Why Casualness Causes Casualties & How to 10X Your Success By Being Intentional + Celebrating the Success of Long-Time Clay Clark Client, MyBinPro.com + Join Eric Trump At Nov. 5-6 ThrivetimeShow.com In Tulsa, OK

Audio Transcription

Transcribed with Cockatoo

Don’t be that casual. Key phrase, casualness leads to casualties. Don’t be casual in gathering information. Don’t be casual in the experiences of life. Don’t be casual in your contact with human beings. Don’t be casual in observing and absorbing.

Most of the best in the world in business or in sports, they have also coaches on the side and mentors on the side. Why? Because they want that 1 % of 1 % of 1 % to get better. But so many times we feel like, well, we don’t really need it. Man, I think it is one of the most vital things to our life, to your company. You could 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 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 bunny, 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.

So on today’s show, we’re talking about why casualness causes casualties. Casualness causes casualties. And so we’re going to go rapid fire through what I call the seven F’s of life. We all have 24 hours in a day, and we’ve got seven focus areas of our life where we can really put our time and attention. And so I’m going to be picking the mind, picking the brain of Dr. Mark Sherwood. You say, who’s Dr. Sherwood?

This is a guy who’s had success as a professional athlete. He’s had success as a best -selling author. He’s had success as a movie producer. He’s had success as an entrepreneur. And he’s had success as a doctor. And we’re going to talk about why casualness causes casualties.

With that being said, Dr. Sherwood, welcome onto the Thrived Time Show. How are you, sir? I’m doing well, Clay. Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be with you today. Here we go. Rapid fire.

The first F is faith. If you’re casual with your faith and you don’t schedule time to practice or study your faith, by default, you probably won’t get where you want to go. Let’s talk about casualness with your faith. What happens if you’re not intentional about your faith? Well, without faith, you have no hope. Without no hope, you have no direction.

If you have no direction where you’re going, you’re lost in the big chasm of nothingness. So you have to have a bold faith to have a bold belief, and a bold belief becomes a bold faith. And so for me, my faith is what drives me. I can’t see everything. I just know that there’s hope out there that I can’t quantify, I can’t touch, but I know it’s there in my heart. So that’s what drives me on. And I don’t think that’s at all something I’m going to be casual with.

Secondaries of Faith Family. Casualness with your family causes the relationship to drift apart. You know, you got wife, you maybe have your wife, you have your business relationships, you have your partnerships. And if we’re not intentional about staying in touch, intentional about booking time on our calendar, you know, for you and I to have these conversations or to have a conversation with a key strategic partner or to have a conversation with your staff, it drifts apart. Let’s talk about why if you’re casual with your relationships, it will cause casualties as well. Well, my wife, for example, is the most important human in my life.

I like to refer to her as not just my spare rib, but my prime rib, you know, and it’s important. I have to schedule, and I do, I enjoy it. I schedule date nights with her every single week. When we go on even business trips, we’re spending time together. So there’s nobody I’d rather be with. And if you can’t nurture your primary family relationship, every other relationship, whether it be a business, or colleague -related, peer -related, it’s going to suffer.

So it’s important to structure this relationship from the inside out, I believe. Faith, family, finances. Again, casualness causes casualties. If you’re not looking at your finances, chances are you’re probably going to drift. Let’s talk about this area here. Faith, family, finances.

Why do we have to be intentional with our finances? Money is a gift. It’s a tool that you use for purchasing something. So it’s nothing more, nothing less than a tool. But to not use a tool appropriately is to not understand the purpose of that tool. And so I don’t want to waste the resources that God’s given me. I don’t want to spend my time or my money on situations that don’t bring benefit to, uh, you know, the work that we have is, is leading people down the pathway of true healing.

So I look at, at, um, the financial piece of this as stewardship, you know, just like you care for your relationships. I’ve got to care for the finances as well. Faith, family, finances, fitness. Everybody I’ve ever met who’s super physically fit, they tend to show up at the gym with a notebook. And you go, what are they going to do with that? Are they going to curl the notebook?

Are they going to bench press the notebook? I’ve noticed that some of the most physically fit people, not always, but usually they have a plan of some kind. And the average person doesn’t have a plan. Can you talk about that for a second with the fitness area? What happens if somebody is intentional in the gym and at the dinner table when they’re eating their food? Well, it’s funny you say that.

