The Morning Upgrade Podcast Featuring Clint Arthur
Welcome to episode #134 of the Morning Upgrade Podcast. In this week’s episode I spoke with Clint Arthur, an author, speaker, coach and entrepreneur.
Top Talking Points
- Who you are is more important than what you do.
- Doing the things you love and figuring out how to make that your business.
- The best tip for becoming a celebrity entrepreneur.
Resources & Links
Connect With Clint at clinttt.com.
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Episode Transcript
Announcer
Hey, welcome to the Morning Upgrade podcast with Ryan cote, where we feature casual conversations with entrepreneurs about personal development and growth.
Ryan
Hey, Clint, welcome to the Morning Upgrade podcast. How’s your day going?
Clint
Phenomenal man. Phenomenal.
Ryan
Phenomenal. Why is it going phenomenal?
Clint
Well, it’s 136 In the afternoon, and I’m having fun.
Ryan
Excellent. All right, well, I’ll tell my audience, morning graders, you know who you are, and what you do for a living, and then give us something you’re grateful for right now. Besides your phenomenal day.
Clint
My name is Clint Arthur, and I am a Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of the memoir, wisdom of the Men. I’m a speaker, coach, and entrepreneur. And I was very recently awarded one of the top 10 entrepreneurs of 2022 by Success Magazine. So I’m just feeling good right now, what I do is, really I help other experts. If you’re a person who makes money because of ostensively what you know or do for clients, I help you to position yourself as a celebrity in the eyes of those customers and prospects, so that you can pay and get all the impact influence, and income that you really want and get paid the big bucks instead of just kind of making it through
Clint
what you’re grateful for.
Ryan
I am grateful for my lifestyle. You know, I was telling you, I live in New York, Los Angeles, and primarily Acapulco. And my wife and I bought two gigantic mansions in Acapulco, and we host our seminars down there for our clients who come to learn how to have more impact, influence and income. So I’m really, really grateful that so many people have come down to Acapulco, Mexico, to pay me a lot of money to learn how to have more impact, influence, and income.
Ryan
Excellent. So Amanda, we just met, it sounds like you’ve got a very fulfilling life. Obviously, you work hard. And I’m assuming and it’s just taken a while to get to this point and a lot of hard work. But have you always been in this position? Or did it take time to figure it out? And I don’t know what your previous careers were like. But what got you to this point, if you had to, if you had to boil it down to a quick answer, I had to
Clint
learn the most important lesson in business now. I’m a graduate of the Wharton Business School. They didn’t teach me this at Wharton. I’ve spoken at events sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Club of Harvard Business School. And the president of that club personally told me don’t teach this at Harvard. I’ve spoken at USC Business School. And the professor whose class I spoke at told me they don’t teach this at USC Business School, who you are, is more important than what you actually do or sell. Who are you is more important than what you do. So you need to really get this like, I struggled for many years, I chased the Hollywood dream for 13 years after college, and I moved out to Hollywood. And I wanted to be a movie star and a screenwriter and a filmmaker like my idol Spike Lee. And it put me behind the wheel of a taxi for six years. Because I did not understand this rule. just for argument’s sake, I could have been the greatest actor in the world. But who’s gonna get the part? Nicolas Cage or me, Tom Cruise? Or me? If you’re nobody, nobody wants to pay you a lot of money. You got to be somebody
Ryan
had? Like, I know, this is probably a big question. But how do you? How do you find out who you are?
Clint
That’s really the fascinating thing is, when I went out to Hollywood, I had, I went home to get the attaboys when I graduated from college, and instead of a love fest, my parents got into the biggest argument of all time, my dad storms out of the house and slams the door, turn on my mom and go, you know, Mom, the way he resents you all these years and you’ve been cheating on Dad. And I’m thinking, Wow, where did that question come from? I never even thought that before. And then I’m thinking, what kind of rude guy asked his mom a question like that? And then I’m thinking, How come she ain’t answering the question? And then she goes, he’s not your real father. Your real father was a doctor at the fertility clinic we went to for six years, and you look just like that guy. See, at that point, I sure as heck did not know who I was anymore. And I went out to Hollywood to find myself. And I found myself at the lowest point in my life, the Wharton Business School taxi driver, and I had to rebuild who I was, how do you find out who you are? You create it. And you also analyze, I really believe the way that you understand the meaning of your life is by understanding the stories of your life and what happened to you. What happened to you? The story of your life determines who you are very deeply.
Ryan
You seem like you’re a happy guy, a very fulfilled guy. What feeds that? Is it just the lifestyle? You mentioned your lifestyle, so that’s part of it. But what else like what do you do to what do you personally do to feed feed your happiness and your fulfillment?
Clint
I tried to do the things that I love, like when I met I’ve been really fortunate I met so many international superstars and fun presidents in the United States when I met George HW Bush, I said, Sir, what’s the most important thing you ever learned? That’s the question I asked them all. He said, Well, young man, that’s a very big question I have to say you have to keep doing the things you love in this life. Now, in my book, the wisdom of the Men, which is on Amazon, as an audible, a Kindle, or a hardcover in the books, you see pictures of me with all these people. And in the picture with George HW Bush, he’s wearing a necktie and on the neck, tie our parachute jumpers, George Bush famously love to jump out of airplanes, he jumped out of an airplane on his 80th birthday. He loved doing that. And his advice to me was to keep doing the things you love in this life. So when I’m in Acapulco, the water is tropical warm, and I try to swim in the tropical warm ocean every single day. If you follow me on Facebook, you’ll see pictures of me down at my private beach, all the time, getting out of the warm tropical waters, because that’s what I love. I love writing, I’m going to Venice and Rome, I’m going to write a book over the next month in Venice and Rome. And I’m really excited about that I love to write I’m a writer, one of the great like fortunate things that happened in my life is when I was in high school, I could have chosen regular English or creative writing. And I took the elective creative creative writing with a man named Frank McCourt, he wrote a memoir about his impoverished childhood in Ireland and won the Pulitzer Prize. And he went on to inspire us all to be one of the writers. And I’ve been a writer ever since. And, you know, that’s what I love to do. And see, I understand that this is one of the lessons of George Bush is that you have to keep doing the things you love. But the things you love won’t necessarily make you a lot of money. I write because I love writing. But I became a speaker in order to sell books and tickets to my seminars, and workshops. Because I know that being a speaker is an easier way to get people to pay you lots of money than by selling them a book. So I write because I love it. But I make money on the back of the book by being a speaker and a coach and a seminar leader. So I’ve figured out how to do what I love and make money from it. Which is what everybody should try to figure it out. And that’s why a lot of people come and take my seminars.
Ryan
And it’s funny, because I think about that topic, like doing what you love. Now more than ever, because I’m 43 now and so like I guess I’m like, statistically halfway, I mean, I guess who knows what modern medicine but let’s just say nothing happens halfway over. And so I think about that a lot. And, you know, I try to inject things I like doing into my daily routine. And I think it’s so important because I just finished reading a book called Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill. And he talks about not becoming a drifter. Basically just drifting through life, not really trying to accomplish anything, not doing what you love, and just kind of getting to the end like, oh, okay, I didn’t really, and then it’s over, didn’t really do anything, and it’s over. And so I think that’s a really important topic that you’re talking about because you need to be intentional, right? It just doesn’t just happen. You obviously put things in place to make your life as it is right now happen, correct?
Clint
Yeah. And you said that I work hard. You know, that’s one of the themes that I’ve learned. One of my great mentors is a man named Dan Kennedy, a marketing genius. And he started saying rich people work hard on his info marketer of the year. And so I started asking rich people, Martha Stewart, do you think Rich People work hard? She said every self-made richperson I’ve ever met has been an extremely hard worker. I said iced tea to rich people who work hard. said, Man, you’ll be on the yacht party, party and on the top of the yacht, and the guy who owns a boat, he’ll be downstairs making business calls. So I do believe rich people work very hard. I know I work very hard. But I work on my own schedule. I know like I was telling you, I my morning routine consists of one thing, never setting an alarm. I work when I want to work and I do what I want to do. And I get my work done. Because I know that rich people work hard. That’s one of the great things was I was interviewed by Brooke Shields and Willie Geist. on The Today Show on December 31, 2013. I went out drinking and partying after that. And the next morning, I woke up and I said to my wife, you know what, honey, I think I’m done drinking. And that really gave me a lot of extra time to work. All those hours that I used to spend on my favorite hobby getting drunk. I now can use on productive work, and I do and it’s like getting a whole extra work week. That’s, you know, maybe that’s part of my morning routine is not being hungover anymore. That’s a part of my nine-year-long morning. routine.
Ryan
You’ve seen a boost in your business since that moment. Oh, man.
Clint
I mean, when you get an extra work week, man, you can get a lot more stuff done. And it’s added a lot, a lot of zeros to my bank account. Definitely.
Ryan
Awesome. Congrats. So the morning routines and no alarm must go to go to there because I have yet to not ask that question. So is there anything that you do in the morning is, is there any ritual that you have? Or is it vary day by day?
Clint
My morning is pretty different every day, it depends if I have the interviews, or if I’m gonna go to the gym, it really is all my morning is free. My morning is my time. I like to drink coffee. I like to check the markets to see how the Mexican peso is doing versus the US dollar, see how silver and gold are doing Kryptos read the news. I’m really into news because, you know, one of my strategies is getting in the news. It’s one of the things that I do to position myself as a celebrity in the eyes of customers and prospects is to be on the news. I just did my 100 and 21st television appearances yesterday. And in order to be good on the news, it really helps to know what’s going on in the world. So I like to stay up on popular culture and what’s happening. I do that in the morning to try to get my mind going. But my main thing is never to set an alarm unless I need to catch a plane. And I try not to do that early in the morning as much as I can.
Ryan
Your Best Selling Author. What books do you have? I know, it’s a common question like what’s your favorite book, but given your background, I have to ask it. Are there any nonfiction business books that have had a big impact on you?
Clint
Nonfiction business books?
Ryan
I guess? I guess all business books are nonfiction. But they’re
Clint
no, they’re not all. You know, they’re actually not. I mean, there was this one by Patrick Lencioni, which was, you know, a fable. About That’s right. Yeah. Right. That’s a really good book. As far as business books, I mean, you know, thinking Grow Rich, obviously. But so many of these books are just rehashes. I have hardly read any original stuff. You know, it’s all just marketing stuff or stuff to get you to think that people are smart. I mean,
Ryan
think Kenny’s got some good books. He’s got a bunch of he’s still writing. But
Clint
believe me, I love Dan Kennedy, I think he’s really super smart. But you know, I learned the most by going to Dan Kennedy seminars, not really reading his books. Even though I have purchased the collected works of Dan Kennedy, all his articles, all his ads, all his marketing pieces, from his 40-year career, I paid like $3,600, to buy all that stuff. But there’s a big difference between studying with a person in person and reading the book, and you can only get so much off of a book. Really, that’s why I go to seminars as much as I have. And that’s why I encourage people to come to my seminars because you learn so much more from the energy of the person than you do from just the words. Most communication, like, as much as like 94% of communication is nonverbal communication. So in a book, all you get is the verbal.
Ryan
Yeah, that’s a really good point. That’s a really good point. So let’s talk about your business. To get to the point where you’re at right now, what have you had the most success? What are the big pillars that got you here,
Clint
focusing in on Dan Kennedy’s main thesis, when I won his info marketer of the Year award, I thought that was the prize. But that was really just the beginning. That’s when I really started deep diving into the philosophy that Dan Kennedy espouses, that who you are, is more important than what you actually do or sell. And I’ve been really just focused on becoming a bigger who, in the eyes of customers and prospects, and I wrote about this in my book, celebrity entrepreneurship, if you want to be a celebrity, in the eyes of your customers and prospects, there are really five and a half things that we all do. Like for example, Tony Robbins, do you think Tony Robbins is famous? A celebrity that pretty much everybody knows who that is? Yeah, you would think so. Right? But I could tell you I could play here. Listen to this. Hey, do you know who Tony Robbins is? I showed you his picture. Do you recognize him? You thought you knew he was right. Do you have no idea? He’s not an actor. No, no. Okay, here’s some more. Hey, does anybody here know who Tony Robbins is? Do you know who Tony Robbins is? No. How about you? I could play you video after video after video like that. He’s not a celebrity. He’s a celebrity entrepreneur, to his customers and prospects guys like you and me. We are happy and excited to pay him a lot of money. I got a text message from his team. It’s Hey, Clint,if you donate 25 grand to Tony’s favorite charity, you can host his 60th birthday party in Los Angeles a couple of years ago, it took me less than 60 seconds to click the link and donate the money. And I’m the guy who drove a taxi for six years making 500 bucks a week, just to survive. So I’m so grateful to be able to do this stuff. And that all comes from being a celebrity, in the eyes of customers and prospects. And if you’re not doing that, if you think you’re gonna sell books, seminar tickets, if you think you’re gonna have people paying you a lot of money for consulting or any kind of expert advice, you kidding yourself, you gotta be a celebrity. That’s what I do. I do the five-and-a-half things in celebrity entrepreneurship. And I also wrote about that extensively and the wisdom of the men, but it’s sprinkled throughout not focused like it is in celebrity entrepreneurship.
Ryan
What’s in there, then? Because I’ve got one last question for you. And so I was gonna ask you for the meaning of life. I think we’ve gotten a lot from you in this in this interview to, to, I think I can guess what you would say. So I think we’ve kind of touched upon it a little bit. So I want to talk about those five and a half points. So last question for you is, obviously we’ll link up your books on the show notes page, give us one tip to become a celebrity entrepreneur, and then we’ll wrap up with you by telling everyone how they can connect with you.
Clint
I tell you really the best way is to be a speaker at very important places. Like I’ve had the great privilege to share my message at those colleges that I told you at Oxford or Cambridge at NASDAQ at the London Stock Exchange and Mercedes Benz and AT and T and Coca Cola, speaking at very important places gives you a lot of third party implied endorsement, and it gives a great video. If you’re smart enough to get the video you know, it’s great to speak, you should at least get a photo of you speaking with the logo, but ideally, you’re gonna get a video of you speaking at this very important place in front of an audience. That’s a lot of power, really super powerful stuff. And I help my students and clients to get those opportunities. Excellent.
Ryan
Let’s tell people how they can learn more about you if they want to connect with you and learn more about that process.
Clint
Go to clint.com Clint with three T’s dot com Why three T’s Clint Well, one of my expert clients was a scientist in the science of neem ology. What does your name mean? And she said to me, Clint, I wish you could add an extra t to the end of your name because the T always ends up on top like Trump. And politics aside, I said, Well, I can’t get Clint with two T’s dot com. But I did get Clint with three T’s dot com nice and easy to remember. And that’s where you can find out about all my stuff like Clint with three T’s dot com.
Ryan
Love it. Excellent. Clint. Thanks for everything you shared. Very interesting. And we’ll make sure to link up link everything on the show notes page. Have a great day.
Clint
Muchas Gracias, amigo.
Announcer
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Transcribed by https://otter.ai