Audio Book | Don’t Let Your Employees Hold You Hostage In a World Where 85% of Employees Lie On Resumes (Inc. Magazine) & 75% of Employees Steal from the Workplace (U.S. Chamber of Commerce) Audio Book

Audio Transcription

Transcribed with Cockatoo

(Speaker 1)
Don’t Let Your Employees Hold You Hostage by Clay Clark Fun fact, 75 % of employees steal from the workplace. In this candid, polarizing, and fact -filled book, I explain to you how you can prevent your business from ever being held hostage from your employees again.

(Speaker 70)
Yes!

(Speaker 1)
Throughout this book, I feature a character by the name of Kermit, who you will quickly see represents most employees. And over time, he has a progression that is predictable, or a regression that is predictable. Over time, he loses his enthusiasm for his new job. He begins to show up a little bit late, dress up a little bit less, be a little more passive -aggressive, call in sick, not call in at all. And eventually, he actually tries to hold his employer hostage. And that, my friends, is what will happen if you don’t implement the proven best practice systems in this book.

(Speaker 1)
If you’ve ever been held hostage by your employees, this book was written to help you. Don’t let your employees hold you hostage is written by myself, Clay Clark. However, this book will be read by myself, Clay Clark, and Mr. Jason Beasley. Jason Beasley, how are you, sir?

(Speaker 9)
I’m doing fantastic.

(Speaker 1)
Are you prepared psychologically and physically to read your first audiobook?

(Speaker 9)
I am so ready.

(Speaker 1)
I got enough rest just hoping we do something epic like this today. And my understanding is in preparation for reading this audiobook, you have actually managed people in the past.

(Speaker 9)
I have.

(Speaker 1)
How many people have you managed at one point at Elephant in the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge?

(Speaker 9)
At the most it was around 40, 50.

(Speaker 1)
Okay and I just want to take a moment to brag on some of the great people you’ve managed. Oh yeah. I believe, did you ever manage Katie or was Katie before you? your time? Katie was before my time, but I hear that she was a legend. But you’ve worked with Carly.

(Speaker 32)
Carly does a great job.

(Speaker 1)
She does. Carly out in South Tulsa, an unbelievable employee. Manna does a great job. There are so many great teammates you’ve managed over the years. This book is not a negative book. It’s not meant to hurt anybody or attack anybody.

(Speaker 1)
It’s just meant to get the hard facts out there. It’s not a comfortable idea. But it’s true that according to the U . S. Chamber, 75 % of employees now steal from the workplace and most do so repeatedly. It’s not a positive idea or a negative idea.

(Speaker 1)
It’s just a fact that according to Inc. Magazine, 85 % of employees now lie on their resumes. But yet you’ve done a great job finding people, managing people. What would you say was your most difficult part of managing the elephant in the room?

(Speaker 9)
equipment, was ordering supplies, was it managing the real estate, was it handling the sales, was that the biggest issue or what was the hardest aspect of managing the elephant in the room and the three different stores and the 4 ,000 plus customers?

(Speaker 1)
So what was funny is the 4 ,000 plus customers were easy because we’re providing the service for them, but the hardest part for me was definitely team management.

(Speaker 9)
Managing humans. Managing humans. So this book was written for people like you.

(Speaker 1)
Yeah, if I had had that book when I started, because I ordered this off of Amazon last week and did some some deep diving. And if I’d had that book before I manage, I would have been a much better manager. And you know what? I am a horrible person because I hired you previous to writing this book. But now Jonathan Kelly and I have written this book together.

(Speaker 26)
And with your permission, I’m ready for you to read while I sit back and judge.

(Speaker 1)
Yes. Okay, here we go.

(Speaker 9)
A quick, hard statistical look at the truth about America’s current employees.

(Speaker 32)
Note, truth is..

(Speaker 1)
. Oh, see, this is..

(Speaker 28)
.

(Speaker 9)
When you’re reading an audio book, what happens is weird things happen because you now realize you’re reading a book. Right.

(Speaker 1)
Okay. All right, continue. Note, truth isn’t negative.

(Speaker 9)
Truth is just knowing the facts. True. Okay, I’ll tell you what, you read the next page and I’ll read the next page after that. All right, sounds like a plan. As of the time that I am writing this book, aka you, the unemployment rate in America stands at a rate that is hovering between 3 .75 % to 4%. Yet, according to the U .

(Speaker 9)
S.

(Speaker 1)
Chamber and CBS News, 75 % of employees are stealing from the workplace. According to Inc. Magazine, 85 % of employees caught applications fibbing on their resume applications. Think about that for a second, Thrive Nation. 85 % of employers caught applicants fibbing on their resumes or applications. Think about this.

(Speaker 1)
The Washington Post here. The Washington Post. This is a story you can find there called Five Myths About Cheating. It says 78 % of men that you are interviewing admit to having cheated on their partner. Well, if someone’s going to cheat on their partner, and someone’s going to lie on their resume, and someone’s going to steal from the workplace, That means 75 % of the people you’re managing you probably can’t trust. That’s true.

(Speaker 1)
Was that shocking to you when you first discovered that, Jason? At first, yes, and then less so as I went on. It’s kind of like managing a pirate ship.

(Speaker 28)
That’s true.

(Speaker 1)
I feel like being a manager today is like managing a pirate ship. Now, why is this important to know? Wow. It’s important because the vast majority of people you’re managing are not behaving like good people. Most people are not good people. And before reading this chapter, I believe that deep down you want to believe that most people are honest.

(Speaker 9)
decent, and hard -working Americans who are just trying to do the best they possibly can to earn a living and to provide for their families, just like you once did, just like I once did.

(Speaker 1)
However, this belief is only true if you’re running a business that only employs the honest and hard -working 15 % of the population, which I I actually have thought about doing and I think in most of our companies now we have, I would say Jason, now don’t you think that 85 % of our people are really good people now? True. But we’ve had to sift through the bad 85%. So many. We’ve had to sift through so many people. We just wanted to hire good people.

(Speaker 1)
We’ve had to sift through so many people. My friend, most employees on the planet Earth are going to come to work with you because they’re excited about the new opportunity for growth. And then they are going to go through the following predictable cycle by default that I call spoiling on their expiration date. Wow, these guys are great readers. It’s my favorite audio book of all time.

(Speaker 23)
They should take this show on the road.

(Speaker 19)
Oh, look at that super sexy thing over there. Look at that.

(Speaker 1)
That appears to be a new job opportunity. Oh, she’s hot. I think I’m just going to run on over there and apply for that job because that That sexy job could be my job. So hot.

(Speaker 30)
There appears to be a lot of candidates here at this job interview slash bar, but today I’m wearing the good shirt.

(Speaker 37)
I got my bedazzled jeans on.

(Speaker 9)
I’ve got a bar name. I mean, fake resume.

(Speaker 1)
I’m going to go apply. Let’s see what happens. Step one, the dating phase. They’re going to dress up every day for their new job like they are going on a first date. During the job interview process and when Kermit showed up to work for his first day of work, he dressed to impress.

(Speaker 1)
Oh yes, he did dress to impress and do you know why? Do you want to know why? He dressed to impress because he wanted you to believe that he was a nice dressing, high quality and dependable employee who you could trust. In fact, subconsciously, I believe that at this point in the hiring process, Kermit actually believed that This was finally going to be the job where he could gain traction because he had decided that he was not going to screw things up this time. He believed that he was actually going to try hard at this job because here he could make a career. With you, he could make a career.

(Speaker 1)
At your job, he could make a career. And for those first few euphoric weeks of employment, Kermit honors the promises that he made to himself and to you. In fact, at first, Kermit not only showed up to work on time, but he actually showed up to work early to show you that he was serious about his career with you. And although Kermit knew that you were busy managing the other 50 plus responsibilities on your plate at any time as an employer or a manager, he knew that you could have made a little more time for him. He felt just slightly frustrated that you didn’t even recognize him for arriving early to work for three days in a row. Fun fact, 85 % of job applicants lie on their resumes.

(Speaker 1)
Inc. Magazine, think about that.

(Speaker 69)
85 % of job applicants lie on resumes.

(Speaker 33)
My friends, that’s the truth.

(Speaker 1)
I like the way you guys end your chapters and everything. This book is awesome. Have you guys ever thought about taking this show on the road? And then we’re going to Washington D . C. to take back the White House!

(Speaker 1)
two, the excuse phase. I drank too much last night, so I’m not high or so. My shins just sizzled, my sizzles sizzled, and I was like, I thought I was baking. I was just like, oh my gosh, my body has been kid sneezed in my face, and now I’m pretty sure I have chicken pox. Step two, the excuse phase. Dressing up less and showing up to work late, on occasion.

(Speaker 1)
After 41 days on the job and over time, you begin to notice Kermit dressing up less and less and actually beginning to show up to work wearing clothing that is slightly out of dress code while being one to two minutes late for every meeting. After working diligently for you three incredible weeks in a row, Kermit is growing frustrated with you and the job because you have yet to recognize him for his potential to be the best employee you have ever had and you haven’t yet promoted him to super levels of management based on his first three weeks with you. Let’s break that down. Kermit has been with you now for three weeks and he, again, is just a little bit frustrated that you haven’t promoted him to super levels of management based upon these three first outstanding weeks. So on a Thursday night, Kermit subconsciously wants to teach you a lesson. When he agreed to go out with his friends for Thirsty Thursdays at a local club while dancing, partying, and hanging out with his ambition boyfriend,

(Speaker 1)
promiscuous party people and friends Kermit quickly lost track of time and ended up waking up in a young lady’s apartment the next day at 9 15 a .m. m. which means that Kermit was one full hour and 15 minutes late to arrive for his shift and got to work still wearing the clothes from the night before oh yes but Clever Kermit sprayed on some cologne so that at least he smelled fresh and clean. You talked with Kermit one -on -one to make sure that he was okay, and yet he felt singled out and like you are judging him. Despite the fact that he had been to work on time and consistently for the previous three weeks, Kermit made the poor life choices. Yes, Kermit made the poor life choices, but Kermit is now mad at you.

(Speaker 1)
And you, yet again, because you are the only person in his life attempting to hold him accountable. Fun fact. The Kermits of the world hate the following verse. Proverbs 10 .4. Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth. Here’s a notable quotable for you.

(Speaker 1)
Understand people will constantly attack you in life. One of their main weapons will be to instill in you doubts about yourself, your worth, your abilities, your potential. They will often disguise this as their objective opinion, but invariably it has a political purpose. They want to keep you down. Robert Greene, the bestselling author of The 48 Laws of Power, Mastery, the 50th Law. You should read his books, by the way.

(Speaker 1)
Go out there and get the book, The 48 Laws of Power. Read that book. Read his book, The Laws of Human Nature, and you’ll understand that what Robert Greene is saying is true.

(Speaker 9)
I’ll read it again.

(Speaker 1)
It’s worth repeating. He says, Understand, people will constantly attack you in life. One of their main weapons will be to instill in you doubts about yourself, your worth, your abilities, your potential.

(Speaker 9)
They will disguise this as their objective opinion, but invariably it has a political purpose to it. They want to keep you down.

(Speaker 1)
Jason, have you ever had to, as a manager, ever had to mention to somebody that they were running a little bit late and you had to hold them accountable and then they attacked you as a result of you just asking where they were? Every time somebody’s late. What kind of things do they say? If someone’s late by 20 minutes, 10 minutes, five minutes, and you say, hey, well, first off, how do you even approach it? What do you say to somebody when you’re trying to do a little correction there when somebody’s late the first time? So I always approach it from an area of understanding.

(Speaker 32)
It’s like, hey, you know, I hope everything’s OK. Is there anything that I can do to help?

(Speaker 1)
Just try to figure out if there is like a bigger life issue to let them know I care. And what kind of response do you usually get from that? Like, what do people say? Well, you get anything from, I don’t control the flow of traffic or stoplights. I do not control the flow of traffic. Right.

(Speaker 1)
My favorite is, have you never been late? Yeah. That’s a good one. Have you never been late? So what I want to throw out is the human race has three excuse mechanisms. There’s just three.

(Speaker 1)
There’s only three, okay? Number one, it’s always, I forgot. Because who hasn’t forgot something?

(Speaker 20)
So we like to say, I forgot.

(Speaker 68)
So whenever you hold someone accountable for anything, whether it’s being on time, whether it be charging the right price, whether it be zeroing out their cash register, whether it be charging sales tax, no matter what you try to hold an employee accountable for, there are three excuses the human race has come up with this just in.

(Speaker 1)
Excuse number one that you’re going to hear often, excuse number one, I forgot. I forgot that that’s a I forgot I’m so sorry said it’s kind of hard to write somebody up or correct somebody when they say that the second one is well there must have been some kind of miscommunication again it’s there must have been some kind of miscommunication because what had happened was I thought you would said to be here at nine and so I

(Speaker 9)
here at nine, you know, because that’s what I was told, that’s what I was told, right? And miscommunication.

(Speaker 1)
It’s like, okay, maybe you could do a better job of communication. I think if there was better communication from the management, then we would not be having this conversation, right? Jason, have you ever heard that? Yes. Yeah. So it’s like if there was all of a sudden we attack the management overall, And we say, if there would have been better communication for management, I think.

(Speaker 1)
I would have been here on time. It’s like the power move.

(Speaker 42)
I’m going to shift all of the blame onto you and your organization to make it look like more people than I failed.

