Business | Brett Denton Success Story | 10 Year + Clay Clark Client Shares How Clay Clark’s Business Coaching Has Helped Him to Grow 3 Of His Companies Including KvellFit.com, a TipTopK9.com Franchise & SawToothWoodProducts.com

All right, Thrive Nation. On today’s show, we’re joined by a real client, he’s not a hologram. I’ve known him, I believe, for almost a decade. Brett Denton, welcome onto the Thrive Time Show. How are you, sir?

Yeah, man. It’s feels like for forever with you, Clay, because you go a million miles an hour, so it’s more like a century. But yeah, it’s been a little over a decade now. I’m doing great.

Yeah, it’s awesome. How I first started working with you is working with your company called Cavell Fit. Can you tell everybody out there, what is Cavell Fit, and what work did we do to help you grow that business?

I actually had heard about you on the John Lee Dumas podcast, and we were in the process of looking for a coach. At the time, I had a partner, and we were looking to expand and grow our fitness company. So it’s a brick and mortar fitness company. We do boutique personal training, boutique group training, and we were looking to implement systems. We were really trying to take it one step further, start expanding, start growing, we were at one facility at the time. So we were just looking for somebody with a little bit more knowledge on how to help us do that, how to build the systems to be able to scale.

Now, every client that I work with, what I try to do is help break down this complicated thing called success and turn it into core, repeatable, actionable processes, things that I affectionately call CRAP, Core, Repeatable, Actionable, Processes. So to grow Cavell, if we can go back to that for a second, it’s a gym. Can you tell everybody out there, what are the services that Cavell Fit did provide and currently does provide?

When we had come on with you, I think the only thing that we were providing was group fitness training and maybe a little bit of nutrition. At this current juncture, we provide personal training, we provide group fitness training, we provide nutrition and challenges. We actually had grown, this is pre-COVID, using your tutelage to two facilities, and a third one in the works. Again, relying on the systems, and processes, and the boring things. At this point, I tell people it’s all the boring things that you taught us that really make the difference in our scalability.

Now I have a visual diagram I’m going to pull up, and I use the same system with every business I’m involved in. It’s a way to take out of my brain the system, and make it where everyone can see it. I don’t hide the system, I teach it to people. Box number one, we have to figure out your revenue goals. I know working with you with Cavell, if we go back over a decade, you had revenue goals in your mind. Box two, we have to know how many customers we need to break even. Why is it so important for the listeners out there to know how many customers they need to break even?

Just from my experience, if you don’t know how many customers you need to break even, you don’t know how much to charge, you don’t know how to watch your expenses, you don’t really have a good hold on your business. It’s like flying a plane without looking at the panel, you don’t know your elevation, you don’t know where you are in sky, you don’t know where the ground is. So if you don’t really know that break even, then how are you going to know if you’re making money or not?

Now, box three, you and I have never really had to talk about this box too much. But some entrepreneurs want to have massive success without putting in massive amount of work. We’ve never had to figure out how many hours per week you’re willing to work. You’re a guy that was a walk-on football player that ended up earning a spot on the roster there in Division 1 football, you started a business from nothing.

But, a lot of people do need a little pushing on that. Now, box number four is determining your unique value proposition. I would argue that, at Cavell Fit, you weren’t the first guy to develop the idea of a group fitness class, but we had to find a way to help Cavell stand out in the cluttered marketplace. Can you talk about the importance of having a coach work with you to figure out how you could stand out in the cluttered marketplace?

Yeah. I think having a coach, in general, helps you see the forest for the trees or the trees for the forest, depending on what issue you’re having. This is a big issue in the fitness space. In the fitness space, like many spaces, it’s very competitive. There’s a new fitness franchise popping up, it seems like, every other month. So if you don’t really understand what your value is and why you’re unique in the marketplace, it’s really hard to compete and just be another gym, or another personal trainer, or whatever your widget is. Again, having a coach be able to see outside of what you can see, because you’re in your business on a day-to-day basis, and try to pull that out of what you currently offer, or offer something new, is invaluable.

Now improving your branding, whether it’s dog training, or now you’re selling logs too. No matter what business you’re involved in, the branding has to be great. Brett, you recently purchased a new business. Could you tell us about your new company, sir?

Yeah. I purchased Sawtooth Wood Products. We sell logs, we do fencing, we’re a contractor, we sell power equipment. Again, it gets into a little bit of the commodity business. I would argue fitness is a commodity at this point too. So you really got to, number one, define your niche. So, what’s your value proposition? Then number two, is your branding better than your competition?

This is something that we continue to work on every single week, every single month, because everything continues to evolve. So we continue to want to look better. With our new business, a little bit with Cavell Fitness too, we really cater to the high end clientele, the ultra wealthy affluent. So if our brand doesn’t look on par with what they’re used to, we’re going to lose business. So, we got to make sure that branding looks the part.

