Quality Control 101 | How to Take Your Business Quality Control to the Next Level Through the Rigorous Implementation of Checklists + Join Tim Tebow At Clay Clark’s April 9th & 10th ThrivetimeShow.com Business Conference

Audio Transcription

Transcribed with Cockatoo

I’m Jerry from Jerry’s Landscape. We do irrigation, tree removal, landscaping. We pretty much do it all. I can landscape the heck out of a property. That’s never really been a problem for me. I’ve had a tough time with accounting, with my bookkeeping, but then I came up with this amazing system that has really been a game changer for me.

This side of the dash here, this is all the invoices. This side of the dash is gonna be expenses. Then I’ve got any miscellaneous receipts or anything like that, that goes in the back seat. Then of course, anything tax related. You know, I don’t even know what half that stuff is. But anything from Urs, that’s gonna go right here on the passenger side floorboard.

I’ve even got a place for customer complaints.

Right out here.

I’m kidding, actually it’s not really the best to even open the windows at all. Blow everything around.

Is it a perfect system?

No. I can’t use the defrost in my truck, which sucks. You know, having passengers, that doesn’t always work out so well. But it’s a small price to pay. We’re meticulous. Every transaction matters, period.

OK? I mean, the system, that’s what I love about it.

It’s virtually foolproof.

Be anywhere, doing a lot of different things, but you chose to be here. Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show. But this show does. In a world filled with endless opportunities, why would two men who have built 13 multi -million dollar businesses altruistically invest five hours per day to teach you the best practices? business systems and moves that you can use, because they believe in you and they have a lot of time on their hands. They started from the bottom.

Now they’re here. It’s the Thrive Time Show, starring the former U . S. Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark, and the entrepreneur trapped inside an optometrist’s body, Dr. Robert Zollner. Two men.

Eight kids co -created by two different women. Thirteen multi -million dollar businesses. On today’s show, we discuss something that is killing the profitability of your business. And an action step that if you take this action step, it will absolutely take your profitability and quality to the next level. Did you know that checklists saved 1 ,500 lives in the Michigan ICU system within just 18 months of their implementation? Think about that.

They were able to save 1 ,500 lives and $175 million

just 18 short months by using checklists. Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show. But this show does.

Two men, eight kids, co -created by two different women, 13 multimillion dollar businesses.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to The Thrive Time Show.

that only a megaphone can bring to you.

I am doing good and that sounds like a megaphone from my end.

Do you have a megaphone in your office? Oh man, I’m loud enough.

I don’t know if they would let me have one in my office. Okay, I’m just throwing it out.

I mean, at the conference, I’ll let you use it a little bit and there’s a certain power with having a megaphone and once you have that power, you’re not going to want to give it up.

I want to use it. I’m telling you, I’ll let you use it. And you know why I’m going to know how I’m going to remember to get it back from you? It’s because I have a checklist at the conference for everything. And on that checklist, Matt Klein, there’s a checklist for my megaphone. So I’ll be bringing the megaphone.

Andrew, you’ve seen this.

We’ve got a sampler there now. Can you explain what a sampler is so Matt Klein knows? The sampler is basically a pad with a bunch of buttons on it. And you hit the button and you get a sample of some sound.

And that sound is the same sound effects as we’ve got here on the show.

And I have a custom -made SM58 red, white, and blue.

microphone.

That thing’s hot.

It is hot.

It’s really good. And we’ve got a lot of books at the bookstore.

There’s just a lot of stuff.

So much stuff. And Matt, you’re coming to the conference.

What kind of accoutrements are you bringing?

Are you bringing some post -up stands or what kind of things are you bringing? Yeah, some post -up stands myself. Bring some of our technology via my laptop and hopefully I can get a nice big screen from you guys where I can show off our cool back -end technology. So, yeah.

You know, everything you need to know about carpet cleaning, I’m done with you guys. Well, this is what I want to talk about today is checklist champions.

When you run an OxiFresh, or if you buy an OxiFresh franchise, and how much does it cost right now for an OxiFresh, Matt?

What’s the total cost?

$38 ,900 for the territory, equipment, product, and training. Okay, so let’s say that you get all the training, you pay all the money, you go all the way to Denver, but then you just don’t use checklists. You don’t write things down as a franchisee.

You just forget things.

Talk about all the things that could go bad with your business if you just, for whatever reason, refuse to use checklists. Yeah, that’s a loaded question because it could be a lot of different things. It could be your technicians not closing out their work orders correctly. Therefore, you can’t actually have a good gauge of what they’re doing day -to -day. It could be you not paying attention to, you know, your bank account and what’s going in and coming out. It could literally be as easy as you just not having a checklist for your vehicle.

And then one day that thing just doesn’t work anymore. So therefore you can’t make any money that day or week or depending on the problem, even a month, right? So you need to have some sort of checklist for basically every aspect of your business to be able to track it because you really can’t change or manage what you can’t track. And we start off with a, you know, a checklist of just a, an onboarding checklist. The very first thing you do when you become a franchise is wait. leave that up to chance.

You’re going to sit with Rob, he’s going to go through a very detailed checklist of every single thing that you need to do before you can open your doors.

So hopefully it gets you on the path to that checklist type of structure so that can continue throughout your business. And what I’m going to do here is I’m going to tee up the problem. And Josh, I’m going to share a time in the past where I was a jackass as a result of not using a checklist. Awesome.

And then you get to one up me and then Matt, you can one up us and we’ll keep one upping each other about checklists because it’s really possible to make even a great franchise not work if you don’t have a checklist.

So I will go first.

Matt, the year was 2003.

Have you been down to the swamp known as Houston?

I don’t think I have. You’ve never been to Houston?

Well, I’ve been to Houston.

I thought you’re talking like a specific swamp in Houston.

Well, I mean, have you noticed how it just feels muggy down there? I’ve been to Houston a bunch. I mean, it’s like a blanket.

You feel like you’re under a hot blanket when you’re walking around, do you not?

I mean, it is warm in Houston, is it not? Muggy warm?

Again, I sweat in Colorado all the time. So Florida, Houston, Arizona, it’s not good for my pits, my undies, my underarms. Well, here’s the deal. So we’re down there in Houston. I’m DJing an event and I thought, we’re going to have Thanksgiving in Houston and perhaps I should get a gig down there. You know, so I booked a gig on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

I don’t think that was a good life choice. Not at all. But I did it. So I went to the family. I had a great family event on Wednesday, a great Thanksgiving on a Thursday and Friday. I’m deejaying at an event.

And the family’s like, oh, that’s cool. You have an event in Houston because people wanted me all over the country. And they said, that’s so cool. You’re going to be deejaying a wedding in Houston. That’s so exciting. So Wednesday, Matt, you know, it’s pre Thanksgiving.

We’re having a great time. Thursday, having a great time. Friday, I roll up to this beautiful facility. I set up my gear, and it occurs to me, Matt, that I do not have packed with me microphone stands. Stands for a microphone. Now, Matt, there’s the SM55.

It’s the chrome -plated mic, the one that Elvis used to use back in the day, that look, that style.

And so I thought, I’m going to go to Guitar Center, because I’m like three hours early.

So I drive through Thanksgiving, post -Thanksgiving, Black Friday traffic. Unbelievable. Oh, yeah. I get to Guitar Center and back to the facility. And I only have like two hours until the show starts.

I set up the speakers.

I set up the mic. I set up, Josh, all this, all the gear.

Beautiful.

Then it occurs to me, one needs an amplifier to amplify the music.

Matt, are you down with amplifiers?

Oh, I’ve always been down with amplifiers. When you were in high school, did you have a big system in your vehicle? Oh, it’s so embarrassing, but I did. Yes, yes, yes. OK, so we all all the all the guys out there, all of us are going, oh, I had a big system, big subwoofer. So you have that big systems, either big system.

And I go to turn it on.

I’m going, wait a minute.

There’s no amp. So I go back out to the DJ van, my mobile office. I look. It occurs to me that I have forgotten the amp. I don’t have I don’t have an amp with me. So I travel back to guitar center.

I buy the amplifier. I come back. My wife’s with me the whole time. And my wife said, babe, do you think maybe you could use the checklist? And I’m going, no, I don’t need a checklist. I mean, I’m a DJ.

It’s all in my head. My head. It’s a beautiful place in here.

I don’t have I don’t use a checklist.

Well, Matt, anyway, then the bride comes up to me, I don’t know, 30 minutes after she gets there and says, hey, in like a half hour, I want to dance with my dad. Did you make sure you got the song? Yada yada. And I said, ah, let me check. And so I did. to send Vanessa driving 90 miles an hour to a Best Buy to find the music.

