Episode #70 – Tulsa Dog Training | Branding 101 With Michael Levine (The PR consultant of choice for Nike, Pizza Hut, George Carlin, Nancy Kerrigan, Michael Jackson, Prince, etc.)

 

Transcript

 

Hello, my name is Michael Levine. In the last 35 years I’ve represented 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, and 43 New York Times bestsellers. I’ve owned a PR firm for, as I said, 35 years and represented some of the most famous people of our time. The last two years I have come to Clay Clark’s Thrive Alive seminar in December. And I must say, I didn’t know what to expect at first, but it’s exceptional, filled, brimming with 300 passionate, enthused, inquisitive entrepreneurs doing extraordinary things. You know, so much of the year I spend in a disappointed feelings about things I see in our society and our culture, but coming here wipes that all clean. If you are serious, and I mean really serious about your career, your entrepreneurship,

I strongly, strongly implore you to come to Tulsa, invest the two days. It will change your life. It’s quite extraordinary and I’m a tough grader, so thank you. My name is Michael Levine.

Some shows don’t need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show, but this show does. In a world filled with endless opportunities, why would two men who have built 13 multi-million dollar businesses altruistically invest 5 hours per day to teach you the best practice business systems and moves that you can use? Because they believe in you, and they have a lot of time on their hands. They started from the bottom, now they’re here. It’s the Thrive Time Show starring the former U.S. Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark, and the entrepreneur trapped inside an optometrist’s body, Dr. Robert Zilner.

Two men, eight kids, co-created by two different women, 13 multimillion dollar businesses.

We started from the bottom, now we’re here We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here Started from the bottom, now we’re here

We started from the bottom, now we’re here

We took flight, started from the bottom And now we’re at the top, teaching you the systems To get what we got, Colton Dixon’s on the hooks I break down the books, see, bringing some wisdom And the good looks, as a father of five That’s why I’m alive, so if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi. It’s the CNC upon your radio.

And now, 3, 2, 1, here we go.

We started from the bottom, now we here. We started from the bottom, and we’ll show you how to get here. We started from the bottom, now we here. We started from the bottom, now we here. We started from the bottom, now we here.

Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Thrive Nation on today’s show, we’re talking about branding and branding 101 with Michael Levine, the PR consultant of choice for Nike, Pizza Hut, George Carlin, Nancy Kerrigan, Michael Jackson, Prince, everybody. And he talks about branding. He says this about branding. He says, if you give someone a present, I’m quoting here, 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 the gift has 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. Our politicians, our corporate heads, our movie and TV stars, and even our toilet paper. Public relations is like gift wrapping. Michael Levine says the PR consultant of choice for Nike, Pizza Hut, George Carlin, Nancy Kerrigan, Michael Jackson, Prince, everybody. And again, on part two of today’s show, he’s going to join us to talk about public relations

and why advertising is paid. He says advertising is what you pay for, but public relations is what you pray for. He’ll talk about that on part two of today’s show, but JT Lawson joins us from MakeYourDogEpic.com. He is Tulsa’s highest rated and most reviewed dog trainer. And JT Lawson, welcome on to the Thrived Time Show. How are you, sir?

I’m doing great.

Thank you, sir. So I’ve got to ask you this about branding real quick here. When people go to MakeYourDogEpic.com, I want all the listeners to go there right now so you can check it out. MakeYourDogEpic.com. No matter where you’re listening from, go to MakeYourDogEpic.com. When they go to the website, there’s this thing called hieratic scaling. Hieratic scaling, it’s a journalistic term, but you put the most important stuff first,

and as you work down the website, you’re going to add in details that are maybe less important. So hieratic scaling, it would be like a headline. So if you read a headline, you go to Fox News, go to CNN, go to whatever. The most important thing is first, then the second thing is maybe less important, the third is less important, etc. So I’ll do an example here. This is audio only, but I encourage everyone to look this up here, okay? So we’re going to type in, Ryan Tedder sells music catalog.

I went to college with Ryan Tedder, and he happens to be a phenomenal musician. The article that comes up here from the Sydney Morning Herald says, Ryan Tedder sells his song catalog for $276 million. It says, now he’s intent on making more. That’s the headline. Then underneath it, the less important, it’s still very important but not as important as the headline, it says, with Beyonce’s Halo, Leona Lewis’ Bleeding Love, Adele’s Rumor Has It, and his own band One Republic’s Too Late to Apologize, among his credits, few songwriters have for better or

worse, depending upon your taste for dramatic ballads, dominated modern pop music as Ryan Tedder. And it goes on and on, listing all the songs. He’s written songs for U2. He’s written songs for basically, insert the name of whatever big artist you’re talking about. Adele, he’s written for them. But you put the main thing first.

So let’s go back to the makeyourdogepic.com website. And we look at the website, and JT, the first thing I see here, and again, maybe you disagree, but the first thing I see right now, the most important thing is your first lesson is always just 50 cents and will beat any competitor’s price. To me, that seems like the most important thing. Is that the most important thing in the eyes of the consumers that are looking for Tulsa dog training?

Yeah, I think so. I think also another important thing is a money back guarantee. So that’s super important because then they know that the training will work or they get their money back. So it’s like a why not where a lot of these trainers just use terminology, it might stick

and you don’t really know what you’re getting.

So again, you look at the top of the website, hopefully everybody out there is doing this. If you have a website, folks, do this. Go to MakeYourDogEpic.com. Look at it. Just go to type in to your browser MakeYourDogEpic.com. Use this as an example. You go there. The most important thing is that your first lesson is always just 50 cents and will be

any competitor’s price. That’s like the most important thing. First, boom. Then you scroll down and it says schedule your first lesson for 50 cents. And then underneath that, you experience the area’s highest rated and most reviewed dog trainer. Why is scheduling your first lesson for 50 cents and that we have packages available to fit any budget, why is that, that little clarifier of we have packages available to fit any budget, why is that so important?

Well that’s super important because some people think this is going to be super expensive and these other trainers are like, hey it’s going to be three weeks for four grand, and they don’t even see the dog first. So people want you to be able to come out, see their dog, go over different options with them, tell you more about yourself. And that’s what we do for 50 Cents. We go and we actually evaluate the dog. And then fit any budget.

That part’s important because some people might think that they can’t afford it, and they’ll just click off or whatever.

So we want to make sure that everyone knows we can fit anyone’s budget.

It’s so important, everybody out there, if you have a website, you have to put it this way. You have to put the most important thing first. And again, you go to makeyourdogepic.com, you can learn more about this. But again, that’s how that works. Now you scroll down, and now you start to see information that is very important, but not as important as the main thing. So we start to see all of the things you can do for people that have a dog that want to

have that Tulsa dog trained professionally by a Tulsa dog trainer, where you start talking about, is your dog causing you to lose sleep and holding you hostage? Discover the proven solutions that we provide to help your dog to truly become your best friend. Stop leash pulling, teach your dog to come when you say come, prevent dog jumping, reduce aggressive behaviors, et cetera. And as you work your way down the website, and maybe I’m wrong, folks, maybe you’re on

makeyourdogepic.com right now, and you’re gonna read the whole page.

Maybe you’re the guy that does.

Now, there’s a tool called luckyorange.com. Luckyorange.com, that shows us where people go on the website and where they don’t. And even though the content’s hot, and it’s great, very few people scroll down, 25 mouse scrolls down to the bottom of the website to read the content at the very bottom of the website. So the most important stuff has to be first.

So we’re talking about branding. I’m telling you, folks, branding. You’ve got to make sure that your branding is positive and that it conveys confidence. You want your branding to convey confidence. You want people to look at your website, and that first impression has to wow people. It can’t just exist.

Your branding has to wow people. Your branding has to create that wow moment for people. So we get into branding. Now, if you implement these processes like Michael Levine teaches and like we just taught you, you’re going to start to have some success. However, I think there’s this branding issue that people are dealing with right now where there’s a lot of people that think they’re an iconic living legend and a household name, but they’re not. Yes.

So, I’m going to give a few examples. I’ll be very vague here, but I’m going to give a few examples, okay? So years ago, I worked with a guy who, he worked in an industry where it’s very competitive. There’s a lot of people in his industry. He’s not the only one. And so, I helped him build a website that came up top in the search results. I helped him develop a no-brainer offer. I taught him what I’m teaching you right now, folks.