(Speaker 1)
Okay. So again, what you do is you, one is that people say, I, I, I, I, what I forgot. Second, there must’ve been a miscommunication. And the third is the emotional attack. Either people take it really high or they take it really low. High would be this, um, uh, Jason, let’s, let’s, let’s role play.

(Speaker 9)
Let’s pretend that I am late. and you give me the correction, and I’ll take it to the high level. Gotcha. Here we go.

(Speaker 1)
Ready? So, uh, doop -a -doop -a -doo.

(Speaker 27)
Hey, hey, boss.

(Speaker 1)
I’m running a little bit late there. A little traffic. Ooh, you know, just, vroom, vroom. Just, I was out there driving, a little bit of traffic, and I’m going, okay, I had to stop by Starbucks, you know, and just the traffic there was crazy. So, I’m sorry about that, you know. Hey, you know, I completely understand these things happen.

(Speaker 1)
Typically what I would do if I was late is I would set my alarm about 30 minutes early. That way it allows me to kind of beat that traffic and stop at Starbucks and still be on time, if not early to work. My wife was so mad and it’s just like, you don’t even care. You ever had that happen? Oh yeah. And it’s when they start to break down and cry and you’re like course correcting then the tears come out you’re like and then they start to do then they start to do this and it’s like they’re not gonna argue they’re gonna tear it out so you’re gonna go

(Speaker 1)
And you’re going, how do you deal with that? They’re taking it to, I say hi, there’s a lot of crying, a lot of tears. It would be pretty girls getting out of speeding tickets. Have you seen this phenomenon?

(Speaker 67)
Pretty girls tend to get out of speeding tickets.

(Speaker 1)
Ma ‘am, can you step outside of the vehicle?

(Speaker 29)
Ma ‘am, can you step outside of the vehicle?

(Speaker 1)
So you pull over your car, pull over the car. Ma ‘am, hello. Can I see your driver’s license and registration? Ma ‘am, do you know you’re you know, I pulled you ever ma ‘am if you could stop talking stop crying I just want to let you know You were going 45 and a 30 in the school zone there and I just wanted to let you know you need to slower down No, no, we’re okay here no, no, no ticket issue to had a young lady do but going through a lot here we’ll let her go Ma ‘am, we’re good.

(Speaker 9)
I know you don’t have your license or your insurance, and I know that your tail light’s out and your tags are expired and you were driving 45 in a 30, and I know that you were driving the wrong way into incoming traffic, and you have what appears to be a solo cup filled with straight wild turkey and vodka mixed with a purple drink.

(Speaker 1)
But you know what? I am gonna let you go this time. Ma ‘am, just be safe on the road.

(Speaker 18)
Okay there, okay? Officer drives away and then she’s in the car going, yeah. what?

(Speaker 9)
Yes, I tricked him. No ticket for me.

(Speaker 1)
Okay. Is that not a move?

(Speaker 57)
It’s a super move.

(Speaker 4)
And it worked for the female race.

(Speaker 1)
It doesn’t work so well for the dudes. No. Now let me go with the dude move. Okay.

(Speaker 66)
Hey man, I’m sorry I’m running late today.

(Speaker 1)
Traffic was crazy. Sorry about that. Yeah, hey man, you know what happens? Let’s go ahead and get you set up and then, you know, tomorrow, maybe leave about 30 minutes earlier and I think we’ll be good. Are you really gonna talk to me like that? Are you kidding me?

(Speaker 1)
I… Listen, dude. Listen. I’m not gonna…

(Speaker 9)
I’m not gonna threaten you.

(Speaker 1)
I’m not gonna say that I’m gonna beat your… But I will… I… But let me tell you, man. You just don’t want to get started with me because I am the kind of person who typically beat… I’m not gonna beat your ass because I’m not an ass beater today.

(Speaker 1)
Because I’m in a good mood. You want to get me into a bad mood? That’s fine. This is me having a good mood. Have you seen that move? The violent, threatening guy?

(Speaker 1)
It’s way past passive aggressive.

(Speaker 9)
It’s just full frontal aggressive.

(Speaker 61)
And what they do is they use apophysis a lot.

(Speaker 1)
Like, I’m not going to call my friends and tell them to come by here and kick your a**. I’m not going to.

(Speaker 63)
I’m not an a** kicker.

(Speaker 1)
That’s not what I do. I never use the word a**. I would never, ever say the word a**. I have never said the word a**. I’m not going to say the word a**. But I’ll tell you this.

(Speaker 1)
I would typically beat a** in this kind of a situation. I’m going to get back to work now. I mean, do you not see that? The super high, then shut it off. Right. So I’m just saying if you’re out there today and you are managing employees and you are at step two, just recognize step three is a blasty blast and it’s coming up next.

(Speaker 1)
Step three, the yeah, but video. Yeah, but… It was on this day that Kermit began to passively, aggressively disagree with you during a meeting for the first time. During a meeting with your team, you said, it’s super important that our website interface is easy to use for 99 % of customers.

(Speaker 9)
And Kermit said, well, if our website doesn’t provide extensive questions, badges, and certifications of completion, then how can we really call ourselves the best in the world?

(Speaker 1)
Well, then you said, Kermit, We’ve improved the lives of our clients over the years, of hundreds of our clients over the years. But in front of your whole team, this once coachable Kermit now shouts, so you don’t have a chart somewhere that could statistically prove that you know what you’re talking about? Kermit says this while being out of dress code, wearing skinny jeans, and sleeping with your former and still married secretary, which are both violations of your handbook, unless your handbook says, I guess I don’t know if you mean to put in your handbook that you can’t sleep with your wife.

(Speaker 31)
secretary who’s married to someone else i’m not sure if that’s gonna be an hr compliance thing we can talk about later approximately four weeks ago kermit was appreciative coachable and committed to helping you achieve your goals now however kermit has become frustrated and has become a passive -aggressive member of the i have the courage to complain but i don’t have the courage to quit club and being an exclusive member of this club uh allows kermit to feel as though he has the upper hand now and that you, as the owner and founder, should somehow feel bad because you don’t agree with the consistently wrong worldviews, strategies, and ideas of Kermit.

(Speaker 1)
This is where your employees start to attempt to take you hostage. Although they did not start the company, they did not put equity into the company, they did not work for years without a salary, they’ve been paid the entire time, oh yes, they now are officially a member, a card -carrying member of the I Am Too Valuable to Fire Club. And so they’re entitled starts to set in. Now, Jason, have you ever seen this condition happens? We have a really, really great team of people at the elephant in the room now.

(Speaker 1)
But as we’ve sifted through people that maybe were not so great to get to the great team we have today. Have you ever seen it to get to a place?

(Speaker 34)
Have you ever seen a situation where an employee gets to a place where they actually begin to think and even maybe say that I am too valuable to fire?

(Speaker 1)
Oh 100 % of the time. What do you mean? What happens? So you have the person that will start to show up late or start to call in excessively asking to leave early and then the second that you put a new policy in place or you try to just do some simple course correction just some management like first and foremost how dare you I’ve been doing this for I don’t know how many years I have all these certifications all of my people love me So let me give an example that the human mind can handle that’s real, very specific, that relates to my early, one of my first, my first business venture, DJConnection . com. I had a policy, and you tell me if this policy is crazy or not, okay?

(Speaker 1)
All right. I had a policy I put in that said all of the DJs must have all of their CDs. Back in the day, we had CDs.

(Speaker 9)
There was dinosaurs running around the planet.

(Speaker 1)
People used to call in long distance. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop.

(Speaker 65)
People would call that long.

(Speaker 1)
Remember that? Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. And then the phone would ring, ring, ring, and the phone was attached to a wall. All that stuff was going on and there were CDs. And when those CDs, compact discs were used, that’s what we would use to play the music for the wedding receptions and corporate events that we hosted. And the guys would come back and the CDs, I noticed that over time, they were getting less and less organized.

(Speaker 1)
Some guys weren’t even putting the CDs back in the cases after playing them. They would just leave them floating around loosely and the CDs could get scratched. And so I made a policy that after your event, your CDs, your compact discs had to be in alphabetical order. why do you think I made that policy? Well, one, so they would actually go back in the case, but also two, to see who was doing it.

(Speaker 9)
So I made the policy that after you unload your equipment after the show, you need to take as much time as you need to, to unload your gear properly, which they’d always done. But now you have to alphabetize your CDs, which should take like five to 10 minutes or no minutes if you stay on top of it. Right.

(Speaker 1)
Before you leave. And if you don’t, if you don’t, I’m taking 40 bucks. The 40 buck bonus we had, we had a bonus we had that we’re giving guys for certain performance metrics. I’m taking away the bonus for that particular show if you don’t stay and do it. What do you think the reaction was by these 45 guys when I introduced this policy to make sure that Oh, by the way, we could actually find music at weddings. And then, oh, by the way, the CDs wouldn’t get scratched.

(Speaker 1)
And then, oh, by the way, we would be professional. Because nothing’s weirder than being at a wedding reception where there’s dead air because the DJ can’t find the music. What do you think the reaction was? Do you think this reaction was greeted with great enthusiasm, that this idea that we could improve, that this quest for excellence would be greeted with cheers and applause by the disc jockeys? What kind of reaction do you think I got? Well, me before managing, when I was first getting into it, before I had run into things like this, would say, oh, they probably thought that was a great idea.

(Speaker 1)
that’s gonna save them time, it’s gonna be more structured, it makes sense, it’s part of a checklist, but having tried to implement systems, even as easy as they are, just holding people accountable, I can almost guarantee that they fired back at you immediately. Oh, that’s a big waste of time, that’s not fair. Anything in that ballpark. Well, this is what Steve Jobs says, and I think it’s very important that if you’re out there looking to manage people, you might wanna look at people that have managed a lot of people. You might want to talk to people. I mean, you know, a guy like Dr. Zellner has managed a massive team of people for a long time.

(Speaker 1)
So a lot of the things he told me, you know, I went, I maybe at first they seemed counterintuitive. At first, they didn’t, they didn’t feel good. At first, I thought maybe he was maybe even wrong, maybe, because I thought, well, you know, maybe he doesn’t know the unique situation that I’m in here. Well, this is what Steve Jobs says. Steve Jobs says, some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.

(Speaker 1)
Steve Jobs said, some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.

(Speaker 9)
And he goes on to talk about how as a manager, it’s your job to set the bar. You have to set the expectation. The employees are not going to, by default, perform at a high level. You have to set the level of excellence.

(Speaker 1)
If you’re listening right now and you’ve ever played a sport and you’ve ever had a great coach, in that sport. Let me tell you about that relationship. One, that relationship probably wasn’t super positive at first. You probably didn’t love that coach. You didn’t want to hang out with the coach. The coach who made you run a little bit faster who made you lose that weight, who made you memorize that playbook, who made you show up on time, who insisted that you hit that block, or that you did that thing, or that you did the proper, that you used the proper posture, or proper form, or if you were in band, the coach that insisted on you using the proper embouchure, the person who insisted that you played the scales the right way on the piano, the teacher that helped you improve in speech, the teacher you had, the pastor who held you accountable.

(Speaker 1)
You probably didn’t like them at first, and I’ll tell you why you didn’t like him at first, because they pushed you to be your best. And when you get pushed to be your best, it is a human nature for you not to like that kind of accountability. Why, Jason? Why do people typically not, most people not typically, why do people typically not like to be pushed? If somebody doesn’t have like aspirational goals or the mindset that they want to improve, typically they’re not going to. he does At the same time, like, how dare this person?

(Speaker 1)
Who is this person? Why are they saying this? You know, Kobe Bryant, the NBA Hall of Fame basketball player who played 20 years in the NBA. Yeah, the mom made the All -Star team. I believe 18 of those 20 years. Wow.

(Speaker 1)
He was an NBA MVP, won five National Basketball Association championships.

(Speaker 9)
He said this.

(Speaker 28)
He says, I can’t relate to lazy people.

(Speaker 1)
We don’t speak the same language.

(Speaker 9)
I don’t want to understand. I don’t want to understand you, Kobe Bryant.

(Speaker 1)
I mean, Kobe Bryant, he just I can’t relate. to lazy people.

(Speaker 9)
We don’t speak the same language. I don’t understand you. I don’t want to understand you. My friend, you cannot lower your expectations to meet the demands of your employees because let me tell you what, you can never get low enough.

(Speaker 1)
No matter how low you set that bar. Jason, what happens if your employees are late on average by 15 minutes and so you say, okay, I’m going to make a rule. You’re not going to be considered late unless you’re more than 15 minutes late. What happens?

(Speaker 9)
They would start to be 30 minutes late.

(Speaker 1)
Right.

(Speaker 9)
Is that not what happens? Oh, absolutely.

(Speaker 1)
Every single time. If you have a policy that says like a Disney or our company Elephant in the Room, you can’t bring your cell phone into the workplace.

(Speaker 24)
What happens if you let somebody bring their cell phone into the workplace?

(Speaker 1)
Well, no work gets done or they indulge in other passive aggressive acts. And it just, it creates this weird negative storm that our customers feel like we’re not taking care of them. Right. It’s another distraction. They’re not listening to you. My friend, if you find yourself in this phase of the business, you might say, well, okay, I know the problem.

(Speaker 1)
What can I do about it? Well, what you can do about it is every single Wednesday night at six o ‘clock, what do we do, Jason? A group interview. What does that look like? Well, it looks like we have people that show up and we do basically your standard hour -long interview where people present their resumes, but they all sit down.

(Speaker 1)
It allows you to vet everybody in one place. You go over Um, everything as far as like expectations, compensation, the general vibe of everything. Would you be okay if I actually played audio from one of our group interviews? Absolutely. I’m going to do it. So now that any further ado, here’s audio of me actually conducting a group interview.

(Speaker 1)
Well, on second thought, before we do that, let me, let me just say this, the group interview in order to conduct an effective group interview. Uh, let me explain what the group interview is and why you would do the group interview and all the questions you may have about this. We post every week on Indeed, Craigslist, Facebook. LinkedIn, all those things. LinkedIn, Facebook, Indeed, Craigslist. We post every week that we’re now hiring, right?

(Speaker 1)
We never turn off that ad. That’s step one. Never turn off that advertisement because you always want to have a pipeline of new candidates coming into the business. Otherwise, your business gets stagnant. What if we’re already fully staffed? Never stop that advertisement.

(Speaker 1)
Just keep that ad on forever. Never stop the now hiring philosophy. Then all the candidates who apply for the job respond to them and let them know that you’re going to be interviewing them this Wednesday night at 6 p . m. or whatever night you want to go with. But don’t interview them during the middle of the day.

(Speaker 1)
Why? Because if they already have a job, that would cause them to have to lie to their current employer to even get to the interview. So what you want to do is you want to make sure that you post your job posts when every week on what?

(Speaker 11)
Indeed, Craigslist, Don’t Overcomplicate It, places where people are looking for jobs.

(Speaker 1)
Put your job post out every week. Then respond to all candidates and let them know, I will be interviewing. I’d love to interview you this Wednesday night at 6 p . m. And then have all the candidates show up at one time and then interview them all at one time. why well because like half of the candidates won’t even show up at all they’ll just ghost you Two, 85 % of the resumes are completely fictitious. If

(Speaker 1)
If you read the research from Inc. Magazine, it’s crazy. 85 % of the resumes are completely bogus. So don’t waste your time reading those resumes. I mean, it’d make more sense to read a fiction book like Star Wars. Just read Star Wars instead of resumes because it’s the same thing.

(Speaker 1)
It’s both fiction -based, and then you might end up interviewing a Wookiee anyway. So the point is just make sure that you don’t read those resumes. So step one again, post every week. Craigslist, Facebook, Indeed, LinkedIn, post. Step two, respond with, hey, I’d like to interview you this Wednesday night at 6 p . m.

(Speaker 1)
Boom. Then interview them all at one time. And this saves you the hours wasted by reading resumes, the wasted hours by having people not show up or show up late, the wasted just awkwardness of meeting another man one -on -one and talking to them for a half hour about bogus things like, what’s your biggest weakness? And then they’ve already read that question, by the way, online, like how to respond to that. So they’re going to say something insincere like, Well, really, my biggest weakness was I tend to be what you would call over -organized. I over -organize myself.

(Speaker 1)
I over -work. I tend to not know when to shut it off. A lot of times I go home at 7 o ‘clock at night after working three hours for free. I tend to get to work three hours early. I tend to just put in, I burn the candle at both ends.

(Speaker 23)
You know what I mean?

(Speaker 1)
I burn that candle like a candle in the wind. I just work. I’m just too organized. I’m too humble. At times I’m just like, you know, who’s the best in this business? And I’m like, well, I hate to, you know, brag on myself.

(Speaker 1)
So I’m, you know, I’m not going to do that. You know, I don’t brag. And I’m too nice sometimes. I let people walk all over me. But not too much because I’m a really effective manager. I’m almost too effective.

(Speaker 1)
I’m so effective I leave people in the dust. But I wouldn’t say that because I’m so humble.

(Speaker 35)
And I’m always on time.

(Speaker 40)
I’ve never been late.

(Speaker 1)
You know, even the times I’m late, it’s like just because of traffic. You know what I’m saying? So what was the question again?

(Speaker 23)
I mean, that’s the kind of crap you deal with every single time you interview people.

(Speaker 1)
So this is me. This is actual audio of me conducting the group interview for your audio benefit. Okay, so I’m Clay Clark, and this is my office, and we’re hiring for a myriad of different positions, and I’ll open it up for you guys to ask questions. So Justice, is that right? I’ll start with you, so, because you’re in the back. So Justice, what questions do you have?

(Speaker 1)
Sure, what position do you, did you remember reading about online? Okay, cool, let’s talk about that one. So marketing assistant. Everybody, if you’re looking for a product or service, you typically search on… Probably, for handy.

(Speaker 17)
How would you find, if you’re in Florida tonight and you’re going to go to a movie, what do you typically do to find people?

(Speaker 25)
What do you do?

(Speaker 1)
That’s right. 94 % of people who are in the Forbes right now use Google for everything. But I think in any room, 1 % of 1 % know how Google works. So I grew up crazy poor and I was in a company called DJConnection . com. It still exists.

(Speaker 1)
But I grew up really poor. When I was 16, my dad was delivering pizzas. I’m 38, and my dad was 38, delivering pizzas. He had a degree from ORU, top of the class. Tom Clark. And my dad…

(Speaker 1)
didn’t know how, you know, you have a good business degree, but they don’t teach business. And so my dad, he was just crippledly poor. And so my whole thing was like, I had to find a way to not be poor. So I started a DJ company out of my dorm room. Do you know why I started a DJ company out of my dorm room? And what do you think?

(Speaker 1)
Justice. And I’d say I wish that I had, it was that deep. It was like, I’m crazy poor and the barrier of entry is pretty low. And most DJs are terrible. So I’m like, even if I’m bad, I’m better than them. So I had a service called DJ Connection.

(Speaker 1)
This is my pitch. And your name is Barbara. So I’d say, Barbara, I’m a DJ for your wedding, your birthday, whatever. And it’s a dollar if you hire me, what it costs. And then if you’re happy, you can pay me based on your happiness. So if a 10, perfect 10, I’d love to get paid $600, because everybody else charges that.

(Speaker 1)
But if I’m terrible, it’s a dollar. And everyone charges four hours. I do unlimited time. And everyone’s like, are you kidding me? And I go, nope. And I help you plan your wedding first.

(Speaker 1)
So pretty much every bride at every wedding show said yes, every single time. And I just grew it. And so I sold it. We were doing 4 ,000 weddings a year. So it was like a big, you know, 80 weddings a weekend. And then my wife pointed out to me in 2006 or five, I was entrepreneur of the year for the state of Oklahoma from the small business administration.

(Speaker 1)
She’s like, you know, what you do works for other things. You shouldn’t be a DJ. I’m like, why? She goes, you’re a grown man. So we have five kids. and I built that business and then I started teaching people how to grow their businesses, but not in like a, and if you’re in a multi -level, I’m not attacking you, I’m just saying, but not in a multi -level kind of way, not in a 100 % commissioned way.

(Speaker 64)
of way, not in like a get -rich -real -estate kind of way, but like, hey, you’re a chiropractor and let’s sell some stuff.

(Speaker 1)
Or hey, you’re a home builder.

(Speaker 54)
So now my client, we worked with Maurice Kanbar, who is the founder of Sky Vodka, you know?

(Speaker 1)
So when he bought a third of downtown Tulsa, if you look at my name, Clay Clark, Tulsa World, you’ll see the articles. We helped lease, you know, downtown used to be dead. We helped lease, we helped basically bring tenants downtown. The deals we did was Elote was the first downtown restaurant, Mayo Hotel, we worked with them with the bar and all that.

(Speaker 10)
Anyway, that’s what we did.

(Speaker 25)
And so then people kept reaching out, reaching out, reaching out, reaching out, reaching out.

(Speaker 24)
And so now we work with 160 clients, that’s the number, 160 clients, most of them are not in Tulsa.

(Speaker 27)
And Shaw Homes is the largest home builder in Oklahoma.

(Speaker 63)
That’s one of our clients.

(Speaker 20)
Total Lending Concepts, that’s one of our clients.

(Speaker 1)
Barbie Cookies was one of our clients.

(Speaker 57)
Papagallo’s Pizzeria is a client.

(Speaker 10)
Oxyfresh is a client. UPS has been a client. Maytag has been a client.

(Speaker 44)
So Ben, come on up here, Ben.

(Speaker 62)
Woo, this is Ben.

(Speaker 1)
Yeah, let’s hear it for Ben. Yeah, Ben, yeah.

(Speaker 10)
Ben, where were you working at? So how long have you been here? I’ve been here eight months. Before that, I was at Lowe’s for eight months.

(Speaker 3)
And before that, I was working as a handyman for about 10 months.

(Speaker 31)
Oh, you shouldn’t have told me that.

(Speaker 10)
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That’s great. That’s great.

(Speaker 47)
Can you do a lot?

(Speaker 10)
Is he handy? I’ve done ceiling fans. I hate heights. pay Tyler.

(Speaker 3)
No, no, Tom.

(Speaker 1)
No, Tom.

(Speaker 10)
No, no, I just think my wife’s been like praying for handyman.

(Speaker 52)
Anyway, so, and then Ben, where did you start?

(Speaker 28)
Like, what was your role first?

(Speaker 3)
I was on the search engine optimization team.

(Speaker 17)
So I write the search engine content. So the content that is going to be going on to the webpage for all the clients.

(Speaker 10)
Had you ever done this before? I thought I was illiterate.

(Speaker 38)
I think I got C’s in English.

(Speaker 10)
high school and college. So I never thought I would ever be writing for my professional career. And what do you do now? I am the SEO.

(Speaker 1)
I think I promoted czar actually. So I managed a team of eight now and they’re writing content all day long. This is my job to make sure that the quality of the content is going to be good and make sure that there’s not going to be any duplicate because Google loathes duplicate content with a passion. So I loathe it with a passion. How much can you get paid per hour right now at your current rate? Current rate, I can do about $25 to $27 an hour.

(Speaker 1)
Questions? Yeah. Yes. So you said you’re writing. Are you writing, just writing like a literary artist?

(Speaker 43)
Or are you talking about programming?

(Speaker 1)
So I’m not programming.

(Speaker 49)
I don’t know that yet.

(Speaker 1)
So like HTML? Yeah, so we use, so it’s called a Dragon Diction. So we just like speak it and instead of typing it, because that would take forever. Plus I can’t spell. So, but then I just talk, I just kind of write that content as in like two 500 word articles. And let me tell you how this system was created so you see it.

(Speaker 1)
I was building DJ Connection. I hired Bruce Clay, which by the way, eight grand a month is a lot of money. Contract 12 months. I’m not bitter about it, but it’s expensive. I still pay him now, but it’s like a lot of money. So you’re like, I’m a DJ.

(Speaker 1)
Let me tell you about being a DJ. You make $167 a profit a show. Could you charge 600? So you’re, you’re not making like, you know, you don’t mean you’re getting like a, after I pay the DJs and the equipment breaks and hiring and sales and marketing, it’s about 150 bucks.

(Speaker 35)
Well, it’s cool.

(Speaker 1)
We’re doing 80 a weekend, but it’s still a lot of money. You know what I mean? So I’m going, there’s gotta be a better way.

(Speaker 22)
There’s just got it.

(Speaker 1)
There’s just, oh, just, oh, you know? So I try to make it really affordable. And so I used to make it a lot cheaper. articles and I wrote the best crap ever man It was like oh and just you’re gonna love working with our DJs because we have just I’m using big words like plethora Cornucopia just I was just fabulous.

(Speaker 44)
I I was right.

(Speaker 1)
I was like working it I thought I thought that’s what mattered was that I thought having really good words was what was that? I thought like just and my wife was like have you? ever asked women if they’ve ever read these things?

(Speaker 61)
And I’m like, because most people go to the website and call.

(Speaker 21)
They don’t like read your 40 page manifesto about DJing.

(Speaker 44)
And so then I’m like, wait a minute.

(Speaker 1)
So that’s when I came with the dragon diction thing.

(Speaker 23)
And then that’s kind of, anyway, so that’s how that worked.

(Speaker 1)
But that, any other questions for Ben?

(Speaker 49)
Yes.

(Speaker 1)
My quick interruption is two weeks. Hands on. You’re getting paid the whole time, but two weeks is about how long it took you to, is that my, my right?

(Speaker 60)
Two weeks.

(Speaker 10)
Yeah.

(Speaker 1)
You’re still getting paid and you’re on the team right away. Yeah, I think there’s someone the third day on and so they’re slowly picking up little by little.

(Speaker 29)
We had a young lady today who is great.

(Speaker 35)
And I think her head was going to explode because it’s like her second day or third day.

(Speaker 16)
Nice lady.

(Speaker 59)
But it’s like, you know, you’ve never done it before.

(Speaker 1)
And it’s like riding a bike. And unless you’re a weird person, you don’t mock babies that are learning to walk. Oh, look at the baby. Look at this stupid baby.

(Speaker 5)
You know, lazy baby. You just, you kind of coach up, mentor up. You know, you teach. So that’s the vibe there. So you learn that. And then one day Ben was like, hey, check it out.

(Speaker 1)
My wife is smart. And I go, your wife is smart.

(Speaker 5)
What is this?

(Speaker 25)
Smarter than me.

(Speaker 1)
And then, you know, I’m like, well, let’s meet said person. So I’m going to bring up your wife. Is that cool? Cool.

(Speaker 5)
So you got to go in now.

(Speaker 1)
It’s her for Ben.

(Speaker 58)
All right.

