Clay Clark | Zany Bandz & Slapwatch | Zany Bandz & Slapwatch Founder Shares How She Went from Prototype to $60 Million At Clay Clark’s 2012 Business Conf | Tim Tebow Joins Clay Clark’s June 27-28 ’24 Business Workshop (17 Tix Remain)

Audio Transcription

You’re absolutely right, Tom. I mean, if you look at some of the great players of the game, none of them were out there doing this kind of stuff, even in their prime. I’m a wrist like this and I rep my team You of O, I think you know You ain’t never seen a watch like this before I’m not teasing, every season Find me in the stands, yo I’m never leaving Any of a team, nah, reason we got red and white blood cells for a reason Yeah, this is Scooter Nation OU slap watch, what a combination Take it up a notch, double time, people gotta know Slap watch invasion, here we go! This guy, Slapwatch! Where you been? That girl, Slapwatch! Now she’s in, everybody, Ska-Squatch! Don’t be scared, he goes like a Slapwatch over all that hair! What time is it? Half past two? Favorite team? Duh-oh you! Boomers tune in till the day I die, now throw your hands up in the sky and… Watch me slap, watch, watch! Oh you slap, watch, watch! Watch me slap, watch, watch! Oh you slap, watch, oh, oh snap! The holidays right around the corner, I’m counting the days Till the man in red gets it through his head That I don’t want these, I want this instead Oh you slap watch, box and wrap Under the tree in a pack of three Oh, it’s the perfect stocking stuffer For mom or dad or other Yeah, make a dream come true Give a slap watch, rep an OU It’s round and better than bling You could probably use it instead of a ring Now do you get the picture? If you’re a man or mister Slap, watch, white, red and black Now everybody run it back Slap, watch, oh you slap, watch Watch me slap, watch, oh you slap watch Ladies and gentlemen, we’re announcing Oklahoma Business Journal’s 2011 Innovator of the Year and the founder of the ZanyBands and Slap Watch craze, whose products have been featured on CBS News, The View, The New York Times, Good Morning America, and talks about how to turn your big ideas into big profits. Her ZanyBands alone have now grossed well over $40 million in worldwide sales. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Lori Montag. She chose this. Check one. I think I’m mic-free there. OK. She chose that music, by the way. That’s just what she was. Now real quick, how many people here have a child that owns zany bands how many but every other people here have a child that bought a slap watch recently oh yeah thank you for supporting Laurie Montag well I just want to give you a real quick intro here but kind of I guess in addition to the intro Laurie has been my mentor for a very long time. And when I was 12, I think, Lori, I moved to Minnesota. We family moved to Minnesota and this crazy lady let me come back and live with her every summer. And she took me to the entrepreneurship woodshed, giving me tips, ideas, had Chris and I turning a what was it fence posts? Yes. It was like destroyed fence posts into bird feeders that we sold at the fair. She basically told us if Chris, if you want to buy a car, you need to sell bird feeders. And so she taught us that. And then from there, Lori continued to put up with me and I used some of her PR ideas and ended up getting on the Sam Jones show where I claimed that I had been abducted by an alien and Lori had to deal with the fallout of watching that happen on TV as somebody phoned in an anonymous alien abduction and that was myself. So Lori put up with me as kind of a second mother. And she’s made a huge impact on my life. So I’m going to try to ask you some questions. I think everybody might want to hear. And then we’ll open it up for you guys to ask questions as well. OK, question number one. Before you did ZanyBands, you had a photography business. Was there a time in your mind where you decided, you know what, I’m no longer going to do photography, and I’m going to do something bigger? Was there a time when that happened? Yes. Do you remember what you may describe what that was like? I think I kind of always, when I would start a business, I’d have a goal of I want my business to be able to do this. And when it came to a point that I had succeeded at that, which with my photography studio, I wanted to have the largest studio in Oklahoma. I wanted to have the contract for Union High School and the contract for Broken Arrow High School, which had never been done. So I put myself these goals, and when I reached it, and I don’t mean to sound like, well, you know, that was just so easy. It was hard to get there, but when I did, I was like, okay, I’ve accomplished what I set to accomplish. Now it’s time to sell it and move on so I can challenge myself some more with something else. And so I knew at that point I wanted to have a national company. I thought, well, we did it here locally, statewide. Let’s go ahead now and see what we can do on a national basis. And I kind of think that’s what kept me, I knew I wanted to sell something nationally, a product. I wanted to see if you could share with everybody here, because I think this is something that’s interesting. You’ve always had a discontentment with, or almost like a resentment with contentment, like you’re happy with your kids and you’re happy with your husband and your awesome family. I love you guys like you’re my own family and it’s just a great family nucleus but there’s always a discontentment like you’re just yeah we could do something better we’re better than this. Yes. Where does that come from? I don’t know I think even as a child my mother I can remember always my mother saying are you ever satisfied and as I grew up I thought you know maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing because I never was. It was always it wasn’t always about the money it was just challenging myself to do more. I’ve always, even since I was little, looked at life like a board game. I say like a Monopoly game or a board the life game that we used to play when we were little. And like I look at myself now, I think I’m three-fourths the way around. And this is it. Get one time. So I want to be able to do everything that there is in that length of time. I think, you know, if I lived to be 80 years old, when I’m 40, I was halfway around. And I was really, I was a stay-at-home mom until I was 40. I mean, I did, I worked for studios, but I only worked part-time. You were a stay-at-home mom in the loosest sense of the word. We were traveling with you all the time. Yeah. We wanted to work with you and you were, she did both. Yes, I did, yes, I did do both. And I always say I had the best of all of it because I really, at 40, is when I felt like I could go out, actually open a business, and devote the time that I felt like a business needed to have. So, but anyway, I always looked at things as being satisfied was just a. I’m going to say one thing that I think you could be helpful for us. When Lori raised your family, and I was spending the night at your house for 12 consecutive nights in a row, that kind of thing. One of the things that Lori, she probably worked when she was, when you were working part time, you’d spend time with your kids, they’d come home from school. You’re always there. But then when they go to bed, you’d start working. Yeah. And you’d do that. So you probably worked 45 hours a week when you were part-time. Right. Right. And then when the kids left, I mean, you went in nitro mode. Yes. Okay. Now, I don’t, Dylan, one thing I want to ask is, do you read books that inspire you? Or what do you get the inspiration from that? I used to read a lot when I was, when I had more time to read. I don’t as much anymore just because I don’t I just don’t have that time now. I read more it’s probably like entrepreneur magazine and things that have shorter articles that I can find what’s the Latest things that are going on and the latest trends that are going on but over the years I would say think big act small was was one of the Good books that I really liked all the Donald Trump books. I always read those whether you like Donald Trump or not. It was always a good businessman. So those were yeah I was always reading something. But I’m going to ask some specifics for the people in the audience who are sitting here and they’re like I love that you’ve sold 40 million dollars of product but yet I have seven dollars in my bank account. Could you maybe shed some light on how you got the initial capital to start the photography business and then the Zany Bands. I mean you started with the photography. Yeah the photography business was started with a $25,000 home equity loan. I don’t know how, you know, what everybody’s financial situations are different and sometimes we can’t do that. My point was that you didn’t have to have so much. We started with very little money and we did most all the work ourself. We built it out ourself. The most, our most expensive item that we bought was our sign that went out front of our studio. I think that was $5,000. And the rest of it was just in advertising. I had no money for advertising. So I remember making flyers and taking them out and putting them on cars and then referrals and referrals and referrals. And failing was no option because I had this much money that I had to pay back. So there was I had to do whatever it took. And one thing that you did that was crazy, I thought was one of the crazy, it was probably the best thing I like you for, but it also freaked me out a little bit. I was trying to get the DJ company in these bridal shows, and in Tulsa there’s only a limited number of booths, and you said, well, we’re just going to start our own then. And I said, we are? They wouldn’t let us. They wouldn’t let you in? There were already too many photographers. They were like, you can’t be in it because there are already seven other photographers, and they wouldn’t let Clay in it because they already had DJs, so I thought, well. So I’m 21, now I’ve got $9,000 on a credit card I have to pay off in 30 days. And you’ve got your 9,000, we both went in, I think 9,000 each. We bought commercials before we’d ever sold a booth. And I think- We did our own bridal show. We did, and I think that’s the one thing though about Lori that I think is indicative, is she bought the advertising before we had anybody committed. And it’s like, they’re gonna commit. That wasn’t like, you didn’t, if you don’t fear the failure, it seemed like, or at least we were motivated, but I don’t know what happened, but it was. Yeah. And, and the thing about it, that it turned out to be the largest bridal show that Oklahoma had ever had. They had the fire department turning people away. It was, it was unbelievable. And the other bridal show afterwards were like, well, do you all want to join up with us now and do a bridal show with us? Yeah. We’re good. We’ve got it now. Now, here’s the deal. When you started the Zany Bands, when did you get the idea for the Zany Bands? My business partner, Jim Howard, who he’s actually doing a surf show right now in Orlando, so he couldn’t be here, was in China, and he called me and said, I found these little rubber bands. What they used to be, what they were made for originally, is they were rubber bands that were made for office supplies. They were just in different shapes, dollar signs and different things. And this silicone factory was working making them in silicone. And so he had to make them into some different animal shapes and the alphabet and brought back some to his niece and nephew, and he said they went crazy over them. And I still was like, huh, that sounds really stupid. But I said, well, let’s give it a try. Let’s bring it back. And it had all the makings of a trend. We went back and researched like some of the trends, like Beanie Babies. Beanie Babies were actually born during a depressed economy just like we had. They were a $5 item. They were collectible. They came in all different characters. So we kind of had the same thing. So what we did is kind of a fake it till you make it type thing that we set up in Birmingham at a toy store and set up our display, mostly pictures of what they’re all going to look like, and started taking orders to see the reaction before we were going to put in a bunch of money to see how it went. And the kids went crazy over them. And they were like, well, we’re sold out right now. Of course, we had none. But as soon as they come in, you know, we’ve got all your information, we’ve got your names, and we’ll be emailing you, and you can purchase them. So we knew then we had a hit and just started producing at that point. One thing that Lori told me to do when I started the DJ company was – it was just me, right, me and my crazy car. And Lori was like, you just have to fake it until you make it, honey. I mean you’re just going to have to start referring to yourself as we. We have two availabilities. We, me, have two. I was like, why do I have to have two? And you’re like, well, because if you have one, you sound like you’re pie pressuring, and if you have a ton, then no one wants your business. It’s not lying. I’m not encouraging you to lie. Telling the truth in advance? Yeah, or just like when someone would call my photography studio about a wedding, and they’d say, I’m calling about your wedding prices and packages, same thing like what Clay was saying, is I remember I would say, okay tell me what day your wedding is first so I can even make sure we have that date available. So then they tell me a day and so then I say, oh is it gonna be morning or afternoon? Oh evening, that’s great. Yeah we have the evening open. We have actually nothing that whole month. Lori taught me that and I want you guys to, I’m not kidding, there was 2003 I’ve met with you again about packages and there was 2003 we booked over 3000 weddings that year there’s only one person the entire year Shannon and Clark that we didn’t book that I talked to one person the whole freaking year out of 3,000 people and it’s just her system because it was a system that like every time someone called what day you just yeah let me check the morning or the night say oh evening that’s that’s great yeah we’ve got the evening open they might at their next thing maybe well do I need to come by today and make a deposit? Well, that might be best if you want. And then we can talk about prices when you get here. So even with the Zany bands though, you like had it, it was big before it was big. It was big before it was big, yeah. I just wanna make sure everybody here, the one thing that Lori does, I just wanna make sure you guys get this, is that she fakes it till she makes it, but she makes sure that it’s true what she’s saying in advance. Right. You never, Lori will never tell you, she never told a vendor, this show’s gonna be full. And then we didn’t, you work, you and I worked like 80 hours that week to fill up the bridal show. We said it will be full and then we worked at the speed needed to make it full. But when a vendor said how many booths are sold? We said, oh it’s packed. Instead of, there could be two people, mainly her and I. Sharing a booth. 