mean, when you did it, you got that doubt over here. Right. And I know your husband, I’m going to say it with a statement of faith, he was supportive. And I know that you probably had a few friends that were supportive, but really, being real, you probably, if you’re watching this, if you’re anything like me, nine out of ten people around you are like, that’s kind of crazy. You want to be a DJ? Do you have a job? Don’t you have to live with your mom for that? That’s kind of the idea. People, were majority of people skeptical? You know, I think, you know, my friends in the media business thought it was a good idea because they knew the world, the advertising world was going online. But yeah, definitely, I mean, my mom was kind of like, are you sure you’re leaving your job to, you know, go do that? I think there was definitely some skeptical, you know, people. So let me ask you this. If I’m watching this, how would you specifically recommend? If I’m on the fence if I’m right? I’m gonna start a driving range gonna do it gonna not gonna do it No, I’m gonna do it not gonna do it right gonna not and I’ve been stuck in that zone for maybe a few years Right. How do you recommend? What do I need to do to get you know? I think the successful entrepreneurs that I’ve met kind of have that same personality And it’s you have to be extremely motivated and get up and do every day. So if you’re a person that can get up and every single day you can hit your task list and there’s not a boss looking over you and you’re not getting a raise and you’re not, you know, there’s no measurement, it’s just you, you have to have that mentality. I really believe that. I have noticed too, this is one thing, it’s always been said that necessity is the mother of all invention. And this is what I did, this is stupid, but this is what I did. My wife and I, I might have told you this story before, but my buddy Josh comes over and he notices that we have this apartment. And in this glorious apartment at 71st and Lewis, we have wedding candles, we have gifts, we have all that stuff you get as wedding gifts. You get all that stuff and it’s all just kind of gathered. We got a red cooler as a gift and then he’s looking around and he’s like 102. No, no, no, no AC, no, no, no. And he’s like, your candles have melted, Broseph. And so I’m just thinking, like, out of pride, I’m like, you know, my wife goes to work at Office Depot, she goes to ORU as a cheerleader, and she comes home and, did we book anything today? You know, I try to book weddings and, I try to book gigs for my entertainment company, and I’m always, uh, no, but, you know, hey, how was your day? And I’m super interested in her day, because I don’t want to talk about. Well, there was a certain time I kind of realized, like, I’m not going to be able to ever have the AC on in my entire life if I don’t book something. And so I was afraid to make cold calls. I’m like, I’m doing it. And I’m just going to make 50 a day, or I’m not going to eat. I actually made that decision. I’m literally not going to eat a meal until I book something. And so that was kind of my thing. And I find there’s little tricks. I’ve met a lot of entrepreneurs that kind of burn their bridge. They don’t have a way to go back. Right. Do you agree with that method? Or is that kind of crazy? I do. I think it’s survival mode, whether it’s pride, whether it’s money that you need, freedom, financial freedom, what it is that’s kind of holding you. Everyone has that. Do you have to just jump, though? You have to jump. You’re not going to be successful until you jump and try. My thing I would always say, because I worked at Bonaire Republic in college in the summers. You worked there for the discount and you spent all your money on the stuff? I did. I did. But I always said, I can go work at Bonaire Republic. If all else fails, I’ll go to Bonaire Republic. I know I can get a job there. So you think, you can get a job. If you go, just go leap and try, because you can always get a job in corporate America again. Life is not a dress rehearsal. And I think that anybody, my family, we have some family health issues we’re dealing with. Everybody watching this, I’m sure you know somebody who’s passed recently or you knew somebody who’s dealing with a health issue. We all have something. And when you realize that life is not a dress rehearsal, we got one shot. I’m kind of like you, I’m like, let’s just do it. Exactly. I mean, I don’t wanna be crazy. I have five kids. I have all my kids living in my shopping cart with me as I try these crazy ideas. Anyway, so now at the core of every business there is a business owner who’s like pig-headed. Right. About achieving their dreams and they know where they’re going. I found this. It’s the core of every business. If you look at Steve Jobs, look at Bill Gates, you look at the guy who owns the chain of grocery stores in your community, the guy who owns the sod farm, they’re not the most complicated humans. Right. But they’re all pig-headed. They’ve got that kind of like, this will be successful. And you’re like, but it doesn’t even work on paper. Like, whatever, let’s do it. And they’re just kind of have that. Yeah. And they need a support staff too. You’re pig-headed. Yeah. But you’re nice. You know what I mean? You are. Is that a compliment? I was trying to figure that one out. This is one of these, like reverse, it’s like a Jedi compliment. Seriously, you are, you’ve always been very determined about your goals, since I’ve known you, but at the same time, you’re nice. Talk