Donald J. Trump & Robert Kiyosaki | The Art of the Deal & How to Achieve Massive Success + An Interview With Sam Walton's Right-Hand Man, Tommy Smith + Join Eric Trump & Kiyosaki At March 6-7 Workshop

Well, I wrote a book in the late 80s called The Art of the Deal. And to this day, it's the biggest selling business book ever written. And it doesn't change. I mean, the times have changed. The world has changed. Business has changed. But it doesn't change. And to a certain extent, it was about negotiation. And a lot of negotiations about honesty, be honest, because the other side, you're dealing with intelligent people. They're going to see it.

But have an idea, make sure it's the right idea, and never, ever quit or give up on it. And be straight, be honest, because you're going to meet a lot of these people all throughout your life. And if they respect you, and if they do more or less what you want them to do, you're going to have to show that great degree of honesty. So the art of the deal was a great honor for me because of its wonderful success. I remember when it first came out, it went immediately to number one on every list.

And it was a lot of fun, but it hasn't changed very much, and it probably won't. If we go a thousand years into the future, if we're here in the sense of nuclear weapons and all the kind of things that are being bandied about today, that's the big risk. I mean, beyond what Robert and I talk about is the big risk of, is this world of ours going to be blown up by some maniac or some idiot that doesn't know what they're doing?

But let's try and assume, which is a pretty big assumption, that we are all going as a race. We're going to be around. We're going to be here. The human race. It won't change. Negotiation will never change. It's always going to be the art of the deal. It's always going to be you're going to pick up that book in a thousand years. It's not going to change. It's going to be the same.

And if I could say, what was 1986 started a deal came out and that was flat broke. So Kim and I ran out and we saw you talking about your book. And so Kim and I ran out and we bought your book and I said, wow. And that's why it was such an honor to come and talk to you and all this because that book really straightened me out when

When I was so down, the art of the deal says, I can still think bigger. It doesn't cost any money to think bigger. And so that was, it is what you say, a very powerful book. I just love the story of the woman, Rink. And Kim loves the story of Norma. Norma became a star after that. But it is a very powerful book. And it's more than just negotiation. It's how you think. It's how you approach your problems. It's how you elevate yourself. So I personally thank you for that book because

Like I said, it pulled us out of our little funk we were in. Well, you know this, it's a great honor when you have a book that goes to number one on the Times list and every list. And not too many people can say that. Many brilliant people write books and many people write books, but not too many people can talk about being number one. And it really is. It's a great, it really feels to me as a great honor to have had numerous number one bestsellers. But in particular, it had such an impact at the time.

Now, I've also had a television show that continues that is a very, very hot show, and has been number one also. There's something about a book. I don't know what it is. It's our little prejudice toward education, perhaps. That is very, very special. I thought you know I always say that you're a billionaire, and I'm a millionaire. But when we come together as, and we both love real estate,

But you have big buildings and I have small buildings. But the thing we got together as teachers, and I think that's why you write your book, is to share what you know and, you know, to give to more people, knowledge. And that's why financial education is so important because, as you know, money doesn't solve the problem a lot of the times.

A lot of times you give a person money, you know, you feed a fit man for a day, whether you teach them, they go on forever. That's why books are so powerful. It's because people learn, they can share, you can share your knowledge, and they can come up. I think your best book, though, of all was The Art of the Comeback.

And I love that book because I think that's the book today, given the state of the world economy, is we got to come back. And if we all give up, if the world gives up, we don't come back. And I think that's the greatest lesson we think you imparted was, can you come back? Do you have the strength to stand back up, dust yourself off, and step forward again.

Well, the word you use strength is very important. You have to have that strength. And I don't know if that's God given. I don't know if it's something you're just born with or you develop it. And frankly, it would be wonderful if you could develop it. But I'm not so sure you can. But you need strength. And I had a great time writing the art of the comeback because I knew I was doing well. But a lot of people didn't think so. And I knew what was happening. So I'm writing a book. And I know things that nobody else knew. And when I did come back much bigger and better than ever before in the 80s,

I mean, to a point where many times it was like fun for me. So I had a great time writing that book. It's interesting when I make speeches. You talk about education and life and everything else. But when I make speeches, people say, why do you do it? Thousands and thousands. You've seen it. Thousands of people show up. We've had 55, 60,000 people show up.

And I really do it because I love education, and I have learned a lot, both good and bad. And if I can impart that to a lot of people sitting before me so that their lives could be made easier, and they can have just a better life, and you know, it sounds terrible, say, make more money, but making more money makes your life easier.

You don't have to worry so much about education and doctors, bills, and so it does make your life better. You see, the number one course reason for divorce is lack of money, which was surprising. I saw it the other day. There are many more people getting divorced today because they have financial trouble than two or three years ago, which is amazing to me. I never thought in terms of money and divorce.

But making money sounds basic and sounds almost crude, how to make money. But if we can help you in the making of some money, it's going to give you a better life. Right. I think the most important thing that you pass on, and I want to pass on,

is the spirit to go on, the spirit to stay strong. I was remembering this book about the Jewish people, and they've survived 4,000 years. And you know what kept them going? It was faith. You know, all the persecution, the things that were on, they said the number one thing they had was that faith.

It was a personal belief that they could be flexible enough and adjust and keep going no matter what. And I think that's what you pass on. That's what I want to pass on to people. I can remember from your book is that stay alive till 95. That's a good one. That's a great statement. Right. And that kept me going.

just kept me going because it wasn't an immediate comeback. When I lost everything, it was six years for me. It was only a million dollars. I know that sounds pathetic. I think it's fantastic. I know your story very well, and I think it's a fabulous story. Well, thank you. But it was worth everything. It was worth fighting back, paying off my bills, and coming out stronger on the other side. You could be anywhere doing a lot of different things, but you chose to be here.

and you chose to go somewhere, you said, man, I can go and I can get better, I can go and I can learn, I can go and I can maybe go from where I'm at to where I want to go. But one of the most important things that you will ever do or not do in your life is to value and seek wise counsel. To be coached hard means you have to be willing to be uncomfortable. 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 more time million dollar businesses outruistically invest five 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 in their hands. They started from the bottom, now they're here. It's the Strife time show starring the former US Small Business Administration's Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark, and the entrepreneur trapped inside an optometrist bunny. Dr. Robert Zooner.

two men, eight kids co-created by two different women, 13 multi-million dollar businesses.

We started from the bottom and now we're at the top, teaching you the systems to get what we got. Cotton Dixons on the hooks, I break down the books, seeds bringing some wisdom and the good looks as the father of five. That's why I'm alive so if you see my wife and kids, please.

And now three, two, one, here we go!

On today's show, we have an exclusive opportunity to interview Sam Walton's right hand man, Tommy Smith. First of all, his death was wobbly. It had those cylinder blocks on one corner of it. He was pressed wood.

It's like this. You buy these cheap office furniture stores today. That's kind of what his desk was. And then his couch, the couch in front of his desk was an old vinyl couch. Tommy Smith shares with us about the character, the drive, the intentionality, and the management style that allowed Sam Walton to build America's largest big box retail store. Sam Walton was famous for flying his own private plane from point A to point B as opposed to flying commercial.

and the man who rode with him on those flights was none other than Mr. Tommy Smith, today's guest. Some shows don't need a celebrity narrator to introduce the show, but this show dies. Two men, eight kids co-created by two different women, 13 multi-million dollar businesses, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the thrine time show.

What? Here we go!

Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes. Welcome back to their exciting edition of the thrive time show on your radio and podcast download and doctors. Yeah. I want to ask you a question and I don't want you to play the game with me. I want you to be. Well, I'm going to give you an answer. If you ask me a question, I'm going to give you an answer. And you always give me the direct answer. So I'm going to ask you the hot question number one. Have you ever been to a Walmart? Yes. Okay. Wes Carter. No BS. What's not? What's not? Pump up our guests too much here. Have you ever heard of the company? Walmart? I've heard of it.

Okay. Well, on today's show, we have the guy, that guy who helped to create the Walmart super center concept. This man worked directly with Sam Walton for nearly 20 years. And Tom Smith, I am so honored to have you on the show. How are you, sir? Hey guys, I'm doing great. Good to be here. Appreciate y'all having me and look forward to discussing the journey we had.

Well, I want to ask you, I was going to start at the bottom and at the beginning. I've read Sam Walton's book called Made in America. As my wife can attest, one of the few books I've ever read that when I got to the end of the book, I cried like I was at a funeral. That book is just so good. When did you join Walmart? And what was your role when you first joined Walmart? I joined Walmart, I guess in the

the fall of 19, I think it was 1980. And I was hired by a guy named Jay Parker, and he hired me on a management training program, I guess in the summer fall of 1980. And my first job was I went to a store store to 80 in Jasper, Alabama. The store was not open yet. It was

a dirt parking lot that had the roof partially on, but we were unloading freight. You have to understand the Walmart story is you did whatever it took, didn't matter if you were the store manager or the vice president or the stock. When you clean toilets, you did whatever need to be done. But I was unloading trucks, unloaded trucks from, I guess, daylight to dark and put merchandise up. But my first paycheck, my job was to answer your question. I was a manager, my trainee, and that was a, you can take that.

At Walmart, you can take a title and a quarter and buy a cup of coffee. But I was my first paycheck stub for two weeks. It was $115 for two weeks.

you're just bragging now don't know that i don't have a lot of money to me i don't want to i want to give listeners some context to our perhaps not as aware of the walmart the story as as you are or uh... as i am as it was a result in the research here uh... walmart today has approximately eleven thousand six hundred and ninety plus stores

I say approximately because they're always building something. They're always optimizing stores. And Walmart was started in 1962 by Sam Walton and his brother Bud Walton. When did you first interact with these guys? Because you were joining Walmart with Store 280. And the company now has 11,695 stores. That was kind of early on. I mean, what kind of access did you have with Sam? And how did you first meet him?

We actually had when I went to store 287 in Jasper, Alabama, there was, we had, I think there were 216 stores in the company that were actually open. We had 216 stores when I joined, and I first met Sam Walton at store 287 Jasper. Sam traveled, Sam was his own pilot. He flew us everywhere, and he and I have been together in that plane for many, many hours.

Sam flew himself everywhere. We had grand opening day. We always opened stores on Tuesday. And so the store manager was Don Getts. Lovely friend of mine still keep in touch with me today. But the store manager and assistant managers, they had heard that Mr. Sam was coming. You never knew where Sam was. Sam would fly in, unannounced, bury a plane at the airport at the FBO and drive in and surprise the store. He never wanted anybody know where he was. But we knew where he was that day. Grand opening day store, 287 Jasper.

And old Roy was alive. Sam had been quail hunting. He was a huge quail hunter. Well, he and Jack Shoemaker, Jack was the president of the company time. We called him the big shoot because he would come down on you with a big boot and he would fire you. So I remember and I was a trainee, so I wasn't invited to be with the group. So I wanted to meet this man named Sam Walton. We only had, like I said, you know, 215 16 sort.

So I remember them saying, here comes Mr. Walton. Well, nobody in the story made him because it was brand new. You know, I mean, no, the story was brand new. So he comes walking in and the old Roy was with him. Old Roy's dog food in the store was named old Roy. That was actually a real dog. Old Roy was a long-haired corner and one of Sam's quail dog is best quail dog and I've hunted behind old Roy. Well, old Roy was with Sam and Jack and they came walking up through the parking lot and

old Roy comes in the door and Sam stops and shakes all the management hands. Well, the very first counter in the store was a Brock BRCK Brock candy counter and old Roy walks right there, hikes his leg and pees on the counter. I swear to God to this, this yellow dog pees all over the candy and running on the floor. And I reach back behind the counter to service desk and grab a roll of paper towel.

And I'm wide and this big roll of brown paper towel up and I'm putting my hand on the floor to wipe up the dog pee. And this big huge hand goes right on top of my hand. I look up as Mr. Sam on one knee said, son, I'll get that. And so I shook Sam Walton's hand, but he had dog pee on his hand. I had dog pee on my hand and we shook hands. And that's the day that I met Sam was the grand opening date of store two of these seven, Jasper Alabama.

two eighty seven in jasper alabama now you said something that i think uh... the listeners uh... could easily miss if if we don't if we don't spend the time to dive on this deep dive on this uh... that same had big hands uh... well one i think we could deep dive on the fact that they shook hands for the first time well covered in uh... talking about he said it was a big hand it was a big hand but i think that this is a family that you did not many people know this but sam was a quarterback of the university of azure

Well, there you go. See. So he was a leader. He's always been a leader. He was quarterback of football team. He had big, big hands. And you never wanted to hear those hands wrap the table or hit the table because you knew when those hands hit the table that he meant business. But yeah, he had big hands. He really did.

Now Sam Walton in his book made in America, he's discussed that he believes one of his competitive advantages was that he literally could fly his own plane and he would do it. And he said he would fly out over to the edge of a city and he'd look out the window and look at where the edge of the development was. And he's like, well, that's where we probably need to put in our store.

Yeah, and where it was growing to. So he flew his own plane. This is this is not a something we could just skip over here. And you've flown with Sam in his plane. How many times do you think that you and Sam flew together? And you have a favorite story, a favorite trip. He went on where you thought, Wow. Oh Lord. That was a trip. We flew together up teen times. I don't know. I can't give you a number, probably 70, 80, 100 times.

But Sam always flew his own. They didn't he wouldn't fly on a plane that the pilots their hired pilots flew He was on plane the the call numbers of his plane was of 313 J 3 3 13 Jew yet. There was a twin engine Dead access to 318 And so he flew his own plate We put a hushed kits on it for a Christmas present one year and he got mad at us because we spent too much money

But, uh, and he would take all of the seats out of the plane. It was like a six-seater, maybe eight passenger. He took out during quail season. He'd take all the seats out of the plane and put dog boxes in there so he could haul old Roy and KD and Molly, and he'd haul all the bird dogs back and forth down to foul furious to go quail hunting. But, uh, and he didn't believe in having a plane detailed like you clean your car. That plane stayed full of dog air for 12 months. But, um,

I flew with Sam just numerous numerous times. Sam was the airplane was one of his many competitive advantages. You never knew where he was. Not many people knew this about Sam, but Sam, he may have had an instrument rating, but he didn't know how to use instruments.

Uh, Sam followed highways. He would take a highway map. I heard he did this. He would actually not read the instruments and just follow highways while flying. He didn't know how to read those. I guess he would look down at the highway and he would follow the highway and he would highway turned. He may take a shortcut going over to the highway over there. He knew how to read the altimeter. He knew how to read the fuel.

When you was it getting close empty gas does I saw him tapping on the fuel thing a couple times I was going oh my god But but he would get out there and he would he would fly the outside of town He would look in and he would check if there was a competitor in town to say if they was a k-mart store He would buzz the parking lot and turn his wings This go vertical with a parking lot and he would count the cut the cars the customer cars in the

Kmart parking lot, then he would go above Walmart store and he'd count the number of cars in the Walmart parking lot. And I'll tell you, if God bless the manager who had less cars than Kmart because he was stopping and going to go visit that store because I were, you know, I were responsibility to the customers in America was to lower their cost of living every day.

And if we delivered the quality service, the quality products at a lower price every single day with smiling faces and you spoke to the customers, there was no reason they would go anywhere else. So if you had a store that had less cars in your competition, that was a problem. And he would stop and fix that problem.

That's when he would land in the family. Nobody knew where Sam was. Nobody knew where he was. I kept everybody United States on their toes. How did you, there were so many associates, so many of you that worked there, thousands of people. How did you break out of the clutter other than covering your hand in urine as a way to attract the attention of Sam. I just work. I mean, you know, Walmart,

You know, Sam told me one time, guys, people asked me still today, and it's been a long time. People asked me today. A lot of people think they know what the success of the secret to Walmart was, whether it's distribution, whether it's, you know, IT, whether it was the replenishment cycles. Everybody has this grandiose, excuse me, darn idea about what the success of Walmart is. What was the success of Walmart?

was his people and Sam believed in every single person. He never shook a person's hand that he didn't believe in. He never shook a person's hand. He didn't look him in the eye. He never shook a person's hand that he didn't care about. And those associates knew it and the management knew it and I knew it.

But the key to Walmart Sam told me one day we were when we were starting this thing called a super center. And I'll tell you about that in a minute. We didn't know what we would do. Sam called me in his office one day and he said, Tom, I got this crazy idea. I said, well, I was a regional vice president. I had Oklahoma and Kansas and part of Missouri. And Sam, we're in a meeting in Bentonville.

And I look up and I see these big old hands through a window. He's motioning me with his finger to come there. And I open the door and I said, yes, sir, I thought I was in trouble. I said, yes, sir, Mr. Sam. He starts walking back to his office. We go back to his office. And in his office, Sam never had a door on his office because of the open door policy, any associate anywhere in the company could walk in his door in his office anytime. Anyway, he did not have a door. Wow.

No, it didn't have a door in his office. No, you walk right in. So, and then his couch right in front of the, in front of his desk, first of all, his desk was wobbly. It had an old cylinder block on one corner of it. It was presswood. It's like you buy, you know, those desks, you buy these cheap office furniture stores today. That's kind of what his desk was. And then his couch, the couch in front of his desk was an old vinyl couch and the vinyl was split and peeling off on the side.

and he had linoleum tile floors, a linoleum floor in his office and he was the wealthiest man in the world. But, you know, Sam told me one day, he said, Tom, and I was going to say, we went in his office and he said, Tom, I got a need you to help me. And I said, well, what is it, Sam? He said, I want to sell groceries. And I thought he lost his mind. I said, you want to sell what? He said, I want to sell groceries and I need your help. I said, well, what do you need me to help you with, Sam?

He said, Tom, I want you to help me find a way to convince a lady to put a white blouse on top of a piece of red meat. And that's how the Super Center started. And I thought he'd lost his mind. And I said, well, Sam, what else are you going to tell the chairman of the company? No, you're not going to help him. I said, I'm happy.

So I gave up my job. I said, I looked at him. I said, Sam, I've worked my whole life. But since I've been with you to get promoted to be a regional vice president, I said, you want me to give up this job? And he didn't have states that, yep. I said, OK, I'll do it.

So we were in the plane. What did your title become at that point? I know titles don't matter at Walmart, but what was your title? Were you the super manager of the super center? Were you the protege of the man? Were you white blouse on the red meat? Yeah, white blouse, the red meat guy with your hand on the hands. I don't really, you know what? I don't know if we had a title. We didn't just be in slam.

We took off as kind of funny after I said, yes, the next morning, you asked me about a funny story with Sam. I'll tell you one about me flying with him. This happened the very next day. So I said, yes, Sam, I'll help you say, great, meet me at the airport in the morning. I said, OK. Loretta boss was his secretary in Loretta. She was just about to retire. She called me and said, Tommy, Mr. Sam, what you meet him at 4.30 in the morning. I said, yes, ma'am, I'll be there.

So we made it to airport at 4.30, get a cup of coffee, they pull Sam's play, because you never know when Sam, I tell you this in his book, people said they tried to beat Mr. Sam to the office. Nobody could ever beat Sam to the office. He was, he was, whether you got there at four o'clock, four 15, four 30, he was always in his office working. But so we pull, they pull him at Sam's plane out and everything. And so it's probably four 45 and Sam and I get in the plane.

And Sam cranks it up like you get in your car in the morning, you crank it up, just put it in reverse and back out of the driveway. Sam cranked the plane up, cranked the engine to the right, because we got in the door on the left, he cranked the engine to the right. He was already in the pilot seat. I closed the door and he's already taxiing out to the end runway. He doesn't run any checks. He don't do checklists. He didn't do anything. It's just like a car. You push the gas in the front.

We're taking off on my first morning with, in the superintendent of the, I was a division director of the superintendent. So we, we take off down the, in Rogers, Arkansas, and we're just, we're just hauling butt down the runway about to take off and Sam pulls back on the yoke and the damn pin is still in the rear flaps. He forgot to take the pin out of the flaps. He went, uh-oh.

He reached and shut the engines down and we turned around, actually turned around to the end of the runway. Sam got out of the plane, pulled the pin out of the flaps and we took off. You. Hey, Tom, where did you guys open up your first super center? Well, we started the test. The thing was a test that we didn't know what we were doing. We didn't know how to get into food business.

We partnered with some guys. He was a mayor, actually, the mayor out of Dallas, and it was, oh, I want to say Tom Thumb. I forget his name. He was a mayor. He passed. I heard he passed away now. Really good guy. We started with three, what they call hyper mark USA. We opened the first, those are three really huge stores. The first one was in garlington, Texas. The second one was in Arlington. The third was in Topeka, Kansas,

Those stores are like 240,000 square feet. So I would charge to the buyers in Walmart and a buyer, this was a buyers, they'd die and go into heaven. But to buy products, upline products, much higher scale products to attract

as many people as you could get into a store because it was a laboratory. Those first three stores were a laboratory of how to generate a traffic B revenue and see how to handle the freight and what kind of volume you could produce. There was only really one combo retailer of any any count in the United States at the time and we studied them. That was car four.

It was bigs and bigs, a lot of Cincinnati. And we studied those guys a lot and kind of tried to emulate some of the stuff they did because Sam was always, he would take, if you were good at something, he would beat you at it without you knowing about it. And, but when you found out he beat you, then he was already better than you. And, but we opened these three stores in Garland, Arlington and Topeka.

did tremendous, tremendous buy. That was also our first entry into the fuel gasoline. We opened those three convenience stores and found out that we could sell more gas than a refinery could deliver us. We found out we could sell more groceries than the trucks could bring in. But we didn't know how to make any money. We were losing money. Really, you know, we were losing a lot of money. And I remember going over to

Sam and Helen's house every Sunday morning, Sam would go over to P and L's and stuff like that and we'd go over there. And I was all depressed because I'd never lost money. But Sam said, son, just keep your head up. We're going to, we're going to figure this thing out. So after about a year, maybe, I don't know, eight months, we figured out kind of what little bit about what we were doing. We were partnerships with a guy in Dallas. Walmart's not a good partnership. Anybody ever asked you, you're going to partnership with Walmart, just walk away.

because Walmart likes to dominate partnerships. You got to get along. Walmart dominates at the time. So we opened, had a store in Washington, Missouri. I think it was store 63. And we relocated that store from one side of the road to the other side. It was a 60,000 square foot store.

I think we built a hundred and twenty thousand square foot store. We doubled the size of the store, moved it across the street, opened a super center and grand opening day. I think that store did right at a million dollars grand opening day and it had gone. I think that store probably did. I think Washington did.

20 million a year before we relocated it. The year that we relocated it went from 20 million to 73 million. We knew then we had a winner. Yeah.

I have a question for you that I think a lot of our listeners want to ask you. You spent hundreds of hours. I mean, you spent just ridiculous amount of time with Sam. You're with him on a consistent basis. They're just so many hours. You spent with the man. What was he really like? You know, you saw the Barbara Walters feature where they're asking him about being worth a billion dollars. You've heard the myths.

Which it turned out to be true. See about the driving the old beat up truck having the beat up couch What was he like up close and personal and what was your relationship? How would you describe what your relationship with Sam was like? I Love Sam more than I did my father Sam was like my dad Sam was like all of our dads He would he would bust your butt when you didn't perform

But he put his arm around you and tell you thank you when you did it. Sam told me one day and we were talking about the secret of Walmart. Here's the secret to Walmart guys as people. And he told me one day when we were losing money and I was all disappointed and everything. He told me one day we were walking the store where I think we were in. I forget where I may have been Wagner, Oklahoma.

We walk in the store one day and he said, son, let me tell you something. I looked at him. I said, yes, sir. He said, you got to remember something. We're not in the retail business. We're in the people business and we just happened to be selling merchandise. Interesting. And that hit me like a ton of bricks. I said, damn it, you know, he, this was man right. And then later on in afternoon, he said, did you understand what I said? And I said, yes, sir, I did. And he said, Tom, let me tell you,

how to be successful in this business. And I looked at him, I suggested. He said, Tom, higher below average people pay an above average wage, treat them with dignity and respect, and they'll be loyal forever and will always be with you.

Could you repeat that again? Wow. Because that right there was really, really good. And I'm just trying to marinate on that or trying to take notes on that. Could you repeat that again or paraphrase that again? That was good. Well, sure. He said, you know, he said, son, do you want to know how to become successful in this business? I said, yes, sir. He said, son, if you will always hire below average people, pay them an above average wage,

treat them with dignity and respect. They will be loyal and with you forever. That is good. See, that is a knowledge. That will sell. That dog, that dog will hunt and it'll be on your candy. And you look around, you look around the country today, dude. Nobody. You know what? Some of us old guys, me and Ed Maggie and

And a lot of the guys, my buddies that, you know, have left, we still talk every now and then, have we thought about getting together and putting a retailer together? We'd kick everybody's butt, because nobody practices that anymore today. Yeah. What would you name it? Tom Mart. No, probably name it. I don't know.

as you let me give me some time to think about how do you name is e-mart there you go that's a name that's a good that's a good that now sam sam wilton uh... he's a guy who led a certain way and you can take this as far as you want in my opinion uh... we're we're right now we're on the the the tom at times shows so you you have the floor here

When you left Walmart, right? Because when Sam passed, I would like for you to share about what it was like watching your dear friend and father figure battling to the end. What was Sam Walton like during those last couple of years? And what were you going through as you were watching him fight for his life? Well, I can give you firsthand, you know, knowledge of that. Not many people came up at that time.

I had, we had grown the super center division. I don't know, we had, I don't know, maybe a hundred, 150 super centers. And I had gotten the point where I was ready to do something different. And I went, I took over the state of Texas. The state of Texas, I want to say, I forget how many stores we had in the state. I want to say there was 300 and

81 or maybe 400 stores in Texas. And so I ran the whole develop the whole super center concept division and all that kind of stuff. And then I went to Texas. And Sam, you heard me say earlier that Sam had 87,000 acres. Well, I didn't tell him any acres, but Sam got 87,000 or had 87,000 acres and file for your is Texas.

And that's was the quail hunt. He would always take his management down there. He would take, you want to know how keen Sam was before he hired an executive from another company or anywhere. He would take them quail hunting. You can find out a lot about a man with a gun in his hand. Is he cautious? Does he think before he shoots? Does he protect the dog?

Does he just shoot and aim or does he aim and shoot or does he look at his surroundings? That was Sam's interview. Then you sit around the fire and you talk to a man about his wife and his family and his church sitting around the fire. You can find out a whole lot more about him than you are sitting in a steel shirt sitting around an interview tape. So everybody, we hired, they basically went quail hunting with us.

But Sam had that hunting land down there. I basically took care of his land. Sam got sick. And, you know, everybody's he tried to. And I'll tell you the day he found out he got sick, we had been hunting down at the ranch. And we sent everybody home. If we had we hunted for like three weeks straight, he would bring vendors down. He would bring the district managers down. He'd bring the regional vice president's down. And then the division will come down and

I'd stay there and help him close up the camp and load all the dogs up, close it up when bird season was over every year. And Sam had, he had left his keys to the old old red truck you talking about. I've been in it many times, and it's in the museum, I met Bill now, but he left the keys to the truck inside the ice room. In the ice room, everybody left with

quail. He, he breathes it in there, clean it and freeze it and everybody left with a cooler quail packed on ice where he had left his keys in this ice house. And he looked over and it was locked and he saw him laying over there on top of one of the cougars. And he broke the window of ice house, which I had to get fixed when he broke the window. And he climbed through the window of the ice house to get his keys. Well, they had a

sound always worth you seeing his pictures in his in the books and stuff. He always wore dog whistle when he was hunting to call his dog. He had a dog whistle and he when he climbed through the window, he thought that that whistle pressed to get the whistle pressed against his sternum in his chest. And he thought he just bruised the bone in his chest with a continued to hurt. And I saw him press on it a couple of times in the next two or three, four weeks. And what it was is that's when the bone cancer started.

So that's when he found out he better go to the doctors. That's when the bone cancer started. But then you can move forward, you know, two or three years. I had Texas and Sam, we brought Sam, but Sam had all kind of experimental treatments all over the country, all over the world for that matter. We brought him to MD Anderson and Sam and Helen stayed at MD Anderson. And when Sam began to get really sick,

He got to stand. He visited stores every day. Y'all don't understand. He loved his associates with all of his heart, with all of his might and he loved his customers. And because the better an associate could do, the more they could benefit their family, the more their family, you know, we could lower the cost of living for the customers and everybody won. But when Sam got really sick,

I was down there. Sam was a very, very modest man. And I remember going to MD Anderson. Miss Miss Helen, but ask me if I saw time do you mind to give Sam a bath today? Because Sam didn't. I mean, he was just very modest and I kept Sam taking bath. He'd look at me. He said, OK, boy, we're going to go visit some stores. Miss Helen would beg him. Sam, please don't go visit these stores. Please, you're not strong enough. Well, you know what we did?

I think his name was a, I forget the guy's name was in the pharmacy division. Wesley Wright, Wesley Wright still living. He's a great guy. You'll talk to him. He's an awesome guy. I think it was Wesley that helped us make a belt for Sam to wrap around his little old waist that I could put my hand behind his coat and hold him up. That was putting my handle, a Velcro type handle that we would walk Sam through stores.

And when he, his knees balked a little bit, we just hold him up. We walked down. He was so sick. We walk and he had a pump on his side. It was pumping that experimental sheet blood, I think, was what they were doing, testing some stuff. We'd walk Sam through the stores and he'd go to two or three stores in a day. And he would just look at me and shake his head when it was time to go. Then I would get him taking back up to him, the Anderson. Um, but

You know, the book doesn't do it justice. He loved his people. He loved every single one of us. And I remember Rob Walton, his son, Rob, who ended up being a chairman of the board, Rob called me. I want to say it was a Thursday afternoon. He called me and said, Tommy, you and Houston. I said, yes, sir. And he said, we're coming to get that. And Rob had bought Rob

citation. I think it was a citation five or something. Sam hated to spend money. Good God of money. Sam always wanted. I don't think he'd let us buy us prop. You know, prop planes, turbo prop planes. Rob, his son goes out by the citation. He was really mad at Rob by the citation. Much money. And Sam was on the front.

cover of every magazine in the world is, you know, the wealthiest man in the world. And Sam was pissed off because his son bought a jet, but he called me and said, uh, Tom, we're coming to get that. So I remember, uh, being went to Houston, West Lakes, uh, airport is about six 30 that night. Uh, Rob landed. Rob was flying the plane. We went and they brought Sam and the ambulance and we loaded them up.

in Rob's plane and flew him back home. That was close to the end. And Sam went home and he couldn't stay home long. He went down the hospital down there and I think was spring day. And I guess the next week, that's when President Bush came and we were there when he got the Medal of Freedom. And I was standing right there and saying Medal of Freedom

He was in a wheelchair. He couldn't stand up. And, uh, what do you call this, folks? FBI, whoever, CIA, whoever they come through and make sure they sweep the building. Yeah, they were trying to, you know, tell us what to do. Hell, they didn't know they were the Walmart. We did what we wanted to do, not what they want us to be. Sam was standing up or Sam got on the stage and, and I still have the videotape and you can Google it and watch it with President Bush.

breaks up when he's talking to Sam about giving his speech about presidential mental freedom and Sam was unable to stand and President Bush was going to hook the metal around his neck and Sam stopped him. He put his hand out and he stopped him and Sam looked over at his wife Helen

And he shook his head, no, it hurt. And then he grabbed the hold of that wheelchair, those arms of that wheelchair and he stood up by himself. He didn't want any help. He stood up. There wasn't a dry eye anywhere. It was like, that's the man. That's what he always did. He stood up for us. He fought for us. He fought that cancer and that stuff just got him. But you know what? That doesn't matter. His spirit lives on. It lives on today and me.

It lives on the day and a lot of us across this country. Unfortunately, you know, the people that never met Sam, they work at Walmart today, the folks that know Sam and know his beliefs and his heart and how we built. Listen, when I went to work for Walmart, we didn't have a modular, we didn't have a schematic, we didn't have, we had to order our own merchandise, we had to

to unload it off the trucks. We had to get those damn green ticket guns and put green stickers on it. And then we had to go up front and run the registers. And, you know, the three foot rule, you know what that three foot rule is? No. If any customer ever comes in three foot of you, you do three things. You look them, you smile, you look them in the eye and you greet them. Oh, nice. Wow. Everything. Oh, and if you got caught not following three foot rule,

You just, hey, why not? Because the customer is the only reason we were there. Yeah. How is Walmart different? How is it different now than it was when you were there? Man, if I have one word to say how different, I mean, what's different about it? It's people. People was a strength back then. And I think people is the weakness today.

Walmart has all of the systems. They got the trucks. They got all the technology that money can buy. They can buy all of the merchandise that they want. They can buy it at the cheapest price. They can buy it from China. They can buy it from Indonesia. They can buy whatever. Money is not an obstacle to Walmart. Walmart can buy all the real estate they want. They can hire all the contractors they want. They are the king of whatever you want them to be the king.

But what's holding them back today is the lack of focus on people. Because you say, I don't care. People talk about these millennials with all these tattoos and all this. And I hear these things, young people, they don't get it. But let me tell you something. People are people today, just like they were people in the 80s, just like they were in the 1950s. If you treat people with dignity and respect,

they're going to respond, and they're going to do what you ask them to do. They may speak a little bit different language, and they may look a little bit different than we did back in the, you know, 60, 70s and 80s, but they're still red-blooded God-bearing Americans for the most part. But Walmart has gotten away. They think that the, these, I don't know what you call them, PhDs and all these folks with all these damn computer degrees are smarter

then a store manager who's out there with the associates on the sales floor every day. You know, how many Jacks sits jumping Jacks, should I buy? Oh, the store managers in Walmart today can't buy any merchandise. A human being inside a Walmart store today cannot order any merchandise a computer does it. Back when we were coming up, when we built Walmart, we ordered every single piece of merchandise in there. What no computer order and nothing. It was all ordered by people.

So every item has a season and every season has an item. So you sell more jacks in wind, July, or you sell more coloring books. When in June, when you're going to everybody buys color and books and colors and take in the car when they kill on vacation. So the kids are shut up. You know, when do you sell the most hair? You know, you know, when do you sell the most plastic worms?

If efficiency is on a computer, don't know that damn stuff. People do. So the difference today in Walmart, whether it's it's all over the case, it's not just Walmart guys. I'm not picking a Walmart. I love Walmart, but it's it's it's people that they've lost the emphasis of people and they are hiring people based on their degrees versus their people skills and

I don't get it's all about people I don't care whether you're selling merchandise or real estate or cars or you're selling computer equipment it's all about people because you know what takes people to push the buttons.

You know what I'd like to do just to pile on and I want to kind of tee this up here. I've got two final questions for I know Z has a great question for you and West does. After Walmart, you went on to have a continue, a very successful career. Can you share with the listeners your next role, the next big retailer you went to work with after Walmart?

Yeah, I left Walmart and went to work for Home Depot. I got a phone call one day from a guy. I didn't ever didn't know the guy's name was Bernie Marcus. And he called me. And he said, Hey, Thomas, Bernie Marcus. I said, I'm sorry, Mr. Marcus. I don't know your I'm Tom Smith. He said, Yeah, no, you're Sam. Always said, you're one of his best ones. I'd like to know if you would come to Atlanta and talk to me and Bernie and me and Arthur. I didn't knew Arthur was I said, who's Arthur? He said, Arthur blank. He and I was the co-founders of Home Depot.

I said, well, sure, I'll come talk to you. So they came and picked me up. I flew to Atlanta. We went to chops in bookhead that night and they offered me a job. The question they had for me was Tom. They knew I had done the super centers and they said, Tom, how does Home Depot continue to grow in through the year two? This is kind of funny. It tells the old name. I just Home Depot continue to grow through the year 2020.

if we're only serving in my state populations of 500,000 a greater, which have, you know, serving cities, they knew they needed to give them smaller markets across the country. And that's what I don't know, but I'll find out. So I took a job with Home Depot and created a new division of Home Depot called the Crossroads, a crossroad. I don't know if you guys are city selectors, you really don't know what a crossroad is, crossroad anytime.

Anytime where road meets, that's where an intersection is. That's how county seats were formed, where farmers could get to town and get back home on their horse and buggies, but so the sun went down. And that's where county seats and so forth, where roads cross or where people meet. So we created a new division called Crossroads at Home Depot. And that division was up and running. We ran it, I don't know, maybe

three or four years and then they was folded back into the Home Depot because we figured out how to run it and fold it back into Home Depot. And after Home Depot, I met these, I call them surfer dudes of John and Randy Price. They kept trying to get me to come out to California for, I don't know, three, four, five years. And I kept saying no, I'm a

I'm a son guy. I'm a gentleman. I open doors for ladies. And I say, yes, ma'am. No, ma'am. Thank you, please. I wouldn't. The California wasn't for me. Well, I guess it was. I, uh, I went out in California and was a CEO of this company called Fry's Electronics. We had, I think, seven or eight stores at the time.

And we grew that company from Titan. I think we were doing $100 million when I got there. And when I left, we did $2.8 billion. I was there for, I guess, five years, a little right at five years. And then I had the opportunity to go to a company. And I'd never, I'd always been in successful companies. And I got a phone call one day from a pet hunter that used to do work for me at Walmart.

And she wanted to know if I wanted to go to Boston. Well, hell, you know, you go from San Jose, California, Boston. That's by far as you can go. I'll go talk to him. I went up there and I caught a red eye and flew to Boston. And I met with these guys up there. And they offered me a job and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Back in the long story, they ended up at a place called Bradley's. Bradley's was, you may have made out of her to Bradley's. They're out of business today.

They're like the target of the Northeast. They were an upscale kind of like higher than Walmart. They sold a higher quality goods in Walmart. And they were in bankruptcy chapter 11. And we, you know, I kind of put some programs and some people in place and brought some people with me and kind of retool that thing and had some good leadership there. And we, you know, got Bradley's back on the

of Nasdaq. It was on New York Stock Exchange. Got it released on Nasdaq. Did that for a few years. And I got a phone about it. Boston is a wonderful place to visit, not to leave. I don't like cold weather. It's just cold up there. Guys, and on April the 17th, it snowed 19 inches. And it took me two hours to get five miles. I got home and my wife said, are you ready to get out of here? I said, oh, yeah, I'm ready to go. Anyway,

I call that headhunter friend of mine Elaine Erickson and hey Elaine if you listen but anyway and the ended up with an interview for a place called WH Smith never heard of it. It was a large of the oldest retailer in the world. Wow. Based out of based out of London or Manchester, England. There in all the hotels and airports around the world.

