Entrepreneur | Copyrighting a Logo + Commitment

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 3, 2, 1, here we go! We started from the bottom, now we’re here We started from the bottom, and that’s what we’ve gotta do If you are watching this video, you should seek the legal advice of a local attorney before making a legal decision. If you are watching these videos from any country outside of the United States, or from any planets outside of the planet Earth, you need to seek the wise legal counsel of a local attorney who better understands the legal complexities found within your country, planet, state, or city. For instance, in some states including California, Florida, Nevada, Alaska, and Hawaii, a motorist can be cited for driving too slowly. Other states do not have this law, although Clay has actually been pulled over for driving too slow within the state of Oklahoma, which pretty much never happens. Wes Carter is a great American and a beautiful man. The Drive15.com and his partners are in no way legally liable for any fashion statements that he makes verbally or just by admitting fashionable awesomeness simply by entering into a room. Wes Carter is not related in any shape or form to Clarence Carter, a recording artist, John Carter, an entrepreneur and artist, or Joe Carter, MLB baseball player. Wes Carter, how are you, my friend? I’m well, how are you doing? I am doing well, and before we get into this topic about how to copyright a logo, the Thrivers at large want to know, and just be honest with us here, just be, I mean, as an attorney, I realize you are professionally always honest, but on a personal level, I’m just asking here. Are you related to the former Major League Baseball player Joe Carter? I don’t believe so. Okay. Now Wes, we’re here today to talk about all the legal actions that go in to really copywriting your logo. But before we can really get into the idea of copywriting a logo, I think I want to bring some clarity as to what the word of actually copywriting means. So here’s the definition of the word copyright. The exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something as literary, musical, or artistic work. In common language for the folks who are watching like me, what is a copyright? Copyright is an exclusive right you have to use and sell something you design. So why would anyone want to copyright their logo? Why not just to have a logo or just run with it? We want to copyright the logo to protect other people. It’s probably a trademark issue as well to be honest. Because what happens is you copyright it. Let’s say we’re going to start selling framed pictures of our logo, where we’re gonna stick our logo on bumper stickers and all that, you might copyright it for the actual artistic design of the logo. If your logo is an H, or a letter with a circle around it, copyright doesn’t become as important because there’s not as much artistic impression. About four years back, I copyrighted the letter H. I just went around town angry with people who were using it. It can happen. Okay, so what are the risks that I’m facing, honestly, if I decide not to copyright my logo or trademark these things? What’s the risk I face? Well, I think throwing trademark in there real quick, you trademark it to protect your branding. So if you do not trademark it, what happens is another company knocks your logo off or changes something very small, starts selling the same kind of product. No. Yes, and now you have consumers confused about, well I really loved Clay’s products, now I’m getting this crud from this other guy that looks a whole lot like Clay, and if you don’t trademark it, that fight becomes much more difficult. It’s a famous example that we can all know of. In our local communities there’s a lot of companies called Rooter, like Roto Rooter, something Rooter. They’re all plumbing companies, usually. And it’s funny how their marketing is very similar. And I know a lot of people think they’re hiring one company, and they get the other Rooter, or vice versa. You know that had to have some litigation going on there. It does. And that’s what happens. Once you trademark it, you kind of save your place in line and say, hey, I was here at least this early. Without trademarking it, you get into a whole bunch of fighting about who was using it first, where were you using it, what states, I was in this state, you were in that state, and a federal trademark, not a state one, but a federal one, helps eliminate a lot of those issues. Similarly, the copyright. You know, filing the copyright, a lot of times the argument comes down to I created it first versus you created it first. And by filing a copyright, you put the public on notice that I had it here on this date, no questions asked. That’s what you’re doing is you’re placeholding it. You’re saying, I had it here first. Now, what we’re going to do now, and I know that legal, that law is not a game, but you always make law, honestly, that’s why I like you as an attorney, is you always make things kind of fun. Or at least when you’re dealing with something you don’t want to deal with, you at least make it where you kind of take the edge off. Yes. And I think you’re like a therapist slash attorney. I mean, honestly, it’s like when you’re, when I call you about a tough situation, I love that you can approach it with candor