Business Podcast | Celebrating the 1,467% Growth of a Long-Time Clay Clark Client + Celebrating the TipTopK9.com Success Story, “Now that we have systems in place we have gone from one location to ten locations in only a year.” – Rachel Wimpey

Audio Transcription

I know many of you have had a challenging year. Many of you watching this have a successful company. Many of you have a business that has struggled. Maybe you’ve had a business that you’ve just, for whatever reason, have never been able to get over the hump. Maybe you’ve always been just kind of stuck in a rut, and that’s become your normal. Maybe you went from the goal you used to have a goal to thrive, and now your goal is just to survive. Well, to build your faith and to build your encouragement that you have the mental capacity and the tenacity needed to succeed, I thought I would get one of our younger success stories on today’s show. You can talk to an entrepreneur who I don’t believe is yet 30 years old but yet is still achieving massive success. Stephanie, welcome on to The Thrive Time Show. How are you? Good, Clay. Thank you. So, Stephanie, where is home for you? I live in rural western Wisconsin, so Sparta, Wisconsin. And how did you originally hear about the Thrive Time Show business consulting program? I heard about you guys actually through Entrepreneurs on Fire. You did an interview with JD over there. And do you remember them when you where you were when you first heard that show? I was cleaning a house, actually. Well, you’re cleaning a house in Wisconsin, and from the time that you… I remember the exact house, yep. So from the time that you decided to get up the courage needed to schedule a call until now, how much have you grown? Since then, let’s see, 1,462%. 1,462%. And what kind of a time frame has that been, the time that you reached out to now? Yep, I reached out, we started working together in March of 2020, it is October, end of October 2021. So, you know, year and a half. Wow, okay. So we’ve done a lot together and many things you’ve done very, very well. And so I thought I’d do on today’s show is I’m gonna bring up the things that you’ve been able to implement that we’ve taught you. And I’d love to get your take on how you’ve been able to implement these. So I’m gonna go through 10 core systems that I believe you’ve been able to implement well, and I’d like to get your take on it. First off, you were not resistant to the idea of upgrading your branding. You were not resistant to the idea of upgrading your website print pieces. You actually leaned in and you wanted to get it done and get it done quickly. Talk to the listeners out there about how having an upgraded website has helped you. Yeah, the just overwhelming professionalism that people get from visiting our website just really blows them away to make them like realize that we are professional and that we stand apart from everybody else in the area. So the website was key. I also think one thing that a lot of clients probably get stuck on is being like too nitpicky about things and just like wanting it perfect as opposed to wanting it done. So I think the biggest thing is get it done. We can always change things later, but it’s better to have an awesome website than a perfect website like right now. Head now, step two, we optimized your website. A lot of people have great websites that look wonderful, but they’re not canonically compliant. They’re not indexable. They’re not searchable. So therefore humans on the planet Earth who are using search engines can’t find them. You, again, you didn’t push back. You leaned into it. Talk to the listeners out there about how optimizing your website has helped increase your leads. Oh, definitely. So Google leads are like huge for us and people finding our website are huge. So writing the content articles, making sure those keywords are showing up. We’re showing up when people search, you know, all clean, or whatever they’re searching, whatever search terms we’re trying to show up for. So that’s huge. And of course the review side of things is huge too for pointing people towards our website. Okay, you jumped ahead on my little cheat sheet here, but step three, gathering objective reviews. You guys have done a great job of gathering objective reviews from your happy clients. Talk to the listeners out there about the importance of gathering objective Google reviews from your happy clients. Oh, it’s so important. Like when I started working with Thrive, I definitely didn’t think like I needed to focus on that. I think I had 12 Google reviews when we started working together. And now between the two locations, we have, I think, like 210 or something like that, like five star reviews, all real. And when people find us, I mean, it’s not even a how much do you cost, it’s when can you come? I don’t care how much you cost. So people are ready to close like that. Now, step four is building a transparent and easy to understand sales system. You know, a pricing structure where somebody who maybe is not the most complicated individual, somebody who’s very simple like me could understand your pricing real quickly. Again, you’ve leaned in on that. You’ve been great to work with. Talk to the listeners about the importance of having a simple to understand pricing structure that your ideal and likely buyer can understand immediately. You just want them to not be confused. They’re like, why is this like this or whatever? And also from the inside perspective of the managers or whoever is answering your phone, they need to be able to quickly answer questions and stuff without having a lot of training. So it needs to be able to be, you know, in like the sales script when they’re doing a call that they can just very quickly know what the numbers are and not have to be complex about it. Now, step five is implementing sales scripting. You have done a great job of implementing sales scripting and so many entrepreneurs, I’m telling you, oh, they say, I don’t wanna do a script because I don’t wanna sound like I’m reading a script. I don’t want my staff to be sounding like they’re reading. I want my team to have their own personality. I want them to embrace their true selves. And therefore when their phone rings at their local business, every time their phone rings, it’s just like a minefield. You never know if the phone’s going to be answered professionally, if it’ll be answered at all. You never know what people are going to say. Nothing’s written down. It becomes a verbal tribal tradition. It becomes a celebration of jackassery. Tell the listeners out there, why have you embraced sales scripting and how has it helped your company? Sales scripts are amazing, as well as, of course, the call recording so that we can hold people accountable to the sales script. But it just takes all the guesswork and then all of the variables of what people say are removed so that if something’s not working, we’re able to pinpoint what that is and tweak one thing as opposed to whatever the people are deciding to say. So, and it also like, it’s just, it flows really nicely and it doesn’t sound robotic at all. Once you get used to it, it’s like, I could, I could say it off the top of my head, the exact scripts we use and we know they close. And that way we know it works instead of just people doing whatever they feel like. Now you also implemented a quality control checklist system where basically it’s not in people’s minds. They don’t have to remember, your technicians don’t have to remember what they’re supposed to do. There’s a checklist for everything. I mean, everything. When you go in to clean a home or a commercial business, there’s a checklist for everything. Talk to the listeners out there about the mind freedom that you’ve experienced since taking it out of your head and putting it on a checklist. Yeah, it just makes it so simple because it’s like, here’s the standard the cleaning tech is responsible for and is going to be held accountable to. And if that’s not hit, then we know that there’s a problem. They don’t get to say, like, well, I didn’t know. They don’t get to say, I didn’t know. And then on the client side, they have expectations set. Instead of them setting the expectation, we are setting the expectation, as opposed to them being like, well, I thought you guys were going to clean my gutters. It’s like, well, it ain’t on the checklist, so we’re not going to clean your gutters, you know? Now, knowing and optimizing your numbers in terms of the financial aspects of the company. Again, you’ve leaned into that. A lot of people who are into fitness, I find lean into that. They want to know how much they weigh, what their body fat percentage is, how many calories they’re eating. People that don’t want to lean into fitness don’t want to know how many calories they’re eating, don’t want to know their body fat percentage. People that are into artwork and doing well at art, musicians, I’ve worked with a lot of musicians. The musicians that are good want to know how they sound. They want to hear themselves. People that are not good don’t want to hear themselves. A great ballet dancers and performers want to see themselves in a mirror. They want to analyze. Great builders want to see checklists and processes and blueprints. People, the accountants who are good at their job, they want to know the numbers. Entrepreneurs who are not good at entrepreneurship never want to know their numbers. Talk to the listeners out there about the importance of knowing and optimizing your numbers, actually knowing how much profit you’re going to make per job. Yeah, I would say number one, most important