Adversity | “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill (Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom That Stood Up Against Adolf Hitler) + Cancer Survivor & Entrepreneur Jami Sullins Shares Her Epic Story

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. This 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. No problem with Mary. We get along. You work here. It’s been a great thing.

Figuratively speaking, in this analogy, we’re getting along but then a fourth party shall show up and starts a fight between everybody. met those people, Captain Chaos? Captain Chaos in the building, have you seen that one? And they play little games, the next thing you know you wake up and you get a little bit of a coup going on. How many of you have been self -employed long enough to see the coup? I always find it when you train up young Luke Skywalker, you train up young Anakin Skywalker.

Remember Anakin, he became Darth Vader. You train him up, the next thing they know, ha ha, I’m going to take away as many team members as possible and as many clients as possible as a way to repay you for helping me. I’m going to screw you. Yeah! Have you had that one? That’s always fun. What about health issues?

My dad got Lou Gehrig’s disease, that was not fun for him, for me, terrible. My wife had a miscarriage, that was not awesome. I don’t know, when my best friend died in a car accident, that was crazy. Car accident, dad calls me, his dad calls me. Could you speak at the funeral? I go, yeah.

He says, here’s the date. I’m going, oh man, it’s a wedding. Because I got a wedding, you know? So I’m going. And he goes, could you make it funny? This is the dad.

I go, you want me to make your son’s funeral funny? He goes, yeah, because he was funny. You’re kind of funny. I think it would be better if it’s like a funny thing, because it’s not funny. Because he was a great guy. And I think he’s in heaven.

And I just, can you make a funny presentation for his wedding? Yes, sir. How can you tell a guy’s dad you’re not going to be your best friend? How do you not do it? I’m like, OK, best comedy ever. Funeral, done.

But then I got a wedding that night. You know, and it’s like that. Longer story, you can read about it if you want to. My wife wrote a book about it called Now I See, but my son was born blind. I found out my son was born blind while DJing a wedding in Dallas. That was awesome, you know, because they went to see different doctors and we got the, you know, you hope your kid isn’t blind, you know, and they finally find out he’s 100 % blind, you know, and I’m DJing.

I literally got the call while DJing. And I’m like, so I get underneath my DJ booth, and I’m like, hello? And my wife’s like, he’s blind. I’m going. Ladies and gentlemen, up next, we’ve got the cutting of the cake. Cutting of the cake, it’s a cake, and I’m very emotional about it.

I get excited about cakes, and I love cakes. Love cakes. How many people get emotional about cakes? They’re like, this guy, he’s got a problem. He loves cakes. I like cakes, cakes, cakes, cakes.

When you say blind, how blind is he? 100%, I’m like, ooh. Because it’s like, how many of you know what I’m talking about? It’s not about, like, the father -the -bride dance. I remember, like, weeping like a baby. And the bride, I remember she was like, you really love weddings.

Oh, I love weddings. I was, like, weeping. The father, like, folks, the father -the -bride dance. For some reason, I say Billy when I get sad. Billy, it’s kind of my escape route to funny. That’s what I do.

It’s my escape route. When things get bad, I’m like, oh, Billy. And he’s like, Billy, Billy. And I, wow. And then I got a guy shadowing me that had some psychological problems, wasn’t a good fit. I remember that guy.

He lasted one day, not a good fit. Who knows what I’m talking about, though? Come on. Who knows what I’m talking about? You’re running a business, and then life happens. Who knows about it?

Now, let me tell you how you screw it all up. You take time off of the business so your business fails and your life fails, and now you’re in hell. There it is. Because you’re like, because bad things are happening. So I remember Dr. Zellner, the best mentorship he gave me, it was so great, was he said, I remember it, he said, do you need a dad outside of the Riverwalk?

He said that to me. I go, yes, I am weeping. And he goes, all right, I’m gonna adopt you if you’ll take me as your dad. And he’s a hilarious person, but he’s like, you know, at this moment, I could, this feels like a wedding or something, but you wanna, I’m like, yeah. And he’s like, but you gotta keep your shit together at work, because you’re like, you’re on the verge of crying all the time, aren’t you? And he’s like, oh, God. You got to make payroll.

You got to do your thing. You can’t like take, because you understand no one cares, right? I care, but no one else cares. You understand. Do you get this? Are you getting this?

