Cleaning Business Podcast | 4 Strategies that Create Opportunity from Nothing | 7 Clay Clark Client Success Stories

Audio Transcription

Transcribed with Cockatoo

Clay, you’re an entrepreneur, I’m an entrepreneur, and as they say in Stoic, the obstacle is the way. And so if you let these pinheads get in your way, you’re in trouble. Octononverba is the motto of the U . S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kingspoint, New York. I had appointments with Naval Academy and Kingspoint Merchant Marine Academy.

And Merchant Marine Academy’s motto was octononverba. In other words, don’t listen to what a person says. Watch what they do. Clay, my honor, my honor to be on your show and thank you for all you do. I hear the ripple effects from you are good ripple effects. You know what I mean?

People rave about what they learn from you.

So congratulations. My name is Kevin Thomas and the name of our company is MultiClean. We are a commercial janitorial service and we serve the entire state of Oklahoma and Kansas and soon to be Arkansas. We have probably grown probably five times. I think when we first started with you, we had 60 to 65 employees, and now we have a little over 300 employees. Before we got involved with Thrive Time, we didn’t really have any systems or processes in place.

In six, seven years, I’ve probably been to 12 to 13 business conferences and Amazingly, each time I go, I learn something new and I’m so excited to bring it back and show the team about marketing and how to help you guys implement the SEO. The coaching is just great because there’s accountability. It’s just a fantastic way to grow your company. Having a relationship with Thrivetimes, it’s just been amazing for multiclaim. Oh my goodness, it frees me up because then I don’t have to take a class on search engine optimization or learn marketing or shoot video. That’s not what we do.

What we do is commercial janitorial service. And you guys were the experts on marketing. And you teach me and hold my hand and show me how to do it right.

And therefore, now my company is much, much larger. Folks, on today’s show, we’re joined by a real client. He may look like a male model. He may look like a hologram. But he’s a real person. He’s a longtime client.

He’s a man that we consider to be a friend of The Thrive Time Show and a friend of mine. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the show, Kevin. Welcome on to The Thrive Time Show.

How are you, sir? Clay, I’m doing great. I had a great Christmas holiday.

And I’m glad to be here. OK, so first question, can you tell us, what is your name, first and last name?

And what’s the name of your company, sir? My name is Kevin Thomas and the name of our company is MultiClean.

We are a commercial janitorial service and we serve the entire state of Oklahoma and Kansas and soon to be Arkansas.

And how long have we worked with you approximately at this point, sir?

It’s been about six, seven years. Oh man, time for my favorite time of the week. We get to sit down with one of my favorite entrepreneurs. I have been blessed to be raised by entrepreneurs. My aunts and uncles on both sides, my grandparents were all entrepreneurs, business owners themselves. I feel so blessed to live in America where there are so many rungs on the ladder.

You can start at the bottom, work your way up, but one person we get to talk to every week. He’s one of my favorite mentors, my favorite business mentors. He’s written a lot of books, but probably one of his most striking books you don’t have any questions when you read the title. It’s not like, Oh, what’s that book about? You don’t really have to even read the, you know, the back section cause you just from the title, you know exactly what it’s going to teach you in that book.

And the book is titled how to build a successful business. And I’d say, you know, if you just read that first chapter there, it could be how to build a successful life as well. Cause I would say the two kind of go hand in hand. Some of you guys are like, I don’t have a business yet, or I don’t own a business. This is still something you should stick around for.

Cause you can build a successful life. If you can build a successful business, we’re going to learn both today with Mr. Clay Clark. I live up to the hype. Hopefully I can live up to the hype. Colton, thank you so much for allowing me to be here with your listeners and we are going to provide a ton of actionable knowledge on today’s show. You know, that’s one of my favorite things about you, Clay.

I’ve been to a lot of business meetings, seen a lot of stuff where it’s like a lot of, you know, these, these ideas or you should try this or, you know, you could, you could do this or this, this. Everything you ever say is like on Tuesday. You can do this and I did this and here’s my actual calendar Here’s my thing and hey, here’s how I handle my phone contacts. You pull out your phone, you know, like you’re very Tactical very very real and then you actually show real -life examples from yourself, which is very handy Well I appreciate you saying that and I can tell you if you’re watching today’s show and you’re trying to land more customers or you’re watching today’s show and you’re trying to land the dream job Colton we’ve got a stack of stuff that we’re going to teach everybody out there so again if you’re watching today’s show and you say I’m trying to get more customers or you say I’m trying to land the dream job I’m going to walk you through the process and I was talking with your father offline about this because there’s so many people that say I want to land that dream job. I want to land that dream client. How do I do it?”

So I’ve broken it down into five specific points, one big idea, and then there’s four sub points here. So the big idea I want to cover first is the goal of marketing is to get the golden look. I’m going to quote Dr. Zellner, a big mentor in my life, just to give you context. He grew up in Palm Beach. poor. He worked at Chiquita O ‘Brien’s washing dishes.

He built the state’s, Oklahoma’s largest, most successful optometry clinic. He built Oklahoma’s top auto auction. He built a bank called Regent Bank. He built an A to Z medical center. I can sit there and list off his accolades. He just bought a ton of radio stations in Oklahoma.