I carried a notebook in the gym for 20 years. I don’t even know if you knew that, but I do. And I have been that guy. And I carry it with me. I’ve been through numerous notebooks sometimes. I did not know that, by the way.

I did not know that. Sorry to interrupt you. I did not know that. Back to you. You didn’t know. And so I’ve done that.

And it gives me a plan. If you don’t have a, you know, those saying goes, if you don’t have a plan, you’ve already planned to fail. So I have a set of instructions, goals that I want to achieve that day. And I do the same thing every day. It’s not the same workout. It’s not the same thing, but it serves a large purpose.

of part of the plan that day. So I have it written down. I do it. I follow it, just like clockwork. And it gives me a goal -related sort of substance to reach for every single day. Again, folks, casualness causes casualties in every area of our life, right?

Faith, family, finance, fitness, friendships. I have found, and I’ll be very vague about this. I’m not going to get myself in trouble on today’s show, but I’ll be very vague. But not so vague that you don’t know what I’m talking about. I have met many people. that claim to be very religious.

They claim to be able to hear from God in a way that no one else can. And they typically, somehow, as they hear from God, these people, they tend to tell me that they’re hearing from God and God wants me to give them all of my money or a lot of money or as much money as possible because they don’t have a job, won’t get a job, won’t work. So somehow they believe that God has called them to call me and to tell me that I’m supposed to give them money. Let’s repeat that again. There are many religious people I’ve met over the years, many of them, household names who will call me up and they’ll say, Clay, God’s put you on my heart.

I said, that’s incredible. They said, here’s the deal. I thought we should partner up, which is code for, I think you should give me all your money because I don’t want to work. And then they claim that if I will sow a seed in their ministry, that I’ll make a 10 -fold return or a 20 -fold return or some sort of multiple. They do this a lot. They claim to have prophetic insight that I could not possibly have.

They claim to have supernatural healing powers that I don’t have. And every time so far that I have met these people, they tend to actually, upon further review, over time, they tend to have the most dysfunctional lives possible because they are people that do not have jobs. And the Bible says that idleness is the devil’s workshop. And so these people will come to me, and they will say, hey, hey, hey, listen. God’s told me to call you, to have you sow a seed into my ministry. But because I am so rock solid and so intentional about my faith, my family, my finances, my fitness, my friendship, my fun, what am I saying?

I’m very clear what I am doing or not doing with my faith, my family, my finances, my fitness, my friendship, my fun, that I cannot be swayed religiously based upon the emotional argument of somebody who’s both urgent and emotional. Look out for that combination, folks. Urgent and emotional. So I want to talk about this for a second. Faith, family, finance, fitness, friendship. What happens if you let certain people into your life?

Friends, what’s going to happen if you’re not intentional and you begin to become casual about who you allow into your life? What’s going to happen to your life over time, whether they are religious leaders or political leaders or entrepreneurial leaders? What happens if you let people into your life unintentionally? Well, I think we’ve all made mistakes in that area. I know I have.

I’ve let people in my life from the schools or camps that you’ve just described. And I’ve realized the minute I stopped giving, the minute they stopped talking to you and they don’t know who you are and you don’t get invited to their things anymore. You’re out of the boys club or whatever. And I don’t have time for it, Clay. I’ve realized over time that true friends don’t ask you for what you can give them. They ask you for how they can help you.

And there’s very few people like that. I can really put them on one hand. And I think if you’ve got them on one hand, you’ve had a pretty good life. And I think that’s so important, because you do hang around, and that you become like the people you hang around. And I think that’s one of the things people don’t understand. And we’ve talked like this offline, online, I don’t hang out, I don’t like it, I don’t enjoy it.

I’d rather have a 20 -minute conversation with you right here that’s fruitful and help somebody as opposed to some con job that I spend two or three hours with just wasting my time, wasting my breath, wasting my conversation, wasting just the space that God gives me. I’d rather have a quiet time with my wife than do that nonsense. So I think you have to pick your friends extremely intelligently, extremely carefully. And if they’re asking you for something to become your friend, that’s not a friendship at all. That’s called manipulation. Folks, if you’re casual, it’s going to cause casualness in any area.

Faith, family, finance, fitness, friendship, fun. Hello. Fun. What? Hello. Fun.

Think about this for a second. It’s OK to schedule time to have fun. The other night, I was with my kids in the pool having a good time. This weekend, I took my kids to the lake having a good time. I was playing pool, not swimming pool, but billiards with my kids having a good time. And it’s OK to schedule time to do that.

In fact, you should. But wherever we’re not intentional, we’re going to do that. drift. Again, because casualness causes casualties. I hope everybody’s picking up on that. Casualness causes casualties.

Why do you have to schedule time to have fun with your beautiful wife, even though you have a very busy schedule? Well, I think my wife said this recently on the weekend. We actually scheduled time to have fun together. We were playing in a pool together, you know, which is kind of nice and we enjoy talking together and we made the comment. She made a comment to me. You know what?

It takes less muscles to smile a lot. And I thought, you know what? That’s right. And that’s where fun is. Fun makes you smile. Fun doesn’t make you sad.

So I think that the joyful, the laughter you can get from that is just Well, as the Bible says, it’s good medicine for the soul. Faith, family, finance, fitness, friendship, fun, final, focused attention. I tend to edit a lot of books. write books. So what I like to do, my pattern, I’m not saying this is what you should do, folks. I’m not saying this to impress anybody.

I’m just telling you because this is what I do. I like to write a new book every six months. And you say, when? Because I like to be researching something obsessively, diving into it, whether it be search engine optimization, or podcasting, or time management, or how to be a better dad, or whatever the subject is. I want to really dial into that for six months. And I get myself up to a level where I really, really know what I’m talking about. And then my research tends to spill over or to manifest or to show up in the form of a book.

And so I like to be putting out books. It’s helpful for me. It’s how I learn. It’s what I like to do. I find I learn really well by absorbing, researching, reading 10 books about a given subject and really trying to understand it to the level I can write a book about it. That requires focused attention.

I like to write music, which requires focused attention. I like to do a lot of things that require focused attention. There are kind of individualized activities, non -group activities, things that require me my brain to think about things, and that would be where I put my focused attention. I also want to have focused attention on my wife and those conversations and really listening to what she’s saying, being present as a present. I want to talk to you about this for a second, sir.

Again, whenever we’re casual, It causes casualness. And I find nothing’s worse than having a conversation with somebody who’s scrolling through their phone and not listening. Nothing’s worse than watching a movie with somebody who’s not really watching the movie. They’re scrolling through their phone. Nothing’s worse than watching somebody attend a church service or motivational training of some kind or business conference where they’re scrolling through their phone. I want to get your thoughts on just being intentional about where we put our focused attention.

Well, I think I’m going to repeat something you said. Your presence is the present. See, when we give into something, like giving into literary works, where you write, I didn’t know you write a book every six months, so I learned something new about you today as well. It’s great. I wrote three books last year, so I didn’t know if you knew that. Well, there you go.

But interestingly enough, I think that it shows value. Like when I’m giving attention right now, my presence is right here, and Clay Clark is the most important person in my world right now in this conversation. is what I show value to. And I think people see that. Your wife sees that. The literature writings you write see that.

The courses you put out, the teachings you put out, what you listen to. You get more out of it when you get your attention on it. It’s got to be focused. I don’t live my life, and I know you don’t live your life with a chasing shiny balls mentality. You get something focused, you’re going to go get it. You’re going to do it until it’s at its completion and a job well done.

So I couldn’t reiterate more important than what you just said one more time. Your presence in whatever you do is the gift. I pull up your website here, just a quick comment. You don’t want to spend your day chasing shiny balls. You want to chase dole balls. Perhaps basketballs that are well -worn.

Don’t chase the shiny balls. If you’re chasing a shiny basketball, that’s a problem. You’re looking for a well -worn ball. Chase a baseball, chase a football, chase a basketball, but don’t look for those shiny things. I’m telling you, people chase those things off a cliff. I see it all the time.

And I see so many people getting hit by figurative cars as they’re chasing squirrels. I mean this. I see people chasing squirrels, the squirrels of life getting hit by figurative cars. Dr. Sherwood, let’s talk about the solutions you have. This is drsherwood . com.

flip the website at Sherwood . tv. That’s Sherwood . tv. Let’s talk about that. What kind of solutions do you have for our listeners that are available right there at Sherwood .

tv? Again, that’s Sherwood . tv. Yeah, ultimately, it’s not chasing shiny balls. We find out where you are in life, where you want to go and draw a roadmap backwards. Like, it’s like, that’s how you set a goal.

Where do you want to go? And then we start backwards to figure out how you’re going to get there. And so for us, it’s really increasing healthspan. So people want to work with us with the endeavor to increase their healthspan and hopefully reduce their sick span. and maybe who knows what it’s going to mean to their lifespan, but I think it’s giving more years into life or life into years as opposed to years into life. I think that’s the goal.

That’s who we want to work with and people can go to that website, sherwood . tv, functional DRF. They all go to the same spot and they can schedule a consultation with us and they are going to get over -delivered in what we deliver. In other words, we’re going to give them every single thing you talk about. Good financial return on investment, good focus, good pathways, good faith, all the seven Fs you talk about. I really strive to achieve those things.

I hadn’t thought about it before to right now, but that’s exactly what we try to achieve with people. And I think people know the difference. Folks, that website is Sherwood . TV. Sherwood . TV.

If you’re looking for a male model, go to Sherwood . TV. If you’re looking for a guy who can lift more weights, you, Sherwood .tv. If tv. If you’re looking for a guy who’s been a member of the SWAT team, maybe to protect your family, Sherwood .

tv. If you’re looking for a guy to help you write a book, Sherwood . tv. If you’re looking for a guy to help you make a movie, Sherwood . tv. Sherwood .

tv, I’m telling you, this is a medical solution that I speak highly of because I know people in my own family, in my own life, who have had tremendous results using Sherwood . tv. Dr. Sherwood, thank you so much for your time today, sir, and we’ll talk to you next week. Sounds great, Clay. Take care. Bye -bye.

Um, basically we provide, uh, four different size container rentals, whether that’s for your construction needs or a home renovation project, or you just need to get rid of a bunch of clutter that’s taken up your house. Uh, we provide 10, 15, 20 and 30 yard containers. And, uh, yeah, we focus on, uh, dropping them when you need them and removing them when you don’t. Whether it’s late at night or whether it’s waking up super early to make sure that the dumpster shows up. I mean, if we don’t have anybody do it, I’m the guy who’s got to be in the truck. And for a long time, it was only me just making sure I did that.

And so you really have to have a mindset of, I got to know my numbers. I got to know what I’m doing and make sure that, you know, we’re turning. as many dumpsters as we can so that we can have that money rolling in and also to that if we’re not collecting on that money that was a huge problem for us is that we weren’t we were doing the work, but yet we weren’t getting paid for doing the work. And so focusing on, um, commandment number one, as you, as you gave it to us, the 10 commandments of in pro thou shall not invoice. Um, we only send receipts.

We don’t send invoices anymore and getting that mindset of, we gotta be paid before we’re actually doing the work. Um, That way we have that money, that cashflow coming in. As of the last time we spoke, I mean, we’re up like 130 something rentals on the year. And so each year we continue to need to add more equipment, add more employees, add more containers. Most businesses don’t have that luxury of being able to do that. And we’re in a position where we can.

We’re coming from a strong point where we actually have the data now. So we’re not just responding on, I think I emotionally need more 30 yard dumpsters. No, actually, if we’re looking at our numbers here, we can actually say, well, we are operating at about 98 % out of our whole fleet. Container rentals, we’re operating out of 110 containers. We operate in that 90 % range consistently. So we need to add more.

We wouldn’t be able to do that if we didn’t know the numbers. I think last year we had a 28 % growth on the year. What’s that like just knowing that, OK, the marketing plan is simple. I can articulate it to a third grader. What’s it like from a mind freedom perspective knowing that, OK, this is a plan that works? Yeah, I mean, it’s a huge weight off my shoulders.

Like, I don’t have to really think about that. It’s just being about being able to be found when a customer searches dumpster near me and being the first, the top of the list. And so having you guys, you know, keep driving that in, like we need to get these review guys. We need to be constantly adding those each week and adding new images and videos. just having that and only focusing on that because there’s so many different things that pull me off track each and every day.

If I just keep to the basics, like you’re saying, we’re going to keep moving forward. In the beginning, it was a little overwhelming. Like there, you know, you, you wanted me to track all this information. And I was like, am I even going to find time during the week? And sometimes it is kind of a struggle because chaos always happens regardless if I have a coach or don’t. Um, So from that perspective, having somebody that I know that I have to meet with every single week and at least have our numbers gone through.

And if I don’t, then you’re going to call me on it. I mean, having that accountability, there’s been a huge weight off my shoulders because it’s not just me fumbling my way through this. And if I have some off the wall harebrained idea, you can like politely, like you always do on Saturday mornings, you’re like, well, Let’s not focus on that right now. We’ll come back to that. But we need to focus on what’s right here. Did you get any images?

Did you get any reviews this week? Are we doing the things so that we can one day focus on that? Otherwise, I’d just be off squirreling off like I tend to do on these all harebrained ideas that have real no impact on the business today. What has that meant to your business being able to now manage via numbers? Yeah, being able to see it, we’re not having that emotional impact. buying or, you know, like, I need this.

Well, actually, I don’t really need that. I need, I’m buying containers, I’m buying trucks that actually have the numbers to back it up. I’m not just buying it because I feel like we need to add that to our fleet. I’m doing it from a strategic standpoint. I’m not reacting out of my emotions anymore. Yes, my emotions are still present.

I still want stuff, but I can keep myself in check. And then obviously with yours and Carter’s help, I’m staying focused. Having you guys encourage me, even though there’s plenty of times where I’ve talked to you. We had a conversation a couple of weeks ago and I was like, I have no idea what I’m doing. I like, does this make sense anymore? And you’re like, well, let’s focus on, did we get reviews?

And it pulled me out of that. It pulled me out of my funk and I was able to, yeah, become rejuvenated and have that energy to keep pushing on. All right, folks, on today’s show, we’re interviewing an entrepreneur and a client that, frankly, can grow a much better beard than I can. So I’m impressed by the beard. He also has a dumpster rental company. He has a dumpster rental company that is growing.

He’s up in the great state of Minnesota, where I’m from. And with that being said, Justin, welcome on to The Thrive Time Show. How are you, sir? I’m doing good, Clay. Thank you for having me on. Now, for anybody who wants to look you up to verify you’re not a hologram, can you share with us your first and last name and the name of your business?

Yeah, my name is Justin Lurkey and I run Bitten Pro. We are a dumpster rental business providing dumpsters in southern Minnesota. Our website, it can be found at www .mybenpro mybenpro . com.

And for somebody out there that says, what are all the services that you provide? Can you share with us the kinds of services that someone could get if they visit your website, mybenpro . com? Yeah, basically we provide four different size container rentals, whether that’s for your construction needs or a home renovation project, or you just need to get rid of a bunch of clutter that’s taken up your house. We provide 10, 15, 20 and 30 yard containers. And yeah, we focus on dropping them when you need them and removing them when you don’t.

And what I wanted to do on today’s show is to encourage somebody out that has a business that maybe is stuck. And growing a business is very different than having a 9 to 5 job. It’s two different worlds. And I want to just show some examples real quick here. If you go to usdebtclock . org, which is a great website to go to if you want to get nauseated, there’s only 8 .9 million self -employed people in America.

So first off, there’s 343 million people in America. And there’s only 8 .9 self -employed people. You have less than 3 % of the population that’s self -employed to begin with. And according to Inc. Magazine, 96 % of businesses fail. So it’s statistically very, very improbable that somebody would be self -employed and would be succeeding.

And if you don’t like that stat, Forbes has more of a fun stat here. Forbes reports that 25 % of businesses, roughly 20 % to 25 % of businesses fail in their first year. So it’s very rare that a business is going to make it. Again, Forbes reports, and this is Forbes, this is not me, 20 % of businesses fail in their first year. Inc. Magazine reports 96 % of businesses overall fail.

The U . S. Debt Clock shows that only 3 % of the American population is self -employed to begin with. So I just want to get your thoughts on this. What’s your thoughts on self -employment versus 9 -to -5 job? Well, it’s been a whirlwind.

I mean, lots of things that when you work for someone else you don’t think about, like Yeah, like writing an employee handbook, for example, is super like, nobody thinks about all the words that are in there. Um, and you kind of just got to fumble your way through it. And then all of a sudden you’re like, wait, I got to go back and revisit that and tweak it. Um, and then there’s nobody else that I get to call. Yeah, I can call our employees and have them come back in, but like the buck stops with me. So I have to count and.

be accountable for everything that our employees do, whether it’s good or it’s bad. So it’s definitely challenging and stressful. The other thing about owning a business that’s both great and terrible is you get paid based upon the sales that you generate. You don’t get paid based on the sales that you want to generate. You don’t get paid based upon how great your idea is. You don’t get paid based upon how good your logo is.

You don’t get paid based upon how good your website looks. You get paid based on actual sales. Can you talk about that? Because there’s somebody out there watching this right now that is self -employed and they’re feeling this as well or maybe they want to be self -employed. Can you talk about just the profundity of knowing that you as an entrepreneur or your company, you get paid based on the actual sales you do, not based on your brand, your logo, your website, or your big idea. Yeah, I think in the beginning I was worried about making sure that our logo looked good and that our website, you know, was aesthetically pleasing more so than functional.

But at the end of the day, like you’re talking about, if we don’t move, if we’re not moving dumpsters, we’re not generating any revenue through the front door. And whether it’s late at night or whether it’s waking up super early to make sure that the dumpster shows up, I mean, if we don’t have anybody do it, I’m the guy who’s got to be in the truck. And for a long time, it was only me just making sure I did that. And so you really have to have a mindset of, I got to know my numbers. I got to know what I’m doing and make sure that, you know, we’re turning as many dumpsters as we can so that we can have that money rolling in. And also to that, if we’re not collecting on that money, that was a huge problem for us is that we weren’t, we were doing the work, but yet we weren’t getting paid for doing the work.

And so focusing on, um, Commandment number one, as you, as you gave it to us, the 10 commandments have been pro thou shall not invoice. Um, we only send receipts. We don’t send invoices anymore. And getting that mindset of, we got to be paid before we’re actually doing the work. Um, that way we have that money, that cashflow coming in. Now again, folks, we’re going to get in and out of the specific stuff, the stuff behind the stuff.

A lot of times people think about growing a company. They think about marketing. Yes. Some people think about growing a business. They think just about accounting. Some people think, oh, it’s about being the team, building the team.

It’s all of it. It’s offense, defense, and special teams. And so I want to go through all three phases that we’ve gone through together with our coaching relationship. So the first area is growth. That’s kind of the fun part. Marketing, branding, logos, websites, that kind of thing.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that you’re up 30 % year over year. That could be wrong. Could you tell us about the growth, top line growth, what percentage of growth that you’ve seen approximately? Yeah, it’s about that. I think right now as of, I don’t have that sheet up in front of me, but as of the last time we spoke, I mean, we’re up like 130 something rentals on the year. And so each year we continue to need to add more equipment, add more employees, add more containers.

Um, most businesses don’t have that luxury of being able to do that. And we’re in a position where we can, um, we’re, we’re coming from a strong point where we actually have the data now. So we’re not just responding on, I think I emotionally need more 30 yard dumpsters. No, actually, if we’re looking at our numbers here, we can actually say, well, we We are operating at about 98 % out of our whole fleet. Container rentals, we’re operating out of 110 containers, we operate in that 90 % range consistently. So we need to add more.

We wouldn’t be able to do that if we didn’t know the numbers. I think last year we had a 28 % growth on the year. There it is. So now, again, marketing, branding, we can get into the details of how we do that. I want to get into the details of that, then we’ll get into managing for a minute here. Growing a company involves a simple plan.

Steve Jobs, who couldn’t be here on today’s show because he’s dead, but the co -founder of Apple, he once said that simplicity scales and complexity fails. Simplicity scales, complexity fails. And I see a lot of entrepreneurs that have a very complex business plan, and they think it’s going to be awesome. But the moment that plan comes in contact with real employees who really have to execute the plan, that plan quickly falls apart. And one thing I try to do with every client is to make sure we have a very simple plan and a plan that will for sure work if we do it.

Kind of like David versus Goliath, a simple plan, simple stone slays the giant. We have a simple plan. What’s it like for you knowing that, hey, man, if I get video reviews, if I get images, If I get search engine content, I get more Google reviews, and we update our website every month, we’re going to grow. What’s that like just knowing that, OK, the marketing plan is simple. I can articulate it to a third grader. What’s it like from a mind freedom perspective knowing that, OK, this is a plan that works?

Yeah, I mean, it’s a huge weight off my shoulders. Like, I don’t have to really think about that. It’s just being about being able to be found when a customer searches dumpster near me and being the first, the top of the list. And so having you guys, you know, keep driving that in, like we need to get these review guys. We need to be constantly adding those each week and adding new images and videos. just having that and only focusing on that, because there’s so many different things that pull me off track each and every day.

If I just keep to the basics, like you’re saying, we’re going to keep moving forward. Second part is, now once you have sales, once you have marketing, once you’ve got that marketing coming in, now you’ve got to fulfill. So step one, folks, if you’re taking notes, there’s three phases. There’s offense, there’s defense, there’s special teams. Once you have the offense going, I mean, once you have leads coming in, now you’ve got to manage a team. I want to talk about that for a second, managing a team.

You had to manage a price increase. You’re not wanting to raise prices, but this just in, the cost of gas, the cost of fuel, the cost of eggs, the cost of everything has gone up. That’s called inflation. It’s when the government prints more money to pay for expenses that they cannot afford. So when a government prints more money to pay for the bills that they can’t afford to pay for, that causes your money to lose value. So government says, wow, we don’t have enough money to pay our bills.

We’re going to print more money. Wouldn’t that be nice if we could all do that? So we’re going to print more money. And then that decreases the value of the dollars. Therefore, eventually, you have to raise prices. Let’s talk about that together.

We’ve worked together on that raising the prices. What was that like knowing that, hey, we’re going to have to raise our prices? And again, you’re not trying to gouge people. And you’re not gouging people. But what’s that like when you know, OK, I’ve got to raise prices? Well, it’s difficult.

I mean, you are going to lose. You’re going to have those phone calls where people are like, you’re just way out of line. Again, I can’t speak for our competitors, but I can just say, hey, fuel, I mean, diesel prices directly affect what we do. We run big trucks and they consume a lot of fuel. So when fuel, you know, is that, I think today we paid $3 .89 a gallon, right? Well, three weeks ago, we were playing close to $5 a gallon, if not over $5 a gallon.

And we can’t, we can’t absorb that. We’re not. The bank of in pro doesn’t exist where like you’re talking about, we can’t just print our own money. Um, and so getting our customers to understand we’re still trying to provide a value service and focusing more on our service cost. Yes, it’s gone out, but you’re still getting the same, that same, you know, value in, in your container rental and being able to verbalize that in such a way that you don’t offend them has been. tricky, but we’re getting better at it.

You know, one thing that I’ve noticed, because I’ve interviewed, you know, billionaires on our show and millionaires and, you know, the founder of Netflix and the founder of, I’ve interviewed Wolfgang Puck and John Maxwell and the founder of Twitter, you know, the founder of Square. I mean, I’ve just interviewed these people on our show. And as I interview these people, the founder of Adobe Products, as I interview these people, I find that they almost all have coaches. It’s pretty wild. If you look at pro athletes, it’s pretty obvious they all have a coach because you can see the coach on the sidelines during the game. But the top coaches, Professionals, the top entrepreneurs, they all have a coach.

And it really comes down to professionals have coaches and amateurs don’t. Can you talk about what it’s meant for you, knowing that you can reach out to Carter and myself as you’re navigating these things? Because again, managing a team of people is so different when you’re self -employed than it is having a job working 9 to 5. Can you talk about what it’s meant to you, having a coach or a team here in your corner that’ll pick up the phone on a Saturday or talk to you on a Tuesday night or whenever you need some help? In the beginning, it was a little overwhelming. Like there, you know, you, you wanted me to track all this information.

And I was like, am I even going to find time during the week? And sometimes it is kind of a struggle because chaos always happens regardless if I have a coach or don’t. Um, so from that perspective, having somebody that I know that I have to meet with every single week and at least have our numbers gone through, um, And if I don’t, then you’re going to call me on it. I mean, having that accountability, there’s been a huge weight off my shoulders because it’s not just me fumbling my way through this. And if I have some off the wall harebrained idea, you can like politely, like you always do on Saturday mornings, you’re like, well, let’s not focus on that right now. We’ll come back to that.

But we need to focus on what’s right here. Did you get any images? Did you get any reviews this week? Right. Are we doing the things so that we can one day focus on that? Otherwise, I’d just be off squirreling off like I tend to do on these all harebrained ideas that have real no impact on the business today.

There’s offense, there’s defense, there’s special teams. We talked about offense. We talked about special teams. I want to talk about defense. Managing based upon your numbers. just knowing your numbers, so therefore you can make decisions based upon knowing those numbers.

What has that meant to your business, being able to now manage via numbers? Yeah. Being able to see it, we’re not having that emotional impulse buying or, you know, like, I need this. Well, actually, I don’t really need that. I need, I’m buying containers, I’m buying trucks that actually have the numbers to back it up. I’m not just buying it because I feel like we need to add that to our fleet.

I’m doing it from a strategic standpoint. I’m not reacting out of my emotions anymore. Yes, my emotions are still present. I still want stuff, but I can keep myself in check. And then obviously with your yours and Carter’s help, I’m staying focused. So many entrepreneurs quit.

And Winston Churchill, the famous prime minister who led Europe when they fought against Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, this is Winston Churchill, the head of Great Britain, the prime minister, when they stood up to Hitler, he said the ability to go from setback to setback without losing enthusiasm is a powerful thing. And I’m going to pull up the actual quote, because it’s very important for everyone to see this. But Winston Churchill, again, Winston Churchill, this is the guy who stood up to Adolf Hitler. He said, success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. That is a profound idea. What do you say to all the entrepreneurs out there that are feeling a little bit defeated and a little bit beat up today?

There isn’t a day that goes by where something doesn’t hit us. But we just have to keep going. Trump talked about this in his last speech. If we just keep going so many times, we’re going to get over the finish line. And there will be light at the end of the tunnel. Whether a parts breaking down on a truck or we delivered the dumpster to the wrong house, we got to drive and it screws up the whole plan.

We just got to pivot with it. We’re going to roll. We’re going to adapt. We’re going to overcome and we’re going to get through it. Um, and having that mindset and being able to just push forward, that’s been a huge story to why we’re here today. Um, you know, why being pros here today and, and having you guys encourage me, even though there’s plenty of times where I’ve talked to you.

We had a conversation a couple of weeks ago, and I was like, I have no idea what I’m doing. Like, does this make sense anymore? And you’re like, well, let’s focus on did we get reviews? And it pulled me out of that. It pulled me out of my funk, and I was able to, yeah, become rejuvenated and have that energy to keep pushing on. Well, I’ll tell you this, folks.

I encourage everybody out there, if you learned anything from today’s show, go to MyBinPro . com. What you’ll do is you’ll go to MyBinPro . com. You’ll go there right now. And then once you do, you’re just going to post that on your social media.

So I’m going to pull up my social media right there. And I’m going to post it on my social media. So I’m going to right here, I’ll put, we just had a great interview. Let’s put great interview with our friends at MyBinPro. And I’ll put a link. here to the actual website.

And by doing that, it helps the website rank higher. So for anybody out there, if you learned anything today, definitely post on social media a link to MyBinPro . com. It’ll help Justin’s website rank higher. Justin, I’ll give you the final word. What do you say to an entrepreneur out there that’s doing this thing alone and they’ve never had a coach in their corner?

Keep pushing, and I would highly recommend get a coach. Call Clay. He’ll help you out. So I appreciate everything he’s done. Thank you so much, brother. I appreciate you, and we’ll talk to you soon.

All right. Bye -bye. Clay Clark, man, he is one character. That’s a good word for him, 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 and she just says, she just, she just lets him be Clay Clark. I mean, so, you know, 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 5am in Tulsa, Oklahoma, man, he’s a leader of a leader.

He’s fantastic. Yeah, man. No, he is. He is. He also he has his 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 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 on, you know, 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 got to be coachable, you got to be wanting to get feedback, you got to be wanting to really grow your company, you 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 to anybody who’s wanting to grow their company and provide great systems, checklists, workflows, great encouragement, and have accountability. Hi, I’m Chris with Shaw Homes. I first heard about Clay, 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. We’ve become one of the largest builders in the Tulsa area, and that was without Clay.

So when I came to know Clay, I really thought, man, there’s not much more I 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.

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 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 be successful. 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. pretty much just listening to what they have to say, their hiring process has just really been incredible as far as finding good quality help and just the accountability of meeting up with them weekly and 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 going to 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 interviews. 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. working until you cry sometimes. That’s just being an entrepreneur, which if you’re a business owner, you understand that.

But it’s having these systems in place of, 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 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 bar

bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and they’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 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