Business Coach | How to Know When It’s Time to Hire a Business Coach
Audio Transcription
On today’s episode of the Thrive Time Business Coach Show we deep dive into knowing whether it is the right time to hire a business coach or not. They talk about how to know when the best time is to hire a business coach and why you specifically need one.
When To Hire A Business Coach : Podcast Transcript
Clay Clark: All right, Tulsa Green Country Oklahoma’s, welcome back to the Thrive-Time-Show. This is your audio Do-Jo of Mo-Jo the place where you go to learn how to start and grow a successful business. As always it is business time. It is Business School without the BS. Yes back from his trip he was out there seeing a man about a horse. It is Dr. Robert Zoellner. If you missed yesterday’s show you have some exciting news about the horse.
Dr. Robert Zoellner: Some exciting news fresh off the press [neighs]. I have a horse his name is Rowdy the Warrior and he is officially on the Kentucky Derby Trail. Everybody out there in Tulsa in this running errands get your big hats. Your seersucker suits, your dresses whichever is appropriate for your gender. Whatever you want to wear.
Clay: What does that mean?
Dr. Robert: I don’t even know, hush. This is not a political show. Oh, the Kentucky Derby thing?
Clay: I don’t even– I’m still going, “Eight years on the trail to the Kentucky Derby.” I’m just trying to–
Dr. Robert: What that means is this, Clay, is that in the Kentucky Derby you have to earn so many points in certain races to qualify to get in. The race he ran in Hot Springs, Arkansas on Monday was a Derby qualifying race and he earned some points. He got third place.
Clay: Wow.
Dr. Robert: I would rather have gotten second or first but I’m happy with that.
Clay: Boom, I’m happy with it.
Dr. Robert: Better than fourth.
Clay: Yes, true.
Dr. Robert: You’ve got to put things in perspective. There’s three more opportunities for him to earn points and if he earns enough points then he gets the privilege or the right to run in the Kentucky Derby. I’m excited.
Clay: I’m going to give you a little bit of a background. This is what I call a Super Segway. You’re not getting ready for this so here’s the Super Segway. A lot of people say, “Clay, how did you get into coach and dentists?” I’m like, “It’s a good question.” First, I start up as a DJ out of my college dorm room.
Dr. Robert: DJ?
Clay: DJ in great places, exotic places like Yucatan Lakers Stand Club, very classy. I move from there then I get involved with photography business. Then I buy a party rental company, I grow that. I get involved in real estate. I get involved in men’s grooming. You started off as a optometrist then you move from there and towards your second business?
Dr. Robert: Diagnostic Sleep Center.
Clay: What was the third business?
Dr. Robert: An auto auction.
Clay: What was the fourth business?
Dr. Robert: A DME company called–
[crosstalk]
Clay: What is the fifth one?
Dr. Robert: It’s a horse race. That’s what we’re talking about, the Rockin Z Ranch just out of Tulsa.
Clay: You know one thing that you don’t know enough about?
Dr. Robert: What’s that?
Clay: Because you’re not obviously qualified to be the horse guru yet. There’s these people we had to bring into the show Inside the Box That Rocks to help you take your horse down that Kentucky Derby trail, you said?
Dr. Robert: I’m excited. You’re bringing me up I like that.
Clay: I’m bringing you, I’m bringing the experts because you and I have had success because we have always reached out to experts. Whenever we were stuck we reached out to somebody who knew more than we did about the subject. We moved past those barriers real quickly which is why we’ve had success in different industries. That’s the kind of move.
Dr. Robert: Absolutely. That’s why we’re doing this show because we are here to help all of you out there that want to start or grow your business. This is not politics.
Clay: It’s not politics.
Dr. Robert: It’s not home and garden.
Clay: We’re not going to talk about politics and home and garden?
Dr. Robert: We are not going to talk about cooking.
Clay: What?
Dr. Robert: Though Cooking’s a fine institution, don’t get me wrong.
Clay: We’re not ripping it.
Dr. Robert: We’re not ripping it. I’m not hating on cooking.
Clay: No. This is a business show and the thing is, everybody if you’re stuck you need to reach out to an expert or if you’re in business a business coach. We have an expert who could help you get your horse to the next level because you’ve got to improve that horse’s nutrition.
We have with us today Inside the Box that Rocks, we have Ms. Lien. She is the owner of PetsWell. What is PetsWell? She’ll tell you in just a second. Then we have Mr. Patrick. Now, Patrick is the Operations Manager. We have the gurus. Lien, welcome on to the show, how are you?
Lien: I’m well, thank you for having us today.
Clay: We’re so excited. Patrick, thank you for being here.
Patrick: Thank you for having us.
Clay: She’s sort of a celebrity. So, you’re accompanying a celebrity. Does it feel like that kind of vibe?
Patrick: It does, yes.
Dr. Robert: It’s like security because he seems like he’s really secure. She says operations manager, I think that’s code word for security. I don’t know for a fact but I think it could be.
Clay: I was doing some research and I have determined- I was looking at your website and apparently you guys offer human grade food for the animals you love?
Lien: Delicious food.
Clay: If we’re doctors- Z, he’s got this horse who’s on the Kentucky Derby Trail. What separates greatness? Tom Brady’s got the sleep regimen, he’s got the workout routine. That’s what allows that Patriot quarterback to win. Educate him. How can we improve the nutrition of his horse to keep that horse on course to win?
Dr. Robert: You guys make horse food?
Patrick: Not yet but you never know.
Dr. Robert: [laughs] What animals do you make food for? What’s your number one? I’m assuming dogs or cats or?
Patrick: Right now we’re starting out with dogs and canines. Our top seller is chicken puffed pie and it’s human grade food. It has no preservatives or artificial chemicals at all.
Dr. Robert: What keeps me from this buying and a need in myself.
Clay: Could you do that?
Patrick: Man I do.
Dr. Robert: Yes? You’re really a restaurant that also serves animals, right?
Lien: Yes. We provide fresh, wholesome food that is handcrafted in a restaurant facility. It is human grade quality using fresh ingredients. I have a client that actually has rolled it up in a flour tortilla with salt and pepper and [unintelligible 00:05:26] said it was delicious.
Clay: Really?
Lien: Yes, but don’t eat your pet’s food, please save it for your pet.
Clay: [laughs] So, Z, I’m just saying the horse, if you want it to become that real champion, he’s on the road now but I think if we want to go to the next level you might start serving it human grade food. Is that a thing?
Dr. Robert: I guess so. I’ll check with my trainer and I’m sure we’re going to put out all the tricks we can. [unintelligible 00:05:47] the bag and get this colt ready to run. I’m excited and you know what? It’s going to be a journey that all the listeners get to go on because you can live it vicariously through me.
Clay: Lets say I’m visiting right now and I’m going- okay, I have a dog, I would like to know more about PetsWell. What’s the website? Where can I find out more about your company and how to get more information?
Lien: Great information. Our website is petswellpantry.com.
Clay: petswellpantry.com. Wait a second, I was having my Oklahoma Joe’s baked beans while inside the lobby of Regent Bankers. It was very hard to pay attention. Let me write that down one more time. What was that website again?
Lien: petswellpantry.com
Clay: Okay, got that. I go to that website I can check it out. Now Thrivers today the main dish we’re talking about, how do you know when it’s time to hire a business coach or an expert? That’s the question, Z. How do you know when it’s time to bring in an expert? I’m going to tee it off with little John Maxwell quote here, Z. You got to break it down for me like fractions.
Dr. Robert: Like, baam!
Clay: Here we go. “Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who do not succeed. When I see a person beginning to separate themselves from the pack it’s always due to personal growth”. I want to ask you, you started off as an optometrist in Tulsa. I don’t know the actual numbers but there’s many optometrists and now you have a big old building.
Dr. Robert: Big old building.
Clay: Right there mighty big old mall and you have a bunch of big old sales totals and the theme is big old. Tell me about how did you build that big old business, Z?
Dr. Robert: You do it one day at a time, you do it by doing the right things. That’s the beautiful thing about our website thrive15.com also our show Thrive Time Show.
Dr. Robert: Is that we break it down, that’s what a boss does. A boss takes big obstacles and makes them seem–
Clay: So small.
Dr. Robert: So small, so tiny. In other words if you say, “From day one here I start with this little bitty office and one employee. Today 25 years later I have two big offices, eight doctors and a 100 employees and you go, “Oh that’s easy. You just [unintelligible 00:07:54]. But there’s a lot of little steps in there. You have to break it down into small steps. That’s what we do on the show, that’s what we do on our website. You know what? We still have a couple of slots left for our in-person workshop. What does that mean?
Clay: Technically we have one.
Dr. Robert: Oh, we have one.
Clay: We had two years so we have one. We had a group coming from Dallas. We’re literally building tables to accommodate the more people because we’re filling up. If you watch on Facebook Live you can see we’re adding tables right now to accommodate.
It’s not like a big conference center where you have a guy going, ‘Walk on hot coals, walk on hot coals.” It’s more of like a workshop where you can ask real questions. It’s 15 hours of power, very detailed teaching linear business growth systems. We have one ticket left.
Dr. Robert: One ticket left. Guess what? It’s tomorrow.
Clay: Tomorrow.
Dr. Robert: Tomorrow. You could change your life tomorrow. What happens it’s, the 20th and the 21st starts at 7o’clock in the morning. I just heard a gong.
Clay: That might be sold out. I don’t know, let’s see what that is.
Dr. Robert: We could be sold out.
Clay: We could be.
Dr. Robert: You better hurry–
[crosstalk]
Here’s two things we promise you. Well, actually three. I’m going to throw in a third one.
Clay: Wow, a third promise?
Dr. Robert: One, you show up you’ll not be up sold, we’re not here to try to sell you a bunch of gadgets and gears and get rich quick schemes and this and that.
Clay: But I would rather go to a conference where they’re trying to upsell me shamelessly the entire time. Patrick and I, we’ve gone to a few of these and he doesn’t like to be upsold but I do. I love it when they put that pressure it’s exciting, it’s like an adrenaline rush. How much am I going to spend?
Dr. Robert: This conference isn’t for you sir but there’s no upselling. Number two, we have scholarships so you say to yourself, “I’m starting off in business. I’ve had a bad run of luck with bills and what not.”
Clay: I would rather pay full price for anything because when I pay full price I love that.
Dr. Robert: We have scholarships available and what that means is that whatever you can afford is okay. You don’t have to be ashamed of it, you don’t have to be embarrassed by it. Every now and then we’ve all needed a little bit of help. The third thing is I promise you you’re going to learn something. We have 13 great steps in our business platform, it’s 15 hours 45 and then 15.
The great thing is, looking at people around you they’re doing the same thing you’re doing. Yes, they may be selling pizza and you’re selling insurance, I may be selling cars–
Clay: Can I tell you who’s going to be there?
Dr. Robert: Yes, please do.
Clay: We got a guy who does sell security systems, we’ve got a guy who has a massive pharmacy down in Dallas.
Dr. Robert: Drugs, okay, drugs. A drug dealer, basically.
Clay: He’s basically a drug dealer.
