Business Podcast | How to Hire A-Players + Ultimate Best-Practice Guide to Hiring, Inspiring, Training & Retaining Quality People!!!+ Celebrating the TipTopK9 Growth Story “We just want to give a huge thank you to Clay Clark.”

Audio Transcription

Steve? Yes? Thanks for coming in today. Thank you for having me. I appreciate you applying for the job. Always. When’s the earliest you could start, Tyler? Kyler. Mrs. Anderson? You can call me Marlene. Okay, Marlene, we appreciate you applying for the job. Thank you. I appreciate being here. Let’s just dive right in. Boom! Go! What’s your availability like? I’m boycotting daylight savings time, so I’ll either be an hour early or an hour late, depending on the seasons. Tell me a little about yourself. My mom says I have to get a job, so that’s why I’m here, because she wants me to get a job. Why did you leave your last job? Of course, Harry, he was, he was, I just felt like he was looking at me in a particular way. Of course, he was blind, so I don’t know why I felt that. Why did you leave your last job, Steve? Fired. Next question. So what do you think you bring to the table? I can read people’s energies. Let me read your energy real quick. You’re a coyote. Congratulations. I don’t run errands and I don’t answer the phone. You know what I do? I look hot. 24, hot. Whatever you need, I can do it. Janitor, CEO, cook, I can do it all. And I have done it all. And I will do it all. Okay, so you’ve got a job. You’ve got a job. You’ve got a job. You’ve got a job. I can do it all and I have done it all and I will do it all. Okay, so you do have experience in all of those areas. No, but I just believe I can do it. So availability, that’s kind of a week-to-week thing for me. I really just kind of like, we’ll see. So what do you consider your weaknesses? Chocolate, candy, Snickers, Reese’s Pizzas. Racist pieces. Becky, I think we’re done here. Do I get the job? Hey, how’s it going? I’m Thomas Crosson, owner and founder of Full Package Media in Dallas, Texas. I’ve been a coaching client with Clay Clark since the beginning of our business. We started about a year ago, August of last year. I had no clients, no idea what we were doing, no clue really what was going on. And now we’ve grown to where we’ve got six photographers, we’ve got office space here, I have an admin sales person that works for us full time, developing an online system and a lot of that growth we attribute to Clay helping us and there’s so many things that… It’s just real stuff. And like group interviews, we were totally against group interviews. We were like, no, we’re different and we’re special and we need to do one-on-one interviews so we can find good quality candidates and not just kind of do this group interview thing. And we tried that and failed miserably. We did group interviews. Now we do them every two weeks and it’s awesome. It works good. We always have kind of influx of new people that we can train, get going. He’s helped us a lot with our website, graphic design, SEO. SEO is another thing that I thought before I started this business and before Clay that it was kind of a joke or something that only your apples of the world and Amazon could get to the top of Google. But Clay said, no, just do these things. Follow these steps and you’ll get there. And I think now we’ve looked today and we’re number two for Dallas Real Estate Photography. You don’t believe it, you can look. So we’re getting to the top of there. That’s really cool. It’s really awesome to get leads that people will call you and say, hey, I found you on Google. We want to hear about your services. So that’s really great. I’d say there’s nobody out there that’s not a good coaching client for Clay. I mean, regardless of the business, it’s not about what the business is, what the specialty is. It’s about following the steps, doing what he says. It’s a good thing. An hour a week, it gets you on track and keeps you in line of what you’re doing and what you shouldn’t be doing. It’s good to give you some flow and future goals of your business. I remember our first meeting we set our goals and our goal was to do 16 shoots a week. At the time, me and my business partner slash girlfriend Gretchen were like, we’re never going to do 16 a week. That’s just crazy. and today we’re doing nine and we did about 54 last week so he’s helped us grow you know we put in a lot of hours a lot of hard work as well but if you follow his steps and do what he says there’s a lot of principles that he’s kind of taught and still in us that help us so yeah Clay Clark he’s the way to go I want to venture out to find someone else. They’d be more expensive and a lot more fluff and no real actionable work and things to get your business growing. So that’s the way to go. Thanks. Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show, but this show does. In a world filled with endless opportunities, why would two men who have built 13 multi-million dollar businesses altruistically invest 5 hours per day to teach you the best practice business systems and moves that you can use? Because they believe in you and they have a lot of time on their hands. They started from the bottom, now they’re here. the former US Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark, and the entrepreneur trapped inside an optometrist’s body, Dr. Robert Zilner. Two men, eight kids, co-created by two different women, 13 multimillion dollar businesses. We started from the bottom, now we here We started from the bottom, now we here We took flight, started from the bottom And now we’re at the top, teaching you the systems To give what we got, Colton Dixon’s on the hoops I break down the books, she’s bringing some wisdom And the good looks, as the father of five That’s why I’m alive, so if you see my wife and kids Please tell them hi, it’s the C and Z up on your radio And now, 3, 2, 1, here we go! We started from the bottom, now we’re here We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here Started from the bottom, now we’re here We started from the bottom, now we’re here We started from the bottom, now we’re here We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here Started from the bottom, now we’re here We started from the bottom, now we’re here Now we’re here Yes, yes, yes, and yes! Thrive Nation on today’s show we’re talking about specifically how to hire, inspire, train and retain great quality people. And if you’ll turn with me to my newest book called A Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. If you’ll turn with me to page 173 in my newest book A Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich, you can follow along and you might say, I don’t have a copy of the book. Well, if you want to access the book for free, just go to Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash millionaire, Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash millionaire, and there you can download a new copy of my newest book, A Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. On page 173, we read. My name is D Tucker and I’ve known Clay for going on about five years now. I’m the lead designer here at Thrive and working with Clay, Clay is an anomaly. If Thrive is a set of principles, watching Clay is like watching the standard. It can be an amazing experience just being around them. In my time working with Clay, I’ve really learned how to simplify things in life. And I’ve learned to say no to some things. Improving my work-life balance has been huge. I think people who are kind of curious about their own limits and love trying new things and like being challenged, I think you’re gonna enjoy working with Clay. Clay’s passion for helping people grow their businesses, I would say is just genuine. He really hates to see people struggle, and he wants to help them in any way he can to grow their business. What I’d say is the most polarizing about Clay’s management style is that he doesn’t let you get your own area and get comfortable. He’s always pulling you into things that terrify you, pulling you on the radio show and just making you stretch yourself and expand yourself. I think if you think you’ve got it figured out pretty much, you’re not gonna, you’re gonna have a hard time working with Clay. If you’re about to meet Clay for the first time, definitely be on time and be present in the room. Be focused on what you’re there to do and don’t be distracted by phones and buzzing and texting and all of that. Not to get too deep, but I think what Clay sees in his turkeys, chickens, and cats, a trust is not, trust is kind of huge. And trust is not an element of perfection. You don’t trust people because they’re perfect. You trust them because they’re consistent. And I think consistency is something that he really appreciates in people. And to me, those animals kind of epitomize consistency. It’s easy to get into a routine with those animals. You know, he knows what to expect and they’re not going to surprise him. So I think that’s what he appreciates in people as well. Where have all of the good people gone? Well we now live in a world that is abundant with opportunities everywhere, if we just know where to look. Unfortunately we also live in a world where the average American was not raised in a stable home by stable parents who invested the time and effort needed to teach their kids the importance of having a solid work ethic, developing an actual skill that the business world appreciates, and establishing the daily practice of refining our faith, family, finance, fitness, and friendship goals. Moral boundaries and a solid work ethic are simply no longer present in the average American new hire. This creates both challenges and opportunities for wonderful employers like yours. On the negative side of things, many employees today do not have the moral boundaries, the communication skills, the basic business skills, and the basic work ethic needed to be successful in the workplace and outside of the workplace. So this is why they typically show up late on the first day of work. Looking at the bright side, however, those companies that do invest the time and energy into mentoring up their employees and their people will develop a solid company culture that will stand out from the pack. Many employees today view companies that have a commitment to personal development and creating an upbeat culture as being a beacon of hope and light within the dark job market. So what am I saying? I’m saying that if you have a staff, a business, a company, an organization that needs to hire quality people, join the conversation of many of the Thrive clients that I work with that no longer have that problem. You see, many of the clients that I work with, all the clients I work with, they no longer have a hard time hiring, inspiring, training, and retaining great people because every single week they host what’s called a group interview. On part two of today’s show, we’re going to walk you through the mechanics of how the weekly group interview works, but this is how it works in my life. On part two of today’s show, we’re going to get more into those details. Every single week, we post now hiring job posts. That could be for the home remodeling company. That could be for