Business Coach : Do Your Business Well
-This is something that I do. And maybe we’ll get your– this is maybe a business–
-Can I stand up?
-Yeah, sure.
-Yeah.
-This kind of a business ethics question here for you. But all these people reach out to you. And sometimes you have to say no.
-Absolutely.
-And I had a very hard time with that. And even, like, I’m talking as early as before you showed up.
DAMARIO SOLOMON SIMMONS: Yeah. Right, right.
-About 5:30, I’m talking to my beautiful wife– who’s a beautiful lady– and she’s a wonderful mom. And we have five kids.
DAMARIO SOLOMON SIMMONS: Congratulations.
-Thank you so much. And I have a lot– this month we booked four speaking events. Well, to quote my main man Warren Buffett, if you add something into the cup, you gotta take something out of the cup. He is a great business coach
-Right.
CLAY CLARK: Otherwise, it’s going to overflow.
-Right.
-So my wife always ask that question, what comes out? And that’s hard. Because I look around and I say, well, I don’t want to cut out time with my kids. And I want to not work out. And I don’t want to– and so I end up doing all of these things.
And what I do– this is where I make my mistake. I won’t drop the ball on most of these areas. But I’ll start sleeping two hours every night– two hours, two hours, two hours, two hours, two hours. And then the body starts to suffer. And that’s how I get out of balance. I know some people looking at this might say, man, body’s not an issue for me. But maybe I’m spiritually out of whack or financially out of whack. What would you say to somebody who’s struggling with that focus? Because I know it’s a challenge for you. hiring a business coach will challenge you as well.
DAMARIO SOLOMON SIMMONS: Right.
-What would you say to somebody who’s just get distracted? Is it kind of just focus until you have success so you can do other things?
-Right. You know, I’ll just be really honest with you, Clay. Saying no and just trying to figure that out has been probably the most difficult thing. And I believe I will be further along if I really had to answer to that. And I think it’s really just feeling the pain.
So many times, when you are an entrepreneur, and you’ve got that energy, and you can sleep just two hours, you can take that shot and keep going. Like, when I had Bell’s Palsy, and it is shut me down, it realigned–
-See, I lost vision in my eye, and that’s what happened to me. Like, they were saying it was constricted blood vessels. And it was literally causing blindness that I’ve never recovered from. I still have horrible vision. And then when my son was born blind, and I couldn’t go to the doctor’s appointment because I was overbooked, that’s my challenge. We all have that, something.
-Right. I mean, saying no, I’m glad you bought that up. Because that was– I tell you, right now, today, as we speak, I’m on a couple boards, nonprofits, and I care a lot about them. But I really should have let them go. And I really should let them go. And it comes back saying, well, they need you. But we need to do those things. Because if these things are not in line, spirit, mind, body, relationship, and finances, nothing else is going to matter. Everything is going to suffer. So prayer is something that I’ve always asked in God to help me. Keep me focused, God. You know what my true vision is and what I want my true mission to be. I also hired a business coach.
-I met a lady years ago– this was years ago on a planet far, far away.
-[LAUGHS]
-She, though, was a wonderful lady. And she was struggling financially. And I remember when I talked to her, the Abraham Lincoln quote was what set her free. But I said, hey, you’re volunteering at PTA? She said, yes. I said, you’re volunteering at the church? Yes. You’re volunteering at the homeless shelter? Yeah. She says, I was once abused, so I want to help these women. And I said so, you’re also helping your daughter. You’re picking up your daughter at– she went to visit her daughter in prison. You’re visiting your daughter in prison. You’re doing all these things. But Abraham Lincoln says the key to helping the poor is to not be poor. hire a business coach to help you grow.
-Right.
-And I think it’s a cultural phenomenon that if we come from poverty– I say we, we come from poverty– one of the things is we have a poverty mentality, sometimes where we want to help and everybody else and not ourselves. And so the way that it was told to me– and I hope I’m helping somebody. But I’m just going to show you.
The way it was taught to me was that if you’ve got this ice cream here, you can stack all the scoops up here. But the volunteerism sometimes has to be that cherry on the top. Because otherwise, if you put the cherry on the bottom it gets all squished. And so you kind of pick that one.
And that’s why I so greatly admire guys like the music artist, Mike Posner we were talking about. He’s donating– for every album he sells he gives a meal to a family in need. Well, to me that’s great. Because it means that, one, he’s not in need.
He’s actually providing for his own mom and his own family. But then he’s donating. And I love that idea. I love companies like Toms Shoes. They focus, and then they can give. And I just– gosh, it’s a challenge.
[MUSIC PLAYING]