and honesty and you’re telling the truth, but you’re also making, you know, lighten the mood a little bit. So we’re going to go ahead and play a little game here. I like. Of fact versus fiction on the aspects of copyright law. I’m excited. The folks at home are excited. The audience, the crowd noise in here, that’s nice and loud. You’ve got at least, yeah, there’s at least like 13 people who’ve gathered here to cheer for this magic moment. We have two young children who’ve also came here to cheer for this. So here we go. Fact versus fiction statement number one. You tell me, fact versus fiction. And here we go. Copyright protection is present at the creation. Fact or fiction? Why? Fact. Once you create it, you automatically have some, what they call common law copyright protection. Just by creating it. The problem is, you have to prove you created it later on down the road. So not nearly as strong as actually filing for a copyright. I don’t know what state you’re in, if gambling is legal in your state you’re in right now, but you would count that up as one point for you. I did not guess that one right. I’m gonna guess this next one, and I’m not gonna tell you what I’m guessing, so I don’t want to tip my hand here. But if you’re watching this and you want to bet online, make sure you’re in a state where that’s legally allowed. But we’re going on to the next one here. So here we go. Fact versus fiction, statement number two. To protect the copyright, the owner should register. Now before you tell us. Fact versus fiction. To protect a copyright. The owner should register. Fact or Fiction and what? Facts. Oh, I’m wrong. Okay. You should always file with the Copyright Office if you want to, if it’s important enough to copyright it. Don’t stamp an envelope and mail it to yourself or some of the other things I’ve seen done out there. It’s a $35 filing fee online, folks, so spend the $35 or have an attorney help you do it just for a couple hundred bucks and we’ll work it out. Here we go, fact versus fiction. Statement number three from our home office off the coast of Oklahoma. Protection is for more than a lifetime. Fact or fiction and why? Facts. Oh! term of a certain amount of years after the author passes on. All right, question number four. The kids at home, the folks at home, the Thrive Nation wants to know this one. Fact versus fiction. Statement number four. All facts and ideas are in the public domain. Fact or fiction and why? Facts. You cannot stop someone else from using a fact or protect an idea through copyrights. You can protect the expression of an idea, but never facts, never the idea itself. One thing I want to encourage all the Thrivers, and I know we have the legal disclaimers up there, but if you are kind of watching this and you’re getting befuddled of all the different rules, that’s why you need an attorney. You need an attorney. Just a secret tip. You want to hire an attorney. It’s very important that you do that because I’m telling you, these are the kinds of things that you can call an attorney and say, hey, could you help me on this trademarking issue and bam, they’ll knock it out. I agree. There’s lots of rules, but there’s even more exceptions to the rules, so don’t think you can go it alone. Okay. All right, here we go. Fact versus fiction statement number five. Email is copyrighted as soon as it is sent or saved. Fact or fiction and why? Well, an email, I mean if you email a book to someone, you just type it up the book as you go and send it. When it’s created, it’s protected. But sending something in an email, most emails aren’t even of a type of content that would be able to copy. I’m losing all these here. Alright, final question. This is our lightning round. This is the one where we go a little bit faster than we’ve ever gone before. Who wants to go faster? Everybody does. So here we go. Fact or fiction statement number six. Here we go. I can copyright my face. Fact or fiction and why? Fact. You can copyright your face if you have an artistic expression of it. Like this? I can take a picture of your face and copyright the picture. Damn! Can someone else copyright your face? Can somebody have the copyright to your face? So that I have the copyright, I, Clay Clark, have the copyright to Wes Carter’s face, and you can’t even use your face? It’s possible. I just might not be able to sell it without your permission. Really? So you couldn’t even sell your own face? I could sell my own face. Why not sell your face? Wait a minute. So if I took a picture of your face, you would own the copyright to the picture, and I could sell the heck out of the picture of your face? Well, you’d probably need my permission to actually profit from it. Oh, okay. Okay. But if I had permission, I could sell your face. Oh, you’d make a ton. Well, I would. If every time I looked at you and thought about how often I could take a picture of your face and copyright it and sell it, I’d get a dollar. I’d have a lot of dollars. You’d make hundreds of dollars a year So so Wes how much is it gonna set me back right now if I want to copyright get the trademark on my logo copyright few hundred dollars trademark Maybe thousand fifteen hundred what’s the difference between trademark and copyright again for the folks at home sure copyright? Artistic and expression think of it that way you know it’s your expression of an idea. Okay trademark is branding. I mean, you can’t use this name or this face to sell products similar to what I sell. Wes, I appreciate you coming on, talking about the fact and fiction of the legal, you know, copywriting issues that we all have and that entrepreneurs are wondering about. And as always, I look forward to suing you. My pleasure. Johnny, we are talking today about commitment, and it’s something that I am absolutely obsessed with because whether it’s… How many years have you been married, by the way? 27. 