Did you decide to go with a website for Sawtooth Wood Products, or did you decide to market primarily via fax machine?

Yeah, fax machine. We’re flying the airplanes in the sky around the city, is actually [inaudible 00:05:53]. No, we’ve got to have a website. The website is ultra important. Not only, again, the look and the feel of it. But also, are we ranking? Again, this is something that we actually had no clue about before we started with Clay. Since we started with Clay, the search engine optimization, SEO, which I’d never heard the term before, the importance of the Google Map and how to optimize that. How else do we get people to our website? Because a website is great, and it can look as pretty as you want it to look. But, at the end of the day, if nobody’s coming to the website, it’s not doing any good anyway. So, we need to look the part and we need to drive people there.

Now we work with you with three brands right now. We work with Cavell Fit, we work with Tip Top Canine, you’re franchisee, and we work with sawtoothwoodproducts.com. Can you share with the listeners out there, we’re going to go to this next box here, why is it important that, as your marketing, that you actually ask people, or that your team asks people, over the phone how they heard about you? Why is that so important? It’s Sawtooth, or Tip Top, or Cavell, why is it important that you don’t just rely on what people check on the form, and that you actually ask people how they heard about you?

Well, the way that I’ve understood marketing to work is, people have to see you multiple times. Let’s take Tip Top for example. The Tip Top cars are wrapped, they’re bright, they’re yellow. So they might see the car, and then they might see one of our Google Ads, and then their friend might say, “Hey, I use Tip Top.” Then, all of a sudden they see on Facebook, and then finally they click the link. The one thing that they remember is maybe the Facebook.

So we want to ask them, because then we can have that conversation with them. Then, instead of it just being one answer, we can say, “Oh, there’s actually four things. We need to make sure that we keep those four things going.” Keep continuing to spend marketing dollars on those things, instead of just getting rid of all the rest. So let’s say everybody started coming in through Facebook. Now, we probably need to pay attention to that. But, at the end of the day, if you’re not having those conversations, you might start to realize, “Oh, they’re actually searching us on Google, and then everybody’s going to our Facebook page, and that’s just how they come into us, and that’s the last thing they remember.”

Now, this next box here is, again, we have sales conversion, sales scripts, recorded calls, one sheet. If you’re listening today folks, you got to have sales scripts, recorded calls, one sheets. Now the next box is, you have to determine how much it costs you to get a customer. I don’t care whether it’s Cavell Fit or Tip Top, you have to ask the question, how much money am I spending on advertising and how many leads am I getting? So if you’re spending $350 a week on ads and you’re getting 10 leads, then you’re spending $35 per lead. Why is it important that, on a weekly basis, you hop on a coaching call, whether it be for Tip Top Canine or Sawtooth, and you take that moment to look at your numbers and go, “How much am I spending per lead?”

Well, there’s a few reasons. Number one, if you don’t really have a coach to do that, there’s very few people coming from the fitness space. There’s very few people who do what they know they should be doing on a weekly basis, unless they have an accountability person there, whether it be a personal trainer, a business coach, whatever it is. So those things that we know we should do, but they aren’t that sexy, they’re not that fun, those are really the things that a coach is probably most valuable in helping hold you accountable to.

So every week we look at those numbers to make sure, “Where am I at? How’s my business doing? How much money am I spending on marketing? How much do I have coming back in? Am I losing money? Am I making money?, et cetera.” Dan Kennedy talks a lot about the fact that, if you can spend more than your competitors to win customers, you are going to win for your industry. Again, if you don’t look at your numbers, you don’t know how much you’re spending on leads, you got no clue what’s going on.

In 10 years, we’ve never talked about Dan Kennedy. But I’ll say, I love Dan Kennedy because he is a very realistic author, and he’s not telling people how to make a million dollars in seven minutes. He’s not trying to teach people that the Google algorithm is dramatically [inaudible 00:09:49]. He is not a get- rich-quick-guy. Dan Kennedy’s a process guy, and I really love that. I want to show people this.

If anybody goes to Elephant in the Room, EITRlounge.com, and you were to buy an Elephant in the Room franchise, a couple of things, it’s going to cost you a lot of money. Why? Because you have to build a physical location, you got to build an actual store. We cut hair, so you got to open up a location, you got to open up a shop, you got to do the build outs, you got to do the shampoo rooms, the front entry. Maybe you’re out there listening and you’re a skilled builder, but every store I’ve done costs me hundreds of thousands of dollars to build out.

So when I was opening up the Elephant in the Room franchises I said, “Brett,” I remember saying this to you, “You don’t want to buy an Elephant in the Room? No, no, no, you don’t. Because it’s going to cost so much money to do it. Now the systems we have are great, but I think a Tip Top Canine would be great for you and your sister. It’s the same systems and the processes that we’ve built for all my companies, but I think it’s a move, because it’s under $60 grand to get started, all the systems are there.”

