Session #2
At 8 o’clock, one gentleman came in see about signing up for monthly coaching with the Thrivetime business coaching program.
It was interesting to hear him describe to Marshall where he was coming from (what I would personally say sounded like a successful track record in e-commerce) and to hear Marshall ask questions that got down to the root of what was giving this new prospective client issues.
By the end of the session, the gentleman confirmed that he was ready to start working in a coaching relationship with Marshall and Clay and all the formalities were subsequently taken care of.
At this point, I’m noticing that this bunch doesn’t waste a lot of time on tangential conversations and stories; they get to the point and get it done.
Hour #3
Between the second and third sessions of the day, I got a chance to talk to Clay about the principles that guide him and his team. Because the walls of the Thrivetime headquarters are covered in stats, quotes, and sayings by thought leaders like Steve Jobs, Lee Cockerell, and Dr. Z, there’s not a lot of guessing as to the how and why they do what they do.
Instead of another client meeting for the third portion of the day, I got a chance to sit in on a team meeting where the entire company was in attendance. This was pretty entertaining!
Unlike most company meetings where minutes are discussed or someone heads up the whole deal with a “The reason I called this meeting…” preamble, Clay asks who was rooting for the Eagles last night (it becomes quickly apparent that Clay is a big Patriots fan.)
One brave soul raises a hand.
Clay tells that person to come to the front of the meeting room.
Clay asks, “Who was rooting for the Patriots?” Predictably, a lot of hands go up.
At this point, Clay has the two team members plays rock/paper/scissors to see who is the best team. For 20 bucks.
To me, it’s kind of rare to see everyone having fun at a company meeting, but lo and behold: $20 on a best of three game of rock/paper/scissors will bring out the good times!
After all of the cutting up (sorry, that pun was not going to get left out of this post), Clay threw out some praise to a couple of employees who have done some exceptionally good work lately. Reading between the lines, it always instills a little extra faith in humanity to see people being thanked for taking extra good care of the customers or getting special recognition from satisfied customers.
Next, Clay played an excerpt from a very candid interview that he held with Michael Levine — an expert publicist who has represented the likes of Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, and even Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. In the interview, Clay talks to Mr. Levine about the common traits of the “super successful.” As a matter of fact, at one point Mr. Levine asks Clay if he knows what people like Michael Jordan and Bill Clinton have in common, besides having a lot of money. The answer: they both have an obsession to the extent of having a burning, maniacal rage.
Check out a snippet of this conversation right here, and if you like that and want to hear more, browse the podcast episodes right here and look for the ones with Michael Levine in them… there are some great takeaways from that conversation.
After the company listened to the snippet of the interview with Mr. Levine, Clay brought the meeting full circle by asking the company how they can have that same burning, maniacal rage that Michael Levine spoke about it in the interview.
Clay goes on to describe to his employees how that burning rage must revolve around their own personal obsessions. Equally important, it’s emphasized that they will need to define that path and spend a disproportionate amount of time in that lane.