27, okay. So whether it’s marriage or starting a business, when you started the whole spin movement, how long did it take from when the idea was in your head to when it actually started making any money? 12, 14 years. 12, 14 years. Let’s go with 13 years. So 13 years of that, you have 27 years of marriage. Commitment, nothing good happens without commitment. You look at your dojo, we have some great footage we’ll put up on the screen. The trees you planted, the bamboo you planted, the pool you built, it doesn’t look beautiful until years later. It takes a while to develop. So it’s all about commitment. And it’s an easy word to say, but it’s not so easy to do. And so I wanna just allow you to really walk us through, when you hear the word commitment, you’re talking specifically to the thrivers out there who are dabbling in this idea that they might just commit and start a business, or they might just commit to becoming successful. What advice do you have on commitment? That is an amazing, amazing part of the whole process. If you can provide an opportunity for yourself and provide an opportunity for someone else to provide an opportunity for themselves, that’s an incredible thing. It’s an amazing thing. Not only can you provide for yourself, but you can provide for somebody else to provide for themselves. So you’re not only teaching yourself how to fish, but by committing and doing something well, let’s just say that I’m working right now and I’m watching this and I’m at the bottom of the food chain of a business, I’m the lowest level employee. You’re saying that if I commit and I work my way up to where maybe I become a manager or an owner or a leader of some kind, I can actually then teach other people how to provide for themselves. That doesn’t happen unless you commit. That’s right. And if you ever leave the place that you’re working at, the skills that you develop along this journey are going to be fundamental and primary to what you’re doing in the business sector. So if I learn something and I’m committed to learning something that I don’t know, I’m going to be able to share what I don’t know, what I now know with somebody else. You’re becoming philosophical today. Our conversation has been very philosophical. Teach a man to fish. Are you committed to fishing because you need to fill your own bowl or are you committed to fishing so you can teach somebody how to fish so they can fill their bowl? If you can provide an opportunity for somebody else you generally are supported If I can provide an opportunity for a whole team that team will generally support Because I’m offering them an opportunity If I’m committed to my own well-being and I don’t provide an opportunity to the rest of the team, I possibly will fail because I won’t have enough support from the team. So the structure of the pyramid is a lot of people holding up the top of the pyramid or is the pyramid the other way around? You are a guy who seems to be very well read. You study, you meditate. Where did you first get, because you’re, I’m just, Thrivers, be a chance to look up Johnny G. It’s amazing and the thing that’s interesting about your success is you’ve had success in multiple decades and so obviously the closer we get to now the more you’ll find about your recent products and developments, but at one point you had five to eight million people a day doing your spin class, right? Every day? Yes, but it was their spin class. Their spin class? Not my spin class. If it was my spin class, then I would have been at the top of the pyramid and they would have been supporting, but it worked the other way around. The pyramid looked like this. I was standing at the bottom giving them support to create their own spin class. And it started though with your commitment at the bottom to this belief. So, I was committed. They weren’t pushing me up the pyramid. I was pushing them up the pyramid. This makes sense. What I took, I gave away. So, if you hold it for yourself, you know that thing about give it away and it will come back to you. I met a billionaire a few months ago that said the reason why he’s a billionaire was that he believed from day one that he would circulate his money into community and he would keep circulating and the more he circulated the more he would have to circulate and everybody was circulating and a lot of people were circulating in his industry and he kept feeding into this industry and he kept circulating in this industry and everybody was circulating and he has a happy life. He’s a billionaire, multi-billionaire, he has a tremendous amount of resources. I was fascinated by this concept. To answer your question, the tomato seed philosophy. plant a seed, tomato bush comes. From the one seed, many tomatoes on the bush. Take a tomato and give it to a friend. In that tomato is