How to End the Cycle of Never Enough? Brooke Taylor, Former Marketing Lead at Google & Author, How to Align Your Ambition, Find Lasting Career Fulfillment + Research of 5,000 High-Achievers Across Industries

Audio Transcription

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Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show, but this show does. In a world filled with endless opportunities, why would two men who have built 13 multi -million dollar businesses altruistically invest five hours per day to teach you the best practice business systems and moves that you can use? Because they believe in you, and they have a lot of time on their hands. This started from the bottom, Now they’re here. It’s the Thrive Time Show, starring the former U . S.

Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark, and the entrepreneur trapped inside an optometrist’s body, Dr. Robert Zunder. Two men, eight kids, co -created by two different women, 13 multi -million dollar businesses. On today’s show we’re interviewing a former marketing leader at Google. and author of Healing the Success Wound. Yes, this is a former marketing lead at Google and the author of Healing the Success Wound. Align your ambition, find lasting career fulfillment, and end the cycle of never enough.

So if you’re out there today, and you are an entrepreneur, and you’ve had success or you want to have success, this is the show for you. With that being said, Brooke Taylor, welcome onto the Thrive Time Show. How are you? I’m great. I’m so happy to be here with you. Now, hey, I’ve looked up your bio, done a lot of research, but I’m sure a lot of our listeners maybe are hearing your name for the first time.

And we have some people that already know who you are. Could you walk us through your background? At some point, you were born. And then what happened next? I mean, how did you go from a young child going to school to becoming the success story that you are today? Yeah, I mean, I think we all write the books that we need.

And it’s funny you start at birth because that’s where I start, too. I feel like I was born with this success wound, with this deep ache to do something great with my life, not knowing what that thing is. But the paradox is that once I had some success and once I got a taste of achievement, I couldn’t get enough. So I was born and raised in Silicon Valley. And my kind of cultural upbringing was around this notion of, you know, very esteemable notions. Like if you can dream it, you can do it.

I was the daughter of parents of the second wave feminist movement. I was raised on this encouraging idea that I could do and be anything that I wanted to be, this idea that young women could now ascend to position of power. be business owners. But what I took that to mean in my own childhood brain was that I had to be the best, and I had to amass the most wealth and success that I possibly could. And so this kind of Silicon Valley ethos really kind of like seeped into my bloodstream. And I took this kind of gold star chasing mentality to a great college, to my first job at Google.

And by the time I was 24, I was managing $80 million in ad revenue. And I really felt like I had arrived, almost like my inner state of wanting to be the best and have as much as I possibly could finally matched my outsides. And so my week and my life started to look a lot like this. Monday through Friday, I would close deals, I would please my boss, I’d please my clients, I would, you know, be doing these incredible sales meeting and pitches. And then, you know, in order to blow off steam, Friday through Saturday, I would be drinking and partying in kind of extreme ways too. And I had this kind of work hard, play hard mentality that might’ve looked like a normal 20 something, but inside it was actually causing me to feel this kind of deep aching loneliness.

Like, is this all, why is it that no matter how much I achieve, it never feels like enough. It felt like my accomplishments would run through my fingers like sand and I couldn’t grasp onto the pride of them. And I had this kind of, you know, 50 layer down principle This is in the P type empty cup feeling this feeling like you know I should be proud of my accomplishments I should feel good about where I am and who I am at this point in my life but I felt This like emptiness, this deep seating inadequacy. And so what did I do? I kind of kept charging. I kept moving.

I kept trying to be more, do more and have more, which made the emptiness worse. And so at the time, I thought I was alone at the time. I thought I was the only person who experienced this. But, you know, years later. I found out that I wasn’t alone and there are so many people who have this empty cup feeling. And, you know, what kind of happened to me, I had this rock bottom moment where three things happened, you know, in the course of a month.

The first is that I realized I had a problem with alcohol and I had to get sober. The second thing that happened is that my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer. And that causes you to ask some questions about your own life, especially as a young person. living in this kind of like fast autopilot. And the third thing that happened is that I realized that I really needed to look at my relationship with success, approval, and validation, because that looked like a drug too. So these three things happened to cause me to kind of question everything.