(Speaker 1)
This is Amelia.

(Speaker 30)
And she happens to be married to that guy.

(Speaker 1)
Can you explain your path? How long have you been here and what you do now?

(Speaker 16)
I’ve been here for about six and a half months. I started in Elephant in the Room call center.

(Speaker 57)
Then I moved from there to sales.

(Speaker 1)
Then from sales I’m now in coaching.

(Speaker 40)
So I’ve got my first three clients this past week.

(Speaker 1)
So I’m doing coaching now. Any questions for Amelia? She’s been here a while but not super long. Six and a half months. Yeah, I know. She’s going through very fast.

(Speaker 5)
She’s plowing through it. Probably the fastest rate of anybody we’ve had so far. So, but that’s only because of Ben’s her life coach and just like telling her what to do, you know.

(Speaker 1)
You sir. What questions do you have? What is your name? Jacques. How do you spell it? Z H A J Jacques.

(Speaker 1)
Uh, is that like a family name? Is this common? What does it mean? Can you give them a copy of Dragon Energy? My new book is called Dragon Energy.

(Speaker 5)
Oh yeah.

(Speaker 56)
Any questions for Amelia about that?

(Speaker 55)
Because she’s here.

(Speaker 54)
That’s why I have her here.

(Speaker 16)
Because she could tell you.

(Speaker 1)
You can ask her anything. Yeah. Can you explain who you were calling for though? They’re a client of ours. So they actually contract out. So I would call their leads.

(Speaker 53)
We don’t call on behalf of my business.

(Speaker 1)
We call on behalf of our clients.

(Speaker 32)
Because a lot of our clients are

(Speaker 1)
afraid of the phone at first. We actually explain to them, nobody woke up today with a desire to pay you. And they’re like, huh? Nobody cares about your product. You gotta go call. And if it’s a retail store, you gotta get in front of them.

(Speaker 1)
Every business has its own path. But for Digi, they did the security systems for the gathering place. OSU.

(Speaker 52)
OSU.

(Speaker 1)
OU. OU.

(Speaker 37)
BOK.

(Speaker 42)
And they get all their accounts by Cold Call.

(Speaker 43)
So she’s calling on their behalf, if that makes sense.

(Speaker 1)
And if you move to Denver the company I’ve worked with for a long time up there Denver are my partner that I mean I have a Elephant room together the other business though is called oxy fresh and there’s 406 locations carpet cleaning and there’s a major call center that books like 8 ,000 carpets a day a lot of carpets. So that’s that’s yeah, but inbound calls for elephant room, basically I know your questions you feel good and it’s shot. Am I saying that right?

(Speaker 31)
Okay, sure And what is your culture by the way, you said your culture?

(Speaker 1)
What’s your culture?

(Speaker 11)
monk monk monk and uh where are you how as were you born here in this country yeah okay are your parents first generation immigrants okay okay cool awesome excited jump okay so ja ja and what’s your name roy and you drove here from

(Speaker 24)
where, Roy?

(Speaker 1)
Really? For this interview? How did you hear about us? We have about half a million people listen to our podcast. So they have had, I don’t think the workshops you were at, but Sean, were you at the one we had people from Guam here? So we have people from Guam and Canada and Australia.

(Speaker 1)
But no, I’m always amazed though, because you never know with the podcast where it’s going to reach. We’ve hit number one on iTunes six times, so we get different people that find it. How far did you drive? It’s impressive. That’s impressive. What are you doing now?

(Speaker 1)
Where do you go to college? I’m super impressed. It’s wild. And you’re a graphic design guy? To answer your question, what we do is we have a thing called a shadow process. And is it Carol?

(Speaker 1)
Is that right? Barbara, why would I say Carol? I’m not Barbara. Boo. Okay, so Barbara So we do is we’d have you guys shadow so if it was like we read it we go through all the resumes and I want to meet you because I Go through them and I kind of want to like put a face with the resume and figure all that And then we’ll call you guys tomorrow by 9 if it’s something I want to move forward I’d like to get your aura and we have a lot of people I’m the one always meets everybody but then we’d have a shadow where you actually we’re gonna shadow like for an hour or two and I tell people just plan on like from 9 to 12, but you don’t have to do the whole time necessarily. And I’m just wanting you to meet everybody who would work here to see if you’d get along and that kind of thing, you know.

(Speaker 1)
And then Barbara, what questions do you have? How did you hear about this place? Oh, my mother -in -law. Cool, yeah. What questions do you have? Basically, the search engine optimization role, the marketing assistant, that role is open today, tonight.

(Speaker 1)
It’s very dynamic, though, because there’s always growing, so there’s a lot of people coming in.

(Speaker 41)
It’s like Google, they’re always hiring.

(Speaker 1)
But then you have The sales thing, I don’t think we have a position open for that tonight, right? Yeah, but we do sometimes. Okay, but we do have I think three spots we’re looking forward to currently tonight. Any other questions you have about what we do up here? Yes, I do. My attorney represents T .

(Speaker 17)
D. Jakes and Joel Osteen and Craig Rochelle and somehow he got stuck with me and we handle all the marketing for them too and they are looking for somebody who’s really, really sharp.

(Speaker 41)
to fill a long -term position.

(Speaker 17)
It’s benefits.

(Speaker 1)
But they want people who’ve been on the planet a longer period of time. Because if you were born yesterday, one might think that, oh, this person has the best of intentions. And if you’re working for a law firm, there’s always kind of squirreliness. So they want people that are mature and kind of dress sharp. That’s just what they’re looking for.

(Speaker 43)
People are detailed.

(Speaker 1)
And yes. And so that position just came open yesterday. So I know about that. I can be happy to talk to you more about that. Any questions you have? Skills?

(Speaker 1)
Um, just be crazy coachable, like off the charts coachable. then try to go like years without yawning because it’s like a It’s a it goes fast in here. And so we’re meeting here after one’s gone home, but Monday through Thursday from 7 a .

(Speaker 29)
m.

(Speaker 1)
To 3 p . m It’s like a sprint and it’s just if you like energy you have to go you’d like it. But if you’re like, I don’t like Now what is your name? Terry and what questions do you have miss Terry? Oh, cool. Yeah.

(Speaker 1)
You don’t want to move you want to stay where they’re gonna farm the ranch the husband the whole thing, okay, cool Okay This is probably an opportunity for me, but I wasn’t sure because all the positions that I’ve applied for for a graphic design position, I want to grow, first of all. Well, there’s different kinds of, and I’ll just tell you this, and I’m not trying to be negative. My buddy owns a firm called Hampton that might suit what you want to do, because it’s very artistic, very creative, and they do really cool stuff. And I don’t view them as a competitor, but they are like, he wears a flower in his shirt.

(Speaker 6)
You know and he’s very like I don’t know it’s fabulous and but they have huge Accounts and they’re and that’s what he does and I’m all about like helping people get unpoor real fast Like I’m all about like that’s cool.

(Speaker 42)
We could spend seven weeks talking about the logo, but instead I’m gonna just get you to the top of Google and make a bunch of money right now and by the way when you shoot your YouTube video today and make a performa and fire that guy and do this and then they’re like I’m more of like, you ever seen that show, The Prophet?

(Speaker 45)
Yes.

(Speaker 1)
I’m like, kind of like that. It’s like, you know, no soup for you. It’s like a high energy, fast paced.

(Speaker 44)
It’s like, people are like, are you like a, what is your deal?

(Speaker 1)
I’m like a bowling ball.

(Speaker 31)
Like just go, you know, just go.

(Speaker 1)
And then, but the graphic design typically more like.

(Speaker 30)
The high design, I would say Hampton and Cubic are probably the best in town for that.

(Speaker 32)
I’m probably more like low design, but fast design, and then make money for clients, if that makes sense.

(Speaker 1)
You know what I mean?

(Speaker 51)
I count winning as the client making more money than they’re paying me as soon as possible.

(Speaker 37)
Skills, but just super coachable.

(Speaker 1)
Being able to, Ben can talk to you more about that, but Ben, you were at Lowe’s.

(Speaker 50)
I mean, were you typing like a boss at Lowe’s?

(Speaker 1)
And I have no discernible skills. I mean, I took algebra three times.

(Speaker 24)
I took ACT three times.

(Speaker 35)
My wife rejected me multiple times when I proposed.

(Speaker 1)
Crazy.

(Speaker 49)
It’s crazy how she said yes.

(Speaker 48)
Blindness.

(Speaker 1)
She’s got blindness. She can’t see. But all I’m saying is like that’s a… You don’t need a whole lot of skills. You need to have that grind. If that makes sense.

(Speaker 47)
And your name is Alex.

(Speaker 31)
Alex.

(Speaker 1)
Alex, where are you from, dude?

(Speaker 37)
Tulsa.

(Speaker 1)
Okay, cool. Where have you been doing previous to now? Okay.

(Speaker 21)
Yeah.

(Speaker 41)
So you tread it out and you’re kind of like…

(Speaker 16)
okay. Any questions you have, sir? And what’s your name again?

(Speaker 1)
John.

(Speaker 25)
John, okay.

(Speaker 1)
John, any questions you have? So there’s a design section open. True.

(Speaker 44)
Marketing.

(Speaker 1)
Yep, graphic design and the marketing assistant would be SEO, search engine, and those would be the two spots tonight.

(Speaker 15)
You have two that are open for search engine tonight.

(Speaker 1)
Shaw Holmes is looking to hire somebody.

(Speaker 15)
Steve Curry is looking to hire somebody.

(Speaker 25)
I believe Nathan’s hiring somebody for the carpet side.

(Speaker 15)
Do you need one technician tonight? One or two?

(Speaker 30)
Yeah.

(Speaker 15)
And what does that pay approximately? Yeah. So I’m kind of a matchmaker.

(Speaker 1)
I try to find the right fit for the right people.

(Speaker 3)
So there’s a couple of different spots there.

(Speaker 35)
And ma ‘am, your name?

(Speaker 1)
Lily.

(Speaker 46)
OK, Lily.

(Speaker 1)
And Lily, what questions do you have? You’re good? OK, I respect that.

(Speaker 25)
And your name again, sir?

(Speaker 43)
Austin.

(Speaker 1)
What questions do you have? Okay, well, what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna bring up Daisy here real quick, and Amelia, I’m gonna let you get back to being awesome over there. Hey, what’s up for Daisy? Yeah, Daisy, woo! How long have you been here? Two years.

(Speaker 1)
Okay, what were you doing before you were here?

(Speaker 45)
So, before I was here, I was in education, which is surprisingly soul -sucking.

(Speaker 14)
Oh. Well, no, I love the kids.

(Speaker 1)
The politics and the bureaucracy of it all, I just got. The administration. Yeah, I became kind of cynical with it. Before that, I was in law school. I managed a donut shop, two locations, I’ve done banking, I’ve done a myriad of, but none of them as great as yours. And you are not white.

(Speaker 1)
And you’re not white. Buddhist. Yes. How does that impact our daily interaction? It doesn’t.

(Speaker 44)
You know that I’m a Christian and I’m always trying to convert you.

(Speaker 1)
Yeah. And you know that Ben’s a Mormon and he’s always trying to convert me. He never mentions it, but I know what he’s doing. I know what he’s doing. This is the thing about Ben.

(Speaker 37)
Let me tell you about Ben.

(Speaker 1)
He’s sneaky.

(Speaker 31)
He’s like, I’m not going to talk about it.

(Speaker 1)
I’m just going to live it. And then if you want it, ask me about it. See, that’s what he does. He doesn’t talk about it. He sets a time. I mean it.

(Speaker 1)
Very sneaky. His wife’s the same sneaky. They’re both like… This guy the other day, we had barbecue. We’re serving barbecue for a person who’s like celebrating somebody.

(Speaker 44)
And we’re like, Ben, do you want barbecue?

(Speaker 1)
Tempting him. He’s like, no, I’ll wait for Amelia. Doesn’t know where she is. Says it’s sneaky though. And multiple people were like, this dude’s not gonna have barbecue while he’s waiting for… He has no idea where she is in the building.

(Speaker 1)
He’s a good guy. So all I’m saying is, but we have different faiths in here. It doesn’t have to be like you’re pro, but we, capitalism is probably the religion that we all have, you know? Um, so, uh, what questions do you have for Daisy? Cause she started off on the phones and now she manages the call center and she’s a great lady and has a great kid named Atticus who says that I’m old. You’re old.

(Speaker 1)
Yes. You’re going to get paid to do like, you’re going to be like doing it like day one. Yeah. What you do is you’re going to work in a 90 day tour of duties. I would call it. I’m just asking you mentally to commit to work here for 90 days because I, I shouldn’t do it.

(Speaker 1)
And my wife’s kind of helping me through this, but like, I don’t know, you know, my mother -in -law, but she really cares about facials. And I’m like, can we let it go? No, no, no. Cause she, she like wants to deliver a great experience. She’s into that, you know? And like, I can’t explain to you why.

(Speaker 1)
but she is. That’s just her love language. She’s into it. I think clients of hers experience that.

(Speaker 43)
For me, I view every employee as the personification of my dad.

(Speaker 15)
Where I’m like, I don’t know why my dad was so poor at the age of 38. I don’t understand that. But I think it’s because he wasn’t taught certain skills. Because he had a degree.

(Speaker 31)
He was literally at the very top of his class at ORU.

(Speaker 15)
And I’m like, I have to believe that if somebody would have pointed out to him, Don’t do this and do this.

(Speaker 1)
I believe he would have done this. He always worked hard. But because he worked at Quick Trip and the Night Shift, and he worked at Domino’s, I stuttered as a kid. I got made fun of. I couldn’t talk until I was 13 years old. I got made fun of all the freaking time.

(Speaker 1)
My parents couldn’t afford a speech pathologist. I have to believe they would have hired one if they could have. And so I just kind of like, I want to teach you the skills needed to pay the bill. I’m just all about like, do this, boom. And then if you want to be here for five years or six years and become a partner in one of the businesses, like a law firm, great. If you want to be on the podcast with me every day and that’s your goal, great.

(Speaker 23)
If you want to become a real estate agent, great.

(Speaker 1)
If you want to become a super mom, great. I don’t care.

(Speaker 16)
Super dad, great.

(Speaker 1)
I just am saying, I want to help you get where you want to go. And I view it as like a tour of duty, not like a wage cage. So upward mobility is my game. You know, so every 90 days we kind of reevaluate. Can you speak to that a little bit? Yeah, yeah, so I started off in the call center as a call center rep and I came in through the group interview and I was like, I literally don’t care what I have to do.

(Speaker 1)
Like I need to be, I need to be here. So what do you have?

(Speaker 42)
And at the time, Vanessa was like, well, we need somebody in our call center.

(Speaker 1)
And I was like, okay. So, you know, I, And she was the worst of all time, in my opinion, and the best salesperson at the same time. Because when she’s good, like she’s good at her job, but then managing people, that’s like where you’re going like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, quit vaping. Yeah, and she like absorbed it though, you know what I mean? And so I’d be like, hey, don’t argue with her, just tell her what to do.

(Speaker 1)
Because I’ve had one coworker, he used to like go out there and do the hula hoop, remember? In the middle of the day, she would just go out there and she’d be like, just hula hooping. I’m like, you know what I mean? And then she would like get into a debate with them as opposed, you know, and then now she’s great at it though. And then she messed up and said she wanted to become a speaker lady. And so now she speaks at the conferences and we have a conference in here every two months for our clients.

(Speaker 1)
About 120 people are here every time.

(Speaker 41)
But any other questions for Daisy about being here?

(Speaker 1)
No? Every picture on every wall has been put there specifically and then all the writing is my handwriting.

(Speaker 9)
So I’m always My dad died.

(Speaker 1)
There he is. Rip Tom Clark. Tom Bomb. It’s Tom Bomb. So I put that there because I felt like I needed to have it. I see it all the time when I’m speaking at conferences.

(Speaker 1)
I’m always thinking of my dad. And then like victory. I think that’s a big word. It’s important. But anyway, so it’s a different place. It’s a fun place.

(Speaker 1)
But I would like for you to meet the teammates before you kind of decide A or B. What I want to do is I had questions for Justice and Jaw. And for Barbara, I had some questions for you guys based upon your resume, and I would like for Amelia to give a tour of you so you can see everything. Okay, so if you guys here, you three, can go with Amelia, that’d be great. And then if you three can go with Daisy and Ben on a little tour, let’s give them a tour, that cool? And then I have some questions for you guys. And then do you have your printed resumes tonight?

(Speaker 1)
Okay, I have a few questions. And then those of you who are interested in graphic design, have you all emailed in your portfolios? Okay, those have all been emailed? Okay, so before you go today, I would like Yeah, so before anyway, graphic design comes down to me, I have to like obsess and look at your portfolios, because we’ve got so many talented people applying and I like to personally look at that. So before you leave, if you have access to a mobile device or something, if you could please, I want you to verify they do it, send it to founder at thrive15 . com.

(Speaker 28)
And that is how we do it.

(Speaker 38)
And now without any further ado.

(Speaker 1)
Step four, the for the good of the brand phase. At this point, Kermit is now going to openly disagree with you during a meeting where a large number of your teammates are present, and he will start asking gotcha questions during the meeting. We’ve all seen this. This is when Fox interviews Obama or CNN interviews Trump. The reporter is trying to ask a gotcha question, the kind of question that paints the interviewee into a corner.

(Speaker 40)
All right.

(Speaker 18)
So at this point, approximately 85 % of employees, not everyone, are going to openly disagree with you during a meeting where a large number of your teammates are present, and they’re going to try to start asking gotcha questions during meetings.

(Speaker 1)
As a hypothetical example, they will say, I know that you say that social media is a waste of time during our work day, yet I saw you actually post something on Facebook.

(Speaker 39)
This actually happened to me years ago.

(Speaker 1)
So, you know, I pointed out to the employee, it’s an auto responded, auto posted, auto, it’s a hoot suite. And I’ve already thought through the posts for the next month. And those posts at times at intervals that I’ve already chosen. Second of all, Uh, when that doesn’t happen, I have other people on our team who update our social media accounts and post out content during the, during the day. But, uh, no, that was not me, but right there. Why would someone do that?

(Speaker 1)
It shows that they now disrespect you. You get to see who they really are. So about 10 weeks ago, Kermit was honored.

(Speaker 38)
He was honored.

(Speaker 1)
I remember the word he says. Kermit said, I was honored to earn a job on your team and probably wrote some nice thank you notes about how you changed his life and how he will never leave you because he’s too grateful. But now, but now, oh no, now he has begun to openly disagree with you in front of your team, the team you started, the company you founded, the business you manage, because Kermit is now officially air quotes, officially, on his way out. Now, he will never announce to you that he is fully committed to quitting because Kermit has now recognized the incredible super move called the power to complain while lacking the courage to quit. Kermit now looks unhappy most of the time while trying to play it off like a fourth grader that has just fallen off of their skateboard. Skateboarding’s what I do.

(Speaker 1)
Skateboarding’s what I do. Little trick, little… Skateboarding is what I… It’s so easy. Oh, look at that sexy lady. He’s sexy.

(Speaker 1)
Oh, wow. Here we go. Check out this move. This is a lot of internal bleeding, but I’ll be fine. Wow. Take a moment and

(Speaker 1)
up this fun fact.

(Speaker 9)
Just take a moment and do it.

(Speaker 1)
The U . S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that 75 % of employees steal from the workplace and that most do so repeatedly think about that here’s a notable quotable a little word of encouragement from ben horowitz the best -selling author of the hard thing about hard things a man who built a company called opsware which he later sold to hewlett packard for 1 .6 billion dollars Billion, billion, billion, billion dollars of cash. Billion with a B. Billion.

(Speaker 23)
He knows what he’s talking about.

(Speaker 1)
He went from a startup to selling a company to Hewlett Packard for $1 .6 billion.

(Speaker 9)
What’s his name? His name is Ben Horowitz.

(Speaker 1)
And he says, every time I read a management or self -help book, I find myself saying, that’s fine. But that wasn’t really the hard thing about the situation. The hard thing isn’t setting a big, hairy, audacious goal. The hard thing is laying people off when you miss the goal.

(Speaker 9)
The hard thing isn’t hiring great people. The hard thing is when those great people develop a sense of entitlement. entitlement, and they start demanding unreasonable things. The hard thing isn’t setting up an organizational chart. The hard thing is when is getting people to communicate within the organization that you just designed.

(Speaker 1)
The hard thing is getting people to communicate within the organization that you just designed. The hard thing isn’t dreaming big. The hard thing is waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat when the dream has turned into a nightmare. Again, I repeat, the hard thing is waking up in the middle of the night. and a cold sweat when the dream turns into a nightmare. ” Jason, if anybody out there is listening right now and they’re struggling to manage people, would you agree or what are your thoughts on this?

(Speaker 1)
Do you think it’s possible to manage people the way we do and hold people accountable to the standard of excellence that we have?

(Speaker 9)
if we weren’t always interviewing?

(Speaker 1)
Would it be possible? No, it wouldn’t be. That’s what I’m saying. If we didn’t do the group interview, how would we have to do it? we would have to schedule out time, spend all of the time that we’re using to help grow the business, work on the business, whatever. Maybe a full -time job.

(Speaker 30)
Exactly.

(Speaker 9)
Just recruiting people.

(Speaker 1)
Yeah, because case in point, what, Monday one of my clients came to the meeting and he had eight people that showed up at that group interview. That’s an entire workday for him if he decided to sit down and do those in one day. That’s very, very true. So if you’re out there today, do the group interview. Don’t fight the system. The system works.

(Speaker 1)
Step six, the passive -aggressive phase. They openly defy you by asking passive aggressive questions like, do I really need to be at this meeting? I don’t know whether I’m really adding value to this meeting or not. I’ll attend. I mean, if you think that this meeting actually adds value. See that right there, that right there is a culture killer.

(Speaker 1)
I remember years ago, we had a member of the team who their job was to record content, not even to record the content. Their job was to take the content that was being recorded and to transcribe it and to add in the right keywords for search engine optimization purposes. But when you’re optimizing content on a website, let me tell you, it takes a while to see results. I mean, Jason, think about some of your clients right now who are starting to get big results. Give me one client who’s having some really good results with the search engine right now. Let’s go with the roofer.

(Speaker 1)
Yeah, Marty. Marty, what’s his company called? So, Marty has Advanced Commercial Systems here in Broken Arrow and Tulsa. And he’s now coming up top in the Google searches for Broken Arrow Commercial Buildings. Commercial roofing, I mean. How long did it take him?

(Speaker 1)
Do you remember how long it took him? it took him? He said that it took him all in all Nine months. Nine months to get to the top of Google. Well, we’ve taken so many companies to the top of Google and our own companies to the top of Google. I mean, if you Google Tulsa Cookies, you’ll see one of the companies we’ve helped, Barbie Cookies.

(Speaker 1)
If you Google Tulsa Mortgages, you’re going to see one of the companies we’ve helped, Total Ending Concepts. If you Google so many different phrases, you’re going to find the results of the search engine optimization that we do for clients. But let me tell you, a company like Oxifresh, if you Google carpet cleaning quotes, Carpet cleaning quotes. A company like Oxifresh that’s now top in Google with over 160 ,000 objective reviews, that kind of company, that kind of success just does not happen overnight. It’s not going to happen overnight. So if you want to get your company to the top of Google, you got to hold your team accountable to doing it.

(Speaker 1)
I had a member of the team who’s like, well, we’re not top of Google yet. And he kept saying that like every day. Well, we’re not topping Google yet. I mean, I’ve been doing this all day. We’re not topping Google yet. And I’m going, yeah, Google doesn’t work that way.

(Speaker 1)
Google allows you to get to the top of Google only if you consistently over time follow their formula. There are four variables, four variables that will allow you to get to the top of Google. Variable number one is whoever has the most objective Google reviews. Whichever company has the most objective Google reviews gathered over time will be topping Google. Two, it’s whoever has the most original HTML text content. The company that has the most hypertext markup language content.

(Speaker 1)
The company with the most original words that relate to that subject. The most original relevant words. Whoever has the most words related to that keyword gets to be top over time. That’s how it works. Then third, it’s the company that has the most mobile compliance. You got to make your website work on mobile devices.

(Speaker 1)
And fourth, it’s the website that has the most Google canonical compliance. Are you following the systems? Are you following the rules set forth by Google? If you are doing those things, you get to be at the top of Google, but it doesn’t happen overnight. Why?

(Speaker 1)
Because if Google let any company get to the top of Google that wanted to be the top of Google, instantly you wouldn’t use Google anymore.

(Speaker 11)
I mean, if you if any company could be at the top of Google simply as a result of wanting to be at the top of Google and putting in work for an hour, you wouldn’t trust the search results because they’d be flaky. They’d be changing all the time. So I pulled this guy aside. He’d been with us for years.

(Speaker 1)
And I said, you have to follow the system. And he’s like, yeah, but I mean, when are we going to see results? And I’m going, it doesn’t matter. You’re getting a paycheck. Just do your job. And this guy was like, well, do I really need to come to these meetings?

(Speaker 1)
At that point, I knew regardless of how long he’d been there previously, he’s done. The moment someone questions you and says, do I have to come to this meeting? You know, they’re done. Back to the story. They tried to trap you to yet another gotcha question. If you require them to actually be at the mandatory meeting, they will sulk and add no value, thus bringing the energy down in the meetings.

(Speaker 1)
Oftentimes, they will then openly attack anyone in the meeting that has tried to come up with the pragmatic and practical solution to the problem. They no longer ever come up with their own solutions. They just attack the others who do provide the solutions. If you told them no, they would get their feelings hurt and they would still sulk. This is a lose -lose situation. And this is when the not showing up to work phase begins.

(Speaker 1)
Tomorrow, tomorrow, I might not show up to work tomorrow. Maybe I will. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I probably won’t show up to work tomorrow. Unless I do. The beautiful people, the beautiful people, the beautiful people, the beautiful people. Quit sniffing glue.

(Speaker 1)
It’s like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking. It’s like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking. It’s like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines. Step seven, the checked out phase, the art of the no show. Passive aggressive people have the courage to quit at their job emotionally, yet they lack the courage and the financial capacity needed to quit showing up to their job physically. These people start saying completely insincere statements like, can I just call in for today’s meeting?

(Speaker 1)
Do I really need to meet this week? We pretty much just go over the same stuff every week, right? I mean, and this is if, if they actually decided to show up or call you at all, their appearance becomes increasingly more and more rare. It is during this time of lamenting, venting, and secretly sharing their frustrations with everyone but… You, the boss, but you, the employer, but you, the person who has the capacity to make the changes needed. They don’t share with you the issues.