many, many, many seeds. That friend plants the tomato seeds, many bushes come from the tomato. What does the friend do? He gives the tree away to a friend who now has many, many, many, many, many tomatoes on the tree. I think this concept of multi-level marketing, I think that all these concepts come from the tomato seed philosophy. Keep giving the stuff away, keep planting seeds, and keep growing bushes. If you can give a bush away, if you can give depth away, if you can give the commitment through your own example, and the commitment through your business structure, showing up to work early, being the first to arrive, last to leave, being there no matter what, being there for somebody else, helping tutor or mentor somebody that doesn’t have the tools to grow. The philosophy of the business structure has to have a certain business ethic. No commitment to the business ethic. I had a conversation with my daughter a couple of months ago. She got a new job. She said, I’m making 25 bucks an hour. 25 bucks an hour at $3,000 a month. I said, that’s fantastic. She said, and with the 3,000 bucks a month, this is what I get to do with the money. And the whole thing was about getting the money so what she could do with the money. She never spoke to me once about what she could do to improve the opportunity or the business she was working for. It was pulling the money so she could spend her money or the difference was to get paid for what she could do to retain the job by building the organization. If the organization builds, and she’s partly responsible for that, she possibly has longevity. If she’s working for the organization to get paid the check at the end of the month, the replacement, or the word is the… this when you can be disposed or… When you’re replaceable? Replaceable. Yeah. So then you become replaceable. So do you want to be replaceable or do you want to take the discipline, dedication and have commitment to the bigger part of what the outcome can be? I would have commitment to the bigger part of the outcome versus just taking the check at the end of the month. Johnny, I appreciate you for enlightening us and really talking about something that’s a subject that’s near and dear to your heart. And I also appreciate you for planting all these plants in your dojo and for planting the seeds of your business and for planting the seeds of a great marriage because now you see the fruit of that coming to life in all those areas. You see a great marriage, a great dojo, great businesses. It’s just an honor to be here with you to see the fruits there. And I love on Thrive to have some great training where we talk about your roots and how you started. And again, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you allowing us to sit here and look at some of the fruits and then also talk about the roots that allowed you to produce those. So thank you so much, my friend. Thank you so much. All right, 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 mind, 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 All right so the question I would have here for you if you could take like 10 minutes or less and see if you could save 3,000 bucks a year by reducing your credit card fees. Would you do it? Yes, absolutely. Oh 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 ten 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. We getting that right money. We getting that right money. There’s probably some someone out there. Okay. Who would 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 thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash hard because you can compare rates, you can save money, and you know, the big goal, in my opinion, of building a business is to create time, freedom, and financial freedom. And in order to do that, you have to maximize your profits. Holy crap. Now one way to maximize your profits is to increase your revenue. Another way to do it is to decrease your expenses. It’s a profit deal. It takes the pressure off. JT, is there any other reason why somebody would not be willing to take 10 minutes to compare rates to see if they could save a total of $3,000 a year on average? I am at a loss and I cannot think of any other. Shampoo is better. I 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 ten 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, you know, 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 going to be easy, so I need you to be brave, all right? What’s your name? Patricia. Patricia, all right. I need you to take a deep breath. We’re about to do the cheese. You know, that’s the difference between eating organic and not organic. So because my wife eats organic, I had to take the 10 minutes needed to compare rates to save the $20,000 a year on credit card fees just for one of my companies. One question, what’s the brand name of the clock? The brand name of the clock, Rod. The brand name of the clock, it’s an elegant, from Ridgway. It’s from Ridgway. 