Business Podcasts | Dr. Zoellner and Clay Clark Teach How to Become a Millionaire | Your Business Is Just a Vehicle to Get You to Your Goals. The Vehicle Exists to Serve You. + Learn How Tricia and Dave More Than Doubled the SIZE of Their Businesses

Patricia and Dave from Pappagallo’s in Satellite Beach. A customer of ours actually talked to Dave about checking out the ThriveTime crew, help us out with business stuff.

And where did you feel most stuck before you began coaching?

Most stuck in time management and just trying to get away. Everything came through me, and I just couldn’t get away from the place.

So what was your initial 13-point assessment like?

It was very eye-opening. About 12 of the questions I had no answers for, and that kind of scared me. They ask questions you don’t think about in day-to-day operations. So it really opened my eyes that we needed help.

And he had to hide behind a box to be able to do it, to get away from everybody needing him.

What has it been like to work with Clay on a weekly basis?

He’s high energy, of course, but he holds you accountable for the stuff that you know should do but it would get put off. But when you know you’re going to get on the phone, you make sure that you are doing it.

Very focused one hour. You got definitely things that you got to go through and hit and make sure they get done, put on the list for next week. Jam-packed one hour.

And what wins or successes have you seen thus far?

I think our biggest win is staffing. With the group interviews, that we’re always staffed. Where before, we were always looking for people to fill spots, now we’re looking for spots for the people we have. And just the systems of doing things consistently and being able to pass things off to the new people.

And going back to the staff, we’re not held hostage to anybody that actually works a lot for us, and we overuse them because they’re a good person. And you kind of end up having an issue, and you have to keep them because you got nobody else. We don’t have to worry about that anymore. We just do the group interview and get somebody else in.

What were you initially skeptical about before beginning with the program?

Didn’t really know what we were getting into. We kind of committed to whatever they asked us to do, we were going to do 110% until we realized it either did or didn’t work. And there’s been a lot of things that came up that I didn’t think would work and honestly did work.

Awesome. All right. And what are a few of the strategies that you’ve implemented thus far that have worked?

First and foremost is the Google reviews and staying on top of that. Systems for every position that we never had before. Everything came from me. All the recipes were in my head. Now, having those down frees me up. Those have made the biggest difference.

Awesome. And if I’m thinking about coming to a conference, why should I do it?

You want that one?

No, you go for it.

The biggest thing is it gets you in a room full of people. You get a ton of information, but you also get to see people that are going through what you’re going through. Even if it’s not in the same industry you’re in, you see that you’re not the only one going through the problems that you have.

Who thinks like you. They work like you. They got the same problems. Different industry, but still applies.

Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show, but this show does. In a world filled with endless opportunities, why would two men who have built 13 multimillion-dollar businesses altruistically invest five hours per day to teach you the best practice business systems and moves that you can use? Because they believe in you. And they have a lot of time on their hands.

They started from the bottom. Now they’re here. It’s the ThriveTime Show starring the former US Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneur Of The Year, Clay Clark. And the entrepreneur trapped inside an optometrist’s body, Dr. Robert Zoellner. Two men, eight kids co-created by two different women, 13 multimillion-dollar businesses.

(Singing).

Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Thrive Nation, we are in the air everywhere. And on today’s show, we’re talking about page 19 of the new book I just wrote. This new book is called A Millionaire’s Guide, How To Become Sustainably Rich – A Step-By-Step Guide to Building a Successful, Money-Generating, and Time-Freedom Creating Business. And one of the things we have to do if we’re going to be out there today and we’re starting a business, and we’re going to turn our big idea into actual success, is we have to get the right mindset in our mind that your business is just a vehicle to get you to your goals. The business exists to serve you.

So Andrew, let’s think about one of our clients. Great client. It’s called Pappagallo’s. And you used to work with Pappagallo’s. I work with Pappagallo’s currently.

That’s right.

I’m going to pull up their website. I’m going to do a search on Google right now. It’s called Pappagallo’s. And they’re based in Satellite Beach, Florida. So “Pappagallo’s, Satellite Beach, Florida.” I do a Google search. I find them. Boom. Pappagallo’s Pizza. Their business primarily serves pizza. They serve pizza, Italian American food with a Florida flair. That’s what they do. So they actually serve customers pizza and American food.

How is it possible then that their business now exists to serve them despite the fact that they actually specialize in serving food to other people? And again, folks, if you’re listening right now and you want to follow along, you can go to thrivetimeshow.com/millionaire. And when you go there, you can download this new book for free, A Millionaire’s Guide, How To Become Sustainably Rich. You can download this, and you can follow along today on page 19.

So, Andrew, how is it possible that Pappagallo’s… That their business exists to serve them despite the fact that they serve pizza now to other people?

It exists now to serve them because they have built the systems, the hiring processes, the opening checklist, the closing checklists, every checklist and system needed for the business to run where they don’t have to be there every single hour of every day running the business. And in addition to that, the business produces a profit, which allows them to do whatever they want to do.

So let’s look at their business for a second, then let’s think about our business out there if you’re listening today. When we first met them, they needed to improve their brand. So if you’re listening right now, you want to improve your branding. And that would be your website, your print pieces, your business cards.

Blumer, why do you have to improve every aspect of your brand? Why does their website, pappagallos.com, have to look good? Why does their signage have to look good? Why do their print pieces have to look good? Why does the front door have to look good? Why does their menu have to look good? Why does everything that a person sees as it relates to Pappagallo’s… The visual aspects of the business, why do those have to be improved if they want to build a business that creates both time freedom and financial freedom for themselves?

Because one, you never get a second chance to get a first impression. And people do judge a book by its cover. So if they’re driving by, and it doesn’t look like a clean place, or if it doesn’t look like an interesting or fun place to go have lunch or dinner, they’re not going to go there. Therefore, they’re going to get a lot less business if they’re not visually appealing, whether it’s their business cards, their signage, their front door, whatever it is, their website. It has to look world-class.

Okay, so let’s think about this here. All the things that we had to improve with their website or with their business. One, we had to take the website and make sure that the website looked great. Two, we had to create new business cards. Three, we had to make new menus. Four, we had to make new print pieces. Five, all their signage.

And everybody listening right now, think about your business and rate your own business on a scale of one to 10 in those areas. And ask yourself, how good does your website look? How good do your print pieces look? How good does your menu look? Your print pieces? Everything that a customer sees and touches has to be first-class. That’s that step one. If you want to create a business that serves you, you have to do that. Because you’re going to lose out on potential business if your website doesn’t look good.

Now, the next step you have to do is you have to improve your marketing. You have to create a turnkey marketing system. Now, Blumer, how is a turnkey marketing system different from just by default saying, “Yeah, we pretty much primarily operate via word of mouth.” Because we’ve worked with Pappagallo’s for a long time, and they have grown dramatically. And their food quality has always been awesome. So the food quality’s always been awesome. And the owners of the business, Tricia and Dave, have always provided first-class food.

How is it possible that we’ve been able to grow their business dramatically without actually enhancing the quality of the food? How is that possible? How does marketing fit into that?

So step one, like you said, they already have a phenomenal product. The product is great. They’re already getting referrals. That’s already happening. But there’s so many different ways and options to get more customers in the door that they probably aren’t doing right now. They used to have a one-legged marketing stool, where it’s just referrals and just one source of leads, people telling each other about the restaurant.

But now, they’ve got ads, they’ve got Google Ads or targeting ads, a website that really pulls people in. Google My Business and Map that pulls people in when they search for restaurants. So they have more than one stool to their three-legged marketing stool.

So what we’re going to do is we are going to think about their business, and then we’re going to think about our own businesses today and how we could improve them. So first off, if you wanted to get pizza, and you lived in Satellite Beach, Florida, most people would go to Google and type in “Satellite Beach Florida pizza.” Or they would be living in Satellite Beach, they would type in “pizza near me” or that kind of thing. So Pappagallo’s now comes up top. Despite the fact there are many other pizza places, they come up top.

And the reason why Pappagallo’s comes up top in the Google search results is not because I am highly motivated, which I am, and not because I’m a super great guy, not because we wished it into existence. It’s because we taught them how to optimize their website. And if you come to a workshop, we’ll teach all these systems.

But step one, again, under creating a turnkey marketing system, is we had to optimize the website. This is so important that you optimize the website and that you come up top in the search engine results.

If you don’t know how to do that, we have workshops we do every two months. You come to that workshop. Many people have told me they’ve spent over $10,000 attending a workshop in the past that just exclusively teaches how to optimize a website. And we will teach you that and other things. But most people go onto the internet to find the products and services that they are looking for. Thus, you need to be top in those Google search results. So step one, we want to optimize your website. So we want to create a turnkey marketing system here so you can create both time freedom and financial freedom because you want to create a business that serves you.

But in order to do that, step one, you got to improve that branding. Step two, we’ve got to create a turnkey marketing system. So we want to optimize the website. The second thing we want to do is we want to launch online ads that work, that are effective. For Elephant In The Room… That’s a haircut chain that I started called Elephant In The Room. It’s eitrlounge.com.

And again, if you’re listening and you want to follow along, you can go to thrivetimeshow.com/millionaire, and you can download this book. And we are working right now from page 19 of this book. But again, it’s eitrlounge.com. And with this particular business, we have ads that work. Our offer at Elephant In The Room is for your first haircut. It’s only a dollar.

That’s right.

And we have a great-looking ad. We run that ad to men that live in Tulsa. And, Blumer, why don’t I change the ad every day? Why do I run the same ad every single day on Facebook, on social media, on Instagram? All I do, every day, every day, is I run the same ad. For 12 years. I run an ad that says, “$1 for…” It says, “Try your first haircut for just a dollar.” It’s right there. I’ve been doing that for 12 years every week. I never change the ad. Every week.

Again, turnkey marketing, folks. I’m trying to create time freedom and financial freedom. The website for Pappagallo’s is optimized. Every week, we do the little nuances to keep them top in Google, and every week, we keep the same ads running. How is it possible that for Elephant In The Room, our haircut business, and for Pappagallo’s… That’s a business that I don’t own but a business that I coach. How is it possible that we just do the same little tweaks every week to keep the website top on Google and that we launch the online ads and we just keep those online ads over and over? How is it possible that we don’t change the ads every week?

Because they work. From the time that we figured out whether or not they work… There’s a lot of testing that went on in the beginning, what works, what doesn’t work. Figured out what worked. And then that’s what we do. Because that’s the goal. It produces time and financial freedom. If your goal is to create a new online ad every week, then you wouldn’t do that. You would create a new online ad every week. That’s optional.

Our goal is to create time and financial freedom for the clients.

That’s right.

Our goal is not to create a new ad every week.

Correct, yeah.

Again, this is all under step two. So step one, you improve your branding. Step two, you create a three-legged turnkey marketing stool. I say marketing stool. What does that mean? You want to have three ways that you use to effectively market to your ideal and likely buyers. And you want to just focus on those three. You want to just implement those three. A stool that had only two legs would fall down. A stool that had 27 legs would be kind of a bizarre stool. You want to have a stool with three stable legs.

So again, step one, you improve your branding, all right? Which we talked about. For Pappagallo’s, we enhanced the website. We improved the business cards. We optimized the menus. We made world-class print pieces. We installed great signage inside the store, in-store signage. Two, we created a turnkey marketing system. We optimized the website. We launched effective online ads. And three, we installed… We created signs and wonders. We created signs and wonders. What? Signs and wonders.

If you’re driving down the road, and you lived in Satellite Beach, Florida… All right? So we’re going to do this. We’re going to type in “Pappagallo’s…” Hopefully, I spell it right. “Satellite Beach, Florida.” And we’ll do a drive in our car. If we were driving in our car on Highway A1A, and we were driving by, and we didn’t see signs, what is the statistical probability that we would get out of our car and rummage around and say, “Is there a pizza place nearby? I think I smell pizza.” What would happen if we didn’t see the business from the road, Blumer? What would happen?

You probably wouldn’t go there.

Right?

Probably wouldn’t even know that it exists.

So that’s why with their business, Pappagallo’s, there’s great signage here. And for their new business we also help them with, called Morning Glory. There’s great signage here. And they’re located here right on the beach. If you go to Pappagallo’s, you’re going to see they’re right on the beach there in Florida. But if there wasn’t signs that got your attention, you would not come into the business. You wouldn’t.

True.

And every single client we work with, every single time, we’ve got to improve your branding. Two, we need to create a turnkey marketing system that works. Because the goal of a business, Blumer, is to… Again, your business is just a vehicle to get you to your goals. The vehicle exists to serve you. That’s the goal.

That’s the goal.

You know, I talked to a client yesterday who has some vacation rental property, and they make more than $8,000 a month every month with their vacation rental property. And you know what we did to help them? We improved the branding. We created a turnkey marketing system. How is it possible that we had to improve the branding and create a turnkey marketing system for a vacation rental, for a pizza business, for a haircut chain? How is it possible that every business is the same, but yet they’re very different?

Because every business needs good branding. You need a good website. No matter what you’re selling, whether it’s a product or a service, no matter what it is, it needs a good brand. It needs to look good to the customer, and you need to be findable.

So we move on to step three. Step three. We want to create and install a tracking system. Create a tracking system. Now, somebody says, “What if I want to do it in a different order?” You could go a different order. I’m just telling you the order that I would encourage you to go down. I would encourage every single person to follow this system off a cliff because it works.

You create a tracking system. Now, a tracking system is how you track all the critical statistics related to the company. You have to do that. And Blumer, I’m going to pull up an example in a minute. But why do you, as a business owner, have to track where your leads come from, how much kind of sales you’re doing every week? Why do you need to track these things?

It’s vitally important to, first off, track your sales and your expenses, and your profit because, at the end of the day, the business is not being a vehicle to serve you if you’re not bringing in profit. So profit’s number one. And then, after that, you’ve got to know where your leads come from. Because I’ve seen so many times where people think leads come from one place, and they don’t. So they’re spending a lot of money in one place, and they’re not actually coming from that source.

And so you want to make sure that you’re getting leads from more than one place, but also that the efforts that you’re putting in are having a result and you’re bringing in leads from it so that you’re not spending thousands and thousands of dollars a month on a product or service that’s not actually bringing in leads. And as you’re bringing in new legs to your marketing stool and new methods of marketing, whether it’s Google, Google Ads, or targeting ads, Google Map, a website, whatever that is, that you are indeed bringing in new leads to your business.

I don’t think that most businesses, by default, track.

I agree. 100%.

I don’t think they do. And I think a lot of it is, I think, people don’t even know what they should be tracking.

Correct.

So if they were to track, I think a lot of times they would go, “I don’t even know where I would start with that.”

Or, “I look at my finances. I look at them. I check them every once in a while.”

So what we’re going to do is I’m going to pull up a tracking sheet. And I’m going to pull up one for… Not for Pappagallo’s, but just for a business in general, just so everyone out there can have an example of what a tracking sheet looks like. Because if you don’t track, it would be very hard to improve something, okay?

True.

Here is a tracking sheet. Let me pull this up real quick here. And this would be a best practice for restaurants. So this would be just a best practice. So you want to track the date range. Why do you want to track every week the stats and not once a quarter?

Because weekly, you can refine and you can make tweaks to what’s going on. Versus if you did it every quarter, it’s like, “Oh, we just missed out on an entire quarter of improvements that we could have made.”

Now, right here, this next column, we want to track the advertising spending. Now, a lot of business owners are just throwing advertising dollars everywhere. Why do you want to track? Why do you want a track a column that says advertising spending, and you want to put in there specifically what you spend every week on your ads?

Because you want to measure what you treasure. And if your entire goal is to bring an income, and you’re using that income to put towards ads that aren’t working, then you’re not hitting your goal. You need to be putting your money towards ads that actually work, that produce revenue.

In the next box here is you want to track the number of clicks you have per week if you have online ads. Why do you want to track the number of clicks that you have every week if you are launching online ads?

Because if you are not getting clicks, then that means your ads don’t work.

One is the date range. Two is the advertising spending. Three is the number of clicks. Number four is the number of impressions. Can you explain what impressions are? Why do you want to track how many impressions of your ads? What is an impression, and why do you want to track how many impressions you’re having?

So an impression is basically when an ad appears on somebody’s screen. So if somebody is searching around for a “restaurant near me,” and your ad pops up on their screen, that means that they viewed your ad. Doesn’t mean that they clicked on it. It just means that they saw your ad. And then you want to make sure that you’re actually getting clicks from those impressions.