And from that moment on over the last 15 years or so, I’ve been obsessed with this empty cup feeling, the success wound that I call it, and how this shows up in high achievers and how that’s really the root of a lot of the career issues that we see today. And so that’s been my research and my work. Now, I’m going to pull up your book here, just to make sure we’re getting the right book here. I want to make sure we’re not getting the wrong book. The right book here, I’ll put a link on the show notes too, but this is the book here, The Healing the Wound. Align yourself, find a lasting career fulfillment, and end the cycle of never enough.

There’s somebody out there who’s going, you know, I kind of feel like never enough is a good thing. That’s what drives me. That’s what drives me. They’re watching Michael Jordan documentaries all night. I just want to bench another 30 pounds. I want to bench press 30 more pounds.

I just want to sell some more crap. This is what drives me. There’s so many watching this right now. They say, my inability to ever be satisfied is what drives me. Yes. So what do you say to that personality type?

It’s a very common objection and I see people who have that, you know, this is what drives me. This is my edge. And if I let this go, I’m not going to be successful. You know, I think a little bit of anxiety is a good thing. They all say that to me. Yes, of course.

Now, here’s the thing. Data shows that those types of people are actually 400 % more like productive, engaged, high -achieving than your average bear, but to a point. And that point is called the high -achiever ceiling. And at that point, productivity and engagement falls down percentage -wise. We lose productivity and engagement due to, of course, things like burnout, exhaustion, physical ailments, anxiety, depression. And this actually is actually more susceptible for women.

So women who are high achieving and who are in positions of like, you know, business, being a CEO or a CXO, they tend to experience this a lot faster than men. And this isn’t because they’re less capable. It’s just because our nervous systems biologically work a little bit differently. So women’s nervous systems tend to regulate with a hormone called oxytocin. Oxytocin is the hormone that you get when you get a hug, physical touch, safety, warmth, cuddles, like those types of experiences. But men’s nervous systems tend to regulate more with something called dopamine.

Dopamine is the feel good hormone. I just achieved something that feels really good. I feel revved up by this. So that means that men can actually stabilize through the achievement cycle a little bit easier than women who need to take those intentional moments to pause, like kind of downshift and regulate their nervous system and then hop back into it. Now, I’m not saying that men are more capable at all. I just think that we need to know our biology a little bit better in order to be more effective so that we can keep achieving what we want to without breaking down or burning out.

Now, in your book, in preparation for this book, I mean, you did some research. Now, again, I’ve done some research about your research, and maybe I’m wrong here, so you can correct me, but I believe you interviewed 5 ,000 high achievers to put this book together. Am I making up a number? Is that correct? And what did you learn from these people, however many people that you did study? Sure.

So I took a survey of over 10 ,000, what I call unfulfilled achievers. So these are people who have extremely high aspirations for their career, but are dissatisfied in either one or two factors around their career. And I also worked personally with over 5 ,000 of these people. So I did quantitative research and qualitative research. you know, they would come to me auspiciously with your typical career issues, especially for business owners, right? You know, I’m burnt out.

I don’t know how to have courageous conversations with my team. I’m, you know, I’m struggling with some imposter syndrome. I don’t know how to delegate in the best way. Perfectionism, overworking, underworking, procrastination, on and on and on and on. All these issues that I’m sure your audience come to you being like, how do I fix this? But the data actually showed a different story.

The data showed that these people actually had three things in common that was driving those behaviors. So all that list that I just shared are symptoms. What was really going on is that the first thing is that they had a childhood experience where they learned that the more they succeeded or achieved or lived up to a cultural or familial ideal of success or goodness, so like whatever that optimal man, woman, person looks like, the more they lived up to that, the more love, belonging, and acceptance they would feel. So that’s the first thing they had. The second thing that they had is that they all had some version of this empty cup feeling. This feeling of sinking inadequacy.

Never feeling like enough. The feeling of, okay, no matter how much I achieve or do, it still never fills that cup inside. And the third thing they had in common was a habit of chasing more, more external validation, more achievement, more significance, more approval in order to fill that empty cup. And those three things are called the success wound. The success wound is the pain that comes from mistaking success, productivity, and achievement for self -worth. And that is actually what is driving that litany of career and business issues that a lot of the leaders who are listening to this would face today.

Now, in your book, you identify these five modern archetypes. Five modern archetypes. They’re kind of behind the modern quest for Tell us about these archetypes. First off, what is an archetype? For anybody who doesn’t know, what’s an archetype?

And then tell us about these five archetypes. Yeah, so an archetype is like a constellation of behaviors that you tend to see most commonly in, you know, together. So for example, the five ways that the success wound most commonly shows up in the workplace are in these five what I call the grinder, hider, pleaser, seeker, and work hard, play hard. So I’ll go through all five of them. I’ll tell you which one I am most often. I’d love to hear which one you are.

And then your audience can help diagnose themselves as I talk about them. So the first way that the success wound shows up is in the grinder. The grinder is the person, again, that wants to have more, do more, be more. They get a high from checking something off their to -do list. They perceive that their value as a person is tied to the volume of productivity that they have. A client of mine who’s a grinder said, you know, she was watching Shark Week with her son and she saw this shark that only survived by being in motion constantly.

She’s like, I am that shark. I can’t. not only rest, but slow down or stop because I fear I’ll lose my edge. So this isn’t just having work ethic. Sure, work ethic is a strong, important strength of the grinder. This is working past the point of diminishing returns.

These people sometimes can’t see the forest through the trees, and they can’t delegate and know where to use their energy most efficiently and best in their business. The second is the hider. This is the most common. This is the person who maybe looks successful from the outside, but secretly harbors bigger dreams for themselves. They know that they’re not living up to their potential and they’re playing small in some way. So it’s hard sometimes to spot a hider in the wild because they look loyal.

They stay in a job longer than maybe they should have, or they stay at a level in their business longer than they should have and be like, I’m comfortable here. But they know that they could get to their next level if they tried. The third is the seeker. The seeker is the person, we all have a friend like this, somebody who calls us up and is like, Clay, I finally figured it out. It’s this business. This is what’s going to make me happy.

This is what’s going to make my family millions of dollars. This is the thing that’s finally going to rescue me from my misery. Or it sounds like for me, you know, my a brother or my friend calling me up and being like, it’s this job. I got recruited to this job. So this job in this city is going to finally be it for me. Can you relate to this?

Do you have a friend like this? I’ll tell you this. In my life, I know a lot of these personality types. I can almost see the faces as you describe them because I’m pretty much surrounded almost entirely by people that are striving for success. So this is good stuff. I’m taking notes here.

OK, great. And then we have the pleaser. This is the person whose version of success is how much they are liked. They want to be liked more than anything else. And this is the person who’s constantly monitoring for, you know, if somebody’s mad at them or if a client didn’t email them back, they’re like, Oh my God, like, are they going to cancel? Or, you know, Oh, there was a tone in that meeting.

Is that person mad at me? This is the person who maybe has an anxious attachment style in other areas of their life. Um, I see this a lot in corporate women specifically, and then in a lot of kind of like middle managers who want their teams to like them. And then finally we have the work hard, play hard. This is what I was at when I was at Google. This is the person who wants to be the best in everything that they do, be the best in how they work and achieve, but also the best in how they relax, unwind, party, vacation, etc.

So they live on this pain pleasure seesaw where it’s like, oh my God, I worked so hard. I deserve to party or relax or unwind equally as hard. And so, you know, you might be like, OK, well, this is just a 20 something. No, the most number of work hard players I have are working moms. And the example I have in the book is this insurance CEO. Houston, Texas, named Joy, who’s a working mother and a business owner.

And she is very much in that work hard, play hard. So those are the five ways the success wound shows up. Now, one thing that I, I’ve been self -employed since I was 15. So I’ve been doing the same thing for 45, so 15, so 30 years. And so I’ve just sort of developed a routine that works for me. I love writing music. I love writing music and books and that kind of thing.

So I kind of know what I like to do. And then I also know what rejuvenates me or what re… And I schedule it. So I’ve built sort of a routine that for some people on the outside, it might make no sense. They’ll say, why are you writing a song? Do you get paid for this?

And occasionally one of them will go viral or something, and then people will go, oh, you should do more of that. But for me, it’s simply… the same reason I have a hobby farm. It’s just something I like doing. And I had to learn quickly how to schedule time to recoup. I had to build that schedule. And I think a lot of people that don’t have a schedule, or maybe they haven’t discovered the insights in your book, they’re maybe just one day away from burnout.

They’re just one day away from just throwing it all away. I’m quitting. I’m moving back in with my mom. I’m just kind of very close to just people losing their minds. And the burnout thing is something I hear a lot. Talk about your book and burnout and maybe what advice your book has for people to help prevent success -oriented people from having perpetual burnout.

Sure. So yes, burnout is one of the biggest symptoms of living and working in this way. And the interesting thing about burnout, again, is that a lot of people try to treat it at the level of the symptoms. So I’ll go have a self -care day or I’ll take a vacation or I’ll address this once I’m already a day, to your point, like a day away from burnout. In reality, like you’re saying, we need systems and we need a lifestyle and ways of working that are going to support us in working from our most energized and energetic state. It sounds like you have a great recipe for yourself.

And that actually ties back to my earlier point around nervous system regulation. Our nervous system is, you know, the part of our biology and body that needs to be regulated in order for us to access Good ideas, creativity, connection, perspective. If we are, you know, fried, stressed, exhausted, reactive, snapping at people, that’s no way to innovate. And so, you know, often burnout can be relegated to the areas of like, okay, that’s like a nice to have. I think everybody knows who’s experienced burnout as both a medical condition and a psychological state knows that you need to have these systems in place. So one thing that my grinder clients do who are specifically susceptible to burnout is they need to have three things in place.

One, they have to have some sort of mantra. or kind of phrase that they come back to that reminds them that their success comes from their sustainability. Because that’s the truth. I have a client of mine who has started up five different businesses, all of which could have been successful, but she shut them down before they could get traction because of her grinder mentality. She would burn out and so she would shut them down. So she left money on the table and opportunity on the table because this grinder got to her.

So that’s one thing. They need to have a mantra. Examples of that are like, you know, I’m successful when I am implementing these sustainability practices like you outlined. Another thing that they have to have in place is their ability to make decisions when they are 51 % sure. A lot of people get burned out because they canvass for other opinions. They spin in their head.

They have analysis paralysis. That’s exhausting. That uses a lot of your mind. energy. So a lot of the people who are probably listening to this need to learn how to trust their judgment more and not stay in that analysis paralysis because that leads to burnout. And then the third thing is is that they all need to understand, okay, what are the, what are the habits in which I’m like living in my grinder or my hider or my pleaser?

And how do I need to, what, what needs to happen in order for me to do like the opposite action? So I think there’s a lot of medicine in the opposite action. If you’re tempted to, let’s just say, pick up the laptop from nine until 2 PM, but that leads to, you know, you not being able to wake up in the morning and you being exhausted by the end of the day, you need to, you need to almost like do the opposite and do that for at least 30 days and see what the results are. Now, uh, somebody out there, um, you know, might find themselves being super ambitious to quote Ric Flair, uh, or other people might be, uh, not ambitious the next day. So one day they’re very excited. The next day they’re depressed.

And you see a lot of entrepreneurs that do this. This idea could change the world. And then two weeks later, I’m depressed. And some might describe that as manic ambition. Maybe you don’t describe it that way. But I believe in your book, you talk a little bit about manic ambition.

Is that what you’re referencing when you talk about manic ambition or the on again, off again? Or tell us about what your book has to say about manic ambition. Yeah, manic ambition is a frenzied, frantic need to succeed at all costs and is particularly endemic to entrepreneurs, business owners, and leaders. So my example is that, you know, I was actually this breakdown moment that I talked about earlier, I was kind of crawling my way out of that. I was using a lot of the tools and the habits that are in the book to redefine success, to change my working habits, to tend to some of the more gnarly emotions that were underneath some of that. reactions to a lot of my workplace issues.

So I was actually kind of on my way to healing, but manic ambition still pulled me under. And instead of my Monday through Friday looking like, you know, kind of the work hard, play hard, I made wellness my new obsession. So this is very common for people, but I I would, you know, sure, go to work and work really hard. But then I would go to a yoga class and then I would go to a meditation class and then I would go downtown to therapy and uptown to a 12 step meeting. And I’d come home at 11 p . m.

just as burned out and exhausted. But I was doing it to fix something in myself. I thought there was still something wrong with me. So although my manic ambition no longer looked like the work hard, play hard, I was still in this frenzied, frantic need to succeed, but also to fix something within me. What tends to happen is that our ambition is powered by two parts of our psyche. It’s almost like a lamp, but unlike the lamp that are in your offices, our ambition only has two power sources.

The power source of our success wound, which leads to that manic ambition, that frenzied, frantic need to succeed at all costs, because without that, who am I? Or when it’s plugged into this other part of our psyche called the true self, which is the part of us that is naturally confident, clear, connected, courageous, present, playful, has perspective, the best version of you on your best day of work. When our ambition is plugged into that, Guess what happens? We’re in a state of flow. We’re able to lead with little effort. We’re able to handle difficult conversations that used to baffle us or that we used to avoid because we actually know who we are, where we’re going and why that matters.

And so my goal is to help my clients more often than not work in the state of aligned ambition rather than manic ambition. And listen, we’re humans. We’re always going to slip into our success wound. We’re constantly toggling. between these two parts of our psyche when we’re at work. But again, more often than not, coming from that place of true self.

Now, with your schedule back in the day, when you were at the peak of achievement, but also at the low point of feeling good about your life, what kind of schedule were you keeping at that time there? What was your typical workday like? Yeah, I would wake up at 8am. I would go to a workout class. I would probably take my first call around 10 because I was living in New York City and New York is a little on the later side. I would work from 10 to 6.

And during this period of time, I was on a sales org. So I probably had four different client meetings, 100 different emails, maybe a trip to an agency or an in person meeting. Then I would go and, you know, grab dinner. come home, work from maybe nine till midnight and do it all over again. But again, it wasn’t the volume of the work. It was what part of me I was working from because my schedule looks a lot, a little different, but a lot like that today.

So for example, um, I wrote this book when I was pregnant the whole time and I still had a business to run, but I wanted to write the book. A lot of people in my position might hire a ghostwriter. I didn’t want that. So I woke up at 5 a . m. and wrote from 5 to 10.

Then I did a full day of client meetings and went to sleep a little earlier because I was exhausted. But a lot of people from the outside, you know, a lot of people from the outside were like, she’s canceling friend engagements. She’s not showing up to the wedding. She’s not going on vacation. She’s not, you know, posting on Instagram. That was all an intentional choice because I wanted to conserve all of my best energy for my work during that period of time.

And so that might look like grinding, but I was in a rush. aligned ambition during that state. So again, two different contexts, two different schedules. They might look the same from the outside. One was wrecking me, but the other was putting me into a state of energy and enthusiasm. And not manic, but this is the right choice for me at this time.

Now I’ve got three final questions for you here. Question number one coming in hot is why should everybody pick up a copy of this book? Let’s just say that somebody, you know, they’re thinking about buying your book and this just in, there’s other books. And if someone says, well, I’m thinking about buying this book or another book, why would somebody, what would somebody maybe missing out on if they don’t pick up a copy of your new book, Healing the Success Wound? The success wound is the root cause to probably, I don’t want to say all, but the majority of the career issues that you’re facing today. Whether you’re having a hard time managing your team, or whether you’re not sure where to take your business next, or whether you’re repeating the same patterns over and over again, no matter where you’re working, the success wound is probably the root cause and reason as to why that’s happening.

The other thing is that if you manage people, and you’re trying to shift their behavior, you need to know how the success wound is impacting their behavior. Not because it’s your job to heal their success wound. You’re not their therapist or their coach necessarily. I’m not suggesting that. But in order to change someone’s behavior, you need to know what’s driving them. And so I recommend this both for your own development as a person, but also for your team as well.

Question number two coming in hot. If people want to learn more about you, they want to follow you on social media or they want to go to your website. Where can people find more about you? My Instagram is brookvetaylor and my website is brooktaylorcoaching . com. When you order the book, if you go to brooktaylorcoaching .

com slash book, it has all of the exercises that I give to my clients at Fortune 100. companies and to business owners that are in the book and that you can get a digital copy of if you so desire. Okay, I’m taking notes here. Give me one second, folks. You shouldn’t take notes while doing a podcast, but that’s what I do, folks. I’m taking notes, taking notes for you.

I’ll put it on the show notes, folks. Now, my final question I have here for you is your website. It’s a beautiful website, brooktaylorcoaching . com, and many people are thinking to themselves, what exactly does she do? So some people are thinking, is she a ventriloquist? Is she a doctor?

Is she a gymnast? Is she a basketball player? Is she an actress? Is she an actor? Is she a songwriter? Is she a rapper?

What exactly do you do? So when you say that you I know, or have clients or what exactly do you do? And maybe who would be a good fit for, for what you do? Sure. So I help unfulfilled achievers, people who have big dreams for their career, for their business, to get to the real root cause of reason as to why they are unfulfilled and why they keep repeating the same patterns over and over again, so that they can create the dreams and the careers and the businesses that they want and that they need. Technically and very tactically as a coach, I meet with people typically every other week for 60 minutes and you have access to me between sessions.

So it’s almost like having me on retainer. I’m constantly jumping on, you know, ad hoc phone calls, trading emails back and forth, voice notes. Um, and then, you know, you’ve people have typically heard of executive coaching, but lifting the veil on that a little bit. Um, the minimum I typically work with people is for six months so that we can see that sustainable change in the average is for nine months. And this type of person, if this notion of no matter how much I do or how much do I achieve, it never feels like enough, or I keep repeating the same patterns over and over again in my life and in my leadership, and I don’t know why, then myself or my team or the coaches for you. Folks, again, that website, I’ll pull it up real quick here.

This is brooktaylorcoaching . com. That’s the website right there. There she is. That’s her right there. That’s

That’s Brooke Taylor Coaching. That’s the about page there. Also, if you want to learn more about the book, it’s Healing the Success Wound. Align your ambition, find lasting career fulfillment, and end the cycle of never enough. Brooke, thank you so much for being on our broadcast today. I really appreciate your energy, your enthusiasm, your research, the whole deal.

I believe you’ve helped one or two or 10 or 1 ,000 of our listeners. I really do appreciate you for carving out time for us, and I hope you have a great day. rest of your day. Thanks, Clay. Bye -bye. He is one character.

That’s a good word for character. Yeah, that is it. Good, driven, smart, and I’ve never met a guy who was so hyper all the time. He’s doing so much good. And then I met his mother, and she just says, she just lets him be Clay Clark. I mean, so he’s endorsed by his mother.

And he’s doing magnificent work. So it was great meeting you out there and all the people that he surrounds himself with. His client Clark starts his days at five o ‘clock in the morning. Oh, it’s incredible. Yeah, he’s he’s like, he’s he’s a machine. He’s a machine.

But his you know, I could I have problems with my company starting at nine o ‘clock. Yes. Hundreds of people showing up at 5am in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Man, he’s a leader of a leader. He’s fantastic. Yeah, man.

No, he is. He is. He also he has his wealth of knowledge. He’s worked with so many different companies and different businesses. He could take a concept that he’s used before in the past with somebody totally different industry and see how it would work perfectly for you in whatever niche market you’re in or whatever type of service you’re providing. And so his brain is just a wealth of knowledge.

And just to have that type of perspective on, you know, as a part of your team and your own company. is huge, super valuable. So I would definitely encourage people to use him. But one thing is you’ve got to be coachable. You’ve got to be wanting to get feedback. You’ve got to be wanting to really grow your company.

You’ve got to want to put that extra 10 hours a week to working on your business and not just in your business. And so, yes, I would recommend it to anybody who’s wanting to grow their company and provide great systems, checklists, workflows, great encouragement, and have accountability. job he had been doing for them. I actually noticed he was driving a Lamborghini all of a sudden so I was willing to listen. In my career I’ve sold a little over 800 million dollars in real estate. So honestly I thought I kind of knew everything about marketing and homes and And then I met Clay, and my perception of what I knew and what I could do definitely changed.

After doing $800 million in sales over a 15 -year career, I really thought I knew what I was doing. I’ve been managing a large team of salespeople for the last 10 years here with Shaw Homes. And, I mean, we’ve been a company that’s been in business for 35 years. become one of the largest builders in the Tulsa area, and that was without Clay. So when I came to know Clay, I really thought, man, there’s not much more I need to know, but I’m willing to listen. The interesting thing is our internet leads from our website has actually, in a four -month period of time, has gone from somewhere around 10 to 15 leads in a month to 180 internet leads in a month.

just for me. few things that he’s shown us how to implement that I honestly probably never would have come up with on my own. So I got a lot of good things to say about the system that Clay put in place with us. And it’s just been an incredible experience. I am very glad that we met and had the opportunity to work with Clay. So the interaction with the team and with Clay on a weekly basis is honestly very enlightening.

One of the things that I love about Clay’s perspective on things is that he doesn’t come from my industry. He’s not somebody who’s in the home building industry. I’ve listened to all the experts in my field. Our company has paid for me to go to seminars, international builder shows, all kinds of places where I’ve had the opportunity to learn from the experts in my industry. But the thing that I found working with Clay is that he comes from such a broad spectrum of working with so many different types of businesses that he has a perspective that’s difficult for me to gain because I get so entrenched in what I do, I’m not paying attention to what other leading industry experts are doing. And Clay really brings that perspective for me.

It is very valuable time every week when I get that hour with him. From my perspective, the reason that any business owner who’s thinking about hooking up with Thrive needs to definitely consider it is because The results that we’ve gotten in a very short period of time are honestly monumental. It has really exceeded my wildest expectation of what he might be able to do. I came in skeptical because I’m very pragmatic, and as I’ve gone through the process over just a few months, I’ve realized it’s probably one of the best moves we’ve ever made. I think a lot of people probably feel like they don’t need a business or marketing consultant because they maybe are a little bit prideful and like to think they know everything.

I know that’s how I felt coming in. I mean, we’re a big company that’s definitely one of the largest in town. And so we kind of felt like we knew what we were doing. And I think for a lot of people, they let their ego get in the way of listening to somebody that might have a better or different perspective than theirs. I would just really encourage you if you’re thinking about working with clay. I mean, the thing is, it’s month to month.

Go give it a try and see what happens. I think in the 35 -year history of Shaw Homes, this is probably the best thing that’s happened to us. And I know if you give them a shot, I think you’ll feel the same way. I know for me the thing I would have missed out on if I didn’t work with clay is I would have missed out on literally an 1800 % increase in our Internet leads going from 10 a month to 180 a month. That would have been a huge financial decision to just decide not to give it a shot. I would absolutely recommend Clay Clark to anybody who’s thinking about working with somebody in marketing.

I would skip over anybody else you were thinking about, and I would go straight to Clay and his team. I guarantee you’re not gonna regret it, because we sure haven’t. My name is Danielle Sprick and I am the founder of DSprick Realty Group here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After being a stay -at -home mom for 12 years and my three kids started school and they were in school full -time, I was at a crossroads and trying to decide what do I want to do? My degree and my background is in education, but after being a mom and staying home and all of that, I just didn’t have a passion for it like I once did. My husband suggested real estate.

He’s a home builder, so real estate and home building go hand in hand, and we just rolled with it. I love people. I love working with people. I love building relationships. But one thing that was really difficult for me was the business side of things, the processes and the advertising and marketing. I knew that I did not have what I needed to make that what it should be.

So I reached out to Clay at that time. And he and his team have been extremely instrumental in helping us build our brand, help market our business, our agents, the homes that we represent. Everything that we do is a direct line from Clay and his team and all that they’ve done for us. We launched our brokerage, our real estate brokerage, eight months ago. And in that time, we’ve gone from myself and one other agent to just this week, we signed on our 16th agent. We have been blessed with the fact that we right now have just over 10 million in pending transactions.

Three years ago, I never would have even imagined that I would be in this role that I’m in today, building a business, having 16 agents. But I have to give credit where credit’s due. And Clay and his team and the business coaching that they’ve offered us has been huge. It’s been instrumental in what we’re doing. Don’t ever limit your vision. When you dream big, big things happen.

I started a business because I couldn’t work for anyone else. I do things my way. I do what I think is in the best interest of the patient. I don’t answer insurance companies. I don’t answer to large corporate organizations. I answer to my patient and that’s it.

My thought when I opened my clinic was I can do this all myself. I don’t need additional outside help in many ways. I mean, I went to medical school. I can figure this out. But it was a very, very steep learning curve. Within the first six months of opening my clinic, I had a $63 ,000 embezzlement.

I lost multiple employees. Clay helped us weather the storm of some of the things that are just a lot of people experience, especially in the medical world. He was instrumental in helping with the specific written business plan. He’s been instrumental in hiring good quality employees, using the processes that he outlines for getting in good talent, which is extremely difficult. He helped me in securing the business loans. He helped me with web development and search engine optimization.

We’ve been able to really keep a steady stream of clients coming in because they found us on the web. With everything that I encountered, everything that I experienced, I quickly learned it is worth every penny to have someone in your team that can walk you through and even avoid some of the pitfalls that are almost invariable in starting your own business. I’m Dr. Chad Edwards and I own Revolution Health and Wellness Clinic. Clay, my honor to be on your show. Thank you for all you do. I hear the ripple effects from you are good ripple effects, you know what I mean?

People rave about what they learn from you. So congratulations. What I’ve seen from Clay and his group at Thrive is they’ll give you a simple system And it’s the simple systems are the ones that people can wrap their brain around. They’re the ones that people can work with on a day -to -day basis. Hi there, my name is Stephanie Pipkin. I am 24 years old and I own Blackbird Falls Cleaning Services.

We opened in April of 2019 and it is now mid -June of 2020. So I wanted to talk today about the success and growth I have achieved by implementing the Proven Path with Clay Clark’s team and my business coach, Luke, from Thrive Time. It has been insane, to say the least. I started working with them in mid -February of this year, so we’re about four months in of working together, and it has completely transformed my business in pretty much every facet. um so i’m gonna check my notes here um so in four months my leads have tripled um i was getting probably like two leads a week now i’m getting more in the like 10 to 15 leads a week.

I have doubled my number of employees. I’m now hitting the highest revenue weeks in the history of the company, week to week it seems like. We went from about six appointments today as our highest in February to now 14 to 15 appointments a day. Hiring quality employees has become much simpler and less stressful by using their systems for hiring. I typically only get maybe two complaints a month, if that, and everybody shows up to work. I just have really high quality employees now, especially in something people typically consider a high turnover type of work, you know, cleaning houses, cleaning businesses.

I have amazing employees now and I get rid of the ones who are not so amazing and bring on new ones because of, you know, group interviews and interviewing every single week. It’s just been great and I don’t waste as much time on… low -quality candidates anymore and your coach will hold you accountable I mean which I love again the tough love is really great you know looks like a stern father figure but he’s also nice but also stern when he needs to be when I’m being lazy and not doing the things that I know I need to do because I don’t want to do them so that’s just great worth every penny I mean I’d pay him a million dollars a month if I can and maybe someday I’ll be able to but I would just say go for it if it seems like a good fit just go for it Do what they say, even if you think it’s stupid or ridiculous, just do what they say because it’ll work. You know, people, when they look at my business, you know, people in my town, they think I’m lucky. They think I’m just, you know, things just happen for me. And, you know, maybe I am lucky, but it has a lot to do with hard work and, you know, perseverance and, you know, working till you cry sometimes. That’s just being an entrepreneur, which if you’re a business owner, you understand that.

But it’s having these systems in place of, you know, of course I’m going to be successful. It’s an absolute because I have all this stuff in the background happening. And I have Luke and Clay and everybody on their team working really hard to make sure that I’m a success. And I can tell that they are just so excited every single week when I’m having all these wins and things like that. They’re so excited for me. So it just, it’s the best thing ever.

And I would suggest to anybody to work with them. So sorry for the long -winded reply, but I just had so much to say, and I could go on for hours probably about how amazing they are. But thank you to Clay and Luke and the entire team there, everything you guys have done for me. And I am so excited to continue to work with you for years to come. Thanks so much for watching. My saying is, if it’s important to you, hire a coach.

And I think that’s one of the reasons people are not successful is they you know the cheeseburger sort of higher coach, you know, I mean and so my coach pushes me they’re younger than me and push harder than what they’re trained. And as my rich that always said, you know amateurs don’t have a coach but professionals always have coaches so I’ve always had coaches for whatever is important in my my rich that was one of those persons I wanted to learn how to play Monopoly in real life. So he was my coach. 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 you’re like oh but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know.

There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big, get rich quick, walk on hot coals product. It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. And 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 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’ll even 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.

Transcribed with Cockatoo