Do you get, because I think that you think maybe we, in my community, I feel like, are you getting this? And he wasn’t sure what to say. Because what do you say to a guy when you’re trying to mentor him, but you’re also being really like. You gotta get it together. You gotta, you gotta run the bit. And I’m like, okay, yeah.

It wasn’t even what he said. He tried to say things, but it’s more gibberish. It was just more, you gotta, so go in there and get your shit together, and then we’ll do man time, and I’ll bring the liquor. And I don’t drink, but I like watching him drink. That’s kind of the way we do it. He likes Lagavulin, and he kind of sips on it and pontificates about life and history and geography, and it’s a lot of fun.

He smokes cigars, and he’s always trying to convince me to smoke, and it just smells terrible, but it’s kind of fun watching him do it. But it’s a thing of, like, who knows what I’m talking about? That’s like, you’re trying to get to a business meeting, and then your car stops working. Come on. I got hit by a freaking semi last week. That was awesome.

Oh, wow. You know? Who knows what I’m talking? By show of hands, who’s had life happen while you’re trying to run a company? Doesn’t it happen? The divorce is always at the wrong time, isn’t it?

Could we not have chosen a time after the wedding? How about the theft? Employee theft? Who’s had that? Theft? What about your employees stealing your customers?

For some reason in our world, we don’t view customer theft as a theft. That happens all the time. People are like, somehow the guy who’s stealing customers from you is pristine. as the victim. Have you seen that? So we see it.

So Carter, how often are you working with a client and all of a sudden you can just feel on the call something weird happened? Yeah, you can definitely sense it. The energy is different. I got a couple more examples since you kind of relayed them to me. Third degree fire burns is one that we dealt with. Google Map, yeah, that was a soldier through it though.

Google Map getting suspended, that’s a big one because that’s a big source of leads. You just got to hammer it home and get it done. You gotta do, and again, so when you’re growing your business, I’m just making sure you’re getting this, there’s three things you gotta keep in mind the whole time, it’s tough. You gotta keep the literal, core, repeatable, actionable processes going, okay? So if you’re taking notes, it’s the literal, you gotta take the action. Can’t stop, can’t take a day off, go, go, go, right?

But then there’s the emotional state, isn’t it? The emotional state, literal, okay? Lane one, lane two, the emotional. You’ve gotta keep the emotional state together. Do you not, do you not? Yeah, okay?

And then there’s that spiritual stuff over here. And I find that you gotta have all three, because it’s like a chord, you know? And if you’re just Captain All Literal, I know what I’m doing, but you have emotional crisis, it won’t work. And if you’re like the most emotionally in control person, but you don’t do your action items, that won’t help either. And if you’re like a very spiritual person, because we’re in Tulsa, this is more relevant in Tulsa, but in Tulsa we have a certain group of people, not all people, but certain people that believe that their amount of giving is directly proportionate to the economy. So like, I just gave away my last $10 ,000.

I don’t understand why I’m not a millionaire. I’m like, well, because I don’t know the math. They’ve been teaching at your church. But that’s not how it works. You’ve got to sell something to somebody. So there’s the emotional.

We’re on the same page, OK? So a while back, Paul Solins, who’s here, that’s Paul. Can I bring up Paul? Carter, I’m going to swap you out for Paul. It’s an even swap. It’s not an upgrade or a downgrade.

It’s a great even. Oh, it’s an upgrade. OK, upgrade. So this is Paul. So Paul has a company called Outside Inc. We’ve had the honor of working with Paul, and I think the number of leads you’re getting now, Paul, for Outside Inc., it’s an outside irrigation, they kind of do home remodeling, they do landscape and irrigation, and they do pool maintenance, and a lot of great things.

French drains, all that. But I think the number of leads you have, when we first met to now, is a double or triple or quadruple? I would say at least triple. I mean, I was getting an average of 2 to 3 to 5 a week. And I mean, I think May last year, I had 85 in one week. And so I’m averaging 35, 28 to 35 a week right now.

So it’s like up a lot in terms of sales and leads. And Paul is a man’s man. Have you met this guy? Who’s met him? Who’s met him? Who’s not met him yet?

That’s Paul. Hi, Paul. I’m Clay. Welcome to the group. Hi, everybody. I’m Paul.

OK. All right. So anyway, I feel like it’s like an AA meeting or something. OK. So we’re there. So anyway, so Paul’s great.