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 10 minutes or less. And they’re gonna compare rates and see if they can’t save you more than $3,000 a year off of your credit card processing. You were hoping what? I 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. In order to do that, you need to create additional profits. The number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. We are Jared and Jennifer Johnson. We own Platinum Pest and Lawn and are located in Owasso, Oklahoma. And we have been working with Thrive for business coaching for almost a year now. Yeah. So what we want to do is we want to share some wins with you guys that we’ve had by working with Thrive. First of all, we’re on the top page of Google now. Okay? I just want to let you know what type of accomplishment this is. Our competition, Orkin, Terminex, they’re both $1.3 billion companies. They both have 2,000 to 3,000 pages of content attached to their website. So to basically go from virtually non-existent on Google to up on the top page is really saying something. But it’s come by being diligent to the systems that Thrive has, by being consistent and diligent on doing podcasts, and staying on top of those podcasts to really help with getting up on what they’re listing and ranking there with Google. And also we’ve been trying to get Google reviews, 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% were 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. It’s incredible, but the reason why we have that success is 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. 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. Oh, sorry. The last three years, our customer base had pretty much stayed the same. We weren’t shrinking, but we weren’t really growing either. Yeah, and so we didn’t really know where to go, what to do, how to get out of this rut that we’re in. But Thrive helped us with that. You know, they implemented those systems, and they taught us those systems. They taught us the knowledge that we needed in order to succeed. Now it’s been a grind, absolutely it’s been a grind this last year, but we’re getting those fruits from that hard work and the diligent effort that we’re able to put into it. So again, we were in a rut, Thrive helped us get out of that rut, and if you’re thinking about working with Thrive, quit thinking about it and just do it, do the action, and you’ll get the results. It will take hard work and discipline, but that’s what it’s going to take in order to really succeed. So, we just want to give a big shout out to Thrive, a big thank you out there to Thrive. We wouldn’t be where we’re at now without their help. Hi, I’m Dr. Mark Moore. I’m a 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 bit about Clay Clark and how I know Clay Clark. Clay Clark has been my business coach since 2017. He’s helped us grow from two locations to now six locations. We’re planning to do seven locations in seven years and then franchise. And Clay has done a great job of helping us navigate anything that has to do with like running the business, building the systems, the checklists, the workflows, the audits, how to navigate lease agreements, how to buy property, how to work with brokers and builders. This guy is just amazing. This kind of guy has worked in every single industry. He’s written books with Lee Crocker, the head of Disney with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with Mike Lindell. He does Reawaken America tours, where he does these tours all across the country where 10,000 or more people show up to some of these tours. On the day-to-day, he does anywhere from about 160 companies. He’s at the top. He has a team of business coaches, videographers, and graphic designers, and web developers. They run 160 companies every single week. So think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. In the weekly, he’s running 160 companies. Every six to eight weeks, he’s doing reawakened 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 startups go from startup to being multi-millionaires, teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom through the system. Critical thinking, document creation, 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. That’s what I like him most about. He’s like a good coach. A coach isn’t just making you feel good all the time. A coach is actually helping you get to the best you. And Clay has been an amazing business coach. Through the course of that, we became friends. My most impressed with him is when I was shadowing him one time, we went into a business deal and listened to it. I got to shadow and listen to it. When we walked out, I knew that he could make millions on the deal and they were super excited about working with him. And he told me, he’s like, I’m not going to touch it, I’m going to turn it down because he knew it was going to harm the common good of people in the long run. 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. Anyways, just an amazing man. 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, how to get back open, how to just survive through all the COVID shutdowns, lockdowns. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9 and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey guys, I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys. We appreciate you and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old house. Right, this is where we used to live years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See, it’s nice, right? So this is my old van and our old school marketing. And this is our old team. And by team, I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing. And this is our new team. We went from four to 14. And I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman. So we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016 we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd. We’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, times a thousand. The Thrive Time Show, two-day interactive business workshops are the highest and most reviewed business workshops on the planet. You can learn the proven 13-point business system 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 do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge and they’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get rich quick, walk on hot coals product. It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, and I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses, or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever. We’re going to give you your money back if you don’t love it. We built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see it. If we go back eight years ago, think about the number of clients you had back then versus the number of clients you have now. As a percentage, what has been the growth over the past eight years, do you think? We’ve got to inspire somebody out there who just doesn’t have the time to listen to our calls. 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 a hundred clients That’s awesome And so I would have anywhere from five clients to 20 clients on my own with networking But I had no control over it. I I didn’t without the systems You’re gonna be at the you’re gonna be victimized by your own business So there’s somebody out there who struggles with math if you would say that your average Number of clients was 30 and you go to 100, as a percentage, what is that? I have doubled every year since working with you. So, I’ve doubled in clients, I’ve doubled in revenue every year. That’s 100% growth every year I’ve worked with you. So I’m looking, we’ve been good friends 7, 8 years and I’ve got doubled 5 times. Which is just incredible. I mean the first time you do it that’s one thing, but when you do it repeatedly yeah 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 new 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, is 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. 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. And so that’s really what it’s all about. So with a script here, I, you know, I, 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 hundred calls. We make two to three hundred calls a day per rep. And she’s been nailing down five and eight appointments a day on that script. So she’s making how many calls a day? She’s making between two and three hundred 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 about a personal computer, a PC, the computer is made by, let’s say, Dell. But then the software in the computer would be Microsoft, let’s say, or Adobe or whatever that is. So I basically make the systems, and you’re like the computer and I’m like the software. It’s kind of how I would describe our relationship. Tim, I want to ask you this. You and I reconnected, I think it was in the year 2000 and, what was it, maybe 2010? Is that right? 2011 maybe? Or maybe further down the road, maybe 2013? 2012. Okay, so 2012, and at that time I was five years removed from the DJ business, and you were how many years removed from tax and accounting software? It was about 10, 11 years. We met, how did we meet? What was the first interaction? There was some interaction where you and I first connected. I just remember that somehow you and I went to Hideaway Pizza. Do you remember when we first reconnected? Yeah, well we had that speaking thing. Oh, there it was! 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 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 has been huge. You know, working here, you can’t be a mediocre person. You are a call to a higher standard of excellence, and then as you’re called to that standard here, you begin to see those outcomes in every area of your life. That standard of excellence that you want to implement, no matter what you’re involved in. I would like to describe the other people that work with Clay are people that are going somewhere with their life. Marshall in the group interview talks about how the best fits for this organization are the people that are goal-oriented. So they’re on their own trajectory and we’re on our own trajectory. 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 it’s unique in that. I don’t know if there’s anyone else’s that can be as passionate You know whenever a business starts working with clay It’s almost as like clay is is running that business in the sense that he has something at stake. 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. He’s sending people encouraging messages. He can kind of be that life coach and business coach in terms of being that a motivator and that champion for people’s businesses. It’s again unique because there’s no one else I’ve seen get so excited about and passionate about other people’s businesses. The kind of people that wouldn’t like working with Clay are people that 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 wanna 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 from being around Clay, following him and learning from him. And then I would say come coachable. Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted.