Five Oaks Lodge Jenks Oklahoma | An Objective Review of FiveOaksLodge.com + How to Design a Customer Experience That WOWs to Generate Referrals Now!!! + Celebrating 7 Clay Clark Client Success Stories

Audio Transcription

Transcribed with Cockatoo

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 practice business systems and moves that you can use? Because they believe in you, and they have a lot of time on their hands. They started from the bottom, now they’re here. It’s the 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 Zillner. Two men, eight kids, co -created by two different women, 13 multi -million dollar businesses. We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, now we’re at the top.

Teaching the systems to get what we got. Colton Dixon’s on the hooks. I break down the books. Seeds, brickets, and wisdom, and the good books. As if you see my wife and kids, boy, you’re right. And yes, Thrive Nation, welcome back to The Conversation.

It’s The Thrive Time Show on your radio and podcast download. And on today’s show, we’re talking about why you must design why you must design a customer service experience that wows to generate referrals. Now, yes, if you want to grow your company, yes, if you’re listening to today’s show, and you want to grow your company on top of that, we’re talking about why you must design a customer service experience that wows to generate referrals now. It seems obvious that you and I have opportunities, options to go to different places, to go grocery shopping, to buy coffee, to buy our cars. We have choices, by and large, in a capitalistic economy.

We have choices. And anywhere there are choices, there’s competition. And you and I, as consumers, can decide whether we want to buy from a service or not. In fact, we, in this great election of commerce, You and I vote every single day with our dollars. We decide whether we want to go to this obscure bathroom that smells terrible, that looks like no one has cleaned it or maintained it, and a long time or we can vote for QuickTrip as most of us do. QuickTrip, what?

If you’re listening to today’s show and you’re not in a, if you’re in a city where you don’t have a QuickTrip, I apologize, you don’t have a QuickTrip in your city, but QuickTrip is a convenience store that offers the cleanest bathrooms in the land and the most incredible customer service experience possible. They have great people. They’re phenomenally clean. It’s a convenience store. And then they have a variety of food options they provide, and it really is a convenience store at the next level. You know, you and I, when it comes to buying chicken, we can buy chicken from Chick -fil -A, or we can buy chicken from other chicken establishments.

But based upon the size of the average drive -thru line, I think it could be argued that Chick -fil -A must be doing something right, because many people are consistently voting with their dollars. Again, you have competition, we have competition that wants us to spend our money with them. There’s many chicken -related restaurants that want us to spend money there. However, Chick -fil -A does a good job of convincing a lot of Americans to go there, and we know this because their lines are always just full. And what blows my mind is despite how long the line is at Quick Trip, they continue, or the line is at Chick -fil -A, they continue to get all the customers in, despite how massive the line is. I mean, if you’ve ever been to Chick -fil -A, the line is massive. That exterior drive -through line, it is huge.

But yet they continue to get every customer in. And the quality of people that work at Chick -fil -A, they have great quality people, great quality food, and it’s always clean. It’s just a great place to go. Another example, if you’re talking about restaurants and things to go to, In -N -Out Burger. I have family that lives out in California. I have family in Texas.

People are obsessive about In -N -Out Burger. Why? I mean, are there other places that serve burgers? Yes. Are there places that sell burgers at a lower price? Yes.

But in the absence of value, price is the only consideration. I repeat, in the absence of value, price is the only consideration. So because Chick -fil -A wows their customers, price is not really their competitive advantage. They don’t claim to be the cheapest chicken in town. Quick trip. Price is not the only consideration.

They don’t specialize in providing the cheapest food or cheapest convenience store items possible. They just want to provide the best experience. But in the absence of value, price is the only consideration. If you think about In -N -Out Burger, are their hamburgers, their cheeseburgers, are they the cheapest? No. But do they wow their customers?

Yes. Thus, you and I, we don’t only think about price when we think about going to In -N -Out Burger. And we know they’re successful because check out the line they have. The drive -thru line in front of In -N -Out Burger is amazing. I mean, you’ll look at a burger restaurant located across the street oftentimes, and you’ll see that the line of people waiting to go to In -N -Out Burger is 10 times the size of the active line of their competition.

It’s amazing. And I’m telling you this because there’s something that you and I can learn here. And you and I can learn that if we want to generate more referrals now. If we want to grow our company, if we want more word of mouth, if we don’t want our word of mouth to go south, if we want our word of mouth to go up in a positive way, if we want to generate referrals and word of mouth business, you and I have to wow if we’re going to generate referrals now. Now another example, Starbucks. And I’m not saying that I support their political views.

What I am saying is that they’re doing something right because there is a massive line all of the time of people wanting to go to Starbucks. And by the way, in the absence of value, price is the only consideration. And Starbucks is certainly not the cheapest place to go get breakfast or to go get coffee. That’s Starbucks. So I’ve given you a handful of examples here. And so if you’re listening to today’s show and you want to grow your company, I would also encourage you to check out The Service Profit Chain.

That’s a bestselling book or a best written book written by, it’s a Harvard case study. It’s called The Service Profit Chain. You can find that book on Amazon. And I’ll tell you how I heard about that book written by James Heskett. is many, many years ago, I was trying to grow my company DJConnection . com.

And as I was trying to grow DJConnection . com, I discovered that, wow, Chick -fil -A is doing something well. Holy moly, Quick Trip is doing something well. Whoa, In -N -Out Burger is doing something well. Wow, Starbucks is doing something well. And I apparently have some things that I can learn or need to learn or need to discern about how to grow a company.

So my move always was and my move always is is whenever I feel stuck in business, I go find somebody who knows the answer. And I don’t mind paying that person for the answer. So I went to the CFO of a company called Helmrich & Payne. And the CFO of Helmrich & Payne, his name was Doug Fears. His name is Doug Fears.

Doug Fears, his son Braxton Fears and I had done some business together in the real estate space. And Doug told me, he said, Clay, And this is the CFO of Helmrich & Payne. He said, look, the book, The Service Profit Chain, that’s a great book. In fact, Harvard Case Studies, those are books you want to read. And Doug had graduated from Harvard. And he explained to me that these case studies or the books that they use to teach business and entrepreneurship on the campus of Harvard could be purchased by people like me who didn’t go to Harvard.