But Paul is, we’re at a meeting, and I can see that Paul is doing what I was doing to Dr. Z. I would be around Dr. Z talking about business, but you could see the waterworks. Who knows what I’m talking about, where you see someone’s about ready to, and Z cares, so he picks up on it, like, what is going on? And I hadn’t spoken to my wife about the feelings I was having about, because when you watch your dad die of Lou Gehrig’s, I’m bathing my father. You know, like, it’s not a pot, when you’re bathing your kid, that’s one thing, but when you’re bathing your dad, it’s, I mean, It’s all, yeah, it’s like, whoa. So I, Z picks up on it, you know, and I’m looking at Paul and I’m like, irrigation is not that emotional, Paul, you know, like French drains. I mean, I like the French too.

The croissants are amazing, but we got to, what’s the emotional, I like the drink, you know, I think I could sense there was something bigger than just, and, and Paul, you told me, you said, Hey, my wife’s going through, you want to tell you what you said or what we were talking about? well So had two things my dad was going through cancer at the time eat the mic a little bit. Oh, yeah Sorry, my dad was going through cancer at the time. I’ve been with clay what two and a half years Yeah point so there was that and then just found out my wife being diagnosed with breast cancer so triple negative All the folks. So the thing is, once you hear that, the word cancer, you’re like, oh, death. I mean, that’s what everybody kind of thinks about.

So that was the emotions I was going through. And I remember Paul and I were talking. I was trying to give Paul the talk that Z gave me. But I’m like, well, at least everything’s going terrible. You know what I mean? Because it was like, you just have to laugh.

I mean, you have to. I remember Z was like, well, at least It’s really bad. It’s a good story, maybe, at the end. And I’m like, you’re sick. I don’t know what to say. You’re the one with the dad.

What the hell? You just look. How many of you are men here? How many men? A lot of times, men, what we do with Z and I, we just get together, and we don’t even make eye contact for an hour in a row. We’ll just get together for man cave, and he’ll kind of look over here at a thing.

I’ll look at a thing, and we’ll kind of tune into a college game. And we’ll just kind of, how you doing? Good. Divorce. How’s it going? Look at that touchdown.

Hell of a touchdown. But then about 25 minutes later, so it’s not going good. Really? What’s not going good? The play? No, the divorce.

OK, yeah, third down, third down. It takes us about an hour and a half to cover like three yards of emotional breakthrough here. So anyway, so Paul is just soldiering through. But through the process, we figured out your wife is a powerhouse, gifted speaker. How would you describe this woman, this woman you’re married to, Paul? You just like to put me on the spot.

I don’t have to. I’m not married to her. I can’t introduce her as good as you can. Oh, I mean, we’ve been married 28 years. I don’t want to retrain anybody else. That’s good.

That was a good intro. That was good. That’s the kind of real intro. These are the conversations we have now going through cancer. It’s like, what do we, you know, she asked me one day, she goes, what are you going to do, you know, if I do die? But these are the conversations you end up having.

That’s a lot of fun, right? So I was like, I’m not training anybody else. I’m just going to go solo. So I’m going to introduce his wife here. So Jamie Sullins is a woman who beat cancer. She beat cancer.

She’s also successful as an entrepreneur and she’s decided to turn that bitterness or that frustration, she turned the bitterness into betterness. So instead of running around saying, why me? She’s decided to run around and encourage people. I asked her, I said, Jamie, could you speak? This is the kind of person that should write a book and run around telling people about it. I said, could you come to our event and speak and share?

She’s done that a handful of times now and I just feel like, People leave the conference and they always tell me, they go, you know, if you could just have a little more of her, a little less of you, it would have been a better deal overall. So she’s a great speaker. She’s, by all accounts, a great wife, a great entrepreneur. So please stand to your feet and greet Jamie Sullins to talk about If You’re Going Through Hell, Don’t Stop. One more time, let’s hear it for Jamie Sullins. Yes.

All right, you two, stop making out. I’m going to go leave. You got the floor, OK? I obviously have not trained him on an intro. So I might have him trained on a lot of things, but not an intro. Thank you, Clay, for having me again.

I am so honored every time that Clay asks me to come and speak. Let me tell you, I know that my God is a very, very good God, but I have been through some bullshit. I bet you never thought you’d hear God and bullshit in the same sentence. So there you go. That’s a first right there.

Um, I started with Clay’s team back in 2003, but I actually not 2003, 2023, but I want to jump back a little bit before that. I had been successfully running a business and I My husband had been working with clay for a while and was like, Jamie, you need to get over there. You need to get over there. And I was like, no. It’s not for my type of business. My business is different.

At the time, I was selling Scentsy Fragrance. So if you’re not familiar with that, it is a multi -level marketing company selling all fragrance products. So check out Jamie Jo Sells Wax. I’ll let them put that up on the screen. I eventually said, okay, I will give it a try. So, I have actually been with Clay’s team through three different phases of business.

One was a transition in business, which I’ll talk about that in just a second. The other was simply maintaining my business through bullshit, and the third is growing a brand new business that I’m really excited to tell you guys about. So first, let’s jump back to Cincy. Like I said, my business is different. They’re not going to help me. They can’t do it.

But I honored my husband. And I said I’m going to give it a try. So I started with Clay’s team. I work with Andrew. He’s my coach. And we jumped into the things that you guys have been hearing about for a day and a half now.

The first thing we did is we completely redid my website. And he’s scrolling through it on the screen for you to see right there. Now, I had a website, but it was not SEO optimized. I don’t even know what that means, but I’m thankful that they do. I pay them to do that. I don’t have to worry about it.

So the first thing we did is redo my website. The next thing I did is Google Reviews. Google reviews. Again, my business is different. I don’t need Google reviews. That’s not how my business works, is what I said.

But when I started getting those reviews, I started getting random phone calls of people. I need a Scentsy consultant. I didn’t know where to find one. So it did work. I was wrong. The next thing we did is we really focused on my YouTube channel.

Now, I had been using my YouTube channel mainly to train my team. I had a team of over 1 ,000 consultants all over the US and in a couple different countries. So, I was using my YouTube channel to train them. But we transitioned it to be a marketing tool for those people that were Googling Sensei. Did you hear about the three -legged marketing stool? Did you just hear me say three things?

SEO optimization, Google reviews, and changing my YouTube. And you know what? I had a very successful business before. I was one of the top leaders in my company, but my numbers improved even more after I started doing that. But guys, I didn’t change what had already gotten me successful, and that was relationships with people. I would build relationships.

I was mainly doing my business through parties and fairs and events before I started working with the team here. And then I transitioned into a lot more digital as well. But I didn’t stop those relationships. These were people that I had never had a face -to -face interaction with. But because they saw my face on YouTube all the time, they thought they knew me, I often sent texts to develop those relationships because people buy from those that they like, know, and trust.

And they needed to get to know me. They needed to like me and trust me. So I continued doing those things, the mass texts, the marketing emails, the mailers to them with different fragrance samples. And I call it happy mail, fun mail. Nobody wants a bill, but everyone wants something fun in the mail. and then continue to do social media.

So my business grew slightly. I mean, it wasn’t like leaps and bounds, but it was growing slightly. The great thing about it was most things were becoming habitual. Meaning that I had the routines, the systems that had become habits. So it’s kind of like a merry -go -round. Remember back to your childhood, when you first start pushing a merry -go -round, you really have to put in a lot of effort.

Now, I had been doing that for years and years and years. But when we added those few changes, when we added those systems and habits, I could just stand there and just barely push it. And it kept going. So business was great. But then March 19th. of 2024 happened.

I think everyone has a date in their mind that is like a life -changing date. For some people, it’s their marriage. For some people, it’s the birth of their first child. For me, that date is March 19th, 2024. Now, Paul and I were just a regular Tuesday.

I even knew what day of the week it was. Regular Tuesday, we had met up for lunch at a local Mexican restaurant that we loved. We’d had our enchiladas and our tacos. And he was at the counter paying, and my telephone rang. And I didn’t have the number programmed in my phone, but I was expecting a phone call. So I answered it, and I heard the words, Jamie, This is Dr. Sullivan, I’m sorry, I’m on vacation, I’m in Colorado, my reception might not be that good, but I wanted to call you before you read your MyChart.

And I said, okay. She said, Jamie, you have breast cancer. And my life changed in that minute. The next thing I heard a couple days later, they’d been doing some testing on the sample that they took in my biopsy, and it turns out that I had triple negative breast cancer. Now, I know most of you don’t know what that is. Breast cancers are usually hormone -driven, either progesterone, estrogen.

