In this episode the host of the Thrive Time Business Coach Radio Show and award-winning business coach, Clay Clark, teaches how to create a profitable and quickly scalable business.
Learn how scale your business from business coach, Clay Clark.
Announcer: And now broadcasting from the center of the universe and the thrive15.com world headquarters presenting the world’s only business school without the BS with optometrist and entrepreneur Dr. Robert Zoellner and the small business administration entrepreneur of the year in your ear Clay Clark. It’s the Thrive Time Show on Talk Radio 1170. Three, two, one, boom.
Clay Clark: Boom. Boom. Boom. Thrivers, guess who’s in your room and in your ear. My name is business coach, Clay Clark. I’m a former SBA Entrepreneur of the Year, and I’m in your ear and here today to teach you how to start and grow a successful business. Now, today we’re talking about a subject that I could not be more excited about. It’s actually our third topic that we’re going to be teaching at our upcoming Thrive15 two-day in person workshops.
This is topic number three. We’re going to be deep diving into this at the workshops. I’m just telling you Thrivers, this topic is a game changer. If you’re listening right now and you don’t have a pen or a piece of paper, or an iPad or an Etch A Sketch, you need to take the time to write this down.
This is the topic, Learn how to Create a Profitable and Quickly Scalable Business. Now, why would you want to learn how to build a scalable business? To talk about this, I wanted to bring on two ladies who’ve known me since college, Oral Roberts University. They hold me accountable. I can’t make up things when they’re on the show. I have my very good friend, she’s one of the office managers up here. She’s a great lady. She’s on the executive team up here at thrive15.com. It is Miss Sharita Bent. Miss Sharita, how are you doing?
Sharita: I’m great. I’m glad to be here.
Clay: And we have my incredible wife of 15 years, mother of five kids, the incredible Mrs. Vanessa Clark. How are you?
Vanessa Clark: Doing great. Glad to be here and great Christmas time so still in the holiday spirit.
Clay: Whenever I say your first and last name I kind of feel like you’re in trouble. [laughs]
Vanessa: Because you never say that. Yes.
Clay: We have Vanessa Lynn Clark, what am I in trouble– so, we’re talking today about how to build a scalable business and so Vanessa, you saw as I started DJ Connection which is now called djconnection.com. I would go out there and I would DJ with a meat loaf level of passion. [laughs]
Vanessa: Yes. Yes.
Clay: Now, you guys remember, George Michael just passed away and that’s a sad deal. But George Michael, he had a voice that was smooth. It was silky, his voice was perfect.
Vanessa: Like butter.
Clay: Yes, like butter. But then you had Meatloaf and Meatloaf really had no talent but he could just–
Vanessa: He had passion.
Clay: “I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that”– `He’s like crying. He would just get in to it, “anything for love”. Everybody sing it now, “Anything for love” —
Vanessa: I know you love him. You love that passion.
Sharita: I always wonder what he wouldn’t do though, like what was the thing that he wouldn’t do.
[laughter]
Clay: We can’t talk about that. So here’s the thing, he would bring this passion, and he would just fill up arenas and people would secretly be going, “He doesn’t have any talent.” But the thing is, he was just so passionate. That’s how I would DJ. Over time, I discovered, I would go out there and DJ a wedding and someone would call and go, “Hey we saw this DJ last Saturday night and I don’t know what that was but it was awesome. Could we have him DJ at my party?” I go, “Sure.” Vanessa and I are seeing people Office Depot who are randomly hi five-ing me, “Awesome bro. That was awesome.”
Vanessa: You loved it. You lived for that. You would remember the couple’s name, the date. It was imprinted on your mind as much as it was on theirs. You loved it.
Clay: Thrivers, if you’re listening right now and you know Chris– If you know Forest, your wife use to work over there at Oklahoma National Bank, if that’s you, at the 71st and Lewis, 71st National Bank, Forest and Chrystie, I believe, Chrystie and Forest. Erin Reid, if you know Erin Reid, if you’re listening and you know Erin Reid, send her a text. Go “Hey, they’re talking about you on the radio.”
Vanessa: Talking about your wedding.
Clay: Yes, talking about your wedding. I use to DJ those weddings and I would just get into it. The problem is it wasn’t scalable. So, pretty soon people would go, “Well, hey can we book you.” And I’ll go, ” Yes, yes.” Over time, I’ve been married now 15 years, but my wife looks up and goes, “Are you booked for every single Saturday this year?” And I’m like–
Vanessa: And Fridays and any time people want to have an event. He was the best.
Sharita: Or when you ran the company too so it was the weekend, the whole weekend.
Vanessa: He loved it which was why he was so good.
Sharita: He did our wedding. We wanted him.
Vanessa: Your wedding was the jam.
Clay: At the Scottish Rite. Let me tell everybody about your wedding, what your wedding did to me. Your wedding specifically.
Sharita: What did it do?
Clay: One of my very good friends, I knew the man since I was probably four years old. I had to not do his wedding-
Sharita: Oh no.
Clay: -to do your wedding.
Sharita: I didn’t know this.
Clay: Your wedding was in October over at the Scottish Rite.
Sharita: Yes, we got married at Higher D and then we had a reception at the Scottish Rite.
Clay: Do you know how I made that decision?
Sharita: How?
Clay: I talked to my very good friend, one of my mentors in my life at the time. I talked to him and I said, “I’m in a moral dilemma because one of my very good friends I went to college with is getting married on the same day. I hadn’t committed to him yet. She called first, so my friend calls me and says, “Hey can you do my wedding?” I said, “I cannot do your wedding because I’m already booked.” My friend says, “I cannot believe. [laughs] I seriously– I thought we were friends.” I talked to my buddy and he goes, “Happy wife, happy life. Who would your wife prefer for you to DJ for?” And I go, “Well, Sharita’s one of her very good friends” [crosstalk]
We played some reggae tone, had some Jamaican music. It had a lot of Sean Paul played. It was great.
Vanessa: I think in the end, you were glad you were at her wedding too. That wedding, he loved that wedding.
Clay: The point is, my business wasn’t scalable and so many of you are listening right now. You’ve read these books about turn your passion into profits. What you want to do is you want to turn your passion into profit so if you’re passionate about baking cakes, start a cake company. If you’re passionate about getting in crazy in debt, get a mortgage company going. If you’re passionate about teeth, you start a dental, but eventually, you go–
Vanessa: They become a slave to their own companies. You’re slaving away. Slave labor. Sweating. You were picking up weddings just to beat the competition, let me say, you had things where you said you would purposely not make a profit if they would say “Yes” to you and “No” to the competition. But you got the booking.
Clay: Now that sounds a little bit aggressive.
[laughter]
Sharita: Wait, and my favorite thing is when he would say he will be DJ-ing all his life. Do you remember this? [laughs]
Clay: Yes. What happens is, we have a child now. We have a child and Havana is a great kid. We are so excited about Havana. She is 12 years old. She’s just a little genius. Havana, if you’re listening right now. You’re a genius. This kid knows a lot of things. She reads books about people of historical significance and I pay her to write book reports.
The girl’s just reading through books like she’s gone through PEZ on a PEZ dispenser. The thing is, Vanessa says, “Could you be at her dance?” or “Could you be at her birthday party?” or “Could you be at her– just anything?”
Vanessa: Some life event.
Clay: At church. Could you be at the thing? Could you pick her up? And I’m going, “Nope. Nope. No I want to but I’m DJing. I’ve got a big event I’m DJ-ing, I can’t do that one.”
Announcer: You’re listening to the Thrive Time Show on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: It gets to the point where I’m like, “Baby, I’m at Applebee’s doing karaoke” on Wednesdays. Now, I got to be real, I’m doing an Applebee’s karaoke and there is like 17 people. I’m committed. I’m not kidding. I did that. Then I go– I’m at the Holiday Inn Select DJ-ing for these impersonators. There’s the guy who thinks he is Tom Jones.
Vanessa: I remember this.
Clay: I have to be at that. On New Years Eve there’s a party I got to do. Then on Christmas Eve there is a guy wants to get married on Christmas Eve at Five Oaks so I have to be at that. On Thanksgiving there’s a man who wants to get married so I have to drive back on Thanksgiving from Houston in my car by myself. You need to fly home separately with Havana because I have to DJ on Thanksgiving, for example.
Vanessa: I think there is something I heard you say before. there’s usually not a breakthrough until you reach that point of a breakdown. I in my own spiritualness can attribute it to Jesus and my prayers, pleading for a life change, but eventually this thing that you loved– Yes, the angels hearing my prayers, Jesus sending out a message, saying, “Go do it.” But I just knew, “Wait, this can’t– He can’t do this ’till he’s 80, this won’t work for our lives.” But something happened where something that you love so much.
It grew to the point where it was not scalable. You hadn’t scaled it yet, eventually you did, you had this epiphany, but you realized you were so worn down you never had time for you or for the things that you wanted to do. You probably would have loved to go do a wedding once a month but it was at the point where you were doing three a week and it was insane and that’s when the breakdown happened and that’s when the breakthrough happened and you learned to delegate.
Clay: So what happened, Thrivers, is that we found out our first son, our only son. He was born– and he’s a beautiful guy by the way. If you go on to thrivetimeshow.com you can see the gift his mother and I or Vanessa and I, we got him a 48-inch riding Husqvarna for Christmas this year. He’s so excited about it, his little nine-year-old mind exploded when he received his gift. The thing was, Aubrey was born blind and we didn’t know that he was born blind and what happened was, it was Dr. Groobs wanted me to come to the appointment to meet you so that he could tell– He says, “You need to have your husband here for me to tell you what I need–“
Vanessa: He was obviously going to tell us he was blind but I didn’t know that. I didn’t even know that he was blind, so he asked for my husband to come and I told him, “Oh no, no, no, my husband can’t come, he’s working.”
Clay: He’s working.
Vanessa: He’s working. Like this is– You can’t ask for my husband, I’ll do that. I just remember, at that moment I knew the seriousness of the situation because he looked at me and I almost felt like a little girl. He got really stern. He said, “No, you need to call your husband right now. And he needs to be here.”
Clay: So, if you’re listening right now, there’s two categories you’re in right now. There’s the guy on the left side, it’s probably a lady. Probably no intelligent men are listening. Probably it’s all ladies. Ladies, if you’re listening right now, you know, ladies, you have all the intelligence you hoard it all for yourselves. But here’s the deal, you’re listening right now, I’m going to give you a statistic, you tell me this is you, okay?
This is the ladies over there, they’re people who want to start a business, tell me if this is you. They make products that no one wants. According to Forbes, it’s a careful survey of failed startups determined that 42% of the failed startups said they made a product that no one wants. That’s some ladies, very smart ladies, they built a product but no one wants it. Now, on the other side, check it out, you’re somebody who’s making a product that everybody wants, some of you ladies out there, some of you– How about Rustic Cuff?
Vanessa: Yes. I got one on right now.
Sharita: Look at her.
Vanessa: Yes. I got one on right now.
Clay: So Jill Donovan, one of our thrive15.com mentors, a great Tulsa lady, you made something people want. What about Cat Barbie from Barbie Cookies?
