Transcribed for business coach program at Thrive15.com
Robert Redmond – business coach: Yeah.
Clay Clark head business coach and business coach program founder: And we’re pulling it back.
Robert Redmond: All right.
Clay Clark: And you’re pulling it back, you’re pulling it back. Maybe a slingshot’s a better example.
Robert Redmond: Getting tight.
Clay Clark: And if you pull it back, pull it back, pull it back, and the tension, and then I want to get myself so motivated that I let go right before I walk into the door. So, I usually get to work in the office, I usually see John, the first guy I see every morning. I usually will see John, usually 5:30, 5:15, but I’ve already been up for like two or three hours. So, when I see him, I’m already ready to go. I don’t walk in like, “Oh, man. I’m so tired, just trying to wake up.” No, you can’t be cleaning out the cobwebs in front of the [inaudible 00:17:36] employees. You’ve got to have that energy source.
Robert Redmond: Right.
Clay Clark: So, I want to ask you here because Megan, you’ve obviously started a successful business, been able to achieve time and financial freedom at the age of 25, which by the way, is fairly impressive. I want to keep you humble so I’m just going to find things to criticize you about. But, no, no, but seriously. So, you’ve been able to have some success in that area, how do you motivate yourself on a daily basis? I guess, even better, when you were struggling to start it or when you were first starting it, how did you motivate yourself on a daily basis? A business coach may be the solution for you.
Megan: I think one of my biggest pitfalls is actually self motivation. It’s really difficult for me, and it’s different when you don’t have those people around you kind of motivating you. So, you have to find that from within. And at first, I think when I first started, it was the business that was motivating me. I was super excited, it was kind of like you know, “Okay, well, is this going to fail, and I don’t want it to fail so I have to make it happen,” and you know, it just kind of sustained itself and that’s what was sustaining me. But now that it’s to the point where it’s kind of rolling on its own, it’s been really tough to find that self motivation. So, I actually would love to ask you how you motivate yourself other than listening to T.D. Jakes in the morning.
Clay Clark: Well, let me read you a business coach notable quotable first and that way I seem kind of smart. Andrew Carnegie, he’s the … obviously, the world’s second wealthiest man during his lifetime, but he started working at age 12 because his parents couldn’t afford the cost of living. So, at age 12 he started working, and he says, “People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.” So, thank you. Thank you, Andrew for making us all feel bad. But my thing is I had some really unreasonable goals at first. So, one is I wanted to be a millionaire before age 30. So, I wanted to, you know, have a multimillion dollar business. And when I did that, then my goal was to hire my father and so I hired him when I was 27 years old because we grew up where we weren’t homeless or anything, but we you know struggled financially from time to time. And I wanted to hire my dad as I was becoming a business coach, and then I had did this, too. And for a moment there, I didn’t have any motivation.
For about I’d say three days, and I realized … No, I’m serious. I realized okay, I hired my dad, now what’s next? And so I had to think about that. And so my wife and I, we moved into a massive house and we had the DJ empire there, and I did something wrong. I did something that was stupid, I did something a lot of people do, I went ahead and let society set my goals. So, society says you need a bigger house, a bigger car, more cars, more houses, bigger houses, and you need vacations. And I discovered after like 50 different trips all around the world traveling, I don’t like it all. I don’t like traveling, and I don’t like cars. I don’t really like going out to dinner with most people. I like business coaching I enjoy some people that you go out to dinner, but I realized that I guess I always thought that when you get successful, you should go out to eat a lot, you should buy a lot of cars, you should do the house, you should …
And only kind of stripping that down to when my son was born blind in 2007, and if you’re listening right now and you know what it’s like to have a kid that’s struggling with a physical disability or a family member, when Aubrey was born blind, I realized, “Man, the one thing I want is time freedom with my wife.” And so, my wife is now my source of motivation, so that’s my whole deal. So, I sort of, for like … I might have met her in college. She was a cheerleader, but I feel like now, I’m kind of like her cheerleader, you know where I’m coming … so my whole deal, I feel like, my job is to try to be … make her life the best it can possibly be. And then we had our five kids, now it’s like, my goal is to try to help them be the most successful they can be.
And so, I think my kids, now have become my source of motivation and my wife, and finding out what their goals are and trying to make those goals big, and figuring what their big goals are, that’s exciting to me, you know. So, my goals are no longer goals, they’re more my wife’s goals and my kids’ goals. But I can you what, I didn’t … for a long time, I kind of lost that because I bought into this goal of consumerism. When you buy more, have more, get more, pay more. And then when I sat down and thought about, “Man, time freedom and financial freedom, that’s what I really want, and to be able to spend the time with my family.” So, I just want to encourage you right now, if you’re struggling with self motivation, I would encourage you, just think about like a bigger cause, somebody out there who doesn’t have financial freedom and time freedom or maybe your kids or your spouse, and think about how you can help them or how you can help others.
And that’s the kind of thing that I think will keep you always energized when you start thinking about the goals of other people and how you can help make a bigger impact on the planet and specifically, in my own nuclear family. Stay tuned, ThrivetimeShow.com.
If you have any business coach questions for our business coach then send them to [email protected]
All right, Thrive nation and business coach clients, welcome back into the conversation. It’s the Thrivetime Show on your radio. And today, we’re getting into the mail bag. The stack of stuff that matters from great people like you. You realize if you email us info at Thrive15.com, we answer every single question. I could say that right now until I can’t say it anymore because eventually, we won’t be able to keep up. [inaudible 00:22:56], you’re keeping us kind of busy and I like the challenge. And so, we’re answering mail bag questions from Thrivers like you. And one Thriver was asking us, “What are the things you look for out of new hires?” We’re talking about Jack Welch’s four E’s. He’s the former CEO of GE. And basically, the four things he looks for is people who have energy, people who can energize others, people who have that ability to execute, get stuff done, and people who have edge that can make the tough call. And inside the box that rocks today, we have a wonderful cast of characters.
And Megan was asking me, you know, “What are some tips to stay motivated once you’ve achieved financial freedom and time freedom?” And I want to give you one more tip, and this is the big one here. This is kind of like the never ending move, find a never ending, renewable source of motivation for your business where you can tie your passion and your profits together. And so, one of the companies I work with right now is called Oxifresh, O, X, I fresh. And what he does is every time you hire someone to clean carpets online, then they donate a certain amount of money to drill wells for people in Africa that can’t have fresh water. They teamed up with water.org. Elephant in the Room, we donate money to the Boys’ Home. But there’s a cause so it’s kind of like Warby Parker, every time you buy a pair of glasses, they give a pair away or Toms shoes. Do you ever watch the Toms shoes … have you ever seen the online … are you a sucker for the Toms shoes there? Megan, do you like Toms shoes?
Megan: You know, we actually carried them for a few years at the store.
Clay Clark: Really?
Megan: Yeah.
Clay Clark: Okay. And so, the Toms shoes, every time you buy a pair of shoes, they give a pair away?
Megan: They do. Well, how it works is, technically whenever the company places a wholesale order with Toms, that’s when they delegate those, you know, however many pairs aside.
Clay Clark: And so the whole idea is that when you tie your source of your passion or something you care about to your profit center, it never gets old giving something. It’s kind of weird, but like as you get older, you’ll see this, but when you give somebody a gift, and I’ll just give example, there’s a guy named Nate Waters who is from Tulsa. And a horrible, horrible story, and so Robert, I’ll look at you because it’s less awkward looking at you and telling a horrible story, you know.
Robert Redmond: Okay. let’s hear it business coach man.