9,000 each. You know. Yeah, now next question I have here before we, we’ll kind of open up for questions in a minute here is how did you find Jim, your partner? Because I know a lot of people are here going, you know, it’s great you have a partner in China, but I’ve got a partner in Olmoge. Well, actually, Jim is from Birmingham, Alabama, and we met at a show in New York. At that time, I had a national candle company right after the photography studio. And he was there with another product, and I was there with the candle company. And this was right at the beginning when the economy started really going downhill. So we had a lot of free time during that show. And we were across from one another for a week. And so, and we were exactly alike. We were both the whole time going, you know what I was thinking of? Or wouldn’t it be cool if they had this product? So we both really enjoyed that part of it, of coming up with just new ideas. We may bounce a thousand ideas off one another and come up with one zany band. So that’s how we met, was at a show. And we continued a relationship over the phone for a year of different ideas and thoughts and stuff about the economy until the day ZanyBands hit. I’m gonna open up for questions in just one second. I had one more thing I wanted to add. With Lori, not knowing this, but like when she, my mom, I remember talking to my mom and I said, mom, can I go live with Lori for the summer? And you were kind of like, okay. When you aimed big and you opened the studio like it inspired me because you were doing something big It made me want to do something big and only thing I could think of well floor He has a business I can have a business You know I mean it was like and then when Lori went national like well She’d go national in your face. I’m gonna go national and so it was like kind of a deal We’re like it’s a I really you inspire a lot of people without knowing it But I just want to how do you deal with the opinions of other people that maybe think you’re crazy? And I know it was like that when I first opened my studio, that word around town was, well, she’ll be out of business in a month. I mean, I even had one photographer, I’m not going to say his name, that called me and said, I will lie, cheat, and steal if that’s what it takes to get your business for the Broken Arrow High School and Union High School. And so that’s what I was up against, was, and all the photographers band together, about five of the well-known photographers in town, went to Union High School, had a meeting with the principal, told him, you probably don’t know that she’s just got the contract for Broken Arrow High School, and it’s impossible for a photographer to photograph all 900 kids from Broken Arrow, all 900 kids from Union in one summer and get it done. They can’t do it. It’s impossible. So, of course, then came the phone call from the principal of the union saying, we just gave you the contract and here’s what we found out. Are you going to be able to do it? And I said, oh, absolutely. I mean, if we have to stay open 24 hours a day, it’ll be done. And he said, well, this is your one chance. If you blow it, you’ll never get the contract again. And as of right now, I know Josh Atkinson is the owner of Montag Photography, and it’s been nine years. They still have the contract for union. One thing I want to say that when you told me I remember I went to ORU and even though I didn’t like Richard Roberts I like the school, you know, so I went to or Roberts University and I couldn’t believe it but after doing a bridal show a DJ sent out an email to all of the brides stating that my wife worked for the news station and She was the one who gave me this award or whatever and so, you know just just just basically saying that I’d faked my way or I wasn’t a real business and then sent out bad References from people that I never actually DJ’d for. Like, I would never use them again, they ruined my wedding, whatever. And so I went to Lori, like, almost in tears. I was just totally decimated. And I was just like, what did they do that for? And I’m thinking, like, maybe I shouldn’t be a DJ. And I congratulated you. Yeah, and Lori congratulated me. She said, the more mad they get, that means that you’re doing something. I mean, you’re taking food out of their mouths. I tell them, you have arrived. I said, if your competition is not talking about you, then you’re not on their radar. So now, like in the businesses now, when people are pissed, I high-five people. Don’t I, Jake? I’m like, yes, they’re pissed. We’re taking their lunch. All right. So we’re going to go ahead and open up for questions. Does anybody have questions specifically for Lori? We’ll start with Danny. I guess, I’m sorry, someone in the back? I’m curious, when you take a product national and then you’re concerned about knockoffs. I mean, how do you put that all together to say, hey, I’m going to go out there, you know, how quickly can you get it out to market? I mean, what did you go to do that and then to fight off the knockoffs? If you have a good product, unfortunately, you are going to have knockoffs. That’s just part of it. We probably spend $25,000 a month right now in attorney fees sending out letters every day to people that are knockoffs. Like right now for slap watches, people that use the name slap watches. It’s not that they can’t make a slap watch. I own the name slap as referring to a watch, so they can’t use that in their tag lines or the name of their watch or anything. So it’s constantly that you have to monitor it and police it yourself sometimes, but it does happen. If you’ve got a good product, people are going to try to knock it off, unless you get a patent. I wanted to say one thing. One thing Lori’s able to do, and I want to make sure we answer that for you, too, is that you don’t seem to ever, like, the part of your mind that would seem worried by those people, I mean, you do the stuff, you go ahead and file the lawsuits or whatever you have to do, but you don’t give them any of your time. No, you can’t give them any of your time. You just have to keep moving on and let your attorney, that’s what they’re good at, let them send the letter out and let them take care of it, and you just keep moving on. All right, next question here. Okay, have you done things like this before this, like trend type things, getting the business rolling, but failed, that have failed? No. No, you haven’t, because I was gonna ask if you did, what made you have the faith to overcome, to overstep the fear to step out and do this? But anyway, what did, when you got this idea and you thought about this, what caused you to step out of the boat to do this thing? From the beginning, I mean, the thought of what ZanyBands turned out to be, ZanyBands was sold in 30 countries. And from the beginning, we did not see that big picture. I mean, we worked out of our house for the first three months that ZanyBands were going just because I wanted to make sure and make sure and make sure. And there were so many. If you knew all the headaches that went, I mean, Clarence can testify to that. Every day he’d come over and he’d say, I wish I was videoing this. This could be a reality show. Because it was, you put out one fire and it was another fire the next day. And I mean, I remember one day when we won, yeah, it was in a two-day time period. We finally got national reps across the United States that were going to sell our product. We hooked up with rep companies, gift reps. They all went out, and it was an instant success. They were selling them everywhere. And we had about $150,000 worth of business in that day. So we went to we had to set up our account with a charge company, so we went to charge the things to send out the product. Well, the charge company wouldn’t allow us to charge that much. They go, well, you can do it, but it’s going to be on a 90-day hold. So we were devastated. I mean, it’s things like that. And so then we had to work with their risk management department. So money was like we had like no money to keep on developing more product because everything that we would do. And then finally they said, well, we’re only going to hold 30% of it. Well, there’s your profit. I mean, they’re holding a third of your money. So it’s all those little headaches that every day you don’t foresee them all, but you take them one thing at a time and get through and put out fires and the next day you come back to work prepared for another fire because that’s that’s just what it’s like when especially in a trend business like that. For the people here that have a big idea I’m gonna pick on Jake up here in front I got a big idea you know what’s the first thing that they need to do to take that big idea and to start doing something with it I mean what what do you recommend writing it down and you’re just kind of working like one step at a time or what do you what would be a suggestion? I always say people will say well how do you know how to do all this? I don’t. But the thing that you have to know is how to be resourceful. If you don’t know how to do it, you’ve got to know how to find the people that can connect you to that next step. If you don’t know how to order things from China, then you find somebody that’s ordered from China, and how they found their mass manufacturing company, and how they got distribution, and who did they use to ship it in, UPS, or how are they getting it here, all that kind of stuff. Do they have a distribution center or do they set up their own distribution? All those kind of things. You don’t have to know all those answers, but you’ve got to be able to be resourceful enough to find all those answers. And there are people out there that will help you with that or they’ll give you advice and this is what I did. This is what I did. You know, that type of thing. So a lot of times people will hold themselves back because they’re like, I don’t know the first thing about it. You know, I graduated from high school. I didn’t go to college. I would say, you know, I don’t have all that information, all the answers. I’m not great on the computer. I just learned to do e-mail probably seven years ago. I still don’t do Facebook, but I surround myself with people that know more than I do about those type of things. I think one thing that a lot of the entrepreneurs that Brother Clifton shared, and I think with you, Laurie, and different people, is that they’re not focused on, like, the big picture. They know where they want to go, but they’re only focused on the next step. And I think that’s why people that are incredibly, and I’m not ridiculing your level of intelligence, but people that are super, super crazy intelligent struggle sometimes to put it together because they’re thinking about, well, how do I do this? What if I do this? What if I get sued? What if I do… You can’t do it. You just got to start with, what can I do now? I think you’re awesome at that. Is there any other questions you have for Lori? Anybody else have any questions for Lori? You, sir, in the green shirt. Both the products you have right now, like you said, are trend businesses. So what are your plans for, you know, with the trend business that’s naturally going to go away at some point? Are you guys looking for the next trend? Or how are you, you know, planning for it? We already are working on the next trend. It’s about ready to go. We probably won’t bring it out until January, but, yeah, that is. In the trend business, that’s – and I love that part of it because I am the kind that might get bored after a year. Like if we were still doing Zany Vans today, I’d shoot myself probably because Zany Vans were – it was insane. We were at one point when we moved out of my house, we were missing between 600 and 700 phone calls a day going into our queue of people wanting to order. And we were hiring people as they walked in the door. It was an insane ride and I loved it and it was a great, but when it was over it was like I don’t want to ever see a thingy-ban again. With your business though, she did this with photography. Who here had a photo taken with a lamb or a duck at Montag Photography? Anybody do this? Lori’s really good about breaking through the clutter of commerce and doing something kind of almost weird that gets people’s attention. And I remember walking into the photography studio and that phone would be blowing up like it’s a call center Or like we’re you know Like it’s some sort of just you’d think there’s some kind of world event going on because you have a lamb outside your business But Laurie’s very good at like marketing in a way that gets your attention, but doesn’t chip away at your credibility You know, it’s somehow it’s like the perfect mix of that But I just think that’s one thing you always have been able to create that buzz So you know questions we have here we got time for one more if we’ve got okay. We’ve got a question right here. I have a question. With your photography business, I’m a creative, how, as you grew, how did you find other talent within keeping with your style? Any pointers on finding? How did I find what? Like other photographers without losing your style and your look. You know, sometimes I was better to find photographers that weren’t just set on their style, but that were really good at taking direction, because when they came to work for me, I wanted them to reflect my style. So if they were so dead set on, this is how it is, this is how I photograph, and this is what I do, which a lot of times you have that problem with creative people, is that they are, they know it all. So I had to have somebody that was good, that they knew lighting and background, but that they were able to take the direction that I wanted it to go because it was my studio and had to reflect what I thought. Don’t you kind of hire attitude and kind of train the skill? Absolutely. Pretty much. I can take a semi-good photographer and make them a good photographer and they’re great with my customers, but I can’t take someone that maybe they’re a fantastic photographer and they have horrible skills, people skills, because I’ll lose all my business. OK. Well, hey, any other questions? I think Jira was at the last. Talbert, New York Times Best Selling Author, Award Winning Entrepreneur, the man Time Magazine has referred to as one of our nation’s most outstanding entrepreneurs, and president of the Building Community Institute. Talbert was a member of the initial team that introduced Fair Master Systems to the world. His life was turned into the major motion picture, Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored, and his literary work has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Clifton Talbert. Applause You can see that there’s a generation shift now. And I asked the guys earlier when we started, I said, you know, I’m old enough to be your dad and a couple of you, I can even be the granddad. This is really bad. But I’m delighted to be here. And before we get started, I’m going to count to three. I want everybody to give me a rousing timeout. Now, the operative word is a rousing timeout, so we won’t have to do One, two, three. One, two, three. Perfect. Now, the reason I call for timeout is this. I probably should not be using an athletic metaphor. I have never played sports in my life. I have no idea what a sportsperson does. But I do know that when a coach calls for timeout, it’s a very strategic moment. And from my perspective, we all have 24-7, and the timeout that we are given today, we’ll never have it again. And so when you look at it from that perspective, what you are providing us is an opportunity to be part of your life for a time in your life that will never, ever show up again. And so we’re going to talk about things all day today to the