Ashley Herd | Learn How to Manage People Effectively from World-Class Management Expert, Former North America HR Head At McKinsey, Keynote Speaker Featured In Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Business Insider, Etc.)

Audio Transcription

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Because you could be anywhere doing a lot of different things, but you chose to be here.

Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show, but this show does. In a world filled with endless opportunities, why would two men who have built 13 multi -million dollar businesses altruistically invest five hours per day to teach you the best practice business systems and moves that you can use? Because they believe in you. and they have a lot of time on their hands. They started from the bottom, now they’re here.

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

S.

Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark, and the entrepreneur trapped inside an optometrist’s bunny, Dr. Robert Zillner.

Two men, eight kids, co -created by two different women, 13 multi -million dollar businesses.

We started from the bottom, and we’ll show you how to get here. Started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here.

We started from the bottom, and now we’re at the top. Teaching you the systems to get what we got. Colton Dixon’s on the hoops. I break down the proceeds, bringing some wisdom and the good roots. As the boss, well, I’m so if you see my wife and kids, please.

It’s the CNC up on your right.

On today’s show, we’re interviewing a guest with over $500 ,000. over 500 ,000 followers on social media. The former head of HR for the North America at McKinsey, a national keynote speaker. She’s sort of a big deal. Ladies and gentlemen, a top 10 business pilot. host and LinkedIn top voice who has trained over 250 ,000 managers.

What? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, can you believe it? I don’t know that I can. Without any further ado, Ashley Hurd.

Welcome on to the Cloud Time Show.

How are you? Good, good.

Thank you, Clay.

It’s so good to be here. Now, I know I’m hyping up your bio, but at one point you were born.

And then from there, you got to here.

Walk us through your background a little bit, kind of how you got from, let’s go middle school to here. So middle school to here. It wasn’t long after middle school that I actually started working. But when I was in middle school, actually, both my parents graduated college. And so I saw my parents go from every level of the organizational ladder, so to speak. So both my parents, they graduate a little bit older in life.

They both went on. My dad went to get his CFA. My mom, much later in life, got her law degree, graduated over 50, went from being an intern to a general counsel of her state agency. So I do say, I do include that. That wasn’t me. my parents, but it really showed me again, I saw them go at every level of the of the corporate ladder and how some people get respect to the more titles you have. But my parents really instilled in me, hard work, work ethic, treating everyone with respect, no matter their title, in really continuing to work for your for your success.

So I took that. So I was I was very successful in my shift at Subway. I was a sandwich artist as I started out. I worked at Subway, worked at Kmart as an electronics associate. From there, went to law school, I was a lawyer, I was in HR, and that included working at organizations like Yum Brands, KFC, and also McKinsey. And the bookends of starting out doing the famous U -Cut at Subway and working with customers all the way through sitting in board meetings and sitting with senior partners at McKinsey, I saw a lot of people have exactly the same

thing in common. And to those working in restaurants and retail, the people working at the register, they are the chief marketing officer of the organization. And you, as a leader, whether you’re a store manager or CEO, you have such an impact on people’s lives.

And so that led me to want to start my own business. Now, so you have worked with 250 ,000 managers throughout these United States, teaching them certain principles. And I want to get into those principles.

But first off, when you sit down and you’re talking to a group of managers, what are some of the most common issues that you find managers facing? Well, the number one I see is around performance, I’d say. And it’s two things. One is, when people talk about performance, people have someone on their team that’s not performing well is managers don’t do anything about it. They may want to, they may think of things to say, but they don’t. And often it’s because It’s focused on the manager.

I don’t want to feel mean. I don’t want to hurt their feelings. Well, we’re really busy right now. I can’t say this because I don’t want them to quit. I don’t have anyone to replace them. It’s a lot of reasons that no conversation is had.

And so that leads the person to keep on doing things. And if you do bring it up a long time later, it feels super unfair because they’ve been doing the same thing. And so a lot of people struggle with how to give critical feedback and have those conversations. On the flip is, on the positive side, It’s amazing. Some of this has research, but I also like to bring common sense of thinking of the last time someone told you, thank you, or told you something specifically that you did and the impact it had. Oftentimes managers go on and they don’t do that because they’re just trying to get through the day.

They have a to -do list like all of us.

And so, you know, whether it’s giving, not giving critical feedback because it feels mean, or whether it’s not pausing to let people know what they’re doing well due to time, those are two of the things I really see managers struggle with the most. And so you’ve interacted with managers, and you’ve seen that the problems that they face. And at some point, you thought, you know what? I’m going to start to write down my management principles or to distill my management principles or the patterns that you found that worked, things that didn’t work.

When did you decide to document your findings into maybe a philosophy or a process that you now teach? Well, like a lot of people, maybe those listening that have had a career quilt, as I call it, of having a lot of squares of things that you’ve done. I first thought about writing a book over a decade ago. I mean, I actually looked back recently to see when I started sketching out notes. And despite everything that’s happened over the last decade, including all the advances in technology, a lot were still the same, talking about performance. And so I really thought about overall everything about being a manager.

And why does it matter how you have conversations? I distilled it down to a philosophy of, okay, the number one thing I see people not do is pause to think about how the message is going to be heard by the other person or the decision they make. What’s the actual impact of that? So I distilled it down into a three -step formula. I call it pause, consider, act.

And about two years ago, I started writing the book and really the book is all about how to use this idea of pause, consider, act, three steps, and then all the different ways to do it as, as a people leader, whether you’re a small business owner or whether you’re a manager in a large organization or anywhere in between. So if I’m going to Amazon right now and our listeners are, some of them are driving right now. Some of them are, they’re going, okay, tell us the book title. If I’m looking for the book title, what do I need to type in Amazon? I’m going to see if I can pull it up on the screen. What do I need to do?

How can I find your new book here? You can find it. If you go and write the manager method, you will find it and you can get it in hardcover or you can get it.

No, there we go.

Hardcover.

You can get it in digital or you can get it in audio book, which I did record in studio. So here it is, right? This is the manager. method. Now folks, this down here, not not it. This book here, this is not it.

Not it, but this right here, this is the manager method, this is it. Folks, this cover here, this whole endless moon thing, that’s not it. This, the manager method, that’s it. I’ll put a link on the show notes. A lot of people are saying, is it the eternity? It’s not that.

What it is, is the manager method. So if somebody finds this book, it says, the manager method, a practical framework to lead, support, and get results. And by the way, folks, you can be buying this book, or you could be going to binge eat a regrettable burrito at a local casino. So we’re kind of in the back of our mind. Somebody wants to get the burrito.

Somebody wants to get the book Why why should everybody out there who manages people? look at this book the manager method the vast majority of Managers whether you’re managing a team of people doing a job or you’re a senior leader with a bunch of direct reports and levels below you Often they aren’t bad managers. They’re untrained you you don’t get tips on what to actually do. And so I wrote the book to actually give practical tips. So all throughout, you will see not just a framework that’s nice to have that it looks great, you can pop it back on your shelf, but all sorts of ways to apply it to work, including overall chapters, things like how to make accountability a good word, things like time off, how it matters to be able to take time off as a people leader and actually set that up, then all sorts of situations like, you know, If there’s complaints about an employee that smells at work, or if you have a promotion and six people on your team apply and you can only give it to one person, what do you do to avoid driving all those other five people out the door if you really want to keep them? So it’s super practical.

And so what I’ve heard from those that have read it and what I hope everyone takes away is things you can actually, you know, pause, consider, enact, do something with it while you’re reading the book and then long after. Okay. So I’m going to get really practical and you can us what the book has to say about it, or at least maybe what the, some of the principles we might find in the book about this. Uh, everybody out there and myself included, if you manage a team of people, uh, let’s say you manage 50 people. So in my case, I managed like a hundred people.

Once there’s 50 people, you manage 50 people. One person a day is going to do something that goes against what would be social norms, mores, I don’t know, values of any organization. Somebody’s going to go on a hyper -religious rant today. It’s going to happen. Somebody’s going to go on a hyper -anti -religious rant today. Somebody’s going to go on a hyper -political rant today.

Someone’s going to go on a hyper—they shouldn’t, but they do.

So what does your book have to say about managing, let’s say, 100 people, and every day one of them just goes a little bit off the reservation just to keep it spicy? So people will always spice it up and people listening will also say, if one person a day does that, you are very successful. Especially having those conversations that, you know, that one conversation can often lead to 10 different people coming to your office, whether you’re HR or a manager. But oftentimes it’s those people on your team that aren’t reading this book or don’t have the same consideration you do about how important it is to be able to come to work and be able to get work done. And we’re all people. And so it’s important to thread the needle.

You know, that’s why you have things like time off. That’s why you have abilities for people to be real people. Some people may become best friends at work. They can have their own rants among themselves and have conversations because they know they feel the same or similar ways that they can have conversations. But often what’s happening now is someone comes in and assumes everybody else feels the same way they do. And again, it goes on a rant.

And so often what can be helpful is when you see these things not just coming, but generally to your team, is to talk as a team and say, you know, we’re here to do work. Work is one of the few places in life that we can’t, we can’t block each other. We can’t mute each other. You also don’t choose necessarily who you’re around, but when you come to work, you may have all sorts of feelings about things, but you have to think about, is this going to be helpful to everybody else? Is it necessary? But also we have a lot more in common than we do otherwise.

I know from a personal stance, there are people at work that have completely different I mean, backgrounds, beliefs, all sorts of things that I’ve worked with, but I’ve also found ways that that we learn from that person we work together. And so I do think having the conversation ahead of time and really talking about this and saying all sorts of feelings you have, it’s really important that that work gets done and thinking about. And does this help other people? Is it necessary? And then as individual things happen, talking to that person and saying, you may have these opinions, there’s all sorts of ways you can voice those. But when you have that, when others don’t feel the same, that can make that person feel uncomfortable when they’re working on something together, or you’re trying to drive towards the common result.

And so Even when you feel a certain way, remembering the things that we have in common, what we’re trying to work toward, those can only happen if we’re respectful and meaning sometimes you may have to take other avenues to do that. Now, what does your book have to say about the guy or gal who chooses, who chooses, who chooses? There’s a hundred employees. They just choose to be late. Every day they say, you know what, man, I’ve been late. I haven’t been late in four days, so today should be the day I’m late.

There’s just somebody in an organization of 100 who just goes, you know, it’s been four days in a row I’ve been on time. I think I’m going to be late today. But they’re good at their job. They just, they like to play the game with that.

What does your book have to say about managing people that choose to self -sabotage through chronic jackassery or lateness? Well, let me say, I mean, I won’t flip to the point where I use that as a very real example in my last chapter, which is the longest that gives examples, but it’s a good point because one trip that managers fall into sometimes is when someone’s late. They assume that it’s a choice and you’re not having a conversation because sometimes there’s a difference. Like real life can happen. I mean, I know all the time, you know, when I was in HR, you’d see job descriptions of, you know, you need to have reliable transportation and it’s important.

You need people to appreciate the need to come to work, have ways to do that. But I’ve also been in the position of driving to work, and I get a flat tire, and I’m literally on the side of the road. And those are some of the jobs I cared the most about. And my manager understood that and knew that by showing me some grace in that moment and wishing me safety on the side of the road, that I would come to work and appreciate that and care about what I did that day and every day thereafter. So I will say, that’s one caveat, is to have that conversation and really consider. The second is, no matter what, you will have people that whatever you say, whatever the rules, including things like be here on time, they just won’t.

And it’s worth recognizing that those people tend to be in the minority, like your example of one out of 100, one out of 50. My caution to managers is while that happens, and sometimes you feel like being a manager, it’s destroying my faith in humanity. When you see people just making choices that you wouldn’t, knowing, don’t manage to the least common denominator. Deal with it. But assume that most people, and I think you’ll see that most people, when you set something, you know, this is necessary, explain what it is, they’ll fit it. But it’s having that conversation with that person to start.

You know, what I generally say is if someone’s late the first time, okay, fair enough, have the conversation figured out. But if they’re late multiple times, really reiterating and saying, you know, this is, it’s a situation where if I got to keep you employed, I don’t want, to have to end employment because you’re not showing up on time. Is there something getting in the way? Or is it just a matter of, okay, you didn’t realize how serious it was? And sometimes lighting that fire in the end can do a lot better, but it really isn’t.

important to make sure that everybody else on the team isn’t looking and seeing you be a manager that isn’t having the conversation because you think, okay, well, I’ll just let it slide and let it slide. Now, what about employee romance? You know, so here’s something that shouldn’t happen, but it happens in my companies at least once a month with a hundred people. Somebody is dating somebody and you feel the woo -woo, you feel the woo -woo, you feel the energy. You thought you were coming into the office and now all of a sudden you feel like you’re walking into like a yoga class. It’s like a different atmosphere than what you expected.

You feel like you’re walking into your office and you go, Something feels different. You can feel love in the air. You can feel the magic moment between these two. And you’re like, I’m pretty positive. My handbook definitely stated you can’t date each other, but they’re two high performers.

You know, what does your book say or does it say about managing humans that insist on dating each other at work? Well, I will say, I got to give the caveat that I met my husband when we worked together when we were 22 years old. So I will not be an hypocrite and say, never do it, because someone is going to say, hold on a second. I think I know this backstory. But what I’ll say to that is, again, organizations have all sorts of choices that you have to make. And oftentimes, it is that issue of And certainly things like reporting structures, like you shouldn’t have managers and subordinates reporting to each other.

That creates all sorts of issues, real and perceived. But having the conversation, I do not think I address that in the book. So that’ll be the sequel, Clay. Actually, it should be a cover, much like what you just showed us on Amazon might be a good cover for that. And then it’ll say, why not to let your employees date? It’ll be the least fun body of work.

I do think a lot is about the conversation, giving it real talk. I mean, I literally had a conversation recently with someone that said, we were at work and these people are dating and we’re having a meeting and they were cuddling in the corner in two chairs next to each other. I said, well, that’s not just an issue with those two. Yeah, you got to have common sense. That has common sense.

But there’s a real third person. And that’s the leaders in that meeting who will allow things to go on. And so I think using those very real examples and figure out. I mean, plenty of companies have, I mean, what they call is, you know, the alumni of like the married and the children, the alumni children of companies. And so, you know, I can say from very real experience, workplaces can be a place where you can meet people.

But I also would have very much understood and appreciated a conversation about what does that look like and to make sure this isn’t just the dating game, but still the workplace environment.

Do you play the guitar? I do play the guitar. You see it back there?

That would be so lame if I didn’t have it. I’m just curious. Are you a musician?

Do you play instruments?

I do.

I do.

Okay.

Not well, but…

Okay. And so I’m trying to figure out how you got to where you are because you’re doing so many big things. Is it the guitar? Is it the obsessive knowledge or quest to learn more about management? I don’t know. All I know is you’re now one of the world’s leading management experts.

And in your book, you talk about this practical framework to lead, support, and get results. So I want to get into those three here. So the framework to lead, support, and get results.

So tell us, how does your book teach us how to lead, support, and get results? So I do have this, you know, three -step framework, pause, consider, act, that gets people into this idea, you know, get the pause, the consider, the consider, the act, but it recognizes all of those are necessary. So I say leading by showing people the examples. As a manager, one trap that people fall into is what I call in the book, tight jeans leadership, being a tight jeans manager. And what I mean by this from like a pants standpoint is if you’ve ever gotten tight jeans straight from the dryer, not straight from the dryer, but tight, maybe had a big meal beforehand, you go to put them on and like, oof, they feel incredibly restrictive.

But sometimes when you have a micromanager, which is what a tight jeans manager can be, you have someone that directs every detail. And often they say, you know, send me every email before it goes out, you know, bring me into all of your meetings, this manager that’s trying to replicate themselves all over the place. And That’s not real leadership. And the reason is that your team is often going to work to the to that lowest common denominator to not get fired and not get embarrassed in front of the rest of the team. And you as a manager are often exhausted because you’re trying to be in seven or 50 or a hundred places at once. And so knowing that your intent, which is generally protectionist, you want your team to do well.

Often you have done the jobs, you know how to do it well, you tell them, but again, you’re not giving them the freedom to try things themselves. And so all of your ideas to protect your team and help them, and you don’t want to get embarrassed by your own boss in front of your own bosses, it can be really restrictive. And so that’s not leadership. And so in the next, which is support, some people over -rotate in that. And they think, OK, well, especially if, OK, I had a tight jeans manager. I don’t want to be like that.

So I’m going to be hands -off. People can figure it out. I’m not a regular manager. I’m a cool manager. And I call that oversized sweatpants management in the book because maybe that’s one where you never have one -on -one time with your team members because you say, we don’t need to schedule that. Come find me if you need me.

But the reality of that for you as a manager is, You have your inbox is jammed. People are texting you and calling you because everyone’s trying to get your time and you’re not giving people instructions on what to do. And so you feel like you’re giving them freedom, but they’re out there winging it. And so you’re not giving them any support. So in the get results, what I call is cozy joggers leadership.

My husband said cozy sounds a little too comfortable, but I’d say structured autonomy.

So. all three of these together of leading your team, so giving them examples, supporting them by giving structure, but getting results. Cozy Joggers and Structured Autonomy is giving your team the information that they need and the support. So you’re there, but you’re not always there. But helping them to make decisions in the moments that you’re not there. And so really building people that know how to make decisions and have the information they need all together.

And I give all sorts of examples of how to do that. Now, I think that managers, anybody watching this show, in most companies, we tend to get promoted if you’re a manager based upon the results that you get the team to achieve. So I would argue that spending $25 on a book that could help you dramatically increase your income is well worth it. But somebody says, there’s so many books out there. Ashley, there’s management books by John Maxwell. There’s management books by Jack Welch.

There’s management books by Susie Welch. There’s management books by the Carrot Guys. I mean, there are so many management books. Why should people consider your management book?

And maybe what about your approach to management is different from the other management books that have gone on to have some success? Plenty books. I will continue to. I think one of the best things to do as a leader is to invest and for organizations to invest in your leaders. I know, Clay, you believe in this strongly of investing and then having your team members apply it. And so very similarly, what I bring is a bit unique.

I was so I started actually my professional career first out of college, meaning cold calling chief financial officers before I went to law school and HR. And so I worked in pretty rigorous sales. And so I had to learn how to get someone to at least hang up on me seven seconds in as opposed to three. seconds in. And so I’ve seen, I’ve seen the real pressures that sales teams are under in a way that most HR leaders or legal leaders haven’t experienced personally. And so I bring this

of knowing what the reality is like for that, often including sales managers. You get promoted from account executive to sales manager. I mean, it’s almost like a yin and yang of skill sets, but you don’t always get training for that. But so having this understanding of what people really need to do and say, and as a lawyer, including an employment lawyer, I saw the way a lot of things went wayside.

But I also saw that if you give people these proactive tips and really, really practical tips, again, not just a framework, but practical examples, and I use from all different industries and departments, that I do think it’s a unique approach that people will take away, things they can bring into their work. Now, I’m going to pull up what I believe to be your website, and maybe I need better management here to lead me to the right website. Is this your website here, themanagermethod .

com, or is there a different website we’re directing people to? This is my website. Thank you very much. So this is all about my business. You can see at the top, if now you can pre -order my book, you can, you can order it hopefully anywhere you’d like at that point. But on that, that pre -order site, you will get, when the book comes out, a free resource guide with whether you’re reading it on your own or a team guide, a book club guide.

But this is for my whole leadership system business. Do people bring you in to speak? Do you speak to groups? I mean, I know you do interviews from time to time.

I know you’ve been featured on many major publications, Washington Post, CNN, as people can see there, Financial Times, et cetera.