And we really, really built it over time. And there was a time for about two years when working with this guy that he was very faithful. Now, you’re always getting video reviews, JT. You’re always getting Google reviews.

Why can’t you ever stop getting Google reviews and video reviews? Because Google thinks you die. So it’s kind of like the heartbeat of Google. And if you just stop, well then Google thinks you’re dead and you no longer are in business and you no longer do this. And then also because the customer is always looking. So they always want to see that you’re recently getting reviews, you’re still in business. It’s kind of like the heartbeat of the business.

Now I’m not saying that Ryan Tedder is somebody you want to pattern your life after. I’m not saying that Michael Levine is somebody that you should hold up as a deity in your mind. What I am saying is these are people that have had success for decades, decades, plural, right? So if you meet Michael Levine or you meet Ryan Tedder, they’re both on their grind at all times, they’re grinding. So this person I’m speaking of, I won’t be very vague, I’m not trying to throw him under the bus,

I’m just using it as a teaching example. We would have our weekly meeting and the guy would consistently get video reviews and Google reviews and things were great.

Yeah.

I helped him improve his brand. I helped him go to the level where all of a sudden, you know, dude’s driving some incredible cars. Dude has a big house. There’s a lot of there’s a lot of energy there. But the dude has a brand that is working and it’s he’s creating success and people start to know him, his own circle. You know, they start to know this guy is successful.

But if you were at a bar or a restaurant, I don’t know that anybody would know who Michael Levine is. I’m going to put his face on today’s show so you can see it. I just don’t know that a lot of people go, holy crap, you’re the guy that did the PR for Nike and Pizza Hut and George Carlin. Side my face right now. I just wouldn’t see it. I couldn’t see it.

I don’t know, again, Ryan Tedder, I don’t know how well known he is to the average person. I mean, he’s had his own hit TV shows. He’s been featured on mainstream media commercials. He’s the most, he’s the best selling songwriter of the last two decades, and he’s actually beaten virtually everybody’s record in the history of pop music with the most hits. But I don’t know that a lot of people, if he walked into our office, would go, dude, you’re the guy. I don’t see that.

I wouldn’t.

I mean, I think, I try to think about the people that are of that level. I think if, like him or not, I’m not saying I endorse these people, I’m just giving an example. You like him or not, if Kanye West walked in, you would go, dude, that’s Kanye West. Because he’s so omnipresent. Like him or not, if Usher walked in, you’d probably go, that’s Trump! Hey, hey, hey! All of a sudden the energy changes.

Wow, that’s Tim Tebow! Hey, come on! Come on! Woo! Yeah! Yeah! All of a sudden you’re like, let’s throw the ball around! Let’s go!

You know, it’s just like there’s an energy of like, let’s get a wig on! Let’s get a Trump wig on!

Yeah!

Woo! Trump! I don’t know that you do that when you see Ryan Tedder, you walk him by and you say, is that Ryan Tedder? It’s too late to apologize. It’s too late. Like, were you singing? I just had to because it’s Ryan Tedder inside my face!

So what I find is that most people have a distorted perception of reality. And it’s where you think you’re a big deal, but you’re not. Yeah. It’s where you think you’re famous, but you’re not. Like most people, when you think you’re famous, and as many people could go point you out, and they go, wow, that guy’s famous. I mean, when you’re famous,

and you’re really about as well known as a picture of the random person’s anus? What am I saying? I mean, if you were a doctor and they’re like, whose anus is that? I don’t know. Frankly, quit showing me those photos. But there’s people that think they’re famous. No, they’re not. Yeah. I mean, it always it makes me think of Bow Wow. Bow Wow. So how much people know the rapper? Yeah, the rapper. Oh, man. How much people know about Bow Wow. But there’s a couple of funny stories and you probably don’t even know these stories. Tell me about Bow Wow. Bow Wow, because it used to be a big deal, right? Yeah, and by the way, for anybody who hasn’t heard, again, I think this is the thing real quickly, we need to give a

little context. Bow Wow used to do some music with Jermaine Dupri. Now, there was a time in music history, and we’ll go back to you, where every song kind of sounded the same. So there was a time where like, it’s probably a five year period of time there where most of the songs sounded the same. So let me just kind of queue up one of those songs. I think a lot of people who are listeners might not even remember his songs. So let me just give a second, just give a little context. Because there was a time when Jermaine Dupri was writing hit songs for Usher. He was putting out songs for So So Def.

He was putting out songs for a lot of R&B groups. That was kind of his niche here. Let’s crank it up.

Let me get it.

This is…

Here comes Lil Bow Wow.

Let me get it.

I don’t know if anybody remembers that, but there was a time where for some reason a young kid rapping about women twice his age was acceptable. But that was… Let me do one more just so people can remember this. This is Lil Bow Wow.

Lil Bow Wow is almost taller than Jermaine Dupri, fun fact.

Okay, so let’s see. All right. But anyway, so there was a time where Bow Wow was in the top 40 of music and it was probably about a three year window of time.

Yeah. Back to you.

A three year window of time, but he still thinks he’s there.

He still thinks he’s there.

So he has been notorious for posting things and then getting called out on them for not being the actual things. Like for instance, he recorded himself, so he’s videoing himself. He’s taking a selfie. And there’s a school field trip and he’s in the school field trip. And I know we’re on audio only, but there’s videos of everything I’m about to tell you. And he has his hoodie up, and he’s filming himself, and he’s like, these people don’t

even know I’m Bow Wow.

These people don’t even know who I am. So even if you had your hood off, they wouldn’t know who you were.

Yeah, so if you look up, like, Lil Bow Wow field trip. Field trip, Lil Bow Wow.

Lil Bow Wow. Or Lil Bow Wow thinks he’s famous, or one of those things.

Yeah, I got it. Okay. Yeah, so that top one right there

Other people make like stitch it and they make other videos like making fun of them and then another thing But people live like this, right? So they think they’re more important than they are. Bow Wow has paid actors or people to chase him down the street like they’re fans. Now real quick, just so we’re clear, Tai Lopez is famous for this. Tai Lopez will have a jet, and on the jet, there will be women who are in the jet who are… Have you seen the Tai Lopez videos?

Yeah, you showed me some of them.

Okay, I encourage everybody to look up just type in Tai Lopez Jet because he’ll have these women who are in the jet.

Here we go.

You know what I like more than flying in a private jet like this?

My books.

There’s women in the jet with him?

Actually not, but I do bring books with me.

They’re scantily clad, cleavage showing women who are in his jet with him and he’s talking

about…

You know what I like more than flying in a private jet like this? My books. Actually not, but I do bring books with me because we were just talking a little bit earlier on the question was how to figure out what you should do with your life, like your destiny, what you’re meant to do.

Sure.

They were not talking about that at all. So that’s the thing though. You’re saying that there are people that think they’re famous and they’re not.

Yeah, no, absolutely. Or they just keep doing things and they run their businesses like this where they’re running it like everyone should know who they are. Take home shows for instance. People buy a booth, they sit there and they sit back in the back of the booth and text all the time. And they expect people to come to the home show and just want to pay them money.

Well, okay, now let me just give you an example. Back to my client I was telling you about. So we have a client every week. They’re doing a great job. They’re getting Google reviews, video reviews, writing content. And they are starting to make money, okay? And then our meeting, they’re like, I can’t make this week’s meeting. I can’t make it.

I want to go.

Can’t make it.

Yeah. But I’ll send somebody in my place and then it becomes hey, I don’t have any Google reviews this week because You know, I’ve been so busy no video reviews now I’m not gonna mention this guy’s name, but I just want to tell you this is an example so then I start noticing that like basically everyone who leaves him a review is Irritated Everyone is pissed. Uh-huh, and

everybody is irritated. Nobody’s happy. The bad reviews are flowing in. And I said, well, we can make… I didn’t know that… I noticed the reviews are bad. I’m like, hey, we could, if you want, call your customers and schedule video reviews for you if you’re too busy.

And he’s like, ah, you don’t want to call them right now because a lot of them are frustrated. I’m like, what do you mean a lot of them are frustrated? Well, pretty much all of our customers are really frustrated right now. And I go, well, why are they frustrated? He said, well, you understand, I’m going to a different level now, okay? I’m going to a different level.