thing, in my opinion, is the tracking sheet that we implement together. And that, you know, every single day I’m in the tracking sheet and knowing like exactly where my business is, especially now I’m very removed from the day-to-day kind of operations to a point, I’m not answering the phones. I’m not doing this. I’m not like seeing the complaints or any quality issues or whatever. But I have, you know, my finger on the pulse of my business and every single aspect of the, you know, revenue, expenses, leads, closing rates, number of appointments, number of reviews, number of photos that are getting uploaded. Like just everything you could possibly know about the business, I know. So I’m never questioning, like, or going off of emotion because that’s not what we want to do. We want to go off of facts and numbers. And so I know that, you know, we’re growing or whatever, we’re closing, et cetera, et cetera, because the numbers don’t lie. So I love the tracking sheet, and I think it’s the number one thing that people should implement. If they don’t do nothing else, they need to know their numbers. Now you’ve attended a multiple in-person, two-day interactive business workshops. And the reason why we include that is a quasi-free service. What do I mean by that? I mean, it’s not a revenue generator for me. If you’re a client of mine, I say, hey, you can come to these events. We make it very, very affordable. If you’re not a client, you can pay $250 to attend the workshop. And if you’re in a tight spot, we have scholarship tickets available. But the point is, everybody can afford to attend. Can you explain how the interactive business workshops helped you to maybe further understand the path or to get a whole picture view of the actual business plan? Yeah, I love the conferences because I always walk away with action items. Even though I go over these things with my coach every week, it just, I always walk away with something like, wow, I get a fresh perspective on things because you’re interacting with a lot of other business owners and bouncing ideas off of each other and hearing what worked for them or what people are struggling with. And of course, then having you explain it in the way that you do, it just makes it very actionable. I always go away with, this is what I need to do on Monday to make these things happen. It’s not just this motivational thing. Do you laugh a little bit? Do you have a little bit of fun? I do. I have a lot of fun at the conferences. Okay and what kind of people attend the conferences? Not liberals. It seems like all we start at 7 a.m. and it seems like you know the entrepreneurs are like this is awesome we start at 7 I can be done by 3 I can still make some calls. Again, you’re sitting next to people that have had massive success, people that have been in the program for years. Is that helpful to sit next to other people that have actually helped you? I can’t even, like, the people I’ve met there have been like, they’ve changed my life. Like, obviously, you guys have all changed my life, literally, I’m not just blowing smoke here. But meeting the people, you know, the Josh Wilsons of the world, who I literally texted him today. Like, you know, we’re on a friend basis. We have calls all the time. Like, just the people that I’ve met is just, it’s life-changing. What is your website if people right now want to go online and they want to look up your website and kind of, you know, see who you are and what you’re all about? Yeah, it is www.serene-clean.com. And, okay, so you came to the workshop. You’ve implemented the tracking sheet. The group interview, people say, I had so hard to find people. I’ve never had a hard time finding people. Even right now, I don’t have a hard time finding people, but I can tell you, it’s a system that I’ve applied. It’s a proven system, a proven process that I’ve done. I’ve been doing this process of hiring people. This marks, I know it’s crazy, 22 years of doing the same system. Every week, interviewing people, 22 years I’ve been doing this. I’m a 40-year-old person. I’ve been doing the group interview for 22 years. Can you talk about the importance of doing the group interview and how it’s changed your business? Oh, it’s so important. That has been, I would say that’s a big game changer too because I always have candidates like ready to go when something happens. In the past two months, we have taken on a huge contract and I have hired probably 40 people. Somebody quit today, somebody quit yesterday, I fired somebody three days ago, it doesn’t matter. Next, next, next. You know, so it’s amazing. Just a little context. If, just so you know, things that will get you fired if you’re out there and you don’t know about serene-clean.com. If you’re not on time, if you don’t honor your commitments to the client, you’re gonna get fired. And there are certain people on the planet earth that don’t want to honor their commitments to their client. They don’t want to show up on time. And therefore you’re not a good fit for Serene Clean. So she’s not running around just randomly firing people. She’s just saying, if you have a certain standard and expectation, and on behalf of the customer, because you’re a customer advocate, you’re saying, this is the standard we have to deliver at. Now, next thing, step number 11 here, you pay yourself well and you don’t apologize for it. Now, it is gonna be said that you actually make more money now per month than many people make per year. And I repeat that, you make now more money per month than many people now make per year. And you’ve learned to pay yourself well and not apologize for it. But I knew you, you know, going back to when you first called us to where, you know, you were really grinding to make it work and now you’re doing really well. Now that you’re paying yourself well and not apologizing for it, are you able to enjoy more time freedom to work out, to read, to spend time with family, friends, to think more meta on your business? Or how has that impacted you? Oh yeah, definitely not having to worry about income is really empowering. And also, of course, that just allows you to do a lot of good in the world, because number one, we’re here to make money, but money is just a tool. And so that allows us to help the community, help our families, buy cool stuff, of course. But the time freedom is really, that’s the whole point of this for me, is like, I don’t want to have to be anywhere I don’t want to be at any given time. So now I can do that. Now, final thing is you’ve been able to sustain diligence and accountability. What does that mean? Diligence is where it’s the steady application of effort over time. It’s like long after the motivation, the big idea wears off. You know, there’s always the excitement of a new idea. Whoo! New idea. Yes! New idea. Love the new idea. Just had a new idea. I should buy a boat. I should buy. I should start a company. It should be called Serene Clean. Well, long after that idea has worn off, then diligence kicks in. Diligence is a steady application of effort. If you’re out there, you’ve ever played sports at a high level, you’ve ever been a top-notch speaker, you’ve ever been a top musician, anybody who’s out there who’s done anything at a high level, you know the level of preparation is what prepares you for the ovations. And then, but everybody out there, if you have a sound mind and you’re being honest, you need a little bit of accountability. We all need accountability. Somebody that can hold us accountable to push through goals, push through obstacles that made that time seem insurmountable. You know, sometimes it’s like, it seems overwhelming. How has the weekly meeting and the accountability helped you to stay diligent and consistent over time? Yeah. I love that. My coach definitely holds me, because everybody needs to be held accountable no matter how high achieving you think you are. And obviously, the pig-headed discipline is awesome to have that, but you still need somebody to hold you accountable. And for me, there’s certain things, like there’s always some place that you can do better and improve on. And so what my coach, Bloomer, he always, it’s like, okay, it’s been two weeks now, you haven’t gotten a video review, what’s going on? And it’s like, I don’t like getting video reviews. Like he’s calling me out on it. I love that because like, I hate it, but I love it. And because that’s, we need to be told where we’re failing. I mean, they’re telling us where we’re good, but we need to be told where we’re failing. Oh, that’s amazing. Now, again, you are a diligent woman who’s reached out. We only take on 160 clients. I think you certainly occupy one of those spaces as well. And what’s interesting is, you know, last year our average client grew by 104% and we didn’t have any client that grew by over 500%. So 1,462% is certainly going to impact that average. What advice would you have for anybody out there listening who’s contemplating going to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash EO fire to schedule a consultation? Because again, if people want to schedule a free consultation with me, I don’t charge for that. We do have call screeners. They’re going to make sure I’m not wasting your time and you’re not wasting my time to see if you’re a good fit. But there’s people out there contemplating going to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash EOfire.com. That’s thrivetimeshow.com forward slash EOfire.com. What advice would you have or feedback would you have for somebody thinking about attending one of our in-person workshops or scheduling a one-on-one consultation? I