Are You Looking to Develop New Positive Success Habits? Best-Selling Author, Entrepreneur, Investor, Mother & Attorney Cecily Mak Shares About the Power of Becoming Undimmed: The Eight Awarenesses for Freedom from Unwanted

Audio Transcription

Transcribed with Cockatoo

Welcome home, business owners and entrepreneurs.

And what a beautiful home it is.

Yes, yes.

And why is this your home? Because you’re like us.

You don’t go to bed, and you still wake up at 5 a .

m.

and get your job done. You take responsibility, and what you don’t take is no for an answer. You work eight days a week. It’s all on your shoulders, and guess what?

You love it.

You love it!

Yes. And so in honor of you guys, This next portion of our performance is all for you. and they have a lot of time on their hands. They started from the bottom, now they’re here.

It’s The Thrive Time Show, starring the former U .

S. Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark, and the entrepreneur trapped inside an optometrist’s body, Dr. Robert Zunich. Two men, eight kids, co -created by two different women.

13 multi -million dollar businesses.

the hood. I break down the bugs, seeds, bring in some dumb and the good roots. As the father of Pat’s squad, so if you see my wife and kids, please, it’s the C and Z, up on your right. Folks on today’s show, we’re talking about Undimmed, the eight awarenesses for freedom from unwanted habits. What? Yes, you see, a lot of us, we drove to work today a certain way.

We drove to work and we say, why did I go? I don’t know why I went that way, but I do.

Some of us go to a certain church and we don’t know why.

Why do we go to that church? I don’t know. Some of us, we eat ice cream before bed. Yes, we do. Some of us, we say things that don’t make sense. Someone says to you, what’s up?

And your response is, what’s up?

Which doesn’t answer their question.

And so we have these habits. Sometimes we have habits. We’re going to work.

We’re going to church.

We’re going home.

We’re going to work.

We’re going to church. We’re going home. But we have to stop and say, time out. If I keep doing what I’m doing, is that going to get me where I want to go? And maybe you’re on a default pattern headed for super success. Maybe you’re headed where you want to go.

Maybe, however, you’re habitually going the wrong way. And so if you’re watching today’s show, I encourage you to get out a piece of paper, a pad, a journal, and write down your goals for your faith and your family and your finances. Fitness, friendship, I mean, faith, family, finance, fitness, friendship. Write down your goals and say, am I headed in the right direction? And if you’re not, well, perhaps you should take notes because today’s guest knows what she’s talking about.

With that being said, Cecily Mack, welcome to The Thrive Time Show. How are you?

I am fantastic today. Thank you so much for having me. Hey, I’ve never met a Cecily or a Cecily Mack.

Where did you come from? Tell us you were born and then how did you become best -selling author person? Yeah, sure thing. I was born and raised in Northern California. I had a fairly traditional career for a number of years after growing up here and traveling a lot around the world and doing all kinds of interesting things.

I went into law school in 1998, spent three years at a law firm, 25 years helping startups build and grow their companies, and then had a series of very significant life shifts that put me onto a new trajectory of both writing a book and co -founding a venture fund.

And here I am today back in NorCal making those offerings available. Was there a particular moment that prompted you or provoked you or encouraged you to start this particular book, Undimmed? I did not plan to write a book. I did not plan to become an author. I did not plan to make my personal story, journey, and practices public knowledge. But sometimes we have things happen in life that are so impactful and so transformative that the only way we can metabolize them and make sense of them is start writing.

As I did that, I also founded a channel on Instagram, developed a fairly significant audience, and realized that this book was going to birth itself no matter what. And so I followed the breadcrumbs. And when I pitched it to publishers, there was great interest.

And it wasn’t until I had five offers in one week in April of 2024, all from major publishers that wanted to publish this book, that I realized, oh, wow, I guess there’s a there there, and this thing is going to be in the world. And here we are. So you sat down to write this book. It’s heavily researched.

I know you spent a lot of time on it.

What is the intention or the purpose behind the book? If someone picks up a copy of the book here, Undimmed, what was the intention or what should readers expect to learn? Yeah, so it’s really for people an invitation to look at the way that we passively or unconsciously or consume certain things that keep us disconnected from our own clarity, our own purpose and our truest selves. It actually came to be because eight years ago, I took a 30 day break from drinking and everybody’s response as I took that break and continued and on and on and here we are eight and a half years later was, oh, I didn’t realize you had a problem. I didn’t self -identify as having an alcohol problem.

I don’t think I was an alcoholic. I don’t think I was an addict. But I did discover that my life was much better without alcohol.

And in that process of shifting my life to be wonderful without alcohol, I realized there’s very little available in the world for people who just want to stop doing something because they choose to and their life is better without it, as opposed to need to quit, need rehab, need to go into recovery. So I actually took the 12 steps of the very successful for many people, very well regarded Alcoholics Anonymous and edited them to be the eight awarenesses, which are more for the reader, an invitation to look at the power of our own choice, our own agency, realize how much freedom we have if we’re not addicted to something to change our relationships with things that might be holding us back. Your title’s called Undimmed.

What does it mean to be undimmed? That if it looks like I’m taking notes, it’s because I’m taking notes. Yeah, sure thing. So it was interesting. I had to do a little bit of excavation into my own records and history to figure out where I first started using that word. And it was when I realized that was one of the best ways that I could describe the sensation of actually feeling super clear after taking this thing that was standing between me and my own clarity and intention and intuition out of my life.

And it continues to be that way. Another word that I use for this work is clear life, which is what I use to describe the experience of removing a dimmer. It’s not so It’s not in recovery. I don’t need all the baggage around those terms, but it does feel lit. It does feel clear.

