Doug Christie | Doug Christie Shares About His Journey from Being a Street Baller, to Growing Into An NBA Player Stand Out, to Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur + Join Tebow At Clay Clark’s June 5-6 Business Workshop
Transcribed with Cockatoo
(Speaker 1)
Ladies and gentlemen, on today’s show we interview the 15 year NBA player turned entrepreneur and now broadcaster for the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, Mr. Doug Christie, about his time spent in the NBA while being coached by the NBA Hall of Fame and iconic basketball legend, Mr. Pat Riley. On to the show, How are you, sir?
(Speaker 9)
I am doing fantastic. How about yourself?
(Speaker 1)
Well, I am honored to have you on. I remember watching you on the court, my friend. You are a defensive specialist who could also score.
(Speaker 9)
It works on flexibility, stability, and mobility. And then we have a third one. It’s coming. It’s not ready yet, but it’s coming to market pretty soon. So the trilogy of them with the rebar being a the foundational piece of teaching people how to be efficient in motion because ultimately in my opinion that’s where sports is going. It’s going to be the and you see it with the Golden State Warriors you saw it
(Speaker 9)
with our team the team in any soccer team that you watch whether it’s Argentina whoever your team is, the efficiency of the ball moving, the efficiency of motion of the players, and that’s what the rebar does. So you got an aging population. This is the piece of equipment that’s going to allow the aging population, as well as weekend warriors, elite athletes, to continue to do the things that they love to do on a
(Speaker 9)
day-to-day basis.
(Speaker 1)
Where can we buy the Rebar?
(Speaker 9)
You can go to Rebartraining.com and you can see it there. You can look us up on Instagram, Rebar Training, Twitter as well,
(Speaker 2)
and check us out. Rebar Training and that’s R3bartraining.com.
(Speaker 1)
Now Doug, one of our show sponsors, Mr. Wes Carter, he’s an attorney who represents TD Jake’s, his law firm represents TD Jake’s, Joyce Myers, they represented Pastor Craig Rochelle, a lot of ministry people, also big businesses. Wes has a tough question for him, I’m sure here.
(Speaker 1)
A nice softball for Mr. Doug here. So Wes, what is your question? Wes, meet Doug, Doug, meet Wes. Hey, Doug.
(Speaker 9)
Hey, how are you, Wes?
(Speaker 14)
I’m doing great. I’m curious, with our entrepreneurial kind
(Speaker 9)
of topics that we usually cover. Yes, yes. If I was playing today, I’d be a hot ticket, my friend.
(Speaker 1)
Ah, yes, yes.
(Speaker 21)
OK.
(Speaker 14)
Now that you’ve transitioned from athlete, yes, yes. OK. Now that you’ve transitioned from athlete, announcer, what’s been the biggest surprise or challenge as you try to bring a new product, a new baby out to market as you’re gearing up, marketing, bringing it to life? What’s one of your bigger challenges or surprises you’ve encountered in the entrepreneurial world?
(Speaker 9)
You know, it’s the things that you think are going to work, and this is where I just talked about me listening to myself and it doesn’t matter what I think, it matters what the listeners think. It’s similar with business, is what you think is going to work doesn’t really matter because you’re not the one that’s buying the piece of equipment or you’re not buying the product.
(Speaker 9)
It matters what the people think, and you have to take yourself out of that and a lot of times get out of your own way to find a modicum of success. And that’s something that we are truly learning on top of the fact of the financing of learning how to go out and get the type of money that you need to get to the level that you see yourself at. And as an athlete, you want that success quickly because you’ve watched yourself and you’ve
(Speaker 9)
been at these levels, but you’ve got to understand business is a little bit different.
(Speaker 1)
Doug, there’s a lot of media out there that talks about how a lot of NBA players, there’s a lot of news that says NBA players, you know, NBA players go, this percentage of NBA players go bankrupt after play. And they, you know, it’s a big, but Wes, you represent small business owners. And Forbes says 90% of small business owners go bankrupt. So the head, now you’ve achieved a lot of success throughout your career, but if
(Speaker 1)
you could kind of start off at the bottom or the very beginning, what was your childhood like growing up and how did that impact your path to becoming a headline? You know, it’s a sexy headline, you know, 90% of NFL players go bankrupt. You know what I mean? It’s easy to poke fun at the other guy, right? Talk to me about just getting game checks and how, when you first got game checks, when you first started getting paid, what was that?
(Speaker 1)
How did you go through the process of financially managing things? Did you have a financial advisor or what kind of people are there to help you in the NBA get adjusted to the financial situation of really knowing that, hey, I’ve got three to five years on average to make a bunch of money and then I’ve got to do something else that won’t pay like this. What kind of advice or counseling is available for guys like you?
(Speaker 9)
You know, the NBA does a fantastic job. Now, when I first came into the NBA, they were just really tightening up that area. So a lot of mine, I didn’t necessarily have that. Or sometimes what you see is guys get bad advice or they get around the wrong type of people. You might have, you know, a financial advisor or someone else, but if you
(Speaker 9)
signed over all the rights to them cashing you checks and different things, you see the horror stories of guys losing a lot of money. And it’s happened to some of the biggest players that have ever played in the NBA or professional sports. So you’ve got to, first of all, get yourself around quality people, the right people. The home run isn’t always what you’re looking for.
(Speaker 9)
It’s the ability to keep your money. You want to make money with it. But trying to always hit a home run isn’t the way to go. And usually if you’re hearing these quick get rich schemes and all those different things, well, you’re already rich. What you want to do is you want to be wealthy now and you have to figure out a way. So a lot of it is trust, but the NBA has some fantastic people now that are.
(Speaker 1)
The person you are today.
(Speaker 9)
You know, so I grew up in Seattle, Washington, and a single parent in place, if you have advice or if you want advice or different things like that. On top of the fact that now I think athletes are more or less learning how to use the leverage of while they’re in the NBA, a lot of people want to be around them and different things and a lot of doors are open for you just have to ask the right questions and be willing to listen and take time to look at your situation
(Speaker 9)
and try to better it the best that you can.
(Speaker 1)
Now, Doug, how do you typically go about organizing those first four hours of your typical day? I mean, what time do you wake up every day now?
(Speaker 9)
I wake up about 6 a.m. I start watching different shows, listening to radio and different things as, you know, working out and then I take my son to school. Sometimes I put my headphones in, I’ll go hit some golf balls, just try to decompress.
(Speaker 9)
And then I start taking my notes and different things. So I have a radio show that I do daily from 3 to 7, and then whenever I’m not doing that, I’m always doing the Kings game. So like right now, I’m sitting in the garage getting ready to go in, jump on the radio, go from 3 to 530 Pacific time. Game starts at 7 o’clock. It just..
(Speaker 9)
Before you know it, my game starts at 6. But before I know it, it’s midnight.
(Speaker 31)
Final question here.
(Speaker 1)
I want to respect your time here. Final question. What did your day typically look like in the NBA? Like during regular season, NBA, it’s a Monday. What time were you waking up and what did that look like when you were in the league?
(Speaker 9)
You know, I always, well, my early riser, so about six, seven o’clock right in there. If we have practice at ten, I’m getting there usually about eight o’clock. I go, I would get in the hot tub, I’d get my A and meet my father until I was almost eight or nine years old. And so I was a latchkey kid, which, you know, you could get into a lot of trouble. And I did get into my fair share of trouble. I was rubbed. I lift weights.
(Speaker 9)
Then I go out and I work on my own individual skill work. By then Bobby’s arriving. We’re playing one-on-one. So by the time practice started, I’m in a full sweat. So whatever practice consisted of, I would finish that, and then I would go in reverse, and I’d start bringing everything down, usually
(Speaker 9)
in the night with a massage, Epsom salt, and seaweed bath to get rid of all the toxins, try to hydrate, and get ready to watch some tape and start all over again.
(Speaker 1)
Doug, I know there are a lot of people reaching out to you for your time, and I appreciate you and investing in our half a million listeners who are also honored for you to speak into their lives. Just thank you so much, my friend, and I appreciate you more than you could possibly know.
(Speaker 9)
Absolutely. I hope to do it again. If we have more time, you guys want to, just let me know. I so appreciate the opportunity.
(Speaker 1)
You take care, boss. Yes, Doug was an NBA player. And yes, he played in the NBA for 15 years. But since retiring from the game of basketball, he’s gone on to become a successful announcer and a successful entrepreneur. And he has never done learning and never done applying himself. So I would ask you this today.
(Speaker 1)
In what area of your life are you not applying the focus or dedication needed to improve? Doug also schedules every hour of his day. My friend, it is so important that you are intentional about how you spend your time, where you spend your time, and who you spend your time with. So here’s my action item for you today. Get out your day timer, get out your calendar, and schedule out your day. Design a life that you’re going to love or live a life that you don’t like by default.
(Speaker 9)
And then all of a sudden I found team sports. I started with soccer and then I…
(Speaker 3)
Without any further ado, 3, 2, 1, boom. I mean, I remember some bills of $4,500 a month just to get leads that I was having to pay for. And that’s only get a lead in a contact to where now I’m paying you $1,700 a month and I got 80 some leads last week alone and I paid you $1,700. And to me, that was, that was huge for my industry.
(Speaker 1)
That was one huge thing that just blown me away. Okay, folks, money is a magnifier. That’s what it is. Money is a magnifier. It’s an amplifier. It just makes you more of who you already were.
(Speaker 1)
So as an example, if you’re a complete jerk and you make a lot of money, you’ll become a bigger jerk. And on today’s show, we’re interviewing a longtime client who’s a really nice, kind, decent person. He doesn’t claim to be perfect, nor do I think that he’s perfect, but he’s a guy that I use over and over and over. I utilize his services to plant trees and do landscaping for my family, for my business,
(Speaker 1)
because I really enjoy him as a person. I consider him to be a friend and it’s been awesome helping him magnify and grow his business. And if any further ado, we have the founder of Outside Inc. Paul Sullins, welcome onto the Thrived Time Show. How are you, sir?
(Speaker 3)
Doing good, Clay. Thank you for having me.
(Speaker 1)
So Paul, I got to ask you here and correct me if I’m wrong. I’m looking at your tracking sheet, And last week you had 89 leads. So 89 people reached out to you to inquire about hiring you to do landscaping, pool maintenance, backyard work for them outside, remodeling kind of work.
(Speaker 9)
My first team basketball was at 11. I played street basketball my whole, you know, my whole life, but I finally got on a team because the community center across the street had burned down and when they built it.
(Speaker 1)
And then I’m looking at your tracking sheet like a year ago and you know, you were getting like four or five leads on a weekly basis. Can you maybe walk the listeners through what it feels like to be on the receiving end of 89 inbound leads in one week?
(Speaker 3)
It’s a little scary to be straight honest with you. It’s awesome just to know that the amount of work up front that we put in is actually paying off. You know, you see these people, you hear all these things and you’re like, hey, it’s going to be there, it’s going to be there. And it’s been kind of mind-blowing to sit there. And one of my office ladies comes in and goes,
(Speaker 3)
we’ve got 56 calls in one day, right after a rainstorm. And to actually realize the work and the effort that we put in
(Speaker 1)
is actually coming to fruition. It’s amazing. Well, what I’m going to do is I’m going to pull up your website and I’m going to showcase what you do so people can get a little context. I know you’re not a hologram. Outside Ink Irrigation, Outside Ink Irrigation is one of the websites.
(Speaker 1)
Also, folks, if you do a search on Google for Outside Ink and the word Hulsa, you can find the website outsideink.co. So two different websites there. When you go to outsideinc.co, we look here. We look at the services you provide. It’s French drains. It’s landscaping.
(Speaker 1)
You do monthly home maintenance. If you look at the irrigation services, you guys are doing irrigation system repair and installation. So you’re not the only guy in your market who’s providing irrigation systems or French drains or but you’re consistently getting a lot of leads.