think that most people should definitely go to the conference, but when it comes to the one-on-one coaching, I think you really need to look at yourself and say, am I ready to maybe be told to do things that I’m not comfortable with, and am I ready to do it? Because you can always hemm and haw and go back and forth, but if you’re not ready to implement anything, it’s probably not a good fit because your coaches are going to push you, and that’s the whole point. You’re paying them to push you, so if you’re not ready and willing to make changes, then don’t bother. I tell you what, I really do appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to join us. I’m so excited about your growth there, and hopefully we’ll see you in December. Are you coming in December to the conference? Not with this big job. I’m on a military base. I’m on a military base right now. Oh, shit, I’m rejected. Okay, that’s fine, but maybe we’ll see you at the next one. Okay, thank you for being here, I appreciate you. Thank you, Clay. Take care, bye bye. Okay, hey guys, my name is Stephanie Pipkin. I own Serene Clean and this is my grandma, Sue. And we are gonna briefly just go over the Dream 100 drop-offs that she does for Serene Clean and how it has really helped grow our business and spread the word of our business in our area. So just a little background on Serene Clean and working with Thrive Coaching. So I’ve used Thrive out of Oklahoma for two years this month. And when we started working with Thrive, we were at about 200,000 in revenue a year. And this year we’re projected to do 1.4 million in revenue a year. So it’s grown very, very drastically since we’ve implemented all the systems. And that’s what we’re gonna talk about today is some of the, one of the systems that they have encouraged and harassed us to use and it works really good and that’s 3100 drop-offs and that’s something that my grandma Sue does for me and she is absolutely killing it. So grandma basically if you can just describe what it is that you do? When I get there, of course I introduce myself and the business, and I just tell them that I am a business to business call. I’m not there to sell them anything. I’m just there to introduce them to a new business in our area. What do you bring and leave with them? I actually have a little gift for them, and then a sweet treat, and I have the paperwork that explains all about Serene Clean and as I’m talking to them I try to like give a little bit of thing talk about things that would encourage them makes it a little more relaxed and casual and then I I do sign my name on all the things so I tell them that they can’t forget me and put a little smiley face with it and leave them as I go then I say and here’s a sweet treat to get you through the day. So basically she just goes gets a box of donuts, hits all our stops for the day and what she’s leaving behind is basically a sales sheet that explains like what makes Swing Clean different and on the back of it is commercial references of companies that we already cleaned for. So the whole purpose of this is to get us more janitorial accounts because those are excellent accounts for us. And the thing she’s also asking is, how do they clean now? And are they using a service now? How happy are they with it? Is there any issues? And who are you usually talking to? Are you talking to the receptionist? Who are you talking to? It’s kind of split. A lot of the businesses I’ve been to recently, I’ve actually talked to the owners. If it’s a large, large business, I’ll be talking to the lady or person, it’s usually a girl, at the front desk. And I ask her, sometimes they don’t know or they don’t tell me, and sometimes they do know, so it just works out really well to find out from them, do they have a cleaner? And like a lot of them that I talk to the owners, they actually are doing a lot of the cleaning themselves. So, it just gives me a little heads up too of what they’re doing and then I pass it on to Steph. Yeah, so then at the end of her stop she types up a little synopsis of who she talked to, what was the reaction, things like that, and you know, is there room. Because really the goal of her doing this is to get the foot in the door for me to do a walkthrough and bid an account. That is the whole purpose of this. Overall, how would you say the reaction is? It’s been really well. You don’t know, but I get excited when it’s a great day and the sun is shining. Sometimes it’s snowing, but whenever, when I have a great day and everybody’s just happy to see me, it just makes it a fun thing to know them. I’ve been from the area for a long time, so a lot of times I see old friends also while I’m out. Yeah, this has worked really well for grandma in particular because it’s just coming from a very not salesy place at all. It’s not, you know, they’re not trying to sell, she’s just trying to introduce them and it’s very, you know, a lot of people are just so like turned off by, you know, like very hard selling and so it’s just like, one, getting them with the donuts, like nobody will turn that down and then Really? It’s just yeah a very friendly thing and this is like a long game thing Almost never is it the first stop that they’re gonna you know Have us do a walkthrough a lot of times that sheet will sit on a desk for a long time And then when they’re ready to go And you know, they they’re either pissed off about their current service or they’re just overwhelmed doing it themselves. Who is that, you know, lady who dropped off the donuts? Where is that she? Ah, Serene Queen. And then it’s top of mind and it’s just really impressive. And so kind of like the highlight of her doing this, she’s done this, how long have you been doing this? Eight months. Eight months? She got me a walk-through at a very large manufacturing facility who is like a dream client. It’s daytime commercial, Monday through Friday, like an amazing account, like who I would wildly want. And she got me a walkthrough, and we ended up winning the bid and have been cleaning for them for two weeks now. And that’s like a $5,000 a month account. So it’s significantly impactful. And again, this is long game thinking of, she’s making these introductions, and we’ve gotten plenty of smaller accounts as well from her doing these things. And just being consistent, that’s the biggest thing, is you do this every week, right? Right. Every single week, unless we have a significant snowstorm. Every week, and it’s fairly inexpensive from, like for us, we always do the donuts. I’ve tried other things, but the donuts just seem to be a hit. And yeah, I just know a lot of people are hesitant to do this, but if we can do this in a small town and to have that kind of success rate and it really we just want to be top of mind and it’s working and it’s growing the business really really well and it’s just fun to work with grandma so yeah so that is how we do Dream 100 and it’s working great and we just say go do it don’t be scared just make yourself do it basically for me I don’t like to do it but I knew grandma would be great at it and so this is one of those things of delegating and outsourcing if you don’t want to do it But if you don’t have somebody to do it You need to do it because if you don’t your business will just not grow the way you want. So yeah, that is How we handle that stuff? Ladies and gentlemen so many of you reach out to us at thrive timeshow.com Because you want to achieve success you want you want to get out of the rut you want to move from just surviving to thriving. Well, occasionally, one of you actually reaches out. And you come out to one of our interactive two-day business workshops, and you implement everything that you learn. You’re taking notes in the workbook. You’re taking notes feverishly. You’re asking questions. And then even fewer of you will reach out to become a one-on-one consulting client, of which we only work with 160 clients. Well, one of those 160 clients today, her name is Stephanie Pipkin from Wisconsin. And despite not yet being 30 years old, she has grown her company, Serene Clean, by 1,462% in just 1.5 years. Folks, she went from having a business that was barely making it to now owning a business that produces more profit per month for her than most people make in a year. Yes, she now makes more money in a month than most people now make in a year. Her name is Stephanie Pipkin. She’s the founder of a company called Serene Clean. Again, that company is called Serene Clean. If you haven’t heard about Serene Clean, it’s probably because you don’t live in Wisconsin, but specifically if you are looking for Serene Clean so you can look up her company and verify that she is real, go to serene-clean.com. It’s serene-clean.com. serene-clean.com Her name is Stephanie Pipkin. She’s having massive success. She’s here to share with you how she implemented the proven success strategies and processes that we taught her at the Interactive Business Workshop and how it’s changed her life and how implementing these proven processes and success strategies can change your life too. 3, 2, 1, boom! You are now entering the dojo of Mojo and the Thrive Time Show. Thrive Time Show on the microphone, what is this? Top of the iTunes charts in the category of business. Drilling down on business topics like we are a dentist providing you with mentorship like you are an apprentice And we go so fast that you might get motion sickness Grab a pen and pad to the lab. Let’s get in time to best improve like some low-end three two one here come the business ninja Sonic boom I know many of you have had a Challenging year many of you watching this have a successful company many of you have a business that is struggled. Maybe you’ve had a business that you’ve just for whatever reason have never been able to get over the hump. Maybe you’ve always been just kind of stuck in a rut and that’s become your normal. Maybe you went from the goal you were you used to have a goal to thrive and now your goal is just to survive. Well to build your faith and to build your encouragement that you have the mental capacity and the tenacity needed to succeed. I thought I would get one of our younger success stories on the Thrive Time shows. You can talk to an entrepreneur who I don’t believe is yet 30 years old, but yet is still achieving massive success. Stephanie, welcome onto the Thrive Time show. How are you? Good, Clay, thank you. So Stephanie, where’s home for you? I live in rural Western Wisconsin, so Sparta, Wisconsin. And how did you originally hear about the Thrive Time Show business consulting program? I heard about you guys actually through Entrepreneurs on Fire. You did an interview with JD over there. And do you remember where you were when you first heard that show? I was cleaning a house, actually. Well, you’re cleaning a house in Wisconsin. And from the time that you were there. I remember the exact house. Yep. From the time that you decided to get up the courage needed to schedule a call until now, how much have you grown? Since then, let’s see, 1,462%. 1,462%. And what kind of a timeframe has that been from the time that you reached out to now? Yep. I reached out, we started working together in March of 2020. It is October, end of October, 2021. So, you know, year and a half. Wow. Okay. So, we’ve done a lot together and many things you’ve done very, very well. And so I thought I’d do on today’s show is I’m gonna bring up the things that you’ve been able to implement that we’ve taught you. And I’d love to get your take on how you’ve been able to implement these. I’m going to go through 10 core systems that I believe you’ve been able to implement well, and I’d like to get your take on it. First off, you were not resistant to the idea of upgrading your branding. You were not resistant to the idea of upgrading your website print pieces. You actually leaned in and you wanted to get it done and get it done quickly. Talk to the listeners out there about how having an upgraded website has helped you. Yeah, the just overwhelming professionalism that people get from visiting our website just really blows them away to make them like realize that we are professional and that we stand apart from everybody else in the area. So the website was key. I also think one thing that a lot of clients probably get stuck on is being too nitpicky about things and just wanting it perfect as opposed to wanting it done. So I think the biggest thing is get it done. We can always change things later, but it’s better to have an awesome website than a perfect website right now. And now step two, we optimize your website. A lot of people have great websites that look wonderful, but they’re not canonically compliant. They’re not indexable, they’re not searchable, so therefore humans on the planet Earth who are using search engines can’t find them. Again, you didn’t push back, you leaned into it. Talk to the listeners out there about how optimizing your website has helped increase your leads. Oh, definitely. So, Google leads are huge for us and people finding our website are huge. So, writing the content articles, making sure those keywords are showing up. We’re showing up when people search, you know, housecleaning, or whatever they’re searching, whatever search terms we’re trying to show up for. So that’s huge. And of course, the review side of things is huge too for pointing people towards our website. Okay, you jumped ahead on my little cheat sheet here, but step three, gathering objective reviews. You guys have done a great job of gathering objective reviews from your happy clients. Talk to the listeners out there about the importance of gathering objective Google reviews from your happy clients? Oh, it’s so important. Like when I started working with Thrive, I definitely didn’t think like I needed to focus on that. I think I had 12 Google reviews when we started working together. And now between the two locations, we have, I think like 210 or something like that, like five-star reviews, all real. Um, and when people find us, I mean, it’s not even a, how much do you cost? It’s when, when can you come? I don’t care how much you cost. So people are ready to close like that. Now, step four is building a transparent and easy to understand sales system. You know, a pricing structure where somebody who maybe is not the most complicated individual, somebody who’s very simple like me could understand your pricing real quickly. Again, you’ve leaned in on that. You’ve been great to work with. Talk to the listeners about the importance of having a simple to understand pricing structure that your ideal and likely buyer can understand immediately. You just want them to not be confused. They’re like, why is this like this or whatever? And also from the like inside perspective of the managers or whoever is answering your phone, they need to be able to quickly answer questions and stuff without having a lot of training. So it needs to be able to be in like the sales script when they’re doing a call that they can just very quickly know what the numbers are and not have to be complex about it. Now step five is implementing sales scripting. You have done a great job of implementing sales scripting and so many entrepreneurs, I’m telling you, oh, they say, I don’t want to do a script because I don’t want to sound like I’m reading a script. I don’t want my staff to be sounding like they’re reading. I want my team to have their own personality. I want them to embrace their true selves. And therefore, when their phone rings at their local business, every time their phone rings, it’s just like a minefield. You never know if the phone is going to be answered professionally, if it will be answered at all. You never know what people are going to say. Nothing is written down. It becomes a verbal tribal tradition. It becomes a celebration of jackassery. Tell the listeners out there, why have you embraced sales scripting and how has it helped your company? Sales scripts are amazing as well as, of course, the call recording so that we can hold people accountable to the sales script. But it just takes all the guesswork and then all of the variables of what people say are removed so that if something’s not working, we’re able to pinpoint what that is and tweak one thing as opposed to whatever the people are deciding to say. And it also flows really nicely and it doesn’t sound robotic at all. Once you get used to it, it’s like, I could say it off the top of my head, the exact scripts we use and we know they close. And that way we know it works instead of just people doing whatever they feel like. Now you also implemented a quality control checklist system where basically it’s not in people’s minds. They don’t have to remember, your technicians don’t have to remember what they’re supposed to do. There’s a checklist for everything. I mean, everything. When you go into clean a home or a commercial business, there’s a checklist for everything. Talk to the listeners out there about the mind freedom that you’ve experienced since, you know, taking it out of your head and putting it on a checklist. Yeah, it just makes it so simple because it’s like, here’s the standard the cleaning tech is responsible for and is going to be held accountable to. And if that’s not hit, then we know that there’s a problem. They don’t get to say like, well, I didn’t know. They don’t get to say, I didn’t know. And then on the client side, they have expectations set. Instead of them setting the expectation, we are setting the expectation, as opposed to them being like, well, I thought you guys were going to clean my gutters. It’s like, well, it ain’t on the checklist, so we’re not going to clean your gutters, you know? Now, knowing and optimizing your numbers, in terms of the financial aspects of the company, again, you’ve leaned into that. A lot of people who are into fitness, I find, lean into that. They want to know how much they weigh, what their body fat percentage is, how many calories they’re eating. People that don’t want to lean into fitness don’t want to know how many calories they’re eating, don’t want to know their body fat percentage. People that are into artwork and doing well at art, musicians, I’ve worked with a lot of musicians. The musicians that are good want to know how they sound. They want to hear themselves. People that are not good don’t want to hear themselves. Of great ballet dancers and performers want to see themselves in a mirror. They want to analyze. Great builders want to see checklists and processes and blueprints. People, the accountants who are good at their job, they want to know the numbers. Entrepreneurs who are not good at entrepreneurship never want to know their numbers. Talk to the listeners out there about the importance of knowing and optimizing your numbers. Actually knowing how much profit you’re going to make per job? Yeah, I would say number one most important thing in my opinion is the tracking sheet that we implement together. And that every single day I’m in the tracking sheet and knowing like exactly where my business is, especially now I’m very removed from the day to day kind of operations to a point. I’m not answering the phones, I’m not doing this, I’m not like seeing the complaints or any quality issues or whatever. But I have my finger on the pulse of my business and every single aspect of the revenue, expenses, leads, closing rates, number of appointments, number of reviews, number of photos that are getting uploaded, just everything you could possibly know about the business, I know. So I’m never questioning or going off of emotion, because that’s not what we want to do. We want to go off of facts and numbers. And so I know that we’re growing or whatever, we’re closing, et cetera, et cetera, because the numbers don’t lie. So I love the tracking sheet and I think it’s the number one thing that people should implement. If they don’t do nothing else, they need to know their numbers. Now you’ve attended a multiple in-person two-day interactive business workshops. And the reason why we include that is a quasi-free service. What do I mean by that? I mean, it’s not a revenue generator for me. If you’re a client of mine, I say, hey, you can come to these events. We make it very, very affordable. If you’re not a client, you can pay $250 to attend the workshop. And if you’re in a tight spot, we have scholarship tickets available. But the point is everybody can afford to attend. Can you explain how the interactive business workshops have actually helped you to maybe further understand the path or to get a whole picture view of the actual business plan. Yeah, I love the conferences because I always walk away with action items, even though I go over these things with my coach every week, it just, I always walk away with something like, wow, I get a fresh perspective on things because you’re interacting with a lot of other business owners and bouncing ideas off of each other and hearing what worked for them or what people are struggling with. And of course, then like having you like explain it in the way that you do, it just makes it very like actionable. Like I always go away with like, this is what I need to do on Monday to make these things happen. It’s not just like it’s this motivational thing. Do you laugh a little bit? Do you have a little bit of fun? I do. I have a lot of fun at the conferences. OK. And what kind of people attend the conferences? Not liberals. Oh, that’s funny. It seems like all, we start at 7 a.m. and it seems like the entrepreneurs are like, this is awesome. We start at 7, I can be done by 3, I can still make some calls. Again, you’re sitting next to people that have had massive success, people that have been in the program for years. Is that helpful to sit next to other people that have actually helped you? Oh my, I can’t even, like, the people I’ve met there have been life, they’ve changed my life. Like, obviously, you guys have all changed my life, literally, I’m not just, you know, blowing smoke here. But meeting the people, you know, the Josh Wilsons of the world, who I literally texted him today. Like, you know, we’re on a friend basis, we have calls all the time, like, just the people that I’ve met is life changing. What is your website if people right now want to go online and they want to look up your website and see who you are and what you’re all about? Yeah, it is www.serene-clean.com. You came to the workshop, you’ve implemented the tracking sheet, the group interview. People say, it’s so hard to find people. I’ve never had a hard time finding people. Even right now I don’t have a hard time finding people, but I can tell you it’s a system that I’ve applied. It’s a proven system, a proven process that I’ve done. I’ve been doing this process of hiring people. This marks, I know it’s crazy, 22 years of doing the same system. Every week interviewing people, 22 years I’ve been doing this. I’m a 40-year-old person. I’ve been doing the group interview for 22 years. Can you talk about the importance of doing the group interview and how it’s changed your business? Oh, it’s so important. Like, that has been, I would say that’s a big game changer too because I always have candidates like ready to go when something happens. And you know, in the past two months, we’ve taken on a huge contract and I have hired probably 40 people and somebody quit today, somebody quit yesterday. I fired somebody three days ago. It doesn’t matter. Next, next, next, you know, so it’s amazing. Just a little context, just so you know, things that will get you fired if you’re out there and you don’t know about serene-clean.com. If you’re not on time, if you don’t honor your commitments to the client, you’re gonna get fired. And there are certain people on the planet earth that don’t want to honor their commitments to their client and they don’t wanna show up on time. And therefore you’re not a good fit for Serene Clean. So she’s not running around just randomly firing people. She’s just saying, if you have a certain standard and expectation and on behalf of the customer, cause you’re a customer advocate, you’re saying this is the standard we have to deliver at. Now, next thing, step number 11 here, you pay yourself well and you don’t apologize for it. Now, it is gonna be said that you actually make more money now per month than many people make per year. And I repeat that, you make now more money per month than many people now make per year. And you’ve learned to pay yourself well and not apologize for it. But I knew you, you know, going back to when you first called us to where, you know, you were really grinding to make it work and now you’re doing really well. Now that you’re paying yourself well and not apologizing for it, are you able to enjoy more time freedom to work out, to read, to spend time with family, friends, to think more meta on your business or how has that impacted you? Oh yeah, definitely not having to worry about income is really empowering. And also of course, that just allows you to do a lot of good in the world because number one, we’re here to make money, but money is just a tool. And so that allows us to help the community, help our families, buy cool stuff, of course. But the time freedom is really, that’s the whole point of this for me, is like, I don’t want to have to be anywhere I don’t want to be at any given time. So, and now I can do that. Now, final thing is you’ve been able to sustain diligence and accountability. What does that mean? Diligence is where it’s the steady application of effort over time. It’s like long after the motivation, the big idea wears off. There’s always the excitement of a new idea. Woo, new idea. Yes, new idea. Love the new idea. Just had a new idea. I should buy a boat. I should buy, I should start a company. It should be called Serene Clean. Well, long after that idea has worn off, then diligence kicks in. And diligence is a steady application of effort. If you’re out there and you’ve ever played sports at a high level, you’ve ever been a top notch speaker, you’ve ever been a top musician, anybody out there who’s done anything at a high level, you know the level of preparation is what prepares you for the ovations. Again, the preparation is what prepares you for the ovations. And then, but everybody out there, if you have a sound mind and you’re being honest, you need a little bit of accountability. We all need accountability. Somebody that can hold us accountable to push through goals, push through obstacles that made that time seem insurmountable. You know, sometimes it’s like, it seems overwhelming. How has the weekly meeting and the accountability helped you to stay diligent and consistent over time? Yeah, I love that. My coach definitely like holds me, because everybody needs to be held accountable no matter how high achieving you think you are. And obviously like, you know, the the pigheaded discipline is awesome to have that, but you still need somebody to hold you accountable. And like, for me, you know, there’s certain things, like there’s always some place that you can do better and improve on. And so what my coach Bloomer, he always, you know, it’s like, okay, it’s been two weeks now you haven’t gotten a video review, what’s going on? And it’s like, I don’t like getting video reviews. Like he’s calling me out on it. I love that because like, I hate it, but I love it. And because that’s, we need to be told where we’re failing. I mean, they’re telling us where we’re good, but we need to be told where we’re failing. Oh, that’s amazing. Now, again, you are a diligent woman who’s reached out. We only take on 160 clients. I think you certainly occupy one of those spaces as well. And what’s interesting is, you know, last year, our average client grew by 104% and we didn’t have any client that grew by over 500%. So 1,462% is certainly gonna impact that average. What advice would you have for anybody out there listening who’s contemplating going to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash EO fire to schedule a consultation? Because again, if people wanna schedule a free consultation with me, I don’t charge for that. We do have call screeners. They’re gonna make sure I’m not wasting your time and you’re not wasting my time to see if you’re a good fit. But there’s people out there contemplating going to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash EOfire.com. That’s thrivetimeshow.com forward slash EOfire.com. What advice would you have or feedback would you have for somebody thinking about attending one of our in-person workshops or scheduling a one-on-one consultation? I think that most people should definitely go to the conference, but when it comes to the one-on-one coaching, I think you really need to look at yourself and say, am I ready to maybe be told to do things that I’m not comfortable with? And am I ready to do it? Because you can always hemm and haw and go back and forth. But if you’re not ready to implement anything, it’s probably not a good fit. Because your coaches are going to push you. And that’s the whole point. You’re paying them to push you. So if you’re not ready and willing to make changes, then don’t bother. I tell you what, I really do appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to join us. I’m so excited about your growth there, and hopefully we’ll see you in December. Are you coming in December to the conference? Not with this big job. I’m on a military base. I’m on a military base right now. Oh, heck, shit, I’m rejected. Okay, that’s fine, but maybe we’ll see you at the next one. Okay, thank you for being here. I appreciate you. Thank you, Clay. Take care, bye-bye. Hey, I’m Ryan Wimpey. I went to a small private liberal arts college and got a degree in business, and I didn’t learn anything like they’re teaching here. I didn’t learn linear workflows. I learned stuff that I’m not using and I haven’t been using for the last nine years. So what they’re teaching here is actually way better than what I got at business school, and I went what was actually ranked as a very good business school. The linear workflow, the linear workflow for us in getting everything out on paper and documented is really important. We have workflows that are kind of all over the place. Having linear workflow and seeing that mapped out on multiple different boards is pretty awesome. That’s really helpful for me. The atmosphere here is awesome. I definitely just stared at the walls figuring out how to make my facility look like this place. This place rocks. It’s invigorating. The walls are super, it’s just very cool. The atmosphere is cool. The people are nice. It’s a pretty cool place to be. Very good learning atmosphere. I literally want to model it and steal everything that’s here at this facility and basically create it just on our business side. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9 and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey guys, I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. 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 is where we used to live a few years ago. This is our old team and 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 one to ten 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 over 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 a thousand. 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. All right. And now, ladies and gentlemen, I’m going to bring up my good friend, Ryan Wimpy, my good friend, Ryan Wimpy, and his dog, Odin. This dog has the ability to eat me, so I’m sort of concerned. I’ll pass the mic to you, and Odin, you can have your own mic if you want, whatever you want, Odin. Okay, I’m a little bit afraid of Odin. Hi, I’m Ryan Wimpey. And I’m Rachel Wimpey, and the name of our business is Kip Topping Training. Our business is a dog training business. We help people with behavioral issues and teach their dog how to listen. When I was learning to become a dog trainer, we didn’t learn anything about Internet marketing or advertising or anything at all. Just dog training, and that’s what’s so great about working with Clay and his team, because they do it all for us. So that we can focus on our passion and us training dogs. Clay and his team here, they’re so enthusiastic. Their energy is off the charts. Never a dull moment. Very proud. We’ve been working with Clay and his team for the last five months, two of which have been our biggest months ever. One, our biggest gross by 35%. Clay’s helped us make anything from brochures to stickers, new business cards, new logos, scripts for phones, scripts for emails, scripts for text messages, scripting for everything. How I would describe the weekly meetings with Clay and his team are awesome. They’re so effective. It’s worth every minute. Things get done, we’ll ask for things like different flyers and they’re done before our hour is up. So it’s just awesome, extremely effective. If you don’t use Clay and his team, you’re probably going to be pulling your hair out, or you’re going to spend half of your time trying to figure out the online marketing game and producing your own flyers and marketing materials, print materials, all the stuff like that. You’re really losing a lot as far as lost productivity and lost time. Not having a professional do it has a real sense of urgency and actually knows what they’re doing when you already have something that’s your core focus that you already know how to do. You would also be missing out with all the time and financial freedom that you would have working with Clay and his team. We would recommend Clay and his team to other business owners because they need to be working on their business, not just trying to figure out the online game, which is complex and changing daily. So, no one has a marketing team, too. Most people don’t. They can’t afford one, and their local web guy or local person that they know probably can’t do everything that a whole team and a whole floor of people can do in hours and not just weeks or months. There’s a definite sense of urgency with Clay and his team. I used to have to ride other web people, I mean really ride them to get stuff done and stuff is done so fast here and people there’s a real sense of urgency to get it done. Alright JT, so hypothetically in your mind what is the purpose of having a business? To get you to your goals. So it’s a vehicle to get you to your destination. And would you need profits to get there? I mean, when you have a business that’s successful, in your expert opinion, would you need profits to get you to your goals? Yeah, because if you have a $15 million business, but you have $15 million of expenses, it’s kind of pointless. Holy crap! Alright so the question I would have here for you if you could take like 10 minutes or less and see if you could save 3,000 bucks a year by reducing your credit card fees would you do it? Yes absolutely. Why would somebody out there who’s listening right now who has a sane mind why would they not go to thrive timeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card to schedule a 10 minute consultation to see if they can reduce their credit card fees by at least 3,000 bucks a year. Why would they not do it? Yeah, why would they not do it? Maybe because they don’t understand how you set the website. This tree is a symbol of the spirit of the Griswold family Christmas. No, that’s clear. OK, so that can be true. So I encourage everybody to check out thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. What would be another reason why someone would not be willing to take 10 minutes to compare rates to see if they could save $3,000 or more on credit card fees? Maybe they think it is a waste of time, and then it won’t. It’s not possible. There’s somebody out there that’s making more than $3,000 every 10 minutes and they’re like nah that’s not worth my time There’s probably some someone out there okay they would think that well I’ll just tell you folks if you’re out there today and you’re making less than uh three thousand dollars per 10 minutes I would highly recommend that you go to thrive timeshow.com forward slash credit dash hard um because you can compare rates, you can save money, and you know, the big goal, in my opinion, of building a business is to create time freedom and financial freedom. And in order to do that, you have to maximize your profits. Holy crap. Now, one way to maximize your profits is to increase your revenue. Another way to do it is to decrease your expenses. It’s a profit deal. It takes the pressure off. JT, is there any other reason why somebody would not be willing to take 10 minutes to compare rates to see if they could save a total of $3,000 a year on average? I am at a loss and I cannot think of any other. Shampoo is better. I leave the hair silky and smooth. Oh really fool, really. Stop looking at me swan. Let me tell you a good story here real quick. I actually years ago compared rates with this company here. It’s called IPS. It’s Integrated Payment Services. And I scheduled a consultation I I don’t know if I was skeptical I just thought whatever I’ll take 10 minutes I’ll compare rates I can’t tell you can tell me I’m a doctor no I mean I’m just not sure but can’t you take a guess? Well, not for another two hours you can’t take a guess for another two hours? And in my case in my in my case my particular case I save over twenty thousand dollars a year Holy crap! Wow. Which is like groceries when my wife goes to the organic stores. Find everything you need today? Yeah. Great. Okay. Oh, God. No! Everything okay, ma’am? Oh, it’s just that you’ve only scanned a few items and it’s already 60 bucks. I’m so scared. Okay, I’m a trained professional, ma’am. I’ve scanned a lot of groceries. I need you to stay with me. It’s just that my in-laws are in town, and they want a charcuterie board. This isn’t going to be easy, so I need you to be brave, all right? What’s your name? Patricia. Patricia, all right. I need you to take a deep breath. We’re about to do the cheese. You know, that’s the difference between eating organic and not organic. So because my wife eats organic, I had to take the 10 minutes needed to compare rates to save the $20,000 a year on credit card fees just for one of my companies. One question, what’s the brand name of the clock? The brand name of the clock, Rod, do we have it? The brand name of the clock, it’s an elegant, from Ridgway, it’s from Ridgway. Let’s… Let’s buy… Buy the clock. And sell the fireplace. I encourage everybody out there, go to Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. You schedule a free consultation, request information, a member of our team will call you they’ll schedule a free consultation It should take you 10 minutes or less And they’re gonna compare rates and see if they can’t save you more than $3,000 a year Off of your credit card processing you were hoping what I would know you money Oh, you don’t owe us money because the end of the day at the end of the day The goal of the business is to create time freedom and financial freedom in order to do it in order to do that you need to create additional profits. The number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. We are Jared and Jennifer Johnson. We own Platinum Pest and Lawn and are located in Owasso, Oklahoma and we have been working with Thrive for business coaching for almost a year now. Yeah so what we want to do is we want to share some wins with you guys that we’ve had by working with Thrive. First of all we’re on the top page of Google now. Okay I just want to let you know what type of accomplishment this is. Our competition Orkin, Terminex, they’re both 1.3 billion dollar companies. They both have two to three thousand pages of content attached to their website. So to basically go from virtually nonexistent on Google to up on the top page is really saying something. But it’s come by being diligent to the systems that Thrive has, by being consistent and diligent on doing podcasts and staying on top of those podcasts to really help with getting up on what they’re listing and ranking there with Google. And also we’ve been trying to get Google reviews, asking our customers for reviews. And now we’re the highest rated and most reviewed Pesce Monde company in the Tulsa area. And that’s really helped with our conversion rate. And the number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. Wait, say that again. How much are we up? 411%. Okay. So 411% we’re up with our new customers. Amazing. Right. So not only do we have more customers calling in, we’re able to close those deals at a much higher rate than we were before. Right now our closing rate is about 85% and that’s largely due to, first of all, our Google reviews that we’ve gotten. People really see that our customers are happy, but also we have a script that we follow. And so when customers call in, they get all the information that they need. That script has been refined time and time again. It wasn’t a one and done deal. It was a system that we followed with Thrive in the refining process. And that has obviously, the 411% shows that that system works. Yeah, so here’s a big one for you. So last week alone, our booking percentage was 91%. We actually booked more deals and more new customers last year than we did the first five months Or I’m sorry the first we booked more deals last week Then we did the first five months of last year from before we worked with Thrive So again, we booked more deals last week than the first five months of last year It’s incredible But the reason why we have that success by implementing the systems that Thrive has taught us and helped us out with. Some of those systems that we’ve implemented are group interviews. That way we’ve really been able to come up with a really great team. We’ve created and implemented checklists that when everything gets done and it gets done right, it creates accountability. We’re able to make sure that everything gets done properly both out in the field and also in our office. And also doing the podcast like Jared had mentioned that has really, really contributed to our success. But that, like I said, the diligence and consistency in doing those in that system has really, really been a big blessing in our lives. And also, you know, it’s really shown that we’ve gotten a success from following those systems. So before working with Thrive, we were basically stuck. Really no new growth with our business. And we were in a rut. And we didn’t know. Okay, the last three years, our customer base had pretty much stayed the same. We weren’t shrinking, but we weren’t really growing either. Yeah, and so we didn’t really know where to go, what to do, how to get out of this rut that we’re in. But Thrive helped us with that. You know, they implemented those systems, and they taught us those systems. They taught us the knowledge that we needed in order to succeed. Now it’s been a grind. Absolutely, it’s been a grind this last year, but we’re getting those fruits from that hard work and the diligent effort that we’re able to put into it. So again, we were in a rut, Thrive helped us get out of that rut, and if you’re thinking about working with Thrive, quit thinking about it and just do it. Do the action, and you’ll get the results. It will take hard work and discipline, but that’s what it’s going to take in order to really succeed. So we just want to give a big shout out to Thrive, a big thank you out there to Thrive. We wouldn’t be where we’re at now without their help. Hi, I’m Dr. Mark Moore. I’m a pediatrician. Through our new digital marketing plan, we have seen a marked increase in the number of new patients that we’re seeing every month, year over year. One month, for example, we went from 110 new patients the previous year to over 180 new patients in the same month. Overall our average is running about 40 to 42 percent increase month over month, year over year. The group of people required to implement our new digital marketing plan is immense, starting with a business coach, videographers, photographers, web designers. Back when I graduated dental school in 1985, nobody advertised. The only marketing that was ethically allowed in everybody’s eyes was mouth-to-mouth marketing. By choosing to use the services, you’re choosing to use a proof-and-turn-key marketing and coaching system that will grow your practice and get you the results that you’re looking for. I went to the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry, graduated in 1983 and then I did my pediatric dental residency at Baylor College of Dentistry from 1983 to 1985. Hello my name is Charles Colaw with Colaw Fitness. Today I want to tell you a little bit about Clay Clark and how I know Clay Clark. Clay Clark has been my business coach since 2017. He’s helped us grow from two locations to now six locations. We’re planning to do seven locations in seven years and then franchise. Clay has done a great job of helping us navigate anything that has to do with running the business, building the systems, the checklists, the workflows, the audits, how to navigate lease agreements, how to buy property, how to work with brokers and builders. This guy is just amazing. This kind of guy has worked in every single industry. He’s written books with Lee Crocker, the head of Disney with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with Mike Lindell. He does Reawaken America tours where he does these tours all across the country where 10,000 or more people show up to some of these tours. On the day-to-day, he does anywhere from about 160 companies. He’s at the top. He has a team of business coaches, videographers, and graphic designers, and web developers, and they run 160 companies every single week. So think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. So in the weekly he’s running 160 companies. Every 6-8 weeks he’s doing reawaken America tours. Every 6-8 weeks he’s also doing business conferences where 200 people show up and he teaches people a 13 step proven system that he’s done and worked with billionaires helping them grow their companies. So I’ve seen guys from startups go from startup to being multi-millionaires, teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom through the system. Critical thinking, document creation, making it, putting it into, organizing everything in their head to building it into a franchisable, scalable business. Like one of his businesses has like 500 franchises. That’s just one of the companies or brands that he works with. So amazing guy, Elon Musk, kind of like smart guy. He kind of comes off sometimes as socially awkward but he’s so brilliant and he’s taught me so much. When I say that, Clay is like he doesn’t care what people think when you’re talking to him. He cares about where you’re going in your life and where he can get you to go. And that’s what I like him most about him. He’s like a good coach. A coach isn’t just making you feel good all the time. A coach is actually helping you get to the best you. And Clay has been an amazing business coach. Through the course of that, we became friends. My most impressed with him is when I was shadowing him one time, we went into a business deal and listened to it. I got to shadow and listen to it. And when we walked out, I knew that he could make millions on the deal, and they were super excited about working with him. And he told me, he’s like, I’m not gonna touch it, I’m gonna turn it down, because he knew it was gonna harm the common good of people in the long run. And the guy’s integrity just really wowed me. It brought tears to my eyes to see that this guy, his highest desire was to do what’s right. And anyways, just an amazing man. So anyways, impacted me a lot. He’s helped navigate. Anytime I’ve got nervous or worried about how to run the company or navigating competition and an economy that’s like, I remember we got closed down for three months. He helped us navigate on how to stay open, how to get back open, how to just survive through all the COVID shutdowns, lockdowns. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9 and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey guys, I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. 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. Right, this is where we used to live years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See, it’s nice, right? So this is my old van and our old school marketing. And this is our old team. And 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 four 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 one 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 over 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 a thousand. The Thrive Time Show, two-day interactive business workshops I’ll see you next time. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter Bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and you’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get-rich-quick, walk-on hot coals product. It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, but I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever, and we’re going to give you your money back if you don’t love it. We’ve built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see it. If we go back eight years ago, think about the number of clients you had back then versus the number of clients you have now. As a percentage, what has been the growth over the past eight years, do you think? We’ve got to inspire somebody out there who just doesn’t have the time to listen to their phone. Okay, so Clay, it’s like I would go up and down from about $10,000 a month up to about $40,000, but it’s up and down roller coaster. And so now we’ve got it to where we’re in excess of 100 clients. That’s awesome. And so I would have anywhere from 5 clients to 20 clients on my own with networking, but I had no control over it. I didn’t, without the systems, you’re going to be victimized by your own business. For somebody out there who struggles with math, if you would say that your average number of clients was 30 and you go to 100, as a percentage, what is that? I have doubled every year since working with you. So I’ve doubled in clients, I’ve doubled in revenue every year. That’s 100% growth every year I’ve worked with you. So I’m looking, we’ve been good friends 7, 8 years and I’ve got doubled 5 times. Which is just incredible. I mean the first time you do it, that’s one thing, but when you do it repeatedly, I mean that’s unbelievable. We’re working our Bless Assurance off this year to double. We’re planning on doubling again. We’re incorporating some new things in there to really help us do it. But we are going to double again this year. I started coaching, but it would go up and down, Clay. That’s when I came to you, as I was going up and down, and I wanted to go up and up instead of up and down. So, that’s when it needed a system. Creating a system is you have nailed down specific steps that you’re going to take no matter how you feel, no matter the results, you lean into them and you do them regardless of what’s happening. You lean into them and it will give you X number of leads. You follow up with those leads, it turns into sales. Well, I tell you, if you don’t have a script and you don’t have a system, then every day is a whole new creation. You’re creating a lot of energy just to figure out what are you going to do. The best executives, Peter Drucker is a father of modern management, and he said, the most effective executives make one decision a year. What you do is you make a decision, what is your system, and then you work like the Dickens to make sure you follow that system. And so that’s really what it’s all about. So with a script here, we have a brand new gal that just came in working for us. She nailed down the script, and she’s been nailing down appointments. Usually we try to get one appointment for every 100 calls. We make 200 to 300 calls a day per rep. And she’s been nailing down 5 and 8 appointments a day. Somebody out there is having a hard time. On their script. So she’s making how many calls a day? She’s making between 200 and 300 calls a day. And our relationship is weird in that we do, if someone were to buy an Apple computer today, or let’s say you buy a personal computer, a PC, the computer is made by, let’s say, Dell. But then the software in the computer would be Microsoft, let’s say, or Adobe, or whatever that is. So I basically make the systems, and you’re like the computer and I’m like the software. It’s kind of how I would describe our relationship. Tim, I want to ask you this. I think it was in the year 2000 and, what was it, maybe 2010? Is that right? 2011 maybe? Or maybe further down the road. Maybe 2013? 2012. Okay, so 2012. And at that time I was five years removed from the DJ business. And you were how many years removed from tax and accounting software? It was about 10, 11 years. We met, how did we meet? What was the first interaction? There was some interaction where you and I first connected. I just remember that somehow you and I went to Hideaway Pizza. But do you remember when we first reconnected? Yeah, well we had that speaking thing that- Oh, there it was! So it was Victory Christian Center, I was speaking there. My name is Robert Redman. I actually first met Clay almost three years ago to the day, I don’t know if he remembers it or not, but I wasn’t working with him at the time. I asked to see him and just ask him some questions to help direct my life, to get some mentorship. But I’ve been working with Clay for now just over a year. The role I play here is a business coach, business consultant. I work with different businesses, implementing best practice processes and systems that I have learned here by working with Clay. The experience working here has, to put it real plainly, has been just life-changing. I have not only learned new things and have gained new knowledge, but I have gained a whole new mindset that I believe, wherever I end up, will serve me well throughout the rest of my life. Since working with Clay, I have learned so much. I mean, I would like to say it was everything about business in terms of the different categories. I haven’t learned it all, but I’ve learned all about marketing. I’ve learned about advertising. I’ve learned about branding. I’ve learned how to create a sales process for organizations in any industry. I’ve learned how to sell. I’ve learned how to create repeatable systems and processes and hold people accountable. You know how to hire people. It’s almost like every aspect of a business you can learn. I have learned a lot in those different categories. And then again the the mindset that I’ve gained here has been huge. You know working here, you can’t be a mediocre person. You are a call to a higher standard of excellence. And then as you’re called to that standard here, you begin to see those outcomes in every area of your life, that standard of excellence that you want to implement no matter what you’re involved in. I would like to describe the other people that work with Clay are people that are going somewhere with their life. Marshall, in the group interview, talks about how the best fits for this organization are the people that are goal-oriented. So they’re on their own trajectory, and we’re on our own trajectory. And the best fits are those people where there can be a mutually beneficial relationship that as we pursue our goals and we help the business pursue those goals, the business helps us pursue our goals as well. And so I say people that are driven, people that want to make something of their lives, people that are goal-oriented, they’re focused, and they’re committed to overcoming any adversity that may come their way. Clay’s passion for helping business owners grow their businesses is, it’s unique in that, I don’t know if there’s anyone else that can be as passionate. You know, whenever a business starts working with Clay, it’s almost as like Clay is running that business in the sense that he has something at stake. You know, he’s just serving them. They’re one of his clients, but it’s as if he is actively involved in the business. Whenever they have a win, he’s posting it all over his social media. He’s shouting it across the room here at Thrive. You know, he’s sending people encouraging messages. He can kind of be that life coach and business coach in terms of being that motivator and that champion for people’s businesses. It’s again unique because there’s no one else I’ve seen get so excited about and passionate about other people’s businesses. The kind of people that wouldn’t like working with Clay are people that are satisfied with mediocrity, people that wanna get through life by just doing enough, by just getting by. People who are not looking to develop themselves, people who are not coachable, people who think that they know it all and they’re unwilling to change. I would say those are the type of people. In short, anyone that’s content with mediocrity would not like working with Clay. So if you’re meeting Clay for the first time, the advice I’d give you is definitely come ready to take tons of notes. Every time Clay speaks, he gives you a wealth of knowledge that you don’t want to miss. I remember the first time that I met Clay, I literally carried a notebook with me all around. I was looking at this notebook the other day, actually. I carried a notebook with me all around, and I just took tons of notes. I filled the entire notebook in about three or four months just from being around Clay, following him and learning from him. And then I would say come coachable. Be open to learning from him. And then I would say come coachable. Be open to learning something new. Be open to challenging yourself. Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted.