Scaling 101 | “Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple…once you get there, you can move mountains.” – Steve Jobs + Join Eric Trump At Clay Clark’s Sept 25-26 Conf.

Audio Transcription

Transcribed with Cockatoo

(Speaker 3)
Good morning. We’re up till 3 o ‘clock last night finishing this advertising up. And I want to show it to you in a minute, see what you think of it. I’ve been back about 8 to 10 weeks, and we’ve been working really hard. And what we’re trying to do is not something really highfalutin. We’re trying to get back to the basics.

(Speaker 3)
We’re trying to get back to the basics of great products, great marketing, and great distribution. has pockets of greatness, but in some ways has drifted away from doing the basics really well. So we started with the product line. We looked at the product roadmap going out for a few years, and we said, a lot of this doesn’t make sense, and it’s way too much stuff, and there’s not enough focus. And so we actually got rid of 70 % of the stuff on the product roadmap. I mean, I couldn’t even figure out the damn product line after a few weeks.

(Speaker 3)
I kept saying, well, what is this model? How does this fit? And I started talking to customers, and they couldn’t figure it out either. And so you’re going to see the product line get much simpler, and you’re going to see the product line get much better. And there’s some new stuff coming out that’s incredibly nice. In addition, we’ve been able to focus a lot more on the 30 % of the gems and add some new stuff in that is going to take us in some whole new directions.

(Speaker 3)
that has doesn’t have the most resources of everybody in the world. And the way we’ve succeeded is by choosing what horses to ride really carefully. Technically we try to look for these technical vectors that that have a future and that are headed up and you know technology different pieces of technology. kind of go in cycles. They have their springs and summers and autumns and then they, you know, go to the graveyard of technology. And so we try to pick things that are in their springs.

(Speaker 3)
And if you choose wisely, you can save yourself an enormous amount of work versus trying to do everything. And you can really put energy into making those new emerging technologies be great on your platform. rather than just OK, because you’re spreading yourself too thin. So we have a history of doing that. As an example, we went from the 5 -inch floppy disk to the 3 .5 -inch floppy disk with the Mac.

(Speaker 18)
Before other people, right?

(Speaker 3)
We were the first to do that. We made the 3 .5 -inch floppy disk popular. Sony invented it, and we put it in the first products. And there were some good reasons we did that. We got rid of the floppy disk altogether in 1998 with the first iMac. We also got rid of these things called serial and parallel ports.

(Speaker 3)
And we were the first to adopt USB, even though Intel had invented it. You first saw it in mass on iMacs. And so we have gotten rid of things. We were one of the first to get rid of optical drives with the MacBook Air. And I think things are moving in that direction as well. And sometimes when we get rid of things like the floppy disk drive on the original iMac, people call us crazy.

(Speaker 10)
Or at least premature, maybe.

(Speaker 3)
No, they call us crazy.

(Speaker 28)
Oh, OK.

(Speaker 3)
And sometimes you just have to pick the things that look like they’re going to be the right horses to ride going forward. What if people say, you know, the iPad is crippled in this respect? Well, you know, I’d say two things. Number one, things are packages of emphasis. Some things are emphasized in a product. Some things are not done as well in a product.

(Speaker 3)
Some things are chosen not to be done at all in a product. And so different people make different choices. And if the market tells us we’re making the wrong choices, we listen to the market. We’re just people running this company. We’re trying to make great products for people. And so we have at least the courage of our convictions to say, we don’t think this is part of what makes a great product.

(Speaker 3)
We’re going to leave it out. Some people are going to not like that. They’re going to call us names. It’s not going to be in certain companies vested interests that we do that, but we’re going to take the heat because we want to make the best product in the world for customers. And we’re going to instead focus our energy on these technologies, which we think are in their ascendancy, and we think are going to be the right technologies for customers. And you know what?

(Speaker 3)
They’re paying us to make those choices. That’s what a lot of customers pay us to do, is to try to make the best products we can. And if we succeed, they’ll buy them. And if we don’t, they won’t. And it’ll all work itself out.

(Speaker 1)
The journey of Airbnb, of being able to build Airbnb, has been unbelievable. It’s been the great joy of my lifetime. And if people could experience what I experienced, I would say to them, it would be the most unbelievable ride of a lifetime. And I wouldn’t want to change a ton because it’s been amazing. But if they’re about, somebody’s listening, and they’re about to go on this journey, I would forewarn them about some things that no one told me. And no one told me when I started this journey is two things.

(Speaker 1)
The first thing is how lonely it would be. And it doesn’t have to be, but it’s almost like by default. You see, when I started Airbnb, I started with my friends, two of my friends. Then we hired people. And those people, they were our employees, but they were also kind of our friends.

(Speaker 1)
And this notion that I was the boss, there was a power imbalance. Well, we’re all like broke working at a three -bedroom apartment. So what does it mean that I’m CEO? Like, that’s kind of just a title. And so I felt really connected. We weren’t a family, but we were more like a family than a business, if it was one or the other.

(Speaker 1)
And then as we got successful, then it became more of a corporation. There was a chain of command. There were more boundaries. You started hiring people that had families. And people with families don’t hang out with you on nights and weekends. And then it becomes more formal.