Dr. Robert: Okay just call him–
Clay: We’ve got a financial planner, we’ve got a guy who helps raise capital for business. It got go on and on. We have all different industries, all walks of life all there, it’s going to be a game changer. Now, Z, this is the question I want to ask, if I’m listening right now and I feel stuck– and I want to get Patrick started on this, I want to get Lien start on this, because every entrepreneur- I mean, they are entrepreneurs. Every entrepreneur we felt stuck at some point I’m going to ask them about feeling stuck at some point.
I remember when I was building my DJ business, I remember I got to a point where I could not do more than 800,000 a year of sales. I started to do this- and tell me if I’m weird. I started to think it was a spiritual force.
Dr. Robert: Yes, you’re weird.
Clay: We go to church quite a bit and I remember going, “Maybe it’s just not meant to be, maybe I’m not selling because there’s a spiritual–” I remember thinking out like, “Maybe I’m doing something wrong.” Then it occurs to me it’s just a logical problem. Z, am I weird if I’m feeling I’m stuck because of some weird cosmic habit force?
Dr. Robert: No, it happens and that’s a very common thing in entrepreneurs and in young business start ups and what not. A lot of times you don’t even know what you don’t know. I know this sounds crazy. I remember you telling a story about years ago, one of your employees said, “Hey, listen, this thing coming around called the internet, I think we may want to pay attention to it,” You’re like, “Nobody’s ever going to go on the internet to hire a DJ business.”
Clay: Because I think in hyperbole, this is what I said to Josh Smith, and Josh Smith if you’re listening I’m so sorry. Brandon Smith your brother I’m so sorry, your mother I’m so sorry, I’m sorry if you’re holding it [unintelligible 00:11:52]. I said, “There is no way that anyone’s ever going to stop using the yellow pages. Every time you go on the internet and you hit internet it goes, “[makes sound]” and it waits to load. I’m not going to wait it to load, I’m just going to up the phone, it’s dumb. No one’s going to book anything off their computer, that’s stupid idea. ” Then he came back and I was like,” I will pay to go to a seminar if you promise me you will not bring it up again,” that’s what I literally said.
Dr. Robert: Exactly. You may be sitting there and going, “Hey, I think I’m doing really good, the limit or the ceiling that I’m hitting is because of the economy. It’s because of who’s in-charge of the economy.”
Clay: It’s Trump, he’s screwing the economy.
Dr. Robert: It’s these things that you have no control over. You know what–?
Clay: The Russian government.
Dr. Robert: That’s a fallacy.
Clay: Okay.
Dr. Robert: If it’s your business and you’re in-charge, you have control over it. Sometimes it takes mentoring, sometimes it takes sitting in in-person workshop, sometimes it takes watching videos, sometimes it takes one-on-one business coaching for you to get asked the questions and go, “Oh,yes, I didn’t know that.”
Clay: If I’m listening right now and I prefer to blame other people or the economy or the new president– if I like to do that, give me that knowledge bomb one more time. You’re saying, I’m going, “I like to blame the economy, that’s my move. It make it easier.”
Dr. Robert: I hear that all the time, “Well, you know, the economy economy it’s tough out there. You can’t find good help and I don’t have the money to do the things that I really could expand–“
Clay: You’ve been in business 25 years, you’ve been through some Democrats and Republicans, you’ve seen them all.
Dr. Robert: A few and game hangers and rule changers and stuff changes. You know what? You got to change with the time, you got to be up-front of it and you’ve got to get in there and keep learning.
Clay: If you’re somebody who wants to start a successful business, when we get back Lien is going to be walking you through how she went from the idea phase to the actually getting it done phase. We’re going to talk about that when we come back.
[pause 00:13:38]
One, two, two into the three Tulsa what is going on? Hello, let me introduce you to me, my name is Clay Clark, I’m the former SBA entrepreneur of the year in your ear sent here to teach you how to start and grow a successful business. To do that I had to bring in the big guns. I had to bring on the founder of PetsWell, the chief operations officer of PetsWell. I had to bring on Dr. Zoellner. There’s a lot of a cuchermens, there’s a lot of incense, a lot of mystical. Just to really make this incredible ambiance inside the box that rocks.
Dr. Robert: We need a disco ball, that’s something to make this room complete the box and it rocks into the disco ball.
Clay: Do you know that we have one out there but we do not want to have one in here?
Dr. Robert: Yes, I know. We might want a little baby one in here.
Clay: Do you want it where it’s here and it’s almost like the Death Star where it’s rotating and it just, “Woo-woo”
Dr. Robert: We’re not sure who’s going to zap it this time.
Clay: You could order, like you could say, “Blow up that planet.” I’m like, “I don’t want to blow up the planet.”
Dr. Robert: I don’t want to blow it up.
Clay: Name the planet, I’m like, “No.” It could be a whole weird thing, it could be a star work thing.
Dr. Robert: It could be a whole weird thing, not that we don’t do enough weird things.
Clay: Do you really want that?
Dr. Robert: Yes.
Clay: Okay, then I am definitely committing–
Dr. Robert: Who doesn’t want a Death Star/disco ball.
Clay: Thrivers hold me accountable, I’m getting a disco ball. I’m writing it down D-I-S-C-O B-A-L-L.
Dr. Robert: That’s why Clay you’re my number one. I’ll tell you what, this guy’s incredible, he’s a grinder, gets stuff done. That’s why when he approached me couple of years ago, his wife used to work for me back in the day, Vanessa, lovely lady. Clay would come around and creep around the office and creeping around the office there a little bit-
Clay: Creeping like TLC, just creeping.
Dr. Robert: – trying to figure out what’s going on. Then when he approached me couple years ago and shark tank me with this idea of mentoring and business coaching up online and in scaling, I thought, “That’s a genius.” That’s what started us down this journey of our theme, our cold action– what’s the word I’m looking for Clay?
Clay: Are you looking for boom? You’re looking for some boom?
Dr. Robert: No, I’m looking for, we want to mentor millions.
Clay: We do want to mentor millions. That’s our whole goal. You do mentorship. Is where you learned from- you either learn from mistakes or you learn from mentors. You want to follow someone who’s actually done it. I’m going to ask-
Dr. Robert: Successfully by the way.
Clay: Successfully, right. Today what I’m doing is we’re getting deep into this topic of how do you know when you need a business coach? Or forget that language just say, when do you need an expert? Some of you are listening right now and you’re going, “Okay, Forbes has said that 57% of us want to start a successful business and I might or might not be in that category, I secretly am. I’m at a job and I want to start my own business but I can’t tell anybody and so I’m just sort of wrestling with this inner dialogue because I want to start a business at some point.”
“Then I look to my left I see a business owner, I look to my right, I go to the Tulsa chamber I discovered 65% of the jobs in Tulsa- this just-in, 65% of jobs in Tulsa are created by people who have 10 employees or less so it’s doable. Then I look at the PetsWell people- I look at Lien and she’s living my dream, I want to start a business,” Let’s ask her she could be our mentor here. Lien, I want to ask you when did you get the idea to start your own business?
Lien: The business has been running for two years. Two years ago I sat with a friend at lunch and she was relentless in asking me to make fresh food for her pet, her lovely Stella–
Clay: Were you at whole foods when you had the lunch with your friend?
Lien: No.
[laughter]
Clay: Okay, I just wanted to hear what you’ll say. Having lunch with your friend, I didn’t know if I was there, I didn’t know if I saw you having a conversation.
Dr. Robert: Could have been.
Lien: She just kept relentlessly asking for me to cook for her and the idea was, why not take your passion for pets which I love pets of all walks of life and build it and create a great business out of it. and it’s been a great winner.
Clay: Now, Dale Carnegie says this little notable quotable that I will impact for you. You say who’s Dale Carnegie? he wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People. Somebody’s listening going, “I don’t believe you, I don’t think his books are any good.” Okay, Thrivers I have a challenge for you. Here’s a challenge, google Dale Carnegie and Warren Buffett, here we go.
You’re googling, you’re going to find that Warren Buffett has said the number one most impactful training he had in his entire career was from the Dale Carnegie institute. He said he literally did not know how to raise money from people. By the way, he’s the world’s top investor by most standards and he said that this course taught him how to do it.
Here is what Dale Carnegie says- this was a breakthrough idea for him, he says, “Inaction breeds doubt and fear, action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear do not sit home and think about it, go out and get busy.”
He said, “I wanted to raise money.” He started this thing called Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire hathaway he goes to people and he says– Ian is one of our photographers in the booth here, he’s awesome guy, we have Sam in the booth. Imagine guys what it would be like here, Sam is one of our producers. Imagine I walk up to you and I have no investment experience and I go, “I’ve been studying a lot and I need you to go ahead and put in 50,000 into an investment fund, I don’t know what kind of stocks I’m going to buy yet but I do believe that I should be greedy when the market is fearful.” When stocks are plummeting and going to the bottom, when people are super emotional, when stocks are nose-diving, when a company looks like it’s going to go out of business.
I’ve invented this little Theory called the Cigar Butt theory. The Cigar Butt theory is when a man finishes smoking a cigar- because women would not do that kind of thing, when a man does what happens is it’s soggy and gross but it still has a couple puffs left in it. I believe if i pick that up and get a few more puffs I could still get a little bit of a buzz out of it and that’s my theory on investing.” And you’re like, “What are you talking about?”
Dr. Robert: What are you talking about?
Clay: This is literally what he said. These are the actual words I’m paraphrasing. If you read his book Snowball this was his thing and they’re going, “So, you mean you want to pick up cigar butts out of ashtrays and smoke them?” He goes, ” Exactly. I want to buy businesses that are almost out of business for as cheap as possible and I always want to buy when people think they’re almost out of business and any calipers to revive the patient who is dead I want that deal. Are you guys in?” and you’re going, “Uh.”
Dr. Robert: “Uh.”
Clay: He goes, “Here’s the deal if I beat the market, whatever the markets. Let’s hope the market’s growing at 10% or 5% or 3%, whenever I beat the market by I will only pay myself after splitting the profits with you. If the market’s 10%
and my fund is at 15%, I will split the 5% with you and that’s how I get paid. They’re going, “You’re kind of weird, man.” He went to the Dale Carnegie Institute and he learned how to say this and get rejected all the time. He tells the story but like one out of 50 people said yes. They were like, “No, no, no,” but he’s speaking at hotels and he [unintelligible 00:20:19] people.
Dr. Robert:: Yes, doing the moves.
Clay: Anyway, now he’s the world’s most successful investor. Somebody needs to be inspired by what Lien did. You took a courageous leap and you started it. I want to know, what was your first move? Did you get an LLC, did you get a logo? What did you do?
Lien: I did. I came up with the name, that’s very, very important.
Clay: I like the name by the way, PetsWell.
Lien: Thank you. It conveys exactly what we do is providing fresh food without preservatives and chemicals. Started the LLC and then the next big step was the Tulsa’s first and only pet food truck. And able to get that rolling. I had to jump in there and learn how to drive a big bus.
Dr. Robert:: You drive the truck?
Lien: Yes. I drive the truck. No one else drives it. I drive it to all the events.