to me about being pig-headed. What does that mean on a daily basis? I mean, how do you stay determined? Yeah, I mean, I think someone has to be like that big visionary that’s taking you where you’re gonna go in your company. So, you know, somebody has to think of the next thing, the next thing, to take it to the top. So I think, you know… So I’m going to give you some examples. You’re starting your company, okay? You were trying to sell ads. You’re cold calling businesses. How many cold calls did you make before you got that first deal? Oh, probably 25 or 30 until I got even just a nibble. For the first, because nobody wants to be the first. And then you got an appointment. Yeah. Then how many appointments did it take before you got a deal? Did you close the first appointment? Oh, no, I didn’t close the first appointment. But definitely, you know, the ball started rolling once I got a couple on there, some big name people and all that word started getting out. And but I mean, at some point you had nobody, nobody for a long time. And nobody wanted to advertise because nobody was there. Right. So it’s kind of you’re trying to get sales, but you got to build the audience. So so we really hooked the marketing PR to build that and, you know, still try to do sales at the same time I want to tie this in real quick if you can look at this photo over here of my main man Richard Bronson here Richard is it Branson or Bronson? Why don’t I always say this is a great Bronson Bronson? This isn’t anyway this guy look at me. He looks like he looks like Austin Powers over there Well he this is what he does He says I drew up lists and lists of people to call and slowly worked my way down them most of them rejected the ideas of paying for advertising in an unpublished magazine. But gradually I began to see ways to attract their attention. I would call up National Westminster Bank and tell them that the Lloyds Bank had just taken out a full-page advertisement, which they went to advertise alongside Lloyds Bank. This is a guy, he started a magazine called The Student after he basically dropped out of high school because he’s dyslexic. Now, he started a paper and he can’t read and he sold his first ad and he couldn’t even write articles That’s crazy. His first interview was Mick Jagger. And so it’s craziness, but like that is how every business starts Yeah, and you’re gonna get nose. You’re of course, you’re gonna get nose. You have to do you even care? No, you have to do you know? Well, I would say my skin is thicker and tougher now than it was in the very beginning, you know first couple I’m like, why would you not want to buy my website? Are you still human though? Like if someone says something mean to you, do you still care? Or do you not even care at all? On a human level. I mean, if you have a point where people can say mean things, it doesn’t even matter. People can say mean things in business, and I’m pretty confident about that. If it’s personal or if it has to do with my kids, don’t do that. Mom, I’m a bear. I’m probably just a jerk, but I just, I don’t really, I mean, I’ve kind of become like Teflon when it comes to that sort of stuff. So I think it’s huge though. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve got to have tough skin, right? You do. Yes. I mean, it’s got to be huge. You’re going to get no’s, definitely. Now, I’ve also heard that purposeful people tend to walk faster because they know where they’re going. You walk fast. I walk fast. I want to talk about this. Do you always know where you’re going? Do you always have a to-do list? Oh, absolutely. You do? Oh, yeah. And I’ve been like that since I was young. I mean I’m organized and I think organization is a huge part of being successful as well. Because if you have stuff everywhere and you can’t, if you aren’t organized you’ve got to hire a right-hand person that is. But keeping yourself organized and and every day I’m looking at my list. I mean I’ve got 10 lists over there. And I want to recap this because it’s huge. Step one, we have to define success. If we’re going to move beyond surviving to thriving, we have to know where we want to go, then we have to make a decision. We’ve got to jump. We’ve got to commit. The third step here, and this is our third step here, is we have to take the time to plot the course, to figure out how we’re going to do it. Napoleon Hill famously said, this is the success author, Napoleon Hill Clark. I couldn’t get the first name. I wanted the first name. But it says, cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements. You have to ask yourself, you’re starting a business. The real question, this takes time. How much money do I need to make on an annual basis to survive and to meet my most basic needs? You have to ask this question. Do you remember that when you were going, I have to sell at least this many ads to feed myself? Oh yeah. To get a paycheck. Finally get some cash. I remember I had to do four events a month to turn the AC on. Oh yeah. I’m the man. My wife would be attracted to my air conditioning. But I was so excited. I remember that. And when I first got the booking with the Holiday Inn, they agreed to book me for six nights a week, for four nights, here for four weeks. And I didn’t have my goals out front. I really didn’t. So I never thought about, like, if I’m there six nights a week for four weeks, I thought, that’s 24 bookings. That’s six times what I need to be a, you know. I never thought about, like, but then I’ll never see my wife. I just was like, I’m gonna do it. And so I didn’t have that out front of me, but I did know what my most basic needs were. Now, how would, you know, if you basically, if you’re growing this company and you know what your most basic needs are, you also have to know how many deals you have to get to achieve your goals. Right. Did you know how many advertisers you needed to hit your goals? The funny thing is when we started, I just, I went after anybody and everybody. So I was getting 500 bucks here, 700 bucks here, you know, just a bunch of little advertisers. And as we grew, I thought, what if I had five people paying 5,000 a month? Okay. So you thought that. Right. It took a while. It took, you know, hitting the streets and getting all this little money and doing a lot of work for little money to finally have that epiphany of, why wouldn’t I have five big guys that I could give all my attention to? You know, I needed to make about $25, $30 a month to pay everything and start to make a profit. So, quickly went that way and that’s when we started really excelling. So again, just think about this. We have to know what our break-even point is. We have to know how many deals we have to have just to survive. Then we have to know how much we need to really hit our goals and to do something big. Now, we don’t know, and I’m asking you this, and Deidre, if I’m missing an area, I’m going to go through these, and if I’m missing something, you tell me here. But if you had all the money in the world, what would you be doing? I always like to ask that question, and then I make a list from that point forward. So, you know, what places would you like to see? Did you and your husband have a list of like, well, if we had some money we’d go here? Yeah, vacations, yes. Was it Delaware or where did you guys… No, we love to ski, so we ski every Christmas. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We’re crazy. So I’m asking you right now, if you’re watching this and editing guys, let’s put this on the screen here, but if you had all the money in the world, where would you want to go? Where would you want to go? Okay, what places would you want to see? Next is what friends would you want to go visit? Did you have people that you were like, we have a little money, maybe I can go visit her or him? Yeah, sure. So who would you want to visit? That’s a big one. Cars you would like to own? Was that something you had on your list? I’m not a huge car person. Whatever. I mean, my car is loaded with kids stuff and soccer stuff and snacks. A little vomit over here and a little bit of dirt. When my kids are older, I’m going to have a sweet car. Just right now. Yeah, I’m not a big car guy either. What friends would you like to spend more time with? What charities would you want to support? I know some people are watching this right now being like, I don’t even care about myself because I’m better than this guy. This clay guy. But they have a bunch of charities they want to do. They want to make money and give that money to a charity. Do you have any charities? I do. Our little school is trying to raise money and build a new school. So that’s a huge part of my motivation is just the more I work, the more I can give and help the school and church and all that. I’m gonna fly through a few other ones. Like a house, like a house you’d wanna, did you have a house that you’d want? Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so you had that. Things you wanna buy, do you have things you wanted to buy? Do you make a list of things you wanted? Yeah. Okay, and then how many hours you ideally wanna work? This is something crazy, it blew my mind. Some of the video guys know this guy, but there’s a guy I’m working with, and if you’re watching this, Dominic, this is for you, buddy This is for you, but he’s a teacher. He’s teaching at a local school and he’s like, I’m not making any money Mm-hmm, you know, I’m working all the time. I love teaching kids. I love making money I’ll teach you love making money. It’s not teaching kids and he was like, I want to have a business But I don’t want to work more than like You know five or ten hours a week. Yeah, I think right now he’s clearing about $800 a week with only working five hours a week. And it’s just like, because he’s built this system, so he’s got tutors that are out there tutoring. So for him, he was like, I wanna have a lifestyle business. So I’m just gonna ask you this right now, if you’re watching this, and maybe you wanna move to Costa Rica, one of the things you have is lifestyle. In terms of your lifestyle, what are the things you want? And I’m just being real, like maybe you want to work five hours a week. You know, maybe you, for me, like working is resting and resting is work. But what are those things? Deidre, is there anything else that you and your family had kind of on the goal list that you, was there any other motivations to start a business where you were like, well, I started 918 Moms because I wanted to. Yeah, I mean, I think definitely thinking through all of that. And I was lucky to have a supportive husband that helped with the kids and kind of said, yes, you go do this and I’ll help be Mr. Mom for the ramp up. I couldn’t have done my business in five hours a week. I know that. Yeah. But I also didn’t go out and hire a bunch of people until I was making money. Yeah. It was all about just me doing it until there’s revenue coming in and then start adding. Well, I’m going to walk through real quick on the board because I think there’s a neat little exercise that everybody can do here