end of the conference here that’s going to be of great significance to your life moving forward. So what I want to talk about basically is accelerating entrepreneurship in Oklahoma. I’m excited about what Clay and the guys have put together. I’m excited about what entrepreneurship really, truly means. But first and foremost, it’s important to understand that you can’t finish the race unless you start. That’s the most important thing. You can’t finish the race unless you start. And starting is a very critical part of anyone’s success. I know today we celebrate entrepreneurs all over the world. We celebrate Bill Gates, we celebrate Oprah Winfrey, we celebrate Chester Cajole with Quick Trip here in Tulsa, and rightly so. But for the most part, we celebrate them at the very end of the race. They have actually run through the deer, they got their hands up, victory is there, and we can celebrate what they do. But for today, my part is to get us at the starting line. What do you do? What is important at the starting line? I mean, what’s the mindset that really drives sustainable success? I know that all of you would think about a couple of things. You’re going to think about a pro forma, and you’re going to think about your banker, you’re going to think about financing, and you’re going to think about an innovative idea. All of those are good, absolutely excellent. I serve on the board of several banks, so I understand the importance of a pro forma. I know what it means. But I guarantee you that financing and a performer will not equal success. You got to start. And the mindset that you bring to the table is the mindset that brings about the sustainability that will take you where you need to go. So, I’m going to introduce you to some concept eight life lessons from an unlikely entrepreneur. And I use a phrase that we perhaps we should all be familiar with, we the people. And that’s what entrepreneurship is about. Because it is not sectarian. It is not partisan. It is totally available to every human being who wants to take an opportunity that way. So the entrepreneur mindset, being able to do something different, being able to do something no one else has ever done, that’s a decision that we have to make if we want to do this. But what sustains us in this process is what we’ll be talking about as we move along. Obviously introduced as a writer, I’ve had the pleasure of writing 14 books, one of which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. But this book that I will be referring to today, who owns the Ice House, is strictly about entrepreneurship. It was released June 27th of this year. It has already gone viral international, the founder of Altel and part of Horizon. They loaded these books up on their airplane and took them to Central America and parts of Africa. The head of Union Pacific Railroad ordered 250 copies the very first day they were out and said, this is what my team has been looking for. How do you get the mindset? Because that’s going to be what’s going to sustain you at the end of the day. Now, the case for entrepreneurship is this. We believe entrepreneurial skills, attitudes, and behaviors can be learned. That’s important. They can be learned. I mean, it’s not something that everyone has. Bill Gates has something that you don’t have. That’s not what it’s about. You are a human being. You have the capacity to learn. This can be learned. And that exposure to entrepreneurship and education throughout an individual’s lifelong learning path, starting from youth and continuing through adulthood into higher education, as well as reaching out to those economically or socially excluded, is absolutely imperative. This is how important, this is why this is so very, very important. Now I want you to take a note. First off, this is what we call the mindset. And I want everybody to understand the word mindset. Make sure you write it down, because we all have it. We may not have used the term, but every single one of us, we have a mindset. And that mindset is shaped by our circumstances, it is shaped by the world that’s around us, it is shaped by the people that we associate with. Now, but let’s look at what it does. It’s the underlying beliefs and assumptions that drive behavior. The mindset drives your behavior. What are we saying? The mindset drives your path toward success. The challenge is how do we change that mindset? How do we change that mindset so that we can find ourselves on an entirely different path. The entrepreneur mindset, I look at it from two perspectives. It is innovative and it is transforming. If a person can literally bring this into their lives, it can literally change how you view the world. It’s a powerful asset, and like American Express, I am saying don’t leave home without it. Don’t leave home without the entrepreneurial mindset. Because it’s a mindset that impacts every single aspect of your living. Every single aspect of your living. It really directs and dictates how you go about your day. It brings about the sustainability. And when you go to your banker, and he or she has loaned you the money for your startup work. They’re going to be looking at your mindset. They’re going to be looking at your behavior. What are you doing day to day that really validates to them that they made a good decision to loan you somebody else’s money? Because that’s what banking is. Banks don’t make money for the most part. We have money that we bring in from other people, and then we very carefully lend that money out so that other people can make their dreams come true, get some profit in the mix of this. But your mindset, your attention to detail, your ability to be consistent, your ability to keep your word, your ability to make a promise and keep it, that’s gonna be your success. That’s going to be your success. Let’s take a note. For me, the entrepreneur mindset was personal. It personally was transformative, providing me the thinking, that’s important. When I count to three, I want everyone to say, thinking. One, two, three. Thinking. One, two, three. Thinking. It provided me the thinking and the behavior. You see, there’s a direct correlation, a direct connection between what a person thinks and what a person does. Thinking and behavior goes together. So when I count to three, I want you to say behavior. One, two, three. Behavior. Thinking and behavior goes together. Okay, providing me the thinking and behavior that shape my life and opened up the way for me to see the world differently. It brought me to a mindset of, I can do this. But it also took it a step further. I will do this. See, we can all say, I can do this. We can have a latte and a nice cup of pound cake or whatever, a nice Coke or Pepsi, a chilled glass of wine, whatever we may have. And we can say, oh, yeah, I can do this. I can do this. But the challenge is, will you do it? That’s what separates the entrepreneur from the person who thinks about it. I can do this. I will do this. The entrepreneur mindset provided me vision beyond my surroundings, the land, the people, the history. I was born in the Mississippi Delta during the era of legal segregation. The world was not standing at my doorstep saying, Clifton, we are so excited that you’re born. That’s not the way it was. The fields that you’re seeing, those are the cotton fields that I worked as a kid. Those are the same cotton fields that my parents worked, my great-grandparents, and my parents before them. That was the world that I knew. I mean, every day of my life, as a kid growing up, my world was surrounded by those fields. It didn’t seem as if anything else existed. You know, and today, there are people, you may not be surrounded by the cotton fields of the Delta, but you’re surrounded by sameness. You’re surrounded by what others have said is normal and an acceptable way of doing something. So the fields were my surroundings. It was the same thing, day in and day out. Mr. Walter’s field truck stopped and we got on it. You didn’t even have to think. You knew what you had to do. You were born into that world. But the entrepreneurial mindset is entirely different. It tells you who you are, who you can become, and it gives you a vision beyond the land, beyond the people, and beyond the history. You may say, OK, I’ve been doing this job for 25 years. I can’t do anything else. But I got this little thing bugging me in the back of my brain. But I’ve done everything the same way. I’m afraid to move out of the way. I’m afraid to try something different. This is why the mindset is so absolutely critical because it is the mindset, mind you, that literally pushes you beyond that vision. It pushes you beyond that horizon. It gives you the idea that something else is possible. I thought my world would never change. And I know there are people all over Oklahoma, United States, and around the world who live with the idea, my world will never change. This is the way it is. I look out and I see what people are doing. This is exciting. But I can’t do that. I can’t do that. I’ll never do that. I can’t do that. You see this little pin right here that I have on my lapel? I serve on the board of this bank, ONB Bank. But more importantly, I was part of the investment group that actually brought this bank into existence. But when I was back in the Mississippi Delta, I couldn’t go in the front door of a bank. The bank didn’t welcome me. We had to go to the back door to make our deposits. But one day I walked into the lobby of a bank, and I held my head up and said, I can go in any room I want to, because I own this bank. The mindset, your mindset, can literally change everything. Uncle Cleve, the Iceman, entered my world. And we’re going to talk about this man today, because this man is what I call an unlikely entrepreneur. You know, there are some people who can become an entrepreneur because they live in that environment where everybody is going and having a latte and you’re talking about this, you got your computer. He had no computer. He had just plain old Maxwell House coffee and he smoked Prince Albert tobacco. But he lived in the 1950s in the Mississippi Delta, in the segregated South. But he had the only ice house in Glen Allen, Mississippi. The only one. We had a Jewish community. We had a Chinese community. We had an Italian community. We had a black community. We had a white community. And every single one of them had to come to the ice house. In an unlikely time, this man noticed a problem exists. If any of you have ever lived in the Mississippi Delta at all, you think it’s hot here in Oklahoma, go to Mississippi. I mean, it’s 110 every day and you sweat forever. So you’ve got to have ice. And part of being an entrepreneur is thinking outside of the box. It is not trying to get something for yourself, because you ain’t going to sell yourself the stuff. You’re going to sell it to somebody else. What do they need? It doesn’t make sense to spend money on something that you really, really love and nobody wants. What do they need? They needed ice. And at the age of 13, this man hired me. Let’s take a note. He was different. And that’s what we’ll say about Bill Gates. Bill Gates is different. He doesn’t even have to wear a Brooks Brothers suit, and we still give him the front room. He’s different. You know, he’s different. There’s something about him that’s different. He walked differently. You know, when you own something and you’re not beholden to anyone else, you really walk differently, even in the Mississippi Delta. I could understand that. His reputation preceded him. That hasn’t changed. Who you are and what you do, it goes ahead of you. And now with Twitter and all the things of technology, it gets ahead of you before you even know you said it. His reputation preceded him, which means we have to build a reputation. That’s part of the starting line. You have to have a reputation. You could set your clock by him. This man, no one ever taught him that being on time was absolutely critical. But he intuitively understood that being on time meant everything. If he said he was going to be there at 830. He was there at 825. And if you weren’t there at 831, he was gone. I mean, you could literally set your clock by this man. People responded to him differently. In this world, where people made a life, if you will, out of disfranchising people, this man was such a businessman that even in that segregated world, we called him Uncle Cleve. The black people in our community called him Mr. Cleve. And the white people in our community who couldn’t quite bring themselves to calling him Mr. Cleve, I mean, they got as close to a change as they could. They called him by his last name, Mormon. We’re going up to Mormon’s to get some ice. What am I saying? There’s something about the entrepreneur mindset that can break down barriers and it can change your life. He drove the speed limit sometime at his own peril. I mean, the kids in the community would laugh at him because he had a 1947 international pickup truck, and you could actually run alongside of him and be right along with him all the time. Never went beyond the speed limit. That was his reputation in Glen Island, Mississippi. He listened to the news nightly. Didn’t have a television. Didn’t have a laptop. But he had a big radio, one of those radios that sat on the floor, and he listened to the news nightly. He wanted to know what was going on. And so as an entrepreneur, you can’t afford in the 21st century to keep your head in the sand and going to be a competitor in this global society. You’ve got to know what’s going on. You’ve got to read the newspapers. You’ve got to listen to the news. You have to be able to make intelligent decisions about the world around you. No one told him that, but this is what he did, and this is what I saw. Newspapers surrounded his chair. I mean, you couldn’t walk for kicking out the Greenville Democrat Times and the Jackson-Clarion Ledger and the Memphis newspaper. They were all around him. He wanted to know what was going on. He drove his truck to his business. And in a world where 90% of the people picked and chopped cotton, and we got up every morning with the sun, he got up with the sun also. But he wasn’t getting on Mr. Walter’s field truck. He was getting in his own truck, headed to his own business every single day. Working was not a burden to him, and this is important. To be successful in the field of entrepreneurship, you can’t become Donald Trump at the end of the race. You can’t go to Camp Largo. Work must not be a burden to you. You have to be willing to put in the work that is essential to get the job done. You have to do that. Let me go back to this word, he hired me. And I believe that changed the trajectory of my life and has really allowed Clay and his team to invite me to be part of your day. The exposure to his mindset changed my own. I caught his way of thinking. I caught his way of thinking. So what is this telling you? You know, if you’re going to New York, why get in the car with someone that has the speed to have their GPS set on Miami, Florida? Why do that? If you know where you’re going, make sure whomever’s going with you, they’re headed in the same direction. You’ve got to know where you’re going. I caught his way of thinking. Entrepreneurship is contagious. It is an excitement, but it is an excitement that does not get us out of the world of work. I graduated from high school. Now, is that important? That’s transformative. In a world where high school