And so I bought this book, Service Profit Chain, and it absolutely changed my life. This book also, the Service Profit Chain, was also recommended to me by the founders of Quick Trip. Yes, the Kadjo family. I scheduled a meeting. Back in the day, we used to provide entertainment. My company, DJConnection .

com, which I started in my parents’ basement and then grew into one of America’s largest wedding entertainment companies. We earned the account of Quick Trip. So we used to provide entertainment for the Christmas parties and corporate events for a quick trip. And one day I talked to a wonderful lady by the name of Valerie Painter. Valerie Painter, she may still be there. I don’t know.

Valerie Painter was the assistant for Chet Kadjo. And I said, hey, Valerie, I’d love to meet Chet. I’d love to pick his brain. And I won’t take more than a half hour. I want to pick his brain because I’m growing this company, DJConnection . com, as you know, because you hire us.

And I really want to learn from him as far as what I could do to take my company to the next level. I want to learn the specific moves that I can use to grow my company. ” And she said, well, let me see what I can do. So long story short, she scheduled a meeting with me to meet with the CADGY. to meet with Chet. And I met with Chet.

And he told me, he said, Clay, the book that we used to create the linear workflow experience that we have right here, that you love, that Tulsa loves, that America loves at Quick Trip was learned in part by the service profit chain. And I’m going, really? He said, oh, yeah, that book, The Service Profit Chain, that is a book that you should study if you’re wanting to grow and scale your company by creating a customer experience that wows. And back in the day, I was growing a company called DJConnection . com. And so did I want to wow the customer?

Yes, I did. Did I want to grow my company? Yes. I didn’t hate myself. I wanted to grow my company. Just like you, if you’re listening to today’s show, you want to grow a company or start a company that’s going to grow.

And so as I read the pages of the service profit chain, I distilled what I learned into five super moves that you can use. So if you want to wow your customers, if you want to create a customer experience that’s so good that it will wow your customers, you got to nail down these five areas of your customer service experience. So area number one, area number one, you need to nail down the sites, the visuals, and the aspects of your company that the customer sees. And when we come back from the break, we’re talking more about how to create a customer service experience that wows right here on the Thrive Time Show on KRMG. Stay tuned. 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 practice business systems and moves that you can use? Because they believe in you and they have a lot of time on their hands. They started from the bottom, now they’re here. It’s the 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 Zunder.

Two men, eight kids, co -created by two different women. 13 multi -million dollar businesses. We started from the bottom. Now we’re at the top. Teaching you the systems to get what we got. Colton Dixon’s on the hoops.

I break down the books. Dumb and the good as the boss. So if you see my wife and kids, please it’s the CNC. And yes, Thrive Nation, welcome back to the conversation. It’s the Thrive Time Show on your radio and podcast download. And on today’s show, we’re talking about why you must design, why you must design a customer service experience that wows to generate referrals now.

Yes, if you want to grow your company. Yes, if you’re listening to today’s show, and you want to grow your company. On today’s show, we’re talking about why you must design a customer service experience that wows to generate referrals now. It seems obvious that you and I have opportunities, options to go to different places, to go grocery shopping, to buy coffee, to buy our cars. We have choices, by and large. In a capitalistic economy, we have choices.

And anywhere there are choices, there’s competition. And you and I, as consumers, can decide whether we want to buy the a service or not. In fact, we, in this great election of commerce, you and I vote every single day with our dollars. We decide whether we want to go to this obscure bathroom that smells terrible, that looks like no one has cleaned it or maintained it in a long time, or we can vote for Quick Trip, as most of us do. If you’re listening to today’s show and you’re in a city where you don’t have a Quick Trip, I apologize.

You don’t have a Quick Trip in your city, but Quick Trip is a convenience store that offers the cleanest bathrooms in the land and the most incredible customer service experience possible. They have great people. They’re phenomenally clean. It’s a convenience store. And then they have a variety of food options they provide, and it really is a convenience store at the next level. You know, you and I, when it comes to buying chicken, we can buy chicken from Chick -fil -A, or we can buy chicken from other chicken establishments.

But based upon the size of the average drive -thru line, I think it could be argued that Chick -fil -A must be doing something right, because many people are consistently voting with their dollars. Again, you have competition, we have competition that wants us to spend our money with them. There’s many chicken -related restaurants that want us to spend money there. However, Chick -fil -A does a good job of convincing a lot of Americans to go there, and we know this because their lines are always just phenomenal. And what blows my mind is despite how long the line is at Quick Trip, They continue, or the line is at Chick -fil -A, they continue to get all the customers in, despite how massive the line is. I mean, if you’ve ever been to Chick -fil -A, the line is massive. That exterior drive -through line, it is huge.

But yet they continue to get every customer in. And the quality of people that work at Chick -fil -A, they have great quality people, great quality food, and it’s always clean. It’s just a great place to go. Another example, if you’re talking about restaurants and things to go to, In -N -Out Burger. I have family that lives out in California. I have family in Texas.

People are obsessive about In -N -Out Burger. Why? I mean, are there other places that serve burgers? Yes. Are there places that sell burgers at a lower price? Yes.

But in the absence of value, price is the only consideration. I repeat, in the absence of value, price is the only consideration. So because Chick -fil -A wows their customers, price is not really their competitive advantage. They don’t claim to be the cheapest chicken in town. Quick trip. Price is not the only consideration.

They don’t specialize in providing the cheapest food or cheapest convenience store items possible. They just want to provide the best experience. But in the absence of value, price is the only consideration. If you think about In -N -Out Burger, are their hamburgers, or their burgers, their hamburgers, their cheeseburgers, are they the cheapest? No. But do they wow their customers?

Yes. Thus, you and I, we don’t only think about price when we think about going to In -N -Out Burger. And we know they’re successful because check out the line they have. The drive -through line in front of In -N -Out Burger is amazing. I mean, you’ll look at a burger restaurant located across the street oftentimes, and you’ll see that the line of people waiting to go to In -N -Out Burger is 10 times the size of the active line of their competition. It’s amazing.

And I’m telling you this because there’s something that you and I can learn here. And you and I can learn that if we want to generate more referrals now, if we want to grow our company, if we want more word of mouth, if we don’t want our word of mouth to go south, right, if we want our word of mouth to go up in a positive way, if we want to generate referrals and word of mouth business, you and I have to to wow if we’re going to generate referrals now. Now, another example, Starbucks. And I’m not saying that I support their political views. What I am saying is that they’re doing something right, because there is a massive line all of the time of people wanting to go to Starbucks.

