Brad Englert | Spheres of Influence: How to Create and Nurture Authentic Business Relationships | Practical Strategies for Networking Effectively With Your Customers, Your Boss & With the People Within Your Industry

Audio Transcription

Transcribed with Cockatoo

(Speaker 20)
You could be anywhere doing a lot of different things, but you chose to be here.

(Speaker 10)
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.

(Speaker 10)
They started from the bottom, now they’re here. It’s the Thrive Time Show starring the former US Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark, and the entrepreneur trapped inside an optometrist’s bunny, Dr. Robert Zunder. Two men, eight kids, co-created by two different women, 13 multimillion dollar businesses.

(Speaker 13)
We started from the bottom, now we’re here. 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, and we’ll show you how to get here. Started from the bottom, now we here. We started from the bottom, now we here.

(Speaker 26)
Here’s the clip.

(Speaker 3)
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 hooks. I break down the books. The C’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks. As the father of five, that’s why I’m alive. So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi. It’s the CNC up on your radio.

(Speaker 3)
And now, three, two, one, here we go.

(Speaker 13)
We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, and we’ll show you how to get here.

(Speaker 3)
Ladies and gentlemen, on today’s show, we’re interviewing an experienced author, advisor, and technologist, and the founder of the Brad Engelbert Advisory. This man for over 40 years has worked in both the private and public sectors, including working for Accenture for 22 years and the University of Texas at Austin for eight years.

(Speaker 3)
He’s sort of a big deal and he’s real. Welcome onto the Thrive Time Show, Brad.

(Speaker 5)
Thanks for inviting me.

(Speaker 3)
So Brad, I gotta ask you real quick here, for anybody out there that wants to know about your career and just kind of a little bit more about your background, walk everybody out there, walk all of our listeners out there through why everybody may want to take interest into what you have to say today, or maybe just a little bit more about your background.

(Speaker 5)
Well, it’s important when I joined Accenture from day one, it was important to treat your customers and your peers as someone you may work with 25 years later. They might be your boss, they might be your customer. And in fact, the person I started with in my first year, 25 years later, became the chief information officer

(Speaker 5)
of a large organization the same year I became the Chief Information Officer at the University of Texas at Austin. So it came true. And the culture of the firm was one of mentoring, training, and as a partner, you were expected to be a mentor as well as be mentored. And, you know, it’s just part of the culture. And when I joined the university, I was able to apply those

(Speaker 3)
principles to my organization there with 330 people. Where do you think people I mean, because you’re kind of a master networker at this point, where do you think that a lot

(Speaker 1)
of people get networking wrong by by by default?

(Speaker 5)
Well, the industry talks about networking, but they don’t really teach you how to do it. And a lot of people go to these networking events and they’re trading cards. And over my 40 year career, I’m not one time have I found a customer in one of those networking events.

(Speaker 5)
And, and so it’s kind of a transactional superficial way to go about it. And it’s not very effective. And so what I try to do is say, if you’re going to grow in your career, be strategic and intentional about who you build your business relationships with. And it’s more rewarding.

(Speaker 3)
So let’s talk about it. Let’s say someone’s watching today’s show, and they go to those trade shows, or trade events, or networking events, and they have found that their networking is completely fruitless, but they have to go

(Speaker 3)
because their boss wants them to go, or because they have a membership to the chamber, or whatever the situation is. So they have to go to these trade shows, but they’re often fruitless endeavors, as you mentioned. What advice would you have for our listeners?

(Speaker 5)
Well, I would look at those who are attending the events you’re going to, and sometimes you will find someone who’s a peer of yours in another organization that you can meet up with. But, you know, again, you need to be strategic and intentional. Just don’t show up with a stack of business cards.

(Speaker 3)
I think a lot of people, Brad, are wonderful listeners. Nobody wants to come across as transactional or not sincere when they’re networking. But at the same time, they maybe by default are coming across as transactional and sincere, or maybe they’re not able to develop those relationships in a way that would work. I think a lot of people go to the trade shows and conferences

(Speaker 3)
thinking, what’s in it for me? Help everybody out there just completely reframe the way they approach networking.