the new home building company. That could be for the dog training company. That could be for the haircut company, that could be for the marketing company, any company that I’m involved in, every single week we post a now hiring job post. My name is Marshall Morris and I’ve known Clay Clark for the past nine years. Up here in the office, I serve as one of the business coaches and over the past nine years it has been fantastic working with Clay. I originally started working with him over at DJ Connection and have been with him through the Realty Group and through running for mayor and building of Thrive15.com and it’s just been fantastic. It’s been a roller coaster of a ride and I’ve loved every minute of it. So in the time that I’ve been working with Clay I’ve learned a whole capacity of different things. In fact I think that that’s one of the most differentiating things up here in the office is how many different things that you can learn. I’ve learned search engine optimization, sales skills. Clay is one of the best sales trainers in the world. As well as website development, managing people, managing clients’ expectations. These are all invaluable skills that you can learn up here in the office and that Clay’s taught me. So for somebody that doesn’t know Clay incredibly well or you’re just meeting him, the first thing that you need to know about his personality is it’s very polarizing, black and white. And really that’s how you know whether you’re going to love working with him or maybe not like working with him right off the bat. And he’ll tell you and you’ll know it, and it’s okay if it’s not a good fit for a relationship or a friendship because what’s most important is developing a deep relationship with somebody that you’re going to be working with. So one of the important things to understand about Clay and all the people that surround him, all the team members, the partners, the people that Clay associates himself with, are they’re all people of high integrity and high character and that comes back to the core values that he has for himself, his family, and his life, and it’s polarizing. So if you don’t share the same core values, you’re not going to like working with the other team members up here in the office. And so we protect that. We’re almost like cultural warriors up here in the office, protecting the core values of integrity and character. So Clay’s passion for helping other business owners grow their business, working in their business, working on their business. It’s unmatched by any other business coach in the world. Not Tony Robbins, not Tai Lopez, not any of these charlatans that want to help you set up a click funnel or set up the 67 steps for success. But Clay sincerely cares deeply about helping other business owners get from where they are to where they want to be. And that is one of the coolest things in the world. So Clay’s management style is a little bit unique, but effective. He’s going to hold you accountable, which means that we’re going to celebrate the wins up here in the office for whatever it is that you’re doing when you achieve a task or a project. But you’re also going to be held accountable. So if you’re not meeting expectations, you’re going to hear about it. And so I think that can be a little bit of a turn off for some people, but for A players, it’s really a cool thing that we have up here in the office. The people that would not like working with Clay are those that want to be assigned a task and then never followed up on it at all. So zero accountability and people that yawn. So if you’re meeting Clay for the first time, I have a couple tips. One, be brief. Two, be funny. And three, be witty. He might not acknowledge it at the time but when he’s in his man cave at 3 a.m. he’s gonna remember that joke and think the world of you. So Clay loves his turkeys, cats, and chickens so much because they’re his closest group of friends. He talks to them all the time because he’s And so these turkeys, chickens, cats, they’ve never screwed him over and so that’s why he appreciates his relationship with them so much. And I think that’s pretty cool. You might say, well, why do we do it every week? Well, it’s because, let’s just pick on one of my companies, at Elephant in the Room, our haircut chain, we have 47 employees that work there at any given time. Now when an employee gets a divorce or gets into a spat with their spouse or they decide to break up with their significant other, is that my fault? No. But does that cause the employee to move on? Yes it does. So just recently, true story, we had an employee call us and say, hey I can’t work today or this week or ever again because I had to move to a new town. And we asked them why and they said well because I’m going through a divorce. Now that kind of story happens all of the time. So the reason why I don’t live in perpetual chaos and why my schedule is very sustainable is that every single Wednesday night at 530 every single Wednesday night including this Wednesday night every single Wednesday night I am conducting what is called a job interview or almost like a job fair. But every single Monday night, every Wednesday night, I am hosting these interviews. I like to do it every single Wednesday night at 5.30 PM. And then if I need extra talent or more people, then I might do it on Monday night or Friday night as well. But again, if you’re taking notes, you have to schedule a time every single week to interview your potential candidates. So step one, I’m walking you through the steps here. Step one, you want to schedule, I’ll put this on the show notes for you, but you want to schedule a weekly time, a weekly time, every week to interview new candidates. Now you might be saying to yourself, why do I need to interview new candidates if I am fully staffed? My name is Abigail McCarter. Basically what it’s like to work with Clay is it’s hard at times but also extremely rewarding. You learn something new every single day. You learn a lot and you learn not just about business but also life experience as well so it can go in two different ways and it’s fantastic. I would describe Clay’s personality as somewhat eccentric. He is very determined, he’s consistent, he’s hilarious, he’s extremely hard-working, and he just loves to get things done. He’s a grinder, and he really loves to see progress and success in his employees and in his clients. Since working with Clay, I have learned an enormous amount of business knowledge and life experience. I’ve learned more working for Clay than I did in the four years of going to a private university for business and entrepreneurship, that tells you anything. And then life experience, he’s changed the way I’ve looked at relationships in my personal life, he’s changed the way that I looked at goals myself for studying for myself, he’s changed a lot of things just in my personal life and in my business life. The kind of employees and teammates who really love working with Clay are people who love to get things done, who love to grind things out, who love to see the success in others, and who also love to have a bigger goal in mind, to like to work for something and for other people as well. So Clay has an enormous passion for helping business owners. And the best way I can describe this is he doesn’t have to do Thrive 15 financially and just in his personal life. He doesn’t have to have this business. He created this business because he has that passion and he loves to see people succeed and to work for something and overcome things and see them do great in life and in their business. So Clay’s management style can be polarizing, mainly because he demands a lot out of his employees because there’s so much to get done and he doesn’t want to see success in all of his clients. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that everyone has to do on a daily basis and that could mean being here at 530 in the morning or leaving at 9 at night. If you are very goal-driven and like to get things done then it would be perfect for you. So I’ve worked at a lot of different places and it probably wouldn’t be a good fit if you are the employee who likes to take long breaks in the bathroom or who doesn’t like to do anything while the manager is not in front of your site or there to keep you on track or if you like to be on your cell phone all day. Things like that. It probably wouldn’t be a good fit for this company. The advice I would give to you if you were first meeting Clay was definitely be prepared. So bring a pen, bring a piece of paper or a notebook, and also do your research on Clay, Dr. Zellner, the companies that they’ve created. Have questions already for him and just come with confidence and integrity and you’ll be fine. So one thing that’s different about Clay is that he really loves spending time with his turkeys, his chickens, his cats, some unconventional animals that for most people and I think he likes spending time with these animals just because they’re not human beings to be honest and he has to deal with a lot of people every day a lot of different personalities, so really spending time with these animals kind of gives them a break from that. Well again, you don’t know when your top employee is going to leave or go work for somebody else. Years ago I had an employee who had been with me for 10 consecutive years. I paid them well, they always said nice things, they got invited to family events, and I found out that my client actually hired one of my 10 year, not a 10 year, but a 10 year employee away from me. So I called the employee and I said, hey, are you violating the non-solicitation agreement and violating our, basically our friendship to go work for one of our clients? And they said, yes, I am. And that kind of thing happens all the time. So again, step one, schedule a weekly time every week to interview new job candidates, new hire candidates. Step number two is interview all of the candidates at the same time. What? Yes, interview all the candidates at the same time. There’s no need for you to schedule a meeting, a job interview with one candidate at 11 and another one at 11.30 and another one at 12 and another one at 12.30 and fill your whole week and your whole day up with job interviews. You know why? Because three-quarters of job applicants don’t even show up to the job interview they’ve confirmed. And I work with so many business owners, and you’re going to hear their stories on part 2 of today’s show, who have actually embraced this philosophy after going through years and years of chaos where they’re actually scheduling a one-on-one interview for somebody that doesn’t show up to the job. So just today a young lady who worked, who applied for a job last week, she came to the interview. Today was supposed to be her first day of work and she didn’t show up. Why? I don’t know. I don’t know. Apparently she communicated via text to her manager that she just wasn’t going to be able to work here with all the demands going on in her personal life. That happens every week. I mean every week. I have so many stories on a weekly basis and yearly basis and decade basis. I’ve been doing this for 23 years. So I’m telling you folks, step one, you’ve got to schedule a weekly time every week to interview new candidates, new higher candidates. Step two, you want to interview all of the new higher candidates at the same time. That’ll save you a lot of time. Now, if someone says, well, what if 40 people show up at the same time? It pretty much never happens. Last Friday night at 5.30pm, we had an interview scheduled for multiple candidates and we had 17, one-seven. 