Clay: Wow.
Lien: It’s very fun and fulfilling.
Clay: I have something offensive and maybe sexist, I want to say-
Dr. Robert:: [unintelligible 00:21:12] she is trucker.
Clay: – you don’t look like a trucker.
Lien: I had to learn how to do it.
Dr. Robert:: I tell you what? I spend a lot of time in truck stops and we don’t see a lot of people like you in there, I tell you what–
Clay: Now Patrick, when did you join the team, my friend?
Patrick: Last April.
Clay: You see a woman in a truck who has a start-up and you’re like, “That’s a good idea.”
Patrick: Exactly, yes.
Clay: What sold you on the vision? What sold you on the dream?
Lien: As well, I love pets and I love the mission of PetsWell Pantry. They seemed like a great cause and something I could contribute to and learn from and grow with as well.
Clay: Now Thrivers when we come back we’re going to get a little deeper in this. Now you say, “I need an expert.” You say, “I need an expert. I need that person.” The question is, how do you know who is a charlatan and who is an actual expert?
Dr. Robert:: Woo, that is an excellent question.
Clay: What is a charlatan? I love the word charlatan but what is it? We’ll talk about what is a charlatan. But how do you know you are dealing with a con man or an actual expert? There’s a lot of people that are really good at marketing their conness. How do you not deal with the wrath of con and actually deal with an actual bonafide expert? How do you know because if you don’t know you might spend hundreds of thousands of dollars hiring a con man? Stay tuned Thrivers. We’ll teach you how to find an expert up next.
[pause 00:22:27]
All right, Thrive Nation. Welcome back into the audio dojo of mojo, fo sho. My name is Captain Clay Tiberius Clark. I’ve been sent on a mission to mentor millions, to raise my five kids, to have a bunch of chickens that are free-range so that we can spend basically $80 per egg, is what we’re spending. I do the maths, and I realize that-
Dr. Robert:: That’s a deal. That’s a bargain.
Clay: We went to the free-range chicken game. We love the free range chickens but I’ll just say, God bless those chickens, but we’re about $80 an egg. The total sunk cost to do it at this point, it’ll get cheaper over time but that’s the thing. The whole point of this show is how to start and grow a successful company.
But why? What is the point? Honestly, I’m fairly confident that I could go back to my job at Target where I used to be. Applebys where I used to be, we always have to start somewhere. I could go back there and I could probably make $35,000 a year, get some health care, do that whole thing. The reason why is because you have to have a big vision for your life. If you’re listening today, it’s 2017. This is your year, baby. You’ve got to make a list. Like a list of, what do you want to do with your life? Z, last year my wife, she says, “Baby, you don’t like traveling, do you?” I said, “That’s so true.” You’ve traveled with me.
Dr. Robert:: Yes. You’re probably one of the worst– I know you’re the worst driver in the world. You could be one of the worst travelers in the world too.
Clay: Here are the things that freak me out with traveling. I get on the plane, up in the air. I don’t do well when I’m not in total control of all variables. I have to have my to-do list. I don’t have my to-do list and there’s a man sitting next to me. He’s usually a nice man but he is a leaner. He wants to talk to me and I don’t like to talk to people that I disagree with because I’m super candid. He’s like, “I just feel like Obama is God’s gift to America. I think Trump’s an idiot.” I’m like, “Hey, that’s a statement.” The lady says–
Dr. Robert:: “Another vodka cranberry on aisle three.”
Clay: I always fly first. I always fly in the very back left seat, kind of superstitious. In the very back left seat and I put my hoodie on. That way it kills conversation when the guy’s got headphones on.
Dr. Robert:: You put the headphones and you get the book out. That’s the move.
Clay: He keeps talking to me though. He’s like, “Hey, man, how’s the going? You all right?” They say, “Attention passengers. We’ll be flying to Denver on a yadi yada flight. If you would like any alcohol or beverages–” it’s like five in the morning. I always fly the first flight so I’m never delayed. I’m like, “I’ll take four.” I get nervous, I’m afraid of heights. I can’t control the variables and then I’m afraid of speed and I get motion sickness. So, I finally get to Denver, I’m like, “Uh-uh”
Dr. Robert:: These are reasons why it’s no fun to travel with you.
Clay: That’s right. Here’s the deal though Thrivers. If you’re saying to yourself, “I don’t like traveling.” I said I didn’t like traveling but I was a traveling speaker guy.
Dr. Robert:: I know, yes. You had to travel because they paid you a lot of money to go round the country and travel but you got to drop the mic.
Clay: My wife says to me, she says, “Why don’t you just have people fly here?” I’m going, “What?” Then you and I, we team up, we build thrive15.com the world’s best business school, we build the dojo of mojo on the left Coast of the Arkansas river where there is occasionally water.
Dr. Robert:: Otherwise, it’s beach-front property.
Clay:: The thing is now there’s people coming here this Friday for the 2-day 15-hour interactive workshop from all over the planet and I’m not moving.
Dr. Robert:: You won’t have to have 87 vodkas cranberries to make it through the day.
Clay: Because that’s enough vodka to make your liver quiver.
Dr. Robert:: Exactly. I tell you what? We’ve only got one or two spots left from what you’re telling me.
Clay: One. We had [unintelligible 00:26:01] one
Dr. Robert:: We have one spot left. Tomorrow, it’s the 20th and 21st. If you’re anywhere close to Tulsa and you’re like, “Oh my gosh I need to start a business. I’ve started a business I need to grow a business. I have a business and it’s stuck. I want 2017 to be the best year ever.” Guess what? You can come here and learn all the secret moves.
Clay: thrivetimeshow.com
Dr. Robert:: Boom.
Clay: Get that info, baby.
Dr. Robert:: All the information on thrivetimeshow.com, where we are, what’s going on, what we’re teaching about. I promise you this, there’s no upselling. We have scholarships so everybody can afford it. You will learn something that will help you start or grow your business.
Clay: I have an added bonus here. The Foot Clark five kids are going to be there. They’re going to make an appearance. They will be there so you can meet that I really do have five human kids. You will see my wife and you’ll realize the profundity that, “Oh, my gosh. He tricked her into marrying him. She can’t even see him. Why would she marry this guy?”
Dr. Robert:: That’s a charlatan. Now that wraps us up to our topic of charlatan, a con man, bingo.
Clay: Charlatans. Z, there’s a thing called a charlatan. I want to get the actual definition because the thing about- Webster’s, he’s on point. The whole charlatan definition. This is a person who falsely pretends to know or be something in order to deceive people.
Clay: What happens is, there’s people out there who realize-
Dr. Robert:: It’s like you did with your wife?
Clay: What I did. I was a charlatan. I was a man charlatan. I tricked my wife. I remember when my wife realized- I never told her any lies, I didn’t make up anything but she realized, “He literally is going to turn off the air-conditioning in our apartment at 71st and Lewis so he can buy a yellow page ad. Oh no.” She was very supportive.
Dr. Robert:: This is the guy I married.
Clay: I remember it because at college- I went to college and the lead singer for One Republic, his name is Ryan Tedder. Ryan Tedder was down the hall and I’m down the hall. Both of us would pull all-nighters every night. I’m growing my business, he’s growing his music career. We would just compare notes.
By the way, he does a phenomenal Cuban impersonation that’s hysterical. We would do all-nighters doing voices and stuff. I probably have some. I can release these old audios, hilarious. We would pull an all-nighter. My wife realized, “You went through three room-mates in the semester and a half of college-
Dr. Robert:: That’s a red flag.
Clay: –I see now why. Because you never sleep. What’s wrong with you?” That’s a real thing. The charlatan move, here’s the thing. You’re sincerely at a point in your business where you need help. You need help. You google and you find a guy that has a picture taken with Mike Tyson.
Dr. Robert:: It’s pre or post the thing on the tattoo on his face?
Clay: It’s post. He has it on his face.
Dr. Robert:: Post the tatoo? Okay, just checking.
Clay: The picture of him and Mike Tyson. Here’s a picture of him and somebody else famous and he says the-
Dr. Robert:: Like the dude on Sinefeld or something.
Clay: He says, “The business consultant of choice for the stars.” You’re going, “Is this person real?” They want a six months contract and they want $4,000 a month. I’ve seen this in Tulsa. This is a real example. I won’t mention it but if you’re listening and you’re a charlatan, I’m going to come get you.
Dr. Robert:: I’m following.
Clay: Then what happens is you sign on the line and now you’re stuck with the big bill and they’re not doing anything. They don’t build websites, they don’t do logos, they don’t do marketing, they don’t know anything, they’re just crazy. How do you know, Z? Give me the litmus test. How do I know, if I need help. How do I know if I’m dealing with a charlatan or a real deal? What would be some of the questions you’d ask. You’ve hired some experts over the years. You’ve hired lawyers, attorneys, accountants, experts. How do I know what I’m dealing with here?
Dr. Robert:: You’d get references, number one.
Clay: That’s old school, man. I can’t just look at their number of Twitter followers?
Dr. Robert:: No, you can’t do that because they’ll sign up and have a bunch of them following from India or something–
[crosstalk]
Clay: Here’s the deal, Thrivers, f I have a bunch of Twitter followers- I think I have like 7,000 or 8,000, who cares? It’s just people that see me at speaking conferences. They’re like, “I’ll follow you.” I don’t even know what that means. I automate my Tweet. I wrote my Tweets two years ago. I update it every once in a while but that’s not a good judge. You can’t look at the number of likes and the number of– you’ve got to read. Like PetsWell as an example. You guys have references, do you not?
Patrick: Yes.
Clay: So, if I say,”I’m looking to go get some organic dog food for my dog. Some human-grade dog food at petswellantry.com”Is that right?
Lien: Yes.
Clay: So if I want to do that and I go,”I don’t know. If I serve this human-grade food to my dog, will it die? Will it die? Is this real food?” You could give me references and I could call this?
Lien: Yes.
Clay: That’s a thing. You want to do references. What would be maybe something else you would run it through your– to make sure we’re not getting– I would say, at least three references. What else would you recommend?
Dr. Robert:: Yes, at least three. Maybe even more than that because references are something that are pretty easily– they should have a whole list of references. I would definitely look at that and I would double check those to make sure they weren’t the guy’s aunt or uncle or Billy’s nephew, you know?
Clay: Yes. This is the next move I would do, Thrivers. I would look at the fruit of their life.
Dr. Robert:: You got to look at the results. Tell you what? Business coaching and helping people out and trying to take someone’s business from A to point B is all about results.
Clay: Or from A to Z.
Dr. Robert:: A to Z, there you go.
Clay: [laughs] You said it there.
Dr. Robert:: Just like search engine optimization. If his clients aren’t at the top of Google, he doesn’t know what he’s doing about search engine optimization.
Clay: Why don’t you google ‘Tulsa cookies’ right now? Go ahead and google. Thrivers, google ‘Tulsa cookies’, who comes up top? A Thriver, barbeecookies.com.
Dr. Robert:: Great cookies.
Clay: Stay tuned, thrivetimeshow.com, poof.