It does feel brighter. It feels more energized. And I also want to point out, it’s not just for alcohol. Dimmers, which are what we use to soften or self -soothe experiences or pain or difficulty, can be social media.

They could be food, they could be unhealthy use of exercise, sex, work, anything that we reach for to just kind of get a little bit of relief or a break.

And when we remove those things that had been dulling us, we feel undimmed, we feel lit up, we feel bright again. When you said that somebody could work out or exercise as a way to cope, That seems like an extreme example that’s not possible, but you’re telling me there are people that work out too much? Yes, absolutely. And I live in a very health conscious community in Northern California. And yes, we all want to exercise at the right amount. Most of us want to exercise more.

But there are most certainly people who are too involved in an activity to the extent that it’s taking them away from actually being present, conscious, real, engaged, wherever they need to be in their day to day life. I actually worked in getting to know somebody in my research who ended up through depression and difficulty in his marriage, he was working out to the extreme daily, seven days a week, because it was the only way he could have bouts moments of relief from his psychological and kind of mental suffering. He ended up, you know, he looked great, I’ll give him that, but his adrenals were completely drained. He was having a really hard time maintaining kind of clarity of mind day to day, because he was so physically taxed. And he ended up falling into

a borderline chronic fatigue situation just because he was using exercise practically like a drug to an extreme. And the same thing can go for work, the same thing can go for other things that might be healthy to a point, but we can use them in unhealthy ways.

I’m going to pull up your book on the screen so people can check out the book, kind of get the book in their brain here.

You have a feather on the cover. What’s the feather in reference to for people that are not maybe understanding the connection there? Yeah, so first of all, it conveys lightness, it conveys flight, it conveys beauty, it conveys some reference to our natural way of being. In a beautiful twist of fate, when the publisher proposed this book cover as a design, it deeply, deeply touched me because I had previously written about my mother as the canary in my coal mine. My mother died of an alcohol -related cancer 15 years ago.

And I have always seen her path and the choices she made as a little bit of a warning sign for me to not follow too closely in her footsteps.

So the fact that they chose a yellow feather for the cover of this book felt like a real kind of magical and unexplainable reference to her and the profound role that she’s played in both my own kind of evolution, but also the work I’ve been able to do with so many people in this area. Wow. And I’ll add one little footnote on that. You know, you asked about why or why make this book available, why would it help a reader? I really think that one of the reasons why my mother never actually got out of her habits or got the help that she needed was because our current systems require that you self -identify as an addict first, and she never saw herself that way, so she never really got help.

And this book is designed to be more of an invitation for us to have a private self -inquiry and exploration as opposed to a diagnosis or a designation. or a label that might stick with you for the rest of your life. Now, your book, again, this is, you’re thoughtful, you’re intentional, you’ve put energy into this. It’s written for people that, you know, they don’t want to register themselves as like, I’m a workoutaholic. You know, I work out too much. That’s a problem with me. I work out all the time.

You know, people don’t want to identify as I’m a sleepaholic. That’s all I do is sleep. You know, they’re just saying, hey, I want to optimize my life.

Without giving away the whole book, maybe walk us through a couple of these awarenesses. And maybe what people could expect to find if they were to pick up a copy of your new book, Undimmed. Sure thing. So they’re really each one is a bit of a simple statement or mantra that we can just kind of reflect on and work on for as long as we need or want to. The first one is fairly straightforward. My life is better clear.

I’m actually choosing to see what it’s like to live clear of this kind of dimming habit or tendency or thing that I consume or do. The second one is one of my favorites and it’s one that many different people can use in different ways. I choose what I consume. Now that’s something that is a source of freedom and agency that individuals who are still in a pre addiction or pre super troubled place can explore and realize whether it’s something that they’re lifting to eat or a drink that they’re going to consume or a habit that they’re going to engage in. There are many, many moments when we can make micro decisions about whether or not we actually want to consume that thing. It also applies to maybe less obvious items such as media.

or social media, or people. We might have people in our lives who are super draining. We notice when we’re around them, we just feel zapped, tired, we need a little bit of recovery after the fact. We also have people in our lives who really enliven and energize us. We get to choose what we consume in who do we choose to spend time with?

What events do we decide to go to? How do we spend our evening? Is it drowning in, you know, back -to -back Netflix or is it maybe doing something creative or something a little bit more healthier or engaging? So the choice one I choose that I consume is a really big of the awarenesses. Another one that I love talking to is intuition. It’s the third one.

One thing that people report when they finally kind of get into and explore this work is that They regain access to their intuition. Sometimes our intuition is trying to tell us something. Hey, this might not be a great job fit. This relationship might have some serious problems. It’s time to move. I have this health issue that I should go have checked out, but I’m nervous about.

Whatever our intuition is kind of whispering to us, it’s very easy and common for people to reach for something to kind of turn the volume down on that inner voice. And when we remove that dimmer, we can hear that inner guidance again.

So the third awareness is really about reverence for listening to and attuning to intuition. And they go on from there. When you were writing this book, what kind of research did you do in preparation for this book? I mean, I know you’ve thoughtfully crafted every word. Someone with your background isn’t just going to put out a book. You’ve thought about it.

You’ve gone through the process. What was kind of your research process like for refining the concepts in this book? Yeah, so a lot of it, a lot of it started with just life experience growing up with complicated relationships with alcohol and other things around me and then just entering life as an adult trying to understand how our culture and I worked and speaking with people who have fluency within these areas, including codependency. I also studied religious studies in undergrad, the world’s religions, and I was very influenced by Buddhism in particular, in determining the eight awarenesses and seeing this as kind of an inside out job. I also spoke with hundreds of people who are in some way, shape or form exploring their relationship with something that they might want to shift with many of them alcohol, but some of them drugs or food. I have my own podcast that I’ve interviewed people for and published.