(Speaker 5)
Well, I would start with those relationships closest to you. And that would be your boss, it would be your direct reports, it would be executive leadership, it would be all your staff. So those within your organization, be intentional about meeting with them, understanding their goals and aspirations, setting and managing expectations, and genuinely caring about their success. When I got to the university, I asked this professor who I worked with 15 years prior,

(Speaker 5)
a crusty guy, and I said, okay, give me some advice. He goes, get out of the office and tell people you give a damn and that was the best Advice because I could sit behind a computer screen never leave my office have people come to me and Supplicate but that’s not my style. So I made it a point to meet with

(Speaker 5)
my boss once a week my direct reports once a week and went in with the goal of understanding what their goals and aspirations were. And then once we aligned, setting and managing expectations, which I got better at later in my career, I was pretty bad at it early in my career, and then a genuinely caring about their success.

(Speaker 5)
And I think if you do that with those within your organization, then you can extend those principles to those outside your organization, like customers, peers and influencers

(Speaker 1)
and strategic vendor partners. Now you’re really talking to some practical stuff that I think a lot of our listeners can relate to. They’re saying, okay, I’m behind my computer. I’m on LinkedIn. I’m on X. I’m on Facebook. I’m tagging people I know. I’m tagging people I’ve met. I’m posting things on X and tagging you, tagging me, tagging it, tagging the trend.

(Speaker 1)
And you’re saying that actually getting out of your office and talking to real people is the move. Walk our listeners through how to do that for people out there that have never done this before, who think that networking involves emailing, tagging, texting, automating, reminders.

(Speaker 5)
What would you say to them? Well, let’s start with your boss. Hopefully you’re meeting with your supervisor weekly. I always show up with an agenda so you know what topics you need to cover. And introductory conversations can be, what is your boss trying to achieve? And a lot of people are scared to ask that question or nervous. But when I was the boss, I welcomed that discussion. I wanted my direct reports to know what my goals and aspirations were and how they could help me and You know same thing was setting and managing expectations I have this boss

(Speaker 5)
Who is a type-a personality and everything was urgent urgent and she called me one day and said Brad I need a white paper a white paper and I Literally said whoa, I didn’t say no cuz that would get her upset But I said, well, when do you need this white paper? And she’s oh, well, let me check my calendar I mean with a client in two weeks Okay

(Speaker 5)
All right. How many pages do you want this white paper to be? Oh three pages I was thinking ten. Do you have an example of a white paper that you could share with me? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I asked David, I did one XYZ Corp 10 years ago. Well, guess what? Before I learned to say whoa,

(Speaker 5)
I would have stayed up all night, wrote a 10 page paper, delivered it the next day, and got yelled at for not meeting her expectations. So just saying whoa, allows you to get some space and time to actually understand what they want,

(Speaker 5)
and then genuinely caring about their success. I mean, who doesn’t want that?

(Speaker 1)
Now, you talked about a white paper. For people out there that don’t maybe understand what you mean by that, could you unpack what is a white paper,

(Speaker 3)
and why would anybody want a white paper?

(Speaker 5)
Well, it’s just a document that explains a certain point of view or topic. So it’s just explaining why this point of view would be important for the customer or the client.

(Speaker 3)
Anything else, any other pro tips that you want to share? Now, obviously, you’ve written a great book where you unpacked this in great detail. You really get into the details, spheres of influence. But anything else that people need to know that you’re saying, man, if you weren’t trying to network with your

(Speaker 3)
boss, you need to do this better. Because pro tip number one was awesome.

(Speaker 1)
Is there any other pro tip that everybody watching today’s show needs to know before they go meet with their boss again?