Do you do speaking engagements? I do. I do speaking engagements. One thing I say is, though, sometimes organizations look at leadership training just as a speaking engagement. And so when I do speaking engagements, one thing I do is I always give a post session deliverable, which is a very fancy word for two to three page document of takeaways. And I do it after the fact, because I always incorporate things that came up during that session.

For example, I did one for a large company about, uh, change management and conflict. And during the session, it was, um, you know, someone who was more junior in the department, but raised her hand and said, you know, talking about conflict, I don’t know if this resonates with anyone, you know, made all the things that people say when they get nervous after they’ve raised their hand and are speaking up. But she’s like, there’s this quote by Jelly Roll that was said, you know, there’s a reason that the windshield is bigger than the rear view mirror. And again, she’s like, I don’t know if that makes sense. All these people, including very senior people, like, wait, what?

That’s a really good way to think about it. I took that quote, put it in my post -session deliverable, and I use that with attribution to Jelly Roll, including in a LinkedIn learning course. And so I do sessions like that, but we also have a framework that you know, sometimes you have an external speaker come in and that’s fine, but then people go back to work and you don’t think about how to apply it at your work. Or I’m not going to be sitting there on the shoulder of someone who I just spent, you know, 90 minutes, two hours, an hour talking to. And so we also have a whole, like a three -legged stool that includes videos and a resource guide of a whole course I’ve done, but then a toolkit for internal HR teams to run.

You have all the communications you need to roll it out and then have live manager cohorts with all these situational questions to really bring it to life for those managers. Now I’ve got three final questions in the final three minutes, so here we go, coming in hot. Question number one, for anybody out there who buys a copy of your book, or who is maybe thinking about buying a copy of your book, is there anything that people are missing out on, or what are they missing out on if they don’t invest the money needed to buy the manager method, a practical framework to lead, support, and get results?

What are they missing out on if someone does not buy your new book? Well, I will say that it got a good word from Greg Creed, who was the former CEO of Yum Brands and Taco Bell. And so I love Taco Bell quite a lot. And so he found success and he’s been a business leaders on the board of Delta.

And so if he found something in it, then everyone, Taco Bell lovers and the like should hopefully take something away. Okay, question number two, what is it about your presentation style that you think resonates with audience so well?

You know, you get feedback from audiences and they go, wow, this person was funny, this person was insightful, this person had great stories, this person, what kind of, what do audiences typically say after they have been with you in a two -day speaking event or a one -day speaking event?

What kind of reaction, what do you hear that maybe separates you from other leadership experts? I do think I have a background where people hear McKinsey or things like that, and they think, oh, that’s impressive. But I also do try to be funny. I’ve actually taken stand -up comedy classes, which is very cool, but I’ve done stand -up comedy. And so it’s helped me on timing and things like that. But I do think bringing humor and a sense of reality, I think it’s really important to meet people where they are.

And so that’s an approach that I really try to bring. OK, final question I have here for you. Sometimes you go on a podcast, and you get off the show, and you go, man, that interview was great. Other times you go, that guy was a whack job. What a horrible series of questions in a row. And so I want to give you the floor here.

And let’s just say that I could have asked you the perfect question, or maybe what’s a question that I should have asked you today?

So my final question is, what is a question that I should have asked you, or maybe what’s on your heart that you just want to convey to our listeners?

Question. One is, what is something maybe I did later in life? Because sometimes you listen to people and they think, okay, I’ve been managing for a while. Is it too late to try new things? And I will say it’s never too late. I mean, I told the example earlier, my mother graduated from law school in her fifties.

So I’ll give that example. But I started to TikTok over 40. I get to TikTok where I do role plays. And so I took all these, you know, squares in my career quilt and put these together and What I really do like is the comments I get from people from, I’ve met CEOs from TikTok that have brought me into speak or use my program or people that are students and learning. And so I do like that. there’s a lot of lessons alike.

I mean, altogether, I really do believe that everybody deserves the same amount of respect. I think a lot of people are trying to figure out management.

And so hopefully my career quilt and some of the choices I made in my whatever this chapter of life is, they’ll continue, can help others. Folks, I encourage you to escape from the herd of management monotony and check out the new book here from Ashley Heard. That book is The Management Method, A Practical Framework to Lead, Support, and Get Results. Ashley, you’re a great American. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you.

And we’ll hopefully talk to you soon.

Thank you, Clay.

Bye -bye. All right, we’re going to do a Q &A. So I’m going to give you this mic, Robert. This is the hot mic.

I’ll switch your mics here.

Welcome, sir.

Thank you.

This is the most interesting place I’ve ever been to.

Go ahead. I think most interesting place he’s ever been to.

Craig, his mic up nice and high.

Most interesting, seriously, ever?

It’s you.

I mean, it’s fantastic. 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. Sean, guess what’s happening? April 9th and 10th, 2026. We are probably going to have an amazing business conference here at Tulsa Ruslin. 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 all the time. 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 two -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 two -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? getting 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 two goals for sales. So that’s a really big one. 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, branding. 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.

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, or 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 resources.

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, 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 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 ticket? Well, we don’t want anybody to miss out on it.

You could be at a startup phase, or you could be 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 it goes all the way back to how you’ve always done this as a business coach, trying to make sure that your average people out there have access to the things that work. Now, 7 AM 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 enjoyed a lot. Once again, folks, this event is April 9 and 10, 2026. Get those tickets at thrivetimeshow . com.

Once again, that’s thrivetimeshow . com. Who’s our keynote speaker coming to the conference there, 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 Shawn Lohman.

I’m Clay Clark, and 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.

Clay Clark is here somewhere.

Where’s my buddy Clay? Clay’s the greatest.

I met his goats today. I met his dogs.

I met his chickens. I saw his compound. He’s like the greatest guy. I ran from his goats, his chickens, his dogs. So this guy’s like the greatest marketer you’ve ever seen, right? His entire life, Clay Clark, his entire life is marketing.

Guys, 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 breather. And, man, people, 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. 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 Oh, 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 you’re 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. 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 Colaw. We’re the owners of Colaw 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.

He’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 marketing, search engine optimization, helping us really rank high in Google, and pretty much every area of the business. It’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 our 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 coach us 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 helps 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 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.

Not as many things get done on a weekly basis, so it’s been very helpful. Well, the conferences for me, I’m a slow learner, so I have to learn over and over again, hear things over and over again. I’ve been to, 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 this stuff is really polarizing.

You do a personal inventory of yourself and you’ll think like, hey, I’ve really got to work on this, really got to work on that.

So every time you come, I still get a lot of value out of it.

And as much as every conference is the same, it’s totally different. So I think we’ll hear stories we haven’t heard before. They’ll have entertainment or they’ll have speakers even. have before. And 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 being showcased as a success story. And you get to see their website. You get to see how 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 accomplish that stuff. Clay 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 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 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 when he’s working with me, he’s only working with one other, no other gyms that are in direct competition with me. It’s very encouraging to have somebody 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. For us, it’s been very encouraging. It gives us peace. As an entrepreneur, it’s stressful.

You go to bed at night, you’re worried.

Did we cover this?

Did we cover that? 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. 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. It’s very encouraging and gives 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. and just trust the system.

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 areas 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 know, 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 friend, great encourager.

To me, he’s been a wonderful friend. He’s also, you can tell he cares. And he also, he’s just a well -rounded 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.

His brain is just a wealth of knowledge. 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 got to be coachable, you got to be wanting to get feedback, you got to be wanting to really grow your company, you got to want to put that extra 10 hours a week to working on your business, and not just in your business. And so yes, I would recommend it to anybody who’s wanting to grow their company, and provide great systems, checklists, workflows, great encouragement, and have accountability.

This with Shaw homes, I first heard about clay lender here in town who had told me what a great job he had been doing for them. 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 dollars in real estate. So honestly I thought I kind of knew everything about marketing and homes and 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. 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 better or different perspective than theirs. I would just really encourage you, if you’re thinking about working with clay, I mean, the thing is, it’s month to month. Go give it a try and see what happens. I think in the 35 -year history of Shaw Homes, this is probably the best thing that’s happened to us.

And I know if you give them a shot, I think you’ll feel the same way. I know for me, the thing I would have missed out on if I didn’t work with Clay is I would have missed out on literally an 1800 % increase in our internet leads going from 10 a month to 180 a month. That would have been a huge financial decision to just decide not to give it a shot. I would absolutely recommend Clay Clark to anybody who’s thinking about working with somebody in marketing. I would skip over anybody else you were thinking about and I would go straight to Clay and his team. I guarantee you’re not going to regret it because we sure did.

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. Ben 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.

in today, building a business, having 16 agents. But I have to give credit where credit’s due. And Clay and his team and the business coaching that they’ve offered us has been huge. It’s been instrumental in what we’re doing. Don’t ever limit your vision. When you dream big, big things happen.

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

My thought when I opened my clinic was I can do this all myself. I don’t need additional outside help in many ways. I mean, I went to medical school. I can figure this out. But it was a very, very steep learning curve. Within the first six months of opening my clinic, I had a $63 ,000 embezzlement.

I lost multiple employees. Clay helped us weather the storm of some of the things that are just a lot of people experience, especially in the medical world. He was instrumental in helping with the specific written business plan. He’s been instrumental in hiring good quality employees, using the processes that he outlines for getting in good talent, which is extremely difficult.

He helped me in securing the business loans.

He helped me with web development.

and search engine optimization.

We’ve been able to really keep a steady stream of clients coming in because they found us on the web.

With everything that I encountered, everything that I experienced, I quickly learned it is worth every penny to have someone in your team that can walk you through and even avoid some of the pitfalls that are almost invariable in starting your own business. I’m Dr. Chad Edwards and I own Revolution Health and Wellness Clash. 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.

And we went from expecting maybe 250 ,000 this year to we’re at 400 ,000. Kelsey with K &D’s Woodruff Finishing, business owner at 23. So I’ve been working this K &E’s company for about five years now and we started working with Thrive this year too.

So we’re pretty excited about that. That’s 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 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, um, the success and growth I have achieved by implementing the proven path, uh, with Clay Clark’s team and my business coach Luke, um, from Thrive Time. Uh, it has been insane to say the least. I started working with,

them in mid -February of this year. So we’re about four months in of working together and it has completely transformed my business in pretty much every facet. So I’m going to check my notes here. So in four months, my leads have tripled. I was getting probably like two leads a week. Now I’m getting more in the like 10 to 15 leads a week.

I have doubled my number of employees. I’m now hitting the highest revenue weeks in the history of the company, week to week it seems like. We went from about six appointments today as our highest in February to now 14 to 15 appointments a day. Hiring quality employees has become much simpler and less stressful by using their systems for hiring. 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. low -quality candidates anymore and your coach will hold you accountable I mean which I love again the tough love is really great you know looks 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 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, work until you cry sometimes. That’s just being an entrepreneur, which if you’re a business owner, you understand that. But it’s having these systems in place of, you know, of course I’m going to be successful. It’s an absolute because I have all this stuff in the background happening. And I have Luke and Clay and everybody on their team working really hard to make sure that I’m a success. And I can tell that they are just so excited every single week when I’m having all these wins and things like that.

They’re so excited for me. So it just, it’s the best thing ever. And I would suggest to anybody to work with them. So sorry for the long -winded reply, but I just had so much to say, and I could go on for hours probably about how amazing they are. But thank you to Clay and Luke and the entire team there, everything you guys have done for me, and I am so excited to continue to work with you for years to come. Thanks so much for watching.

My saying is, if it’s important to you, hire a coach. And I think that’s one of the reasons people are not successful is they you know, they eat a cheeseburger instead of hiring a coach. You know what I mean? And so my coach pushes me. They’re younger than me. They push harder.

They’re trained. And as my rich dad always said, you know, amateurs don’t have a coach, but professionals always have coaches. So I’ve always had coaches for whatever was important. My rich dad was one of those persons. I wanted to learn how to play Monopoly in real life. So he was my coach.

Transcribed with Cockatoo