It’s called Undimmed. So I learned a lot from the guests of that podcast. I read probably 40 or 50 books in three years specifically on these areas. I also work with some leaders in the field and understanding their perspectives and their sources of influence on it.

And I host a monthly gathering for folks who are kind of living this and practicing it and I learn a lot from them.

Beyond that, learning is coming in all kinds of different ways, but it’s really been a blend of being with people and really doing my best to grok where they are, coupled with paper research, coupled with my own life experience.

Did you say to grok with people where they are? Yeah. What do you mean by that? Really understand.

I love the word grok.

Do you grok my message? Do you really, deeply, truly get my message? Now you also said something about, you were talking about codependency, and these are phrases that you hear people say, but what does that mean to you, codependency? You know, codependency for many people is a consequence or a side effect of having relationship with addicts or people who have a complex or complicated relationship with something that affects the greater net of their lives.

Codependency is when somebody gets kind of tangled in with somebody else’s ego or their story and ends up in some way enabling and or being enabled by them. And often when we shift a relationship with somebody who has an addiction problem, or ourselves, we shift a relationship with something we’re addicted to, we notice that there’s these tentacles that can kind of exist. and need further facing, confronting, understanding, and untangling so that we’re not in this kind of enablement, enabling role, even if the thing that may have been the subject of an addiction still is removed from the picture.

Let’s go back to your career for a minute.

What did you do on a daily basis with your career, let’s say 10 years ago? What was your daily basis? What was your daily schedule like at that point? Insane. So it’s 2026 now, 2016. I was the chief revenue officer of Flipboard, which is a media app based out of Silicon Valley.

I had a team of 50 salespeople reporting to me and I was traveling regularly around the world, most commonly and frequently to New York from San Francisco. Also raising two kids. My kids at the time were five and eight, so I was one of those overextended mothers juggling the myriad of demands of career and motherhood. Much of my career from 2000 until when I resigned from my last chief operating officer role in 2022 was really that juggle of working closely with a CEO and a board and an executive team and building a company. while also taking care of all the beings and bodies on board, sometimes several thousands people, sometimes smaller companies of a couple hundred, and really helping to build against what the vision and the purpose of the company was. These were all venture -backed companies.

So also doing a fair amount of investor relations, team building, mergers and acquisitions work, and so on.

I now do that work as an investor with our venture fund, Wisdom Ventures.

We back startups in the tech -enabled well -being space with check sizes of $1 to $5 million. So I’ve kind of made my way from the operator inside the company side of the table to the investor side, where we partner with founders and peer investors in supporting startups online. growth trajectory. Now, I want to get your thoughts on this. This is interesting. I’m a thinker, so the problem with that is if I hear a song on the radio, I think to myself, what do these lyrics mean?

If there’s a song on Spotify, like if you and I are friends outside of this podcast and you said, Clay, check out this song. I can’t check it out from like one level. So it’s going to be you’ll send it to me. Let’s say it’s a Charlie Puth song that’s very vibrant. Charlie Puth talks about sometimes his darkest or toughest messages to convey come across in the form of pop music that sounds upbeat. But if you listen to the lyrics and you were to read them, it might be a very dark or tough idea.

So I’m a person who tends to like, whoa, whoa, whoa, time out. What does that word mean? What is that? And so for me, I find that That process of being undimmed 24 -7 is exhausting because of the way I process words.

So sometimes I like to go and watch really, really stupid movies.

Now, I don’t watch them every night. Maybe I have a problem. I don’t know. But I like to say, you know what? Let’s watch a really stupid movie right now because I think being wide awake and alert to all things could be mentally draining at a certain point.

What’s the balance for somebody who says, OK, OK. I don’t wanna, I’m not gonna dim myself by working out perpetually or I’m not gonna dim myself with drugs or alcohol or whatever.

And now they’re painfully awake. What does your book have to say about that? Or what do you have to say about that? Yeah, no, I really am a believer in conscious and thoughtfully periodic or occasional dimming. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. I think we all have long days.

We all need to come home sometimes and just turn on the stupid movie. I actually talk to people about good health

non -problematic use of alcohol.

I’m not anti -alcohol. I met a number of people at my book events who were talking about some of their best memories they have over a bottle of wine with the best friend in a foreign town or whatever it is. That’s great. The invitation of this book and the invitation of this work that is applicable to so many of us is to not get too deep into those grooves of those habits where we’re starting to unconsciously go for them in a way that is taking away from our overall quality of life. Or as you said at the top of the podcast, leading to passivity in the way we live, work, love, lead, thrive, whatever it is. Who wants to go to a cafe, buy a cup of coffee, bring it back to the office, and 30 minutes later notice it’s gone and you haven’t even tasted it?

Or get to work and you’ve listened to a 60 -minute podcast on the radio and you don’t even know what was said. Or you watched a movie and you’re so distracted with what’s going on in the rest of your life that your mind is somewhere else than what you’re doing. Or God forbid, much, much worse, spending quality time with someone who we love and we’re not there because we’re half checked out trying to self -soothe in some other way. So the invitation of the book is not, Don’t ever do these things. These things are bad. Quite the contrary.

The invitation is to be intentional and deliberate and conscious as much as we can so that when we do come home and check out and watch a dumb movie, it’s like, this is what I do to relax on Tuesday nights sometimes, and I feel great about it. But as you said, I’m not going to do it all seven days of the week. And I’m aware that it’s a way for me to turn off my hyperactive brain so it can be fully flexy and functional the next day. Now, okay, follow -up question for you. I’m around a lot of very successful people because of this podcast and other things, so pro athletes, occasionally I’ll run into some billionaires. multimillionaires and bestselling authors and just whatever the title is.

And I find that a lot of these people, the ones that are sustainably the happiest, have found a way to deal with horrible things that happen. Like they found a way to sustainably cope with terrible. It’s almost like they have discovered that a failure is a prerequisite to success or, you know, betrayal is just going to happen or theft in their company is just going to happen. Or they’re, you know, I’ll give an example. One of our clients I’ve worked with for years, his home got robbed out there and he lives in the Beverly Hills area. And the way he approached it was just awesome.

I said, how are you? He said, oh, I got robbed over the weekend. I go, you did? He’s like, oh, no, seriously, I did. But yeah, he said it in a way where you’d think, wow, this guy didn’t even process the fact he got robbed. But it didn’t rob him of his time or of his joy.

And he didn’t spend months coping with it. He’s like, yeah, I probably could have locked my door. But he moved on.

And I find some of these people that can’t move on.

They then they can’t move on and they move to a coping mechanism.

I don’t know. Do you see that pattern with like ultra successful people that can they found a way to deal with it in a sustainable way? Absolutely. And it does two things. Not only does it help you get over the thing relatively quickly and keep walking through your life as the way you described your friend does, but it also keeps you out of a fear orientation of what’s going to happen next. If we can anticipate the worst, some of the best CEOs I’ve worked with over the years, they’ve already thought about the worst possible thing that could happen, and they’ve accepted it as a possibility so that they can keep pushing ahead.

They can keep being innovative. It also applies in very intimate and personal settings. I had an experience just this past month where my husband’s father passed away. And he’s one of five kids. And the way that the family kind of came together and created space for everybody who’s way of processing this, and some people wanted to sing, some people wanted to go to the beach, some people wanted to sit in the room quietly and just be in a grief stage, whatever it was, it allowed for everyone to kind of do what they needed to do without judgment in a way that was bespoken applicable to them.

And it painfully reminded me of 15 years ago when my coping mechanism was a glass of wine. I didn’t really have access to what I do now, which might be a walk outside or a meditation or a writing project or connection with somebody really close to me. I sat down and had a few drinks the night that my mother died. And it removed my capacity, my ability to actually be with the experience. And so it came back later. And I think what you’re pointing out is the mark of a successful person. They have their tools.

They have their tricks that they can use to stay calm, to stay centered, to stay in the moment when things happen instead of being completely thrown off track, derailed, compromised, whatever it might be. And the sooner in life we can figure that out, the better. I have an 18 year old son. His thing is rock climbing and he went through a difficult thing recently and bless that kid. I mean, that was his go -to.

it wasn’t going and getting, you know, messed up with his buddies or whatever it was. And I love seeing that. I love seeing kids learn what those things are for them earlier on than maybe I did. And for everybody out there who wants to know, the two people who want to know, I like to write music. That’s what I tend to do. I write a lot of music.

So whenever things are rough, that’s when the most upbeat songs come out, you know, so that everyone’s got their own thing. Now, I really do believe in your heart behind this, this book, and this isn’t a passive aggressive wind up for a political rant. I’m just throwing it out there. If you loved Biden or you love Trump or whatever it is, I know people that lose their entire happiness for their own life based upon the talking points of someone that they have no influence over. I know people who are conservatives who lost their minds every time that President Biden made a statement.

I know people on the left right now who are losing their mind every time that President Trump says something.

And I’m going, you are losing your real family and your real relationships because of things that you really can’t control. What do you say to somebody in this hyper politically divisive world that just loses their mind every night because they choose to stay up to date? with the latest political statements of Governor Gavin Newsom or President Trump, or whoever their political figures are they follow, what do you say to someone who just struggles to find happiness because of that? I mean, the most obvious for me, which is something I’ve had to do at times, and I know many people also have had to do similar, is just get really conscious about what we are consuming. And at what time of day? What is the purpose of staying so current and being on this persistent drip of provocative media and news.

Can we just find a way to maybe get the right amount of information we need in a day to feel informed and feel connected to what’s happening in the world around us, but not in this, you know, four or five, six, eight, 12 hour steady drip of information. And these media companies are designed to agitate us. They are producing and releasing content to spark emotion because it’s an emotional state that keeps us coming back and wanting more and more. It’s the high low. And the more that we can ourselves stay balanced and calm and get our information from sane, fact -based sources, not sensationalist, extravagant, exaggerating sources, the better off we’re going to be.

And then the better off we’re going to be in our own relationships, in our own families, in our own communities. So it’s really, I think, on many of us to just be very, very deliberate about what we let in. Now I’ve got my final question for you, coming in hot, coming in hot. For anybody out there, they’re thinking about going to the convenience store, and they’re like, man, gas is $6 a gallon. It’s $5 a gallon.

And the cashier will say, no. Sir, would you like anything else with that? And they go, yeah, I think I do need an extra $20 of unhealthy food. Somebody tonight, they’re thinking about spending $20 on downloading iTunes songs they’re going to listen to once. There’s somebody out there thinking about rebuying the same movie they already own on Netflix, because they owned it on Amazon, but now they want to own it on Netflix, too. There’s somebody out there who’s just thinking about wasting or spending $20 in a way that’s not going to impact their life.

Or they’re thinking about spending $18 .99 to buy a paperback copy of your book.

What do you say to someone who’s on the fence, they’re thinking about buying a regrettable burrito that they don’t need, or they’re thinking about buying a copy of your book, Undimmed. What do you say there, ma ‘am? And you have the final word. Yeah, thank you so much. Some people are called to read this book. Some people want to understand this more.