and I don’t know if if you have a pen next to you, you can just type this in the little notes bar on Thrive here. But what we do is let’s just say that you add up all the places that you want to see. You want to add up all the places you want to see, all the places you want to go, all the stuff you want to buy, all the things you want to do. You add it all up and let’s just say that amount comes out to $100,000 a year. I’m just making up a number. So if that’s the case, we say, well, we’re going to divide that by 52 weeks a year, OK? So roughly, you have to make about $1,800 a week to get there. And that’s when it starts to get real, because you’re like, whoa, whoa, whoa, $1,800? OK. Now we have to ask ourself, how many clients do I have to work with? Here, I can’t write. How many clients do I have to work with in order to equal 1800? Like, how many? And I think that’s where it gets real. So, like, when you were doing, you know, 918moms, did you kind of have in your mind, like, if we get five advertisers, we could… Right. Yep. When’s your break-even, and when do you start making revenue, when can you start hiring? This is an exercise that almost no entrepreneur I’ve ever met does. It’s bizarre. I meet people who have been in business for 30 years and I say, well, what’s your break-even point? We have no idea. How many deals would you have to do to achieve your goals? I don’t know. Yeah. And to make it even crazier, I worked with a guy a few years ago who he had a business and every time he did a deal, he only profited like 30 bucks and he only had a capacity to do like a hundred deals a week. So you’re doing the math and I’m like, Broseph, if you do a hundred deals times three dollars, that’s 300. So the most you could make in a week ever is 3,000 a week. And that’s if you personally, he was a designer who designed the heck out of stuff and he was just design, design, design, but he had such a low profit that he built himself a customer base who was loyal to paying those low prices, and he could never possibly get to that goal. So it’s just bizarre how that happens. I want to ask you, if you started a business and you have this big idea, is there anything, any cautionary tale that you would have for the folks watching this about figuring out your numbers? Because you’ve had some great wisdom about numbers and knowing your numbers. Can you maybe just talk about that, about what kind of numbers that you want to know or that you think every business owner should know? I mean, I think definitely break even point. And from everyone I talk to, they want to know, when can I do my first hire? When can I hire people? Well, and also deciding, you know, how much do you need to live on? Do you need to be taking an income in? Because that’s always a hard part. When do you pay yourself? Well, I know for Thrive, for all you good folks at home, it’s just hypothetically you’re subscribing right now. Pirating. But then I would basically, I pay myself a percentage of every person that subscribes. And because I wanted to tell the investors and everyone on the team, like I’m not getting paid until we are offering value to people. And I think it’s important, I mean, it’s a good thing to say, but in every business that’s not practical. I mean, if you own a business, I had a lot of business owners, about five right now in particular I can think of right now, who do not pay themselves at all from a business. Everyone else gets paid and then they don’t pay themselves. So we’ve got to be thinking about these things. I think it’s really exciting. Deidre, a little plug here for you, not that you need one, but you’ve helped companies grow and do their PR and their branding. Now today you’re kind of in, I think, maybe phase four of your career. You have a corporate job and you started this company and now you’ve got a big PR company you’re growing. What do you see for the next five years for DEDRAM? What do you see? You know I would love to have a bunch of national clients, you know, do PR, marketing, and that’s my favorite thing. So I mean I can go in and do all the business coaching and from the beginning. I love startups because I love the energy that people have. So you know just that momentum and excitement and passion, I love to just dive in and do that and help them grow. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate you. You’re awesome. OK, thank you. JT, do you know what time it is? 410. It’s T-Bo time in Tulsa, Oklahoma, baby. Tim T-Bo 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’s going to teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s going to walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is going to be a blasty blast in Tulsa, Russia. Folks, I’m telling you, if you want to learn branding, you want to learn marketing, you want to learn search engine optimization, you want to learn social media marketing, that’s what we teach in the Thrive Time Show two-day interactive workshop. If you want to learn accounting, you want to learn sales systems, you want to learn how to build a linear workflow, you want to learn how to franchise your business, that is what we teach at the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop. 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. What? 