[pause 00:31:26]
Clay: All right, Thriver Nation, welcome back into the conversation. Many of you are wanting to know,”What has this guy so pumped up?”
Dr. Robert:: What has you so pumped up, man? Man, you’re fired up today. It’s Thursday.
Clay: Here’s the deal, bro. Bro, 16 years ago, I remember I walked in– I’m 36 now so this would be 18 years ago. I’m walking into your lobby and I looked at the you and I looked at your business, and I thought,”That’s where I want to be.” I remember that going,”I want to do that. Maybe an optometrist? No, I want to build a successful company.” So I asked at the time– I think her name was Kylie. I know Kyle works with you, I think it was Kylie who I asked.
Dr. Robert:: Yes.
Clay: I said,”I’d like to meet Z for lunch. My wife works here, I’d like to meet.” She goes,”I’ll try to schedule it.” And I know there’s like 50 people a day that do this and you value your time and your time with your kids and your family, so it’s a deal. Well, it took a while. Finally, we’re–
Dr. Robert:: Dup dup, time out, timeout, timeout, timeout. You were an absolute punk.
Clay: I was.
Dr. Robert:: You were an absolute little punk. You know what? I’ll say this–
Clay: I had a subwoofer in my vehicle that you could hear when I pull up. My wife asked me to turn it off because your customers would comment. I would pull up and go, “[makes explosion noise].”
Dr. Robert:: You looked like a bad version of Eminem. You had oversized clothes, hoop earrings, you had a bad attitude, and you just skulked around there like you were looking for a fight. I can’t believe how much you’ve changed. I am so proud of you, by the way.
Clay: [laughs]
Dr. Robert:: You have gone from a skulky little bratty teenager–
Clay: Jackassery.
Dr. Robert:: [laughs] You went from that to the best business coach I know in the world.
Clay: The thing is, I walk in there and I remember when I pulled up and Vanessa’s like,”Could you turn off the subwoofer when you pick me up? It’s embarrassing.” It was like, “[makes subwoofers sound]. It’s like Method Man, like, [singing] “Shimmy shimmy ya, Shimmy yam shimmy ya.”
Dr. Robert:: Yes, just nasty stuff.
Clay: People are like,”Cover your ears.”
Dr. Robert:: “He’s back.”
Clay: You were losing customers probably from this.
Dr. Robert:: The thing about it is we saw you skulking around the office for days because you would show up to pick her up. You guys had one vehicle, and so you guys would do the ride share stuff. You’d get there early because you wanted to check things out, right?
Clay: Yes.
Dr. Robert:: We’re like,”Who is that guy?” Finally, someone said, [whispers] “That’s Vanessa’s husband.” I’m like,”No way.”
Clay: So here’s the deal, I met with you over lunch, and after I met you for lunch, I found you liked croutons, we went to Ruby Tuesdays, you educated me about many things. I realized,”This man knows a lot.” The next guy I met was about a year later. For breakfast, I met Mr. Chet Cadieux who is the president of QuikTrip.
Dr. Robert:: Yes. Big deal.
Clay: He introduced me to the book that’s on your table there called The Service Profit Chain which is how to build a linear repeatable business system and I’m like, [whispers] “Oh, I know what to do.” Z taught me– then I reached out to Sean Copeland, one of our sponsors.
Dr. Robert:: Yes, great guy.
Clay: Regent Bank, CEO.
Dr. Robert:: CEO of Regent Bank, yes.
Clay: And all of a sudden, there’s people like that and then there’s the David Robinsons who are in our life. These mentors, these people who know what they’re doing. It became a thing where I would go,”Okay, I now know what I need to do to get there, but I got kicked out of college, I don’t have a degree, and I have no discernible skills. I got to wear a suit.”
Dr. Robert:: Oh, yes. You know what? Just here recently, you’ve made the transition from suit-boy to now Tom Brady Esquire, Belichick Esquire.
Clay: It’s like I’m trying to get a precious– it’s like I’m trying to dig Californium out of the center of the Earth’s core. That’s how difficult it is. It’s like it’s impossible. But I’ve ordered these embroidered sweatshirts, they’re going to be the same colors as the New England Patriots. You can see the [unintelligible 00:34:49] look at that, it’s going to be better.
Dr. Robert:: I know. Oh, I know.
Clay: Like the Honey Badger swag going.
Dr. Robert:: I know. It’s very Patri-esque.
Clay: Yes. The thing was, you and I spent millions of dollars building this facility, building the thrive15.com platform and I made a certain goal. I said,”Once we get to a certain number of people that we’re helping, I’m going to switch out of the suit to never go back.”
Dr. Robert:: You did it and that’s awesome. You know what, it’s so fun to see the development that you went through in life, and now to know that your heart is, is to help other people go through that same development. One of the things we love to do here on Thrive Time Show is bring successful, burgeoning entrepreneurs and we’ve got a couple gathered here right now.
Clay: We have a couple gathered here and we’re going to ask them the question because a lot of Thrivers are going, “Okay, I know I need a business coach, I need an expert, I need help. Maybe I need an accountant, I need a lawyer” but you know enough to know you need help. And the question is how do you know if the person you’re reaching out to is the right fit? Or how do you know if you need some help?
I want to ask you, Lien, the question, what advice would you have for any start-up out there? Who’s just overwhelmed, they go,”I need a website. I need a business card. I need an accountant. I need pricing. Oh, I just don’t know where to start.”? What advice would you have for someone who’s feeling that feeling?
Lien: It is overwhelming to start a new business. I highly recommend surrounding yourself with very, very talented, smart people who have gone through– they’re business owners themselves so, like-minded people to help guide you. That’s the things that I’ve done, is reach out to. Kitchen 66 is one of my mentors.
Dr. Robert:: Kitchen 66, what’s that?
Lien: They are our business mentors. A local kitchen incubator which really helps the local foodies get their ideas and food and business ideas.
Dr. Robert:: That’s Kitchen 66.
Lien: Kitchen 66, that is where we handcraft all our fresh, wholesome products.
Clay: I want to ask you this, Patrick, for somebody listening right now who’s going,”Man, I started a business and now uh-oh, I’m feeling overwhelmed”, what advice would you have? Because you guys are building this business petswellpantry.com. You’re serving human-grade organic pet food. Awesome stuff, people love it. You’re past the start-up and you’re into that running phase here. What advice would you have for someone that is looking for that mentorship?
Patrick: I would just say take it one step at a time and see what’s most important to your business and go after that. Find somebody who’s the strongest in that skill and surround yourself with them.
Clay: Here’s what I would encourage everyone to do right now. This is an action item I want you to do, I want you to get out a piece of paper. I want you to write this down. This is big.
Dr. Robert:: All right, paper out.
Clay: You need to take one hour a day every day. You need to schedule it right now. One hour a day every day to be totally uninterrupted. No calls, no updates, no cell phones, no emails, and I want you to think about your life and contrast it from where you are to where you want to be. You need to do this every day.
Dr. Robert:: Wait, wait, timeout, timeout. What if I get a big Facebook alert?
Clay: You have to turn that off. Turn those notifications off. You got to be–
Dr. Robert:: Woah, woah, woah. My friend’s out of the state and I think he’s posting really cool Instagram pictures. You’re telling me I got to wait an hour to like that?
Clay: Every successful person I’ve ever met has the ability– there’s two–
Dr. Robert:: I can at least Snapchat, right?
Clay: Z, there are two kinds of mindsets out there, okay?
Dr. Robert:: Okay.
Clay: You and I right now I would say it’s kind of Alpha time. We’re having some fun.
Dr. Robert:: Having some fun.
Clay: And we’re getting stuff done.
Dr. Robert:: Getting stuff done.
Clay: But the preparation needed for today’s show, the statistical research, the things we do- that requires prep time. For every hour we’re one the air, it’s about three hours of prep time for our research team, so for a two-hour show, it’s six hours.
Dr. Robert:: Right, boom.
Clay: That’s the thing. The thing is, everyone needs to block out that time to plan out your life and what you want to do, Z, is thing called the F6. It used to be F5–
Dr. Robert:: Oh, it puts a smile on my face.
Clay: I’ve changed the whole thing.
Dr. Robert:: I love it. I love it.
Clay: The journals that are on amazon.com are now F6 because of you.
Dr. Robert:: Oh, I love it.
Clay: Here are the five categories, I want you to write this down. There’s faith. What do you want to do with your faith. “Faith? Is this a faith show? I didn’t think it was a faith show, I though it was a business show. I don’t remember switching i tto the faith show.”
[background music]
Okay, it’s the faith show. It’s the Faith show with Dr. Zoellner.
Dr. Robert:: Got to have faith.
Clay: Got to have faith. George Michael, may he rest in peace.
Dr. Robert:: RIP.
Clay: Faith goals. Then your family.
Dr. Robert:: Your family, Got a family, [unintelligible 00:39:14] they’ll take care of themselves.
Clay: You got to have some boundaries. You got to be intentional with the time with the kids and the family then friendships. Then you got to talk about your fitness.
Dr. Robert:: [whispers] Work out. I work out.
Clay: You do look like you work out. You got the friendships and the next thing here is your finances.
Dr. Robert:: I don’t worry about that. You just write checks, then love work out.
Clay: And this just in fun. Because you, my friend, are a big fan on scheduling time to have fun.
Dr. Robert:: Boom.
Clay: You’ve made a big impact on my life here in that regard.
[music]
Roll out the barrel, got to schedule time for fun. If you don’t take the time every morning to look at your life, you’re going to drift and all of a sudden you’re like,”Oh, no, how have we got here? How did we get here?”
Dr. Robert:: Clay, one of the things we’re going to teach in our in-person workshop which is actually tomorrow, the 20th and the day after the 21st.
Friday and Saturday, starting seven o’clock, right here at Thrive 15 headquarters.
Clay: I’m on Thrive Time, I’m going on my– Do I have to go on Google to do this? Do I have to be on the internet?
Dr. Robert:: One of the core things we teach here is time management. Time management all deals with you’re not going to get something done unless it gets on your schedule. What does that mean?
Clay: I don’t really know what you’re talking about. Are you talking about a schedule?
Dr. Robert:: We talk about there’s Mondays, there’s Tuesdays, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturdays, and Sundays but there’s not Somedays.
Clay: [coughs]
Dr. Robert:: Yes, I know, that got you. I don’t often get into big quite so that was a powerful one right there. That was a powerful shock right there folks. What that means is a lot of people go, “I’m going to do that someday.” But you know, someday is not a day in the week. What we teach people is how to be in control of your schedule. It’s kind of like your finances. If you don’t have a budget, if you don’t tell your money where to go, then it’s just going to say–
Clay: I continue to get very emotional during this segment. I love you so much.
Dr. Robert:: Are you okay, come over there — I’m not a real doctor but I can probably save your life, I’m not sure.
Clay: I don’t know as an optometrist, you could see my eyes are watering right now, what is causing this? As an optometrist, tell me.
Dr. Robert:: It’s just a very emotional topic to you.