Mine tested negative to every hormone feeding it, meaning they don’t know why I got cancer, They don’t know what’s growing the cancer and they don’t know how to treat the cancer to kill it. So that means they throw everything at you. On the first appointment with my oncologist, surgical oncologist, he said, Jamie, you’re first going to go through chemotherapy. Then we are going to do a mastectomy. Guys, that’s a really sweet word for breast amputation. They don’t want to call it what it really is.

It’s breast amputation, but they name it mastectomy. After that, you’re going to go through radiation. We don’t know what’s doing this, so we’re going to throw everything at you to make sure that they kill it. And they did. We started the process. Now, here’s the thing.

Everyone hears or sees on movies and television what cancer treatment looks like, but there’s a lot of things that they don’t tell you, that you don’t know, that I didn’t know. The first thing that I had to do was make drastic decisions in one day. The first thing I needed to do was to decide if I wanted to follow their treatment plan or do it my own way. Now, most people won’t even question that, but I question everything. So I did. I looked into a lot of naturopathic treatments for cancer, and I had to make a decision, and I had to make it fast.

I decided to do a mixture of traditional and naturopathic or homeopathic. So I did start chemotherapy, but I also did work with a naturopathic oncologist to support my body through all of the poisons that would be put into it. I did that Because I know mental health is important. And if I was going to go a naturopathic way, I was going to have to move to a different state. Because did you know there’s only one state in the United States that allows that? And that’s Arizona.

That is the only right to try state in the US. Meaning, they can try medical treatments that are not FDA approved. So if I was going to do that path, I was going to have to move to Arizona. I am deeply rooted to my community, to my community. my church, to my friends, and my family is all local. And I knew I was going to need them.

So that’s one of the main reasons I decided to stay and do traditional, but I knew I wanted to support it with homeopathic as well. The next thing after I chose a treatment path was to decide on a surgical oncologist. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to find a new doctor, but it’s very difficult to know what you’re getting. You can’t really just go to Google and figure out a doctor. They don’t really have many reviews. So I just went with the one that Dr. Sullivan, my PCP, called me and told me about.

So I got the referral for that doctor. Now, I’m not a person that sits around and waits for anything. So I immediately called their office and said, I want an appointment immediately. I’m thinking I’m the only cancer patient out there. I want it today. And as the receptionist started asking me questions, things like my age, my address, all that stuff, of course, the question came up.

And she said, what insurance do you have? And I said, I am a self -pay client. And she said, oh, honey, we don’t take charity cases. I really wish I would have had a camera in front of me when she said that because I probably looked like one of those cartoon characters that like steam comes out of their ears. That was probably me. I fought it for a little bit and then I thought, you know what? Maybe this is God telling me she’s not my doctor.

So I found a different doctor and I’m so glad I did because the new doctor I found was instrumental in my treatment plan. The next question, when it was time to start chemotherapy, let me back up. just a little bit. I did not have traditional insurance. I used a co -share program, which if you’re not familiar with that, it’s great for small businesses, for super healthy people. And what happens is I would pay for anything I needed, and then I would be reimbursed 90 % of that medical cost.

So it was time to start chemotherapy. I’d already had my port put in. I was ready to go. And I got a phone call just a couple days before my first chemotherapy was supposed to start. And they said on the phone, OK, Jamie, I see here that you’re a self -pay client. your chemotherapy for this week is going to be $43 ,000.

But we’re going to give you a discount since you’re a self -pay client. And I was like, whew, thank goodness, because I don’t have $43 ,000 sitting around. They said, so it’ll be $19 ,000. And I still thought that I was going to be able to do this, because I thought they would bill it, and then I would get reimbursed for 90%. They said, you’re going to have to pay for that when you show up on Tuesday. And I said, OK, but my chemo plan has 16 treatments in it.

I mean, I’m not amazing at math, but $19 ,000 for every treatment times 16, there was absolutely no way I was going to do that or be able to do that. Long story short, we had to get traditional insurance, but God was with us every step of the way. Normally, you have to wait till an enrollment period, and there were some loopholes that we got to work through, and I immediately got insurance. There was a couple weeks delay on that chemo, but I did get started. I had to work a business through all of this. Remember how I said that I had routines and systems and habits?