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’ve been able to build multi-million dollar companies. Watch those testimonials today at Thrivetimeshow.com. Simply by clicking on the testimonials button right there at Thrivetimeshow.com you’re gonna see thousands of people just like you who’ve been able to go from just surviving to thriving. Each and every day we’re gonna add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup but I encourage everybody out there today, get those tickets today, go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s Thrivetimeshow.com. And some people might be saying, well, how do I do it? I don’t know what I do, how does it work? You just go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Let’s go there now, we’re feeling the flow. We’re going to Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, you just go to Thrivetimeshow.com, you click on the business conferences button, and you click on the request tickets button right there. The way I do our conferences is we tell people it’s $250 to get a ticket or whatever price that you can afford. And the reason why I do that is I grew up without money. JT, you’re in the process of building a super successful company. Did you start out with a million dollars in the bank account? No, I did not. Nope, did not get any loans, nothing like that. Did not get an inheritance from parents or anything like that. I had to work for it and I’m super grateful I came to a business conference. That’s actually how I met you, met Peter Taunton, I met all these people. So if you’re out there today and you want to come to our workshop, again, you just got to go to thrivetimeshow.com. You might say, well, who’s speaking? We already covered that. You might say, where is it going to be? It’s going to be in Tulsa, 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 gonna come! I’m talking to you. You can get your tickets right now at ThriveTimeShow.com and again, you can name your price. We tell people it’s $250 or whatever price you can afford. And we do have some select VIP tickets which gives you an access to meet some of the speakers and those sorts of things. And those tickets are $500. It’s a two-day interactive business workshop, over 20 hours of business training. We’re 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, California, where I have represented over the last 35 years 58 Academy Award winners 34 Grammy Award winners 43 New York Times bestsellers I’ve represented a lot of major stars and I’ve worked with a lot of major companies and I think I’ve learned a few things about what makes them work and what makes them not work. Now, why would a man living in Hollywood, California, in the beautiful sunny weather of LA, come to Tulsa? Because last year I did it and it was damn exciting. Clay Clark has put together an exceptional presentation, really life-changing, and I’m looking forward to seeing you then. I’m Michael Levine. I’ll see you in Tulsa. 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 and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. We get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge. And you’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 love it. We built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see it. And now you may be thinking, what does it actually cost to attend an in-person, two-day, interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop. Well, good news, the tickets are $250 or whatever price that you can afford. What? Yes, they’re $250 or whatever price you can afford. I grew up without money and I know what it’s like to live without money, so if you’re out there today and you want to attend our in-person, two-day, interactive business workshop, all you got to do is go to thrivetimeshow.com to request those tickets. And if you can’t afford $250, we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. I learned at the Academy at 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 Keosak University 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 his show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts. And so 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 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 Donald, who is my age, and I can say or cannot say. First of all, I have to honor you, sir. I wanna show you what I did to one of your books here. There’s a guy named Jeremy Thorne, who was my boss at the time. I was 19 years old, working at Faith Highway. I had a job at Applebee’s, Target, and DirecTV. And he said, have you read this book, “‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad?” And I said, no. And my father, may he rest in peace, he didn’t know these financial principles. So I started reading all of your books and really devouring your books. And I went from being an employee to self-employed to the business owner to the investor. And I owe a lot of that to you. And I just want to take a moment to tell you, thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success. And I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump. I just want to tell you, thank you, sir, for changing my life. Well, not only that, Clay, you know, thank you, but you’ve become an influencer. You know, more than anything else, you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. So that’s why I congratulate you on becoming. Because as you know, there’s a lot of fake influencers out there, or bad influencers. Anyway, I’m glad you and I agree so much, and thanks for reading my books. That’s the greatest thrill for me today. Not thrill, but recognition is when people, young men especially, come up and say, I read your book, changed my life, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this. I learned at the academy, King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say.