And by the way, in the absence of value, right, price is the only consideration. And Starbucks is certainly not the cheapest place to go get breakfast or to go get coffee. That’s Starbucks. So I’ve given you a handful of examples here. And so if you’re listening to today’s show and you want to grow your company, I would also encourage you to check out the Service Profit Chain. That’s a best -selling book, or how about this, a best -written book written by, it’s a Harvard case study.

It’s called The Service Profit Chain. You can find that book on Amazon. And I’ll tell you how I heard about that book, written by James Heskett, is many, many years ago, I was trying to grow my company DJConnection . com. And as I was trying to grow DJConnection . com, I discovered that, wow, Chick -fil -A is doing something well.

Holy moly, Quick Trip is doing something well. Whoa, In -N -Out Burger is doing something well. Wow, Starbucks is doing something well. And I apparently have some things that I can learn or need to learn or need to discern about how to grow a company. So my move always was, and my move always is, is whenever I feel stuck in business, I go find somebody who knows the answer. And I don’t mind paying that person for the answer.

So I went to the CFO of a company called Helmrich & Payne. And the CFO of Helmrich & Payne, his name was Doug Fears. His name is Doug Fears. Doug Fears, his son Braxton Fears, and I had done some business together in the real estate space. And Doug told me, he said, Clay, and this is the CFO of Helmrich & Payne. He said, look, the book, The Service Profit Chain, that’s a great book.

In fact, Harvard Case Studies, those are books you want to read. And Doug had graduated from Harvard, and he explained to me that these case studies or the books that they use to teach business and entrepreneurship on the campus of Harvard could be purchased by people like me who didn’t go to Harvard. And so I bought this book, Service Profit Chain, and it absolutely changed my life. This book also, The Service Profit Chain, was also recommended to me. by the founders of Quick Trip. Yes, the Kadjo family.

I scheduled a meeting back in the day. We used to provide entertainment, my company DJConnection . com, which I started in my parents’ basement and then grew into one of America’s largest wedding entertainment companies. We earned the account of Quick Trip. So we used to provide entertainment for the Christmas parties and corporate events for Quick Trip. And one day I talked to a wonderful lady by the name of Valerie Painter.

Valerie Painter. She may still be there. I don’t know. Valerie Painter was the assistant for Chet Kadjo. And I said, hey, Valerie, I’d love to meet Chet. I’d love to pick his brain.

And I won’t take more than a half hour. I want to pick his brain because I’m growing this company, djconnection . com, as you know, because you hire us. And I really want to learn from him as far as what I could do to take my company to the next level. I want to learn the specific moves that I can use to grow my company. And she said, Well, let me see what I can do.

So long story short, she scheduled a meeting with me to meet with the CAJOS, to meet with Chet. And I met with Chet. And he told me, he said, Clay, the book that we used to create the linear workflow experience that we have right here, that you love, that Tulsa loves, that America loves at Quick Trip was learned in part by the service profit chain. And I’m going, really? He said, oh, yeah, yeah, that book, The Service Profit Chain, that is a book that you should study if you’re wanting to grow and scale your company by creating a customer experience that wows. And back in the day, I was growing a company called DT.

.com. com. And so did I want to wow the customer? Yes, I did. Did I want to grow my company? Yes.

I didn’t hate myself. I wanted to grow my company. Just like you, if you’re listening to today’s show, you want to grow a company or start a company that’s going to grow. And so as I read the pages of the service profit chain, I distilled what I learned into five super moves that you can use. So if you want to wow your customers, if you want to create a customer experience that’s so good, that will wow your customers, you got to nail down these five areas of your customer service experience. So area number one, area number one, you need to nail down the sites, the visuals, and the aspects of your company that the customer sees.

And when we come back from the break, we’re talking more about how to create a customer service experience that wows right here on the Thrive Time Show on KRMG. Stay tuned. You are tuned in to the Thrive Time Show on KRMG. On today’s edition of the Thrive Time Show, we’re talking about how to wow your customers. Yes, how to create a customer service experience so good that your customers simply cannot stop promoting your business to your ideal and likely buyers without compensation. Yes, we want to create an experience so good that your customers are wowed.

However, there are certain personality types that you and I are working with when we’re running a company. Yeah, when you and I, you know this and I know this, when you and I are running a company, there are different personality types that do exist within the customer world, right? And so Harvard wrote a case study years ago called The Service Profit Chain. And in that book, The Service Profit Chain, they break down the five different customer personality types. And now without any further ado, we’re talking about that mercenary personality type. The mercenary, they only consider people price if they’re not wowed.

If they’re not wowed, they’re just going for the cheapest something, right? Then you have the hostage. That’s somebody who feels like they’re held hostage by your business because they have no other options in your marketplace. And then there’s the terrorist. And the terrorist is a group of customers that you really don’t ever want to work with these people. These are people that are upset about their marriage.

They’re upset about the world. They’re upset about the economy. They’re upset about the geopolitical conditions. They’re upset about weather patterns in distant countries. They’re upset about geopolitical issues they cannot control. These people are upset about their genealogy.

These people are upset about the Bible. They’re upset about the way the Bible was written. They’re upset about the language that we are forced to use as Americans who choose to speak English or something. These people are upset about meritocracy. These people are upset about capitalism. These are people that are just upset about their gender.

These are people that are upset. Try to avoid these people. All right? So what I want to do on today’s show, with the limited time we have, is I want to celebrate and give you an honest, objective review of a local Tulsa company. You see, many years ago, when I was building DJConnection . com, I was asked to DJ a graduation event for a man by the name of Adam Spuler.

And I remember Adam Spuler because Adam Spuler looked just like Jerry from Seinfeld. And I remember that my good friend Josh Guthman from Oral Roberts he knew Adam Spuler and other people I knew knew Adam Spuler and they all knew that I was growing my company DJConnection .com com out of my dorm room and they called me and they said, hey, could you DJ this graduation event? for Adam Spuler. I said, sure, no problem.

And so I got it on the books. And at that point, I had been to a lot of venues. I mean, I’d been to Crown Plaza all the time. I’d been to the Hilton Hotels. I’d been to the Double Trees. I had been to Tarp Chapel.

I mean, if there was a venue in Tulsa, I had been to it. I’d been to the Sheraton Hotel. I’d been to all the venues. I mean, the Home Builders Association. If there was a venue, I had been to it. However, when I asked the client, Adam Spuler, I said, Adam, where’s your event going to be held at?

And he said, oh, my graduation will be held at Five Oaks Lodge in Jinx, Oklahoma. And I said, I’ve never heard of it. He said, well, I think you’re the first event they’ve ever done. And this would have been like 1998 -ish, OK? 1999. This would have been 1999.