Dr. Zellner, look him up, folks. Z -O -E -L -L -N -E -R. He once told me, and I wrote it down, he says, marketing is to earn the golden look of your ideal and likely buyer. Let’s try that again. The goal of marketing is to earn the golden look of your ideal and likely buyer. That’s the goal here.

So how do you get your foot in the door? So Colton, if you’re watching today’s show and you’re looking for the dream job, If you’re out there watching today’s show and you’re going, how do I get my dream job? If you’re watching today’s show, you say, how do I get more of my ideal and likely customers to want to try out my services or to give me a shot for me to sell them my products?

This is the show for you, Colton. Perfect. We were talking about this because an example came across my desk and something I’ve talked to you about. The importance of being able to focus, of being where your butt is, like your brain, your butt, same place. Don’t be all over the place. I was on a call with you one time.

and the call lasted about eight seconds, because you realized the person was driving when they were supposed to be focusing. And you’re like, hey, call me back at a later time. I’ll have opportunities this afternoon, but I want to actually make sure I have your attention, make sure we can actually do this effectively. And you wrapped it up so quick and so clean, but you don’t waste time with people that are trying to waste your time, and you’re so fast about it. But one of my favorite things I’ve ever learned from you is how you do job applications, how you do job interviews. And it’s something I see in a lot of different places, but this video came across my desk this week, and I was like, This, this is what I want to show clay.

I want to talk to clay about this. I want to kind of pull this apart and see how you’d coach up both the employer who’s actually doing the interview here and the employee. trying to get a job here in this situation.

Check this out.

I don’t usually mind overtime.

It’s like, Oh no, I’m not. I’m, I’m, I’m parked up now.

May I have a fish sandwich please?

No, no, no, no, no. Oh yes. A fish sandwich please. Saturday and Sunday. Oh, just one fish sandwich.

That’ll be all.

Thank you.

Saturday and Sunday is perfect.

No, no, I’m not. I’m, I’m, I just, I’m parked up. I’m, I’m in my car right now.

No, no, I’m not ordering anything.

If I was, I’d be at Popeye’s cause, but, oh no, no, no. I’ll do the interview. Yeah.

I wasn’t ordering food.

If I was, I already ordered it, but I didn’t. And I, uh, yes.

Uh, do you have any ketchup? I mean, like how soon were you?

Yeah, I know.

I, you’re kind of making me hungry.

I kind of want to go to a drive -through now, but, um, no, no, no, no, no. I see.

No, I see how you would think that.

I pulled into this random restaurant to do this interview.

We should schedule this at another time.

Thank you for your time.

Have a good day. I am parked up now. Whoa! So I’m not sure how much of, you know, it might be a skit.

I’m not sure. In today’s age, it’s hard to tell. But I feel like there’s a lot of coaching principles that could take place because I don’t think that’s too far off from some things I’ve actually seen in our interactions before. Well, I could just say this. If you’re watching today’s show and you’re an employer, this is what you have to do. You have to interview job candidates every single week.

So if you’re watching today’s show and you are an employer, you’re a church, you’re an organization of some kind, you have to interview every potential employees every single week. I’ll give you some stats. According to Inc. Magazine right now, everyone can look it up, 85 % of employees now lie on job applications. 85 % of would -be employees, of job applicants, you can look it up, folks, 85 % of job applicants now lie on resumes, according to research done by Inc. Magazine.

According to the U . S. Chamber of Commerce, 75%, there it is, 75 % of employees now steal from the workplace. So what am I saying? I was talking to a pastor yesterday. And I’ll be vague about who the pastor was and where he is.

But I’m talking to the pastor and he’s like, man, I just had one of my top women who works for me just put in her notice, you know, and but apparently everybody else in my office knew. And now I’m short staffed. I got to replace this person. My weekend’s chaos. I’m wow. This is horrible.

And this is a guy, I’ve helped him grow his church dramatically. And so I said, what you gotta do, we’ve talked about this, and every week I hammer it, but if you’re watching this show, you’ve got to interview job candidates every single week. So you say, Clay, when do you do it? I interview job candidates every single Wednesday at 5 .30 p . m. and every Friday at 5 .30 p .

m. Why do I do it at 5 .30?

It’s because that’s when people are available after their job.

I don’t want people to have to sneak away from their current job to apply for a job with me.

Also, how do I interview all the candidates? Well, typically in a typical job interview, a typical week, I look at, this is real, every week I typically interview about 50 to 100 people. Come on. So it’s like 5 ,000 people a year, approximately.

I’ll never forget the first time I heard you say that, because I’m like, wait, what? So you don’t sit down one -on -one? Because 50 people, if you do 20 -minute job interviews, that would take hours and hours and hours and hours and hours. But you don’t take 100 hours a week in order to do this. You do two slots.

I’ll give you an example.

So this is Wednesday. So two days ago, I’m doing the interview at 530 on Wednesday. And we had a really, really sharp lady that showed up for the interview. She’s in her early 50s, sharp lady, wants the job, dresses sharp. That’s good. So the interview starts at 530, OK?

This is the only person in the group that got there early. One, showed up early, dressed sharp, ready to go, early 50s, sharp. Everybody else showed up. at the time they were supposed to be there, and I’m not gonna hold that against anybody, but nobody else was early in that group. Of the people that showed up, and again, James, who works for me, he gets paid per job candidate that attends the interview, he makes $5. So if we get 25 people that show up, he makes $125.

So he wants people to show up. So we had over 30 people confirmed, but we had at the event less than seven, less than seven, seriously, I’m looking around, I’m like, I think we have six people, one, two, three, six, okay. And then we had a seventh straggler come in way late. So we only had seven people total that showed up out of that group of 25 confirmed people. Of that, there’s only one person in the group that I would hire. And she had asked good questions.

The way I do the interviews, I say, hey, if you’re looking to work here, you can ask me any questions you have about hours or pay or culture or vision or mission, anything you want to ask. And then afterwards, I’ll make myself available for one -on -one questions. She asked great questions. And then for her one -on -one questions, when we were wrapping up the interview, I said, if you have any one -on -one questions, come follow me. We’ll meet in my office.

I’ll answer any questions you have. Her question was, how flexible are you with my schedule? I said, well, in my office, we have a schedule where we work from 7 o ‘clock until 3 each day. So whatever days you’re scheduled, 40 hours a week, you need to be there. And she says, that’s the problem with my last job. Where I’m at in my life, there’s a lot of things I want to do.

And I just need the flexibility. I don’t like being boxed in. And I’m going, so you can’t work 40 hours. No, I will. I mean, I want to work 40. But I need to be flexible.

So she couldn’t adhere to a schedule.

So out of that group of people from Wednesday, there wasn’t a single person that I could hire last week. Now, you go back two weeks ago, Colton, I found two all -stars. But again, that’s going through almost 100 candidates in a week, I found two. This week, so far now, again, I still have time, because I’m doing a group interview again tonight. But so far this week, I’m shooting 0%. Because if you work somewhere, especially if you’re the boss, if you own a business, you want the best people working for you.

You want people that make your business better. You want people that are bringing life, that are bringing hope, that are bringing excitement. You don’t want to be hostage to your employees and be in this really weird situation. So the group interviews, the weekly interviews allow there to be the lifeblood that comes through. But if you had to do these interviews and you’re doing, let’s say Wednesday, you did seven, right? All of them were misses.

If you did all those individual interviews, that’s seven different meetings, seven different things to get zero. And if you have to go through a hundred to get two, that means every single month, you got to go through a hundred people to find two people that could be actual employees. You might’ve settled at number 34 and never gotten to 68. That was the actual rockstar. So I love, this is such a brilliant concept. We have great people on our team, and it’s because I go through and interview so many people.

And we have a clip, if maybe your producer can play.

I wanted to showcase, this is an employee that worked with us for over 10 years, did a phenomenal job, really started, this is a person that’s started basically right out of school and then worked with me for over 10 years. And we have clip number one here. I just want to show the kind of people that I’m trying to hire at least. What is your name and how did you hear about Elephant in the Room? My name is Lexus and I heard about Elephant in the Room through a friend that I used to work with.

How would you describe the experience working here at Elephant in the Room?

I think the experience is very positive.

The atmosphere is very energetic and always very great people to be around. And why would anybody else want to work here at Elephant in the Room? At Elephant in the Room, there’s always room for growth and opportunity. Like I said, everyone is very positive and accepting, and there’s also a really great work -life balance, and they just care about you more than anything. Thank you. I’m paying her to say this.

She’s a longtime employee, and we wanted to do an interview with her because potential employees are thinking to themselves, do I want to work in that environment? And one of the concerns a potential candidate has is, who am I going to be working with? And so we always will interview our top performers about working here. And that’s Alexis. She does a phenomenal job for the haircut chain I run. But again, if I wasn’t interviewing people every week, I remember like it was yesterday.

One of her friends calls me and says, hey, My friend would be perfect to come work here with me. Would you be interested in interviewing my friend? I said, absolutely, because I’m always interviewing. And we interviewed her and I knew she was a home run. And because I’m always interviewing people, I’m never held hostage by employees that choose not to work here anymore. So if you’re watching today’s show, again, step number one, this is step number one.

If you’re looking for the dream job or you’re trying to land more clients, step number one, you gotta do whatever it takes. Dave Ramsey, the bestselling author, he said, if you live, If you live like no one else now, later you can live like no one else. What does he mean? Dave Ramsey. I just remember Lexus, she said, I’ll work whatever shift, whatever hours. I want to be on your team.

whatever I can do. Well, I can work with that. And we hired her. And now she’s a lead stylist. She helps manage the stores. She’s making great income, and now she has a schedule that’s the dream job.

But again, if she had come in with an entitled attitude and an uncoachable attitude, that would not have worked. So if you’re watching today’s show and you’re talking to a new potential customer, or you’re talking to a new potential employee, if you’re watching today’s show and you’re trying to get more customers, and the customer says, hey, I would love your company to give me a quote to install my cabinets, to do my dentistry, to do my dry cleaning, to build my house, whatever product or service you’re trying to sell, You want to be really eager and really flexible to do whatever it takes to wow that customer. Now, if you’re out there watching today’s show and you’re an employee and you’re looking to land a dream job, you want to tell your owner, hey, as long as it’s legal or ethical, I’m willing to do whatever it takes. I mean, seriously, whatever hours you want. I think about Devin. Devin’s been with me for almost 10 years now.