Clay: All right. Now, Thrivers, check it out though. You’ve got to block out time. Every single day, look at your life in contrast where you are versus where you want to be. Because if not you’re going to drift. The second move, once you begin to do that, you must schedule the things that have to happen as Z mentioned. When we get back, we’re going to talk to you specifically about the things– we’re going to teach you specifically the things that a business coach will teach you that you need to do. We’re going to talk about, if you hire a business coach, what are they going to teach you? Z, I’m going to keep coughing, you just take over for a second, I am going to go try kill myself.
Dr. Robert:: I tell you what, if you’re listening right now, Lien and Patrick said some powerful things. That is that you have to find people that have a passion and knowledge to help you in your business. Guess what? We have the perfect answer for you. It’s thrive15.com. I think we have to save his life [unintelligible 00:42:01] take it. Good thing we’re going on commercial because hopefully when we come back, Clay will still be with us. Because he’s kind of a big deal.
Clay: Z, help, help.
Dr. Robert:: Thrive Time Show, back in a moment.
[pause 00:42:14]
Clay: All right Thrive nation, specifically if you’re in Tennessee right now, how are you doing, Tennessee? Tennessee has tuned in.
Dr. Robert:: Oh, Chattanooga.
Clay: If you’re in Bentonville, Arkansas, how are you doing? You’re in Tulsa, Oklahoma, how are you doing? And if you are in Illinois, we’re coming up there soon. By the way, for the people who are listening in 58 countries, according to our last podcast stats, 58 countries, we are so honored to be here with you. It’s a dream Z and I have had.
One of the issues you have, once you have some success, people will reach out to you and say, “Can I pick your brain?” You have two options, either one, you could say, “No, because I am very busy, I prioritize my life and so therefore I say no.” Which is by the way what I’ve done. Or you could say, “Yes, I could probably help you but maybe call me back in February.” Because we’re always booked out.
You have never done business coaching because you’re outgrowing your businesses. I’ve been growing my businesses and about three years ago, it just all started to hit. So many people were reaching out. We built an online school then people kept asking for one-on-one. They ask for in-person workshops. Here we are and we’re talking today about when do you know you need a business coach? That’s the core idea.
I have a list here and I’m going to go over the list of the 13 aspects of what a business coach will teach you. This is what we’re going to be covering at the workshop. I’m going to go through them, it’s kind of fast. It’s 13 points but it’s going to be like a rapid fire where it’s like I’m going to bring it up and you give me a little bit of– here we go.
Dr. Robert:: Okay, dear.
Clay: One, your business coach must help you establish revenue goals.
Dr. Robert:: If you don’t have a revenue goal, how much do you need to be able to do the things that you want to do? And then therefore, you break it down even smaller than that. You break it down to every widget. So how many widgets do I have to sell? How much do I have to make per widget? How much does it cost to make per widget? There’s a lot to that but you have to know what your final goal is. What do you need to be able to make a living and to do the things that you want to do. Step one.
Clay: I want to ask you, Lien. Because you’ve obviously built petswellpantry.com, a wonderful website that serves the organic human grade pet food. I want to ask you this, people love the food that you are making, they kept asking you to make pet food for their dogs. How long did it take you to figure out the numbers? Where you said, okay, this is how much I need to charge and this is, maybe, how many customers I need. How long of a process did that take you to figure that out?
Lien: I would say it probably took close to six months to kind of figure out the nuts and bolts of it because there was a lot of different costs. Kitchen costs, product costs and then employee cost on top of that. And then finding the experts to help me nail down the unit per cost, that’s very important.
Clay: I will say you went pretty fast. Six months is pretty fast. I would say, a lot of business owners– I know people who have been in business for eight years, nine years, barely making it, Z. Barely making it and no one’s ever sat down and gone over the numbers with them. So this is big. Kudos to you and if you’re listening right now, a coach should help you with this.
Dr. Robert:: The only reason why you go eight years without asking that question, without going to that workflow, if you will, of getting that answer is because you didn’t know how to ask it.
Clay: And I will also say- I call this the thermometer theory. Are you ready for this?
Dr. Robert:: Yes, sir.
Clay: If you’re a thermostat- so I’m a thermostat. This is a stereotypical. I know I’m kind of a sexist but work with me. I assume that if you’re listening right now, you’re a woman, you’re slightly cold all the time. I assume if you’re a man, you’re always hot. These are assumptions I make. These are broad generalizations, patterns I’ve noticed over time. What happens is, a man- this is me. My man cave is always 60 degrees.
Dr. Robert:: Fahrenheit.
Clay: And I wear one of those Clark Griswold hats when I’m in there. It’s like a stocking cap with the ear muffs.
Dr. Robert:: Well, you have to insist.
Clay: I’ll go in there and if I walk in it’s almost like breath seeing weather, I am concerned. I walk in there in their day and I am going, “[makes sound]” in my monkey brain is, “Wooho huhuhu. Someone has touched my thermostat, it’s not so good.” I go in there, “Babe, somebody has been in my room. And my wife goes, no, it’s been–“
I start looking around, I notice someone’s touched my stapler. Then Scarlet is like, “I did, my daughter she’s six year old. I did go in there.” And I’m like, this has to stop. But the temperature was adjusted and I felt it being uncomfortable because it was like something outrageous, like 64.
Dr. Robert:: Yes, something crazy.
Clay: I’m like, “This is not acceptable.” But my normal was adjusted. Now, walk with me, if you’re a business owner and your used to just surviving-
Dr. Robert:: Yes, just we’ve been paying bills, month to month.
Clay: – that’s your normal. You’re just used to be in 107 degrees in your living room. I use that example because my wife and I, we literally live in an apartment without air conditioning and I remember my friend came over, Josh Gothman, and Josh goes, “Hey, Clay, I got a question. And Josh was rude. He’s older than me. He’s a good friend of mine. He’s rude and say candid stuff only friends can say.
Josh goes, “Hey, why does your house smell like cat pee?” And I’m like, “Yes, because we have a cat that pees.” He’s like, “No, why is it 107 in here?” And I go, “It is a combination of being 107 and having cat pee.” And he says, “Why are all your wedding candles melting?” I go, “You’re not selling any DJ stuff, are you? And I’m like–
Dr. Robert:: No, but I got a great yellow page ad.
[laughter]
Clay: What I’m just saying is the coach will help you adjust your normal, that will help you realize, hey, this isn’t normal, man. Eight out of 10 businesses fail but that’s not good.
Dr. Robert:: You did pitch your thermostat, your temperature control thing. You tease me with that.
Clay: The coach is going to help you realize– listen, a coach is not going to come in there and just say, “A thermometer says this is what the temperature is.” It’s going to come any others. This is what accountants typically do. Well, I’m looking at your numbers basically you owe a lot of money in taxes. You’re getting behind. Thank you, Mr. Thermometer.
Dr. Robert:: Yes, I know that.
Clay: But a thermostat can adjust the temperature.
Dr. Robert:: There you go. That’s the bada boom, the bang. The business coach, they are the thermostat. They help you adjust the temperature where I’ll be able just to come in and you may already know, it’s cold in here, it’s hot in here, you know that.
Clay: The next move here, this the business coach teaches you. They will help you establish the number of customers you need to break even and to achieve financial and time freedom. Time freedom. They’re going to say, “Hey, homie, this is how many things you need to sell to achieve time freedom. Z, what is time freedom all about?
Dr. Robert:: Time freedom is being able to wake up and say what do I want to do today? On certain days. Time freedom is having then all of a sudden time start to work for you. It’s not that I have to do, it’s I want to do.
Clay: You do this all the time, by the way. I want to go to Guatemala today. You say these things.
Dr. Robert:: Yes. Because you’ve worked your way into that situation. That’s the goal of having a business. We’re not here to try to teach you how to get a job.
Clay: Job?
Dr. Robert:: We’re not here to do that. We’re here to try and free up time and how to free up your checkbook to where you can buy the stuff you want to do or give the money where you want to give it to and then have the time freedom to go do the things you want to do. That’s the whole thing about a successful business. That’s the end game in having a successful business, Clay.
Clay: I don’t want get too bromantic with you.
Dr. Robert:: Oh, there we go.
Clay: But I’m going to tell you this, there’s something beautiful about your time freedom. The thing about it is, when you walk into a room, whenever the heck you want to, and you say stuff, I say, “Z, how are you doing? And you say, “I’m doing fine.” I say, “Where did you just come back from? Where were you yesterday?” And you go, “I was in Guatemala.” I’m like, “Guatemala? He sounds like Guatemala.” I go, “Guatemala”
Dr. Robert: That’s like a whole another country.
Clay: I go, “Wait a minute. But last week, you were in Kentucky which is not near Guatemala.” I said, “What did you do this weekend?” and you said, “I went to a Vikings game.” I went, “Do they played at home in Minnesota?”
Dr. Robert: Minnesota.
Clay: Where it’s so colder. I say, “Z, I am a brother from Minnesota. How could you possibly have been there?” You say, “Because I have enough time freedom.” “Well, I just don’t care.”
Clay: Something romantic about that.
Dr. Robert: Very bromantic about it and it’s fine that’s what we’re all aspiring to it. People see me in my lifestyle now and they go, “That’s what I want.” Well, there’s a lot of steps to get there and there’s a lot of little things you need to do to get there, and you have to be purposeful in doing that. That’s what good business coaching does and helps you with because all of a sudden you go, “That’s what I need to do.” Then now, it’s up to you to do it because there’s a little bridge. There’s a little bridge you got to walk across.
Clay: Yes.
Dr. Robert: That bridge is —
Clay: The bridge is discipline. You got to have the discipline. If you don’t have the discipline and the execution, you’re not going to get there. That’s why I have it on the sleeve here of my sweatshirt here.
Dr. Robert: I love that.
Clay: The freedom equals discipline. You cannot be free with — freedom is not free. You have to be disciplined.
Dr. Robert: Step one, step one is seeking out the information, and you may say, “I don’t even know what information I’m seeking out.” Well, we know that, okay. Step two is having the discipline to walk across that bridge-
Clay: Where there’s a whip, there’s a way.
Dr. Robert: – to then do the stuff. You know what? If you’re not purposeful about it, if you’re not using the time management skills that we teach you in our in-person workshops on our websites thrive15.com, then you might save yourself. “I don’t have the time. I can’t do it. That’s impossible, that’s crazy.” You’ve just collapse.
Clay: I don’t have the time, Z, because at Oswald’s bagels, I personally make every bagel. I inspect every bagel I have to get. I procure all the bagel, elements, all the ingredients. I am the Bagel King. Everything that happens at Oswald’s happens by me because I am Oswald and it is Oswald’s bagels. For 407 years, my family has been doing this but it previously it wasn’t called Oswald’s. It was called Oswald Senior, which was my father’s father who — but there’s a lot of people who have that mindset.
Dr. Robert: They do have that mindset, and I tell you what. Then a lot of times business coaching is encouraging you and holding you accountable-
Clay: Accountable.
Dr. Robert: – for the things that you’re supposed to get done. That’s why a lot of our Thrivers out there have been wanting one-on-one business coaching which is really, “Hey, where are you? Okay. Where do you want to be? Okay. Here are the steps to get there, okay.” Now, I’m going to hold you accountable for doing those steps, and that’s really what business coaching is about. Belichick, he puts out the play and then holds the players responsible for doing the things.
Clay: If you get a chance to go on YouTube and watch Belichick? Just type in the word “Do your job” and then “Belichick yelling.” He sits there and one of his pep talks to his linemen was, “Do your job, just do your job. Just, just do your job.” They’re like, “I think he wants us to do our job.”
Dr. Robert: I think we’re supposed to do our job.
Clay: [laughs] Exactly. I think that’s what he was trying to say.
Dr. Robert: Yes.
Clay: We have somebody very special in the Box that rocks. We have two special somebody’s inside the box that rocks. If you’re watching on Facebook Live, you’re really in for a visual treat because we have Mr. Patrick, the operations manager for PetsWell and Miss Lien she is the founder of PetsWell. I want to say, Lien, you have a lot of customers in Tulsa who they’re struggling to afford human-grade food for humans. They don’t have a business. They don’t have a job. They’re just trying to learn these skills.
But then once people earn the income and they have a business or maybe have a little bit of discretionary income, they start to want to take care of their dog and treat the dog right to make sure their dog lives a long time and is fed well, and they go to PetsWell. Talk to me about, who are the ideal and likely buyers? What kinds of people have enough financial freedom to enjoy the PetsWell Pantry products of human-grade organic pet food?
Lien: Well, obviously the first customers are my healthy fitness customers. They’re already eating organic.
Clay: Okay.
Lien: Fitness people. Actually, our product is also intended to be added to a premium kibble It is affordable for everyone.
Clay: It’s affordable for everybody.
Lien: It’s affordable for everyone.
Clay: I have a poodle right now.
Lien: You can take part of our food and add it to your premium kibble that you’re feeding the poodle. We have customers, that’s all they feed is PetsWell’s food. Then we have clients that supplement it. It is affordable for everyone.
Clay: Now Patrick, be real with me. You’re the operations manager. Be real. I hate to throw you into the bus, but I want — Here comes the bus. Here we go, the bus. Would you actually eat the human grade pet food yourself?
Patrick: I do and I would.
Clay: You do and you would.
Patrick: Yes.
Clay: You do, often?
Dr. Robert: You’re like a taste tester? What does that mean? Explain.
Patrick: Time for dinner, I’ll take a little spoonful because it’s pretty good. Then a treat for her, a treat for me. It’s blueberries, banana, and Oates. Well, you can’t go wrong there.
Clay: I don’t know if I can handle the profundity of what you just said and I’m going to — Z, did you hear what I just said? He says he does often. He’s not only the COO, he’s like the human tester of the human-grade food.
Dr. Robert: He is a taste tester. I guess that’s kind of nice. He sits there and you can — You know what, you and your dog can have a share a bowl of PetsWell organic human-grade food and watch a movie together or something.
Clay: This might sound weird and make you feel uncomfortable there Patrick. But you’re eating that human-grade pets food there that you can find exclusively at petswellpantry.com, again petswellpantry.com, and you’re looking good. You look like you’re eating human-grade organic food. Doesn’t he look good? Is he a good looking man?
Dr. Robert: Yes. Yes. Yes, yes. Llike he’s going to Whole Foods every day.
Clay: Wow. I mean it’s like, wow.
Dr. Robert: Just the move. It’s the move.
Clay: I thought you were living exclusively off of organic kale. We just sold a ticket. I don’t know if we’re sold out now, but that might be a thing we’ll see.
Dr. Robert: We could be sold out, but you know what? There’s next month.
Clay: If you get here Thrivers, you’re going to go, “How long if you guys have these desk?” We’re literally building desks right now to keep up with the demand. We don’t want to turn anybody away but go to thrivetimeshow.com if you want to attend tomorrow’s two-day workshop.
All right, thrive nation. Welcome back into the conversation. We’re going to teach you that practical education that you need to learn to start or grow a successful business. You know Thomas Edison? Google this “Thomas Edison” The guy who invented recorded audio, recorded video, the light bulb. He started GE. Someone says, “He stole it from Tulsa, he did. I watched a documentary.” Fine, but he made us over a thousand patterns of things that maybe he also stole from Telsa, but he did pretty well.
Thomas Edison, he says this, “Vision without execution is hallucination.” Once you say, “I don’t want to hallucinate anymore. I want to get it done.” You’re going to need to eventually have a business consultant or business coach that’s going to help you grow that business, turn that business into reality and we’re going through the 13-point checklist of all the things that a business coach should teach you.
We’re going to go through step number four. A business coach should teach you how to determine your unique, value proposition, AKA what do you do differently, AKA the purple cow if your a Seth golden fan, AKA you got to explain to the planet what you do differently. Z, why do people have to be able to explain,“Hey, this is how I do it differently than another optometrist”? Why is this so important?
Dr. Robert: Well, because I tell you what, you have to differentiate yourself. I love Seth Godin’s book The Purple Cow. With that is you’re driving down the road and your kids are [unintelligible 0:07:38], “Look at the cows.” They’re in the back seat goes, “Mooo.” Then all of a sudden they go, “Oh my gosh what’s that over there?” It’s a purple cow stands out in the pasture. Of course, you’re going to stand out because there’s no such thing as a purple cow. Some dudes have been out there to spray paint.
But it was funny because I asked Sean Kouplen that very question a couple of years ago. Sean Kouplen is the CEO of Regent Ban, and we were starting to come up with some marketing ideas.
Clay: Some marketing moves.
Dr. Robert: He said that “We’re different. We’re better.”
Clay: We’re better?
Dr. Robert: “Regent bank is better than all the other banks.” I said, “Okay, all right. Easily said but in what way?” He sat there and he goes, “Well, that’s a good question.” Then he started to list off the ways, “Well, we have our unique and likely customers business startups or small businesses. We have a sub–bank that just deals on healthcare, doctors and dentists and optometrists. Just deals on healthcare professionals and we process our loans faster.”
Clay: Faster.
Dr. Robert: “We do more the SBA’s with small business guys.” That’s kind of our niche. That’s what we do. Some of the things we don’t do as well as other banks, but that’s kind of our niche is the business side of it, so if you’re a local business, you’re a to start up business and you say, “I’m looking for a bank. I’m looking for a loan. I’m looking for capital, Regent Bank will be your huckleberry.
Clay: Now, here is the deal Thrivers, if you say, “I don’t know what makes my business different.” Your business coach can help you do that. If you have a business coach that cannot help you do that, please run for the hills but you’ve got to differentiate yourself in the market. The next thing is step number five. You have to improve your branding.
I know that Lien is fastidious about this. I’ve got a chance to see her process and how she works and how she — The word fastidious. So many times if you’re a woman — I mean this with all due respect. If you are a woman and you’re fastidious, you get labeled as being a difficult human. Do you not get told that you’re — If you have standards and you are a woman, if you’re a man it’s like, “Well, he’s just an alpha male.” But if you’re a woman —
Dr. Robert: He’s driven. He’s driven.
Clay: He’s driven. He’s driven. He’s very driven.
Dr. Robert: He’s a doer.
Clay: But for women, you’re acwoman entrepreneur and you know what you want and you know how your branding needs to be, talk to me about how challenging it can be to get the brand where you want it to be or to clarify what you see in your mind’s eye and to turn it actually into what you now see it petswellpantry.com?
Lien: Well, stage one is not very pretty and that’s the one when you first start your branding and you just learn it’s discovery throughout all the stages. But D2 Branding has been an integral part and helping us get our logo and new branding and colors and things that really help us get our product out there, and it really defines the freshness of it. So that’s been a real big plus.
Clay: I find that a lot of entrepreneurs, Z, they say, “I want to get my branding done,” and that was like two years ago we talked about it. Two years ago.
Clay: I know this sounds crazy and this is a weird conversation. We’ve never had this conversation. I’m obsessed with my own death.
Dr. Robert: Oh, okay. You mean like a —
Clay: I am. I think about my death daily.
Dr. Robert: Well, I did not know that.
Clay: I do, all the time. I’m always thinking about it, and I think this is what helps me a lot.
Dr. Robert: You know why I don’t think about that? Because I made a plan to live forever and so far it’s working.
Clay: That is very true. To this point —
Dr. Robert: You can’t question my technique so far.
Clay: I’m going to Thrivers a notable quotable. It stuck out to me because at one time I thought, “You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to read all the Benjamin Franklin I can read,” because this guy invented the bifocals, the Franklin Stove.
Dr. Robert: He brought the first skullet, just call it what it is. He brought the skullet.
Clay: That’s a super-modified mullet, by the way.
Dr. Robert: Yes. You’re bald on top and the mullet at the back. He was all business up front.
Clay: All business up front.
Dr. Robert: But you know he was a lot of party in the back.
Clay: Party in the back.
Dr. Robert: Pull out a hundred dollar bill if you don’t believe me.
Clay: Here’s the deal about Benjamin Franklin though, I’m not kidding, that guy he did the bifocals. He did the Franklin Stove. He helped it harness electrical power. By the way, he’s the one who worked with the French to get the money we needed to fight, and then —
Dr. Robert: Merci Beaucoup.
Clay: There’s so many things that — but anyway, Benjamin Franklin, he says this, “Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75.”
Dr. Robert: Ooh, that’s deep.
Clay: So, what I discovered for me was growing up or being around financial limitations, I remember my Dad –I loved my dad and my dad passed away recently of ALS and, “Dad, may you rest in peace and I hope you enjoy this story up there,” but here’s the thing is that my dad used to say, “Let’s go to the Giants. Let’s go see the Giants play at Candlestick Park. The San Francisco Giants let’s go there.”
Dr. Robert: Okay. Your baseball team.
Clay: I was like, “Okay, let’s go,” and then he’d say, “Let’s go.” He says, “We’re gonna go,” and I say, “Let’s go, let’s do it.” He says, “That’s what we’re gonna do.” This conversation happened until I was eighteen and moving out of the house and then I realized I’m going.
Dr. Robert: You’re going. You’re going to do it.
Clay: I’m going. So I’ve been to Candlestick Park.
Dr. Robert: Boom.
Clay: I remember as a kid going, “Hey, we’re gonna do this,” and I said I’m doing that. I’m just telling you at the age of 36, there’s really no business goals I haven’t achieved. I’m sort of done and the idea with the Thrive workshops is that it is my favorite thing to do to help other people start and grow a successful business and to turn their ‘someday’ into ‘today.’
That’s our whole point of our workshops and that’s why I get pumped up because it’s honestly, that’s my whole thing. It’s like, “You can do it. This is your year. You’ve got the talent,.”
Dr. Robert: 2017 is your year.
Clay: The tools, you got it baby.” If you’re upset, who’s the president, guess what? You’ve had eight years of the other guy and you’ve got four years of the other guy. It doesn’t matter, this is your time. You can do it. Let stop being[unintelligible 01:03:19] let’s go do it.
Dr. Robert: I will challenge you. Let’s have a fight tonight.
Clay: Let’s fight.
Dr. Robert: I want to have a fight, because you do have one more business code.
Clay: What’s that?
Dr. Robert: You haven’t checked out completely your business goals. You want to mentor millions. That’s what you sold me on a couple of or three years ago.
Clay: Yes. I will say this, that is a goal that to me is bigger than the business. It’s so big, it’s my all consuming, it’s my mission. For me in personally.
Dr. Robert: You flipped that around nice. Nice flip around, nice flip around.
Clay: No. It’s my mission, that’s my mission, that’s my whole thing. I’m serious. That’s my whole thing. I tell you what, that’s my whole focus.
Dr. Robert: Houston mission take off. We got Clay Clark getting ready to orbit.
Clay: Attention passengers, we’re going to be [crosstalk]
Dr. Robert: [crosstalk] mentoring millions. Houston, okay.
Clay: Attention passengers, somebody has taken over the microphones. I will tell you that we’re going to be serving nice form glasses of shut the “beep” up in just a second if anybody wants to — [laughs] Here’s the thing is, I’m just saying, once you are doing what you are meant to do and you know it, when you know you are physically where you need to be doing what you need to do with the people you want to do it with, it is awesome. I woke up today, I literally laid in bed and I waited, I waited to wake up. I remember going, I woke up at one and then two, and I’m like, “I can’t wait.” I’m trying to sleep six and a half hours.
Dr. Robert: I’ll tell you what, if you’re not going to be at this in-person workshop tomorrow, I’ll tell you what. I’ve known Clay for quite a while and this man is fired up to start off the first in-person workshop of this year. Because there’s always — kind of you’re juices are flowing. You’ve gone through the holidays. You’ve had some apple pie and pumpkin pie, some candy and you’re fired up for the year. Folks, I’m telling you, you better be here tomorrow. He is fired up.
Clay: Control your destiny or someone else will. Jack Welch, ThriveTimeShow.com
[pause 01:05:08]
Clay: All right. Welcome back to Talk Radio 1170. We’re playing some Michael Jack and in fact we’re back. No, just kidding. It’s the Thrive Time Show on your radio. My name is Clay Clark and I’m here with Dr Zoellner for sho. We’re talking about when do you need a business coach and we’re going through the checklist. We’re going through the moves and one of them is your step six.
Your Business Coach — you know you need a business coach and you say ‘I need a business coach, but what will my business coach do? Well, your business coach should do the sixth step. They should help you create a three-legged marketing stool. Dr. Z, what are we talking about? Is this a furniture show? Three-legged marketing stool. Am I reading this right? What is a three-legged marketing stool?
Dr. Robert: There’s an old saying that “You don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” What that means is that whatever you are advertising budget is, you divide that between three advertising sources and if you an picture a stool if it has one leg it’s hard to balance [crosstalk]-
Clay: Kind of a mono-pod sort of a deal.
Dr. Robert: – kind of a thing. If you have two, it’s even more so. But three, now all of a sudden it’s stabilized and what the idea is, is that at least with three legs, we have a chance of spending our money, catching the most ideal and likely buyers, getting our message out in front of them. Now, we got to work on our message to make sure it has the call to action and then we have a ‘no brainer’ and all that will get to in a second. But the point is that we encourage here at ThriveFifteen.com three.
Clay: Three.
Dr. Robert: Three. We think the three is, one, you may bomb one, one may be okay, and one fires off and you know what? By three, we are spreading our money. We are spreading our choices and that’s good.
Clay: You know Z, when you said three it reminds me of the word triple.
Dr. Robert: That makes sense because triple is —
Clay: Or L-trace, you know what I mean? I have all different ways I could say it but the three reminds me of triple.
Dr. Robert: Well, yeah, because those are the same way of saying three. I can see why you do that.
Clay: I want to ask you though here. We have incredible guests on the show today. The people who make PetswellPantry.com happen. It is human-grade organic pet food. It’s awesome stuff. Lien the founder, you are on the show and I want to ask you Lien, how do you typically get most of your customers now, first time customers? How do you attract the new people who go, “Oh my gosh, I didn’t realize that there was such a thing. Human-grade organic pet food”? How do you get your business?
Lien: Well, we run the food truck a lot in food festivals so we meet a lot of face-to-face customers, a lot of referrals. Currently, we have a subscription model and we have customers that are repeats every two weeks or every four weeks and they want their food delivered to their front steps and that’s what we do best.
Clay: Thrivers, if you want to know how to get customers, I’m going to walk you through right now how to do it. I’m going to tell you how to it, these are moves. If you’re going, “I don’t know what to do,” at the conference, we’ll go through all the moves and there’s by the way 220 downloadables you get to keep. There’s a workbook. It’s fifteen hours. I don’t take breaks so during lunch you can ask me questions too, it’s awesome.
The move number one is you have got to do some search engine domination. You have just got to be all over the Google. “I don’t use Google. I hear people don’t even use it.” What are you like an end-times prepper? Are you Amish? What are you doing? I mean people are using Google so you have got to use Google. I’d say this, everyone uses Google unless they’re the kind of people who are making their own soap. Then that’s not your market, so that’s the thing.
The second move is the Dream 100. You got to make a list of your hundred ideal and likely buyers and go get them. The third is you have got to find some sort of — all these moves have to be turnkey, some sort of mailing or automated — there has got to be some way where you are pelting the market with online ads or mailers, but everything has to be turnkey, meaning that it can work without your direct involvement and time. Otherwise, your are exchanging your time for money and thus you will not build a scale-able business.
So we move on to move number seven. Move number seven, you must create a sales conversion system. Z, there’s got to be a conversion. When you call Dr. Robert Zoellner and Associates I have noticed a disturbing pattern. Z, I’m going to call you out, are you ready for this?
Dr. Robert: Yes, sir.
Clay: I’ve noticed that you don’t answer the phone.
Clay: Z, you don’t answer the —
Dr. Robert: Good timing.
Clay: I’m sorry the over the station call. Let me just one more time, I have to hit this. This is my favorite button.
Dr. Robert: Okay.
Clay: This is just in Thrivers, this is just in. Dr. Z does not answer the phone at Dr. Robert Zoellner and Associates.
[music]
What do you say to that, sir?
Dr. Robert: Well, I say to that, I’m glad I don’t have to. You know what? Every now and then — back in the day, I used to just for the fun of it, I would do it. But here is the thing is that you have to scale that up. You have to hire someone to do those things and then you have to have a system in place. You know what you have to do?
Clay: What do you have to do?
Dr. Robert: You have to write it down.
Clay: A script?
Dr. Robert: You have to script it out what you want them —
Clay: My business is so different. I’m a neurologist you could never possibly script my phone.
Dr. Robert: There’s basic conversations. There’s basic things that you say that you want them to script out. Why? Because you want them to say the same every single time. You might save yourself. Well, they’re smart people I can just tell what to say and they’re gonna remember it. It’s not the way life works.
Clay: I’m going to list up all the industries real quick that I’ve made scripts for you. Are you ready?
Dr. Robert: Okay, go ahead.
Clay: One bakeries, Dan bakeries.
Dr. Robert: Okay. We’re —
Clay: Car dealerships.
Dr. Robert: Thanks for calling Bill’s Donut.
Clay: Disc jockey service. I have not done it for a donut shop. However, there is a donut shop right now that has reached out to me, that’s a true story. I’ve done it for Elephant in the Room, that’s a men’s grooming lounge. I’ve done it for a carpet cleaning franchise. I’ve done it for a guy who sells franchises. I have done it for an aluminum manufacturer. I’ve done it for a steal — you met the metals — the steel metal building guy tonight, we’ve done that.
Dr. Robert: Yes. He seem like a really nice guy.
Clay: We’ve done it for — I go on every industry. The point is everything is scalable or it’s a hobby.
Dr. Robert: Hobby. In other words, just something you enjoy doing.
Clay: If you’re like, “I love painting pictures of cats with finger paints. It’s something I’m into it. It’s really cool because it’s therapeutic when you draw a cat with your fingers. It’s so awesome.” You’re like, “Billy, do you need a paintbrush?” “No. I just want to use my fingers. I had no one else could do it.” That’s kind of a hobby. It’s kind of a thing.
Dr. Robert: It’s kind of a weird hobby.
[laughter]
Dr. Robert: Billy?
Clay: That’s the thing with business. If your friend is at painting cats semi-professionally, this is what you need to say if their name is Billy.
Stinger: Oh, Billy.
Clay: [laughs] You just are going to have to have that talk with Billy. We move on. No offense to the finger-painting cat painters out there but we might have just —
Dr. Robert: No. No offense. Non taken by the way because I love painting cats with my fingers by the way.
Clay: Step number eight, you must determine a sustainable customer acquisition cost. How much money does it cost you to get a new customer? Z, why do you have to know that?
Dr. Robert: You have to know that because that’s part of your cost per patient. In other words, how much you have to charge for your goods and the services. Part of that which are charging for them is customer acquisition. Let’s say, it takes you $10 of advertising dollars to bring in new customer in. You’re only making $9 on the product you’re selling them. That’s not good. That’s not good.
Clay: I have a really bad story about this. Sat down with with the lady years ago. She had a business where — she won all these awards and people said, “Man, you have a great business. It’s a good business.”
Dr. Robert: Super, super business.
Clay: Vanessa, my wife, she sat down with the lady to perform she said, “Every time that you make a product, you lose about seven cents.”
Dr. Robert: That’s what — you’ve got to do the math on that.
Clay: She said, “I want to do more. I want to do more business.” Vanessa goes, “I’m just saying mathematically you will go into bankruptcy.” “I don’t feel like that. You don’t speak that over me.”
Dr. Robert: “But I’m selling more and more stuff.”
Clay: “I’m selling my passion. I’m selling my heart.” Listen to this, this is Carl Lewis singing his heart. This is a Carl Lewis, he’s an Olympic athlete.
Dr. Robert: Won a lot of medals.
Clay: He’s passionate about singing.
Dr. Robert: Passionate.
Clay: Lien, you tell me how you’re feeling. Lien’s going to judge us. The founder of PetsWell. She’s going to tell us if you’re to give them a scale on a scale of one to ten. He’s asked to sing the national anthem, he’s passionate about it. Tell me if this is good or bad is the passion, a lot of people say-
Dr. Robert: It’s going to be good.
Clay: – just because I’m passionate about it, it’s going to be a great business. Here we go.
[singing]
Lien is judging, here we go.
[singing]
[laughter]
Clay: He says, “I’ll make up for it now.” [laughs] You’re in pain — I mean on a scale of one to 10, if 10 is great, one is terrible. How did Carl Lewis do there?
Lien: Probably a three.
Clay: Probably a three. Here’s the thing is —
Dr. Robert: She’s a nice lady.
Clay: A business coach is going to sit down with you and say, “Those customer acquisition costs are not sustainable, homie. You’ve got to check yourself before you wreck yourself because if you don’t do it, you’re going to have some problems.” Here’s the deal Thrivers, we come back we’re going to get into the final things that a business coach should teach you. Go to thrivetimeshow.com. Check, check, check it out.
All right thrive nation, welcome back to the Thrive Time Show in your audio dojo of mojo where we try to teach you how to focus on building a successful business.
Our whole thing is we looked at the statistics, Dr. Z and I, we said, “Listen you and I both had businesses. They haven’t gone into bankruptcy. They’re all doing well and we realized we’ve been blessed. God’s given us a certain set of talents, a certain set of skills, a certain desire to learn more. We were blessed to be born in this country to have this opportunity.” Still many people listening right now, you unfortunately have fallen into this category or you’re about where Forbes says eight out of 10 businesses fail. Eight out of 10 and we said, “That number is entirely too high. It’s too high.”
Dr. Robert: We are going to eradicate that number. Our goal is to have 10 out of 10 succeed. That’s our heart, that’s our passion. That’s why we do the show everyday Monday to Friday from 12 to two o’clock here on AM 1170 or you can listen to it anytime you want on the thrivetimeshow.com. I tell you what, we’ve made mistakes. We’ve been mentored, we’ve learned a lot. We’ve done a lot and now we’re just passing that. We’re just conduits to pass that on to you the listeners to say, “Hey you know what because we know, According to Forbes there’s about 57% of you out there listening right now. They’re going–
Clay: I want to just start a business.
Dr. Robert: They’re talking to me. They’re talking to me.
Clay: Why are they whispering on the air while talking to me. It’s so awkward.
Dr. Robert: Talking and talking to me.
Clay: I’m trying to eat my Oklahoma Joe’s baked beans in the lobby of Regent Bank while sending a message through ZipRecruiter. That’s a shameless way to mention all of our sponsors real fast. That’s how I do that, that’s the move I do. Seriously, go to Regent Bank. Seriously go to — Z, I have a memorization technique. I’m trying to teach the Thrivers how to memorize. The name Oklahoma Joe’s?
Dr. Robert: Yes. What’s your move?
Clay: I just say it often. Oklahoma Joe’s, Oklahoma Joe’s.
Dr. Robert: You got to come up with the rap. Oklahoma Joe’s, you get baked beans in there, baked beans.
Clay: You don’t want that to happen because I really will do that and if it happens it’s going to get epic. Here we go Thrivers, now we’re getting now. We’re moving to step number nine. Step number nine. This is the thing that a business coach should teach you if they actually know what they’re talking about. They should teach you how to create repeatable systems, processes and file organization. These sound like boring things, repeatable systems.
Dr. Robert: They are, gosh.
Clay: Staying organized. That’s stupid, I want to walk on hot coals. It’s dumb.
Dr. Robert: I want to catch outs. I want to side play blind and fold, a water balloon catch out and I will [unintelligible 01:16:36].
Clay: I want to do a trust fall in Dallas while walking on hot coals.
Dr. Robert: I want to do the limbo and check how low I can get.
Clay: I want to have an experience. Z, why do you have to learn how to make repeatable systems, checklists, saving things?
Dr. Robert: It’s not the sexy part of the business but it is the glue. It’s the underbelly. It’s the foundation stone of a [music] — oh.
Clay: Trying to make it sexy.
Dr. Robert: There you go.
Clay: Come on now.
Dr. Robert: That’s one way to do it.
Clay: That’s one way to do it.
Dr. Robert: Just put a little Careless Whisper on anything, you get sex fire out to right out the boom-boom.
Clay: Bam.
Dr. Robert: Here’s the thing, if you don’t have that, if you don’t have a system of storing things, and so you can recover things and passwords and filing. I know it’s boring but if you don’t have a system for that, you won’t be able to find anything. That’s frustrating when you need to find something and your business is like we need to find this and you can’t find it. Also repeatable systems and checklist, it’s like, “Why didn’t Billy clean the bathroom? Why didn’t Billy do this in the bath? Why didn’t this get done? Why didn’t this get filed under this way?”
Clay: It’s a problem. It’s an epidemic.
Dr. Robert: It’s horrible. I tell you what, it doesn’t take much that going wrong to ruin a business.
Clay: Z, there’s the part, this is where the — I want to play this because here’s the thing, the next thing a business coach will teach you, a business coach will teach you management execution. How they actually hold your team accountable? Z, I have some audio of you earlier. You were talking to a business owner and he said, “I can’t get my staff to show up on time.” You said some things and I was like, “Wait a minute. I’m going to record this. I’m going to do it so here we go.”
Dr. Robert: All right.
Clay: This is the audio of you talking to a thriver earlier who’s telling you he could not get his team to show up to work on time.
Dr. Robert: This ought to be good.
Stinger: You can’t handle the truth.
Clay: I’m like, “That sounded a lot like a movie.” I had to play it back again.
Stinger: You can’t handle the truth.
Clay: I’m like, “That sounded a lot like a movie,” and so I had to play it back again.
Stinger: You can’t handle the truth.
Clay: No, that’s you telling somebody that — where do people get this wrong when it comes to management execution?
Dr. Robert: The problem is is that people don’t want — they want to be beloved.
Clay: Beloved.
Dr. Robert: They don’t want to hurt feelings.
Clay: Oh, I love you.
Dr. Robert: We’ve had other business owners on the show and they talk about this. They get these people working for them. They just want to help them. They just want to help them be the best version of themselves. They just want a life coach them up and get them all to their drama trauma. It’s okay if you’re late because I know you’re going to that thing with the thing. You know what? We’re just — we’re a team here.
Clay: We’re a team. We’re all a team.
Dr. Robert: All of a sudden, they look at their checkbook and they go, “My business is failing. I’m going to have to shut it down. Oh, wait a second, maybe I need to start running this like a business and making business decisions.” They’re at that crossroad of, “Do I try to life coach all these people? Or do I want to try to manage them and be successful in my business?” The ones that succeed, other words they want to manage my business. You know what? Then I’ve got to be a boss to these people. I’ve got to be a leader these people. I’ve got to do what’s best for my business.
Then guess what? When you make a lot of profit, now you can go out there. You can start an orphanage or a home for wayward men or you can start — you can give to charitable organization that helps feed lost cats with pet’s pantry. I mean petswellpantry.com food.
Clay: Yes. You could decide to replace all your food and just order all of your food from petswellpantry.com. You could decide — If you have a business that’s successful enough, you could do that. I got two more things a business coach will teach you. We’re going to teach you how to create a sustainable and repetitive weekly schedules. How to make a schedule that works for you because the whole point of a business is to serve you, so that you can have the financial and time freedom that you seek.
The final thing is your business coach is going to help you do your accounting. You mean they are going to do my books? No, no. They are going to help you determine what numbers you need to know so that way when you can hire an accountant and hold them accountable because you have to know the — Z, you got to know the numbers, you got to know the numbers.
Dr. Robert: [unintelligible 01:20:26]. You got to be able to design your P&L sheet. You got to be able to your profit and loss sheet. You got to know what the numbers that are important for you and then have your team, have your dude, have your lady be able to come up with that. But the point before that is very important. We glossed over a little bit —
Clay: Sure.
Dr. Robert: That is one of the chapters in my book Business Pig deals with big pig eats first at the trough and that is as the business owner you’ve got to always remember and a good coach would teach you this is that you have to come first in your business.
Clay: You have to.
Dr. Robert: What? What? I thought the customers come first. I thought the employees come first. I thought the dogs that we’re feeding come first. No, that’s not the way it works. You come first. If a business coach, there is a teacher that and help you with that concept in your brain. I know it’s a big bite to chew on but come to our in-person workshop. It starts tomorrow. That’s right. It’s not too late to get on thrivetimeshow.com and get all the facts and get signed up and get over here.
Clay: Now Thrivers, if you’re listening right now and you don’t know what you’re doing with your business, it’s okay, but you need help and it’s okay to reach out for some help. Before we tell you just a little bit more about the business workshop, because many people are asking they want to know the info. I want to ask you Lien here. You have petswellpantry.com. I’m listening right now, I’ve been listening to this show. I’m kind of digging your style, kind of digging the vibe. I’ve checked it out in between the breaks. I went to the site and I’m going, okay, how can you help my dog? What do you do? How can you help my dog?
Lien: We help provide a fresh product. Pets are like humans. Nutrition is from the inside out, so if you want them to live a long and healthy life, you need to include some fresh products into their daily food and that’s where PetsWell Pantry comes in. We do the cooking for you, so you don’t have to.
Clay: Now Patrick, you’re the operations manager. So you’re — help them get things done there. If I’m listening right now and just functionally speaking if I say I want to get started with you, what’s the process, walk me through, what do I need to do? How can I get on-boarded with you.? How can I learn more about you?
Patrick: Just go to our website petswellpantry.com and it’s pretty easy. You can just click on the products and learn about them. There is articles there about why to choose our food over Kibble and other products and get some Chicken Pup Pie and a couple of treats to with it.
Clay: Chicken what?
Patrick: Chicken Pup Pie.
Clay: Chicken Pup Pie.
Patrick: It’s delicious.
Dr. Robert: What’s all in a Chicken Pup Pie?
Patrick: There is chicken of course and then there is potato and there is rosemary.
Lien: Zucchini and we have squash organic super foods in there.
Clay: I’m jealous of these dogs.
Lien: They eat well.
Clay: They eat well. Now Thrivers, let me tell you what. If you’re listening right now and you want to eat well, you want to build a successful business, you really got three options here before you. Three options for you.
Dr. Robert: Okay. I’m going to write these down?
Clay: Yes, well, option one — you write this down. Option one, you could listen to this information. You can then go to TED Talks. You can get a series of books. You could go back for your MBA. You could seek knowledge until the end of time and do nothing. Thomas Edison said that Vision without Execution is Hallucination. You would be hallucinating and that’s a thing and it’s legal in Colorado. You can do that. You can hallucinate. It’s no big deal.
Dr. Robert: No big deal.
Clay: The second move is you could say, “You know what? I need some help and I am humbly submitting that I don’t have a huge budget,” and so you could go to thrivetimeshow.com. You could sign up for the two-day 15 hours of power workshop. By the way, we have never turned anybody down because they couldn’t afford it. I’m not going to say who it is or describe.
We had one person who literally told me this, “Hey, listen, I had a medical issue and all my cards are maxed out. We could probably scrape together 20 bucks. Could we do it?” I said, “As long as you bring your husband, let’s do it.” We have a scholarship program. I mean it’s not so we’re going to turn you away. You could do that. That’s a thing. The third is, Z, you go to Thrive15.com. Why would I want to go to Thrive15.com my friend?
Dr. Robert: Because it is business school without the BS. I refer to jokingly is that Netflix is a business school and what it is, it’s a monthly fee $19 and here again we got scholarships if you can’t afford that. You probably spend more at Starbucks. But what we’ve got, we’ve got mentors. We’ve got coaching. You could binge watch. You can watch one show a day. You can watch 100 shows a day. It’s up to you. It’s up to you to move forward in 2017. We’re here to help. But you got to take that step.
Clay: Now Thrivers, I’m telling you what, you got to get to thrivetimeshow.com. See what Tulsa is talking about, go to thrivetimeshow.com. Check, check, check it out. Get out here to our two-day 15 hours of power workshop. Z, as always, three, two, one, boom.
[01:25:00] [END OF AUDIO]