So Randy and Claudia, the founders of the company, can straighten out the story if I’m getting my dates wrong. But all I remember is that they were I had a chance to DJ at this venue. And I pulled up to this beautiful facility, Five Oaks Lodge in Jinx, Oklahoma, which was founded by Claudia and Randy ML. When I pulled into this place, I thought, man, this feels like I’m in the mountains. I mean, this feels like I am experiencing this. I feel like I was going to a log cabin in Colorado or something.

It felt like a Colorado ski lodge. It just had the aesthetic of a Colorado ski lodge. However, it was located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was so amazing that I thought internally, wow, this place is awesome. When you look at the venue, if you’ve never been to fiveoakslodge . com, I’d encourage you to check out the website and actually check out the venue for your upcoming event or something.

But fiveoakslodge . com. It has this log cabin feel and it’s set on the water. And my son, he recently had his end -of -the -year band celebration. My son is a part of the Metro Christian band, and they had their end -of -the -year celebration at Metro Christian. And they hosted their annual event at Five Oaks Lodge, their end -of -the -year celebration.

And at that celebration, I ran into Randy and Claudia, who I hadn’t seen in years. And I was just so blown away yet again by the venue. By the way, this is a venue that I’ve personally DJed at probably a hundred times when I was still a DJ. And as I grew my company, DJConnection . com, I bet you that my team has DJed there or provided entertainment service there, you know, maybe a thousand times. And so even though I’ve personally been there hundreds of times, I’m still always wowed.

And you might say, well, why am I wowed by this 185 acre wooded something in Jinx? And again, Randy and Claudia, they don’t know I’m recording this show and they can correct me. But first off, the intentionality of the sights, the sounds, the smells, the experience, the unique value proposition, it is mind boggling. It’s got that, it feels like you’re at a log cabin. The fireplace is a stone fireplace that looks like somebody spent a lot of time on it. It’s got the vaulted ceilings.

The deck that’s behind this beautiful lodge, it looks out over the lake. I think Randy and Claudia have probably planted thousands of trees. Now, I could be wrong here, but I believe they have planted thousands of trees very intentionally. They’ve done a great job. The signage on site is incredible. It’s just, it’s awesome.

You just you really do have to go there and see it one time. It’s it’s an unbelievable Colorado style log architecture that I really I would. say objectively, if you’ve got cabin fever like I do, where you just want to go to a cabin and experience that Colorado vibe, you got to check out fiveoakslodge .com. com. It’s just phenomenal. And I want to give you an example.

I want to focus on this beautiful venue today. Because if you’re out there today and you want to start and grow a successful company, or you want to grow a successful company, you’ve got to nail down a customer experience that wows if you want to grow now. And I always try to point out examples of real companies that are really doing these things that I teach. And one of the best examples I can think of right here locally is FiveOaksLodge . com. So let’s go through it.

Sites. How are they nailing down the sites? The lodge aesthetic, the log cabin vibe, the pine trees, the landscaping. I wish I had a better variety of words that were in my brain that I could use to articulate how great it is, but it’s just this rustic piece of Colorado that’s in Tulsa. It’s amazing. When you open the front door to the place, it’s amazing.

It’s a massive door. It feels like something that came out of a like a castle or something. It’s amazing. And Randy and his wife, Claudia, they’re always burning firewood there. So it has kind of a smell like you’re camping. It’s just great.

So the sites are incredible when you pull up to it. I mean, you just say, wow, the they have a very elaborate decorative mailbox. When you pull up to the venue, there’s a mailbox on steroids. Maybe it’s called a hut. But if you go to the airport, there’s a hut. If you’re on a toll road, there’s a hut.

There’s a Tollbooth Willie in that hut that takes your money. They have a Tollbooth Willie kind of hut, but it’s the lodge kind of design to it. It’s phenomenal. The hut outside the actual facility, that in and of itself is worth driving by. taking a photo. Then the sounds.

When you’re there, because Randy and Claudia were so intentional about planting all these trees and doing all the dirt work, you can’t hear the ever -growing suburbia in Tulsa, Oklahoma. You don’t hear… You don’t hear the cars. You don’t hear the traffic. You really don’t ever hear traffic. And it’s because they’ve done such a good job to build up the earth, to create hills and landscaping, and planted all the trees and bushes and all things they’ve done.

So you can’t really hear any of the things you would normally hear if you’re at any other venue in Tulsa. It’s amazing. You really do feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere. So the sights, they nail that down. The sounds. And by the way, the only sound you’re going to hear is maybe a duck.

You might hear a bird flying. You might hear a bride and a groom celebrating their special day. Or you might hear a corporate executive and his team celebrating a great year. Or you might hear, in this case, Metro Christian moms and dads celebrating the achievements of our kids. But it is an incredible venue. Love it.

The sights, the sounds, the smells, the experience. The experience. Now, the experience, they put a lot of work into designing an experience. So when you go to Five Oaks Lodge, the coffee cups, as an example, they could have gotten cheap cups, styrofoam cups that are disposable. But no, they have real, authentic coffee cups, ones you could wash, you could keep. And they absolutely, they have a coffee bar that’s next level.

They got a coffee machine. They got the espresso machine. It’s great. They’ve got the concrete floors that are stained in a certain way. The bathrooms are massive, so it never feels cramped, even if the venue is packed with people. I mean, this place does 200 events a year, and they’ve thought through the details.

The dressing room, if you’re a bride or a groom, married there, the dressing room for the bride is awesome. They’ve designed so many different places for photos. Many, many times we would do weddings there where a helicopter would pick up the bride and the groom and take them off after they celebrated their big day. There’s a place for a helicopter to land. There’s a great parking lot.

They’ve thought through the traffic circles so there’s no dead ends in the parking spot, the parking space. There’s a covered entrance so you don’t get wet if it’s raining, as it does often in Tulsa. Folks, I’m telling you, I’m right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, hosting the Thrive Time Show on KRMG. And I make a 0 % commission to promote 5oakslodge . com. And I’m just telling you about it because 5oakslodge .

com is sincerely an example of a Tulsa -based business that wows customers. Check it out. It’s 5oakslodge . com. My name’s Clay Clark. You’re listening to The Thrive Time Show on KRMG.

Stay tuned. It’s the Thrive Time Show on KRMG. Stay tuned. Thrive Nation. We are in the air everywhere. And on today’s show, we’re talking about how to build a customer service experience that wows.