The person uses the phrase, I am going to a different level. And I remember going, okay. And he goes, and because I’m going to this different level, I just want you to know, I know you’ve helped me to go to that level, you know, 10X growth, but moving forward, I’m going to have you work with my new person over here, because I’m going to a different level, and certain people that got me here aren’t the ones who are going to get me where I’m going.

And then all of this person’s, because we have business conferences, these people come in from all over the country. So this particular person, you know, he often would attend workshops, although he’s not in Tulsa, not from Tulsa, but a lot of people meet each other. And so people that like live in Florida

are calling me going, I can’t get a hold of the dude I met at your workshop. I cannot reach him. He used to be reachable. And now when I text him, somebody who’s not him calls me back and talks about how he’s going to a different level. And then all of a sudden, the person who’s not famous begins to ask me for recommendations

for a security team. Like who do you reckon? I said, what? He says, I know you do conferences. Who do you use for your security? And I say, just to be clear, at my events, you may see Eric Trump, okay? Therefore I get security for Eric Trump because Eric Trump is the son of the 45th President of these United States.

I happen to like him. I consider him to be a friend, but let’s just say you don’t or you do. Either way, that makes sense. But I don’t have an armed escort for me. You’ve stayed with me at the events. I sleep at an Airbnb with a bunch of dudes who are on our team. I sleep at the hotel, like a holiday inn. I’m with you guys. I’m there. Yeah, cuz I don’t have an inflated reality distortion where I believe

That I’m a big deal and I’m not Yeah, well, there’s even there’s speakers on the tour who are a big deal who drives themselves Michael and L yeah, Michael and L that’s what I was thinking of driving drives himself. I’ve never seen him with security

I rented Hyundai typically it shows up. He just walks through the crowd. He does whatever right so he doesn’t live in that world where he thinks he’s somebody that he’s not

So let’s talk about it for a second I’m gonna give people some action steps some real meat on the bone here Okay, so here are some action steps who want to take on today’s show okay, so first off you got to optimize Your website okay, you know optimize your website so people can find you, okay? You have to optimize the branding okay the branding of your website. You say, how’s that different? You want to optimize the search engine optimization, search engine optimization of your website. That’s one. Two, optimize the branding of your website.

Okay? Step three, design a system, what am I saying? Design a system to over deliver. Come on! You have to have a system where you wow your customers. Step four, you have to gather objective, objective Google reviews from the customers that you wow. Come on. Somebody out there, you’re getting what I’m saying. What happens is, is somebody out there, though, you want to skip the part of actually doing a good job. You just want to stack your… Because you get that initial branding, you get a little

success and if you’re not careful, you don’t actually make sure your customers are wowed. So we go back to Make Your Dog Epic, and I think about the five wow benefits, and you’re going to ongoing training again this weekend. If anybody knows anything about J.T. Lawson and MakeYourDogEpic.com, continual education, the word is kaizon, okay? You say kaizon, yeah. K-A-I-Z-A-N. It’s this idea of continual improvement.

What am I saying? Look it up, folks. Kaizen, K-A-I-Z-E-N, Kaizen, is continuous improvement. The concept of referring to business activities that continuously improve all functions. The idea is you’re constantly trying to make it better. It’s an everyday thing. So you’re going out to training here.

Why are you going out to training this weekend to learn from perhaps one of the world’s most recognized positive reinforcement dog trainers, even though you already are a very well-known dog trainer?

Yeah, because you can’t stop learning. You have to always learn new ways, and other people have different ways that might work better than yours, and you just have to be humble enough to learn from them. Like there’s somebody trained LeBron James, somebody trained Michael Jordan, somebody trained Tiger Woods, like all these people who are great, they still had trainers.

So even though I think I know a lot about dog training, I’m humble enough to understand that other people have different ways of doing it, and I wanna go learn from the best of the best and just keep learning, and that way it transfers over to, it’s easier to train the dog, it’s easier to train clients.

It’s easier on everyone. And that’s the whole goal is to make systemizable processes that anyone can follow.

Now tell me this for a second. You know, you got this Kaizen philosophy of continual improvement. It’s constantly… and you’re actually excited to go to this training. Tell me about the guy that’s training you. What other celebrity, big time dogs has he trained?

Yeah, so he’s trained dogs like Benji. He’s worked in, he’s had TV shows on Animal Planet. He’s done… Benji? Yeah, Benji. Oh man, Animal Planet? Oh yeah. This guy is sick! And he also went to, he worked at, he trained to work as a SeaWorld for a while. Oh, come on! And he’s done a bunch of stuff, so I’m super excited to learn from him, and he’s bringing another trainer in. So, once we get through with that, we’ll start talking about him, but that’s the training we’re doing.

And again, I have to be very clear, you’re talking about going for ongoing training. You’ve already been trained, but you’re getting more training. You’re never done getting training.

Correct.

It’s Kaiser.

Never done. So hopefully, I’m going to give everybody five calls to action on today’s show. One, if you have a website that’s looking hood and not good, make sure you do some search engine optimization. If your website feels like it was made in the ghetto, hello, make sure that you optimize that thing. You don’t want your website to look bad, because if your website looks bad, the amount of leads you get will be sad, you’ll be depressed, you may live in a van down by the river.

Get it done, optimize your website. You say, I don’t know how to optimize my website. That happens to be something that we do. If you go to Thrivetimeshow.com, we optimize the websites of all of our clients, and you’re going to learn more about these clients by simply going to Thrivetimeshow.com, Thrivetimeshow.com, and clicking on testimonials. Second, you’ve got to optimize the branding. You’ve got to optimize the branding.

The site has to look good, but it also has to be search engine optimized. Those are two different ideas. You have to optimize the search engine optimization of the website. People have to be able to find it in the search results. People have to be able to find the website in the search results. Second, you’ve got to optimize the branding. Third, you have to design a system to over-deliver. Now, JT, we’ve been talking about this for a while, but one of the things that we’re doing right now is more and more people are starting to

reference Make Your Dog Epic on shows, on conversations, on social medias. And when they do that, it begins to… more and more people begin to refer the website. They say, go to this website, go here, go there. And so there’ll eventually be a time and place where you’re going to have hundreds of thousands of people all over the country linking to you, telling people about you, celebrating you, but you still have to wow every customer.

Yeah.

Why?

Because you can’t. It would be like doing all the branding of McDonald’s or Arby’s or Chick-fil-A.

Arby’s.

And then having, and then being Arby’s and saying, hey, we have the meats, and then having no meat. Or having a terrible product. If you get somebody there and then you’re a terrible product, then you’re never going to get referred back. So that’s what you have to, just like if we always got dog trainers or dog training clients But then we did a bad job

People will soon start to leave bad reviews Let’s start to leave bad video reviews and other people will start to know and they’ll never refer us out and we won’t get more

Clients, so it’s really really important that you Wow every customer now point number four is you have to gather Objective reviews from customers that actually like you and then point five finally you got to gather those video reviews from customers that love you Now folks on part two of today’s show. We are featuring an interview with Michael Levine. This is the public relations consultant of choice for Nike, Pizza Hut, George Carlin, Nancy Kerrigan. You’re going to love this interview. Then on part three of today’s show, Ryan Tedder is going to be… I’m going to put in a video clip of Ryan Tedder teaching you how to write music.

He’ll actually walk you through his process for writing music. I think it’s fascinating. I think you’re going to enjoy it. Again, I think it’s important that you study successful people and figure out how they did it. To learn more about dog training in Tulsa, go to MakeYourDogEpic.com. And then on part four of today’s show, we are doing testimonials. We’re going to have back-to-back testimonials from real clients that we’ve really worked

with to help them really grow their business here at the Thrive Time Show. So for anybody out there, if you’re looking for a checkup from your neck up schedule a free 13-point assessment today to grow your business at thrive time show calm JT we’re gonna end this thing with a boom. Are you prepared? I’m ready here. We go three two one boom All right thrive nation on today’s show at 710 in the morning The day of my birth. I’m recording this show actually I’m going to be discussing the deepest subject in the history over the world. No, actually I’m not. It’s just that when you play deep music, it all of a sudden makes it seem as though what I’m saying is somehow more profound, more incredible, more enlightening. Folks, what I want to talk about today is perception and public relations. And why do people actually trust the media? You see, on today’s edition of the Thrive Time Show, I’m going to be interviewing Michael Levine. Michael Levine is the best-selling PR expert in the world. He’s called the Michael Jordan of PR.