(Speaker 1)
So I want to focus on the four aspects of business growth.
(Speaker 9)
There’s a lot of we can focus back up. They put a team together and from that point it was no looking back. So I think it formed me in a lot of different ways.
(Speaker 1)
But I want to focus on four today. The first is marketing. You’ve got to get reviews from happy customers. Every single week I harass you about this and every week you show up with more, but these are actual customers
(Speaker 1)
that have actually done business with you. Can you talk about the importance, and I’ll hit play, but I’ll hit mute as I’m playing these. Can you talk about the importance of gathering objective video reviews from real customers each and every week? What kind of value has that made when you’re even talking to prospective clients?
(Speaker 3)
It’s made a lot of difference. I mean, a lot of the phone calls, you know, we’ll sit there and go, hey, we’re the highest rated, most reviewed company in Tulsa, we’re doing all these things. And they’re like, yeah, we know, we went to your website. And we saw the clients speak about what you had done around their houses and how well you communicated with them.
(Speaker 3)
And that’s how we decided to work with you guys. So it’s just, I’ve put on so many different client reviews and interviews on the webpage. It’s just, you know, I’ve put on so many different client reviews and interviews on the webpage and it’s been completely different, you know, through some of your training and seeing some of your different videos from the business shows
(Speaker 3)
that you put on, Clay. I’ve noticed that we don’t have to have the best looking and the most entertained TV produced videos. It’s just getting videos of real people in their backyards, in their yards, and actually talking about you as a person
(Speaker 1)
and the products that we’ve done for them
(Speaker 3)
and how they’ve enjoyed it.
(Speaker 1)
How often when you meet somebody, again, we’re focused just on marketing right now.
(Speaker 9)
You know, the city of Seattle, it’s near and dear to my heart focus just on marketing right now. You know, the city of Seattle is always, it’s near and dear to my heart because coming out of there and since then, so many different players have come out and they.
(Speaker 1)
When you meet with somebody, how often does the potential buyer reference the fact that you, they’ve watched a video review or have looked at examples of video reviews on your website as a percentage? Like how often do they reference? Yeah, I’ve seen some of the videos, I’ve seen some testimonials.
(Speaker 3)
A percentage wise, I would say, at least 25 to maybe 50%. You know, I have a couple different sales guys. And I have some ladies answering the phones here. And I mean, I’m hearing it all the time. I’ve got an office right next to the lady answering the phone. And she goes, hey, how did you hear about us? Well, we Googled you. And then it’s like, oh, hey, do you know this, this, this? And they were like, oh, yeah,
(Speaker 1)
we saw it. We already looked at your website and saw all the views, all the video reviews you’ve more than that, but I would say in the neighborhood of 25 to 40%. And again, if you’re talking about marketing, folks, we’re talking about marketing, it’s VISM. There’s other details, but everyone needs to remember this. VISM, video reviews, images, search engine content, more reviews. Let’s hop on to I, images.
(Speaker 1)
You’re constantly gathering images of your projects. So it’s not an event. I think a lot of people think planning a garden is an event and it’s not an event. I think people think that getting married is an event. It’s not an event. I think people think that, you know, raising a child is an event. It’s not an event. It’s a process. Every week, you’re gathering images before and after images of projects
(Speaker 1)
you’ve done. How has that paid off? Just the consistency of adding before and after images of projects. It’s been a, it’s actually done quite well.
(Speaker 3)
It gets my guys, number one, it helps my staff and us know that number one,
(Speaker 9)
y’all give me love when I see them because it was one of those things that it seemed like once
(Speaker 3)
one broke through the damn kind of broke them, you know, because as the owner of the business, you can’t be on every job, you know, as you grow, as you, it helps me know that the guys are doing what I’m wanting them to do in the field, as my company is actually being portrayed the way I want it to be portrayed. But then also, people always look at a company and look at, you know, we pull up at a nice fancy track and they’re like, oh, these guys, all they’re going to do is the big fancy jobs. And not all our jobs are big and fancy. I mean, we talk and we work for the average Joe, the average person in the background. So when they’re able to look on, you know, and see some of these photos of just a little small French drain, or we poured a little 10 by 10 concrete
(Speaker 3)
patio, it actually helps us relate better to the clients and the customers in the field. I feel just having all those videos and pictures.
(Speaker 1)
Just to be super clear again, video reviews, got to get them every week, images of projects, you do a great job with that. Search engine content, our team handles the optimization, the ongoing updates on the website, so you don’t have to mess with that. How much does that help for you knowing that you don’t have to go in to your website
(Speaker 1)
and figure out how to code and update a website every week?
(Speaker 3)
There’s no way I’d be where I’m at if I had to sit there and mess with that. Running a company, a lot of people always say starting your business is an easy thing. It’s managing it and keep on top of it. And these little details like this,
(Speaker 3)
I mean, we’re in the age now, word of mouth is one way, but most, everybody’s going to Google and going to your websites to see what you’re, see how to, you know, how to get hold of you. And that’s how, that’s the marketing we are in today, society.
(Speaker 1)
We asked Doug what it’s like to play with some of the NBA’s best players, including Chris Weber, Mike Bibby, and Bobby Jackson. And on today’s show, this former No. 7.
(Speaker 9)
Since then, we’ve had a lot of kids that have come out of Seattle.
(Speaker 1)
I understand while playing in Seattle, I believe you played for Coach Dave Denny at Mark Morris High School.
(Speaker 3)
How did he help you improve your game? And I think that is super important to have that up and running. And when I don’t have to mess with it, it is blowing me away. I mean, I’ve got to deal with my employees. I’ve got to deal with all this other stuff. And so it’s just a huge peace of mind to know that that’s just taken care of. I don’t have to mess with it at all.
(Speaker 1)
Now, so again, we go back to this VISM. And I think one way we learn is through repetition, video reviews, images, search engine content, the ongoing optimization of the website. We handle that for all of our clients. And then M, more reviews. We’re never done getting reviews.
(Speaker 1)
And so right now, if somebody goes to Google and they do a search right now and they type in Tulsa tree planting, which is how I originally heard about you, was I was looking to plant trees at one of my properties. I went to a church called Church on the Move, a really wonderful church, at the time was led by Pastor Willie George. And the trees looked incredible on the property.
(Speaker 1)
And so I kept asking people, who does the trees? Who’s doing the work? And I kept hearing your name. And that’s how I first met you. And now today, when someone types in Tulsa tree planting, you come up top in the search results, 703 reviews. You’re constantly getting video reviews, images, search engine
(Speaker 1)
content, more reviews. Let’s talk about that for a second. How much has it helped you to have the most Google reviews? In addition to video, but the most Google reviews?
(Speaker 3)
It gives you validity. Um, I really think with people, um, you know, I kind of tell this to people all the time. It’s like how I talk to my buddies, my own businesses and, or in the, in any kind of a service industry. And I’m like, what do people do now? Nowadays, they go to Google, they Google their Google.
(Speaker 1)
Aim and your overall mindset with his mentorship.
(Speaker 3)
You know, that’s interesting. So when I finally met my dad, coach Dave Denny, French grains, they’re Googling for this, they’re Googling where to go eat. And if you you know, to be at the top of Google gives you the opportunity to actually talk to a client and do to bid it not, you know, we still have to go out and sell the job to the client, but it’s been very important and very helpful to be able to be at the top,
(Speaker 26)
to be able to get that.
(Speaker 3)
I don’t know if I quite answered your question.
(Speaker 1)
No, this is great. And you’ve got the four aspects of business I wanna focus on today. Again, step one, marketing and branding. We covered that. Branding is just anything people see,
(Speaker 1)
the website, the print pieces, the logo, the auto wraps. We handle all that with you. We do a lot of that work behind the scenes. That’s marketing and branding. The second step is sales. Sales is converting an ideal and likely lead
(Speaker 1)
or an ideal and likely buyer into an actual buyer. And I believe that a lot of times, and I’ve worked with companies in the past that helped me with my marketing when I was first starting DJConnection.com, and I would say, well, yeah, I’m getting a lot of leads, but I’m not selling anything. And they would say, we don’t really help with that. We just focus on the marketing or just the branding.
(Speaker 1)
I want to get your thoughts on the sales thing, you do a very good job of tracking. I won’t show your tracking numbers on today’s show, but you do a very good job of tracking. This is how many leads that came in. This is how many people bought. How has that helped you measuring and tracking your sales?
(Speaker 3)
Number one, it helps me because as I’ve grown, I’ve got multiple salesmen that work with me. Number one, I’m able to see what my guys in the field are selling every week. And it also gives me time and to see.
(Speaker 9)
Is in Longview, Washington, which is about 90 minutes away. And I was telling you, I was getting in trouble. So my mom sent me down there just for a year to live with my father. And
(Speaker 3)
before that. Or not time, but gives me the capabilities of looking and seeing how our ebbs and flows are in my business. Cause I’m, you know, I’m an outdoor service company. So in the springs and the falls, it’s able to see when I need to gear up for employees, when I need to gear up and get guys ready for stuff,
(Speaker 3)
when our down times are. So, you know, over the last two years, I’m able to go back and look at going, hey, you know, January and February is going to be real slow December. So I really need to start as a business owner in October, you know, September and October, start pushing sales and start finding different ways to be able to get more business to keep my guys going so we can book out over that time. So if I wasn’t able to track my sales, my leads coming in, the jobs were sold,
(Speaker 3)
I wouldn’t know, you know, you get so busy in your day in, day out, you don’t focus on that stuff. And, you know, me meeting with you every week as a business coach and able to sit there and look at that stuff every week,
(Speaker 3)
you, you, you know, you get trained to be able to look at that stuff and be able to see stuff ahead as you’re growing your business and not looking in the rearview mirror going, man, I wished I would have kept kept that going or wish I would have known about that six months ago, because then I would have been able to adjust then to help us now. And now I’m sitting there going, hey, I need you know,
(Speaker 1)
I’m going to make money to pay bills, and we got to get some jobs sold and I’m working in the rearview mirror trying to get stuff closed that we should have been working on three to four months ago. Now most of the clients I work with, I charge clients a flat rate of $1,700 a month plus a small percentage of growth and the idea is hopefully I’m the cheapest employee that you have. You know so you look at it you go
(Speaker 9)
I was in Seattle obviously, but to go to coach Denny, he was big because I was a street basketball player.
(Speaker 1)
So I didn’t, the campaign, this guy’s $1,700 a month. Okay. Hopefully I’m the least expensive person on the payroll, the least expensive line item. But over time, once we produce fruit, hopefully that small percentage of growth, that small percentage of the, the growth makes it all worth it, you know, and so that’s the idea is to achieve that true win-win.
(Speaker 1)
And so the next, the third aspect of the business coaching I wanted to cover on today’s show is management. So you look at a great project like this. You got to do marketing branding, true. Step two, you got to do sales, but three, you got to manage. And I think that most people who are self-employed feel sort of isolated and
(Speaker 1)
annoyed. I feel like most self-employed people feel isolated and annoyed. They feel like, am I the only one seeing the level of jackassery that is often allowed in the American workplace today? And I have to work with all my wonderful clients to teach best practice management systems. I think you do a fine job of that. That’s something that you, in my opinion, it’s one of your strengths.
(Speaker 1)
You do a very good job of communicating the expectations directly to the client and you manage those expectations. You tell the client, hey, Mr. Smith, hey, Ms. Smith, we’re gonna have your pool, your pool remodel or your pool fix or your pool house fixed or your outdoor siding project, your outdoor landscaping, we’re going to have your retaining wall, we’re going to have whatever
(Speaker 1)
the project is, we’re going to have it done by this particular day, it’s going to cost this amount of money, and you do a very good job of managing that relationship with the client and then managing those employees behind the scenes. Can you talk to us about the importance of just mastering management techniques?