That’s what sustained me and my business through all of this, because I didn’t have to think about, what am I going to do to sell products today? What am I going to do to train my team today? I already had a system set up, and I could easily do that. Now, there were a lot of other things that really hindered my treatment along the way. And if you’re intrigued, to know about it. I did blog about it the entire way.

jamiesullins . com slash blog and you can read the entire story of everything that happened. But guys, here’s one thing that is really crazy. Through cancer, through all of that, because of the systems and routines I had, my business grew. I had a nine and a half percent year over year increase in sales. Now, no, that’s not a fabulous number, but I was going through cancer.

I was in chemotherapy. I was having multiple surgeries. In 18 months, I had six surgeries on top of 18 rounds of chemotherapy. And my business grew. I earned the annual sales award for my company. Guys, I’ve been with this company for 15 years, and I’d never earned it before.

And I earned it the year that I had cancer because of the things that they taught me here. Guys, cancer is terrible, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. But God, but God, in December of 2024, less than a year after my diagnosis, I got a report that said there was no evidence of disease. Now, if you’ll remember, earlier in my story, the plan was chemo, amputation, and radiation, but I got that report after my mastectomy, so I never had to do radiation. God is good. Now, here’s the crazy thing.

Chemo is awful. We all hear about the nausea, the losing weight, the losing of the hair. So many other things that you guys don’t hear about, but here’s the thing. God grew a business out of me being bald. Now, how does that work? Let me walk you through this.

When I lost my hair, I really struggled to find something to wear on my head that fit my style. I like color. I like patterns. And the chemo beanie market, I swear they only think 85 -year -old women get cancer and go through chemo. I was not wearing those floppy, scarfy, big flowery things on my head. I wasn’t going to do it.

I tried wigs, but let me tell you, they are itchy, they are hot, and I really felt like I was just playing dress -up when I would put one of them on. I tried ball caps. Guys, you probably don’t think about this, but that little metal ball on the top of your ball cap, when your head is super, super sensitive, that hurts like nobody’s business. Hats hurt my head so bad. I tried the scarf tying and all that stuff, but I really felt like I shouldn’t have done it. an extra on the Pirates of the Caribbean every time I put one on, because I just couldn’t figure it out.

I always looked like a pirate, like I wanted to get an eye patch and just, you know, walking around saying, err. But it just wasn’t working for my vibe. Now, I have sewn since I was a little bitty girl, and I thought, OK, I got to do something about this. So off to Hobby Lobby I went and I found leopard print, I found black and white checkers like the Vans brand checkered, I found the coolest fabrics out there and I went to my sewing machine and designed a beanie that was comfortable and that was cute and that young women could wear and keep their style through chemo. Now guys, I didn’t do this for a business. I did it because I needed something to wear.

But every time I went out and about, especially to the infusion clinic where half of the people there are dealing with hair loss, When I was there, people would ask me where I was getting these cute beanies because they were having the same problem that I was. And I would tell them that I made my beanie and they would kind of just fall in defeat because they wanted what I had on. A few times I got asked to make one and I was like, sorry, I’m kind of like in chemo and not feeling well all the time. So I declined on that. But as soon as I started feeling better, I knew I was on to something here. Now the thing is, I didn’t know what I was on to.

Was I on to a business? Was I on to a non -profit? Was I on to a charity, a ministry? I really didn’t know. But I knew the person that would give me the answer. And so I started to pray about it.

I just prayed and asked God to give me wisdom and guidance in what to do. sitting on right here. And I woke up one morning with that still small voice, or maybe if you’re a non -believer it’s just a random idea. I believe those are planted by God. But I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had both. I had a business and a ministry or a charity.

So how I have built my business is when you buy a beanie, I also donate a beanie to an area cancer clinic. So yes, you can buy beanies. I’m actually going to be set up in the back of the room so you can see them, you can touch them, you can feel them. And when anyone purchases from me, I do donate to an area cancer clinic. So that was good and that was awesome. But I kept hearing, hey, Jamie, I want to help you, but I don’t need to buy a beanie.

I have hair, and honestly, that just really wouldn’t work with my style. And the more I thought about it, I was like, OK, I’ve got to do something where other people can help. So I did one thing on my website, which you’re seeing up on the screen. There is a purchase option that says, donate a beanie. So you can just outright donate the money that I can gift a beanie to someone in a cancer clinic. And that was working great for a while.

But then my hair started to grow out. Here’s the fun thing. Wow, it’s really raining. Sorry, squirrel. Little ADD. My hair started to grow out.