(Speaker 1)
And that’s the moment that your employees become your employees and less your friends. And that gets more and more isolating. And then people start looking at you a little bit differently. And it feels really good. But you can just find yourself working more and more to live up to the responsibility. And you feel like you’re never working enough.

(Speaker 1)
And you’re working 60 hours a week, then 80 hours a week, and 100 hours a week. And you just almost feel guilty any second you’re alive and you’re not working. And again, I’m a huge proponent and pouring your life into something. But I think that what I thought was every incremental hour would make me more productive. But what turns out that like we need to step away from work, we need to be happy, we need to have some healthy relationships to probably make good decisions. I don’t lonely need leaders are probably not the best leaders.

(Speaker 1)
And when you’re lonely, You’re probably less empathetic. Your sense of vigilance is up. You don’t necessarily see problems really clearly. You don’t have people to bounce ideas off of. When there’s a challenge, you can feel like you’re alone. You don’t have as much resiliency.

(Speaker 1)
And so I remember going from being incredibly happy to feeling incredibly isolated, not having been prepared. Now, I was prepared for all the business challenges. People told me what it’s like to scale a team, hire executives. but we weren’t really well prepared for the psychological and emotional journey that we would go on. And I remember thinking to myself, once I read that chapter, I said, what if? we created a storyboard of the perfect vacation on Airbnb, from the time you book to the time you check in.

(Speaker 1)
And what if we literally designed the end -to -end journey? You might call this service design. And this became a guiding light to how we design our service. We didn’t just design the screen, the apps, the emails. We designed the experience, the end -to -end experience. Kind of like when I was in industrial design school, and we were designing a ventilator or some product, and you’re trying to put yourself in the shoes of the user.

(Speaker 1)
This book became very influential for me. I mean, the final thing I’ll just say is like, somebody once said, numbers are the language of business. And I remember thinking to myself, no, language is language of business. Numbers are just the only way we have to measure them. But that you ever notice there’s 500 companies in the Fortune 500. How many of them are creative people? I don’t know how many, but like, I might be one of the only ones that went to design school.

(Speaker 1)
They have boards of directors. Let’s say there’s 12 or 10 people per board. So that’s like 5 ,000 board members. How many of them are creative people or designers or people from the humanities? Not many. How many CEOs have creative people reporting to them?

(Speaker 1)
Not many. And so we have this world now where many people are dissatisfied with the way the world is. We are often given two bad options. We tend to be fighting zero sum when we could imagine something better. But we don’t have a lot of people in positions of power that can take creative leaps of the imagination and really understand how to design something better that we’re in right now. And I think creativity is kind of being systematically squashed from maybe corporate America.

(Speaker 1)
You know, Pablo Picasso said, it took me four years to learn to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to learn to paint like a child. I think that childhood curiosity is something that creative people are able to typically, I think, hold on to. And I think that’s being a little bit lost. And what I loved about Walt Disney, and I also liked about Steve Jobs, was the sense they were truly creative people that had truly creative companies. They empowered them, and they had an intuition. They didn’t just paint the company by numbers.

(Speaker 1)
And that’s the kind of company I’ve always tried to do. I’ve had this dream of creating one of the most creative places on Earth, like Disney or Apple. We may not get there, but at least we’ll have the ideal. We did not think Airbed and Breakfast would be a company where three, four million people a night would use to sleep in. We did not think I’d be doing podcasts and I’d be a giant public company. We thought it was going to be a way for three people one weekend to stay in our apartment, sleep on some airbeds, pay us money.

(Speaker 1)
We’d have a cool weekend adventure. We’d go about our lives. And a funny thing is we thought it would pay the rent while Joe Nate and I, or Joe and I at the time, thought of the big idea. We kept talking about the big idea. An airbed and breakfast was just a way to keep solving our own problem, paying rent, before we came up with the big idea. But when I joined Y Combinator, it’s a very well -known startup incubator of sorts.

(Speaker 1)
The founder, Paul Graham, used to have a saying, and it’s the most important advice I ever got, and it’s what you were saying. And it’s counterintuitive. He said, it’s better to have a hundred people love you than a million people that just sort of like you. If you have a hundred people that love your service, they, when they love something, they’ll tell everyone they know. I remember talking to somebody, she loved Airbnb. I’m like, how many people did you’ve told Airbnb?

(Speaker 1)
She goes, I probably told a million people. And her friend standing next to her goes, no, she’s told like one or 200 people. And I started realizing people who love something become your marketing department, and they’ll tell other people. And if they tell other people, that grows by what we call word of mouth. So how do you get somebody to love something? I don’t know how you get a million people to like something at the same time when you’re starting from nothing.

(Speaker 1)
But I do know how you could get one or two people to like something. You can meet with them. You can understand what their needs are. And you could design something so perfectly spoke just for them. And you could literally think of them as recruiting one person at a time. If you have a business idea, you don’t need to get to a million.

(Speaker 1)
Before you get to a million, you need to get to 100 ,000. Before you get to 100 ,000, you get to 10 ,000. And before 10 ,000, you get to 1 ,000. And before 10 ,000, you can get to 100. So all you have to do, and all roads lead to 100, don’t focus on the mountaintop, focus on the first step. Don’t focus on the million, focus just on the 100.

(Speaker 1)
And as you do that, you make the problem small and manageable. Because a million has to build systems, and you start developing complexities you can’t deal with. So all you gotta do is get to 100. Once you get to 100, now you get to 1 ,000. The world doesn’t just change, or at least it doesn’t just transform towards our dreams, ideals, and ambitions. that requires certain types of people.

(Speaker 1)
We might call them entrepreneurs, inventors, all sorts of people in different domains that believe the world could be a little different than the one that they live in. They have the audacity to believe that they can do it. And they have the ability to convince other people to go on that journey with them. But along that journey, Everything’s going to be different. You’re going to get lost. You’re going to be cold.

(Speaker 1)
You’re going to have like obstacles. Things are going to attack you. You’re going to fall down pits. And the question is when people are cold and they’re shivering and they’re not sure what to do and you’re running out of resources and rations, can you find your way up that mountain? Do you know why you’re going? Can you invent?

(Speaker 1)
these different apparatus? Like there’s a stream you can’t figure out. You can build a bridge to cross the stream with the limited resources you have. Can you recruit people along the way? And can you beat the drum? And when people are tired and they say, I wanna sleep, you say, yes, we’re gonna rest, but we gotta go just 500 more steps.

(Speaker 1)
I know it’s right over the edge. I think we can do a little bit better. And can you push people outside their comfort zone? Not enough to hate you, but enough to feel like a trainer. You’re like, three more reps and you don’t want to do it. And then that very moment, they’re not your friend, but at the end of the workout, you’re like, thank you for pushing me that hard.

(Speaker 1)
This is that kind of person. And can you take divergent ideas that no one’s ever seen before and just continue to reformulate them? Could you store these ideas in your head, a thousand competing ideas, and just reformulate them in your mind? It turns out this stuff is difficult, but you can work your way up there. Most people watching this have the skillset to be an entrepreneur. Not everyone has the skillset or the desire to run a giant company.

(Speaker 1)
I don’t think everyone needs to do that, but a lot of people have the skillset to do something, to start something. This is what you need to get up the mountain. Your culture is the behaviors of the leaders that get mimicked all the way down every single person. Your culture is every time you choose to hire someone, every time you choose to fire someone, every time you choose to promote somebody. It’s the way everyone does everything. And the way a leader designs the culture is not by writing out a list of values.

(Speaker 1)
It’s by basically leading by example every single day and taking a survey of every single thing happening and constantly shaping it, pruning it like a gardener. You know, and you don’t just allow the culture to happen. You design the culture. You have an idea of what you want to do. And you’re just constantly getting this group together.

(Speaker 1)
You know, you might have a culture of excellence. And a culture of excellence means I review all the work, and I say, not good enough, not good enough, not good enough. And eventually, I could not join the meeting, but people know what I’d say. They’d say, it’s not good enough. This is our standard.

(Speaker 2)
Can you kind of explain the growth that you’ve experienced over the past three years?

(Speaker 4)
Yeah, it’s really been something special. I, you know, I came on five years ago and I was right in the middle of COVID. Everybody just, you know, everything was uncertain. And, um, you know, at the time we were, you know, hoping to do two, $3 million a year. And we really have, um, like you said, it’s, it’s grown exponentially.

(Speaker 2)
How would you describe the impact of having a team that relentlessly follows up on implementing a proven plan? How would you describe the impact of that on the business, PetroliRoofing .

(Speaker 12)
com?

(Speaker 4)
I think, especially for those who, if you’re either just starting out or you’ve been at it for a while and you’re just not getting the traction you’d like to see, I think it really is a no -brainer. Especially when you look at the costs of some of these other SEO companies to have a website built or, you know, to work with a designer to have pieces developed. You guys do all of that stuff in one place. You’ve made videos for us. There’s, you know, a number of things that you guys have done for us that had I tried to set out to do it myself would have taken a lot longer and then would have taken me away from the things that I need to be doing. And that’s ultimately I think where a lot of business owners are finding themselves.

(Speaker 4)
They’re not out selling because they’re too worried about getting this flyer right or they’re too worried about trying to generate articles for their website. And the other side of it, I think, is, like I mentioned earlier, you don’t know what you don’t know. And you guys have a long track record of working with businesses and helping them grow. You know a lot of stuff about what works and what doesn’t work. You also are kind of tuned in with the changes that, you know, Google’s always making to the algorithm and stuff like that.

(Speaker 4)
And so you’re, you can be in their corner and kind of take that off of their plate. They can focus on what they do best and you guys can really kind of come alongside them and, and bolster the efforts that they have in building that strong business. So I really think it’s just something that a lot of folks should consider because, um, You know, when you’re looking to be a lot of these guys, they’re not looking at cost per lead. They’re not thinking about, you know, how many articles should I have on my website? And maybe they don’t even know that they should be thinking about that. And so having somebody that knows a little bit more than he is always a good thing.

(Speaker 4)
Well, I mean, really, it’s just right there in the name. We just do roofing. We’ve You know, there’s a lot of companies that say they do roofing and restoration or, you know, and we’ve decided that roofing is our bread and butter. It’s what we’re excellent at. And so, you know, when it comes to hail season and stuff like that, and people have hail claims, we want to walk them through the process and make sure that they’re taken care of and that they know they’ve got a roof they can trust as well as a roofer that’s going to be in their corner down the road. We have done and are working on expanding the commercial side of our business.

(Speaker 4)
So we really do it all. Our founder has a lot of experience with all the different roof systems. And then we have a great team of people who have come along over the years that are very knowledgeable and can handle all the roofing from, you know, steep, flat and everything in between is what I like to say.

(Speaker 2)
Shea, today’s guest is a very hardworking, diligent business person. This is a guy who’s diligently implementing the systems that we’re teaching. And I really wanted to interview him on today’s show because Carter, the coach and consultant that works with Petralearoofing . com, Carter keeps saying, Clay, these guys are super normal. They’re not weird.

(Speaker 2)
They’re super relatable. Since we’ve been working with you, the cost now to generate a lead on the internet is down to $12 a lead. We’re down to $12 a lead for every lead generated off the internet. I talked to a lot of roofers, a lot of doctors, a lot of dentists. They’re telling me they’re paying $400 a lead. They’re telling me they’re paying $150 a lead.

(Speaker 2)
They’re saying they’re paying $300 a lead. These are people that are doing radio, people that are doing billboard ads. Can you talk about the impact that’s made on your company, having your internet leads now coming in for $12 per lead?

(Speaker 4)
Yeah, it’s one of those funny things. At first, it does start off a little higher, but the more that you’re doing it and the more time you’re putting into building quality content on your website that can back that and drive people to your website and help the search results, it really does start to pay off in the long run. a fresh website that also doesn’t look like every other website out there, a logo that sets us apart from other roofing and restoration and construction companies. And just all the stuff that we’ve been doing, you know, with the website, you know, stuff that we didn’t even know to think of, you know, it’s kind of hard to know. I mean, you know, there’s stuff that you should do, but then There’s stuff that you don’t even know that you should do. And so kind of shedding light on some of that stuff and being able to point our resources in the right direction has really, really helped.

(Speaker 4)
A phone call really never hurt anybody. Like you’re saying, it never hurt to talk to somebody and have them take a look and offer suggestions. I think people, ultimately, they’re going to be surprised by what they hear, how easy and practical it is to implement a lot of this stuff. Some of them might be a little concerned how much time and effort they’re going to have to put into it. But ultimately, you get out of it what you put into it. But for those who are just tired of hearing being so busy, but not actually getting anything done because they’re focusing on the wrong things.

(Speaker 4)
I really think they should give you guys a shot.

(Speaker 2)
Folks, what I find all the time is wonderful people listen to this show and they say, I don’t know if I could do it. I know that you guys teach entrepreneurs how to succeed, but I don’t know if I can do it. I know I grew up without financial resources. I know what it’s like to not have money and I know what it’s like to feel like that maybe you don’t have what it takes to become successful. And so on today’s show, this is not a backhanded compliment of today’s guest, but Shay, today’s guest is a very normal, hardworking, diligent business person. This is a guy who’s diligently implementing the systems that we’re teaching.

(Speaker 2)
And I really wanted to interview him on today’s show because Carter, the coach and consultant that works with Petralearoofing . com, Carter keeps saying, Clay, these guys are super normal. They’re not weird. They’re super relatable. You got to have them on the show. They can encourage people about the growth that somebody can have.

(Speaker 2)
With that being said, Shea, welcome to the Thrived Time Show. How are you, sir?

(Speaker 27)
I’m doing wonderful.

(Speaker 4)
Thanks for having me.

(Speaker 2)
Now, Shane, I’m going to pull up your website so people out there can know that you’re a real company with real products, real services. It’s PetroliRoofing . com. That’s the website, PetroliRoofing . com.

(Speaker 4)
And as I’m pulling up that website, I’ll put a link on the show notes. Can you kind of explain to the listeners out there, what are the services that you guys provide there at PetroliRoofing . com? Well, I mean, really, it’s just right there in the name. We just do roofing. We’ve, you know, there’s a lot of components.

(Speaker 4)
that say they do roofing and restoration or, you know, and we’ve decided that roofing is our bread and butter.

(Speaker 2)
It’s what we’re excellent at.

(Speaker 4)
And so, you know, when it comes to hail season and stuff like that, and people have hail claims, we want to walk them through the process and make sure that they’re taken care of and that they know they’ve got a roof they can trust as well as a roofer that’s going to be in their corner down the road. Now, as far as petroleum roofing, do you do commercial roofing and residential or tell us about all the kinds of commercial or all the kinds of roofing services that you guys provide? Yeah, so we have primarily done residential over the years, just because that’s a pretty natural direction to go. But we have done and are working on expanding the commercial side of our business. So we really do it all.

(Speaker 2)
Our founder has a lot of experience with all the different roof systems. And then we have a great team of people who have come along over the years that are very knowledgeable and can handle all the roofing from, you know, steep flat and everything in between is what I like to say. Now, we’re working with somebody to help them grow their business. I have a list of the steps we take people through. Now, there’s a lot of detail that goes into this list, but I want to walk the listeners through the step -by -step process that we’ve worked with your organization as well as every company that we coach and consult with. So step number one, we’ve got to establish our revenue goals.

(Speaker 2)
Now, I’m not going to ask you on today’s show how much sales you’re doing. But my understanding is that you guys, over the past three years, you’ve had the opportunity to serve you guys. You guys have grown four times. Could you describe the growth of your company for anybody else?

(Speaker 4)
Because again, it’s very unusual for a company to grow at all in a challenging economy, let alone to grow four times. Can you kind of explain the growth that you’ve experienced over the past three years? Yeah, it’s really been amazing. something special. You know, I came on five years ago. and I was right in the middle of COVID.

(Speaker 4)
Everybody just, you know, everything was uncertain. And, um, you know, at the time we were, you know, hoping to do two, $3 million a year. And we really have, um, like you said, it’s, it’s grown exponentially. And I think a lot of it has been you know, making sure we’re focused on the right things. We’ve really turned our focus or a large part of our focus on to our community involvement and stuff like that. You know, we find that, you know, generous companies tend to be ones that you can trust and are the prosperous ones.

(Speaker 4)
And so, you know, even in times that seemed leaner, we really, really try to pour into the community and make a difference. But yeah, our growth has been awesome. We have a great team of guys and they have a great network that they work within as well. And then just all the stuff that we’ve been doing, you know, with the website, you know, stuff that we didn’t even know to think of, you know, it’s kind of hard to know.

(Speaker 2)
I mean, you know, there’s stuff that you should do, but then there’s stuff that you don’t even know that you should do. And so kind of shedding light on some of that stuff and being able to, you know, point our resources in the right direction has really, really helped. Now, step one, with every client we work with, your business as well, PetroleumRoofing . com, we want to track your revenue numbers. We want to track those numbers. I just want to get your thoughts on this.

(Speaker 2)
Why is it important, as a man who runs a company, specifically PetroleumRoofing .

(Speaker 4)
com, why is it important that you track your numbers every week? Why is that important that you establish your goals and you actually track your numbers? Yeah. Well, I mean, for for us, it sheds light on not only just the money in and the money out, which we’re tracking, but you’re seeing how much is this going to marketing, how much is going, you know, all those different pieces. And I think, you know, once you’re tracking it and it’s in front of you on a weekly basis, you can really start to find trends and potentially get ahead of problems.

(Speaker 2)
Luckily, we haven’t found ourselves in any situations like that, and especially in the kind of business that we’re working in. The sales cycle for one of our jobs could be anywhere from three weeks to six, eight, even beyond, you know, we’re dealing with insurance companies and there’s a lot of back and forth. And so if we’re not watching the dollars that are coming in and out and, um, making sure that we’re on track of all that stuff, we could really find ourselves in a tough spot. So folks, again, step number one, you want to establish your revenue goals. Now, step number two, you want to determine your break -even numbers. How much stuff do you have to sell just to break even?

(Speaker 2)
Now, step number three, how many hours per week is your team willing to work? You have to build a master schedule. These are the kinds of things we’ll help you through. Step number four, you have to define your unique value propositions. I’ll pull up your website again. There are so many roofing companies out there.

(Speaker 2)
I’ve heard people say, oh, Clay, I’m in a saturated industry. I’m a doctor. I’m a dentist. I’m a roofer. I’m in a saturated industry. I’ve heard people say, I can’t grow because my roofing company is in a saturated market.

(Speaker 2)
I cannot grow my home building company because it is in a saturated market.

(Speaker 4)
I want to get your thoughts on this, the branding. I know we work with you on a weekly basis to optimize and update the website. How important has these website updates or the brand updates been to the growth of PetroliRoofing . com? Um, they’re a huge factor, you know, I think, you know, and that’s one of the things that we’ve talked about too, is, you know, you’ve got, you’ve got to put money into branding and you’ve also got to put it into lead generation and that’s part, that’s all part of marketing. And, you know, if, if you’re out there trying to generate leads, but nobody knows who you are, you don’t have a strong brand, then it kind of can fall short at times.

(Speaker 4)
And so having those two working in concert with each other is really, you know, it’s key to have that.

(Speaker 2)
And having a, you know, a fresh website that also doesn’t look like every other website out there, a logo that sets us apart from other roofing and restoration and construction companies, especially where we are. A lot of people are using, you know, a house or mountains or a combination of that. And so we tried to, you know, you know, get around that and have something that’s bold and recognizable and something that will last for a long time. Step number four, uh, five here, step number five, you want to improve your branding, which we talked about briefly there. You got to enhance your logo, your website, your print pieces, everything that’s the customer sees. We have to make sure it’s first class and that’s what we do with all the clients.

(Speaker 2)
Now, step number six, I like this part.

(Speaker 4)
I don’t know that a lot of clients like this, but I like this part. It’s the three -legged marketing stool. It’s implementing the proven, uh, Process that I also affectionately refer to as crap the core repeatable actionable processes where just like tomorrow morning The Sun’s gonna come up and just like tonight the Sun’s gonna go down We’ve got to do these core repeatable actionable processes week after week and a big part of our coaching program is we try to simplify all these things that you could do into action items that you can do that you will do that will produce fruit can you talk about having a value of having a simple marketing plan that is repetitive and doable as opposed to chasing a bunch of things that might work? Yeah, you know, and if you spend enough time on the internet, I think you’re going to get locked into some kind of, uh, maybe doing scrolling about, you know, Hey, generate more leads this way. You know, there’s a lot of people that say they have gimmicks and tricks about it, but it really is, you know, focusing on those key things and putting a lot of time into those.

(Speaker 2)
Um, yeah, I think, you know, it’s, you know, It sounds cliche, but I think if you can keep it as simple as possible and really focus on those core things, then the rest of that stuff takes care of itself. Sure, there are ways you can set yourself apart and get a little creative, but if you’re not focusing on those core things, that strategy ultimately is not going to have the foundation it needs to succeed. Now, I’ve got some stats in front of me, and I want to get your thoughts on this. Since we’ve been working with you, the cost now to generate a lead on the internet is down to $12 a lead. We’re down to $12 a lead for every lead generated off the internet.

(Speaker 2)
I talked to a lot of roofers, a lot of doctors, a lot of dentists. They’re telling me they’re paying $400 a lead. They’re telling me they’re paying $150 a lead.

(Speaker 4)
They’re saying they’re paying $300 a lead. These are people that are doing radio, people that are doing billboard ads. Can you talk about the impact that’s made on your company, having your internet leads now coming in for $12 per lead? Yeah, it’s one of those funny things. At first, it does start off a little higher, but the more that you’re doing it and the more time you’re putting into building quality content on your website that can back that and drive people to your website and drive people to help the search results, it really does start to pay off in the long run. We do still do a little bit of radio.

(Speaker 4)
We do still do some Facebook and stuff like that. But ultimately, there are some, I guess, previous avenues that we were taking where we take those dollars and almost multiply them because you put them into the Google side of things and you’re getting more leads for less.

(Speaker 1)
And then what is happening, Apologies for the banging in the background.

(Speaker 2)
We’ve got some, you know, we just moved into the new office, which is another benefit of all of this stuff is we were able to buy some land, but little construction going on getting the space ready. But, um, yeah, it’s

(Speaker 1)
it’s really it’s amazing how little that you can uh once you you spend some time doing it and really focusing on the google on the internet internet side of things how much business that brings in and you know and and i would say right now we’re probably sitting at almost you know 30 to 40 percent where when we talk to somebody ultimately it was seeing us on google seeing our our reviews and all of that stuff is what was kind of the ultimate tipping point to generate that call.

(Speaker 2)
Now, I know you’re a super busy guy, so I have three final questions for you in the final five minutes here. So for anybody out there that wants to verify you’re not a hologram and that your company’s real, share with us one more time. What’s your first and last name and what’s the name of your company for anybody out there who wants to look you guys up to verify you’re real? My name is Shea Cease and I’m with Petrale Roofing in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Now, what do you say to anybody out there that is on the fence? I mean, you’ve obviously worked with our team here for the past three years.

(Speaker 12)
And you hop on those coaching calls or those consulting calls each week with Carter and the team.

(Speaker 4)
How would you describe the impact of having a team that relentlessly follows up on implementing a proven plan? How would you describe the impact of that on the business, Petroliaroofing . com? You know, I think especially for those who, if you’re either just starting out or you’ve been at it for a while and you’re just not getting the traction you’d like to see, I think it really is a no brainer. Especially when you look at the costs of some of these other SEO companies or to have a website built or, you know, to work with a designer to have print pieces developed. You guys do all of that stuff in one place.

(Speaker 4)
You’ve made videos for us. There’s, you know, a number of things that you guys have done for us that had I tried to set out to do it myself would have taken a lot longer and then would have taken me a from the things that I need to be doing. And that’s ultimately I think where a lot of business owners are finding themselves. They’re not outselling because they’re too worried about getting this flyer right or they’re too worried about trying to generate articles for their website. And the other side of it I think is Like I mentioned earlier, you don’t know what you don’t know.

(Speaker 4)
And you guys have a long track record of working with businesses and helping them grow. You know a lot of stuff about what works and what doesn’t work. You also are kind of tuned in with the changes that Google’s always making to the algorithm and stuff like that. And so you can be in their corner and kind of take that off of their plate. They can focus on what they do best. And you guys can really kind of come alongside them and and bolster the efforts that they have in building that strong business.

(Speaker 4)
So I really think it’s something that a lot of folks should consider, because, you know, when you look at a lot of these guys, they’re not looking at cost per lead.

(Speaker 2)
They’re not thinking about, you know, how many articles should I have on my website? And maybe they don’t even know that they should be thinking about that.

(Speaker 26)
And so having somebody that knows a little bit more than you is always a good thing.

(Speaker 2)
Now, Shay, a final question and a half I have here for you. Why should everybody check out PetroliRoofing . com? I’ll give you an opportunity to pitch your company.

(Speaker 25)
We have a lot of listeners.

(Speaker 4)
We have a million listeners a month that will tune into the show from all over the country. If somebody is in Colorado or Louisiana or Oklahoma, why should everybody check out PetroliRoofing . com? Well, ultimately, we are a family first business. We’ve got a lot of family that work here, you know, we’re veteran and family owned. David Petrale started the business.

(Speaker 4)
Our owner, Michael O’Malley, came along and has kind of taken on some ownership and stuff like that.

(Speaker 24)
He’s a veteran.

(Speaker 4)
He’s got his kids working for us. My kids are working for us. for us. I mean, ultimately, we are family and community focused, and we’re just interested in making the community a better place. There’s a lot of roofers in town, and not a lot of them really care. And so we want to make sure that if somebody is going to have their roof done, they’re going to have to go through the insurance process that they’re working with somebody that’s in their corner and it’s got their back.

(Speaker 2)
And we work really hard to be that kind of, I guess, that bright spot, that city on a hill for people when they don’t know where to turn to. And even just outside of roofing, we’ve helped a lot of people with other things outside of roofing. And it’s just that generosity and that community focus, I think, that makes us different than a lot of the other companies around. Amen to that. Final question I have here for you. A lot of listeners that go to Thrivetimeshow .

(Speaker 2)
com and they see these testimonials and they go, OK, I’ve watched this testimonial. I see you’ve helped this client with their sales and their marketing and their branding and their accounting and their workflow and their systems. And I know you’ve done it for this company, Keystone Harbor and Complete Carpet and for Shaw Homes. And they look at thousands of testimonials. But there’s something in the back of their mind that says, I don’t know if you guys could help me. a free 13 -point assessment for anybody out there. We do let people name their price.

(Speaker 2)
We have scholarship pricing available for our business conferences. We bring people like Eric Trump and Tim Tebow and Robert Kiyosaki.

(Speaker 4)
But what do you say to somebody out there that’s on the fence right now? They’re thinking about scheduling a free 13 -point assessment with myself, or they’re thinking about attending one of our workshops. What do you say to somebody out there who’s on the fence, my friend? You know, a phone call really never anybody like you’re saying it never hurt to talk to somebody and have them take a look and offer suggestions I think people ultimately they’re going to be by what they hear, how easy and practical it is to implement a lot of this stuff.

(Speaker 2)
Some of them might be a little concerned how much time and effort they’re going to have to put into it. But ultimately, you get out of it what you put into it. But for those who are just tired of being so busy but not actually getting anything done because they’re focusing on the wrong things, I really think they should give you guys a shot. Shay, I really do appreciate you putting up with me today, carving out my busy schedule. And I mean this sincerely. Carter is always bragging on you guys and your team.

(Speaker 2)
And it’s an honor to serve you guys at Petralea Roofing.

(Speaker 23)
So again, thank you for your time.

(Speaker 4)
Congratulations on the new office.

(Speaker 11)
And we look forward to seeing you soon and talking to you soon.

(Speaker 22)
Awesome.

(Speaker 5)
Thank you so much, Clay. Take care. Bye -bye. My name is Kevin Thomas. And the name of our company is MultiClean. We are a commercial janitorial service.

(Speaker 5)
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 2)
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. And I’m so excited to bring it back and, and show the team about marketing and how to implement. Okay, Aaron Antis, September 25th and 26th. Guess who’s coming back to Tulsa? I will give you a hint.

(Speaker 2)
His first name is Eric and his last name is is Trump. 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.

(Speaker 2)
Amanda Grace will be in the place. Dr. Stella Emanuel. Well, we’ll be here in T -Town in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 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 2)
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, that’s Thrivetimeshow . com. A lot of people don’t know this, but the Trump Organization has thousands of employees.

(Speaker 2)
There’s not 50 employees. 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. 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 2)
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. You are talking about one of the greatest brands on the planet from a business standpoint.

(Speaker 13)
I mean, who else has been able to create a brand like the Trump brand?

(Speaker 2)
I mean, look at it.

(Speaker 7)
And this is the man behind the business for the last, pretty much since 2015.

(Speaker 8)
He’s been the man behind it. So you’re talking, we’re into nine going into 10 years of him running it.

(Speaker 7)
And we get to tap into that knowledge. That’s going to be amazing. Now think about this for a second. But Clay Clark, man, he is one character. It’s a good word for character. Yeah, that is it.

(Speaker 7)
Good, driven, smart.

(Speaker 8)
And I’ve never met a guy who was so hyper all the time. 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.

(Speaker 21)
Oh, it’s incredible.

(Speaker 7)
Yeah. He’s, he’s like, he’s, he’s a machine. He’s a machine.

(Speaker 8)
But his, you know, I could, I have problems with my company starting at nine o ‘clock.

(Speaker 2)
Yes. about hundreds of people showing up at 5 a . m. in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Man, he’s a leader of a leader. He’s a fantastic young man.

(Speaker 2)
No, he is. The lineup continues to grow, 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 $500 for a VIP ticket. We’ve always 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 2)
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. I grew up without money. I totally understand what it’s like to be the tight spot. So if you want to attend, it’s $250 or whatever price you want to pay. That’s how I do it.

(Speaker 2)
And it’s $500 for a VIP ticket. Now, we only have limited seating here.

(Speaker 20)
The most people we’ve ever had in this building was for the Jim Brewer presentation.

(Speaker 4)
Jim Brewer came here.

(Speaker 2)
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 I felt kind of bad that a couple people had VIP seats in the men’s restroom. No, I’m just kidding. So I thought, you know what, we should probably add on. So this guy’s like the greatest marketer you’ve ever seen, right?

(Speaker 2)
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. When you go to thrivetimeshow .

(Speaker 2)
com, you’ll go there, you’ll request a ticket, boom.

(Speaker 19)
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.

(Speaker 2)
Just text my number. It’s my cell phone number, my personal cell phone number.

(Speaker 18)
We’ll keep that.

(Speaker 14)
private between you, between you, me, everybody.

(Speaker 4)
We’ll keep that private.

(Speaker 2)
And anybody, don’t share that with anybody except for everybody. That’s my private cell phone number. It’s 918 -851 -0102. 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.

(Speaker 2)
0 -2. That is not actually bilingual.

(Speaker 17)
That’s just saying Kwan for a one.

(Speaker 2)
It’s not the same thing. I think you’re attacking me. 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

(Speaker 2)
it. I’ll tee up the thing and then you tell me what you’re going to learn here, okay? Okay. You’re going to learn marketing, marketing and branding. What are we going to learn about marketing and branding? Oh, yeah.

(Speaker 2)
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. are, you either have great people or you have people who suck. And so it can 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.

(Speaker 2)
But if you have the right systems, you have the right processes, and you’re really good at selecting great ones. 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 2)
We’re going to teach you personal finance, how to manage your finance. We’re going to teach you time management. 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?

(Speaker 11)
How do you do organization?

(Speaker 2)
How do you build an org chart? Everything that you need to know to start and grow a business will be taught during this two day interactive business workshop. But let me tell you how the format is set up. here. And again, folks, this is a two day interactive 15 minute Think about this, folks. It’s two days.

(Speaker 2)
Each day it starts at 7 a . m. , and it goes until 5 p . m. So from 7 a . m.

(Speaker 2)
to 5 p . 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 16)
So, Aaron, what kind of great stuff happens during that 15 -minute question -and -answer session after every teaching session?

(Speaker 2)
I actually think it’s the best part about the workshops, because here’s what happens. I’ve been to lots of these things over the years. I’ve paid many thousands of dollars to go to them. And you go in there and they talk in vague generalities and they’re constantly upselling you for something trying to get you to buy this thing or that thing or this program or this membership. And you don’t, 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.

(Speaker 13)
And it’s very specific to what your business is.

(Speaker 2)
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.

(Speaker 15)
And then we take a 15 minute break to stretch and to make it entertaining when you’re stretching.

(Speaker 2)
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. You had a crocodile one time. That was pretty interesting. I should write that down.

(Speaker 2)
And I feel sorry for that one guy that we lost. The crocodile, we duct taped its face. So that’s right. We duct taped it. It was a baby crocodile. And we duct taped.

(Speaker 2)
Yeah, duct taped around the mouth so it didn’t bite anybody. But it was really cool bouncing that thing around and petting it. I should do that. I should. We have a small petting zoo that will be assembled. It’s going to be great.

(Speaker 2)
And then you’re in the company of hundreds of entrepreneurs. So there’s not a lot of competition. in America today. In fact, there’s less than 10 million people today, according to US Debt Clock, that identify as being self -employed.

(Speaker 7)
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 three out of every 100 people in America that are self -employed to begin with.

(Speaker 9)
And when Inc.

(Speaker 2)
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.

(Speaker 5)
But yet, the average client that you and I work with, we can typically double this. No hyperbole.

(Speaker 2)
No exaggeration. I have thousands of testimonials to back this up. We have thousands of testimonials to back it up.

(Speaker 14)
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.

(Speaker 2)
And you say, double? 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.

(Speaker 2)
But again, this is the most interactive best business workshop on the planet. This is objectively the highest rated and most reviewed business workshop on the planet.

(Speaker 13)
I was looking to learn how to take my business, like they’ve said today, from being very successful to being systematic.

(Speaker 2)
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. 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 3 million. This year we’ll be, we’ll do 24 million. And you say, Clay, I still, I’m not going to get a ticket unless you give me more.

(Speaker 2)
Okay, fine. We’re going to serve you the same meal both days. True story. We have we cater in the food and because I keep it simple.

(Speaker 12)
I literally bring in the same food both days for lunch.

(Speaker 11)
It’s Ted Esconzito’s, an incredible Mexican restaurant.

(Speaker 2)
That’s going to happen. And Jill Donovan, our good friend, who is the founder of Rustic Cuff. She started that company in her home, and now she sells millions of dollars of apparel and products. That’s rusticcuff . com. And someone says, I want more.

(Speaker 2)
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.

(Speaker 2)
And nobody really knows who he is because he’s built systems that are very utilitarian, that offer a lot of value.

(Speaker 6)
He’s made a lot of money in the it’s the it’s where you rent. It’s short. It’s where you’re renting storage spaces. He’s a storage space guy. He owns this. What do we call that?

(Speaker 6)
The rental, the Storage space.

(Speaker 2)
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.

(Speaker 2)
Most people don’t know who owns the railroad cars.

(Speaker 10)
But this guy, he’s giving me a verbal that he will be here.

(Speaker 2)
And we just continue to add more and more success stories. So if you’re out there today, and you want to change your life, you want to give yourself a incredible gift, you want a life changing experience, you want to 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?

(Speaker 2)
I’m Thomas Croson, 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.

(Speaker 9)
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 No, I mean, his stuff is not revolutionary.

(Speaker 2)
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.

(Speaker 5)
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, 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 you 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 ,450 ,000. Would that be like

if you took the combined revenue and maybe doubled it? Or have we gone up by half? About almost three, not quite.

Transcribed with Cockatoo