And you've seen them in airports and hotels, WH Smith bookstores or Smith booksellers. And so I took that job as I ran North America, which United States, Canada, Caribbean Islands, Dominican Republic, Hawaii. I acquired a couple of companies in South America and San Diego down there. And that was great, dude. I'm going to tell you something.

a really, really fun deal and 9-11 hit. Well, you're in a travel business and planes flying to towers and they shut travel down, the world changed. So after 18 months of after 9-11 trying to get the business back, Webgate cement sold, the US operations

to the Hudson group. So if you're in airports and hotels, you now you see Hudson news or the Hudson group. Yeah. Yeah. That, that, that is, that's WH Smith. Okay. All those stores are WH Smith. I did that for around those stores. And we sold out to Hudson news. Well, when we sold out, I played golf for about six months, eight months. And my wife told me I was losing my mind because I needed to go back to work.

Well, I told my wife I wanted to go home. I'm originally from Meridian, Mississippi. I grew up in this metropolis area called York, Alabama, population, the whole population of the counties, 3,200 people. And I loved it. Oh, wow. Overpopulation is a danger. Yeah, not, you know, those saying you spend the first 18 years of your life trying to get out of your hometown. You spend the rest of your life trying to get back to hometown. I wish

You know, I loved it was the best place in the world to grow up as a kid and a child. Originally from Meridian grew up in York, Alabama. And I told my wife one day, I said, baby, I want to go home. And my wife Ellen is from Chicago in her city, Chicago. No, you don't want to go back home there. You don't want to go back home. Right. You don't want to go. Yeah. She. Right. I mean, she grew up looking at Rigley Field on Dover Street.

And I said, I want to go home and she looked at me and she said, Mississippi. And I said, yeah, baby, I want to go home. So bless her heart. We ended up back in Mississippi, 16, yeah, over 16 years ago. And I came here and I look, I knew that I was done with the corporate world. I have after 28 years in the corporate world, almost 29 years. I started looking around the state of Mississippi.

to figure out what I was going to do with my life. I knew I wouldn't go to work for anybody else. I had done that for, you know, 27, 28, 29 years. And, uh, and I don't, you, you figured me out pretty, pretty blunt by now, but I don't mean anything disparaging by this, but I went in trying to figure out what I was going to do around the state. I was always had a keen interest in land and real estate, but I've always been an outdoorsman, a hunter, a fisherman. I've always loved the outdoors.

I went in 30, 40 real estate offices from across the state, Northeast, South Tennessee, line to the Gulf Coast. And about 95% of the folks I met in real estate were dumber than a bucket of rocks. And I told my wife and Ellen got her master's from Pepperdine. She owned a couple of businesses and we had sold them along the way. I'm a businessman. My wife is a business woman.

And I told Ellen one night, I said, I think I figured out what I want to do. She said, what is that? I said, I want to get involved in real estate because there's a huge opportunity in the state of Mississippi in real estate. And Ellen looked at me and she said, you know, I do too. I want to get involved in real estate. I said, why have you ever told me that? She said, because you've never asked me that. Well, 16 years ago, we both got involved in the real estate bins. And here we are.

And we operate Tom Smith, we own Tom Smith land and homes. We got the largest, we sell more land than anybody in the state. We're probably one of the top five largest land companies in the Southeast and part of the country. Can people see photos of you there too? I know they can see photos of property. I'm looking at it right now. Can they see photos of you there too if they go there right now?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, it's a fine looking man. I'm looking at it right now. See, that's why people are going there. People are going there for the eye candy. Now, see, I want to ask you this here. You have the floors that you can ask. You can ask Tom. I ask you this. What is the tough question you have for Tom? Well, I've got kind of a fun question. Thank you, first of all, for your time and your story. It's been delightful. And you know, that's, uh,

That's a little bit of American history right there. I mean Walmart is, I mean that's American history. Sam Walton and all that insight. That's awesome. It's really fun. But you said you opened up approximately 100 super centers before you kind of went off to the next thing. What was the most successful one? Which one made the most money? Do you recall top of your head or what have your top producers?

uh... mccallister oklahoma was really good really uh... down there in the prison well that's nice yet mccallister is really good uh... god there's a bunch of dude though and we you people would think that you know that's a small market in mccallister is probably what i mean that's not one people get discharged from prison they want to buy all the culture they want to buy that guy because they've been a prison i gotta buy all the stuff all the accoutrements that makes sense that makes sense what we found what we found was

and it didn't take a rocket science. All these college graduates didn't figure this crap out, but you take a Walmart. You know how we figured that? We did it by the old-fashioned way. We took the checks that people used to write by hand. We'd take the checks and we'd go through and write them all down where their address was and figure out where people were driving from, how far they would drive. So when we opened the supercenter, we did

to the people back in the cash office and the system managers before we'd write all this stuff down, we'd figure out that folks were driving as far as 100 miles away to come by groceries. So our trade territory went from about 20 miles, 30 miles up to 100 miles. So you were getting three times of the population coming into a store is what you normally would get with a normal Walmart store.

Because everybody's got to eat. Don't everybody have to shoot squirrels on Saturday afternoon. But everybody's got to eat. So, you know, whether or not your sporting goods department got bigger or not, you add food to it. You're going to sell more sporting goods because you got three times or twice as many people. So three times as many people shop in the same size sporting goods department. You're going to sell three times more guns. You're going to sell three times more rifles. I'm more of a shield. You're going to sell three times more of the fishing rods. And the same is true for

arts and crafts or domestics or or underwear or whatever you're gonna because when you bring that much in so it took us a while but you know the successful stores they it we didn't have let me put it to you this way we didn't close any stores or Walmart we only closed one store that I was ever ever associated really the Sam was alive we only closed one Walmart store and that was Robstown Texas and there's a real

It was called Robberstown. That store never made a profit because there was so much stuff going on. It was the highest theft store in the United States. Wow. And we tried and tried and tried, but we never made a dime profit out of the store and we closed it after I guess Robberstown was open probably 15 years before we closed. We lost 15 years. I'll give you the most fun story that I can about a super center. Perfect.

Wagner, Oklahoma. You probably don't even know where that is. Oh, I went to high school 20 miles from the bulldog. You get me? It's just not far from Tulsa where we are right now. Dude. Yeah, you'll enjoy this. Wagner, Oklahoma was about on the map. Wagner, Oklahoma had the smallest Walmart store in the United States of 29, 808, 29,808 square feet. That's the smallest store we ever opened. Well, Wagner had one.

Kyle Lee, the man manager's name was Joe. Oh, it just hit me. I see his face and that's been 40 years ago, Joe. Kyle Lee bald headed Joe. But anyway, so whether whether Rob's whether it was Christmas week or January the second week in January Wagner, the volume really never changed. It did the y'all going to laugh at this, but I remember it.

it did $30,000 a week. Well, whether it was in December or whether it was in January or June, basically Rob's, I mean, Wagner did $30,000 a week. You do the budgets for Wagner, Oklahoma did a million, five a year. Well, Sam would wind people up prior to

coil season. Do you understand what I mean when I say wine people up? Did he serve them Red Bulls before Red Bulls were legal or allowed or around it? Did he would he would challenge you? He would he would he would tell you that he thinks you can do more and telling us at that time that we can do more. That's like telling the football team that you know there are a bunch of sixties they're gonna run over you. Well,

Sam would wind us up before coil season. Well, Sam had told me, he said, Tom, I think we got something here. He said, we know we can do business in these bigger markets. We know we can triple our volume. We're doing 60 million, 70 million. He said, we just about got figured out. But he said the word just about my ears perked up. And he said, I wonder how small of a market we can open a super center in.

He shouldn't have said that. So Sam goes off. Well, hunting. Tom C was in charge of real estate department. It was a senior vice president of real estate. We go off and we buy 18 acres of land and wagon or Oklahoma. Right across the street from where the store was right on the corner right there. It's probably still there today. I hadn't been there in 30 years, but. Uh, or 20 year, what a 30 years old. It is. We opened a Wagner.

a super center in Wagner, Oklahoma. The store was 29,808 square feet. We opened the hunt. We built 140,000 square foot building in Wagner. I thought Sam was going to stroke out. That's the only time I was thought he was going to fire me. I really did. I thought that I was gone. So we had the grand opening and

It was a joke amongst the company. People said, Smith, you're gone. This thing is never going to be successful. Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Wagga, Oklahoma. Let me tell you something, guys. I'm going to have to get this as long as I live. And I'm going to tell him myself. If Sam were living, he would kind of laugh. Oh, we opened that store. We had the ground opening at eight o'clock in the morning. And by 930, I kind of

snuck outside. And I went around behind the garden center back where the truck wheels were. And I got to tell you, I'm not going to lie to smoke. I was smoking the sick. I was a sneak in the smoke. And because I'm thinking I'm, you know, I'm going to be fine. Well, at 930 in the morning, we had traffic. They had we had state troopers were directing traffic. We had every sheriff, former direct and traffic. We had traffic backed up to Tulsa just about

Wow. And the parking lot, the parking lot was full. And I'm sneaking a cigarette and I feel this hand on my shoulder and I look over and you got to understand Sam hated, he hated two things. He hated tobacco and he hated alcohol. I was sitting there with my mouth that cigarette and he threw it down and he looked at me and said, son, pick it up. He said, you need to enjoy that.

Mm. Well, Tom, I've been respected. There's people that's, you know, around the world right now to our podcast. In 2017, the population of Wagner, Oklahoma is eight thousand nine hundred and four people.

That's 2017. More square footage than people. That's a. Oh, yeah. Now, think about this. There is still, I'm looking at it right now on Google Earth. There's a Murphy USA there. There's an Arbus bank over there. There's a Armstrong bank. A print. That's the key. You got to get two banks right there. You got to count. You got to get the money somewhere. You know, Arbus, of course, is kind of a branch of Walmart. You've got a McDonald's there. Oh, yeah. The Microsoft right there. Yeah. I remember specifically growing up in Muskogee.

Oh, everybody loading up in the car. Yes, go to the super center in Wagner. Really? Because at that time, I don't believe Muskogee had one. And yeah, well, Tom's smoking cigarette the bad. Did you catch that? Let's go to the big Walmart. Yes, the big Walmart. I'm not going to say that you owed Tom. Thank you. But you know, let's throw them. Thank you. OK, so what you said, you said Muskogee, Oklahoma, one of my real good friends, Terry Parr was a store manager in Muskogee. He's a great guy. I don't know where he is.

I don't know if he's still living. He was a great guy, remember Terry. I didn't know Wagner had a McDonald's seat. They've gotten big time now. It's on the outline parcel of the Super Center. Wes, what is your final tough question for Mr. Tom Smith, the man who helped Sam Walton to create the Walmart Supercenters?

Well, Tom, I always try to glean maybe a little bit of practical advice. So I'm wondering, in all those years of Walmart, then you went to some really cool companies, you had to do a lot of hiring. You saw Sam doing hiring for those of us that don't have thousands of acres to go quell hunt. Any tips you can give our listeners for characteristics or personalities that you saw that made those better employees or anything that you looked out for when you were hiring new people.

Absolutely. It's three things. I mean, you know, I don't care what kind of degree you got. I don't care. And, you know, I sit and I look at our company. We got today and I, you know, I've got, we've got the best team. We've got a family here. We think these guys and gals got each other's back. They look out for each other. We laugh together. We cry together. We make money together. And, you know, it's just, it's all about family, but there's three things. You know, you find out in about 15 minutes,

If you're sitting and talking to somebody, if they got three things lined up and they write in their face, or they write with their family, and if they're right with their employer and they're honest, God-fearing people, I'll give them a chance. You know, I've given people a chance. Some of the most successful people is these folks coming home from the military. All they need is a chance.

And you give them a chance and they'll perform like you've never seen, but you don't need a college degree to be successful. And if you got a college degree, that's great and wonderful. I've got one of those too, but you know, it's never helped me make a dime, but it's, it's all about looking people in the eye. You can tell that somebody's honest in about 30 seconds. And they ain't got to say a word. You can look at them.

And it's just about finding the right folks with the right heart that won a chance. And if you motivate them, you show them that you care about them, you got to care about their family, get out of their way. You know, I've always believed in letting people make mistakes. People make mistakes every day. We all do. But don't make the same mistake twice.

but yeah, you know, I don't know. I don't know if answers your question or not. No, that was great. Yeah, I mean, so get right with your faith, your family and your past employer, your current employer. Now I have my final question for you as well. Our listeners love to read books.

that can help them. You know, books that are very practical. You are a come-across is a very well-read man. You've had a career that spans multiple decades. You're doing well now in another career now. Really doing well in real estate out there. Is there a specific book that you would recommend for all of our listeners? You know, I'm throwback. I'm kind of an old, old-type guy. I believe in basics. I believe in things that work and I guess

Two, I'd recommend two books to anybody. I don't care what business you in where you, you know, running the airlines or flipping McDonald's is seven habits of effective people. True. Oh, good one. Success. Success. I don't care. You are successful people have successful habits. Unsuccessful people have unsuccessful habits. Don't care who you are.

seven habits of highly successful people. That's by Stephen Covey. Got it. And another one of my favorites is thriving on chaos by Tom Peters. Tom Peters is one of the best business authors and motivational authors that you're ever going to read. I don't know if Tom's around anymore or not, but

Those are two hellacious books you ought to read. They're good business books and for any leader listening to them around the country around the world, they need to read those two books. Those are two books that I hang my hat on.

Tommy, thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to be here on today's show. You have blown my mind many, many times. I know Z, appreciate you being here. I know West doesn't know. Our listeners loved hearing these stories. Thank you again so much. And we hope you have just an awesome evening and hit the road, but don't hit it too hard. Right. Yeah, I appreciate you. I'll have a great evening. Take care. Hey, Rob. Tommy, as soon as the show gets edited, I'll send you a link so you can share it.

Well, remember that. Hey, I'm Ryan Olympia. I went to a small private liberal arts college and got into the game 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. The linear workflow, the linear workflow for us and getting everything out on paper and document it is really important. Like 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.

I'm Rachel with Tiptop K9 and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay Vanessa Clark. Hey guys, I'm Ryan with Tiptop 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. Here we go. This is our old neighborhood. See? It's nice.

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 the new house with our new neighborhood.

This is our new van with our new marketing and this is our new team. We went from 4 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 ten locations in only a year.

In October 2016, we grew as 13 grand for the whole month. Right now, in 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 of thousands.

So we really just want to thank you, Clay, and thank you, Vanessa, for everything you've done, everything you've helped us with. We love you guys. All right. And now, ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to bring up my good friend Ryan Whimpy, my good friend Ryan Whimpy. 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. OK. I'm a little bit afraid to. I am Ryan Whimpy.

And I'm Rachel and me, and the name of our business is Kip Tapping Unit. 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. There's 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 thrive.

We've been working with Clay and his team for the last five months, two of which has 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, script for email, script for text message, 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 hours up. So it's just awesome, extremely effective.

If you don't use clay in his team, you're probably going to be pulling your air 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 that 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 Blake 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 wet people. I mean really ride them to get stuff done and stuff is done so fast here. There's a real sense of urgency to get it done. What I've seen from Clay and his group at Thrive is they'll give you a simple system and it's the simple systems are the ones that people can wrap their brain around. They're the ones that people can work with on a day-to-day basis.

Hi there, my name is Stephanie Pippkin. I am 24 years old and I own Black River Falls Cleaning Services. We opened in April of 2019 and it is now mid-June of 2020. So I wanted to talk today about the success and growth I have achieved by implementing the proven path

with Clay Clark's team and my business coach Luke from Thrive Time. It has been insane to say the least. I started working with them in mid-February of this year, so we're about four months in of working together and it has completely transformed my business in pretty much every facet.

So I kind of check my notes here. So in four months my leads have tripled. I was getting probably like two leads a week. Now I'm getting more in the like 10 to 15 leads a week. I have doubled my number of employees. I'm now hitting the highest revenue weeks in the history of the company week to week it seems like.

We went from about six appointments today as our highest in February to now 14 to 15 appointments a day. And hiring quality employees has become much simpler and less stressful by using their systems for hiring.

I typically only get maybe two complaints a month if that and everybody shows up to work. I just have really high quality employees now, especially in something people typically consider a high turnover type of work, you know, cleaning houses, cleaning businesses. I have amazing employees now and I get rid of the ones who are not so amazing and bring on new ones because

of, you know, group interviews and higher interviewing every single week. It's just been great and such. I don't waste as much time on low quality candidates anymore.

I have successfully gained our second largest commercial client, and that was during COVID. So again, I started working with Luke and Clay in February, and then COVID hit in mid-March or so. So for the entire month of April, we were shut down residential April and May, I believe.

And so despite that, and again, being a new business and all this stuff, I mean, we came out of COVID like stronger than ever and now hitting our highest numbers in the history of the company. It just leads just piling in. And the beauty is when people call us, they're already sold because of our Google reviews, our online presence, the no-brainer offer that we now give to our clients, which is

You know, if they book their second appointment within a month of the first, they get 50% off. And again, they're just ready to book. I hardly have to do any work. It feels like sometimes to actually book people. So that's amazing.

Every week I meet with Luke and it's awesome. Obviously, I'm in Wisconsin. He's in Oklahoma, but we have a great time. I know I can text him at any time, call him at any time with any issues I'm having, especially when COVID did hit. They were so helpful in helping me get the PPP grants and everything settled away there and really pushed me to make sure I was on the ball and getting all of the grants that I was possibly able to, which was amazing.

So they've just been such a wealth of information and when I'm freaking out because a burning fire is happening, Luke's there to calm me down and back me off the cliff edge. And it's just awesome to have him as a resource there.

So every week we meet and we have a big tracking sheet. So we track all my leads, we track my numbers, where the leads are coming from, any complaints. I love my tracking sheet. I know it's probably a little extra, but I love it because I can see everything that's actually happening in my business. And this is so important because it's not like, I'm just saying, well, I feel like it's busier. I know if it's busier and I know, are we making a profit every week? Why or why not?

It's just amazing. And then I'm tracking my Google reviews, tracking my competitors' Google reviews, and Luke is always pushing me to get more reviews, even though, you know, I was not very comfortable with that at first. It felt just pushy, but now I'm seeing the effects of having a lot of Google reviews, you know, a lot to me at least. It's not very high compared to others, but people are finding us on Google and they're already ready to book because of our reviews. So, you know, going for those reviews has been

so integral in having basically easy sell leads. So tracking has been just so vital and I really enjoy it actually. So anybody who is skeptical about working with Clay or Luke, you know, the whole team at Thrive Time, I was definitely skeptical and to me, again, new business, it seemed like a lot of money.

But in comparison to other business coaches, especially specific to the cleaning industry, you're talking $10,000 a month. And honestly, I feel like I get that much value out of Luke just by meeting with him once a week. It's amazing.

And it has just transformed my business in every single aspect. I mean, as I always, you know, aspired to be a successful business owner. And now, I mean, it's not even a question that this business is going to be successful, even if

a pandemic happens and you have to shut down. I mean, if I can make it through that and be directly because of them, it is absolutely because of them. Obviously, you know, I'm a hard worker, blah, blah, blah, all that. And, you know, I was made to be an entrepreneur. However, having them as like the guiding light of this is what you need to do. And it's very straightforward. Doesn't mean it's easy, but it is very straightforward of what needs to be done. And I like that. I like having that step by step process.

And I love having the accountability because there's a lot of stuff that they have me do that I don't want to do. It's not fun, but it works. And that having that discipline to just do the things week after week, regardless if it's dull or boring or you don't want to do it.

Luke really pushes me to do those things, which I love. I mean, I hate it at the time, but I love it because I can see how it's affecting my business in a positive way. And, you know, I don't want to be just good. I want to be the best and I see them as an integral part of that. And I will not be the best if I don't have them with me. So I just, I love having them on my team and it just feels like

the best decision i ever made in my business and i know i'm still really small and things like that but there's a reason i reached out to them when i was small because i want to be big and i want to not grow and then collapse because i grew too quickly without the correct systems in place so

It's just, it's been amazing and I would suggest anybody who's willing to put in the work and do things that make you uncomfortable, uh, reach out to them. Um, but if you are not willing to change the way you are doing things, if you're not willing to implement a no-brainer, if you're not willing to ask for Google reviews, if you're not willing to write content, really, really boring content for your website, so the Google bots find you, um, then don't reach out, you need to be willing to put in the work as well.

and your coach will hold you accountable. I mean, which I love. Again, the tough love is really great. You know, looks like a stern father figure, but he's also nice, but also stern when he needs to be when I'm being lazy and not doing the things that I know I need to do because I don't want to do them. So that's just great. Worth every penny. I mean, I'd pay him a million dollars a month if I can, and maybe someday I'll be able to, but I would just say go for it. If it seems like a good fit, just go for it.

Do what they say even if you think it's stupid or ridiculous. Just do what they say because it'll work You know people when they look at my business, you know people in my town They think I'm lucky they think I'm just you know things just happen for me, and you know, maybe I am lucky but It has a lot to do with hard work and you know perseverance and you know working till you cry sometimes That's just being an entrepreneur which if you're a business owner you understand that and

But it's having these systems in place of, you know, of course I'm going to be successful. It's an absolute because I have all this stuff in the background happening and I have Luke and Clay and everybody on their team working really hard to make sure that I'm a success. And I can tell that they are just so excited every single week when I'm having all these wins and things like that. They're so excited for me.

So it's the best thing ever and I would suggest anybody to work with them. So sorry for the long-winded reply but I just had so much to say and I could go on for hours probably about how amazing they are. But thank you to Clay and Luke and the entire team there. Everything you guys have done for me and I am so excited to continue to work with you for years to come. Thanks so much for watching. What I've seen from Clay and his group at Thrive is they'll give you a simple system

And it's the simple systems are the ones that people can wrap their brain around. They're the ones that people can work with on a day-to-day basis. And that simplicity brings power with it. So it shocked me how simple some of the stuff is. And at times I'm like, why did not think about that? Workflow creation, systematic marketing and coaching has helped our church so much. You know, the workflow creation is what it really is is they're going to look and see every moving part of your church, of your ministry.

what needs to be done, and it's gonna go up on a massive board. And so now what it does is it takes what you know needs to be done out of your heart and out of your head, really takes the pressure, the stress off your shoulders, and it puts it on the board, where your entire team, your ministry can see exactly what you want them to do every day. And so they know this is the playbook, this is what we're doing. And then there's laser sharp accountability with a meeting afterwards, did it get done or not? I'll tell you, it's changed the way we execute,

as a church so fast, and it's produced really an excitement, because people they want to get done, if they know what they're supposed to do, a good person wants to get it done. It's been massive for our team. The systematic marketing has really been like this. In the past, we used to market and we would try something. I've done everything, billboards, you know, ads, mailers, internet, Facebook, but we would run something for so long, and then we wouldn't see that it was producing the results we want.

Instead of staying consistent, we would jump to another horse. Then we would jump to another horse. And what systematic marketing does is it makes you pick some things and stick with it. And then the coaching is massive.

And I think having a coach that looks and sees what you're doing and can come help you make small adjustments. I believe those small tweaks, once he gets everything set up, those small tweaks can make massive differences. And a great coach doesn't even have to play your sport, right? Doesn't even have to do what you do. A coach has an eye to see things that you can't see or to see it from a different angle. And just having that extra eye on what I do and just, hey, if you thought about this, it's making all the difference.

What Clay Clark and his team can provide for your church that you can't do in house and I can't do in house. What's been massive for me is that search engine optimization, how to get to the top of Google, taking care of transcribing all of my sermons to drive me up the list on Google, stuff that I don't think about and I don't have time to do. I've got all these things I have to do as a pastor, right? I have sermons to preach.

staff to manage. I have a budget to take care of. I've got sick folk to see about. I have a team that has to do that. You know how it is. You've got to marry people. You've got to marry people. We're never going to stay in a dark room with a keyboard, optimizing our Google presence. And these guys do that kind of thing for you. Also, if you're at a couple hundred member church, I remember how hard it was. But back in the day to take care of the website needs, to come up with graphic design.

And these guys are available to you for sermon slides, getting that kind of stuff done where you can have a sharp-looking presentation of the gospel. And it takes it off you, puts it on them, at a very reasonable price. I really believe Clay Clark and his team can help a church with limited resources in a big way. I know what it's like to be a church of limited resources. My wife and I, we walked into a town where we didn't know anybody. We had a Bible, and we just had a few bucks in our pocket.

When somebody introduced us to a couple of families, we started going there. So I know what it's like to be a church of two, and I know what it's like to be a church of 2,000 in two different campuses now, 1,000 apiece, and everywhere in between. So I love churches at every level. I believe God wants them all to grow. And I think about the needs I had back in the day, the lack of direction I had

Man, I was working 80 hours a week all the time, but a lot of times I was a shotgun instead of a rifle. I think when you start, you can really hone in with the right coaching. You can get a lot of your different needs met in one place instead of having somebody on marketing and somebody on showing you how to do systems and somebody on graphic design. Thrive can do a lot of that for you at a very reasonable cost. I think it's a great place to invest in the life of your men's

Tony, I think you can get the results you want with the coaching here faster than any other way. Blake Lark is here somewhere. Where's my buddy, play? Play is the greatest. I met his goats today. I met his dogs. I met his chickens. I saw his compound. He's like the greatest guy. I ran from his goats, his chickens, his dogs.

So this guy is like the greatest marketer you've ever seen, right? His entire life. Clay Clark, his entire life is marketing. Okay, Aaron Antis on March 6th and 7th. March 6th and 7th. Guess who's coming to Tulsa, Russell? Oh, Santa Claus? No, no, that's March. March 6th and 7th. They're going to be joined by Robert Kiyosaki. Robert.

key assess selling author of rich dad poor dad possibly the best selling or one of the best selling business authors of all time and he's going to be joined with Eric Trump will be joined by Eric Trump to get Eric Trump and Robert Kiyosaki in the same place in the same place Aaron why should everybody show up to hear Robert Kiyosaki well you get billions of dollars of

business experience between those two, not to mention many, many, many millions of books have been sold. Many, many millionaires have been made from the books that have been sold by Robert Kiyosaki. I happen to be one of them. I learned from the man. He was the inspiration. That book was the inspiration for me to get the entrepreneurial spirit as many other people.

Now, since you won't brag on yourself, I will. You've sold billions of dollars of houses, am I correct? That is true. And the book that kickstarted it all for you. Rich dad, poor dude. Rich dad, poor dude. The author, the best selling author of Rich dad, poor dad, Robert Kiyosaki, the guy that kickstarted your career. He's going to be here. He's going to be here. I'm up.

Now, Eric Trump, people don't know this, but the Trump Organization has thousands of employees. There's not 50 employees. The Trump Organization, again, most people don't know this, but the Trump Organization has thousands of employees. And while Donald J. Trump was the 45th president of the United States and sued to be the 47th president of the United States, he needed someone to run the companies for him. And so the man that runs the Trump Organization

for Donald J. Trump as he was the 45th president of the United States. And now the 47th president of the United States is Eric Trump. It's Eric Trump is here to talk about time management, promoting from within marketing, branding, quality control, sales systems, workflow design, workflow mapping, how to build. I mean, everything that you see the Trump hotels, the Trump golf courses, all their products, the man who manages

billions of dollars of real estate and thousands of employees is here to teach us how to do it. You are talking about one of the greatest brands on the planet from a business standpoint. I mean, who else has been able to create a brand like the Trump brand? I mean, look at it. And this is the man behind the business for the last pretty much since 2015. He's been the man behind it. So you're talking we're into nine going into 10 years of him running it. And we get to tap into that knowledge. That's going to be amazing.

Now, think about this for a second. When you buy a ticket just to see a Robert Kiyosaki and Eric Trump, of course you would. Of course you would. But we're also going to be joined by Sean Baker. This is the best-selling author, the guy who invented the carnivore diet. Oh, yeah. Dr. Sean Baker, he's been on Joe Rogan multiple times. He's going to be joining us.

So you've got Robert Kiyosaki, the best-selling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Eric Trump, Sean Baker. The lineup continues to grow. And this is how we do our tickets here at The Thrive Time Show. If you want to get a VIP ticket, you can absolutely do it. It's $500 for a VIP ticket. We've always done it that way. Now, if you want to take a general admission ticket, it's $250 or whatever price you want to pay. And the reason why I do that

And the reason why we do that is because we want to make our events affordable for everybody. I grew up without money. I totally understand what it's like to be the tight spot. So if you want to attend, it's $250 or whatever price you want to pay. That's how I do it. And it's $500 for a VIP ticket. Now, we only have limited seating here with them. The most people we've ever had in this building was for the Jim Brewer presentation. Jim Brewer came here that the legendary comedian Jim Brewer came to Tulsa and we had 419 people that were here, 419 people.

And I thought to myself, there's no more room. I felt kind of bad that a couple of people had VIP seats in the men's restroom. No, I'm just kidding. So I thought, you know what, we should probably add on. So we're adding on what we call the upper deck, the upper world or the top shelf. So the seats are very close to the presenters, but we're actually building right now, we're adding on to the facility to make room to accommodate another 30 attendees or more. So again,

If you want to get tickets for this event, all you have to do is go to thrivetimeshow.com. Go to thrivetimeshow.com. When you go to thrivetimeshow.com, you'll go there, you'll request a ticket, boom. Or if you want to text to me, if you want a little bit faster service, you say, I want you to call me right now. Just text to my neighbor. It's my cell phone number. My personal cell phone number will keep that.

private between you, between you, me, everybody, that private in anybody. Don't share that with anybody except for everybody. That's my private cell phone number. It's 918-851-0102-918-851-0102. I know we have a lot of Spanish speaking people that attend these conferences and to be bi-lingually sensitive. My cell phone number is 918-851-0102. That is not actually bilingual. That's just saying quan for a one. It's not something.

I think you're attacking me. Now, let's talk about this. Now, what kind of stuff will you learn at the Thrive Time show workshop? So Aaron, you've been to many of these over the past seven, eight years. So let's talk about it. I'll tee up the thing and then you tell me what you're going to learn here. Okay. You're going to learn marketing, marketing and branding. What are we going to learn about marketing and branding?

Oh yeah, we're going to dive into, you know, so many people say, oh, you know, I got to get my brand known out there like the Trump brand. You want to get that brand out there. It's like, how do I actually make people know what my business is and make it a household name? You're going to learn some intricacies of how you can do that.

You're going to learn sales. So many people struggle to sell something. This just in your business will go to hell if you can't sell. So we're going to teach you sales. We're going to teach you search engine optimization at a come up top in the search engine results. We're going to teach you how to manage how to manage people. Aaron, you have managed to no exaggeration, hundreds of people throughout your career and thousands of contractors and most people struggle with managing people.

Why does everybody have to learn how to manage people? Well, because first of all, people either have great people or you have people who suck. And so it could be a challenge. You know, learning how to work with a large group of people and get everybody pulling in the same direction can be a challenge. But

If you have the right systems, you have the right processes, and you're really good at selecting great ones, and we have a process we teach about how to find great people. When you start with the people who have a great attitude, they're teachable, they're driven, all of those things, then you can get those people all pulling in the same direction.

So we're going to teach you branding, marketing, sales, search engine, optimization. We're going to teach you accounting. We're going to teach you personal finance, how to manage your finance. We're going to teach you time management. How do you manage your time? How do you get more done during a typical day? How do you build an organization if you're not organized? How do you do organization? How do you build an org chart?

Everything that you need to know to start and grow a business will be taught during this two-day interactive business workshop. Now, let me tell you how the format is set up here to get books. This is a two-day interactive 15. Think about this, folks. It's two days. Each day starts at 7 a.m. and it goes until 5 p.m. So from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. two days to two-day interactive workshop. The way we do it is we do a 30-minute teaching session

And then we break for 15 minutes for a question and answer session. So, Aaron, what kind of great stuff happens during that 15-minute question and answer session after every teaching session? I actually think it's the best part about the workshops because here's what happens. I've been to lots of these things over the years. I've paid many thousands of dollars to go to them.

And you go in there and they talk in vague generalities and they're constantly upselling you for something trying to get you to buy this thing or that thing or this program or this membership. And you don't you leave not getting your very specific questions answered about your business or your employees or what you're doing on your marketing. But what's awesome about this is we literally answer every single question that any person asks. And it's very specific to what your business is.

And what we do is we we allow you as the attendee to write your questions on the whiteboard. Yeah. And then we literally as you mentioned, we answer every single question on the whiteboard. And then we take a 15 minute break to stretch and to make it entertaining when you're stretching. This is a true story. When you get up and stretch, you'll be greeted by mariachis. There's going to probably be alpaca here, llamas, helicopter rides, a coffee bar, a snow cone. I mean, there's just you had a crocodile one time. That was pretty interesting.

You know, I should write that down and I can get it. Sorry for that one guy. We lost the crocodile. We duct tape this. It's face. Right? We duct tape. No, this is a baby crocodile. Yeah, duct tape around the mouse. It didn't bite anybody, but it was really cool to answer that thing around.

of

That means you have less than 3% of our population that's even self-employed. So it's you only have three out of every hundred people in America that are self-employed to begin with. And when Inc Magazine reports that 96% of businesses fail by default, by default, you have a 1 out of 1,000 chance of succeeding in the game of business. But yet the average client that you and I work with, we can typically double this. No hyperbole.

No exaggeration. I have thousands of testimonials to back this up. We have thousands of testimonials to back it up. But when you work with a home builder, when I work with a business owner, we can typically double the size of the company within 24 months. Yeah. Double. And you say double? Yeah. There's businesses that we have tripled. There's businesses. We've grown 8X. There's so many examples. You can see it through our time show.com. But again,

This is the most interactive best business workshop on the planet. This is objectively the highest rated and most reviewed business workshop on the planet. And then you add to that Robert Kiyosaki, the best-selling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad. You add to that Eric Trump, the man that runs the Trump Organization. You add to that Sean Baker. Now you might take, but Clay, is there more? I need more. Well, okay, but Tom Wheelwright is the wealth

Oh, he's right. Or Robert Kiyosaki. People say, Robert Kiyosaki, who's his financial wealth advisor? Who's the guy who manages, who's the, who's his wealth strategist? His wealth strategist, Tom Willwright, will be here. And you say, Clay, I still, I'm not going to get a ticket unless you give me more. Okay, fine. We're going to serve you the same meal both days. True story. We have, we can't run the food and be cause simple.

I keep it simple. I am literally bringing the same food both days for lunch. It's Ted Esconzito's an incredible Mexican restaurant. That's going to happen. And Jill Donovan, our good friend, who is the founder of RusticCuff. She started that company in her home, and now she sells millions of dollars of American products. That's rusticcuff.com. And someone says, I want more. This is not enough.

Give me more. Okay. I'm not going to mention their names right now because I'm working on it behind the scenes here. But we've got one guy who's giving me a verbal to be here. And this is a guy who's one of the wealthiest people in Oklahoma. And nobody really knows who he is because he's built systems that are very utilitarian that offer a lot of value. He's made a lot of money in the, it's the,

It's where you rent it's short to not it's where you're renting storage spaces. He's a storage space guy. He owns this what do you call that the rental the Storage space storage units this guy owns storage units He owns railroad cars. He owns a lot of assets that make money on a daily basis

But they're not like customer facing. Most people don't know who owns the mini storage facility or most people don't know who owns the warehouse that's passively making money. Most people don't know who owns the railroad cars. But this guy, he's giving me a verbal that he will be here. And we just continue to add more and more success stories. So if you're out there today, you want to change your life.

You want to give yourself a incredible gift. You want a life-changing experience. You want to learn how to start and grow a company. Go to thrivetimeshow.com. Go there right now, thrivetimeshow.com. Request a ticket for the two-day interactive event. Again, the day here is March 6th and 7th, March 6th and 7th. We just got confirmation. Robert Kiyosaki, the best-selling author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. He'll be here. Eric Trump, the man who leads the Trump Organization. It's going to be a blast. He blasts. There's no upsells.

Uh, Aaron, I could not be more excited about this event. I think it is incredible, and there's somebody out there right now you're watching, and you're like, but I already signed up for this incredible other program called Smoke Your Way to Thin. I think that's gonna change your life. I promise you, this'll be 10 times better than that.

like I think the wrong week we're smoking. Don't do the smoke your way to thin conference that is I've tried it don't do it yeah chain smoking is not a viable I mean it is life changing it is life changing if you become a chain smoker it is life changing the best weight loss program though right not really so if you're looking to have life changing results in a way that won't cause you to have a stoma

Get your tickets at ThriveTimeShow.com. Again, that's Aaron Antis. I'm Clay Clark and reminding you and inviting you to come out to the two-day interactive Thrive Time Show Workshop right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I promise you, it will be a life-changing experience. We can't wait to see you up right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I have to honor you, sir. I want to show you what I did to one of your books here.

There's a game of Jeremy Thorne, who was my boss at the time. I was 19 years old, working at Faith Highway. I had a job at Applebee's Target and Direct TV. And he said, have you read this book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad? And I said, no. And my father, may he rest in peace? He didn't know these financial principles. So I started reading all of your books and really devouring your books. And I went from being an employee to self-employed to the business owner to the investor.

And I owe a lot of that to you, and I just wanted to take a moment to tell you, thank you so much for allowing me to achieve success. And then I'll tell you all about Eric Trump, but I just want to tell you, thank you, sir, for changing my life. Well, not only that, Clay, you know, thank you, but you become an influencer. You know, more than anything else, you've evolved into an influencer where your word has more and more power. So that's why, uh,

congratulate you on becoming. Because as you know, there's a lot of fake influencers out there too, or bad influencers. Yeah. So anyway, I'm glad you and I agree so much. And thanks for reading my books. Yeah, that's, that's the greatest thrill for me today. Not a thrill, but recognition is when people, young men, especially come up and say, I read your book, change of life. I'm doing this. I'm doing this. I'm doing this.