And we’ve talked about Chick -fil -A on today’s show. We’ve talked about Quick Trip and the phenomenal service they provide. We’ve talked about how the good folks at In -N -Out Burger wow their customers. We’ve talked about how Starbucks wows their customers. But I want to talk to you about a local Tulsa business called FiveOaksLodge . com.

By the way, they’re not a show sponsor. They’re not paying me to say this. They just are an incredible venue right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. FiveOaksLodge . com. And I’m telling you, this is a place right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that wows customers day in, day out.

If you’re talking about a great venue for a wedding, wedding, for a birthday, for an anniversary, for a graduation. I’m talking about FiveOaksLodge . com right here in Jinx, Oklahoma. These people are creating a customer experience every single day. that is wowing great customers like you and I. In fact, this past weekend I was out there for my son’s band, end -of -the -year band celebration.

So Metro Christian, my son, my son attends Metro Christian and he’s graduating this year and they had their end -of -the -year band celebration and they hosted that event at beautiful Five Oaks Lodge. Again, in the absence of value, price is the only consideration. And they’ve really, really thought through every aspect of the business. So when I’ve had, and I’m not exaggerating, I’ve had dozens of friends and family that I know very well, who’ve had their weddings there, their corporate events there, and nobody has ever complained about the price. Now, I don’t know what they charge. This isn’t a commercial for Five Oaks Lodge.

I haven’t talked to them about this. They don’t know that I’m recording this. They’ll probably tell me. Don’t ever do that again. But this is an honest, objective review about Five Oaks Lodge. And I can tell you, everybody I know who’s ever had an event there at this Colorado Ski Lodge Escape right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, called fiveoakslodge .

com, they love the venue. And they don’t complain about the price. You know why? Because once you create an experience that wows the customer, price is no longer the number one consideration. They’ve truly created what I call a purple cow experience. Now, on part two of today’s show, I’m going to interview the bestselling author of the book, Purple Cow, Seth Godin.

Seth Godin is a legendary marketing expert, bestselling author. He writes about marketing and how to effectively market. And I’ll read you a couple notable quotables from his book, Purple Cow. So Seth Godin says, it’s much riskier to be safe and blend in with the masses. What? He says it’s much riskier to be safe and blend in with the masses, and it’s safer to be risky and set yourself apart from the rest.

That seems so counterintuitive, doesn’t it? And you might say, what is the premise of Purple Cow? Well, if you and I were driving to, let’s say, Okmulgee today, if we were driving to Okmulgee, let’s say we were driving to Claremore, we were driving to church somewhere, we were driving to Okmulgee, wherever we’re driving, if you and I were to pass cows, brown cows, brown and white cows, spotted cows, black cows, black and white cows, it is very probable that you and I will not remember the last time we drove by cows. In fact, if you’re listening to today’s show, you probably drove by cows in the last week and you probably don’t remember the cows. However, if one of those cows was painted purple, you would remember that cow. And in fact, you would never forget that cow again.

For the rest of your life, you would always remember driving by this mutated purple cow. Why? Because it’s remarkable. You see, you have to remark about it because it’s remarkable. In fact, if you drove by a cow that was purple, when you got to work or talk to your friends and family, they would say, how are you? And immediately, top of mind, tip of tongue, you would say, oh, man. I drove by a purple cow and it was mind -boggling.

And they go, really? I don’t believe you. Because it would be unbelievable. Because it would be an escape from the norm and the monotony. It would have been remarkable. It would have been a wow moment.

And again, if you want more customers now, you’ve got to master the art of the wow. Again, if you want to create more customers right now. you’ve got to master the art of the wow. And that’s what they do at fiveoakslodge . com. I’m telling you, this is an objective review of fiveoakslodge .

com. And these folks at fiveoakslodge . com, Randy, Claudia, the whole team, they do a phenomenal job. Another example, another notable quotable from the book Purple Cow, he writes, if you’re remarkable, it’s likely that some people won’t like you. That’s part of the definition of remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise ever.

And I agree with that. So if you’re somebody out there that wants to get unanimous praise, entrepreneurship is probably not for you. And even though I think that everybody out there is going to love FiveOaksLodge . com, and I would say the vast majority of people would, there’s probably somebody out there that doesn’t like an incredible Colorado escape surrounded by pine trees and a log cabin vibe right there in Tulsa, Oklahoma. You might be a sick freak, but there’s probably somebody out there that doesn’t like that experience. And that’s OK.

Because if you’re remarkable, it’s likely that some people won’t like you. And that’s part of the definition of being remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise ever. And the final notable quotable I’ll read you from the book Purple Cow that I think you should know is remarkable marketing is the art of building things worth noticing, right into your product or service. Again, I’ll repeat. Remarkable marketing is the art of building things worth noticing right into your product or service.

So if you’re listening today and your business is stuck, and you say, man, I can’t grow my company, I would encourage you to check out fiveoakslodge . com. Look into that business, check out their website. They’re doing it right. Maybe schedule a visit for your upcoming event, upcoming wedding. Find a reason to book those guys.

believe they do over 200 events a year, but yet I’m sure you can find a date that’ll work for you. Also, if you want to grow your company and you’re looking for examples of companies that do it right, check out Chick -fil -A. Check out Chick -fil -A. Quick trip. Check out In -N -Out Burger. Check out Starbucks.

These are places that wow their customers each and every week because they’ve mastered the sights, the sounds, the smells, the experience, their unique value proposition, and you can too. It’s The Thrift Time Show on KRMG. Also, if you want to grow your company and you’re looking for examples of companies that do it right, check out Chick -fil -A, check out Quick Trip, check out In -N -Out Burger, check out Starbucks. These are places that wow their customers, and they do it consistently, and they’ve baked those wow moments right into the experience. And also pick up a copy of The Service Profit Chain, a book written by, there’s a team of business professors right there at Harvard. And again, you can go to Amazon, I’ll put a link on the show notes, it’s called Service Profit Chain.

And also check out a copy of Purple Cow, the book written by Seth Godin. And then once you’ve read those books, it’s time to get busy working on your business. To quote Napoleon Hill, the bestselling author of Think and Grow Rich. This is a book I named my son after. I named my son after Napoleon Hill and his book Think and Grow Rich because Think and Grow Rich changed my life. He said, the time will never be just right.

You must act now. The time, and I’m going to read that quote to you again. He says, the time will never be just right. You must act now. Right? Napoleon Hill.

Who’s that? He says, do not wait. The time will never be just right. Start where you stand and work with whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along. Do not wait. The time will never be just right.

Start where you stand and work whatever tools you have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along. Napoleon Hill says, Napoleon Hill writes, drifting without aim or purpose is the first cause of failure. Again, he says, drifting without aim or purpose is the first cause of failure. So I will tell you by default, most businesses don’t wow. But FiveOaksLodge . com does wow.

How do they wow? Sights, sounds, smells, experiences, and a unique value proposition. Now on the Thrive Time Show, right here on KRMG, I like to end every single show with a boom, because boom stands for big, overwhelming, optimistic momentum. And that’s what it takes to grow a successful company. If you learn all this information, but you don’t apply it with great enthusiasm, you simply will not win. So if you’re listening to today’s show, I encourage you to apply what you’re learning.

Thomas Edison, who couldn’t be here on today’s show, this is the founder of the recorded audio, recorded video, the founder of GE. He said that vision without execution is hallucination. He says, vision without execution is hallucination. He also said, knowledge without application is meaningless. So if you learn all this information, but you don’t apply it, it’s completely meaningless. So get out a sheet of paper.

And write down specifically how you’re going to wow your customers with your sights, your sounds, your smells, your experience, and your unique value proposition. And I promise you that your business will grow. With that being said, we’re going to end the show with a boom, because boom, again, stands for big, overwhelming, optimistic momentum. Everybody check out 5oakslodge . com. But here we go.

3, 2, 1, boom. On today’s show, Seth Godin, the iconic entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, and the man who in 1998 sold his company Yo -Yo Dine to Yahoo for $30 million. Well, now that’s a lot of money if you round it up. Joins us to share how he started his first business out of his New York City studio apartment. Why he believes that instead of wondering where your next vacation should be, you should set up a life that you don’t want to escape from. Why nobody bought one of the first books that he wrote.

Why he doesn’t own a television. His process for writing books. His criteria for what he says no and yes to. His mantra of pick your customers, pick your life. Why he rails about industrial complexes, our shared love for patina, and much, much more. 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 multi -million dollar businesses. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to The Thrive Time Show. To another exciting edition of The Thrive Time Show on your radio and podcast, I’m your host, download. Mr. Seth Godin, welcome on to the Thrive Time Show. How are you, sir? I’m fantastic, but getting better.

Thank you for having me. Well, Seth, you’ve written now over 15 books. I believe 17 is the official count. Do you have a favorite book? It’s a little like asking about your favorite kid, but I will tell you, you know, the new one is my 19th. The one that I tend to talk about when people ask me that question is the second or third one, which is called Survival is Not Enough.

And the reason is because no one bought it. It was a total failure. There are two reasons for that. One reason is because it came out right after 9 -11, which was tragic for so many people. And then the second reason is because it’s about evolutionary theory. I worked on it eight hours a day for a year.

I love that book, but it didn’t work. So you learn a lesson. You know, Seth, you have written a lot about finding your vocation. I don’t know if you’ve ever used those specific words, but the word vocation originally in the Latin means you’re calling, and vacation means to retreat from. But you have a notable quotable where I’ve read that you once wrote, instead of wondering, where your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from. Can you share what you mean by this?

Well, you know, I think we begin with this. Everyone should have something that they love to do, something that feels to them like they’re truly connected to it. But that doesn’t have to be the thing you get paid for. It’s just a very happy moment if they turn out to be the same thing. But rather than forcing that thing you do to also be the thing you love. If we give ourselves permission to do both, to say, there’s this, you know, I love opera and I’m going to work in my spare time and I’m not going to try to make money from that.

And then when I do my job, I’m going to do my job with care and grace, but I’m not going to expect it to feel like opera. We let ourselves off a dangerous hook when we do that because then we can go to work and act as if. Act as if our work matters. Act as if we are making a contribution. Act as if our energy will come back to us many times over. And what I found when people do that is they can turn almost any job into a job where they can thrive.

And when you take that attitude, suddenly you’re not in such a hurry to run away from it. You know, I feel like you’ve been running towards your vocation for many years, and a lot of people know you now as the best -selling author, as one of the most influential entrepreneurs. authors of the past decade, some could argue. But you started out of a New York City studio apartment with a book packaging company. Can you share with us what it was like to start that book packaging company? And really, when did you start to develop some type of traction as an entrepreneur?

Well, you’re being really generous because for something to be a company, it needs to have revenue. And so for a year, I didn’t have revenue. You know, I was getting close to to selling my stuff to the pawn shop, but that’s all I was selling. Because what book packagers do is they invent ideas for books, bring them to the book publishing world. If someone likes them, they give you money and you make the book. And I started the company with a project I did with Chip Conley, who also went off to become successful.

We sold that book for $5 ,000 on the first day. But then I started the company and I didn’t sell anything for a year. Rejection, rejection, rejection for a whole year. I was working 12 hours a day, shipping out proposals, 850 or so proposals, not one thing sold. And that was really, really hard. And it wasn’t just that I wasn’t getting revenue.

It was that the people around me didn’t get what I was trying to do. So not only didn’t the world understand my vision, the people who cared about me didn’t understand it either. And that took a lot of reserve to get through. You know, Dr. Zellner and I both started from the bottom. He is an optometrist turned entrepreneurial tycoon. I started a company called DJ Connection out of my dorm room that grew into the largest wedding entertainment company in the country.

And we’ve gone on to grow 13 multimillion dollar companies together. And we love stories about guys like you that started from the bottom. and sort of grew to the next level. And I think one of the things you have to do to become successful is you have to build a foundation of your daily mantra, your daily rituals, your daily flow state, your normal. Can you walk us through the first three hours of your typical day? What does that look like, my friend?

Because you’re the master of saying no. What did the first three hours of your, what does it look like? How do you organize your day? Walk us through your routine. Well, you know, I think it’s important to not get confused by the specifics. As you know, Dr. Zellner went to school in Buffalo.

I went to school in Buffalo. Does that mean you have to go to school in Buffalo in order to be successful? I don’t think so. That’s an irrelevant coincidence. What’s relevant is, what’s the story you tell yourself about the work you’re going to try to do? For me, I was telling myself a really negative story, particularly halfway through the first year.

the phone would ring and I’d say, oh, here comes someone ready to reject me. And the mail would come and I’d say, oh, here comes some more rejection. As if I was hoping that it would happen, right? And I spent a lot of time listening to Zig Ziglar, a lot of time making sure I was feeding myself a different story. And the big shift for me happened when I made the decision that I was now doing work that I get to do, not that I have to do. And that’s the biggest thing about my daily ritual.