And if you’re one of those people and you have that little voice inside of you that this might be a fit or support for something you’re trying to evolve or have emerge in your own life, please do. And if you don’t, don’t buy it. This is not for everybody. And I’m not going to go into hard sell on it. But I will say, I hear almost every day now from somebody around the world, who picked this up and felt like they were given permission to look at something in their lives in a new way that was transformative. That is why I put this book into the world.

I wanted to offer something that I wish was available for me when I needed it. And if you do read it and you are touched by it, please send me a note, let me know. I’m very easy to find online. That means much more to me than the book sales, truth be told. Thank you for asking. My website has links to everything.

It’s CecilyMack . com, C -E -C -I -L -Y -M -A -K . com. I publish a sub stack every other week, which is personal, thoughtful, well -researched, goes to thousands of people. I have an Instagram at clearlifejourney, which is much more about this undimmed work and all of that. There you go.

That’s the website. So yeah.

You can also follow my events. I always have some things coming up on the horizon, whether it’s digital or in person. And I love connecting with people who connect with this work.

Folks, that website is CecilyMac .

com. I’ll put a link to it on the show notes. If you want to go to the wrong website, go to any other domain other than CecilyMac . com. That web address is C -E -C -I -L -Y, because it’s a great website. M -A -K .

com. C -E -C -I -L -Y.

Again, if you want to go to any other website domain at all, folks, that would be the wrong one. So if you want to go to the wrong one, go to any other domain. But if you want to go to the right one, that’s C -E -C -I -L -Y -M -A -K .

com.

Cecily, thank you so much for your time, your energy, your thoughtfulness.

I really do appreciate you.

Thank you.

It was wonderful to meet you.

And be well.

To quote Ric Flair.

Woo! Woo! All right.

You good?

OK, we’re off.

OK, you good?

You good?

I’m great.

Thank you so much. Awesome. Thank you for carving out time for me. Hey, appreciate it.

Appreciate you.

Have a great day.

Bye bye.

You too. 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 learned from you. So congratulations. Sean, guess what’s happening? April 9th and 10th, 2026.

Uh, we are probably going to have an amazing show. business conference here at Tulsa, Russia. Yes, we’re joined by Tim Tebow. Tim Tebow is going to be joining us right here at the Thrive Time Show World Headquarters, June 5th and 6th. He’s a very successful football player, obviously a Heisman Award winner, but he’s also a very successful entrepreneur. Now, when you work with real clients, Sean, real clients you really work with to help them grow their companies, do you ever hear a business owner tell you that they didn’t have time to get something done?

Every day. How often is not having enough time a problem for business owners? All the time. It’s almost, it’s like maybe 90 % of the issues as people are trying to grow their company. Well, Tim Tebow is going to come join us here at the in -person Thrive Time Show 2 -Day Interactive Business Workshop. And he’s going to teach us time management and his approach to personal self -discipline and getting things done.

Also at the workshop, I’ll put up on the website so people can see it here. Also at the 2 -Day Interactive Workshop, Sean, we are going to be teaching accounting, systems creation, marketing, human resources, how to hire, inspire, train, and retain great people, accounting, social media advertising, Search engine optimization. Sean, what’s the area where most clients ask you for help the most? Is it generating leads? Is it hiring people? What’s the biggest issue that most business owners have by default before they come to one of our workshops?

Well, I think it’s management, because time is the most valuable resource for these business owners. And being able to manage their time is the first thing. Once they get that under control, then generally the numbers You know, being able to track their business and be able to make the best decisions based on numbers rather than emotions is a big area. And we teach all of this stuff at the business conference, particularly you, Clay. You love to hammer on time management. It’s my favorite part of the conference.

Now, I’m going to pull this up real quick here because we’re going to go through it.

If you’re not excited, I want to get you excited.

about what we’re going to cover at the workshop here. OK.

OK.

All right. The two -day interactive workshop. This is my 20th year hosting workshops. So I’m telling you folks, we’re in rare form here. So one is the idea of establishing your revenue goals. I think most entrepreneurs don’t know their revenue goals.

Would you agree or am I off my rocker? No, that’s totally a very important point we do with every one of our new clients that come on board is we have to establish the revenue goals. And generally speaking, we have a vague idea, but not an exact idea that can be engineered down into like the daily goals for sales. And so that’s a really big one. break even numbers. What kind of sales do you have to do to even break even?

Third is how many hours per week do you want to work? What is your ideal schedule as an entrepreneur? Box number four, how do you stand out in the clutter of commerce? What makes your company unique from all the different businesses? In a world of brown cows, herds of brown cows, proverbial brown cows, the analogy of brown cows, how can you be the purple cow that stands out? How can you be the squeaky wheel that gets the oil?

Box number five, branding. How do you improve the perception that people have of you, your business, your brand. Box number six. Marketing, your three -legged marketing stool. What is a turnkey way for you and your company to generate leads so you can succeed? Because if you don’t have any leads, your business will bleed.

If you can’t sell, your business will go to hell. You’ve got to generate leads. Sean, how often do business owners by default tell you they have a hard time generating leads? It’s almost all of the time. It’s really a huge struggle. And many times, they may be creating leads, but just through word of mouth.

So they get to a point where we’ve implemented systems, and then they need to create more. more leads, but they’ve never had to do it. So there’s a lot of different scenarios where business owners are like, how do you create leads? Something we hammer on at the conference a lot. Box number seven, create a sales conversion system. Again, box number seven, create a sales conversion system.

