Moving Beyond Motivation with Clay Clark

0:01Light 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. Today, we'll be breaking down moving beyond motivation. To drop these value bombs, I brought to Clay Clark and the EO Fire Studios. Clay is a founder of several multimillion-dollar companies, US Small Business Administration, Young Entrepreneur of the Year, best-selling author, investor, and award-winning business coach. And today, we talk about protecting growth time, revenue before everything, eliminating antagonists, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Clay and our sponsors.

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1:21Fire Nation, Clay Clark is in the house with us today, and it's just going to be myself and Clay rocking and rolling, and talking about moving beyond motivation. And Clay, I just want to dive right in because your time is so valuable and just the value bombs that you drop every time we get to chat are endless. And now it's just you and me. So it's going to be a lot of Clay dropping value bombs. I want to focus first and foremost on protecting growth time because so many entrepreneurs, they struggle with this. Why is intentionally blocking time for business growth one of the most overlooked disciplines amongst entrepreneurs?

1:56and what happens when we don't? Well, I'm going to use client case studies as an example. So when you go to thrivetimeshow.com, JLD, and you look at the testimonials, you'll see thousands of real clients that have real companies. And one of my clients who's been on your show before, Charles Colaw, colawfitness.com, he has thousands of members at his gym, thousands of members and hundreds of employees. And they all have very valid questions. You know, people want to know, where's the bathroom? You know, where's the bathroom? Hey, how come I can't use that tanning bed? Hey, can I upgrade my package?

2:30Can I get a refund? Hey, I'm moving. Is there any way I can cancel? Hey, I want to add my husband to the membership. All the employees have questions that are relevant to what they do. And if he were to spend his day answering all those questions, he could not scale ColawFitness.com into the massive company that it is today. Now, Charles Colaw, when I first met him, this is a man who was personally training clients out of his home. Think about this. this guy, colawfitness.com, he was actually training people out of his home. So, you know, people were doing squat thrusts in the living room. People were doing big press in the guest bedroom.

3:07This was real. I mean, his kitchen was where they would prepare like protein shakes and beverages for their clients. If you can imagine a personal training gym in someone's home. And so as he grew, he had to figure out what are the rocks in this jar? We've all heard that analogy, but I want people to really focus in on it. There's this jar, right? There's this jar we all have called life 24 hours a day. And in that jar, you need to put the rocks in first. What are those rocks? Well, those are revenue producing activities. And so I told Charles and I will tell all the listeners out there, I said, Charles, we have to identify laser focus, the revenue producing activities, and those have to go in the schedule first.

3:43And then anything that's not a revenue producing activity that has to go in second, if we have time. And if you don't have time, We need to delegate to elevate. Now, delegate is not the same thing as abdicate. Now, abdicate is where you give somebody a list of things to do with little instruction and you don't follow up. Delegate means you articulate what needs to be done and you follow up to make sure that the task was done with excellence. And it's been 10 years I've worked with the co-laws, but their business is now booming. And I'm here to tell you they have great customer service, but a lot of the tasks that he used to do, he's no longer doing.

4:19because why? He's focused on revenue producing activities. Fire Nation, what are you doing every single day that you should not or do not have to be doing? And I've met this individual that Clay's talking about. I've been to multiple of Clay's amazing events. I actually sat next to him during an entire one of Clay's events, had to have many sidebar conversations. So it's really amazing to see what can happen when you have a person that's willing to listen to those who are having success and implement those principles and then find success in themselves. And that moves us on clay to revenue before everything is something that you believe in.

4:57It's something that I believe in. I mean, I wake up every morning and I say, listen, revenue before everything, how should founders identify and protect their daily revenue producing activities, especially when it feels like everything is just super urgent. Well, I'll switch gears to another case study. Oxifresh.com. I've had the pleasure of working with them for a couple of decades. The founder of the company, Jonathan Barnett, has done a wonderful job growing it. Oxifresh today, folks, has 550 plus locations. And so when you buy a franchise, one of the things that they do at Oxifresh Corporate in Denver, Colorado, is they say, look, we got to make sure the purpose of this business, right, is to provide a vehicle for your family to go from where you are to where you want to be.

5:44Let's repeat, the reason for buying this business, this Oxifresh.com franchise, is so that you can go from where you are to where you want to be financially. So what we have to do is we have to focus on that. So this business has to produce financial abundance for you. And you say, well, what does a carpet cleaner need to do? Well, carpet cleaners need to focus on VISM. And you say, VISM, what is that? V-I-S-M-D. Someone says D, what does that mean? V-I-S-M-D. Anybody listening to the show right now, I'm giving you a knowledge bomb buffet here. These knowledge bombs can be implemented in at least a third of your listeners can double their income right now by just doing this.

6:23So I said, listen, you have to get a video testimonial from a client that doesn't hate you. Get a video testimonial from a real client, a success story. Every single day you clean someone's carpet, you say, hey, can I gather a video testimonial about your reaction to this clean we just provided? Same thing for Charles Colaw, colawfitness.com. Video testimonial, proof that what you're saying is true. Images, images of your team cleaning, images of you cleaning, images of clean carpets before and after carpet cleaning. If you're a home builder, you know, before and after images, here's the lot, here's the framing, here's the completed house.

6:57So you want to get videos, images, search engine content. You've got to write at least 1 ,000 words of original content per day. Someone says, how do I do that? We can talk more about that. So V-I-S-M, more Google reviews. People look you up. They want to see those Google reviews for all the authors out there, Amazon reviews. But you're going to have to gather reviews. And then D, Dream 100. and a dream 100 is where you make a list of people that in your ideal and perfect world, they would be referring you copious amounts of business. You want to make a list of those dream 100. So if you own an oxy fresh franchise, a carpet cleaning franchise, you make a list of all the corporations where you would love to earn their business, all the big arenas, all the big hotels, all of the apartment complexes.

7:41You make a big list of all those top 100 and you call them all until they cry, buy or die. And if you take four hours a day, So you have a work day of, let's say, eight hours a day. If you take the first four hours of your day and you do VISMD, your business will grow. It's not magic. It's just cause and effect. And so for the OxyFresh owners that are thriving, they're all doing VISM. But you've got to really schedule that. So time blocking is what has to happen. And the bestselling author, John Maxwell, the bestselling author of the book, 21 Irrefutable laws of leadership. He has said, show me your calendar and I'll show you how much success you're going to have.

8:23Another way to look at is Jim Rohn, the bestselling author who was influential for Jack Canfield and the mentor for Tony Robbins. He says, if you don't design your own life, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. You've got to block out time in JLD, just like we blocked out time for today's interview. You've got to block out time. time for this. And so that we coach and we mentor these franchisees. We say, let's get out a calendar. This is a real exercise and we're going to block out the time for these activities. And that means it's non-negotiable. So you're doing that activity and nothing else.

9:00And when you block out time, you'll find that you have just enough time to get it all done. Just like people that clean their home right before they go on vacation. They always seem to get it done just in time before that trip. Just like busy business professionals. They find a way somehow to get it all done right before they go on their cruise or their vacation, just like brides-to-be right before the wedding. Somehow they have time to get it all done right before the wedding, but you have to create that kind of urgency and time blocking creates that sense of urgency. Fire Nation, I hope you're taking notes here.

9:32There's so many value bombs that Clay just dropped there. I mean, number one, what I see happen all the time is people do these things and they're like, after a couple of weeks, they're like, well, nothing's really improving. This is called The Compounding Effect. It's called The Slight Edge. Those are two great books by Darren Hardy and Jeff Olson. I mean, two great books where it's not overnight and over weeks. It's over months and years that you see just this exponential result from the success that you're doing within these daily tasks that are just adding up to the great success. But to do that, you have to eliminate antagonists.

10:07And Clay, you talk about blocking time away from both people and activities that work against you. So how do entrepreneurs recognize these antagonists that exist in our life and create boundaries, keywords without the guilt? Well, okay. So there's people related antagonists and then there's a, let's call it a non living antagonists. Okay. So I'm going to break it down here. Okay. So according to Nielsen, I want everyone to look this up and assume I've lost my mind and I'm going to type it in. So your listeners can hear me typing. They're going to know I'm doing this. So I'm going to type in time flies.

10:39So time flies. Nielsen, I'm going to Google, time flies. Nielsen, 11.3 hours per day. You say, what are you typing in? I'm going to Google. I'm typing in time flies. Nielsen, 11.3 hours per day. According to Nielsen, this is a very objective, not a conservative, not a liberal, just a very objective pollster organization. they now report that the average american is spending 11.3 hours per day consuming and reacting to content 11.3 hours per day jld that's insane we love that the listeners have taken a half hour to listen to today's broadcast and this is not mindless media this is life-changing media yes but think about this this is doom scrolling people scrolling through instagram people going on i mean Going on X, just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling.

11:31Well, let's see what the algorithm has for me today. People on Spotify, scrolling and scrolling. YouTube, scrolling and scrolling. Facebook, scrolling and scrolling. 11.3 hours per day. You talk about an antagonist, a time thief. If you're losing 11.3 hours per day, I mean, time is your most important asset. You can make more money, but you cannot make more time. I repeat, time is your most important asset. You can make more money, but you can't make more time. If something's stealing from you 11.3 hours per day, come on. We got to get rid of that. Okay, so that's probably the biggest issue. When I start coaching a new business owner, once we do a time audit, I find that a lot of people are just losing a lot of time due to a lot of perpetual distractions.

12:14Now, as it relates to people, Tim Ferriss, the best-selling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, he says you become the average of the five people that you spend the most time with. He says, you become the average of the five people that you spend the most time with. And someone says, I don't like that Tim Ferriss quote. I want something biblical. Okay, here's something biblical. The Bible says, Proverbs 13, 20, it says, he that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. And someone says, I don't like the Bible. I like Tim Ferriss. I need something that Mark Twain or Abraham Lincoln allegedly said.

12:53But basically at the end of the day, once we can't figure out who said something, people attribute it to Abraham Lincoln or Mark Twain. But you hear the phrase, if you sleep with the dogs or hang out with the dogs, you'll get fleas. And so all I'm saying is if you're listening to today's show, you do become the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And so because I grew up crazy poor, what I did, JLD, is I would listen religiously, dating myself, to every Brian Tracy CD he would sell. so every weekend i'm building my big company dj connection.com into america's largest entertainment company before i sold it but when i was building it i was working at applebee's and target and direct tv and on the weekends i would often drive down to dallas texas from tulsa oklahoma with my brian tracy cds my norman vincent peele cds my i mean folks this is real stuff i'm listening to John Maxwell, Napoleon Hill.

13:48I'm listening to every audio book, T Harv Ecker, the millionaire mind, Tony Robbins, unleashing the giant. I'm listening. I'm listening. And I'm becoming virtually the average of the five people I'm spending the most time with. And then when I built my online coaching platform or our business consulting platform that people now know at thrivetimeshow.com, my whole vision, I did this in 2005 as I said, look, I started my business. I was 15 years old. I built it into a massively successful, the largest, most successful entertainment company in America for weddings. And everybody keeps asking if they can pick my brain.

14:20I know what I'll do. I'll build a consulting service, a business coaching platform where anybody listening to this show right now can afford it. Literally my program that I designed JLD was, I said, you know what? People always said, Clay, I know I need to become the average of the five people I spend the most time with, but I don't have access to a multimillionaire mentor. I don't have access to a coach. I don't have anybody in my life that knows what they're doing. and according to Inc. Magazine, 96 % of business owners fail by default. And according to U.S. debt clock, only 2 % of Americans are even self-employed to begin with.

14:52And I have a one out of a thousand shot of meeting a successful person. And JLD, that's where my business coaching program came into existence 20 years ago was people who were saying, I need access to someone who knows the way and who goes the way. Well, before we take a break, Clay, just because I know people's time is very valuable. I don't want them to miss it. Just go into a little bit of detail. We'll expound more upon it, but what is your coaching program? Yeah, what it is, is there's three components to it. So one, you go to thrivetimeshow.com, thrivetimeshow.com, and you click on the testimonials, you'll see the fruit.

15:29You'll see over 2000 client success stories. But what I do is I charge clients 1700 a month. So one, seven, zero, zero per month. It's month to month. And by the way, it's less money than if you were to hire an employee for$8 and 25 cents per hour to work, work on your team. Um, and it's month to month and we have scholarships to help out people in need. So some of our biggest success stories started out paying$700 a month and now they're multi multi-millionaires. So we always start off with a, everybody can afford it. So you go to thrive time show.com and it starts with a free, a free 13 point assessment where I get on the phone with you.

16:03I assess where you are versus where you want to be. I look at your marketing. I look at your branding. I look at your accounting. I look at your workflow. I look at your sales. I look at your employees. I look at your market niche. There's a lot of things I look at. And then if you're a good fit, we get moving with you. So one is it's weekly coaching. You have a coach that coaches you each and every week. Second is you can call, text, email, anytime you have a question and there's no additional charge. So you're not charged per call, per hour, per email. And then we have a whole team that does photography, video, web, search engine, online ads.

16:33We help you with your bookkeeping. All of that is included. And then third, we have an in-person workshop that we do every, we do four times a year. And we'll bring in people like Tim Tebow or Eric Trump or the people that turned around Harley Davidson or insert the name of said headliner. And that's all included for literally less money than you would pay a minimum wage employee. It's month to month. And we have scholarships available starting as low as$700 to help people out. So JLD, it's the hot sauce. I like the hot sauce. and Fire Nation, we have a lot more hot sauce coming your way when we get back from thanking our sponsors.

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20:35High level, join the revolution. All right, Clay, we're back. And I want to talk about not just measuring stuff, but measuring what matters. I mean, what does it mean to measure what you treasure? And how does blocking time for both reflection and metrics change long-term results? Well, I'm going to give you an example of one of the companies that I own. Okay. I'm involved in a haircut chain. I own the company. I started it called Elephant in the Room. Love it. It's E-I-T-R lounge.com. There are four locations. We've been in business now. This is our 15th year. It's hard to believe it. Crazy. 15 years we've been doing this.

21:12We have thousands and thousands of members. It feels like a country club for men's hair. And what I have to do is I have to make sure that every single day that there are three metrics that I'm aware of. Okay. So there's three metrics. One, I want to know how many first time customers came in. And so you say, well, what do you charge somebody? Folks, we charge you a dollar for your first haircut at elephant in the room. And I do it because JLD, we're a high-end hair, we're a high-end hair club. We're a high-end men's grooming lounge. And a lot of people haven't experienced that kind of thing. We're like a luxury steakhouse for hair.

21:45So what happens is, is I say, look, your first haircut is a dollar. Someone comes in, they go, wow, that shampoo, that hot towel treatment, the straight razor, the whole thing, it's awesome. I can't handle it, it's so good. How much is it next time I come back? And we say, well, we have a membership option. We have A, B, C. And when you sign up today for a membership, you're entered in for a chance to win a dream vacation to Hawaii. It's month to month. And you get access to our conferences. And, oh, by the way, you get your haircuts at a discount. So basically, if you only come in seven times a year, you come out ahead.

22:19And anyway, there's all those wonderful things that are included, but it doesn't matter if we don't get you in the door. So tracking number one, I look at metric, is how many first-time customers are in the door. The second is how many of those first-time customers left us a five-star review. I want to know from a quality perspective, are you wowed? You call that the net promoter score. If you go to Harvard, you study quality control, it's called the net promoter score. I did not invent that. You want to know on average on net, how many of your customers are raving fans. And I want to wow you.

22:50And I find that when people say they go, well, I paid a dollar. What does the dollar go towards? I say, well, we donate that to an organization called Compassion International that provides clothing for kids in third world countries. And they go, oh, wow. I hear it every time. JLD, they go, oh, wow. They already were wowed. But when they say, what does the dollar go towards? We tell them, they go, oh, wow. wow so once you get that wow moment right but i want to make sure that that uh the feedback i'm hearing verbally turns into online reviews so i'm looking at first-time customers i'm looking at the online review score and the third is what percentage of people are signing up for a membership you know what percentage and i have to track those numbers every day and i would just tell people growing a business is like growing a garden if you want to see crazy things happen plant a garden and don't check on it for three days right because weeds will grow animals will come to devour the flower.

23:39So you really, really have to view your business as a garden and you have to tend to it. You have to be diligent. You have to on a daily basis, be diligent, the consistent application of effort. But by having those three numbers for the haircut business, even though it's a multimillion dollar company with many, many employees, I only really need to look at those three numbers. Fire Nation, what are your three numbers? Do you have four numbers? Do you have two numbers? Are you tracking them day to day? And Clay, I want to end with a bang because this is some place that you absolutely excel and that is systems.

24:12Systems that keep you on track. How can we entrepreneurs, how can we design simple systems and routines that do a few things, that protect focus, that enforce consistency and keep growth moving forward even on those crazy and chaotic days because we're humans, we're entrepreneurs, we have those days all the time. What do we do? Well, you want to build that dream schedule. So the three moves you want to do is one, you want to have a to-do list. Okay. And if you don't have a to-do list, you're going to find yourself perpetually confused and pissed. Okay. So you got to have a to-do list. All right.