And he’s the founder, the inventor, the creator of what’s called the Tiffany Theory. Let me read it to you. Michael Levine says… Actually, let me not read it to you, because if I read it to you and you don’t know who he’s represented, you won’t care. So, let me read it with a deep, kind of a deep announcer voice. Here we go. Throughout Michael Levine’s historic career, he has represented 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times best-selling authors, comedians George Carlin, Joan Rivers, Sam Kinison. And Rodney Dangerfield. He’s represented musicians. Michael Jackson. David Bowie. And Ray Charles. As I mentioned earlier, he’s considered by most PR enthusiasts

and experts as the Michael Jordan of entertainment PR. So who is Michael Levine? Okay. Michael was born in 1956 as a dyslexic, he’s become a dyslexic best-selling author. What? Yes, he was born in 1956 and has become a dyslexic best-selling author, a public relations expert who over time has become my friend. Michael Levine is the best-selling author of one of the most incredible PR books of all time titled Guerrilla PR 2.0. This book forever changed the way that I view the press, the media, the news, branding, and public relations. Throughout Michael Levine’s legendary career, despite being dyslexic, as I mentioned, he’s become a best-selling author, an entrepreneur, a publicist, and he’s worked with countless big-time celebrities. And his theory goes like this.

give someone a present, and if 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 box is a fool, but instead because we live in a culture in which we gift wrap everything. Our politicians, our corporate heads, our movie and TV stars, and even our toilet paper. Public relations is like gift wrapping. Oh, I screwed that up. Public relations is like gift wrapping. Did that echo work for you? Okay. So, now, how does public relations work?

Well, okay, if you have a product or a service that you’re trying to sell to humans on the planet, for whatever reason, most people will reject the product or service that you’re pitching. Yes, when you are selling a product or service to your ideal and likely buyer, most buyers who have a sound mind simply will not believe you or the offer you’re making. Why? Ask yourself. Why don’t you believe most advertisements and product claims that are made during late night infomercials and commercials? Are you trying to tell me that the shake-white doesn’t work? However, for reasons that I cannot fathom, most people trust the media.

They believe the news. Thus, for whatever reason, people choose to believe that you and your product is more credible. If the media celebrates your company, endorses your product, or praises the products and services you offer. So on today’s show Michael Levine is going to walk us through six key points of how public relations works. Point number one, when you buy ads many people will not believe you or the offer you’re making. Point number two, when you score a public relations win it gives your advertising more credibility. When you get featured in the news when it says, as seen on Forbes, for some reason people think I’m more credible because I was the entrepreneur of the year at the age of 20 for the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce. For some reason, people think I’m more credible because I know Eric Trump.

For some reason, people think I’m less credible because I know Eric Trump. You get the idea though, right? Point number three. If you have a good story or message, you’re transparent and are authentic. If you can say words. If you are authentic, you can be effective. Point number four, PR brings forth a kind of credibility that ads don’t. Point number five, how Michael Levine got started in the world of public relations.

And point number six, we break down Michael Levine’s Tiffany theory. We break it down like fractions. We break it down. We break it down like a car that’s got flat tires. We break it down like a smartphone that you just dropped into a toilet that was slightly cracked. We break it down like Miss Wilson was breaking down sentence structure to me in second grade when she was teaching me how to diagram sentences yes folks we break it down folks we we break this show down like a like a 1989

Ford Escort when my transmission went out when I was in college folks today’s from me to your ear holes here we go and we’re still going we’re breaking down PR we don’t care about the breakdowns because we have a triple-a membership or a gold star member which allows us to have unlimited towing we can tow our vehicle and just get on with their lives drive for another 30 miles and break it down again. Just call AAA again. And it’s unlimited because we’re a gold member.

That’s how we’re going to break down PR, but we’re going to break it down, folks. Like. Get ready to enter the Thrive Time Show.

Three, two, one.

Boom.

All right.

Thrive Nation, welcome back to the conversation. It is a rare opportunity to interview the actual man behind what is known in the PR world as the Tiffany Theory. If you don’t know what the Tiffany Theory is, the Tiffany Theory… I’ll go ahead and… Jeff, can you read the notable quotable to describe… this is the notable quotable from Michael Levine, the most successful, arguably the most successful PR consultant in the history of the planet. He is a guy who has worked with three presidents.

He’s a guy who’s worked with Nancy Kerrigan, he’s worked with Cameron Diaz, he’s worked with Pizza Hut, he’s worked with Nike. And he wrote the Tiffany Theory, which has totally changed the game for PR.

And we had a chance to sit down with him and have him break it down for us.

Peel back that onion.

Peel back the onion. But raise a notable quotable for us, my friend, before we hop into it.

Whenever I first heard this, years ago when I started working with you, this really connected with me. It makes so much sense, okay? Yeah. So the Tiffany theory. If you give someone a present and you give it to them in a Tiffany box, it’s likely that they’ll believe the gift has a higher perceived value than if you give 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. Our politicians, our corporate heads, our

movies and TV stars and even our toilet paper. Public relations is like gift wrapping.

So Michael Levine breaks down the Tiffany Theory and how he got started in the world

of PR.

Well we have a kind of humorous way of discussing it in our industry, which is to say that advertising is what you pay for and PR is what you pray for. What that means is that if you take on an ad in Time or Newsweek or People or U.S. News and World Report or USA Today or the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times, you get a certain cost and the ad has a certain believability by virtue of the fact that it’s an ad. On the other hand, if you had a story in the Wall Street Journal or USA Today or the New York Times or the LA Times,

its believability would be at a rate of at least 10 to 1 because it would come with the imprimata or the authority of the Wall Street Journal USA Today So I think that is what’s underneath the idea that PR Advertising is what you pay for PR is what you pray for and today there is the world is so cynical people start People start with the assumption, they start with guilty until proven innocent, not innocent until proven guilty. And so when you educate your customers about the potential value of your product or service, and you do it with, you know, an advertiser.

But if you have a good story, a good message, and you’re transparent, you’re authentic, I think you can put forth a kind of credibility that ads don’t. What you say about yourself is not nearly as important as what is said about you by

others. How did you get started in the PR business? How did you get started?

All my life as a youth, I had two passions. I was interested in the entertainment industry, and I was interested in politics. So now I’m 17, scared and skinny, dyslexic, no money, no job, no education. I’ve got to figure out what to do. And when you’re 18, scared and skinny, I think you’ve come to conclude what I came to conclude, which is, Washington is Hollywood for ugly folks. And I come out here. See, I just look stupid, Clay.

I just look stupid. I come out here where the pretty people are. And that’s how the whole damn thing began.

So, in a nutshell, now that you’ve kind of ascended to the point where you’re known as one of the top publicists of all time, one of the top PR guys of all time, you came up with this thing called the Tiffany Theory. And the Tiffany Theory, and this is from your book, Guerrilla PR 2.0, which by the way,

I bought about 35 copies of, so I probably made the $35.

I call that 35, decision to purchase 35 copies a good start.

Yeah, I absolutely love your book. But you say here…

Well, Guerrilla PR is the most widely used introduction to PR in the world. And it’s not because of its brilliance nearly to the degree of its accessibility, which

is what you taught.

Yeah, you really teach the concepts at a third grade level, which my mind can grasp. And you say here, I define what I do as gift wrapping. If you package a bracelet in a Tiffany box, it will have a higher perceived value than if presented in a Kmart box. Same bracelet, different perception. How does this story pertain to small business owners across the country? Let’s say I own a plumbing business. How does this apply to me as a small business owner?

Okay. So let’s first, let’s take your question, which is a good one, and let’s cut it into some pieces that are bite-sized and we can think about. Okay. So first of all, I did not, I had a problem when I began my career in PR. May I tell you about that? Absolutely. First of all, I didn’t know how to do PR and second of all, I didn’t know what it was. Other than that, I was in good shape. Right. Yeah. So I had to come to, I had to create for myself and for others an understanding of what PR

was. And I said that PR is analogous to gift wrapping. And so if I come to visit you today, I come to visit your wife today, and I give her a gift and I give it to her in a Tiffany box, in her mind, the gift would have a higher perceived value than if I gave it to her in no box or a box of less prestige. Now, the reason that’s true is not because your wife is a jackass. It’s true because she lives in a culture in which we gift wrap everything. So we gift wrap our politicians and our corporate heads and our movie and TV stars and even our toilet paper. I’m Michael Levine and I thought I’d tell you this story.

Maybe it’ll be of some value to you. You know, about 25 years ago, our PR firm was running hot as hell and we had six of the top 20 musical artists in America on the Billboard charts. No company even had two and here we are with six. So we had the most number of successful artists in the country by far, but I still wanted to sign another musical artist who wasn’t been on the charts for a while, but I loved and respected greatly. I wanted to sign the great Ray Charles. Ray Charles. I decided that even though I had all these big stars, I was going to go after Ray Charles.

And I called him and I ultimately did sign him. I did sign them, but I’d like to ask you, listening to this right now, to try to guess. Just close your eyes and try to guess how many times I called Ray Charles before I signed them. Are you going to? All right. Let’s try to close our eyes. Close our eyes. Here we go. Did I call on A, 10 times, B, 20 times, C, 30 times, D, 40 times, or E, more than 40 times? So now close your eyes. Now write down your answer. I’m gonna give you the correct answer in three

seconds. One, two, three. All right, here we go. Correct answer is 46 times. I called Ray Charles’ office 46 times. You want to hear something crazy? I didn’t even need Ray Charles here. I had all the other big music stars. But I think the story for some of you may, may, may, may have impact when you think about all the tenacity required to go after your big dreams. I’m talking about little dreams, talking about big dreams. Anyway, I’m Michael Levine.

Get ready to enter the Thrive Time Show.

Three, two, one, boom!

All right, Thrive Nation, here we are back on a special edition podcast where we get an opportunity to sit down with the legendary PR guru, Michael Levine. This guy is the PR consultant of choice for President Bush, President Clinton, Michael Jackson, Prince, Pizza Hut, Nike, and he’s talking about how to be broke in America. Chuck, is this exciting for you?

Have you found yourself wanting to know how to become broke? This is on the top of my to-do list. Actually, I need to figure out today how to become broke.

So it’s kind of a topic that obviously is kind of sarcastic in nature, but he’s such a grinder. I think he just wants to lay out for the listeners out there, hey, do this and you will definitely lose, and do this and you’ll be successful.

Well, he’s an intense guy. You can tell when you’re listening in. He’s been there,

and so it’s good to listen in and pay attention to what he’s saying.

I’ll tell you what, Thrive Nation, you might want to put on a helmet when you listen to this exclusive interview with the Michael Levine.

If you want to prosper, if you want to… Listen, here’s the number one rule. If you want to be broke in America, I’m going to tell you how to do it. Okay. Tip for the bottom. Okay. In case any of your audiences listening to us now and they’re saying, gee, I want to know how to be broke. How do I be broke? I’m going to tell you how to be broke in America. Ready? Here’s the number one thing you’ve got to do. If you think like a victim, I promise you, I promise you, you’re going to be broke in America. Now, people listening, discussing, arguing about ideas and our civilization, maybe you’re talking even about income inequity, which is a very, very, very serious problem. You say, wait, wait, wait, Mr. Levine, everything you’re saying is kind of interesting, but

you know this game you’re talking about, this game, this game here, this is a rigged game. I know, you’re right. The game is not easy. The game is not fair. But with enough burning maniacal rage and focus, the game is winnable. The game isn’t easy. The game isn’t the game fair? Don’t sign up for that class.

What would victory look like?

If it’s successful, what would that be like? If it’s unsuccessful, what would that be like? What would happen if this was out? Usually what happens with ideas, Clay, one of three things usually happens with ideas. It’s a strikeout, it’s a single, or a home run. If it’s a home run, you don’t need a plan. If it’s a single, you better try to figure out how to steal second.

If it’s a strikeout, you better march your sorry ass into a room and figure out how, what the lessons are. Lessons learn the hard way. So let’s say there’s a small business owner right now. I see this all the time.

There’s small business owners who are like, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to come up with this great PR campaign. We’re going to do this, we’re going to do that, we’ll do this, she’ll do this, he’ll do that, she’ll do this, and then you’re saying if you add it all up, if we’re

successful, if it’s just a single, it’s probably not worth doing.

You better be a little resourceful or figure out how you’re going to steal second.

You’re just saying look at the outcome of where it would take you if it was a success and see if that’s worth your time.

The entire song bows down to the melody because that’s what the human ear remembers more than the lyric. They remember the melody. One, two, three. Based on whatever a track is or whatever the melody is, whatever the chords are, I kind of know where to go. One, two, three, four. And it’s on the and of the four. Like if I’m going to do a pop thing, I might go high. I like that melody better, huh? I don’t know what I’m going to do until I do it, and this will be the first time I’ve ever done it in front of cameras in real time. I’ve been noted as saying many,

many times that melody is the most important thing. The entire song bows down to the melody because that’s what the human ear remembers more than the lyric. They remember the melody. So I’m very hyper focused on that in this next section and what you’re about to see is me opening up a track, putting it into loop, putting the headphones on, turning the microphone on, and just spitballing.

1, 2, 3, 4

It’s hard enough at times like these

Put me on the way like these, I know Cause you never wanna go Tell me what you’re taking back Put me on the basic track, I know Yeah, you never let me know She said, time please won’t my life be full You don’t like this, you know And if you don’t get there, then I don’t mind

I just want something that you never get, it lies, I know She said, hey, I’ve been caught awake this morning, and I never would have woken up. I’ve never lied in ages falling.

Alright, so I’m just doing gibberish. I kind of have a gist of a verse in a pre. I had no idea what I was doing before. I’m just free, whatever. Yeah, the lies I know. Yeah. They let me swim. I’m born of my tears. I don’t… Oh, that’s kinda… I have an idea. That might be a chorus idea.

…on

Because day like this I might be crazy But I don’t march too much And maybe I just want you to know Sometimes I just want you to carry out the rhythm Like Donald might be on All I want is some place to go I can beat that and if you don’t get down I don’t mind. I just want something that you never gave the lies. I know

Because they like this I might be crazy, but I don’t match you much Maybe if they want a crazy that I’m watching my baby. I don’t match you much Maybe I just want you to know Sometimes I just want you to carry on To be the light on my beyond All I want is some place to go Woo-oo-oo-oo-oo So, I’m gonna edit some of this

Cause I kinda like this first pass a lot

I like being told

You might be wrong I know And if you don’t get there man I don’t mind I just want something that you never get lies I know Because a day like this I might be crazy but I just want somewhere to go, want somewhere to go I just want someone to go, want somewhere to go I just want someone to go, want somewhere to go I just want someone to go, want somewhere to go I don’t need a lot to be loved like Donald might be on.

All I want is some place to go. Woo. But you gave me like Donald might be on. But you gave me like Donald might be on.

But you gave me some place to go. All right. So what I have here is this. I’ll do one more pass just to see, but I feel pretty, like I said earlier, usually my first pass has a lot in it that is the one. What I can’t tell you is how did I think of that melody, which is probably the one question some people might be asking. And when I’m in sessions, if I do come up with something insane on the fly That’s not very often. The question is from other writers like where the hell did you think of that? How did you think of that like where did that come from? And I really don’t have an answer

that’s just years and years of writing songs I And years and years of listening you start your my brain starts to or has assimilated Based on whatever a track is or whatever the melody is whatever the chords are I kind of know where to go instinctively. Like what melodies, what shapes are going to work with those chords just because I’ve written over so many chord progressions. And if I think it might be a pop artist, if it’s Bieber or Sean, then I’m going to get into headspace of them. I’m going to sing it like I know the melody shapes that Sean would sing. I’ve written and produced with him many, many times. And many, many other artists. If it’s Ellie Goulding or if it’s Normani,

like I know what they’re likely to sing melodically. I know where they’re going to go. And that’s from the short answer to that is just I just pay attention. I pay attention. I listen to that so much music and have for so many years that you instinctively know where to go. So I know that like if I shift this any more to the right, no pun intended, it’s going to feel more country, maybe too country. So I might shift it, and even how I sing it, if I sing it with any kind of twang at all, it could start to feel country, but I could easily flip this to be more like in, I hate saying Bieber territory, but more his territory or like a pop artist. In a perfect world, I put it right down the middle, which is what I’m aiming for today. Something that like could pitch to a handful of pop artists,

a handful of country artists. Just a good song. Very simple, good song. Feel good song.