Sales scripts, recorded calls, one sheets, pre -written emails, lead trackers, all of the sales tools, the sales print pieces, the one sheets, the big screens that you see inside the business, whether you’re a doctor, you’re a dentist, you’re a lawyer, you got to have sales systems in place. We help you with that. Box number eight, What does it cost you to get another customer? Step number eight, what does it cost you to actually acquire a customer? Step number nine, it’s hard to build organization if you’re not organized. We’re going to teach you how to create repeatable systems, processes, file organization.

Box number 10, we’re going to teach you how to manage people, real people, on the planet Earth. This just in, we’re going to teach you how to manage real people on the planet Earth. Box number 11, how to create a sustainable schedule that works for you and your family. Step number 12, how to create human resources systems for recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining great people. Box number 13, accounting. This just in, we have to cover accounting.

It’s not how much you make, it’s how much you keep. We’re going to cover all the accounting things you need to know. And step 14, finally, we’re going What is the point of even achieving success? We’re going to go over what is the point of even achieving success, how to design a life that you’re excited about, how to design a life where you carve out enough time for your faith, your family, your finance, your fitness, your friendship, your fun, and where you’re going to spend your focused time. We’re going to go through that, all this and more. Now, the workshop, Sean, it’s April 9th and 10th.

It’s a two -day interactive workshop.

And the tickets, we always do it.

It’s $250 or whatever price that someone can afford. Sean, why do we let people name their price? Why do we have scholarship tickets available? if somebody can’t afford the $250 general admission tickets? Well, we don’t want anybody to miss out on it. You know, you could be at a startup phase, or you could be, you know, way along in your business.

But we want to make it accessible for everybody. I think it actually goes back, too, to a story of your dad. And, like, it goes all the way back to how you’ve always done this as a business coach, trying to make sure that, you know, you’re just your average people out there have access to the things that work. Now, 7 a . m.

to 5, Sean, why don’t we go from 7 to 5 both days? I mean, it’s 10 hours a day, 20 hours of training over two days. Why do we do 10 hours a day, Sean, of back -to -back workshops?

We do a 30 -minute teaching session.

We do a 15 -minute question -and -answer session. And then we take a break. 30 minutes of teaching, 15 minutes of question -and -answer.

Then we take a break.

Why do we do that format, Sean? That format is so that we can keep people engaged and not just sitting there listening, but also getting involved.

We really encourage people to ask questions. and that’s really where the juiciness of the conference comes out, is you can put your personal situation and your questions on the board, and Clay will tee off and give you direct advice. Even without being in our coaching program, you can get direct coaching from Clay. It’s really a very engaging format. I enjoy it a lot.

Once again, folks, this event is April 9th and 10th, 2026.

Get those tickets at thrivetimeshow .

com.

Once again, that’s thrivetimeshow . com. Who’s our keynote speaker coming to the conference here, Sean? Tim Tebow. is our keynote speaker. Sean, question number three, how much does it cost to come to our in -person two -day interactive business workshop right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma?

I think it’s, did you say it’s $250 or whatever you can afford?

That’s right, $250 or whatever you can afford.

Sean, how do you spell Eric Trump backwards?

P -M -U -R -T -C -T -R -U -M.

I -R -E. Ooh, that took a long time. I’ll have to listen to this. All right, again, that’s Sean Lohman. I’m Clay Clark, inviting you to come join us at the in -person Thrive Time Show two -day interactive workshop. This event is April 9th and 10th, 2026.

Get those tickets at thrivetimeshow .

com. Once again, that’s thrivetimeshow . com. Right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tim Tebow, baby. It’s Tebow time in Tulsa, Russia. Luke Erickson here with the Thrive Time Show.

As you can see behind me, we’ve got all kinds of energy going on.

People are starting to show up for the conference, and it is hot in this place. We’ve got grill guns over here. We’ve got people playing the drums. We’ve got a fire. And, man, people are excited as they come in. My name is Kevin Thomas and the name of our company is MultiClean.

We are a commercial janitorial service and we serve the entire state of Oklahoma and Kansas and soon to be Arkansas.

We have probably grown probably five times. We’ve added, we’ve I think when we first started with you, we had 60 to 65 employees and now we have a little over 300 employees. Before we got involved with Thrive Time, we didn’t really have any systems or processes in place. I’ve probably been to, in six, seven years, I’ve probably been to 12 to 13 business conferences and Amazingly, each time I go, I learn something new, and I’m so excited to bring it back and show the team. 4 ,000 % from February to February.

Now, I can better that. Okay, Clay, I don’t think you know this. I don’t think you know this. I’m pinching myself, and if I cry, forgive me. In the last two and a half days, we have bettered our entire month of February. in the last two and a half days.

I heard about it on the podcast, started listening to the podcast, became a fan and then figured out about the workshop. I own an insurance and financial services agency, and I was hoping to learn from the workshop systems and processes. I’m big on systems and processes and always learning better ways to run a business more efficiently. The atmosphere is second to none. none. It’s a high energy, really cool atmosphere to be around.

Contagious, I would say.

Just something every entrepreneur, I think, would appreciate and love. I’d say humorous, high energy, and full of substance, which I think is the key. A lot of business coaches or seminars maybe are high on motivation and making you feel good, but don’t have a lot of substance that you could take back and implement, you know, the following Monday, where his does. Man, there’s a lot of valuable things. I’m gonna say like, I came to, this is my second workshop.

The first workshop I took back really the importance of a group interview. I used to spend hours and hours interviewing people, screening resumes, and that saving my time on that part is valuable. It was that and then the sales scripting that have been two major things just so far.