“If you buy an Elephant in the Room franchise, these are all the documents you have, all the processes.” You pretty much knew if you built Tip Top Canine processes, they’re going to run the same as Elephant in the Room, and they’re going to run the same as Cavell, and it’s going to be a thing. Can you talk about the importance in your decision to buy a Tip Top Canine, how important it was knowing that we were using the same systems that we had used to build Elephant in the Room and the other companies that we’d coached you with?

We had been looking for a way to expand and to grow outside of our fitness business. I was looking for something my sister could do. I had come to you multiple times about Elephant in the Room. Every time you just said, “Hey, I don’t recommend it. But why don’t you come and you visit one, and you work through it and figure out if that’s something you want to do, figure if that’s how much you want to spend,” et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Then Tip Top came along and it made a lot more sense. We had the processes in place, just like we did with Elephant in the Room.

So I knew that I could take that, give it to my sister, and then she would then be successful just by running the systems, and I wouldn’t be so far in the hole like I would with an Elephant in the Room. We could start it out of her house, and then eventually build a facility, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Again, it was all based on those systems. That’s the only reason, frankly, that we decided to do it.

So same thing, we went and we visited Tip Top, we worked through it with them, we worked through with Clay, what the systems were going to look like, how it was all going to function. Without the systems, there’s no way we would’ve done it. My sister was jumping from a real estate career to a dog training career. So without the systems in place there, there’s no way I would’ve spent the money on it. It’s cheaper than an Elephant in the Room, but you’re still dropping some change.

Now, when you buy a franchise, you got these systems. So box 10, you got to manage, you got to hold people accountable. I think that’s really the value of the coaching system. That’s why, when somebody goes to tiptopcanine.com and requests a franchise, I feel like they’re going to have success. I feel comfortable selling it. I feel comfortable talking about it, because I know that if you buy a Tip Top Canine franchise, you won’t throw a gutter ball because someone’s going to hold you accountable to doing the tasks on a weekly basis.

You’ve seen this in the fitness space, and we’ve talked about this, if you’re not careful focusing on the things that grow your company, you get distracted on things that don’t matter. In the fitness space, particularly, there’s always a new way to track Google leads. There’s a new way to optimize the website. The algorithms have changed. There’s a new hiring process. ZipRecruiter has found a way to find the best employees. But if you’re not careful, Brett, there’s a fad of the week, a fad of the year, a fad of the month. I’d love to get your thoughts on that. What would a Tip Top Canine franchise look like in your mind if you didn’t have that weekly accountability to hold someone accountable to following the systems?

Well, the problem with most business owners, as you know Clay, is the shiny object syndrome. I had it probably worse than anything. I’m still recovering from it. But, that’s one of the things that you had taught me. With the weekly meetings, it keeps us on path, and it keeps us focused on the things we need to be focused on. Because there’s all kinds of other BS that you could focus on that don’t really grow your business. Marketers are good, and the sales reps are good, and they all sound great. But, at the end of the day, it’s the simple things that you do over and over again, the boring things that you do over and over again.

Again, I’ll go back to personal training because it’s similar. If you don’t work out, if you don’t have a personal trainer to hold you accountable to work out, you’re not going to get results. If you don’t eat the right foods with a personal trainer holding you accountable, you’re not going to get results. So it’s the same with coaching. It’s the same at Tip Top. It’s the same in Cavell. It’s the same at Sawtooth. The systems don’t mean anything if you don’t implement them. So without the coach making sure that you’re implementing those systems, it doesn’t work.

Now, I’m going to pull this up here as we wrap up this particular session here. Brett, you want to create a sustainable and repetitive weekly schedule. In the fitness business, if you grab a new client that goes to cavellfit.com to sign up for training, I know you don’t do this, but imagine you did. By the way, Tip Top Canine, it’s a dollar for the first lesson. Cavell Fit, it’s a dollar to start the body transformation program, a lot of analogous systems. If you go to Elephant in the Room, it’s a dollar. You see a lot of these systems.

Brett, imagine you told somebody, “Okay. Now Sarah, we’re going to work out every third Monday at 7:00 AM, every second Tuesday at 8:00 PM, and every fourth Thursday at 7:00 AM, and there’s only 17 things I want you to remember.” There’s 17 things to remember, and every week the schedule changed, and every week the workout changed, and every week the diet plan changed. What would happen to your fitness clients? You’ve produced so many successful before and after clients at Cavell. What would happen if you changed the workout time on somebody every week, changed the fitness program every week, and then brought in a new guest speaker to pontificate about their theories about what could be a successful fitness regimen? What would happen?

Well, frankly, I think that’s what most people try to do until they determine that doesn’t work, and then they go find a coach and stick with that one coach. Well, I always tell our people, “Hey, you got to find a plan. If it’s our plan, great. We think our plan’s the best. But, if it’s not our plan, then great. But whatever you do, find a plan. Stick with that plan.” What is it always you say, Clay? Focus, what is focus again?

Focus on core tasks until success.

That’s it. It’s the same thing. Find one plan, one nutrition plan, one workout plan, and work on it until you’ve come to the end of that plan, you’ve achieved some results there and you can’t get anything more out of that plan. Which most plans in fitness and in business, they work forever, and your business just keeps getting better, and better, and better. Or your body keeps getting better, and better, and better.

Now Brett, a final question. I want to ask you this because fitness, in my opinion, is very similar. Fitness coaching is very similar to business coaching. One of my great clients, I won’t mention his name ’cause I don’t have permission to do so, but he tells his clients, “Listen, if you sign up for my fitness program, my one-on-one training program, you can eat meat, you can eat vegetables, and only drink water. If you do that, and follow my program, you’ll have success.” Now, this is a boutique business. He says, “If you don’t do that,” and he wants you to track your meals, “I’m going to charge you double for your personal training, and it’s going to be in the contract. So, you’re going to follow. You’re going to only eat meat, only have vegetables, only have water.”

He says, “Clay, my clients, they have dramatic results. But the thing is, they get a little frustrated with me that I’m not open to new ideas. They bring in magazines and they go, ‘Hey, here’s a new magazine I just read. This is a new way to help people improve their metabolism. This is a new approach.'” He says, “Even though they’re getting results, they always want a new approach.” Do you see that in fitness where clients, even though they’re getting results, they want a new approach? Do you see that?

Yeah, always. It’s a boredom factor. Again, results aren’t sexy. The things that you need to do to get results aren’t sexy. It’s just a matter of doing the same thing over, and over, and over, and over again and making sure that those are the right things. But, almost invariably, at some point they’re going to get bored and want to try something else.

Three rapid fire questions. If people want to buy copious amounts of logs from you, what’s the website they need to go to buy copious amounts of logs from you, sir?

It’s sawtoothwoodproducts.com. That’s our fencing, and tree, and log business.

For anybody out there who’s thinking about buying a franchise, what do you think the importance is of having weekly coaching? Specifically under the Tip Top Canine mindset, because you own a Tip Top Canine, what’s the importance of coaching, sir? Weekly coaching?

In my opinion, anybody who wants to perform at a high level in whatever it is you want to perform at, you need a coach. It’s not always that the coach is smarter than you. Sometimes they are, sometimes they have systems and stuff. But really, it’s accountability. Are you showing up on a weekly, monthly, whatever the arrangement is? Without it, you’re not going to perform at your best in business, and fitness, and sports, whatever it is.

What are your thoughts on Andrews? I’ve worked with you personally for 10 years. How would you describe Andrew’s consulting or coaching? ‘Cause I’ve worked with you personally, and we only take on 160 clients. So Andrew works with your sister, and with the Tip Top Canine brand. How would you describe your experience working with Andrew?

Andrew is a very positive guy. I’ve never seen the guy in a bad mood, frankly. But again, he focuses on the basics, and he focuses on the basics in a way that can be annoying and irritating to the point of, “All right, I get it. I just need to do the basics.” But he knows the system like the back of his hand. He knows what works, he knows what people should be doing. So I’ve had no complaints with Andrew. I think he’s been a great coach.

Brett, I really do appreciate you carving out time to be here with us today, that wasn’t a wood-related pun. But I also encourage people to check out your Sawtooth Wood Products. What service area do you provide logs to, sir? What are the service areas?

At the moment, maybe we can scale at some point, but we’re new in the industry here so we’re mainly in the Sun Valley area. We could ship logs everywhere, but we’re mainly in Sun Valley area, Idaho Ski Resort town situation.

Brett Denton, thank you for carving out time. Have a great day, sir. We’ll talk to you soon.

I’m Rachel with Tip Top Canine, and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark.

Hey, guys. I’m Ryan with Tip Top Canine. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive15, thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys, we appreciate you, and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us.

This is our old house. This where we used to live years ago. This is our old neighborhood. As you can see, it’s nice. So this is my old van, and our old school marketing, and this is our old team. By team, I mean it’s me and another guy.

This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing, and this is our new team. We went from 4 to 14, and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past, and they were all about helping Ryan sell better, and just teaching sales. Which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman, so we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts, and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from 1 to 10 locations in only a year.

In October, 2016, we grossed $13 grand for the whole month. Right now, it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little $50 grand for the whole month, and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship, and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you times 1000.

So we really just want to thank you, Clay, and thank you, Vanessa, for everything you’ve done, everything you’ve helped us with. We love you guys.

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