You couldn’t download music back then. And we narrowly pulled off the thing. Adrenal glands are shot. The client never knew that anything was wrong. So Matt, I went back to Tulsa and I did the same kind of jackassery for at least another year, Matt. And then one of my DJs went out to the Manford Prom and he forgot to check.

He forgot the amplifiers. And so Matt, what do you think I did when he forgot the amplifier?

Because I’m such a great young boss at the time. How could you even? How could you even? That’s right. I’m yelling at this guy like, are you kidding me? I will gouge out your eye.

I was just so mad. So I then with my rage, I thought I got to make a checklist because these idiots need a checklist. And then my wife pointed out to me, you do the same crap.

The only thing is that you get to your show three hours early and they only get there two hours early.

And therefore the kids at their high school prom had to spend the first 15 minutes of the prom without music because of you and your pride. So before Josh, before you want to up me about checklists, I just want to know, Matt, do you see this kind of thing? Is this common in the world of franchising where people just don’t want to use a checklist? Yeah, I just think people assume I am, I am one of these people. I mean, I learned stuff every single day. Like I assume, like my, my technicians and people that work with me, and or for me are supposed to think the way that I think, right.

But I also, over time, I’ve realized like they aren’t, they haven’t gone through as many scenarios as I have. And so it’s not actually, it’s not fair. to just assume that they’re going to do everything that I would do at that time. So yeah, I mean, I’ve fallen victim the same way you have.

And I think most people will assume things are going to get taken care of, and then they don’t. a checklist type of environment because they’ve basically gone through so many situations where they didn’t have all their ducks in a row and it cost them a lot of either time or money or both. Yes, it’s a huge problem. who is a professor in the department of the health policy and management at Harvard. He’s a Harvard surgeon and a professor, okay? Atul Gawande, G -A -W -A -N -D -E, if listeners want to Google him.

I’ve reached out to him multiple times to have him on the show. I get a lot of rejection, but he’s going to say yes eventually.

He’s a great guy.

He has class and standards, but eventually he’ll cave and he’ll let me interview him.

But Atul Gawande, this guy wrote a book called Checklist Manifesto. Do you want to hear something just crazy about the medical profession? I do. They don’t want to use a checklist, those crazy guys.

And he did research and discovered that something like, and again in the book, the stats are there, but it’s a third of all of the deaths related to hospital infections are caused by a surgeon forgetting to wash the patient’s body before surgery or to wash their hands.

or to read the chart of the patient about the things that will kill them. Isn’t that crazy? That one seems a little scarier than most. Yeah, but I mean, you think about it, I think a lot of people, we make mistakes, we all make mistakes, but if you’re a surgeon, you get to make mistakes. So he wrote this book called The Checklist Manifesto, and he worked together with a lot of the world’s health organizations, and they’ve now dramatically decreased the amount of infections in hospitals simply by requiring that the surgeons

a checklist.

And someone’s in there to make sure they use the checklist because, Josh, why do you think a surgeon does not want to use a checklist even when they know it saves lives? Why do you think that the surgeons will not use a checklist unless there’s somebody in there holding them accountable?

Lack of discipline. And what do you think, one more?

I think there’s one more lack of discipline.

Just the effort that it takes to fill out the checklist?

I think it’s a pride thing a little bit, too, don’t you think?

Oh, I remember everything.

Oh, yeah.

I remember everything. I remember everything. I remember everything. Now, we know that I have, I used to have an issue with not following checklists.

We know that maybe, you know, the surgeons do. Josh, have you ever had a problem where you have installed a sprinkler system and forgot one critical part or one thing as a result of not using a checklist? Has this ever happened? Yeah, we could go into seven million stories prior to y ‘all and prior to learning systems and procedures and scripts.

The funny, funny, funniest one.

And I don’t mean like funny, haha. So I’m on my way to dinner with my wife three years ago, probably.

Nice.

And we get an emergency call. So emergency calls years ago was me, like it was me, just me answering the phone and like it was just me. And so, yeah. So, hey, honey, do you want to go with me to this call or do you want me to just go or whatever? No, honey, I’ll just go with you.

Let’s go pick up the van.

So so we go this call and this guy’s got a leak and so typically a guy has to go to the restroom No, he does not he has a leak in his sprinkler system, sir.

Oh, so But typically we would just shut the water off to the irrigation system come back later and fix it Well, we could not do that So I dig a big old hole my wife patiently waiting in the van and I realize I do not have any Cutters to cut PVC pipe in my name why you’re on a date.

Yeah, so I’m like, okay So I run down to Lowe’s get some PVC cutters come back cut it out Realize I have no glue to glue the PVC parts back.

Why do you not have glue with you?

You’re on a date Well, no, I’m in my I’m in my springboard repair van i’m in my sprinkler repair van at this point we had gone back to the house got my van that should have i don’t want to i don’t want to criticize you i’ll just say this whatever i take my wife on a date i say babe grab the pvc pipe and uh and the pvc cutter yes and the glue we’re going on a hot day yes anyway that’s that’s just It shows your relationship is very weird. Back to you, Josh. We make another trip to Lowe’s, come back, and fix this. And so my wife and all of her patients enjoy and love with me. Kind of the same conversation that Vanessa had with you.

We’re on our way to, at this point, I think we had to go get Wendy’s because it was really late, so we didn’t even get to actually have a real dinner. That’s a hot date.

So she said, hey, honey, maybe a list of what all you should have in the van.

And I was like, well, that’s not a good idea. I mean, why would that be a good idea? But that was long before you, Clay. Long before you. Let me read this notable quotable from Atul Gawande’s book, The Checklist Manifesto.

He says, Complication.

ICUs put 5 million lines into patients each year.

You know, like a line for intravenous, you know, blood transfusion, maybe you need an IV drip, whatever. ICUs put 5 million lines into patients each year. Here we go. Uh -oh. And national statistics show that after 10 days, 4 % of those lines become infected. Lyme infections occur in 80 ,000 people a year in the United States and are fatal between 5 and 28 % of the time.

But depending on how sick one is at the start, those who survive Lyme infections spend an average of a week longer in intensive care. That is scary. So Matt, take us out of the out of the it’s got heavy kind of dark kind of just kind of a kind of a, you know, you know, take us to a, give us an example of like you forgetting to do something on a checklist.

Back in the day, far enough.

So, you know, we cannot lose credibility with our listeners.

You know, we can’t talk about things where we forgot something on a checklist like 10 minutes ago. We need to talk about things in the past. Talk to me about something in the past where you’re going, that was dumb. Yeah. So I got, I got two ones real simple. When I, when I was in college, I played basketball.

I forgot that the only checklist item that matters when you play basketball, that’s my bag with my jersey and my shoes in it. And so I had, that’s the first game.

I didn’t start in college because I didn’t have shoes or my jersey. That was a really embarrassing, stupid one.

At the division one level? Division one level, you didn’t have your stuff? Yeah. I just, for just totally spaced it, like you would think, like, how is that possible? But I literally got to the airport without my bag or shoes.

I want to help you feel better. We always feel better when we know someone else does it.

Apparently, the Chiefs couldn’t find their equipment because it was sent to the wrong state. So just hours before the game, they had to have like a police escort take their equipment to the Patriots stadium because they didn’t have any gear. Did you know about that? Yeah, I did know about that. And I felt bad because I know exactly how that feels.

Some people are wondering if Bill Belichick had sent his hand in the deal.

I’m going to say he didn’t.

But here’s audio of the equipment showing up here at the game. So I don’t want you to feel bad. And they’re running in. These people are running. Look at this. These guys are running.

And they’re like, look at this guy. He’s got to go. We need equipment now.

We are trying to get equipment to the Chiefs.

Where’s Matt Klein?

Where’s Matt Klein’s gear? You got a game going.

So you did you just stand on the sidelines?

I mean, did you did you? out there nude or were you wearing street clothes or how did you handle it? Well, they gave me, so somebody went back to the college and took a later flight, one of our assistant coaches. So I had my jersey and I had my stuff for game time, but it was more of a life lesson where they, you said, oh, you’re not starting today. Cause you didn’t have your stuff. But, um, that one was just dumb, right?

A business one for me, which, you know, luckily, you know, for Josh, he was able to kind of fix that problem, or at least, you know, get a very quick solution to the problem. Yeah. So for me, in the way that I run oxy fresh, like I’m, I’m an hour away, right? And I’m on the phone most of the day. So when things like my checklist don’t really add up, like I don’t have immediate solutions typically sometimes. So like I had a new employee and I relied on my other employees to make sure that the vehicle that that new employee had was completely outfitted perfectly, right?

I did not have a checklist item for this. And so when I, I said, Hey, go through the whole vehicle, get it, make sure everything works in there and make sure he’s got everything that he needs. And they just looked in the vehicle and said, yeah, it looks like it’s good. Got to his first job.

It was like a 600 something dollar job.

None of his machines worked. And so they basically over time, you know, cause we have, we’ve had this business for a long time. We got new equipment, we got older equipment and we have equipment that people just kind of shove off to the side that they don’t want because we have extra stuff.

And so I didn’t have a solution. We basically just had to reschedule that job for the next week, give a big discount on that job. Right? Not only do that, we embarrassed the guy in the very beginning cause that’s not his decision. So without that checklist item, I really made the first day for this gentleman. Not great.

You know, this kind of thing. I mean, I’m just telling you, there is a certain complexity out there. I’m going to read. Andrew, I’m going to read a notable quotable, a fun factoid to you that appears in the Huffington Post. And this is an interview, an article written called, Check, Please, Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto.

It’s reviewing his book.

This is what it says. This is the excerpt from the article. When the state of Michigan began using a checklist for central lines in its intensive care units, its infection rate plummeted 66 % in just three months. Soon, its ICUs were outperforming, intensive care units, were outperforming 90 % of all hospitals nationwide.

In 18 months, the checklist saved 1 ,500 lives.

Good lord. And $175 million. I am sensitive to this subject. I will not take the show to a super dark place, but this is very true. My grandfather, Matt, was your grandfather in the military? My grandfather was in the Air Force.

OK, yeah, a lot of our grandfathers were. These guys served our country. They really fought the fight. And I really admire these guys. My grandfather, who I’m named after, his name is Clayton Thomas Clark. He served in the military.

He’s a very young guy. And he had to carry bazookas and ammo. Like, he carried gear. And he totally shot his knees. And he had impossible, terrible tendonitis and bone on bone kind of stuff at the age of like 22. So his knees were like he was like, you know, 80 when he was 20.

And he didn’t want to go in for surgery because back in the day, I mean, we’re talking, you know, at this point, if you were still alive, he’d be like his 90s, you know, he didn’t want to go and have surgery. So my dad was about my age. He told my grandfather, my dad said, Dad, just go in and get the surgery. I mean, come on, man, you’ve been limping around forever. You’ll feel so much better. And he goes, son, I don’t want to go now.

Again, perfect health. He is mechanical. his whole life. I

I want to say he was like 70 even, maybe 68, 70.

He goes in for surgery, dies in surgery. Not sick at all previously. No issue at all. Perfect heart health. Found out they didn’t read the chart and gave him the medication that killed him. True story.

You know? And it’s like, oops. Now, I forgot a mic stand. Oops. Think about this. I’m asking the listeners out there rhetorically.

How big is your oops? I mean, I forgot a mic stand. No, that’s not like that. It’s like this. It’s bad.

It’s really bad.

You know why?

Because it’s someone’s freaking wedding. And it’s not excusable. I unfortunately used to coach a church back in the day. I helped the pastor write his sermons. And Matt, do you know what the number one issue with his sermons was every week? You want to guess?

Not having a mic stand. This is what’s really funny. And again, this guy hired me to help him with his sermon. So I wasn’t writing the whole sermon. It was more of like, I’m going to write this sermon. I need you to kind of audit my sermons after I deliver them and give me feedback about how I can get better, like a speech coach.

His mic wouldn’t work at least 10 % of the time. And his slideshows wouldn’t work 10 % of the time. So between the two, two out of 10 services were a train wreck. And you could see the tension on the stage. He would say, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the yada yada church. And today we’re going to be talking and we’ll be talking about us too.

And there was like, we can’t hear you. We can’t hear you. We can’t hear you.

And he’s and he would tap.

And then the sound guy wasn’t wasn’t paying attention.

And this would go on all the time. And when we talked to the sound guy, talk to the sound guys, Mr. Sound Guy, what’s going on? He said, I don’t like using checklists. It’s all in my head. You know, it won’t happen again. So I’m going, I’m not his boss, Matt.

You know, I’m not his boss. I can’t make him do anything. So, you know, a couple months later happens again. And this is what he does. Then there’s something weird going on when we run away from saving lives, because we don’t use a checklist.

1500 lives were saved in just three months.

Real people, husbands, lives, daughters, kids. Could you imagine how pissed he would be if you lost your kid, your dad, someone you care about because they didn’t follow a freaking checklist? And you go, well, in medical, they need to be serious about it. Okay, let’s go to aviation.

In his book, he talks about this.

Do you know that the vast majority of the planes, the private planes that crash, crash because they run out of gas or because some routine maintenance checklist was skipped?

Matt, is that shocking to you that people are crashing private planes because they’re not filling their vehicle up with gas before they take off?

It’s actually not that shocking.

I think if people are, you know, I don’t care what profession you are, there’s mostly the same people with the same problems. It’s exactly what you said, though. How big is your hoops? Right.

And you can’t have too many of them if they’re big like that.

Right. So it’s not that surprising to be honest. Now, some industries, it’s considered criminal, you know, when you make a mistake, criminal negligence, some of them.

Some industries, not so much.

Josh, I want to tell myself again, because I want to help the listeners out there, because I want you guys to all learn at my expense.

Years ago, I sometimes share this story at the conference, I had a wedding reception that I was booked at at the Sheraton Hotel, beautiful place. Here in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Yeah, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, beautiful place. So I booked the bride, Matt, for a great, great couple. Matt, are you getting married, by the way?

Are you getting married soon?

Um, not soon.

Okay.

That’s great. So anyway, so I’m doing someone’s wedding. We’ll call him this exercise. We’ll call him Matt Klein. So Matt Klein’s wedding and Matt Klein says, Hey, you know, my wedding’s going to be at the Sheraton hotel.

And I said, congratulations.

Matt Klein. I hear you’re doing well at OxiFresh.

I’m excited about the news.

And so I show up on the day of the wedding two hours before to set up the gear and I get a phone call. Remember the singular phone calls, Matt, the singular phone? Yeah. I pick it up. What’s up? It’s the bride calling me.

Excuse me, are you supposed to be at my wedding?

How come you’re not here? I said, oh, I’m here.

She goes, oh, I just left the reception hall. I didn’t see you. I’m so glad you’re there. All’s well. You know me, bride jitters, whatever. I’m like, OK, yeah.

Well, then, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.

An hour later.

And I noticed there was nobody showing up at the reception. It’s kind of awkward.

They said, where are you?

I said, I’m all set up.

They said, no, you’re not.

It’s in Oklahoma City, Matt, an hour and a half away.

Oh, my God.

You’re making me feel a lot better, my friend.

I want all the listeners to feel a lot better.

This show should be like a great big colon cleanse for all the listeners out there. Self -esteem is skyrocketing right now. I drive with great passion. It’s an hour and a half to get there, about 90 minutes.

Great passion.

I drive in 45 minutes.

I get there.

Without breaking the law.

I’ll break it every law. I mean, it’s crazy. It was like the A -Team.

Get in the van!

Get in the van!

So I’m just going as fast as I can.

Get in the van! Get in the van! I’m just rolling through stop signs, just going, vroom, vroom, driving. I get there. Turns out there’s multiple Sheratons. Oh, no.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. So I go to the wrong one.

I call again. Now I’m like an hour late into the reception at this point. Sweating, too. Sweating like I’ve got like I am a serious recent criminal who I haven’t been yet arrested, but I’m going to church today after the crime. I mean, I’m sweating in church. I’m sweating.

So I finally call her. She says, are you kidding me? She’s going off. Her dad picks up the phone, just lays into me. Are you kidding me? This is my daughter.

Are you a jackass?

Are you? And I’m like, sir, I’m so sorry. And I am a jackass, but I’m in route, whatever. I get there. And Matt, this is Matt. Remember

in basketball, sometimes in the locker room, you start off with the, with the slow clap where it’s like, you kind of work into it. And then it felt like a thousand people was probably 200 people. Slow clap me and a guy booze, a guy booze. You don’t get booed at wedding receptions.

No, this is what happens. It’s a slow clap. And this guy in the back is like, it’s like those really loud booze where it’s, it’s very, but it’s like one guy like this. And so I’m going, I’m really sorry, I’m kind of waving to him. And then other people start kind of joining in the boo chorus. And it’s like, boo!

And then pretty soon, there’s like out of 200 people, maybe five or six people that are booing. Father of the Bride comes up to me and says, I won’t say the actual words, but he says, sir, you’ve completely booped my daughter’s wedding. I hope you can sleep at night, but I’ll be suing you. Have a good show. And I’m like, so then I tried to DJ the crap out of it. And I DJed the best show I’ve ever done kind of thing.

I was like, next level. After the wedding, shocking, father calls me for a shakedown call, which I deserved. And our contract stated that I only had to, you know, I’m only liable for the amount of the wedding. And he was like, I understand that you, I sent a contract says I’m only liable to you for like $600. But we spent like 30 ,000 on this wedding reception. And I think you should cover a lot of it because you ruined it.

And we ended up having to settle the thing. But all I can say is that it was my fault.

And you know what I did, I updated my system.

So I verified two forms of identification and then made you couldn’t save a file unless you save the address on file after reading it to the customer.

And then I made it where if you got the address wrong, it was a fireable offense, you know. And then we fixed it all. And then from like 2003 to 2008 or so, that never happened again.

We did a great job.

Things are good. But there’s something wrong when we’re not wanting to use a checklist. And now Atul Gawande says, checklists seem to defend anyone, even the inexperienced, against failure in many more tasks than we realized. Matt, how can the checklist at Oxifresh defend franchisees from failure? Well, and I think that’s why we do it in the very, very beginning, because if we get them on the track to say, OK, this is easy. Right.

These are the things that we do and they can’t check them off. You can’t actually move to the next step of this process of opening your business until you’ve actually checked it off physically. Right. And so if we get them in that habit, it’s just like we don’t want our franchisees learning how to use checklists or disastrous situation, because some of those things, if it’s big enough, you can’t come back from them.

right?

Like being sued or something like that. So, you know, there’s very small amount of possibility that can happen, but you open up a whole realm of accidents and problems and, you know, missing appointments and not getting paid for things and your employees not being in an area where they can be successful if you’re not doing these checklists. So, you know, just like those stories, you know, you’re a successful person. Not everybody just is going to do that. So buy into a franchise like an oxy fresh that will actually be able to help you with those checklists and get you off to the right foot. Not learning through big, big mistakes that really hurt your bottom line.

Okay, I told Gawande says this, Josh, I want to get your take on this. He says the volume and complexity of what we know has now exceeded our individual ability to deliver its benefits correctly, safely and effectively. and reliably. Now, I know when you install quality irrigation systems at Living Water Irrigation, you got to dig a ditch. you gotta put in the system, but man, if you cover that thing with earth, and you re -sod it, and you make the ground look beautiful again, and then you forgot a core thing that might not work, what are the kinds of core things that you have to put on your checklist that you just can’t forget?

We need to make sure that we’re seating the fittings properly, so meaning that when you put them on in a quarter turn, so that way the pipe seats all the way into the fittings. We need to make sure that we’re cleaning the pipe, that we’re sanding the pipe.

We need to make sure that we’re actually laying out the system as designed and as detailed with the homeowner.

We need to make sure we’re getting the proper email, getting the proper address, getting the proper name and spelling. I mean, we go on and on and on, but the The great benefit to checklist the great benefit to having all these things available is the freedom that comes from not having to remember.

all of these details to just look and go, Oh, okay.

So on today’s job, we’re going to do this. So we need these things to accomplish this. Let me make sure I have those things. Let me go perform my function and do the job as opposed to trying to think about all of the things you need. And then when you get done with a job with a checklist, knowing that the system is actually going to function as opposed to, man, I hope I did that right. And And if you’re not careful, though, we could all think that we have it figured out and we’re going to forget something.

Matt, when you travel in a proxy fresh, you guys do travel for trade shows, you know, where you go out there and meet people and try to introduce yourself to potential franchisees.

I mean, isn’t there a lot of crap you guys have to bring on that trip?

Yes.

And I have, because of not having a checklist, literally forgot the plug in part of our booth. and We had a 12 volt battery. We were like MacGyver in there trying to get this thing to work when all we had to do was just follow the checklist. And one of those items would have been the power cord. Right.

And it’s like, you know, those things make your, your day so much more difficult. Um, so now you’re not focused on, on doing things like meeting new people. You’re literally working on how you can make this booth actually light up. Uh, Andrew.

I’m going to talk about marriage tips here that you don’t want, you’re not asking for.

I’m so ready.

But Matt is a single man, and I as a man who have been married now for almost 19 years, we are here to judge you.

So I’m going to talk to you about marriage real quick. I’m here to judge you, and you’re not asking for the advice. Matt, and you might say, how am I qualified to give him advice? Well, I’ll tell you how you’re qualified. You’re Matt freaking Klein, and you sell franchises. You award people franchises.

You do a good job, and you rely on checklists. Do you not use checklists, though, Matt? You do use checklists, right? Yeah, we use checklists all the time. All right, so Matt and I are going to give you passive aggressive marriage advice that you don’t want on the show.

Oh, yeah.

And here it is. One, we know that if we take our wives on a date once a week, that’s the minimum to stay married long term. So on the checklist, that’s item number one. Item number two, we know as men, we figured it out. You have to ask the spouse in the house, what could I do better on each one of these dates?

Because every week there will be something we could improve upon.

Three, we know that if we do two dates a week, Specifically, we go to Kirkland’s and places like that that we’re interested in.

Then we will discover that we will be having a lot of marriage bliss, if you know what I’m saying.

Four, we know that if we buy flowers every week, we that that’s what we call that’s that’s called the freak a week. That’s where you’re just having a lot of loving going on.

It’s a freak a week.

You know what I mean?

That’s just that that’s the freak a week.

So there’s a P .

D.

Pablo song called Freak A Week.

This is called the Freak A Week. It’s when you bring home flowers and you go on two dates a week.

Was it a P .

D.

Pablo reference? I just want to. Yeah. Hey, do you like P . there, Matt? Do you like Petey Pablo?

Yeah, he’s my favorite. Do you remember the song Petey Pablo? Do you remember that? Yeah. I mean, I did. Yeah.

Let me cue it up here. Cue it up just real quick. Whoa.

Whoa.

Okay. So that’s what’s going to happen if you’re bringing a. Anyway, the point is the checklists But the thing is, we forget. Do we not? We all do.

We say, you know what? Because we don’t put our personal lives on our business checklist, but we should.

You got one calendar for your one life.

You got your one checklist. And picking up your kids from basketball is just as important as making sure you show up on time for the clients. So anything we want to get done has to be on a checklist. And you might be saying, I don’t want to be a robot. You would say, I don’t want to be a robot. I don’t want to be a control.

I want to. No. It’s predictable. You’re gonna make mistakes like a freaking idiot robot So what you want to do is make a checklist for any area of your life that you want to improve That’s what happens.

It works man.

If you’re a bit like a super strict diet where you’ve just gotten jacked Yeah, and when you were on that Jack diet, were you were you just eating?

I mean, did you have a plan or just get out there and just make it up as you go?

Um, yeah.

Well, I I don’t think I had more of a checklist I literally just ate meat and no carbs and just went to the gym.

That’s all I did. So I didn’t do quite the checklist That’s huge right there. So Charles Kola, we’ve had him on the show a lot. This guy’s jacked. Matt, I can’t wait for you to meet this guy at some point. He’s jacked.

But Charles Kola, he is, I mean, all he ever eats is meat and vegetables and water. So he’s got, it’s a small enough of a, it’s so simple.

It’s like the list that is in his head, but it’s so simple.

Now I’m going to challenge the listeners out there.

Andrew, if we wanted to get Google reviews, for instance,

from every customer, and we wanted to make sure that every customer was happy, what would be the way to guarantee we would get those reviews?

The best way to do it is after you’ve provided the service, you call your customer and you ask them, hey, how was the service?

In OxyPress, you want to do it in the home, am I correct there, Matt?

When they’re happy right there, you ask them right there?

Yeah, you don’t leave that home until they say, I’m 100 % satisfied.

Now this is what Charles Kola does. His thing is if you do not ask the customer to leave an objective review and you don’t get a review from half of the people you talk to, you’re in trouble.

Matt, you should Google this real quick.

Google search Joplin gyms real quick while I listen to Freak A Leak.

Just Google real quick.

Joplin, like Joplin, Missouri.

Did you ever play Joplin in college basketball?

Did they have a team? No. Okay.

I’m not sure.

Do you see Joplin gyms? Do you see Kola Fitness coming up there?

Number one. Look at that, look at how many reviews he has. You see that?

About that many, yeah.

You see that many reviews?

He has 34, 24, 36. 36, yeah. That’s a lot. That’s a lot.

3 ,000 reviews. How did he know? Matt, if you scroll down, do you see all the video reviews coming up?

Look at that guy.

I mean, is that not total domination, Matt? I mean, in your objective opinion? Yeah, I don’t think it’s my objective opinion. It’s just facts.

I’ve never had a client be more serious about getting reviews than that guy.

And you know how he doesn’t forget, Andrew?

How does he not forget?

What do you think he does? He probably has a checklist.

So for all the guys out there who are going, God, you know, my marriage sucks.

Like every two weeks I jack it up.

What advice would you have for the men out there?

And a very aggressive, aggressive marriage tip, now that you know the knowledge.

Oh, I would definitely say create a checklist and have on there, take your wife out on one date.

I wrote this down.

I got this down.

It’s a move.

Take your wife out on one date per week.

Ask your spouse, what can I do better? Go on two dates per week and you’ll have a lot of marital sex.

Whoa.

Buy flowers every week and you will have a freak a week. Real quick, can you, your to -do list, I don’t want you to show the inappropriate stuff you’re on that checklist, but will you show the checklist to the camera real quick? My checklist, yeah.

Do you put working out on there too?

I do.

It’s right there at 2 .30 in the morning with my wife. Wow.

Right there.

It’s $2 .30. $2 .30? Right there. You do that? So that’s in your calendar, though? That is.

Yep. Okay. So you put it on the… How much of your income do you save? We save 50%. And that’s the thing.

You just said it and forget it, and you now save 50 % of your income. Yeah. Matt, this guy’s 21 years old and now just bought a second house. It’s true. Pretty incredible. He’s a dirty…

When you meet him, just slap him around. Hey, now. Make him humble, Matt. Matt, I’ve got one more notable quotable from Atul Gawande from the book, The Checklist Manifesto. I’d love for you to break down here. He says, and the reason is increasingly evident.

The volume and complexity of what we know has exceeded our ability to deliver its benefits correctly, safely, and reliably. Knowledge has both saved us, and burdened us.

” Then he goes on to talk about Van Halen. He says, listening to the radio, I’ve heard the story behind rocker David Lee Roth’s notorious insistence that Van Halen’s contracts with concert promoters contain a clause specifying that a bowl of M &M’s has to be provided backstage before the show, but with every single brown candy removed upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation to the band. At least once, Van Halen followed through This is their canceled a show in Colorado when Roth found some brown M &Ms in his dressing room. This turned out to be however, not another example of the insane demands of power mad celebrities, but an ingenious ruse. As Roth explained in his memoir, Crazy from the Heart, Van Halen was the first band to take huge productions into these third -level markets. We’d pull up with nine 18 -wheeler trucks full of gear where the standard was three trucks max.

And there were many, many technical errors, whether it was with the girders that couldn’t support the weight, or the flooring would sink in, or the doors weren’t big enough to move the gear through.

The contract writer read like a version of the Chinese Yellow Pages because there was so much equipment and so many human beings to make it function. So just as a little test buried somewhere in the middle of the writer, we would put would be Article 126, the no brown M &M’s clause. When I would walk stage if I saw a brown M &M in that bowl, we’d line check the entire production, guaranteed you were going to arrive at a technical error, guaranteed you’d run into a problem. These weren’t trifles, the radio story pointed out. The mistakes could be life -threatening. In Colorado, the band found that the local promoters had failed to read the weight requirements and the staging would have fallen through the arena floor, thus killing people.

Again, that’s how they knew whether you read the whole contract or not.

So let’s talk about this again, then I’ll let the listeners get out of here.

Matt, we’ve got some listeners out there that are going, God, you know, I don’t want to have a checklist for everything.

Do I have to have a checklist for all the gear that needs to be in my work truck?

Do I have to go that detailed?

Matt, do you really have to have a checklist of all the crap that is in the Oxyfresh vehicles? Do you have to go that detailed? Yes, because if you don’t have one of those items and you get to a home and you can’t complete that job, you’ve just failed.

So absolutely, and here’s the thing, if you’ve run your business for a little while, you know where your inadequacies are, you know what you’re not good at, so stop fighting the problem. If it’s happened before, and certainly if it’s happened multiple times, then obviously the current situation, the way you’re handling it is not working. So, especially if you have employees, you owe it to them to make them a good checklist so that they have something to follow. Because if you as the owner have missed those things, you can certainly guarantee that your employees will from time to time. So, it’ll just make the entire process of you being able to get to your end result so much easier. So, it’s not that much harder to make that checklist.

You know, on today’s show, when we finish doing the show, what I’m going to do is I’ll edit, I’ll add in an intro, I’ll add in an outro. I’m going to send the show description, the meta description, the meta title, and the show notes to Jonathan Kelly. And then he transcribes the show. The show is then uploaded to iTunes, Spotify, iHeart, YouTube. It’s then embedded on the site. And he has got a massive checklist that makes my head almost explode while looking at it.

And so, Matt, I thought we would bring the show to a nice close by reading the checklist for the conference to the listeners. Does that sound fun, Matt? I’m into it. I think a lot of people don’t. I think when you say, Josh, I think when you say I’m going to read a checklist right away, people tune out. No, I’m exhilarated.

I mean, it’s exhilarating. I’m so excited right now. I’m going to read it to you. Amelia has to wipe down the windows Thursday. Ben has to wipe down the counters. Jonathan has to talk to Luke about conference footage needed.

Jonathan has to talk to the bookstore about if you buy any of my books online on Amazon, you can get one free at the conference. John has to clean the bathrooms.

Paul Hood has to confirm or John has to call Paul to confirm lunch for Friday at Los Cabos. Jonathan has to talk to the team, saving audio properly for each session, so the person who’s managing the recording of the workshop has to wear headphones.

We have an ice sculpture being delivered in the shape of the F6.

Steve Currington has to get the Lamborghinis and exotic cars there.

I’ve got to pick up the TV to give away.

I’ve got to tell the team how many reviews they have to gather. I’ve got to put out the conference cards. Luke has to pick up Michael Levine and Matt Klein. Oh, Matt Klein! from somewhere. Andrew and Kendall have to be wearing headphones.

Five in the morning, the team has to huddle.

5 .30 as we’re huddling, I have to ask the team, do you know what position you’re supposed to be in?

Make sure that every attendee knows what’s going on. If they have any questions, they get up on the board. Then we have a team huddle.

We assign the sections, what section they need to be in.

Then we have the team.

They write down all the questions on the board. Oh, and I spelled right wrong. Look at that. I got to write questions. Look at that, Matt. I got to write questions on the whiteboard.

Look at that. Then we got to greet the guests. Then Dane and The Soup get there to perform. And we have a song list of what they’re supposed to play. We got to get B -roll of people walking in. We got to get the fire breather outside.

He’s going to be breathing fire. We got flamethrowers and fire breathers literally outside of our building.

That has to happen.

We’ve got the band performing. I mean, it goes on and on and on. We got to get 50 images for our conference page. I mean, Matt, this makes me nauseated looking at all this. Yeah, but just think about how nauseated you’d be after you get there and you missed about seven of those items. Oh, my gosh.

I’m just telling you, we’ve all been to an amateur conference. We’ve all seen the amateur hour with a small business.

We’ve all seen it.

Let’s be pros, OK? Today is the go time. for the pro tie.

It is now time to get serious about our business.

Let’s let’s all together today, move into the 1 % of our industry, unless you’re in the carpet industry and you’re outside of Oklahoma.

If you’re in any other state, and not Oklahoma, and you’re in the carpet industry, I want you to take your game down a notch.

Don’t use checklists, mail it in, take the quality down, don’t follow up, make sure you abdicate, never delegate, don’t get reviews.

Don’t be dependable, make promises you can’t keep.

Be a jackass if you are not an oxy -fresh and you’re cleaning carpet in other territories.

Matt, can we agree on that? Absolutely.

Yeah, we just want all the carpet cleaners out there. Just take your game down a notch a little bit. You’re striving too hard. But everybody else, take your game up another level. You can do it. And we’re going to end this show with a boom.

Matt, are you pumped? to bring a Denver, Colorado boom? Oh, yeah. Hey, by the way, Matt, I’ve got a ticker on my website right now on Thrivetimeshow . com. I just want to share it with you.

I got a ticker up there. And I’m going to see you in two days and 15 hours and 39 minutes and 43 seconds. I can’t wait. Oh, I like that. Here we go. Three, two, one.

Oh, yeah. Attend the world’s best business workshop led by America’s number one business coach for free by subscribing on iTunes and leaving us an objective review.

Claim your tickets by emailing us proof that you did it and your contact information to info at thrivetimeshow .

com.

My name is Jay Schroeder and I am from Nashville, Tennessee. A lady I used for coaching, I told her I was looking for some sort of conference to get my mind thinking about business and she found this and I just went with it. Flew out here a week later. No, I didn’t think it was a scam. It piqued my interest, because it’s how I think. I think entrepreneurially, and to me, right away, it clicked.

I’ve learned that our systems are not exactly where they need to be. And what we need to do, there’s a plan in place. He has a plan in place to get you from where you are to where you need to go.

It’s great, man.

It’s not your typical corporate. It’s got a phenomenal vibe. I love all the sayings on the wall. I love it. Love the smell. The smell outside is great.

I love it. It’s casual, but yeah, you know exactly what he’s talking about. Dude, there’s nothing worse than standing and walking, listening to a guy in a suit rambling at you. Love it. Great presentation. Yeah, internet guy.

great. You definitely feel comfortable asking a question if you need to. Questions from the rest of the people in the audience also helps, I mean, maybe stimulate more questions that you have. If you have an entrepreneurial mindset and you’re trying to get from where you are to where you want to go, you have to come to this. They don’t need to upset it. Their product speaks for itself.

If it’s what you’re looking for, it’s what you’re looking for. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to build their brand, build their business. Just the day in one, the day, not even two day session yet.

I mean, I’ve already got a hundred ideas that I want to, that I want to implement. And yeah, I’d recommend it for anyone who has an entrepreneur mindset and who wants to build their business. So my name is John Kelly. I’m from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. So I heard about the Thrive Time Workshop through Claystairs at Leadership Initiative. So I’m a general contractor.

We do commercial residential work. I’m just looking to refine my business and learn some of the steps to do that. So Clay’s office and the team is awesome. They really know their stuff. They have great culture. Awesome place.

Clay’s presentation style is super cool. He makes it a lot of fun, but at the same time, you can tell he really knows his stuff. He really does his homework. I think the biggest takeaway that I have from the conference is just it’s really important to be disciplined and disciplined in a lot of areas. You’ve got to be disciplined with your time. You’ve got to be disciplined in the way you manage.

And that’s super important. So I think for people not attending the conference, they’re really missing a great opportunity to learn a whole lot about business. And they’re missing the experience of learning in a fun way. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get an opportunity to see that it’s real. You talk to the coaches and you talk to the leadership from week to week, but you actually get to see companies that have been through it and it makes the whole experience real. play my honor my honor to be on your show and thank you for all you do i hear the ripple effects from you are good ripple effects you know i mean people rave about what they learn from you so congratulations sean guess what’s happening april 9th and 10th 2026 uh we are probably going to have an amazing birthday business conference here at Tulsa Ruslim.

Yes, we’re joined by Tim Tebow. Tim Tebow is going to be joining us right here at the Thrive Time Show World Headquarters, June 5th and 6th. He’s a very successful football player, obviously a Heisman Award winner, but he’s also a very successful entrepreneur. Now, when you work with real clients, Sean, real clients you really work with to help them grow their companies. Do you ever hear a business owner tell you that they didn’t have time to get something done? Every day.

How often is not having enough time a problem for business owners?

All the time.

It’s like maybe 90 % of the issues as people are trying to grow their company. Well, Tim Tebow is going to come join us here at the in -person Thrive Time Show two -day interactive business workshop, and he’s going to teach us time management and his approach to personal self -discipline and getting things done.

Also at the workshop, I’ll put up on the website so people can see it here.

Also at the two -day interactive workshop, Sean, we are going to be teaching accounting, systems creation, marketing, human resources, how to hire, inspire, train and retain great people, accounting, social media advertising, search engine optimization. Sean, what’s the area where most clients ask you for help the most? getting leads? Is it hiring people? What’s the biggest issue that most business owners have by default before they come to one of our workshops? Well, I think it’s management because time is the most valuable resource for these business owners and being able to manage their time is the first thing.

Once they get that under control, then generally the numbers. You know, being able to track their business and be able to make the best decisions based on numbers rather than emotions is a big area. And we teach all of this stuff at the business conference, particularly you, Clay. You love to hammer on time management. It’s my favorite part of the conference.

Now, I’m going to pull this up real quick here, because we’re going to go through it. If you’re not excited, I want to get you excited about what we’re going to cover at the workshop here. The two -day interactive workshop. This is my 20th year hosting workshops. So I’m telling you folks, we’re in rare form here. So one is the idea of establishing your revenue goals.

I think most entrepreneurs don’t know their revenue goals. Would you agree or am I off my rocker? No, that’s totally a very important point we do with every one of our new clients that come on board is we have to establish the revenue goals. And generally speaking, we have a vague idea, but not an exact idea that can be engineered down into like the daily goals for sales. And so that’s a really big one. even numbers.

What kind of sales do you have to do to even break even? Third is how many hours per week do you want to work? What is your ideal schedule as an entrepreneur? Box number four, how do you stand out in the clutter of commerce? What makes your company unique from all the different businesses? In a world of brown cows, herds of brown cows, proverbial brown cows, the analogy of brown cows, how can you be the purple cow that stands out?

How can you be the squeaky wheel that gets the oil? Box number five, branding. How do you improve the perception that people have of you, your business, your brand. Box number six, marketing, your three -legged marketing stool. What is a turnkey way for you and your company to generate leads so you can succeed? Because if you don’t have any leads, your business will bleed.

If you can’t sell, your business will go to hell. You’ve got to generate leads. Sean, how often do business owners by default tell you they have a hard time generating leads? It’s almost all of the time. It’s really huge struggle.

And many times they may be creating leads, but just through word of mouth. So they get to a point where we’ve implemented systems and then they need to create more leads, but they’ve never had to do it. So there’s a lot of different scenarios where business owners are like, how do you create leads? Something we hammer on at the conference a lot. Box number seven, box number seven, create a sales conversion system. Again, box number seven, create a sales conversion system.

system. Sales scripts, recorded calls, one sheets, pre -written emails, lead trackers, all of the sales tools, the sales print pieces, the one sheets, the big screens that you see inside the business, whether you’re a doctor, you’re a dentist, you’re a lawyer, you got to have sales systems in place. We help you with that. Box number eight. What does it cost you to get another customer? Step number eight, what does it cost you to actually acquire a customer?

Step number nine, it’s hard to build organization if you’re not organized. We’re going to teach you how to create repeatable systems, processes, file organization. Box number 10, we’re going to teach you how to manage people, real people, on the planet Earth. This just in, we’re going to teach you how to manage real people on the planet Earth. Box number 11, how to create a sustainable schedule that works for you and your family.

Step number 12, how to create human resources systems for recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining great people.

Box number 13, accounting. This just in, we have to cover accounting. It’s not how much you make. It’s how much you keep. We’re going to cover all the accounting things you need to know. And step 14, finally, we’re going What is the point of even achieving success?

We’re gonna go over that. What is the point of even achieving success? How to design a life that you’re excited about. How to design a life where you carve out enough time for your faith, your family, your finance, your fitness, your friendship, your fun, and where you’re gonna spend your focused time. We’re gonna go through that, all this and more. Now, the workshop, Sean, it’s April 9th and 10th.

It’s a two -day interactive workshop. And tickets, we always do it. It’s $250 or whatever price that someone can afford. Sean, why do we let people name their price?

Why do we have scholarship tickets?

available if somebody can’t afford the $250 general admission ticket? Well, we don’t want anybody to miss out on it. You could be at a startup phase, or you could be way along in your business. But we want to make it accessible for everybody. I think it actually goes back, too, to a story of your dad. And it goes all the way back to how you’ve always done this as a business coach, trying to make sure that your average people out there have access to the things that work.

Now, 7 a . m. to 5, Sean, why do we go from 7 to 5 both days?

I mean, it’s 10 hours a day.

20 hours of training over two days. Why do we do 10 hours a day, Sean, of back -to -back workshops? We do a 30 -minute teaching session. We do a 15 -minute question and answer session. And then we take a break. 30 minutes of teaching, 15 minutes of question and answer.

Then we take a break.

Why do we do that format, Sean?

That format is so that we can keep people engaged and not just sitting there listening, but also getting involved.

We really encourage people to ask questions. And that’s really where the juiciness of the conference comes out, is you can put your personal and your questions on the board, and Clay will tee off and give you direct advice. Even without being in our coaching program, you can get direct coaching from Clay. It’s really a very engaging format. I enjoyed a lot. Once again, folks, this event is April 9th and 10th, 2026.

Get those tickets at thrivetimeshow .

com.

Once again, that’s thrivetimeshow .

com. two -day interactive business workshop right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I think it’s, did you say it’s $250 or whatever you can afford? That’s right, $250 or whatever you can afford.

Sean, how do you spell Eric Trump backwards?

P -M -U -R -T -C -I -R -E. Ooh, that took a long time. I’ll have to listen to this. All right, again, that’s Sean Lohman. inviting you to come join us at the in -person Thrive Time Show two day interactive workshop. This event is April 9th and 10th, 2026.

Get those tickets at ThriveTimeShow . com.

Once again, that’s ThriveTimeShow . com. Right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tim Tebow, baby. It’s Tebow time in Tulsa, Russia. Clay Clark is here somewhere. Where’s my buddy Clay?

Clay’s the greatest. 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.

So this guy’s like the greatest marketer you’ve ever seen, right? His entire life, Clay Clark, his entire life is marketing. They come in, conference is kicked off, this house is packed. We’ve got Aaron Andrus with ShopRooms up there. We’ve got Steve Bering, Tim, Total Ending Concepts up there, talking about what is possible when you just implement, when you implement, when you do the process. So exciting, people are going crazy.

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. We got involved with Thrive Time. We didn’t really have any systems or processes in place.

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. 4 ,000%.

from February to February. Now, I can better that. Okay, Clay, I don’t think you know this. I don’t think you know this. I’m pinching myself, and if I cry, forgive me. In the last two and a half days, we have bettered our entire month of February.

in the last two and a half days. I heard about it on the podcast, started listening to the podcast, became a fan and then figured out about the workshop. I own an insurance and financial services agency, and I was hoping to learn from the workshop systems and processes.

I’m big on systems and processes and always learning better ways to run a business more efficiently. The atmosphere is second to none. none. It’s a high energy, really cool atmosphere to be around. Contagious, I would say.

Just something to enjoy. entrepreneur, I think, would appreciate and love. I’d say humorous, high energy, and full of substance, which I think is the key.

A lot of business coaches or seminars.

Maybe you’re high on motivation and making you feel good, but don’t have a lot of substance that you could take back and implement, you know, the following Monday, where his does.

Man, there’s a lot of valuable things. I’m gonna say, like, I came to, this is my second workshop. The first workshop I took back, really, the importance of a group interview. I used to spend hours and hours interviewing people, screening resumes, and that saving my time on that part is valuable. It was that and then the sales scripting that have been two major things just so far. Man, I think they’re missing out on expert advice from somebody who’s been there, done that, built companies, has learned a lot of lessons.

That’s what I’m always looking for is somebody that I can learn from that’s ahead of where I am. And I think if you choose not to come, you’re missing out on a lot of good advice that could help your business. Hi, this is Charles and Amber Kola. We’re the owners of Kola Fitness. We heard about Clay Clark through Paul Hood, our CPA. We’ve worked with Clay Clark for the last two years.

Clay Clark has helped us take our three locations in three different states and create checklists, workflows, task lists, time blocks for every employee. He’s helped us with creating systems and audits for every department, quantitative scorecards for each department and every position so that everybody has a number. it’s been able to give us a lot of time freedom and financial freedom and peace of mind to know that everything’s running efficiently and he’s been helpful with a lot of marketing, search engine optimization, helping us really rank high in Google, and pretty much every area of the business. It’s been very, very helpful.

We would describe the experience of working with Clay as very energetic. He’s full of energy. He’s very encouraging, very motivating, but also accountable. So he keeps us accountable, and we love that accountability. It keeps our drive in the right direction, so we’re not chasing things that aren’t worth spending our time on.

He’s a great coach. He helps push us on certain areas, helps coach us in certain areas. You know, we’re all emotional creatures and we go up and down and he actually will tell us kind of where we’re at, how we can get from there, and even like emotionally, like if we’re stressed about something, he’ll have a story to relate to and really helps us in every area of our business. It’s been very, very helpful. I think Clay’s ability to have a whole team behind him that helped him with all of his clients, all his coaching clients, is that it allows Clay to do what he’s really good at, and that’s working one -on -one with the client and coaching them, and then he can have his amazing staff come in and help you accomplish all these goals that you’re setting. And of course he has all these resources, whether it’s videographers or whether it’s web developers, that they can quickly jump on your project, knock things out.

He can quickly give you the right coaching. He’s just got a whole team of people that whatever area you’re lacking in, in your own company, he’s got resources from like video, web design, search engine guys who are just knowledgeable in that. Even though he knows a lot of that stuff, he’s got these capable lieutenants that are ready to just take off and help you get that stuff done. More stuff gets done on a weekly basis than you would on like probably more than an individual or some other company. worked with several companies before. It’s just not as many things get done on a weekly basis.

It’s been very helpful. Well, the conferences for me, I’m a slow learner, so I have to learn like over and over again, hear things over and over again. I’ve been to like, I think, eight different conferences, and each time you come, I learn a few new components. Some things are repetitive, but a lot of the stuff just resettles, and I get a little bit more depth into each component. So, I mean, I’ve been to eight of them. They’re all super entertaining.

He’s very funny, very encouraging. You get to kind of self -reflect a lot, and a lot of the stuff is really polarizing. personal inventory of yourself and you’ll think like, hey, I’ve really got to work on this, really got to work on that. So every time you come, I still get a lot of value out of it. And as much as every conference is the same, it’s totally different. So I think we’ll hear stories we haven’t heard before.

They’ll have entertainment or they’ll have speakers you didn’t have before. And like you said, you just always catch a different part of the material that maybe you didn’t catch before. It’s worded differently.

And it’s really cool because some people that you’ve seen like a year ago at a conference, now they’re being showcased as a success story. And you get to see their website.

You get to see how their stats and all their metrics have improved and the revenue improved. So it’s really cool to see people that just a year ago, that of course we’ve been here two years, that just came, that I met, is now being successful. It’s really encouraging to see other people accomplish that stuff. Clay has helped us optimize our website and helped with really topping the right search engines that we need to make sure that we are very, very competitive with all of our other competitors. Basically, he outlines exactly what you need to be accomplishing and he creates tasks that we have to accomplish and his team has to accomplish. I would say over the last two years,

we’ve totally ramped our website. We’re topping Google in every one of our markets. I would say just doing really, really good. I feel very, very confident in all of our future locations and making sure that we’re in front of the ideal and likely buyer. It’s very encouraging. It’s important to me that to know when I’m working with Clay, you know, I’ve been in business for a while and met with him even when I already had three businesses in three different states and to know that what I share with him is staying private.

He’s not sending that out to anybody else. To know that when he’s working with me, he’s only working with one other, no other gyms that are in direct competition with me. It’s very encouraging to have somebody you can trust and rely on, that he isn’t going to somehow tell your trade secrets or give information away. Just really awesome that he’s a trustworthy guy, really cares about you as a client. For us, it’s been a complete mind freedom, because Clay has helped us create a lot of different documents and one sheets for every department, put quantitative scorecards to each department. And so for us, it’s been very encouraging.

It gives us peace. As an entrepreneur, it’s stressful. You go to bed at night, you’re worried, like, did we cover this? Did we cover that? So he helps extract everything out of your brain, everything from your business, put it into document creation. put it into checklists and workflows for every person in each department, and make sure that everything’s getting done every week, every month, and funnel that all into KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, as you can see, on a weekly basis, to make sure you’re moving the needle in the right area of your company.

So very encouraging, and give you a complete mind, freedom, and peace to know that that stuff’s created, so you’re easy to duplicate and scale your company. Right, and then we can spend time doing what we’re really good at. and just trust the system. I honestly believe everybody needs a coach. I think we’re all inherently lazy and selfish and carnal. I truly believe that humans are humans.

If we’re standing, we’d rather sit. If we’re sitting, we’d rather lay down. And if we’re laying down, we’d rather be asleep. So to have somebody that challenges you, have real active candor, and be honest with you on every aspect of your company is really, really encouraging to me because I want to know. I want to work on what we’re weak at. I want to see any areas that we’re not doing well in and see his perspective from a third party, because you can look at your own business and just see the good.

It’s good to have somebody who’s done this with hundreds of companies. Really look at your company, reflect on your company, and see little chinks in the armor to make sure you cover that up, so your competition can’t get to you, and that you’re successful overall in the big picture. Yes, I would recommend Clay Clark because he is a great friend, great encourager. To me, he’s been a wonderful friend. You can tell he cares. Also, he’s just a well -rounded He’s worked with so many different companies and different businesses.

He could take a concept that he’s used before in the past with somebody in a totally different industry and see how it would work perfectly for you in whatever niche market you’re in or whatever type of service you’re providing. And so his brain is just a wealth of knowledge. And just to have that type of perspective as a part of your team and your own company is huge, super valuable. So I would definitely encourage people to use him. But one thing is you’ve got to be coachable. You’ve got to be wanting to get feedback.

You’ve got to be wanting to really grow your company. You’ve got to want to put that extra 10 hours a week to working on your business and not just in your business. And so, yes, I would recommend it to anybody who’s wanting to grow their company and provide great systems, checklists, workflows, great encouragement, and have accountability. here in town who had told me what a great job he had been doing for them. And I actually noticed he was driving a Lamborghini all of a sudden, so I was willing to listen. In my career, I’ve sold a little over $800 million in real estate.

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

So when I came to know Clay, I really thought, man, there’s not much more I need to know, but I’m willing to listen. The interesting thing is our internet leads from our website has actually in a four month period of time has gone from somewhere around 10 to 15 leads in a month to 180 internet leads in a month. Just from the few things that he’s shown us how to implement that I honestly probably never would have come up with on my own. So I got a lot of good things to say about the system that Clay put in place with us. And it’s just been an incredible experience. I am very glad that we met and had the opportunity to work with Clay.

So the interaction with the team and with Clay on a weekly basis is honestly very enlightening. One of the things that I love about Clay’s perspective on things is that he doesn’t come from my industry. He’s not somebody who’s in the whole industry. industry. I’ve listened to all the experts in my field. Our company has paid for me to go to seminars, international builder shows, all kinds of places where I’ve had the opportunity to learn from the experts in my industry.

But the thing that I found working with Clay is that he comes from such a broad spectrum of working with so many different types of businesses that he has a perspective that’s difficult for me to gain because I get so entrenched in what I do, I’m not paying attention to what other leading industry experts are doing. And Clay really brings that perspective for me. It is very valuable time every week when I get that hour with him. From my perspective, the reason that any business owner who’s thinking about hooking up with Thrive needs to definitely consider it is because The results that we’ve gotten in a very short period of time are honestly monumental. It has really exceeded my wildest expectation of what he might be able to do. I came in skeptical because I’m very pragmatic.

And as I’ve gone through the process over just a few months, I’ve realized it’s probably one of the best moves we’ve ever made. I think a lot of people probably feel like they don’t need a business or marketing consultant because they maybe are a little bit prideful and like to think they know everything. I know that’s how I felt coming in. I mean, we’re a big company that’s definitely one of the largest in town. And so we kind of felt like we knew what we were doing. And I think for a lot of people, they let their ego get in the way of listening to somebody that might have a better or different perspective than theirs.

I would just really encourage you, if you’re thinking about working with clay, I mean, the thing is, it’s month to month. Go give it a try and see what happens. I think in the 35 -year history of Shaw Homes, this is probably the best thing that’s happened to us. And I know if you give them a shot, I think you’ll feel the same way.

I know for me, the thing I would have missed out on if I didn’t work with Clay is I would have missed out on literally an 1 ,800 % increase in our internet leads, going from 10 a month to 180 a month. That would have been a huge financial decision to just decide not to give it a shot. I would absolutely recommend Clay Clark to anybody who’s thinking about working with somebody in marketing. I would skip over anybody else you were thinking about, and I would go straight to Clay and his team. I guarantee you’re not going to regret it, because we sure haven’t. My name is Danielle Sprick, and I am the founder of D. Sprick Realty Group here in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

After being a stay -at -home mom for 12 years and my three kids started school and they were in school full -time, I was at a crossroads and trying to decide, what do I want to do? My degree and my background is in education, but after being a mom and staying home and all of that, I just didn’t have a passion for it like I once did. My husband suggested real estate. He’s a home builder, so real estate and home building go hand -in -hand, and we just rolled with it. I love people. I love working with people.

I love the building relationships. But one thing that was really difficult for me was the business side of things, the processes and the advertising and marketing. I knew that I make that what it should be. So I reached out to Clay at that time and he and his team have been extremely instrumental in helping us build our brand, help market our business, our agents, the homes that we represent. Everything that we do is a direct line from Clay and his team and all that they’ve done for us.

We launched our brokerage our real estate brokerage eight months ago. And in that time we’ve gone from myself and one other agent to just this week we signed on our 16th agent. We have been blessed with the fact that we right now have just over 10 million in pending transactions. Three years ago, I never would have even imagined that I would be in this role that I’m in today, building a business, having 16 agents. But I have to give credit where credit’s due.

And Clay and his team and the business coaching that they’ve offered us has been huge. It’s been instrumental in what we’re doing.

Don’t ever limit your vision.

When you dream big, big things happen.

I started a business because I couldn’t work for anyone else.

I do things my way.

I do what I think is in the best interest of the patient. I don’t answer to insurance companies. I don’t answer to large corporate organizations. I answer to my patient, and that’s it. My thought when I opened my clinic was, I can do this all myself. I don’t need additional outside help in many ways.

I mean, I went to medical school. I can figure this out.

But it was a very, very steep learning curve.

Within the first six months of opening my clinic, I had a $63 ,000 embezzlement. I lost multiple employees. Clay helped us.

weather the storm of some of the things that are just a lot of people experience, especially in the medical world. He was instrumental in helping with the specific written business plan. He’s been instrumental in hiring good quality employees, using the processes that he outlines for getting in good talent, which is extremely difficult. He helped me in securing the business loans. He helped me with web development. and search engine optimization.

We’ve been able to really keep a steady stream of clients coming in because they found us on the web. With everything that I encountered, everything that I experienced, I quickly learned it is worth every penny to have someone in your team that can walk you through and even avoid some of the pitfalls that are almost invariable in starting your own business. I’m Dr. Chad Edwards, and I own Revolution Health and Wellness Clinic. Clay, my honor, my honor to be on your show. And thank you for all you do. I hear the ripple effects from you are good ripple effects.

You know what I mean? People rave about what they learn from you. So congratulations. From expecting maybe $250 ,000 this year to we’re at $400 ,000. We’re finishing this owner at $23 ,000. So this K &E’s company from this year to, so we’re pretty excited about that.

just listening to what they have to say, their hiring process has just really been incredible as far as finding good quality help. Just the accountability of meeting up with them weekly. Such good insight, the resources that they have for specific business questions. It’s all been really incredible. It’s been a great experience. So I’d recommend it to anybody.

What I’ve seen from Clay and his group at Thrive is they’ll give you a simple system. And it’s the simple systems are the ones that people can wrap their brain around. They’re the ones that people can work with on a day -to -day basis. Hi there, my name is Stephanie Pipkin. I am 24 years old and I own Black River Falls Cleaning Services. We opened in April of 2019 and it is now mid -June of 2020.

So I wanted to talk today about the success and growth I have achieved by implementing the Proven Path with Clay Clark’s team and my business coach, Luke, from Thrive Time. It has been insane, to say the least. I started working with them in mid -February of this year, so we’re about four months in of working together, and it has completely transformed my business in pretty much every facet. So I’m gonna check my notes here. So in four months, my leads have tripled. I was getting probably like two leads a week, now I’m getting more in the like 10 to 15 leads a week.

I have doubled my number of employees. I’m now hitting the highest revenue weeks in the history of the company, week to week it seems like. We went from about six appointments today as our highest in February to now 14 to 15 appointments a day.

And hiring quality employees has become much simpler and less stressful by using their systems for hiring. I typically only get maybe two complaints a month, if that, and everybody shows up to work. I just have really high quality employees now.

in something people typically consider a high turnover type of work, you know cleaning houses cleaning businesses I have amazing employees now and I get rid of the ones who are not so amazing and bring on new ones because of You know group interviews and higher interviewing every single week.

It’s just been great and such a I don’t waste as much time on low -quality candidates anymore. And your coach will hold you accountable, which I love. Again, the tough love is really great. Luke’s like a stern father figure, but he’s also nice, but also stern when he needs to be when I’m being lazy and not doing the things that I know I need to do because I don’t want to do them. So that’s just great. Worth every penny.

I mean, I’d pay him a million dollars a month if I can, and maybe someday I’ll be able to, but I would just say go for it. If it seems like a good fit, just go for it. Do what they say, even if you think it’s stupid or ridiculous, just do what they say because it’ll work. You know, people, when they look at my business, you know, people in my town, they think I’m lucky. They think I’m just, you know, things just happen for me. And you know, maybe I am lucky, but it has a lot to do with hard work and, you know, perseverance and, you know, working till you cry sometimes.

That’s just being an entrepreneur, which if you’re a business owner, you understand that. But it’s having these systems in place of, you know, of course I’m going to be successful. It’s an absolute because I have all this stuff in the background happening. And I have Luke and Clay and everybody on their team working really hard to make sure that I’m a success. And I can tell that they are just so excited every single week when I’m having all these wins and things like that. They’re so excited for me.

So it just, it’s the best thing ever. And I would suggest to anybody to work with them. So sorry for the long -winded reply, but I just had so much to say, and I could go on for hours probably about how amazing they are. But thank you to Clay and Luke and the entire team there, everything you guys have done for me, and I am so excited to continue to work with you for years to come. Thanks so much for watching. My saying is, if it’s important to you, hire a coach.

And I think that’s one of the reasons people are not successful is they eat a cheeseburger instead of hiring a coach. You know what I mean? My coach pushes me. They’re younger than me. They push harder. They’re trained.

And as my rich dad always said, you know, amateurs don’t have a coach, but professionals always have coaches. So I’ve always had coaches for whatever was important. My rich dad was one of those persons. I wanted to learn how to play Monopoly in real life. So he was my coach.

Transcribed with Cockatoo