Man, I think they’re missing out on, you know, expert advice from somebody who’s been there, done that, built companies, has learned a lot of lessons. You know, that’s what I’m always looking for is somebody that I can learn from that’s ahead of where I am. And I think if you choose not to come, you’re missing out on a lot of good advice that could help your business. Hi, this is Charles and Amber Kolaw. We’re the owners of Kolaw Fitness. We heard about Clay Clark through Paul Hood, our CPA.

We’ve worked with Clay Clark for the last two years.

Clay Clark has helped us take our three locations in three different states and create checklists, workflows, task lists, time blocks for every employee. He’s helped us with creating systems and audits for every department, quantitative scorecards for each department and every position so that everybody has a number. It’s been able to give us a lot of time freedom and financial freedom and peace. of mind to know that everything’s running efficiently, and he’s been helpful with a lot of marketing, search engine optimization, helping us really rank high in Google, and pretty much every area of the business. He’s been very, very helpful. We would describe the experience of working with Clay as very energetic.

He’s full of energy.

He’s very encouraging, very motivating, but also accountable.

So he keeps us accountable, and we love that accountability.

It keeps…

drive in the right direction. So we’re not chasing things that aren’t worth spending our time on. He’s a great coach. He helps push us on certain areas, helps coaches in certain areas. You know, we’re all emotional creatures. And we go up and down.

And he actually will tell us kind of where we’re at, how we can get from there. And even like emotionally, like if we’re stressed about something, he’ll have a story to relate to. and really helps us in every area of our business. It’s been very, very helpful. I think Clay’s ability to have a whole team behind him that helped him with all of his clients, all his coaching clients, is that it allows Clay to do what he’s really good at, and that’s working one -on -one with the client and coaching them. And then he can have his amazing staff come in and help you accomplish all these goals that you’re setting.

And of course, he has all these resources, whether it’s videographers or whether it’s web developers. that they can quickly jump on your project, knock things out. He can quickly give you the right coaching. He’s just got a whole team of people that whatever area you’re lacking in, in your own company, he’s got resources from like video, web design, search engine guys who are just knowledgeable in that. Even though he knows a lot of that stuff, he’s got these capable lieutenants that are ready to just take off and help you get that stuff done. More stuff gets done on a weekly basis than you would on like probably most individual or some other company.

We’ve worked with several companies before and it just not as many things get done on a weekly basis. It’s been very helpful. Well, the conferences for me, I’m a slow learner, so I have to learn like over and over again, hear things over and over again. I’ve been to like, I think, eight different conferences, and each time you come, I learn a few new components.

Some things are repetitive, but a lot of the stuff

just resettles and I get a little bit more depth into each component. So, I mean, I’ve been to eight of them. They’re all super entertaining. He’s very funny, very encouraging. You get to kind of self -reflect a lot and a lot of the stuff is really polarizing. You do a personal inventory of yourself and you’ll think like, hey, I’ve really gotta work on this, really gotta work on that.

So every time you come, I still get a lot of value out of it. is the same, it’s totally different. So, I think we’ll hear stories we haven’t heard before. He’ll have entertainment or he’ll have speakers he didn’t have before. And you, like you said, you just always catch a different part of the material that maybe you didn’t catch before. It’s worded differently.

And it’s really cool because some people that you’ve seen like a year ago at a conference, now they’re, you know, being showcased as a success story and you get to see their website, you get to see how they’re their stats and all their metrics have improved and the revenue improved. So it’s really cool to see people that just a year ago, that of course we’ve been here two years, that just came, that I met, is now being successful. It’s really encouraging to see other people, you know, accomplish that stuff. So McClay has helped us optimize our website and helped with really topping the right search engines that we need to make sure that we are very, very competitive with all of our other competitors. He’s done a lot of Basically, he outlines exactly what you need to be accomplishing and he creates tasks that we have to accomplish and his team has to accomplish. I would say over the last two years, we’ve re -totally ramped our website.

We’re topping Google in every one of our markets. I would say just doing really, really good. I feel very, very confident in all of our future locations and making sure that we’re in front of the ideal and likely buyer. It’s very encouraging.

It’s important to me that to know when I’m working with Clay, you know, I’ve been in business for a while and met with him even when

I already had three three businesses in three different states and to know that what I share with him is staying private he’s not sending that out to anybody else to know that I’m all when he’s working with me he’s only working with one other no other gyms that are a direct competition with me it’s very encouraging to have something you can trust and rely on that he isn’t going to like somehow tell your trade secrets or give information away. Just really awesome that he’s a trustworthy guy, really cares about you as a client. For us, it’s been a complete mind freedom, because Clay has helped us create a lot of different documents and one sheets for every department, put quantitative scorecards to each department. And so for us, it’s been very encouraging. It gives us peace. As an entrepreneur, it’s stressful.

You go to bed at night, and you’re worried, like, did we cover this? Did we cover that? So he helps extract everything out of your brain, everything from your business, put it into document creation, put it into checklists and workflows for every person in each department, and make sure that everything’s getting done every week, every month. and funnel that all into KPIs or Key Performance Indicators, as you can see, on a weekly basis to make sure you’re moving the needle in the right area of your company. So very encouraging and give you a complete mind, freedom, and peace to know that that stuff’s created so you’re easy to duplicate and scale your company. Right, and then we can spend time doing what we’re really good at.

I honestly believe everybody needs a coach. I think we’re all inherently lazy, selfish, and carnal. I truly believe that humans are humans. If we’re standing, we’d rather sit. If we’re sitting, we’d rather lay down. And if we’re laying down, we’d rather be asleep.

So to have somebody that challenges you, have real active candor, and be honest with you on every aspect of your company is really, really encouraging to me because I want to know, I want to work on what we’re weak at, I want to see any impact. that we’re not doing well in and see his perspective from a third party because you can look at your own business and just see the good. It’s good to have somebody who’s done this with hundreds of companies. You’ll really look at your company, reflect on your company, and see like little chinks in the armor to make sure you cover that up so your competition can’t get to you and that you’re successful overall in the big picture. Yes, I would recommend Clay Clark because he is a great great friend, great courager. To me, he’s been a wonderful friend.

He’s also, you can tell he cares. And he also, he’s just a 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, 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.

lender here in town. What a great job he had been doing for them. And he was driving a Lamborghini all of a sudden. So I was willing to listen. In my career, I’ve sold over 800 million dollars in real estate. So honestly, I thought I kind of knew everything about marketing and homes.

And then I met this 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’ve found working with Clay is that he comes from such a broad spectrum of working

with so many different types of businesses that he has a perspective that’s difficult for me to gain because I get so entrenched in what I do, I’m not paying attention to what other leading industry experts are doing. And Clay really brings that perspective for me. It is very valuable time every week when I get that hour with him. From my perspective, the reason that any business owner who’s thinking about hooking up with Thrive needs to definitely consider it is because the results that we’ve gotten in a very short period of time are honestly monumental. It has really exceeded my wildest expectation of what he might be able to do. I came in skeptical because I’m very pragmatic, and as I’ve gone through the process over just a few months, I’ve realized it’s probably one of the best moves we’ve ever made.

I think a lot of people probably feel like they don’t need a business or marketing consultant because they maybe are a little bit prideful and like to think they know everything. I know that’s how I felt coming in. I mean, we’re a big company that’s definitely one of the largest in town. And so we kind of felt like we knew what we were doing.

And I think for a lot of people, they let their ego get in the way of listening to somebody that might have a better or different perspective than theirs. I would just really encourage you if you’re thinking about working with clay. I mean, the thing is, it’s month to month. Go give it a try and see what happens. I think in the 35 -year history of Shaw Homes, this is probably the best thing that’s happened to us. And I know if you give them a shot, I think you’ll 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 a hundred and eighty a month. That would have been a huge financial decision to just decide not to give it a shot. I would absolutely recommend Clay Clark to anybody who’s thinking about working with somebody in marketing. I would skip over anybody else you were thinking about, and I would go straight to Clay and his team. I guarantee you’re not going to regret it, because we sure haven’t.

My name is Danielle Sprick, and I am the founder of D. Sprick Realty Group here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After being a stay -at -home mom for 12 years and my three kids started school and they were in school full -time, I was at a crossroads and trying to decide, what do I want to do? My degree and my background is in education, but after being a mom and staying home and all of that, I just didn’t have a passion for it like I once did. My husband suggested real estate. He’s a home builder, so real estate and home building go hand in hand, and we just rolled with it. I love people, I love working with people, I love the building relationships, but one thing that was really difficult for me was the business side of things.

The processes and the advertising and marketing, I knew that I did not have what I needed to make that what it should be.

So I reached out to Clay at that time and he and his team have been extremely instrumental in helping us build our brand, help market our business, our agents, the homes that we represent. Everything that we do is a direct line from Clay and his team and all that they’ve done for us. We launched our brokerage, our real estate brokerage, eight months ago. And in that time, we’ve gone from myself and one other agent to just this week, we signed on our 16th agent. We have been blessed with the fact that we right now have just over 10 million in pending transactions.

Three years ago, I never would have even imagined that I would be in this role that I’m in today, building a business, having 16 agents. But I have to give credit where credit’s due. And Clay and his team and the business coaching that they’ve offered us has been huge. It’s been instrumental in what we’re doing. Don’t ever limit your vision. When you dream big, big things happen.

I started a business because I couldn’t work for anyone else. I do things my way. I do what I think is in the best interest of the patient. I don’t answer to insurance companies. I don’t answer to large corporate organizations. I answer to my patient, and that’s it.

My thought when I opened my clinic was I can do this all myself. I don’t need additional outside help in many ways.

I mean, I went to medical school. I can figure this out.

But it was a very, very steep learning curve.

Within the first six months of opening my clinic, I had a $63 ,000 embezzlement. I lost multiple employees.

Clay helped us weather the storm of some of the things that are just a lot of people experience, especially in the medical world. He was instrumental in helping with the specific written business plan. He’s been instrumental in hiring 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. owner at 23. So I’ve been working this K &E’s company for about five years now and we started working expecting maybe $200 ,000 this year to we’re at $400 ,000 so we’re pretty excited about that. 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 the just the accountability of meeting up with them weekly and 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 interviewing every single week. It’s just been great and I don’t waste as much time on it.

low -quality candidates anymore. And your coach will hold you accountable, which I love. Again, the tough love is really great. Luke’s like a stern father figure, but he’s also nice, but also stern when he needs to be when I’m being lazy and not doing the things that I know I need to do because I don’t want to do them. So that’s just great. Worth every penny.

I mean, I’d pay him a million dollars a month if I can, and maybe someday I’ll be able to, but I would just say go for it. If it seems like a good fit, just go for it. Do what they say, even if you think it’s stupid or ridiculous, just do what they say because it’ll work. You know, people, when they look at my business, you know, people in my town, they think I’m lucky. They think I’m just, you know, things just happen for me. And, you know, maybe I am lucky, but it has a lot to do with hard work and, you know, perseverance and, you know, working 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 eat a cheeseburger instead of a hot dog. coach, you know what I mean? And so my coach pushes me, they’re younger than me, they push harder, they’re more, 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.

Transcribed with Cockatoo