Entrepreneur | CEOs Creating Value for Shareholders and Economy

Audio Transcription

Get ready to enter the Thrivetime Show! We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. We 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 on the top. Teaching you the systems to hear what we got. Cullen Dixon’s on the hooks, I’ve written the books. He’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks. As a father of five, that’s where I’mma dive. So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi. It’s C and Z up on your radio. And now, three, two, one, here we go! We started from the bottom, now we’re here. Started from the bottom, and that’s where we’re headed. Thrivers, welcome back. We are here on the Thrive Time podcast with Clay Clark and Dr. Robert Zellner. We are pumped to be bringing you some awesome content in this episode today. Clay, thanks for joining us. I’m excited to talk about today’s topic because we have a Thriver who took the time out of their schedule to write in and ask a question. Now, this is called the Thrive Time. This is thriving. We’re not talking about surviving. This is not the how to eke out barely enough money to make it and just… This isn’t the Survive Podcast. This is the Thrive Time, your time to learn how to thrive. We have a Thriver who I can just sense it. He’s wanting to do something big with his life and he’s got a question. Marshall, go ahead and just share that question with us. If you are listening to the Thrive Time podcast or you’re on the site at thrive15.com, feel free to reach out to us. You can reach out to us by clicking Ask the Mentor. This next one comes from Ronald. Ronald is in Houston. Okay, and this is what Ronald writes My name is Ronald and I just want to know what your perspective is on the level of compensation that CEOs and founders are making versus their employees Okay so Clay can you begin to get into this as as You know, there’s that disparity between the people at the top and maybe the employees working in the business. I’m gonna Kind of do a weird thing where I’m going to chime in, but I’m going to tee it up. It’s like softball where you put the ball on the tee and you let the next guy smash it. So I’m going to tee it up here. I’ll just give you an example. When I started DJ Connection, that was my first company, DJ Connection, I didn’t start DJ Connection because I wanted to DJ. I started it because… Really? Well, I kind of enjoyed DJing, but I did it because I grew up without the financial resources to do what I thought was just decent and normal I didn’t want every every part of my life to be dictated by how much money I had or didn’t have and I went through a Personal hell and if you’re watching this and you’re still going through hell don’t stop But keep going but I’m saying I went to a personal hell I was DJing at the Yucatan liquor stand and just to work clear. I’m sure you can’t tell by me But I don’t like going out to clubs. I’m not a big club goer. I DJ there I like the whole I didn’t I did wasn’t my scene. I’ve DJ at every wedding I’ve DJed outside and Oklahoma weddings, and it’s a hundred and something degrees. I’ve worked for free at all these venues I’ve pulled all-nighters. I’ve done and it’s probably nothing harder than what you do every day. You watch this you’re a thriver You’re a hard worker in that top 1% of our population when it comes to work ethic. You’re working. And I went through hell. And so I actually am very, very happy with the disparity in income between people who have worked really hard and have gone through hell to get there and the people who are just showing up. Because I’ve worked at jobs where I was just punching the clock. I remember working at Target and I literally had this game-sy where I would go, how can I minimize the amount of work that I’m doing while I’m here. Little gains. You know what I mean? Where you’re just trying to act busy and stuff. The boss walks by and you’re like, oh, sorry, sorry, I was just fixing the inline. So, Z, I want to hear your perspective, though, man. What is your perspective here? Well, mine’s the same perspective. The opposite spectrum of that is, quite frankly, a word that’s probably not really understood that well, but communism in the sense that everybody’s going to work and everybody’s going to get the exact same amount, period. And on the flip side, you have capitalism, which says, hey, the harder you work and the better you set yourself up for that, for success, the more money you can make. Because money isn’t the end all, but it does, like you said, it does create the opportunities. Well, okay, I’m just going to totally cross every boundary simultaneously here, because I hear this all the time. I went out to a speaking event and I was asked to speak at this coffee shop. I’m not going to get into the details, but if you were at the coffee shop, you know what I’m talking about. I’m at the coffee shop and someone puts their hand up and they said, I have a question. How do you guys, Clay, I know you’re a person of faith, how do you morally justify the disparity of income between people like yourself and the average person when you serve a God? Say you serve a God who cares about everyone. How do you morally justify that? You know, one of those gotcha questions? Yeah. So if that question was asked to you, how would you respond? Well, I mean, they use the moral, they use the whole kind of God moral thing, and I would just say, well, it’s a biblical principle that the farmer gave. He came and he gave each person a different amount of talents depending upon what they could do and he told them to go out and multiply them. The ones that didn’t multiply, he actually took them from them and gave them to the ones that were better at business. I may be able to do the story in complete justice. It’s in the Bible. You can find it. Basically, the idea of the story is that everybody does