Mini Storage Facility | How to Grow a Successful Mini Storage Facility + “We Had the Single Biggest Move In Rate In 22 Years. Our Monthly Revenue Has Gone Up 13% In the Past 6 Months. This Is Proven. It Works. I Would Not Have Believed It.” – Dirk Rockhill

Audio Transcription

Transcribed with Cockatoo

(Speaker 2)
Folks, on today’s show, we’re talking about implementation. You see, we all get ideas from radio talk show hosts and websites and books and social media. It’s not about the information. It’s about activation. It’s about turning those ideas into results. And on today’s show, we’re interviewing a man who manages, who runs a storage facility.

(Speaker 2)
They do a mini storage facility, a beautiful mini storage facility. And this gentleman, I met him at a conference. everything diligently, and he’s having massive success. Is he having massive success because he acquired information? No, he’s having success because of implementation. With that being said, Dirk, welcome on to the Thrive Time Show.

(Speaker 2)
How are you, sir?

(Speaker 17)
Thank you.

(Speaker 1)
I’m good, sir.

(Speaker 2)
So, Dirk, I’m going to pull up your website here for anybody out there that can see it again. That website is kamasstorage . com.

(Speaker 1)
So, is it pronounced Kamas Storage, or for anybody out there that wants to know, how do you pronounce that there, sir? It is just that, Camas Storage. It’s in Camas, Utah. We’re about 30 minutes from Park City.

(Speaker 2)
So lots of snow, lots of cold, lots of good. And, you know, we have so many wonderful conference attendees and clients we have the privilege to work with at the conferences as well as one -on -one coaching. And you were telling me that you guys have been implementing everything and you were telling me you’re already stacking up some pretty good wins, you’re having some growth.

(Speaker 1)
What kind of growth percentage have you been having or tell us about the growth that you have been seeing or maybe that you haven’t been seeing? And, you know, and as far as the business goes, which is what I’m thinking you’re leading to, as far as growth of people, man, this place is exploding. You know, with the Olympics we had a few years ago, Seeker kind of got out, a lot of people moved here. And, you know, like you said, we had a little small storage unit here in town. And one of the reasons we went to your conference, my business partners had started a new, was interested in starting a new business. And it involved, he’s a retired plastic surgeon, and he watched you.

(Speaker 1)
friend pass away from the inability to tie his shoes and, and button his shirt. And you can say to yourself, well, how does someone die from that? Well, they don’t die from that. What they do is they sit in their house. And it’s too frustrating to tie your shoes or button your shirt. So you don’t go out and you sit in a chair and you essentially die.

(Speaker 1)
And so we went there with the intent to grow that business. And And they went without me the first time they come back and they said, hey, this guy is great. You got to get your web page optimized. You got to get some pictures, videos. And she said a quote. And this quote is the biggest quote that impacted our business.

(Speaker 1)
And she said, broken windows, broken business. And that was something that you had said. And I’m like, hey, we’re fine, you know. 12 out of the 15 security lights are working and most of the gates work and we’re good. And we have like six, seven people move in every month. I don’t need all this.

(Speaker 1)
And I didn’t have a term for it. Now I know what is jackassery, but I’m like, we don’t need all that. We don’t need all that. We got six, seven move -ins. You know, when we took over the storage unit business in 2003 until 2025, which is 21 years, we increased income by 200%. And you say, well, Dirk, that’s great.

(Speaker 1)
That’s a win. And I told myself that. I’m like, hey, I’m good. I’ve increased this 200%. The thing that we don’t tell ourselves is the truth sometimes. I spent $1 .8 million in infrastructure and expansion.

(Speaker 1)
So all of a sudden, that 200%, while it is good, keep in mind what it took to get there. So I said, you know what? I don’t believe in this jackassery. I’m going to go there myself and listen to it. And I’m telling you. Best two days of my life.

(Speaker 1)
Most life -changing two days of my life.

(Speaker 2)
And I went there with the intent to prove you wrong. And now that you’re implementing all these things that we taught at the conference, a lot of these principles, are you seeing an increase in web traffic?

(Speaker 1)
Are you seeing an increase of inbound leads or an interest in the storage facility? Like I told you, we had six or seven new people move in every month. I had an office, you know, we’d converted an old storage unit into an office and I had a nice plywood sign, you know, that we had someone local here paint. And it was a half a block from Maine and it faced the wrong direction. And we’re doing good, six to seven move -ins a month, you know? I don’t need Clay’s help.

(Speaker 1)
And so we’d come back. And by the way, in those 21 years, I had five Google reviews in 21 years. I’m doing great. So we come back and I decide, you know what? I’m going to implement some of this stuff. I’m going to fix some of those security lights.

(Speaker 1)
I’m going to straighten up some of those gates and I’m going to get some Google reviews and start optimizing my webpage. And I’m going to start making a calendar and a to -do list and organize my own life better. We implemented some of these things. And then from June, when I went to that conference in September, We had 27 people move into our storage facility, the single biggest move -in rate in 25 years. My monthly revenue increased a little over 13%. And you say, well, 13 % compared to 200%, that’s not very good.

(Speaker 1)
Do you know what it cost me to get that 13 %?

(Speaker 2)
Attendance at your seminar and listening to your implementation. I want to make sure I get this. I want to make sure I never misconstrue or misunderstand what you just said, so I’m taking notes here.

(Speaker 29)
You said that you had your biggest move -in rate in 23 years.

(Speaker 1)
Is that accurate?

(Speaker 2)
From 2003 to 2025, so that is 22 years.

(Speaker 29)
And you said your monthly revenue has gone up 13%.

(Speaker 1)
Is that accurate? 13 % in the last six months. And you know how much money I put in to get that revenue?

(Speaker 2)
The cost of attending your seminar. And I think a lot of people out there feel stuck. They feel like, man, my business isn’t moving. As an example, I talked to a wonderful man who happens to run a photography studio on the East Coast at one of our conferences here. Actually, the conference that you were at, he’s on the East Coast. He runs a photography studio.

(Speaker 2)
And he’s going, I don’t understand how implementing these things Going to change my life now. I’ll be it there Dirk. This was before the conference started, but he’s like I don’t understand how implementing these concepts could change my life And I said listen these are proven systems proven processes success systems that dr. Zellner And I’ve used to build you know 13 multi -million dollar companies and help thousands of people to do it. I promise you if you’ll diligently implement everything, step one, step two, step three. You just go through it to implement it. You’re going to blow up your photography studio.

(Speaker 2)
It’s going to happen. And by the end of day one, he came up to me. He said, man, I had no idea how many action items were found within the pages of this book or how many action items were going to be taught at the conference.

(Speaker 1)
What do you say to somebody out there that’s thinking about maybe coming to an in -person workshop? Well, I’ll tell you. I’m a person. I don’t make promises I can’t keep. I never make a promise I can’t keep, anyway I try to. You know, I have a God -centered life.

(Speaker 1)
and That is my highest priority and I do not make promises I can’t keep and clay I can tell you you go ahead and keep making these promises because They work and it’s not rocket science. This is not rocket science. We are not attempting to Create a video of sending somebody to the moon. This is not rocket science. This is proven it works And I wouldn’t have believed it.

(Speaker 2)
I went there skeptical to prove that you were wrong. Yeah, and I love that. I love that challenge. And I just encourage everybody out there, the reason I wanted to have you on the show was a couple of things. One, you’re a very normal person. You’re not a guy who said, you know, I was a rocket scientist, and then therefore I took my best understanding of the NASA and what it takes to put things into space, and I’ve decided to open a mini storage facility.

(Speaker 2)
I mean, you’re a guy that’s very, very normal, and you have a very real business you’re involved in right there in Utah. You’re right there in Utah. That’s the address. People can find it. And I encourage everyone to go to the website.

(Speaker 1)
And again, Dirk, for anybody out there looking at how to pronounce the name of the town, it’s Camas, you said, Camas? Camas Storage. It’s a very small town. Like I said, we’re about 30 minutes from Park City. A lot of the people that live here, that live here from a long time, we’re a ranching, a timber town. It used to be a lot of sawmills.

(Speaker 1)
And we’re just a small town of good old boys. And you know, when I went to your conference last week with Eric Trump, I got to tell you, I had some misconceptions about Eric Trump. After listening to that guy and after meeting Eric Trump on your show, Eric Trump is one of the most down to earth, likable guys I know. He is more like me than I would have ever imagined.

(Speaker 2)
Great guy. I would say with Eric, you know, one of the things that we connected on Dirk, you know, offline and as friends was he has a to -do list. He has a calendar. And he’s serious about it. He has a to -do list. He has a calendar.

(Speaker 2)
And he’s serious about it. And at the conference, I asked him if he’d be willing to talk about those subjects. And he did. He talked about calendars, and to -do lists, and following up, and hiring high -energy people.

(Speaker 1)
Was there any big takeaways that you got from Eric’s presentation where you thought, wow, that was pretty down to earth, but at the same time, pretty life -changing? He knows his numbers. And he knows his numbers from actual data. CEO and say, how are we doing? How’s our timeline? Where did he go?

(Speaker 1)
He went down to the guy putting in the outlet, said, hey, how are we doing? That was my big takeaway. Get back down to earth. Get back into reality. Get up in the morning. Do your to -do list.

(Speaker 1)
Do your calendar. Get your work done.

(Speaker 2)
That’s not rocket science. Now, I got to ask you a final question for anybody out there. First off, by the way, folks, if you’re watching today, one thing you can do to help reciprocate and to help a Dirk’s business grow is you go to camusstorage . com. You go to that website. What it’s going to do is it’s going to make their website rank a little bit higher.

(Speaker 2)
We call that a backlink. OK, so I encourage everyone, go to camusstorage . com. You can check out the business, verify there are real people. And in the process of doing that, you actually help the website rank higher. That’s camusstorage .

(Speaker 2)
com.

(Speaker 1)
Kirk, final question for you. What’s somebody missing out on? if they don’t come to a two -day interactive business growth workshop. What they’re missing out on is not only the ability to grow their business, but the ability to grow their life and to set your priorities. Hey, I work 70 hours a week. I have in the past forgot what my end goals were.

(Speaker 1)
I got to get to work. I got to get making some money. I got to get these things done. Oh, wait a minute. I got to take a minute and read my scriptures. And I got to take a minute and thank God for all that he has given me. I got to take a minute and go home and check on my wife and make sure she’s okay and check in on my kids.

(Speaker 1)
Is everything going well?

(Speaker 2)
So it’s not just a business growth, Clay. It is a business growth, but it’s not just a business growth. It’s a life growth. Well, thank you so much for joining us. I know you probably could be doing out, you could probably be out doing male modeling at this point, but I appreciate you choosing to decline those offers and to carve out a little time for us. And again, I was just so encouraged by, you know, at the conference we had the young woman, Sophia and her mom.

(Speaker 2)
They’re in attendance and they’ve grown their company is something like eight, not exaggerating folks.

(Speaker 27)
It’s something like 80 times more revenue than they used to be.

(Speaker 28)
You had the outdoor home remodeling business, PMH OKC.

(Speaker 1)
they’ve grown their company from a million dollar business to a 17 million dollar company and those success stories just keep going and whenever I can grab you guys and get you on video to share your story to encourage somebody out there because there’s somebody out there I guess my one final bonus question Derek is there’s somebody out there right now and specifically maybe talking to this photographer I was talking about on the East Coast that’s got a photography studio and they do a lot of work in the photography space and for someone like that that maybe just feels like it’s not possible to make big basic changes that can dramatically change their life. What do you say to them? You know what? You can’t do the same thing over and over and expect to get a different result. The one thing I will say, if you’re not prepared to grow your business, do not go to Clay Clay. because you’ve got to put the work in.

(Speaker 1)
You’ve got to implement. You’ve got to do the stuff you don’t get going to clay. Clark is not like, oh, I just go there and it automatically grows. You have to implement.

(Speaker 2)
The ideas, the suggestions, the calendar, the to -do list, the broken business, broken windows. You have to implement those things. To sit there and listen and not do anything, it’s not going to work for you. I appreciate you so much for carving out time for us again.

(Speaker 1)
Thank you so much. It’s great to see you in person there, Dirk.

(Speaker 27)
And we’ll talk to you soon.

(Speaker 3)
Thanks, Clay. Appreciate you. Bye -bye. Glenn Shaw, owner of Shaw Homes in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Started the company in 1985. At that time, it was one employee doing everything, me. I met Aaron Antus in 2007.

(Speaker 3)
The top three things that Aaron did for Shaw Homes was he brought in processes that helped us be able to repeat over and over. He brought in unique hiring skills. He was able to find the right people for the right seat on the bus. And Aaron brought sales techniques that we weren’t familiar with up until that time. When Aaron came, we were selling about 80, 85 houses a year. And during the 16 -year period, we saw sales get up over 400.

(Speaker 3)
Before I met Aaron, the only sales manager we had was myself. And I was completely unable to perform that job. And so, Barron brought major changes and great results with them. In the many years that I was building houses before Aaron, I was great at selling if somebody wanted to buy. But they had to be knocking on my door asking me to sell them a house before I could actually make that sell.

(Speaker 3)
I had no sales techniques and no ability to generate sales. Aaron coming in as a natural salesperson just absolutely transformed that and made the sales experience better for the company and better for our buyers. Prior to Aaron, I would work all week for the company. I’d sit in the model home over the weekend. And I had a salesperson or two, but I was actually out there all weekend working that. Since hiring Aaron, I was able to take my weekends off, even reduce my workload during the week.

(Speaker 3)
I went from working 60, 70 hours a week to almost a normal workload. So I’ve been a member of the Builder20 program in the National Association of Home Builders for 25 years, 20 years. And during that time, I’ve seen a lot of sales managers with the other companies that have been involved. In my opinion, Aaron is smarter and sharper than any sales manager of any builder that’s ever been in our group. Now, some markets, they don’t have to try to sell, they just sell themselves. But with the ability to sell and to train and hire, Aaron was better than any of those sales managers.

(Speaker 3)
that were in my program. I remember when I considered hiring Aaron many years ago, the thought of spending the extra money was a little scary, but in hindsight, it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. It freed my time, increased our sales, and at the end of the day, increased our profitability beyond my wildest expectations. Years ago, I was concerned that if I didn’t do whatever a customer asked me to do, it might be the last house I sold. And so over time, we were able to move away from unlimited customization to pre -design options.

(Speaker 3)
The problem that we were having in those days is that the customer would tell us what they wanted, but they didn’t really know what they wanted. And we would deliver exactly what they told us to do, and they wouldn’t be happy with it.

(Speaker 2)
So as we became more standardized, we give lots of options, but we don’t customize. And in the end, that allows us to sell more homes for better margins than spending countless hours trying to customize in just every avenue of the sales process. We get weekly reports on sales, on profitability, on production, and it provides all the manageable tools that I need to review the company from a 10 ,000 foot level. All right, Thrive Nation, on today’s show, what we’re going to focus on is how to grow a successful company. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to pull up a graphic that is the theory of how to grow a successful company. But vision without execution is hallucination.

(Speaker 2)
And so if you go to thrivetimeshow . com forward slash millionaire, you can download a book that I have written called A Millionaire’s Guide How to Become Sustainably Rich. You can download it for free at thrivetimeshow . com forward slash millionaire. But you can also you have to actually implement that which is in the book. And

(Speaker 2)
And so on today’s show, we’re joined by a very successful person in the home building business, a great friend of mine, a man by the name of Aaron Antus. Aaron Antus, welcome on to the Thrivetimeshow. How are you, sir?

(Speaker 7)
I’m doing great, Clay. Thanks for having me on.

(Speaker 2)
Hey, so I got to ask you this for people out there that want to prove you’re not a hologram. First off, what’s the website for your company so people can verify that you are in fact a real business? You bet. shahomes . com, S -H -A -W -H -O -M -E -S .

(Speaker 27)
com, shahomes .

(Speaker 2)
com. I’m pulling it up, shahomes .

(Speaker 26)
com, pulling it up.

(Speaker 2)
That’s the website, shahomes . com. And when you and I met, before we met, you had been already very successful as a home builder. You turned your dream of being a home builder guy into reality. Yeah. And so how many homes had you sold or what kind of sales had you done in your career as a home builder guy before you and I even met?

(Speaker 2)
Before we met, probably about 750 million in sales prior to meeting you. And then you did, the year we first started working together, what were the sales totals that year? We were at like $19 million. $19 million. And then when you ended 2022, obviously we’re in 2023, and so we’ll see how this year ends. But as far as ending 2022, how much sales did you do last year at the end of 2022?

(Speaker 2)
2022, we were at like $84 million. OK, so from $19 million to? $84 million. $84 million. So you’re doing some things right here. And what we’re going to try to do is kind of demystify the plan here.

(Speaker 2)
OK, so here we go. You were establishing revenue goals. Yep. Um, when you and I first started working together, we started off with a 13 point assessment. We, we went over, um, your goals. I’m not going to ask you to share your goals on the air, but why is it important that you have goals?

(Speaker 2)
Well, I mean, goals are sort of your guideposts that, you know, you, you set something out there in front of you and you start chasing after it. And without that, you’re just, you know, floundering in mediocrity. You don’t have any reason to get up in the morning and really get after it. And so, you know, I think goals are, you know, it’s you can have lots of different types of goals. And we’ve talked about a lot of this.

(Speaker 2)
We’ve talked about, you know, having financial goals and having, you know, fitness goals and having friendship goals and just all these different areas. I know you’ve got the F6, you know. So that’s kind of something that, you know, we touched on very early on. You asked me, like, is the goal, is one of your goals more income or is it more time? And so I said, well, really, at this point, it’s more income. And then later, it became more time.

(Speaker 2)
So it’s changed over the time I’ve known you since 2016. We’re going on seven years. And the income went up considerably. So now it’s turned in the last couple of years towards more time. Now, the break -even numbers, again, I’m not asking you for the numbers on the show, but you guys have a lot of fixed costs. I mean, if you go to shawhomes .

(Speaker 2)
com, you’ve got framers. You have plumbers. You have tile people. You have so many skilled people. You have a full -time salesperson. team, you have an admin staff, and if you don’t sell a house, you still have the service of the land, you still have all the overhead.

(Speaker 2)
Why is it important for every listener out there to know their break -even point, how many deals they need per month just to break even? Well, yeah, because you’re going backwards real quick and it doesn’t take very long if you’re at the beginning of your businesses, doesn’t take very long for you to be in a place where the creditors are knocking at your door and you can’t pay your bills and all of a sudden you’re going to lose all your, for us, all of our trades, all of our suppliers are going to start backing out. So, you’ve got to know what that number is that lets you tread water so that, okay, this is the worst case scenario, everything above that, into the profit zone. So, you know, you go out of business pretty quick. Most businesses don’t last more than just a few months if they get below that break -even number. Now, folks, again, these might seem like simple steps, but they’re all the linear steps you have to take to create time, freedom, and financial freedom.

(Speaker 2)
And if you want to grow your company, this is how you do it. Box number three, though, is you have to know the hours you’re willing to work. Now, your incredible wife is here off camera. It’s for accountability. So at any point, she could yell, like, amen, or boo. But you guys are on the same page with the hours you’re willing to work.

(Speaker 25)
And you guys, as a couple, I want to brag on both of you, you guys both committed to sacrificing time and energy and a lot of things to where you’re at in life.

(Speaker 2)
And then as you had your children, you raised them, you decided to devote time to raising said kids. And now that your kids are older, you’re devoting time to raising these kids. So it’s not like you advocated being a parent while also growing a company. You did both well.

(Speaker 18)
Let me get your thoughts on sitting down with your spouse, if you’re watching this today, or your significant other, and making sure you’re on the same page about how many hours per week you’re willing to work.

(Speaker 2)
Well, yeah, I mean, you don’t want to grow a business to make a whole bunch of money just so you can split it in half later. Oh. Because that’s kind of what happens when you don’t work out those details ahead of time. And so my wife and I have been married 25 years. We’ve been together for four before that. And so yeah, sorry, 26.

(Speaker 2)
Did I just say 25?

(Speaker 7)
26.

(Speaker 2)
Real quick, I hate to do this to you. I just got in trouble. Your wife just turned 27 on Thursday, and what you said is 100 % false. OK, so the unique value proposition here. Now, let’s talk about this. Whether it’s growing a home building company, or a dog training business, or a haircut chain, or a carpet cleaning franchise, or whatever business we’re involved in helping to grow, you have to sit down as a listener out there, as a business owner.

(Speaker 2)
You’ve got to figure out what makes your company unique. Absolutely.

(Speaker 19)
So I want to ask you, what makes Shaw Homes unique in the marketplace with other home builders?

(Speaker 2)
Yeah, we have more furnished and decorated model homes. than any other builder in the market. So a lot of times, people, when they walk into a home and they’re trying to decide if they like the floor plan, the layout, whatever, they usually, most builders in our market, have an empty house that they walk into. It just kind of echoes when you walk through it. There’s no furniture or anything.

(Speaker 7)
And we completely, as you can see in this little video here, we completely furnish and decorate it Make it beautiful.

(Speaker 2)
We are the most award -winning builder in the state of Oklahoma. That’s true. We’ve won like five times as many awards as any other builder in the market. So definitely that is one of our big, you know, takeaways. I’m going to throw you under the bus real quick, and I don’t mean to do this super passively -aggressively. It’ll just be more of a subtle passive -aggressive.

(Speaker 2)
When I met you, you guys had all these awards, but no one knew. That’s true. It was like this weird, bizarre thing where you had all these awards.

(Speaker 24)
I remember talking to you and I’m like, what makes you guys different?

(Speaker 2)
And you’re like, you know, we do a good job and you’re going to be nice about it. You’re a good salesperson. But I said, well, I mean, tell me about the awards. And you’re like, well, we got this award, that award, this award, like 45 minutes later, it’s like that award. this award, I need to shave now, this award, that award, I need to go brush my teeth, this award, that award, I want to go mow the lawn now, this award, that award, I think I’m retiring, this award, my kids are turning 18, I can see it, this award, you’re just going, and this award, and that award. And so we put those on the website and that helped.

(Speaker 2)
And the other thing you guys were, we needed to change was all these people were saying great things, but we didn’t have video reviews of them saying it on camera. Right.

(Speaker 19)
So it was like your online reputation didn’t match your real world reputation.

(Speaker 2)
It’s so much good momentum there.

(Speaker 7)
And so many people loved you guys.

(Speaker 23)
And now you guys have, would you say, 100 video reviews?

(Speaker 2)
Oh, gosh. I would say more than that. We’ve got, yeah, we have a lot. You could just keep scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. I was scrolling. And this is actually all that’s on this page if you go to our website.

(Speaker 2)
channel, we have way more than this. So, yeah. So again, and this is all the stuff. You’re going to grow a successful company, folks. Step one, you got to figure out your revenue goals. Step two, you got to figure out your breakeven goals.

(Speaker 2)
Step three, sit down for an hour of power. Sit down with your spouse. Make sure that you guys are on the same page of your hours you’re willing to work. Step four, unique value proposition. Figure out what it is that makes you unique. And we have an in -depth guide that you can download for free at thrivetimeshow .

(Speaker 2)
com forward slash millionaire if you get stuck. Next box. You’ve got to improve your branding, your website, your one sheet, in your case, model home presentations, business cards, social media branding. Everything that a customer sees needs to be first class. And I was talking to a guy named Ronnie Morales today.

(Speaker 9)
And it’s Morales Brothers.

(Speaker 2)
I think you met him at a conference. He told me this, and I’m not slamming Ronnie. Ronnie, if you’re listening, I’m not slamming you. This is the real thing. Ronnie said he’d listened to our show for seven consecutive years. before ever reaching out.

(Speaker 22)
And now he’s reached out, and he’s up 57 % in about eight months.

(Speaker 2)
That’s awesome. And we’re going to put his story on part two of today’s show, because he’s in Texas, and he’s seven years behind you. Yeah. But he’s doing a great job. What do you think that thing is where people have bad branding, and we’re not aware of it? Someone hasn’t brought it to our attention?

(Speaker 2)
What causes bad branding? You know, the number one thing I hear business owners say is, well, you know, I don’t really need good branding because I sell everything by word of mouth. Oh, yeah, baby. I’ve got such an incredible reputation that everybody just comes to me by word of mouth. And then it’s like, okay, yeah, but how much business did you do last year? Well, not very much.

(Speaker 2)
And I’m really unprofitable, but I’ve got great reputation out there and I get a lot of word of mouth. So when people switch over to starting to improve branding, I know you helped us a lot with that in just creating a lot better looking website, creating, we’ve got an office environment. now that is when people walk into our model home, they are blown away. We truly wow our customers when they come to our model homes. It’s a one of a kind experience in the state of Oklahoma. And the process of that, you know, just going through branding it so that it looks really top notch.

(Speaker 2)
And, you know, that includes everything from, you know, marketing to all of your senses and everything else. So it just really brought us to another level. And when the customer comes in and experiences us after having walked through other builders homes, they usually come in and go, you guys are just on a whole nother level. It’s sights, sounds, smells, experiences, everything that your customer sees, they’re grading you on. And you might not know that they are even judging you because they’re not filling out the form. And I have a funny story to share with you that’s kind of sad.

(Speaker 2)
I was working with a fitness guy years ago, and I’m not going to tell you what studies he’s in or what study, folks. I know you want to know, but I’m not going to tell you. And he filled out the form because his wife wanted him to schedule a 13 -point assessment. He did not want to. And he tells me, Clay, honestly, I’m just doing the call because my wife wants me on the phone. And I got to tell you, I don’t really don’t get leads from social media.

(Speaker 2)
I don’t get leads from marketing. I get all my leads word of mouth, like you were saying. And I said, well, let me just do this. Let’s just, this first month working together, let me get all the passwords for you. Facebook, your Google, your YouTube, and I’m just, as the first month, we do this with every single client. We optimize your YouTube, your Facebook, your Instagram, your Twitter, all that.

(Speaker 2)
We log on, this is a fitness guy, he was spending like 400 bucks a week, every week on ads. And he hadn’t known, he wasn’t aware that every time a lead came in, it got stuck in Facebook and went to an email address that he wasn’t checking. So think about this. And it’s like 15 to 20 leads a week for years.

(Speaker 7)
This guy had, that’s not good.

(Speaker 2)
And he didn’t even, so I’m going, uh, you’re spending, you know,

(Speaker 21)
,000 a year on ads that you’re not getting anything from.

(Speaker 2)
And are you aware that the phone number on your site rings to a phone that’s no longer a real phone? And I’m serious. This was real. And then he had before and after photos where somebody had had the idea of, let’s get before and after photos, where you interview someone before they start working out. But then they never completed the thought. You know what I’m saying?

(Speaker 2)
I do. Where it’s like they interview him about getting in shape, but then they never actually like aired the part where they’re in shape. Oh, no. So it’s just sort of like an interview with people that are not in shape. And again, he’s a busy guy, busy entrepreneur. That kind of stuff is very common.

(Speaker 2)
It’s kind of laughable if it’s not your company. But OK, next box. You’ve got to determine your customer acquisition costs. How much does it cost you to get a customer? So Aaron, you guys run ads on Google, on Facebook, on retargeting ads. You have massive signage.

(Speaker 2)
There’s a lot of stuff you do. Why is it important to know how much it costs you, at the end of the day, to get an actual new buyer of a shawl home? Well, because if you want more of those, you know what it costs to go generate more of those.

(Speaker 17)
And it’s…

(Speaker 2)
You know, it’s a cost where it’s like, OK, well, you know, I’m down in sales this month or this quarter or whatever, and I need four more sales to make it a good quarter here before the end of the quarter. And it’s like, I know I can go put money into that and it’s going to cost me X number of dollars per customer to get there. And so then it’s just a matter of, do I want to spend that money to get to that point? So for us, it’s a pretty high number, because it’s a big ticket item. But for some people, it might be very small to get that each customer. But for us, you’ve got to know what the number is, because ultimately, that goes into the price of your product.

(Speaker 2)
And whatever you sell, we’re doing homes. That is one of our line item costs in our homes. That’s awesome. a cost. Yeah. Now, if you go to any of the businesses that I’m involved in, you go to eitrlounge .

(Speaker 2)
com forward slash staff, I put in the password here. Once I put in the password, I have all of the documents needed to run the company. And they’re all saved.

(Speaker 20)
So the checklist for the manager, the opening checklist for the assistant manager, the bathroom cleaning checklist, everything needed to grow the company is all in one place.

(Speaker 8)
And therefore, the business, everybody who works there knows where to go to find those documents. This is the kind of stuff that fires me up, and it makes other people crazy.

(Speaker 2)
Oh, yeah. So with the conferences we do, if we ever do a conference that’s out of town, I have a checklist of stuff I print out. I know it seems kind of crazy for people, but this is real. I print it out, and it’s like, OK, socks. I’m gone for four days. I want to have 12 pairs of socks.

(Speaker 2)
Why? Because it could be hot. I don’t know. Could get wet. I don’t know. I have a list of deodorant and socks and shaving, and I have a laptop and a backup laptop, and I have patch cables and XLR cables.

(Speaker 2)
And we bring three, you’ve seen all this stuff, but it’s multiple monitors, backup monitors. Backups for everything. When you guys build a Shaw home, you’re not moving off a guesswork. There’s blueprints, there’s plans, there’s systems, so houses don’t fall down. There’s somebody out here listening right now that doesn’t have systems in place. They don’t have checklists.

(Speaker 2)
They don’t have it. And so they have to think about everything all the time, because if not, they forget a step. What would you say is the importance of having taken the time to have built these systems now? It is the night and day difference between running around like your hair is on fire every day, constantly playing firefighter, or you hear people say, I’m up to my armpits in alligators. It’s because you don’t have systems and processes. And every time at Shaw Homes, every time that we have a problem come up, we automatically go, okay, what step in our system did this fall apart in?

(Speaker 2)
And what’s broken in that step and how can we fix it? So it never happens again. So we go fix the process. We address the problem for the customer, but then we go back after that and we go, how do we fix the process so we don’t repeat this problem? And the business owners that are running around with their hair on fire all the time, it’s because there’s no systems, no processes. Everything is urgent.

(Speaker 2)
Everything is hair on fire. Correct.

(Speaker 18)
And it is a chaos world that you live in.

(Speaker 2)
And if you’re going to build homes for a living and build a lot of them, you cannot live in that chaos. Now, this next box, I get excited about all these boxes. This is what I get excited about. This right here is what I care about. OK, the next box is management and execution.

(Speaker 7)
You have people on your team, and I’m just going to give some examples.

(Speaker 2)
And I hope this benefits somebody out there listening. You have people on your team. It’s their responsibility every time that you do a new house, they go out there and they design or they get the blueprint on the website. They get the new design of the home, because people want to see floor plans. So somebody’s job is to get those up there. Yes.

(Speaker 2)
Somebody gets photos of every house that you guys are building. Yeah. Somebody gets videos of every house. Somebody puts them all up for sale. Somebody answers the phone every day. Somebody calls the leads every day.

(Speaker 2)
Every day. Somebody cleans the bathroom every day. Somebody builds the houses every day. Now, this is what I find, and I’m sure none of our listeners can relate to this. Some of our listeners, they don’t fire people, and then nothing happens. So work with me on this.

(Speaker 2)
There’s listeners out there that I talk to every day because we do free 13 -point assessments. So I talk to two or three people a day who go to thrivetimeshow . com. They want to schedule a consultation. And the other day, you heard me talking to Jordan. I said, Jordan, go ahead and keep setting those.

(Speaker 2)
He set an appointment with someone who’s definitely not a good fit. And you could tell he had a little question if that was OK. And I said, I would rather you set an appointment with somebody than not. Because I don’t know if who’s a good fit or not, you know? Yeah. But the idea, though, is I sit down, I was talking to a guy the other day, and he was like, you know, the reason why my team

(Speaker 2)
did not get Google reviews or videos reviews this week is because we fired a guy. And I go, because I’m just asking him, where are we stuck? What’s your biggest limiting factor? I have a big process I go through in my evaluation.

(Speaker 18)
I said, who calls the leads?

(Speaker 2)
He’s like, well, normally I have a person that calls the leads, but we just fired her. And I mean this. I’m going, how long have you been in business? This guy’s been in business for over 10 years. And he’s reaching out for help. Good person.

(Speaker 2)
We’re trying to help him. I think it’s going to be a good fit. But so I said, so basically, everybody follows the systems until they don’t work there anymore, and then no one does the systems. And you go back and forth vacillating from things being done to not being done. And one of my favorite things about working with you guys is that you’re honest people. What does that mean?

(Speaker 2)
You do your best to do what you say you’re going to do, and you hold yourself and the employees accountable. Absolutely. But what would happen if every week you If somebody wasn’t performing, you remove them from the position, and then the houses weren’t built for the week because something wasn’t going well, or because maybe a salesperson wasn’t performing at the peak, you let them go, and the next thing you know… What would happen if you managed your company that way? It would be a disaster. I mean, I can’t just fire my superintendent without having somebody already ready to take over all of those responsibilities, because I’ve got materials showing up at the job site today, tomorrow, and the next day.

(Speaker 2)
trades showing up who need some supervision, need to know what they’re supposed to be doing. If I fire that guy with no warning, somebody else has to come fill in that position. So for us, we try to never have that gap happen.

(Speaker 7)
And sometimes it’s like you know that you’re going to need to fire somebody and you can see the writing on the wall. But you want to get the next person up and ready to go before that happens.

(Speaker 2)
And you guys have a weekly meeting.

(Speaker 9)
So we talk a lot on this show from an employer perspective.

(Speaker 2)
But how frustrating would it be to be an A -player employee, and you’re working for a startup? boss? You know, a boss that doesn’t have a staff meeting, that’s not organized, that doesn’t pay people on time, that’s constantly emotional. I see that a lot. And so management is a learned skill. And thankfully, you know, when I first met with you, you’d already really mastered, in my opinion, managing people.

(Speaker 2)
But this next box is where I thought we needed some help, was to build a system for constantly recruiting new people, because certain people work for Shaw Homes for three years or four years, and then they want to go move, they want to have a baby, they want to stay home, they want to get a new job. And even though you have low turnover at Shaw, certain people get to their expiration date, and it’s time for them to move on to something else.

(Speaker 19)
And because we didn’t have a process in place at Shaw at that time to consistently bring in a pipeline of new people, it made it difficult to do the management that was needed.

(Speaker 2)
Can you talk about the importance of implementing a human resources program for hiring, inspiring, training, and retaining good people? It’s huge. I mean, that was definitely an Achilles heel for us, and you helped us a lot with that. You know, putting in a, you know, where every single week I’m seeing, you know, potential candidates that could come work for us, and they’re job shadowing and seeing what it’s like to work in our company every single week. Yep. It does multiple things.

(Speaker 2)
It helps the people who work there to know, hey, there’s other people who desire to come work here. And if I’m not doing my job, I might get replaced. So there’s a little bit of that. And then it’s also a thing of the people who are shadowing get to see the job being done by people who are happy doing their job. And it helps them to want to come be a part of Shaw Homes. I’ve got a very long list of people right now in every single position.

(Speaker 2)
that would be excited to come work for us if I did all of a sudden find myself with an opening, you know, because occasionally people leave with no notice or whatever, you know, something happens, family emergency, whatever. Right. And you have that, oh, I need to replace somebody immediately. And the great thing about it is I have a whole bunch of people that I could plug into that position very quickly because every single week I am interviewing. Now, the next box here is you got to do your accounting. And in order to earn millions, you have to automate your accounting.

(Speaker 2)
What does that mean? You have to have a system in place for making sure you price your products and services correctly, and that you pay yourself first, that you set aside a set amount of money to pay yourself and your staff. And all these things work together. And what I find is people ask me, often just not knowing. They come from a place of a good heart. They don’t know.

(Speaker 2)
They say to me, Clayton. What is the most important step in growing Shaw Homes? I’ve heard Aaron on the show. He’s a great guy. Clay, I’ve heard PMH OKC on the show. Clay, I’ve seen Oxyfresh on the show.

(Speaker 2)
What was the most important thing they did? And to me, that’s like asking a hiker, what was the most important step you took to get to the top of that mountain? Well, it was the one we took there an hour ago. I took a left step. So it’s like asking a baker, what’s the most important ingredient? Is it milk?

(Speaker 2)
Is it sugar? Is it eggs? It’s like asking a farmer, what’s the most important thing, feeding the animals or watering them? What’s the key to your success? There’s just certain questions that I understand people want to know, but all of this has to work together, and nothing works unless you do. So I have three final questions for you.

(Speaker 2)
For anybody out there that’s thinking about scheduling a consultation, a free consultation with Thrivetimeshow . com and myself, obviously, they’re stuck with me at the Fill Up the Form. I’m the only person that does 13 -point assessments. I believe we, I’ve seen it since 2005, we help people decrease their costs, increase their time, freedom, and profits. What would you say is the benefit of scheduling that 13 -point assessment? Well, actually, the 13 -point assessment was very eye -opening for me.

(Speaker 2)
You asked me a lot of tough questions that I probably should have been asking myself and wasn’t. And so as we went through the questions, I was like, I think at every question you asked me, I was like, oh, that’s a good question. I was like, hang on, let me think about that for a minute. So I find that it kind of helps open your eyes to, you know, Hmm, these are some things that I know I have some areas of weakness. And then there were, I think, a couple of the questions where I was like, Oh, I know the answer to this one. I got this one.

(Speaker 2)
No problem. But it helps you sort of identify, I walked away having identified areas of strength and areas of weakness, even though that really wasn’t the purpose of the phone call, necessarily. It helped me to see that. And then I was like, Hmm. I think I have a need in a couple of these areas, and I didn’t really know what to do for myself. I didn’t have the answers.

(Speaker 2)
You know, in part three of today’s show, part two, we’re going to show the Ronnie Morales story. On part three, we’re going to do a testimony with Myron. And Myron just bought his first Lamborghini today, and he’s super fired up. And so Myron’s about six years down the path. We’ve been working with you for about eight years, whereas Ronnie’s been with us for less than a year. And it’s at a certain point that we have to take action.

(Speaker 2)
Knowledge without application is meaningless. What would you say to somebody who’s like, you know, it’s $1 ,700 a month. And, you know, I’m spending that much right now on random ads and that much money on, uh, random regrettable purchases at the gas station. And, you know, a lot of iTunes I’m downloading, I’m spending $1 ,700 a month on various things. And I don’t know if I can afford it because I’ve just bought another vehicle that I can’t afford, but I’m leasing it. You know, what would you say to anybody who’s kind of on that fence?

(Speaker 2)
I mean, I would say you need to do it. I mean, it has been a game changer for us. I don’t know why you would sit there and think $1 ,700 a month is too much money to spend. Go find the money somewhere. Go empty out your sofa cushions. Go sell the stuff that you have in your house that you’re not using.

(Speaker 2)
I mean, go get whatever you need to do to get to that place. You need to find that $1 ,700. And I will say this, that cost was very quickly replaced with the extra money we were making. And I’ve seen, I’ve actually seen, because I’ve been around you for a long time, I’ve seen a lot of your clients come in and right off the bat, they’re real nervous about, am I going to be able to, you know, because maybe they’re a smaller company or whatever.

(Speaker 18)
And they’re like, I’m wondering if I’m going to be able to handle this $1 ,700 a month.

(Speaker 2)
And then I see them six months later and I’m like, how’s it going now? And they’re like, Man, we’re just hitting record after record. I have referred several business owners to you. And they’re doing great. That are killing it. And that, you know, I’ll give one example.

(Speaker 2)
I won’t name the person, but I did send one of my very good friends to you who was on the verge of losing his business because he just wasn’t able. He had bought another one of the shops of what he does. He opened it, and it was not profitable. And it was going to take under both of his shops. And I sent him over to you. And I remember about three months later, I asked him, how’s it going?

(Speaker 2)
And he goes, man, we just had a record breaking month. This was amazing. And by the way, he said, first, he just hit another record -breaking month, just so you know. Yeah. And I know right now, not only does he have way more income, but he has a lot more time freedom, because he’s been working with you for many years now. And so it changed his life, just like it changed my life.

(Speaker 2)
I would say, if you’re thinking about doing a 13 -point assessment, stop thinking. Dial the phone. Pause this video. Make the phone call. Reach out to Clay. Get it started right now.

(Speaker 2)
Now, final question I have is, I think people look at oxyfresh . com, and they go in. There’s 500 locations now. And they look at Elephant in the Room and they go, there’s five brick and mortar locations now. They look at Shaw Homes and they go, you know, these are big success stories. I don’t know that I can do it.

(Speaker 2)
What would you say to somebody out there that just feel like they might not have the, like all this stuff they’re going to learn is going to be over their head, too complicated. What would you say? I would say the information, the ideas are easy. It’s the application that is difficult. for people. The ideas that you share, there’s nothing that’s like, oh my God, I don’t have a PhD, therefore I can’t do it.

(Speaker 2)
I feel like it’s all very, very simple stuff. But it is a lot of action to get traction. And you’ve got to get the action going. And I think if somebody has diligence and discipline or can learn diligence or discipline, they’re going to do extremely well. And it’s not about education. It’s about action.

(Speaker 2)
Now, Aaron, I got one thing I want to say, and then we’ll wrap up today’s show with a boom. Because boom stands for big, overwhelming, optimistic momentum. And that’s what’s required to have success.

(Speaker 17)
People watching this, they’re going, Aaron, he looks like a normal guy.

(Speaker 16)
Well, that’s true.

(Speaker 2)
They say, well, he sounds like a normal guy.

(Speaker 4)
Sounds like an all right guy.

(Speaker 6)
That’s true. But the one thing you can’t quite picture on the show, and I want to just give that gift to you folks who are watching, is Aaron smells tremendous.

(Speaker 4)
If you had smell -o -vision, if you could just get up there and just smell that, it’s incredible. And it’s really, it’s his aroma. that allows him to achieve massive success. So if you’re out there and you’re going, what’s the secret sauce? It’s not a sauce. It’s more of just a smell.

(Speaker 4)
So I don’t know if you qualify to have the kind of success he has, unless you smell like he smells.

(Speaker 6)
It’s a really tremendous smell. OK, let’s end this thing with a boom. Here we go.

(Speaker 1)
3, 2, 1, boom.

(Speaker 15)
But Clay Clark, man, he is one character.

(Speaker 4)
That’s a good word for him, character. Yeah, that is it. Good, driven, smart.

(Speaker 6)
And I’ve never met a guy who was so hyper all the time.

(Speaker 10)
He’s doing so much good.

(Speaker 14)
And then I met his mother, and she just says, she just lets him be Clay Clark.

(Speaker 13)
I mean, so he’s endorsed by his mother, and he’s doing magnificent work.

(Speaker 14)
So it was great meeting you out there and all the people that he surrounds himself with. Clay Clark starts his days at five o ‘clock in the morning.

(Speaker 13)
Oh, it’s incredible.

(Speaker 11)
Yeah.

(Speaker 12)
He’s, he’s like, he’s, he’s a machine.

(Speaker 11)
He’s a machine.

(Speaker 10)
But his, you know, I could, I have problems with my company starting at nine o ‘clock. Yes.

(Speaker 5)
Hundreds of people showing up at 5 .00 AM in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Man, he’s a leader of a leader. He’s a fantastic young man. No, he is. Is that Crash?

(Speaker 10)
Where are you from?

(Speaker 9)
Claremore, Oklahoma.

(Speaker 5)
Awesome. And what has been your favorite part about the conference so far? Rewriting my mental imagery of marketing and how to better use my resources that I have. And would you recommend this to anybody that you see? Absolutely. You could be anywhere doing a lot of different things, but you chose to be here.

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.

Transcribed with Cockatoo