Episode #134 – Clay Clark on Creating Happiness Through Business Success (5 steps every business owner needs)

It’s John McIntyre here, The Autoresponder Guy, I’m here Clay Clark. Now Clay is the founder of the online business called Thrive15, he’s been featured in Fast Company. He and his business partner, NBA Hall of Famer, have been both featured in Bloomberg and he’s also the Entrepreneur of the Year from the United States Small Business Administration.

I’m really excited to have him on the show and he’s jumped on here to talk about — we’re gonna get into some business processes and you know building the business or duplicable business that a lot of people want. So we’ll get into that in just a second. Clay how you doin man?

Clay Clark: Man I am excited to be on your podcast here. I just appreciate putting up with my harassment thus far.

John McIntyre: Oh the kangaroos and the shrimps it’s a — I mean it’s bad, it’s bad.

Clay Clark: Yeah.

John McIntyre: We’ll see how offensive we can get here. I don’t know how we’re…

Clay Clark: Absolutely let’s do it.

John McIntyre: … how far we can go. Anyway before get into the actual meat and potatoes, as a friend of mine likes to say, let’s talk about the — can you give the listener a bit of a background on who you are and what you do and you know what makes you special?

Clay Clark: I was — if there’s anybody listening right now who’s had a bunch of ideas and had no idea how to gain traction, I was the poor kid with all the ideas and I had this goal to become a millionaire before I’m 30 and to hire my dad someday. And when I was 27 I looked up and I was like, “Man I’ve done all that.” And I decided that I wanted to teach people the systemic process that I found — I kinda learned through mistakes and over time I found out that mentors and best practices and systems help you avoid a lot of pain along the way. And so I wanted to build a scalable system to teach people how to do that and so, we built thrive15.com and now millions of dollars later there’s thousands of — become thrivers with thousands of users all over the planet who are learning how to start and grow businesses in a very duplicable and systemic way and it’s absolutely my life’s passion.

John McIntyre: Great, great. I’m curious coz I think there’s gonna be some other people who might want to know this as well. Is in the online world there’s a lot of online schools and you know sort of marketing products that you can buy that teach you how to build a business. And a lot of these are put together by people who never really done that much. Sort of there’s a whole sort of stigma around here to teach people how to you know — making money by teaching people how to make money. It sounds like…

Clay Clark: Yeah.

John McIntyre: … based on the story there you’ve done a lot of the actual real deal of doing this stuff and now…

Clay Clark: Yeah.

John McIntyre: … you’ve set up this product. So what the — I’m curious what’s the difference between say Thrive15 and say you know one of the random you know business building courses that you can buy out there?

Clay Clark: Well they got 4 main differences. 1 with my face on the site it is the ugliest of the sites. Second is we have a button on the website called “Ask the Mentor” and you can literally ask the mentor any question that you want and we respond with answers. So it’s like a business — online business school, but instead of goin, “Ah I didn’t really get it. I guess I’ll have to wait for another video,” you can hit the button and our team responds with the best practice answers for you. 2 it’s just $19.00 a month so, it’s not thousands, there’s no mystical webinar, training trip to Hawaii, get rich get motivated, buy the book thing we’re trying to trick you in to. And the third is that it includes an offline, in person face to face seminar that you can come to the workshop at any time. So you can like if you’re on the site and we had some guy there today who lives in Miami his name is Antonio. He almost reluctantly calls us and I was like, “Yeah I wanna come out to workshop, what’s the catch kinda thing?” and we go, “There’s no catch. It’s part of the deal.” So you could literally be in a workshop with an optometrist and a photographer and a plumber just like that guy. And people all over the world come to these things it’s awesome.

John McIntyre: Hmm okay and it’s just you know what sort of entrepreneurs are we talking about? You mentioned a plumber and things like that. It sounds like this is a wide range. This isn’t just people who wanna start a blog. This is all sorts of types…

Clay Clark: Yeah.

John McIntyre: … of businesses.

Clay Clark: Anybody who wants to start a non-ponzi or non-pyramid we welcome them.

John McIntyre: Great. Okay so…

Clay Clark: If you’re into the ponzi game you can’t come, but you know if you’re like, “Why here’s the deal we got get in the ground level. We move up and boom you know I’m — my name is Maydolf [?],” and we’re kinda going, “Well Mister Maydolf [?] maybe you can’t come to this — the seminar.”

John McIntyre: Yeah okay that’s fair enough. I like that. Well let’s talk about the you know what you actually teach coz I think that’s the — you wanted to mention that most business owners want to be able to build some sort of — you mentioned duplicable business. So let’s start then what do you mean by duplicable?

Clay Clark: Okay well you have 5 steps that every business owner needs to get. And really some of the people listening to this while they’re driving so I’ll — we’ll — I’ll make sure that we cover them succinctly, but the first step is you want to figure out why am I doing this? Step one is why. I mean why would I want to start a business? Coz I’ll tell you why you wouldn’t want to coz you work all the freaking time, coz you’re probably are gonna have ideas in the middle of the morning, you’re trying to take a shower and you’re thinking about your business. You’re on vacation thinking about your business, you’re obsessed with your business. That’s probably why you wouldn’t want to. Coz to be a successful entrepreneur you really have to focus on it and so, you want to figure out why am I doing this? And if it’s not worth it then don’t do it. I’d rather go get a job as a manager working at a fast food restaurant or something. I mean if you’re gonna start a business I mean make it worth your time, you know? So want to first off think about, right now, in terms of your spiritual goals, your mental goals, your skills you know, your fitness, your relationships, your finances why would you want to do this crazy thing called starting a business?

You know you live in Australia so you know what I’m talking about. Now whether you’re — it’s universal whether you’re in Australia or America or South America or Canada entrepreneurs are sick freaks. And if you’re gonna join this group — this coalition of sick freaks you’d better know why you’re doing it, you know? So the why is the first thing. Write it down.

Now the second thing is you want to figure out how much does it cost? So how much do you need to earn? So people say to me, “Well how much money do you make?” That’s a great question. How much money does Clay Clark make? That’s a question. You know that’s a good — that’s a valid question. So people ask me all the time. I say, “Well you know this month I’ll — about $74,000.00.” They’ll go, “$74,000.00? Well why the — why would you not make more? Why are you telling people what you make?” Well as anybody listening to this knows if you own a business you can write things off, right? So I write my car off, I write off you know my studio where I’m filming a recording today, I write off the trips — I’ve just done Orlando this weekend — it’s all legitimate write offs. So I — for $74,000.00  of fruits from my tree that I kinda live off of, but why not make more? Coz I don’t want to work anymore, you know? That’s not my goal. My goal’s not to make as money as possible. My goal is to achieve my goals.

So my business is just a vehicle to get there. My business is not the destination. So, so many people get that twisted they’re like, “Once I build a big business then I’ll build a bigger business.” And so I see these entrepreneurs who are trapped inside the rental car. They flew all the way up to Sydney, Australia — they rented a car and then they don’t get out of it. They’re just stuck in the rental car and that’s what their business is it’s a rental car they’re stuck in. It’s a vehicle they can’t get out of. So you got to figure out what are your goals, you know? So all the time.

John McIntyre: That’s a big question though. It’s like — what I found is that some people grow up and by 14 years old they already know what they want to do, they already know what their goal is, their mission, their quest. A lot of other people though get you know 20, 25, 30 — some people you know 35, 40, 50 well they don’t know what they want…

Clay Clark: Yeah well you see…

John McIntyre: And so I don’t know if that’s a problem because they haven’t thought about it or it’s a different personality, what do you think?

Clay Clark: Well John Lennon — you know if you’re gonna talk entrepreneurship let’s talk about the Beatles, right? The Beatles — the top selling you know record label you know to — recording artist of all time. You know John and Paul and John Lennon says, “People —” I’m paraphrasing, but a teacher said — asked him so he said, “Class tell us what you want to do when you grow up.” And John said, “When I grow up I wanna be happy.” And I think that’s what it’s all about, it the pursuit of happiness. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and so, I would question why you’d want to do anything if it’s not gonna end in you being able to have a great marriage or a great time with your kids or great trips or whatever.

Like I’d personally hate travelling — I hate it, I hate it, I hate travelling. I hate seeing new places, I hate networking, I hate leaving my house. I love being in my house. If you were to come to Tulsa you and I — you’d go, “Do you ever leave your house? You’re kinda weird.” I don’t like leaving. I like to do the same thing every day, I like to wear the same thing every day, I hate variety, but someone else listening to this their goals are to travel, to — travelling to me is the worst. I can’t stand it so, you got to figure out what you want to do and then don’t let anybody else put those goals on you. If you’re listening today and you’re like, “Well you’re wrong. I like to travel.” Well that’s probably right then. If you love to travel then that’s your goal, but write it down coz the world’s always trying to push their definition of happiness on you — very, very important that your goals should be to be happy.

Write down the list of the things that make you happy. Go and write it down right now, like I love seared tuna. That makes me happy — seared tuna bro. That’s a — do you like seared tuna?

John McIntyre: I don’t know. I just know tuna. What’s seared tuna?

Clay Clark: It’s like a tuna where it’s kinda pink in the inside, but you sear it like you pan sear it. You cut — it’s almost like you’re putting on a super hot you know a skillet…

John McIntyre: Oh so we’re talking tuna you’ve actually cooked in a pan?

Clay Clark: … yeah and it’s kinda little semi raw. I love it though. I love that — to me I’m happy. I love watching football games, I love my man room, I know — I’ll know that no one else, except for me, will ever touch my stapler. That’s what makes me happy, but somebody else has their own different goal, but the third thing is you got — so once you figured out your why and how much it cost the third you got to figure out, “What service am I gonna render or what product I’m gonna render in exchange for it?” It’s about tradeoffs.

So I can’t like — so many people are like, “I wanna get rich quick! I want to offer no value and I wanna trick people.” Well I mean if you’re a Judeo-Christian faith you know you might believe that you’ll burn in hell for that and if you’re not you might believe that you screw people off and people write bad reviews about you and if you’re — I mean but you have to offer some value in exchange for what you want. And so many people are trying to just get what they want without offering value, you know? So if you’re listeners today, I mean, if they’re going, “That guy was weird he’s the weirdest interview you’ve ever had. I hated that interview,” then you know you’re not gonna get anything out of this. So I have you know to at least try to offer some new knowledge here, but you have to figure out what service am I gonna render?

Now the fourth step if you have to figure — you have to build a practical skill. You have to gain a practical skill. And this is the issue that I have with college. It’s very possible to go to college — my brother just got married to a girl, she’s 23, she has like a double masters or something. She knows about — she’s a computer engineer. Well she has people all over the world lining up to pay her to code and to do the you know to do the computer engineering. He is studying like philosophy and history and no one even knows what he’s talking about. You know and he’s a good guy, I love him, but no one knows what he’s talking about. No one has any idea so he’s trying to figure out now, “How am I gonna solve a problem for the world? You know what service am I gonna value with my vast knowledge of theology and history and that kinda thing.”

So figure out what’s the practical skill that you’re gonna gain and the final one is you have this thing called the proximity or you call your network is your net worth. Other people call it your mastermind so, I’m just gonna call it your mastermind and your network. So what you do is after you go through and you define your why and you figure out how much it cost up to and you figure out what service or product you’re gonna render, 3, and now you’ve developed that skill now you gotta build a network. And the reality is because I’m doing this podcast with you right now I am not engaged in sanctimonious marital sex right now. I’m not. I’m doing something else, right? If I’m with you I can’t be doing both at the same time coz that’s weird even talking about it it’s weird, but I bring that up as an example because so many people are like, “What I want to do is I wanna hang out with all my friends I’ve always had and I want to do — I want to be around exact same people, but I want big connections.” Well if you could clone yourself maybe that’s possible, but if you’re gonna change your net worth you have to focus on changing your network. So you gotta surround yourself with people who have the skills and abilities to get you there. So that — that’s kind of the big 5 step process, boom!

John McIntyre: Boom! That’s good man. So you know one question I’ve got is it seems like it seems simple.

Clay Clark: Simple. Boom.

John McIntyre: Almost too simple.

Clay Clark: Yeah. Well here’s the thing is — William Shakespeare — but to simplify it we’ll call him Bill S.

John McIntyre: Okay. So what did Bill say?

Clay Clark: He says that brevity is the soul of wit, you know? And then like Steve Jobs says it’s sim — yeah Bill S, and then Steve Jobs we’ll just call him SJ, for simplicity, he says that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication or if we want to quote Steve Jobs off the record …

John McIntyre: SJ.

Clay Clark: … allegedly he said — yeah SJ. He allegedly told the developers of the iPhone and he’s like, “If it needs an F-ing manual it’s too complicated.” You know?

So the point is we have to simplify and the world wants to make it esoteric and endlessly complicated. So they can — then student go to college for 8 years and pay them, right? I mean if I make the system complicated can I keep charging you for the solution? I mean so I’m just saying well I’ve been doing consulting for a decade with clients and what it comes down to is once you know these 5 you do have to get some education. You have to get your PhD a.k.a pigheaded discipline.

John McIntyre: Okay. How do you get that? I’m very curious. Where does that come from for you?

Clay Clark: Pigheaded discipline?

John McIntyre: Yeah.

Clay Clark: Poverty, insecurity, knowing that my dad — like right now you know my dad has stage 4 cancer he’s been battling. He just had a stroke recently, guess who’s taking care of him? You know? So I’m motivated.

I have 5 kids so, who’s taking care of them? Guess who’s motivated? My bother-in-law was going through a patch in his life, didn’t know what he wanted to do with himself. Well guess who was kinda like the father figure?

Growing up when you’re 12 years old and you realise that every other kid gets to play travelling sports or competitive sports or you know some sort of sporting league — I’m sure in Australia you guys are playing soccer or you’re doing rugby or whatever the sport and then these…

John McIntyre: Race generally around the track.

Clay Clark: … yeah you’re chasing kangaroos, whatever the stereotype is. In America it’s a bunch of cowboys playing football, you know? But the thing is that I realise I couldn’t afford it — my parents could not afford to pay the fee, you know? So I was gonna be on the sidelines not being able to play unless I found a way so, I started to paper route, you know? And I realised I wanted school clothes coz kids make fun of kids that don’t have the newest clothes or didn’t have the clothes so, I started a t-shirt making business and because I realized I didn’t have a t-shirt press and I didn’t have the ability to make t-shirts. I needed to find a guy and because I realized the cavalry wasn’t coming I should probably find the guy myself.

And then I wanted to started a DJ company, but I didn’t know how to DJ and I didn’t have any equipments so, I had to figure out how to pay a guy to teach me to DJ and then had to borrow equipment from some guy who smoked a lot of marijuana, I’m sure for medical purposes only, named Oswald. You know these are just things you have to do, you know? And so — or you can fit your life dreams into a small box called a job, just over broke and you can basically decide that you’re going to have a trade off and go, “You know what? I don’t want pigheaded discipline I just want to have — you know I’m okay with mediocrity.” And you just settle for that, you know? And you start to make small dreams and you start to small goals and then you talk to your buddies and they say, “How is your week?” and you go, “It was okay.” And you say, “How’s work?” and, “I gotta want [?] to talk about it.” You know? But you just kinda — if you’re gonna be working right the majority of our living hours — the hours we’re alive well why don’t we do something we love? Or if you’re goal’s to work as few hours as possible I literally have once client I’ve worked with who’s entire goal — she just wants to work 5 hours a week and she’s literally built a system where that’s all she does.

So I mean if that’s your goal too then you can downsize your lifestyle and do what she did.

John McIntyre: Yeah one thing I’ve learned over the last years about some of this stuff is that yeah there are people out there, for example, who love their jobs and there are people out there who — like their job is their passion.

Clay Clark: Yep.

John McIntyre: And it’s an interesting how like you know I noticed that, for me, you know I went to a stage of you know we tend to kind of hate on people who have jobs, but it’s interesting…

Clay Clark: Oh yeah, terrible.

John McIntyre: … some of — some people love their jobs.

Clay Clark: Oh yeah and the thing is I don’t want to put my goals on anybody, right? Because that’s what I was — to start off very beginning, right?

John McIntyre: Right.

Clay Clark: Why? So I’ll tell you this like I know a very good friend of mine he goes, “I don’t want to do payroll, I don’t want to think about how to make a profit, I’d like to do triathlons, I like to work out all the time, and I like to be able to take my vacation when I want. And I want to know that like at the end of the day the bucket does not stop with me. I want to peace out when I need to peace out.” And so he has found himself a very secured job and he does a great job when he’s there. He just doesn’t want to be in-charge.

John McIntyre: Yeah.

Clay Clark: And I get that, but I’m saying in exchange for that though he can’t expect to be paid at a CEO level, you know what I mean? Now if he ever changes his mindset, I know his boss right now wants him to get promoted coz he’s very good at his job, but he’s just like, “You know what? I don’t want to get the call on the weekend, I don’t want to get the call, I don’t want to — you know I don’t want to — I want someone else in-charge.”

John McIntyre: Hmm okay that’s fair. And so…

Clay Clark: You’re — yeah?

John McIntyre: What — so you mentioned sort of what motivates you, but where is this? You’re very energetic, you’re very…

Clay Clark: Yeah.

John McIntyre: … like yeah passionate about this and obviously some of this comes from you know that why, but it also seems part of your personality. What do you think?

Clay Clark: Yeah well the passion is when you know that you’re doing — this is where passion comes from. Right now I know, and I don’t want to get too spiritual, coz there’s going to be one guy listening he’s like, “Man you’re a little bit crazy man.”

John McIntyre: Like go…

Clay Clark: But here’s the deal.

John McIntyre: … crazy as you want.

Clay Clark: Fine let’s do it. I believe that God has called me to be on this Skype call with you at this appointed time because somebody is listening to this right now who needs to hear something that either you’re gonna say or I’m gonna say. And therefore I am 100% invested in being here. So I that I am passionate about this. I want to be here so, I’m totally here. I want to be here I’m not somewhere else, I’m not texting, I’m not thinking about something else.

Now I don’t like going to my kids’ sporting events. I hate it. I don’t care about kid sports, I don’t care about my kids’ sports, I care about my kids so, there’s nobody more disinterested than a kids’ sporting event than me. So I had to go to hockey games last year and I literally had no energy, no passion — you probably thought I got hit by a bus, but — coz all the parents complained about the refs and they complained about why their kids’ not playing, right? So I would sit by myself with my hoodie sweatshirt on, like I’m in a gang or like I’m a Tom Brady you know impersonator and I’ve got my hood on, I’m not getting — I’d sit away from everyone. I’d cheer for my son like you wouldn’t believe and he knew I cared and I would cheer for him, but I would not engage with the other parents coz I didn’t just didn’t give a crap about why their kid wasn’t playing or why the ref wasn’t giving us the calls. And so I had no energy there, you know what I mean?

So people would see me there, — they’ve never seen this right now or saw me at a speaking event or saw me at my office — in my element they would go, “What’s wrong with you? This guy he’s like antisocial, he doesn’t talk to people.” That’s why if you take me golfing too — if you take me golfing — if you want to see a guy who is not happy to be somewhere it’s me golfing. I can’t stand golfing. I can’t understand why people would golf, I don’t want to walk — run around chasing the white ball, I don’t want to chase around the girl with the drink cart, I don’t care about your score, if you’re cheating that’s fine I don’t care. I just don’t care. I probably use one club the whole time just to make it faster and I’d sprint after the ball, you know what I’m saying? So I just have to get the finery of passion. I’m saying if somebody listening right now might go, “Man this guy’s passionate about business,” yeah coz I know what I’m — I know that I’m supposed to do this right now. It’s where I’m — it’s…

John McIntyre: Where does that — all this come from?

Clay Clark: … I’m totally washed in.

John McIntyre: How do you know that? Where does that come from?

Clay Clark: Well I’ve been to 3…

John McIntyre: Where — yeah what it’s like — feel that, but it’s sort of like…

Clay Clark: I’ve been…

John McIntyre: … where does it come…

Clay Clark: I spend 3 hours every day doing metatime.

John McIntyre: Doin what?

Clay Clark: Metatime. Meta from the Greek word meaning above or beyond, you call meditation time I don’t because I’m not like a gonna do the down word and the vinyasa and the you know I’m not gonna be the — wearing yoga pants — well if I go to jail I’d wear yoga pants, but I don’t do that whole deal.

What I do is I wake up, I literally I’m not even kidding this — why did they? I pull up YouTube every morning about 3 or 4 in the morning and I Google John Legend live from United Center and I hit play and then I think about my life, right now where I am versus where I want to be and I go through my to-do list and I think about okay I need to do this to get here. I need to do this to get here, I need to do this and, again, I just begin making my daily to-do list and then I begin to prioritize. Okay this needs to happen so, right now, today, is a very specific example. I have to call a guy by the name of, Danny Dunright [?], to get my freakin permit so I can build on my addition to my house so, that I can make a place for my dad and mom to be so, that’s like on my list, you know?

And then I gotta call a guy called, Eazy E, about making calls for the company the — it’s a minor league hockey team I work with, the Oilers.

John McIntyre: You say Eazy E? He sounds like a rapper.

Clay Clark: Yeah, yeah I give everyone in my office nicknames. They did tell me what their name is…

John McIntyre: So it’s not actually…

Clay Clark: … and I just kinda give them their own.

John McIntyre: … the Eazy E from …

Clay Clark: He’s Erick. We have too many Erick’s so there’s Eazy E and then we have — now we have the Outman, but he didn’t work out you know, and then we’ve got Herman — you know Big Herms. I just make up names, you know? Well gangster rap references so, I listen to too much when I was a kid, but you know — but I focus every morning — I contrast where I am versus where I want to be. So I know right now that I’m supposed to be here with you, but I literally spend most of my day saying no. I probably say no to 95 things for every 5 I say yes to.

John McIntyre: Hmm okay. So how long does this last? Coz I’m very curious about this morning routine. So you wake up at what? 3 am — 4 am?

Clay Clark: Yeah, yeah. I mean today I don’t wanna exaggerate. I wanna give you specific things because your listeners deserve more. You don’t have idiots listening to your program. You have the geniuses. This morning it was at, let’s see here yeah, so this morning I woke up here at 2:15 am.

John McIntyre: 2:15 am. What time did you go to bed?

Clay Clark: I went to bed like 8:30. And I only had to do that because I got back from Orlando and I hate travelling, it freaks me out, and I got back and I had to get all — everything… I had to get discombobulated, you know? People give you a card like, “Hey you should call me sometime. We should network.” And I’m like, “Yeah, yeah we should,” but I’m not going to unless I write it down and put it in my schedule, you know? And I’ve got text messages from all the people from the event who were like, “You were so good. It was great.” One guy who was, “You’re the worst speaker in the world. You hate people.” Whatever and I’m gonna respond to that and I’ve got to make sure that I don’t get overcharged for my freakin hotel which I did. You know just that kinda crap, but — and so — but I have a meta, every day I do, it and by the time my day starts I’m just sprinting because I know exactly where I’m going and what I’m doing every single day.

John McIntyre: Interesting. How long does this Meta go for? And what happens exactly? Coz you said that you breathe or you listen to this song my John Legend or how does it work?

Clay Clark: Yeah I listen to John Legend and I pull up — I have 3 monitors. I recommend 2 though because the good friends at Carnegie Mellon did a study on this and you go — you’re twice as productive with 2 monitors. Just throwing it out there — Carnegie Mellon and you can research on yourself — on own here, but 2 monitors.

So what you do is on 1 monitor it’s all my to-do lists items that I’m supposed to get done and I look at them and I’m going — I look through and it’s like, “Call Deidra about Fox 23 feature with Dan.” I look at it and I’m going, “Do I need to do that?” someone told me I need to, do I even need to do that? Yes or no? And then where does that fit into my priority? And then I’m thinking about all my spiritual goals and I’m like, “You know should I take my kids to the church or should I just eat pretzels?” you know or okay and then you know my — my skills, “Should I read the new Google update book that I have or should I just —” you know I start to think about my skills. I go through methodical these 5 areas. Spirit, you know? Mind so, spirit 1, 2 mind — like skills, 3 is body you know and then physical fitness and then 3 is relationships you know like, “Who do I need to talk to today that I need to be a friend to?” you know the — like a lot of times as friends we only tell people what they want to hear? And then they tell us what they want to hear and then the moment one of us disagrees we’re not really friends anymore coz we’re really just acquaintances.

I’d like to be a friend, you know, to people? If I’m a friend I wanna be your friend so, I wrote down on my list today I need to call a guy and I called him today on my way to work and had a really neat connection. I was like, “Hey buddy I realized you’re going through the divorce, how you doin?” and he’s like, “Are you freakin serious?” Coz he didn’t meet any people like don’t — they don’t understand why someone would call them without wanting anything, right?

John McIntyre: Yeah.

Clay Clark: But it’s a relationship. You sow seeds into that, you know? Relationships I use schedule time for that.

And then finances you know I got to look at like there’s a couple of big web deals, clients are paying me to do — redo their brand and fix their websites and do search engine and I gotta — you know that kinda thing so, I just — spirit, mind, body , relationships, finances. And I go through that until I’ve everything on my list that I need to do on my list that relates to those pthaaah. And after a time I list, I prioritize it and I sort in based on what needs to get done.

John McIntyre: Very cool. How long does this take?

Clay Clark: 4 hours.

John McIntyre: 4 hours?

Clay Clark: Yeah. I mean but it’s like a Monday so, you know most days probably 2 or 3, but I have a weird world, man because I own multiple companies.

John McIntyre: Yeah.

Clay Clark: So if somebody who’s in Australia they’re like, “He’s trying to sell us, he’s trying to up sell us here it goes,” no, but if you go to eitrlounge.com, that’s one of the company’s I’m involved with, Elephant In The Room. eitrlounge.com or if you go to oxifresh.com O_X_I_F_R_E_S_H or you go to thrive15.com.

Those are all 3 things I’m involved in. So if in a haircut business I’m trying to focus on how do I offer more value to the guys who come there? How do we cut more mops? How do we cut more wigs? How do we cut more lettuce? How do we make more cheddar by making their lettuce better? How do we cut more hair? How do we do it? How do we cut more hair? How do we make more profit? And then I shift quooof to oxifresh. I’m not an equity partner, but I help them on some marketing from time to time…

John McIntyre: Oxifresh is that O_X_Y?

Clay Clark: O_X_I.

John McIntyre: O_X_I? Coz I spoke to Oxyfresh…

Clay Clark: Yeah.

John McIntyre: … O_X_Y a couple of weeks ago.

Clay Clark: Oh yeah O_X_I. And then — so then I have to figure out, “Well how are we gonna help John sell more franchises?” He’s a partner of mine so, how do I help him sell more franchises? And then thrive, you know? How do we offer more value where these people are paying $19.00 a month how do we make it better? How do we get better, better, better, better? And what’s cool is usually your customers submit those ideas. If you could do it right you create a forum where your customers can submit ideas. And then you wanna take their ideas and you know implement the ones that aren’t crazy.

John McIntyre: Wow. This is intense man.

Clay Clark: Yeah it’s a little weird. I’m — I think you need to come to Tulsa. I know this — I know you’re probably already booked a trip for your vacation, I know a lot of people come to Tulsa for trips, a lot of — I mean like 2 people a year come to Tulsa for a vacation. Like 2 a year. You could be the third, but you should come here and you could observe this because I promise it’s like a — we have a lot of people that they pay for this, that’s why we built thrive so, people don’t have to pay for it anymore, but you could come in and kinda see it. And I’ve learned these systems from like the guy who used to run Disney World? I mean Lee Cockerell’s one of our trainers on our site and he used to manage 40,000 people. I mean how do you do that while staying married and managing relationships and finances and fitness? They all have a process. And the process this is metatime.

Plan out your day, think about your day, prioritize your day then go do it, hard charging.

John McIntyre: Well I’ve done that before the whole idea of sitting down, plan out the day, but if it — I’ll do it for 20 minutes. So the idea of doing it for 4 hours…

Clay Clark: Yeah it’s weird…

John McIntyre: … seems…

Clay Clark: … see that’s why I’m saying that — no — that’s not necessary…

John McIntyre: But this is good.

Clay Clark: … it’s not good.

John McIntyre: No, I think it is good.

Clay Clark: What’s that… you know…

John McIntyre: Coz it’s good seeing the differences.

Clay Clark: Yeah it’s coz I own so many different things. If I wasn’t involved in so many things, you know? And simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, right? So at a certain point I mean if I could sell all the businesses and focus on one it would be Thrive15. But Thrive15 is like this passion project that it’s like millions of dollars to build it and it’s infinitely like there’s so much to be done on it. So my other businesses you know kinda supported the funding of that and the founding of it and all that and now I had to make those other businesses stronger to fund it more and now those other businesses are rockin and now I’m like, “Freak they’re too big! We need to scale back,” you know so I gotta find other people to kinda take leadership roles in those other businesses.

John McIntyre: Ah okay, okay. What else? Is there any other sort of strange things that you do that you think other people probably don’t do that would help them if they did ’em?

Clay Clark: Yeah.

John McIntyre: Like the metatime?

Clay Clark: Yeah oh yeah. Yeah well another thing is you wanna prioritize — whatever it needs to happen — whoever’s the most important thing in your life you need to schedule it first. So you know I have 5 kids and I’ll tell you physically how you have kids is you need to have a consistent marital sex. That’s the key, right? That’s you have a lot of kids, you know? So you gotta schedule time, just being real.

John McIntyre: Really?

Clay Clark: Just schedule time.

John McIntyre: Just schedule time to have sex?

Clay Clark: I’m not — yeah you block it off. You gotta schedule time — and you know what? So gotta do that and you gotta schedule time for fitness, you know? You gotta schedule time for talking with your mom and your dad. Anything you wanna get done you gotta schedule. If you know — but a lot of people what they do is they put their life second, third, fourth, fifth. They do let people tell them what to do, right?

John McIntyre: Hmmm.

Clay Clark: And then after they’ve done what everyone else wants them to do now they’re like, “Oh I don’t have time to call my wife or time to watch my favourite movie or time to work out,” or whatever. But if you put it first then you’ll always have time.

And what’s great is that everybody will — everyone will definitely not be happy with you if you schedule your own priorities first, right? So most people are like, “What a jerk he puts his own priorities first,” but if you try to please everybody they won’t be happy either. But at least this way you’ll be happy.

John McIntyre: Hmm okay. That’ true.

Clay Clark: Yeah.

John McIntyre: That’s true. What about this? Here’s a question. What — is there anything that you believe or that you do that other people would totally disagree with and think is stupid?

Clay Clark: Yeah I do believe in the overflowing cup mindset where if I have a cup and that cup is overflowing, I’d be happy to share water with you.

Now I’m pragmatic so I say the things that people think, but they don’t say. Now if I don’t have any water left it’s kinda A hard to share with you because I don’t have any myself and I’m also, you know, struggling for water. I’m struggling to survive, but if I have enough water for you know you and for me then it’s easy to share if I have an abundance.

So I always teach entrepreneurs as quick trying to save the world and the rainforests and like kids in Africa and drilling wells and first focus on having your own prosperity. So you wanna be fruitful and then you wanna multiply. But I see as entrepreneurs out there trying to save the world while living with their mother’s and being quasi homeless and that’s not really the move. You don’t wanna be quasi homeless. Now — does that make sense? Like you see so many people who are like really struggling financially, but yet they’re spending all their time helping everybody else.

John McIntyre: Hmm.

Clay Clark: But if you can help yourself first now you can give back, does that make sense? Like I couldn’t help my dad right now if I was in the toilet.

John McIntyre: That’s very true. That’s very true. I think of people do this as they get caught up with this, “Oh we give it to charity, we’ll give all this money or we’ll volunteer or —”…

Clay Clark: Oh gosh.

John McIntyre: Yeah I remember speaking to a girl and she went to Africa and obviously helping some kids over Africa doing some volunteering. And she comes back she goes, “Ah all I needed was $2,000.00 a month and then I could go back there and live there and just help them forever.” And then she goes and comes back and gets into real estate, does a little bit of it and she goes, “Oh wow.” Instead of having 1 house and making 2 grand a month and then going back to Africa I could have 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 or 100,000 houses…

Clay Clark: Yeah.

John McIntyre: … and then I can build entire cities in Africa.

Clay Clark: Exactly and that’s where I screwed up when — in my career early on because I volunteered at a program called Junior Achievement. It helps kids in schools who are — learn business and that kind of thing. And I was asked to volunteer after I received the Entrepreneur of the Year award. So I’m out there volunteering and we didn’t have thrive15.com at the time it was just — there was no technology, you know?

So I’m going to the schools volunteering, volunteering, helping kids. Kids are writing me thank you notes, kids are — one girl went to the Sony Film School. Like she said that we encouraged her to do it so, she took the risk, she went, she won this thing, she started her business. I mean it’s just — all these great stories. One guy started his own window cleaning company. I mean I could go on and on. The stories of the high school kids who implemented what they learned and it was awesome. Then my wife’s like, “Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey do you think you could volunteer and maybe spend a couple of hours a week with our own kids?” And that like hurts, you know what I mean? As a dad coz you’re like frick! I’m trying to save the world! I’m screwing up my own family, I’m an idiot!

So all I am saying make sure that you think about your own spirit, mind, body, relationships and financial goals and don’t start volunteering, donating, joining all these endless clubs coz people ask, “Well this guy this guy today. There’s a guy today. This is a guy today. He is so pissed right now, but I feel so good. Like I feel good.” He calls me and he says, “Hey can we network? I’d like to get together network. I hear you’re really well connected. I’d like to network.” I — very nicely on the phone I say, “Hey I don’t ever leave my office and I don’t network, but if there’s a benefit for me and you like a win-win, if I can help you, you help me? Tell me I’d love to help you. If not I just — I’m not your guy.” And he’s like, “Well but I don’t understand. I want to network,” and I’m like, “If I’m networking with you,” I literally said this example, “I’m not having sex with my wife, I’m not hanging out with my kids, and I’m not doing stuff that I love. So no.” You know? And I feel good about it because now I’m here with you otherwise I’d be stuck in a networking meeting talking about some pure dribble.

John McIntyre: That’s good, that’s good. Well all right we’re getting to a — we can wrap it up soon. I got one last thing I’d like to ask coz…

Clay Clark: Okay.

John McIntyre: … what is it now…

Clay Clark: I’m trying to say the word sex six times during this training during…

John McIntyre: I think that’s correct.

Clay Clark: … this podcast. I think I’m only done 4 times so, I’m sorry but sex, sex, sex, now I’m done.

John McIntyre: That’s 7 now. We’re getting…

Clay Clark: 7?

John McIntyre: … this is getting…

Clay Clark: That’s it.

John McIntyre: … racy right here. It’s probably gonna happen again too, you know?

Clay Clark: I’m sorry I just — I guess it’s a personal goal…

John McIntyre: I wouldn’t be surprised.

Clay Clark: … I’ve had. I’ve never done it on a podcast before. I just wanted to do it, that way I can say I’ve done it.

John McIntyre: Well it’s done, done. Any way what’s something that — you’ve done a lot of these podcasts, right?

Clay Clark: Yeah, yeah.

John McIntyre: What’s something that you wished people asked you, but they never do?

Clay Clark: I wish people would ask what specifically do I need to do if I want to achieve the same level of success that you have? You know what is it that you do that if I follow that path would guarantee that I would have success? I wish people would — you know? But usually they’re like looking for the unicorn and the magic secret sauce that I wanted. I wanna find a system where it’s like some sort of essential oils that allow me to have success quickly, freely, easily, you know?

They’re just — that’s what you want. They want the microwave thing. You know I’m not sure how big the microwave is in Australia, but in America people are like boom. Oh look it’s a microwave, boom, boom! Look at that okay just boom! And then we go, “I can’t believe it’s not healthy.” Well how is it — how’re you gonna heat up — how are you gonna heat up — how are you gonna make food 90 seconds and have it be healthy? Come on I mean it’s like whatever. I mean just — let’s not even get into that, but the point is if you wanna eat something healthy it takes some time.

So if you’re gonna build a successful business then you need to look at how successful people do it and begin to do what they do. That’s the whole deal, man. You just — if you’re good at saying — if you’re gonna climb to the top of the mountain and you find the guy he’s grisly, he’s got the big old beard, he’s got the cane you know and you’re like, “Hey how do you get to the top of the mountain?” and he said, “Well I was just there, you know? I’ve been up there 20 times —” and he looks kind of grisly and gross, but he’s been there.

It’s probably better to follow him than somebody who’s never been there before, you know what I’m saying? So I think it’s important that you think about how are successful people doing it and reverse engineer it and think about how you can apply it to your own life in business.

John McIntyre: What’s your answer to that question then? That like in the way — I know you shared a bunch of stuff already…

Clay Clark: Yeah.

John McIntyre: … but I mean the stuff that you — that — you know maybe the stuff that you don’t usually get to share or stuff that most people aren’t doing that you wish they did. What are they missing? Based on your experience…

Clay Clark: Okay.

John McIntyre: … of getting to the top of that mountain?

Clay Clark: Well one is quit trying to sell people crap that they don’t want, you know? Like quit trying to sell problems the world doesn’t want to solve, you know? So make a product or a service that actually solves a problem. If people have a problem and they’re willing to pay to solve it that’s a great thing, but if you have like a problem you’re solving that no one wants then stop that. Don’t die on that hill.

Second is figure out, I mean, sit down today before the end of the day. I don’t know — sure what time it is on Australia, but I’m sure that you know you guys are — still have time to ride around with some kangaroos and fire up some shrimp on the barbie and that kind of thing, but before the day’s done figure out your why, figure out how much it cost, figure out the service you’re gonna render. I dare you to do it. What service or product I’m gonna render?

Figure out the practical skills you need. I remember sitting down going, “Holy crap! People are using the internet and I have no concept of how to use it to market. I should probably become an expert on it.” And I am not exaggerating it. As God as my witness I have read dozens of books about internet marketing, there’s 2 though, Get Rich Click by Ostrofsky super awesome book. Get Rich Click by Ostrofsky and Search Engine for Dummies by Bruce Clay.

Those are 2 books that are awesome and they’re easily accessible, but I had to read those kinds of books to learn a skill, right? I mean I want to be a speaker. People always ask me to speak coz I won awards and I would get up there and just screw up. I mean it was literally like killing audiences. People would pay me to speak coz they’re like, “You’re good at business I bet you’ll be a good business speaker.” And I would get up there and just screw up. Well how do you get good at that skill? You gotta study people who are good at it and focus and practice and practice you know develop that skill and the final thing is set up that network. Ask yourself right now who do you need to know that’s gonna help you get where you want to go? Who are those people? Boom! Do it and then have that PhD, pigheaded discipline.

And I dare you to check out thrive15.com because I’ve said that as only as many times, but I’ve said it less times than I’ve said the word sex, which would be 8 times I’ve said sex and only 5 times thrive15.com.

John McIntyre: Sex, sex, sex, sex.

Clay Clark: That’s right.

John McIntyre: There you go, mate.

Clay Clark: Yeah. Marital — marital sex — marital sex. I wanna be — make sure we’re keeping it biblical here.

John McIntyre: Okay, okay cool. Well I mean thanks for comin on. Before we go to — I mean we’ve already talked about Thrive 15. I’m sure that’s where you’re gonna tell me where to give it. Is that — if they want to learn more about you or become more successful or whatever this is what should they do? Where should they go?

Clay Clark: Well take the 30 day challenge. Go on to thrive15.com it’s 19 bucks I’m sure and — right now I think your currency’s beating our currency is it not?

John McIntyre: I can’t — no, no. We’re…

Clay Clark: I mean is the Australian currency’s got…

John McIntyre: … not. Australia’s terrible right now.

Clay Clark: You’re in the toilet right now? Okay.

John McIntyre: We’re in the toilet right now. It’s good for exports, but yeah not so good.

Clay Clark: Well go spend $3,000.00 of Australian money, but log on to thrive15.com. check it out for 30 days, get in there and commit to doing what you’re learning and be one of those success stories. I mean that’s funny we have people all over the planet who are going, “I literally committed just for 30 days to take 15 minutes a day and go on to your site and learn this stuff and my life is changed.”

People are saying, “My sales are up 7% this month just by learning those skills.” Salespeople you know? Photographers, plumbers. People are going, “Man my website is up you know on page 2 now of Google instead of page 75, you know just learning that stuff,” but commit, take the 30 day challenge, check it out. And worst case scenario you know you’re out 19 bucks and you know you can call me and complain and get crazy and hostile, we’ll refund you. Okay just get on there check it out.

John McIntyre: How does this 30 day challenge work? Is it just sort of a you know sign up you choose a bunch of different videos or is there a process to follow?

Clay Clark: Well we have a — there’s 3 different paths. 1 its start a business, 1 is grow a business, and 1 advancing your career. So you choose the path that makes sense for you and you get on there and there’s all sorts of research you can read up on. I don’t wanna — hate it when people make up statistics. So I’m just gonna direct you to a couple of things, but Dr. Carol Dwek, Stanford — she wrote a book called Growth Mindset.

There’s another study that Dave Ramsey, he’s a financial help guy, he studied — he published, but basically over 80% of successful people meaning that they are living their goals, they’re achieving their goals. They take 15 to 30 minutes a day to study success.

So you don’t be one of those people — only 2% of the general population does this by the way. So don’t be in that 2% category going, “I don’t know why some people are more successful.” Well 80% of these people don’t have super skills they’re just studying. So you need to take 15 minutes a day to study success a.k.a thrive15.com and then spend the rest of your day applying.

John McIntyre: Cool. And where do they do that? What’s the address?

Clay Clark: It’s thrive15.com so thrive 1_5.com or if you wanna email us go to info@thrive15.com and if you want to send me some hate mail send it to info@thrive15.com and if you want to email dating tips to one of our fabulous team members, Marshal, you can also email that to info@thrive15.com.

John McIntyre: Well I’m sure you’re gonna get inundated with dating tips now. You shouldn’t of said that.

Clay Clark: No he’s got so many dating tips and the thing about he’s a virtuous man, he’s highly skilled, he’s basically spending most of his time saying no. All the eligible women are reaching out and he’s like, “No not available.” You know he’s networking he’s done the whole deal.

John McIntyre: That’s good. I mean it’s all about saying no, right?

Clay Clark: Yeah his got — I’m telling you this guys is — he’s a — probably the perfect kangaroo for the you know for this market. He just — he can jump around from date to date and then — then he’s trying to figure out the right one to put in to his papoose.

John McIntyre: Well, well it’s been good to have you on the show, mate. I’ll have links to these in the show notes at themcmethod.com. Thank you.

Clay Clark: Awesome, hey you’re a beautiful man. Thank you — thanks a lot.