I think now my gibberish is already starting to tell me what this song is going to be and what it’s about, which is good.

I’m forming an idea.

Tell me what you’re taking back.

Put me on the basis check.

I know I don’t want to take you back. Got no place to go.

Tell me what you’re taking back.

Put me on the basis check. I know I don’t want to take you back.

Got no place to go.

Tell me what you’re taking back. Put me on the basis check. I know I don’t want to take you back. Got no place to go. Tell me what you’re taking back.

Put me on the basis check.

I know I don’t want to take you back.

Got no place to go.

I’m going to play a little bit of this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I just want something that you never get a lot of that. Oh, I just want something that you never get a lot of that. Oh, you can stay. I just want something that you never give your lies, I know Because things like this I might be crazy, but I don’t mind too much I just want something that you never give your lies, I know

Because things like this I might be crazy, but I feel safe here with you baby Like this thing might be crazy, but I feel safe here with you baby And I don’t care like this, you let it go Crazy, but I feel safe here with you baby And I don’t care like this, I wanna love the way you feel with you baby And I don’t need no other place to go. I feel safe here with you baby and I’m not trying to find some place to go.

So what I’m doing is, as the ideas hit me I like to record them more, I forget them. So I might change these lyrics 20 times. This might be garbage. I might throw the whole thing away, I don’t know but forming an idea

Okay, so I’m gonna do one more pass in case I get any other Course ideas, so I’m gonna say that it’s past one

Create a new track but the thing is I really like my verse and I just feel like That is the verse like I actually feel pretty solid Like I said earlier, I’m more inclined, my first pass on a verse in pre, very often, not all the time, but two out of three times ends up being the final, and then I’ll take a couple of approaches at a chorus. So if I’m thinking a pop artist like Bieber, whatever, he’s got a higher range than a lot of the country artists, so you could go, I could take this.

The pre-chorus goes right.

Like if I’m going to do a pop thing, I might go higher like in… I’ll be fending, what’ll I be done?

Anywhere you want, know that I’ll be yond.

Know that I’ll be fenced on, all the lobby yards, all the FBI. So, there’s another more pop approach. I might do one more just for fun. Call that… And just so I can preview these, I’m going to keep this simple. I’m just going to pull that down, and I’ll leave the past one up there.

That’s the first pass, right?

I’m creating multiple tracks so I can preview my different chorus ideas and figure out which one I like better. Instinct is to roll with the first one because it’s easy, but that’s also being lazy, so force myself to do a few more. So mute that, mute this, and I’ll do one more pass on a chorus. I’ve got to think about what I’m going to do first. Let’s see. Pay attention to where I start on the verse in the pre-chorus. So where you start a melody, it’s association with the first downbeat of that section.

The downbeat, the one beat of the verse, the one beat of the pre-chorus. You need to pay attention to, is the melody starting before the one? Is it starting on the one? Is it starting after the one? And if you’re doing the same thing in each section, no matter how good the melodies are, you will upend the whole song. You’ll pull the rug out from underneath it because everything’s starting and the key is switching up your patterns so the human ear isn’t just getting bored even if it doesn’t know why. It’s like, why is this boring? It’s like, oh, well, every

part of the song starts on the one beat, you know, starts on the down. So I’m going to make sure as I’m doing this, I know that I like my verse, I know that I like my pre, and I’m pretty sure I like the chorus or both of them for different reasons. So I want to see where am I starting on the verse and the pre, and this final pass I do, I’m going to intentionally start at a different point. So this is the end of the phrase, three, four, so starting on the two, let’s see where the pre starts.

She said.

So it starts kind of on the and of the four of the end of the bar. So it’s one, so. One, two, three, four. And it’s on the and of the four. So let’s see when my choruses start here. They both started at different times. So this starts, the last chorus starts two beats before the chorus.

I like that melody better, hold on.

I’ll be

There we go. All I, everything I’ve been, all I’ve been All I, everything I’ve been for I’ve been for Honey, I’ve been yours I’ve ever been loved before Everything is yours Honey, I’ve been yours

I’m not gonna say that I’ve ever been loved before Definitely not going with this lyric Honey, I’ve been yours So that’s one. I I just want something that you never get a lies I know You up and be low, and I’m rolling with two lies I know

Baby, I don’t often want to go that high You never get a lies I know Me sitting here with my piece of gum every past ten Like there’s a woman in this thing

You never get a lies I know

You never get a lies I know You never get a lies I know I don’t know why it’s got a little more country. Maybe it is. Maybe it wants to be pop. There ain’t nothing to me, you cannot, you’re on the way to us Oh yeah, say, I’m on love, I’m on loaded, I’m on love, I’m on, I’m on, I’m on feeling I’m on love, oh yeah, say, I’m on love, I’m on touching

I feel love, it’s funny, it’s a rushin’, I feel love, it’s been a while, it’s long All right, so I have like three different approaches here on the chorus. I’ll go through all three. And I may keep one, I may get rid of, I may combine two, I may get rid of all of them. There’s no way to tell. Hey, I’m Ryan Wimpy.

I’m originally from Tulsa, born and raised here. I’ve definitely

learned a lot about life design and making sure the business serves you. The linear workflow, the linear workflow for us in getting everything out on paper and documented is really important. We have workflows that are kind of all over the place. So having linear workflow and seeing that mapped out on multiple different boards is pretty awesome. That’s really helpful for me. The atmosphere here is awesome. I definitely just stared at the walls figuring out how to make my facility look like this place. This place rocks.

It’s invigorating.

The walls are super, it’s just very cool.

The atmosphere is cool.

The people are nice.

It’s a pretty cool place to be. Very good learning atmosphere. I literally want to model it and steal everything that’s here at this facility and basically create it just on our business side. Play is hilarious. I literally laughed so hard that I started having tears yesterday. And we’ve been learning a lot, which, you know, we’ve been sitting here, we’ve been learning a lot, so the humor definitely helps, it breaks it up.

But the content is awesome, off the charts, and it’s very interactive, you can raise your hand, it’s not like you’re just listening to the professor speak. The wizard teaches, but the wizard interacts and he takes questions, so that’s awesome. If you’re not attending the conference, you’re missing about three quarters to half of your life. You’re definitely,

it’s probably worth a couple thousand dollars. So you’re missing the thought process of someone that’s already started like nine profitable businesses. So not only is it a lot of good information but just getting in the thought process of Clay Clark or Dr. Zellner or any of the other coaches getting in the thought process of how they’re starting all these businesses to me just that is priceless. That’s money. Well we’re definitely not getting upsold here. My wife and I have attended conferences where they up what was great

information and then they upsold us like half the conference, and I

want to like bang my head into a wall, and she’s like banging her head into the chair

in front of her.

Like, it’s good information, but we’re like, oh my gosh, I want to strangle you. Shut up and go with the presentation that we paid for, and that’s not here. There’s no upsells or anything, so that’s awesome. I hate that.

Oh, it makes me angry. So, glad that’s not happening. So the cost of this conference is quite a bit cheaper than business college. I went to a small private liberal arts college and got a degree in business. And I didn’t learn anything like they’re teaching here. I didn’t learn linear workflows. I learned stuff that I’m not using

and I haven’t been using for the last nine years. So what they’re teaching here is actually way better than what I got at business school. And I went what was actually ranked as a very good business school. I would definitely recommend that people would check out the Thrive 15 conference.

It’s…

The information that you’re going to get is just very, very beneficial. And the mindset that you’re going to get, that you’re going to leave with,

is just absolutely worth the price of a little bit of money and a few days’ worth of your time.

I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9, and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark.

Hey, guys. I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic.

We love you guys, we appreciate you and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us.

This is our old house, right? This is where we used to live a few years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See? It’s nice, right?

So this is my old van and our old school marketing. And this is our old team. And by team, I mean it’s me and another guy.

This is our new house with our new neighborhood.

This is our new van with our new marketing.

And this is our new team.

We went from four to fourteen. And I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman. So we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts and actually build a team.

So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year.

In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month, and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship, and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us

to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us.

Just thank you, thank you, thank you, times a thousand.

The Thrive Time Show, two-day interactive business workshops are the highest and most reviewed business workshops

on the planet.

You can learn the proven 13-point business system that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. When we get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital?

How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems, so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve.

You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny,

but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and they’re like,

oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big, get rich quick, walk on hot coals product. It’s literally we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to

learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying. And I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses, or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own

business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever, and we’re going to give you your money back if you don’t loan it.

We’ve built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see it.

All right.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I’m gonna bring up my good friend, Ryan Wimpy, my good friend, Ryan Wimpy, and his dog, Odin, this dog has the ability to eat me, so I’m sort of concerned. I’ll pass the mic to you, and Odin, you can have your own mic if you want, whatever you want, Odin.

Okay, I’m a little bit afraid of Odin.

Hi, I’m Ryan Wimpy.

And I’m Rachel Wimpy, and the name of our business is Cryptop Canine.

Our business is a dog training business. We help people with behavioral issues and teach their dog how to listen. When I was learning to become a dog trainer, we didn’t learn anything about internet marketing or advertising or anything at all. Just dog training.

And that’s what’s so great about working with Clay and his team because they do it all for

us.

So that we can focus on our passion and that’s training dogs. Clay and his team here, they’re so enthusiastic. Their energy is off the charts.

Never a dull moment.

They’re at grind.

We’ve been working with Clay and his team for the last five months, two of which have been our biggest months ever. One, our biggest gross by 35%. Clay’s helped us make anything from brochures to stickers, new business cards, new logos, scripts for phones, scripts for emails, scripts for text messages, scripting for everything. How

I would describe the weekly meetings with Clay and his team are awesome. They’re so effective. It’s worth every minute. Things get done, we’ll ask for things like different flyers and they’re done before our hour is up. So it’s just awesome, extremely effective.

If you don’t use Clay and his team, you’re probably going to be pulling your hair out or you’re going to spend half of your time trying to figure out the online marketing game and producing your own flyers and marketing materials, print materials, all the stuff like that. You’re really losing a lot as far as lost productivity and lost time. Not having a professional do it has a real sense of urgency and actually knows what they’re doing when you already have something that’s your core focus that you already know how

to do. You would also be missing out with all the time and financial freedom that you would have working with Clay and his team.

We would recommend Clay and his team to other business owners because they need to be working on their business, not just trying to figure out the online game, which is complex and changing daily. So no one has a marketing team, too. Most people don’t. They can’t afford one. And their local web guy or local person that they know probably can’t do everything that a whole team and a whole

floor of people can do in hours and not just weeks or months. There’s a definite sense of urgency with Clay and his team. I used to have to ride other web people, I mean, really ride them to get stuff done. And stuff is done so fast here.

People, there’s a real sense of urgency to get it done.

The number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. We are Jared and Jennifer Johnson. We own Platinum Pest and Lawn and are located in Owasso, Oklahoma. And we have been working with Thrive for business coaching for almost a year now. Yeah, so what we want to do is we

want to share some wins with you guys that we’ve had by working with Thrive. First of all, we’re on the top page of Google now, okay. I just want to let you know what type of accomplishment this is. Our competition, Orkin, Terminex, they’re both 1.3 billion dollar companies. They both have two to three thousand pages of content attached to their website. So to basically go from virtually non-existent on Google to up on the top page is really saying something. But it’s come by being diligent to the systems that

Thrive has, by being consistent and diligent on doing podcasts and staying on top of those podcasts to really help with

getting up on what they’re listing and ranking

there with Google.

And also, we’ve been trying to get Google reviews, asking our customers for reviews. And now we’re the highest rated and most reviewed Pescemon company in the Tulsa area. And that’s really helped with our conversion rate. And the number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year.

Wait, say that again. How much are we up?

411%.

Okay, so 411% we’re up with our new customers.

Amazing.

Right. So not only do we have more customers calling in, we’re able to close those deals at a much higher rate than we were before. Right now our closing rate is about 85% and that’s largely due to first of all, like our Google reviews that we’ve gotten. People really see that our customers are happy, but also we have a script that we follow. And so when customers call in, they get all the information that they need. That script has been refined time and time again. It wasn’t a one and done deal. It was a system that we followed with Thrive

and in the refining process. And that has obviously, the 411% shows that that system works.

Yeah, so here’s a big one for you. So last week alone, our booking percentage was 91%. We actually booked more deals, more new customers last year than we did the first five months. Or I’m sorry, we booked more deals last week than we did the first five months of last year from before we worked with Thrive. So again, we booked more deals last week than the first five months of last year. It’s incredible, but the reason why we have that success is by implementing the systems that

Thrive has taught us and helped us out with. Some of those systems that we’ve

implemented are group interviews. That way we’ve really been able to come up with a really great team. We’ve created and implemented checklists. Everything gets done and it gets done right. It creates accountability. We’re able to make sure that everything gets done properly, both out in the field and also in our office. And also doing the podcast, like Jared had mentioned, that has really, really contributed to our success, but that, like I said, the diligence and consistency in doing

those and that system has really, really been a big blessing in our lives and also, you know, it’s really shown that we’ve gotten the success from following those systems.

So before working with Thrive, we were basically stuck. Really no new growth with our business.

And we were in a rut and we didn’t know…

The last three years, our customer base had pretty much stayed the same. We weren’t shrinking, but we weren’t really growing either.

Yeah. And so we didn’t really know where to go, what to do, how to get out of this rut that we’re in. But Thrive helped us with that. They implemented those systems, they taught us those systems, they taught us the knowledge that we needed in order to succeed. Now it’s been a grind. Absolutely, it’s been a grind this last year.

But we’re getting those fruits from that hard work and the diligent effort that we’re able to put into it. So again we were in a rut, Thrive helped us get out of that rut and and if you’re thinking about working with Thrive, quit thinking about it and just do it. Do the action and you’ll get the results. It will take hard work and discipline but that’s what it’s going to take in order to really succeed. So we just want to give a big shout out to Thrive, a big thank

you out there to Thrive. We wouldn’t be where we’re at now without their help.

Hi, I’m Dr. Mark Moore. I’m a pediatric dentist. Through our new digital marketing plan, we have seen a marked increase in the number of new patients that we’re seeing every month, year over year. One month, for example, we went from 110 new patients the previous year to over 180 new patients in the same month.

And overall, our average is running about 40 to 42% increase month over month, year over year. The group of people required to implement our new digital marketing plan is immense, starting with a business coach, videographers, photographers, web designers. Back when I graduated dental school in 1985, nobody advertised. The only marketing that was ethically allowed in everybody’s eyes was mouth-to-mouth marketing. By choosing the use of services, you’re choosing to use a proof-and-turn-key marketing and coaching system that will grow your practice and get you the results that you’re looking for.

I went to the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry from 1983 to 1985. Hello my name is Charles Colaw with Colaw Fitness. Today I want to tell you a little bit about Clay Clark and how I know Clay Clark. Clay Clark has been my business coach since 2017. He’s helped us grow from two locations to now six locations. We’re planning to do seven locations in seven years and then license. And Clay’s done a great job of helping us navigate anything that has to do with like running the business, building the systems, the checklists, the workflows, the audits, how to navigate lease agreements, how to buy property, how to work

with brokers and builders. This guy is just amazing. This kind of guy has worked in every single industry. He’s written books with Lee Crocker, the head of Disney, with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with Mike Lindell. He does Reawaken America tours where he does these tours all across the country where 10,000 or more people show up to some of these tours. On the day-to-day, he does anywhere from about 160 companies.

He’s at the top. He has a team of business coaches, videographers, and graphic designers and web developers, and they run 160 companies every single week. So think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. So in the weekly, he’s running 160 companies. Every six to eight weeks, he’s doing Reawaken America tours. Every six to eight weeks,

he’s also doing business conferences where 200 people show up, and he teaches people a 13-step proven system that he’s done and worked with billionaires, helping them grow their companies. So I’ve seen guys from startups go from startup to being multi-millionaires, teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom

through the system. Critical thinking, document creation, making it, putting it into, organizing everything in their head to building it into a franchisable scalable business. Like one of his businesses has like 500 licenses. That’s just one of the companies or brands that he works with. So amazing guy Elon Musk, kind of like smart guy. He kind of comes off sometimes as socially awkward but he’s so brilliant and he’s taught me so much. When I say that, Clay is like, he doesn’t care what people think when you’re talking

to him. He cares about where you’re going in your life and where he can get you to go. And that’s what I like him most about him. He’s like a good coach. A coach isn’t just making you feel good all the time. A coach is actually helping you get to the best you. And Clay has been an amazing business coach. Through the course of that we became friends.

My most impressive thing was when I was shadowing him one time. We went into a business deal and listened to it. I got to shadow and listen to it. When we walked out I knew that he could make millions on the deal and they were super excited about working with him. He told me, he’s like, I’m not going to touch it. I’m going to turn it down. Because he knew it was going to harm the common good of people in the long run.

The guy’s integrity just really wowed me. It brought tears to my eyes to see that this guy, his highest desire was to do what’s right. And anyways, just an amazing man. So anyways, impacted me a lot. He’s helped navigate. Anytime I’ve gotten nervous or worried about how to run the company,

or navigating competition and an economy that’s, like I remember, we got closed down for three months. He helped us navigate on how to stay open, how to how to get back open, how to just survive through all the covid shutdowns, lockdowns. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9

and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey guys,

I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to make your life epic. We love you guys. We appreciate you and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old house. Right, this is where we used to live a few years ago. This is our old neighborhood.

See, it’s nice, right?

So this is my old van and our old school marketing, and this is our old team. And by team, I mean it’s me and another guy.

This is our new house with our new neighborhood.

This is our new van with our new marketing and this is our new team.

We went from four to 14 and I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past and they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales, which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman. So we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year.

In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd. We’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank

you, thank you, times a thousand.

The Thrive Time Show, two-day interactive business workshops are the highest and most reviewed business workshops on the planet. You can learn the proven 13 point business systems that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. We get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop.

It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always want to be able to say, I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m

going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m

going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going

to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to

do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because, as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme,

get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and they’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get-rich-quick, walk-on-hot-coals product.

It’s literally we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. And I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying. I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research you will discover that the same system that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s gonna be the best business workshop ever,

and we’re gonna give you your money back

if you don’t love it.

We built this facility for you, and we’re excited to see you.

If we go back eight years ago,

think about the number of clients you had back then versus the number of clients you have now. As a percentage, what has been the growth over the past eight years, do you think? We gotta inspire somebody out there who just doesn’t have the time to listen to their

phone. Okay, so Clay, it’s like I would go up and down from about $10,000 a month up to about $40,000, but it’s an up and down roller coaster. And so now we’ve got it to where we’re in excess of 100 clients. That’s awesome. And so I would have anywhere from 5 clients to 20 clients on my own with networking, but I had no control over it. Without the systems, you’re going to be victimized by your own business.

For somebody out there who struggles with math, let’s say that your average number of clients was 30 and you go to 100.

As a percentage, what is that? I have doubled every year since working with you. So I’ve doubled in clients, I’ve doubled in revenue every year. That’s a hundred percent growth every year I’ve worked with. Now so, so I’m looking, we’ve been good friends seven, eight years and I’ve got doubled

five times. Which is just incredible. I mean the first time you do it, that’s one thing but when you do it repeatedly

yeah I mean that’s unbelievable. We’re working our blessed assurance off this year to double. We’re planning on doubling again. We’re incorporating some new things in there to really help us do it, but we are going to double again this year. I started coaching, but it would go up and down, Clay. That’s when I came to you, as I was going up and down, and I wanted to go up and up instead of up and down. That’s when it needed a system.

So creating a system is you have nailed down specific steps that you’re going to take no matter how you feel, no matter the results, you lean into them and you do them regardless of what’s happening. You lean into them and it will give you X number of leads. You follow up with those leads, it turns into sales. Well I’ll tell you, you know, it’s, if you don’t have a script and you don’t have a system, then every day is a whole new creation. You’re creating a lot of energy just to figure out what are you going to do. Right.

And the best executives, Peter Drucker is a father of modern management, he said, the most effective executives make one decision a year. What you do is you make a decision, what is your system, and then you work like the Dickens to make sure you follow that system. And so that’s really what it’s all about. So with a script here, we have a brand new gal that just came in working for us. She nailed down the script and she’s been nailing down appointments. Usually we try to get one appointment for every 100 calls.

We make 200 to 300 calls a day per rep right and she’s been nailing down Five and eight appointments a day Somebody out there’s having a script. What’s so she’s making how many calls a day?

She’s making between two and three hundred calls a day and our relationship is weird in that we we do If someone were to buy an Apple computer today Yeah, and or let’s say about a personal computer a PC the computer is made by, let’s say, Dell. But then the software in the computer would be Microsoft, let’s say, or Adobe or whatever that is. So, I basically make the systems and you’re like the computer and I’m like the software. It’s kind of how I would describe our relationship. Tim, I want to ask you this.

You and I reconnected, I think it was in the year 2000 and, what was it, maybe 2010? Is that right 2011 maybe or maybe even further down the road maybe 2013 2012 okay, so 2012 and at that time I had five years removed from the deep from the DJ business And you were how many years removed from tax and accounting software. It was about 10 11 years we met How did we remeet? What was the first interaction or some interaction where you and I first connected? I just remember that somehow you and I went to Hideaway Pizza. But do you remember when we first reconnected?

Yeah. Well, we had that speaking thing that-

Oh, there it was. So it was Victory Christian Center. I was speaking there. My name is Robert Redman. I actually first met Clay almost three years ago to the day. I don’t know if he remembers it or not, but I wasn’t working with him at the time. I asked to see him and just ask him some questions to help direct my life, to get some mentorship.

But I’ve been working with Clay for now just over a year. The role I play here is a business coach, business consultant. I work with different businesses implementing best practice processes and systems that I have learned here by working with Clay. And the experience working here has, to put it real plainly, has been just life-changing. I have not only learned new things and have gained new knowledge, but I have gained a whole

new mindset that I believe wherever I end up will serve me well throughout the rest of my life. Since working with Clay, I have learned so much. I mean, I would like to say it was everything about about business in terms of the different categories. I haven’t learned it all. But I’ve learned all about marketing. I’ve learned about advertising, I’ve learned about branding, I’ve learned how to create a sales process for organizations in any industry, I’ve learned how to sell. I’ve learned how to create

repeatable systems and processes, and hold people accountable. You know how to hire people. It’s almost like every aspect of a business you can learn. I have learned a lot in those different categories. And then again, the mindset that I’ve gained here has been huge. You know, working here you can’t be a mediocre person. You are a call to a higher standard of excellence and then as you’re called to that standard here you begin to see those outcomes in every area of your life. That standard of excellence that you want to implement no matter what you’re involved in. I would like to describe the other people that work

with Clay are people that are going somewhere with their life. Marshall in the group interview talks about how, you know, the best fits for this organization are the people that are goal-oriented. So they’re on their own trajectory and we’re on our own trajectory. And the best fits are those people where there can be a mutually beneficial relationship that as we pursue our goals and we help the business pursue those goals, the business helps us pursue our goals as well. And so I’d say people that are driven, people that want to make something of their lives,

people that are goal-oriented, they’re focused, and they’re committed to overcoming any adversity that may come their way. Clay’s passion for helping business owners grow their businesses is, it’s unique in that I don’t know if there’s anyone else that can be as passionate. You know whenever a business starts working with Clay, it’s almost as like Clay is running that business in the sense that he has something at stake. You know he’s just serving them, they’re one of his clients, but it’s as if he is actively involved in the business. Whenever they have a win, he’s posting it

all over his social media. He’s shouting it across the room here at Thrive. He’s sending people encouraging messages. He can kind of be that life coach and business coach in terms of being that motivator and that champion for people’s businesses. It’s, again, unique because there’s no one else I’ve seen get so excited about and passionate about other people’s businesses.

The kind of people that wouldn’t like working with Clay are people that are satisfied with mediocrity, people that want to get through life by just doing enough, by just getting by, people who are not looking to develop themselves, people who are not coachable, people who think that they know it all and they’re unwilling to change. I would say those are the type of people, and in short, anyone that’s content with mediocrity would not like working with Clay.

So if you’re meeting Clay for the first time, the advice I’d give you is definitely come ready to take tons of notes. Every time Clay speaks, he gives you a wealth of knowledge that you don’t want to miss. I remember the first time that I met Clay, I literally carried a notebook with me all around. I was looking at this notebook the other day actually. I carried a notebook with me all around and I just took tons of notes. I filled the entire notebook in about about three or four months just from being around Clay, following him and learning from him.

And then I would say come coachable. Be open to learning something new. Be open to challenging yourself. Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted.