Ep 222 – Clate Mask: Conquer the Chaos

“To conquer chaos, you must step into the eye of the storm with the heart of a strategist and the precision of a maestro.” Clate Mask

About Our Guest:
Clate Mask is the CEO and Co-Founder of Keap, a business automation software tool. Clate has a BA in Economics from ASU, as well as an MBA and a JD from Brigham Young University. He joined his brothers-in-law in 2002, developing the business we know today as Keap. Clate has been educating and inspiring entrepreneurs for over a decade and is recognized by the small business community as a visionary leader. Clate is not only an accomplished businessman and family man but also someone who’s passionate about helping entrepreneurs overcome the messiness that often stifles growth

Episode Summary:

This episode is powered by Move to Millions Live

One thing is for sure and two for certain, scaling and sustaining a business has the potential to create chaos.  From exposing the gaps in your business infrastructure to challenges with team, it can be a time when everything you believe is called into question and as a result, you’re looking for a way out. My guest, Clate Mask, has the anecdote to Conquering the Chaos based on his new book of the same name.  During this powerful conversation, we’ll explore the misconception that chaos is an inevitable part of running a small business and share insights on how to break through to freedom and efficiency. Clate and I will talk about the six keys to success, tailored to help you as an entrepreneur harness the full potential of your vision and strategy, streamline operations through automation, and embrace effective leadership. Clate’s experiences as a Christian, family man, and head of a billion-dollar company bring a unique perspective on aligning identity, vision, and execution to not just ‘make it’ but to thrive in the journey of growth. Moreover, we’ll highlight the transformative power of mindset, discussing how seeing oneself as God sees you, and embodying the belief in your success, is essential to winning at business and life. We’ll touch on the intertwining of personal triumph and business mastery, as well as the game-changing potential of automation.

So, if you’re ready to conquer the chaos and claim your spot at the millions table, grab your pen and paper and listen in to discover:

• How to find the balance between scaling a business and having a personal life
• The essential nature of leadership in guiding company success
• How to align your identity with your company’s vision
• The transformative power of aligning identity, mindset, and action to not only reach the million-dollar threshold but to burst through it with voracity.
• And so much more

Powerful Quotes from The Episode:

• “To conquer chaos, you must step into the eye of the storm with the heart of a strategist and the precision of a maestro.”—Clate Mask
• “A million-dollar mindset is not a luxury; it is a requirement to cross the threshold into abundance.”—Darnyelle
• “In the DNA of every successful business, automation is the gene of liberation, strategy is the molecule of expansion.”—Clate Mask
• “Embody the mindset of prosperity, and the universe will conspire to meet your conviction.”—Darnyelle
• “Leadership is not a title; it’s an identity carved into your very essence, compelling your business to follow where you lead.”—Clate Mask

Move to Millions Wisdom Questions:

Book: Conquer the Chaos, Clate Mask

Favorite Quote: “if you want to change anything, first change your identity, then take actions that are consistent with your new identity.” Clate Mask

Tool Clate Swears By: Keap

How to Connect with Clate Mask:

• Website: https://keap.com/about/leadership
• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clatemask/
• Book: https://conquerthechaosbook.com/

Incredible One Enterprises, LLC is not responsible for the content and information delivered during the podcast interview by any guest. As always, we suggest that you conduct your own due diligence regarding any proclamations by podcast guests.  Incredible One Enterprises, LLC is providing the podcast for informational purposes only.

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

Darnyelle [00:00:04]:
You’re listening to the Move to Millions Podcast with Dr. Darnyelle J. Harmon. If you’re ready for high level conversations that position and prepare you to move your company cash flow and connection to and beyond the million dollar mark, let’s get this party started. This episode is powered by Move to Millions Live, the only three day live event experience for entrepreneurs and small business owners with their mind on the million dollar mark. Finally, learn how to make the move to millions with grace and ease instead of hustle and grind. Go now to movetomillionsevent.com to secure your ticket. I have a treat for you today I had the opportunity of sitting down with an eight figure entrepreneur who runs a billion dollar company and it was a conversation for the books.

Darnyelle [00:01:05]:
I have never been so inspired by listening to a fellow person of faith operating a business at the next level that is confident, that is humble, that is excited about small business. I cannot wait to introduce you to Clate Mask, who is the co founder and CEO of Keap. You might know Keap. They were the creators of Infusionsoft, the marketing automation software. Well, several years ago they rebranded and expanded into business automation software and this powerful conversation that Clate I ask is about to rock your world. We got into his brand new book, Conquer the Chaos. Oh my gosh. It’s amazing.

Darnyelle [00:01:55]:
Absolutely amazing conversation. I want you to grab your pen and your move to millions podcast notebook and let’s jump into my conversation with Clate Mask. Clate Mask, I am so excited to welcome you to the Move to Millions Podcast. How are you today?

Clate [00:02:12]:
I’m so good. Darnyelle. Great to be with you.

Darnyelle [00:02:15]:
You know what I love, just off the bat, your energy is electric. It’s so amazing. Some people are going to listen to this interview, others will actually see the video version of it. And I just feel like my hairs on my arms are standing on in anticipation of how good this conversation is going to be. So just to kick us off, my first question is always tell us who you are in your own words.

Clate [00:02:39]:
I’ll tell you what my I am statement is. I am a Christian, an amazing family man, and a billion dollar company CEO. I have six amazing kids. My wife Sharice and I have been married for 30 years. We now have six grandkids. And I co founded a company called Infusionsoft that was marketing automation for small businesses. And a few years ago we rebranded to keep. That’s business automation, which includes marketing automation, of course.

Clate [00:03:06]:
But it’s really about automating your marketing, sales, service and operations so that you can get the growth, profit and freedom that you want in your business.

Darnyelle [00:03:14]:
I love all of that. I didn’t know you had six kids and six grandbabies. That’s awesome. That’s so awesome. Just for you guys listening, I have been using the product since when it was Infusionsoft since 2012. So we’re 14 years deep in this amazing software. I have always believed that Infusionsoft now keep is the Bentley of business automation. And if you really want to have a business that generates at a level that allows you to be able to automate and systematize so that you can spend your time as a CEO on the things you can’t automate and systematize, you need a system like keep.

Darnyelle [00:03:55]:
And so when I had the opportunity to be able to get Clate to come and join me on the, I like rushed. I’m like, absolutely, let’s have a conversation because I think your story is so powerful. And I remember the origins, the early part of the story in Infusionsoft, and just how transformational it was and how much of a pioneer you guys really were in the space. And so to see how you have continued to evolve and grow in a now full circle business automation, you know, that gets me excited, because when I think about these entrepreneurs and small business owners that listen to the show, one of their biggest challenges is setting up those systems and making sure that they can align. So take us back. I would love for you to just what made, when you guys co founded, what was the reason? What was the problem to be solved? And then how did you also make the decision a few years ago to evolve into full business automation? I’d love to just hear that trajectory.

Clate [00:04:52]:
Oh, yeah. Early on, we were like our customers, dealing with the challenges of trying to grow the business. There was always more to do than there were hours in the day just feeling like we were. As I say in the book, we were in chaos. There’s not enough hours in the day. Your systems are inadequate. You recognize that bigger businesses can do things that you just can’t do as a small business. You’re really burning the candle at both ends and feeling like, man, is this really the freedom I was after when we started the business? So we were in that place when we created marketing automation for our customers, and then we started using it ourselves, because at first we were just using kind of the CRM capabilities to organize things.

Clate [00:05:33]:
But it’s when you automate the follow up to your customers, that’s when things really start to change. So I think for us, we recognized that automating follow up was something that could really put hours in the day and sales into the business in a way that was super powerful. So we were doing it for our customers, we started doing it ourselves. And that’s when we kind of invented for small businesses what marketing automation is. It’s kind of crazy to say this today, but the truth is it didn’t exist back then. This is 15 years ago, and there was no such thing as marketing automation for small businesses. So when we created the drag and drop campaign builder, I remember showing it to people that were in marketing automation, in enterprise or in mid market, and their jaws dropped. They were just like, oh my gosh, what is this? What have you done? And we said, well, we’ve created this so that small businesses can use it.

Clate [00:06:25]:
And they’re like, no, you need to take this to mid market enterprise. They don’t have it. And we said, no, we’re passionately about small business. This is what we do. But in a nutshell, what we did is we simplified enterprise level marketing automation so that small businesses could use it and get the benefit of it. And that’s what we did for the next ten years or so. We really just led with Infusionsoft marketing automation and what we learned. And this is important because the second part of your question was, well, why did you evolve into business automation? What we learned is that while marketing automation and automating that follow up with your prospects to turn them into customers.

Clate [00:07:01]:
And that’s really valuable in the business. But it starts to create some problems in the sense that growth isn’t necessarily the only thing that matters if you’re just growing, adding more customers, but you’re doing it in inefficient ways. Your systems start to cause problems for you after the marketing process. And so what we saw was our best customers were taking our marketing automation capabilities and they were actually morphing them into their sales, their service, their internal operations. But we weren’t making that very obvious to our customers. It was just kind of the real savvy ones that were doing that. In essence, they were basically taking our marketing automation platform and they were trying to apply it across their business. And so a few years ago, we said, hey, marketing automation is great for a lot of reasons, but it does start to create some problems in the systems across other aspects of the business.

Clate [00:07:59]:
The growth begins to become inefficient, therefore. And so the profit and the freedom that the customer wanted isn’t necessarily happening. They’re getting more business. But by the way, you know, you get to this point when you’re starting to feel like, wait, but more customers just means more problems and less time and more frustration. That’s not more freedom. And that’s the indicator that you might be doing well with marketing automation or even your sales process, but you don’t have the post customer acquisition systems and the internal operations efficiency that you need. So all of that’s a long way to say. We began to see after a decade or so of doing marketing automation, that what we’re really passionate about and our purpose, this is our purpose and it’ll speak to it.

Clate [00:08:46]:
Our purpose long has been to liberate and empower entrepreneurs, to strengthen families, communities, economies.

Darnyelle [00:08:52]:
I love that. Oh, I love that so much, Clay. I love all of it. So many things you said that were really powerful that I just want to nibble on for a second. I loved how, you know, we were dealing with the challenges. We had more to do than we had hours in the day. Our systems were inadequate. We were burnt the candle at both ends.

Darnyelle [00:09:11]:
We got to this place where more customers was not going to equal more freedom.

Clate [00:09:14]:
Right?

Darnyelle [00:09:15]:
And then you said, and this, I think, is the most powerful line, you said, and then we started using it ourselves. Right. So you started using your own product and recognized that while automating your follow up is great, it doesn’t help the other areas of the business. And this is probably another favorite line that I love. I say this all the time, right. I have clients who, they might have a quarter where their revenue didn’t grow from the previous quarter, but they grew their business in other ways. Their leadership heightened. Right? They brought on a new effective leader.

Darnyelle [00:09:46]:
They tightened their operational infrastructure. And I’m saying all the time that all growth is not financial. And so to hear you say that, to co sign with that and say that marketing automation is valuable, but it can create problems in the sense that all growth is not necessarily about marketing. And I love that. And it’s such an important lesson to learn. Many of the people listening to this show, they’re in what I call the millions messy middle. They’re in that chaotic corridor between three to 500,000 where their systems are breaking. Their business is feeling like more of a lift than they sign on for.

Darnyelle [00:10:23]:
And they don’t know how to get to the other side. And often the answer is tighten your systems, heighten your support and strengthen your success mindset. So to hear you say all of that is like just perfect confirmation for what it is that we know. If you love the move to Millions podcast and the move to Millions book is blowing your mind. Then you have got to join us for move to millions live. All the details are waiting for you to secure your seat at movetomillionsevent.com. If you’ve got move to millions the book, you need move to millions the planner. It’s the perfect companion as you plan, prepare and position to profit to and beyond the million dollar mark.

Darnyelle [00:11:11]:
Grab your planner today at movetomillionsplanner.com. You also alluded to where I also want to make sure that we go. In our conversation you said we were in chaos. And I know that you have a new book that you are bringing out to the world and I just want to get into that, especially because I thought that this was just going to be a rerelease of your previous book. And you just told me that 90% of it is all new. So walk us through the journey of why you felt like now is the time to release this book, to really talk about how to conquer this chaos that exists inside of business that I know is impacting our ability to scale and sustain at the next level.

Clate [00:11:56]:
Yeah, totally. I love what you describe and I love what you do for your clients and your members because it really is. And I talk about this in the book, you get to that plateau at about I described in the book as the ones and threes of revenue where you hit plateaus. You hit a plateau at 100,000 and then at 300,000, then at 1 million and then at 3 million, at 10 million, 30 million. It’s a law of business when you plateau at these levels. And the process and systems is where it really can cause people to get stuck. So I love what you described there. Let me give a little context on the book.

Clate [00:12:33]:
The book is Conquer the Chaos, the six keys to success for entrepreneurs. And I wrote it because 14 years ago we originally wrote Conquer the Chaos, my co founder and I. But it was really about marketing automation. It was about what we saw needed to happen in the world for small businesses. And in the intervening years, as I shared, we kind of went through an evolution where we saw ourselves, we saw it with our customers. And I just felt like there were two major reasons why the book needed to be updated. The first was about business automation, not just marketing automation, but the second was really what I’ve learned as a practitioner of entrepreneurship, a coach of entrepreneurship, a teacher, a liver and lover of entrepreneurship over the last 20 plus years. And that is that the balance between the personal and the business life as an entrepreneur is so tricky.

Clate [00:13:33]:
It’s so challenging. And I’ve practiced this. I’ve lived it. When you have six kids and you’re busy in your church and community, and you’ve got investors and you’ve got hundreds of employees, if you don’t figure out the balance aspect of it, it’s going to eat you whole. I’ve worked at it really hard and I’ve taught it and I’ve practiced it and I’ve lived and loved it. And I just felt like the book needed that aspect. And so the book is divided into six keys. The first three keys are the personal keys to success for entrepreneurs.

Clate [00:14:05]:
And the second part of the book is the three keys of business success for entrepreneurs. So, in short, I describe success for entrepreneurs as balanced growth in your business and personal life that produces freedom. And that freedom is in the form of money, time, control and impact. That’s what we’re after as entrepreneurs. So that’s why I wrote the book and I started it off. I told you as we were getting started, I started it thinking, hey, this will be like a 20% revision. And as I got into the project, it just became a labor of love. This is no ghost written book.

Clate [00:14:42]:
This is no co written book. This is me in a hotel room, one week in the office doing work the other week, next week in the office, in the hotel room. I thought I was going to do that for a couple of weeks. It turned into about four months of it. But I really poured my heart and soul into the book and what I believe is going to be just a great blessing for entrepreneurs as they read it. It’s the book I wish I could have read 20 years ago, frankly.

Darnyelle [00:15:06]:
Yeah, I love that. I feel that. I’m looking forward to getting it. I ordered a copy, so I’m excited that it’s on its way. Love it. Because I think that you said something that is really important, and I’m glad that you use the word the balance. Right. Because it is a dance.

Darnyelle [00:15:24]:
It’s a fine line, right? There are times where personal demands supersede business demands and vice versa. And being able to find what that looks like for you is so essential to being able to be successful. Because you’re right. We’re all after freedom, right? And we want freedom of our time, we want freedom of our resource, and we want freedom to be able to express ourselves in the places with the people that matter the most to us, to be able to experience all of that. And at the same time have, in your case, a billion dollar company. In my case, a multimillion dollar company. Those success clues, people need them. So I don’t have the book in front of me right now.

Darnyelle [00:16:06]:
Can you share one personal success key and one business success key, and maybe dig in a little bit on each of those, because there’s three of each, which would you say are the one you love to talk about the most? One for personal and one for business.

Clate [00:16:24]:
Yeah. So the three personal keys are mindset, vision for your life, and rhythm of execution. So mindset, vision, and rhythm, and I’ll talk about mindset for a second. And then on the business side, it’s strategy, automation, and leadership. And I love to talk about automation because I believe it’s the great game changer for small businesses. So, on the mindset side, the three keys to success, on the personal side, start with mindset. Because, as you know, in entrepreneurship, it’s when your mind starts to waver on success in your business, in your personal life, that’s when you start to really struggle. And so as long as it’s all of the tried and true sayings that we hear, if you’re in personal development, you know these things are true.

Clate [00:17:18]:
You know that 90% of success is between your ears, and you know that whatever a person believes, they can achieve. And you know that if a person believes they can or they can’t, they’re right. All these things, they’re true. These are true things. And yet, I think sometimes in entrepreneurship, we allow our minds to wander to dark corners of failure and things that are not the success we’re after. And so just constantly cultivating that mindset and how we do that. My dad was a big, positive mental attitude guy, and I didn’t understand it when I was a teenager, and I kind of dismissed it. But as I got into.

Clate [00:17:57]:
And I went through education and as I got into running my own business, I started to see it and I started to understand it, and I started to go seek out the books, and these people that had taught my dad were now starting to get into my mind. So I’m just a big believer that we set our mind for success. It’s our choice. It’s truly a choice. It’s the way that we cultivate our mindset. And so in the book, I talk about different practices to do that. And then, of course, it all plays out in the second and third keys, which are the vision for life and the rhythm of execution, which is really the way that you reinforce the mindset, ultimately.

Darnyelle [00:18:41]:
Yeah. And I would agree. I actually believe that mindset is 95%. I think only 5% is skill. It’s all the way that you look at things and your ability to consistently embody the next version of yourself. And some of us, it’s easy. For some of us, it’s not right. When I think about the client that we serve, that $300 to $500,000 entrepreneur, small business owner.

Darnyelle [00:19:06]:
The biggest reason why they haven’t made millions is because they think a million dollars is a lot of money. And so they’re not embodying. They’re not showing up as if it is actually normalized and right now available to them. And if we can get them to make that flip, then the strategy, the automation, and their leadership skills will quickly take them to the million dollar mark. It doesn’t have to take long once they do that mindset work. But mindset is not sexy, and no one wants. They don’t want to do mindset work, especially we as believers, and I work with primarily believers, like, oh, I’ll just go to church, right? I just need to pray. If I just pray for Jesus, then it will all be good.

Darnyelle [00:19:50]:
I’m like, but, ma’am, but, sir, even James said faith without works is dead. Right? Like, you’ve got to do more than just pray. You got to take specific actions. You have to make sure you’re embodying. I’ve been reading. I just finished the book of Deuteronomy at the top of the year.

Clate [00:20:05]:
Love it.

Darnyelle [00:20:05]:
I said I wanted to really go deep, and my theme for the year is anchored ascension. And so I was in prayer, and God sent me to Deuteronomy. Now, I’ll be honest, I don’t spend a lot of time in the Old Testament, and if I do, it’s typically proverbs or psalms, right? Yeah. And so I’m reading Deuteronomy, and at first I’m like, why does he have me reading this? Deuteronomy is, like, the book of the rules. And I get to chapter seven, and chapter seven really flipped it for me. So in chapter just, my audience knows this because I talk about this all the time. But in Deuteronomy, they’re on their way to the promised land. They’re not there yet.

Darnyelle [00:20:41]:
Moses is not going with them. So he’s got to prepare the people. He’s got to tell them what to do once they get there. And so in chapter seven in the Bible, eight times, Moses tells the children of Israel to enter and occupy. Enter and occupy. I believe entering is, like, the first step. That’s the first part of mindset. But the way that we, if I look at your vision and rhythm, the way that we understand the vision and get into the rhythm is through occupying, taking up space in it, acting as if it’s ours, embodying this place that we’re in, right? And so when I think about the chaos that ensues as entrepreneurs and small business owners on the climb to shift the trajectory and to go the company, everything is breaking.

Darnyelle [00:21:32]:
That’s almost an indication that you’re doing it right, that things are breaking. What you used to have, as your systems aren’t holding anymore, you need duct tape in order for it to work, right? So it’s time to reevaluate. And that occupying, recognizing that you deserve to be there, you did not become the CEO of a billion dollar company by just dilating it in. You did the work, you embodied, you evolved, you up, leveled the way that you served with that powerful mission to liberate and to allow freedom for time with their family. That guiding light and purpose was the embodiment piece that allowed you to even conquer the chaos. Or at least as I’m imagining, based on what I know about your story, which I think is so powerful, Darnyelle.

Clate [00:22:24]:
There’S so much gold there. The enter and occupy concept, listen, you were led to, is amazing because it really is how God wants us to show up. He doesn’t want us to show up in a needy, dependency, begging way. He wants to show up in a partnering way, in a confident way, in a believing way. And when we show up that way, it’s not a weak way of doing it, it’s a strong way of doing it with him. Not without, of course, having dependency there, because we do need him, but in a way where we are strong and bringing our best selves the way he wants us to show up. And I love your enter and occupy because it’s really what so many of the wise teachers are sharing about how we bring our identity to the work that we do. It’s how we see ourselves and how we believe in ourselves.

Clate [00:23:24]:
And by the way, I talk about this in the book, because the real key, the bridge between mindset and vision, is our identity. It’s how we see ourselves, how we establish ourselves in the world.

Darnyelle [00:23:37]:
Are you ready for move to millions live 2024? Well, registration is now open. It is going down May 22 through the 24th, just outside of Washington, DC. You have to be there if you have millions on your mind, if you think the book was something, wait until you get into proximity to your next level. The conversations, the clarity, the collaborations and the community that is going to get you to and beyond the million dollar mark is waiting for you now. Go grab your [email protected]. The reviews are in. Move to millions. The proven framework to become a million dollar CEO with grace and ease instead of hustle and grind, is a bestseller.

Darnyelle [00:24:23]:
With thousands of copies sold, we are raising a generation of million dollar CEOs. You got next. Grab your copy. In our bonuses [email protected].

Clate [00:24:36]:
How we be, how we show up in the world. And he’s constantly asking me who I’m being. It’s such a great way for us to think, because there’s a counterfeit to how we’re being. That is what people like to say as fake it till you make it.

Darnyelle [00:24:55]:
I know. I hate that.

Clate [00:24:57]:
And there’s a problem with fake it till you make it. And it’s that you are actually admitting to yourself from the beginning that you are not the identity that you are intended to be.

Darnyelle [00:25:09]:
Yeah.

Clate [00:25:10]:
I say don’t fake it till you make it. Be it till they see it.

Darnyelle [00:25:14]:
Oh, I love that, Clay. I love that. I have long since hated fake it till you make it. For that very reason. It’s like you’re showing up inauthentically and you’re out of integrity, and you expect to make it somewhere. Where does that. Right. Like, we don’t get there when we’re faking.

Darnyelle [00:25:30]:
Right? So I love that. Be it till you see it.

Clate [00:25:32]:
Be it till.

Darnyelle [00:25:33]:
That is amazing.

Clate [00:25:34]:
I love it every day. But eventually, they’ll see it.

Darnyelle [00:25:37]:
Yeah. Be it till they see it. And even the bridge between mindset and vision is identity. I love talking about identity, and I think you hit it right on the nose. Right. It’s how you see yourself. And for me, I always say you need to see yourself the way God sees you. Right.

Darnyelle [00:25:52]:
Because if we think about Genesis one and 26 through one and 28, let us make man in our own image and likeness. Right. Let us give him power and authority. Subdue. That means everything comes under your command. That is who we were created to be. That’s our identity.

Clate [00:26:08]:
That’s right.

Darnyelle [00:26:09]:
That means everything is under our power and our command. Yet many of us don’t take on the identity of leadership, of ownership that we need in order to actually experience what it is that God brought us here to experience.

Clate [00:26:24]:
You got it, man. I see it the same way, and I love the work you do, because you’re helping people to be that identity, to see that in themselves, to see who they really are. And then that makes entrepreneurs so much more powerful and effective in what they do. There’s a principle that James clear teaches in atomic habits. It’s the practice of what you just described. And then I’ll share one other piece to kind of tie it off. But what he says is, if you want to change anything, you first change your identity, and then you take actions that are consistent with that identity. So if you say, I want to be a runner, then you identify as a runner.

Clate [00:27:09]:
I am a runner. And you take actions that are consistent with. What do runners do? Well, runners get up and they go on for a jog each day or whatever. I had this experience years ago. My coach was telling me, I was telling him that I bite my fingernails, and I’d bitten my fingernails till I was 45 years old. And he said, well, just stop being a fingernail biter. And I said, well, but I bite my fingernails. He said, yeah, but stop being a fingernail biter.

Clate [00:27:34]:
Just stop it.

Darnyelle [00:27:35]:
Change your identity.

Clate [00:27:36]:
Yeah, change your identity. And he walked me through it, and he said, you walked in that door an hour ago, and I haven’t seen you bite your fingernails. So you used to be a fingernail biter. You’re not anymore. Yeah, I used to be that. And then each time I had an inclination to bite my fingernails, I stopped that. And I intentionally, and I began to actually take actions consistent with someone who used to bite their fingernails. And it became very easy and natural for me to be a former fingernail biter, someone who used to bite my fingernails.

Clate [00:28:06]:
And I’ve done that with golf goals, I’ve done that with business goals, I’ve done that with relationships. And the principle is we set the identity, and then we take actions consistent with the identity. And when we make a mistake or we take an action that’s inconsistent, we don’t throw everything out the window. We don’t say, oh, I bit my fingernails. So I’m no longer someone who used to bite their fingernails. No, I’m still someone who used to bite my fingernails. And it just so happens that a moment ago, I bit my fingernails, but I stopped that. And I’m going to take as many actions as possible to outweigh that mistake that I just.

Clate [00:28:38]:
Or that inconsistency that I just made. It’s consistent action. And eventually your mind gets to a place where it sees enough consistency of action that the evidence is overwhelming in the favor that you are a former fingernail biter. Well, that’s the principle at play that you just described. It’s the identity that then leads us to be the better version of ourselves. And this quote from Dan Sullivan really just hit me between the eyes recently when I read it. He said, the most successful people are those who can change their identity the fastest.

Darnyelle [00:29:12]:
I love that.

Clate [00:29:14]:
And what most of us do is we allow our rational mind to hold us back from establishing a new identity because we see the rational mind sees actions that are inconsistent with that identity, and it won’t allow the creator mind to set that new identity. But if we just intentionally set that identity and then take actions consistent with it, we can change anything. We can accomplish anything. And especially when you’re a believer and you know that you can do all things through Christ, it starts to become very powerful.

Darnyelle [00:29:48]:
That’s so good. Oh, my goodness. That’s amazing. Okay, so the business keys are strategy, automation, leadership. That was all the first, and it was so good, I could stay there, but I want to get to this other one, the business side. Strategy, automation and leadership.

Clate [00:30:04]:
Yes. Let’s talk about automation for a second, because to me, automation, I say it all the time. Automation is the great game changer for small business. And the reason is, when you think about any business, big business, small business, the output of that business is a combination of labor and capital. There’s really no other ways. You have hours that you’re putting in, time that you’re putting in, and you have capital that you’re investing. And if you go, you know, people go back to their old economics courses. I mean, this is how a business gets built, output.

Clate [00:30:42]:
And the output is labor and capital. Well, there’s only so many hours in the day. There’s only so many people you can hire on the labor side, and we have constraints on the capital that we have. But automation is the game changer because it actually puts more time into your day. It actually expands your labor. It enables you to create more in your business without having to put a lot more capital into it or put a lot more labor into it. And so I like to say that automation does for your time what compound interest does for your money. It grows it by itself.

Clate [00:31:22]:
When you start to automate, the beautiful thing is this. When you start to automate, you begin to get these dividends in the form of more time. You’re automating things, you’re getting more time back, and then you can use that time to invest in more automation and just keep getting more and more of your time back. That’s the path to not only growth, but profit and freedom. Too many business owners are adding payroll instead of profit. It’s like you keep adding payroll, but you’re not adding profit. And the top line might look good, but over time, what happens to business owners, and this is one of the main reasons we shifted to business automation, is that over time, what happens is the top line is looking fine, but the business owner is starting to get some frustration and even resentment around the business because they’re having to put more time in, more dollars in. In terms of payroll.

Clate [00:32:13]:
They’re not getting the freedom and the profit that they were after. So on the outside, people go, oh, well, the business looks good. Revenue is growing. It’s like, yeah, but is profit growing? Is freedom growing? Is the satisfaction and fulfillment growing? So that’s why automation is so powerful. And when people kind of get stuck in their processes, they need someone to help them go through mapping their business and understanding where the inefficiencies are. Obviously, this is what we do at keep. We help go through. We basically help them create a playbook that maps out their process and then helps them to start automating so that they get more time and freedom in their business.

Darnyelle [00:32:52]:
Yeah, I love it. I love everything that you’re saying, Clay. I think this book is a game changer, and everybody needs to get a copy just to begin to really process each of these six keys in a way that they can then formulate into a plan that they’re going to leverage inside of their company so that that chaos really does turn into more cash flow, which is then going to create profit, which is going to ultimately give them freedom. And that’s what we’re in it for. Right? I don’t know about you, but when I quit my good job all those years ago, I did not quit it to struggle and work more.

Clate [00:33:29]:
That’s right. And by the way, it’s natural when people do. On average, it takes people about three years when they’re building a business to get back to the income level that they were at when they had a nice, good paying job before. We’ve seen that over and over, and they work a lot more during those three years. But then if they’re building it the right way, they start to get more profit, more freedom, more control, more ownership over their life.

Darnyelle [00:33:53]:
Yeah. So good. This has been phenomenal. So amazing. Anything else you feel like you need to share with our listeners around conquering the chaos?

Clate [00:34:08]:
Yeah, I’ll just say this chaos is very normal in small business, but we don’t have to accept that that’s the way it is. You really can through the six keys to success that I teach in the book gradually get to a place where you are feeling that freedom in your business. And a lot of times, tragically, what happens is people just, they give up on the freedom. They think, well, this is just the way it is in small business, and I don’t have to deal with that. I don’t have to deal with that. So it’s fine. But over time, they get worn down and they start to not want to be in the business anymore. Either sell it or have someone else take it over, because it’s not providing the returns that they thought it was going to provide.

Clate [00:34:55]:
That’s the real tragedy, in my opinion. When an entrepreneur gets in, starts building the business, even starts to have some success. They’re past the survival stage, but they don’t break through to that seven figure stage and beyond because they don’t do the work to conquer the chaos. And they think this is just the way it is. And so my challenge to people is don’t get lulled into submission, that you have to accept it, recognize that it is natural, but there are ways to conquer it.

Darnyelle [00:35:27]:
I love that. It’s so good. I think about this quote that I say all the time that God will let you live on whatever level you settle for. And what I’m hearing you say is that we don’t have to settle. We don’t have to settle for the chaos. We can learn how to conquer it, and we can set ourselves on a trajectory to experience something else entirely different that is really powerful.

Clate [00:35:47]:
A month or a quarter, we work at it, and it gets better and better.

Darnyelle [00:35:51]:
Absolutely. That’s phenomenal. Thank you so much for sharing so much for being here. You gave me a lot of powerful quotes that I think are really going to help our audience. Normally, at the end of every show, I ask three questions. What’s one quote, what’s one book, and what’s one tool? And so I am going to take the liberty. It’s my show. I can do what I want to.

Darnyelle [00:36:11]:
That the tool is Keap the book is Conquer the Chaos. And of all the quotes that you shared with me, I think the one I love the most is if you want to change anything, first change your identity, then take actions that are consistent with your new identity.

Clate [00:36:27]:
Love it. I think that is a great quote to live by. We can all benefit from that.

Darnyelle [00:36:33]:
Absolutely awesome. This is amazing.

Clate [00:36:36]:
If people want to get the book, they can go to conquerthechaosbook.com. Okay. And then they can always go to, if you go to keep playbook, we show people how they can identify, map their business, get the process issues. They can talk to one of our experts, because it’s not just a tool. You’ve got to have the strategy that goes with it, as you well know.

Darnyelle [00:37:00]:
Absolutely.

Clate [00:37:01]:
Getting that process mapped out in your playbook so that you can then begin automating.

Darnyelle [00:37:05]:
Awesome. And we’ll make sure that we put those links in the show notes for everybody. Well, this has been phenomenal. I can’t wait to get and read your book. I’m so excited about this evolution and the work that you’re doing and all the businesses that are going to conquer that chaos because they endeavored to go through these six keys and apply them consistently to their life. Thank you so much, Clay, for being here.

Clate [00:37:28]:
This has been good. And thank you for who you are, for the world. I love what you do. I love who you serve and how you serve them. And I feel honored to be with you here. And I’m just grateful for entrepreneurs like you that are teaching and coaching and helping entrepreneurs to achieve their best.

Darnyelle [00:37:47]:
Awesome. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. All right, well, we will see you guys next time. Make sure you check out all the show notes to get all the details on how to get a copy of Conquer the Chaos by Clay mask. We’ll see you next time. Take care. When I tell you, I have never been as inspired as my conversation with Clate.

Darnyelle [00:38:05]:
I mean, first of all, he loves the Lord just like I love the Lord. Check. He is a business mogul who understands the significance of showing up fully, being unapologetic and not acting like there’s something wrong with everyone else. Check. And the conversation was absolutely breathtaking. I loved talking about his six keys. Three for your personal life, three for your business. I just love how he masterfully weaved everything together to create this amazing opportunity for us to envision what it would be like to operate businesses that don’t experience chaos.

Darnyelle [00:38:44]:
Listen, if you’re on the move to millions and you’re in the millions, messy middle, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. You know how your business is breaking. You know how things are going wrong. You’re the bottleneck. Well, this powerful book is going to help you to conquer that chaos while building your business to and beyond the million dollar mark in a way that honors who you are and serves you in the best possible way. I hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as I did. I know I will be coming back to listen because those keys, as he broke them down for us, simple, but not so simple. I can’t wait to get my copy of the book.

Darnyelle [00:39:21]:
It’s already on order. I know this is going to be a game changer for me and a game changer for you. Come back to this conversation as often as you need, as often as you feel chaos inside of your business, because these little nuggets are going to make the difference that you really need in this season so that you can continue to go to the next level. I’m so excited that Clate had the opportunity to stop by. He’s extremely busy on a book tour. Yo. I’m grateful. And I’m grateful because I know that your business is going to change as you learn how to conquer the chaos.

Darnyelle [00:39:55]:
I’ll see you guys next time. Take care. Thank you for joining me for the Move to Millions Podcast. The way I see it, you deserve a business that generates millions. We’d love to have you join us in May at move to millions live to help you prepare, plan and position your company for the million dollar mark visit move to millions event now to grab your seat. If you enjoyed our time together, do yourself a favor. Head on over to iTunes, subscribe rate and leave us a review until next time. Remember, millions are your birthright and to access them you need only MOVE.

Darnyelle [00:40:30]:
See you next time. Take care.