graduation was not on everybody’s agenda, the agenda for me was to grow up to learn how to drive tractors, work in the fields, and do that better. But I’m working at the ice house. I’m looking at a man who reads the newspaper. I’m looking at a man who owns his own business. I’m looking at a man that takes me to the bank with him. I’m looking at a man who says, I can do this. All of a sudden, education becomes important to me. Education becomes important to me. Education becomes important to me. The entrepreneurial mindset transforms me. Education becomes important because the entrepreneurial mindset is future-focused. It is future-focused. It is future-focused. When I count to three, I want everybody to say, it is future-focused. One, two, three. It’s important, guys, to understand that. Because if you don’t understand it’s future focus, you’re going to think that I can start this today and tomorrow, I will be at Shangri-La playing golf. It’s not the way it works. Future focus. The military became a stepping stone to opportunities. I left Mississippi, left the Ice House, found myself in the United States Air Force, working in the 89th Presidential Wing in Washington, D.C. But you know, in the Air Force, because of this mindset, it never was a problem to me. It was an incredible opportunity. The entrepreneur mindset sees opportunities. Things don’t become problems. They don’t become burdens. They become opportunities. This is what the mindset does. Every situation that you find yourselves in, you can look at that situation. What am I going to learn out of this? What am I going to get out of this? How can I make this really accomplish what I need to have accomplished? That’s what happened in the military. Now, there’s a little machine called Stairmaster. All of you know about StairMaster. Well, I came into the life of StairMaster when there almost was no StairMaster. Because the Tulsa newspapers were writing articles, stairs to where? Everybody laughed at the guy called Lanny Potts, who invented StairMaster. But my company had the global market, global federal market for StairMaster. And I want to read something to you for a second here. Let’s see, I’m going to need someone, I need to borrow some help here so someone can hold this mic for me because I’ve got to read this to you out of this book. Thank you, sir. You see, I could ask Clay to do this because I knew Clay when he was a little bitty boy. However, that day around that oblong table, all that existed were problems. I remember just sitting and listening and realizing just how bad their situation had gotten. They were up against fitness giants like Nautilus, who at the time were just laughing at them. StereoMaster had no scientific data to back up their heart and health-related claims. They were in debt, and it seemed that the public could not grasp the potential impact of their product. They needed money to sell some machines, and soon, or their dreams would go nowhere. However, in spite of all the negativity, I was impressed by their extreme and unfailing faith in the usefulness of their product. They were determined to succeed, but at that moment in their history, seemed to have no solid direction of how to accomplish their goals. So somewhere between my first introduction to the company and several weeks later, I found myself even more intrigued with their product and the potential of my environment. Catch that. The potential of my environment. The entrepreneur mindset is always listening. I found myself even more intrigued with their product and the potential of my environment. Even after seeing the rudimentary first product they had produced, the first Stairmaster was hardly related to the sleek machine that we see today. It was bulky, black oxidized metal. There was not much to look at, and there were none of the bells and whistles we see today. But the stairs were there, and they moved. The company had a problem. I saw an opportunity. That’s what being an entrepreneur is about. The company had a problem, but I saw an opportunity. And over a period of two years, trying to sell StairMaster, nobody had heard of it. Nobody wanted to buy it. I had never heard of a GSA contract, the General Service Administration. I just thought you walked down the Fort Worth and said, this is what I want to do. But boy, they gave me a stack of paper, almost enough to fill this room. I wagged that back to Tulsa, ready to give up on it. My wife wouldn’t let me give up on it. So we started filling out all that paperwork, and before long, I had the only GSA contract for the entire United States and anywhere the government had presence in the world. And Stare Master was on its way. Through persistence and determination, I discovered a writer inside of me. I couldn’t go to the library when I was a kid because the library was closed to me. But I became a writer anyway. I’ve written 14 books. My first book became an international bestseller and a major motion picture. My second book, The Last Train North, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. And my third book, Watching Our Crops Come In, the gentleman, Mr. Grooms, who wrote Forrest Gump, wrote an article for the L.A. Times, said this should be a book that every person should read. I discovered a right inside of me, but it didn’t happen overnight. It took me 17 years to get my first book published. That’s enough time to give up. That’s enough time to quit. That’s enough time to get tired of people laughing at you. That’s enough time for your buddies to tell you, hey, man, you ain’t no writer. That’s enough time you can hear that. You send your stuff, you get rejection letters. You get rejection letters. I have enough rejection letters at the time that I could almost plaster a side of the wall. But I was writing the book for me. It was my decision. It was my dream. This is what I wanted to do. It was my mindset that made the difference. So Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored came out. And it captured the imagination, not just of the United States, but around the world. I found myself in nearly every country in the world talking about this little town in the Mississippi Delta. But what would have happened had I given up? And that’s what the mindset is. This is at the starting line of the race. You know, this is what Bill Gates had to do. This is what Oprah Winfrey had to do. This is what Chester Cadgill had to do. You see Quick Trip today. How many of you in here remember the first Quick Trip? Raise your hand. The first ugly Quick Trip, sitting on the bank of the Arkansas stream down there around 81st and Lewis, hidden out of nowhere. He had every reason in the world to give up. We all have reasons to give up, but we all have reasons to continue as well. In the cab of his truck, working with him day in and day out, side by side, I was exposed to conversations and a way of thinking that would eventually change the trajectory of my life. From Uncle Cleve, I learned that a can-do mindset can empower ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things. ordinary thing. Three things will happen. You’re going to shift your perspective, incredibly important. What you think, what you see, if you don’t change that, you’re going to do what you’ve always done. If you shift your perspective, you’re going to shift your thinking. And if you shift your thinking, you’re going to shift your behavior. Those are the three shifts of entrepreneurship. Shifting your perspective, shifting your thinking and shifting your behavior. Now 50 years later, Uncle Cleve’s lessons are embraced. From Europe to Africa, his eight lessons are finding homes. The first lesson is choice. You ain’t got to settle for what you see. You read chapter one, you’re going to have a clear understanding of what it means about choice. This is what this old man is telling you today. Don’t settle. Do what you need to do. Make your dreams come true. The second lesson is about opportunity. Somebody’s problem might need your answer. Always realize that in every challenge there is an opportunity. You don’t believe me? Ask Oxford. Oxford wouldn’t exist if there weren’t dirty floors. Dirty floors is a problem. He brought an answer. Action. because it’s not going to be there. Number four is knowledge. Uncle Cleve said, mix them up, boy, hard work and books learning. So in other words, yes, use a computer, get all the information that you need, but I tell you what, guys, you’ve got to be prepared to roll up your sleeves, you’ve got to be prepared to do the work, you’ve got to be prepared to get the job done. Number five is about wealth. Uncle Cleve said, make no sense to show folks what you got, don’t spend your last dime. As an entrepreneur, we don’t have the pleasure and the privilege in starting up, showing people what we have. Do what you need to do. Don’t worry your success, become your success. Don’t spend money that you don’t have. Anticipate the future. Remember, it’s future focused. The sixth lesson is about brand. This is in an incredible chapter in the book. You’ve got to do what you tell folks you’re going to do. Your word is you. Your word is you. That’s who you are. Whatever you say, you’ve got to do it. That’s who you are. The seventh lesson is community. You need friends. All of us do. The fourth lesson is community. You need friends, all of us do, but picking good ones is up to you. If you want to be successful, travel with a successful crowd. I’m not talking about a money crowd. I’m talking about a crowd with a mindset, the mindset that spurs you on, the mindset that supports you, the mindset that says, yes, we can do this. And the eighth lesson is persistence. It’s never quit. As long as I can wake up, I’m going to get up. Keep at it, boy. Those were his words to me. As long as I can wake up, I’m going to get up. The inference is this. There are times we don’t want to get up. We have every reason in the world to stay in the bed, not to move, not to do the things that we need to do. But if we are truly going to be successful, we got to get up. We got to get up. We got to get up. This is what persistence is all about. You go to every entrepreneur, interview them. We have interviewed literally hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs around the world in a program called Who Owns the Ice House that is sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation. Write this down on your pad. www.whoownstheicehouse and look at what is happening around the world with this particular program, persistence. And lastly, private conversations that I held in a 1947 pickup truck with an old man who owned the ice house. These lessons have now become public lessons. The Kauffman-sponsored project, Uncle Cleve’s Eight Entrepreneurial Life Lessons, have been to steal for the world. I can and I will. Not everyone needs to become an entrepreneur to benefit from entrepreneurship education, but all members of society need to be more entrepreneurial. This was put out by the World Economic Forum. These were the best and brightest from all over the world who had come together for one purpose only, to help us understand the power of entrepreneurship. It’s a powerful mindset. It sparks innovative thinking. And it transforms behavior. Thank you very much. Folks, we’ve got about eight minutes worth of Q&A available. About eight minutes worth of Q&A available for Clifton here. If you have a question, Jared Hoag of Tiny Dinosaurs will be running around with a mic. We’ve got about eight minutes until we have a five-minute break. Anybody, anybody have a question for Mr. Talbert? Right here, Arthur Greenough. I have a question. You had said, I gotta look at my notes here, that when you had got involved with Stairmaster, that, how did you see, you said you saw the problem. What was the problem that you saw and how did you know that you were the answer for it? That was three problems. Three problems. They didn’t have any money. They had a machine that no one had heard about. And they were deeply in debt. Now what did I see? I saw that this machine and aerobic exercise, I was smart enough to understand that the heart is a very important organ in our body. And if aerobic exercise could improve the heart, I said, this is something that America needs to know about. So I immediately put on my thinking cap, because I’m not a doctor, so I’m not a cardiologist, so I can’t go there. So I began to look at how can I help them get this product out there, how can I help them get in markets where they’re not, how can I help them get the money that they need. Any other questions? Right behind you, sir. Right behind you. Here we go. That question, were you like a consultant? What was your company? Or were you like a do they hire you? Or were you like a consultant to them? No, I was not a consultant to them. I was sort of sitting at the right place at the right time. And this is the thing about an entrepreneur. I know in our world we think in terms of consultants. But oftentimes, you know, I was a young kid then. And younger. And so I was not a consultant. In fact, I was employed by the Bank of Oklahoma at the time. And I was just sitting in a room where they were all talking. And it hit me, wait, this is something I’ve been waiting on. I can do this. Because sometimes you have intuitive skills and you know that they’re there, and all of a sudden all the stars line up, and you realize that this problem has been waiting for my answer. Brother Clifton, I have a question for you. Yes, sir. In your book, there’s a part of your book that I read it, and I went and told my wife, so I was like crying when I read it. It was about where you went to the circus. And you went to the circus, and you weren’t allowed to be there because you’re African-American. How, to me, it just was talking about self-discipline, but how have you, over the years, been able to stay self-disciplined? So I feel like I meet a lot of entrepreneurs that get motivated and kind of lose. And in your book, you kind of illustrated that. I just want to see if you could touch on that and kind of the —- All right. In one of the chapters of the book, you read the story where Uncle Cleve takes me to Jackson, Mississippi, because that’s his reward for my work. I’m 14 years old. I’m actually running the ice house now. I’m really good at this now. I’m not picking cotton anymore. I’m actually working at the ice house. I can take a 300-pound block of ice, cut it into 150, 75, 50 pounds. I’m waiting on customers. I’m depositing money. And he’s expanding his business. So he’s going to repay me by taking me to Jackson, Mississippi, to a circus. And I am so excited. We ride the speed limit. We barely get there on time. We walk into the circus, and we sit down. He gives me my own bag of popcorn. And, you know, that may not be important to you, but in my world, if you had a bag of popcorn, it was shared between maybe ten people. I had my own bag of popcorn. And we were sitting there, waiting for this incredible circus to start. And all of a sudden, this man walks in, this big burly guy, taps my uncle on the shoulder. He said, this ain’t the night for, you can fill in the blanks. And all of a sudden I watched my uncle’s jaws get steeled, and he just grabbed my hand, and I’m walking out of the circus, not fully understanding why, with popcorn trailing behind me, getting into his truck, having to drive all the way back from Jackson, Mississippi, to Glen Allen. And I remember my uncle never said a word about how he was treated. The only thing I remember him saying to me the next day, he said, boy, I’ll see you at the ice house tomorrow. There are some times you can’t stop the wind. You have to park your car at what you can do. And this is what I’ve learned over the course of my life. Do what you can do whenever you can do it. But I don’t plan to be Don Quixote. I will not be flagging and fighting windmills that do not exist. All I know is this. If you purpose in your own heart, and your own mindset is so shaped, it will literally change your perception of the world. And when that perception is changed, it doesn’t mean that the whole world around you has changed. I’m not naive. You know, I know people still can’t get over the fact that I was not born white. I know that. But I am excited about me. That’s my perspective of who I am. It shapes my thinking and it shapes my behavior. We’ve got about two minutes here. We’ve got time for one more question. Anybody else here? Right here up front. You spoke about how anybody can learn these lessons. How much is nature that you have an insight versus nurture that you learn. Okay, nature versus nurture. Sometimes I think these things are like circles that sort of collide together. I think that when I went to the Ice House at 13, you know, I was not this really, really super bright kid that took a yellow pad with me and a briefcase and said, I’m working market cleave entrepreneur. The term entrepreneur wasn’t even used. But the entrepreneur actions were so powerful and transformative that it was almost like a contagious positive disease that I caught. And because I was around it for a period of time, it just fell into my life and became part of my thinking. So I realized that if you are involved in lessons, systematic lessons, that take you into the mindset. You know, if you get the book, Who Owns the Ice House, and you read the chapter on choice, you’re going to say, I can do this. And I’m not telling you this because I wrote the book. I got a call from a movie producer in LA. He said, I just read Who Owns the Ice House. He said, I don’t know your great uncle. He said, but he has answered every question that I need to tell my son. This is what I’m giving him, underlined. You can learn this. Now, if you don’t want to learn it, you won’t learn it. But if you have a will to do it, you can learn how to become an entrepreneur. And remember, it’s a job. It’s work. We celebrate the race, the end of the race. But the success is not really the ending. The success is the start. The success is the warming up. The success is the flexing your muscles. The success is eating the right food. It’s running on days before the race even starts. Doing things where you shouldn’t, that people want you to do something else. You say, no, because on the 16th of September, I’m going to be in this race. So I’ve got to prepare. And at the end of the day, that’s what your bank will be looking for, the prepared entrepreneur. Man Up, entrepreneurship boot camps. Hey guys, Luke Erickson here with the Thrive Time Show. As you can see behind me, we’ve got all kinds of energy going on. People are starting to show up for the conference and it is hot in this place. We got grill guns over here, we’ve got people playing the drums, we’ve got a fire breather, and man people are so excited as they come in. Gentlemen, let me introduce you to the grill gun. Hi, I’m Bob Healy. I’m the inventor of the grill gun and the CV gun 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 and a lot of people, you know I followed Tim Tebow’s football career on the field And off the field and off the field the guy’s been just as successful as he has been on the field now The big question is JT. How does he do it? Well, they’re going to have to come and find out, because I don’t know. Well, I’m just saying, Tim Tebow is going to teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s going to walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is going to be a blasty blast in Tulsa, Russia. 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 will be presenting. Now, we’ve had a couple of presenters that have had a billion dollar net worth in some like real estate sort of things. Yeah. But this is the first time we’ve had a guy who’s built a service business and he’s built over a $100 million 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, Russel, Oklahoma, June 27 and 28. 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 gotta come learn from him. And now the best-selling author of the carnivore diet and the multiple time Joe Rogan guest Dr. Sean Baker joins our two day interactive business growth and life optimization workshop. 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. He said, 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 gonna 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 gonna 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? 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. 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 could 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. You started out with a million dollars in the bank account? No, I did not. Nope, did not get any loans, nothing like that. Did not get an inheritance from parents or anything like that, I had to work for it. And I am super grateful I came to a business conference. That’s actually how I met you, met Peter Taunton. I met all these people. So if you’re out there today and you want to come to our workshop, again, you just got to go to thrivetimeshow.com. You might say, well, when’s it going to be? June 27th and 28th. You might say, well, who’s speaking? We already covered that. You might say, where’s it going to be? It’s going to be in Tulsa, Russell Oklahoma. It’s Tulsa, Russell. It’s I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa Ruslim, 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 going to come. Who? I’m talking to you. You can get your tickets right now at thrivetimeshow.com. And again, you can name your price. We tell people it’s $250 or whatever price you can afford. And we do have some select VIP tickets, which gives you an access to meet some of the speakers and those sorts of things. And those tickets are $500. It’s a two-day interactive business workshop, over 20 hours of business training. We’re going to give you a copy of my newest book, The Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. You’re going to leave with a workbook. You’re going to leave with everything you need to know to start and grow a super successful company. It’s practical, it’s actionable, and it’s 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. 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. 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. 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 up shows day after day, and now he is the legendary host of the EO Fire podcast, and he’s traveled all the way from Puerto Rico to Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend the in-person June 27th and 28th Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshop. If you’re out there today, folks, you’ve ever wanted to grow a podcast, a broadcast, 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 before I leave you. Thrivetimeshow.com. James, one more time before I leave you. Thrivetimeshow.com. James, one more time before I leave you. Thrivetimeshow.com Change! One more time for the 4th of July! ThriveTimeshow.com Shine, everything rides on tonight Even if I got three strikes I’ma go for it, this moment We own it, ay I’m not to be played with Because it could get dangerous See, these 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 system that dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow a successful company. We get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re gonna teach you how to fix your conversion rate. Now we’re gonna 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. 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 they’re like, oh but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get-rich-quick, walk-on hot coals product. It’s literally we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, and I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert, Zellner and Associates, look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s gonna be the best business workshop ever and we’re gonna give you your money back if you don’t love it. We built this facility for you and we’re excited to see you. And now you may be thinking, what does it actually cost to attend an in-person two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop? Well, good news, the tickets are $250 or whatever price that you can afford. What? Yes, they’re $250 or whatever price you can afford. I grew up without money and I know what it’s like to live without money, so if you’re out there today and you want to attend our in-person two-day interactive business workshop, all you gotta do is go to thrivetimeshow.com to request those tickets. And if you can’t afford $250, we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. I learned at the Academy, at King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Whoa! Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvard Keosak University Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting Up from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re closed, but they’re completely different worlds And uh, we have a special guest today Uh 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 is a friend of a good friend, Eric Trump. But we’re also talking about money, bricks, and how screwed up the world can get in a few and a half hour. So Clay Clark is a very intelligent man, and there’s so many ways we could take this thing. I thought since you and Eric are close, Trump, what were you saying about what Trump can’t, what Donald, who’s my age, and I can say or cannot say. What just happened? 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 wanted to take a moment to tell you, thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success. And I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump. I just want to tell you, thank you, sir, for changing my life. Not only that, Clay, thank you, but you’ve become an influencer. More than anything else, you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. That’s why I congratulate you on becoming. 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. 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, he’s pretty friendly, helpful, very welcoming. I attended a conference a couple months back and it was really the best business conference I’ve ever attended. At the workshop I learned a lot about time management, really prioritizing what’s the most important. Biggest takeaways are, you know, you want to take a step-by-step approach to your business. Whether it’s marketing, you know, 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’ll 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 can 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 and 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 these tactics. 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 Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey guys, I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys. We appreciate you and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old house. This is where we used to live a few years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See? This is nice, right? So this is my old van and our old school marketing and this is our old team. And by team, I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing, and this is our new team. We went from four to fourteen, and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales which is awesome but Ryan is a really great salesman so we didn’t need that we needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems into manuals and scripts and actually build a team so now that we have systems in place we’ve gone from one to ten locations in only a year. In October 2016 we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, times a thousand. So we really just want to thank you, Clay, and thank you, Vanessa, for everything you’ve done, everything you’ve helped us with. We love you guys. If you decide to not attend the ThriveCon workshop, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. The atmosphere at Clay’s office is very lively. You can feel the energy as soon as you walk through the door. And it really got me excited. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be here. The atmosphere of Clay’s 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. I 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 our business using Google reviews and 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, Grouping uses completely eliminate 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 purpose for all those other people that directly affect your business as well. Everybody. Everybody. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get an opportunity to see that it’s real. Hey, Flyover family, come join us June the 27th and 28th, 2024 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We’re going to be there with Clay Clark, an amazing group of individuals that have made such a difference in so many people’s lives. Do you want to increase your production in a job? Do you want to make more sales? Do you want to own your own business? Do you want to have breakthroughs financially? The key to that is knowledge. Clay Clark is anointed to help people in business. We’ve watched him over the last couple of years, and we’ve been blown away. He’s part owner of over 160 businesses, $2.4 billion in sales. Before politics and the Great Reset came into Clay’s life, he had the number one rated Apple podcast. And he interviewed people like Anthony Robbins, Seth Godin, the top authors, the top business minds in the world. At this specific event, there was an interesting cast of characters that come from gangs to American Idol. Some of the guests that are going to be there, Michael Levine, Colton Dixon, Peter Taunton, John Lee Dumas, Mondo De La Viga. And Tim Tebow. They’re there to share what they’ve done and their breakthroughs and what their story is. And then Clay lays his map of business success, calls the path for every person to follow. So you may be sitting there thinking, okay, okay, I get it, I get it. What do I have to do? Go to thrive timeshow.com. When you get there, the tickets are $250 or whatever you can afford. Yes, you got that right. $250 or whatever you can afford. You can name your price. So there are no excuses. You have to join us there. There are only a few VIP tickets left, like David said, special dinner and special time with the speakers. That is $500, why they last. So $500, only a few left if you want a VIP ticket. We want to meet these speakers as well. So we got VIP tickets. I want to meet Tim Tebow. I do too. The date is June the 27th and 28th, 2024 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Go to Thrivetimeshow.com to get your ticket. Hey guys, Luke Erickson here with the Thrivetimeshow. As you can see behind me, we’ve got all kinds of energy going on. People are starting to show up for the conference. It is hot in this place. We’ve got grill guns over here. We’ve got people playing the drums. We’ve got a fire breather. And man, people are so excited as they come in. Woo! The conference is caked on. This house is packed. We’ve got air handlers with shotguns up there. We’ve got sneaker wearing timbers with their contacts up there. Talking about what is possible when you just implement, you implement, you do the improvements. So exciting, people are going crazy. Michael Levine, writer of many, many PR books, the man who represents people like Michael Jackson, Arbor Streisand, George Bush, and his standing party, is speaking to people here at our conference, talking about branding. One of the greatest in branding is the brand. Speaking to people here at our conference, talking about branding. One of the greatest branding experts alive today is here at our conference talking to entrepreneurs. We just wrapped up day one. It was incredible. We had some remarkable speakers. Michael Levine. We just finished with a lady named Jill Donovan who owns a company called Rustic Cup. Talking about the power of the Dream 100. I cannot wait to see what tomorrow holds. Come on in! Welcome to the 5th annual Dream 100 World Tour! Dream 100! That’s right, you can’t miss it. Come on in! Hey, guys. Luke Erickson with the Thrive Time Show here with you. It is day two, and the energy is high. People are so excited to be showing up. The team is ready. Come on. Let’s see what it’s like to go on in for day two. Follow me. Come on, come on, come on. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! I tell you what, people are so excited to be here for day two. It is going to be incredible. Cannot wait to see what today has in store. Yeah! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Right now, here at the conference, we’ve broken into groups going over search engine optimization. I know for most of us, myself included, if you hear that term, what is that? What does that mean? That’s too techy for me. Well, our experts are breaking it down for people so that you can clearly understand how to come up top in Google. It’s doable. It’s possible. Now we’re in the middle of a break and what we like to do is we like to give you as much tangible and relevant information from about the start of the hour for 45 minutes. Then we take approximately a 15 minute break to allow people to connect with other entrepreneurs around them. Bathroom break and also use this time to just really digest all of the good information that you’re receiving the whole time. Right behind me we’ve got Bob with his drill gun melting an ice sculpture. It is awesome. The ice sculpture represents our life, right? It’s here for a time, but we all need to have the sense of urgency to implement the things that we’re learning so that we can make the most of the time that we have. We are outside. You can see a line behind me. What’s going on is that we partner with different companies to help them implement the proven systems over and over and over again. And one of those companies is Master Machine. And so what we like to do is partner with these companies to also help them give samples to other people as they come to the conference and truly get their name out. I just wanted to recap some of the amazing things that have happened today. We’ve had entrepreneurs like Paul Hood with Good CPAs. We’ve had Jill Donovan and Michael Levine. We’ve had a lot of people that have been in the business for a long time. And we’ve had a lot of people that have been in the business for a long time. And we’ve had a lot of people that have been in the business for a long time. And we’ve had a lot of people that have been in the business for a long time. And we’ve had a lot of people that have been in the business for a long time. And we’ve had a lot of people that have been in the business for a long time. And we’ve had a lot of people that have been in the business for a long time. And we’ve had a lot of people that have been in the business for a long time. And we’ve had a lot of people that have been in the business for a long time. And we’ve had a lot of people that have been in the business for a long time. And we’ve had a lot of people that have been in the business for a long time. And we’ve had a lot of people that have been in the business for a long time. And we’ve had a lot of people that have been in the business for a long time. And we’ve had a lot of people that have been in the business for a long time. And we’ve had a lot of people that have been in the business for a long time. Entrepreneurs like Paul Hood with Good CPAs, we’ve had Jill Donovan and Michael Levine come up and just impart so much wisdom and knowledge. We’ve got an incredible giveaway for one of our teamies. ♪ Hey there, Thrive Nation. One of the things that we love most about our business conferences is that we want every entrepreneur to leave with their questions answered. So what we do is we let them put the questions up on the board here so that they can ask their specific questions and Clay will not end the conference until every question is answered. Behind us, Clay Kilar can be answering all the different questions that entrepreneurs have brought to the conference. Whenever someone comes here and starts to hear this information, especially for the first time, it just brings about so much anticipation of wanting to actually implement the proven systems and processes. And so the lay always wants to make sure that he answers all of their questions so that they’re the most set up person to be able to go home and start implementing. If you have any questions, email us at inco at tribe timeshare.com. Hello, I’m Wes Carter. I’m one of the shareholders at Winters & Keen. My favorite thing that Thrive has helped me accomplish here in our firm is thinking a little bit outside the box. They do SEO, they do printing, they help us with a lot of things from the day-to-day marketing for the firm, but they also help us think of things that as attorneys we probably wouldn’t normally think of that help us market our services to our clients. One of the things I love about working with Thrive is that they make it enjoyable to actually do work with them. It’s not dry, it’s usually fun, but it’s always very enjoyable and practical. They give me things and ideas that I can put into place. It’s not just some theoretical spiel that they give me. We get practical steps that we work on together to do my job better. So me personally, I would easily recommend Thrive 15 services to my friends, my families. I’d recommend them to my clients. I think they do a good job. They’re passionate. They care about their clients. And I think it’s actually a valuable service they provide to people that are in the business world. My name is Jeff Thomas. I’m originally from Atlanta, Georgia. It’s all about getting to the grindstone. It is about putting the… It’s one thing to have a specific vision or a dream, but knowledge without application isn’t knowledge at all. That’s nothing. It’s really funny. The atmosphere is very lively. Everybody that is working for Clay is very upbeat and not tired, not sluggish, not complaining, not whining. They don’t have anything to do with those types of characteristics. It’s all about getting to the grind and having fun while you do it. I haven’t actually been to any conferences in the past. But what I will say from what I’ve seen on YouTube and what from other friends have told me is this isn’t like a motivational kind of thing such as you know, hoo-hoo, rah-rah, it gets you motivated, but it’s like practical steps that if you do take them, which most people aren’t willing to do, then you will grow and you will achieve the specific things that you want. Well, for one thing, I would say that this isn’t necessarily for everyone. So if you’re not willing to work, this isn’t for you. But I will say that if you are willing to work and you know you’re just getting started, but you have actually taken a step in that direction, then this will actually help you grow further exponentially than you could ever imagine. My name is Taylor Hall. I’m the general manager of the Tulsa Oilers professional hockey team. You know, our goal every night here at the BOK Center is to try to fill the seats with lots of people and create an exciting environment so when somebody comes to a game, they want to come back. Working with Clay and the staff at Thrive, they’ve really helped us in many, many ways. Website and graphic design and video production and a lot of things that go along. And a lot of businesses, including ours, doesn’t have a staff or a full-time videographer or graphic designer. But the biggest thing that we noticed was the needle mover. More sales, more attendance, more successes in business. We had a record year last season working with Clay for the first time. Our average attendance is higher than it’s ever been. So there was a lot of really cool things that we did, and they worked. That’s the nice thing about working with Clay and the team over there. It’s just not one person. You get the entire team. If you need video design and editing and production, they’ve got that. If you need graphic design, if you need some coaching, your salespeople, and call scripts, PR, they offer all that. Clay was instrumental in helping guiding us, getting us on the right track so that we could really raise the bar and become ultra successful. So it’s been an amazing experience for us. My name is Kaitlin. I own a tumbling gym called Justice Tumbling Company. Working with Clay is so helpful. He’s being diligent with everything and making sure we execute our goals and really make things happen. It’s fun, it’s tight, it really gives you a lot of confidence. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun. We execute our goals and really make things happen. It’s fun, it’s high, it really gets you energized and going. It just makes you really want to work. To get the momentum going, to really just like get that buzz, to really give you the energy to get up and make it happen. I’m Bob Healy. I’m in the charcoal drilling industry. And the name of my business is Grillblazer. How will I apply what I’ve learned so far and into my business. I’m actually a client that does a Tri15 and I learn so much from what I’m learning at this conference and my regular weekly attendance that it’s helping me establish the business and get it off the ground. Clay’s presentation style is just blatant disregard for what anybody wants. He just has fun, it’s him, everything that you see is authentically Clay. It’s a great deal of fun. Everybody enjoys it. They know when you walk in they think they’re coming into a carnival, and frankly they are. It’s just great fun. There’s not another conference like it. You don’t go to a carnival atmosphere and learn what to do here at the right place. It’s great. The reason people should attend at least one of these conferences is because it’s common sense. And everybody’s fed an entire line about the way you should run a business, but until you actually experience running a business, which is candidly what you learn here, how to run a business, you don’t know what you’re doing. My name is Tyler Hastings, and this is my wife, Rachel. And our company is Delricht Research, out of New Orleans. During our time working with Thrive, we’ve had numerous successes. When we first started, we were working with one physician. We had one research site, and we were seeing on average, you know, between 10 and 15 patients a week. Since working with Thrive in the last 18 months, we now have four research sites. We work with over five physicians, and on average, we’re now seeing over 60 patients per week. Recently, we’ve been the top enroller worldwide in seven studies, which is just incredible considering where we were, you know, two years ago, 18 months ago. Thrive really differs from the other conferences that we’ve been to and the other kind of programs that we’ve been through because they actually really practice what they preach and they implement the same systems and the processes that they teach you about. And they give you real life examples that really work for them and show you with the training how to implement that yourself. For example, Tyler and I actually got the opportunity to come out to Tulsa and we were fortunate enough that the Thrive team took us out to some of the businesses that they own and we really got to see in real life, real time, some of the systems and processes and it was just incredible. A real life example of some of the businesses and the things that they’re implementing. Having a coach is important to us. They act as not only an accountability factor, but they’re someone we can talk to on a daily basis as we go through the problems of running a business that inevitably come up. They always understand what we’re going through and they’re always there to help us or guide us through the problems that we experience. The best part of our experience working with Thrive has just been seeing our relationship grow. So at each step as our business grows, you know, if they have something else to provide us with, they’ve got the resources, whether it be marketing, graphic design, website development, or even into accounting practices, maybe we need a new insurance policy. If they have someone they can connect us with, or, you know, if they have the direct resource we need to speak with for any of the problems we face. If someone’s thinking about signing up for the coaching program, I would highly recommend that they call in for a free 30-minute coaching session and see exactly what the team can do for you. Just speak with someone, let them know what you’re going through, and I think you’ll find that regardless of what you need, there’s someone there that can help you. Clay’s presentation style is very real and raw. Like it just gets real down to the bone of it and the real purpose of it. There’s no like fluffy vagueness about it, you know. So he really gets to the point. I’m always reminded about how important it is to be intentional and to really pay attention to how you schedule your time and really honor it. Because whatever gets scheduled gets done. That’s what he said from Lee Cockrell. So just constantly hearing that and getting reminded helps me to reinforce that in my own life. It always helps to get an outside perspective, and especially from a guy that’s run so many multi-billion dollar businesses, it doesn’t hurt. My name is Nick Guajardo. I heard about the Thrive Time Show workshop through Andy Mathren. He’s my… Andy Mathren and Larry Montgomery, they’re my bosses at Restore Home Health. And my role is pretty much to bring in business. So I was hoping to learn kind of the sales process on top of just kind of the responsibilities and help understand what it looks like on the SEO side and just kind of an all-around what it looks like to own a business because that’s something I want to do in the future for sure. How I would describe the atmosphere here at Thrive is high energy, great professionalism, great people, it’s just it’s a place you definitely want to visit and be at. Plays delivery style, humorous, professional, hilarious. Just he does it, I haven’t seen someone do it better. So he does a great job. Most valuable thing I’ve learned so far? A lot of it has been extremely valuable. But one thing that’s always really stuck out to me is learning the SEO stuff. I mean, that is, I think, things you don’t really even think about, and then you hear it, and you think you know it, but you don’t know it. So I feel like that was the most valuable. Well, they’re missing out on just what comes down to just basic applications to be a business owner. I mean, I feel like it’s like an absolute necessity, you know, to come here and learn the ins and outs and maybe come here once or twice if they, you know, take good notes, that kind of thing. Why? To just, it’s the experience here and what you can learn, like absolutely. So marketing and SEO seemed like something that would be very scary, but then in the way that Clay and his team described it became very clear and concise and something that’s very accessible to any business owner. I’ve learned a lot about marketing at this conference, a lot about business management and HR, really everything, the key components of anybody’s business, they’re going to give you the best tools to be successful in it. So most workshops or conferences can be really boring, really one-note, or they just seem so theatrical that it’s a joke, and it’s not even giving you the tools that you need or that you came there for. But here, it’s still high energy, it’s still fun, everything’s to the point, but it’s very professional, and yeah, you’re missing out on easy steps to use in your business that are very accessible and very clear. My name is Abigail McCarter. The best thing I’ve learned so far is definitely like organization, schedule wise, always keeping a to-do list, keeping your calendar organized. I’m kind of all over the place, so that’s always good to know. presentation style and the atmosphere is electric. It’s so energetic, it’s so fun, plays hilarious, but also knows a ton, so it’s really great all around. This conference is much different than any other conference I’ve gone to, again because it’s fun. A lot of other conferences, it’s like really quiet, really cold, and you just kind of get bored, but this one you’re like always engaged, you’re always learning something, and the staff is amazing, they’re always super helpful, so it’s just been really great. My name is Clint Howard, we’re a personal training and fitness training facility. Oh wow, I’m learning a ton. Like this morning so far has been search engine optimization, so really just the importance of being at the top of Google, how Google works, and why it’s so important to go out and get video reviews and testimonials and getting Google reviews. And so all those things we can take back and really apply that like immediately. So it’s really cool to see not only how to do it, but really the relevance and importance of the long-term strategy of your business. Now, it’s amazing actually the way this morning and yesterday I was videoing as I was walking in the front entrance, and actually me, I go to a lot of seminars, I go to a lot of conferences, massive ones. I’ve been doing that since I was like 22 years old, so gosh, almost 20 years now. And this is by far the most entertaining, not only the content, the content is amazing, but Clay and you guys do a great job of mixing in entertainment where it’s fun, it’s fresh, it’s lively, you never get bored. And I heard a study one time that the reason that children learn so much quicker is because it’s fun, learning is fun. And so obviously Clay is nailed that. It’s very fun to be here and it keeps you awake, keeps you energized. So I’m having a blast. Yeah, I think any business owner or someone that wants to own a business or considering owning and starting a business should definitely come. I know that I was referred here by friends of mine and clients of mine and I’ve referred other people. Again, just to understand what it takes to make a business successful, to have a good time, obviously, like I was just saying, have fun, and network. There’s a lot of people here you can learn from and there’s a lot of breaks you can talk to other people. I think this is a must-attend for anybody that owns a business that wants to start a business. My name is Jamie Fagel. I’m with Jameson Fine Cabinetry. I heard about the conference through Andrew. He’s the coach that I deal with here at the conference. He’s a great coach. He’s a great coach. He’s a great coach. He’s a great coach. He’s a great coach. He’s a great coach. He’s a great coach. He’s a great coach. He’s a great coach. He’s a great coach. He’s a great coach. I’m Jamie Fagel, I’m with Jameson Fine Cabinetry. I heard about the conference through Andrew. He’s the coach that I deal with here at Thrive. The most valuable piece I found even working with Andrew, but it’s been solidified when it came here, was you gotta actually do the things that they’re telling you. With no action, you’re not gonna get anything from it. I would highly recommend this to almost anybody in business today. I have recommended it to some of my other business partners. It’s phenomenal, it’s really something that, if you wanna start a business, the old way of doing things is gone. This is what you got to do. It’s the only way it will work. Hey, this is Charles and Amber Kola. We’re the owners of Kola Fitness. The way we’re able to do that is working with Clay for the last three years. He has really readjusted our thinking and taught us that our business is here to serve us. And by doing that we’re able to live the lifestyle we want and take off on a random vacation last minute. We had totally planned on being at the conference. So wish we could be there and meet all of you. We know you’re having a great time. Yes, Clay in the last three years has helped us build all the necessary systems, checklists, workflows, task lists, time blocks, audits that are always running and the right capable lieutenants to keep track of all that so that you too can get time freedom financial freedom and That’s what we have done and clay has helped us do we’ve got multiple companies in multiple states And they’re all doing very well getting ready to go to more locations in this next year and co-authentic is a really big future We’re teaming up with a couple other groups, and we should scale the company here shortly Hopefully we’ll open like 50 locations in the next 10 years. So but yeah, we’re on the way. We’re going to probably more than double our company, maybe triple our company in the next eight to nine months. And it’s just awesome. God is working in our business and we’re making Jesus and changing lives. We’re a strong Christian company that focuses on making Jesus famous and changing lives in the fitness field. And this is Charles and Hammer Cola. Thank you Thrive. Hit your action items. We love you guys. We wish we were there. You guys have a wonderful day. Bye bye. My name is Jennifer Johnson. You guys have a wonderful day. Bye-bye. of refining the processes for just a different concept. And so it’s getting better and better. Things that were just big processes before, we have the foundation laid, and now we’re able to make it better and better. And I’m hearing different things now that we’ve implemented things, and so we can just make it even better, implementing it in our own business. Clay’s presentation and the atmosphere is very exciting and fun. It keeps you awake. It makes it interesting. You have a lot of information, but if it’s not going to be entertaining, your brain is going to tune it out. But Play makes it just entertaining enough that you retain what you learn. Lots of rhyming and catchy things so that you remember stuff. What makes this conference different than other workshops or conferences that I’ve been to is that there’s a lot of people here in my same situation. We’re all, most of us are pretty small businesses wanting to improve and we want real life information and something that will work and that’s attainable and not just some crazy magic formula but actual action items that we can implement in our business and actually see a difference. Everyone should attend a drive type business conference, whether you’re a business owner or not. A, if you’re a business owner, it has practical applications that you can apply to so many different parts of your business and then you need to come back for more so that you can keep doing more of the wonderful things that you learn. But secondly, I am also a mom of three kids and a lot of the concepts can actually be applied to home, like getting routines and getting, setting systems at home has just seriously made a huge difference in my life at home. So I’ve been able to improve our business, but I’ve also been able to improve things at home. And so that’s why everyone should come, no matter what your station is in life. My name is Nolan Kuh. I’m originally from San Francisco, California. The industry that I’m in is financial services. I’ve learned a ton so far, but what I can best apply from this conference is the opportunity, that hunger to go out there and make a big difference in my industry. Clay’s presentation style is amazing. He’s got an endless amount of energy. It’s contagious. And yeah, by being here, I really do want to go back and be able to face all the adversity that the industry has? Yeah, this conference, the thing that makes it different is that it’s special because it has a unique set of individuals that all share that same energy. I think you typed it as dragon energy, but yeah, that’s… Everyone should come to a multiple, but their first would be very special. Yeah, you’re welcome with a lot of enthusiasm, that’ll last for a long time. My name is Gabriella Bruce. Our business is ECS Electric. My husband is the owner, but I’m involved with that, so we’re an electric company. Well, here at the conference, they talk a lot about consistency, and so just staying consistent with different things in the business, and I feel like applying that to our business model will really help us grow. The atmosphere is very positive, uplifting, and it’s very fun and energetic. And so it gets you pumped and it gets you excited and it encourages you to do big things. I probably like how real they are. They tell you up front what you need to do and what’s like a no-go. And some conferences are, they kind of trigger code things, so I like how real they are here. I think it’ll definitely, if you want your business to grow, I think this will be a great experience and then not only that, it’ll encourage you and inform you on so many things you don’t think about on a daily basis. Hey, I’m Ryan Wimpey. I’m originally from Tulsa, born and raised here. I’ve definitely learned a lot about life design and making sure the business serves you. 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. Play is hilarious. I literally laughed so hard that I started having tears yesterday. And we’ve been learning a lot, which, you know, we’ve been sitting here, we’ve been learning a lot, so the humor definitely helps, it breaks it up. But the content is awesome, off the charts, and it’s very interactive, you can raise your hand, it’s not like you’re just listening to the professor speak, you know. The wizard teaches, but the wizard interacts and he takes questions, so that’s awesome. If you’re not attending the conference, you’re missing the thought process of someone that’s already started like nine profitable businesses. So not only is it a lot of good information, but just getting in the thought process of Clay Clark or Dr. Zellner or any of the other coaches, getting in their thought process of how they’re starting all these businesses. To me, just that is priceless. That’s money. Well, we’re definitely not getting upsold here. My wife and I have attended conferences where they upsold us great information and then they upsold us like half the conference. I don’t want to like bang my head into a wall and she’s like banging her head into the chair in front of her. Like it’s good information but we’re like, oh my gosh I want to strangle you. Shut up and go with the presentation that we paid for. And that’s not here. There’s no upsells or anything. So that’s awesome. I hate that. Oh, that makes me angry. So glad that’s not happening. So the costs of this conference is quite a bit cheaper than business college. Um, 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. I would definitely recommend that people would check out the Thrive 15 conference. The information that you’re going to get is just very, very beneficial and the mindset that you’re gonna get, that you’re gonna leave with, is just absolutely worth the price of a little bit of money and a few days worth of your time. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9, and we just wanna give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey guys, I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just wanna say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys, we appreciate you, and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old house. Right, this is where we used to live 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 it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing, and this is our new team. We went from four to 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 ten locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month, and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship, and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you times a thousand. So we really just wanna thank you, Clay, and thank you, Vanessa, for everything you’ve done, everything you’ve helped us with. We love you guys. Hello, my name is Charles Colaw with Colaw Fitness. Today I want to tell you a little bit about Clay Clark and how I know Clay Clark. Clay Clark has been my business coach since 2017. He’s helped us grow from two locations to now six locations. We’re planning to do seven locations in seven years and then franchise. Clay has done a great job of helping us navigate anything that has to do with like running the business, building the systems, the checklists, the workflows, the audits, how to navigate lease agreements, how to buy property, how to work with brokers and builders. This guy is just amazing. This kind of guy has worked in every single industry. He’s written books with Lee Crockrell, head of Disney with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with Mike Lindell. He does Reawaken America tours where he does these tours all across the country where 10,000 or more people show up to some of these tours. On the day-to-day. He does anywhere from about 160 companies. He’s at the top. He has a team of business coaches, videographers, and graphic designers, and web developers. They run 160 companies every single week. So think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. So in the weekly, he’s running 160 companies. Every six to eight weeks he’s doing reawaken America tours. Every six to eight weeks he’s also doing business conferences where 200 people show up and he teaches people a 13 step proven system that he’s done and worked with billionaires helping them grow their companies. So I’ve seen guys from start ups go from start up to being multi millionaires teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom through the system. Critical thinking, document creation, making it, putting it into, organizing everything in their head to building it into a franchisable, scalable business. One of his businesses has like 500 franchises. That’s just one of the companies or brands that he works with. Amazing guy, Elon Musk, kind of like smart guy. He kind of comes off sometimes as socially awkward, but he’s so brilliant and he’s taught me so much. When I say that, Clay is like, he doesn’t care what people think when you’re talking to him. He cares about where you’re going in