And then, you want to track the number of leads you’re getting. Why do you, as a business owner, want to track how many leads you’re getting? Now, a lead is somebody who reaches out to you, who says, “I am interested in learning more about doing business with you.” Why do you want to track the number of leads you’re getting?

Yeah, it’s going to be like a call, text, or an email. Anything like that is going to be a lead. And you want to keep track of it for a couple reasons. One, because you want to know which lead sources are actually working and which ones are not. But also, on the next step, we’re going to talk about is you want to see… You got to know a baseline of how many leads that you’re getting to know how many leads that you’re converting to see your conversion rate.

Now, again, for a restaurant and for almost every business I would work with, I would recommend you track the number of online leads you have. That’s where someone fills out the form on the website. But I’d also recommend that you track the number of phone calls you get. And most business owners don’t do that. In an ideal, perfect world, I would love for business owners to track the number of online leads they’re getting and the number of new phone calls they’re getting. Just why do you think that I’d want to know how many people are calling a restaurant?

Because those phone calls are more than likely as a result of some sort of marketing efforts. And more times than not, people treat phone calls not as leads but just kind of as phone calls. So someone calls into the business and says, “Hey, are you guys open today?” That’s a lead. That’s somebody who found you online that is interested in coming in and getting dinner with their family.

And if it’s not treated properly, if that person that picked up the phone is not following a script and leading them in to book or to come in and to get dinner, then that’s a lost lead and a lost opportunity to make money. So that way, your business can continue to be a vehicle.

And I would recommend we continue to track, here again, the advertising spend, the number of clicks, the number of impressions, the number of online leads, the number of inbound phone calls, the total number of website orders. In their case, these are online orders. These are the people that actually buy things online. They actually went to the shopping cart. They bought something. They checked out. They ordered the thing.

It’s really important that you track these things. Now, you also want to track the average size of the order. You want to track the order of the average ticket. Why would it be important to track the average price of the average online order?

Well, you want to know your average because if you have a goal, you have to be able to break it down to know how many things you need to sell or how many orders you need in order to hit your goal. And also, on top of that, if you’re always trying to be better and become better and increase sales, you want to know what your average is so that way you can increase it.

In their case, again, as a restaurant, you want to track how many desserts you’re upselling. This is really important. A lot of people do not do that. I would recommend, as a restaurant, you do check how many upsells you have. You also want to track how many appetizers that you upsell. Very important that you do that. If you don’t track the number of appetizers that you’re upselling, you won’t know if you can improve it. You don’t know how you’re doing.

And as you look here, and we go across, and we track all these things… And again, I pulled up a tracking sheet here just for a restaurant we’d worked in the past, so people could have an example and they could see one here. But you want to track everything. You want to track the number of Google reviews you have. Anything that you measure, you can improve. Okay? You want to measure what you treasure. But don’t track things that you’re not going to actually care about. All right? So we go back to this business.

I’m just asking everybody to think about your business. Track your online spending. Track your number of clicks. Track the number of impressions. Track the number of online leads. Track the number of inbound phone calls. Track the total number of online orders. Track the number of the average ticket price of a website online order.

For their business or for any business out there, if you’re listening right now, I would also track the number of Google reviews. I would totally track the number of Google reviews you have. It’s so important you gather objective reviews from your actual customers. I would track these things, and I would put it on a tracking sheet, and I would look at it every week in your meeting with your business coach.

Now, most people do not have a business coach. I have a bias to recommend that everybody has a business coach because I very rarely see people that are successful without some kind of mentorship. I mean, you look at a guy like Tiger Woods, a phenomenal golf coach, or golfer, phenomenal golfer. He had a coach. You know, you look at like Michael Jordan, a great basketball player. He wasn’t just showing up every day and calling his own shots. There was a coach that guided him. He had a fitness coach that helped him get in great physical shape.

I don’t know people who are super in shape that don’t have a personal trainer. I don’t know people that are really, really good at their business without some kind of mentorship. And, Blumer, that’s what we do.

And so, with Pappagallo’s… And this is something everybody out there can do. If you go to thrivetimeshow.com and you click on testimonials, you’re going to find their success story somewhere on this webpage, thrivetimeshow.com/testimonials. And when you find somebody like Tricia and Dave that have implemented and had big success, most of these folks have been to a workshop.

What’s the value of somebody coming to a workshop to learn all of this during a two-day training system as opposed to through a book? How is it different for someone to learn in person at a workshop like Tricia and Dave have done, as opposed to just reading a book?

Because one, it’s interactive. So when you come to Tulsa and come to the workshop, you actually get a book, and you get to go through the book here in person. But you can ask any questions that you have. You can ask any question. You can ask any question. You can meet other people who have also gone through the process and actually have done it, and then speak to them and ask them questions as well. So it’s super interactive and extremely helpful.

Let me hit play here. This is Tricia and Dave sharing their story. And I’ll add this video to the end of today’s interview, too, folks, so you can watch it yourself and hit pause and see if they’re a hologram or something. But this is Dave and Tricia at our office explaining their success story. Here we go. Let me play.

All right. So what is your name, and what do you do for a living?

Patricia and Dave from Pappagallo’s in Satellite Beach.

Awesome. Okay, let’s do that one more time. Sorry, one more time. What is your name, and what do you do for a living?

This is Tricia and Dave from Pappagallo’s Restaurant in Satellite Beach.

Perfect. And how did you originally hear about The ThriveTime Show and Clay Clark?

A customer of ours actually talked to Dave about checking out the ThriveTime crew.

They look like real people.

They seem like it.

They seem like real people. One thing about them, and I’ll brag on them about this, is that they had the humbleness needed to say, “You know what? We’re stuck. We need some help here.” And I think everybody out there, if we’re being honest with ourselves, everybody out there, there’s probably an area of your life where you need some help.

I think if you go to church, and the pastor doesn’t teach you the word of God and break it down for you in a way that makes it jump off the page, in a way that really teaches you something about the Bible that you didn’t know before, find another church. If you have a golf swing coach who doesn’t help you improve your swing, then find a different coach. But you’ve got to find a coach or somebody that can help you to perform at your best. So again, we’re recapping. A business exists to…

Serve you.

Yes. Okay. And what you want to do in route to getting there is you want to improve your branding. You want to create a turnkey marketing system. And you want to install a tracking system. Install a tracking system, all right? Install a tracking system. Now, after you’ve got the branding improved, the marketing improved, the tracking system, now you have to sell something. All right? So you want to install a sales system. Now, the sales system, at the very basic, whether you have a restaurant that’s in person, folks, or online, you have to create scripts. Blumer, why do you have to create scripts?

You want to create scripts because every customer experience you want to be the same. So if someone calls your restaurant, your business, whatever it is, and they get a different answer… If someone calls in, and they get, “Hello.” And that’s it. Then it’s kind of weird. So you’ve got to determine what gets said when the phone gets picked up or when someone calls out to somebody to let them know that their order’s ready or whatever it is.

We have a conference coming up here in Nashville here. It’ll be…

In a week.

In a week, yeah. And if you go to timetofreeamerica.com, you can learn more about that. But we’re taking the ReAwaken America Tour to Nashville, Tennessee. And this is going to be on January 20th and 21st. And people go to timetofreeamerica.com. And what they’ll do is they’ll look around. They want to see the speakers, and they see, “Wow, you got General Flynn and Eric Trump and Kash Patel and Jim Breuer.” And folks are excited about it.

And then, they fill out the form to request a ticket. So they go here, they go, “I’m kind of looking around. I think I want to request a ticket.” So they request a ticket. Once they request a ticket, a member of our team is going to reach out to them. And most people have a few questions.

That’s right. Couple of questions.

So we have a script in place so we can answer the questions about this event that’s taking place in Nashville. And it’s so critical that that first call is handled well. Because the people that are requesting a ticket have questions. They have concerns. They want to know, “How much does it cost?” And because we have a very unusual pricing model, I let people name their price.

