How to Grow Your Business In a Challenging Economy & How to Win the Day One Morning At a Time + BuiltPhoenixstrong.org 15X Growth Despite a Competitive / Challenging Georgia Marketplace

Audio Transcription

Transcribed with Cockatoo

You might be sitting here thinking about competition in the marketplace. You might be concerned about the economy, your employees, your competitors. But let me tell you something. Those are not your real enemies. No, the real enemy is internal. The real enemy lives inside your own mind.

Any person, any circumstance, any economy can be overcome if you overcome yourself first. The opportunity doesn’t matter. The talent doesn’t matter. The resources don’t matter. The difference between who you are and who you’ll become is not the difference in circumstances. It’s the difference in discipline.

It’s the discipline to do what’s easy to do, even when you don’t feel like doing it. And here’s what’s crucial. You cannot have a bad morning and have a good day. It’s impossible. The morning sets the tone. The morning is where the war is won.

Let me expand on this because it’s so important. Your morning is not just the first few hours of your day. Your morning is a statement. It’s a declaration. It’s you telling yourself what kind of person you’re going to be. And everybody who achieves anything significant knows this.

They understand that if they win the morning, they win the day. If they win the day, they build momentum. If they build momentum, they change their life. I’ll start my diet tomorrow. I’ll read that book tomorrow. I’ll go to that seminar tomorrow.

I’ll have that conversation tomorrow. I’ll chase my dreams tomorrow. And you keep filing away your goals, your aspirations, your dreams in this magical place called tomorrow. But here’s what I know about tomorrow. It never shows up. It’s always one day away.

The only day you can act is today. The only moment you can win is right now. And that decision compounds. That decision gets stronger over time. Because every time you win a small battle, the next battle gets easier. I want you to start small.

Don’t try to change everything about yourself overnight. Don’t try to win every battle at once. Choose one battle. Maybe it’s having those conversations you’ve been avoiding, but now you’ve got momentum. Now you’ve got proof that you can do what you say you’ll do. And that proof is worth more than anything you can buy.

That proof is priceless. One decision building on another, one victory building on another, one day building into a week, a week into a month, a month into a year, a year into a decade of transformation. And let me tell you something about the life on the other side of this war. Life becomes different. Opportunities show up that weren’t there before. People start to notice you.

Doors start to open. Success starts to follow you. And the amazing thing is it’s not really luck.

Placid, Ajoku, and the company is Built Phoenix Strong Personal Training.

So let me see here. So you divided by 3 ,000. Let’s do that.

OK.

So I think you’re up 15 .33 times. Is that accurate, sir?

That’s accurate.

So walk me through what it’s like to have 15 times more leads. Because I know when we first talked to you, leads was not something that you had an abundance of.

Yeah, absolutely. It’s been life -changing. There’s some days now where the leads won’t stop coming in, whereas before I started working with you guys, I think I may have received maybe two online leads in the previous two to three years. Everything had been just manual leads. It’s really when people come in, they already know what separates us from everybody else, just from all the one -sheets that you guys put together for us that highlighted what separated us. You know, we did the mystery shopping.

Originally, I thought my purse was going was kind of expensive, but we found out that we were actually priced very well, but we offered way more for the price than all our competitors did, so it was almost a no -brainer. It’s been huge because before I was just doing everything mainly through Instagram, but when you guys would give me those seven action hours every single week on what I needed to do to improve the marketing and get the three legs in place, the Google, the Dream 100, the YouTube, the Facebook ads, it really started to crank the way the business was viewed by people around the community and leads that were coming in.

For anybody who might have missed it earlier, I just want to make sure I clarify this. How much have you grown since we started working with you? Because I think there’s somebody who says, what was that number? How much have you grown in terms of just revenue? Or how would you quantify that there, Placid?

15 times.

Think about that, folks. Everybody out there, if you’re watching today’s show, now I’ve met you. And I know that you could have been a male model. I know you could have been a pro athlete. But you chose to do fitness. So you got a lot of things going for you.

But at the same time, everybody out there can be successful. Well, Thrive Nation, on today’s show, we’re joined by an entrepreneur who’s in the fitness space. This guy is a personal trainer extraordinaire. And we’ve been working with him for years. And if I believe I’m correct, the amount of leads he’s generated has gone up dramatically. The number of trainers he now employs has gone up.

And he’s now in the process of franchising his business. And with that being said, Placid, welcome onto The Thrive Time Show. How are you, sir?

I’m good, man. Thanks for having me.

Hey, just to verify that you’re not a hologram or just a hologram male model, what’s your first and last name? And what’s the name of your company?

Placid Ajoku. And the company is Built Phoenix Strong Personal Training.

And I have notes here because Sean’s had the opportunity to work with you over the years. And if I believe if I’m correct here, you’ve actually grown from $3 ,000 a month in revenue when we first met you to now you’re at approximately you’re at $46 ,000 a month of revenue. So it’s something like 10 times, 12 times, 13 times, 14 times. So you’d be what? Let me do some math here.

$46 ,000 divided by 3, let me do the math here, because this is encouraging for somebody out there that feels stuck. So 46 ,000 divided by 3. Let me pull this up here. So let me see here. So you divided by 3 ,000. Let’s do that.

OK.

So I think you’re up 15 .33 times. Is that accurate, sir?

That’s accurate.

So walk me through what it’s like to have 15 times more leads. Because I know when we first talked to you, leads was not something that you had an abundance of.

Yeah, absolutely. It’s been life -changing. There’s some days now where the leads won’t stop coming in, whereas before I started working with you guys, I think I may have received maybe two online leads in the previous two to three years. Everything had been just manual leads.

So walk me through the lead flow. When you say you get a lead, are these warm leads, people reaching out to your website? Are these rando cold leads from third -party websites? Walk us through what kind of leads you’re getting today.

Yeah, we’re getting hot leads. These are people that have gone through. They’ve read our reviews. They’ve seen our website online. They’ve gone through the website. They filled out a form, and they’re requesting a free assessment and want us to contact them.

Now, there’s somebody watching this show right now who may be interested in teaming up with you on a franchise level, or they just want to learn more about your business. I believe the website address here is builtphoenixstrong . org. Is that the correct website there, sir? Yes. OK, so I’m going to walk the listeners through this process, because I think when a lot of people think about fitness, they probably think about what workouts do I need to do?

I think when a lot of people think about growing a business, they think about marketing. But as we know, you can’t out -train a business. diet in the world of fitness, and you can’t out -sell bad accounting. So in business, you have to learn offense and defense. In fitness, you have to learn how to eat properly as well as the workout. So we’re going to go step by step through all 14 steps here with you.

And I want to get your thoughts on this concept here. So Placid, why is it important for you as a coaching client, as a business owner, to know your revenue goals?

Why is that an important thing for you to know?

Anybody watching today’s show? Yeah, that way you know exactly what needs to be done each day and each week and each month to make sure that you’re on track to be profitable as well as pay the staff and be able to grow the business as well. Now, if anybody wants to follow along, if you go to thrivetimeshow . com forward slash millionaire, thrivetimeshow . com forward slash millionaire, you can download every single book I’ve ever written 100 % free. And the book we’re teaching from today is called A Millionaire’s Guide to Becoming Sustainably Rich.

So you can go here, download the book for free. And we’re on page 5 of this book.

Box number 2, you got to know your break -even numbers. Why is that important for you as a business owner to know your break -even numbers? Yeah, so that when customers are coming in the door, it’s cool for them to be coming in, but you got to make sure you’re hitting the right metrics.

Otherwise, you can have tons of people coming in and be negative every single day.

But when you know your breakeven numbers, you know, if you meet a certain metric, everything after that is profit and growth. And I didn’t know any of that before. Now, Sean, you have had an opportunity to work with Placid over the years. I want to get your thoughts on this box number three. You’ve said online, offline, that Placid works super hard in terms of his schedule. He’s committed to his own fitness, but also has a tough schedule.

Can you talk, why is it important for you as a coach to clarify with your clients how many hours a week they’re actually willing to work and what boundaries they have on their schedule? Why is it important for you as a coach, when working with a client like Placid or any client, clarify how many hours a week they’re actually willing to put into the business? Well, one is I don’t want them to hate me. Because if I give them more work than they can handle, then they tend to hate me. I learned that early on as a coach. But the other reason is just so that we can be realistic about what goals we’re going to be able to achieve.

If you’re already doing 100 hours a week, then you’re going to have slower growth because there’s less time you can put towards working on the business in addition to that 100 hours a week. How would you describe the work schedule that I personally keep, me personally, versus that of the average client we work with? Maniacal? uh, maniacally higher. Uh, just like you, you are here.

Today’s a Saturday and, uh, you were here before me every day this week.

You were here. What time is before you before me? I get here at like five 30, five 40.

And you’re typically here every day that I get here. And whenever I leave, you’re still here. And I don’t think that I’m not saying for anybody watching this, that that’s how you should live your life. I think it’s very important that we are intellectually honest, emotionally honest with ourselves about the hours we’re willing to work. And my wonderful wife, And I we’ve been married now almost 24 years and we’re okay with me working six days a week and taking the seventh day off So I’m pretty much done every day around six o ‘clock and I go from about 430 to six six days a week I’m not saying that’s what you should do folks. I’m just telling you you need to know your hours that you’re willing to work.

Box number four, define your unique value proposition.

This is especially important as you’re franchising. Plast, I want to get your thoughts on what kind of impact it’s made by having Sean and the team help you clarify what makes your business unique versus all of the other wonderful training companies that exist in the marketplace today. and a separates us from everybody else, just from all the one sheets that you guys put together for us that highlighted what separated us.

You know, we did the mystery shopping. Originally, I thought my personal chain was kind of expensive, but we found out that we were actually priced very well, but we offered way more for the price than all our competitors did, so it was almost a no -brainer. The mystery shopping is so important, folks. Again, box number four, you got to know who your top three competitors are. Mystery shop them so you know how you stack up in the clutter of commerce where everybody’s very much competing for the same dollar. Box number five, you got to improve your branding.

And this is one thing I want to brag on about you, Placid, is we tell every client we work with, every client we work with, you have to go out there and gather objective testimonials from real clients you’ve actually worked with. So let me give an example. Brian D. Wiggs, a wonderful home builder that Sean’s had the privilege of working with, mentoring, coaching up. Brian D. Wiggs, he builds homes, multi -million dollar homes. He has to gather testimonials from his happy clients. And you know what?

He’s done a great job doing that. That’s bryanddwigs . com. Sky House. Sky House. Yeah, Sky House Company.

Banner Elk. OK. And this is a construction company, skyhousecompany . com. Sean, this guy builds luxury cabins that overlook the mountains.

Longtime client of yours. We’ve had tremendous success with this wonderful client.

And by the way, he’ll be on part two of today’s show sharing his testimonial. You can look on his reviews. He has all of his reviews on his Google Business listing. There you go. With every client we work, I’m just trying to show people a variety of industries here. Papa Gallo’s, this is a pizzeria based in sunny Florida.

Again, we tell them the same thing. We talk about Smiles Hollywood, orthodontist based in McKinney, Texas. We have clients all over the country, all over the world.

And these clients we work with, every one of them, we tell them, you have to gather objective video reviews from real clients and objective Google reviews. Can you talk about that, Placid? Because I believe that’s made a big impact on the amount of hot leads you’re generating, sir. Absolutely. Yeah, it’s been huge.

I think we’ve become probably the highest rated personal trainer in the state of Georgia when me and Sean checked a couple weeks ago. Yep. And it’s been huge. It’s one of the first things people say when they call in on the phone is that they read our reviews or they saw our video reviews on our website and they felt like it related to them and they want to come in and do an assessment. Now, I’m going to pull this up here. I want to brag on another client, Oxifresh.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with them since they started essentially. And they now have 550 locations. They just passed 310 ,000 reviews. And again, these are from real customers. This is powerful stuff. So for somebody watching today’s show, you say, how do I become successful?

This is how you do it. Box number five, branding. Branding is simply the perception that people have of you when they think about you and your business. So I want people to think about this for a second. When people tune into my show, true story, good or bad, people go, you’re the high energy, pale guy. Are you okay?

That’s what people do. He’s the high -energy, pale guy. Is he okay?

Is he always like this?

Is he always so aggressive? That’s what people say all the time.

I hear it all the time.

Yeah, he’s always pale. Don’t they ask you, is he always that aggressive? Is he always that fired up? They do. And I get it. That’s the brand.

That’s the perception people have. When people go to Oxifresh . com, O -X -I -Fresh . com, the brand is the perception people have when they see the website. RusticCuff . com, longtime client, worked with her.

Her business, RusticCuff . com. It’s the perception that people have when they go to the business and check it out for the first time. and they look up celebrities. They do it all the time. They go, what celebrities are wearing the rustic cuffs?

And they click it, and they look at it, and they click around, and they start hunting. And pretty soon, they go. I think there’s a lot of celebrities that are wearing rustic cuff and they go, wait a minute, yeah, isn’t that the thing that those people on the Today Show wear? Isn’t that the thing I’ve seen that music artist wear? Isn’t that the thing that I’ve seen? And they start, I think that Oprah wore a rustic cuff on the cover.

You know what? I feel like Rustic Cuff was on Oprah . com as a recommended product. I feel like Rustic Cuff is a product that a lot of celebrities wear. You know what? If it’s good enough for the celebrities, I bet you it’s good enough for me.

And they start to say, I think Connick Jr., didn’t he get a Rustic Cuff or something? And they start doing their research.

And Sean, it turns out that people want to buy something from products and from companies that they can trust. And branding is a big thing. Business cards, logos, websites. Could you talk, Placid, about the value of having a team that you pay a flat monthly rate to that knocks out all of your branding for you? Yeah, it’s been huge. It’s really been life changing.

Just because I don’t really have to even think about those things anymore.

I don’t even know how to do a majority of that. We’re just having a team like you guys. They’re able to do it and do it really better than all my competitors. I mean, it’s why all these leads go. I want people to understand this, folks. If you’re out there feeling overwhelmed with the coaching that we do, we don’t just teach you what to do.

We do the graphic design, the photography, the video, the web, all of it. Box number six. three -legged marketing stool. You have to come up with a three -legged, a dependable way, a dependable turnkey way to reach your customers.

And before we started working with you, I don’t believe you had that in place. Maybe I’m wrong.

Could you talk about maybe the impact that coaching has made on your ability to have a turnkey way to generate leads? Yeah, it’s been huge because before I was just doing everything mainly through Instagram. But when you guys would give me those seven action hours every single week on what I needed to do to improve the marketing and get the three legs in place, the Google, the Dream 100, the YouTube, the Facebook ads, it really started to crank the way the business was viewed by people around the community and leads that were coming in.

And again, for anybody who might have missed it earlier, I just want to make sure I clarify this.

How much have you grown since we started working with you? Because I think there’s somebody who says, what was that number? How much have you grown in terms of just revenue, or how would you quantify that there, Placid? 15 times. Think about that, folks. Everybody out there, if you’re watching today’s show.

Now, I’ve met you, and I know that you could have been a male model. I know you could have been a pro athlete, but you chose to do fitness. So you got a lot of things going for you. But at the same time, everybody out there can be successful.

I just got off the phone with Randy Antrick, a longtime client with PMHOKC.

I literally just got off the phone with him. His company, when we started with him up to now, He’s grown to the point where he’s a $17 million a year company. Yeah. This guy has grown his business by almost 20 times. Yeah. And I’m telling you, folks, everybody out there, you can implement these systems.

We move on to box number seven, sales conversion. Sean, you bragged about this. Placid and his team, they follow the sales scripts. They’re leaning into coaching.

They’re wanting to learn more about recorded calls. Using a one sheet, they’re wanting to move into tracking obsessively. A lot of people are not so coachable here, but in order for you to be successful as a business owner and a franchise, you’ve got to have turnkey sales systems. Tell us about what makes Placid and his team successful from a perspective as a coach, like why are they why is Placid really doing a good job on, on what he’s doing here with the sales systems? Yeah, well, a lot of, a lot of business owners, you know, they, they have to sell cause it turns out you, you fail if you don’t sell anything, but, um, they have just kind of a, an energy and a mojo that they do.

But then to make that scalable for other people is like almost impossible without these scripts. And Placid has really leaned into that.

I mean, not just even with the, the system for sales, but really when it comes to the system for his employees as well, everything is systemized. They’re checklist driven now.

And because of that, he’s got a structure in place where he can train people to do the things that previously he was the only one who could do, like calling leads and getting them booked for appointments. You have to have a high energy, which he does have on that, but you also have to have a system. And we do have those systems as well. Placid, what kind of an impact has it made on your business having scripts in place and a system in place for sales, as opposed to just random philosophy and random ideas. How much has it impacted your business to have a sales script and a sales system in place? Yeah, it’s been tremendous.

It really makes it pretty much black and white. You follow the script.

You listen to the call. Did you say exactly what the script said? Why did you not follow it? So it made us elite at our sales because I think we have a 90 % conversion rate of anybody that walks through the door because we all follow the exact same script. Nobody’s adding their own things to it. You have a 90 % conversion rate.

I’m just taking notes here. This is powerful stuff here. Again, folks, if you’re watching today’s show and you feel stuck, we can get you unstuck. Box number eight, determine a sustainable customer acquisition cost. Now, this is where you just, at the end of the day, you’re saying, what does it cost for me to generate a lead? I’m just going to tell listeners out there, I’m going to bare my soul.

So when we do our conferences, people say, I want to come to your conference. How much does it cost? How much does it work? People always ask me. Your conferences, I’ve heard they’re great. Wow, you bring people like

Tim Tebow and Eric Trump to these things. You brought the gentleman who turned around Harley Davidson. I want to host a conference. I want to be a conference. I should do one too. And they always ask me that.

They go, I should do one too. What does that cost? And I say, well, for this one in particular, It’s about $160 ,000 upfront it costs me to put up. People say, $160 ,000? Where do you buy it? Well, let’s talk about it.

In this case, you’ve got the president’s son, so you’ve got security. Then you’ve got food for 500 people. Then you’ve got the employees who are working the event. Then you’re paying videographers and photographers to stream and to edit. You kind of go through the line item, and pretty quickly you go, Whoa. And so I know what it costs me to put on the event.

So whether I have zero attendees or a sold -out conference like we always have, and they’re always sold out, you say, well, what does it cost you? The cost is still the cost. So in this case, my cost to put on the event, to promote the event, minimum is $160 ,000. And you say, $160 ,000? You are sick. So it costs me $320 a person.

to put on the event. People say, what? $325? So typically, when you have a wedding, if you’re hosting a big wedding, Sean, you might say, I’m going to budget $100 per person, $100 per guest for the entertainment, the food, the deal. Our budget per person for many of our conferences is over $300 a person. So people say, what?

But I know that cost. I go in, eyes wide open. I’m not shocked by it. Another example, Elephant in the Room, our haircut chain, I know it costs me approximately $20 to get a new customer through the door. Now, someone says, $20? $20?

You say, what are you spending the $20 on? Well, we do online ads.

We do ongoing search engine optimization. We have signs in place. And so our cost per lead to succeed is approximately $20 a lead.

I want to talk about your business for a second, because you’re now franchising, which means you’ve kind of nailed down some of the systems. How important is it for you, Placid, to now have a turnkey system in place that you can now offer franchisees that want to team up with you and your business? Yeah, that has been huge because you gotta be able to know as a new franchisee what to say when somebody comes in the door in order to convert them into the client. So really, it’s made it turnkey so that anybody can do it regardless of where they are, what their experience is.

If they want to buy a built -in strong and get started franchising, you have all the scripts and systems detailed to the T so they can plug and play and be successful like we have been. Who’s a good fit to buy a franchise from you at this point?

Because you have the systems in place. Who’s a good fit? Who’s not a good fit? Uh, somebody that has a passion for fitness and wants to be their own boss and is willing to work because even though it is a franchise, it is, you’re technically in startup mode. So anybody that understands that will be successful because they’ll be able to create their own revenue growth and whatever financial goals they have for themselves. Now, this is powerful stuff.

I’m telling you folks, I’m telling you today. I won’t tell you who I’m meeting with today, but today I’m going to be working with an NBA coach. A client of mine is an NBA coach, coaches, the national basketball association. And guess what? They have to have systems. Now, it’s kind of interesting, because, Sean, I kind of have to hint around on this, OK?

But I work with one of the most successful insurance agents in America.

And he’s not, quote unquote, supposed to have a coach, or at least he can’t admit to it publicly.

His brand doesn’t want him to admit he has a coach. That’s a brand standard. You can’t say, I’m a part of this company, and I’ve hired an outside coach. The NBA guy, NBA coach, he can’t say, by the way, I’m an NBA coach. but I have a coach. He can’t do that.

However, Robert Kiyosaki will tell you, if it’s important to you, hire a coach. This just in, Tom Brady has said multiple times, without Bill Belichick, he would not have made it to the levels he got to. Everybody out there, we need a coach. We need a mentor. We need somebody to push us. You say, well, who’s your coach, Clay?

Just a little secret here, folks.

I invest every year approximately $100 ,000 a year in coaching. And you say, what? So let me walk you through where my money goes. I have an ongoing attorney, legal team, wintersking . com. And we’ll just say I’m paying them about $4 ,000 a month every single month for a long time.

And you say, why do I do that? Because as you get bigger, you have more legal situations to deal with. So Sean, I just want to have a flat rate every month. I want to know this is who I’m hiring. They’re going to coach me, mentor me on the legal aspects of the company. And it doesn’t mean I’m an idiot, doesn’t mean my mind doesn’t work, doesn’t mean I’m weak.

It just means I’m hiring an expert in that area, an accountant. I work with a company called CCK. I’m just trying to get people real data here, real information. I work with it. And by the way, I can’t make a commission to endorse wintersking . com, but I have asked.

And I just can’t get one. They’re not allowed to pay me a commission. But it’s wintersking . com. I send them a lot of clients. If you’re out there today and you want to change the laws so I can’t get a commission, that’d be great.

But CCK, I send them a lot of business. They’re my accounting service I’ve used for over a decade. And this is Kina, by the way, Kina, who we work with directly. And you say, why would you pay $3 ,000, $4 ,000 a month for an ongoing legal bill? Why would you pay $3 ,000, $4 ,000 a month for ongoing accounting coaching? Because I believe in coaching.

That’s what I believe. I believe in it. I live it. I do it. I’m telling you, folks, you’ve got to invest in yourself.

Don’t be stuck. Moving on to box number nine. You’ve got to have systems and processes for everything. You’ve got to create repeatable systems, processes, and file organization. Folks, I’m telling you, you can’t build an organization if you’re not organized. Placid, can you talk about the impact that’s made having Sean and our team helping you organize your big vision into systems, checklists, and processes?

Yeah. I remember before I started with you guys, I said, you know, one day I’m going to make a checklist and I’m going to run the business by that. And two years had gone by and I still didn’t have any checklist. So getting with you guys, you guys said, hey, we’re going to create a checklist. We want you to tell us everything that you need to do in the business day to day to be successful. We made the checklist.

And then y ‘all held me accountable to mine. I started holding my staff accountable to theirs. And as a result, the clientele just began to grow and grow. Retention went higher and higher. And just because you don’t miss anything because you’re checking off the box as you do it. So there’s no reason anything can get missed because you really don’t have to even think anymore.

What kind of an impact has having systems made on your mind freedom and just your mind? Because again, Charles Koloff, I’ve given people so many examples, folks. I’m trying to give you so many examples of real people. There’s no generalities here, folks.

There’s no hyperbolic me just stating general ideas. These are real people, real clients. Kolofffitness .

com. Charles Koloff has said on this show, But the mind freedom he has of now having everything on a checklist has totally changed his life from a mental perspective.

Can you talk about the impact it’s made on you having a checklist in place just from a mental perspective?

Yeah, been huge.

I feel like it used to take me like 12 hours a day to run the back end of my business just because I was scatterbrained.

With the checklist, I can run the whole back end in about an hour a day.

It used to take you, and can you repeat that again? It used to take you how many hours per day? 10 to 12 hours a day to run the back end. Wow. And now how much so long does it take you now. Forty five minutes to an hour.

That’s it. I’m taking notes here. Now it now takes 45 minutes. to an hour. 45 minutes to an hour. That is incredible stuff.

And again, folks, you say, why am I taking notes? I’m taking notes because everybody out there, you need to marinate on this stuff. You need to think about your life, your business.

Where are you stuck?

And get unstuck.

This is your year to get unstuck.

Moving on to box number 10, management systems.

I would argue that’s the biggest challenge for most of my clients once they start to generate leads. and systems, it’s how do you manage people? People. Yeah. Sean, what percentage of your clients, before you’re able to help them, say, just can’t find good people?

Oh, all of them. Can’t hire good people. Yeah, pretty much all of them.

Why?

Um, well, one is they don’t, they don’t typically already have before they meet us a structure in place that makes that something that they can do consistently. Well, they don’t have a group interview system in place, which Placid has, and it’s helped him grow his entire staff. And then, um, they also don’t have the daily huddles and the weekly training meetings built in. And so without those kinds of rocks, those anchors, they struggle to both find people and manage people. I mean, maybe Plastic could talk a little bit about the daily huddles, the training meetings, and also the group interview of how that’s impacted his business. I’m going to pull this up so people can, I want people to understand, I like, I do like people.

Just have a concern about some people. According to the U . S. Chamber of Commerce, this is not clayclark . com, 75 % of employees are stealing from the workplace. And many do so repeatedly.

U . S. Chamber, where am I getting this stat? U . S. Chamber of Commerce is saying 75 % of employees surveyed are going, yeah, I do take from the workplace.

What?

75 %? And you say, come on, come on. Gallup, folks, Gallup has their own studies as well. You know, Forbes is now reporting, Inc. Magazine, Inc. Magazine is reporting that 85 % of employees

now admit to just making up their resume entirely. People just totally making it up. Forbes is now saying that 70 % of workers lie on their resumes. Now, in the medical space, I work with a lot of clients in the medical space.

So I think of clients like klortho . com. I think of people like drzelner . com. I think of people like Dr. Whitlock, Whitlock Cosmetic. I think about all these wonderful clients.

And they’re telling me, the doctors are telling me now that in their industry, they’re getting people applying to be a doctor at their business who aren’t even doctors. It’s unbelievable. Placid, I want to get your thoughts on the hiring system. Because there’s somebody out there watching today’s show. They’re stuck.

and they don’t know what you now know. Can you talk about the impact the hiring systems have made on your business? Yeah, previously, I would book out times to do all these individual interviews. I’d set 30 minute slots. My whole day would be filled with interviews. And if I had 20 scheduled, maybe two would show up.

And the two that showed up would both be terrible. But since putting in the group interview process, I do the whole interview at once. There’s three things I’m looking for when they walk in the door. If I already tell them they’re going to be somebody I want to meet with for a second round shadow, and it should simplify the hiring process altogether. And then I had issues with trainers where if they would leave, I would lose like 30 % revenue because they would take the clients with them. But then you told me about the rotational staff, and that has been a huge game changer.

We don’t have any drop when trainers leave anymore. That’s the move. I’m telling you, folks, there’s a move for everything. There’s a system for everything. Yesterday, Sean, a longtime client of mine, Colton Dixon, great guy, great friend of mine, musician. I think I have a photo from it.

He called me.

He said, hey, I’m going to be performing at the BOK.

And let me see if I can find it real quick. And he’s like, I’m performing at the BOK. Would you like to take your kids to come see? That’s my Christmas photo. not the Colton photo. Let’s find out.

And so he says, hey, would you like to come out and see me perform or come watch? And I said, sure, man. So there we are yesterday, kind of a super blurry photo.

But there we are. And we’re there. And at this particular concert, at this particular event, there’s a system in place for everything for that industry, too.

Yeah. And it’s music, which is entirely different than personal training, which is entirely different. Every industry that we work with, it’s a different industry. But many of the systems are still the same. And I think there’s somebody out there that needs to hear this. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in.

This is Andrew Sorcini, a longtime client, precious metals guy. No matter what business you’re in, we can help you systemize that. And Placid, there’s somebody watching today’s show, and they’re thinking, You know, my business is different. What would you say to somebody who thinks that their business or industry is different, and therefore, they cannot be coached to increase profitability? Yeah, you got to humble yourself to get to the promised land. So they just got to understand that everything, if you break it down, it all comes down to systems.

So theirs can be systemized as well, and they just need to just swallow the pill, and they’ll get the results if they do that. Now, my final two areas I want to focus on, again, box number 11, creating a repetitive weekly schedule. Once you have the financial freedom, you want to also create time freedom and get a schedule you’re comfortable with. That’s box number 11. Box number 12, HR, create human resource systems and recruitment systems. We’ve talked about that.

There’s a lot of detail that goes into that.

Box number 13, you have to know your numbers. And once you do that in place, now you’re at box 14 or step 14, which is determining what is the point of achieving financial success. to a place where that is where they are. And you, Placid, have elected to scale the company by franchising. So I want to talk here in the final minute. minutes we have you.

Tell us about your vision for the future with your company.

Where is it at now in terms of what’s the vision? If people go to builtphoenixstrong . org, where do you see this company growing into? Where do you see your vision progressing?

If everything happens the way you see it in your mind, how will it manifest? Where do you see builtphoenixstrong . org going? Absolutely. We have a vis going to start throughout we want to expand all thr and really become the num growing health and fitness far too often health and w correctly. People don’t to have visible and susta diets.

They’re way too st to them. Uh, trainers are clients are left not knowing how to continue their results.

So we want to really change the way health and wellness is done. So we’re looking for other franchisees to join us so that we can really make America healthier as a whole, as opposed to the way the industry is kind of going right now in regards to health and wellness. Now, final question for somebody who’s been watching this broadcast. I’ll ask you again here. What’s your first and last name?

And what kind of impact has coaching over these past few years made on your life and business? My name is Placid Ajoku, and coaching has completely changed my life. I couldn’t afford the lifestyle that I have now. I’ve been able to do things for my wife and my daughter that I wouldn’t have been able to do before. And more importantly, it’s given me peace. I spend more time with God.

I start my day with God. And I really wouldn’t be able to do any of that without the coaching and getting started with you guys. So thank you all again. Yeah, we’re honored to work with you. Sean, any thoughts you want to share for anybody out there who’s watching today’s show who maybe feels intimidated by the success that Placid’s now having?

Any thoughts you want to share?

Because you’ve worked with Placid quite a bit over the years. Any thoughts you’d have for anybody watching today’s show that feels stuck and feels like, jeez, I could never get to that place? It’s all an iterative thing.

I mean, Clay, you always use the phrase kaizen.

It’s just about getting to a place.

better every week.

And Placid being a trainer himself and a coach, he knows that’s how it works with diet and nutrition the same way that’s how it works with your business. So you might be 100 pounds overweight. You can totally get in shape. Placid would tell you that. Your business might be completely out of whack. You can totally get it into shape.

It’s just going to be embracing that idea that it’s little by little. And we can help you do that week by week. You said iteration. Could you hit on iteration for just a second?

Maybe he’s not familiar with that term or what that means in your mind. Iteration. What do you mean? It’s an iterative thing. An iterative thing, meaning like, you know, we’re going to, it’s a versionized thing. Like we can put a script in place, but that’s one iteration of the script.

We’re going to now test it. So you talk about the phrase of define, act, measure, refine, define, act, measure, refine. And you just keep doing that until you’ve refined the business to where it’s ready to franchise. And it might not be anywhere near that point right now, but it starts with let’s define what the next best 2 % better step looks like. Let’s act on what we need to do to get it there. Let’s measure how it works and then let’s refine from there.

And if you keep doing that every week with a coaching program like we have, your business is going to get better. It’s going to grow and you’re going to end up with more money and more time. Now, folks, on part two of today’s show, we are going to air a broadcast with the founder of Sky House. This is a home builder, giving you two different success stories. And again, if you’re watching today’s show, it’s $1 ,700 a month, $1 ,700 per month. There’s no funny business with the pricing.

It’s just a flat monthly rate. And we only work with 160 clients, because we want to work with great people that we can coach, coachable people. We also have interactive workshops. We’ll tell you more about it on part two of today’s show. But I encourage everybody out there, today is a homework assignment. Homework assignment, for everybody watching today’s show.

I wanted. I wanted the homework. What do I do? Let me pull it up here.

This is the homework assignment. Step one, I want everybody to go online right now to BuiltPhoenixStrong . com and just share the link on your socials because that generates backlinks for our wonderful clients. So you can just grab the link, share it on your social media platforms. That’s powerful.

BuiltPhoenixStrong . org. And then finally, if you want to schedule a free 13 -point assessment with myself, feel free to do that by going to Thrivetimeshow . com, Thrivetimeshow . com. And as always, we’d love to see you at one of our in -person Thrivetimeshow workshops, where we do charge $250 for a ticket, or we have scholarship tickets available to make it affordable for everybody.

So again, go to Thrivetimeshow . com. Placidojoku, thank you so much for your time. today, sir, and we’ll talk to you soon. Appreciate it, Chuck. Bye -bye.

Clay, my honor, my honor to be on your show, and thank you for all you do, I hear. The ripple effects from you are good ripple effects. You know what I mean? People rave about what they learned from you. So congratulations. Sean, guess what’s happening?

April 9th and 10th, 2026. Uh, we are probably going to have an amazing business conference here at Tulsa, Russia. Yes, we’re joined by Tim Tebow. Tim Tebow is going to be joining us right here at the Thrive Time Show world headquarters, June 5th and 6th. He’s a very successful football player, obviously a Heisman award winner, but he’s also a very successful entrepreneur. Now, when you work with real clients, Sean, real clients you really work with to help them grow their companies, do you ever hear a business owner tell you that they didn’t have time to get something done?

Every day. How often is not having enough time a problem for business owners? All the time. It’s almost like maybe 90 % of the issues as people are trying to grow their company. Well, Tim Tebow is going to come join us here at the in -person Thrive Time Show 2 -Day Interactive Business Workshop.

And he’s going to teach us time management and his approach to personal self -discipline and getting things done.

Also at the workshop, I’ll put up on the website so people can see it here. Also at the 2 -Day Interactive Workshop, Sean, we are going to be teaching accounting, systems creation, marketing, human resources, how to hire, inspire, train, and retain great people, accounting, social media, advertising, search engine optimization. Sean, what’s the area where most clients ask you for help the most? Is it generating leads? Is it hiring people?

What’s the biggest issue that most business owners have by default before they come to one of our workshops? Well, I think it’s management because time is the most valuable resource for these business owners and being able to manage their time is the first thing. that under control than generally the numbers.

You know, being able to track their business and be able to make the best decisions based on numbers rather than emotions is a big area. And we teach all of this stuff at the business conference, particularly you, Clay. You love to hammer on time management. It’s my favorite part of the conference. Now, I’m going to pull this up real quick here, because we’re going to go through it. If you’re not excited, I want to get you excited about what we’re going to cover at the workshop here.

OK. The two -day interactive workshop. This is my 20th year hosting workshops. So I’m telling you folks, we’re in rare form here. So one is the idea of establishing your revenue goals. I think most entrepreneurs don’t know their revenue goals.

Would you agree or am I off my rocker? No, that’s totally a very important point we do with every one of our new clients that come on board is we have to establish the revenue goals. And generally speaking, we have a vague idea, but not an exact idea that can be engineered down into like the daily goals for sales. And so that’s a really big one. even numbers. What kind of sales do you have to do to even break even?

Third is how many hours per week do you want to work? What is your ideal schedule as an entrepreneur? Box number four, how do you stand out in the clutter of commerce? What makes your company unique from all the different businesses? In a world of brown cows, herds of brown cows, proverbial brown cows, the analogy of brown cows, how can you be the purple cow that stands out? How can you be the squeaky wheel that gets the oil?

Box number five, branding. How do you improve the perception that people have of you, your business, your brand? Box number six, branding. Marketing, your three -legged marketing stool. What is a turnkey way for you and your company to generate leads so you can succeed? Because if you don’t have any leads, your business will bleed.

If you can’t sell, your business will go to hell. You’ve got to generate leads. Sean, how often do business owners by default tell you they have a hard time generating leads? It’s almost all of the time. It’s really a huge struggle. And many times they may be creating leads, but just through word of mouth.

So they get to a point where we’ve implemented systems, and then they need to create more. leads, but they’ve never had to do it. So there’s a lot of different scenarios where business owners are like, how do you create leads? Something we hammer on at the conference a lot. Box number seven, create a sales conversion system. Again, box number seven, create a sales conversion system.

Sales scripts, recorded calls, one sheets, pre -written emails, lead trackers, all of the sales tools, the sales print pieces, the one sheets, the Big screens that you see inside the business, whether you’re a doctor, you’re a dentist, you’re a lawyer, you’ve got to have sales systems in place. We help you with that. Box number eight, what does it cost you to get another customer? Step number eight, what does it cost you to actually acquire a customer? Step number nine, it’s hard to build organization if you’re not organized. We’re going to teach you how to create repeatable systems, processes, file organization.

Box number 10, we’re going to teach you how to manage people, real people, on the planet Earth. This just in, we’re going to teach you how to manage real people on the planet Earth. Box number 11, how to create a sustainable schedule that works for you and your family.

Step number 12, how to create human resources systems for recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining great people. Box number 13, accounting. This just in, we have to cover accounting. It’s not how much you make, it’s how much you keep. We’re going to cover all the accounting things you need to know.

And step 14, finally, what is the point of even achieving success? We’re gonna go over the, what is the point of even achieving success? How to design a life that you’re excited about. How to design a life where you carve out enough time for your faith, your family, your finance, your fitness, your friendship, your fun, and where you’re gonna spend your focused time. We’re gonna go through that, all this and more. Now, the workshop, Sean, it’s April 9th and 10th.

It’s a two -day interactive workshop. And tickets, we always do it. It’s $250 or whatever price that someone can afford. Sean, why do we let people name their price? Why do we have scholarship tickets available if somebody can’t afford the $250 general admission tickets? Well, we don’t want anybody to miss out on it.

You could be at a startup phase, or you could be way along in your business.

But we want to make it accessible for everybody.

I think it actually goes back, too, to a story of your dad. And it goes all the way back to how you’ve always done this as a business coach, trying to make sure that your average people out there have access to the things that work. Now, 7 a .

m.

to 5 p . m. , Sean, why don’t we go from 7 a . m. to 5 p . m.

both days? I mean, it’s 10 hours a day, 20 hours of training over two days. Why do we do 10 hours a day, Sean, of back -to -back workshops? We do a 30 -minute teaching session, we do a 15 -minute question -and -answer session, and then we take a break.

30 minutes of teaching, 15 minutes of question -and -answer, then we take a break.

Why do we do that format, Sean?

That format is so that we can keep people engaged and not just sitting there listening, but also getting involved. We really encourage people to ask questions, and that’s really where the juiciness of the conference comes out is you can put your personal situation and your questions on the board and Clay will tee off and give you direct advice. Even without being in our coaching program, you can get direct coaching from Clay. It’s really a very engaging format.

I enjoyed a lot.

Once again, folks, this event is April 9th and 10th, 2026. Get those tickets at thrivetimeshow .

com.

Once again, it’s thrivetimeshow .

com.

Who’s our keynote speaker coming to the conference here, Sean? Tim Tebow. is our keynote speaker. Sean, question number three, how much does it cost to come to our in -person two -day interactive business workshop right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma?

I think it’s, did you say it’s $250 or whatever you can afford?

That’s right, $250 or whatever you can afford.

Sean, how do you spell Eric Trump backwards?

P -U -R -T -C -U -R -T.

I -R -E.

Ooh, that took a long time. I’ll have to listen to this. All right, again, that’s Sean Lohman. I’m Clay Clark, inviting you to come join us at the in -person Thrive Time Show two -day interactive workshop. This event is April 9th and 10th, 2026.

Get those tickets at thrivetimeshow .

com. Once again, that’s thrivetimeshow . com. Right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tim Tebow, baby. It’s Tebow time in Tulsa, Russia. Clay Clark is here somewhere.

Where’s my buddy Clay?

Clay’s the greatest. I met his goats today. I met his dogs. I met his chickens. I saw his compound. He’s like the greatest guy.

I ran from his goats, his chickens, his dogs. So this guy’s like the greatest marketer you’ve ever seen, right? His entire life, Clay Clark, his entire life is marketing. I’m excited as they come in! My name is Kevin Thomas and the name of our company is MultiClean. We are a commercial janitorial service and we serve the entire state of Oklahoma and Kansas and soon to be Arkansas.

We have probably grown Probably five times. We’ve added, I think when we first started with you, we had 60 to 65 employees, and now we have a little over 300 employees. Before we got involved with Thrive Time, we didn’t really have any systems or processes in place. I’ve probably been to, oh, in six, seven years, I’ve probably been to 12 to 13 business conferences and Amazingly, each time I go, I learn something new and I’m so excited to bring it back and show the team. 4 ,000 % from February to February. Now, I can better that.

Okay, Clay, I don’t think you know this. I don’t think you know this.

I’m pinching myself and if I cry, forgive me. In the last two and a half days, we have bettered our entire month of February. in the last two and a half days. I heard about it on the podcast, started listening to the podcast, became a fan and then figured out about the workshop. I own an insurance and financial services agency and I was hoping to learn from the workshop systems and processes.

I’m big on systems and processes and always learning better ways to run a business more efficiently. The atmosphere is second to none. It’s a high energy, really cool atmosphere to be around. Contagious, I would say.

Just something every entrepreneur I think would appreciate and love. I’d say humorous, high energy, and full of substance, which I think is the key. A lot of business coaches or seminars. Maybe you’re high on motivation and making you feel good, but don’t have a lot of substance that you could take back and implement, you know, the following Monday. Where his does.

Man, there’s a lot of valuable things.

I’m gonna say, like, I came to, this is my second workshop.

The first workshop I took back really the, The importance of a group interview. I used to spend hours and hours interviewing people, screening resumes, and that saving my time on that part is valuable. It was that and then the sales scripting that have been two major things just so far. Man, I think they’re missing out on expert advice from somebody who’s been there, done that, built companies, has learned a lot of lessons. That’s what I’m always looking for is somebody that can learn from, that’s ahead of where I am. And I think if you choose not to come, you’re missing out on a lot of good advice that could help your business.

Hi, this is Charles and Amber Kola. We’re the owners of Kola Fitness. We heard about Clay Clark through Paul Hood, our CPA. We’ve worked with Clay Clark for the last two years. Clay Clark has helped us take our three locations in three different states and create a checklist workflows, task lists, time blocks for every employee.

He’s helped us with creating systems and audits for every department, quantitative scorecards for each department and every position so that everybody has a number. He’s been able to give us a lot of time freedom and financial freedom and peace of mind to know that everything’s running efficiently. And he’s been helpful with a lot of marketing, search engine and optimization, helping us really rank high in Google, and pretty much every area of the business. It’s been very, very helpful. We would describe the experience of working with Clay as very energetic. He’s full of energy.

He’s very encouraging, very motivating, but also accountable.

So he keeps us accountable, and we love that accountability. It keeps our drive in the right direction, so we’re not chasing things that aren’t worth spending our time on. He’s a great coach he helps push us on certain areas helps coaches in certain areas you know we’re all emotional creatures and we go up and down and he actually will tell us kind of where we’re at how we can get from there and even like emotionally like we’re stressed about something you’ll have a story to relate to and it really helps us in every area of our business it’s been very very helpful. I think Clay’s ability to have a whole team behind him that helped him with all of his clients, all his coaching clients, is that it allows Clay to do what he’s really good at, and that’s working one -on -one with the client and coaching them, and then he can have his amazing staff come in and help you accomplish all these goals that you’re setting. And of course he has all these resources, whether it’s videographers or whether it’s web developers, But they can quickly jump on your project, knock things out.

He can quickly give you the right coaching. He’s just got a whole team of guys. that whatever area you’re lacking in, in your own company, he’s got resources from like video, web design, search engine guys who are just knowledgeable in that. Even though he knows a lot of that stuff, he’s got these capable lieutenants that are ready to just take off and help you get that stuff. More stuff gets done on a weekly basis than you would on like probably most Yeah, other than the individual or some other company. We’ve worked with several companies before.

It’s just not as many things get done on a weekly basis, so it’s been very helpful. Well, the conferences for me, I’m a slow learner, so I have to learn like over and over again, hear things over and over again. I’ve been to like, I think, eight different conferences. And each time you come, I learn a few new components. Some things are repetitive, but a lot of the stuff just resettles and I get a little bit more depth into each component. So, I mean, I’ve been to eight of them.

They’re all super entertaining. He’s very funny, very encouraging. You get to kind of self -reflect a lot. A lot of the stuff is really polarizing. personal inventory of yourself and you’ll think like, hey, I’ve really got to work on this, really got to work on that. So every time you come, I still get a lot of value out of it.

And as much as every conference is the same, it’s totally different. So I think we’ll hear stories we haven’t heard before. He’ll have entertainment or he’ll have speakers he didn’t have before. And you, like you said, you just always catch a different part of the material that maybe you didn’t catch before. It’s worded differently. really cool because some people that you’ve seen like a year ago at a conference now they’re you know being showcased as a success story and you get to see their website you get to see how their stats and all their metrics have improved and the revenue improved so it’s really cool to see people that just a year ago that of course we’ve been here two years that just came that I met is now being successful it’s really cool

to see other people, you know, accomplish that stuff.

So McClay has helped us optimize our website and helped with really topping the right search engines that we need to make sure that we are very, very competitive with all of our other competitors. He’s done, basically he outlines exactly what you need to be accomplishing and he creates tasks that we have to accomplish and his team has to accomplish. I would say over the last two years, we’ve totally ramped our website. We’re topping Google in every one of our markets. I would say just doing really, really good. I feel very, very confident in all of our future locations and making sure that we’re in front of the ideal and likely buyer.

It’s very encouraging. It’s important to me that to know when I’m working with Clay, you know, I’ve been in business for a while and met with him even when I already had three, three businesses in three different states. And to know that what I share with him is staying private. He’s not sending that out to anybody else. to know that when he’s working with me he’s only working with one other, no other gyms that are in direct competition with me. It’s very encouraging to have something you can trust and rely on that he isn’t going to like somehow tell your trade secrets or give information away.

Just really awesome that he’s a trustworthy guy, really cares about you as a client. For us, it’s been a complete mind freedom, because Clay has helped us create a lot of different documents and one sheets for every department, put quantitative scorecards to each department. And so for us, it’s been very encouraging. It gives us peace. Like as an entrepreneur, it’s stressful. You go to bed at night, you’re worried, like, did we cover this?

Did we cover that? So he helps extract everything out of your brain, everything from your business, put it into document creation, put it into checklists and workflows for every person in each department, and make sure that everything’s getting done every week, every month, and funnel that all into KPIs or Key Performance Indicators as you can see on a weekly basis. make sure you’re moving the needle in the right area of your company. It’s very encouraging and gives you a complete mind, freedom, and peace to know that that stuff’s created so you’re easy to duplicate and scale your company. Right, and then we can spend time doing what we’re really good at.

I honestly believe everybody needs a coach. I think we’re all inherently lazy, selfish, and carnal. I truly believe that humans are humans. If we’re standing, we’d rather sit. If we’re sitting, we’d rather lay down. And if we’re laying down, we’d rather be asleep.

So to have somebody that challenges you, have real active candor, and be honest with you on every aspect of your company is really, really encouraging to me because I want to know, I want to work on what we’re weak at, I want to see any areas that we’re not doing well in and see his perspective. from a third party, because you can look at your own business and just see the good. It’s good to have somebody who’s done this with hundreds of companies. Really look at your company, reflect on your company, and see little chinks in the armor to make sure you cover that up so your competition can’t get to you and that you’re successful overall in the big picture. Yes, I would recommend Clay Clark because he is a great friend, great encourager. To me, he’s been a wonderful friend.

You can tell he cares. 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 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 got to be wanting to get feedback. You got to be wanting to really grow your business. You gotta 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. 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 in real estate. So honestly, I thought I kind of knew everything about marketing and homes. 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.

We’ve 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 from the 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 that 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 going to 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 the 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 to insurance companies.

I don’t answer to large corporations.

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 their own business. I’m Dr. Chad Edwards and I own Revolution Health and Wellness Clinic. Clay, my honor, my honor to be on your show and thank you for all you do. I hear The ripple effects from you are good ripple effects. You know what I mean? People rave about what they learn from you.

So congratulations. So we’re pretty excited about that. Just listening to what they have to say, their hiring process has just really been incredible as far as finding good quality help. Just the accountability of meeting up with them weekly. such good insight, the resources that they have for specific business questions. It’s all been really incredible.

It’s been a great experience. So I’d recommend it to anybody. 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 Black River 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 really completely transformed my business in pretty much every facet. So I’m going to check my notes here.

So in four months, my leads have tripled. 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. 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 and 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. low -quality candidates anymore.

And your coach will hold you accountable, which I love. Again, the tough love is really great.

Luke’s 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’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, they eat a cheeseburger instead of hiring a coach. You know what I mean? My coach pushes me.

They’re younger than me. They push harder. They’re trained. And as my rich dad always said, you know, amateurs don’t have a coach, but professionals always have coaches. So I’ve always had coaches for whatever was important. My rich dad was one of those persons.

I wanted to learn how to play Monopoly in real life. So he was my coach.

Transcribed with Cockatoo