Vanessa: The cinnamon rolls.
Sharita: You both want the cinnamon rolls?
Vanessa: Yes.
Clay: barbeecookies.com.
Vanessa: Give me all the mint one. [laughs]
Clay: You got to go to barbiecookies.com, check– You like the mint ones?
Sharita: She loves that one.
Vanessa: Yes, the chocolate mint. I do not care about the cinnamon roll and I’m sorry.
Clay: What?
Vanessa: I’m sorry. I know–
Sharita: I know.
Vanessa: It just does nothing for me.
Clay: Did you rip your tongue as a child?
Sharita: [laughs]
Vanessa: But the chocolate mint, it is so good.
Clay: So here’s the thing is, so Barbie Cookies though, she has a product that everybody wants. Rustic Cuff is the product that everybody wants. I built my DJ business, everybody wanted it. The other half of you are going, “I really want to bake something that people actually want to buy.” That’s half you. The other half are going, “People want it so much I don’t have any time free.” So let me ask you this question, Thrivers, I want you to ask yourself this question, I want you to look it up during the break, I want you to look it up, just do a research. How was it possible that today Dr. Z and I– We’ll start with Dr. Z.
How is it possible that his business, Dr. Robert Zoellner and associates, today on a Friday– How was it possible that nearly 1,000 cars will be sold and he will not be there? He’s not going to sell the car, make the car, fix the car, tweak the car, auction the car. How was it possible? How is it possible that this week it will be thousands of weddings happening all over the world, most of which are being done by Steve’s Photography. I named my company Steve’s Photography because I am Steve.
Vanessa: And he’s personally doing all the photos.
Clay: It’s Carol’s Photography and my name is Carol and you’re guaranteed to get me because I’m Carol. How was it possible that Epic Photography is doing thousands of weddings a year and I don’t even know what cameras we own or how to take photos?
Vanessa: And let me say, that all happened– That evolution happen because once you had that breakthrough, everything in your thinking changed. For the next company you said, “I’m going to build this company not around myself. I’m going to build it and I won’t even know how to take photos, but I’m going to piece all these places together” and it was– Today at that time our most successful company because of that breakthrough that you had which you helped so many other people.
Clay: And I’d like to get into niches where– Now I like to get into industries I don’t even like the business.
Sharita: [laughs]
Vanessa: Those are the best ones.
Sharita: Like a game. [laughs]
Clay: No, I’m being real. You’re talking about a guy who has no style or class, that’s me. You know what I’m saying? We have the most stylish and classy men’s grooming lounge in Tulsa that my brother-in-law– It’s his vision. I’m a man-bear-pig. People meet me and they go, “Is that what your hair look like after going there?” No, listen, I’m mystery shopping, I’m going out to all the competitors, I’m going into Sports Clips and Top Cuts, whatever.
Vanessa: I think you’re giving yourself away.
Clay: It’s– I’ve only had one person call me out on this so far. I’m changing my wardrobe. I’m going from suit and tie to my new hoodie apparel here, I’ve got my new embroidered Thrive gear coming in so. The thing is, Thrivers, check it out, if you’ve built a business or you want to build a business [music] that’s going to create you time freedom or financial freedom, you want to listen, because I’m telling you, if you build a business that makes a lot of money for you, but you don’t have any time, what’s the point? Time freedom, financial freedom, stay tuned, Thrive Time Show.
[background music]
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Announcer: Live. Local. Now. You’re listening to The Thrive Time Show on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: All right, Thrive nation, welcome back to your inspiration station, an inside the dojo of mojo, which is nestled inside the box that rocks which is nestled inside the thrive15.com world headquarters which is nestled in beautiful Oklahoma which is nestled in America which is nestled in– Who else cares? America, right? We’re in America, the best place in the world and I’m telling you what, during today’s show, if you want to take advantage of the freedoms that America provides you, and you want to build a successful company that is going to give you both financial and time freedom, you want to listen up.
Because if you miss out what we are teaching you today, it could be a deal where you go, “Oh, man. I missed a [unintelligible 00:16:01] there, that was a big show. I should have listened to that show”. If you do have to get back to work, I get it, maybe you’re at Oklahoma Joe’s right now, one of our proud sponsors. You’re at Oklahoma Joe’s having baked beans and the guy behind you is going, “Dude, move. Move ahead now, we’re in line here. You must–come on. Dude, move, come on.”
Maybe you got to get off the podcast right now for just a second, maybe you got to get off that and come back to it later, but if you want to come back to it later, go to thrivetimeshow.com and this month we’re going to be talking about it a lot because it’s probably the number one most exciting thing in my life and the world of business is we are now doing Thrive15 in-person workshops. Real talk. So we’ve have people all around the world going, “I want to learn specifically how you and Dr. Zoellner have built an optometry clinic, an auto auction, a photography business, a hair salon for men, a–insert the niche, durable medical company, a–“
Vanessa: Sleep center.
Clay: “–sleeve center, a PR firm, a marketing company, a videography company, a– How are you doing it? What is the deal? You guys are experts of all these things? Are you like Ninjas? Do you know all these skills? I want to learn.” So we’re going to teach you. It’s a two-day– Here’s the deal, so two-day, 15-hour. Two days, 15 hours. Seven and a half hours per day. Two-day workshop, it’s January 20th and 21st, here at the thrive15.com world headquarters in beautiful Jenks, America. We don’t have thousands of people, we don’t sit there and pack it out and, “You guys want to walk on hot coals? Do you want to walk on hot coals and do a trust fall? Are you guys motivated?” No.
We teach you how to build workflow, how to build scalable systems, marketing, PR, branding, accounting, we get in to all the stuff behind the stuff. The stuff no one wants to talk about. The stuff that you need to know after you’re motivated. Off the air, Sharita’s asking me, she says, “Clay, I got a few questions for you.” We just covered a lot of ground there because in today’s topic, we’re teaching you how to create a profitable and scalable business. A profitable and quickly scalable business, meaning, building a business that can work without you to create time and financial freedom and business coach, Sharita, you had a question so I’m going to go ahead and turn over the mic over to you.
Sharita: Sure. I was just saying people who build businesses and they get to the point where if it’s Carol’s Photography and it’s super dependent on Carol, is this a problem? Did you do something wrong? Is it good that they’re making so many sales? And then I also wanted to ask you, the second part is, when you started your first business, DJ Connection, I know you were in high demand because you were such a great DJ, but then as you started your next companies on down to so many that you have now, did you start with a different mindset, were you beginning scaling?
Clay: All right. There’s three ideas there, one is you have to begin with the end in mind. So in marriage, I don’t do as good of a job and this as I should, my wife does have a vision. Recently, I’ve been running around the house, I said it twice out loud this morning. I know I did. I’m saying it all but I have to say it because I have found, Thrivers check it out, “what you think about, you bring about.”
Sharita: All right.
Vanessa: True.
Clay: I keep saying what would Chip do? I’m watching this Chip and Joanna Show—
Vanessa: Because you’re reading the book.
Sharita: I love it.
Clay: No, but it’s the fixer-uppers and Chip is so kind to his wife. Vanessa’s is very similar to Joanna’s personality based on what– After reading the book, and going to page seven of Google so I don’t trust anyone, I’ve discovered that she seems to be a consistently nice person and I’m going, “Okay, this guy openly shows his wife that he loves her” and I love my wife, too, but I’m just being honest, he expresses it better than I do. So I’m trying to ask myself, “What would Chip do?” So today, before leaving the house, I’m like, “I love you” and then it’s like– Was it six in the morning?
Vanessa: Yes.
Clay: It’s like 5:30 in the morning.
Vanessa: 5:30. Yes.
Clay: And she goes, “What?” “I love you.” It’s like, “I love you”, and I was like, “I love you” and I’m just going, “What would Chip do?” And I get in my car, that’s what Chip would have done.
Sharita: Love it.
Vanessa: [laughs]
Clay: So the thing is, you have to begin with the end in mind. So the end in mind when I built Elephant in The Room or Epic Photography or thrive15.com is for me to offer the most amount of value, check it out, in the least amount of time. The most amount of value in the least amount of time. The goal is, again, to serve as many people as possible in the least amount of time as possible. With Epic Photography I would be involved in about an hour a week, once the business got going.
Vanessa: I can attest to this. He was very conscious of that when he was making the systems and it took very minimal amount of your time.
Clay: Point number two is, you have to ask yourself, “Is this scalable?” Here’s an example, Sam, one of our producers here, I walked up to him probably about four months ago, three months ago, and I said, “Sam, I want you to start producing the show, very soon, full time.” And I’m sure you’re like, “What are you thinking, what is going on?” Well, if you know Sam Parker, a little Sam Parker Commercial, he is diligent, he’s kind, he kind of looks like a viking, if you’re on Facebook Live, can you hop in just real quick? There he is. Say, “Hi, mom.”
Vanessa: He is a friendly viking.
Sherid: He is.
Clay: But the thing about Sam is, he’s kind-
Sharita: He’s [unintelligible 00:20:54] viking.
Clay: He is Korean as viking. He’s hardworking, great guy, honestly he’s a great guy. The thing was, I knew that I saw in him a guy who is diligent and will execute systems. I don’t want to have systems depending upon divas who are not diligent.
Vanessa: Sure.
Clay: So I needed to work in that direction. Step number one, again, I begin with end in mind. Step two, I want to ask myself is it scalable and I knew finding diligent, hardworking people is scalable. I repeat, there are a lot of great people out there in Tulsa, Oklahoma who are hardworking, who are looking for a job where their boss respects them and treats them kindly. There’s also a lot of morons, by the way. But not on this show, they’re on the other stations. But there is a lot of morons out there. They’re listening to the other stations, they’re not listening to this station, they’re getting into–
Sharita: They’re jamming out.
Clay: They’re jamming out. The thing is, we know that’s a scalable thing. So I wanted to build the systems in a way– Right now we are in the process of digitizing every aspect of this show so that somebody who is a complete moron could run it. So that way, somebody who’s diligent doesn’t need to be a genius. Because if you’re going out there, looking for a guy, and you say, “Pre-qualification number one, you have to work eight years as an audio wizard. That’s step number one, you have to be eight years–” So on the resume they’re like, “There’s nobody who meets that criteria.” And then the third is that you have to be okay with all of the people who are not okay with you self-actualizing.
Sharita: Maslow’s hierarchy there, I’m tracking with the– Yes.
Clay: Here’s an example. Recently, in the office, I’ve started painting verses and positive words of affirmation around the building. One of them would be Matthew, I think it’s 5:21, it explains– I hope I’m getting it right, Matthew 5:21 over there, I think it’s Matthew 5:21. Basically, the concept of it was, the pastor said it during a church service, basically I’m paraphrasing but, “Blessed are the persecuted, because they will inherit the riches in Heaven.” The idea is that if you’re standing up for something you are going to be persecuted. I like that. So I put that on the wall.
Vanessa: You have Proverbs 10:4 up, too.
Clay: Yes, which is, “God blesses the hand of the diligent and punishes the slackard.” So I have this vision for what the business is going to be but when I put those verses on the wall, my kids do the– Vanessa, our kids come up here and they do all of the work in the office?
Vanessa: They do, they come here twice a week at least and they do all the cleaning of the entire office. Is it a big job for young kids, especially when you look at– They get invited to our friends, they may have to say, “No”, or “My mom can take me over after I finish my cleaning.” They are diligent to do that.
Clay: So, real talk. We had a conversation with a young lady about ten days ago, no one knows this. She says, “Can I bring my kid?” And I said, “No, you can’t.” She says, “Why? You bring your kids.” I said, “Uh, one, I’m the boss. Two, I can yell at my kids, can’t yell at your kids. Three, I can ground my kids, can’t ground your kids. No.” And the thing is, when you build a business– So, for the photography business, people we’d used to meet would go, “Is there any way we could meet? I think we should talk. I have some ideas.” No. “But why?” Because I don’t want to think about the business at all. In fact, I want to go home and chase my wife around.
Vanessa: I’m thankful for those noes that you say.
Clay: Thrivers, when we come back we are going to talk to you more about how to build a scalable and repeatable business systems. Thrive Time Show.
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Announcer: You’re listening to The Thrive Time Show on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: Alright, Thrive nation, welcome back to your inspiration station. You’re listening to Tulsa’s only local business radio show. Don’t change that dial, stick around for a while, it’s 1170 AM on that radio and it is The Thrive Time Show fo sho and today in the dojo of mojo we are teaching you how to start or grow a successful business and specifically we’re talking to you about how to quickly build a scalable business model. I’m just telling you this, it is so hard to start a successful company for many people. It’s so hard and once you finally find a way to make profits, it’s so hard to build a business that creates time freedom for you.
So many people feel that they are mutually exclusive ideas. “Oh, if I want to have a successful business, I must work 80 hours a week for the rest of my life.” No, you can actually build a successful business and work very few hours during your week. “But don’t you love your business? I heard if you don’t love your business then– If you love your business you would be there more. You spend time with the things you love, do you hate your business?” These are the things people ask.
We’re going to teach you how to do both. How to build a time freedom and financial freedom, it’s a thing. Today I am joined by some great people who are subbing in for Dr. Robert Zoellner, who is out expanding his vast entrepreneurial empire. We have Mrs. Sharita Bent, one of the members of our Thrive15 executive team and my incredible wife of 15 years, Mrs. Vanessa Clark. Business coach, Sharita, let’s get into this topic here a little bit. Why should people listen– Why should people care about how to build a scalable business system?
Sharita: Sure. The thing with building a scalable system, like you said, it’s going to give you that time and financial freedom that all people want. You don’t build a business because you want to give away all of your time. Our training is going to give you all those processes, all those systems that you need and we can help you generate a positive cash flow for you and your business.
Clay: Positive cash flow?
Sharita: Yes.
Clay: Now, Vanessa, you’ve seen people we’ve coached over the years. You’ve seen them before and after. You’ve seen people that– Their business wasn’t profitable, they’ve just given up hope.
Vanessa: Yes.
Clay: Where it’s like, “Well, you know, just whatever. I live in a van down by the river.” And their goal is just, “If I can just make one more deal, I can make it this month.” And your kids start to go, “Dad, what are you doing?” “I’m trying to make it this month. My number one goal is to survive.” It becomes your new normal.
Vanessa: Behind the scenes I usually see they are the ones doing everything for their business.
Clay: Errthang.
Vanessa: It’s a little bit heartbreaking because they are usually paying themselves the least and they are slaves to the business and hostage to their employees many times. They have a great product, the thing is that they have a great product, they have tons of people that are buying it, but they don’t have systems set up in a way that gives them freedom, instead everything is built around them.
Sharita: It’s not sustainable.
Vanessa: Exactly.
Clay: The thing is, it’s hard to achieve something that you haven’t conceived. You haven’t seen it before. It’s hard to understand what that’s like.
Sharita: Sure.
Clay: So here’s my challenge for the Thrivers right now, two challenges for you. Challenge number one, get in your car and go to Oklahoma Joe’s, he’s going to hear this and go, “This is one of the worst things you’ve ever told people.” Get in your cars, go to Oklahoma Joe’s, I’m not trying to sell you something. Just sit there, in one of the booths, they’re going to go, “Can I help you?” And you’re like, “No, I’m just here to witness greatness.” And just sit there, marinade on the profundity of the idea that there is a person just like you, the listener today, if you’re listening right how, he’s just like you.
He’s a great guy, he’s a hard worker, he’s a great Oklahomie. He’s sold two million smokers. My man has sold two million smokers. My man is greeting thousands of customers a day and my man will not be there making his legendary burnt-ins or his legendary baked beans, the business works without him. How is that possible? Then get in your car and go over to Elephant in the Room at 91st and Yale. This is step two, go there-
[laughter]
Vanessa: So a day field trip.
Clay: -walk in and say, “I’m here for my $1 haircut.” And the lady will say, “You want a $1 haircut?”. You say, “No, I’ll just wait in the lobby, I just want to witness greatness.” And just notice how I’m not going to come in there and catch them up. If I did, you’d ask me to stop. My brother-in-law is not going to be in there cutting your wig, and if he did, you’d probably like it and he’d like it too, but the thing is, we’re trying to keep him away from that because he’s a hair genius, he’s got this great experience, but if you do see him, say, “Hello” to his beard for me.
Vanessa: [laughs] It’s epic.
Clay: He’s got an epic beard. But here’s the thing is, these are businesses that are working without the owner’s direct involvement. Maybe even a little bonus move three. Go over to Woodland Hills Mall, you know you’re returning everything right now.
[laughter]
Clay: Come on, you know your husband bought you something and you’re like, “Do you have the gift receipt?” And he’s like, “Baby, why? I mean, don’t you like the blender I bought you?” “Yes, I just wanted to know if you have a gift receipt, I just like options, you know”. Then you’re just hightailing. Going to the mall, trying to return stuff. You’re all frustrated because some woman’s in line in front of you, but the thing is, you’re in line in front of somebody else. So you’re like, “Well, frick, I’m just going to take them up on the challenge number three.”
So you run over there over to Dr. Robert Zoellner and Associates and you’re going to notice he’s going to see thousand of patients today. The sign says, “Doctor Robert Zoellner and Associates” but yet he is not there and the associates are. How’s that possible? So, then you go, you have two options. Was he lucky? Ask yourself, was he lucky? That’s an option, you could say, “I guess he’s just lucky because–“
Vanessa: That’s what most people think, though. They think it’s all luck.
Sharita: Yes. They do.
Vanessa: They really do.
Clay: It’s just luck. Zoellner is just a lucky guy. He’s born with the right genes.
Sharita: Yes. They think your family helped you along the way or whatever.
Clay: Yes. He’s born with a silver spoon. No. My main man grew up poor and he did it. My brother-in-law started with nothing and he did it. You are listening right now, I don’t know where you are, but you qualify to be a success. I don’t care about where you’ve come from, I care about where you’re going, okay? So, here’s the deal. Now, you’ve got to determine right now. Today it’s not about luck, it’s about a proven system which, Vanessa, that’s why we want everybody who’s listening right now-
Vanessa: Yes.
Clay: -we want you to come out to a thrive15.com in person, two-day workshop. Mark your calendar, January 20th and 21st, and check it out. If you have $7 in your pocket right now put, your hands up. No, just kidding.
[laughter]
Clay: If you have $7 in your pocket right now, you can afford to attend the workshop. We have a scholarship program made possible from some very generous sponsors and so even if you cannot afford the cost just tell us, “Hey, I need a little hand up” and we’re going to help you. Vanessa.
Vanessa: I just think that this is– Their conference in itself is so wonderful but I think what is amazing about it is that now is the perfect time. You’re hearing this on the radio and first off, any action that you have to take in your life, now is always the best time to do it because why put it off? Think about this. We’re just now rolling into the new year.
Clay: New year, baby.
Vanessa: I hope you’ve sat down with your husband or wife, with your spouse, and you’ve made that goal sheet. The goals that you want to reach– [crosstalk]
Clay: We do it every year.
Vanessa: In your businesses or your dreams. What better time is there to attend this first conference and find out those first steps that you need to take to build the processes and the duplicatable systems that are going to make your dream a reality. So, I’m really excited about it, just because now is the time. Now is the time we are here, we’re at your resolutions, it’s the time to act.
Clay: I’ll tell you what, Thrivers. This is your opportunity and don’t let the finances get in the way because literally, if you have $7, we’ll help you out, okay? And the thing is, I mean this to you, there’s no upsells. There’s nothing there to upsell. You don’t get there and go to back of the room going, “If you want to get the multi-million dollar super success system and a signature from Michael Tyson, many of you know him as Mike Tyson and you want to meet potentially, various celebrities and learn the keys to becoming a millionaire overnight or very quickly, what I would call quickly. Not overnight, but like in a week or two. We have a system for you now in the back of the room and we’re only taking six candidates.” We’re not doing that.
Vanessa: Right.
Clay: “Oh, but it’s normally 22,000 but today, because we have a limited time special, we have what we would call a– a– the factory direct. We have a factory deal so now it’s only going to be 8,000.” We don’t do that. It’s no smoke and mirrors. It’s real specific business school without the BS.
Vanessa: Yes. Now, I’m super, super, super excited about it and excited about the listeners and you can go to www.thrivetimeshow.com, I believe, and there’s a link. Just get started and it will take you to register for the conference and we’ll get the ball rolling right there.
Clay: “Are you saying I got to get on the Internet?”
[laughter]
Clay: “In order to get to this website.”
Vanessa: That’s easy.
Clay: “I’m done with it. I do AM radio and that’s it. I’m so frustrated to even put this on the radio. It was better when there just was a man outside yelling. That was my kind of radio. [music] Back when I grew up you would have a great radio shows. There would be a man and he would be yelling and you would just gather around the campfire. I was frustrated when they started using matches, bunch of sellouts. I used to start fires with my bare hands. I would use the hands of a bear to start a fire. thrivetimeshow.com I’ll never go to that website.”
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Announcer: You’re listening to The Thrive Time Show on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: All right, Thrive nation and Oklahomies, welcome back to the Thrive Time Show and in fact, my name is business coach, Clay Clark. I’m the former SBA entrepreneur of the year in your ear talking on this magical microphone. Helping you start and grow a successful business. Typically, Dr. Robert Zoellner is on the show but he’s out expanding his vast and ever growing entrepreneurial empire. So, today I had to do what was required. When he’s out expanding the empire, I always have to do what it’s required. At all times, step one, you’ve got to find geniuses. So, that’s not too hard. I’ll find some genius. Step two, you’ve got to find two. I’m going, “This is almost impossible.” So I found them.
We have Ms. Sharita Bent, who’s a leader of our Thrive15 executive team. A member of the executive team. What does that mean? She manages the people in the office getting stuff done. We have my incredible wife of 15 years, Mrs. Vanessa Clark. We’re teaching you today how to quickly build a scalable business system. How to build a business that works for you instead of you working for the business. You see, Jay-Z, he’s the best quote out there, “Jay-Z? What is this show? I thought this show was a business show, we’re talking about Jay-Z.” No.
His champagne company is doing great. Just google him on Forbes. He’s worth $600,000,000 right now. He’s doing just fine, okay? His clothing company is doing just fine. Tidal, his streaming music service doing just fine, thank you very much, mister negatory, Mister “this is never going to work”, Mister “what does he know”. “Does he even know technology?” He’s doing just fine but he has this quote I want to read to you, I’m going to paraphrase it but I’m going to break it down like fractions before we get into the action.
Sharita: It’s a song lyric, right?
Clay: Yes, he says it in one of his songs. He says, “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business– Pause, wait for it– Man.” So what’s he’s saying is, he’s not a businessman hustling for the dollar. What he is, he’s a business, he’s built a business. He is a business, okay? So, many business he owns but the businesses work for him, he doesn’t work for the business. And, that’s something people get twisted, they get screwed up, they get mixed up. So, we’re moving on to these seven steps you need to know if you’re going to build a scalable business system, okay? So, step number one, you got to have a purpose of your business written down. You got to have the purpose of your business. What is the purpose?
Vanessa: That’s huge.
Clay: What is the purpose? Because on the surface it makes you a little bit nervous when you think deep. Check it out. So, here’s the deal. We’re going to blow the epidermis. So, we’ll get into it, okay? By the way, Thrivers, I’m sorry that I ramble all the time but get a thermos, we’re going to talk deeper than the epidermis. We’re getting into the marrow.
Vanessa: I love it.
Clay: Don’t be narrow. Get into the marrow, here we go. So, here’s the thing is. This is the deal. I’m just telling you, you’ve got to listen to this, okay? So, what is the purpose? You got to have your three Ps. I want you to get a piece of paper, write down your three Ps. Do it right now. “I don’t have a pen. Frick. I got to pull over, do it.” Just do what you got to do. “Someone get me some barbecue sauce. I’ll just use that to write.” Write it down. The three Ps. One is you got to have, what kind of people do you want to work with? I’ll tell you who I want to work with. I’ll get to that in a minute. I don’t want to go off yet. What kind of people. Second, you got to make a profit. “A profit? Are we talking about? Is that a biblical show? Is this the time I’m making a profit like a-“
[laughter]
Clay: “-a biblical leader? Like an authority of prayer? A profit?”
Vanessa: Next time you’ll be here in your robe.
Clay: That’s right. “Hello, My name is Clay Clark of the Thrive Time Show. I’m in my robe of many colors. I want what you would call a profit.” No, so the people, the profit and the third is a product that you’re proud of. Now, I don’t want to make you feel bad if you’re one of these get rich quick people. I want you to feel horrible.
[laughter]
Clay: I want you to get– Just understand this. Wealth gained through folly, quoting the proverbs, causes poverty. So, if you want to get rich quick selling something that doesn’t work, like a jerk, you’re going to end up very poor.
Vanessa: This is the beginning of a rap song. I know it.
Clay: I’m just saying. That’s what’s going to happen to you. You’re going to end up in a bad place because you’re out there misguiding people.
Vanessa: Yes.
Clay: That’s not cool.
Vanessa: Yes. It’s not.
Clay: So, the product you’re going to sell has to be something people want.
Vanessa: Sure.
Clay: So, I’m going to pick on a business that has something the people want. It is Barbie Cookies. And there’s people are coming in there– Shar, what’s your favorite cookie?
Sharita: Cinnamon roll cookie. I don’t want anything but the cinnamon roll.
Vanessa: I’m against you two on the cinnamon roll. You both love the cinnamon roll.
Clay: I don’t know because I’m on this whole tangent right now. What would Chip do? From Chip and Joanna, the fixer-upper.
Sharita: He would eat the cinnamon roll cookie.
Clay: Would he tell his wife that she’s wrong?
Sharita: No.
Clay: Would he ever go on the radio show and say, “You’re wrong”?
Sharita: No, he wouldn’t.
Clay: Okay, so you’re right.
Vanessa: Listen. Listen. Andy’s mint is the way to go, there’s no other. I don’t even want to talk about it.
Clay: You go to Barbie Cookies. You got in there, they got ice cream cookies, all these different kinds of gourmet cookies just like Mama used to make. By the way, if it’s your first time going in, the first cookie is free.
Sharita: You have to go.
Clay: Why would you not do this?
Sharita: Go today.
Clay: Here’s the deal. If she has a product that she’s proud of and because it’s so good, people tell each other.
Sharita: Yes.
Vanessa: Sure.
Clay: You see what that is? It’s word of mouth. I had a client years ago who– If you’re listening right now and you are that client, I want you to get off my show, but I want you to listen to it maybe and then get off the show. I’m being serious, here is the deal. You’re driving around your truck, you’re quoting people because you’re a remodeller and what you’re doing is you’re quoting people to remodel their house, and they pay you and you take that money, and you don’t do that house.
Sharita: Not right.
Clay: All the clients sue you. Then you, reach out to people, “I don’t know why I have bad reviews on every website. People just– My competitors are doing bad things.” No. That’s called reputation. Now, every once in a while, yes, competitors say crazy things. Yes, ex-employees say things. But buddy, your reputation follows you around. I don’t wish you hell, but I wish you kind of purgatory.
[laughter]
The thing is, you have got to go out there and start doing what you’re saying because you’re messing up people’s lives. You take their money to put in their wood floor and you don’t it. That’s not cool, shark.
Announcer: You’re listening to The Thrive Time Show on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: So, Shar, have you ever met somebody that maybe you went to college with or since college, or sometime you’ve met them in your life being an Oklahomie here, who’s sold something that you knew wasn’t real?
Sharita: Yes.
Clay: And they knew it wasn’t real– Don’t name, we don’t want to name names.
Sharita: Sure.
Clay: But what does that look like, typically?
Sharita: It’s the worst, and you’re like a snake, right? With a fork tongue, because you’re like, “No. You’re selling whole tickets.” It is, that’s what you feel like. You feel like somebody snaked you and took advantage of you, and it’s the worst feeling ever.
Vanessa: I think you feel hurt when you feel like someone was a friend and then it’s like a light bulb goes off and you think, “I guess they weren’t even my friend. Like they just want my money.”
Clay: They sold me something that doesn’t even work.
Sharita: Yes, unethical. It’s obvious.
Clay: Not cool, man.
Sharita: It’s the worst.
Clay: Now, here’s the deal. Now, with the P’s, okay? The other P is people. Who do you want to work with? I’m going to tell you this, if you like freedom, and check it out, “Is this is a Republican show?” Check it out, is this a democrat thing and do you know– Work with me. Freedom requires checking on the sweatshirt, requires discipline. I do not befriend or even– I can’t fellowship with people that don’t have discipline. I just don’t like it. I don’t want you in my office. If you come to my office and you’re just like, “Sorry, I’m late again. I just– I overslept.” I don’t care. Go figure that out. This is what they do, “I have a time management problem, could you coach me through that?” Yes. Step one, get up early.
[laughter]
Step two, it involves a taser. Let me go get my police grade taser. You want to go ahead and learn it? No. Because you got to have a consequence for not being disciplined. People that want to just, “I want everyone in my office to be happy.” Let’s do an example. I have an Israeli flag in my office. You know where that came from, what happened was, I put up an American flag in my office and I had somebody about a year and a half ago, it was about two years ago, who complained. They’re like, “Hey, do you really feel like America is great?”
I mean, come on, homie. People want to move here. People are sneaking in. Whether you want to build a wall or not, people are trying to get here. People aren’t trying to get to China. “I ran away and I ran to China.” I was laughing when I watched the news about the American that defected to North Korea, and he gets like arrested and thrown in prison. Quit going to North Korea. What are you doing over there, homie? They don’t have anything good over there.
Anyway, moving on. The thing is, the people, this guy says, “America is not that great. I think all countries have a lot to offer.” I’m going, “I don’t even know what we’re talking about, but you need to get out of my office. You know what I’m going to do, I’m going to up an Israeli flag before noon on Monday.” And he’s like, “What?” I’m like, “Because that will really drive you nuts.” So I put that up. The thing is though, you’re going to have people that you want to work with.
Sharita: Yes, true.
Clay: Bill Belichick, the coach of the Patriots is notorious for cutting people he doesn’t enjoy being around. Now, Vanessa, you have certain values as a wife, as my wife–
Vanessa: As a human.
Clay: As a human, but as a my wife, you do.
Vanessa: Yes, true.
Clay: There are certain people that you don’t want working in the office.
Vanessa: Yes, if I know someone’s–
Clay: Don’t name names. Go old school.
Vanessa: I would never. I’m saying if you come to know someone’s character, character is everything. You know what, we don’t have to agree on everything but if you’re good character-wise? We’re good. But, there can be someone that once you question their character, it’s just you can’t– What are you going to do with them in the business? Can your employees trust them? Can you trust them to [crosstalk]
Clay: Back in the day, before the businesses did well and I wanted to be sort of every employee’s life coach.
Vanessa: Yes.
Clay: We had a man who blew up three DJ vans.
Vanessa: Broke the door to my car.
Clay: Yes, and he left cake after a wedding in my wife’s seat. She couldn’t get in the car, so we used the speaker stand to try to wedge his way in and he broke the windshield, I’m not kidding.
Vanessa: We used to let them use our vehicles back in the day because some people–
Clay: If their car broke.
Vanessa: Yes, or they didn’t have– Their cars weren’t large enough to fit all the equipment, so hey, take our car.
Clay: This is my wife. She goes, “We need to fire them.” And I’m like, “But we could reform them.”
Sharita: [laughs]
Vanessa: I’m the nice one, right? No. I mean, the writing was on the wall this is not going to work.
Clay: You got to know your three P’s. The people, gotta make a profit, don’t feel bad about that. Gotta make a profit. Make a product you’re proud of. Point number two is you have to create a sustainable business model. Now, sustainable means that you could continue at that pace until the end of your days without passing out due to exhaustion. You’re like, “If I could run this pace, I could run a four minute mile. I do that all the time. I do that right now, do it tomorrow, I’ll do it–” Pretty soon you just pass out.
I mean seriously, so an example, George Michael, may he rest in peace. He was not living a sustainable life. Homeboy is doing drugs, having parties– I knew when I saw the headline that came on CNN, it says, “He died peacefully in his home.” No, he did not. He probably died while being chased by some clown [music] and naked, running the streets of England while doing some heroin mixed with some cocaine and drinking some beer to kind of calm himself down.
That’s how George Michael probably went down. He probably was getting his hair bleached while doing cocaine and heroin and trying to– That’s been real talk. You can’t live at an unsustainable pace. So, Thrivers, if you’re drinking too much Red Bull, we’re going to teach you how to build a sustainable system when we come back.
