How to Create a Time and Financial Freedom Creating Business NOW with Clay Clark: An EOFire Classic from 2022

From the archive: This episode was originally recorded and published in 2022. Our interviews on Entrepreneurs On Fire are meant to be evergreen, and we do our best to confirm that all offers and URL's in these archive episodes are still relevant. Clay Clark, former U. S. SBA Entrepreneur of the Year, author, and business growth coach, joins us alongside his longtime client Ryan Wells of Flow Photography to share their success story. Top 3 Value Bombs 1. The purpose of a business is to create time and financial freedom to pursue your calling. 2. Nail it, then scale it, build systems first to make growth easier. 3. Define what matters, say no to distractions and yes to what truly counts. Schedule your FREE 13 point assessment with Clay today - ThriveTime Show Sponsors HighLevel - The ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies. Learn more at HighLevelFire.com. Blinkist - Turn your spare moments into learning moments with Blinkist. Go to Blinkist.com/fire to start your free trial and lock in an extra 30 percent off today.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Light that spark, Fire Nation. JLD here, and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. On today's classic episode, we'll be breaking down how to create a time and financial freedom-creating business now. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought Clay Clark into EO Fire Studios, and Clay is the former SBA Entrepreneur of the Year, author and business growth coach, and he is also joined by Ryan Wells of Flow Photography to share their success story. And today, we talk about how the purpose of a business is to create time and financial freedom to pursue your calling, how to nail it, then scale it, build systems first to make growth easier, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring our episode

• 0:44Speaker 00

  goes to Clay and our sponsors. Stop duct taping your business together. High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships, all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30-day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com. Clay, say what's up to Fire Nation, and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

• 1:19Speaker 01

  Well, one, hello, Fire Nation, EO Fire Nation. I will say, I'm excited to be here with you. Thank you for lowering your standards by allowing me to interrupt your day here. One thing that I believe that most people don't believe is that success is easy to achieve if you just have a proven plan.

• 1:35Speaker 00

  Fire Nation, you've been hearing Clay for years and years and years on this show now. So when this man speaks, please listen, because today, we're talking about how to practically build a turnkey business model to help you earn both time and financial freedom. And I know that you want both of those things, Fire Nation. So let's just dive right in. And I know you have a guest today that we'll be introducing pretty soon here, Clay, but I want to talk about- Building turnkey marketing systems. Break that down for us.

• 2:07Speaker 01

  Well, if you have a business, let's say that you, I'm just going to give some examples, but if you go to ThriveTimeShow.com, ThriveTimeShow.com and you click on the testimonials button there, I'm just going to reference some people, you can easily see some low hanging fruit. If you train dogs, one of my clients is called Tip Top Canine, if you are a physical therapist, Body Central, if you're a harbor, it's Keystone Harbor, they do boats, complete carpet, if you're into the historical business, if you're into the home building business, if you're into the landscaping business, you're the pest control, you're into fitness, or you're into interior design, or selling cookies, or mufflers, any business, you have to have a turnkey way to generate customers. So step number one is you want to make a list of your ideal and likely buyers.

• 2:52Speaker 01

  You have to ask yourself, who on the planet actually wants to buy from you? Who actually wants to buy from you? This show right here, only people that care about achieving time, freedom, and financial freedom would listen to a show about entrepreneurship. But at this very second, there's other great podcasts going on right now that talk about the origins of black holes and people's theory on the theories of relativity. And so this would, if I hopped on a show about black holes, it'd probably be a bad show to talk about entrepreneurship success tips. So you want to figure out who are your ideal and likely buyers? That's step one. Step two is you want to ask yourself, what is the most effective, what are the most effective three ways to reach your ideal and likely buyers? What are the most three effective ways to reach your ideal and likely buyers?

• 3:36Speaker 00

  So at this point, I think we need to bring in Ryan Hutchins. He's been patiently awaiting by a microphone and he has a business called Peak Business Valuation. And he's actually been an Entrepreneurs on Fire listener for seven years now. And fortunately for him, he listened to a Clay Clark episode back in either 2019 or 2020 and decided to say, hey, I want to experience a little bit more with Clay Clark. And in 2020, signed up with the Clay Clark here. And now he's seen a 238% growth in his business. So Fire Nation, today you'll be hearing From Ryan, a Fire Nation listener for seven years, who a couple of years ago listened to Clay Clark,

• 4:19Speaker 00

  took action, and has a 238% growth in his business. So Clay, you take the ship here. How you want to weave in Ryan with these different things and then we'll keep on going.

• 4:29Speaker 01

  Well, Ryan, you know, his company, PeteBusinessValuation.com is a business that helps business owners determine their value. We know what's your business worth. And that way, if you want to sell your business, or merge, or be acquired, or whatever your situation is, you have a better understanding of where you're at. And Ryan does that very successfully, but he just needed to know how to scale his company. And so Ryan, you were listening to the show. At what point did you decide, okay, I'm going to go to ThriveTimeShow.com/EOFire. I'm going to actually go there right now. ThriveTimeShow.com/EOFire. I'm actually going to fill out a form and I'm actually going to schedule an appointment. What point did you decide to move from just having the, listening to a conversation to actual activation?

• 5:09Speaker 02

  I probably looked at and really listened to the podcast about two to three times before I actually decided to make a decision.

• 5:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:19Speaker 02

  And once I believed that someone that could actually help me get to that spot, I'm like, ah, I gotta make a call. It won't hurt.

• 5:24Speaker 01

  Did you watch a lot of testimonials before filling out the form?

• 5:27Speaker 02

  I watched about two pages worth of testimonials.

• 5:30Speaker 01

  Now, JLD and the Fire Nation, I've got a little over, I think, 2,000 video reviews now from former or current clients. Because I've been doing this. I'm 41. I've been self-employed since I was 16 years old. And I was the entrepreneur of the year for the state of Oklahoma when I was 27. And since that point, doctors, dentists, lawyers, they all reach out. And I only want to work with people like, like Ryan, because I only take on 160 clients. And I'm looking for diligent doers who are ready to plow, not people who are debating the ethics of plowing, or somebody who's concerned about their hands might get calloused while plowing. I'm looking for someone that actually wants to plow now. I just want to show them the proven plan. So you filled out the form and when you filled out the form, what happened next?

• 6:10Speaker 02

  I was reached out by one of your employees that asked certain questions, kind of gauged whether or not I'm the right fit. And then you and I jumped on a call, 13-point assessment, discussed kind of your written plan for the success of my business. And

• 6:28Speaker 02

  It must have been successful because I've been a client.

• 6:30Speaker 01

  How do you get leads now? How are you getting leads? How are people finding peak business valuation now? Where they weren't in the past?

• 6:38Speaker 02

  We primarily get leads through our website, through SEO search. We valuation is a black box to most people. And so we write hundreds of articles a month to basically drive people to our website, learn about valuation and give us a call.

• 6:51Speaker 01

  So, search engine optimization. Did we help you make a video for your website?

• 6:55Speaker 02

  Yes, you did.

• 6:55Speaker 01

  Did we help you build the website?

• 6:57Speaker 02

  Yes, you did.

• 6:57Speaker 01

  Did we help do the online ads?

• 6:59Speaker 02

  Yes, you did.

• 7:00Speaker 01

  Retargeting ads?

• 7:00Speaker 02

  Yes, you did.

• 7:01Speaker 01

  Sales scripting?

• 7:02Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 7:02Speaker 01

  Okay, so JLD, there's a lot of work that he had to do, but the first step was to, you know, listen to your show, which I encourage everybody, if you're not listening to EO Fire consistently, I really do mean this. You become the average of the five people that you spend the most time with. And if you want to reference Proverbs, Proverbs from the Bible actually says, "For a companion of fools shall suffer harm." Okay, and it's "Walk with the wise, you'll become wise." It's very important that you don't surround yourself with people that are not successful. That can't be your number one input. The problem is, according to Inc. Magazine, 96% of business owners fail. 96% of business owners fail within 10 years, according to Inc. Magazine.

• 7:43Speaker 01

  So if you think about that, that means if you were to go into a room, JLD, at a local networking event, and you were to ask a thousand people, and say you went into a room with, let's say, 100 people, and you said, "I'm looking for advice from a successful entrepreneur." Do we have any successful entrepreneurs here? The statistical probability, if you ran into a room of entrepreneurs, of finding an entrepreneur who's been successful for over a decade, would be a 4%, would be 4%. Now, given that only 10% of the American population approximately ever becomes self-employed, we're talking about 4% of 10%. Now, if someone can do the math, you can reach out to his business valuation company, as a company with people filled with calculators all over their desk. All I'm saying is, you don't want to get bad advice.

• 8:25Speaker 01

  And that's why when you listen to this show and you see the people that JLD's interviewed over the years, what's happening is, and again, sometimes people want to listen to the newest show, but JLD, you've been doing this for years and you had Gary Vaynerchuk, Lewis Howes, so many big time people who listen to or on your show consistently. It is so important, folks, that you escape from the norm and you re-conform your brain to proven systems that work. So I encourage everybody, action item, listen to EO Fire at least once a week. Do it.

• 8:56Speaker 00

  I love that. And one thing I do want to clarify with Clay sharing all this stuff is I do get Fire Nation coming to me all the time. That's you, my listeners, right now. And they say, John, I'm willing to do the work. I'm willing to plow. I'm willing to get my hands calloused. But I don't know the next step. I don't know what that next step in the process is. Just point me the right direction. That's what Clay does. He gives you the steps. He tells you what to do. You execute on proven systems. And then you win. What did Ryan Hutchins, a seven-year EO Fire listener, do? He took action and he did the work. He followed the systems. 238% growth. Now, what did Hyon Rutchins do? Listen to the episode and it did nothing.

• 9:38Speaker 00

  And that person is still doing nothing and they're still in that category of unsuccessful entrepreneur. So what do you want to talk about next? We got turnkey sales systems. We got turnkey hiring recruiting systems. You take it, Clay.

• 9:48Speaker 01

  Well, the next we want to do is what you want, once you have a marketing system, now again, I want to be very clear on the details of this. You define your ideal and likely buyers and I will just sketch out some more details. I know we have a lot of note takers that listen to this show. You have to, you, once you, once you define your ideal and likely buyers, you have to ask yourself, how are you going to reach out to these people? So let's just say that you wrote down, okay, my website. Let's say you wrote out online ads and let's say you wrote down maybe billboards or, or social media ads. If you, if you said social media, you're going to need to implement best practice systems. Best, you don't want to hack away and say, well, this might work. Uh, I think this might work. Again, we can work, you can work through guesswork or you can implement proven systems.

• 10:32Speaker 01

  And I recommend you go with proven systems. Otherwise you're running through the land, the landmine of, of life. Now, Ryan, with your company, Peak Business Valuation, what are the primary three ways again, you generate leads right now?

• 10:41Speaker 02

  Uh, primary way is through SEO with websites. So if you look up how to value an HVAC company, we should show up number one, number two on Google. Um, that is the primary, we primarily get 90% of our leads through SEO. We also have Google Ads and AdRoll, which is a retargeting, um, service and.

• 11:04Speaker 02

  Otherwise, we produce YouTube videos and produce a lot of YouTube videos because ultimately, people like watching.

• 11:11Speaker 01

  Okay, folks, so again, now we've kind of figured out the marketing game, we've moved into sales. Now, sales is where you actually have to sell something to a human on the planet. You have to actually solve a problem for another person in exchange for a profit. And this part can be tough because it's like, well, what words do I say? What do I do? How do I say it? Well, Michael Levine, who couldn't be here today, but he's the PR consultant of choice for Nike, Pizza Hut, Michael Jackson, Prince, back in the day. He's a friend of mine. His name is Michael Levine. He actually wrote this years ago in a book called PR 2.0. He says, "If you give someone a present and you give it to them in a Tiffany box, it's likely that they'll believe that the gift has a higher perceived value if you give it to them, if you gave it to them in a box or..."

• 11:57Speaker 01

  So, think about this. He says, "If you give someone a present and you give it to them in a Tiffany box, it's likely that they'll believe that the gift has a higher perceived value than if you gave it to them in no box or a box of less prestige." That's not because the receiver of the gift is a fool, but instead because we live in a culture in which we gift wrap everything. Politicians, corporate heads, TV stars, movie stars, even our toilet paper. So, your branding has to be top-notch, and that means your website, your logo, your print pieces, everything people see. But then, when you answer the phone, you have to have a proven system. How has scripting, Ryan, helped you guys at PeakBusinessValuation.com?

• 12:31Speaker 02

  Scripting has truly helped my team understand what is the meat and potatoes of a conversation, going from rapport to the needs to kind of closing and kind of addressing any kind of hesitancy to working with us. Because if you make it simple, anyone can do it.

• 12:49Speaker 01

  And I'll quote Michael Gerber, a friend of mine, who's also the author of the book called The E-Myth. A lot of entrepreneurs have read his books and quoted him. And JLD, one thing I like to do, and I know you do as well, I like to meet the authors. That's one of my favorite things is to go read a book and go, haha, I'm gonna find you. So I found myself at Trump International Hotel in Chicago, in a hotel suite, talking to Michael Gerber, the great bearded one. And I said, Michael Gerber, baby, I remember reading your book back in 2005, building my company DJConnection.com, which I no longer own. And I use those skills. And you wrote in your book, E-Myth, it says, if your business depends on you, you don't own a business, you have a job. And it's the worst job in the world because you're working for a lunatic.