(Speaker 5)
Well, not only your boss, but think about all your business relationships, because you’re going to meet with your boss pretty regularly, I would hope, if not, you need to do that. My direct reports, I would meet with them in their office. Well, why would I do that? Because I wanted their team to see me coming to their supervisor and showing the flag and saying hi as I’m walking through the workspace. Also, I get to walk across

(Speaker 5)
campus and see my customers and see other influencers. So, you know, I think someone told me, oh, I’m too busy to meet with people. Well, you’re too busy not to be. You’ll be busier if you don’t meet with them, because misunderstandings can happen. I had a customer who was the executive director of this large organization, and we were implementing a financial system. And I would meet with him every month, like clockwork, just to say, here’s what’s going on,

(Speaker 5)
here’s where we’re headed, here, you know, any issues that we would have. Well, nine months into the project, about a month before we were to go live, we were falling behind. And I said to the executive director,

(Speaker 5)
I said, we need more resources. I can bring some and I need you to bring some. And he spun around, called his project manager, he said, what do you need? You got it. Now, if I hadn’t met with that executive director

(Speaker 5)
every month for nine months, and just showed up for the first time with a problem, that would be a problem. But I had built up trust and a rapport over time that he trusted me. And when we finally hit a bump in the road, we worked together to solve it. So don’t just show up when there’s a problem,

(Speaker 5)
show up when there’s not a problem.

(Speaker 3)
This is so important. And I cannot celebrate and push and encourage and motivate and inspire. And I don’t know what I need to do to encourage everybody to read this book. And I mean this sincerely because I

(Speaker 3)
see so many people that are well-intentioned and they don’t mean to, but they come across as very transactional. Let me give you an example. Yesterday, somebody reached out to me and said, hey, could you hop on my, can I hop on your show? Can I hop on your show?

(Speaker 3)
And I tell you this story because it happens every day, multiple times. Can I be a guest on your show? And I told the person with great enthusiasm and kindness and whatever that is, I said, hey, 100% not, but I really appreciate you asking. And they go, are you serious? What?

(Speaker 3)
And in their mind, they should be on my show because they’ve emailed me a lot. And I said, hey, I’m just being really real with you. I don’t know who you are. And they’re like, what do you mean? I email you. And they emailed me all the time.

(Speaker 3)
And I said, however, if you’d like to come to our show, I’d love to maybe hop on a call with you and figure out what it is that you’re wanting to talk about. I’d love to understand why you’re wanting to be on the show. Because what they were wanting to talk about

(Speaker 3)
is something I disagree with. And they wanted to be on my show and they’ve never talked to me. And they go, I emailed you. And it was almost like they were, I said it nicer than that. I think the way the conversation unfolded was I called them and said, hey, I appreciate you. I don’t think it’s a good fit right now.

(Speaker 3)
And they go, why not? They responded that way. Well, why not? I mean, I email reach out a day to want to be on the show, but in their mind we have some sort of relationship going because for the past four years they’ve emailed me. So I just want to get your thoughts on that again because it’s kind of a digital dystopia.

(Speaker 3)
I think a lot of people feel like we’re real friends because we’ve been friends on Facebook for four years or whatever that is. Could you maybe unpack that a little bit? Because I think a lot of people, they don’t take the time to do what you’re teaching in your book, and they’re not really building any sincere relationships

(Speaker 10)
at all.

(Speaker 5)
Well, let’s take peers and influencers. At the university, I was at a level, executive level, and I interacted with vice presidents responsible for public safety, facilities, 16 million square feet of facilities. We’ve generated our own power. So the first, I met with those peers, one every four to six weeks, just to find out

(Speaker 5)
how can I help them? what are they trying to achieve, and how can we work together better. So take public safety. It wasn’t a matter of if there’d be a problem, it would be when there would be a problem. And I told the VP for public safety that, you know, having information technology is central for you to be successful. So we would talk about it and then our teams would get together and practice what would happen if there was a power outage?

(Speaker 5)
What would happen if there’s a nice storm, a hurricane, a shooting, which we had, a murder, which we had, bomb scare. When we got the bomb scare, I was out on the mall with just my phone. But we had standard operating procedure that when there’s a crisis, we all hop on a conference bridge.