[music]
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[music]
Announcer: Broadcasting from the center of the universe. Featuring optometrist turned entrepreneur, Dr. Robert Zoellner and US SBA entrepreneur of the year, Clay Clark, this is The Thrive Time Show on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: Three, two, one. It’s time to do it. If you’ve got business obstacles, we’ll teach you how to run right through it. Thrivers, listen here. You’re listening to The Thrive Time Show on your AM radio, but many of you, you got to go back to work. At some point, you got to get back to job. Maybe you got up to take the phone call, you got things to do today, so you go to thrivetimeshow.com. Thousands of people do this everyday. You go to thrivetimeshow.com and there, you can find an archived– “Archived? All of them?” All of the radio shows, all the podcasts. We had one sick freak who I love very much down in Dallas. He calls me, he says, “Hey. I have just finished listening to all of them.”
Sharita: I love it.
Clay: And I go, “Brodini, we need to talk. How long have you done this?” He goes, “Well basically I took that week off and I’ve just been just bam, bam, bam.” I’m like, “I don’t know if that’s healthy.” The thing is, we’re there for you, all the topics, anything you ever need to know to start and grow a business, we talk about as much as we can on the two-hour show, but then in our in-person workshops, that’s where we enter you into that dojo of mojo, where we literally talk about the stuff behind the stuff.
As an example, I’m going to teach you how to optimize a website. You’re going to need to see the screen. You’re going to need to interact with it. You’re going to need to touch a keyboard. You’re going to need to ask a question. You’re going to need to see a call script if we’re going to build a call sales system. You’re going to need to see a checklist. I’m going to teach you how to make one. We’re going to need to role play. There’s just things that need to be done that we cannot do on a radio show.
Vanessa: I think that people, until they get here, they’re not going to realize truly how hands-on and interactive the material that you are teaching people. It is business-changing. We had someone from Florida and just a couple of weeks ago, the Florida Salt Scrubs guy, and he could not– He has what, like a $5 million business, but he couldn’t get over, “Wow, you practically gave me these tools. You helped me make this list to get these sales.” No one else is offering a program like this. I’ve got–
Sharita: He said that he’s been to other ones. He paid and he got nothing.
Vanessa: Yes, he paid a lot of money and what it was is a lot of hype, a lot of motivation, which is great, and there is a time and place for that, but I’m saying we’re offering practical tools. I’m just excited about it because it’s truly what you just said. Pulling up the website, learning the SEO, learning the calls and how to make a script–
Clay: You ultimately have to get to a point where you say “Is it about luck, is that what success is? Is it luck? Or is it a proven system?” If you want a proven system you have to go, is it something deeper, is it more specific, is it more detailed? Because John Wooden, the best basketball coach of all time he says the difference is in the details.
Vanessa: And if you don’t have someone to show you or take you alongside the hand how are you going to learn this?
Clay: I am going to give you an example. We’re not doing them right now but we have a lot of people that ask. We have five kids. So many people have asked over the years, “How do you homeschool?” If you are going to answer that, wouldn’t you need to show people your schedule, what your day is like, how that works. I mean there is more than just —
Sharita: It’s not just a short answer that you can just give to that.
Clay: That’s right. They can say what curriculum do you use. Or Vanessa how do you — there’s a — you have to live it. That’s why the workshops are so valuable and literally if you have $7 in your pocket right now put your hands up, just kidding. The thing is, seriously, if you have $7 you can afford to go because we have scholarships funds available. So don’t let time be an issue. Don’t let money be an issue. Just get out to it baby. It’s a Friday and Saturday. This one is a Friday and Saturday. So you only have to miss one day off that workday. Only one day off that workweek.
Okay thrivers. We are teaching you how to build a scalable business model. We just said the next move; point number two is you have to create a sustainable business model. Now, I have a notable quote I want to read to you from our good friend who started Priceline. You’re like what. Who started Priceline Mr. Smarty? Could you tell me? No. Look it up. Why? Because I want you to engage. But it’s from the book Scale. This is what he says, “ Your business is sustainable but only if you’re present to work for it. You’re the main producer and director around whom your company revolves.”
That’s not a sustainable business model. So I’m going to give you an example. People were running around and they’re doing this. This is what the background singer does. Check this out.
[laughter]
Clay: This is the job. This was a job. President Trump has claimed he’s going to create a lot of jobs. President Obama has taken credit for creating a lot of jobs. We don’t know who is creating all the jobs. But there were some jobs recently lost. Here’s the job that was recently lost. Mike, can you kind of turn in on I want to make sure I can sing to the listeners here.
[singing] “I would die for you. I would do this even if you want me to. I would die for you.” That was like the persons job. In the meanwhile they would stop and Prince would do the rest of it. But then — next song. My job was to go, I know,
[singing] “Purple rain, purple rain.” And that song, if you have ever heard that song, goes on like that for 20 minutes.
[singing] “Purple rain. Purple rain.” And then Prince is doing whatever he is doing. And then,
[singing] “Something robba throbba listen to the purple rain. Freaking purple rain, purple rain.” Carl did you just say freaking? Dude, I have said it three times in a row. I had to sneak in the work freaking. Okay.
[singing] “Freaking purple rain.” But that job is done because the guy, the Prince of Purple is dead and, check it out, he had built a business. That’s okay he is a performer. So work with me. But it was dependent upon him. So when he died there’s no Prince tour. No one’s running around touring like we’re the — He doesn’t really have a name for his band anymore. We’re the — We’re the people who use to travel with Prince but Prince is not here but we’re going to go ahead and do the background vocals. They’re gone. Again, so this guy right here. [music] Listen to this song, this song is great. First time I heard this song –
Sharita: This is a tribute for Zee because he loves Prince.
Vanessa: He does.
Clay: And I want to be Zee’s lover?
[laughter]
Sharita: It’s a metaphor. It’s a metaphor.
Clay: All right, here we go. Listen to this guy. Maybe that’s you and your business. You have this falsetto. You can do falsetto. You can go low. You can go high. You’re wearing Prince, you’ve got sequins. You’ve got the sequins. You got this crazy guitar skill. By the way, he can play the drums.
Vanessa: No one like you.
Clay: No one like you. Your wearing heels that are like — What they’re like platforms.
Vanessa: Yes, they’re platforms.
Clay: Four inch platforms and you’re like five foot nothing. You’re telling me your five foot eight. You aren’t five foot eight. Your five foot three, your Prince. You know. So, you don’t have a sustainable business model. That’s just you being awesome. That’s not sustainable. So you got to build a sustainable model. Now, I want to tell you what was sustainable. George Lucas started building these Star Wars movies and they built it in such a way where the toy revenue is massive, the systems are massive. The plot has been written out so now the movie, the story can go on without him. So he sold the business for over a billion dollars. He sold the Star Wars franchise to Disney World. Now, even without regrettably Carrie Fisher being present, the shows are going on. Rogue One. We have a special announcement Sharita.
Vanessa: Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia. We love you. Rest in Peace.
Clay: She’s gone.
Sharita: Send me into universe.
Vanessa: I should have put the cinnamon buns on my hair.
Clay: Yes. Carrie Fisher. If we got you bigger headphones it might look like those. Okay, but Carrie Fisher has passed away but the Star Wars franchise is still moving on without Carrie Fisher.
Vanessa: I find that so amazing, not about Carrie Fisher, but I’m saying George Lucus. As a family we watch all that. How they made the movies and he was the whole driving force, right? But because he – it’s not built around him. It’s amazing to me now that they can move on without him and be just as successful and–
Sharita: It’s your legacy, right?
Vanessa: Yes, but it’s just amazing to me that someone who was so intricate can build systems that operate without them. Like Clay said the story is written–
Clay: You know why you want to do that? Because today we are going to go buy a dog. What kind of dogs did you find? Have we narrow it down to the top 10 three?
Vanessa: The problem is there is only one we can see today. The other people —
Clay: What?
Vanessa: I don’t understand what the deal is.
Clay: Why can’t people build scalable dog showing businesses?
Vanessa: I want to talk to the people on Craig’s List. If you’re going to post a posting on Craig’s List for anything–
Clay: For anything
Vanessa: Please, on the reply let us call you. Some people will only have emails. [music] No, I am saying, how am I going to reach you if I cannot call you? And the only option is emails and then you don’t respond to email.
Clay: This is how I calm her down when she gets upset. I just play this song and I just say it’s okay.
[laughter]
Vanessa: Alright
Clay: If you’re on Cragislist —
Vanessa: Alright. Anyways, so the point is we can only see one dog now which will not help us make a decision because I need to see all three dogs.
Clay: No, no, we need to see one dog.
Announcer: You’re listening to the Thrive Time Show on talk radio 1170.
Clay: Here’s the deal thrivers. Check it out. I call this next thing I want to get into this a little bit, this is about creating a sustainable business model. Okay. I call this the gas cap theory. Now Sherida I want you to — Vanessa knows about this. So I want to kind of get your reaction to this.
Sherita: Sure, Sure.
Clay: You’re driving down the road right. People are honking at you. I don’t have a car horn readily available.
Vanessa: I feel like we have lived this experience many times.
Clay: This is what’ll happen. They go.
[boat horn]
Clay: They’re not doing boat horns but people are honking at you. They got there — if a boat honks at you, you’re really in trouble. Dad I think we are headed into a pond.
[laughter]
Clay: No son, we’re just head to Catoosa. Dad we’re headed into a river. Dad lookout. Quit texting. No seriously, but someone will honk at you and then wave at you and go, “Hey, hey “ and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, is my car on fire?” And you’re thinking and looking over at O’Neal going, “Are we on fire? What’s wrong?” And then you pull over, you’re like what is it? And you look your gas cap is open. You ever have that happen?
Sharita: I have not.
Clay: No.
Sharita: No, I have not.
Clay: Oh.
Vanessa: Like you have not lived your life.
[laughter]
Sharita: I’ll do it today.
Clay: It’s probably because you’re not married to me.
Sharita: I’ll do it today.
Clay: This is what happens. People are like, “You got to pull over.” Happens all the time.
Vanessa: Screaming. Yelling.
Clay: Another example. Another example. Okay. You’re out there doing life and you are an idiot. Okay. You’re going through life and you built a business — you’re working 97 hours a week. Okay. You’re not sleeping, right? You’re business sucks like a Hoover but you’re not selling Hoover’s. You’re not working for Dyson. You’re not like the Dirt Devil. You’re just a business is on a whole other level called the basement. Alright. But you’re like, “No my bagel, my bagel business is good.” And they’re going, “Your bagel business is not good Oswald. You’re like, “It is to, it’s Oswald’s Best Bagels and I swear it’s going to take off someday.” And you’re like, “Oswald you never sold any bagels.”
Vanessa: I need some gluten free options.
Clay: Oswald quit eating all the bagels. Anyway, the thing is no one will tell you your business is going the wrong way because that’s offensive. But they will tell you that your gas cap is open. So what we want to do thrivers is when you come to a workshop, what’s awesome is you can listen to people. You can learn about people who are successful. You can listen to them teach the systems. Dr. Z will be there. I’ll be there. We are teaching you and you can quietly say to yourself, “Oh no, that’s me.” And then you can correct it but it’s hard to make a change if you don’t know where you are having a problem. So you’ve got to — It’s really hard to make a change if you don’t know where you are making a problem. Now this is what Dr. Zoellner says, this is a notable quotable from Dr. Z himself he’s not here so I have to quote him like he’s a hologram from Star Wars or something. But here is what he says, “Once you have learned to sell that one thing, that widget, that service or that product you’re your customer is willing to buy for more than it costs you to produce you have something. You have something. Now you just have to figure out how to scale it over and over in a way that doesn’t involve you and you will become rich.” Rich? Business coach, Shar do you have something you want to add?