• 13:34Speaker 01

  And I thought to myself, man, I need systems. So we've helped Ryan with all the scripts, the systems, the pre-written emails, the turnkey processes. Now, step three, once you have those processes, turns out you need great people willing to follow those great systems. So an example of this would be Jack Welch. He wrote a book called Straight From The Gut. And the summary of the book Straight From The Gut, or the summary of the book, if you had to summarize the book, called Winning, is the team with the best players wins. And so if you have a team of A players, they will run circles around a team of C players. It's what you have to do is learn how to hire people. Ryan, how have we helped you learn how to hire people at scale? Because again, all the systems in the world are great, but if you don't have teamwork, you just cannot make the dream work.

• 14:20Speaker 02

  Correct. The primary way is through a system called a group interview. Ultimately, having a job ad on Indeed or LinkedIn and basically inviting everyone that applies to that group interview to essentially assess whether or not they are a good fit for the company. And so it saves us time because we do not have to go through resumes. We essentially just get to see them in person and basically look at their characteristics and the way they present themselves and see if they're a fit for what we're looking for.

• 14:50Speaker 01

  Now, one thing I'll say this, and JLD, we're old enough now to remember the 80s.

• 14:54Speaker 00

  I remember the 80s.

• 14:56Speaker 01

  Jean jackets. Back to the future. We remember all it's Star Wars. We remember all that. We're old enough to remember that. And but I've listened to this. I've been doing consulting. People started reaching out to me before I knew what consulting was in 2002, because my businesses were booming and people would call me, knock on my door. Sir, can I pick your brain? I didn't know what that was. My wife, we've been married 21 years now. We have five kids. My wife says to me, we've been married about four years. She says, perhaps you should charge for this service. And I'm going, no, I'm not going to charge for my service. I'll just help these young whippersnappers. Well, pretty soon, I'm not kidding. I'm helping like hundreds of people per year at a low, low price of $3.99. I'm speaking events, events all over the country, speaking in Vegas, speaking for Maytag, speaking for Hewlett Packard, speaking, speaking, speaking.

• 15:41Speaker 01

  And people all say, I can't find good people. That was in 2002, 2003. People say, well, things have changed now. Millennials, you can't teach. Listen, folks, people have been saying they can't find good people since at least 2002 that I'm aware of. And it increases over time. But I'm telling you, I have some of the best employees on the planet, some of the best people in the world work in my businesses. And I'm honored to call them friends, coworkers. We have an awesome team. But you know how we have an awesome team? We have a proven plan that takes hours to break down all the details of it. But if you're having a hard time finding people, that's not a problem I have anymore. Is that a problem you have anymore, Ron?

• 16:20Speaker 02

  Nope, not anymore.

• 16:21Speaker 01

  They do not, this just in, they do not have a problem hiring people at peakbusinessvaluations.com.

• 16:26Speaker 00

  Fire Nation, I know your pulse is racing and you can't wait for the next thing Clay's about to say. But we're going to take a quick break to thank our sponsors. Fire Nation, I already know two things about you. You take action and you're always looking to learn and grow. That's why I'm excited to share a source of inspiration. I think you're going to love Blinkist. Blinkist is an app that takes the world's best nonfiction books and breaks them down into 15 minute reads or listens. So whether you're commuting, working out or in between calls, Blinkist delivers insights you can apply immediately without the week it takes to read a full book. And get this, there are over 9,000 titles available to you on mobile anytime you want, so you can get straight to the key ideas and action points. No fluff. Some of my favorite titles available on Blinkist.

• 17:11Speaker 00

  The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, The One Thing by Gary Keller, The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday, and so many more. Let's get into a new daily learning habit, one 15-minute session at a time. Turn your spare moments into learning moments with Blinkist. Go to blinkist.com/fire to start your free trial and lock in an extra 30% off today. That's blinkist.com/fire. Fire Nation, ideas are exciting, but systems will allow you to create freedom. That is where High Level comes in. High Level allows you to build and run your entire business from one platform. Website builder and hosting, funnel and landing pages, email marketing, automation and workflows, calendar booking, payments and subscriptions, even course and membership hosting.

• 17:54Speaker 00

  Everything works together seamlessly. Plus, award-winning 24/7 support, so you are never stuck. And when you go through my link at highlevelfire.com, you unlock my full bonus stack. A 30-day free trial of High Level with full access, a private 15-minute coaching call with me, weekly live office hours with me, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something Execution Roadmap, and more. Stop piecing tools together. Start building momentum. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. All right, Clay, we are back. Let's move on to the next step.

• 18:33Speaker 01

  The next step you have to do is you have to learn how to manage people. Now, Brian Tracy, the bestselling author, who I've never, I never met, I never met Brian Tracy. I wanted to, his standards were too high. A lot of rejection there. I never met him. It's kind of a difficult subject to even talk about at times. But I reached out to Brian, he never called me back. But I did read his book, and he said this, and I believe he said it to me via the form of his book. He says, "No one lives long enough, Clay, to learn everything they need to know, to start, starting from scratch, Clay." I always just picture him saying that. "To be successful, Clay, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals, Clay." I'm going, "Okay, Brian, fine." It's a one-sided conversation, but the point is, you, you gotta learn the proven systems and how to manage people.

• 19:18Speaker 01

  And managing people can be difficult. Now, you're here shadowing today, Ryan. You're shit, you flew in from Utah to shadow. Uh, what time did you start shadowing today?

• 19:30Speaker 02

  I started shadowing you before six o'clock this morning.

• 19:33Speaker 01

  And what have I been doing all day?

• 19:35Speaker 02

  You've been on the phone talking with people 24/7.

• 19:38Speaker 01

  Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And I'm not gonna take this show to a political way. I'm not going political. I'm just gonna share this. Uh, today I was on the phone with Eric Trump. I've been on the phone with, with Mike Lindell, a lot of entrepreneurs. I'm on the phone with these people and I'm on the phone. And I'm on the phone with these people. I have to have a plan of what am I gonna say? What am I gonna do? You have to organize your day and that. So you have to learn how to manage yourself and manage a team. Because nobody wants to work for somebody who doesn't have a plan. And so today, have you seen me spending any of my day gossiping or pontificating about random things that may occur?

• 20:12Speaker 02

  No.

• 20:13Speaker 01

  What have I been doing the whole day?

• 20:15Speaker 02

  You've been going through your printed out checklist of what you scheduled this morning? And you've been calling people and multitasking.

• 20:22Speaker 01

  And this is one thing I, I love about JLD. I heard about JLD because a guy named Dave who worked in my office is, Clay, you've got to meet JLD. And I'm going, rapper? It's like T I, JLD, Tupac. It's not like a rap name. Is this a rapper? He's like, no, no, no. This is a guy who has this podcast. He puts them out every day. And at the time, nobody was going daily. Nobody. I mean, this was like cutting edge stuff. JLD, you were one of the first to go daily. People were like, how's it possible? How could he do it? Well, JLD, I mean, you, you, you had a plan, correct? For organizing your day?

• 20:58Speaker 00

  Call it batching like a baller.

• 21:00Speaker 01

  Yeah. And this is so important. So if you're out there, you're a reader of the Four Hour Work Week. You're a reader of, you know, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. You know, we've interviewed the co-author of that book, Sharon Lecter on our show. I've interviewed John Maxwell. I've interviewed, who else we had? You know, Damon John from FUBU recently. All these top successful entrepreneurs that you found on the EO Fire Show or on my podcast at ThriveTimeShow.com. Every single successful entrepreneur that I'm around, they have three things that the world doesn't have. It's like, if the world were to find these things, it would change their lives. One, they have a to-do list in some shape or form. Two, they have a calendar that they have control over. Someone should underline that. They have a calendar that they have control over.

• 21:45Speaker 01

  They determine their destiny. And the third thing they have, it's amazing, they have a vision. Either a vision board or a vision somewhere that they keep. Cause I remember JLD, you were talking about moving to Puerto Rico to reduce your tax liability and to maybe increase your quality of life. And at the time, people were like, I don't know if he's gonna do it. Sounds crazy. But you did it. And you didn't just drift to Puerto Rico. You made a plan. And I think that's so important. We have a to-do list, a calendar, and a vision.

• 22:15Speaker 00

  I love all of that. I'm a big believer in the phrase, win tomorrow, today. So I don't wake up in the morning and say, what's my plan for the day? My plan for the day has already been created the day before. And it's all down to discipline. And I am a disciple to a plan of action every single day. And I make that happen. And for years, people have been saying, John, how do you do a daily podcast? I mean, you must have time for nothing else. I say, not only do I do a daily podcast, I do a daily podcast four days a month. I only work four days a month doing the podcast interviews. I'm doing seven interviews today. I did seven interviews yesterday. Those were two of my four days. I'm doing interviews

• 22:59Speaker 00

  this entire month, the entire month of March, by the way, Clay. I was in Europe on my bachelor party. I did my own self-guided backpacking trek through Italy. It was unbelievable. Didn't work a single day in March. And now I'm taking the next two weeks off already because I'm getting married April 23rd. So I mean, this is what happens when you build everything that we're talking about here. When you build marketing systems, sales systems, hiring systems, management systems, and next we're moving into viral growth systems. What are you gonna say about that, Clay?

• 23:28Speaker 01

  Well, viral, virality, what does the word viral mean? If you're talking about marketing, it's where you go from one customer to two. And you just saw me, Ryan, I was kind of encouraging our sales team. We have a big, you know, for the listeners out there that don't know how I make money, okay, there's 160 clients I work with, many of which are partners. Okay, so I'm in the dog training business. I'm in the haircut, men's grooming business. So if you go to tip top canine.com, you can see that. If you go to eitr lounge.com, eitr lounge.com. I manage five men's grooming haircut chains. I'm involved in the precious metals business. I could go on and on. Just, I'm just saying this so people have some context of what I'm doing. But this, this particular month, I'm gonna sell in the precious

• 24:10Speaker 01

  metals business, millions and millions of dollars of precious metals, millions of dollars.

• 24:16Speaker 01

  And in order to do that, I have to deliver on what we promise consumers. I, you know, I have to, and some of the businesses I'm involved in, I'm an actual equity partner. Some of them are non-equity partner. But if everybody listening to your show all went to tip top canine.com and we didn't deliver, you wouldn't come back. So we have to make sure that we have a turnkey system that develops a wow moment. So I'm giving people a specific steps to do. So step number one, ask yourself, when someone fills out the form on your website or calls you, what happens? So when someone fills out the form, what happens? Two, when someone calls, what happens? Three, when someone's put on hold, what happens? You know, thank you for calling, yada, yada, please wait on hold. My on hold music is hot, by the way.

• 25:01Speaker 01

  You want to talk about something that's going to burn your retina? My on hold music is so hot, you have to put on sunblock. I have people, and I'm not exaggerating, who have called me and asked to be put on hold because they want to be hold the on hold.

• 25:13Speaker 00

  You are a DJ, come on.

• 25:15Speaker 01

  No, and they, they feel the flow. They're like, hey, I'd rather talk to the on hold music place because it's so good. And then, and then a lot of people, they, they, once you do that, it's okay. Once someone buys something, what does your receipt say? How does your office smell? How would you describe the, the decor in this office here, Ryan?

• 25:32Speaker 02

  Oh, the office is very inspirational. There's signage all over the walls, pictures, uplifting, kind of sayings, quotes. It's, it's very energetic and a fun environment.

• 25:42Speaker 01

  So you need to be very specific EO Fire Nation about your sights, your sounds, your smells, the entire experience, because if you are not intentional about your, uh, your, your, your, your systems and processes, you will not create viral growth. But I'm telling you, one of the businesses I'm involved in right now, it's a haircut business called Elephant in the Room. I was telling you, people walk in there and they go, I love this place. It's like a modern man cave. Oh, it just, it feels like, you know, you're in that rustic, modern man cave vibe. And people like that. And it has a smell of peppermint oil and the music's playing. But you feel a little bit cooler when that music's going.

• 26:23Speaker 01

  I feel so cool right now. I almost, I almost want to stay here all day. And then the conversation is at a certain frequency because people love the atmosphere. They want to stick around for a while. And it just, but then what happens is people then tell their friends. So somebody's going to listen to this show today and say, I thought, I know JLD does seven interviews. Lord bless him because that interview with Clay Clark was the worst interview I've ever heard in my life. Someone else is going to go, that's the best. And someone else is going to say, I hate that he's always switching voices and that's the way I talk. That's the way I think. There's somebody listening right now saying, stop doing all the voices. I hate it when you do the voices. I'll never listen to the show again. You don't take it seriously.

• 27:06Speaker 01

  Someone else is going to go, I love the voices. I love, I love. There's all different personality types, but I know. If you can appreciate a good Yoda impersonation, you are going to like working with me. Now, if you don't like Yoda impersonations and the kind of people that they reference Yoda often, then you're not going to like working with me. And it's so important. You're intentional. I can't tell you how many people who have called my office, they wait on hold and it says something ridiculous like, in due time, call you back. We will. Please remain on hold, you know, and people love that or they hate it. But I've thought about the kind of people I want to work with and the kind of people I don't. And I want to be, and I'm just helping the listeners out there. I want to work with high energy people.

• 27:47Speaker 01

  That are serious about having success, people that are positive. I call them diligent doers. I want to be around the kind of people that want to bless themselves and those around them because of their financial abundance. I want to be around not excuse makers. I want to be with people that are taking their life and saying every day that they are given is a gift from God and what they do with that day is a gift to God. That's the kind of people I want to be around. I want to be around the kind of people that view being mentally and physically present as a present. Okay. I don't want to see people that, that, that throw away their days and waste their days. And that's why I talk with a certain urgency. That's why I organize my day.

• 28:31Speaker 01

  And that's why these shows that we've done with JLD for years now, since the first interview, I think seven years ago, have resonated with thousands of people. And that's why when I tell people, if you want to come to one of our workshops, if you go to ThriveTimeShow.com, people say, what does it cost? I tell people it's $250 or whatever you want to pay. And JLD, this blows the minds of people that don't get me. They go, you're gonna let someone pay whatever they want to pay? Yes, cuz it is the hottest, most reviewed, it literally is the highest rated and most reviewed business workshop in America right now for small businesses. But yet I let you name your price. You know why? Cuz I grew up poor and I know what it's like for my dad to deliver pizzas at Domino's Pizza. But I'm thankfully had that opportunity and he also worked at the QuickTrip gas stations.

• 29:15Speaker 01

  I'm 41. When my dad was in his late 30s, he was delivering pizzas and working at QuickTrip and he was doing it to provide for my family and I'm so glad he had that opportunity. But wouldn't that be nice if you had, if he had more time freedom and financial freedom to invest that time freedom and financial freedom into his, into his family and his friends and his relationships? So that's what we're all about doing right here. We're all about taking your business to the next level. And if you're listening right now, I don't care what product or service you provide for your customers, you've got to provide something so powerful, it makes people say, wow. And when people say, wow, they'll refer you right about now. So I'm gonna write that down, put that on a t-shirt. When your customers say, wow, they'll refer you right about now.

• 29:55Speaker 00

  I mean, Fire Nation, if you can't get fired up with all of this great energy enthusiasm and content from Clay Clark, check yo' pulse. Let's end strong, turnkey accounting systems.

• 30:06Speaker 01

  Well, I don't talk about accounting a lot because a lot of times people on a podcast go, accounting, God, God, I think I need to go cut the grass with my teeth. I think I need to go paint. I need to just go finger paint a house for somebody I don't know. I think I'm gonna go outside and count how many blades of grass are present. I mean, it's just cuz accounting is something people don't want to do. But I'll tell you this, folks, you have to measure what you treasure. I repeat, you have to measure what you treasure. And I will tell you this, a lot of times people will reach out to Ryan at peak business valuation and Ryan, when they reach out and they're a business owner, they want to sell their company, how often do they not know their numbers?

• 30:43Speaker 02

  I would say 80% of the time.

• 30:46Speaker 01

  Did you just hear that? Sharon Lecter, a friend of mine who co-wrote Rich Dad Poor Dad. She told me she thinks it's in the upper 90%.

• 30:52Speaker 02

  Wow. And I truly believe that because once you actually look at their numbers, they're like, oh, I didn't know that.

• 30:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:59Speaker 02

  My profit was that low.

• 31:00Speaker 01

  So I'm just, I'm gonna throw my numbers out there for the listeners. Someone's gonna say, I can't believe you're doing this. I work with 160 clients. I charge my clients 1700 a month. Someone says, what? Well, okay, I don't get it. You're telling us your secret sauce. What do you do in here? So that brings in a total gross revenue of $272,000 per month. And that's at a 20% profit margin. Okay? So I'm very clear with my clients. I'm very clear with my listeners. That's what I do. So $54,400 a month. That's the profit that can be expected to generate, you know, that I can generate. And obviously you've got other expenses and then I'm a partner with certain people and there's other ways to make money. But the point is, I know my numbers. So when I built this campus that we're in right now, it's a 40 acre campus.

• 31:45Speaker 01

  Before I met JLD, I was not in the campus, but now I've built our 40 acre campus here. Did you see the goats, by the way, Ryan? Did you see the goats?

• 31:51Speaker 02

  Oh, I did. I walked up to them and said, hey.

• 31:53Speaker 01

  They're beautiful Americans. And I got the new pyrenees here. It's awesome. When you pull up and you see these beautiful American goats, they're incredible. When you see these guys, it costs money to buy those 40 acres in a suburban area and to build this building and all those things. And when I went to the meet with the bankers and, you know, decide whether you're going to pay cash or borrow money or what percentage you're going to pay, all that kind of stuff. I know my numbers and I walk in knowing what my numbers are. And every time the bankers are going, holy crap, this guy knows his number. We need to get a beer. This guy knows his numbers. This is crazy. I mean, it's almost like mind blowing when you meet someone that knows their numbers. I'm serious. But I'll tell you this, Tillman Fertitta, the owner of the Houston Rockets.

• 32:34Speaker 01

  He wrote an entire book that was basically one big rant about knowing your numbers. And if I'm telling you, and this is one of the most successful entrepreneurs on the planet. And he wrote an entire book, and if I could summarize his book, which by the way, everyone should read, it's called Shut Up and Listen. His whole book is about know your numbers. It's like, chapter one, know your numbers. Chapter two, why the crap don't you know your numbers? Chapter three, know your numbers. Everybody needs to know your numbers. And so for the clients we work with on a one-on-one basis, if you go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash EO Fire, that's thrivetimeshow.com forward slash EO Fire. I know someone's driving while using an Etch A Sketch to take notes, or maybe you're on a skateboard taking notes with a ketchup packet. But you want to go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash EO Fire. And when you fill out the form, we will schedule a 13-point assessment with you.

• 33:17Speaker 01

  And that's kind of our rendezvous where we decide whether it's a good fit. And if it is, we're going to get into the numbers. And I'm not going to share Ryan's numbers on today's show in terms of the revenue. But I can say, Ryan, how much have you grown so far since we've worked with you?

• 33:31Speaker 02

  So we've grown 238% top line growth. From a profit standpoint, we've grown 160%.

• 33:37Speaker 01

  In our, in our, in our programs, month to month, is this, is this correct?

• 33:40Speaker 02

  Correct.

• 33:41Speaker 01

  And are you, are you scared every month, wondering what the bill's going to be from us?

• 33:44Speaker 02

  Never.

• 33:45Speaker 01

  Is it the same every month?

• 33:46Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 33:47Speaker 01

  What would you say to anybody out there listening who's thinking about reaching out going, this sounds like a Ponzi scheme, sounds like a scheme, it sounds like a scam. What would you say?

• 33:54Speaker 02

  A call never hurts. If you get no, if you get a yes, who cares? Just call.

• 33:59Speaker 01

  There it is. Boom.

• 34:00Speaker 00

  Fire Nation, just call. So Clay, take us on, brother. I want one big takeaway from everything we talked about today. Let's tie Ryan in as well, and then we'll say goodbye.

• 34:11Speaker 01

  Well, I'll say this, Chet Holmes, the bestselling author of the book called The Ultimate Sales Machine, a book so good, I wish I would have written it. I've written a lot of books, but I didn't read, didn't write that book. I read that book. And the late, great sales consultant, Chet Holmes, he wrote a book called The Ultimate Sales Machine. And in that red-covered book, he wrote the following words. He said, "The missing ingredient for nearly all of the 1,000-plus clients that I've worked with directly to improve their businesses is pig-headed discipline and determination. We all get good ideas at seminars and from books, from radio talk shows and business building gurus. But the problem is that most companies do not know how to identify and to adapt." Identify and adapt. Hopefully that punches someone in the face there, figuratively speaking.

• 34:56Speaker 01

  Hopefully that slaps you with a wet fish. But it says again, the problem is that most companies do not know how to identify and adapt the best ideas to their businesses. Implementation, not ideas. Whoa. Implementation, not ideas. Can we rewind that? Implementation, not ideas. Implementation, not ideas, is the real key to success. So I encourage everybody out there, if you want to implement, go to ThriveTimeShow.com, come out to one of our workshops, schedule a one-on-one consultation, can ask a bunch of questions to see if it's a good fit. We want to help you out there. The workshops are 250 bucks or whatever you want to pay. Our consulting is $1,700 a month and we produce results. Thank you, Fire Nation, for tuning in and for lowering your broadcast standards to listen to me.

• 35:39Speaker 01

  I know that the other shows that he will record today and other days shall always be better than this show. So this is the anchor show. Remember, this show sets the floor for the EO Fire Show.

• 35:48Speaker 00

  Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with CC, JLD, and RH today. So keep up the heat. Head over to EOFire.com, type Clay in the search bar. Not just this episode, but all the past ones will pop up as well. We always bring on somebody from Fire Nation who's working with Clay. They give amazing examples. I think Ryan did a fantastic job talking through the process. So pick up that phone, make that call, get that 13-point assessment. There's no reason not to. Clay, thank you for sharing your truth, knowledge, value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

• 36:24Speaker 01

  Boom.

• 36:25Speaker 00

  Hey, Fire Nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by Clay. And Fire Nation, over the last decade, I've interviewed more than 3,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, and I've created a revolutionary 17-step roadmap for your financial freedom and your fulfillment. I put it all into my first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, personally endorsed by Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk. The Common Path to Uncommon Success is the step-by-step guidance that you need to achieve the lifestyle of your dreams. Visit UncommonSuccessBook.com, order your copy today, and I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. Stop duct taping your business together.

• 37:08Speaker 00

  High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30-day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com.