Devin applied for the job. I told Devin I didn’t have an opening. He said, I will work for free. until an opening becomes available. And I think Devin worked for free for about six months. He had a full -time job, and then he worked for free for me for several months until we were able to find a spot for him.

So if you’re watching today’s show, and you’ll just go to the employer and say, I’m willing to do whatever it takes, that is going to help you get that dream job. Now, step number two, step number two, this comes at you from Napoleon Hill.

Napoleon Hill once said, render more service than you are paid for, and eventually you’ll be paid more for fewer services rendered.

Again, render more service than for which you are paid, and eventually you’ll be paid more for fewer services rendered. So let me just give an example. My first job, my first real job, I was working at Target, and a guy named Todd Starkey, Todd Starkey says to me, excuse me, I’m 21 years old, Todd says, excuse me, I’m wearing the red Target shirt, excuse me, do you know where I could find a video camera back in the day when you’d film on the VHS and the whole thing? And I said, I do, they’re right over here. And he said, now Which one do you recommend?

I said, well, Todd, what will you be using it for? And he said, I’m using it for this, for that. And I knew everything about every camera. Just like I know the things related to geopolitical, or just like I know business now. I mean, I really knew every product in that section. Why?

Because I was reading Think and Grow Rich, and I was going to wow that guy.

I’m going to wow every single customer. And eventually, he says to me, this is a true story, he says to me, he says, Clayton, Or she says, why do you work here? Got my little Target name tag on. He says, Clay, why do you work here? I said, well, I’m starting DJConnection . com.

It’s a DJ entertainment company. It’s going to be one of America’s largest entertainment companies. But the events are primarily on Fridays and Saturdays. I got to make income to fuel the thing. And he’s like, are you interested in accounting? I go, oh, yeah.

I love accounting. He says, well, I’m the head of recruitment for our internship program at Taxon Accounting Software. And I’d like to offer you an opportunity. Could you do a job interview tomorrow at 9? My wife and I were sharing a car, I go, yes, yes, yes, nine o ‘clock, I’ll be there, yes. So I didn’t, this is back before you had unlimited cell phone coverage.

So I get back in my car, get to a zone where I can call, do -do -do -do -do -do -do, on my singular phone, I call my wife. She says to me, what’s up? I said, I’ve got an opportunity to make $15 an hour working in an office. I’m not going to make $6 .25 an hour. I’m making $6 .25 an hour at Target. I can make $15 an hour, and the interview is tomorrow at 9.

So when I get off of work today, when you pick me up, we had one car because we had sold the car. We didn’t have air conditioning. We didn’t have heat. When you pick me up, we got to drive to the City of Faith, the ORU, Oral Roberts University, City of Faith Tower, the office tower, because that’s where they’re located. And I want to get there, and I want to figure out how to get there because I want to navigate through the elevator. through security because I want to figure out the game she says okay so she takes me there like 7 o ‘clock at night or 8 o ‘clock at night I go to the front desk I said have an interview tomorrow at 9 a .

m. where is tax and accounting software they said the 41st floor in this tower over here. I I said, can I go up there? So I go up the elevator, I walk around, I’m going, all right, this is where I’m going. I knew the interview was starting at 9 in the morning.

So I said, I called my wife, Vanessa, I said, listen, Can you pick me up after cheerleading practice?

I’ve walked the place.

I’ve canvassed it.

I’m ready to be picked up.

I feel good about it. But tomorrow, I need you to take me there at 6 in the morning. She says, isn’t the interview at 9? I said, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. 6 AM.

Got to be ready. So she takes me at 6 AM, drops me off there. I’m up there. I go up the elevator. I’m sitting there on the couch.

Come on.

I’ll never forget. One of the owners walks in, and he’s like, who are you? Because I’m the first guy. I beat the boss to work. I said, I’m Clay Clark. I have an interview today.

And he’s like, who are you? Wow. What is your interview? I said nine. He’s like, my kind of guy. And then I can hear him talking because Todd walks in a little bit later and he says, this guy was here at six in the morning.

This guy’s awesome. I’m dressed sharp. Got my briefcase. Come on. I got that job because I over delivered. I over delivered.

And then as the company got sold to Intuit or TurboTax, the technology got purchased by TurboTax, I kept getting promoted as they were laying people off in the merger. And so I ended up, before I left, I think I was making like $25 an hour and I was managing a department because I just kept being the first one to work. every single day. Every single time you’re watching today’s show, what do you do? Be the first one to work and the last one to leave. If you’ll just do that move, baby.

Now, if you own a business, what do you do? Get your product done on time. Come on now, folks. Get your product done. Get your service delivered early and under budget. Let’s try it again.

Early and under budget. You tell the customer, it’s going to be $20 ,000 for me to install that hot tub. Get it done for $19 ,000. And you say, it’s going to be done on Friday. Get it done on Thursday. One of my clients I work with, she sells hats and t -shirts, multimillion dollar company.

She says, Colton, I’m going to get your hats to you on Friday. Friday. She gets those hats to you on Monday. She says they’re going to be $13 per Richardson hat. She gets those things done for $12 .50 per hat, and she sends you a thank you note. I’ve got a home builder I work with, Aaron Antus.

He tells the clients, it’s going to be $302 ,000 to build your house. They finished the house for $301 ,000. They say it’ll be done in six months. He gets it done in five. All I’m saying is if you over -deliver, you will eventually be overpaid. It’s like a boomerang.

Whenever you over -deliver, people tell people the good news about what you’ve done.

If you say, well, specifically, how can I over -deliver?

either over -deliver in the area of speed, over -deliver in the area of quality, or over -deliver in the area of customization. And that’s a powerful thing. Eric Trump, he reaches out to me. True story. He says, Clay, you want to host a reawakened tour in Doral? Trump Doral?

I said, yes, I do. Let’s do it. He says, OK, I’m going to have you stay at one of the villas. We’re going to check in. You and your wife, you’ll check in. What time will you be there?

I said, I’ll be there. This is Eric Trump, the son of the president. What time will you be there, sir? I said, I’ll be there at this time. He says, OK, I get there. to check into my hotel room.

I open my room. I’m greeted by the Trump staff. They walk me to my room. I’m with my wife and my kids. We go in the room. There’s a handwritten note from Eric Trump thanking us for choosing to host the event at their property.

It’s an over -deliver customization. When I met with President Trump, I had a meeting with President Trump, he gave me this commemorative silver platter. and he had signed hats for us. So guess where those hats are? Guess where those plates are? In my house, because it’s that extra little touch, that customization.

A lot of information.

We’re going to be going on 90 miles an hour today, Colton, but this is good stuff here. I think people should go back and listen to this over and over and over again. This is absolute gold.

One thing you mentioned there several times is not just being on time, but being early. One of the biggest benefits of your coaching that I’ve received so far from your mentorship is this website page. Now, I’m not going to give away the URL because I don’t know how you get access to this. This might be just for people that work with you or whatever. You can give it away.

You can give it away if you want to. Totally free. This is a secret hidden gem. After we started working with Clay, he gave us this website, and I regularly go to this website, Clay. This is one of my favorite sites. It’s called thrivetimeshow .

com forward slash tower of power, tower of power, forward slash tower of power. It’s got all these good notable quotables and stuff, but you have this basically In order to build a giant tower of productivity, in order to have this amazing tower of productivity of an amazing business, you have to lay the foundation first. So these are there. And then you have every single one of these is related to a podcast episode where you go through how to build an incredible business all the way up to the top. Now, when I first heard this, one of the foundational things you gave in there, you were talking about going to work at this meeting at 4 a . m.

that you had to be part of and you were, you’re like, I don’t know what traffic’s going to look like. I don’t know what this is going to look like.

I don’t know this, this, this, and you set a line.

I literally wrote this line down and I’ve like memorized it and I say it all the time. You’re like, it is so hard to be on time. You’re like, it’s almost impossible to be on time because there’s only a one minute margin. In fact, you can even zero in. There’s only a one second margin.

of on time. If the meeting’s at 4 a . m. , you have to be there exactly at 4 a . m. , and you’re like, but it is infinitely easy to be early, because there’s thousands of minutes prior to when it becomes early.

It’s impossible to be on time. It’s easy to be early, and I think because we have Google Maps, and Google Maps says it’ll take you 16 minutes to get there, and you can kind of factor, you’re like, okay, if it’s at 4 a . m. , I need to leave at, you know, 344, and I can be there right on time, and whatever else, but infinitely early, and I love that concept because it’s so good. You can be infinitely late and you can be infinitely early, but on time is almost impossible. Well, you know, I’ll just give an example and I’ll tell your listeners a little sneak peek here.

David Green, the founder of Hobby Lobby, he’s going to be on your broadcast here soon. I just interviewed David Green, the founder of Hobby Lobby, and years and years ago, I remember I was begging people that I knew, I said, please introduce me to the founder of Hobby Lobby. I’ve read his book. I want to know. I want to shadow him. I want to spend a day with David Green.

Please make it happen. And I kept getting rejections and rejections and rejections. And finally, Doug Fears, who was the CFO of the billion dollar company Helmrich & Payne, Doug Fears, big shout out to Doug Fears. He made that connection. And man, I was excited. I was fired up.

And I wanted to get there early. And I was so excited when I met President Donald J. Trump at his office there at Mar -a -Lago. I was, man, I wanted to be there early. Yo, it gets me excited talking about being early. I wanted to be there early. And what happens is, is casualness causes casualties.

Casualness causes casualties. So over time, If one is not intentional, and I’ll just give you an example. I have wonderful clients I work with, and I’m honored to work with them, and I love that. I love that. But today, as an example, I had a massive order of books being delivered to my office at a time that I didn’t expect. So I can’t control that variable that my books are being delivered here right now, or that I have signs being installed right now.

So in the background, you may hear some banging and various things, because they’re doing a lot of installations right now. I can’t control that variable. But what I can do is, in my schedule, I try to put buffers. So in between client meetings, I try to put 30 -minute buffer for jackassery or unexpected things. When I travel somewhere, I always try to get on the first flight out. So if there’s the 5 a .

m. flight, I’m going to take it. And I always fly one day before I need to be somewhere. I don’t like to fly, but if I have to. So if I need to meet Eric Trump on a Saturday, I’m going to fly out on a Friday morning. That way, I’m there a full 24 hours early.

It’s just that only the paranoid survive, to quote Andy Grove, the CEO of Intel. Now, move number three. Teach you move number three. You want to embrace the three phases. of super success. The three phases of super success.

Now, if you want to be average, below average, if you just want to get by, you want to be middle class, middle of the road, mediocre, this isn’t for you. But if you want to become super successful, there are three phases. These were taught to me by Michael Levine. By the way, I paid Michael Levine $25 ,000 to teach me this. I paid him $25 ,000 for three hours of his time, true story. I got to meet him.

This is the PR consultant for Michael Jackson, for Nike, for Prince. I mean, this is the guy. Think about it, folks. The PR, the public relations, the branding expert of choice for Nike, for Michael Jackson, for Prince. Are you kidding me? Charlton Heston.

What? Am I just naming celebrities?

No, I’m not.

Barbra Streisand. I mean, this is like the guy. Nobody’s represented more Grammy award winners. I mean, this is phenomenal. OK, best -selling authors, Michael Levine. I said, Michael Levine.

How did you become successful? Because I know that your dad was an alcoholic and I know you’re dyslexic. How did you become a best -selling author if you can’t read?

And Michael says to me, there are three phases of super success.

And he talks like that, by the way, very theatrical. Yes. Three phases of super success.

And I’m like, taking notes.

And I’m thinking, I’m paying this guy $25 ,000. Hopefully he continues to say words because he’s going kind of slow. And he says, phase number one, you have to gain a practical education. And I’m like, well, how did you, how did you do it? He says, did you hear what I just said to you? He kind of talks like that.

It’s kind of a, it’s almost like an antagonistic adversarial, intense coaching method. He does. He says, do you hear what I just told you? I moved to Los Angeles and I cold called every celebrity, every one of them, cold called. I said, how is it? I did it.

And I cold called him. And I said, what I did is I said, I will be willing to work with you for free for one year. And all I would ask is at the end of the year, if you’ve experienced value and results for me, that you would be interested in maybe telling people about how I’ve helped you or potentially hiring me at any price that you choose. I’m willing to work for free, for a year, for you, and I will be the best ever. And at the end of that year, you can pay me any price you want, and I would ask that you would tell your friends about me. ” And Charlton Heston, George Carlin, Barbara Streisand, they’re going, what’s your background?

He’s like, I moved here from New York. My father’s an alcoholic. I am dyslexic. I am going to be God’s gift to PR. You watch it. And so these people are going, I mean, it’ll work for free, why not?

So that’s phase number one. You get that practical education. You gotta learn how to do something. Step number two, you build that reputation. Michael Levine said, if I had a 7 a . m.

meeting, I’m there at 6 .50. If I told a client, I’ll get you featured in the New York Times, I’m gonna get them featured in the LA Times and the New York Times. If I told a client, look, we’re gonna do a billboard and the cost of it’s gonna be $8 ,000. I’ll make sure that that billboard was $6 ,000 because I am going to over -deliver. Why? Because I’m building a massive reputation.

Oh yes, a massive. This is the guy who got Charlton Heston on Saturday Night Live. This is the guy who put Charlton Heston on Saturday Night Live. This is the guy who worked with Michael Jackson during all the scandals to help him kind of shape his PR. This is the guy who was working with Prince as he was changing his name into a symbol. This guy right here, Michael Levine, I’m telling you, unbelievable reputation.

Phase number three, you exchange your reputation for compensation. Yes. Oh yeah. So now it’s interesting because this week I had a phone conversation with Mike Rowe and I thought to myself, I cannot believe I’m on the phone with Mike Rowe, because I know that that would not have been true 20 years ago. This week, I had a conversation with an NBA player. I’m thinking to myself, that’s wild.

Furthermore, an NBA player sent me the first pair of their signature shoes they just came out with. They sent me a pair. It’s not even on the market yet, and they sent me a pair. I’m thinking, this is a crazy life. And so it’s interesting. because when you’re going through that messy middle where you’re working for free, so when I was building my company, DJConnection .com,

com, Colton, I’m cold calling every major company, specifically Boeing, UPS, Bank of America, these are real companies, Bama, Pi, they make the pizza dough for McDonald’s, those guys. They make the pizza dough for Pizza Hut, they make the dough for McDonald’s, those guys. And I’m cold calling, I’m saying, I will DJ your next corporate event for a dollar. And at the end of the event, you can pay me whatever price you think is fair. And I remember, Colton, when I’m making those calls and they said yes, Alice Hargrove, the booking coordinator for Boeing, it almost freaked me out when she said yes. My wife said, are you DJing?

I’m a 20 -year -old guy. I’m a 21 -year -old guy at this point. My wife says, are we DJing for Boeing’s 40th anniversary? This is the 737 makers, the number one aircraft manufacturer in the world. And I’m the MC and host for a dollar. And she says, for a dollar?

I said, well, they can pay me what they think is fair afterwards. My wife says, honey, are you DJing for my boss, Dr. Zellner? I said, yes, I am. I cold called your boss. I’m DJing for a dollar. And I just remember having all of it.

My schedule was full with $1 gigs. And I’ll never forget Dr. Zellner. We were at the Cityplex Tower on the 60th floor. He says to me, Clay Clark, you did a great job DJing today. I’m very impressed. And we had no money.

And I’m working three jobs. I’m taking all the money I have, and I’m putting it into this company. So I’m really, really grinding.

He says, well, what would you normally charge for a show? And I said, well, I mean, most DJs in Tulsa are charging $600.

He goes, well, let me give you double that. And he just, $100, $100, $100, $100. I’m going, Santa? So Boeing, Alice said, why don’t you come by on Monday? I’m going to get you a check. I think it’ll be fair.

And I got a check from her. I want to thank you. $4 ,000 for a show that I would have normally charged like $500 for. And so it just kept happening. Not every single client treated me fairly, but most of them did. And that’s how I landed some of those big accounts.

And then finally, step number four. Because reputation equals compensation. That’s such a good line. That’s it right there, baby. I love it.

Yeah.

That’s how you do it. That’s how you do it. That’s how you do it. Now, step number four, you have to choose to upgrade your network. You see, you become the average of the five people you spend the most time with. That’s why Napoleon Hill said that the biggest cause of failure in the life of a woman or a man is typically who they marry.

Second is who they spend time with. I meet a lot of guys who are good guys at the workplace, but they hang around morons after work. I know a lot of women that do a great job for me, but they hang around morons after work. And it’s really hard to have super success if you’re surrounding yourself with bottom feeders. You do become the average of the five people you spend the most time with. So you want to develop a better social circle.

So if you’re watching today’s show and you say, you know what, I want to upgrade my social circle. I want to grow my business. I want to take my life to the next level. Or like James, James actually came to one of my workshops with the intention of getting a job. Wow. That’s how JT came to our conference with the intention of getting a job.

So if you’re saying, I want to get a job. All you gotta do, I’m telling you, Katie, long time employee, Katie moved here from Florida, came to a conference to get a job. So if you’re watching today’s show, and you’re saying, I’m looking for a job, I’m looking for more clients, I wanna take my business to the next level, and I don’t wanna go broke paying for it, you go to thrivetimeshow . com, and as of the very second that I’m on this beautiful microphone with you on your wonderful show here, we have nine tickets left for the conference coming up September 25th and 26th. It’s in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It features Eric Trump, Amanda Grace, Dr. Stella Emanuel, Julie, Green, Pastor Dave Scarlett.

As of today, we have over 40 client success stories and case studies that’ll be in the house. It’s massive. You can get those tickets at thrivetimeshow .

com September 25 and 26. Someone says, how much is it? It’s $250 or whatever price you can afford. We always do scholarships, but if you do use promo code flyover, if you use promo code flyover, what you do is you’re entering yourself in for a chance to win a backstage pass and you also get a discount off of VIP tickets. So we have nine tickets left. We have a handful of VIP tickets left and a handful of general admission tickets.

And as we head into those final couple of weeks, you know, some people, their schedule changes or whatever happens. And so we have a smattering of tickets available, but I would encourage you to go to Thrive Time. We’re going to teach you marketing, branding, sales, accounting, legal, workflow, everything you need to know to start and grow a successful company, how to fund that thing, how to manage your time, how to generate leads, how to optimize your website. It is going to be awesome.

Colton and I could not be more fired up.

about today’s topic, and I think that video you played today, unfortunately, is the default a lot of times when I’m interviewing people. Sometimes there’s a lot of jackassery out there, and I refuse to settle for mediocre employees, and if you’re watching today’s show, I encourage you to settle, or I encourage you not to settle for a mediocre job. Find a job that you’re gonna love, a place that’s gonna energize you and mentor you and coach you up.

Don’t take a mediocre job, and if you’re watching today’s show and you’re an employer, don’t make mediocre jobs. Find a way to create a career. you’re of success. 4 ,000 % from February to February. Now, I can better that. Okay, Clay, I don’t think you know this.

I don’t think you know this. I’m pinching myself, and if I cry, forgive me.

In the last two and a half days, we have bettered our entire month of February in the last two and a half days. So, and the phone’s blowing up. Everything’s just blowing up. You’re right. It is like a rocket ship. So, We’re pinching ourselves, actually.

I learned at the Academy at King’s Point in New York, acta non verba. Watch what a person does. not what they say. But I recognized at the age of 15, I’m going, you know what? I am not going to live that way. And so I started a company out of my parents’ basement called DJConnection .

com. And I decided I am going to have success. And so I reached out to millionaires and people that I kind of knew through church and friendships and people that, parents of my friends. And I said, what book would you recommend that I read? I’m a 15 year old asking this question, true story. And I kept being told you got to read.

Hello, hello, hello, Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Radio Show. It’s an exciting time. Also, I think a treacherous time, a spooky time also. But it’s always, you know, danger is a good time. Today, my guest is Clay Clark. And I went out with Tom Wheelwright to visit Clay with Eric Trump also.

And the reason I want to talk to Clay this morning is a very important subject called study. And the reason I say that is things are changing so fast, and many people are completely missing the show. You know, things are changing at rapid, rapid, rapid speed. Technology is changing. And so I went to Tulsa, well, again, with Tom Wheelwright and Eric Trump, and I think it was so impressive. about Clay is this word called study.

I don’t know, you guys must be in your water or something, Clay, but boy, I was so, so impressed how big you guys are. But what really impressed me was you have this huge congregation. They’re all about guys your age. They’re on fire. And you start your classes at five in the morning. Now let me talk to you about study here.

We show our books here. How I study, you know, this is the creature from Jekyll Island. It’s on the Fed. And Clay’s doing the same thing. We study.

So I go out to Clay’s place in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

He’s built this huge compound out there.

And you guys start at 5 o ‘clock in the morning.

That’s not by Zoom. They drive there. They show up 5 o ‘clock, bright -haired, bushy -tailed, and all this.

And they’re on fire. Your group is on fire. So that’s what was unclear. This technology, tell your group, I was so, so impressed because like I said, studies became a bad word. I got into fights in my own company because our staff didn’t want to study anymore. And I just, I don’t know how they can not do that.

So Clay, anyway, welcome to the Rich Dad Radio Show. That’s what I wanna talk to you about, is how do you do it? Five o ‘clock in the morning, you have hundreds of people showing up in your huge, huge, huge auditorium on your property to study. Anyway, welcome to the show, Clay, and what turns you on so much? That’s what I wanna know. Give us a little bit about your background.

My name is Karime Schofield, and the name of our company is Whistle While You Clean. I am Sophia Schofield. We live in Cincinnati, OH and we service the tri -state, so Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana. We were getting a phone call, and we were like, why is someone calling our business line? That’s unusual. And we picked it up, and it was a lead.

I mean, it’s been incredible, Clay. We’ve gone from zero to 100 % growth. We’re a full -functioning company. It’s great. We’re blown away at how well we’re doing. So working with you guys, you guys have really taught us a lot about generating leads and pursuing our dream 100.

So we have a list of customers that we want to market to. And so we’ve been making phone calls. We’ve been showing up in person. We’re trying to get near the businesses that they would visit if they were visiting like a hair salon or something. And then we start calling them and we just start pursuing them. And then the other thing that we do is when we do do cleans, we take a lot of video testimonials and we post those to our website so other customers can see.

And then we also upload a lot of images of the things that we do. And so We’re also asking our clients for Google reviews after we’ve cleaned their houses. And so it’s this constant cycle of doing those things over and over and over again. I would say if you’re on the fence, go to one of Clay’s conferences. They are hilarious. They’re fun.

They’re educational. They’re so good that even my teenagers like them. And I would say don’t let fear hold you back.

If you want to start a business, do the obvious thing and hire someone who knows how to run businesses. If I wanted to get in shape, I’d hire a gym person, you know, a personal trainer.

This is like the personal training for business. It has been absolutely amazing. I mean, our coach is encouraging.

When he first met with us, he said, Do we want him to be like a drill sergeant with us?

You know, what level of intensity do we want him to give us?

And I will say he is incredibly, incredibly encouraging all the time.

And he just hits the same mark with us every single time.

It’s very repetitive, but I feel like I think we both really learn a lot every time we sit down and have a conversation with him over the phone.

It’s it’s he keeps pushing us to go further and he can recognize when we’re afraid to do something and he’ll give us a little bit of grace.

But that next week, he’s drilling us again, like pushing us to go harder. Our no brainer offer is we are offering your first clean for a dollar. And that sounds absolutely insane.

It even sounded insane when I was talking over it with our business coach. And I will tell you that that has generated some of our hugest clients.

I mean, that has been like a game changer because it opened up the door to more clients, more recommendations, more leads. And we were surprised how far that Dollar Clean got us. How important has it been for you to work out that scripting even though you offer a dollar for the first clean? How important has it been for you to nail that down? It’s been really important, because it kind of, it hones in, so that you’re not just all over the place when you’re trying to explain what it is that you do. And a lot of times, it’s like you’re a good person offering a good product, and you have integrity, and you want to communicate that.

But when you go to communicate without a script or without practice, it’s just like, a mess coming out of your mouth, as opposed to having this, you know, honed in practice where you know what you’re going to say, you know how you’re going to say it, and you can almost expect better results when you do it. way. Had you ever been an entrepreneur before starting this particular business? No, never. Did you ever think about wanting to own your own business someday or what was the first time you thought, you know, maybe I would like to open my own business? Absolutely.

I’ve probably been dreaming about it for about 10 years. Okay. And let me go to your daughter here. Had you ever thought about wanting to team up and open your own business or was that something that you were maybe excited about or not, not so much? Well, for me, my parents would always listen to your podcast and business podcast. And as I started listening to them, I started realizing that I wanted to own a business.

It’s www . WhistleWhileYouClean . com. Honestly, the hardest thing was getting over the fear. It was the fear of the unknown. It was there was like a cloud of doubt that, you know, you can’t do this.

You’re going to fail. There was a few sleepless nights there when we did pull the trigger and join your team and start the coaching process. Even my husband put a little bit of pressure on me from time to time because it just it was just absolutely scary to take that jump and actually start a business.

Transcribed with Cockatoo