17 candidates said that they would be at the interview. And do you know how many actually showed up for their interview? Two. Yes! So two of the 17, two out of the 17 people that were looking for a job even bothered showing up for the job interview. Hi, my name is Jordan Dunmark and I’ve been working at Thrive for about five months. I’m on the design team at Thrive and working with Clay is really unpredictable, dynamic. It’s kind of like working for Mr. Miyagi combined with Eminem with a little bit of Mark Zuckerberg. The cool thing about working with Clay is that everything translates to real life. He’s always giving little marriage tips or dating advice, not necessarily stuff that I would take, but everything translates. I think the biggest thing that I’ve learned from Clay is the concept of trade-offs. So, sacrificial work ethic, you have to give something to get something. Clay is extremely self-assured. He is unapologetically himself all the time. He’s hilarious and also sometimes really politically incorrect. People that are really motivated and driven love working with Clay. People that love to laugh, love to be really weird, and are comfortable doing that love working here. On the counter side of that, if you’re slow and lazy and kind of just want to float along in your job, not really looking to improve or develop yourself, you’re probably not gonna like working with Clay. He’s always challenging you, always pushing you to be better and learn new skills and step outside of your comfort zone and do things that make you squirm a little bit. Clay’s passion for helping business owners grow their businesses translates into everything that he does. It kind of affects his whole self. So everything that he does from the moment that he wakes up is preparing himself to share that with people and get his message across. He’s always looking for new methods and new medias to reach wider audiences. And that’s why he does a podcast, so that he can reach people who aren’t physically here. But yeah, it affects everything he does. Clay’s management style is extremely blunt. And like I said, politically incorrect. So I think that’s probably the most polarizing thing that you can be in society today. I mean he just puts it out there and kind of just sees how you handle it. And that’s either going to draw you in or send you running in the other direction. If you’re about to meet Clay for the first time, all I would say is be yourself. He’s really good at reading people. All the management here is really good at reading people. And so if you’re trying to be something that you’re not and you’re disingenuous, they’re going to pick up on that and it’s okay it’s okay if you don’t like clay if you don’t fit into the culture here but they’re gonna let you know that and I think that’s really important for this work environment for your future career and all those things so just be yourself just be true to who you are I honestly have no idea why clay loves his turkeys and cats and chickens so much he talks about loving to feed them a lot. I think my biggest guess would be that they can’t bother him with questions. So they’re kind of peaceful. I don’t know if chickens are peaceful, but they can’t talk. That would be my guess. So did I waste 17 hours of my week scheduling 17 separate interviews? No, I did not. How much time of mine was wasted? I don’t think any of my time was wasted because I had an interview with two reasonable people who I think might be a good fit. So that’s how that works. Step number three, you want to post, you want to post your now hiring job post each and every week. Now, a lot of these job posting boards that like Indeed or let’s say Glassdoor, Indeed, there’s quite a few of them. You have monster.com. Even some people post now hiring job posts on Craigslist. They’re going to post them on a variety of sources. But what I have found is that if you’ll post each and every week, that is the best way to make sure that your ads are being seen by your ideal and likely new hires. So make sure that you post your now hiring job posts each and every week. And you might say, well, what should my job post say? Those are more details that we can get into, and that’s what the kind of things we help our clients with. But again, you want to post a now hiring job post each and every week. Step number four, call each and every candidate, each and every job candidate with great enthusiasm. Okay, I’m taking notes here, folks. So call each and every job candidate with great enthusiasm and invite them to the interview. This is just so important that you do this. So every single week you want to call, text, and email, call, text, and email each candidate, each and every job candidate, each and every week. My name is Rachel Jelle. I would describe Clay’s personality as a giraffe. He’s a big picture thinker and a big thinker. So if he asks you a question, he usually has a very specific reason why, and you just might not know what that is for a while until it applies to you. The teammates and employees that work with Clay are people who have vision, drive, ambition, and they know where they’re going. They know their goals. So that’s been really amazing. Clay’s passion for helping business owners is really like tunnel vision, in a good way though. He is so determined to help his clients win. I would characterize Clay’s management style as a strong leader. He really wants you to go as far as you want to go and he’s going to help you get there. The kind of people that would not like working with Clay would be anyone who lacks ambition or is unwilling to change or grow. The advice that I would give to someone that’s going to meet Clay for the first time would be come hungry, bring your A-game, and be intentional about your questions and your time with him. I think that Clay likes his turkey, chickens, and cats so much because they genuinely make him happy. All right, now step number five. You might say, well, what do I say at the interview? How do I do an interview? The main thing for the job interview is you’re trying to figure out F-O-R-E. What are the goals this person has in the areas of their occupation, of the kind of things they’d like to do for recreation, enjoyment? Tell me a little bit about your family goals. What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to figure out F-O-R-E. What are your family goals? What are your occupational goals? What are your recreational goals? What kind of things do you like to do for enjoyment? Because you’re trying to figure out whether this person would fit into your culture. So the idea is use for, use F-O-R-E, use for to build rapport. It’s just so important that you do that. So again, you’re just sitting down with a candidate and you’re saying, hey, so tell me your goals for your faith, your occupation, your recreation, your enjoyment. What are your goals there? And then once they tell you those goals, that allows you to ascertain whether they’re a good fit for your job culture. So again, I encourage everybody out there, do this each and every time. Now the next step is you want to schedule a time for the top candidates. So schedule a time for the top job candidates to shadow. Because a lot of times I have graphic designers that apply for a graphic design job, but they can’t do graphic design. 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 and 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 almost 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 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, you know, 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 as well. And so I’d 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’s 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 the room here here at Thrive. You know he’s sending people encouraging messages. He can kind of be that that life coach and business coach in terms of being that a 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 want to 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 and 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 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 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 something new, be open to challenging yourself, be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted. I think Clay loves his turkey, chickens and cats. First of all, because Clay actually spent some time on a farm. I believe in Minnesota, he talks about how his uncle, who’s been somewhat of a mentorship figure to him, spent time on a farm with him. And I remember a story that he tells where he says that he didn’t like wake up on time. And his uncle was telling him, hey, if you don’t wake up on time, you’re not going to eat. And he didn’t wake up on time, and he didn’t eat. And there’s another time where he didn’t try hard at a basketball game. And his uncle said, hey, since you’re not trying hard, you’re going to walk home. And he literally walked home. So he had that farm experience. But I think on a deeper layer, turkeys and chickens and cats, they’re not too dramatic. I don’t know that Clay does not like dealing with gossip, with drama, with negative emotions. And then, those animals are, kind of have an aspect of purity to them. And I believe that deep down that Clay loves anything that is wholesome, good, and pure. A lot of times I have a lot of people in the automotive space that claim they can repair vehicles, but they can’t actually repair vehicles. A lot of times I talk to a job candidate that says that they want to work in our haircut chain. We just had a lady this morning in the haircut chain that applied for a job to cut hair, but she can’t cut hair. Well, why is that a problem? It’s a problem because she can’t cut hair. So she can’t possibly work at Elephant in the Room because we are a men’s haircut business and therefore she doesn’t have a place in our business if she can’t cut hair, right? So I encourage everybody out there today, again, these are the principles we need to apply. This might not be the most exciting or sexy show you’ve ever seen, but this is the stuff behind the stuff. So every single week, if you’re struggling to find good people, you have to know that you must schedule a weekly interview, a weekly time every week to interview new hire candidates. Step two, you want to interview all of the new candidates at the same time. Step three, you want to post your now hiring job posts each and every week. Step four, call, text, and email each and every job candidate with great enthusiasm and invite them to the interview step 5 Use for to build rapport with job candidates and step 6 Schedule a time for the top job candidates to shadow now in part 2 of today’s show We’re gonna get really into the details of how do you hire? What are the specific details of how do you conduct the interview and a lot more of