Paul Graham | (Part 1) The Wisdom of Paul Graham, the Entrepreneur & Investor Behind One of the First Online Shopping Carts, ViaWeb (Yahoo! Store). Paul Is the Investor Behind Dropbox, AirBNB, Reddit, and Y-Combinator.

Audio Transcription

What you will get wrong is that you will not pay enough attention to users. You will have, you will make up some idea in your own head that you will call your vision. And then you will spend a lot of time thinking about your vision in a cafe by yourself. And write, build some elaborate thing without going and talking to users because that’s doing sales, which is a pain in the ass. And they might say no. And you’d be way better off finding someone, anyone who has a problem that they will pay you to fix and fixing it and then seeing if you can find more people like that. Best case is if you yourself have the problem, right? But like, you will not ship fast enough because you don’t want to face the, you’re embarrassed to ship something unfinished and you don’t want to face the likely feedback that you will get from shipping. It’s humbling and humiliating when they tell you how shitty what you built actually is, right? But that’s the only way you get it better. Yeah. So you will shrink from contact with the real world or contact with your users. That’s the mistake you will make. I know you’re going to dig this. Broadcasting live from the center of the universe, it’s Business School Without the BS. Featuring optometrist turned entrepreneur, Dr. Robert Zellner with USSBA Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark. Welcome to the Thrive Time Show on Talk Radio 1170. Yes, it’s me and Clay, broadcaster from the box of the 918. Business School in the 918. I’m a business school, I’m a business school. I’m a business school. I’m a business school. I’m a business school. Yes, it’s the enclave broadcast from the box of the nine one Business school in the topic today. Check the syllabus is getting you pay What we do you can do it? Let us show you with the five times show on your radio It’s a five-time show and away we go is the five-time show on your radio and three two one here we go Let’s go! Let’s go! Alright Thrive Nation, welcome back to The Conversation. This is the Thrive Time Show on your radio. And today we are breaking down the life and times of Paul Graham, Part 2. Well, who was Paul Graham? Who is Paul Graham? Well, Paul Graham is the guy who first started a company called ViaWeb. ViaWeb was the first company that made it possible for people to sell products via the web to make an online shopping cart easily. It was the first program out there that made it possible to make an online shopping cart easily. And the only way that he could do that was he had to code it out, and he had to design it, he had to make it, and it was a hard thing for him to do. This guy went to Harvard, he had multiple degrees, he was a very educated computer scientist guy. Well, he builds this shopping cart that Yahoo is going, man, this thing is phenomenal. So he sells the shopping cart for roughly $50 million. And this is where we’re going to start part two of the story. So here he is, he’s 34 years old. Now remember, at the age of 30, the guy was basically chronically unemployed because what he did is he would get a job as a software consultant, he would make a bunch of money, and then he would say, yeah, I’m going to go ahead and quit now, I like to do painting. And so he would quit the job and he would take the money he earned and he would start doing painting because he loved painting and art and that kind of thing. Then when he ran out of money, he would go back to work again. He just kept doing this. He kept working, he would work, and he would say, you know what, I quit, I’m going to go do painting. And at the age of 31, he realizes, you know, I’ve got to do something with my life. So he and his buddy, Robert, they team up together. They build a company called Via Web that was sold to Yahoo years later for almost $50 million. And this is what he did from 1998, age 34, until age 41. So for seven years in a row, he wrote essays. Essays. Now, real quick, if you go to paulgraham.com, and you should, he’s written them all up there, and I’m going to pull up his website. John, have you seen Paul Graham’s website? Have you seen this website? I have not. I’m going to pull this up, because you’re a search engine wizard, and I’m going to pull this up so you can see it. Here’s his website, paulgraham.com. So this is paulgraham.com. Wow. Incredible. Now, this is a guy… Is that a stick figure light man? He has not updated the website at all since he sold his original business because he just wants the profundity of him not updating it to sink in with you. So what he has done is for seven years in a row he starts writing essays basically clarifying in his own mind what success means, how to get there, and kind of these epiphanies that he learned along the way. Now eventually after he started writing these essays, John, can you explain how the internet works, how the more content you write, how that helps you move up the engines? How does that work? Yeah, we always talk about, you know, Google’s not looking for the best book in the library, just the biggest. So it’s always whoever has the most content, the most original words of content on the website is going to win. So if you’ve been writing content for seven years in a row, eventually your alma mater is going to call. So Harvard calls and they say, hey man, you’re coming up top in Google for a variety of searches Everyone’s reading your website. Everyone’s reading your essays and we would like for you to come give a talk at the Harvard Computer Society So he gave a talk called how to start a startup and it gained significant praise from the student body because they’re saying Dude, you really know your stuff. You’ve thought about this. Well, there’s a Benjamin Franklin quote I want to read to all the listeners. It says reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, but discourse, like teaching it, training it, discussing it, that makes a clear man. John, you teach clients all the time how to get to the top of Google. How does teaching people how to get to the top of Google help you learn it better? Well, you can know it in your mind, but when you’re trying to explain it a lot of people cannot get like I’m a poor teacher I’ll pick up myself like I’m a really bad second that and thanks Steve and And so I have to come up with a different way to try to explain to the people that don’t have the curse of knowledge So to speak so that way they get it and so just by doing that you’re learning how to explain things in a different and better Way, so it’s it’s a thing where he’s been writing for seven years Could you imagine what this would be like, Thrive Nation? Think about this. You at the age of 30 realize you have almost no money because you are a software consultant who keeps quitting his job every time he starts to make money, he quits and goes back to painting. All he wants to do is paint pictures, do drawings. He’s an art guy, but he’s also a Harvard graduate in computer science. He says, you know what? I’m going to invent something. He invents via web. He sells the thing for close to $50 million. Now he splits it with his partner Robert, so it’s like $25 million each, and then they pay taxes. So they’ve each got about $12 billion. And for seven years in a row, all he does is write essays. Well, he gives this talk at Harvard, and the kids go, you really know your stuff. Who are you? And he goes, I’m Paul Graham, and starting a business is kind of easy. And so people said, could you help me? And he goes, no, that’s not scalable. I got to come up with a plan I’ll be back with you So he starts this thing called Y Combinator which is kind of like the business coaching program that we have except this is what he does He says I will help you grow your business, but I want 7% equity That’s all every single time it’s not negotiable 7% equity and I’m gonna give you my three C’s. I’m gonna give you counsel, I’m gonna coach you, I’m gonna give you capital, and I’m gonna give you connections. Like I’m gonna introduce you to who you need to know, and that’s how it’s gonna work. So since he started Y Combinator after that Harvard talk, he has now invested in over a thousand companies that are now worth 80 billion dollars. And that includes Reddit, Stripe, Weebly, Airbnb, Dropbox, the list goes on because he knows what he’s talking about. So I’m going to read you the notable quotables from Paul Graham that he wrote during this essay period, the seven years. He still writes essays today, but I’m going to read the first one. I want to get John’s take on this. We’re going to go down the row and get everyone’s take on this because Steve Carrington, I’d like to get you the bowling ball of mortgage bankers. I want to get your feedback on this. And Andy Mathur, business coach, we’ll get your take on this. So here we go. Notable quote number one. If you want to make money at some point, remember this, because this is one of the reasons startups win. Big companies want to decrease the standard deviation of design outcomes because they want to avoid disasters. But when you damp oscillations, you lose the high points as well as the low. This is not a problem for big companies because they don’t win by making great products. Big companies win by sucking less than other big companies. Let me just kind of break it down a little before I tee it up here for John. Best Buy does not let the employees choose what they want to wear at work. Furthermore, they’re not allowed to invent things during the work day. They just want, because they realize the deviation, if they let you choose what you wanted to wear, somebody would dress super sharp, which definitely would be great, but then somebody else would show up to work dressed like a college sophomore girl going to a Halloween party. And they would say, you can’t wear that. You just can’t do it. There would be a guy dressed in goth, there would also be a guy dressed super professional. So big companies want to kill the variables. John, can you break it down to me? Why is it so important as you start to grow a company, why do you want to standardize everything and why is it a good thing if you’re a startup? Well, a lot of times, you know, when you’re a newer company, you’re disrupting the marketplace in some way, right? So that’s why you started the company, because you wanted to make a difference in that one area. But once you figured out what works, then why change that? So now you have to put the systems in place, the processes in place, where now you’re just making the best experience every single day. And so we can even relate that back to like a lot of clients want to change their website all the time, but once you’re top in Google, why would you want to change that? You want to make sure that it’s already working, so now just maintain it. As an example, go to paulgram.com. I’m going to make it big on the big screen here, guys, so we can see this and break this. So this is what he has here. Paul Graham, he’s got…you can click on his essays, and they’re all documented here. But the site has literally not been updated for years. John, on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best website ever, 1 being the worst, how would you rate the look of the paulgram.com website? Oh, that’s a solid 15. No, that’s a 1. That’s definitely a 1. It might even be a 0. But yet, here’s the guy who built Airbnb. So let’s pull up Airbnb. This is one of the most popular websites on the planet. He’s built Airbnb. He’s built Dropbox. John, why is he not updating his paulgram.com? Because it works. And he’s got other things to do. So now he has other businesses, other companies to focus on growing. He doesn’t need to focus on updating paulgraham.com. That’s not where his revenue is coming from. Now Steve, you are a guy who’s in the mortgage business and so when you help somebody get a mortgage at Total Ending Concepts, when you help them do this, you have to follow a strict set of guidelines you have to follow. Can you explain to the listeners out there why you as a mortgage guy can’t just make up your own documentation along the way? Because we’ll get sued, get thrown in jail, among other things. Probably beaten and killed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A bunch of party poopers. Yeah, you know, there’s so much consumer protection out there right now to protect all the people from bad guys like me that whether you’re a good guy or not, you’ve got to follow the rules. Otherwise, you’ll get hammered. When someone closes on a loan, how many pages do they have to sign? A lot. I mean- A tree’s worth, I’m not kidding you. A tree’s worth. Listen, this is probably not the forum for me to tell people this, but we have an entire department at TLC dedicated to useless forms. So they get a bonus if they can come up with a form that seems legit for people to sign, but it’s actually not legit. So like right now, what we’re working on is to try to get to 100 pages of forms you don’t need, but to make us feel like we can charge more. You know? Sure, sure. Right. No, but it feels that way, doesn’t it? There’s so many regulated forms you have to fill out. What Paul’s pointing out is if you’re an incumbent, you’re the one who has the market share, you don’t want deviation. But if you’re a startup, that gives you a chance to go in there and really come up with some innovative stuff. Andy, you had a hot take on that. I once tried to win a dunk competition by doing a 360 and holding my leg up at the same time, and it didn’t work out so well. A 360 dunk while holding your leg? One of my legs up, yeah. And there were other talented people in that dunk competition that lost, but this one guy was just doing a very basic dunk every time, and he ended up winning the competition, winning money, doing very well, and the whole crowd was just cheering for him because they knew he was the last that should have won this dunk competition. Are you being serious right now? Yeah, I’m very serious. But he just kept it very simple, and he went with what worked. So you play Division I basketball, you also play professional basketball in Europe, and you’re saying the guy that just went with the dunk that worked, where he actually dunked the ball, he won, where you were out there trying to do a 360 while holding one leg and it didn’t go so well. This was before those experience days, I must admit. It was my very first one. So I realized that doing the really super complex things might not work out so well, especially if you’re trying to win a little money. Now Jonathan, the next notable quote I want to read from Paul Graham, he says, you need three things to create a successful startup. To start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible. So I’m going to break down this first one. Start with good people. I don’t think that most people are good. Why would you say that? Are you talking about us? Probably not you, other people. Because according to the US Chamber, 75% of employees steal from the workplace? Please don’t trust me. Please look that up. John, start with good people. What does that mean to you? Well, good people is people that you can rely on, people that are going to help you create the systems and follow through. But we always talk about this, Clay, is when you’re starting up a business, like almost never, I don’t know what the status, but almost never are the people that you started the business with going to be there later on with the business. That is so true. We come back, we’re gonna break down what it means to have good people on your team. We’re going to break down the notable quotables and the words of wisdom from Paul Graham, who took seven years to write out all of his essays before hopping into his next business venture. He hit it big on his first project at the age of 34, ViaWeb. He sold it for $50 million. But how did the guy who started Dropbox, Airbnb, Reddit, the guy who’s the business coach for these businesses, how does he do it how do you do it what are his thoughts he is unbelievable words of wisdom unpacked is notable quotables right here on the thrive time show if you have yet to subscribe to the podcast one-armed just go to throw a time show dot com click on podcast and subscribe today you’ll never miss a broadcast again And now, broadcasting from the center of the universe and the Thrive15.com world headquarters, it’s the Thrive Time Show. This month we’ve been breaking down the life and times of super successful entrepreneurs. Today we’re breaking down the life and times of Paul Graham. Paul Graham is the guy behind Dropbox. Never heard of it. The guy behind Airbnb. I don’t know what that is. The guy behind Reddit. I don’t know. Graham crackers. He’s built $80 billion of businesses. But the thing was, his first business he started, ViaWeb, he started that business at the age of approximately 30 years old. Sold the business at the age of 34 to Yahoo for close to $50 million and then he took seven years to write essays that are available for free to read at paulgraham.com so he puts all these essays up there and more and more people start going to the website. As an example in 2015 alone he had 34 million original views of his website. That’s not that many. And so he was asked to give a talk at Harvard in 2005. He gave the talk at the Harvard Computer Society called How to Start a Startup. The talk went over so well that all these students had questions and he thought, you know what, these are all easily answerable. I’m going to start a company called Y Combinator. Now Y Combinator will coach you if you have a tech company. They will teach you what you need to do to grow a business, but it’s not negotiable. He wants 7% of the equity in the company, and then he will provide you with the counsel you need, the coaching you need. He’ll provide you with the capital you need, and he’s going to provide you with the connections that you need. And so he’s been able to help build these massive brands. I mean, he’s built Stripe, the massive credit card processing company, Weebly. He just knows his stuff. And so his notable quotables are super profound. Here’s notable quotable number two. You need three things to create a successful startup. To start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible. John Kelly, you manage a lot of people, and I can honestly say that our team we have right now is the best team we’ve had at the Thrive Time business coaching platform. We have a great team of people, but we’ve had to fire a lot of people to get to these people. Can you explain to me why starting with good people is so important? But can you explain why it’s so hard to do that? Well, it’s hard because people don’t want to fire people. They don’t want to weed out people. They don’t want to train the people, right? So you have two options. You can either train them up and fix the problem, or you can fire them. Or I guess you have a third option, which is just let them fester and then just ruin your company. But it’s just hard to find good people because, honestly, there’s not that many good people out there. When I think of good people, I think of those Master Machine guys. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And that Master Machine, great clients. And they’re out here cooking. They got the grill out back of the man cave, right? Right. They got the smoker. They made some unbelievable Thanksgiving food as a gift. Thank you, Master Machine. You’re great clients, great people. We love serving you guys. I want to bring this up, Chip. We have a group interview every single Tuesday at 5. Can you share, I mean, what percentage of the people that we interview, I mean, if we have 50 candidates, usually on a Tuesday we’ll have about 20 candidates that will respond and say, I will be there for the interview Tuesday at 5. The RSVP. Of those 20 that say they’re going to be there, how many of them actually get there on time? How many of them are hireable? Break it down. So I would say typically somewhere around five of them show up. Five of the 20? Yeah, you know, something around there. Maybe a quarter of them will actually show up. Some of them will be late and we get to turn them away. Steve, I know that’s something that you enjoy. My favorite part. He enjoys doing that. 501, sorry guys. I don’t think people are understanding the profundity of this. Somebody applies for a job. We tell them, great, looks like you’d be a good fit. Let’s go ahead and have you come in on Tuesday at five and our whole interview team is ready to go. Right. And they can’t show up on time. 15 of those 20. Right. Or they just don’t show up at all. After saying that they would be there. It’s crazy when they’re out there looking for work. And so that’s the kind of the point Jonathan was making is that there’s not that many people out there that are going to be considered A players. And if you wait until you have an opening to start looking for them, you’re not going to find them in time. You’re going to hire somebody that’s not going to perform at the level that you need them to and you’re going to actually end up wasting more time and money. Paul Graham talks about this. You can watch some of his interviews on YouTube, but he talks about how if you meet somebody and you think this guy is a jerk, he’s definitely a jerk. You don’t need to sit there and hire people that are jerks just because they’re good at a technical skill. You want to hire a character and train the skill. Now the second idea is you want to make something that customers actually want. That, in fact, is their mantra at the Y Combinator. This is their motto, their mantra, their theme, their slogan, is to make something customers actually want. John, why is that so important? Well, if they don’t want it, there’s no reason for it. So I believe this is the best part of this quote because you can have all of the best people in the world, you can have the most passion in the world, but if you’re not selling something that people actually want, then what’s the point, right? Well, then you’re not actually selling something. Right, right. I started a company, all we do, we just sell these, but they’re backwards. That’s probably not going to go over very well. Isn’t that a two? They’re upside down. They’re upside down. But I have good people. Nice, nice. I have good people. Now, this is a real concern. I’ll give you an example. There is a company that I got a chance to work with years ago, and I felt super horrible for these guys, but they bought a license to, they bought the rights to open a burger restaurant in Tulsa. And the cost of the burger was very high. The taste of the burger was very low. And we did the performa, and I said, guys, if you, even if you sold double the amount of burgers you’re selling right now. You can’t make a profit because your performance doesn’t make sense. But they were so passionate because they had invested a lot of money into the idea that the wife, there was a partner, husband and wife, the wife was like, we need to stick this out. We’ve already invested $100,000 into this thing just in the design, the build out. We’ve already put another $100,000 in the license. We’ve got to stay the course.” And I said, seriously, I want you to understand this. Nobody likes the taste of the food. Have you had the food? And she says, well, no, I haven’t. I’m like, you’ve got to try it. Because when you try it, and so anyway, with a combination of trying, this is a true story, the combination of the bad tasting food mixed with the fact that a super high price point mixed with the fact that their performance didn’t make sense. The husband looked at it, the two of them talked, they met with their accountant, there’s a lot of meetings going on. They decided to shut down the business and just sublease out the space. And I was the only one kind enough to point out to him that nobody wants this. Now this third spot here, this third point Paul Graham has, he says, you want to spend as little money as possible. Eric Chup, I want to get your take on this. When you’re starting up or growing a business, Dr. Zellner talks about it all the time, but you have to have a war chest. Cash is king. The cash flow of your business is the blood flow of your business. So you have to hold on to that stuff. And I’ve been there, I’ve seen it, I’ve seen it with clients. It’s real easy to want to build that brand new office when a little bit of money starts coming in, or buy that new company vehicle, or just deck out your office with all the best new computers. But if you don’t need them, don’t buy them yet, because there’ll be a time in the future for that kind of stuff, but you have to delay that immediate gratification. Now you understand that when Paul Graham teams up with you, one, you have to be a tech company, but two, he’s putting in capital into the deal. He’s actually putting his own money into the deal. He says, listen, I’m not going to spend money on things we don’t need to spend money on. I’m not going to do it. So if you get a chance, if you haven’t yet done it, go to thrivetimeshow.com, click on the podcast button and subscribe to the podcast, but more importantly, go find the show notes and read these notable quotables from Paul Graham because they are game-changing ideas. Stay tuned to the Thrived Time Show on your radio. We’ll be back after the break. happy time show on top radio eleven seventy Welcome back to the Conversation, the Thrive Time Show on your radio. Today we’re breaking down the notable quotables from Paul Graham. This is a guy who built VIAweb, the first online shopping cart, which he sold to Yahoo! for close to $50 million. Then he spent the next seven years in a row writing essays clarifying all that he’s learned about business. Then he started Y Combinator, which is the company behind Airbnb, Dropbox, Reddit, Stripe, Weebly. It’s worth $80 billion. And so he’s doing okay. He’s built some very successful companies. We’re breaking down his notable quotables, but before we do that, I want to ask, we have Steve Currington on the show today, the guy behind Total Ending Concepts. We have Jonathan Kelly, the man, the myth, the legend, the guy who helps manage the execution of all the action items for the Thrive Time business coaching team. And we have Andy Mathren, sort of a big deal, former professional basketball player and business coach. I want to ask you guys, so far, if you think about it, I’m not putting you on the spot here, but we’re just removed here from Thanksgiving. It was just this past weekend. What was your highlight of Thanksgiving? Or was there a highlight? Was there lowlights? What were the… I mean, did you have highlights, lowlights, stalactites? I mean, what did you have here? So I want to start with you here, Andy. Thinking about your Thanksgiving, what was the highlight of your Thanksgiving time together? I got to burn a lot of firewood with the family. You know, that was good. The kids enjoyed it. You know, we just sat around eating a lot of food. And I get to catch up for the 21 years that I missed a Thanksgiving, so it’s just an offensive display of eating tons and tons of food. What did you guys eat? We had some good turkey. We had some very good turkey. We had some of the sweet potatoes and all that good stuff. Did you smoke it? We did not smoke it. I’m not sure how it was cooked. I just remember it landing on the table. Did your wife make it? Did you make it? Did you buy it? Did you cater it? She made some food. My mom, who’s over here now from England, made a lot of food as well. Do they celebrate Thanksgiving in England? They do not. That’s a great question, Steve. But they don’t actually celebrate Thanksgiving in England. It was a glorious time. Did you guys have cranberry sauce that nobody ate? We did. Yeah, you have to have that. You gotta have it. Steve, you were part of our Thanksgiving highlight. You took my father-in-law in a Lamborghini. Now, he’s a car guy. So he loves being in cars. He loves being in vehicles. He loves vehicles. And you took him on a Lamborghini ride? Yeah. Now, rumor has it you guys topped out at a fast. What was the number? Well, 45 miles an hour. We wouldn’t… Aubrey should not be telling you anything. My son is in the studio today, but what was the maximum miles per hour that you went? I mean, it was in the neighborhood of 150-ish. Wow. I mean, it was like double the speed I took Clay Clark. But because you’re in Broken Arrow, that’s allowed. Well, yeah, because… You’re on the Autobahn, which is part of… Well… Now in Broken Arrow, right? When we passed the cop at 147, he was like, nah, I’m not going to catch you. Because his car doesn’t go that fast. Right, he was like, nah, my… That’s your theory to traffic tickets. Yeah. So, actually, your father-in-law helped me avoid a ticket because before we started going really, really, really fast, he was like, there’s a police officer. Then my radar started going off. What speed do you start to go back into the future? I know it was 88 miles per hour back in the movie Back to the Future, but what speed do you have to go to actually begin going back into the future? I haven’t found it yet. I’ve gone all the way up to 190, and I haven’t gone back into the future. Are you being serious? Yeah, I think maybe 191 is the number. What in the world? There’s got to be somebody listening going, does he want to die? And is he joking around? I’m worried about your safety. Thrive Nation, if you will send Steve Currington a helmet, and then also some tools. We’ll put a governor on that Lamborghini. Now, John, did you have a highlight to Thanksgiving? Yeah, I just dreamed of Steve Currington, so that was my highlight. Did you have a highlight? Yeah, we went and saw Raymond Lights. We got to hang out with the family, so it was a good time. I had some things that you shouldn’t do. This is what happens to me during holidays. These are four things that only I could pull off. And these are real things that happened, and I’ve documented them here for The Thrive Nation. So if you’re saying, well, my Thanksgiving didn’t really go that great at all, I want to pile on with the things that I did wrong. I had a great time, but I just want to clarify the things. One is I decided to mow the leaves. So my wife says, hey, could you guys help clean up the leaves? I said, sure. My son drives the mower. I’m thinking, how hard can it be to dry a 48-inch Husqvarna? The kid’s 10. How hard could it be? It’s orange. He rides it. He’s 10. I get in it, and I lower the setting, and I set the leaves on fire. Oh, yeah. Huge fire up front. Not kidding. No, I’m not kidding. And my son is like, what did you do? And I’m like, just hurry up and don’t get in the way! And so we’re going, we have water hoses, fire extinguishers, true story. That happened. Now, I also decided to take my mom and my mother-in-law, the grandmas, on a trip to the mountains in Arkansas, where we got lost. There was no GPS, they couldn’t call me, no cell phone reception. 911 was called, a flat tire occurred. We had to have a car towed by a guy who apparently had never left the Arkansas mountains. We had stimulating conversations. He was like Bigfoot. I was in the truck with a guy, and he said three things to me that were profound. I’m trying to make small talk, because I’m in a car with a guy whose fingers, John, are twice the width of the average man’s hands, because he’s strong. He’s Arkansas strong. Oh, so I said, Arkansas, that’s true. I said, hey, you know, do you leave Arkansas? Do you go out very much? Do you travel around? He says, you know, I do. I’m into California. I didn’t really like it too much. I said, well, so how did you start your trucking company? He goes, well, my towing company, my niche is that I’m, and this is what he says, he goes, well, I’ll tell you what, we’re open 24-7, we get all the calls from AAA, farmers, the police department. I said, so what do you mean? He goes, literally when my phone rings, I get it 24-7. I said, when was the last time you slept like a consecutive eight hours, four hours, three hours? He goes, I never sleep. And he’s dead serious. This is his model. So then the second profound thing he says, he goes, I said, so what’s the hunting limit out here? You look like a hunter, do you hunt a lot? He goes, well I was going to go hunt here, but then I got this call, but I do hunt. And I said, so what was the last deer you shot? He goes, well I typically keep them loaded, and there’s a deer in the front yard, and I pass the gun, because when you’re under 16, there’s not a limit on how many you can shoot, you know. So I pass this on to my 10 year old, and he just got them right there, and there’s a good old 8 point buck right there, took them out in the front yard. And I go, really? He goes, yeah, I took it out to get rendered. And when I come back, there’s another one out there. I hand it to my youngest grandson. He got himself a 12 point buck too right there. And he was two. And I said, so you keep your guns loaded? He goes, absolutely. I keep a loaded gun in every room because otherwise, he goes, this is what he says, he goes, otherwise, if you don’t keep them loaded, it’s like having like a metal club, right? And I’m like, this guy is serious. So that was the second profound. The third profound thing is I said, hey, we’re passing me to Arkansas here. Is me to Arkansas famous for anything? I mean, what’s it famous for? He goes, well, I don’t know if it’s something famous, but that airport there is where the Clintons bring in all their cocaine from Nicaragua. And I’m like, excuse me? He goes, I got a buddy. He worked for them. I’ll tell you. And I said, well, how come more people don’t talk about this? He said, because they all disappear. And I’m like, OK, OK, well, that’s a nice segue. And so a little bit of conspiracy, a little bit of Paul Graham, a little bit of Thanksgiving miracles. I mean, John, the show could not get stranger, but these are real things that happened to me as a result of me having a vehicle flat in northwest Arkansas, in the mountains. Can we clarify something for the people that are on the show as well as maybe some listeners that have been listening through a few of the segments? But did Paul Graham, in fact, invent the graham cracker or not? I mean I’ve mentioned it, John’s mentioned it, it feels like he kind of skipped over it. Chuck wanted to say something. I say when we come back from the break we’re going to break down the inventions of Paul Graham and the profoundness of the notable quotables from Paul Graham. Stay tuned to the Thrived Time Show on your radio. Gobble gobble, Christmas is near. From everywhere, till India Over the country, till the sun For you and me, we’re telling it to In India, we’re glad people sing Songs of the cheer, Christmas is here Digging many, many, many, many stones Many, many, many, many Get ready to enter the Thrivetime Show On Talk Radio 1170 I want to be rich. Oh, I want to be rich. Oh, I want to be rich. Oh, I want to be rich. Welcome back to the conversation. This is the Thrive Time Show on your radio. Today we’re breaking down the notable quotables from Paul Graham. Well, who is Paul Graham? Well, Paul Graham is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time. He is the guy who started a company called ViaWeb, which allowed people to sell products and services via the web. So as an example of how Paul got started he had multiple degrees and he was in his car at the age of 30 years old and he basically was working as a consultant and he really hated what he did for a living and so he earned just enough money to get ahead financially that he would quit his job and he would start painting and doing art and things that he was into. So he started a company that was designed to sell art, not sell art, but just to put online art, to put art online, like to put art galleries online where you could see them. And the company did not do well at all. And he realized, you have to make something people want or people aren’t gonna buy it, you know? So he realized, okay, I gotta try again here. So he’s in his car, he’s 30 years old, he hears a radio show talking about Netscape and the future of online shopping carts. But there weren’t any online shopping carts at that point. So he decided instead of just listening to the news, he’s going to become part of the news. Instead of watching movies about successful people, he’s going to become the kind of person that they’re going to make successful. They’re going to make a movie about his life. Instead of just watching life happen, he’s going to participate in his future. He’s going to do something abnormal and seize the day. So he and his buddy Robert, they get together, they work on it for three years. Chuck, working on anything for three years. I mean, he works on it for three years. That’s something that I don’t think a lot of people can relate to, right? Working on the same thing diligently and consistently for three years to try and create something that nobody else has ever done before. As an example, elephant in the room, this is our fifth year in business there. Year one, lost a bunch of money. Year number two, we broke even. Year three, we made a little bit of money, but not pretty much money. Year four, we made a lot of money. Year five, we make a lot of money. Year six, we’re going to make a lot more money. We’re going to franchise. And so it’s a lot of investment of time. You have to stay focused on the same thing for multiple years in a row. So then after he sells via web he takes seven years. Seven years! He’s writing the Bible. He takes seven years to write his essays and by the way they never fail to deliver and they’re available for free at paulgram.com. Then he gives one talk at Harvard. He gives a talk at Harvard and the students are going, this was the most profound specific talk we’ve ever heard, and we want you to help us, Chep. Can I just say something about how this is kind of a testament to what you started and what you’ve built at Thrive. How can this guy go into Harvard and give a speech about startups, and all of the students give it raving reviews? That tells me that none of their classes are covering this stuff. It’s stuff that they’re hungry to learn, they want to know about, but the system is not built to train people that way. The system is built to put people in cubicles and put them in just a normal job, not to thrive in your life. And so that’s just a testament to Thrive 15 and what we’re doing here is we want to give you that same kind of knowledge that Paul Graham was giving those people. Now we offer business coaching for small business owners, people wanting to grow a business. And Paul said, you know what, I only want to work with companies that can scale and that are tech companies. And so he started Y Combinator and that is the force behind Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, Reddit. Here’s a notable quote I want to read. I want to have Jonathan Kelly break down. He says, when we funded Airbnb, we thought it was too crazy. We couldn’t believe large numbers of people would actually want to stay in other people’s places. We funded them because we liked the founders so much. As soon as we heard they’d been supporting themselves by selling Obama and McCain rebranded breakfast cereal, they were in. As it turned out, the idea was on the right side of crazy after all. John, break it down. Well, let me ask you a question. Like, have you ever noticed that all of the greats, all of the great things that happen, everybody just labels them as crazy? Exactly. Have you noticed that? So why is that? Because they’re doing something that nobody else has done before, or something that nobody wants to do. It’s different. You know, and so it’s easier to label somebody as crazy because you don’t want to do what they’re doing. Here’s the Airbnb story that’s crazy. So Airbnb, they start this site. If you’ve ever been to Airbnb, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, you should check it out. You can basically, instead of staying in a hotel, you can stay in somebody’s house. So the product comes from the average person who’s putting their house for sale or for rent online. You can stay there night by night, just like a hotel. I’m actually staying at Steve’s house. He just doesn’t know yet. Really? Yeah, we actually already signed up for Airbnb. It’s that secret Airbnb move. It’s an Airbnb miracle. He walks in, he throws a 20 on the counter, and he’s like, see you guys in the morning. Go straight to the fridge. This is what happens. They’re in San Francisco, and they realize that they are not doing very well at Airbnb. So one of the partners says, hey, why don’t we just rent out our own house so we can get better data? And they go, well, if he says, if we were, if you rent out your own house, where are you guys going to live? And they said, well, we’re just going to sleep in the, in the walk-in closet. So these guys literally rented out their own house and they would just sleep in their own closet and that was their move. They kept sleeping in closets. Well, over time, um, the idea, they ran out of money. And so one of the partners says, Hey, here’s the deal. I’m going to go to the grocery store, but I need like a couple hundred bucks. So he goes down to the grocery store and buys Cheerios using a couple hundred bucks. He comes back, he says, take all the cereal out of the box, but do not open up the plastic, because there’s a plastic bag inside the box. Do not open the plastic bag, just take the cereal out. And they’re like, what are you doing, man? You’re freaking us out, because these guys are out of money. And he goes, check it out. I’ve got tons of boxes, go look in there. So they go in the other room and he has printed boxes that are really good quality, but they look like a Wheaties box, but instead they’re called Obama-Os. And he goes, listen, the Democratic convention is happening, and if we put the Cheerios in the Obama-Os boxes, and they go, is that legal? He goes, stop talking. This is what we’re going to do. We’re going to sell these things for like 20 bucks a box. I’m buying them for three bucks a box, and as fast as we can put it in the box and glue it shut, we can go down there and sell it like street vendors. And so they were selling ObamaOs over and over and over and he realizes, wait a minute, we need to make Captain McCain’s. So he goes and buys Captain Crunch, does the same thing, they make the box. If you go online, you can see pictures of the ObamaOs and McCain’s. And so what happens is Paul Graham hears the story and he says, so wait a minute, we’re here interviewing you guys about investing in Airbnb and you’re currently funding yourself by selling ObamaOs and Captain McCain’s. And they said, yep, that’s our deal. That’s our move. He goes, where do you guys live? We live in our house, but we rent it out, so we actually sleep in the closet more often than not. And he goes, you guys are like cockroaches. How many years have you been working on this? And they said, several. And he goes, I’m in. So he invested in them just because of their tenacity. He didn’t even care about their business plan, Chuck. Right. And one thing that you always say a lot, Clay, is it’s about resourcefulness and not resources. So I want to relate this back to when it comes to looking for employees. You need to look for employees with those same type of tendencies, like just to figure things out, just to get things done and get through those hard times that other people quit. So you basically just want to pick your horses and then run with those guys, right? So take your time and look for people that are resourceful in their life and not just going to complain about, I didn’t have the tools I needed to get it done. Now this next notable quotable from Paul Graham, he says, Though the most successful founders are usually good people, They tend to have a piratical gleam in their eye, like a pirate. Arr! They’re not goody-two-shoes, type good. Morally they care about getting the big questions right, But not about observing proprieties. That’s why I’d use the word naughty rather than evil. They delight in breaking rules, but not rules that matter. This quality may be redundant, though. It may be implied in imagination. Arr, Paul Graham.” So what he’s saying is that most successful entrepreneurs don’t mind breaking little rules. John Kelly, can you break this down how you’ve seen me maybe throughout the years break little rules? How much time do we have? Yeah, this is Clay Clark, Dr. Z, all over it. You don’t let little rules get in the way of progress, you know? And so if it’s like, hey, do you need a permit to do that? No, we’ll pay for the fine. Let’s just get it built out or things like that. So whatever is getting in the way of progress, you’re just gonna say, no, stop it. Let’s just get it done. We’ll deal with everything else later. I do look at the trade-offs and if the fine is more than the reward, I won’t do it. Chup. Well, the thing that that relates to what Jonathan was just saying is, as entrepreneurs, if you’re gonna be successful, you have to move fast. You have to rush to revenue. You’ve got to get there. So those little trivial things, what we might call trivial, other people might freak out about, you just got to decide, like you just said, make that balance, make that decision, and then move and get going. I want to make sure we break down the definition of propriety, but Steve, what were you going to say there, my man? I was just going to say, I’m pretty sure that Paul Graham didn’t really invent the graham cracker. He just took Teddy Graham’s and like crushed them up and then remade him. And that’s like a rule that you bring. Steve, we pride ourselves on the show of bringing the truth to people. We’re not going to bring the non-truth. And your refusal to respect the mental capacity of our listeners and to allege that Paul Graham invented the Graham Crackers really is beneath our listeners. I think you should do it some more. I just said, ohhhh. Steve. That was good. That was good. Steve, Steve, here, here, you don’t think he took Teddy Grahams and then, you know, stamped him in a rectangle, just put him in a rectangle. Steve, on behalf of our listeners, we are offended, and we’re going to give you a chance during the break to recant. We are all now dumber for listening to that. Gentlemen, let me introduce you to the grill gun. Hi, I’m Bob Healy. I’m the inventor of the grill gun and the civvy 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, have followed Tim Tebow’s football career on the field and off the field. And off the field, the guy’s been just as successful as he has been on the field. Now the big question is, JT, how does he do it? Well, they’re going to have to come and find out, because I don’t know. Well, I’m just saying, Tim Tebow is going to teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s going to walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is going to be a blasty blast in Tulsa, Russia. Also, this is the first Thrive Time Show event that we’ve had, where we’re going to have a man who has built a $100 million net worth. Wow. Who’ll be presenting. Now, we’ve had a couple of presenters that have had a billion dollar net worth in some real estate sort of things. Yeah. But this is the first time we’ve had a guy who’s built a service business, and he’s built over $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 9 Round Boxing. He’s going to be here in Tulsa, Russel, Oklahoma, June 27th and 28th. JT, why should everybody want to hear what Peter Taunton has to say? Oh, because he’s incredible. He’s just a fountain of knowledge. He is awesome. He has inspired me listening to him talk and not only that, he also has, he practices what he teaches, so he’s a real teacher. He’s not a fake teacher like business school teachers So you got to 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 get this wrong because I get it wrong Someone’s gonna say you screw that up buddy. So Michael Levine, this is Michael Levine. He’s going to be coming. You say, who’s Michael Levine? I don’t get this wrong. This is the PR consultant of choice for Michael Jackson, for Prince, for Nike, for Charlton Heston, for Nancy Kerrigan. 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestselling authors he’s represented, including pretty much everybody you know who’s been a super celebrity. This is Michael Levine, a good friend of mine. He’s 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 gonna add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup, but I encourage everybody out there today, get those tickets today. Go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s Thrivetimeshow.com. And some people might be saying, well, how do I do it? What do I do? How does it work? You just go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Let’s go there now. We’re feeling the flow. We’re going to Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, you just go to Thrivetimeshow.com. You click on the Business Conferences button, and you click on the Request Tickets button right there. The way I do our conferences is we tell people it’s $250 to get a ticket or whatever price that you can afford. And the reason why I do that is I grew up without money. JT, you’re in the process of building a super successful company. 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 Tong, and 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. And you might say, well, who’s speaking? We already covered that. You might say, where is it going to be? It’s going to be in Tulsa, Russia, Oklahoma. I suppose it’s Tulsa, Russia. It’s I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa, Russia, 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 to 28th. Who? You! You’re going to come! I’m talking to you. You can get your tickets right now at ThriveTimeShow.com and again, you can name your price. We tell people it’s $250 or whatever price you can afford. And we do have some select VIP tickets which gives you an access to meet some of the speakers and those sorts of things. And those tickets are $500. It’s a two-day interactive business workshop, over 20 hours of business training. We’re going to give you a copy of my newest book, The Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. You’re going to leave with a workbook. You’re going to leave with everything you need to know to start and grow a super successful company. It’s practical, it’s actionable, and it’s TiVo time right here in Tulsa, Russia. Get those tickets today at Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s Thrivetimeshow.com. Hello, I’m Michael Levine and I’m talking to you right now from the center of Hollywood, California Where I have represented over the last 35 years 58 Academy Award winners 34 Grammy Award winners 43 New York Times bestsellers I’ve represented a lot of major stars And I’ve worked with a lot of major companies and I think I’ve learned a few things about what makes them work and what makes them not work. Now, why would a man living in Hollywood, California in the beautiful sunny weather of LA come to Tulsa? Because last year I did it and it was damn exciting. Clay Clark has put together an exceptional presentation, really life-changing and I’m looking forward to seeing you then. I’m Michael Levine. I’ll see you in Tulsa. 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 traveling all the way from Puerto Rico to Tulsa Oklahoma to attend the in-person June 27th and 28th live time show two-day interactive business workshop if you’re out there today folks you’ve ever wanted to grow a podcast a broadcast you want to get in you want to improve your marketing if you’ve ever wanted to improve your marketing your branding if you’ve ever wanted to increase your sales, you want to come to the two-day interactive June 27th and 28th Thrive Time Show Business Workshop featuring Tim Tebow, Michael Levine, John Lee Dumas, and countless big-time super successful entrepreneurs. It’s going to be life-changing. Get your tickets right now at thrivetimeshow.com. James, what website is that? ThriveTimeshow.com. James, one more time for the boys. ThriveTimeshow.com. Check one more time before you leave the house. TheRidesTimesShow.com This moment we own it. 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 successful companies. When we get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge and they’re like, oh but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get rich quick, walk on hot coals product. It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, but I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business Come to Tulsa book a ticket and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever It wouldn’t give you your money back if you don’t love it We’ve built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see it And now you may be thinking, what does it actually cost to attend an in-person two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop? Well, good news, the tickets are $250 or whatever price that you can afford. What? Yes, they’re $250 or whatever price you can afford. I grew up without money and I know what it’s like to live without money, so if you’re out there today and you want to attend our in-person two-day interactive business workshop, all you got to do is go to thrivetimeshow.com to request those tickets. And if you can’t afford $250, we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. I learned at the Academy, at King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvard Keosak University Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re close, but they’re completely different worlds. And I have a special guest today. Definition of intelligence is if you agree with me, you’re intelligent. And so this gentleman is very intelligent. I’ve done his show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts as Mr. Clay Clark, he’s a friend of a good friend, Eric Trump. But we’re also talking about money, bricks, and how screwed up the world can get in a few and a half hour. So Clay Clark is a very intelligent man, and there’s so many ways we could take this thing. But I thought, since you and Eric are close, Trump, what were you saying about what Trump can’t, what Donald, who is my age, and I can say or cannot say. Well, first of all, I have to honor you, sir. I want to show you what I did to one of your books here. There’s a guy named Jeremy 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. Well, not only that, Clay, thank you, but you’ve become an influencer. More than anything else, you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. So that’s why I congratulate you on becoming. Because as you know, there’s a lot of fake influencers out there, or bad influencers. Yeah. So anyway, I’m glad you and I agree so much, and thanks for reading my books. Yeah. That’s the greatest thrill for me today. Not thrill, but recognition is when people, young men especially, come up and say, I read your book, changed my life, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this. I learned at the Academy at Kings Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. 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. Like 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 control of the business. Planning your time, breaking it all down, making time for the F6 in your life and just really implementing it and sticking with the program. It’s really lively, they’re pretty friendly, helpful, and very welcoming. I attended a conference a couple months back and it was really the best business conference I’ve ever attended. In the workshop I learned a lot about time management, really prioritizing what’s the most important. Biggest takeaways are, you 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. It’s super fun, it’s 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. 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 good. 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 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grew us 13 grams for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, 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 DriveTime workshop, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. 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. Love the environment. I love the way that Clay presents and teaches. It’s a way that not only allows me to comprehend what’s going on, but he explains it in a way to where it just makes sense. The SEO optimization, branding, marketing, I’ve learned more in the last two days than I have the entire four years of college. The most valuable thing that I’ve learned, marketing is key, marketing is everything. Making sure that you’re branded accurately and clearly. How to grow a business using Google reviews, and then just how to optimize our name through our website also. Helpful with a lot of marketing, search engine optimization, helping us really rank high in Google. The biggest thing I needed to learn was how to build my foundation, how to systemize everything and optimize everything, build my SEO. How to become more organized, more efficient. How to make sure the business is really there to serve me, as opposed to me constantly being there for the business. New ways of advertising my business, as well as recruiting new employees. Group interviews, number one. Before we felt like we were held hostage by our employees. Group interviews has completely eliminated that, because you’re able to really find the people that would really be the best fit. Hands-on how to hire people, how to deal with human resources, a lot about marketing, and overall just how to structure the business, how it works for me, and also then how that can translate into working better for my clients. The most valuable thing I’ve learned here is time management. I like the one hour of doing your business is real critical if I’m going to grow and change. Play really teaches you how to navigate through those things and not only find freedom, but find your purpose in your business and find the purpose for all those other people that directly affect your business as well. Everybody. Everybody. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get the opportunity to see that it’s real. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get the opportunity to see that it’s real. Whoa, man.