(Speaker 1)
They share with everybody else their issues. They share with everybody. Oh, everybody. They share it with their hairstylist. They share it with their mom. They share it with their neighbor, their cousin, their boyfriend, other coworkers.

(Speaker 8)
They share it with everybody.

(Speaker 1)
They want their toxic feelings to be known by everyone except for you. Because to your face, they will look at you and they will smile.

(Speaker 8)
They share their feelings with everybody but you while they pursue a job at a company that directly competes with you while you’re paying them you’re paying them during the day and doing using your

(Speaker 1)
$10 an hour, $12 an hour, $20 an hour, whatever you’re paying them per hour, they’re taking at least half of that hour to go on Indeed and Craigslist and look for other jobs.

(Speaker 8)
Oh yes, while they’re driving around on company time, they’re looking for other jobs.

(Speaker 1)
Yes, they call in sick and they’re applying for other jobs.

(Speaker 3)
They look great the next day, but they call in sick today to go look for another job.

(Speaker 1)
I’ve seen this process of becoming an anti -your -business terrorist hundreds of times. And what will happen next is never positive. Put on a helmet because you’re about to be attacked. Fun fact, the unemployment rate has crept up to 4 % even though hiring remains quite strong.

(Speaker 8)
Market watch.

(Speaker 1)
Why is that encouraging?

(Speaker 8)
Well, it’s not that encouraging. As an American society, it’s amazing that the unemployment rate is at 4 % right now because there’s much more than 4 % of the population that is unwilling to work. I mean, we’re like begging people to work now in today’s economy.

(Speaker 1)
There are people that won’t.

(Speaker 8)
We all know somebody who doesn’t want a job. And if they do get a job, they show up late and complain about the job.

(Speaker 1)
How remarkable is that, that we have such a great economy, that 4 % is the unemployment rate, when really it should probably be 50%.

(Speaker 8)
I mean, right? If we only hired the people that wanted to actually work, the unemployment rate would probably be at 50%.

(Speaker 1)
Here’s a little encouraging notable quotable for you from Andy Grove, the former CEO and one of the founding partners of Intel.

(Speaker 8)
Andy Grove says, only the paranoid survive. Now, Andrew, you have worked with us for how long?

(Speaker 1)
Have you worked with me there, my friend?

(Speaker 8)
I think it’s about three years now.

(Speaker 37)
And what position did you originally originally start?

(Speaker 1)
in, when you started your journey on the Clay Clark expedition?

(Speaker 36)
I was a wedding photographer at the very, very beginning.

(Speaker 1)
And where did you work at before coming to work at Epic Photography?

(Speaker 8)
Before Epic, I was at Chick -fil -A. Okay, and had you ever done professional photography before?

(Speaker 1)
I had not.

(Speaker 8)
Okay, see you later.

(Speaker 1)
the photography skill.

(Speaker 36)
Yep.

(Speaker 1)
And then you’ve also learned web development. True. You’ve learned, so coding, you’ve learned graphic design. Coding, WordPress, graphic design. What else have you learned? I’ve been able to learn videography on top of the photography.

(Speaker 1)
Okay.

(Speaker 8)
Video editing. I was able to learn sales calls. Sales calls, yeah. I did that. I was able to learn SEO.

(Speaker 1)
Search engine optimization. You know, how to write, how to upload, how to optimize. And again, web development and business consulting. And you’re married. And I’m married. I learned that here.

(Speaker 1)
How old are you?

(Speaker 9)
I’m 21 now.

(Speaker 1)
21.

(Speaker 9)
And you, uh, you own a rental house. True. Are you on the verge of maybe buying another one, or what’s your plan for the next one? Yeah, maybe.

(Speaker 1)
We’re looking. And you save what percentage of your income? A total between my wife and I, we save about 50 % of our entire income. And now your wife actually manages all three Elephant in the Room locations. She does. Amanda’s doing a great job.

(Speaker 1)
So you’re a couple.

(Speaker 9)
You’ve learned a lot.

(Speaker 1)
You’ve been with us for a long time. You’ve seen the process of coaching clients. You’ve coached some clients yourself. Can you talk to me about about what happens if you stop doing the group interview, if you stop recruiting people on a weekly basis, what starts to happen? Once you stop doing the group interview or if you don’t start, your employees will hold you hostage. You will have people quit or you will have people not show up to work because they want to take a personal day, which I don’t know what that means.

(Speaker 35)
they will do that.

(Speaker 1)
They will take a personal day, they will take a sick day, they will just say someone else in their family is sick and they will take a day off for that, or they will just up and quit. because they don’t want to work there. Jason, how often have you seen this happen with your clients or within the elephant in the room where you’re managing people and they get to a place where you know they’re ready for all -out war next. You know the employee is ready. They don’t have the courage to quit. They just keep showing up, but you see the hostility.

(Speaker 1)
You see the anger building. You can see it building, it’s getting worse every day, getting worse, it’s getting more intense, there’s more passive -aggressive comments, and you can see those be fighting words. Oh, absolutely. You see this often? Yeah, and it angers people because I’m that kind of person, like, I don’t want to say that I’m non -confrontational, I just don’t like arguments.

(Speaker 1)
Like, we could have a conversation, and then we could, like, try to grow, but I don’t. I also do that weird thing where, like, if you say something that’s ridiculous, I’ll laugh. which has gotten me in trouble growing up as a kid. So I’m just saying, we’re very, very close here to being in a horrible situation as an employer. When we go into the all out war phase, if you are not doing that group interview, what’s going to happen? You are going to lose an employee, which is going to hurt your business.

(Speaker 1)
And then potentially if you are not doing the group interview and they decide that they’re going to take their buddy who also works there with them, you are double screwed. So Thrive Nation, readers of this great book, don’t let your employees hold you hostage. Get ready for step eight, the prepare for war phase. Step eight, the prepare for war phase. They now have become full -page keyboard warriors who love to communicate exclusively via email. Oh yeah, when an employee has the courage to complain but not the courage to quit, get ready for the all -out war.

(Speaker 1)
Get ready, just prepare for the war phase, my friend. The people who have decided to quit working with you but who don’t have the courage needed to actually quit getting paid by you love to communicate with you via email. Oh yes, they do. In fact, they love writing this to you via email and certified mail. Certified mail. Oh yeah.

(Speaker 1)
the people who you haven’t heard from in five years, three years, six years, they’ve been sitting on it now and here they come. They’re all wired up, baby. They’re ready to go. And they’re gonna communicate to you via email or certified mail because their attorney has advised them to do so.

(Speaker 23)
Because the things they would never say to your face, oh no, no, they’re too weak to say them to your face.

(Speaker 1)
But they, oh, they’re too weak to say them to your face. They’re not gonna be direct with you. unless they are high or drunk, or unless they can use their wife or an attorney as a scapegoat to make statements like, hey, my wife just thinks I don’t get paid what I’m worth, or hey, my attorney has advised me to do it this way. The types of emails that they send are always full of half -truths and content that’s 99 % emotional. It’s feelings over fact, okay?

(Speaker 34)
Feelings over facts.

(Speaker 8)
I feel like you don’t appreciate all that I have done for this company and for you.

(Speaker 1)
and the I need to finally get paid what I’m worth.

(Speaker 8)
I’ve slaved away for you for years as though they don’t have opportunities to work somewhere else, right? I have slaved away for you as though that paycheck wasn’t something they received. I slaved away for you as though the education they learned wasn’t good. I slaved away for you and I just can’t believe that I’m being treated like the dog that you truly are. How long did it take them to think of that pithy line?

(Speaker 1)
And things like that. They don’t ever remember that you are the one that taught them everything and that they now know and that they are now using what you’ve taught them to compete now against you. When they send those types of emails, you can also guarantee that they will not be in the building later that week for you to discuss it in person.

(Speaker 8)
When, if they finally do show back up, they are all smiles and never ever mention sending the email at all.

(Speaker 1)
This is assuming that they ever send you an email. Many times they will talk to you about, they will talk about you and. a derogatory manner while hanging out with their other employees who currently work for you. They try to make everybody dislike you. Or their newest live -in girlfriend, or their newest live -in boyfriend. They love to tell people false things about you.

(Speaker 1)
They love to write false things about you on Reddit. They love to be courageous under an anonymous screen name. The courage that they have to write under that anonymous screen name, the half -truths on Reddit. Glassdoor or what? Google or Facebook. They love to write on these things.

(Speaker 1)
Yes, they do. They love to leave comments.

(Speaker 30)
They say, if you want to know the real truth about this person, let me tell you, I worked there for five years and this is what happened.

(Speaker 1)
And before they leave, they want to create a weird atmosphere for both you and your current team. Andrew, it’s sad when this happens, but why do you think that most people have the courage to complain to everybody else, but not to actually quit?

(Speaker 33)
Why do you think that is?

(Speaker 1)
I don’t know. I don’t know, it doesn’t really make sense. You see it happen all the time. I do. I see it happen multiple times in a lot of different companies. Your employees, they’re not going to have the courage to walk up to you and tell you what they’re thinking.

(Speaker 1)
They’re just going to do everything behind your back. They don’t want to have that conversation with you, because it’s rejection, it’s hard, it’s a weird, difficult conversation. They want to avoid the conflict. they wouldn’t do it’s easiest. Yep. Water flows downhill.

(Speaker 1)
That’s right. So Jason, if we didn’t do the group interview though, if we stopped doing that group interview, if we stopped recruiting people, what happens? What do you think it happens right here when you’re in the war phase where they don’t have the courage to quit, but now they’re sending full page emails complaining about management under an anonymous email.

(Speaker 9)
What happens then, Jason?

(Speaker 1)
Well, if you weren’t already hiring now, it’s going to hurt. It could potentially hurt your image, but on top of that, you’re still employing somebody and you don’t have anybody in the pipeline to get that negativity out of there.

(Speaker 9)
So that weird environment that they’re trying to manifest just keeps festering and growing bigger and bigger.

(Speaker 1)
And we had Rabbi Lappin on the show. He was talking about the Old Testament and what the Old Testament means literally. And he talked about how in the Hebrew language, the word money means certificate of appreciation. So if you’re paying somebody who you don’t like, somebody who’s doing a bad job, you’re appreciating, you are cheering for poor performance. You’re saying, I love you. Don’t do that checklist.

(Speaker 1)
I love when you don’t do that checklist. Come on, baby. I love it. Oh, oh yes. You don’t follow the script. I love it.

(Speaker 1)
You don’t follow the script. If you complain about the employee. and don’t have the courage to fire them, you’re in the same boat. You guys are in the same boat going in a different direction, which is weird. You’re in the same boat. You’re each paddling fast the other way, trying to rip that boat apart in the middle.

(Speaker 1)
You just gotta have that confrontation. You gotta have that conversation. Running a business is like playing chess, so you gotta make sure that the timing is correct. The timing has to be right. So what you have to do is you gotta make sure that you always have a steady pipeline of new candidates applying for jobs at all times. And when we come back, Step number nine.

(Speaker 1)
Step number nine. Step number nine. Jason, what is step number nine all about? Step number nine is the all -out war phase. So now we’re in the all -out war. Get ready, because it’s about ready to go down.

(Speaker 1)
Step nine, the all -out war phase. At this point, they have begun passive -aggressively using slight legal threats like, well, you will need to speak to my attorney, or my uncle is an attorney and has advised me to speak to my attorney before communicating with you further. Once a chronic underperformer discovers that they are going to be fired, the chronic underperformer discovers that they are going to be fired from the job that they quit mentally showing up for, mentally, months ago, they then go out and hire a no -talent ambulance -chasing attorney to represent them. This person who wants to talk to you about every issue in their personal life, they needed rides to work, they needed you to coach them, to mentor them, they had a lot of personal issues that you needed to help them through, you were their mentor for years. Now, they say, you have to talk to my attorney.

(Speaker 1)
They said, well, my attorney has advised me to not speak on that further. It’s all about my attorney. My attorney says, once the kermits of your life have moved on and have started something else, most of the time they will end up directly competing against you or stealing your clients or stealing your clients to compete against you. And they will create a business based on all of the things that you taught them. Their entitlement and bitterness, feeling underappreciated or undervalued for not allowing them to build their personal brand, Oh boy, has created this big monster, this new monster called Rage. They now begin using this Rage in the form of suing you or invoicing you for work they did in the past.

(Speaker 1)
They can begin invoicing you for work they did in the past that they forgot to turn in. This is a no -win -win zone here. This is a complete no -win -win zone here.

(Speaker 32)
The damage is done, the relationship is irreparable.

(Speaker 1)
They will go around town dragging your name down through the mud. So a super move is to call everyone that you both know first. You want to call everyone that you both know, the mutual acquaintances, and you want to let everybody know what actually happened. Because let me tell you what happens when you do not tell people the truth of what happened. They do this. They say, hey, I just want to let you know, I went out and started my own thing.

(Speaker 1)
It’s because they weren’t paying me well. They were abusing me, taking advantage of me. They never let me build my personal brand. I just want you to know. So now your reputation gets taken care of. through the mud as a way for them to say, as a way for the employee to thank you for the years of paychecks you’ve provided them.

(Speaker 1)
Warren Buffett once said, it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. So be sure to protect your reputation from lies and slander. Robert Greene, the best selling author of the 48 Laws of Power writes, Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone, you can intimidate and win. Once you let it slip though, however, you are vulnerable and you will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable.

(Speaker 1)
Notable quotable, Winston Churchill, the British politician, the army officer and writer. He was the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945. He once said, remember this is Winston Churchill, this is the guy who stood up to Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler was trying to take over the world and he was dominating Europe and he was threatening to kill. I mean England was the last free portion of Europe and he said, listen Mr Winston Churchill, this is what Adolf Hitler said, he said, if you will turn over your Jews and become part of the Third Reich, become part of the Nazi regime, I will spare the lives of your people. That’s the offer that was being made.

(Speaker 1)
And Winston Churchill could have done that, but he decided to stand up and to fight against Adolf Hitler. The only one willing to do it, this is before the American support. Look up the history, look up the timeline. America was not coming to help. Winston Churchill wanted to die fighting if need be, but he was not going to submit to the tyranny of Adolf Hitler. And he said, you have enemies?

(Speaker 31)
good.

(Speaker 1)
That means that you’ve stood for something sometime in your life. I could not agree more. The can’t move on phase. Step 10, the final phase, the final phase of this incredible book, this incredibly humble book, don’t let your employees hold you hostage.

(Speaker 9)
Because after the employees finally moved on, for some reason, they struggle to, they just can’t move on.

(Speaker 1)
Once they physically moved on, they no longer work there, they just, for some reason, can’t move on. Last door, I mean diary. I used to work for Clay Clark. And if you only knew about the form of mental abuse that I faced while working there. He made me show up to work on time. And when I just stole some headphones, I mean borrowed headphones, I just, I forgot they were on and I took them home.

(Speaker 1)
And I did reach out to one of his current clients and try to steal them away and start my own business with them. My turn, oh my God, I have a business and my own brand. Am I stealing a client? That’s all I was doing. That’s what happens though, right? They can’t move on.

(Speaker 1)
What are they, lamenting in their journal at night? No, they’re not lamenting on their journal. They’re lamenting on Reddit.

(Speaker 30)
They’re lamenting on LinkedIn.

(Speaker 1)
They’re forming anonymous Google accounts and leaving you bad reviews. They’re writing bad about you on YouTube comments. They’re doing whatever they can because they can’t move on because they are a no -talent ass clown. I hate to slap your baby, but 75 % of employees steal from the workplace according to the U . S. Chamber of Commerce, 78 % of men have an affair according to the Washington Post, and 85 % of people lie on their resumes according to Inc.

(Speaker 1)
My friends, we live in a dark world and you are called to be the light. It’s not mean, it’s not negative, it’s just the truth. The facts are important to know. You can handle the truth and you must understand that most people are not that great. All right? I hate to be the bearer of bad news and I hate to slap your baby, but we must move on, knowing the truth.

(Speaker 1)
Step 10, the can’t move on phase. Since your ex -employee had no money, and they did not have any immediate success, they decided to invest their idle time, which is all of their time, suing you, booing you, and writing bad online reviews about the success that you have built. Their bitterness is out of control here.

(Speaker 9)
They have decided to commit their days to sitting there and sulking while smoking pot.

(Speaker 8)
Seriously, that’s what happens, right?

(Speaker 1)
They end up sitting at home, smoking pot, talking about their anxiety, leaving bad online reviews about you randomly, unliking photos, unsubscribing to things, blocking you on Facebook, blocking you on Instagram. We’re all connected so much with social media. It takes about a half of a nuclear half -life to just remember all the ways you’re connected. You’re like, Frank, I’ve got to unlike them. Gotta unlike their business, gotta defriend them, gotta un -Instagram them, un -like them, gotta un -YouTube subscribe, gotta get off the Twitter, gotta quit following them on Twitter, gotta block their phone number, gotta block their text messages, gotta switch addresses, gotta burn all my clothes and become a hippie. I mean, it’s just people, they have a hard time moving on.

(Speaker 1)
And then, they only remember the times that when you had to pull them aside and tell them to be on time, to get their job done, to hit deadlines. Now they resent you for ever having tried to help them become a better version of themselves. They hate you for your success. they want it for themselves, but without making any sacrifices at all. Simply put, they loathe you. They always loathe you, but they lack the courage needed to ever talk to you about it or the brain to resolve it and move on.

(Speaker 1)
So what do they do? They spent all their free time. Let’s face it. They do have a lot of free time here since they aren’t employed, bashing you all over social media, suing you and making up false stories about you. It is best to ignore them. and their burning passion for hating you flame out, much like their passion for working with you once did.

(Speaker 1)
” Now, here are some Bible verses for the kermits out there, for the employees who try to hold you hostage, that they’re not going to like very much, but I thought we should put them all together at one time and read them to you. So Proverbs 24 says what, Jason? Oh, hey, I cut him off guard. I cut him off guard. That was tricky, tricky. Proverbs 24.

(Speaker 1)
Sluggards do not plow in season, so at harvest time they look but find nothing. There it is. If you’re a slacker, go back to the agricultural society, the agragarian society. You had to sow seeds to reap a harvest. And just like that in today in modern times, you got to do work to get paid. Proverbs 6, 9 reads what, Jason?

(Speaker 1)
How long will you lie there, you sluggard? Or when will you get up from your sleep? Think about that. Proverbs 6, 9. We’re asking a question here. It says, how long will you lie there, you sluggard?

(Speaker 1)
Oh, nice little jab there. When will you Will you get up from your sleep? Proverbs 21, 25 reads what, Jason? The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him because his hands refuse to work. Proverbs 21, 25 reads the craving of a sluggard will be the death of him because his hands refuse to work. Again, the cravings of a sluggard will be the death of him because his hands refuse to work.

(Speaker 1)
So now that you’ve heard all this stuff, what’s the conclusion? What do you need to do? How can you prevent yourself from ever being held hostage again? How do you keep yourself from ever allowing your employees to hold you hostage again? Well, the whole point of this book is to show you what can and will happen to you if you let employees and their problems fester. Between my partners and I, we’ve employed thousands of employees.

(Speaker 1)
Think about that. And I can honestly say that there are a few great exceptions out there that do not fall into the 85 % of employees, for the most part, being terrible. I believe we have those great people on our team now, but I’ve had to sift through a lot of idiots to find the right people. Today, I employ a great team of people who are here for a season to grow and are thankful for what they are learning and what they have learned. But there are also the terrorist employees that will try to hold you hostage out there.

(Speaker 9)
Don’t let this happen to you.

(Speaker 1)
On the following pages, you’ll see some action steps that you can take to make sure you are never being held hostage. Step number one, never stop hiring. A small team of A -plus players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players. Steve Jobs. Again, the co -founder of Apple, the former CEO of Pixar, and the founder of Next, Steve Jobs says, a small team of A players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players. Even when you are fully staffed, never ever stop looking for great employees to make room for.

(Speaker 1)
Constant recruitment allows you to never put Never be put into a bind. It allows you to never put yourself in a corner where you’re painting yourself into a corner. Constant recruitment allows you to never be put into a bind again. Or those awkward situations where an employee decides to move on and you can’t cover the work that you’ve promised to do for your clients and your customers. Step two, never stop the group interview. Steve Jobs says, and again, Steve Jobs is the man who modernized, who revolutionized the entire computer industry, the music industry, the animated film industry.

(Speaker 1)
This guy used to be the head of Pixar. This is the guy who got all the record labels to team up together to make iTunes possible. This is the guy who revolutionized the personal computer.

(Speaker 9)
He said, some people, some people aren’t used to an environment where, what, excellence is expected.

(Speaker 1)
Again, he says, some people aren’t used to an environment where, what, excellence isn’t expected.

(Speaker 29)
Let’s try that again.

(Speaker 1)
Some people aren’t used to an environment where, Excellence is expected. The group interview is a system that I’ve refined over the past 20 years of self -employment. I’ve been doing this since I was 16 years old. Okay. I’ve been employed. I’m 38.

(Speaker 1)
I’ve been 22 years. 22 years I’ve been self -employed. The group interview is the system that I’ve refined over the past 22 years of self -employment, where you can interview multiple people at the same time for the same position. This is powerful because it allows you to find or look for good people for an hour a week instead of having to allocate hours and hours to sit down and interview each and every person, half of which you can’t figure out how to show up on time. Step three, Jason, what do you got here? What’s step number three?

(Speaker 1)
Never stop having people shadow you. So Andrew Carnegie, the man who became one of the world’s wealthiest men in his lifetime, says what on the subject, Jason? The older I get, the less I pay attention to what people say and the more I look at what they do. After you find a seemingly good person from the group interview, they have to then shadow you for a day for the following reasons. Anyone can pretend to be awesome for an hour during an interview, but holding up that facade for several hours is a little bit more tough. Two, this is their opportunity to see what it is you do and for them to build a foundational relationship with you to see if they like you and you like them.

(Speaker 1)
Let’s see if they actually would like to work in your environment and would you like them to work in your environment? This is your opportunity. Point three, this is your opportunity.

(Speaker 28)
to see how they think and what level of skill they have for the job that you are hiring them for.

(Speaker 1)
Never push an employee past their lid. The leadership expert John Maxwell, the guy who wrote the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership says, the leadership expert John Maxwell says, he talks about how each person has their own personal lid or their limit of their, the limit of their competence, their competency. How much can they handle? And once you try to push someone to be greater than they want to be, they will resent you for it. Step five is what, Jason? Never teach an employee the entire business.

(Speaker 1)
Each employee can have specific roles within the company, but once you teach an employee all of the ins and outs of the business, you have created your future competitor. Step number six is what, Jason? Mentally fire uncoachable people. When you watch an employee go from being coachable and eager to learn to being not able to receive any feedback at all, any constructive criticism at all, mentally fire that person and replace them at the most convenient time for you, the business owner. Really? Is that what you do?

(Speaker 2)
That’s what you do. Why? Because we’re playing chess here, okay? You don’t have to broadcast to the world. You have to tell the world, hey, hey, here’s the deal, Germany. We’re going to be bombing you at 2 -0 -2 -0 in this ridiculous, easily offended world.

(Speaker 2)
We like to think that we should tell America our game plan for engaging in war. Think about how that would work, Jason. Excuse me, Mr. Hitler, are you there? Okay, Mr. Hitler, I just want you to know I’m representing America.

(Speaker 1)
We will be attacking you tomorrow at 2 -47. with 27 tanks, 1 ,000 infantry, just want you to know to make sure it’s fair. Get out of here. It’s war. If somebody’s screwing you, choose the time to let them go and make sure it’s convenient for you. Dr. Zellner, my partner and co -host of the Thrive Time Show podcast, says a business exists to please the owner.

(Speaker 1)
A business exists to please the owner. Dr. Robert H. Zellner has been a successful optometrist and entrepreneur within the city of Tulsa for 22 years. However, most would consider him to be an entrepreneur first and an optometrist second. second, third, fourth, or fifth. As a self -made millionaire and entrepreneur who started with nothing but passion, his current business ventures include Z66 Auto Auction, Rockin’ Z Ranch, Dr. Z’s Sleep Center, Dr. Robert H. Zellner & Associates, and Thrive15 . com.

(Speaker 1)
He has served as the director of the board of the bank, Regent Bank, they invested in in 2008. Dr. Zellner is one of those rare entrepreneurs that decided to go buy a bank. I’m not sure if that gives him any credibility there, but he went out and decided to buy a bank. Instead of depositing in a bank, he said, let’s go buy a bank. So in March of 2008, he was the director of the board of Regent Bank, the bank that he’s an investor and part owner of. And he did that from March 2008 through January of 2013.

(Speaker 1)
He’s known for consistently saying, I’d rather invest in a business that I have control over. And he has made enough money that he is now in that, I’m going to wear a soccer jersey and shorts everywhere phase of his life. He deeply cares about humans and is involved in countless philanthropic causes, not the least of which includes his benevolent tasering and mentoring of myself, Clay Clark. And again, Dr. Zoner says, a business exists to please the owner. My friends, now that you know what to do, it’s up to you to implement. It’s up to you to never let your employees hold you hostage again.

(Speaker 1)
My name is Kevin Thomas and the name of our company is MultiClean. We are a commercial janitorial service and we serve the entire state of Oklahoma. and Kansas and soon to be Arkansas. We have probably grown probably five times. We’ve added, I think when we first started with you, we had 60 to 65 employees and now we have a little over 300 employees. Before we got involved with Thrive Time, we didn’t really have any systems or processes in place.

(Speaker 1)
I’ve probably been to Oh, in six, seven years, I’ve probably been to 12 to 13 business conferences. And amazingly, each time I go, I learn something new.

(Speaker 6)
And I’m so excited to bring it back.

(Speaker 1)
and show the team about marketing and how to implement.

(Speaker 4)
Okay, Aaron Antis, September 25th and 26th, guess who’s coming back to Tulsa? I will give you a hint.

(Speaker 13)
His first name is Eric. And his last name is Trump.

(Speaker 4)
And his father is the 47th president of these United States. Yes, Eric Trump is joining us once again here, September 25th and 26th in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the two day interactive Thrive Time Show Business Growth Workshop. But Eric Trump is bringing friends. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Alina Haba will be joining Eric Trump right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Amanda Grace will be in the place. Dr. Stella Emanuel.

(Speaker 1)
will be here in T -Town in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

(Speaker 13)
Julie Green will be on the scene. Mel K will be here to say hey. Dave Scarlett from the His Glory team will be here.

(Speaker 4)
It’s going to be a blasty blast right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. If you want to start or grow a super successful company, if you want to make your wallet great again or make your wallet great for the first time, if you want to learn marketing, systems, scaling, human resources, accounting, social media, branding, search engine optimization, sales training, financial management and more. Get your tickets right now at Thrivetimeshow . com. Once again, it’s Thrivetimeshow . com.

(Speaker 27)
A lot of people don’t know this, but the Trump Organization has thousands of employees. There’s not 50 employees.

(Speaker 1)
The Trump Organization, again, most people don’t know this, but the Trump Organization has thousands of employees. And while Donald J. Trump was the 45th president of these United States, he needed a competent man to run and execute his business plans. showtime so the man that runs the trump organization for donald j trump as he was the 45th president of the united states and now the 47th president of the united states is eric trump so eric trump is here to talk about time management promoting from within marketing, branding, quality control, sales systems, workflow design, workflow mapping, how to build.

(Speaker 25)
I mean, everything that you see, the Trump hotels, the Trump golf courses, all their products, the man who manages Billions of dollars of real estate and thousands of employees is here to teach us how to do it.

(Speaker 1)
You are talking about one of the greatest brands on the planet from a business standpoint. I mean, who else has been able to create a brand like the Trump brand? I mean, look at it. And this is the man behind the business for the last pretty much since 2015. He’s been the man behind it. So you’re talking, we’re into nine going into 10 years of him running it.

(Speaker 1)
And we get to tap into that knowledge. That’s going to be amazing. Now think about this for a second. Clay Clark, man. He is one character. That’s a good word for him.

(Speaker 1)
Character. Yeah, that is it. Good, driven, smart. And I’ve never met a guy who was so hyper all the time.

(Speaker 12)
He’s doing so much good. And then I met his mother and she just says, She just lets him be Clay Clark.

(Speaker 7)
I mean, so he’s endorsed by his mother and he’s doing magnificent work. So it was great meeting you out there and all the people that he surrounds himself with. His Clay Clark starts his days at five o ‘clock in the morning. Oh, it’s incredible. Yeah.

(Speaker 12)
He’s, he’s like, he’s, he’s a machine.

(Speaker 26)
He’s a machine.

(Speaker 7)
But his, you know, I could, I have problems with my company starting at nine o ‘clock. Yes.

(Speaker 1)
But hundreds of people showing up at 5 a .

(Speaker 18)
m.

(Speaker 1)
in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Man, he’s a leader of a leader. He’s fantastic. Yeah, man. No, he is. The lineup continues to grow.

(Speaker 1)
And this is how we do our tickets here at the Thrive Time Show. If you want to get a VIP ticket, you can absolutely do it. It’s five hundred dollars for a VIP ticket. We’ve already done that. done it that way. Now, if you want to take a general admission ticket, it’s $250 or whatever price you want to pay.

(Speaker 25)
And the reason why I do that and the reason why we do that is because we want to make our events affordable for everybody.

(Speaker 1)
I grew up without money. I totally understand what it’s like to be the tight spot.

(Speaker 24)
So if you want to attend, it’s $250 or whatever price you want to pay. That’s how I do it.

(Speaker 1)
And it’s $500 for a VIP ticket. Now, we only have limited seating here with the most people we’ve ever had. in this building was for the Jim Brewer presentation. Jim Brewer came here, the legendary comedian Jim Brewer came to Tulsa, and we had 419 people that were here. 419 people. And I thought to myself, there’s no more room.

(Speaker 1)
I felt kind of bad that a couple people had VIP seats in the men’s restroom. No, I’m just kidding.

(Speaker 6)
So I thought, you know what, we should probably add on. Clay Clark is here somewhere. Where’s my buddy Clay? Clay’s the greatest.

(Speaker 1)
I met his goats today. I met his dogs. I met his chickens. I saw his compound. He’s like the greatest guy. I ran from his goats, his chickens, his dogs.

(Speaker 1)
So this guy’s like the greatest marketer you’ve ever seen, right? His entire life, Clay Clark, his entire life is marketing. So again, if you want to get tickets for this event, all you have to do is go to thrivetimeshow . com. Go to thrivetimeshow . com.

(Speaker 1)
When you go to thrivetimeshow . com, you’ll go there, you’ll request a ticket, boom. Or if you want to text me, if you want a little bit faster service, you say, I want you to call me right now. Just text my number. It’s my cell phone number, my personal cell phone number. We’ll keep that.

(Speaker 1)
private between you, between you, me, everybody. We’ll keep that private. And anybody, don’t share that with anybody except for everybody. That’s my private cell phone number.

(Speaker 23)
It’s 918 -851 -0102.

(Speaker 1)
918 -851 -0102. I know we have a lot of Spanish -speaking people that attend these conferences. And so to be bilingually sensitive, my cell phone number is 918 -851 -0102. That is not actually true. It’s not the same thing. I think you’re attacking me.

(Speaker 1)
Now, let’s talk about this. Now, what kind of stuff will you learn at the Thrive Time Show Workshop? So, Aaron, you’ve been to many of these over the past seven, eight years. So let’s talk about it. I’ll tee up the thing and then you tell me what you’re going to learn here, OK? OK.

(Speaker 1)
You’re going to learn marketing, marketing and branding. What are we going to learn about marketing and branding?

(Speaker 23)
Oh, yeah.

(Speaker 1)
We’re going to dive into, you know, so many people say, oh, you know, I got to get my brand known out there like the Trump brand. Right. You want to get that brand out there. It’s like, how do I actually make people know what my business is and make it a household name. You’re going to learn some intricacies of how you can do that. You’re going to learn sales.

(Speaker 1)
So many people struggle to sell something. This just in, your business will go to hell if you can’t sell. So we’re going to teach you sales. We’re going to teach you search engine optimization, how to come up top in the search engine results. We’re going to teach you how to manage people. Aaron, you have managed, no exaggeration, hundreds of people throughout your career and thousands of contractors.

(Speaker 1)
And most people struggle with managing. managing people. Why does everybody have to learn how to manage people? Well, because first of all, people are, you either have great people or you have people who suck. And so it could be a challenge, you know, learning how to work with a large group of people and get everybody pulling in the same direction can be a challenge. But if you have the right systems, you have the right processes, and you’re really good at selecting great ones.

(Speaker 1)
And we have a process we teach about how to find great people. When you start with the people who have a great attitude, they’re teachable, they’re driven, all of those things, then you can get those people all pulling in the same direction. So we’re going to teach you branding, marketing, sales, search engine optimization. We’re going to teach you accounting.

(Speaker 6)
We’re going to teach you personal finance, how to manage your finance. We’re going to teach you time management.

(Speaker 1)
How do you manage your time? How do you get more done during a typical day? How do you build an organization if you’re not organized? How do you do organization? How do you build an org chart?

(Speaker 1)
Everything that you need to know to start and grow a business will be taught during this two -day interactive business workshop. Now, let me tell you how the format is set up here. And again, folks, this is a two -day interactive 15 -minute workshop. Think about this, folks. It’s two days. Each day it starts at 7 a .

(Speaker 1)
m. , and it goes until 5 p . m. So from 7 a . m. to 5 p .

(Speaker 1)
m. , two days. It’s a two -day interactive workshop. The way we do it is we do a 30 -minute teaching session, and then we break for 15 minutes for a question -and -answer session.

(Speaker 22)
So, Aaron, what kind of great stuff happens during that 15 -minute question -and -answer session after every teaching session?

(Speaker 4)
I actually think it’s the best part about the workshops because here’s what happens.

(Speaker 21)
I’ve been to lots of these things over the years.

(Speaker 20)
I’ve paid many thousands of dollars I’ll see you in the next video.

(Speaker 1)
And you leave not getting your very specific questions answered about your business or your employees or what you’re doing on your marketing. And what’s awesome about this is we literally answer every single question that any person asks. And it’s very specific to what your business is. And what we do is we allow you as the attendee to write your questions on the whiteboard. And then we literally, as you mentioned, we answer every single question on the whiteboard. And then we take a 15 -minute break to stretch and to make it entertaining when you’re stretching.

(Speaker 1)
It’s a true story. When you get up and stretch, you’ll be greeted by mariachis. There’s going to probably be alpaca here, llamas, helicopter rides, a coffee bar, a snow cone. I mean, there’s just.

(Speaker 6)
You had a crocodile one time.

(Speaker 1)
That was pretty interesting. You know, I should write that down. Sorry for that one guy that we lost. The crocodile, we duct taped its face. Right, we duct taped. It was a baby crocodile.

(Speaker 1)
around the mouth so it didn’t bite anybody. But it was really cool passing that thing around and petting it. I should do that. We have a small petting zoo that will be assembled. It’s going to be great. And then you’re in the company of hundreds of entrepreneurs.

(Speaker 1)
So there’s not a lot of people in America today. In fact, there’s less than 10 million people today, according to US Debt Clock, that identify as being self -employed. So if you have a country with 350 million people, That means you have less than 3 % of our population that’s even self -employed. So you only have 3 out of every 100 people in America that are self -employed to begin with.

(Speaker 3)
And when Inc. Magazine reports that 96 % of businesses fail by default, By default, you have a 1 out of 1 ,000 chance of succeeding in the game of business. But yet, the average client that you and I work with, we can typically double this. No hyperbole, no exaggeration. I have thousands of testimonials to back this up. We have thousands of testimonials to back it up.

(Speaker 3)
But when you work with a home builder, when I work with a business owner, we can typically double the size of the company within 24 months. And you say, double?

(Speaker 1)
Yeah, there’s businesses that we have tripled. There’s businesses we’ve grown 8x. There’s so many examples you can see. see it thrivetimeshow . com. But again, this is the most interactive best business workshop on the planet.

(Speaker 1)
This is objectively the highest rated and most reviewed business workshop on the planet.

(Speaker 6)
I was looking to learn how to take my business like they’ve said today from being very successful to being systematic.

(Speaker 11)
I’ve got a very successful practice in three different cities, make good money, just want to take it to the next level with systems and processes to where I can drive my cars more.

(Speaker 1)
Paul Hood. been a CPA for 33 years. And what kind of growth have you and your great team had here over the past, let’s say, five, six years? the last five when i met you five years ago we were doing three million this year we’ll be we’ll do 24 million and you say clay i still i’m not gonna get a ticket unless you give me more okay fine we’re gonna serve you the same meal both days true story we have we cater in the food and because I keep it simple. I literally bring in the same food both days for lunch.

(Speaker 20)
It’s Ted Esconzito’s, an incredible Mexican restaurant. That’s going to happen.

(Speaker 1)
And Jill Donovan, our good friend, who is the founder of Rustic Cuff.

(Speaker 20)
She started that company in her home, and now she sells millions of dollars of apparel and products. That’s rusticcuff .

(Speaker 1)
com. And someone says, I want more. This is not enough. Give me more. OK. I’m not going to mention their names right now, because I’m working on it behind the scenes here. But we’ve got one guy who’s giving me a verbal.

to be here, and this is a guy who’s one of the wealthiest people in Oklahoma, and nobody really knows who he is. because he’s built systems that are very utilitarian, that offer a lot of value. He’s made a lot of money in the, it’s the, it’s where you rent, it’s short term, it’s where you’re renting storage spaces. He’s a storage space guy. He owns the, what do you call that? The rental, the – Storage space? Storage units.

This guy owns storage units. He owns railroad cars. He owns a lot of assets that make money on a daily basis, but they’re not like customer facing. Most people don’t know, who owns the mini storage facility, or most people don’t know who owns the warehouse that’s passively making money. Most people don’t know who owns the railroad cars, but this guy, he’s giving me a verbal that he will be here. And we just continue to add more and more success stories.

So if you’re out there today and you wanna change your life, you want to give yourself a incredible gift, you want a life -changing experience, you wanna learn how to start and grow a company, go to thrivetimeshow . com, go there right now, thrivetimeshow . com, request a ticket for the two -day interactive event Hey, how’s it going? owner and founder of Full Package Media in Dallas, Texas. I’ve been a coaching client with Clay Clark since the beginning of our business. We started about a year ago, August of last year.

I had no clients, no idea what we were doing, no clue really what was going on, and now we’ve grown to where we’ve got six photographers, we’ve got office space, here. I have an admin sales person that works for us full time, developing an online system and a lot of that growth we attribute to Clay helping us. And there’s so many things that, I mean, his stuff is not revolutionary. It’s not this crazy walk on hot coals and all this stuff. It’s just real, real stuff. It’s going to be a blasty blast.

There’s no upsells. Aaron, I could not be more excited about this event. I think it is incredible. And there’s somebody out there right now you’re watching and you’re like, but I already signed up for this incredible other program called Smoke Your Way to Thin. I think that’s going to change your life. I promise you this will be 10 times better than that.

It’s like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking. Results in a way that won’t cause you to have a stoma get your tickets at Thrivetimeshow . com Again, that’s Aaron Antis. I’m Clay Clark and reminding you and inviting you to come out to the two -day interactive Thrivetimeshow workshop right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma I promise you it will be a life -changing experience. We can’t wait to see up right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma What kind of growth have you had since you and I’ve been working together? over these past few years?

3 .45 million. I got those stats before I got on here. So you’ve grown by 3 .45 million? Yeah. 3 million, 450 ,000. Would that be like if you took the combined revenue and maybe doubled it?

Or have we gone up by… About almost three, not quite.

Transcribed with Cockatoo