your life and where he can get you to go. That’s what I like him most about him. He’s like a good coach. A coach isn’t just making you feel good all the time. A coach is actually helping you get to the best you. Clay has been an amazing business coach. Through the course of that we became friends. My most impressive thing was when I was shadowing him one time. We went into a business deal and listened to it. I got to shadow and listened to it. When we walked out, I knew that he could make millions on the deal. They were super excited about working with him. He told me, he’s like, I’m not going to touch it. I’m going to turn it down because he knew it was going to harm the common good of people in the long run. The guy’s integrity just really wowed me. It brought tears to my eyes to see that this guy, his highest desire was to do what’s right. And anyways, just an amazing man. So anyways, impacted me a lot. He’s helped navigate. Anytime I’ve gotten nervous or worried about how to run the company, or navigating competition and an economy that’s, like I remember, we got closed down for three months. He helped us navigate on how to stay open, how to get back open, how to just survive through all the COVID shutdowns, lockdowns, because our clubs were all closed for three months and you have $350,000 of bills you’ve got to pay and we have no accounts receivable. He helped us navigate that. And of course, we were conservative enough that we could afford to take that on for a period of time. But he was a great man. I’m very impressed with him. So Clay, thank you for everything you’re doing. And I encourage you, if you haven’t ever worked with Clay, work with Clay. He’s going to help magnify you and there’s nobody I have ever met that has the ability to work as hard as he does. He probably sleeps four, maybe six hours a day and literally the rest of the time he’s working and he can outwork everybody in the room every single day and he loves it. So anyways, this is Charles Colau with Colau Fitness. Thank you Clay and anybody out there that’s wanting to work with Clay, it’s a great, great opportunity to ever work with him. So you guys have a blessed one. This is Charles Kola. We’ll see you guys, bye-bye. Hi, I’m Aaron Antis with Shaw Homes. I first heard about Clay through a mortgage lender here in town who had told me what a great job he had been doing for them, and I actually noticed he was driving a Lamborghini all of a sudden, so I was willing to listen. In my career, I’ve sold a little over $800 million in real estate. So honestly, I thought I kind of knew everything about marketing and homes, and then I met Clay and my perception of what I knew and what I could do definitely changed. After doing 800 million in sales over a 15-year career, I really thought I knew what I was doing. I’ve been managing a large team of salespeople for the last 10 years here with Shaw Homes, and I mean we’ve been a company that’s been in business for 35 years. We’ve become one of the largest builders in the Tulsa area, and that was without Clay. So when I came to know Clay, I really thought, man, there’s not much more I need to know, but I’m willing to listen. The interesting thing is our internet leads from our website has actually in a four month period of time has gone from somewhere around 10 to 15 leads in a month to 180 internet leads in a month. Just from the few things that he’s shown us how to implement that I honestly probably never would have come up with on my own. So I got a lot of good things to say about the system that Clay put in place with us and it’s just been an incredible experience. I am very glad that we met and had the opportunity to work with Clay on a weekly basis is honestly very enlightening. One of the things that I love about Clay’s perspective on things is that he doesn’t come from my industry. He’s not somebody who’s in the home building industry. I’ve listened to all the experts in my field. Our company has paid for me to go to seminars, international builder shows, all kinds of places where I’ve had the opportunity to learn from the experts in my industry. But the thing that I found working with Clay is that he comes from such a broad spectrum of working with so many different types of businesses that he has a perspective that’s difficult for me to gain because I get so entrenched in what I do, I’m not paying attention to what other leading industry experts are doing and Clay really brings that perspective for me It is very valuable time every week when I get that hour with him from my perspective the reason that any business owner who’s thinking about hooking up with thrive needs to Definitely consider it is because the results that we’ve gotten in a very short period of time are honestly monumental. It has really exceeded my wildest expectation of what he might be able to do. I came in skeptical because I’m very pragmatic and as I’ve gone through the process over just a few months, I’ve realized it’s probably one of the best moves we’ve ever made. I think a lot of people probably feel like they don’t need a business or marketing consultant because they maybe are a little bit prideful and like to think they know everything. I know that’s how I felt coming in. I mean, we’re a big company that’s definitely one of the largest in town. And so we kind of felt like we knew what we were doing. And I think for a lot of people, they let their ego get in the way of listening to somebody that might have a better or different perspective than theirs, I would just really encourage you if you’re thinking about working with Clay, I mean, the thing is, it’s month to month. Go give it a try and see what happens. I think in the 35 year history of Shaw Homes, this is probably the best thing that’s happened to us. And I know if you give them a shot, I think you’ll feel the same way. I know for me, the thing I would have missed out on if I didn’t work with Clay is I would have missed out on literally an 1800% increase in our internet leads. Going from 10 a month to 180 a month, that would have been a huge financial decision to just decide not to give it a shot. I would absolutely recommend Clay Clark to anybody who’s thinking about working with somebody in marketing. I would skip over anybody else you were thinking about and I would go straight to Clay and his team. I guarantee you’re not going to regret it because we sure haven’t. My name is Danielle Sprick and I am the founder of D. Sprick Realty Group here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After being a stay-at-home mom for 12 years and my three kids started school and they were in school full-time, I was at a crossroads and trying to decide what do I want to do. My degree and my background is in education, but after being a mom and staying home and all of that, I just didn’t have a passion for it like I once did. My husband suggested real estate. He’s a home builder, so real estate and home building go hand in hand, and we just rolled with it. I love people. I love working with people. I love building relationships, but one thing that was really difficult for me was the business side of things, the processes and the advertising and marketing, I knew that I did not have what I needed to make that what it should be. So I reached out to Clay at that time and he and his team have been extremely instrumental in helping us build our brand, help market our business, our agents, the homes that we represent, everything that we do is a direct line from Clay and his team and all that they’ve done for us. We launched our brokerage, our real estate brokerage, eight months ago. And in that time, we’ve gone from myself and one other agent to just this week, we signed on our 16th agent. We have been blessed with the fact that we right now have just over 10 million in pending transactions. Three years ago, I never would have even imagined that I would be in this role that I’m in today, building a business, having 16 agents. I have to give credit where credit’s due. And Clay and his team and the business coaching that they’ve offered us has been huge. It’s been instrumental in what we’re doing. Don’t ever limit your vision. When you dream big, big things happen. I started a business because I couldn’t work for anyone else. I do things my way. I do what I think is in the best interest of the patient. I don’t answer to insurance companies. I don’t answer to my patient and that’s it. My thought when I opened my clinic was I can do this all myself. I don’t need additional outside help in many ways. I mean I went to medical school, I can figure this out. But it was a very, very steep learning curve. Within the first six months of opening my clinic, I had a $63,000 embezzlement. I lost multiple employees. Clay helped us weather the storm of some of the things that are just a lot of people experience, especially in the medical world. He was instrumental in helping with the specific written business plan. He’s been instrumental in hiring good quality employees, using the processes that he outlines for getting in good talent, which is extremely difficult. He helped me in securing the business loans. He helped me with web development and search engine optimization. We’ve been able to really keep a steady stream of clients coming in because they found us on the web. With everything that I encountered, everything that I experienced, I quickly learned it is worth every penny to have someone in your team that can walk you through and even avoid some of the pitfalls that are almost invariable in starting your own business. I’m Dr. Chad Edwards and I own Revolution Health and Wellness Clinic. I want to get people who are going crazy. Michael Levine, writer of many many PR books. The man who represents people like Michael Jackson, Barbara Streisand, George Bush, Stanley Pines. Speaking to people here at our conference. Talking about branding. One of the greatest branding experts alive today is here on conference talking to entrepreneurs We just wrapped up day one it was incredible we had some some remarkable speakers Michael Levine We just finished with a lady named Jill Donovan who owns a company called rustic cup talking about the power of the dream 100 I cannot wait to see what tomorrow holds Hey guys, Luke Erickson with the Thrive Time Show here with you. It is day two and the energy is high. People are so excited to be showing up. The team is ready. Come on, let’s see what it’s like to go on in for day two. Follow me. I’ll tell you what, people are so excited to be here for day two. It is going to be incredible. Cannot wait to see what today has in store. Right now, here at the conference, we’ve broken into groups going over search engine optimization. I know for most of us, myself included, if you hear that term, what is that? What does that mean? That’s too techy for me. Well, our experts are breaking it down for people so that you can clearly understand how to come up top in Google. It’s doable. It’s possible. Now, we’re in the middle of a break. And what we like to do is we like to give you as much tangible and relevant information from about the start of the hour for 45 minutes. Then we take approximately a 15-minute break to allow you to take a little bit of a break and then we’ll come back and we’ll talk about the next part of the day. So, we’re going to go ahead and get started. So, we’re going to go ahead and get started. So, we’re going to go ahead and get started. So, we’re going to go ahead and get started. So, we’re going to go ahead and get started. So, we’re going to go ahead and get started. So, we’re going to go ahead and get started. So, we’re going to go ahead and get started. So, we’re going to go ahead and get started. So, we’re going to go ahead and get started. So, we’re going to go ahead and get started. relevant information from about the start of the hour for 45 minutes. Then we take approximately a 15-minute break to allow people to connect with other entrepreneurs around them, bathroom break, and also use this time to just really digest all of the good information that you’re receiving the whole time. Right behind me we’ve got Bob with his grill gun melting an ice sculpture. It is awesome. The ice sculpture represents our life, right? It’s here for a time, but we all need to have the sense of urgency to implement the things that we’re learning so that we can make the most of the time that we have. We are outside. You can see a line behind me. What’s going on is that we partner with different companies to help them implement the proven systems over and over and over again, and one of those companies is Master Machine. And so what we like to do is partner with these companies to also help them give samples to other people as they come to the conference and truly get their name out. I just wanted to recap some of the amazing things that have happened today. We’ve had entrepreneurs like Paul Hood with Hood CPAs. We’ve had Jill Donovan and Michael Levine come up and just impart so much wisdom and knowledge. We’ve got an incredible giveaway for one of our TVs. Hey there Thrive Nation. One of the things that we love most about our business conferences is that we want every entrepreneur to leave with their questions answered. So what we do is we let them put the questions up on the board here so that they can ask their specific questions and Clay will not end the conference until every question is answered. Why is Clay Kilargne answering all the different questions that on hold brought to the conference? Whenever someone comes here and starts to hear this information, especially for the first time, it just brings about so much anticipation of wanting to actually implement the proven systems and processes. And so Clay always wants to make sure that he answers all of those questions, so that they’re the most set up for success, to be able to go home and start implementing. If you have any questions, email us at info at Thrivetimeshow.com We have come to the end of the 2019 Christmas conference. It was incredible. These entrepreneurs have gotten so many tangible things that they can go and they can implement. Check us out for more information at thrivetimeshow.com. And as we always like to do, we want to end with a boom. Three, two, one, boom. 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 control of 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. At the workshop I learned a lot about time management, really prioritizing what’s the most important. Biggest takeaways are, you know, you want to take a step-by-step approach to your business. Whether it’s marketing, you know, 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 and super motivating. I’ve been here before, but I’m back again because it motivates me. Your competition is going to come eventually or try to pick up these tactics. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. but I’m back again because it motivates me. Your competition is going to come eventually or try to pick up these tactics. So you better, if you know, somebody else will. If you decide to not attend the Thrive Time workshop, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. The atmosphere of today’s 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. I 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, Grouping uses completely eliminate that because you’re able to really find the people that would really be the best fit. It hands down 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.