I don’t have an alarm clock. I just leap out of bed because I can’t believe I get to do this again. And there’s not one part of my day where I roll my eyes and go, Oh, I can’t believe I have to do that because if I’m going to do it, it’s choice. And if I don’t do it, do it, then I can arrange my life. So I don’t have to go to, I don’t go to meetings and, uh, none.

I don’t have a television because those were things that were winding me down. And instead I’ve tried to organize a day where I can’t believe I get to do this. Tell me about the process you go through in creating a new book. What, uh, where do you start and what does it look like? And then how do you, how do you finish it? So the way it used to work is I made a commitment that I was gonna do a book a year because I liked the rhythm and the process.

So every once in a while, I would say, hmm, if I’m gonna have a book coming out next year, I better have something ready to go soon. And I would look at what the world was saying to me, where I saw a hole happening, where the opportunity was. But I haven’t done that in about eight or nine books. Now, it’s so painful to bring a book to market. that I only write a book if the book demands that I do. So my blog lets me off the hook.

If I can just write a blog post, then I don’t have to write the book, done. But if the idea keeps knocking on my door and won’t let me go, I say, all right, well, this idea demands this format. And because I’m not saying to the world, read this book, buy this book, because it’s time for me to sell you a book, my posture is different. I don’t have to go out and say, oh, time to sell a book again. It’s a different sort of process. Then what I do generally is write the whole thing in three weeks and then spend six months or so rewriting it, thinking about it, throwing parts of it out.

There are five books I’ve written, the whole book, and no one’s ever read it because it wasn’t good enough when I was done. So I sort of put that into place, see how it works. together. And if I think it’s something that I can be proud of 10 years from now, then I’ll share it with people. You know, Seth, one of the things I think is remarkable about you is that you say no to a lot of things. And I’ve heard you in previous interviews talk about this.

And you say no to speaking events routinely, which Jonathan, who works closely with me in my office, who I believe arranged our interview, Jonathan knows this. Whenever someone reaches out to me for a speaking event, I almost immediately say no. unless X, Y, Z is the case. Can you explain your criteria for what you say no to? Because that’s why you have the time freedom to focus on the things that you’re excited about. I mean, just because you say no, can you talk about what are the, what’s your criteria for the things you say no to?

And what do you say yes to? Well, I would begin with this. The mantra that I think is true for everyone is pick your customers, pick your future. The people that you are serving, the people who are paying you, are the ones who are going to determine how you’re going to spend your day. And so I don’t have a staff. I don’t have a team.

It’s just me. And if I don’t spend today doing X, then I could do Y. But I can’t do X and Y at the same time. So I used to limit myself to about 30 speaking gigs a year. Now it’s 15. And I think hard about how far is this going to be? How many people am I going to be able to impact?

Is the audience, the biggest one, enrolled in where I want to go? So I mistakenly took a gig. six or seven years ago to 3 ,000 men and women, mostly men, who own car repair, a big chain of car repair franchises. So there were 3 ,000 people there. It met many of my criteria, except they had no interest in what I had to say. What was your speech of that day?

Do you remember? Yeah, I totally remember. My speech was the one… The speech I give is, if I were in their shoes, what would I need to hear? What would I want to hear? How could I open a door for them?

So I imagined what I would do if I owned a Goodyear, good, rich, tire and rubber kind of facility. How could I be significantly above average? What would it mean to have a different relationship with my customers? What would it mean to do work that they would miss if it were gone, to not be in a commodity business? And I was right, except for one thing, which is that’s not why they were in the business. And they were in the business for something that I would never be in the business for.

They liked owning a car repair shop, and they didn’t want it to be one that was exceptional. They just wanted it to be the one they had. Right. Pay the bills. They just want to pay the bills. And I’m like, fine.

That’s great. But I shouldn’t be the person to talk to you today. I want to ask you this, because you have said, there was an interview you did with Tim Ferriss, and for any of our listeners out there who don’t know, Tim Ferriss is one of the top podcasters on the planet. And you talked about how you typically rail against industrial complexes. Can you please explain why you rail against industrial complexes? And if you have time, I want you to talk about patina, because you and I share a love for the patina.

So talk to me about railing against industrial complexes. And if you have a moment, I’d love for you to share your focus on patina. So General Eisenhower famously warned the public that there was a military industrial complex being built that was pushing us to be in the Vietnam War. And what it means is you have a company that makes weapons. You use some of that money to lobby the government to get into war so you can sell more weapons. The military industrial complex at war

in tandem. And what’s happened as various industries have grown is they’ve also turned into complexes. So you have the educational -industrial complex, which is a for -profit system that’s constantly chewing kids up, putting them through test prep, putting them into debt, et cetera, et cetera. You have the social media -industrial complex, where people are basically going to work for their phones, not vice versa, that if you’re on a social network and you’re not paying for it, that’s because you’re not the customer, you’re the product. And we have these engines that push us to be cogs in a machine, push us to be part of the cash system, not part of the make a difference system. And so whenever I see one of these working, my disruption is to say to the people who are willing to listen to me, wait a minute, you have more power than you think you do.

You have more freedom than you think you do. It’s worth standing up and saying, I care enough about this that I don’t want to be a pawn in the system. I just want to make something better instead. And so I’m against cogs. I’m against people who check their imagination at the door when they get to work and who, you know, work for the weekend, work for the self -storage unit, work for the TV and the six pack, because life, I think, is too valuable to waste. Spending nine hours at work so that you can spend an hour and a half watching Netflix at night Can you talk to me about patina because I think you and I share I Think we have a vesicle Pisces.

I think we have an intersection of our of our two values. I love patina Can you talk to the listeners out there? What is patina? Why are you into it? So there’s a Japanese term wabi -sabi wabi -sabi is the decay of of nature and its intersection with the rest of us. Wabi -sabi, patina, it’s the disorganization.

bookshelf, it’s the fingerprints we leave behind. And so my office has a patina of 25 years of making stuff, the patina has a patina. I can tell when I walk into my office if someone’s moved a few of the books, because they’re not in any order whatsoever except they’re in my order. Right! And patina is the sort of cruft that’s left behind of a life well lived. So I don’t have a lot of patience for people who want it to be industrial and pristine.

I would like to see that someone was here before me and I’d like to leave behind this set of fingerprints. Seth, if I could ask you this question, this is a self -help question for me personally and then I’ll let you hang up on us because I know you have other things to do and you’re choosing to be here with us. You guys are great, you’re good at this. I really appreciate this because this is like, I’ve read your books and I’ve thought to myself, I would love to meet Seth Godin. I would love to meet him. And because I built multi -million dollar companies, that doesn’t take away my boyish excitement to have you on the show.

And it’s going to go down as one of those, like, I want to put it on my tombstone. I once interviewed Seth Godin. It’s so exciting. So I want to ask you this question. You’ve been interviewed by some of the top podcasters and publications on the planet. In your mind, who was your favorite interviewer?

The person who interviewed you where you thought, was a good interviewer because I want to get better. So what was the best interviewer you’ve ever had and why? Well, I would say minute by minute. You two are up there because it’s almost impossible to do an interview in 10 or 15 minutes that actually gets to something of substance. And I applaud you for being crazy enough to try. And this has been thrilling.

The interviews that are on my all time list are much, much better. much longer than this because you need to get into sync with people. My friend Brian Koppelman has done five with me. My friend Krista Tippett did an interview that made me cry that I recommend to people because that’s my best version of myself when I was on being. And what I’m doing with my podcast Akimbo is interviewing myself. And I’ve done that for 25 episodes so far, and I really think that’s resonating with people.

So those are three that I would mention. And as we’re wrapping this up, I just want to point out that you’ve had great success. And I would say the secret of your success is work that matters for people who care. And that’s the untitled subtitle of my new book, because if any of us get the chance to do work that matters for people who care, That’s all we can ever hope for. That’s powerful. I love that.

If I could sneak in one more question. Can you tell us about your new book, your new thing? Because I’m excited as a consumer. And I know that if I buy your book, after you pay this guy who pays that guy who pays that guy, I don’t know what you make. Let’s say I buy a book for $20, which I always buy your books. So let’s just say you get, what do you get?

If I buy a book for $20, do you get $2? I mean, how much? Less. Less than $2. $1? Yeah, $1 .50.

I probably have to buy four of your books, though. I’m not kidding. I have bought at least 50 of the Purple Cow book, and I’ve given it away. You did what I wanted you to, but let’s be really clear. If anyone thinks they’re going to make a living writing books, they’re crazy. I do not write books to make a living.

I write books to make a difference. I go through all the hassle of cutting down all those trees and going through all these steps, not because it’s a good way to make a living, but because some people benefit from having that object in their hand. I’ve written 7 ,500 blog posts for free. If you want to read those, read those. But if a book helps you, then my new book’s called This Is Marketing, and the idea of this is marketing is when you appeal to the smallest viable audience, not the biggest one, with work that matters, when you see people for fear, when you see them for status, when you understand that some people measure affiliation and some people measure dominance, that when you get to the humanity of the story we tell ourselves, then you can finally get down to making the work that you care about.

It helped me absolutely change the way I ran DJ Connection and our company Elephant in the Room that we’re franchising and a brand called Oxifresh that has over 400 locations have all been impacted by the book Purple Cow. And so I’m honored and humbled to have you on the show and thank you for not saying no to me. because I know that you are the master of saying no, and it means the world to me. And I’m probably going to go into my forest here behind my man cave studio and probably cry to celebrate this moment. So thank you. And prophetically chop down a tree, because you said you have all those trees chopped down to produce your book. I mean it, though.

It’s been a huge highlight in my life. So thank you so much for being here today. I feel great about it. I’m glad we got to connect. Thank you both. Good luck with the show.

Thank you. It’s been a lot of fun. Have a blessed day. Classy act. Thank you. Thank you, Seth.

Bye -bye. That Clay Clark, man, he is one character. It’s a good word for character. Yeah, that is it. Good, driven, smart. 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. she just says, she just lets him be Clay Clark. I mean, so he’s endorsed by his mother and he’s doing magnificent work. So it was great meeting you out there and all the people that he surrounds himself with. His Clay Clark starts his days at five o ‘clock in the morning.

Oh, it’s incredible. Yeah. He’s, he’s like, he’s, he’s a machine. He’s a machine. But his, you know, I got, I have problems with my company starting at nine o ‘clock. 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. No, he is.

He is. He also has this wealth of knowledge. 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 and 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.

Hi, I’m Aaron Antus with Shaw Homes. I first heard about Clay through a mortgage lender here in town who had told me what a great job he had been doing for them. And I actually noticed he was driving a Lamborghini all of a sudden, so I was willing to listen. In my career, I’ve sold a little over $800 million in real estate. So honestly I thought I kind of knew everything about marketing and homes and then I met Clay and my perception of what I knew and what I could do definitely changed. After Doing $800 million in sales over a 15 -year career, I really thought I knew what I was doing.

I’ve been managing a large team of salespeople for the last 10 years here with Shaw Homes. And, I mean, we’ve been a company that’s been in business for 35 years. 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 home building industry.

I’ve listened to all the experts in my field. Our company has paid for me to go to seminars, international builder shows, all kinds of places where I’ve had the opportunity to learn. from the experts in my industry. 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 find

same way. I know for me, the thing I would have missed out on if I didn’t work with Clay is I would have missed out on literally an 1800 % increase in our internet leads. Going from 10 a month to 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 did not have what I needed to make that what it should be. So I reached out to Clay at that time and he and his team have been extremely instrumental in helping us build our brand, help market our business, our agents, the homes that we represent. Everything that we do is a direct line from Clay and his team and all that they’ve done for us. 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 new people.

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. 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 would 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.

hiring quality employees has become much simpler and less stressful by using their systems for hiring. Um, I typically only get maybe two complaints a month if that, and everybody shows up to work. I just have really high quality employees now, especially in something people typically consider a high turnover type of work, you know, cleaning houses, cleaning businesses. Um, 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 interviewing every single week. It’s just been great and 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’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, you know, they eat a cheeseburger instead of hiring a coach. You know what I mean?

And so my coach pushes me. They’re younger than me. 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. I always wish that I had this and because there wasn’t anything like this I would go to these motivational seminars no money down real estate Ponzi scheme get motivated seminars and they would never teach me anything it was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter Bunny but inside of it it was a hollow nothingness and I wanted the knowledge you’re like oh but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big, get rich quick, walk on hot coals product.

It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. And I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying. And I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system?

When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever and we’ll even give you your money back. if you don’t loan. We’ve built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see it.

Transcribed with Cockatoo