have different levels of talents and that he acknowledged that and gave them different levels of money and said, go out there and produce. And that’s what it was about. Go out there and produce. Don’t go out there and just be average. Don’t go out there. And the one that just buried the money and said, hey, I didn’t make any money. I didn’t lose it. He took it from them and gave it to the ones that were producing. I have one more question because I know that this is what Thriver, a lot of people ask us this all the time, is they go, you know, someone’s going, I just, I don’t want to focus on what it seems like when I focus on growing my business, I start to feel guilty that I’m starting to earn more than the people who work with me. I mean, a lot of people say that. They go, I just, I literally talked to a lady the other day, she owns a dessert company, and she goes, I just feel guilty. I’m making now, this is somebody who built her business from nothing, and she’s making six times more than the average person. I just start to feel guilty. I start to feel bad. What would you say to someone who says that? I’d probably give her a gentle slap on the face and say, get over it. So there was a recent article on Fox News, okay, and in one of the recent Bernie Sanders speeches, he said millionaires and billionaires, they don’t pay their fair share, okay, claiming that the wealthy created a corrupt political system and rigged economy. In response to that, there was a billionaire, the founder of Patron Tequila. He said that most wealthy Americans, they didn’t get rich because of a rigged economy. They got rich because they worked hard and they were diligent and they practiced best practices and things like that. Then the National Bureau of Economic Research, they have this incredible mystic statistic for you guys. So they found that successful entrepreneurs, they only realize 3% of the value of what they produce, while consumers reap the rest, either directly through employment or social benefit. So this is like the national government organization actually going in and identifying how much these CEOs are actually making. Clay, do you have any commentary on that? Well, I keep talking about this, but the whole Bernie Sanders, the whole feel the burn movement, I am just excited to get that tattoo done. The one where it says feel the burn? Oh yeah. I have talked to the artist, he’s done a drawing. Now, the artist did a poor job, but I paid him a lot for it. He showed up. Oh. And I went ahead and paid him. The thing was I went there to go ahead and get the tattoo, and he was off for a long period of time. He actually wasn’t there at all. He was on maternity leave. And I went ahead and just paid him. And then when he came down, he sat down, he showed me his portfolio. And he had some pretty awful work. Yeah. And I thought, whether you do bad- It can’t get any worse than this. Whether you do a bad job or not, I’m still going to pay you a lot because you showed up. I mean, not today, but- At some point. Yeah, and so I met his boss, who was a complete jerk because he told the guy to get back to work, and I was like, I’m not going to go back to that company. I’m sensing some sarcasm. No, I don’t think that’s what that is. I think that was more of just your inner distrust for capitalism. I’m not being politically correct. That’s my thing. Yeah. Yeah. The thing about it is this, is that if you don’t reward those that work hard, nobody’s going to work hard. It’s just the way it is. That laugh’s sponsored by evil oil. And you know what? There’s a, you know, what Bernie’s saying, there’s a little sliver of truth in that, a little sliver in that as people get rich, they do try to figure out how to manipulate the tax code is really what they’re manipulating. They try to keep as much of that money that they earned on the way up. So there does need to be tax reform. There does need to be tax reform. And a lot of that, there is some manipulation of the tax code. I mean, I see stuff. I mean, any time you have a tax code, you’ve got to get six boxes to put it all in. I mean, it’s crazy. It’s crazy. It’s crazy. Well, the big thing I have a concern on with the tax code, I just want to get into this, any time that you can involuntarily break the locks, it’s so complex you don’t even know, that’s when I start to have problems. The idea that our founding fathers, and I’d be politically correct, our founding fathers and their incredible wives who actually mentored them through life. But the thing is, is that when they started this great country, they did it because they wanted to guarantee just three things. Not 30 things, but three. The right to pursue life, like your health, like you can actually live and not be killed, life, liberty, the freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. They didn’t guarantee happiness. They didn’t say, you can have happiness. They didn’t say, you’re going to live forever. They didn’t say, it’s the right to pursue happiness. And I just want to make sure we’re getting that concept because somebody watching this right now, I’m just being real, there’s a thriver watching this right now and your business is in the toilet. Because I’ve been there before. The business sucks because your team collectively sucks and your product collectively sucks. I’m just telling you, my DJ service, I used to have a DJ company called DJ Connection and DJConnection.com and I paid all of my DJs the same. We were awful. We’ve screwed up so many big events, I honestly felt awful. There was a girl who just recently stopped working at the Barnes and Noble in Tulsa, and I would go in and I’m like, son of a, she’s gonna be here, I’m gonna have to look her in the eye, because I’m not kidding. Our DJs were so poorly trained, and I was the one who did it. There’s no one to blame, no one to hide. I screwed up her wedding by poorly training my people. And you know what? Customers ran away from me. They were like, don’t use them. This is before social media. Don’t use them. Then once I got it together, people turned it around. I heard there’s a book called The Service Profit Chain. It’s a Harvard case study and I heard this merit-based pay system where basically you pay people based on their customer reviews and not based on the hours they work. Wow. And so a quick trip gas stations, convenience stores, they use this model. Southwest Airlines uses it. Disney uses it. And so I started doing surveys. I would survey the bride and say, how would you rate the DJ who performed at your wedding on a scale of 1 to 10? And I told the bride going into it, before they even decided to book with us, hey, at the end of the wedding we’re going to ask you to review, when you get home from your honeymoon, ask us to review the DJ, and your DJ gets paid based upon your review. So the brides would write, 8.2. He showed up late, but did a very good job, and he didn’t dress professionally and you’re like okay so the guy made less and we gave bonuses for knowing if he got a nine or a ten and it was unbelievable how the turning point but Z I would have we would have said wait a second you’re telling me that the two guys show up work the same amount of time do the same thing the same thing and and and you pay them different amounts? How can that be fair? I literally had a discussion the other day with someone who wanted to work here, who didn’t work here, and if you’re this guy, you know who you are. I’m not going to mention anything about you, but you know who you are. He says, it just seems like there’s a lot of income disparity in your offices. One of your coders make him like a couple thousand a week, and you’re only offering me like ten an hour. And I’m like, just being real, you’re 31, you don’t have a jobby job, and you don’t have a discernible skill yet. Now the good news is the guy who started in this entry level job, he would be your boss. And he now makes a little over $1,200 a week. So you could go from making $400 a week to $1,200 a week, but you’re going to have to learn search engine optimization. But he couldn’t fathom that. He literally wanted to argue with me in the car. He’s in the Hummer of Love. It’s my big SUV there. Also a sign of… It’s like a chariot to trumpet the income disparity. But the thing is, I’m in my golden chariot called the Hummer. I’m in the Hummer, and the guy’s just like, I just don’t understand it. Like, look at me. Don’t you feel bad? I mean, how many miles a gallon does this car get? We just had this whole… I’m just going, you probably should not come back here. This literally happened. I couldn’t be more passionate about telling you, if you’re the one asking this question or you’re thinking these kinds of thoughts, if there was not massive income disparity, what would be the point? If there wasn’t an end zone… I love it when athletes celebrate in the end zone. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get into the end zone in a National Football League game? I’m afraid. I’m watching the game and I’m going, that hurt. I want to hug these men. I’m so sorry they hit you so hard. And if they win and they want to show off, say what you want, but if a guy gets in the end zone, let him dance a little bit. Let him have his seven seconds of glory for goodness sake. Come on. And that’s what it is. Entrepreneurs are just dancing in the end zone. It’s celebrating. We’re card players. Dancing in the end zone. And the thing about it, there’s always those extremes out there. You know, the Bernie Sanders and that mindset of, hey, these guys are making too much money, you know. Well, that’s what drives, that’s what makes America great, is that passion and drive that people know, hey, I can, why can’t I be the next Bill Gates? Why can’t I be the next Warren Buffett? Why can’t I? Well, it comes down to work ethic. Are you willing to sacrifice and do some trade-offs? When you started your business, you were working seven days a week. I was working seven days a week. Elon Musk, let’s not get religious, although I do want to get a little religious here, but Elon Musk, we’re going to put his quote up on the screen. He says you just have to work 60 to 80 hours a week as a founder to make your company grow. 60 to 80. I would 100% agree with him. Also to get religious with you, if you look up the book of Genesis, which I know is a controversial book and this thing called the Bible, which is blasphemous and terrible. But the Bible, God created the earth in six days. We’ll put the verse up there according to that legend. Or Elon Musk, over here he says 60 or 80 hours. So if you want to go religious or you want to go non-religious, either way. The reason why God created the earth in six days is because they’re trying to show you something. You’ve got to work the sixth day. You’ve got to put the extra oomph in the tank. You know, and that’s the whole thing. That’s crazy talk. It is crazy talk. And I tell you what, I’ve never been more offended than the questions you’re asking us today, Marshall. I’m tired of them. So I want to make sure, because I’m still operating at that third grade mindset, and so I’m hoping that Z, you can help me understand it with some farm logic here. You can help me understand this concept of income disparity. And I just want all the thrivers to know that this FarmLogic segment is not sponsored by the Nebraska Cattlemen’s Association in any way, shape, or form. You’re not responsible if you get salmonella after listening to this episode. Why would you? The thing is, you throw in these little subtle digs. I’ll tell you what, I’ve spoken in Nebraska to the Cattlemen’s Association. They’re fine people. They’re fine people. It was fine steak. It did freak my wife out that the lady next to her was talking to her about how they put cows down with a nail gun to the head or something. I don’t think it’s quite a nail gun. Something like that. But you always do that. So let’s go ahead and queue up our farm logic and you’re in trouble. You see folks, back down on the farm we had three big pastures. And in each one of those pastures we had three different bulls. Well, the little bull, he only had about 10 or 15 cows, because that’s all he could handle. And the medium sized bull, he had about 30 or 40 cows, because he was a little bit bigger bull. And the biggest bull had the most cows. And that’s the way it is, folks. If you want more cows, you need to be a bigger bull. Real talk. Real talk. Now, I’ll tell you something. My wife is organic, and your wife is organic. There’s sort of that connection there. And if you’re listening to this and you’re going, gosh, why are they giving us farm logic? I’ll tell you. Because a lot of these concepts are simple concepts, but we overcomplicate them. And farm logic is a great way to break down these things and make complicated ideas simple. If you’re watching this right now, come on now, and you want to have success, we’re coming together with you right now. We believe this is your year. Right. If you want more eggs, get more chickens. I mean, there’s just some simple things. If you want more, work more. If you want to achieve more, then there’s ways to do it. And that’s why Thrive 15 is so awesome. You can get on the website, and you can get mentored and coached up and inspired, and you can say whatever job you have now, if you have that idea or you want to expand to do more, there’s opportunities out there, and there’s ways you can find out about them. We teach you everything. We teach you how to optimize a website. We teach you how to do sales. I teach you how to build a website. We teach you how to do social media marketing. We teach you how to hire. We teach you how to fire. It’s all there. I want to read one quick testimonial before we go back to you, Marshall. This is from a doctor. His name is Dr. Joe. He said, Clay, Marshall, Deidre, Nix, Bruce, Spence, Jason, Michael, Devin, John, Z, and all the other staff at Thrive15, who I’ve forgotten. I met so many awesome people. On behalf of my family and my staff, I’d like to thank you for the mentoring and the unbelievable resources you provided. There it is. People, and this is the thing, this is a guy, just like you, who’s decided that this is going to be his year to be successful. And everybody can do it. That’s the magic of this great country. Love it. And I promise you, when you’re the CEO and you’re making all the chili, or you’re the owner or the founder and you’re making all the money, you won’t think that’s a bad plan. No, it’s a good plan. It’s a good plan. So the next thing that we have is this notable quotable that I really think really anchors this idea of the value that these CEOs and these founders, the people that are starting small businesses and successfully building them up, I really think it hammers it home. but not to be confused it is not a connie wester kim kardashian quote this this making sure that you and the number one most impactful artists of our generation i have six p in the flesh what disney nike but they are this product here and this is where you end up if you can communicate this product you can make money off the product. I can’t believe we drove around all day and there’s not a single job in this town. There’s nothing. Nada. Zip. Yeah. Unless you want to work 40 hours a week. He said he’s, I want to break that down real quick. Kanye said he’s the number one most impactful artist of our generation. Yeah. Is he talking about the agra-garian society where they didn’t have free musical instruments? Is that what he’s referring to? I’m not sure which generation he’s talking about. More clarity here again. It’s all in detail. This episode’s notable quotable. It comes from a management consultant. His name’s Eric Schiffer. He’s in Inc. Magazines. He’s founded two companies of Inc. Magazines, fastest growing companies. He’s been in Business Week’s Top Entrepreneurs. Are you his hype man? Hold on. Can I say Eric Schiffer one more time. Eric Schiffer. So so we this is what he says he says these are people giving us jobs to demonize them is to damage the underlying force of this country. We are only as good as our people and we don’t want to put our best players on another team. If you tax them they will leave. Yeah. And that’s what I agree too. People say, well, how do you justify you making so much and your people making what they make? Well, if I didn’t take care of them, somebody else would. And that’s one of the things as a CEO, if they’re not taking care of those people, they’ll go somewhere else, you know? And if we’re not taking care of our CEOs, like you just said, Eric, we’ll go somewhere else. We’ll just say this is that you do destroy the fabric of the country when you take away the price. This isn’t about just business. This is just about, I’ll give you an example. My kids and I today, we are in the process of building a structure that’s going to house more chickens. We have 22 chickens. You mentioned if you want more eggs, you’ve got to get more chickens. We are going out and getting more chickens. More chickens, we’re adding- Obviously, you want more eggs. That’s the thing. You know what? It’s some hard work. It’s not impossibly hard, but we’re expanding the coop. We’re digging up stuff. We’re working. My son’s working. My daughter’s working. We’ve got this eight-year-old boy and an 11-year-old daughter. We’re all out there working. Mom’s got the chainsaw. I mean, it’s a lot of fun. But you know what? In our fridge, when we saw the 100 eggs, we just passed the 100 egg threshold. 100 eggs are in our fridge for the first time, the eggs that we helped raise those chickens, it’s rewarding. And I feel no sense of reward at all when I buy the eggs from the store. I don’t feel the same way. I buy them and I’m like, okay, but our own eggs, I’m just like, these eggs are so good. It’s probably just a placebo effect, but I’m like, these eggs are so good. I bet they are. And it’s just, it feels better. So psychologically it feels better when you’ve earned something. Also financially it feels great when you’re earning something. So the whole thing, I just, I don’t even understand the other mindset. I feel like people who don’t understand that mindset, you’re probably a good person, but your head is probably submerged inside a toilet when you’re having that thought. Well here’s the deal. There’s two kinds of people out there in the world. Everybody for the most part wants to be taller. And there’s that one guy that what he does is he builds a little platform, he creates steps, he gets a ladder, and he climbs up and he is then taller than everybody else. The other type of person out there is one that reaches out with their hands and tries to push everybody else down. If everybody else got shorter, then I would be taller. I want a country that encourages not the pushing down, but the lifting up. Everybody can do it. That’s what’s so great about this country’s everybody has the opportunity to build a little platform, get a little ladder, put a few little rocks on there, a couple stones, whatever you want to do and climb up and be and go as high as you want to go I think this is like a t-shirt I’m seeing here it’s build a build a platform don’t saw off the legs of everybody else t-shirt it’s probably the bad t-shirt idea but if you want one email us at info at thrive15.com and we’ll see what we can do. Well, no, I really appreciate you guys digging into this for us today. I know that we’re helping thrivers all around the world learn the practical things that they need to know, maybe the things that they’re not learning in business school, but we’re keeping it real with them. It’s kind of like business school without the BS. Watch your mouth. I’m going to get you a mirror. BS, that sounds like Bernie Sanders, doesn’t it? Yeah. Feel the burn. So, if you guys want more of these trainings, feel free to go to thrive15.com. All of the videos, all of the video transcripts, the downloadables, you can go on there and access all of those. And I just want people to know, the video version of today’s podcast is available on thrive15.com in very specific technical training. How do I optimize a website? How do I build a website? How do I launch a podcast? How do I fire people? How do I write a sales script? How do I do accounting? Everything you want to know to grow a business is right there. If you have a millionaire mentor in your hip pocket and he’s able to spend unlimited time with you and he never gets frustrated and runs out of time, then don’t worry about it. You can ask him any question at any time. Any time, 24-7. But I will tell you, I think Thrive 15 is amazing for the Thrivers because it’s the highest version of ourselves. You can pause it, rewind it, if you didn’t get it you can watch more, you can ask a question. And we now have workshops. We have workshops. You can come out, it’s part of the $19. You can come out for a workshop, set a date, book it, come out here, there’s no extra cost to you. It’s unbelievable. And with that, Marshall, I’m going to throw it back to you because you’re about ready to get a dating tip and I don’t want your mind to explode when you get this dating tip free from Dr. Zellner as we do every time. Before I go to the dating tip, I’m going to say something. We are a little bit Bernie Sanders on Thrive15.com. We charge everybody $19.00. In other words, if you use it a lot and grow your business and make millions of dollars on it, you’re not going to pay any more than the other guy. I’m going to start. We ought to look at that. So, I feel the Bern is appropriate. I feel the Bern. Now, back to the more important topic. Marshall’s a single man, he’s tall, he’s tall, dark and handsome, and he’s wanting to get back out there and get in the dating game. I’ve got some tips, I’ve been married over 31 years. And you tricked her. Of course I did. You tricked that winner. She’s a winner. That’s one of the points down here. Respectfully, she’s a winner. That’s how you do that. Okay, so, another tip, Marshall. Let’s go shopping, buddy. Let’s go shop, let’s get out there and let’s go shopping, let’s go to a fashionable store, let’s find, let’s get a good look for you. One thing you gotta be aware of now, don’t be someone you’re not, okay? We gotta be Marshall. But let’s go shopping and let’s get the best look we can for you and that coupled with the other lessons I’ve given you, we’re on our way to getting you ready, young man. You get that paraffin hand dip done. Keep that music just a little bit. Get that paraffin hand dip going. Get that hard part just tapered up a little bit more. Just maybe get that. Just get that whole, get that whole, get the nice shoes. The right shoes and socks. Socks are really big right now. We got to get the right socks. Socks. Very metro. Very, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Thrivers, thank you guys so much for tuning in. Be sure to check out the next episode when we’re going to be talking about accounting and bringing stability into your business using your financials, not as a rearview mirror, but more of a compass. So be sure to stay tuned for that. Thank you guys so much. Hey, if you want to get the transcript of today’s training, get a downloadable, you want to watch the video version, and I know you do. I know you do. I know that I have a face that’s made for radio. It’s my line. Oh, really? Oh, you’re going to… But if you want to watch the video version, it’s all here for you. Check it out, thrive15.com. Z, take us out. Gosh, I’m not normally stumped, but I’ll tell you what, one thing I do know this, in horse racing, which I love and I have