Sharita: I do. Here’s what I want to say. It’s really from my heart because I think we work here and we do such great work with our clients and Clay is at the helm of that with these systems and processes, him and Dr. Z. But I just want the listeners to know, we have clients every week who call us and say, “Hey, I quadrupled my income this week.” This is not made up. This happens every week. I just want people to know if they come in and learn these systems and these processes, it can change your life.
Clay: It’s not rocket science. We’re not sitting down going well here’s the – I’m not sitting down with a — I work with multiple surgeons right now, multiple.
I’m not sitting down going, “Here’s the deal doctor. When you want to do a great incision, what I like to do is I like go in from that left side. I call what that’s my good hand and I’ve got my good eye on it. what you want to do is you want to kind of go, [sound effect]. I call it more of a fillet cut because- and they’re going, “You’re a sick freak.”” No I’m not doing that. I’m teaching you how to fix your permalink, how to optimize your website, how to build your sales final, how to hire people, how to fire people, how to get an LLC, how to sue people, how to be sued, how to deal with it, how to not go crazy, how to balance your schedule, how to do customer service, how to not go crazy, how to be a good husband and a good business owner– These are things we teach. Now we move on.
The next move, point number three is you have to define. You’ve got to define. What do you have to define? Thrivers when we come back, when we start talking, we’re going to say, “Hey, I know the purpose of my business, point one, okay. I know that I want to create a sustainable business model, step two” but three, you’ve got to define what that looks like specifically. Like what time are you going home? What time are you getting up? How many sales deals do you need? How much is enough? How much will you go, “I’m doing enough business. Thank you very much. I’m good.” How many have– When is it not ever enough? Maybe you want to franchise and it’s never enough. Maybe it is enough. I don’t know. I’m not going to put my values on you, what I’m going to do is I’m going to make you think about it in a deep way because we’re not going to be thinking narrow. We’re going to get in deep into that marrow, going deep below the surface of that epidermis. Stay tune. Thrive Nation, thrivetimeshow.com, thrivetimeshow.com, and thrivetimeshow.com.
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[music]
Announcer: [music] You’re listening to the Thrive Time show on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: [music] All right Thrive Nation. Welcome back to the Thrive Time show. Today we’re going to magically transport you to a place, a place in time in American history where people get paid. Imagine a time like this. Imagine a place in the world where people would get paid based off of what they do and not based off of what they know. Imagine a place where people got paid based off of the value they added to the marketplace and not how many hours they worked. Imagine a time and place where the world wasn’t fair. Imagine a place where you could get your MBA and still know nothing. Imagine a time and place where you can become an educated idiot and you know everything. You’ve gone back to college, you’ve got that business degree and you’re sleeping on your mom’s couch. Somebody’s listening right now and you’re like, “He’s on my couch right now. I’m trying to get him off the couch. Trevor get off my couch. Mom I can’t listen to Thrive show because I’m learning everything about everything but I do nothing.” Here’s the deal Thrivers, you get paid for what you do, not based on what you know. I’m going to break it down because we’re teaching how to build a scalable business system quickly and Miss Sharita Bent and my incredible wife. Mrs. Vanessa Clark, they have some points they want to add in here today. I’m going to go and read from the great book Scale. Scale. Who wrote Scale? I don’t even know if I- should I listen to Scale. “How do I know if Scale is the right book for me. How do I know?” -because he built Priceline. “Never heard of it. I don’t use the Internet.” Okay, fine. He’s worth hundreds of millions of dollars. “Who is he?” Google it. Check it out.
Here we go. He says this, “The process layer consists of the-step by-step process or procedure you’ve created to complete any given task. Work with me. When you build a business, you’ve learned to sell something. You need to make a process which is a long, long [beeps] checklist. I’m talking a big [beeps] checklist. We’re talking about a big [beeps] checklist. It’s a huge document that no one understands, but it’s a written system. Shark, Sam, you’re producing today. Mike, you saw this happen in the last 24 hours in this room. You have a system that’s written out, but it’s big. No one knows what you’re talking about, but you have to have the process layer. That’s step one. Step two, and I’m white hot on this because it just happened. Step two, we’re hoping that people will learn some things. Sam, I want you to educate America on this idea. Once it gets deep into your cerebellum because this is one thing I’ve failed to teach often enough.
The second step is the format layer, which deals with how you package and present your system in a way that your team can actually use. [chuckles] You see, because this first step, the first step is to make in the system, writing it out, that’s where you hit your head on the toilet seat and you draw the flux capacitor. You go, “Marty, look. I made the flux capacitor.” You’re like, “What’s that doc?” “It’s what makes time-travel possible.” “Doc, doc, doc, doc.” “Marty, you are– Let me guess, you are– You are part of the US Coast Guard and you are– you are–” “No doc, I’m from the future and I’m–” “You know what this means?” “What does it mean?” “This means this thing doesn’t work, Marty.” The thing is it’s like Doc Brown, you’ve got these ideas but they’re not manifesting. They’re not becoming anything. That’s because you have nailed down, I repeat, the process layer. But step two is the format layer. What’s the format layer? Check it out.
The process layer is like how to make the shrimp panini. “Do you want the shrimp panini?” and you say, “I would like some.” “Would you like a bit of grounded pepper? I grounded the pepper. Do you want the shrimp panini?” You’re going, “Calm down.” Next thing you know, that guy gets promoted, because it’s his business, to the chef status. So Sharita now works at this restaurant, and I’m trying to teach you how to make it because I have nailed down the process. I know how to make great shrimp panini. I’m going to kind of role play this scenario. I’m trying to teach you and Vanessa how to do this. Vanessa, her job is she’s the waitress. You’re out there trying to make the food. Have you ever been to Olive Garden and noticed how many Hispanics are making the food.
Sharita: I don’t eat at Olive Garden.
Clay: You ever notice that though? How a lot of Hispanic people working at an Italian restaurant?
Sharita: No. I don’t like it. No.
Clay: Check it out. You can teach people of all different nationalities and races how to do something.
Vanessa: You don’t have to be Italian to work at Olive Garden is what you’re saying?
Clay: That is the point.
Sharita: I’m going today. Gas cap and Olive Garden.
Clay: The other point is I only eat at restaurants where Hispanics work. I won’t eat at a Caucasian restaurant. I don’t trust Caucasians. No, I’m just kidding. Here’s the thing, you go in there and this is what happens. I go, “What you want to do, you want to really love on the pepper.”
Sharita: “All right, love on the pepper.”
Clay: “You want to love on the pepper.”
Vanessa: [laughs]
Sharita: “Love on the pepper.”
Clay: “No you’ve got to love on the pepper. Too much pepper! Too much pepper! I’m tired, I’m tired of teaching you. I’m done.”
Sharita: I blew it off. I blew some off.
Vanessa: He’s just going to take it over.
Clay: Yes, that happens all the time though. There’s business owners who are going– Now Vanessa is going– She’s come up to me and she’s asking me about the drink menu. Go and ask me some questions about the drink menu because I’m the crazy Italian founder of the business.
Vanessa: Are these really only all the drinks we have? We carry Pepsi products or–
Clay: You must memorize the menu. You must– I get tired of you people. I spend my entire day. I go in the paper, you memorize the menu. I guess nobody can do it like me, I swear. You’re going, “Is that real? You’re so weird.” “Where is the cork to the bottle?” “Which bottle are you referring to.” “This specific cork.” The thing is, people don’t– they don’t do well when you are– it’s all in your head. You’ve got to turn it into a process. Check it out. I create a thing called a menu, and on that menu, it’s– now you can go to the customer and show him the menu. They can choose what they want and it kind of it shows pictures. Then you have this thing called a recipe. A recipe, and you’re supposed to make it in a way, so now you just look through that checklist and you can do it. That’s how that is. A lot of people, they know in their mind the process, but they don’t have the format. That’s a part that a lot of people get wrong because what happens is, you can decide about what are some examples? Yes.
Vanessa: I think many times, there will be business owners who will go ahead and get really motivated and say, “Yes, I need a checklist” and they’ll make a checklist, but they don’t go to that second step of making a proper format. What happens is employees get so frustrated with that checklist because maybe there’s some steps missing, maybe–
Clay: “I don’t even know what Carl’s talking about, he missed six steps.”
Vanessa: Yes, and instead of going to their manager or whoever’s above them and them critiquing and making it a tighter checklist, no one uses the checklist.
Sharita: Sure.
Clay: Here we go. These are the kinds of specific format layers that you need to create in your business. This is the kind of stuff we teach at thrive15.com workshops. By the way January 20th and 21st, we have limited seating.
Vanessa: Get ready.
Clay: Go to thrivetimeshow.com, to quote my man T.D. Jakes, “Get ready, get ready, get ready.” All right, he says it three times. “Get ready, get ready, get ready.” The thing is, the Thrive Time show workshops are game changers, and if you’ve got $7 in your pocket right now, put your hands up. Just kidding, but seriously if you have $7, you can afford to come out to this. We have a scholarship program that’s available for anybody who wants to attend. Z and I know what it’s like to not have enough money to get by and we want to help you do it. Here are the format layers that we’re going to teach you, the kinds of things you can learn at our workshops.
One, checklists– By the way we have templates available. “You give us examples.” Yes. Scripts, worksheets, written guidelines, database– database guidelines, CRM- customer relationship management software templates, pricing lists,
negotiation terms, written warnings for employee write-ups, a marketing calendar. “I’m not interested, these are all things I would rather create from scratch.” Okay.
Vanessa: [laughs]
Clay: Wow.
Sharita: You don’t have to, right? You’re reinventing the wheel.
Vanessa: These things have worked for other people so it’s not a trial and error, but this marketing calendar, this is a — people are-
Sharita: Using.
Vanessa: -using. Yes, there are different ones for different industries, what would be best for you.
Clay: So if you know the purpose of your business, which is to create the 3 P’s, which is a profit for your business, a product your customers love, and a place where you can work with great people; if you walk into your business and just the sight of somebody pisses you off, irritates you, you’ve got to understand that’s not a good thing. You got to understand, either you’re happy or they’re happy. I’m just being real with you. If you work in my office and I don’t like you I’m going to tell you. It’s not going to be like a little– during a conversation, I just don’t like you. They’re going to say, “You don’t like me?” No I don’t, I mean there’s just certain things about your personality, mainly your personality, that I don’t like. I’ve– there’s other people that would like your personality, but your consistent attempts to master solitaire during the work day-
Sharita: [laughs] Yes, yes, yes.
Clay: – or your persistent attempts, you know what I’m talking about. They’re trying to watch a Netflix video on screen number 2, while you’re– while you’re drifting of your– thinking about your pot acquisition dreams. These are things that I’m not going to endorse, okay. But Thrivers we’re going to teach when we come back how to build a scalable and repeatable business that can quickly scale, can quickly build a repeatable business that can help you create that time and financial freedom. Thrive Time Show, where is it? www.thrivetimeshow.com. [music]
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Announcer: [music] Live, local, now. You’re listening to the Thrive Time Show, on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: It’s the Thrive Time Show and it’s around that noon time. A lot of you guys are going “Noon time? What do you get like an hour and a half lunch break?” No, here’s the thing. Some of you went over to Oklahoma Joe’s and you realized you walked in to a palace of barbecue. You went in there and you go, “I didn’t even know that this food– this was possible.” This is like, “Have you have these baked beans?” And they go, “Would you like an extra side?” “Yeah I’ll have 4 extra sides.” You now have un– un– you had t unbutton one– one-
Vanessa: [laughs]
Clay: –button on your pants, and you’re doing what I like to call the extra dance where you go– [pauses]– when you’re kind of making room and you’re kind of going [grunts]. They go, “Do you want any dessert?” and you’re going– in your mind you’re going, “Well it hurts a little bit, but I’m in physical pain, but yes sure, sure.” You say something nice like, “Well I shouldn’t,” and the waiter’s like, “Oh, come on.” It’s this half, I don’t know it’s this weak game of you attempting to be on a diet, meanwhile you’re just pounding the baby back ribs.
The deal is, you’re at Oklahoma Joe’s right now having a great time but you’re also saying to yourself, “You know what? I do want to learn how to build a scalable business because I– Oklahoma Joe’s, it’s not super expensive but it’s not free and I want to buy some more baked beans, I want to have an unlimited supply of baked beans. How can I learn to buy an unlimited amount of Oklahoma Joe’s baked beans.” I’m going to tell you how. You got to build a scalable business system. So Vanessa, if you had to define a scalable business versus a typical business, what’s the difference in your mind, or differences in your mind between a scalable business in terms of branding and a non-scalable business in terms of branding?
Vanessa: Are you talking about some of the branding mistakes that we made early on with our businesses?
Clay: Yes with our early business, definitely make fun of me I’m open game here.
Vanessa: [chuckles]
Clay: Things you’ve seen as patterns because you’ve obviously touched a lot of the files and you’ve– you work with a lot of the clients, you’ve seen a lot of it.
Vanessa: Branding, anything that’s memorable, of course were– that’s why Elephant In The Room went with Elephant In The Room it seems kind of an odd name but it was something that was easily recognized and memorable. I know–
Clay: Mike, Mike can you grab the mock-ups for the billboards while we’re– she’s talking about branding I want you to grab that because you’re talking about marketing and memorable-
Vanessa: I think anything that-
Clay: I think we might have some winners here.
[laughs]
Vanessa: We sure do. Anything you can get that is memorable I know, with Steve Curington, get Koalafied. How cute and memorable is that and it makes you see the visual of a koala. Early-
Clay: That’s a koala right there. Look at that.
Vanessa: -early on with DJ Connection I know that we sold wedding packages to brides and grooms and pretty much the bride is going to make– call the shots, right?
Sharita: Sure.
Vanessa: But what’s interesting is that, and we didn’t even notice this until you met with Laurie Montague who was a wedding guru at that time and the photography industry, but all of our branding was geared towards men, all of it.
[laughter]
Clay: It was all designed like, “Now the first pack-
Vanessa: “The dude package.”
Clay: “The first package is called, what I call it is the Truck.”
[laughter]
Clay: And the bride’s like, “Oh okay, what color is it?” “Ma’am, it’s a truck. It’s got wheels on it and when we show up on time, and we’ll play that music.” “What kind of music do you play?” “Ma’am we haven’t got time for that. It’s called the Truck, it gets you there.”
[laughter continues]
Vanessa: And the man is sitting there just looking off in the distance.
Clay: He’s going, “Yes what day are we getting married again, babe? What day is it?”
[laughter]
Vanessa: Anyways, that was a huge eye opener when Laurie Montague said, “Why are you selling to men? Women are going to be the ones making the decisions for the wedding decisions,” and we switched all of the branding. “Always And Forever,” all the packages’ names were real princess-y and-
Clay: I’ve got a notable quotable for-
Vanessa: -and it cha– it was huge. Go for it.
Clay: I’ve got some notable quotable for some ideas that are ropeable. [sound effect] Catching it. Bringing it back, pulling it back. Pulling it to your brain, here we go.
Vanessa: One day you’re just getting on here and rap the whole day.
Clay: Not going to do it yet. Here’s the deal, I’m just going to switch from now into suits, into sweatshirts and then we’ll start-
Vanessa: You’re becoming a rapper.
Clay: -anyway. Here’s the thing is Thrivers, I’m being serious about this okay. You want to make sure that your brand matches your ideal fans. That’s the thing.
Vanessa: That’s good.
Clay: Your brand has to match your ideal fans. Right now if you’re looking online right now, I’m wearing a– it’s a prototype which means it’s not done, but it is like a prototype it’s a work in progress. “Your prototype? This is the best you’re going to get, buddy,” No, seriously. This is my sweatshirt-
Vanessa: The official one will be awesome.
Clay: -will all going to be embroidered and such. This a honey badger, okay? A honey badger is our mascot at thrive15.com because to be a honey badger means you have to eat, you have to survive– a honey badger survives. A honey badger has adapted over time to now survive by eating larva from bees and snakes.
[laughter]
Clay: The thing now can be bitten constantly by bees and snakes and it-
Sharita: And it just keeps-
Vanessa: Have you seen this? Okay.
Sharita: – it just keeps eating. [laughs]
Clay: –it just keeps eating and the honey badger’s don’t care. He just don’t care. So here’s the thing is Thrivers, is that your brand has to match your ideal and likely buyer, and if you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve got to have a little bit of a kick to you. A little bit of-
Vanessa: Sexiness.
Clay: – a little– a little se– I don’t know if it’s sexy-
Sharita: A little swag. Got to have-
Sharita and Vanessa: – swag.
Sherita: Feel like crunchy-
Clay: I feel uncomfortable there.
Sharita: – got to be a little crunchy, got to have some little crunch to them.
Clay: You do, you do and you do, and I would say you have to be comfortable with making people feel uncomfortable. You’ve got to run around promoting your own business and we’re in a culture where you, “Shouldn’t promote yourself, self-promotion’s bad,” you want to be poor? That’s a good tip. Self-promotion’s bad, you want to be poor, good idea. “You should be humble,” that’s a great thing to do. The thing is, you have to be proud enough of your product to share it with people but humble enough to be coached by your customer and how to make it better. We’re talking about branding and trying to come up with ideas that can match your brand and I’m going to get into some– some numbers and the metrics you have to have for your business, but if you’re on Facebook live right now, and if you’re not, you should be. But we’re– we’re going to have new billboards that are coming up promoting the show, new billboards. This is like my favorite two right now, I’m down to the two here, this is my favorite two. This one here. “Learn to build a Trumptastic business”.
Vanessa: Can Michael zoom in on that face? So you can see– can.
Clay: If you don’t like you can deal with it.
[laughter]
Clay: You can deal with it. It’s okay-
Vanessa: It’s a hybrid let me tell all the listeners.
Clay: -Who’s that you just [unintelligible 01:18:52] ?
Vanessa: It is a hybrid of the Trump hair-
Clay: Look at that hair. The hair says “I don’t care.”
Vanessa: – on a clay face with crazy eyes.
[laughter]
Vanessa: Let me tell you, you will not forget this billboard and the first time I saw that picture I think I laughed until I cried, it is so ridiculous.
Sharita: It’s the eyes, it’s the eyes. [laughs]
Clay: It’s really a disturbing thing. Now the other one we have here is “Business school without the BS,” and that almost seems calm. Compared-
Vanessa: Compared to the other one, yes. [laughs]
Clay: -that really makes sense. Business school without the BS, that’s calm that’s very calm. Then you pull the Trump and you’re going, “What is wrong with you?”
Vanessa: But wha– let me say what makes it so good too. Say what you will, wherever you are politically-
Clay: [sings] Say you will, say you won’t.
[laughter]
Vanessa: – but I think that most people will agree that if nothing else, Trump is a good businessman.
Clay: He is a good businessman or– or maybe not a good businessman, he’s– but he makes billions. But the thing is now Thrivers, here’s the thing is, we’re walking you through the specific steps to build a scalable business model and now we’re getting to these numbers. You have the fine numbers, okay. You have to know, you need to write this down. You have to know the number of customers you need just to break-even. “Break-even? I don’t want to break-even-“
[laughter]
Clay: “My idea’s so transformative, so viral so disruptive, my app is going to
be so just saucy.” “You have a saucy app, it’s going to be so saucy and sensual and it’s going to be like bacon for the brain.” “What is your app?” “It’s going to be a game changer, it’s going to be like translucent but not too much. You won’t be able to see through it but you’ll be able to–” “Are you talking about an app now?” “It’s going to have a little bit of sexiness to it but it’s going to have a smell of baked beans.” “What is it? You’ve got to have Rita write it down, you’ve got to be real. How many customers do you need to break-even?”
Now the second thing is, how many customers do you need to achieve your financial goals? Goals? Is that ethical to have a goal because a lot of people go, “I don’t want to put big goals, I want to be realistic”. I’m talking about this kind of goal. You know that soccer guy who’s always freaking out?
[man yelling in the background]
Sharita: He goes on forever [crosstalk]
Clay: Listen to his this I’m talking about are you achieving your goals? Are you achieving your goals? I’m asking you, Tulsa, are you achieving your goals? The thing is, Thrivers, if you’re not achieving your goals you want to go to the Thrive Time Show. That’s what you’ve got to do okay? That guy’s going off check it out.
Sharita: It’s still going, it’s still going.
Clay: Check it out, I want you guys to write this down, this is huge. So many of you were out every Saturday you’re cheering for OU, OU, OSU, OSU. You got the shirt, you got a tattoo to a school that you dropped out of. You got kicked out there’s a freshman, homie, you know you didn’t graduate. But you got a OSU sweatshirt, you got a OUT shirt, but here’s the thing, why are you cheering more for a team that you don’t even play on in yourself? [music]
Sharita: Right.
Clay: What’s the deal? Cheer for yourself. Do it. I believe in you, we believe in you. You’ve got to get serious, go to thrivetimeshow.com and sign up for that workshop, okay? Thrivetimeshow.com get serious about yourself, you can do it. [music]
Ad: Are you looking to start or grow a business? Then you are definitely going to have problems and questions along the way. You will find the answers to all of your business questions at thrive15.com. Thrive15.com provides online video based business training taught by millionaires and successful entrepreneurs for less than a dollar per day. That’s less than your daily coffee budget. It’s no classrooms, no get-rich-quick seminars. These are trainings broken into 15 minute segments that get you the answers that you need. It’s business school without the BS. I dare you to try a seven-day free trial. Simply go to thrive15.com and the first 100 people will also receive a free downloadable for how to optimize your website. Stop wasting your time and money, go to thrive15.com and get your business questions answered now. [music]
Announcer: You’re listening to The Thrive Time Show on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: All right, thrive nation, welcome back to the final hour of power on this fantastic Friday, baby. You’re listening to the Thrive Time Show, probably not yet on your way home because you’re probably at work right now, you’re probably on your lunch hour, you’re probably getting a lot of things done. I’m telling you what we’re today– We’re teaching a topic that I’m especially passionate about. We’re teaching this concept, this idea of how to build a quickly scalable business. You understand you can scale a business quickly. [music] We’re opening up another Elephant in the Room very soon, we’re expanding our downtown location, we have three locations to serve you and if you’re listening right now and you’ve never been to the Elephant in the Room men’s grooming lounge, you got to have two things to qualify. One, you got to be a dude. “I’m I a dude, are you judging me, am I a dude?” Listen, we’re not going to get into this whole Kris Jenner debate thing. If you believe to be a dude, just get in there okay? The thing is, it’s only a dollar for your first hair cut, and anybody listening, your first time it’s a dollar. But the thing was, it took a long time, about a year, to refine the systems to the point where we could quickly scale it but we had the end in mind the entire time was to scale the business and there were times that we could have made decisions that could have trapped us within the business but instead we decided to focus on building a scalable model.
Now, we’re opening up the second one, the second one did great, now we’re opening a third one, the third one is doing great and now we’re working on expanding the downtown and we’re opening up a fourth one. Now it’s getting exciting and I’m just telling you, you need to focus on building a scalable business, otherwise you’re going to build a business system that creates a job for you and when you create a job and not a business, now you’re working all the time and everything about the business is dependent upon you.
Sharita: You can’t grow it.
Clay: You can’t grow it and here’s maybe one of the reasons why you’re doing this. This is maybe a failure loop that you’re stuck in, I’m going to read it to you. Maybe you’re jaded by past experiences of delegating to your staff only to later learn that they ignored your systems and the important details. You’ve asked people on your team to do something before, and they didn’t do it and tonight you’re like well, “Freaking A, I’m going to do it myself, I’m going to do every part of the business by myself, I’m going to code up my website by myself, I’m going to print pieces by myself, I’m going to open the door by myself, clean the toilets by myself and at the end of the day myself will be with myself and I will take a selfie with myself and I’ll post it on Facebook and I’ll tag myself and I’ll look at myself and I will say it’s myself being away from yourself because I love myself.”
Sharita: This is someone who took the time to go make the checklist, do the things and then they didn’t think about what’s going to happen, what kind of accountability do I need and so they end up frustrated that it didn’t happen how they thought it would and now they’re back to square one, them doing everything.
Clay: We teach management systems at Thrive15 workshops, in person two-day workshops. If I want to go to one of these workshops– “I have built some fantastic systems, I have built them I am only listening to this radio show because I don’t want to talk about politics, I’m only listening right now but I’ve built some fantastic systems, and if you only know of the beauty of my systems, you would gawk. I just need help, a little bit of help on management,” and I say,” How much help?” “Just a little, I know what to do, I just want to be verified and validated.” If someone wants to come out to our workshop to learn the management systems that Dr Zoellner has created, that have allowed him to– are you ever amazed, by the way, how often the man travels and yet his businesses are just rocking?
Sharita: I absolutely love it. That’s who I want to be when I grow up, do you know what I mean, it’s Dr Zoellner, no I’m serious.
Clay: When you first encountered the man, was it bizarre that he might or might not be at a meeting?
Sharita: It’s awesome because he’s like, “I just flew in from fill in the blank, and tonight I’m going to fly out to fill in the blank”, and the systems are [crosstalk]
Clay: He goes, “The Cubs are going to the world series.”
Sharita: Yes.
Clay: And I go, “They are going to the world series”, he goes, “So I’m going.”
Sharita: Yes, tonight, “I’m going tonight.”
Clay: He interacts with history.
Sharita: Yes. [laughs] I love it. I absolutely love it.
Clay: Vanessa what were you saying?
Vanessa: I say he has that freedom only because he’s made it that way, and for someone else who doesn’t like to travel or whatever, but the point is, to have that freedom, isn’t that the breeze in your in-business.
Sharita: Yes, definitely.
Clay: Here’s the deal, if someone wants to come out to a Thrive15 in-person today, 15 hours of power. “15 hours of power, we’re going to teach you how to pump it up, we’re going to teach you how to grow your business, how to increase your power.” No, calm down, we’re not going in– It’s like an intense weight lifting workshop, but if someone wants to get out to those workshops, how can they do it?
Sharita: We have made it incredibly easy for you, you literally need to go to thrivetimeshow.com, you can click on Conferences.
Clay: Will this involve me going to the internet? we always get to the part of the show where you’re like, “Go on the website.”
Sharita: It will.
Clay: Okay.
Sharita: And it’s super easy.
Clay: I’ll have my daughter do it.
Sharita: It’s super easy, yes, have your daughter do it, and we also have on our main page, it says, “Do you want to attend a conference to get started.” We’ve given you so many options, you can do it so easily, you enter your information-
Clay: If I had a fax machine, can I go directly through myface.com? How do I do it one more time? Sorry, I was eating some Oklahoma Joe’s.
Sharita: I get it, you go to thrivetimeshow.com, and we will help you get your seat reserved. It’s a limited availability, so that’s what we want to let people know, this is not an arena.
Vanessa: Reserve a spot now.
Sharita: Yes, it’s not an arena, it’s very intimate because we’re working with you one-on-one.
Clay: One of the things I like about you people is that you all use your smartphones and you’re all like, “Hey, I’ve discovered everything, I know the secrets of the world”, but you don’t know what Moses told me directly, you’ll never know because you weren’t there. Here’s the deal, Thrivers, we want o teach you how to grow a successful [unintelligible 00:08:40], but you got to have faith in yourself when you begin to act, because, Sharita, when you try to implement these systems, have you ever been frustrated that people don’t want to implement them? You’re like, “All you have to do is what’s on the checklist, that’s all you have to do.” Have you ever thought to yourself, “What in the devil is inside you?”
Sharita: Oh yes.
Vanessa: I’ve seen her with the people.
Sharita: I was going to say you two have both [crosstalk]
Vanessa: I don’t want to put any names out there.
Sharita: Yes, because you just think, “I’ve made it.” It’s just right here, number one, do this, number two. It is frustrating and I do have that personality where I just want to take it back over.
Clay: Have you ever tried to find the devil inside an employee and pull it out?
Sharita: I am. I’m like, “Let’s exorcise it today.”
Clay: Exorcise the demons, get that demon in shape. Here’s the deal, Thrivers, but it’s going to require some faith that the conference can teach you how to do it. Okay?
Sharita: Yes.
Clay: We have a money back guarantee as well. If you’re going, “I’ll do it, but I have to know that I’m going to actually be satisfied.” Let me tell you what, you’re going to be satisfied because it is everything you need to know to start or grow a business and it’s an affordable scholarship program. If you have $7 in your pocket, you can afford to get out this that we have– It’s affordable for everybody and absolutely, it’s affordable for everybody. There’s absolutely no upselling. There’s nobody in the back room upselling you stuff [unintelligible 00:09:49].
Announcer: You’re listening to The Thrive Time Show on Talk Radio 1170.
Clay: Now, in honor my main man, George Michael, I don’t typically do this on a Friday, but I call this the Friday faith–
George Michael passed away peacefully- Well, doing drugs, but anyway. George Michael, he passed away, bless his heart George, we miss you already. So I’m going to play this for you Thrivers. Here we go, let me kick it up here. [music] It’s okay, your boss probably won’t know. If you are the boss just singalong, it’s okay. [singing] Would be nice, if I could touch your body- All the Thrivers. I know not everybody, has got a body like- You’ve got to watch this video its epic. Twice, come on Thrivers, here we go; we’re going to the chorus. I give my heart away and I know all the games you play, because I play them too. I am reading the lyrics. Oh but I need some time off from that emotion- Come on Thrivers. Pick my heart up off the floor, on 1170, oh yes. Down, without devotion, it takes a strong man baby but I’m showing you the door. Have faith. Faith. I got to have faith. I got to have faith. Baby- I was awesome.
[laughter]
Vanessa: I messed up a lot of those words there, I was- [laughs]
Sharita: You see I’m jamming out over here.
Clay: That took my back to the ‘80s. I went back there, I was thinking about Converse shoes where you splash paint them. You remember splash paint? You got that denim jacket; you got a big old button. You remember when you’re wearing the big button?
Sharita: Massive. Massive.
Vanessa: And the reverse socks.
Sharita: Yes, I want to slap-
Clay: Did you have a trapper keeper with a dolphin on it?
Sharita: I wanted one.
Vanessa: Yes.
Sharita: I never got one but I wanted one.
Vanessa: I had a kitten.
Clay: You had a kitten?
Sharita: Lisa Frank-
Clay: Did you not care about the rain forest? Why would you not want one with the rain forest on it?
Sharita: Rolling your jeans up.
Clay: Oh yes, Velcro was hot.
Vanessa: Yes, I remember that.
Clay: You remember the dice game at the Roller City or Rollerland, wherever you lived, Roller City-
Vanessa: I don’t know about this, I missed out.
Clay: You didn’t live near a Roller City or-
Sharita: I liked skating, I went skating for sure.
Clay: Was the name of the place Roller City?
Sharita: Roller City, something like that.
Clay: And then they do the dice game. Remember that?
Vanessa: I don’t know it. I don’t know it.
Sharita: Fuzzy dice or little dice?
Clay: Do you remember reverse skating?
Sharita: I do.
Clay: You remember that? Vanessa?
Sharita: You need strong legs-
Vanessa: I guess I wasn’t a big roller-skater.
Clay: Okay, listen right now, Thrivers, here’s what I want you to do, we got three things we need to cover here. One, if you know Jason White, he’s a beautiful man and he lived on West Memphis in beautiful Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, he want to Oral Roberts University and don’t hate him, but he is a member of the IRS. Don’t hate him. Reach out to him, text him, say, “Jason, they’re talking about you and your reverse skating moves”.
Sharita: Was he skilled?
Clay: You got the quad skates, he could break it down.
Vanessa: Oh, Clay talks about it to this day.
Sharita: Really?
Clay: It made me cry when I would watch that guy, I’m like, “How’s he so good”.
Vanessa: He said all the dance moves he had in real life he could do on those skates.
Clay: Multiplied by seven.
Sharita: That’s epic.
Clay: He was awesome but now– Two other things we need to talk about, two other things real quick here. One, we have this epic conference coming up on January 20th and 21st. When you buy a ticket it’s for your group. When you buy a ticket you could bring your husband all for one price. You could bring your whole crew; you could bring your whole neighborhood. If you live in Prior you could probably bring the whole town because it’s just you and six people. The thing is, you could bring your group. If you’re the pastor of a church, bring your team, if you own a business, bring your squad, you could do all that, okay? Go to thrivetimeshow.com to learn more and to register right now for January 20th and 21st, its affordable for everybody.
Vanessa: Spaces are limited.
Clay: And number three, sharing is caring. I repeat, sharing is caring. Go to thrivetimeshow.com and share this broadcast, share these podcasts with your friends, help you’re other friends become successful and as always, three and two, one-
All: Boom.
[01:33:35] [END OF AUDIO]