And here’s the crazy thing. Before cancer, my hair was bored straight and brown and it came in crazy curly. and like half gray. So that was the fun thing that cancer brought me is learning how to do a totally different hairstyle. But I also knew that I needed some help styling these crazy curls. Curls are completely different.

So what I found myself doing was always popping on some sort of headgear, but When I would wear headbands, I would still have these little baby hairs that are sticking out of the back. So again, I thought, I can fix this. I know something I can do. So I took a headband. Honestly, you can purchase similar ones at Walmart or every little boutique. But here’s the thing.

Those headbands are only like that wide. And it didn’t work to help cover up my crazy curls in the back. So I designed a headband that’s super wide in the back. It helps hide that crazy grow out. But also, I like to change my style every single day. So there’s three ways that you can wear this.

I have a faux knot on right here. This knot can be removed. And there’s a twist underneath it. So you can go with a knot if you like the Rosie the Riveter type look. Or you can take it off. There’s a little twist underneath.

You can completely turn this headband around. and it’ll really keep that hair back off of your face. So all the ladies are nodding at me and the guys are like glazed eyes. It’s fine, it’s fine. The ladies get it. So here is the back.

You see it’s super wide and can be worn tons of different ways. So the ladies that have longer hair throw you a messy bun on top and you look cute and put together. Here’s the thing. I added these to my product line. I just started this business last September. By the way, I launched my business in September.

I had a surgery October 1st. I had another surgery November 16th. So it’s been a little slow. Remember those humble beginnings that they were talking about? about earlier? We’re right there.

But I’m okay with it. The bands are added to the website. When you buy a band, it still helps fund a cancer beanie to someone in an area cancer clinic. There’s lots of ways that you guys can help me. And I know this crowd really wants to help me grow this business. First thing is, I’m on all the socials.

Comfort Beanie is the business name. I’m on TikTok. I’m on Facebook. I’m on Instagram. I’m on YouTube. I’m on all the things.

Also, please, please, please get out your phone right now and Google Comfort Beanie Tulsa. We’re thinking Tulsa works. Let me know if it doesn’t. I just had to redo my map and the Google took away a third of the reviews I had. Oh, come on. I know.

So I need help getting more reviews. And I know you guys will do that. Also, like I said, I have a booth in the very back of the room. Come see me. You can purchase a beanie there. You can donate to give a beanie to a cancer clinic.

But in conclusion, I want to say something. I could have easily asked, why did God do this? Why did God allow me to get cancer? Or I can ask, what does God want me to do with this? That’s what I’m choosing to look at. What does God want me to do with this?

So I mentioned Comfort Beanie Socials. If you just use my name, Jamie Sullins, on the socials, I have a somewhat humorous view about chemotherapy that is getting quite a bit of uproar on social media because I started doing reels about what I loved about chemo. It’s a little counterintuitive, but I think that that is. why it’s getting all the uproar. Clay, thank you so much. Hey, real quick, before you go, we have, before we even clap, Erin had a follow -up question.

Erin was asking, Erin, Erin, I’ve worked with Erin for a long time, we’re going on almost 10 years now, we’re working together, and Erin looks at me and he says, hey, can I ask Jamie a question? I said, who am I to deny you? And then we’ll give Jamie a round of applause. So Erin, you ready for the question? This is a very serious question. I heard her say that when she went bald, She thought, maybe this could be a business.

And there were a lot of men in the room that were wondering that, right at that moment. So I thought I would ask Jamie, does that account for men as well? Can they create a business from their baldness? Guys, were any of you wondering that right at that moment? I challenge you. I challenge you.

Yeah. Come up with a business for male pattern baldness. Let’s hear it for Jamie Sullins. Yeah. OK. A couple quick housekeeping notes.

Thank you, Jamie. Great job. Great job. Thank you. A couple quick items here, and then we’re going to break for lunch. We’re going to come back at 1 o ‘clock.

So it’s going to be like a quick hit, OK? So we’re going to eat. We’ll come back at 1 .15. 1 .15 is the next time we’ll come back. And it’s going to be a series of sprints, OK? We’re going to end with a high point.

A lot of people will tell me. Their favorite stuff’s at the very end, so just you want to be a part of that. But we’ll come back at 1 .15, but just a couple of quick housekeeping notes. How many of you like giving gifts? You like giving gifts as your gift giver? Okay, so how I write books, who here has ever written a book?

Who writes books? Anybody write books? Okay, I’ve written 41 books. What’s so crazy to me is a very wealthy guy named Sean, I won’t mention his last name, so no permission to share the story here, but Sean, you know the Sean I’m talking about, very wealthy guy. He’s flying and he sends me a picture of his shirt and he said, you did this. and I and it looked like someone had spilt like cranberry juice on their shirt and I go what happened he’s like I bought your book Jackassery and I immediately couldn’t stop laughing and I was like laughing and I got it all over myself and I’m flying first class like an idiot and I just I And that’s fun.

We had another guy talk to their day. He said, you know, I’ve read all your books, all of them. And my wife and I were coming this weekend to the conference. I go, really? He’s like, yeah, I’ve read all of them. Like I’ve read.

And so the way I have books to me are like a message in a bottle, you know? And so the way that I sell books or the way that I do it is if you buy a book from me, they’re $25 or you can pay whatever you want, you know? So if you’re like, I would like to get five for 25. Fair, done, sold. Because to me, they’re more about making an impact than they are making a profit. So the cost per book, they’re like eight bucks to print or seven bucks.

If you’ve learned something and you’re like someone in your community and you’re like, man, I would like for them to learn what I learned or something, you can buy them for $25 or whatever you want. And then the way we always do it is you always buy one, get one free. So if you really want to screw me, you could go, I’ll take five for $25, then can I get $10 or whatever. But you can buy those for $25 or whatever price you want to pay. But they’re really more of a way to kind of pay it forward to help somebody else. So those books are available during lunch.

Also Jamie is available during lunch. Jamie’s available during lunch. We’ve got the books available during lunch. And then if you want to, when we come back, after lunch. Charlie Redd and the Full Flava Kings will be all set up. I think we were missing a snare drum.

That’s been fixed, so we’re back. And so the band will come back here, but again, 115. 115. The lunch is in the back. We have a little bit of rain coming in, so we’ve got lunch in the back. And please feel free to spread out.

You can eat upstairs, downstairs, maybe eat in the bathroom if you want to. That’s kind of weird, but wherever you want to go. And we’ll come back here at 115. We’re coming back here at 115. Make sure to say hi to Jamie. Yeah.

Books available in the bookstore. Go see Dallas. 25 bucks or whatever you want to pay. But 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 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 client 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 could, I have problems with my company starting at nine o ‘clock.

Yes. Hundreds of people showing up at 5 .00 AM in Tulsa, Oklahoma, man. He’s a leader of a leader. He’s fantastic. Yeah, 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 Antis 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. 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, 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 background 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 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.

curve. Within the first six months of opening my clinic, I had a $63 ,000 investment. 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. like such good insight, the resources they have for specific business questions. It’s all been really incredible. It’s been a great experience.

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

We opened in April of 2019 and it is now mid -June of 2020. So I wanted to talk today about the success and growth I have achieved by implementing the Proven Path with Clay Clark’s team and my business coach Luke from Thrive Time. It has been insane, to say the least. I started working with them in mid -February of this year, so we’re about four months in of working together, and it has completely transformed my business in pretty much every facet. So I’m 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. And hiring quality employees has become much simpler and less stressful by using their systems for hiring.

I typically only get maybe two complaints a month if that and everybody shows up to work I just have really high quality employees now, especially in something people typically consider a high turnover type of work You know cleaning houses cleaning businesses I have amazing employees now and I get rid of the ones who are not so amazing and bring on new ones because of You know group interviews and higher interviewing every single week it’s just been great and such a lot 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’d pay him a million dollars a month if I can, and maybe someday I’ll be able to, but I would just say go for it. If it seems like a good fit, just go for it. Do what they say, even if you think it’s stupid or ridiculous, just do what they say because it’ll work. You know, people, when they look at my business, you know, people in my town, they think I’m lucky. They think I’m just, you know, things just happen for me. And you know, maybe I am lucky, but it has a lot to do with hard work and, you know, perseverance and, you know, working till you cry sometimes.

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

So it just, it’s the best thing ever. And I would suggest that you do it. 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 I used my code. You can learn the proven 13 -point business systems that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. I mean, we get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital?

How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two -day, 15 -hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because, as an entrepreneur, 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, 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 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 love it. We’ve built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see it.

Transcribed with Cockatoo