Clay Clark: But the thing is that … so, Nate, my kids. I think it was … was it Aubrey that asked or was it you that asked? Did you ask Nate Waters … do you remember Nate Waters? Do you remember Nate? So, we were at a Mexican restaurant and my daughter’s on the set, and so my daughter … I think one of the kids asked him, “How come you can’t move your legs?” And I don’t remember who it was, but we were at a Mexican restaurant at 61st and Yale. They said, “How come you can’t move your legs?” And he was in a wheelchair. And I’m like, “I am so sorry. Sorry they asked you,” but they were like five at the time or something. And he said, “Oh, it’s okay.” Well, I got to … he said, “I’d love to tell you more about it, yada yada,” so he gives me his number and he’s a quadriplegic so I took his number and I called him. He said, “I’d like to invite you to my house.” So I go over to like 21st and Memorial to the address and it’s a nursing home.
And I found out that there was a man who was sexually abusing his sister, and he tried to intervene and the man broke his spine and left him on the floor, but the man was dating his mom. And so his mom refused to testify in court, so he had lived alone in a nursing home since age 18 and he was now like 30. And he said his goal was to become a motivational speaker. And I remember going, “Oh … ” you know, what do you do with that? And I’m going, “I have time freedom and financial freedom so I’m going to help him do that.” I remember just like mentally committing to that. And by the way, Tulsa has a lot of need, a lot of people out there have needs. Everywhere, every city has that. And so my wife and I bought him a computer, and we began to teach him how to … you know, get him with website optimized, we build him a website.
And the last time I saw him alive, I was at the airport, Tulsa airport, and I saw him there and he’s going to the airport, and I’m like, “Dude, where you going?” He goes, “I’m going to New Orleans, man, I’m a speaker. It’s working.”
Robert Redmond: That’s awesome.
Clay Clark: And I remember going, “Oh, my gosh, it’s working.” And I felt so good because I’m a selfish jerk and I bought him a computer, you know what I mean? Because I taught him search engine … because we helped him optimize his website, whatever. Well, Nate … if you Google Nate Waters, Tulsa, he changed so many people’s lives by giving this speech he gave about becoming better and not bitter. Even though his mom never visited him in the nursing home and she refused to press charges even though he was a quadriplegic, he said, “I’m not bitter. I’m going to get better.” And that was unbelievable. And then, when my daughter … I don’t know if you remember this, but you won a gymnastics … you won something in gymnastics and so Havana gave him her medal that she got and he kept that thing.
And I go into his nursing home there to visit him one day, and I notice there’s a picture of T. Boone Pickens there, you know the billionaire? And I’m like, “That’s Rudy Giuliani,” it’s like the whole Republican party. I’m like, “Why are they all in your room?” And he goes, “Oh, well, I’ve been calling these people and just kind of doing the moves, you know calling these people, doing the Dream 100 and T. Boone Pickens, he said he was going to help buy me a wheelchair. You know, T. Boone Pickens actually paid for my college, by the way, this person’s giving me a house, and I’m doing this and that,” and so he ended up raising an insane amount of money for charity. And if you look him up, they actually named a center for people with physical disabilities after Nate Waters. You can Google that, that’s a historical fact.
And so, I’m just telling you, if you kind of lose motivation for yourself, look for others who are in a less fortunate situation than you and figure out what’s an impact that you can make that you’re excited about. And on kind of a lighter note, I really, really don’t care about saving the coral reef. I mean, we should, but I don’t really care about it. So, if I donated my time to going down there and scuba diving and helping support it, I wouldn’t feel so, you know energized. But helping a guy in Tulsa that I knew who wanted to become a speaker, which by the way, that was a desire I had, it was kind of fun to kind of merge those two together, and it felt good. And I don’t know if that’s helpful at all, was that helpful for you?
Megan: Definitely, yes.
Business Coach Clay Clark: Okay. So, Robert, we’re moving on to the next E, okay? Which is execute. Bro, why is it so hard for many people … you’ve coached clients all over the world, why is it so hard for many people to execute? And if you had to say, “Here are maybe the few common patterns I’ve seen with clients that struggle to get stuff done,” what are those things?
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