And by the way, we do that for our business workshops, our in-person business workshops, as well as for the ReAwaken America Tour. So we always tell people, “If you could pay $250 for a ticket, that would be great.” So if you’re going to come join us for the Nashville ReAwaken America Tour and you pay $250, that would be great. However, if you’re in a tight spot, I’m not going to beat you up over it. If you want to attend our workshops…

We have business workshops that we do every two months. We’ve always been doing those for years. I’ve been doing business conferences since 2005, and we’ve helped to make thousands of millionaires. But if you fill out the form, despite all the success, despite all the testimonials, somebody on my team needs to call you. And you’re going to have some questions. And so, as a teaching moment for you out there today, you have to create a pre-written sales script. You have to create pre-written sales scripts.

The second is you have to install call recording. Now, I recommend clarityvoice.com. They’re not the only company in the world. I just use clarityvoice.com. Blumer, why do you want to, why do you need to have call recording in place where the people on your phone, where your team, who works for you, your employees, their calls are recorded for quality assurance? Why is that?

You want to record those calls because otherwise, the other option is to stand right next to them the entire time. All day long, you have to stand right next to them or be in earshot. And so for a lot of people, again, that’s not their goal. Their goal is not to be in the business listening to people pick up phones all day long.

So you’re saying that the average business owner, if they’re going to create time freedom and financial freedom, they’re not going to want to sit next to their sales rep all day?

That’s true. That’s what I found.

Okay. So let’s recap here. So we improve the branding, which we did at Pappagallo’s. Which we did at Elephant In The Room. I’m just giving a lot of examples so people can see real examples. Another client we work with is called PMH OKC. We have worked with Randy on this. PMH OKC. And the reason why we only work with one company of every type in each city is because the clients that we work with dominate. All right? So with Randy’s business, he’s grown dramatically. But we had to start with step one. We had to improve the…

Branding.

Branding, yes. So if you go to PMH OKC, you can see that. You can go to Pappagallo’s, you can see that. You can go to Elephant In The Room, you can see that. And every single time that I ever work with a business owner, ever, most businesses, by default… I’m telling you, every time I talk to a business owner, they haven’t usually thought about these things. And it’s not because they’re dumb. It’s because they’re perpetually busy, in this case, making pizzas.

Distracted by something else going on.

You got to work on your business, not just in your business. So working on your business is doing these things. You got to improve your branding, your website, your business cards, your menus, your print pieces, your signage. Step two, you got to create turnkey marketing systems. Now, Blumer, you’ve got to optimize the website. You got to launch effective online advertisements.

Got to launch them.

You got to create signs and wonders that get people’s attention.

You have to do it.

Now, we, for our clients, we build the website. We optimize the website. We launch the ads. We do all the print pieces. If people didn’t have our services to do that, they would have to do it themselves.

Yep, that’s right.

So we’ve got a great client coming in here on Tuesday morning, I think, Tuesday morning. He does irrigation systems. He does landscaping. And he needs print pieces to be designed for his trade show. Because one of the best ways that for him for marketing is he goes to trade shows. Why would he want to hire us to make all the print piece items for the trade show, as opposed to teaching himself how to do Photoshop and to sit there all day and to learn that skill in addition to the skill of installing irrigation systems and landscaping systems?

Well, I mean, if his goal was to learn Photoshop and know how to make signage, then it would be smart for him to do that. But that’s not his goal. His goal is to sell irrigation systems and landscaping and earn an income from it, and to do whatever he wants with that income. That’s his goal. It’s a vehicle.

So we do it for him.

We do it for him.

And then creating marketing systems. Optimize the website, launching the online ads, creating signs and wonders. We do that for the client. Installing a tracking system. Our clients have to put the numbers in, but we actually make the tracking system for them.

That’s right.

That’s what we do. Next, step four. We have to install a sales system. We have to create pre-written sales scripts. And most people don’t know where to start with a sales script. So we help them. So for businesses like Pappagallo’s, we will help you create a sales script.

The next thing we’ll do is we want to install Clarity Voice. It’s so important that you install call recording if at all possible. You need to do it. Because it’s hard for me as a coach to help you improve your sales calls if I don’t know what they sound like. It’s hard for you as an owner to hold your team accountable to doing the calls better if you don’t know what they sound like.

So for the ReAwaken America Tour… Blumer, this just in. People go to timetofreeamerica.com. They request a ticket. As of right now, we have under 15 tickets remaining for that event in Nashville. And when people request those tickets, people on our team answer the phone. And we’ve got a great team right now.

We do. Yes, we do.

But have you ever seen me fire anybody?

Yes.

Have you ever had to fire somebody?

I have, yes.

Why would we have to fire somebody who… They filled out the application for the job. They got hired. They have a phone that works. Leads are coming in every day. What could possibly go wrong?

You know, they couldn’t physically be here. Maybe they didn’t even show up, and then you got to fire them. Maybe they didn’t sell anything. Maybe they didn’t follow the script. There’s all reasons.

Infinite reasons, right?

Infinite reasons.

Okay, so you have to install a tracking system. And then this is what will happen. This is a true story. There’s a guy on our team who does a great job named JT. And I look one day on the whiteboard of integrity. I believe strongly in the whiteboard where you track how many sales you do every day. And people could name their price. There could not be an easier…

Fish in a barrel.

There couldn’t be an easier sell ever than working at the Elephant In The Room, our haircut chain. If you go to eitrlounge.com, it’s the easiest sale ever. Let’s role-play. I don’t have the script in front of me, but let’s role-play. You’re calling in to get a haircut. Are you ready?

Yes.

Thank you for calling Elephant In The Room. How can I help you?

Hey, I was just looking to get a haircut. One of my friends told me about you guys.

Absolutely. How’d you first hear about us?

Just a referral. He said that he got a haircut for a dollar?

Oh, yeah. Now, is this your first time in the Lounge, or have you been in before?

No, I’ve never been in before.

And when do you want to get your haircut? Do you want to get it to today or tomorrow? What are you thinking?

Today would be great.

Okay. Well, we have three locations. Let me just tell you what we do that makes us different than anybody else. First off, your first haircut’s just a dollar. And we do that because you’re going to get a paraffin hand dip, a hot towel treatment, a complete haircut experience. You’re going to love it. But in case you don’t, it’s only a dollar. And if you don’t like it, you get the dollar back, okay?

Wow.

Second thing is we have stylists that are all trained in the same way, same system. So if you go to our South Tulsa store, our Broken Arrow store, our downtown store, all of those stylists are first class. They do a great job cutting hair. Third, we are the highest-rated and most-reviewed haircut business in Tulsa. We’ve been doing this a long time. And I absolutely know you’re going to love it there. I’ve got today available at 2:00 downtown. I’ve got today available at 4:00 downtown, or I’ve got a couple things in South Tulsa, Broken Arrow. What location are you wanting to do?

Downtown works great. Four o’clock.

Downtown, four o’clock? Okay. Now, all I need to do to reserve your spot is I’ll get your credit card, and I’ll charge you a dollar over the phone to reserve the spot. This is literally somebody’s job.

That’s it.

And, Blumer, they get paid… How much does somebody get paid if they book that haircut?

I believe for for an outbound-

Approximately. Inbound.

Oh, inbound-

If someone calls to schedule haircut.

It’s like 50 cents or a dollar. Happening all day long.

I work at a call center, “Thank you for calling Elephant In The Room.” Phone rings. Every time I schedule a haircut, I make money.

That’s right.

It’s the easiest job ever.

Ever.

It’s fish in a barrel. It’s so easy.

It’s incredibly easy.

But yet, when you look at the tracking sheet, you see, “Wow, one guy is selling one haircut an hour, and someone else is booking like five.” Or you look at the ReAwaken America Tour, and you go, “Wow, one person’s selling 75 tickets a day, and somebody else is selling four.”

And I’ll never forget this because this happens all the time. This is a recent example. This guy, I walk up to him, I said, “Hey bud, you’re selling four tickets a day. JT’s selling 75 tickets a day. Everybody else up here is averaging 45 tickets a day. In order to fill up the ReAwaken America Tour event in Florida we’re going to here…” This was two years back. “You need to sell at least, every day, 45 a day. And because you get a commission to do so, I would think you would want to.”

And he says, “Well, I just don’t like reading scripts.” “So you don’t like reading scripts?” “No, I don’t like to pressure people.” And I’m going, “Then you can’t work here.” And he says, “But I want to.” See, that’s the thing. That’s the deal.

Let’s do another example. Let’s say you’re on a football team. If you have a quarterback on your football team… If you’re a college football team and you’re a coach, and you want to win games, and the quarterback cannot throw the ball, Blumer, what do you need to do?

You either need to coach them up or get a new quarterback.

Right. And at the college level, it’ll be pretty hard to coach somebody up to throw a football.

True.

If they’re in college and they can’t throw a ball, you just move on. And I don’t understand why that is a complicated, difficult discussion other than people make it emotional. They start to say, “Well, it’s my brother-in-law. I don’t want to let him go because he’s my brother-in-law.” “What? Don’t hire your brother-in-law. Or, if it is your brother-in-law, move on.”

I hear that a lot, though, “You know, it’s my sister.” “Well, don’t hire your sister.” “Well, but I did hire my sister.” “Then move on.” If you can’t inspire people to do what’s required, you’re going to have to fire. And eventually, you need humans to implement these systems. So step one, you improve your…

Branding.

Yes. Step two, you create turnkey marketing…

Systems?

Systems, yes. Step three, you install a tracking…

Sheet.

Right. Four, you install a sales system.

That’s right.

Now step five, you want to create a customer experience that wows. Now, if you go to Pappagallo’s… I have zero input on the atmosphere in terms of how they make the food. But we’ve worked with Dave and Tricia. They’re wonderful people, very coachable, very kind. The music. You have to be intentional about everything. Why do you have to create a playlist that makes sense?

Because it’s weird if you don’t. If you walk into a pizza place, and it’s supposed to be hopping and things moving around, and they’re playing like, “Oh yeah.” But they’re playing elevator music. It’s kind of weird.

You have to create music that creates a wow experience.

That’s right. Got to do it.

The second thing you’re going to want to do… This is big stuff, okay? You want to make sure that everything people see wows. So the music, you have to create a music playlist that wows. But you have to create a visual experience that wows. A visual experience that wows. So what they see, what they hear.

Look at this. I’m going to type in Morning Glory, one of their other great companies. “Morning Glory.” And by the way, if you’re in the Satellite Beach area, I recommend you check out Satellite Beach Morning Glory. A great business. Again, we’ve been honored to coach them, worked with them for a long time.

But you look at their… This is their store. They got an ocean view. They did a really good job doing this buildout. And the buildout is one where you kind of want to go there because it’s a fun… There’s an ocean view. They were very intentional about the decor inside the business.

And Blumer, if you’re not intentional about making sure that the atmosphere inside your business wows people, what’s going to happen by default? I mean, their place is so cool inside, but if you’re not intentional about it, what’s going to happen by default?

I mean, it’s going to look like whatever the customers or the employees create, and then it’s not going to wow.

It’s going to look like the inside of a used Toyota that somebody who’s not organized drives to work every day.

That’s right.

It’s going to be filled with the remnants of various fast food experiences. You have to create a customer experience that…

That wows.

Right. Because if people are wowed, they will come. They will tell somebody right about now.

That’s right.

That’s what happens. So you got to create a music playlist that wows, create a visual experience that wows. And you want to create a first-time customer experience that wows. This is so important. So Elephant In The Room. The first haircut is how much?

Just a dollar.

What? Come on, man. Did you know that about 5% of the attendees for the ReAwaken America Tour are now people that have come to a different one?

Oh, there you go. That’s a good stat.

They heard about the event. They came to the event in Florida last year. And now it’s in Nashville, and they’re going, “I want to go to another one. Because it was such a good experience, I’m coming back.” Even though we’re in different cities every time, we’re getting now like 5% of people that are now driving or flying out to another one.

Over half of the people that are coming now are saying they’ve heard about it from a friend. A friend said, “Oh, you have to go.” So if you are tracking your customers… Back to our tracking sheet. And you say, “How did you hear about us?” Blumer, you have to track how you heard about us.

You got to do it. Where they came from.

So on the tracking sheet, we got to have a column here for Google Reviews, right?

Yep.

Then we have to have one for inquiry source. And you want to track all of the places where people came from.

That’s right.

So your call center would say, “So, how’d you hear about us here at Elephant In The Room?” And if they said, “Facebook.” You’d put it in there. You’d say, “So, how’d you hear about us?” And they’d say, “Google.” And you’d put that right here. And why can’t you just say website? Why do you have to say, “How’d you hear about us?” And the customer says, “On your website.” Why do you have to ask them, “Well, how’d you get to the website?” Why do you have to ask that question?

Because that’s a method that they contacted you by. That’s not a lead source. The lead source is going to be they heard about you on Facebook, a friend told them about you, they got a referral, they heard about you on Facebook, they were driving by. It was a drive-by. It could have been a retargeting ad. There’s a whole plethora of ways that they could have heard about you, but you’ve got to figure out how they heard about you, not just how they contacted you.

So let’s talk about it. Let’s look at this tracking sheet because we’re working on a best-practice tracking sheet. You want to track how many people came in from Google. So you’d say, “Thank you for calling Elephant In The Room. This is Clay. How can I help you? How did you originally hear about us?” I would ask. They’d say, “Oh, Google.” You’d say, “Okay, well, were you googling something, or did you…” They’d go, “Oh, no, I was on Facebook.” Okay, great. Boom.

Next call. “How’d you hear about us?” “I was googling.” “What were you googling?” And they’d say, “I was googling ‘haircuts in Tulsa,’ and I found you.” Okay, great. And you need to make sure you’re filling this out diligently and consistently. Blumer, if you don’t fill this out diligently and consistently, what’s going to happen to your tracking sheet?

It’ll get really behind, and you won’t have accurate data. And if you don’t have accurate data, you won’t be able to make adjustments to your business to help it grow.

How often do you see business owners that track by default before business coaching?

Maybe one, maybe two. Maybe. Not a lot.

You’ve seen it?

I’ve seen it. Eddie Hall. Eddie Hall’s a great guy. He owns a bunch of Domino’s. He’s a really great guy. We’ve had him on the show before. And he tracks everything. He tracks everything down to the pepperoni.

So I would just say it’s very rare.

Very rare.

It’s very rare.

One out of a thousand.

So you want to create a customer experience that wows. You need to do it. All right?

That’s right.

Now, next thing you want to do is you want to track the profitability. Track the profitability. You want to do your accounting. You want to track the profitability. Blumer, why do you have to track the profitability?

Because if you’re not profitable, you’re spending a lot of time, money, and effort on something that is a non-profit. It just doesn’t have any tax benefits.

What?

If you’re spending all your money and time, and effort on a business that’s not producing profit, it’s a large waste of time.

I think for a lot of people, that’s what happens. Because they’re not creating a business that…

Serves them.

Right. That’s what the whole point is. The point is to build a business can create both time and financial freedom for you. So we go back here. We improve our branding. Got it. We create a turnkey marketing system. Got it. We install a tracking system. Got it. We install a sales system. Check. Create a customer experience that wows. Okay. And we have to track the profitability. So we need to track total gross sales. Track total gross sales. Why do we want to track just the total big number that came in?

To make sure that you’re increasing in sales, making sure that your sales are going up.

And then how is that different from tracking the profit? Because those should be two separate columns on our tracking sheet. How is the gross sales column different than the profit column?

Your gross sales is just going to be what you sold. So if you sold a hundred thousand dollars worth of things or stuff, there’s going to be a lot of expenses. There’s going to be fixed costs and variable costs, labor. There’s going to be parts, materials. And so your profit is going to be after everything is paid for. After everyone’s paid, and all the products are purchased, and the materials are purchased, that’s what’s leftover is your profit.

I don’t think most people do that, though.

They don’t, no.

Why?

Because you’ve got to think. You’ve got to actually do the math. You’ve got to track. You’ve got to keep track of what money came in and then keep track of what money came out and put it somewhere in a document, a tracking sheet, something like that. And it takes time. So it takes about an hour a week to go through. If you stay on top of it, if you consistently do it every single week, it takes about an hour a week to track it. And there’s not a lot of people that are willing to do that or know how to do that. And maybe they just don’t know how to do it.

And so you have to do… Again, that’s one of the benefits of coaching is a coach is going to sit down with you and figure that out. And that’s a big part of what we do with clients. So I’ll just give you an example. Again, we’re going to focus on Pappagallo’s. We’re talking to these guys… And this is something that Dave does. He knows that the cost of everything has gone up. Inflation has gone up. Therefore, the cost of the food has gone up. Therefore, in order for his business to do well, he has to raise the…

Prices.

Right. He knows that.

He has to do it.

And you have to install a profit margin that you feel good about. So you have to install a minimum, minimum, minimum profit margin. All right? So let me give you an example. When I ran my company, djconnection.com, which full disclosure, I do not own that company anymore, haven’t owned the company for over a decade.

But when I did run the company, a bride would come in, and they would want us to hire them for their wedding. And the average ticket price back in the day, I don’t know what it is now, was $600. That’s what they would pay. And I wanted to be at a 20% margin. So my profit per show needed to be at least $120 per show.

There you go. Yep.

Why?

Because that was your goal. Because you could measure that, and you can set a goal of how many shows you needed to do in order to hit your goal so that way your business could serve you.

So if we did 4,000 events a year at $120 of profit per show, you can kind of do the math. Now, at one point, I remember, I was sitting down with my wife. I was probably 25. And we were living at 91st and Lynn Lane. And for anybody out there that isn’t familiar with that area, this is kind of the view. I don’t know who owns the house anymore, but this is where I used to be, right here. Okay, here’s my house back in the day. And I’m there. And we had a great business. Income is coming in. The profits are there. It’s going well.

And I remember thinking, “We need to be more profitable.” We were making 20% profit per wedding. And we were turning down so many weddings. We were getting 150 people a week reaching out for the services. And we could only accommodate 80. Because you’re doing 30 weddings, 40 weddings on a Friday, 50 on a Saturday, and maybe five or six on a Sunday. That’s kind of the flow. So I said, “Let’s just charge $40 more per wedding.”

And I remember all the employees at the time were like, “Well, if we’re going to charge another $40, we have to give the customers a lot more service.” I’m going, “No, we don’t. I’m just going to raise prices by $40.” And I did. And the only person who was a fan of that idea was me. There was nobody-

Nobody.

The customers didn’t like it.

The employees didn’t like it.

The employees didn’t like it. But I liked it. And the employees were like, “How come we’re charging people an extra $40?” I’m like, “Because we are going to increase the profitability. I’ve been doing this since my dorm room in 1999. Here we are, five, six years later, we’re the biggest company in Oklahoma. And I want to be more profitable.” So that’s what you have to do. And the reality is you got to embrace the fact that nobody’s going to be a big fan. The customer’s not going to love it. Employees aren’t going to love it.

No one.

You’re the only person who’s going to be excited about this.

That’s right.

And it doesn’t matter whether I’m working with an outdoor living company like PMH OKC or Pappagallo’s or whether I’m working with an insurance agency. Everybody has to have profitability. So let’s go back to the tracking sheet here. Because this is where it all happens, okay? So you want to track the total gross sales. So, Blumer, let’s go ahead and do it. So today, it’s January 14th, 2022. Oof. Which would mean that if we were tracking… If we met our client every Saturday, then the last week would’ve been the 7th. Blumer, are you seeing what I’m doing here?

I’m seeing it.

This is some profound… And today’s… It’s year 2023.

It is, yeah.

I mean, we should almost put on the tracking sheet like, “Week five, the apocalypse.”

Maybe so.

We’re going to track for five weeks, and then the apocalypse.

There’s the end.

So that’s poor tracking, okay?

Yes, we are.

And let’s just say our total sales were $20,000, our gross sales. Whoa, that is 200,000.

It was a good week.

We’ll come back to those numbers later. But let’s just say it was… Let’s see. 20,000 here. Okay. That’s great. And let’s say the next week was 40,000. So week one was 40,000, week two is 20, week three is 25, and week four was 30,000. As a coach, what about this right now would seem very suspicious to you?

It’s not extremely stable. Like profits, or sales aren’t the same-

Keep going.

They’re similar-

I know it’s in you.

… every single week.

I know it’s in you. It’s an even number.

Oh yeah, yeah.

It has exact…

Nobody has sales like that.

I see a lot of business owners that play that game with me right away. They go, “Oh-

“20,000. Yeah, 20,000 in sales. 20,000.”

[inaudible 00:55:17] 20,000.

Sure.

You got to track the actual number.

You have to do it.

Then you got to track the actual profits. So when I first start working with business owners, they’re like, “Oh yeah, I killed it overall. I mean, I probably made 7,000 over here. Boom. You know, it was a tough week, like 2000 overall. Just boom. Next week, I mean, it was a really powerful week. A week that was filled with integrity and power.”

“110% profit.”

“110% profit. It was unbelievable. But I paid myself 7,000. And then this week, we are killing the game. We are on fire. And it’s just like, boom.” And I see clients… Not my clients. It’s other people. They pull up in a monster truck with huge wheels in a fancy shirt.

I’ve never seen it. Not here.

And they pull up.

They pull up.

Big monster truck.

Huge.

Huge wheels.

Big wheels.

Brand-new vehicle.

Brand new.

Auto wrapped. And they go, “Dude, I’m killing it. So much money.” And I say, “What are your sales?” And they go, “My sales are 40,000.” “So what are your profits?” “7000.” And I go, “That’s not… ”

That’s impressive.

So our actual clients do actually grow. But usually, this is the kind of numbers… It’s because the owner has usually delegated the tracking to someone else.

True.

Who’s throwing them crap. So we want to track. Then you want to track your actual advertising spending, number of clicks, number of impressions. And you really want to be like a hawk on this. This sheet needs to look great. So this is big. This is big. This is big. This is the kind of thing that will make you a millionaire. You got to have the best practice document here.

You want to track the number of Google reviews you got for the week, clicks, impressions, reviews, how many leads came in from Facebook, how many leads came in from Google, how many leads came in from word of mouth, how many leads came in from drive by, how many leads total came in. And you track this information. And, Blumer, if you can track this information, how does it change the conversation? If you track the information. I mean, if this sheet is just accurate, baby, how does this change the game?

Well, it changes the entire conversations from feelings to facts.

Yes.

So a lot of times people are like, “I feel like there was a lot, just a lot of Google leads this week.”

“There’s a ton of it.”

“I feel like there was a lot of-

“Overall.”

… walk-in traffic, a lot. Really, a lot of people just walked in this week, I feel.”

So we got to track, okay? Then we track the profitability. Now the next thing we got to do, we have to install a group interview. Now, why do we have to install a group interview every week? Why do we have to install a weekly group interview?

It’s a good question because a lot of people are like, “I don’t need people every week.”

“I don’t need people every week, man.”

Yeah, you don’t need people every week. But you also don’t want to be held hostage-

There it is.

… by your employees. And if you’re not consistently looking for new people, you don’t know, and frankly, you’ll be the last person to know when you need a new employee. Because they will leave. And everyone else will know. You will not know.

So, Blumer, we want to schedule a job interview at the same time every week.

That’s right.

And this is so important. Every week… I mean, we just hired a great guy this week named James.

It’s true. He’s a great guy.

He’ll be here in about two hours today. And he’s doing a great job.

He’s doing a great job.

By the way, I’m supposed to talk to you because he apparently is going to Nashville.

Yes, I know.

He cleared it through Annie. And I just have discovered this.

We’re good to go.

Many people are in my van? Because my wife and I are driving…

With you guys, I think it’s like four-

In our van?

Yeah, I think it’s you and Vanessa and two other people.

So do you know where James is going?

Nope. But my wife does.

Nice. So we want to install a weekly group interview, and we want to schedule a job interview at the same time every week. I do 5:30 on Wednesdays. Why do I do the group interview at 5:30 on Wednesdays and not 4:00 PM?

One, it’s your schedule. It works with your schedule. Again, the business exists to serve you. So it works with your schedule. Two-

Keep going, keep going.

…. nobody who is a good person is going to show up to a 4:00 PM job interview because they already have a job. And they’re not going to tell their boss because the high-character people that we’re looking for-

Already have a job.

… already have a job, and they’re not going to call out sick to go to a job interview. So they’re just not going to show up.

And why do I tell people that say, “I want to start working for you.” Why do I say, “Why don’t you talk to your current boss and find out when’s a good time to transition where it won’t put them in a bad spot?” Why do I do that? Why don’t I just say, “You have to start working tomorrow. Immediately hired.”

Because you want them, eventually… Everybody leaves. Eventually, you want them to put you in the same spot where if when they leave, they’re not going to just up and just leave the next day or whatever. So you want to show the same respect to their current employer that they’re going to give back to you.

Now imagine we hired a new employee, and we didn’t have a sales system in place or any type of tracking metrics or any type of thing. What would happen to the new employee if there’s no systems?

They probably wouldn’t get any sort of work done. They wouldn’t know what their work was to do either.

Right. So we want to install a weekly group interview. And you also want to install a weekly all-staff meeting. Now, Blumer, we do an all-staff meeting every week. What is the purpose of the all-staff meeting every week?

The purpose is, it resets the culture. So you build the culture of excellence. You build expectations of what you expect out of people. It kind of gives people a touchpoint of, “Here’s what’s going on this week. Here’s what we need to work on.” And so, without it, culture’s just what grows. And so if something that’s not your intentions or what you’ve built starts to grow because you haven’t had a touchpoint or a meeting and reset the culture, then it’s going to get really, really funky in your office because-

And with hundreds of employees in our life, don’t we always have one that’s on the way out?

Oh, yeah.

And don’t we always have one who’s on the way in?

Mm-hmm. Always. Every week.

And isn’t it important to sit down and look at your staff and figure out who are your A players, who are your B players, and who are your C players?

That’s right.

Every week.

Every single week.

And by the way, I just want everyone to know this. Everyone out there, if you’re listening, if you work in the office, if you don’t work in the office, if you’re thinking about working in the office, if you are just listening to this show to learn how to grow your own business, I do this every week. So I look at, and I go, “Okay…” My A players, those are the people that get there early. They stay late. They get the job done. The B players get there a little bit late, leave a little bit early, and they just… Just a bit outside. They tend to not get the job done.

Yes, correct.

And then the C players are always late, always leave early and do a terrible job.

Or don’t show up.

Right. I’m always replacing the C players, trying to coach up the B players, and celebrate the A players. This is what I’m doing.

That’s right.

Every week.

Every week.

Now, if I do this every week, I now am going to have a business that creates both time freedom and financial freedom. And there’s a lot more details that go into this, but I’m going to encourage everybody to go to thrivetimeshow.com/millionaire, and we’re going to go here to page 20. And I’m going to quote myself. Blumer, why don’t you read page 20? That way, you’re quoting myself. Go for it.

So chapter one. “Do you need a business coach? Unless you have a psychological disorder, you should be building a business to create both time and financial freedom for both you and your family. That’s what I do well. In fact, when I’m writing this page of content for you, I am generating approximately $1,000 per hour from my various business ventures in the hair, real estate, buying and selling gold, dog training, consulting, automotive repair, and vehicle repair, and other various industries.”

So right now… And again, this is the first edition of this book, and I’m continuing to make a list of errors here. This is my first edition. So page 20, we’ve got a spelling error. That’s okay. Because it’s a first edition. So page 20. I’m going to take… Anything that needs to be fixed in this book, folks, I’m setting over here. This is my fix pile.

So again, this is a first edition. But the reason why I put the show out, we put the book out… I don’t have a problem with there being a few errors on the first edition. Is if the book is never out, it never will come in contact with you, the listener. It will never come in contact with me. And it will always just be a potential idea. So we have to launch the idea. And we talked about it on the show I recorded yesterday. But the rhythm of entrepreneurship. We want to create the rhythm of entrepreneurship.

This is step nine, create the rhythm of entrepreneurship. You have to create a pattern of success. And the pattern of success goes like this. You define what you think’s going to work, then you act, then you measure, and you refine. And you don’t cry about it. So you define, you act, you measure, you refine. You don’t cry about it, you define. You act, you measure, you refine. You don’t cry about it. Blumer, we have a spelling error.

Houston, we have a spelling error.

We have a spelling error on this page of the book, but yet we are still doing the show. People are still benefiting from the show. We are still going to be improving. How is it possible that we’re not crying right now?

Because it’s a matter of facts and not feelings. We see the fact that there’s a spelling error on page 20, and so we need to fix it.

Now, this right here’s a picture. On page 20. A big pile of poop here. And these three guys are saying, “We hope you enjoy it.” And the customer’s like, “No, this isn’t great.” And I’m writing this from a book called The Service Profit Chain. It’s a quote from that book. It was written by Harvard. Hopefully, it was a non-deep state team that wrote it, I don’t know. But it says here, “All the smiles in the world aren’t going to help you if your product or service is not what the customer wants.” From The Service Profit Chain. “Your products and services can’t suck unless you’re selling vacuums.”

It’s so important. I see this. An awkward situation here recently. I was working with a client. Their business is growing dramatically, growing dramatically. But in the meetings, I start noticing some weird stuff. One, I’m looking at the tracking sheet, and I start noticing that this tracking sheet isn’t honest. The numbers start looking like…

Like round numbers?

Yeah. And I start noticing that the client’s always late for everything. And we build a client’s website. We want to make sure that they’re always receiving the leads. And I discover that the leads that are getting, a lot them are complaints. And it turns out that the customer has a product or service that sucks. They sell the customer one thing, and they give them something else. And so they have created a non-profitable complaint factory.

So that is why, as we move on to step number 10, you want to gather objective Google reviews and video reviews from your ideal and likely buyers. Blumer, why do you want to develop Google reviews and video reviews from your ideal and likely buyers?

Because everybody looks up you, and they look you up. If you get a recommendation on a restaurant or on a movie, whatever, it doesn’t matter what it is, you’re going to go look it up. When people find you online and on Google, you have to have a positive online reputation. You have to have it.

Now, what if you ask all your customers to leave a review, and they don’t want to? What does that mean?

That means-

Or they give you bad reviews.

That means that your product or your service needs improvement. You need to go back to square one and actually find a product or a service that is needed. You need to solve some sort of problem in a way where people enjoy it or people like it or want to buy it.

So when I used to run my DJ company, after the wedding, I would call every bride and ask them how they would rate their experience on a scale of one to 10.

Yeah, I remember it.

Why would I do that?

Because one, it’s kind of cool for the customer when you tell a customer that, “Your DJ’s pay is based on how good they do at your wedding.” So they’re incentivized. “So we’re going to call you after the wedding and just ask you how it was. Were they on time? Were they high energy? Did they play the songs that you wanted? Did they do all these things?”

And just so we’re clear, with the wedding photography business and the DJ company, I would do this. And the questions I would… I had three questions. One, “On a scale of one to 10, 10 being the highest, how happy were you with the DJ?” Tell me the number.

10.

You know what I mean? That was the question, though. “On a scale of one to 10, how happy were you with the DJ, 10 being the highest?” Two is, “What could we improve?” I would always ask that question. Because if you ask the question, the bride would tell you what you can improve. And then three, I would say, “Would you refer us to a friend or family?” Those were my questions I’d ask every time. And then, the DJs got paid based upon the satisfaction of the customer.

And I’m telling you, if you’re out there today and you don’t install a quality control loop… You have to install a quality control loop. You know, years ago, I worked with a home builder, and I still work with the home builder, and we installed the quality control loop. And we would call the customers after they moved into the house, and we’d say, “How happy are you with the home?” And they would always say, “Oh my gosh, on a scale of one to 10, 10.” “Awesome. Love it. Great.”

Second, “How can we improve?” And they’d go, “Your warranty department sucks. Nobody ever calls me back. I fill out the form. No one calls me back.” Almost every customer’s saying the same thing. And we’d say, “Would you refer us to a friend?” They would go, “Yes, if I hadn’t dealt with your warranty department.” So we needed to do what?

Fix the warranty department.

Right.

That’s right. Build some scripts.

So if you’re out there today, I want to leave you with some good action items, okay? So first off, everybody go right now to thrivetimeshow.com/millionaire, and you can download this book right now. This is version four of the book. We’re always updating it, but you can download the book for free at thrivetimeshow.com/millionaire. In fact, you can download every book that I’ve ever written. You can download those there at thrivetimeshow.com/millionaire.

The next thing I encourage you to do is we go to thrivetimeshow.com. If you have a business and you’re looking to improve that business, go to testimonials and see the thousands of millionaires we’ve built over the years. We have built thousands of millionaire success stories. And schedule a free 13-point assessment. You can schedule a consultation with myself, and I will sit down with you to figure out where you’re stuck and how we can help you take your business to the next level.

And at the end of today’s show, I’m going to insert the testimonial from Dave and Tricia with Pappagallo’s so you can see their story. And then, I’m going to put on a commercial so you can learn more about our next in-person workshop. And our next workshop, we do them every two months. And you can learn more about those at thrivetimeshow.com.

They are the world’s highest-rated and most-reviewed business conferences, and I would encourage you to come to one of them. We teach you everything you need to know to start and grow a successful company. The event itself, it starts at 7:00 AM, and it goes to approximately 3:00 PM each day. And we do a 45-minute training session followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer session. And, Blumer, why do I and Dr. Zoellner, why do we take a 15-minute break to answer questions from people that are learning this information for the first time?

Because we want to make sure that everyone’s on the same page, that everyone understands what we just went over, and that they can clarify any questions that they have. And ultimately, when you have a question, that someone else right next to you probably has the same question that they’re thinking. And so it keeps everyone on the same page make sure they understand what’s going on.

And again, by default… Inc. Magazine shows that 96% of businesses fail. By default, 96% of businesses fail, according to Inc. Magazine. That’s a wild number.

That’s a lot.

So if you’re out there today, and you say, “Well, Clay, how have you and Dr. Zoellner been able to build multiple super successful companies?” It’s not because, you know, we have this infinite wisdom. It’s because we know a proven system that works. And we’ve implemented it in the dog training business, the haircut business, the auto auction business, the optometry business. We just implement it in every industry we’re involved in. Working with dentists, doctors, lawyers, auto mechanics, contractors, cabinet installation companies, irrigation companies. It works every single time that the customer implements it.

Having massive success isn’t super complicated. It just requires diligently implementing the proven systems and processes. Also, if you want those final tickets for the Nashville ReAwaken America Tour event, you can get those at timetofreeamerica.com. And our next business workshop is the first week in February, February 2nd and 3rd. Get those tickets at thrivetimeshow.com.

And now, without any further ado, we’re going to end this show with a boom because BOOM stands for big, overwhelming, optimistic momentum, and that is what you need to take your business to the next level. So now, without any further ado, here we go. Three, two, what? Boom.

This year’s… Sales for this week.

So this is the same week last year. Do you see the difference? Look.

Wait a second. I can’t really tell. One is…

You see? Look.

Michael, can we just… I just want to get it… Jason, can you kind of pull this end maybe? Just so we can see it. Let’s kind of pull it that way. Let’s get the length. I can’t tell without the length. It’s hard to tell.

Look at that.

So that’s last year’s sales.

This is last year’s sales, and the total is a mere $4,711 and 73 cents. Same week, this year, 2015. The total is… Read it, Michael.

$11,315.50.

Oh, boom.

Yes. What?

Awesome.

I baked from home for years as I was raising my children and teaching, and it was there that people continually said year after year, “Kat, you really need to go into business. You should open a bakery.” And I’m thinking, “I don’t have time to open a bakery. I’m raising two kids. I’m getting my master’s degree. Not to mention I know nothing about business.”

So here I am. I’m super thrilled. My little bakery is being built in Bixby, and all is well. We move into the new bakery. The excitement is like over the top. And three weeks into it, my husband and I separate. Talk about a blow. That was the most difficult thing I had ever experienced to date. I had that blow, and I did have to make a decision, “Am I going to be a big girl? Am I going to get better? Or am I going to give up?”

I couldn’t give up. I’m a divorced woman. I have to earn a living. And so, 18-hour days, bring it on. Let’s do this thing. Four years later, my business partner’s husband, Deemer, asked me a question one day. He said, “Kat, are you going to continue treating this business like a hobby, or are you going to treat it like a business?” That was huge for me. That was super significant in pushing me to get help, pushing me to find a way to make it work.

Through several people encouraging me to become a Thriver with Thrive 15 was, without question, the pivotal moment in my business. I went from lacking some confidence to becoming empowered through knowledge of how to grow a business. Our sales are 50% plus what they were a year ago. I feel I’ve regained confidence in myself as an entrepreneur and in my business. Becoming educated through Thrive 15 is what made the difference.

The ThriveTime Show. Today, interactive business workshops are the highest and most reviewed business workshops on the planet.

You can learn the proven 13-point business systems that Dr. Zoellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. I mean, we get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website.

We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you.

You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now, you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered.

The reason why I’ve built these workshops is because, as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like, you went there, and you paid for the good chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and they’re like, “Oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop.”

And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big, get-rich-quick, walk on hot coals product. It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business.

But I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, and I want you to google “the Z66 Auto Auction.” I want you to google “Elephant In The Room.” Look up “Robert Zoellner and Associates.” Look them up. And say, “Are they successful because they’re geniuses? Or are they successful because they have a proven system?” When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own businesses can be used in your business.

Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever. And we’ll even give you your money back if you don’t love it. We’ve built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see you.

Hi, I’m Aaron Antis with Shaw Homes. I first heard about Clay through a mortgage lender here in town who had told me what a great job he had been doing for them. And I actually noticed he was driving a Lamborghini all of a sudden, so I was willing to listen. In my career, I’ve sold a little over $800 million in real estate. So honestly, I thought I kind of knew everything about marketing and homes.

And then I met Clay. And my perception of what I knew and what I could do definitely changed. After doing $800 million in sales over a 15-year career, I really thought I knew what I was doing. I’ve been managing a large team of salespeople for the last 10 years here with Shaw Homes. And, I mean, we’ve been a company that’s been in business for 35 years. We’ve become one of the largest builders in the Tulsa area, and that was without Clay.

So when I came to know Clay, I really thought, “Man, there’s not much more I need to know, but I’m willing to listen.” The interesting thing is our internet leads from our website has actually, in a four-month period of time, has gone from somewhere around 10 to 15 leads in a month to 180 internet leads in a month. Just from the few things that he’s shown us how to implement that I honestly probably never would’ve come up with on my own.

So I got a lot of good things to say about the system that Clay put in place with us. And it’s just been an incredible experience. I am very glad that we met and had the opportunity to work with Clay. So the interaction with the team and with Clay on a weekly basis is honestly very enlightening. One of the things that I love about Clay’s perspective on things is that he doesn’t come from my industry. He’s not somebody who’s in the home building industry.

I’ve listened to all the experts in my field. Our company has paid for me to go to seminars, international builders’ shows, all kinds of places where I’ve had the opportunity to learn from the experts in my industry. But the thing that I’ve found working with Clay is that he comes from such a broad spectrum of working with so many different types of businesses that he has a perspective that’s difficult for me to gain. Because I get so entrenched in what I do, I’m not paying attention to what other leading industry experts are doing. And Clay really brings that perspective for me. It is very valuable time every week when I get that hour with him.

From my perspective, the reason that any business owner who’s thinking about hooking up with Thrive needs to definitely consider it is because the results that we’ve gotten in a very short period of time are honestly monumental. It has really exceeded my wildest expectation of what he might be able to do. I came in skeptical because I’m very pragmatic, and as I’ve gone through the process over just a few months, I’ve realized it’s probably one of the best moves we’ve ever made.

I think a lot of people probably feel like they don’t need a business or marketing consultant because they maybe are a little bit prideful and like to think they know everything. I know that’s how I felt coming in. I mean, we’re a big company that’s definitely one of the largest in town, and so we kind of felt like we knew what we were doing. And I think for a lot of people, they let their ego get in the way of listening to somebody that might have a better or different perspective than theirs. I would just really encourage you, if you’re thinking about working with Clay…

I mean, the thing is, it’s month to month. Go give it a try and see what happens. I think in the 35-year history of Shaw Homes, this is probably the best thing that’s happened to us. And I know if you give him a shot, I think you’ll feel the same way. I know for me, the thing I would’ve missed out on if I didn’t work with Clay is I would’ve missed out on literally an 1800% increase in our internet leads going from 10 a month to 180 a month. That would’ve been a huge financial decision to just decide not to give it a shot.

I would absolutely recommend Clay Clark to anybody who’s thinking about working with somebody in marketing. I would skip over anybody else you were thinking about, and I would go straight to Clay and his team. I guarantee you’re not going to regret it because we sure haven’t.