(Speaker 5)
Public Safety VP was hooked to the executive leadership, and we worked the bomb scare from outside on the mall. We practiced that. And so if I had not reached out get out of my office and got to meet with them. We wouldn’t be ready.

(Speaker 3)
You had taken the time to prepare you built these relationships you had sown the seeds again you the time to develop these relationships so that when something bad happened. People received what you were saying. They knew you were a serious person.

(Speaker 3)
They knew you had a protocol. They knew you had systems. If you’re watching today’s show and you’re struggling to network, I encourage you, I’m telling you folks, check out this book, Sears of Influence. Let’s talk about this. If I’m trying to network with someone I’m trying to sell something to, so if I’m watching today’s show, and I’m trying to sell something to somebody, I think a lot of people think, you know, I’m gonna cold call someone I just met and convince

(Speaker 3)
them to buy something they just heard about. And it doesn’t work. What are your rules or pro tips for calling people we don’t know, and selling something to them?

(Speaker 5)
Well, that’s a very expensive way to do business. Accenture has 80% or higher return customers. Well, why is that? Because you’ve been successful together, and success breeds success. So I would actually start with your customer base you have. And what can you do to generate more value for your customer base, not all your customers, but your top customers, your best customers. And sometimes you need to let

(Speaker 5)
some not so good customers go. When you’re dealing with a new organization, there’s a technique called a power map, where you take out the organization chart, and you circle the obvious leaders that you need to know, but then you try to identify influencers. So at a very large Research One University, the chief of staff to the chief financial officer, 30-year employee, trusted across campus,

(Speaker 5)
we work very well together to transform all their administrative systems and processes. I went to another Research One University, same size, 50,000 students, 21,000 staff, 4,000 faculty, and the chief of staff for the CFO said, you know, I just started here a year ago. He’s got me working on these little projects.

(Speaker 5)
I don’t think you should waste your time with me, which was really helpful. So in one organization, there was an influencer who was very much became a partner in success. And another organization, that same position was not influential at all.

(Speaker 5)
So invest, you know, do your homework before you do a call and make sure you qualify the opportunity.

(Speaker 3)
One thing you mentioned earlier is you talked about developing this relationship. So when bad things happen, you’ve already got a relationship built there. There’s a trust factor. I want to get really, really granular on this, really granular on this. Yesterday I took a call from a person, I’ll be very vague, but they’re a household name. And so if I mentioned their name, everybody watching today’s show would say, oh, I know who that is. I mean, it’d

(Speaker 3)
probably be 99% of the people watching today’s show would say, oh, I know who that is. And when I took the call, the call was on my to-do list, I had three things ready to go if they called. So when they called, not only did I answer their question, but I had three additional things to go over. And I took the time to talk to them about, how are you doing, how are things?

(Speaker 3)
And you take that time to just marinate a little bit. But if that person had called and I didn’t take the time to marinate and say, how are you, how are things, and I didn’t follow up on some previous conversations, it could have felt transactional. I want to get your thoughts on this.

(Speaker 3)
What’s the best way for somebody out there to, on a very specific, detailed level, what is the best way for people out there to have a phone conversation with somebody? Because I think if you’re not careful, you take the phone call, it’s transactional,

(Speaker 3)
and that’s at the end of it.

(Speaker 5)
But I think there’s a better way to nuance those phone calls. And I want to get your thoughts on that. Well, I would start with my first principle, which is understand their goals and aspirations. People love to talk about what their goals and aspirations are. They want you to know. And if you can help them, then you can talk about how you can help them. Sometimes I could not help a client, but I would find someone who could help them. I had a customer who

(Speaker 5)
wanted me to be their IT person. And it’s like I wanted to write this book. I said I can’t be your IT person. I’d like to but if I do, I will never write my book. So I’ll find someone and I found a woman who had worked for me many years prior, who was brilliant. And she actually built an e-commerce capability for a large technology firm. That’s what this customer needed. And so she came in and within three months,

(Speaker 5)
had transformed their business. And so I went on to write my book and they got their needs met. And it’s just important to, I have two phrases I found throughout the book. One is use your words. So if you’re a direct report

(Speaker 5)
and you need something from your boss, use your words. And the second phrase, your people are not mind readers. So if you’re the boss, you need something from your boss, use your words. And the second phrase, your people are not mind readers. So if you’re the boss, you need to use your words to let people know what you expect and want. And frankly, not everyone’s good at that. So that’s where you have to ask.

(Speaker 3)
Folks, if you’re watching today’s show, this is just such gold. I wish I could over-communicate how powerful this is. I just know there’s somebody out there today, and you’re, you know, again, yesterday, I get this call from this person,

(Speaker 3)
they’re a household name. I had their name on my to-do list expecting the call, and so I’ll kind of role play how that call went, but they said, I answered the phone, hello, this is Clay, and they said, hey, this is such andsuch go and I took the time to follow up on the thing

(Speaker 10)
Which they’re very interested in and then they talked about the thing and then I said well, hey, well, I’ve got you

(Speaker 25)
Do you have any interest in going to the Celtics?

(Speaker 3)
Knicks Playoff game because I have tickets if you want to go Would you like to go and even though the person couldn’t go, they appreciated me remembering that they were going to be in New York during that time. They go, oh, man, thanks for remembering. Yeah, I actually will be in New York, but I can’t go because I’m going to be.

(Speaker 3)
And again, if we can just be intentional about developing these relationships, we can really do big things with our careers. However, if it’s just transactional, if it’s just some insincere drip automated email text campaign that I’m getting where I feel like I’m somehow in your funnel, it’s not going to work. Anything else you want to share about that? Because I see

(Speaker 3)
a lot of sincere people, they take a person they just met and they add them into their new funnel, their new click funnel, their new automated whatever the heck and all of a sudden you’re getting

(Speaker 1)
You’re we are literally spamming the people that we’re trying to build a relationship with the most

(Speaker 5)
well, I want your listeners to Really think about what you just said you did your homework you Understood your client you thought about in advance what they might need, and you didn’t wait for the call to think about that. I would have vendors come to me and they didn’t even bother to look at my website. Well, if you looked at my website

(Speaker 5)
you’d see the mission of the organization, the values of the organization, and my vision, where we wanted to be in five years. Well, I had vendors who showed up, they just wanted their maintenance check. They’d show up once a year for their maintenance check, and it was always 10% more than the prior year. Well, guess what? I fired those vendors. And the vendors who actually cared about where we were headed helped us get there.

(Speaker 5)
They were strategic vendor partners, and we treated each other very well. So you have to understand if someone comes and hasn’t done their homework, that’s a real turnoff.

(Speaker 1)
Folks, this is powerful. This is powerful stuff. Now, Brad, because of your career and the success you’ve had over the decades, you get asked to be on a lot of great podcasts, and therefore you probably got off a show or got onto a show where you thought to yourself, I wish they would have asked me this, or it would have been great if we would have covered that.

(Speaker 1)
So I want to ask you, is there anything in particular right now that’s on your heart, on your head,

(Speaker 3)
that you really want to get out to our listeners out there,

(Speaker 24)
sir?

(Speaker 5)
Well, if you have a team that’s reporting to you, I would encourage them to also build those relationships. And at the university, I had my 7 to 10 peers I would meet with. I asked all my direct reports to do the same. And that was like a nervous system where we would get feedback throughout the year of what was going well, what was going wrong.

(Speaker 5)
And I had a woman who read my manuscript who used to work for me. And she goes, Brad, you left out my story. I said, what’s that? I said you forced me to go meet with this person who hated us and You said you’d rather have them in the tent than outside the tent throwing rocks And so she met with this woman every month and as we got better more

(Speaker 5)
transparent more consistent, more service-oriented, not fire drill oriented, she started to build confidence in us. And after about seven, eight months, she became an advocate for us. And her boss, who also didn’t trust us because of some prior misdeeds, began to trust us. And the only way that happened is to get out there and build

(Speaker 5)
those relationships.

(Speaker 3)
Now, as we’re watching today’s show, someone says, I want to get this book. Are you having a website that you’re directing people to? Or you want people to go on Amazon? Or where is the best place for people to learn more about your book, Spheres of Influence?

(Speaker 5)
I’m going to send you a customized link that will have send your listeners to my website, and they can get a free sample of the book. They can get a tab of where to buy the book. And there’s e-book, audio book, all that. And then third, how to schedule time on my calendar so right after this I’ll send you that link and

(Speaker 3)
You can add that to the show notes. What do people miss out on by not? Buying your book and we’ll put the link in the show notes the link you send over there Well for someone doesn’t pick up a copy of your book if they say oh, you know I would rather buy a regrettable burrito from the convenience store What are they missing out on if they don’t read your book?

(Speaker 5)
Well, it’s really the key to success. The key to success is to care about your customers, help your customers be successful, help your peers be successful. Frankly, it’s just more fun and more meaningful. And if you’re going to be in the business world,

(Speaker 5)
why not have fun doing it?

(Speaker 3)
Amen to that. Brad, I really do appreciate you. Thank you so much for your time, your energy. And again, what’s the website address that people want to look you up? I’m sure there’s a fake, a bogus, a Brad Englert out there trying to steal your glory. Is there a particular website you recommend people go to? My website is www.bradenglert.com.

(Speaker 3)
OK, I’m going to do it right now. I’m going to go www.brad. I’m doing it. I’m typing it in. My fingers are on the home row. I’m feeling the flow.

(Speaker 3)
I’m hitting enter. I think I’m going found the right website. There it is. Thank you, sir. I’ll give you the final word. You’ve certainly worked hard throughout your career to get to this point. You got

(Speaker 1)
60 seconds on the clock. Brad, what say you?

(Speaker 5)
Get out of your office and let people know you care. That’s the most important message. Don’t hide behind a screen. Don’t hide in your office. Just get out there. That’s where you’ll be successful.

(Speaker 1)
That right there, folks, is hot sauce. That right there is the boss. Brad,

(Speaker 3)
thank you so much for joining us today. We’ll talk to you soon.

(Speaker 23)
Thank you.

(Speaker 22)
Bye-bye.

(Speaker 11)
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 learned from you. So congratulations.

(Speaker 1)
Sean, guess what’s happening on June 5th and 6th

(Speaker 3)
right here in Tulsa, Russia. We are probably gonna have an amazing business conference

(Speaker 12)
here at Tulsa, Russia.

(Speaker 3)
Yes, we’re joined by Tim Tebow. Tim Tebow is gonna 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?

(Speaker 3)
Every day.

(Speaker 1)
How often is not having enough time a problem for business owners? All

(Speaker 3)
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 gonna come join us here at the in-person Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshop and he’s gonna 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.

(Speaker 3)
Also at the two-day interactive workshop, Sean, we are going to be, oh, there it is. We’re gonna be teaching accounting, systems creation, marketing, human resources, how to hire, inspire, train and retain great people, accounting, social media advertising, search engine optimization.

(Speaker 3)
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

(Speaker 1)
one of our workshops?

(Speaker 12)
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. We teach all of this stuff at the business conference, particularly you, Clay, you love

(Speaker 12)
to hammer on time management.

(Speaker 3)
It’s my favorite part of the conference. Now I’m gonna pull this up real quick here because we’re gonna go through, if you’re not excited, I wanna get you excited about what we’re gonna cover at the workshop here. Okay, the two-day interactive workshop.

(Speaker 3)
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.

(Speaker 1)
Would you agree or am I off my rocker?

(Speaker 3)
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

(Speaker 3)
that’s a really big one. Now next is the break-even numbers. Oh yeah what kind of sales do you have to do to do to even break even? Yeah. Third is how many hours per week do you want to work? You know 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?

(Speaker 3)
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.

(Speaker 3)
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 leads.

(Speaker 3)
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, box number seven, create a sales conversion system. Again, box number seven, create a sales conversion system.

(Speaker 3)
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,

(Speaker 3)
you gotta 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?

(Speaker 3)
Step number nine, it’s hard to build organization if you’re not organized. We’re gonna 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

(Speaker 3)
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 the 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 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 June 5th and 6th.

(Speaker 3)
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?

(Speaker 12)
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

(Speaker 12)
to make sure that your average people out there have access

(Speaker 3)
to the things that work. Now 7am 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.

(Speaker 3)
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

(Speaker 3)
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.

(Speaker 12)
I enjoyed it a lot.

(Speaker 3)
Sean, final 60 seconds, pop quiz here. What date is the conference? June 5th and 6th, 2025, this year. Question number two, 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

(Speaker 3)
right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma?

(Speaker 12)
I think it’s, uh, did you say it’s $250 or whatever you can afford?

(Speaker 3)
That’s right, $250 or whatever you can afford.

(Speaker 1)
Sean, how do you spell Eric Trump backwards?

(Speaker 12)
Uh, P- Uh, M- U-R-T-C-I-R-E.

(Speaker 10)
Ooh, that took a long time.

(Speaker 21)
I’ll have to listen to this.

(Speaker 3)
I think that’s going to be better. All right, again, that’s Sean Lohman. I’m Clay Clark, and inviting you to come join us at the in-person Thrive Time Show, two-day interactive workshop, June 5th and 6th, right here in Tulsa, Jerusalem, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sean, I really am excited to have this event. I’m excited to see you at the event June 5th and 6th,

(Speaker 3)
right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tim Tebow, baby.

(Speaker 1)
It’s Tebow time in Tulsa, Rousselum.

(Speaker 20)
You could be anywhere doing a lot of different things, but you chose to be here.

(Speaker 19)
Clay Clark is here somewhere. Where’s my buddy Clay?

(Speaker 18)
Hey, Clay Clark!

(Speaker 15)
Go, Clay! Clay is 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.

(Speaker 2)
So this guy’s like the greatest marketer you’ve ever seen, right? His entire life, Clay Clark,

(Speaker 8)
his entire life is marketing. Hey 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 got grill guns over here, we’ve got people playing the drums, we’ve got a fire breather, and man, people are so excited as they come in. The conference is kicked off, this house is packed, we’ve got Aaron Andrus with Shotguns up there,

(Speaker 8)
we’ve got Steve Burlington with Total Ending Concepts up there, talking about what is possible when you just implement, when you implement, when you do the improvements. It’s so exciting. People are going crazy. Guys, Luke Erickson with the Thrive Time Show here with you. It is day two and the energy is high. People are so excited to be showing up. The team is ready.

(Speaker 8)
Come on, let’s see what it’s like to go on in for day two. Follow me. I’ll tell you what, people are so excited to be here for day two. It is going to be incredible. Cannot wait to see what today has in store. Right now, here at the conference, we’ve broken into groups going over search engine optimization. I know for most of us, myself included, if you hear that term, you go, what is that?

(Speaker 8)
What does that mean? That’s too techy for me. Well, our experts are breaking it down for people so that you can clearly understand how to come up top in Google. It’s doable. It’s doable, it’s possible. Now we’re in the middle of a break,

(Speaker 8)
and what we like to do is we like to give you as much tangible and relevant information from about the start of the hour for 45 minutes. Then we take approximately a 15-minute break to allow people to connect with other entrepreneurs around them, bathroom break,

(Speaker 8)
and also use this time to just really digest all of the good information that you’re receiving the whole time. Right behind me we’ve got Bob with his grill gun melting an ice sculpture. It is awesome. The ice sculpture represents our life, right? It’s here for a time but we all need to have the sense of urgency to implement the things that we’re learning so that we can make the most of the time that we have.

(Speaker 4)
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.

(Speaker 4)
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 make you feel good but don’t have a lot of substance that you can take back and implement. You know the following Monday where his does man has a lot of substance that you could take back and implement the following Monday, where his does.

(Speaker 4)
Man, there’s a lot of valuable things. I’m gonna say, 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,

(Speaker 4)
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 expert advice from somebody who’s been there, done that, built companies, has learned a lot of lessons.

(Speaker 4)
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.

(Speaker 1)
Hi, I’m Aaron Antus with Shaw Homes. I first heard about Clay through a mortgage lender here in town who had told me what a great job he had been doing for them and I actually noticed he was driving a Lamborghini all of a sudden so I was willing to listen. In my career I’ve sold a little over 800 million dollars in

(Speaker 1)
real estate. So honestly I thought I kind of knew everything about marketing and homes. And then I met Clay. And my perception of what I knew and what I could do definitely changed. After doing 800 million in sales over a 15-year career, I really thought I knew what I was doing. I’ve been managing a large team of sales people for the last ten

(Speaker 1)
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

(Speaker 1)
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.

(Speaker 1)
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.

(Speaker 1)
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

(Speaker 1)
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,

(Speaker 1)
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.

(Speaker 1)
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

(Speaker 1)
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

(Speaker 1)
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.

(Speaker 6)
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,

(Speaker 6)
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 homebuilding go

(Speaker 6)
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 and 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

(Speaker 6)
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.

(Speaker 7)
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.

(Speaker 7)
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 investment. I lost multiple employees.

(Speaker 7)
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.

(Speaker 7)
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.

(Speaker 7)
I’m Dr. Chad Edwards and I own Revolution Health and Wellness Clinic.

(Speaker 11)
Clay, my honor, my honor to be on your show and thank you for all you do.

(Speaker 3)
I hear the ripple effects from you are good ripple effects.

(Speaker 17)
You know what I mean?

(Speaker 11)
People rave about what they learned from you. So congratulations.

(Speaker 9)
And we went from expecting maybe 250,000 this year to we’re at 400,000. Hi, I’m Kelsey with K&D’s Woodfinishing. Business owner at 23. So I’ve been working this K&D’s Woodfinishing, business owner at 23. So I’ve been working this K&D’s company for about five years now and we started working with Thrive not too long ago and we went from expecting maybe $250,000 this year to we’re at $400,000.

(Speaker 9)
That’s what we’re gonna hit or exceed. So we’re pretty excited about that. It’s been pretty much just listening to what they have to say. Their hiring process has just really been incredible as far as finding good quality help and just the accountability of meeting up with them weekly and such good insight, the resources that they have for specific business questions. It’s all been really incredible. It’s been a great experience

(Speaker 14)
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

(Speaker 2)
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

(Speaker 2)
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,

(Speaker 2)
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 a day as our highest in February to now 14 to 15 appointments a day.

(Speaker 2)
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

(Speaker 2)
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

(Speaker 2)
I don’t waste as much time on 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.

(Speaker 2)
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.

(Speaker 2)
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 perseverance and 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, of course I’m going to be successful.

(Speaker 2)
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

(Speaker 16)
But I just had so much to say and I could go on for to work with them. So sorry for the long-winded reply,

(Speaker 2)
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

(Speaker 2)
for years to come. Thanks so much for watching.

(Speaker 11)
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.

(Speaker 11)
My rich dad was one of those persons. You’re on it, man. You’re on it. You’re on it. Everybody listen to this guy. He knows what he’s talking about.

(Speaker 11)
You have the macro picture. Very few people have that point of view. Clay, you’re an entrepreneur, I’m an entrepreneur. And as they say in Stoic, the obstacle is the way. And so if you let these pinheads get in your way, And so if you let these pinheads get in your way,

(Speaker 10)
you’re in trouble.

 

Transcribed with Cockatoo