(Speaker 9)
Well, fundamentals weren’t really part of my game. It was just instinctual and I just played. And when I got to Longview, it’s a smaller town, they have different ways and the fundamentals, the jumps.
(Speaker 3)
I don’t know if anybody’s ever a master. One of the things I’ve learned, you know, and I’ve had clients over and over in my field something going Man, when you said you were there you were there You were there every time you said you were going to be there And you did what you said you were going to do and that you know, number one I like to be a man of my word. I mean, I like to be able to tell people what we’re going to be there.
(Speaker 3)
You know, I work in the outdoor industry. I mean, it rains. We’re in Oklahoma. So, you know, you’re going to have delays. But setting those expectations with the clients, number one, helps me for, you know, to be able to go, hey, it’s rain. I had just I can’t get it. We’ve been delayed because of this. And setting those expectations up
(Speaker 3)
front makes for a happy end product with your clients. And just tell you know, going through the process, say, hey, right, even when I sell the job, I’m like, hey, we’re the highest rated most reviewed, you know, company in Tulsa right now. And here’s the reason why. But that also comes with, we’re really busy. We’re not going to be able to get to you tomorrow. And the thing is, the people that can get to you tomorrow are probably going to
(Speaker 3)
give you the best product. And setting those expectations with the clients up front, letting them know, hey, we’re going to be a little behind we’re, you know, we’re six weeks out, we’re eight weeks out, and letting that client know that and then keeping them up to date then the client knows hey they just didn’t take my deposit or they just didn’t take this and just disappeared they know that hey we’re coming down you know we’re there we’re still there we’re gonna get it done so I think that’s one
(Speaker 3)
of the things that’s helping really to set that set with your clients and it
(Speaker 9)
makes it important to pivot the different types of training and different stuff so when I came back to Seattle, I had an extra year at the end.
(Speaker 3)
Cause they know, I mean, a lot, some of these jobs are an investment for the. You know, their backyard, it’s a lot of money for them on some of these projects. And it’s just like, you know, buying a house, you want to know that you’re
(Speaker 1)
getting what you’re paying for and it’s going gonna be there when you expect it to be there. And we can share just hundreds of video testimonials or Google reviews. I’m just showing some examples here. But again, the final area I wanted to cover on today’s show, again, I’m just making sure we’re recapping.
(Speaker 1)
Marketing and branding, that’s how you generate leads. Second step is sales. You convert ideal and likely buyers into sales. Three is management. You have to manage the expectations. And then the final step is accounting and what I would classify as merit-based pay. At the end of the day, it’s not how much money you make,
(Speaker 1)
it’s how much you keep. And I just don’t think that most people think about that when they’re growing a business. And that’s becoming an increasingly part of our ongoing conversations is making sure that, you know because hey you’re the kind of guy that quotes a customer a price and you hold yourself accountable to not changing your bid on the client but that doesn’t mean that subcontractors or employees won’t try to change the game on you and all of a sudden drive up your expenses. So
(Speaker 1)
can you talk about that that final step of just the accountings? I think a lot of entrepreneurs when they look out for them when they reach out for a business coach or a consultant, they don’t think about the accounting, but I would argue as we continue to grow outside Inc, the accounting aspect of your business is becoming a bigger part.
(Speaker 3)
I firmly agree. I just actually just come out of a meeting talking about accounting and bills and what’s coming in fresh on my mind, you know, and as you grow your business, um, one of the things I think as you’re young, you’re just trying to get jobs done. You’re just trying to get whatever you can go. But as you grow-
(Speaker 9)
Had extra things that some of the other players didn’t have and I could see. And now I’m adding street game to the fundamental game and that’s really what he gave me. And when I came back, my high school coach in Seattle was-
(Speaker 3)
It becomes a huge part. It becomes, I think, more than what most people think it’s gonna be. And getting, you know, keeping the money and keeping the accounting, it’s just like this last year, Clay, me and you had been talking about, you know, doing merit-based, because I think once, if you pay people enough where they’re comfortable,
(Speaker 3)
they stay there. They don’t wanna grow. You know, as your business grows, you wanna grow. You wanna give them more money. You know, most people want more money. I think everybody would, you know,
(Speaker 3)
not frown against getting some extra money, but as a business owner, you want your salesman, you want your guys out there in the field wanting to be able to make more money. And if you just keep them on an hourly basis, there’s no growth for them to perform better and to make more money.
(Speaker 3)
So this last year I’ve switched my sales guys to a hundred percent commission. I used to have them above base and I put them over to commission and the amount of calls of clients looking for their bids has got cut down and over half. He’s selling more jobs by I would say 30 to 40 percent maybe more than that since we’ve been tracking it and it’s maybe huge huge thing because the thing is if he doesn’t sell he doesn’t get paid any money and so you know especially when you find people
(Speaker 3)
that are eager to make more money, they’re gonna sell more.
(Speaker 1)
You know, this is one thing I wanted to bring up and I’ll let you go here, because I know you’re a busy guy here. For anybody other that doesn’t know this, you know, when I built my first company called DJConnection.com, after every event we did,
(Speaker 1)
I was obsessive about calling the first guy that I ever heard speak truth to power to my dream. I wanted to make it to the NBA but asking them to leave us an objective review. Now this is before Google was super relevant. So we had wedding wire and the not dot com and those kind of things or we would get video testimonials on a old school video camera we had back in the day. We would archive them and at a certain point, I remember I talked to a bride and she said to me, you have thousands of video testimonials. And I said, Oh yeah, absolutely. And then now today people go to thrive timeshow.com. They click on testimonials. And I had a call. I had the other
(Speaker 1)
just the other day with a wonderful man. And he was saying to me, I was going through your testimonials and I had to stop around like page 30 because I kept looking at the testimonials I realized there is really no end in sight I mean I’m looking at this and there’s like years after years after years of video testimonials and I said well yeah because that we document that it’s a very important thing that we do but I want to ask you this question for anybody out there that’s thinking about
(Speaker 1)
coming to one of our workshops or scheduling a free 13-point assessment with myself to go over how to grow their company. What would you say or maybe what kind of impact do you think that
(Speaker 3)
business coaching with our program has made on your business? It’s been huge. One of the things I’ve loved, you know, the problem is a lot of times with business owners is they’re, I feel, especially with me, you know, we come from, for my instance, I come from, I call it W2 employee status, you know, working for somebody and said, Hey, I’m going to go out here and start my own business. Well, I didn’t go to business school. Nobody’s told me the next steps. What, what I really need to focus on because, um, as you grow this business, I’m is it? There, you know, you can read a thousand books and what’s made it.
(Speaker 2)
I never heard anyone say it and he was the first guy that I ever heard say, you know
(Speaker 9)
what, you can make it to the NBA.
(Speaker 1)
Well, you know, the step two to get into the NBA was playing in college and you went to Pepperdine.
(Speaker 3)
What is huge for me is to be able to come along, have you come along beside me and something go, hey, you need to focus on this and this is why, you need to focus on this and this is why, because when we get down in what I call the trenches as a business owner, you’re sitting there going, man, if all you do is focus on that, you can never focus on what you really need to do,
(Speaker 3)
you can’t focus on your accounting and stuff like that. And it’s been amazing. It’s actually, I don’t know how much it’s grown my company so far in the last two years, but it is the peace of mind is unreal because I’m not looking at my numbers at the moment, but it has been huge. It’s just like, I used to have to pay, I think it was, I think we were paying in the neighborhood of $4,000 a month just for leads, just to get leads in now, two years ago. This time of the year, I remember some bills of $4,500 a month just to get leads that I was having to pay for. And that’s only get a lead and a contact to where now I’m paying you $1,700 a month and
(Speaker 3)
I got 80 some leads last week alone and I paid you $1,700 a month and I got 80 some leads last week alone and I paid you $1,700. And to me, that was that was huge for my industry. That was one huge thing that just blown me away.
(Speaker 1)
And I’ll say this too. You are a client that’s more private about your numbers that just goes with your personality. Some of my clients are a little bit more flashy. They love to talk about their sales and their sales. But I can say this. I was looking at year over year. So you take the month of May when we’re recording this,
(Speaker 1)
and you look at this week last year. And last week, you had eight leads. So last year, this week, you had eight leads, from what I can tell on the tracking sheet. And this week, you feel like your game was at a level where you thought, I could make it in the league. I mean, when did you, was it sophomore year, junior year? When did you feel like you’re… We had 89. So whatever that’s worth for anybody out there. And again, you know, we have some of
(Speaker 1)
our clients that like to talk about gross sales and we, and Paul keeps it more private and that’s totally fine. So I just encourage everybody out there, you can do it, but you gotta be a diligent doer. You can’t just be a hearer of these words. You have to implement what you’re learning. And Paul, I really appreciate you for making the Thrive Time Show World Headquarters look incredible.
(Speaker 1)
Thank you for the maintenance you provide. Thank you for the work you provide. And again, it’s been awesome serving you.
(Speaker 2)
So again, thanks for your time today, buddy. Take care. Bye. Bye. I’m Glenn Shaw, owner of Shaw Homes in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Started the company in 1985. At that time, it was one employee doing everything. I met Aaron Antus in 2007. The top three things that Aaron did for Shaw Homes was he brought in processes that helped us be able to repeat over and over. He brought in unique hiring skills. He was able to find the right people for the right seat on the bus. And Aaron brought sales techniques that we weren’t familiar with up until that time.
(Speaker 2)
When Aaron came, we were selling about 80, 85 houses a year. And during the 16 year period, we saw sales get up over 400.
(Speaker 1)
And before I met Aaron, the only sales manager we had was myself. It was probably my junior year because my first year I didn’t play because of Proposition 48.
(Speaker 9)
My second year I got a little bit of minutes and then…
(Speaker 2)
And I was completely unable to perform that job. And so Aaron brought major changes and great results with him. In the many years that I was building houses before Aaron, I was great at selling if somebody wanted to buy. But they had to be knocking on my door, asking me to sell them a house
(Speaker 2)
before I could actually make that sell. I had no sales techniques and no ability to generate sales. Aaron coming in as a natural salesperson just absolutely transformed that and made the sales experience better for the company and better for our buyers. Prior to Aaron, I would work all week for the company.
(Speaker 2)
I’d sit in the model home over the weekend and I had a salesperson or two, but I was out actually out there all all weekend working that. Since hiring Aaron, I was able to take my weekends off, even reduce my workload during the week. I went from working 60, 70 hours a week to almost a normal workload.
(Speaker 2)
So I’ve been a member of the Builder 20 program in the National Association of Home Builders for 25 years, 20 years. And during that time, I’ve seen a lot of sales managers with the other companies that have been involved. And in my opinion, Aaron is smarter and sharper than any salesman.
(Speaker 9)
My third year, kind of similar to high school, I exploded in high school in my junior year and I exploded at Pepperdine in my junior year as the MVP of the league.
(Speaker 2)
Manager of any builder that’s ever been in our group. Now, some markets, they don’t have to try to sell, they just sell themselves. But with the ability to sell and to train and hire, Aaron was better than any of those sales managers that were in my program. Well, I remember when I considered hiring Aaron many years ago, the thought of spending the extra money
(Speaker 2)
was a little scary, but in hindsight, it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. It freed my time, increased our sales, and at the end of the day, increased our profitability beyond my wildest expectations. Years ago, I was concerned that if I didn’t do
(Speaker 2)
whatever a customer asked me to do, it might be the last house I sold. And so over time, we were able to move away from unlimited customization to pre-designed options. The problem that we were having in those days is that the customer would tell us what they wanted,
(Speaker 2)
but they didn’t really know what they wanted. And we would deliver exactly what they told us to do, and they wouldn’t be happy with it. So as we became more standardized, we give lots of options, but we don’t customize. And in the end, that allows us to sell more homes for better margins than spending countless hours trying to customize in just
(Speaker 2)
every avenue of the sales process.
(Speaker 9)
All of a sudden, I was like, okay, wow, I think that this is something I can do. We started going to play teams like North Carolina and different things. So now I’m starting to see these people who are getting a lot of publicity and they’re saying.
(Speaker 2)
We get weekly reports on sales, on profitability, on production, and it provides all the manageable tools that I need to review the company from a 10,000 foot level.
(Speaker 1)
All right, Thrive Nation, on today’s show, what we’re gonna focus on is how to grow a successful company. So what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna pull up a graphic that is the theory of how to grow a successful company, but vision without execution is hallucination.
(Speaker 1)
And so if you go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash millionaire, you can download a book that I have written called A Millionaire’s Guide, How to Become Sustainably Rich. You can download it for free at thrivetimeshow.com forward slash millionaire, but you have to actually implement that which is in the book. And so on today’s show, we’re joined by a very successful
(Speaker 1)
person in the home building business, a great friend of mine, a man by the name of Aaron Antus. Aaron Antus, welcome on to The Thrive Time Show. How are you, sir? I’m doing great, Clay. Thanks for having me on. Hey, so I got to ask you this for people out there that want to prove you’re not a hologram. First off, what’s the website for your company so people can verify that you are in fact a real business?
(Speaker 5)
You bet. It’s shaholmes.com. S-H-A-W-H-O-M-E-S.com. Shaholmes.com. I’m pulling it up.
(Speaker 1)
Shaholmes.com. And when you and I met, before we met, you had been already very successful as a home builder. You turned your dream of being a home builder guy into reality. And so how many homes had you sold or what kind of sales had you done in your career as a home builder guy before you and I even met?
(Speaker 1)
Before we met, probably about 750 million in sales prior to meeting you.
(Speaker 9)
And then they would be draft picks and different things like that. And I’m playing really well against them.
(Speaker 1)
Now you got drafted by the Sonic. You did the year we first started working together. What were the sales totals that year? We were at like 19 million. 19 million. And then when you ended 2022, obviously we’re in 2023.
(Speaker 1)
And so we’ll see how this year ends. But as far as ending 2022, how much sales did you do last year at the end of 2022? 2022, we were at like 84 million. OK, so from 19 million to?
(Speaker 5)
84 million.
(Speaker 1)
84 million. So you’re doing some things right here. And what we’re going to try to do is kind of demystify the plan here. OK, so here we go. So establishing revenue goals. When you and I first started working together,
(Speaker 1)
we started off with a 13-point assessment. We went over your goals. I’m not going to ask you to share your goals on the air, but why is it important that you have goals? Well, I mean, goals are sort of your guideposts that, you know, you set something out there in front of you and you start chasing after it.
(Speaker 1)
And without that, you’re just kind of floundering in mediocrity. You don’t have any reason to get up in the morning and really get after it. And so, you know, I think goals are, you know, it’s, you can have lots of different types of goals.
(Speaker 1)
And we’ve talked about a lot of this. We’ve talked about, you know, having financial goals and having, you know, fitness goals and having friendship goals and just all these different areas. I know you’ve got the F6, you know. So that’s kind of something that, you know, we touched on very early on. You asked me, like, is the goal, is one of your goals
(Speaker 1)
more income or is it more time?” And so I said, well, really at this point, it’s more income. And then later, it became more time. So, you know, it’s changed over the time I’ve known you since 2016, we’re going on six. What was it like to hear your name called in the draft?
(Speaker 2)
Oh, man, that’s, you know, for a kid, that’s like the greatest moment of all time. I mean, you hear the commissioner, David Stern go up in seven
(Speaker 1)
years and the income went up considerably. So now it’s, you know, turned in the last couple of years towards more time. Now the break even numbers, again, I’m not asking you for the numbers on the show, but you guys have a lot of fixed costs. I mean, if you go to shawholmes.com, you’ve got a framers, you have plumbers, you have tile people, you have so many skilled people, you have a full-time sales team, you have an admin staff. And if you don’t sell a house, you still
(Speaker 1)
have the service of the land, you still have all the overhead. Why is it important for every listener out there to know their break-even point? How many deals they need per month just to break even? Well, yeah, because you’re going backwards real quick and it doesn’t take very long if
(Speaker 1)
you’re at the beginning of your businesses, doesn’t take very long for you to be in a place where the creditors are knocking at your door and you can’t pay your bills and all of a sudden you’re going to lose all your, for us, all of our trades, all of our suppliers are going to start backing out. So you’ve got to know what that number is that lets you tread water so that, you know, okay, this is the worst case scenario, everything above that, at least I’m into the profit zone. So, you know, you go out of business pretty quick.
(Speaker 1)
Most businesses don’t last more than just a few months if they get below that break-even number. So now folks, again, these might seem like simple steps, but they’re all the linear steps you have to take to create time, freedom, and financial freedom. And if you want to grow your company, this is how you do it. Box number three, though, is you have to know the hours you’re willing to work. Now, your incredible wife is here off camera
(Speaker 1)
for accountability. So at any point, she could yell guys, as a couple, I want to brag on both of you.
(Speaker 9)
With the 17 pick in the 1992 draft, the Seattle Supersonics elect Doug Christie. So you pair that with the fact that Seattle is
(Speaker 1)
You guys both committed to sacrificing time and energy and a lot of things to get to where you’re at in life. And then as you had your children, you raised them, you decided to devote time to raising said kids. And now that your kids are older, you’re devoting time to raising these kids. So it’s not like you advocated being a parent while also
(Speaker 1)
growing a company. You did both well. Let me get your thoughts on sitting down with your spouse, if you’re watching this today, or your significant other, and making sure you’re on the same page about how many hours per week you’re willing to work. Well, yeah. I mean, you don’t want to grow a business to make a whole bunch of money just so you
(Speaker 1)
can split it in half later. Because that’s kind of what happens when you don’t work out those details ahead of time. And so my wife and I have been married 25 years. We’ve been together for four before that. And so yeah, 20, sorry, 26.
(Speaker 1)
Did I just say 25? 26. Did I just say 25? 26. Real quick, I hate to do this to you. I just got in trouble. Your wife just turned 27 on Thursday, and what you said is 100% false. OK, so the unique value proposition here. Now, let’s talk about this.
(Speaker 1)
Whether it’s growing a home building company, or a dog training business, or a haircut chain, or a carpet cleaning franchise, or whatever business we’re involved in helping to grow, you have to sit down as a listener out there as a business owner. You got to figure out what makes your company unique.
(Speaker 30)
Absolutely.
(Speaker 1)
So I want to ask you, what makes Shaw Homes unique in the marketplace with other home builders? Yeah, we have more furnished and decorated model homes than any other builder in the market. So a lot of times people, when they walk into a home and they’re trying to decide if they like the floor plan, the layout, whatever, they usually,
(Speaker 1)
most builders in our market have an empty house that they walk into.
(Speaker 9)
It’s just kind of a hometown. And that’s just a blessing that didn’t turn into a blessing because of contract negotiations and different things. But to hear your name called is a dream come true. Echoes when you walk through it.
(Speaker 1)
There’s no furniture or anything. And we completely, as you can see in this little video here, we completely furnish and decorate it, make it beautiful. We are the most award-winning builder in the state of Oklahoma. That’s true.
(Speaker 1)
We’ve won like five times as many awards as any other builder in the market. So definitely that is one of our big, you know, you know, takeaways. Now I’m gonna throw you under the bus real quick and I don’t mean to do this super passively aggressively.
(Speaker 1)
It’ll just be more of a subtle passive aggressive. When I met you, you guys had all these awards, but no one knew. That’s true. It was like this weird, bizarre thing where you had nice about it.
(Speaker 1)
You’re a good salesperson. But I said, well, I mean, tell me about the awards. And you’re like, well, we got this award, that award, this award, like 45 minutes later, it’s like that award, this award, I need to shave now, this award, that award. I want to go mow the lawn now. This award, that award. I’m thinking about retiring. This award, my kids are turning 18.
(Speaker 1)
I can see it. This award, you’re just going, and this award, and that award. And so we put those on the website, and that helped. And the other thing you guys were, we needed to change, was all these people were saying great things, of them saying it on camera. Right. So it was like your online reputation didn’t match your real world reputation. It’s so much good momentum there,
(Speaker 1)
and so many people loved you guys. And now you guys have, would you say, 100 video reviews? Oh, gosh. I would say more than that. We’ve got, yeah, we have a lot. Every week, you can just keep scrolling and scrolling
(Speaker 1)
and scrolling. I was scrolling. And this is actually all that’s on this page if you go to our website. What did it feel like, take us to the bottom again, what did it feel like to be traded right away? I mean you’ve got a lot of trades throughout your career. What does it feel like when you’re on a YouTube channel?
(Speaker 5)
We have way more than this.
(Speaker 1)
So again, and this is all the stuff, you’re going to grow a successful company folks. your break-even goal. Step three, sit down for an hour and a power, sit down with your spouse, make sure that you guys are on the same page of your hours you’re willing to work. Step four, unique value proposition. Figure out what it is that makes you unique. And we have an in-depth guide that you can download for free at thrivetimeshow.com forward slash millionaire
(Speaker 1)
if you get stuck. Next box, you gotta improve your case, model home presentations, business cards, social media branding, everything that a customer sees needs to be first class. And I was talking to a guy named Ronnie Morales today. And it’s Morales Brothers. I think you met him at a conference.
(Speaker 1)
He told me, and I’m not slamming Ronnie. Ronnie, if you’re listening, I’m not slamming you. This is the real thing. Ronnie said he’d listened to our show for seven consecutive years before ever reaching out. And now he’s reached out, and he’s up 57% in about eight
(Speaker 15)
months.
(Speaker 28)
That’s awesome.
(Speaker 1)
And we’re going to put his story on part two of today’s show, because he’s in Texas. And he’s seven years behind you, but he’s doing a great job. What do you think that thing is where people have bad branding, and we’re not aware of it, someone hasn’t brought it to our attention, what causes bad branding?
(Speaker 1)
You know, the number one thing I hear business owners say is, well, you know, I don’t really need good branding because I sell everything by word of mouth.
(Speaker 29)
Oh, yeah, baby.
(Speaker 1)
I’ve got such an incredible reputation that everybody just comes to me by word of mouth. And then it’s like, OK, yeah, but how much business did you do last year? Well, not very much, and I’m really unprofitable. But I’ve got your traded.
(Speaker 9)
You know, obviously, at the beginning, and I say this to some younger players, is when you’re in high school, you go to high school,
(Speaker 1)
and you live with that high school for your whole life. You know, great reputation out there. And I get a lot of word of mouth. So when people switch over to starting to improve branding, I know you helped us a lot with that in just creating a lot better looking website, creating a, you know, we’ve got an office environment now that is when people walk into our model home, they are blown away. We truly wow our customers when they come to our model homes. It’s a one of a kind experience in the state of Oklahoma and the process of that, you know, just going through branding it so that it looks really top notch.
(Speaker 1)
And, you know, that includes everything from, you know, marketing to all of your senses and everything else. So it just really, um really brought us to another level. And when the customer comes in and experiences us after having walked through other builders homes, they usually come in and go,
(Speaker 3)
you guys are just on a whole nother level.
(Speaker 1)
It’s sights, sounds, smells, experiences, everything that your customer sees, they’re grading you on. And you might not know that they are even judging you because they’re not filling out the form. And I have a funny story to share with you
(Speaker 1)
that’s kind of sad. I was working with a fitness guy years ago, and I’m not gonna tell you what studies and what study folks, I know you wanna know, but I’m not gonna tell you. And he filled out the form
(Speaker 1)
because his wife wanted him to schedule a 13 point assessment. And he tells me, Clay, honestly, I’m just doing the call because my wife wants me on the phone. And I got to, I don’t really don’t get leads from social media. I don’t get leads from marketing. I get all my leads word of mouth, like you were saying. And I said, well, let me just do this.
(Speaker 1)
Let’s just, this first month working together, let me get all the passwords for your Facebook,
(Speaker 9)
your Google, your YouTube. It’s the first month we do this with every single client. We optimize. I’m a Viking from Rainier Beach forever, blue and orange. Then you go to college, I’m a wave, Pepperdine, blue and orange.
(Speaker 1)
It’s your YouTube, your Facebook, your Instagram, your Twitter, all that. We log on, this is a fitness guy. He was spending like 400 bucks a week every week on ads. And he hadn’t known, he wasn’t aware, that every time a lead came in, it got stuck in Facebook
(Speaker 1)
and went to an email address that he wasn’t checking. So think about this. And it’s like 15 to 20 leads a week for years this guy had.
(Speaker 5)
That’s not good.
(Speaker 1)
And so I’m going, you’re spending $20,000 a year on ads that you’re not getting anything from. And are you aware that the phone number on your site rings to a phone that’s no longer a real phone? And I’m serious, this was real. And then he had before and after photos
(Speaker 1)
where somebody had had the idea of, let’s get before and after photos. You know, where you interview someone before they start working out?
(Speaker 16)
Yeah.
(Speaker 1)
But then they never completed the thought. You know what I’m saying?
(Speaker 5)
I do.
(Speaker 1)
Where it’s like they interview them about getting in shape, but then they never actually like aired the part where they’re in shape.
(Speaker 28)
Oh, no.
(Speaker 1)
So it’s just sort of like an interview with people that are not in shape. And I’m like, I did. And again, he’s a But OK, next box. You’ve got to determine your customer acquisition costs. How much does it cost you to get a customer?
(Speaker 1)
So Aaron, you guys run ads on Google, on Facebook, on retargeting ads. You have massive signage. There’s a lot of stuff you do. Why is it important to you know what it costs to go generate more of those.
(Speaker 1)
And it’s, you know, look into his daily routines and habits that keep him looking healthy, silky and smooth. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s my pleasure to introduce to you, Mr.
(Speaker 22)
Doug.
(Speaker 9)
And you make it to the NBA and your mentality is that that’s going to be the same thing. I’m going to be yellow and green, Seattle Supersonics. But all of a sudden, that’s when you get traded. You learn that this is a business.
(Speaker 1)
The cost where it’s like, OK, well, I’m down in sales this month or this quarter or whatever, and I need four more sales to make it a good quarter here before the end of the quarter. And it’s like, I know I can go put money into that and it’s going to cost me X number of dollars per customer to get there. And so then it’s just a matter of, do I want to spend that money to get to that point?
(Speaker 1)
So, you know, for us, it’s a pretty high number because it’s a lot. It’s a big ticket item. But for some people, it might be very small to get that, each customer. But for us, you’ve got to know what the number is, because ultimately, that goes into the price of your product and whatever you sell. We’re doing homes.
(Speaker 1)
That is one of our line item costs in our homes. That’s a cost.
(Speaker 27)
Yeah.
(Speaker 1)
Now, if you go to any of the businesses that I’m involved in, you go to eitrlounge.com forward slash staff. I put in the password here. Once I put in the password, I have all of the documents needed to run the company and they’re all saved. So the checklist for the manager, the opening checklist for the assistant manager, the bathroom cleaning checklist, everything needed to grow the companies all in one place. And therefore, um, the business, everybody who works there
(Speaker 1)
knows where to go to find those documents. This is the kind of stuff that fires me up and it makes other people crazy. Oh yeah. So with the conferences we do, if we ever do a conference that’s out of town,
(Speaker 1)
I have a checklist of stuff I print out. I know it seems kind of crazy for people, but this is real. I print it out and it to have 12 pairs of socks. Why? Because it could be hot. I don’t know. Could get wet. I don’t know.
(Speaker 1)
I have a list of deodorant and socks and shaving and I have a laptop and a backup laptop and I have patch cables and XLR cables and we bring…
(Speaker 9)
And it slaps you in the face and now you, if you haven’t been understanding about the
(Speaker 1)
business aspect, you really have to take that into consideration. You’ve seen all this stuff, but it’s multiple monitors, backup monitors. It’s backups for everything. When you guys build a Shaw home, you’re not moving off a guesswork. There’s blueprints. There’s plans. There’s systems.
(Speaker 1)
So houses don’t fall down. There’s somebody out here listening right now that doesn’t have systems in place. They don’t have checklists. They don’t have it. They have to think about everything all the time, because if not, they forget a step. Yeah. What would you say is the importance
(Speaker 1)
of having taken the time to have built these systems now? It is the night and day difference between running around like your hair is on fire every day, constantly playing firefighter, or you know, you hear people say, oh, I’m up to my armpits in alligators. You know, it’s because you don’t have systems and processes. And every time at Shaw Homes,
(Speaker 1)
every time that we have a problem come up, we automatically go, okay, what step in our system did this fall apart in? And what’s broken in that step? And how can we fix it so it never happens again? So we go fix the process.
(Speaker 1)
You know, we address the problem for the customer, but then we go back after that and we go, how do we fix the process so we don’t repeat this problem? And the business owners that are running around with their hair on fire all the time, it’s because there’s no systems, no processes. Everything is urgent. Everything is hair on fire.
(Speaker 1)
And it is a chaos world that you live in. And if you’re going to build homes for a living and build a lot of them, you cannot live in that chaos
(Speaker 5)
world.
(Speaker 1)
Now this next box, I get excited about all these boxes. This is what I get excited about. This right here is what I care about. OK, the next box is management and execution. You have people on your team, and I’m just going to give some examples.
(Speaker 1)
And I hope this benefits somebody out there listening. I have people on your team. From the Knicks to the Raptors to the Kings, I know you had a lot of great experiences. What was your favorite NBA experience? What was the team where you felt like, OK, I’ve fought your team. It’s their responsibility every time that you do a new house,
(Speaker 1)
they go out there and they design, or they get the blueprint on the website. They get the new design of the home, because people want to see floor plans. So somebody’s job is to get those up there. Somebody gets photos of every house
(Speaker 1)
that you guys are building. Somebody gets videos of every house. Somebody puts them all up for sale. Somebody answers the phone every day. Somebody calls the leads every day. Somebody cleans the bathroom every day.
(Speaker 1)
Somebody builds the houses every day. Now this is what I find. And I’m sure none of our listeners can relate to this. Some of our listeners fire people, and then nothing happens. So work with me on this.
(Speaker 1)
There’s listeners out there that I talk to every day because we do free 13-point assessments. So I talk to two or three people a day who go to ThriveTimeShow.com. They want to schedule a consultation. And the other day, you heard me talking to Jordan. I said, Jordan, go ahead and keep setting those. Because he set an appointment with someone who’s definitely not a good fit.
(Speaker 1)
And you could tell he had a little question if that was okay. And I said, I would rather you set an appointment with somebody than not, because I don’t know if who’s a good fit or not. But the idea, though, is I sit down, I was talking to a guy the other day, and he was like, the reason why my team did not get Google reviews or videos this week is because we fired a guy.
(Speaker 1)
And I go, because I’m just asking him, where are we stuck? What’s your biggest limiting factor? I have a big process I go through in my evaluation. I said, who calls the leads? He’s like, well, normally I have a person that calls the leads, but we just fired her.
(Speaker 1)
And I mean this. I’m going, how long have you been in business? This guy’s been in business for over 10 years. And he’s reaching out for help. Good person. We’re trying to help him.
(Speaker 1)
I think it’s going to be a good thing. Finally got my NBA traction. But so I said, so basically, everybody follows the systems until they don’t work there anymore, and then no one does the systems. And you go back and forth vacillating from things being done to not being done. And one of my favorite things about working with you guys
(Speaker 1)
is that you’re honest people. What does that mean? You do your best to do what you say you’re going to do, and you hold yourself and the employees accountable. Absolutely. But what would happen if every week you,
(Speaker 1)
if somebody wasn’t performing, you remove them from the position, and then the houses weren’t built for the week because something wasn’t going well? Or because maybe a salesperson wasn’t performing at the peak, you let them go, and the next thing you know, what would happen if you managed your company that way?
(Speaker 1)
It would be a disaster. I mean, I can’t just fire my superintendent without having somebody already ready to take over all of those responsibilities, because I’ve got materials showing up at the job site today, tomorrow, and the next day.
(Speaker 1)
I’ve got trades showing up who need some supervision, need to know what they’re supposed to be doing. If I fire that guy with no warning, somebody else has to come fill in that position. So, you know, for us, we try to never have that gap happen. And, you know, sometimes it’s like you know
(Speaker 1)
that you’re going to need to fire somebody, and you can see the writing on the wall. Right. But you want to get the next person up and ready
(Speaker 5)
to go before that happens.
(Speaker 1)
And you guys have a weekly meeting. So we talk a lot on this show from an employer perspective. But how frustrating would it be to be an A-player employee and you’re working for a C-player boss? You know, a boss that doesn’t have a staff meeting, that’s not organized, that doesn’t pay people on time, that’s constantly emotional.
(Speaker 1)
I see that a lot.
(Speaker 9)
And so management is a very important part of that. I hit him real quickly. When I go to the Knicks, I learned how to be a pro because Pat Riley, I learned how to come early, stay late. That was incredible. I go to Toronto with, this is their first year in the-
(Speaker 1)
The learned skill. And thankfully, you know, when I first met with you, you’d already really mastered, in my opinion, managing people. But this next box is where I thought we needed some help, was to build a system for constantly recruiting
(Speaker 1)
new people, because certain people work for Shaw Homes for three years or four years, and then they want to go move, they want to have a baby, they want to stay home, they want to get a new job. And even though you have low turnover at Shaw, certain people get to their expiration date,
(Speaker 1)
and it’s time for them to move on to something else. And because we didn’t have a process in place at Shaw at that time to consistently bring in a pipeline of new people, it made it difficult to do the management that was needed. Can you talk about the importance of implementing a human resources program for hiring, inspiring, training, and retaining good people? It’s huge. I mean, that was definitely an Achilles heel for us.
(Speaker 1)
And you helped us a lot with that. Putting in a, where every single week I’m seeing potential candidates that could come work for us, and they’re job shadowing, and seeing what it’s like to work in our company every single week. It does multiple things. It helps the people who work there to know, hey,
(Speaker 1)
there’s other people who desire to come work here. And if I’m not doing my job, I might get replaced. So there’s a little bit of that. And then it’s also a thing of, you know, the people who are shadowing get to see the job being done by people who are happy doing their job, and it helps them to want to come be a part of Draw Homes.
(Speaker 1)
I’ve got a very long list of people right now in every single position that would be excited to come work for us if I did all of a sudden find myself with an opening, you
(Speaker 5)
know, because occasionally people.
(Speaker 9)
NBA and Hall of Fame, Isaiah Thomas is there and he kind of takes the reins off and allows me to think different and explore myself.
(Speaker 1)
Leave with no notice or whatever, you know, something happens, family emergency, whatever. And you have that, oh, I need to replace somebody immediately. And the great thing about it is I have a whole bunch of people that I could plug into that position very quickly because every single week I am interviewing.
(Speaker 1)
Now, the next box here is you got to do your accounting. And in order to automate, in order to earn millions, you have to automate your accounting. What does that mean? You have to have a system in place for making sure you price your products and services correctly and that you pay yourself first, that you set aside
(Speaker 1)
a set amount of money to pay yourself and your staff. And all these things work together. And what I find is people ask me, often just not knowing, they come from a place of a good heart. They don’t know, they say to me, Clay, what is the most important step in growing Shaw Holmes? I’ve heard Aaron on the show, he’s a great guy.
(Speaker 1)
Clay, I’ve heard PMHOKC on the show. Clay, I’ve seen OxiFresh on the show. What was the most important thing they did? And to me, that’s like asking a hiker, what was the most important step you took to get to the top of that mountain. Well, it was the one we took there an hour ago. I took a left step. No, it’s also, all right, that gasket of baker, what’s the most important ingredient?
(Speaker 1)
Is it milk? Is it sugar? Is it eggs? Is it, you know, it’s like asking a farmer, what’s the most important thing, feeding the animals or watering them?
(Speaker 1)
What’s the key to your success? There’s just certain questions I understand people want to know, but all of this has to work together, and nothing works unless you do. So I have three final questions for you. For anybody out there that’s thinking about scheduling a consultation, a free consultation with Thrivetimeshow.com and myself, obviously they’re stuck with me if they fill out the form.
(Speaker 1)
I’m the only person that does 13-point assessments.
(Speaker 9)
I really started getting traction. So by the time I got to Sacramento, everything hit on top of the fact that the Sacramento situation with the teammates, with the style of play, it was just a perfect.
(Speaker 1)
I believe we, I’ve seen it since 2005, we help people decrease their costs, increase their time, freedom and profits. What would you say is the benefit of scheduling that 13 point assessment? Well, actually, the 13 point assessment was was very eye-opening for me. You asked me a lot of tough questions that I probably should have been asking myself and wasn’t.
(Speaker 1)
And so as we went through the questions, I was like, I think at every question you asked me, I was like, oh, that’s a good question. And I was like, hang on, let me think about that for a minute. So I find that it kind of helps open your eyes to, you know, hmm, these are some things that I know I have some areas of weakness.
(Speaker 1)
And then there were, I think, a couple of the questions where I was like, oh, I know the answer to this one.
(Speaker 5)
I got this one.
(Speaker 1)
No problem. But it helps you sort of identify. I walked away having identified areas of strength and areas of weakness, even though that really wasn’t the purpose of the phone call necessarily, it helped me to see that. And then I was like, hmm, I think I have a need in a couple of these areas, and I didn’t really know
(Speaker 1)
what to do for my- for myself. I didn’t have the answers. You know, in part three of today’s show, part two, we’re gonna show the Ronnie Morales story. On part three, we’re gonna do a testimony with Myron just bought his first Lamborghini today. And he’s super fired up. And so Myron’s about six years down the path. We’ve been working with you for about eight years, whereas Ronnie’s been with us for less than a year.
(Speaker 1)
And it’s at a certain point that we have to take action. Knowledge without application is meaningless. What would you say to somebody who’s like, you know, it’s $ that much right now on random ads and that much money on Random regrettable purchases at the gas station and you know, a lot of iTunes. I’m downloading I’m spinning some more and what I call basketball Nirvana. I Really really like Pat Riley and probably an unhealthy way his intensity
(Speaker 1)
Uh-huh, ours a month on various things And I don’t know if I can afford it because I’ve just bought another vehicle that I can’t afford but I’m leasing it you know what would you say to anybody who’s kind of on that fence? I mean I would say you need to do it. I mean it has made a it has been a game changer for us. I don’t know why you would sit there and think $1,700 a month is too much money to spend. Go find the money somewhere. Go empty out your sofa cushions, go sell the stuff that you have in your house that you’re not using.
(Speaker 1)
I mean, go get whatever you need to do to get to that place. You need to find that $1,700. And I will say this, that cost was very quickly replaced with the extra money we were making. And I’ve seen, I’ve actually seen, because I’ve been around you for a long time, I’ve seen a lot of your clients come in and right off the bat, they’re real nervous about, am I going to be able to, you know, because maybe they’re a smaller company or whatever.
(Speaker 1)
And they’re like, I’m wondering if I’m going to be able to handle this $1,700 a month. And then I see them six months later, and I’m like, man, we’re just hitting record after record. I have referred several business owners to you. And they’re doing great. That are killing it. And that, you know, I’ll give one example. I won’t name the person, but I did send one of my very good friends to you who was on
(Speaker 1)
the verge of losing his business because he just wasn’t able. He had bought another one of his shops. And I sent him over to you. And I remember about three months later, I asked him, how’s it going? And he goes, man, we just had a record-breaking month. This was amazing.
(Speaker 1)
And by the way, he said, first, he just had another record-breaking month, just so you know. Yeah. And I know he just loved his career. What was it like playing for him? Was it scary? You know, that’s funny that you asked that question because so the first time that I met Pat Riley, you know, I right now, not only does he have way more income, but he has a lot more time freedom because he’s been working with you for many years now.
(Speaker 1)
And so that was it changed his life, just like it changed my life. I would say, if you’re thinking about doing a 13-point assessment, stop thinking. Dial the phones. Pause this video. Make the phone call. Reach out to Clay.
(Speaker 5)
Get it started right now.
(Speaker 1)
Now, final question I have is, I think people look at oxyfresh.com, and they go, man, there’s 500 locations now.
(Speaker 26)
Yeah.
(Speaker 1)
They look at Ele Homes and they go, you know, these are big success stories. I don’t know that I can do it. What would you say to somebody out there that just feel like they might not have the, like all this stuff they’re going to learn is going to be over their head, too complicated.
(Speaker 1)
What would you say? I would say the information, the ideas are easy. It’s the application that is difficult for people. The ideas that you share, there’s nothing that’s like, oh my god, I don’t have a PhD, therefore I can’t do it. I feel like it’s all very, very simple stuff. But it is a lot of action to get traction.
(Speaker 1)
And you’ve got to get the action going. And I think if somebody has diligence and discipline or can learn diligence or discipline, they’re going to do extremely well. And it’s not about education. It’s about action.
(Speaker 1)
Now, Aaron, I got one thing I want to say. And then we’ll wrap up today’s show with a boom. Because boom stands for big, overwhelming, optimistic momentum. And that’s what’s required to have success. People watching this, they’re going, Aaron,
(Speaker 1)
he looks like a normal guy. Well, that’s true. But the one thing you can’t quite picture on the show, and I want to give that gift to you folks who are watching, is Aaron smells tremendous.
(Speaker 9)
Like you watched him on television and saw the suits and the hair and the professionalism. And the first time that I met him, I was like,
(Speaker 1)
oh, that’s him. smell a vision if you can just get up there and just smell that it’s incredible and it’s really it’s it’s his aroma that allows him to achieve massive success so unless so if you’re out there and you’re going what’s the secret sauce it’s not a sauce it’s more just a smell so uh I don’t know if you qualify to have the kind of success he has unless you smell like he smells it’s a really tremendous smell okay let’s do this thing with the boom. Here we go. Three, two, quad, boom. Well, Thrive Nation, we have an opportunity all the time.
(Speaker 24)
We have-
(Speaker 6)
Clay, my honor, my honor to be on your show. And thank you for all you do. I hear the ripple effects from you are good ripple effects.
(Speaker 19)
You know what I mean?
(Speaker 6)
People rave about what they learned from you.
(Speaker 1)
So congratulations. Sean, guess what’s happening on June 5th and 6th right here in Tulsa, Russia? We are probably going to have an amazing business conference here at Tulsa, Russia. Yes, we’re joined by Tim Tebow. Tim Tebow is going to be joining us right here at the Thrive Time Show World Headquarters June 5th and 6th.
(Speaker 1)
He’s a very successful football player, obviously a Heisman Award winner, but he’s also a very successful entrepreneur. Now when you work with real clients, Sean, real clients you really work with to help them grow their companies, do you ever hear a business owner tell you that they didn’t have time to get something done? Every day. How often is not having enough time a problem for business owners?
(Speaker 1)
All the time. It’s almost, it’s like maybe 90% of the issues as people are trying to grow their company. Well, Tim Tebow’s gonna come join us here at the in-person Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshop. And he’s gonna teach us time management
(Speaker 1)
and his approach to personal self-discipline and getting things done. Christy.
(Speaker 6)
Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show. But this show does, two men, eight kids,
(Speaker 25)
co-created by two different women.
(Speaker 9)
Walked to his office and when I first got traded there and the secretary said, please sit down and wait. And you know, I waited probably six, seven minutes. It seemed like an hour though. But when I walked in, it was a dark office with wood.
(Speaker 1)
Also at the workshop, I’ll put up on the website so people can see it here. Also at the two-day interactive workshop Sean we are going to be, oh there it is, we’re gonna be teaching accounting, a systems creation, marketing, human resources, how to hire, inspire, train and retain great people, accounting, social media advertising, search engine optimization. Sean what’s the area where most clients ask you for help the most?
(Speaker 1)
Is it generating leads? Is it hiring people? What’s the biggest issue that most business owners have by default before they come to one of our workshops?
(Speaker 12)
Well, I think it’s management, because time is the most valuable resource for these business owners. And being able to manage their time is the first thing. Once they get that under control, then generally the numbers, you know, being able to track their business
(Speaker 12)
and be able to make the best decisions based on numbers rather than emotions is a big area. And we teach all of this stuff at the business conference, particularly you, Clay, you love to hammer on time management. It’s my favorite part of the conference.
(Speaker 1)
Now I’m gonna pull this up real quick here because we’re going to go through it. If you’re not excited, I want to get you excited about what we’re going to cover at the workshop here. The two-day interactive workshop. This is my 20th year hosting workshops. So I’m telling you folks, we’re in rare form here. So one is the idea of establishing your revenue goals. I think most entrepreneurs don’t know their revenue goals. Would you agree or am I off my rocker? No, that’s totally a very important point we do with every one of our new clients that come on
(Speaker 1)
board is we have to establish the revenue goals. And generally speaking, we have a vague idea,
(Speaker 12)
but not an exact idea that can be engineered down into like the daily goals for sales.
(Speaker 9)
I was kind of sitting behind a desk like, you know, Don Corleone and I was just like, oh my God, man, that is Pat Riley.
(Speaker 12)
And so that’s a really big one.
(Speaker 1)
Now next is the break even numbers. What kind of sales do you have to do to even break even? Yeah. Third is how many hours per week do you want to work? You know, what is your ideal schedule as an entrepreneur? Box number four, how do you stand out in the clutter of commerce?
(Speaker 1)
What makes your company unique from all the different businesses in a world of brown cows, herds of brown cows, proverbial brown cows, the analogy of brown cows. How can you be the purple cow that stands out? How can you be the squeaky wheel that gets the oil? Box number five, branding. How do you improve the perception that people have of you, your business, your brand?
(Speaker 1)
Box number six, marketing. Your three-legged marketing tool. What is a turnkey way for you and your company to generate leads so you can succeed? Because if you don’t have any leads, your business will bleed. If you can’t sell, your business will go to hell. You’ve got to generate leads.
(Speaker 1)
Sean, how often do business owners by default tell you they have a hard time generating leads? It’s almost all of the time. It’s really a huge struggle. And many times they may be creating leads, but just through word of mouth. So they get to a point where we’ve implemented systems and then they need to create more leads, but they’ve never had to do it. So there’s a lot of different scenarios where business owners are like, how do you create leads? Something we hammer on at the conference a lot. Box number seven, box number seven, create a sales conversion system.
(Speaker 1)
Again, box number seven, create a sales conversion system, sales scripts, recorded calls, one sheets, prewritten emails, lead trackers, all of the sales tools, the sales print pieces, the one sheets, the big screens that you see inside the business, whether you’re a doctor, you’re a dentist, you’re a lawyer,
(Speaker 24)
you gotta have a professional.
(Speaker 9)
I love him to this day because of his honesty and his frankness, and I accredit him with a lot that happened because I learned how to be a true professional under him.
(Speaker 1)
On the Kings, you have sales systems in place. We help you with that. Box number eight, what does it cost you to get another customer? Step number eight, what does it cost you to actually acquire a customer? Step number nine, it’s hard to build organization if you’re not organized. We’re going to teach you how to create repeatable systems, processes, file organization. Box number 10, we’re going to teach
(Speaker 1)
you how to manage people, real people on the planet Earth. This just in, we’re going to teach you how to manage real people on the planet Earth. Box number 11, how to create a sustainable schedule that works for you and your family. Step number 12, how to create human resources systems for recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining great people. Box number 13, accounting. This just in, we have to cover accounting. It’s not how much you make, it’s how much you keep. We’re gonna cover all the accounting things you need to know and step 14 finally, what is the point of even achieving success? We’re gonna go over the, what is the point
(Speaker 1)
of even achieving success? How to design a life that you’re excited about. How to design a life where you carve out enough time for your faith, your family, your finance, your fitness, your friendship, your fun, and where you’re gonna spend your focused time. We’re going to go through that, all this and more. Now, the workshop, Sean, it’s June 5th and 6th. It’s a two-day interactive workshop.
(Speaker 1)
And tickets, we always do it. It’s $250 or whatever price that someone can afford. Sean, why do we let people name their price? Why do we have scholarship tickets available if somebody can’t afford the $250 general admission ticket? Well, we don’t want anybody to miss out on it you know you could be at a startup phase or you could be you know way along in your business but we want to make it accessible for
(Speaker 1)
everybody I think it actually goes back to to a story of your dad and like it goes all the way back to how you’ve always done this as a business coach
(Speaker 12)
trying to make sure that you know you’re just your average people out there have
(Speaker 1)
access to the things that work now 7 a.m. to, we’re surrounded by talent. And you all seem to gel in this way that was, it was almost like you were brothers. It was that camaraderie of like, why do we go from seven to five both days? I mean, it’s 10 hours a day, 20 hours of training over two days.
(Speaker 1)
Why do we do 10 hours a day, Sean, of back-to-back workshops? We do a 30 minute teaching session, we do a 15 minute question and answer session, and then we take a break. 30 minutes of teaching, 15 minutes of question and answer, then we take a break. Why do we do that format, Sean? That format is so that we can keep people engaged and not just sitting there listening, but also getting involved. We really encourage people to ask questions, and that’s really where the juiciness of the conference comes out, is you can put your personal situation and your questions on the board and Clay will tee off and give you direct advice. Even
(Speaker 1)
without being in our coaching program you can get direct coaching from Clay. It’s really a very engaging format. I enjoyed a lot. Sean, final 60 seconds pop quiz here. What date is the conference? June 5th and 6th, 2025. This year. Question number two. who’s our keynote speaker coming to the conference there, Sean?
(Speaker 12)
Tim Tebow is our keynote speaker.
(Speaker 1)
Sean, question number three, how much does it cost to come to our in-person, two-day interactive business workshop right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma?
(Speaker 12)
I think it’s, did you say it’s $250 or whatever you can afford? That’s right, $250 or whatever you can afford.
(Speaker 1)
Sean, how do you spell Eric Trump backwards? Uh, P-uh, M-U-R-T-C-I-R-E.
(Speaker 12)
Ooh, that took a long time.
(Speaker 1)
I’ll have to listen to this. It’s gonna be good. All right, getting that Sean Lohman. I’m Clay Clark, and inviting you to come join us at the in-person Thrive Time Show, two-day interactive workshop, June 5th and 6th, right here in Tulsa, Russell, Tulsa,
(Speaker 1)
Oklahoma. Sean, I really have five kind of a vibe, you know, and it was like, Chris Weber, I mean, just wow. You Wow, Bibi Wow, they just had a great chemistry. Talk to me about the chemistry and how deep did that chemistry go? I’m excited to have this event.
(Speaker 1)
I’m excited to see you at the event. June 5th and 6th right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tim Tebow, baby. It’s Tebow time in Tulsa, Russia.
(Speaker 23)
You could be anywhere doing a lot of different things,
(Speaker 8)
but you chose to be here.
(Speaker 22)
Clay Clark is here somewhere.
(Speaker 15)
Where’s my buddy Clay?
(Speaker 17)
Yes, Clay Clark!
(Speaker 15)
Clay’s the greatest. I met his goats today. I met his goats today. I met his dogs. I met his chickens. I saw his compound He’s like the greatest guy ran from his goats his chickens his dogs So this guy’s like the greatest marker you’ve ever seen right his entire life clay Clark his entire life is is marketing Hey guys, Luke Erickson here with the Thrive Time Show.
(Speaker 13)
As you can see behind me, we’ve got all kinds of energy going on. People are starting to show up for the conference and it is hot in this place. We’ve got grill guns over here, we’ve got people playing the drums, we’ve got a fire breather, and man, people are so excited as they come in.
(Speaker 10)
The conference has kicked off. This house is packed. We’ve got Aaron Andis with ShopLords up there.
(Speaker 20)
We’ve got Steve Burrington with Total Ending Concepts up there.
(Speaker 13)
Talking about what is possible. You just implement, you implement, you do the provenance. It’s so exciting. I want people are going crazy. It’s Luke Erickson with the Thrive Time Show here with you. It is day two and the energy is high. People are so excited to be showing up.
(Speaker 13)
The team is ready. Come on, let’s see what it’s like to go on in for day two.
(Speaker 1)
Follow me. Was it five players deep, six deep eight players deep talk to you with that team chemistry of the greatest show on the court
(Speaker 9)
You know
(Speaker 13)
People are so excited to be here for day two Right now, here at the conference, we’ve broken into groups going over search engine optimization. I know for most of us, myself included, if you hear that term, you go, what is that? What does that mean? That’s too techy for me. Well, our experts are breaking it down for people so that you can clearly understand
(Speaker 21)
how to come up top in Google. It’s doable. It’s possible.
(Speaker 13)
Now we’re in the middle of a break and what we like to do is we like to give you as much tangible and relevant information from about the start of the hour for 45 minutes. Then we take approximately a 15 minute break to allow people to connect with other entrepreneurs around them, bathroom break, and also use this time to just really digest all of the good information that you’re receiving the whole time. Right behind me we’ve got Bob with his grill gun melting an ice sculpture. It is awesome. The ice sculpture represents our life, right?
(Speaker 13)
It’s here for a time but we all need to have the sense of urgency to implement the things that we’re learning so that we can make the most
(Speaker 20)
of the time that we have.
(Speaker 8)
I heard about it on the podcast. Started listening to the podcast, became a fan, and then figured out about the workshop. I own an insurance and financial services agency, and I was hoping to learn from the workshop systems and processes. I’m big on systems and processes.
(Speaker 9)
It’s a great question because now back with the Kings, they’re trying to build that back with Vlade as the general manager. I think that that’s kind of in what I watch that looks like the field that they’re trying to get.
(Speaker 8)
And always learning better ways to run a business more efficiently. The atmosphere is second to none. It’s a high-energy, really cool atmosphere to be around. Contagious, I would say. Just something every entrepreneur I think would appreciate and love. I’d say humorous, high energy, and full of substance, which I think is the key. A lot of business coaches or seminars maybe are high on motivation and making you feel good, but don’t have a lot of
(Speaker 8)
substance that you can take back and implement, you know, the following Monday. Where his does. And there’s a lot of valuable things. I’m gonna say like I came to this is my second workshop. The first workshop I took back really the importance of a group interview. I used to spend hours and hours interviewing people, screening resumes and that saving my time on that part is valuable. It was that and then the sales scripting that have been two major things just so far.
(Speaker 8)
Man, I think they’re missing out on expert advice from somebody who’s been there, done that, built companies, has learned a lot of lessons. That’s what I’m always looking for is somebody that I can learn from that’s ahead of where I am. And I think if you choose not to come, you’re missing out on a lot of good advice that could help your business.
(Speaker 5)
Hi, I’m Aaron Antus with Shaw Homes. I first heard about Clay through a mortgage lender here in town who had told me what a
(Speaker 3)
great job he had been doing for them.
(Speaker 9)
It wasn’t five, six, seven. It was all 14, 15 guys. And the reason I say that is because…
(Speaker 5)
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
(Speaker 5)
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 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
(Speaker 5)
of time has gone from somewhere around 10 to 15 leads in a month to 180 internet leads in a month. Just internet leads in a month. Just from the few things that he’s shown us how to implement that I honestly probably never would have come up with on my own.
(Speaker 5)
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.
(Speaker 3)
I am very glad that we met and had the opportunity to work with Clay.
(Speaker 9)
In practice, the second unit, they would go at us so hard if we weren’t ready to play that day. And I always said, our second unit probably was the top five to seven team in the NBA with Bobby Jackson.
(Speaker 5)
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 builder shows, all kinds of places where I’ve had the opportunity to learn from the experts in my industry.
(Speaker 5)
But the thing that I found working with Clay is that he comes from such a broad spectrum of working with so many different types of businesses that he has a perspective that’s difficult for me to gain because I get so entrenched in what I do, I’m not paying attention to what other leading industry experts are doing. And Clay really brings that perspective for me.
(Speaker 5)
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.
(Speaker 5)
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.
(Speaker 1)
I think a lot of people probably feel like they don’t need a business. All the Gajito Turkalu
(Speaker 9)
and Scott Pollard and they had a they had a really quality squad. They would beat us up, but it was.
(Speaker 5)
Our 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
(Speaker 5)
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.
(Speaker 5)
And I know if you give them a shot, I think you’ll feel the same way. I know for me, the thing I would have missed out on if I didn’t work with Clay is I would have missed out on literally an 1800% increase in our internet leads, going from 10 a month to a hundred and eighty a month, that would have been a huge financial decision to just decide
(Speaker 5)
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
(Speaker 3)
not gonna regret it because we sure haven’t.
(Speaker 7)
My name is Danielle Sprick and I am the founder of D. Sprick Realty Group here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After being a stay-at-home mom for-
(Speaker 6)
13 multi-million dollar businesses. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Thrive Time Show.
(Speaker 9)
When you say family and brotherhood, it was a healthy going at each other, not playing buddy ball and being friends. We love each other and love each other to this day.
(Speaker 7)
I work with Paige- 12 years and my three kids started school and they were in school full time. I was at a crossroads and trying to decide what what do I want to do. My degree my background is in education but after being a mom and staying home and all of that I just didn’t have a passion for it like I once did. My husband suggested real estate. He’s a home builder so real estate and home building go hand in hand and we just rolled with it.
(Speaker 7)
I love people I love working with people I love that building relationships. But one thing that was really difficult for me was the business side of things. The processes and the advertising and marketing. I knew that I did not have what I needed to make that what it should be. So I reached out to Clay at that time. And he and his team have been extremely instrumental in helping us build our brand, help market our business, our agents, the homes that we represent. Everything that we do is a direct line from Clay and his team and all that they’ve done for us.
(Speaker 7)
We launched our brokerage, our real estate brokerage, eight months ago. And in that time, we’ve gone from myself and one other agent to just this week, we signed on our 16th agent. We have been blessed with the fact that we right now have just over 10 million in pending transactions. Three years ago, I never would have even imagined that I would be in this role.
(Speaker 9)
I have Lottie and Bobby every single day right now, and I see them, go hug them every day. But it was the ability to push one another and care for them.
(Speaker 7)
I’m in today, building a business, having 16 agents, but I have to give credit where credit’s due. And Clay and his team and the business coaching that they’ve offered us has been huge. It’s been instrumental in what we’re doing. Don’t ever limit your vision.
(Speaker 7)
When you dream big, big things happen.
(Speaker 10)
I started a business because I couldn’t work for anyone else. I do things my way. I do what I think is in the best interest of the patient. I don’t answer to insurance companies. I don’t answer to large corporate organizations. I answer to my patient and that’s it. My thought when I opened my clinic was I can do this all myself. I don’t need additional outside help in many ways.
(Speaker 10)
I mean I went to medical school. I can figure this out. But it was a very, very steep learning curve. Within the first six months of opening my clinic, I had a $63,000 embezzlement. I lost multiple employees. Clay helped us weather the storm of some of the things that are just a lot of people experience, especially in the medical world. He was instrumental in helping with the specific written business plan. He’s been instrumental in hiring good quality employees, using the processes that he outlines for getting in good talent, which is extremely difficult. He helped me in securing
(Speaker 10)
the business loans. He helped me with web development and search engine optimization. We’ve been able to really keep a steady stream of clients coming in because they found us on the web. With everything that I encountered, everything that I experienced, I quickly learned it is
(Speaker 9)
worth every penny. One another on a level that you normally don’t see in athletics and if you do see it it’s some of the really elite teams because that is the special thing that that can go through
(Speaker 10)
to have someone in your team that can walk you through and even avoid some of the pitfalls that are almost invariable in starting your own business i’m dr chad edwards and i own
(Speaker 6)
revolution health and wellness clinic play my honor my honor to be on your show. And thank you for all you do.
(Speaker 1)
I hear the ripple effects from you are good ripple effects.
(Speaker 19)
You know what I mean?
(Speaker 6)
People rave about what they learn from you. So congratulations.
(Speaker 11)
Went from expecting maybe 250,000 this year to we’re at 400,000. Hi, I’m Kelsey with K&D’s Woodfinishing. I’m a business owner at 23. So I’ve been working this K&D’s company for about five years now and we started working with Thrive not too long ago.
(Speaker 11)
And we went from expecting maybe 250,000 this year to we’re at 400,000. That’s what we’re gonna hit or exceed. So we’re pretty 400,000. That’s what we’re going to hit or exceed. So we’re pretty excited about that. It’s been pretty much just listening to what they have to say. Their hiring process has just really been incredible as far as finding good quality help and the just the accountability of meeting up with them weekly and like such good insight, the resources that they have for specific business questions. It’s all been really incredible. It’s been a great experience. So I’d recommend
(Speaker 18)
it to anybody. What I’ve seen from Clay and his group at Thrive is they’ll give you a simple system and it’s the simple systems are the ones that people can wrap their brain
(Speaker 10)
around. They’re the ones that people can work with on a day-to-day basis.
(Speaker 1)
With team and make you go to a different level. I uh I’ve certainly don’t I know you’re a sports color commentator so I’m not gonna get you any hot water by. Hi there my name is Stephanie Pipkin.
(Speaker 4)
I am 24 years old and I own Black River Falls Cleaning Services. We opened in April of 2019 and it is now mid-June of 2020. So I wanted to talk today about the success and growth I have achieved by implementing the Proven Path with Clay Clark’s team and my business coach Luke from Thrive Time. It has been insane to say the least. I started working with them in mid-February of this year so we’re about four months in of working together and it has Completely transformed my business in pretty much every facet
(Speaker 4)
So I’m gonna check my notes here So in four months my leads have tripled I was being probably like two leads a week now I’m getting more in the like 10 to 15 leads a week I have doubled my number of employees I’m now hitting the highest revenue weeks in history of the company week to week it seems like
(Speaker 4)
We went from about six appointments today as our highest in February to now 14 to 15 appointments a day. And hiring quality employees has become much simpler and less stressful by using their systems for hiring. I typically only get maybe two complaints a month if that and everybody shows up to work. I just have really high quality employees now, especially in something people typically consider a high turnover type of work, you know, cleaning houses, cleaning businesses. I have amazing
(Speaker 1)
employees now and I get rid of the ones who are comparing this player versus that player. But I just want to ask you about your team there. There are guys in the NBA right now and I’m sure we could all think of them all the listeners out there where you go that guy is gonna find a way to get 19 or 20
(Speaker 4)
not so amazing and bring on new ones because of you know group interviews and higher interviewing every single week it’s just been great and such a lot I don’t waste as much time on low quality candidates anymore and your coach will hold you accountable I mean which I love, the tough love is really great. Luke’s like a stern father figure, but he’s also nice, but also stern when he needs to be. When I’m being lazy and not doing the things that I know I need to do because I don’t want to do them.
(Speaker 4)
So that’s just great. Worth every penny. I mean, I’d pay him a million dollars a month if I can, and maybe someday I’ll be able to. But I would just say go for it. If it seems like a good fit, just go for it. Do what they say, even if you think it’s stupid or ridiculous, just do what they say because it’ll work.
(Speaker 4)
You know, people, when they look at my business, you know, people in my town, they think I’m lucky. They think I’m just, you know, things I am lucky, but it has a lot to do with hard work and perseverance and working until you cry sometimes. That’s just being an entrepreneur, which if you’re a business owner, you understand that. But it’s having these systems in place of, of course I’m going to be successful.
(Speaker 4)
It’s an absolute, because I have all this stuff in the background happening. And I have Luke and Clay in the background happening and I have Luke and clay and everybody on their team working really hard to make sure that I’m a success and I can tell that they are Just so excited every single week when I’m having all these wins and things like that. They’re so excited for me So it just it’s the best thing ever and I would suggest to anybody to work with them
(Speaker 1)
So sorry seven points no matter what he has to do. You passed the ball to him Doug I’m sure you’ve seen this as a color commentator and there’s a guy he’s not passing the
(Speaker 4)
ball he’s not passing he’s gonna dribble. For the long-winded reply but I just had so much to say and I could go on for hours probably about how amazing they are but thank you to Clay and Luke and the entire team there, everything you guys have done for me, and I am so excited to continue to work with you for years to come. Thanks so much for watching.
(Speaker 6)
My saying is, if it’s important to you, hire a coach. And I think that’s one of the reasons people are not successful is they, you know, they eat a cheeseburger instead of hiring a coach, you know what I mean? And so my coach pushes me, they’re younger than me,
(Speaker 6)
they push harder, they’re trained. And as my rich dad always said, amateurs don’t have a coach, but professionals always have coaches. So I’ve always had coaches for whatever was important. My rich dad was one of those persons.
(Speaker 6)
You’re on it. Everybody listens to this guy. He knows what he’s talking about. You have the macro macro picture. Very few people have that point of view. Clay, you’re an entrepreneur. I’m an entrepreneur.
(Speaker 6)
And as they say in sto way, you’re in trouble.
(Speaker 1)
He’s going to wait until that shot clock gets down and he’s going to get his 22 points. Maybe the team is at the team’s detriment. It seemed like on the Kings, you guys would pass that ball and whoever was closest to the basket, whoever had the best shot, got the shot. Can you talk about the unselfishness of the Chris Webber Mike Bibby experience? You know and I attribute the
(Speaker 9)
unselfishness to Chris Webber because as a superstar and a hall of famer hopefully I don’t know why he’s not already. He was he set the table for the ability because if he would have been then it kind of permeates through the team. Well, with his unselfishness, it just…
(Speaker 17)
Now, three, two, one. Here we go!
(Speaker 16)
We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, and we’ll show you how to get here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here.
(Speaker 9)
It was something that just kind of went through the ball club, and all of a sudden, the ball is moving around. And I heard Coach Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs say this, when a play is drawn up for a particular player, it’s not for that player to score, it’s for the team to score. And a lot of those mindsets we took, we don’t give credit for them because we didn’t win a championship, but the point is we kind of understood that, that ball would move around. The ball has energy it would normally find the best player but we all
(Speaker 9)
worked on our game everyone could pass dribble shoot screen all the different things. So it was a high level of trust. Now I would also see Chris’s face and I’m like okay it’s probably about time that he gets a shot. We’ve been shooting a little bit so we make sure to give it a ball.
(Speaker 1)
C Webb though could have probably got 28, 29 points a game if he wanted to. Do you think he could have sat there his whole career, put up 27 a game, 28 a game?
(Speaker 9)
Oh, absolutely. Easily. I mean with us he was 25, 27, a couple years 22, but if you look at it, he would allow other people to contribute which took the team to a higher level. Yeah, you’re right. He could have probably taken an extra eight to ten shots a game. His average would have went up, but then the team average’s wins would have went down.
(Speaker 9)
And to his credit, I think that he recognized the team aspect coming from the Fab Five and all that he did. He brought that right to the NBA.
(Speaker 1)
I’m from Minnesota. Watched a lot of Bobby Jackson. How good was he?
(Speaker 9)
Yeah. I’m from Minnesota, watched a lot of Bobby Jackson. How good was he? Yeah, man Bobby is he’s one of my favorites man and I say that because Bobby and I played one-on-one all the time before practice. Sometimes it got so physical where they had to send us home because we bumped heads and got cut but we… Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Thrive Nation on today’s show we have the opportunity… He started from the bottom and he a six man of the year, but he made that second group so special because you got to start in quality guard that’s coming off. I mean, he went to the final four, all the different things that he does.
(Speaker 9)
I give him a bunch of crap every day that I see him, but the point is I love him to
(Speaker 1)
death and he’s about as special as you get. You know, with our podcast, the reason why I started this years ago is because my partner and I, we’ve been blessed to build 13 multi-million dollar different businesses. And you know this because you’re an entrepreneur. When you build a business, it takes two years, three years, four, maybe five, maybe six to get that traction. And then once the business gets up into orbit, it’s more fun. I’d like to talk about your career as an announcer, as a broadcaster.
(Speaker 1)
How long did it take you, when you were calling the games, to feel like you weren’t bad? Because you sound great now, but how long did it take you for you to feel like, oh boy, I screwed that up. I mean, how long did it take for you to feel comfortable?
(Speaker 9)
You know, interestingly enough, I don’t listen to myself because I have a hard time doing So I’m a question asker. So I ask people because ultimately what I think doesn’t matter. It’s what the people think. So that’s what I do. I ask, what do you think?
(Speaker 9)
How do I do this? This all started with me coming to do a camp for the Kings in Golden One, which is the Golden One Center now. And after I did the camp, they liked it. They took me into the office. We started talking about.
(Speaker 1)
To interview the former NBA basketball star and the current color commentator for the Sacramento Kings. Mr. Doug Christie, welcome.
(Speaker 9)
At all times, I didn’t really realize it was an interview and they called me, I was living in Los Angeles and said, would you like to do pre and post on the radio? So I do pre and post on the radio from my son’s closet. They had my physio ball. I’d sit there, watch the game, and I’d go before the game at halftime and afterwards.
(Speaker 9)
And I would just give my analysis. That worked out pretty good. I’d go to pre and post television because Bobby took a few games off. They liked me. And before you know it, they have me start doing color and here I am. It’s just it’s kind of been a really fast
(Speaker 9)
thing. The feedback has been fantastic and so for me I have a hard time. I don’t have a hard time watching myself when I play but I have a hard time listening to
(Speaker 1)
myself. I don’t know why. Well Doug I tell you what I think I think they’re just using you for your good looks my friend because you got a great broadcaster voice but today they’re just they’re using the good looks. Now tell us about your product, the R3 Bar. What’s the R3 Bar? How can it help our listeners out there?
(Speaker 9)
Man, the rebar is, first of all, there’s four of my partners and one of them, his name is Tim Mass, and he was my trainer when I was in the NBA. The best trainer in the world, look him up. I just can’t even say enough. So Tim creates the Rebar, we help, and we put it out to market.
(Speaker 9)
And the Rebar works on all the intrinsic muscles. Most of the time when you train stability, whether you train, you train the big muscles, the ones that you see in the mirror. This one trains all the small muscles, works on movement dysfunction,
(Speaker 9)
and all those types of things. So we’re talking stability, flexibility, and it can train strength at the same time. So we’re talking stability, flexibility, and it can train strength at the same time. But there’s a trilogy because we have a re-band system that are rubber bands that…
Transcribed with Cockatoo