the details related to hiring, inspiring, training, and retaining great people. But this is the brass tacks information that you need to know. And the final step I want to share with you, step seven, is you want to script, you want to, just, it’s very important that you do this, okay? So you want to script the first 72 hours of each new employee’s new hire experience. The new employee needs to know that you have a plan. When you hire them you need to script out those first 72 hours of each new employees new hire experience because if you don’t do that by default it’s going to become odd, toxic, weird and the new hire won’t stick around very long. And again just some facts to keep in your mind here. Did you know that according to Inc. Magazine right now, 85% of employees today admit to lying on their resumes? Again, according to Inc. Magazine, 85% of employees today admit to just lying on their resume, just making things up that are not true at all about their previous work experience. Did you know that according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that 75% of employees admit to stealing from the workplace and stealing often? Well, I mean, I know that to be true as a business owner, and perhaps you know that to be true as someone listening to this podcast who perhaps owns a business. But again, don’t feel like you’re doing anything wrong if you’re struggling to find good people if you’re currently interviewing candidates one person at a time. If you choose to find talent that way, you’re gonna have a really hard time finding quality people on the planet Earth given the various variables related to today’s employees, the background they come from, and the epic amount of jackassery that is currently filling our universe. So again on part two of today’s show we’ll do a deep dive into how to hire, inspire, train, and retain high quality people. My name is Carter Watts and I have known Clay for about a year now. I met him last January. So my role at the company here is search engine optimization. So I’m part of the team that writes articles to get your business or anyone’s business really up on the Google rankings. And my experience here has been really amazing. I love working with the people here, really love being able to interact with Clay on a pretty regular basis. Since I began working here I’ve learned a lot of valuable skills. I’ve been able to learn how to be more efficient with my time. I’ve been able to learn some things to apply to my wife and I’s business. We run a photography company together, so I’ve learned a lot of really good skills that I think are really going to help to boost our business. Since I’ve met and begun working with Clay, one of the things that I’ve learned is to be more productive with my time. Before I started working here, I still got up relatively early. I would get up about 5.30, 6 to get things done at work. But I never seemed to have time for what I really wanted to do. Personally, I love going to the gym. And so one of the things I’ve learned from Clay is when you want to add things to your schedule, you need to take things out. So I stopped staying up late. I began going to bed at 9 o’clock, 8.30 sometimes, and I’ll get up at 4.30, so I’ll have a half day full of what I want to do before I come here and begin working. I’ll describe Clay’s passion for helping business owners as fiery, definitely. He is very intense. When he has his mind set on something he wants to do, he doesn’t hesitate. He goes for it. He knows exactly what a company needs to help them learn and grow. He’s not going to sugarcoat it at all. He’s going to tell you exactly what needs to happen. My advice for you if you’re to meet Clay for the first time would be show up early, bring a pen and a paper, and be ready to hear a lot of jokes. Now he’s not exuberant about his jokes. They’re kind of just small things you have to catch on. If you’re meeting Clay for the first time, my advice would be show up on time, bring a pen and a paper and be ready for a lot of jokes as well as an overflow of knowledge. To me I think Clay loves his turkeys, chickens and cats so much because they are a bit like him. They are all kind of standoffish but once you get to know them they are pretty awesome. My name is Paul Mathren and I have known Clay for about a year, specifically since February 2016. My role with the company is that of a business coach, and getting to work closely with Clay, it’s a great learning experience at all times because he’s like an interactive book, just an infinite source of knowledge. Working with Clay has inspired me to do many things business-wise and in my personal life. One of the greatest things that I’ve gained from Clay is to wake up earlier every day. So I wake up two hours earlier every day, and it’s gifted me over a month of my life of 24 hour days over the course of a year. And in that time I’ve managed to be very productive in reading books and getting action items done for clients and just generally improving my quality of life. If you don’t know Clay, I would describe him to you in very few words. He loves life, he loves energy, he loves passion, he loves positivity and he loves winning. Most importantly, Clay knows what he wants and he’s found a way to synthesize every aspect of his life to create a harmonious balance. So if you contribute toward that balance, then you’ll have a good relationship with Clay and if you take from that balance or disrupt that balance, then he won’t last long in Clay’s life. I’ve definitely noticed a common denominator between employees that enjoy working with Clay and they’re often diligent, they’re hardworking, they dress sharp, they have great personalities and Clay enjoys being around every single one of them. Clay has a desire to see people win and I think the reason for that is that he knows what it’s like to win and he knows how good it feels and he wants people to share that same experience that he has. He also knows what it takes to get there and so to share those concepts with people is a great passion of his because he’s not selfish and he doesn’t want to keep winning just to himself. The kind of people that wouldn’t enjoy working with Clay are people that are under the illusion that they know everything they need to know out of life and business and everything in between. I’ve always believed in the concept that we’re always growing, we’re constantly growing and there are no such thing as plateaus in life. So as soon as you stop growing, you’re essentially dead and essentially pointless to the earth. And so Clay understands that and everybody that works for Clay also understands that. So the kind of people that don’t enjoy working with Clay are people that don’t want to grow, don’t want to learn, and are most definitely not coachable. Clay really loves his turkey, his chicken, and his cats. And I’ve really, I’ve taken a lot of time thinking about why that might be. Now there are two answers to this. First of all, there’s a surface level answer. Okay? Clay just loves animals. I mean, who doesn’t love animals? But then there’s a deeper answer to this. When you look at animals, animals do what they want. Take cats, for example. Have you ever tried to tell a cat to sit? Good luck with that. Well, it’s the same thing with Clay. Clay does what he wants. Clay doesn’t wear a suit. Clay wears a hoodie. He wears jeans. And he wears Adidas sneakers to work because he can. He’s earned the right to do so. Just like a cat won’t come and sit on your lap if you tell it to do so, you cannot tell Clay to wear a suit. And so he has something in common with these animals, and so he relates to the animals, and so that’s why I think he loves spending time with his turkey, his chickens, and his cats. If you’re preparing to meet Clay, first of all I’d say make sure you’re not late. You have to respect his time, because as I said before, he’s found a way to synthesize the aspects of his life to where his time is very efficient and very intentional. I would dress sharply and I would come prepared to laugh because Clay is hilarious. I’d also make sure that he brings something to make notes with, whether that’s a pen, a pencil, a paintbrush or a piece of chalk. My name is Victoria Wood and I’ve been working with Clay for about two years. I am currently a business coach with Thrive 15, but when I first came on here I started in sales and learned a lot of different things. So, working with Clay has definitely been an experience. You learn something new every single day. You’re always moving forward. Since working with Clay, I have learned so many different things, not only in terms of business knowledge, but in my personal life as well. Honestly, it would be really hard to go in and list the different things that I’ve learned, but I do feel that I’m at a place now where I could go anywhere if I chose to and be really successful thanks to the things that I’ve learned from working with Clay. The type of people that are going to enjoy working with Clay are going to be go-getters, people who are always looking for new opportunities to learn a new skill or move up in whatever their personal goals are. Somebody that’s not going to take the easy way out and is just going to get the job done. Clay’s passion for helping other business owners grow their business and be successful is very apparent. Everything from his radio show to the day-to-day coaching that he does with his clients win, that’s, you know, he’s the best, so he’s winning. You know, it’s just a white, white hot passion for helping people reach their goals. And it’s really, it’s really great to see somebody who’s not always just trying to get the best for themselves and but help somebody else reach their goals. The type of people that would not like to work with Clay would be the people who call in sick all the time for a runny nose, somebody that is always going to look for an easy way out, shortcuts that just make their life easier, somebody that’s nefarious, you know, anybody that’s shady because Clay’s very transparent in everything that he does, so if that’s not, you know, you probably wouldn’t like it. So if you don’t know Clay, he is a very unique person. He uses humor a lot and it’s a really good way to interact with people and help people actually obtain whatever you’re trying to get through to them. And he’s just a very passionate person about reaching his goals and completing what he sets his mind to. My best guess of why Clay likes turkeys, chickens, cats so much, you know, those unorthodox animals, is because Clay is not the most orthodox human, so, you know, he relates to them. If you are about to meet Clay for the first time, I would highly recommend three things. One, bring a pen and paper. Two, do not yawn. And three, stay off of your cell phone. Yes, my name is Daisy Capehart. So, I am the call center manager for Elephant in the Room Which Clay co-owns and coaches on a weekly basis. Clay has been awesome. I would say he is my goat My greatest of all time. He’s been a really solid mentor I’ve learned a lot of information about how to be a better leader In a very short amount of time. Since working with Clay I have definitely learned a lot about how to be a better leader, how to be a more solid manager, how to motivate my team, empower my team, how to hold my team accountable, and also how to help them bring that enthusiasm that makes our work culture so awesome. If you don’t know Clay, he’s very straightforward. He’s no BS, but he’s also hilarious. So he’s got the best parts of of a personality that you could you could want in a boss, in a mentor, in a person. I think people who are driven, they’re motivated. I think the kind of teammates that would like working with Clay want success, they’re motivated, they’re passionate, but they’re also really fun. They work hard and they play hard. I would say Clay’s passion for helping business owners grow their business is overwhelming. He really does bring that optimistic momentum to every day. There is never a shortage of information that he shares with everybody. He always has a really funny story or some kind of parable to go along with the things that he’s teaching, and he has so many coaching moments that just come out of ordinary everyday situations, and I think that that really shines through just in his day-to-day interactions with everybody. Clay’s management style is not for everyone and the reason why I say that is because he holds people accountable And I think not many people are used to being held accountable however If you want to be successful if you want to win if you want for your dreams and your passions to come true You have to be held accountable And I think that clay does an awesome job about that, but again, it’s not for everybody You will not like working with clay if you don’t like being made to do your job, if you are not results-driven, if you are not passionate, or if you don’t have an aim in life, if you’re just kind of floating around. But you will love Clay if you are the opposite of that and want that success, you want to make your dreams come true, and get the results that you want. I think Clay loves his turkeys, chickens, and cats so much because they provide him endless entertainment. My advice for anybody who’s about to meet Clay would be you’re gonna want a notebook, something to write with, a pen, and prepare to get a lot of information that’s going to help you be successful. You will definitely be enlightened. Well Thrive Nation, one thing that Clay Stairs and I get to do is to help wonderful people work on their business and to transform their business from maybe a job that seems overwhelming at times as a self-employed person into a business that they love and we’re passionate about helping you to grow your company because We’re passionate about the clients that we serve and this this next guest this next person I’m gonna introduce you to this next testimonial is a guy that I actually hired him to build my home. Yeah. And I was very, very happy with the home building process. My wife was super happy with the complete project because she worked with him to design it. So I want to make sure my wife is happy with the house that she co-designed. And I kept hearing great things about today’s guest, Brian Wiggs, from other people that have used Brian Wiggs. And then when we started on the initial Pathways Stairs, one of the things we do with our clients is to help them improve their branding, which involves them calling up their current and former customers and to gather video reviews. And every person that we contact, they wanted to do a testimonial for Brian Wiggs because they liked in the product that he built for them. It’s enough of any further ado, Brian Wiggs, welcome onto the Thrived Time Show. How are you, sir? Hey, I am doing great. Thanks for having me on. I’m glad to talk to you guys. Well, Brian, I’m going to hit you up with five quick questions and I’m going to go to Clay Stairs to interrogate you here. Here we go. How did you first hear about our team, Clay Stairs? How did that happen? Originally, Clay and I met at a Chamber of Commerce meeting here in Gene Smith, Oklahoma, in my hometown here. And he had some good things to say, so I went in and talked to him afterwards and he started telling me about the way you guys work and it sounded very intriguing. So that first connected us a couple of years ago. And you guys meet every week. Every week you meet and you leave the meeting with homework. And just like with all of our clients, you leave with homework and we leave with homework. What kind of improvements have you seen Clay Stairs and the team make to your business over these last couple of years? I think the main thing that has changed in me, and it’s what Clay told me one of the very first times we met. He said the biggest hurdle was going to be me, that I was going to have to do some mindset changes. And that seemed okay. I thought I could be ready for that. But when you really get into it, you realize I have a lot of mindset changes to make. And you have to make them one at a time. You have to dig them out. And so Clay has helped me with that week by week, reminding me of the things I need to be doing and helping me understand better how to grow my business. Now, question number three of five here, I’m gonna pull up your website and a lot of people tell me that, you know, they have someone that helps them with their mindset and they have someone else that helps them with their website and someone else that helps them with their online reputation and someone else who helps them with their online ads. How has working with Clay Stairs and the team helped you having one person or one team that does all of that? Well, it’s great to have it because we don’t have to mess with the technical piece of it as much. We’re really good at building houses. We’re not great at building websites. We’re trying to do all the other things that are back room pieces that you need to have. And they’re just great to be able to hand this to them and go, this is the way I want my story to be told and they tell it. Now question number four, for anybody out there that would be considering working with Clay Stairs and the team. Now are you numbering for those at home? I’m doing this. I like that. I like it. For those doing the home version. Well I want people to know, I mean there are certain things I get asked all the time by potential clients and I want to hit on those. I love it. So number four, what would you say to anybody who’s thinking about working with Clay Stairs and the team? What would you say, what would be your thoughts? I think that he is a genuine he’s available, he’s wise and he’s infuriating. And then finally, my question for five is the weekly meetings. What I find is that consistent people who grow businesses, they embrace this idea. Some call it Kaizen. I’m not going to argue about the philosophy you have to endorse here, but the idea of continual improvement, the idea of every week you’re whittling away a different iteration, you’re making it a little bit better, 1% better a week for 50 weeks, 2% better a week for 50 weeks, as opposed to an event. How has the weekly, that methodology of having a weekly meeting where our team leaves with homework and you leave with homework, how has that methodology impacted your business? Well, of course it helps us as we’re trying to grow, but it also has helped us design meetings that we have with our clients and our trade partners. We start handling them the same way when we come in with a regular agenda. We talk about the same things. We know what we’re gonna do in advance. We know how to measure it. And so it helps us on a daily basis in our work. And then it helps us grow when we come meet with Clay, because we know we have to do our homework and show up and be able to answer the questions and study and analyze the answers. Now, Stairs, I’m going to turn it over to you, because you guys work together weekly. I just wanted to kind of hit those questions that I get asked a lot from potential clients. Sure. Yeah. Well, Brian, hey, I first of all want to congratulate you guys on your big win just this last week, winning the Tulsa Parade of Homes. Congratulations. Oh, thank you. We were very proud of that. It’s always fun to win. Yeah, and you guys actually won another award there too, right? Wasn’t it the- Yes, we also won the Best Interior Design. So when the judges come through, they’re judging the overall house and that impact, but they also look at the interior design, and we won on that award as well. Fantastic. Judging you. It doesn’t sound like a safe environment when those judges come in. So it’s not a safe environment, but you have to put yourself out there sometimes so you can win. Yeah. Yeah. That’s not correct me if I’m wrong here, but that’s not the only parade of homes award you’ve received over the years. How many are you up to now from the parade? Oh, gosh, I’m not sure. We’ve been in the parade of homes for over 30 years and we’ve been able to do that consistently. So several years and multiple years, we’ve won in different categories and in different places. But we’ve done it in the last 10 years, we’ve probably won eight or 10 times. Fantastic. That’s not us. Yeah. And Brian, I’d like for you to talk a little bit as well. You’re a family business, literally family business. You have your son and your son-in-law and your daughter-in-law working with you as well. How have we been able to help you navigate that minefield with working with your family? I think it’s the having systems. You know, when you’re working with family and you have close relationships, trying to call out people to accountability is a little kind of a sticky wicket, but if you have a system, you can just ask a question. Do we have a system for that? Did you follow the system for that? And then that can lead you into the right conversations and you don’t have to be challenging each other personally, you’re challenging the system. Are we working the system? Is it working for us? And that makes it a lot easier on a daily basis. And we have that conversation all the time about do we have a system for that? Let’s write a system for that. Let’s follow the system for that. Yeah, that’s fantastic. That’s been, that’s one of the things that at the Leadership Initiative, Clay, I know you begin to see this as well. When our clients begin to talk through the lens of systems and begin to ask that question, do we have a system for that? That’s when you know that you’re actually beginning to think like a manager. You’re actually- I love language. Yeah, exactly. You’re getting away from just the emotional, oh no, what are we going to do? Yeah. And beginning to think systematically. So that has been one thing that I’ve really enjoyed about working with you and your team and how you guys are consistently each week putting more and more systems together. Now, Brian, I want to interject this and then we’ll go to Sean here. What I find is that successful business owners, they like to bore down on the details. And people that are not successful tend to struggle with boredom and they wanna move on to a new thing. And so the natural current, again, according to Inc Magazine, 96% of businesses fail. So as a coach, our job is to coach you down a proven path. And so there’s a lot of repetitive things we have to go over every week. We need to gather Google reviews from your happy customers. We need to gather video reviews from your happy customers. And those Google reviews and video reviews are what we would call online reputation. And so when a potential buyer then thinks about working with you, they can find your reputation easily. And so, as whereas before, you may have had to tell the customer, hey, I’ve built this many houses and here are some phone numbers. But now those testimonials are unearthed and the real people are here on display, on camera, on video, and you’re building multimillion dollar homes. Can you talk about how the video reviews and the Google reviews that we go over every week have impacted your sales process? Oh, tremendously. When we have people come in, we used to have people come in to our office to hear about our process and how we build homes. They didn’t know us. They didn’t know what we were going to do. They didn’t know what to expect. Now, when they come in, they’ve already seen it. They’ve already heard a video from me. They’ve already seen our clients telling them about us. So, it’s a lot easier to be able to then get back down to the really the brass tacks of what it’s going to be like to build their house, they’re already believing in us. And that value of them believing us in us in advance is just immeasurable. So you are, and again, this is just something I want to get your thoughts because I work with so many home builders all over the country. And Aaron Antis once said this, and he runs a company called Shaw Homes, which by the way, we don’t work with two people to do the same thing in each city. And I reached out to Aaron when we first, you guys were talking about working with each other, and I asked Aaron, is it okay if we work with another home builder in Tulsa? And Aaron goes, oh, absolutely. Brian has a stellar reputation, and he doesn’t do what we do. He builds custom houses, and that’s who you, you guys, we do, Shaw is more of a, you buy in a neighborhood where you guys customize. Well, anyway, Aaron told me, he said, Clay, when we used to have people that would reach out to us, they used to have a lot of questions and were very unsure of working with us. And he said, now that we have all these video reviews and Google reviews you’ve helped us gather over the past six or seven years, people are pretty much going in from like, well, they’re, I don’t know, we’re comparing you to five or six other builders too. We’ve pretty much already made the decision before we’ve even reached out. Are you hearing that at all? Or is that just unique to maybe shop. We broke ground this morning on a new project, about a $4 million house. And when the people walked in, they said, we saw you online and we knew you were the guy. We just felt that that was what we needed to do. So when we came here, we wanted to work with you. And they found us by reaching out and seeing us online. We had never met them before. And when they walked in the door, they said, let’s go. And that’s amazing to me. I didn’t believe you guys when you told me that would happen. I thought that that could happen. Nobody does. Nobody does. Now, and then, final question, I don’t want to go to Sean here. I have a lot of builders, and I’m going to send this to them today. Yes. I’ve got builders and just other clients that are, they bought Clay on this one area of getting Google reviews and getting video testimonials. Oh, I just don’t have time. Clay, I don’t know. That’s weird. And every one of my clients that gets Google reviews, I mean, they win. The pizza business I work with in Florida, Papagallo’s. Papagallo’s. And so many people are driving 30 miles to get pizza because it’s the highest rated pizza place in Florida. It works. So what would you say to somebody out there who’s a little bit resistant? Maybe they’re kind of reminding you, maybe your first meeting with Clay Stairs and there’s a little thing you’re trying to figure out. What would you say to anybody that’s a little resistant to getting objective video reviews and Google reviews from actual clients? I think it’s invaluable. We are spending quite a bit of time doing that and it’s amazing to me that when you ask people, they will actually do it. I was very resistant to that, but when you start asking them and you start asking them, what do you think about our product? How do you like our home? What do you like about Brian D. Wiggs Homes? They will tell you. And it’s like, that’s amazing that they will tell other people. You’re just standing there and listening to it. Sometimes it’s embarrassing that they say such good things, but it’s like, wow, let’s get that out there. Now Sean, you work with a lot of wonderful clients. You also assist working with Brian Wiggs. What question would you have for Brian? Well, Brian, do you recall the first group interview at Brian D. Wiggs’ homes that we did? I do. It was an amazing and crazy interview. The group interview is something that I’m always astounded that people haven’t heard of it. I’ve got the curse of knowledge now. It’s just such a useful tool. I think there were about 30 people there. We couldn’t even fit them inside your little office. We had to do it on the front porch on your Main Street office at Jinks. Out of that effort of having to grow your team, maybe a little bit beyond your family there and having to start looking outside of that, how has that process worked out and how did the group interview come into play for that? The group interview was great. It was awkward. I had to change my mindset, like I mentioned earlier, because you’re working through a great number of people, I didn’t think as many people would show up as they did. Either way, yeah. We were supposed to do it. And so then we really did have 30 people. We couldn’t get them in our building, and we went outside, and I stood out basically in the street on Main Street and yelled at 30 people and asked them questions. But ultimately, we hired a new woman that has just been fantastic. She fits us perfectly. She’s almost like family. So how that happened, I don’t know, but a group interview certainly led us to it. That’s where she came from. I love it. Now, you, one thing that you and Clay Stairs have, and I’m not just saying this because you’re both here, this is a real thing. You say that to all the people. No, there are times, you see me sometimes get into altercations. You’ve seen it. I have seen it. I don’t avoid combat, okay, or conflict. So, no, seriously. Conflict, not combat. But you speak highly of Brian Wiggs when he’s not here. Yeah. And you always praise the quality of his work. Yeah. And without reservation, you praise him. But if people can’t find him, what we feel about him doesn’t matter. Exactly. That’s a really good point. So I’m having a lot of people that I’m running into now that are reaching out to me and they go, hey, I saw your wife has a testimonial, and this has happened multiple times, I saw your wife’s testimonial on Brian D. Wiggs’ website. Do you really like him? I go, oh yeah. He’s like, well, okay. And I’m getting a lot of that. How rewarding is that for you, Brian, now that you’re finally, after years of building homes, you’re finally starting to have new people that you did not know previously finding you online. What’s that been like for you, sir? Well, it’s been really good because we’ve been taking a lot of pride in the product that we produce. We think we’ve built the great houses. I’ve been doing this for 35 years. I’m very proud of it. But when people can’t find me, and they don’t even know me, then they go build with somebody else and I see the house going up and thinking, why, why, why didn’t you come to me? I’m the one that builds the great houses. But they didn’t know me. So being able to get online and find me has just been amazing for us. It’s like they can finally get out and we can put our product out to a lot more people. Yeah. Yeah, Brian, you and I, going back to the mindset, you and I have spent quite a bit even outside of our weekly meeting, talking about this journey that you’ve been on in just changing your mindset. Huge visionary, big visionary, loving the big vision, and struggling with, a lot of times, struggling with the minutiae and the details and everything. But if somebody else were in this same spot, if we had other clients that were really getting stuck in that emotional phase and getting stuck with that mindset. What would be some of the things that you did to help press through and change the way you think to allow you to be able to take these steps that you’ve taken at Brian D. Wiggs at Holmes? Well, we do deal with the emotional dragon a lot here, and each of us have had to deal with that. And we’ve been sort of sharing that with our clients. Go, hey, hey, the emotional dragon’s going to pop up here. Be ready for it. It’s going to hit you. It’s going to hit us. And so we know how to work through it. But the way we work through it is when we create these processes. Yeah. We write them down. Okay, what is it that I do on a daily basis? Where do I run into that emotional dragon? And then I work out ways that I can be prepared and go, okay, what’s my system? And we’ll work through that. So it’s back to the process, back to the system is what helps us overcome that emotional drag. Yeah, I’ve been very proud of you and your sons as you guys have been able to work more and more and follow, not just put them together, but follow your systems in your company. Now, I wanna go to Sean next, Jerry. I’ve got one more question for you. Being present is a present. And a lot of people are not present, but they are physically present. Let me try again. So there’s a lot of people who, and thankfully I’ve got a wonderful roster of clients that mentally participate in what we’re doing, so I don’t have these problems. But there are people that, you know, they wanna do their weekly coaching call while eating a salad, while on the road. And what I do, that’s why that’s why I only take on 160 clients. That’s why we have a limited number of clients that Claystairs takes on. Because if someone’s coachable, it’s very easy to work with them. But when you have somebody who’s clearly eating a salad, clearly at lunch, clearly mentally at lunch and physically at lunch while trying to do your weekly call, because most of our clients are not in Tulsa, it makes it almost impossible. And I love the idea that you mentally participate. Can you maybe talk as a coaching client, what kind of is on the receiving end of the coaching, how much time do you have to block out for that weekly meeting and what does that look like? Well, we meet with Clay for an hour once a week. Sometimes we’ll meet with him in his office. Sometimes we’ll catch each other on the road, but when we do, we stop and we’re 100% present to that period of time. And just being, I don’t know I could do it unless I was 100% present. Many times Clay’s sharing ideas with me, and I’m like, okay, wait a second. So what you’re saying is, and I can repeat it back, and then finally work through it. But it takes that, I gotta be paying attention to it. I’m a slow learner, so I gotta work through it piece at a time. John, any final question you would have for Brian D. Wiggs? Again, that website, folks, I’ll make sure I put it on the show notes, but it’s briandwiggs.com. He could be a male model, but he’s not. It’s briandwiggs.com. He’s a good-looking man. He’s a real person, real business, briandwiggs.com. He’s not a hired actor. Sean, what are your thoughts? Well, I mean, more than a question, I just wanted to bring up at the beginning how you and Clay Stairs met. You guys met at the Chamber. Right, and I remember our first meeting down at Utica Square. Sitting in a lounge together. I remember that forever ago. Now, the way it works with Clay Stairs and I, it all starts with that initial phone call. It starts with scheduling a consultation and just scheduling a free assessment to see if someone’s a good fit. What would you say to anybody out there considering working with Clay Stairs and Sean and the coaches and working with them? What would you say? I’d say give it some time to come in and hear what they have to say and really listen. Like you just said, be 100% present, even in those first moments. I remember asking Clay, I said, okay, if what you say is true, I’ll do this. And he goes, trust me, if you’ll do what I say, it will work. And that was the truth. Yeah. Now you have three monitors and a circular table. I’m not sure what percentage of your success is attributed to that. And he’s got his name on his table. Do listeners have to have a custom table to be successful, Brian? You don’t have to do that, but it helps. Brian, see what we have. You can get there faster if you do that. And folks, we live in the house that Brian built, and the way I did that, and Brian can attest to this, I’m sure. I told my wife, you design it how you want so that you’re happy with the house that you built. I get the pool, though. There you go. Can we talk about the pool? The pool is an incredible thing. You’ve got to go to the pool. And my wife though, she really, really loves it. And there’s not a day that goes by that she doesn’t compliment it or give someone a tour. She’s always proud. And we’ve built multiple houses, but this is the favorite home that we’ve lived in. So thank you on behalf of my wife and our family. I appreciate you very much, Brian. And again, folks, if you’re looking to build a home and you happen to be in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area, that’s briandwigs.com. Thank you, Brian, for joining us. We really do appreciate you. Thanks a lot, Brian. Thanks, guys. Enjoy. Take care, brother. See you. 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. We have been working with Thrive for business coaching for almost a year now. Yeah. 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 non-existent 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 Pest and Lawn 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, like 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, more new customers last year than we did the first five months, or I’m sorry, we booked more deals last week than 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. And 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 the 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… 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. They implemented those systems, 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 gonna take in order to really succeed. So, I just wanna 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 pediatric dentist. 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. And overall, our average is running about 40% to 42% 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 proven turnkey marketing and coaching system that will grow your practice and get you the results that you are 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’s 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 like Lee Crockwell, head of Disney with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with like 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, graphic designers, and web developers. They run a hundred and sixty companies every single week. So think of this guy with a team of business coaches running a hundred sixty companies. So in the weekly he’s running a hundred and sixty companies. Every six to eight weeks he’s doing reawaken America tours. Every six to eight 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 of 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, like, Clay is, like he doesn’t care what people think He cares about where you’re going in your life and where he can get you to go. 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. Clay has been an amazing business coach. Through the course of that, we became friends. My most impressive thing was 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 going to touch it. I’m going to turn it down because he knew it was going to 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 any time I’ve gotten 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 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 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. JT, do you know what time it is? 14. It’s TiVo time in Tulsa, Oklahoma, baby. Tim TiVo is coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 27th and 28th. We’ve been doing business conferences here since 2005. I’ve been hosting business conferences since 2005. What year were you born? 1995. Dude, I’ve been hosting business conferences since you were 10 years old, but I’ve never had the two-time Heisman Award winning Tim Tebow come present. And a lot of people, you know, have followed Tim Tebow’s football career on the field and off the field. And off the field, the guy’s been just as successful as he has been on the field. Now, the big question is, JT, how does he do it? Well, they’re going to have to come and find out, because I don’t know. Well, I’m just saying, Tim Tebow’s going to teach us how he organizes his day, how he organizes his life, how he’s proactive with his faith, his family, his finances. He’s going to walk us through his mindset that he brings into the gym, into business. It is going to be a blasty blast in Tulsa, Russia. Also, this is the first Thrive Time Show event that we’ve had where we’re gonna have a man who has built a $100 million net worth. Wow. Who’ll be presenting. Now we’ve had a couple of presenters that have had a billion dollar net worth in some like a real estate sort of things. Yeah. But this is the first time we’ve had a guy who’s built a service business and he’s built over a hundred million dollar net worth in the service business. It’s the yacht driving, multi-state living guru of franchising. Peter Taunton will be in the house. This is the founder of Snap Fitness, the guy behind Nine Round Boxing. He’s going to be here in Tulsa, Russia, Oklahoma, June 27th and 28th. JT, why should everybody want to hear what Peter Taunton has to say? Oh, because he’s incredible. He’s just a fountain of knowledge. He is awesome. He’s inspired me listening to him talk. And not only that, he also has, he practices what he teaches. So he’s a real teacher. He’s not a fake teacher like business school teachers. So you got to come learn from him. Also, let me tell you this, folks. I don’t want to get this wrong because if I get it wrong, someone’s going to say, you screwed that up, buddy. So Michael Levine, this is Michael Levine. He’s going to be coming. He said, who’s Michael Levine? I don’t get this wrong. This is the PR consultant of choice for Michael Jackson, Prince, for Nike, for Charlton Heston, for Nancy Kerrigan. 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestselling authors he’s represented, including pretty much everybody you know who’s been a super celebrity. This is Michael Levine, a good friend of mine. He’s going to come and talk to you about personal branding and the mindset needed to be super successful. The lineup will continue to grow. We have hit Christian recording artist Colton Dixon in the house. Now people say, Colton Dixon’s in the house? Yes! Colton Dixon’s in the house. So if you like top 40 Christian music, Colton Dixon’s going to be in the house performing. The lineup will continue to grow each and every day. We’re going to add more and more speakers to this all-star lineup, but I encourage everybody out there today, get those tickets today. Go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s Thrivetimeshow.com. And some people might be saying, well, how do I do it? I don’t know what I do. How does it work? You just go to Thrivetimeshow.com. Let’s go there now. We’re feeling the flow. We’re going to Thrivetimeshow.com. Again, you just go to Thrivetimeshow.com. You click on the business conferences button and you click on the request tickets button right there. The way I do our conferences is we tell people it’s $250 to get a ticket or whatever price that you could afford. And the reason why I do that is I grew up without money. JT, you’re in the process of building a super successful company. You started out with a million dollars in the bank account? No, I did not. Nope, did not get any loans, nothing like that. Did not get an inheritance from parents or anything like that. I had to work for it. And I am super grateful I came to a business conference. That’s actually how I met you, met Peter Taunton, I met all these people. So if you’re out there today and you want to come to our workshop, again, you just got to go to Thrivetimeshow.com. You might say, well, when’s it going to be? June 27th and 28th. You might say, well, who’s speaking? We already covered that. You might say, where’s it going to be? It’s going to be in Tulsa, Russell Oklahoma. It says Tulsa, Russell. It’s I’m really trying to rebrand Tulsa as Tulsa, Russell. I’m sort of like the Jerusalem of America. But if you go to if you type in Thrivetimeshow and Jinx, you can get a sneak peek or a look at our office facility. This is what it looks like. This is where you’re headed. It’s going to be a blasty blast. You can look inside, see the facility. We’re going to have hundreds of entrepreneurs here. It is going to be packed. Now for this particular event, folks, the seating is always limited because my facility isn’t a limitless convention center. You’re coming to my actual home office. And so it’s going to be packed. So when? June 27th and 28th. Who? You. You’re going to come. I’m talking to you. You can get your tickets right now at thrivetimeshow.com. And again, you can name your price. We tell people it’s $250 or whatever price you can afford. And we do have some select VIP tickets, which gives you an access to meet some of the speakers and those sorts of things. And those tickets are $500. It’s a two-day interactive business workshop, over 20 hours of business training. We’re going to give you a copy of my newest book, The Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich. You’re going to leave with a workbook. You’re going to leave with everything you need to know to start and grow a super successful company. It’s practical, it’s actionable, and it’s TiVo time right here in Tulsa, Russia. Get those tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com. Again, that’s thrivetimeshow.com. Hello, I’m Michael Levine, and I’m talking to you right now from the center of Hollywood, California, where I have represented over the last 35 years 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times bestsellers. I’ve represented a lot of major stars and I’ve worked with a lot of major companies and I think I’ve learned a few things about about what makes them work and what makes them not work. Now, why would a man living in Hollywood, California in the beautiful sunny weather of LA come to Tulsa? Because last year I did it and it was damn exciting. Clay Clark has put together an exceptional presentation, really life-changing, and I’m looking forward to seeing you then. I’m Michael Levine. I’ll see you in Tulsa. James, did I tell you my good friend John Lee Dumas is also joining us at the in-person two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop. That Tim Tebow and that Michael Levine will be at the… have I told you this? You have not told me that. He’s coming all the way from Puerto Rico. This is John Lee Dumas, the host of the chart-topping EOFire.com podcast. He’s absolutely a living legend. This guy started a podcast after Wrapping up his service in the United States military And he started recording this podcast daily in his home to the point where he started interviewing big-time folks like Gary Vaynerchuk Like Tony Robbins, and he just kept interviewing bigger and bigger names putting up shows day after day And now he is the legendary host of the EO fire podcast and he’s traveling all the way from Puerto Rico to Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend the in-person June 27th and 28th Thrive Time Show, two-day interactive business workshop. If you’re out there today, folks, you’ve ever wanted to grow a podcast, a broadcast, you want to improve your marketing, if you’ve ever wanted to improve your marketing, your branding, if you’ve ever wanted to increase your sales, you wanna come to the two-day interactive June 27th and 28th Thrive Time Show business workshop featuring Tim Tebow, Michael Levine, John Lee Dumas and countless big-time super successful entrepreneurs. It’s going to be life-changing. Get your tickets right now at thrive timeshow.com James, what website is that? ThriveTimeshow.com. James, one more time for the It’s a good time. It’s a good time. It’s a good time. Thrive Time Show two-day interactive business workshops are the world’s highest rated and most reviewed business workshops because we teach you what you need to know to grow. You can learn the proven 13 point business systems that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. We get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize 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 they’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, and 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 built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see it. And now you may be thinking, what does it actually cost to attend an in-person, two-day, interactive, Thrive Time Show business workshop. Well, good news, the tickets are $250 or whatever price that you can afford. What? Yes, they’re $250 or whatever price you can afford. I grew up without money and I know what it’s like to live without money. So if you’re out there today and you want to attend our in-person two-day interactive business workshop, all you got to do is go to thrivetimeshow.com to request those tickets. And if you can’t afford $250, we have scholarship pricing available to make it affordable for you. I learned at the Academy, at King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Harvard Keosak University Radio Show. Today I’m broadcasting from Phoenix, Arizona, not Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re close, but they’re completely different worlds. And we have a special guest today. Definition of intelligence is if you agree with me, you’re intelligent. And so this gentleman is very intelligent. I’ve done this show before also, but very seldom do you find somebody who lines up on all counts. And so Mr. Clay Clark is a friend of a good friend, Eric Trump. But we’re also talking about money, bricks, and how screwed up the world can get in a few and a half hour. So Clay Clark is a very intelligent man. And there’s so many ways we could take this thing. But I thought, since you and Eric are close, Trump, what were you saying about what Trump can’t, what Donald, who is my age, and I can say or cannot say. What just happened? First of all, I have to honor you, sir. I want to show you what I did to one of your books here. There’s a guy named Jeremy Thorne, who was my boss at the time. I was 19 years old, working at Faith Highway. I had a job at Applebee’s, Target, and DirecTV. And he said, have you read this book, “‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad?” And I said, no. And my father, may he rest in peace, he didn’t know these financial principles. So I started reading all of your books and really devouring your books. And I went from being an employee to self-employed to the business owner, to the investor. And I owe a lot of that to you. And I just wanted to take a moment to tell you, thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success. And I’ll tell you all about Eric Trump. I just want to tell you, thank you, sir, for changing my life. Well, not only that, Clay, thank you, but you’ve become an influencer. You know, more than anything else, you’ve evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. So that’s why I congratulate you on becoming. Because as you know, there’s a lot of fake influencers out there too, or bad influencers. Yeah. So anyway, I’m glad you and I agree so much, and thanks for reading my books. Yeah. That’s the greatest thrill for me today. Not a thrill, but recognition is when people, young men especially, come up and say, I read your book, changed my life, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this. I learned at the Academy, at King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does, not what they say. Hey, I’m Ryan Wimpey. I’m originally from Tulsa, born and raised here. 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 and 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. Once I saw what they were doing, I knew I had to get here at the conference. This is probably the best conference or seminar I’ve ever been to in over 30 years of business. You’re not bored. You’re waiting live the whole time. It’s not pushy. They don’t try to sell you a bunch of things. I was looking to learn how to just get control of my life, my schedule, and just get control of the business. Planning your time, breaking it all down, making time for the F6 in your life, and just really implementing it and sticking with the program. It’s really lively, they’re pretty friendly, helpful, and very welcoming. I attended a conference a couple months back, and it was really the best business conference I’ve ever attended. In the workshop, I learned a lot about time management, really prioritizing what’s the most important. Biggest takeaways are, you know, you wanna take a step-by-step approach to your business. Whether it’s marketing, you know, what are those three marketing tools that you want to use, to human resources. Some of the most successful people and successful businesses in this town, their owners were here today because they wanted to know more from Clay, and I found that to be kind of fascinating. The most valuable thing that I’ve learned is diligence, that businesses don’t change overnight. It takes time and effort, and you’ve got to go through the ups and downs of getting it to where you want to go. He actually gives you the road map out. I was stuck, didn’t know what to do and he gave me the road map out step by step. He’s set up systems in the business that make my life much easier, allow me some time freedom. Here you can ask any question you want, they guarantee it will be answered. This conference like motivates me and also give me a lot of knowledge and tools. It’s up to you to do it. Everybody can do these things. They’re stuff that everybody knows. But if you don’t do it, nobody else is going to do it for you. I can see the marketing working. It’s just an approach that makes sense. Probably the most notable thing is just the income increase that we’ve had. Everyone’s super fun and super motivating. I’ve been here before, but I’m back again because it motivates me. Your competition is going to come eventually or try to pick up these tactics. So you better, if you don’t, somebody else will. 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. Here’s our new house. This is our new house. This is our new house. This is our new house. Right, this is where we used to live a few 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. Uh, 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. If you decide to not attend the Thrive Time workshop, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. The Atmosphere Plays office is very lively. You can feel the energy as soon as you walk through the door, and it really got me and my team very excited. If you decide not to come, you’re missing out on an opportunity to grow your business, bottom line. Love the environment. I love the way that Clay presents and teaches. It’s a way that not only allows me to comprehend what’s going on, but he explains it in a way to where it just makes sense. The SEO optimization, branding, marketing, I’ve learned more in the last two days than I have the entire year. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned more in the last two days than I have the entire four years of college. The most valuable thing that I’ve learned, marketing is key, marketing is everything. Making sure that you’re branded accurately and clearly. How to grow a business using Google reviews and just how to optimize our name through our website also. Helpful with a lot of marketing, search engine optimization, helping us really rank high in Google. The biggest thing I needed to learn was how to build my foundation, how to systemize everything and optimize everything, build my SEO. How to become more organized, more efficient. How to make sure the business is really there to serve me as opposed to me constantly being there for the business. New ways of advertising my business as well as recruiting new employees. Group interviews, number one. Before we felt like we were held hostage by our employees. Group interviews has completely eliminated that because you’re able to really find the people that would really be the best fit. Hands on how to hire people, how to deal with human resources, a lot about marketing and overall just how to structure the business, how it works for me and also then how that can translate into working better for my clients. The most valuable thing I’ve learned here is time management. I like the one hour of doing your business is real critical if I’m going to grow and change. Play really teaches you how to navigate through those things and not only find freedom, but find your purpose in your business and find the purposes for all those other people that directly affect your business as well. Everybody. Everybody. Everyone. Everyone. Everyone needs to attend the conference because you get an opportunity to see that it’s real.