a passion for, and I do, and I have my ranch and I raise my babies and I am so excited. I’ll tell you what, when you’re in the winner’s circle of a horse you bred and raised and you know what? They give the trophy to, guess what? Sorry, I was petting the monkey. They give a trophy to the fastest horse. The horse that crosses the line first. Doesn’t matter if they’re tall, short, fat, wide, ugly, pretty, the fastest one. And so I want to encourage everybody out there to be the fastest horse. Get the trophy. Alright JT, so hypothetically, in your mind, what is the purpose of having a business? To get you to your goals. So it’s a vehicle to get you to your destination. And would you need profits to get there? I mean, when you have a business that’s successful, in your expert opinion, would you need profits to get you to your goals? Yeah, because if you have a $15 million business but you have $15 million of expenses, it’s kind of pointless. Holy crap! Alright, so the question I would have here for you, if you could take like, I don’t know, 10 minutes or less and see if you could save $3,000 a year by reducing your credit card fees, would you do it? Yes, absolutely. Holy crap! Why would somebody out there who’s listening right now, who has a sane mind, why would they not go to Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card to schedule a ten minute consultation to see if they can reduce their credit card fees by at least three thousand bucks a year? Why would they not do it? Yeah, why would they not do it? Maybe because they don’t understand how you set the website. This tree is a symbol of the spirit of the Griswold family Christmas. Now that’s clear. Okay, so that can be true. So I encourage everybody to check out Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. What would be another reason why someone would not be willing to take 10 minutes to compare rates to see if they could save $3,000 or more on credit card fees? Maybe they think it is a waste of time and that it won’t. It’s not possible. There’s somebody out there. That’s making more than $3,000 every 10 minutes And they’re like nah, that’s not worth my time Probably some someone out there, okay, we think that well I’ll just tell you folks if you’re out there today, and you’re making less than $3,000 per 10 minutes I would highly recommend that you go to thrive time show calm board slash credit dash hard up it because you can compare rates you can save money and you know the big the big goal in my opinion a building a business is to create time freedom and financial freedom in order to do that you have to maximize your profits holy crap now one way to maximize your profits is to increase your revenue another way to do it is to decrease your expenses fences. JT, is there any other reason why somebody would not be willing to take ten minutes to compare rates to see if they could save a total of three thousand dollars a year on average? I am at a loss and I cannot think of any other reason. another thing of banana. Shampoo is better. I go on first and clean the hair. Conditioner is better. I leave the hair silky and smooth. Oh really fool, really. Stop looking at me swan. Well let me tell you a good story here real quick. I actually years ago compared rates with this company here called IPS. It’s Integrated Payment Services. And I scheduled a consultation. I don’t know if I was skeptical. I just thought, whatever, I’ll take 10 minutes. I’ll compare rates. I can’t tell. You can tell me I’m a doctor. No, I mean, I’m just not sure. Why can’t you take a guess? Well, not for another two hours. You can’t take a guess for another two hours? And in my case, in my particular case, I save over $20,000 a year. Holy crap! Wow. Which is like groceries when my wife goes to the organic stores. Find everything you need today? Yeah. Great. Okay. Oh, God. Everything okay, ma’am? It’s just that you’ve only scanned a few items and it’s already 60 bucks. I’m so scared. Okay, I’m a trained professional, ma’am. I’ve scanned a lot of groceries. I need you to stay with me. It’s just that my in-laws are in town and they want a charcuterie board. This isn’t gonna be easy, so I need you to be brave, all right? What’s your name? Patricia. Patricia, all right. I need you to take a deep breath. We’re about to do the cheese. You know, that’s the difference between eating organic and not organic. So because my wife eats organic, I had to take the 10 minutes needed to compare rates to save the $20,000 a year on credit card fees just for one of my companies. One question, what’s the brand name of the clock? The brand name of the clock, Rod, do we have it? The brand name of the clock, it’s an elegant, from Ridgeway, it’s from Ridgeway. Let’s buy the clock and sell the fireplace. I encourage everybody out there, go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card. You schedule a free consultation, request information, a member of our team will call you, they’ll schedule a free consultation. It should take you ten minutes or less, and they’re going to compare rates and see if they can’t save you more than $3,000 a year off of your credit card processing. You were hoping what? I wouldn’t owe you money at the end of the day. No, you don’t owe us money. Because at the end of the day, at the end of the day, the goal of the business is to create time freedom and financial freedom. And in order to do that, you need to create additional profits. The number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. We are Jared and Jennifer Johnson We own platinum pest and lawn and are located in a Wausau, Oklahoma And we have been working with thrive for business coaching for almost a year now Yeah, so so what we want to do is we want to share some wins with you guys that we’ve had by working with thrive First of all, we’re on the top page of Google now, okay I just want to let you know what type of accomplishment this is our competition or can terminate 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 with our listing and ranking there with Google. And also we’ve been trying to get Google reviews, you know, 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 way 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, it’s really shown that we’ve gotten a success from following those systems. So before working with Thrive, we were basically stuck. Really no new growth with our business. And we were in a rut. And we didn’t know… The last three years our customer base had pretty much stayed the same. We weren’t shrinking, but we weren’t really growing either. Yeah, and so we didn’t really know where to go, what to do, how to get out of this rut that we’re in. But Thrive helped us with that. You know, they implemented those systems, 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, we 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 percent increase month over month, year over year. The group of people required to implement our new digital marketing plan is immense, starting with a business coach, videographers, photographers, web designers. Back when I graduated dental school in 1985, nobody advertised. The only marketing that was ethically allowed in everybody’s eyes was mouth-to-mouth marketing. By choosing to use the services, you’re choosing to use a proof-and-turn-key marketing and coaching system that will grow your practice and get you the results that you’re looking for. I went to the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry, graduated in 1983 and then I did my pediatric dental residency at Baylor College of Dentistry from 1983 to 1985. Hello my name is Charles Colaw with Colaw Fitness. Today I want to tell you a little about Clay Clark and how I know Clay Clark. Clay Clark has been my business coach since 2017. He’s helped us grow from two locations to now six locations. We’re planning to do seven locations in seven years and then franchise. Clay has done a great job of helping us navigate anything that has to do with running the business, building the systems, the checklists, the workflows, the audits, how to navigate lease agreements, how to buy property, how to work with brokers and builders. This guy is just amazing. This kind of guy has worked in every single industry. He’s written books with Lee Crockrell, head of Disney, with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with Mike Lindell. He does Reawaken America tours where he does these tours all across the country where 10,000 or more people show up to some of these tours. On the day-to-day, he does anywhere from about 160 companies. He’s at the top. He has a team of business coaches, videographers, and graphic designers, and web developers, and they run 160 companies every single week. So think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. So in the weekly, he’s running 160 companies. Every 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. I’ve seen guys from start-ups go from start-up to being multi-millionaires, teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom through the system. Critical thinking, document creation, organizing everything in their head to building it into a franchisable, scalable business. One of his businesses has like 500 franchises, that’s just one of the companies or brands that he works with. So amazing guy, Elon Musk kind of like smart guy, he kind of comes off sometimes as socially awkward but he’s so brilliant and he’s taught me so much. When I say that, Clay is like, he doesn’t care what people think when you’re talking to him, he cares about where you’re going in your life and where he can get you to go and that’s what I like him most about him. He’s like a good coach. A coach isn’t just making you feel good all the time. A coach is actually helping you get to the best you. 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. When we walked out, I knew that he could make millions on the deal. They were super excited about working with him. 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 anytime I’ve got nervous or worried about how to run the company or you know 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 a few years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See? This is 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 4 to 14 and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past, and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman. So we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts, and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October, it’s only the 22nd. We’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month. And we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you thankful for Thrive and your mentorship. And we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you times a thousand. The Thrive Time Show, two day interactive business workshops are the highest and most reviewed business workshops on the planet. 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. When we get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter Bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and 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 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’ve built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see it. Go back eight years ago. Think about the number of clients you had back then versus the number of clients you have now. As a percentage, what has been the growth over the past eight years, do you think? We’ve got to inspire somebody out there who just doesn’t have the time to listen to our call. Okay, so Clay, it’s like I would go up and down from about $10,000 a month up to about $40,000, but it’s up and down roller coaster. And so now we’ve got it to where we’re in excess of 100 clients. That’s awesome. And so I would have anywhere from 5 clients to 20 clients on my own with networking, but I had no control over it. I didn’t. Without the systems, you’re going to be victimized by your own business. For somebody out there who struggles with math, if you would say that your average number of clients was 30 and you go to 100, as a percentage what is that? I have doubled every year since working with you. So I’ve doubled in clients, I’ve doubled in revenue every year. That’s 100% growth every year I’ve worked with you. So I’m looking, we’ve been good friends 7, 8 years and I’ve got doubled five times. Which is just incredible. I mean, the first time you do it, that’s one thing, but when you do it repeatedly, I mean, that’s unbelievable. We’re working our blessed assurance off this year to double. We’re planning on doubling again. We’re incorporating some new things in there to really help us do it, but we are going to double again this year. I started coaching, but it would go up and down, Clay. That’s when I came to you, as I was going up and down, and I wanted to go up and up instead of up and down. And so that’s when it needed a system. So creating a system is you have nailed down specific steps that you’re going to take, no matter how you feel, no matter the results. You lean into them, and you do them regardless of what’s happening. You lean into them, and it will give you X number of leads, you follow up with those leads, it turns into sales. Well I tell you, if you don’t have a script and you don’t have a system, then every day is a whole new creation. You’re creating a lot of energy just to figure out what are you going to do. And the best executives, Peter Drucker is a father of modern management, he said, the most effective executives make one decision a year. What you do is you make a decision, what is your system, and then you work like the Dickens to make sure you follow that system. That’s really what it’s all about. With a script here, we have a brand new gal that just came in working for us. She nailed down the script, and she’s been nailing down appointments. Usually we try to get one appointment for every 100 calls. We make two to 300 calls a day per rep. And she’s been nailing down five and eight appointments a day. Somebody out there’s having a hard time. On that script. So she’s making how many calls a day? She’s making between two and 300 calls a day. And our relationship is weird in that we do, if someone were to buy an Apple computer today, or let’s say a personal computer, a PC, the computer is made by, let’s say, Dell. But then the software in the computer would be Microsoft, let’s say, or Adobe or whatever that is. So I basically make the systems, and you’re like the computer and I’m like the software. That’s kind of how I would describe our relationship. Tim, I want to ask you this. You and I reconnected, I think it was in the year 2000 and 2010, is that right? 2011 maybe? Or maybe further down the road, maybe 2013? 2012. Okay, so 2012 and at that time I was five years removed from the DJ business. And you were how many years removed from tax and accounting software? It was about 10, 11 years. We met, how did we meet? What was the first interaction? There was some interaction where you and I first connected. I just remember that somehow you and I went to Hideaway Pizza. But do you remember when we first reconnected? Yeah, well we had that speaking thing that… Oh, there it was! So it was Victory Christian Center. I was speaking there. My name is Robert Redman. I actually first met Clay almost three years ago to the day I don’t know if he remembers it or not, but I wasn’t working with him at the time I asked to see him and just ask him some questions to help, you know, 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 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 it was everything about business in terms of the different categories. I haven’t learned it all, but I’ve learned all about marketing. I’ve learned about advertising. I’ve learned about branding. I’ve learned how to create a sales process for organizations in any industry. I’ve learned how to sell. I’ve learned how to create repeatable systems and processes and hold people accountable. You know, how to hire people. It’s almost like every aspect of a business you can learn, I have learned a lot in those different categories. And then, again, the 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 wanna 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 and we help the business pursue those goals, the business helps us pursue our goals as well. And so I say people that are driven, people that want to make something of their lives, people that are goal-oriented, they’re focused, and they’re committed to overcoming any adversity that may come their way. Clay’s passion for helping business owners grow their businesses is, it’s unique in that, I don’t know if there’s anyone else that can be as passionate. You know, whenever a business starts working with Clay, it’s almost as like Clay is running that business in the sense that he has something at stake. You know, he’s just serving them. They’re one of his clients, but it’s as if he is actively involved in the business. Whenever they have a win, he’s posting it all over his social media. He’s shouting it across the room here at Thrive. You know, he’s sending people encouraging messages. He can kind of be that life coach and business coach in terms of being that motivator and that champion for people’s businesses. It’s again unique because there’s no one else I’ve seen get so excited about and passionate about other people’s businesses. The kind of people that wouldn’t like working with Clay are people that 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 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 something new. Be open to challenging yourself. Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted.