All right, I'm excited this subject tonight and some things
and I dug in my archive and found a tool that I'm going to
hand out to each of you and just explain it a little bit.
One that I've used proficiently made me seriously millions of
dollars, OK over the years that once I got involved in it in the
early 90s. And so I'm, I'm excited to share
that. But let's go ahead and pray and
then we'll just, we'll get into a little bit of a lesson.
Father, we thank you and praise you in Jesus name.
That is, we get together in our once a month opportunity to just
impart some things that we need to think about and maybe, you
know, focus on for a little bit or, or fine tune or tweak.
And, and you know, in the operations, we have the
development of systems and, and the things that you've got for
us, We just thank you and praise that in Jesus name that you'd
assist us and help us because we know that relying on you is the
only way to succeed in anything that we are doing, because that
was the plan that you had, that we would be dependent upon you
helping us fulfill the destiny that you have for us to fulfill.
So we praise you and thank you tonight for the outcome and, and
what we'll be discussing and we'll give you thanks in Jesus
name, Amen. I want you to jot this down.
However you're taking notes or whatever.
Somebody's missing a computer, man, what's going on?
OK, and I want one thing is when we talk about sales, OK, I
learned a philosophy about sales years ago.
I was struggling in business and most of you that have read my
book know that I, you know, I had a, an employment problem.
Hey, sis, and I had employment problem and I had to, I had to
remove somebody from my organization and it was one of
the hardest things that I ever had to do.
And you know, somebody recommended that I read a book
and I did. And I, you know, I didn't read
books. I hate books.
I, I, I wouldn't read them. And matter of fact, all through
high school, I lucked out and I was able to read one book as a
as a freshman and did the same book report all the other years
till I graduated and nobody ever found out about it.
And it was one book, little bitty thin book.
Did a book report all my English classes, didn't have to do
anything else, didn't have to read.
And so anyway, I, you know, somebody recommended you need to
read this book and, and most of you, you know, it was, it was
the book called Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive
by Harvey McKay. He was the number one bestseller
for over a year with that book on the New York Times bestseller
list. And his story on how he did it
was phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal.
I don't I'm not going to go through the time of that
tonight. But I also heard another one,
number one best selling author that had come to me.
And I want you to jot this phrase down.
It's it's people don't care. People don't care how much you
know until they know how much you care, right?
And when we talk about sales and we talk about, you know,
developing relationships and and developing relationships where
people are wanting to part with their money for something that
you have to offer. All right, it's going to be
something a little deeper than just a financial exchange in the
Kingdom of God. Why is that?
Because I'd hate to think that I did a transaction with somebody
that was not a believer in God and see them on the white, you
know, white throne judgement, the day of the white throne
judgement. And them asked me said you never
said nothing. OK, so that tells us as a
Kingdom citizen, there's something a little more deeper
than just being a good salesperson, OK.
And so one of the things that I learned, and I'm going to tell
you stories that some of you have heard before is, you know,
and and one of the most important things, and we've seen
that in the information age that we're now in is that data
collection. All right.
And she don't bother me. I mean, and Sheila, she's
missing with you. Pastors trained me well, OK, If
she's saying something, she might have something to say.
I don't know. OK, all right, if and if the
rest of your boogered out by it, I don't, I can't help you after
all these years, right? We we all kind of sit on the
side where it's happening, you know, OK, so when we when we
talk about the the the relationship and the thing that
intrigued me about Harvey McKay was he was a Jew, OK?
So immediately when I heard that, I thought, well, you know,
he's got a covet. He may not or may or may not
know about that. God's going to bless him.
Welcome to find out. He didn't know about it, but he
had a secretary that I got to know via the phone that was a
Christian. And she would tell me when we,
you know, I let her know and I asked her questions about him.
You know, I said, is he a believer?
No, he's not not in in the Messiah.
He's not a believer in Jesus. But he is Jewish and he attends
synagogue and the different things like that.
She goes, let's just pray for him, OK?
And I said, that's great. Well, the dude's in his 90s now
and all he does is play golf. Because I, I, after it was
probably about 15 years ago when Melanie had the brain aneurysm
rupture. I called Harvey's office to see
if he had a particular doctor that he could recommend that I
could get her to. And they said not for
neurological sciences and stuff like that.
He didn't have, well, I hadn't talked to them in 15 years.
OK, well, 2006, that's almost 20 years.
I called him the other day and I said, hey, Greg.
And, and he's chief of staff. All right.
And I go, this is Randy Clay. And he says, you sound like
Randy Clay. I said, you Remember Me?
And he goes, who can forget you, man?
And I told him what I needed, because what I was going to do
is I was going to bless the students that I was teaching in
Washington with a set of his books signed.
OK. And and so they, they got those
to me and, and, and we had that. But you know, knowing that he
had that. And when I read his book for the
first time, the question that I had in myself is, Lord, there's
something in this book that has a, a, a spiritual flair about
it. What is it?
And the Lord told me He said He has learned the Golden Rule to
do unto others as He would have them, and did it so proficiently
that He has seen profit because of it.
And you know what blew my mind about him?
He's an envelope manufacturer. He makes envelopes.
Did you hear me when I first started reading after him?
And, and, and I would call his office every year.
Is Harvey going to be here, you know, doing a speech at any
university in Oklahoma, which I would have gone to.
And he goes, no, not this year and he's not going to come this
year. All right.
At that, when that that time started, he was doing $40
million in envelopes. You know how many envelopes
that's got to be? I mean, they're pennies.
Envelopes are pennies, and he's doing $40 million.
Well, I'm, I'm, I'm cruising with him in the early 90s.
All of a sudden, e-mail shows up.
I was alive when e-mail showed up. e-mail shows up and I
thought, what's he going to do? We don't need no more envelopes.
Fax machines came before e-mail. And I said, you know, you get a
fax machine. Why do you need to e-mail?
I mean, an envelope for anything.
All right, he was sharp enough to know where the envelope
business was and guess where he found it?
Credit cards, full color printing, advertising in them,
the whole bit. Now his business is over 100
million. OK, and I'm and I'm scratching
around trying to make a sticker, you know, and this dude is 100
million and he ended up a guy that came to work for him.
He sold him the business and the guy wanted to keep him in in the
arena stock and the chairman and the whole bit.
So Harvey still got a job. All right, but it's a McKay
Mitchell envelope now and he he tells the story.
All right. Well, one of the things that he
had in his first book was Harvey and McKay short course on sales.
And when I read that, I that was where I got, I said this dude
has figured it out as far as how to treat people.
All right, Seth, come here and just hand these out.
Everybody can have one. I made enough for everybody.
This is called the McKay 66 customer profile.
All right, and it's 4 pages. I used it proficiently, all
right, because I thought it was the best thing I'd heard of at
the point at that time. And it's very, very interesting
because he is the one that coined the phrase.
It's more important to know something.
Listen to me. It's more important to know
something about your customer than it is to know everything
about your service or product. It's more important to know
something about your customer than it is to know everything
about your service or product. And man, I latched on to that
because I said, you know what? When it comes down to being a
citizen of the Kingdom, we need to know more about people then
we knew we do our product and finding out what makes them
tick. How can we get to them?
How do we get an opportunity to present the gospel right?
Because we have something and we don't have to sell it.
Even though, you know, Doctor Mary Francis.
Mary Francis, that's where I say has two first names.
You know what I mean? Mary Francis, I'd be like my
Mama, call me Randall Allen, I guess.
And you know, and, and listen to her how she, she ministered to
people with the $100 bill. Did you hear about that?
Give them $100 bill. Can I pray the sinner's prayer
with you? You know, I thought that's that
easy. I didn't.
Well, I should have got $100 bill.
And but, you know, when we talk about, we talk about, you know,
the way that that we, we develop relationships with people is
important that they know we care more about them than we do our
product. Because I don't go into
businesses in the days that I was building the company.
And even in the real estate business, Melanie and I have,
we're not what we don't go in and think, OK, they're worth
this much. They're worth that much to me.
Oh, they're worth that much to me.
I mean, God would slap that to the ground, you know, because
we're not paying attention to who they are.
And so I, you know, there's 6666 questions and I love his story
when he talks about it. That's why he calls it them 666
bits of information that you need to go and look, he talks
about customer information. He wants to know things that all
of us would want to know. All right, you know, business
phone, anything. And I thought it was funny
because one time I was teaching this to a sales group and they
said, So what do you do? You go in there, you take them
to lunch and you start asking questions and fill out the form.
No, dummy, not in front of them, you know, he said.
You know, you this is, this isn't a we get all we can the
first time we meet, all right? It's kind of like a dating
relationship. You don't everybody spill their
guts, you know, on what's going on in their lives.
All right, while we're on our first date, that could cause
some problems, all right, but it, but you, you use this as a
collecting item now, you know, I, I narrowed mine down to a
Rolodex card and had Rolodex cards with some of this data
that I wanted to remember, especially when I was flipping
through it. He came up with a program called
Sharkware and he didn't, he's somebody else did, said Harvey.
We can convert all this to digital if you want.
And he did and it was awesome. I bought it and, and, and it was
just all digital. It'd give you reminders who had
the birthday today, who had the anniversary today, you know, but
you find out. And he said, he said, I know
more about my customers than the IRS does just from this little
questionnaire because it has everything, educational
information. The next thing on the bottom,
family information, you know, I'll tell you how I used that
information in one particular time, business background.
You want to find out. And you know what is most of
that I used in scanning an office?
He said you got to become proficient reading upside down,
OK, you got to be, you know, you kind of, you got to, you got to,
got to figure out, OK, reading upside down, what are we, what
are we doing? And, and then he said special
interest that they had anything political, you know, their
lifestyle. You see lists of things there.
Then you turn the page over to the back one and the customer
and you and he's just talking about, but what you're doing is
you're getting information to find out where there's a
connection. We do that.
I do that every Sunday. I'm talking to people.
And if I, I see somebody and I don't go to all those that love
me, you know, and, and hang out with him for a little while and
go stand up next to the wall with him.
I don't do that, you know, I'm looking for.
I don't, I've never seen that face ever.
And I go over there and I introduce myself to him and, and
and and I go back to my seat and I write their name in my phone.
OK, so that if I see him again, you know, and there's one
particular, they introduced me to him and, you know, I thought
I need to remember this man, you know, So I went over there and
wrote his name down and, and I saw him again.
The next service called him by name, you know, and said, hey,
man, I'm so glad it is. What is this?
Is this #4 #5 you know, and, and you're, you're listening to
people to find out, you know, where is it?
Where is it that, you know, on the planet now that we've met,
that we can connect? You know, and I've had I've had
so many opportunities. The one is the my favorite and I
wrote about it is, is basically the all about them lunch.
That was the title of my chapter.
And what I did was there was a company and it was 1 oak in
Oklahoma. They were an oil gas company and
they had a, they had a safety director and somebody had told
me, Oh yeah, you gotta go over at 1 Oak and 1 Oak's big.
My father-in-law worked in that building for, for years.
And, and they said, yeah, they've got a new and this is
his name, stuff like that. And I just, I sent him an e-mail
or a, you know, call him and ask him and said, Hey, would you be
willing to go to lunch? It's Randy Clay and with USA
sign decal. And he said, yeah, man, I'll go
to lunch with you, you know? And so we went to lunch and we
just had a great conversation. Now, I got one of these sitting
in the car and I'm going to try to get some information just to
get to know him. So, you know, and here's the
thing. I didn't sit there and tell them
all about my stuff and how good of a product I had and that, you
know. Have you ever bought one of
these? And how did it work out?
Because ours does this. And I not one time mentioned
anything about what we did. I just started to question,
where are you from? He said, Liberty, Kansas.
I go, oh, really? Up there close to Kansas City,
right. He goes, yeah.
And then I just, I got kept asking question after question.
Found out he was a big Kansas City Chief fan.
Fan when Kansas City was 0. Pitiful, you know, made a note
of that, you know, and I was listening to him.
He said he had two girls that were, you know, into sports.
And he said, oh, as a matter of fact, my wife and I next week
are celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary.
And I said, well, that's awesome.
And he said, yeah, we found a little bed and breakfast outside
of Oklahoma City and we're going to stay.
Really. What I said, you know, I said my
wife and I, you know, I've heard about all these bed and
breakfasts and stuff. What's the name of it?
And he told me the Armada or something and, and I said, OK,
that's great. You know, and, and so, you know,
I'm, I'm doing the best to keep all this information in my head.
And I get into the car and I fill out, I start filling out
some stuff on him because I'm going to create a file,
obviously. And so, you know, the main thing
is, is when I got back, I said, I got an idea and I, I called, I
called and found this, this bed and breakfast.
And I asked him, I said, would you, could you tell me?
And you know, it's no big deal. We parted.
I, I took him back to the office.
I picked him up from the office, took him back to the office.
Still didn't tell him nothing about, you know, USA Design,
didn't even mention it. OK.
And so I get back to the office. I call the bed and breakfast and
I said, do you all have a like, a florist or a basket maker or
something that makes, you know, gift baskets and stuff close to
you All's bed and breakfast? They said, yeah, we use this one
company all the time. And I said, can I have the
number? Gave me the number.
I gave them a credit card. And I told them I said a really
a really nice basket and I want you to deliver it to that bed
and breakfast, OK, With their name on it for me.
OK, no problem. Credit card done.
OK. I didn't hear from the guy for a
couple of weeks and when he called me, he uses colorful
language, OK. And I, you know, I no big deal
there. I said, you know, and he said I
thought it was from the bed and breakfast And my wife pulled the
card off of it after we'd eaten on it a couple of days and, and,
and said, do you know of Randy Clay?
And he ran over to give me that and he looked at it.
He goes, my God, we thought we what, how did you what you know,
the whole bit and, and I'll never forget, you know, all of a
sudden, you know, after that whole bit, well, you know, 10's
a big deal, 10 years is a big deal.
And, and I wanted you guys to have a good time and hopefully
you enjoyed that. He said we did, man.
He said, but I just couldn't believe it.
But he said, can you come down to the office?
Because I've got some things that I need to talk to you about
in some product we need to buy. And then, you know, as a matter
of fact, I can't tell you that had to be early 2002 thousand 25
years ago. He called me the other day.
He said you've heard I took another job and I said I have.
And I said you're closer to me. And he said, he said, well, he
said I'm trying to get you on the vendors list here because
everywhere he moved after One Oak, he got me on the vendors
list and list and want to do business with me.
I can't tell you how many hundreds of thousands of dollars
I did with this one guy. And it was a lunch and a basket.
Best marketing deal I ever did. Cheapest and the most rewarding,
you know, but I showed. But our relationship went on and
on after that because he had a couple of girls and they grew up
and they were playing softball in high school.
And he said, hey, can you make some stickers for their team?
And the whole bit, yes, Sir, no charge.
OK. And and and and then I found out
that he was in a horrible car wreck.
And I said, why didn't you call me?
You know, I said, I apologize that, you know, I hadn't checked
in with you. You were in a car wreck.
He almost died from the car wreck.
And he said, yeah, it's pretty. I said you look good, though.
And he said, he said, I'm, I'm rehabbing, you know, and, and
the whole bit. Well, he ended up moving from
Enid, OK? He moved to, I believe it was
Louisiana. And he couldn't stand it.
He didn't like the culture. He didn't like it.
So he looked for another job and and he found one in Mississippi
and, you know, wanting me to, you know, to cater to their
company and take care of it. But if I hadn't changed my
mentality and this is before I knew about the Kingdom, but if I
hadn't changed my mentality on that guy's worth a lot of bucks
to me and really get to know him as a person and spend time with
him. And we went to lunch frequently.
I mean, I, I met him at Charleston's one time and he
came into town for Enid. He was in Enid, OK was his next
job after he left 1 Oak. He went to Enid, OK and went to
work for a company called Highland Oil and Gas.
And he said, man, I'm going to be in Tulsa today.
Can you meet me for lunch? Absolutely.
I mean, I, it was weird. I didn't have anything to do.
I met him for lunch. We and he had a couple of guys
with him and just had a great, you know, great time catching up
with the kids and the girls and the wife and the whole bit, you
know, and, and and didn't talk about decal stickers, safety,
nothing. OK, just say people, you know,
they want to be they have a I'm looking for those that have a
life outside of where they work because I'm going to show them
an additional part of that life when it comes to being able to
share the gospel or to get now, you know, everybody calls me Rev
OK, and it seems nowadays. All right, so hey, Rev, what do
you think of this? Hey, Rev, what do you think of
that? All right, so everybody knows
I'm a Rev all right. And I, and so that brings a
whole new level. But I, I'm excited about it
because it gives me a better opportunity to visit, you know,
and, and, and talk to people because they know how I'm going
to respond. It's kind of automatic now.
It's interesting. But when, when I go through
there, another thing with, with Kent, I was in an airport and I,
I don't remember, you know, what trip it was.
And I think it's a speaking engagement.
I think it was when I was in Miami and flew down to Miami and
there was a particular, it's called Moto Photo and it was a
studio photo studio back in the day where you take your kids,
your dog, whatever you wanted. And they had a a storefront
where they took photographs and stuff professionally done and
the whole deal. Well, somebody was at a meeting
that heard me speak and they went and told the president of
the company and they flew me down to Miami to do do the
program that I had called The Great Life, which I showed you
guys in my box, OK. And the president said he was so
funny. He said, man, I've heard her.
Harvey McKay. I think you're better than
Harvey McKay speaking. I started laughing.
I said, man, you know, I said, I appreciate that.
I'm probably cheaper too, aren't I?
And he goes, he goes, man. He said at the, at the, the
round table that we had with all of our, you know, company
owners, they said this guy knows more of what we're going through
a small business than anybody you've ever had.
And it was just simple things because I had just four points
that I wanted is 1. If you're going to be a success
in your business, you're going to need to be a problem solver.
If you can't solve problems, you're in trouble because a lot
of business that I've seen is, has its set of problems.
And the second thing I said, if you're also going to be
successful, you're going to have to be a self starter.
We can't wait till everybody come in here and go over here
and do this, do this. You've got to look in the room
and say that needs to be done, that needs to be done, that
needs to be done, and I need to do all of it because I don't see
anybody else. And then, you know, the next one
after that was, let's see, I had, oh, effective
communication. And I've taught that here on
understanding effective communication is the ability to
paint pictures in the mind that'll bring a desired result.
And I and I and I talked about how important it was to
communicate. And I had some stories to let
them know. I know what it is to
communicate, right? And I know what happens if you
don't communicate properly. All right?
And then the last one was how to network.
That was my last phrase in there of letting them know how
important it is that when you get to know people, it may not
be for business, it might be for life, you know, and, and, and I,
I told about that, you know, when Melanie had her brain in
your reserve rupture in March of 2006, I got a phone call with
one of the guys in my network, which was my attorney.
And he heard about it. And he told me if if it was my
wife, this is what I do. And I thought, well, OK, you
probably could do that. I have no clue how to do it.
And he said, I've got a phone call ready for you.
Somebody at the end of the phone, the line, you call them
and, and they'll talk to you. And so I was so thankful, you
know, for that, that, you know, he didn't just look at me as a,
you know, client or neighbor, because he was one of my
neighbors and we all lived in three acre plots and everybody
had their own little acreage. And, and, but he told me, hey,
you know, do this, do this, do this and everything that we did,
you know, got Melanie to where she needed to go at the Mayo
Clinic in Rochester, MN. So getting the information and
knowing. But one of the things I was in
an airport, that was my point, I think.
And, and I saw the coolest looking Kansas City Chiefs mug,
coffee mug. It was cool, man.
I mean, I, I don't know how to describe it, but the, you know,
their logos of Casey inside of an Arrowhead and Arrowhead was
embossed and sticking out from the edge of the on both sides of
the mug. And I mean, it was cool, bright
red. I said, I got to get that.
And I bought that thing and I sent it to Kent, you know, And
he goes, he calls me, he goes, where did you get that mug?
And I said Miami, FL, as a matter of fact.
And he goes, man, that was so awesome.
And I can't believe you were thinking of me.
And I said second, I saw, saw it, I was thinking of you, you
know, and, and, and it's just multiple, multiple people over
the years that, you know, that I, I, I've looked at and there's
been some that I've been able to throw a little bit, you know, in
there. I had another woman and, and
she's no longer with us and I had an opportunity.
I wanted their business. I wrote about her in Next in
Line where I wanted this one particular business from this
one company and they manufacture truck utility cranes.
And then the name of the company is auto crane.
And they make a little utility truck and on it has a crane that
they can lift stuff on and put in the truck and the different
thing. And they make them big too
giant. And they have Dick decals all
over them. They just tons of safety stuff
on them. And I thought, I want that
company. And so one day I got a phone
call from that company that wanted to know if I could make
decals to put on trash cans. OK, well, I got to know her and
what all she liked. And there wasn't a whole lot of
things that I thought I could buy for her 'cause it was
obvious from the ashtray in her office that she was a chain,
very nervous smoker, you know, And to the extent that when I
left, you know, I kind of smelled like I'd been doing a
little myself, right? And, but, you know, I just fell
in love with her And, and, you know, and I remember, you know,
just talking to her a little bit about the Lord and some of the
anxiety that she was, you know, facing and family and stuff.
And I said, you know, I said, I, I know someone that could help
you with that. I said, has anybody ever, you
know, talked to you about the relationship with the Lord and
how it's made a difference? And she goes, no, not really.
And I said, well, I said, as we grow the relationship, I said,
you can ask me any question you want.
And I guarantee you that, you know, I can help you, you know,
with some of that. And so, so funny. 1 you know,
one time she let off a color word, a colorful word and, and
she looked at me and she said, she goes, and it was, it was God
blank, whatever. And I said, she goes, that I
really want to apologize for that.
And I said, well, don't worry about it.
And she goes, she goes, does that not bother you when people
talk? Like I said, no, it doesn't.
I said, because, you know, she says, well, I took the Lord's
name in vain. And I said, well, you know, I
have a teaching on that. And I said, you really didn't
because God's not his name, OK? And that just, you know, and I
sat there for a few minutes and I just shared with her, his name
is Jehovah. And he has a lot of, he has a
lot of titles with his name. And, and if we make a decision
not to believe in those titles, that's where we start taking his
name and making it. Cause the word vain means empty,
idle, non productive. OK, so if you're, if you're
going to say God really doesn't do this or he doesn't do that no
more, or he's not interested in that, you know, concerning your
life, you're real, real, real close to saying your name's, it
equals nothing. You know, she was really shocked
by that. And I said, so it doesn't bother
me. I said, you know, and she goes,
well, I just, I just feel bad, you know, I said, it's OK.
You know, I'm not offended. I'm not hurt by that.
You didn't hurt my my father either.
OK, you're good. And so, you know, there's
opportunities that, you know, through that.
But the in the in the, you know, sharing with people when I had
opportunity to meet him and speak to him and, and especially
when I told the testimony, because that was the last part
that was that was that was the get em when I did, you know, I
spoke all over the state of Oklahoma.
I, I spoke to one particular meeting, all the postmaster
generals in the entire state, because every city has one, OK.
I spoke to all the mayors and all the commissioners.
They had an annual meeting. I spoke to them, you know, and,
and the last part of the message was talking about, you know,
Melanie's aneurysm rupture and how, you know, how the Lord
blessed us and we got to the right doctor.
And here's the miracle of the phone calls and the different
things like that. So your network, you never know
who you're going to have in your network, but you need to treat
each one as a prize. You know, and I had people,
women been coming up and bawling and talking to me, you know, Oh,
my, my husband died of an aneurysm.
And when you were telling that story, Oh my gosh, you know,
and, and just, you know, your heart just ripping out, you
know, listening to them give the, you know, the, the
heartbreak that they had and you're just hoping to giving
them light saying, you know, listen, we can't control
everything that's going on here. And God isn't in control of
everything. OK.
But, you know, what I want you to know is you need to surround
yourself with people of faith. And, you know, and I never had
anybody come and rebuke me, you know, for, for talking about
that. Any of those that got a copy of
my book, they read it in the first chapter, you know, and
talking about that, I was in my pastor's office when, you know,
I saw Harvey Mckay's book sitting on his desk.
And I thought I might want to read that book.
He's got a copy. Where do you get that copy?
Why has he got that book? You know, I mean, just sitting
there on his desk glowing, and I thought I better read that book.
And so with with Harvey and, and the things that he had, I just,
you know, I loved looking through these.
And then, you know, and you add you find out something new about
somebody. You know, he has what he calls
in his book war stories on how he got to know people, you know,
getting people tickets, finding out about kids, what they liked,
what they didn't like. You know, I've helped so many.
You know, I think it's funny here at Washington, right, that
we have, we have science projects and you all know it's
it's parent against parent, right?
You have very little, very little part of the kids working
that. I mean, you know, my
daughter-in-law is over at the house using my printer for their
wax museum thing, right? And the kid is clueless.
They just know they're going to dress up.
And they got to know a few things about what's on this
board. Right?
But it's parent against parent. I just, that's the way science
projects are. Even when I was a kid, I mean,
you know, it's my dad to come up.
Well, let's do this. OK, That's cool, Dad, I don't
even know what that is, but that's cool.
I just tell him I had a tornado maker one time and I had a, a
little engine that he had made. He was an electrician and, and,
and the different things. So, you know, when when it comes
down. But I, I've done projects for
other kids, not my own. You know, someone, one of my
customers will come in and say, hey, he's got to make this
board. And we thought it'd be cool if
we had this and could you make us some of these stickers to put
on there and, you know, to show whatever they Yeah, man, no
problem, no charge. You know, because they, they,
you know, you find out they, they, they love their kids.
They love the soccer, you know, had some soccer kids and we big
deal was soccer with the kids names on it.
And, and so I'd created one that was in full color and put the
kids names on it and, and gave them to, and it kind of caught
on like wildfire. Everybody wanted one because
most of the time they were vinyl cut out and put on the back
window of your van, your your soccer van, right.
Well, mine were full color with the color of the teams and the
name of the team on it and the whole bit.
I mean, it look like NFL or, you know, ASL, what is that American
Soccer League or whatever it is National Circuit League.
And and so, you know, made those, gave them to the, the,
the kids or the parents that, you know, were our customers.
And again, it's just finding out, knowing something about
them is more important than knowing all, you know, you know,
because we want to connect level to level with people to be able
to, you know, find out what it is that they like.
And, and, you know, just so many different things that that I've
learned in, in, in, in the same way people that Melanie and I,
quote, call into the Kingdom. All right, we see somebody and,
and we, you know, very cordial, whether it's at the real estate
office or whatever the case may be.
And I'll look at her and I'll say we're going to call them
into the Kingdom. I'm going to call them into the
Kingdom. And the Lord is going to give us
opportunities to share with them and talk to them and tell our
stories and all that stuff to be able to develop a relationship.
But here's the thing. I want to know about them, you
know, and I want to ask questions about them because
they remember, they don't care what you know, They want to know
how much you care. What's this relationship about?
Is it all about money? Is it all about sales?
Or is it about, you know, I care for you as a human And why don't
you tell me a little bit about yourself?
And I, I just, I, I get thrilled.
I mean, you know, we have one particular educator in the, the
real estate side of it. And I fell in love with him the
very first time I heard him speaking.
He was our instructor and we had to deal with him.
Not only what was the first was it, it was a whole week, wasn't
it 8 hours a day for the first week to, you know, get your
test, OK, and you're going to take a test at the end of it.
But he, he's just so funny, kind of military kind of pastoral
coach, like, you know what I mean?
Like y'all get upset, you know, when you know, I, I correct you
about something, but you know, you let your, your kids get out
there and get yelled at because they missed a, a ball or
whatever the case may be. And you don't have no problem
with that. And I have to agree that is
weird. I don't know why we would do
that. But so, you know, I hear, and I
call him coach because he said he's using, you know, football
vernacular in the class and, and, and I just hearing him and
how he could quote the law and how he knew, you know, what
chapter and what dot and what you know, Dash, it was in the
law. And I just thought, man, this
dude's a genius. I mean, you know, just being
able to let us know. And he'd always get everybody
back in center because every well, what about it it?
And he goes, hey, hey, hey, hey. He said here's the book.
I told you to put a blip on the notes that I'm telling you,
'cause I'm here to help you pass a test.
I'm not here to give you all the knowledge to be the world's
greatest realtor. He said I want you to pass the
test. That's what I'm going to do.
So, you know, we quit asking dumb questions and we started
putting blips little little little star or something by the
points that he said would be on your test, because a test in, in
real estate is it's 5000 questions, but you're tested on
100. Now I did the odds on that on
how would I know? I was studying what I needed to
pass 100 questions out of 5000. You know, it's kind of reminded
me. I, I went a little hitch in
college and I took a class on art history and we looked at 700
slides and we're tested on 7. Now should not have been a
surprise to everybody that I made straight FS every test
cause for some reason the seven I studied were somewhere mixed
in that 700, but they weren't on the test day, right?
So I'm thinking the same thing. I mean, I'm sitting in this
little cubicle and they this is like military guards in this
room. You know that you're taking you
can't be looking around, you know, wondering what everybody
else is doing. You're on a computer, you're
doing it. And I I take the first one I get
I and they say it's hundred hundred question test.
Well, mine hits one O 1 answer that question.
One O 2, answer that question. One O 3, raise my hand.
In comes the monitor. Is there a problem?
I said, am I taking the right test?
Because I've been told this whole time it's 100 questions,
I'm already on 104. And they said, well, we give you
some questions, you know, to warm them up on.
OK, well, I didn't see that anywhere.
Didn't say it nowhere, you know, and I'm thinking, good night,
man. I mean, you know, I'm just
trying to make it through this deal and, you know, and I
thought I probably failed, man. I probably did.
And you know, Melanie's already out there, just a grinning, you
know, she's already and found out.
I didn't know you found out right then.
And and I thought, and she goes, what's the matter?
And I said, there's just a couple questions I don't think I
got right, you know, And she goes, well, you passed and said,
do I ever have to take this test again?
That's what I wanted to know, you know, but The thing is, is
that when I met coach and he was educating us to get this thing
passed and we did. I just, you know, I, I just kept
going to classes, CE classes with, with him in mind.
And we started developing a relationship.
And you know, and one time I was up there with a bunch of guys,
we were asking some questions and he goes, Hey, I want to tell
you guys a joke. And I said, is it an off color
joke? And he goes, he goes, no, I
said, well, I, you know, I said, I have a, a life that I'm
living. And I said, I'm one of the
leaders in the local church around here.
And I'm standing and listening to those kind of jokes.
He goes, what was the football joke?
And it's not nasty. And it was, it was hilarious.
OK, He went ahead and told it and he said, I just and he goes,
so are you a reverend? And I go, as a matter of fact, I
And now he calls me Rev. We've been to dinner with him and his
wife several times. That's how the relationship
grew. And they always look forward to
going with us. And he always calls me Rev. And
in class, he calls me Rev. He says Rev. Is that true or true?
You know? Yeah.
I asked a question. Is it true or true Rev?
I said it's true, you know? And, and he and he goes, Rev,
Why are you the only person shaking your head at this
question? Cause that ain't the right
answer. He goes true Rev and everybody
else he goes Rev, got it. But you know, because I follow
him close, you know, I want to know what the law says.
I don't want to be out here messing around and then wind up
with one of these people that, you know, had a great career and
all of a sudden, next thing you know, DBPR is coming in and
revoking your license for the rest of your life.
And that'd be hard, you know, and, and it's happened and he
tells the horror stories of it happening.
And I'm thinking, oh, Lord Jesus, help me walk the the
straight and narrow way, you know, and that but again,
getting to know people, you know, talk to him.
This is the biggest opportunity that anybody should have at
Anchor Faith Church is that I know we all drawn to our
friends, OK, that we're all drawn to, you know, those that
that, that love us and we want to talk to him.
But you got to get out of that. I mean, you know, Seth and I are
talking about, you know, bringing some networking
opportunities, you know, to Kingdom first Business Alliance.
And but the first opportunities of networking you need is to
greeting those people that are coming for the first time.
And I'm telling you what, I'm seeing more people that I don't
recognize in ages, and I'll go up and I'll introduce them.
And then those, you know, that I've noticed have been coming
and coming and coming, you know, and they're, you know, I said
how many times you been here? You know, I'll start the
conversation. My name is Randy Clay.
I don't even introduce myself as Reverend, you know, I just say,
hey, my name is Randy Clay. And yours is training Titus to
do the exact same thing. Titus is hilarious.
I mean, he goes into the county Commissioner's Office, walks up
to one of the highest ranking dudes in there.
My name is Titus Clay. What is yours?
And and he drags, he drags Titus in.
He says, why don't you meet a young man you we ain't got and
we never seen around here before?
I said. He asked me.
He said he asked me my name, shook my hand and asked me if he
could hold the door open for me. Where are these kids?
You know? And, and so he sees, he sees
enough to get it. He says, listen, listen, don't
be afraid of people, all right? I don't care what they look
like, how many tattoos they got, all right, what hairstyle they
have or don't have. And we greet them and we get to
know something about them. Because, see, people seem to
gravitate to places they're celebrated, not tolerated.
You get that. People will gravitate.
They'll come to places that they feel celebrated, not tolerated.
Because, you know, it's sad, sad to say that I have been in
churches where, you know, they have their little cliques and
their little groups over here, their little groups over here,
and they don't let anybody in those groups and people come and
nobody touch them. OK, that I'm looking for that.
I'm looking for somebody that comes down, sits down by
themselves, OK, Nobody during greet times going over and
greeting or talking to them. I'm going to find a way to get
over there one way or another. OK?
If I'm over here, I'm just looking around, all right?
Yeah, I'm. I'm hugging people, but I'm
looking for the guests, you know, those that I don't
recognize their faces because everyone in here ought to have a
pretty good recognition system on them.
Now, you've been here long enough that when people come in,
you got an idea, I haven't seen them before.
And then you go to them and all the busyness that you got right
and you make them glad because I tell them, I said, I said this
first time with this. And I've had several said, yeah,
yeah, that's for our first time. I said, I am so honored you
came. You could have gone anywhere
today, but yet you chose came to be and come to be with us.
I'm honored. And I thank you for coming.
I want you to come back if you feel like it, all right?
And just encourage them. Well, do you think they come
back? Maybe.
But if they sit there all alone and nobody said nothing to them,
you know, but then, you know, there's been, you know, several
that I've had an opportunity to talk to without the hall out.
Out in the hall. They had it had one couple set
back over here. And I didn't realize that, you
know, they were getting pretty involved.
I've just seen them and I remembered their names and they
couldn't believe I remembered their names.
I've got so many stories like that.
Just the name because I had one little girl in Oklahoma and she
was friend, She was a niece of a friend of ours and she came
during the summer stay with her aunt and she was troubled.
There was stuff going on in the family, the different things
like that. But I remembered her name
because the same as my Mama was the name Sherry.
And she came six or so months later for a visit and I walked
up to her and I said Sherry, it is so good to see you. 6 months
later she just broke down and started bawling.
She goes, I can't believe you remembered my name.
I mean people, they just want to know, are they, are they noticed
at all? Anchor Faith Church ought to be
the place that we notice when people come in.
We take that same thing into our business, you know, I mean, you
know, getting to people that know people on a first name
basis, you know, and when they come in, Melanie and I have been
eating at the Calico Cactus. We go in.
I know all of them by name, all right?
They all greet us when we come in.
They all yelling at us when we leave, you know, and I got to
know the owner. I said I need to meet the owner.
Well, he's not here. He lives in Tennessee.
I said, does he ever come here? Yes, every other week.
Great. So I'm sitting there, Melanie
and I are having our little breakfast and our little coffee
and all of a sudden in between us is a hand with a little they,
they call them churro bars. And it, it's like a churro, you
know, a little stick, but it's a bar.
It's, and it goes right in there.
And this man says, I noticed that you guys, you know, were
saying grace and praying over your food and giving thanks.
And he said, and I just wanted to say thanks for coming in
today. I, I, dude, I whipped around.
Are you the owner? And he goes, I am.
And I said in your name in he says Scott Moore.
Scott Moore. I'm Randy Clay.
And I said, I'm it's a pleasure to meet you.
Can we visit for you with you for a minute?
Because see, he was one of the founders of the Maple Street
Street Biscuit Company downtown. And he was telling us, he said
we sold it the last couple of months of 2019.
He said if we'd have gone through COVID, we'd have lost
everything. But we sold it to the Cracker
Barrel. And I thought, that's not good.
I said, you know, 'cause one, they're going to change it to
their old stuff and whatever they want and they're, we going
to lose, you know, the flavor and everything else in that.
But he got, he said, he said, yeah, it was a miracle.
He said that we were able to do the deal.
They wanted it and see, they got the pockets to be able to make
through something like that. But we didn't have that.
So he said I took the money and my part and he said, and I want
to open up this little Taco shop and I said, well man, that's
great. Well, he now we all text basis.
All right, he texts me how you doing?
I appreciate you looking over my store for me.
I told him, I said, listen, I'm starting something new and we
need to talk about this. I I said, I'm starting something
new called area chaplains. I said, if your company ever
needs a chaplain, I'm your guy. He goes, that's a great idea.
Thanks. You know, 'cause let's say that
some of his employees have a meltdown about something and
they need to talk to somebody spiritual about it.
I'll be your man. And I learned that from Peter
Daniels because he said, go to go to a company and tell them
that, you know, that you're available, you're from anger
fake church and that you're available.
That if anybody ever, you know, we have a catastrophe, we have
something going on that if you need somebody to talk to them
about it, you volunteer to do it.
I said, it's a great idea. You know, it's a great idea.
So, you know, looking at I told him, I said, I'll do that
because he's got some, he's got some, some people that work
there that you know, or living in, in lifestyles that the Bible
doesn't approve of. But that's OK.
Don't bother me. I said, because I'm going to be
a light. And if I mess up on your
pronoun, I don't know that I'm going to apologize.
I'm just going to be an old man that don't know what he's
talking about. I look really ignorant, OK, But
you know, and, and you know, just having an opportunity.
What you know, the manager of the store, there's two of them
and one of the managers we were able to connect a little bit
with and come to find out he loves going deer hunting.
And when Melanie said I, I love the deer hunt.
And, you know, this is what I and they started a conversation
which I was totally left out of because I don't do no deer
hunting and, and I just pay for the, you know, processing and,
and drag them out of the woods after they're dead.
OK. And, and, but they had a great
conversation. But that was one more point that
we got to know about him that we didn't know before.
So, you know, we'll keep that in our minds.
And the same thing, you know, just getting to know each of
them, what they like, what they don't.
And and there'll be times. I mean, you know, if I find out
birthdays, I'm big on, Hey, happy birthday.
What? How did you know it's my
birthday? Well, I heard somebody talking
about it, you know, or whatever. So really guys, that's in, in
taking a look of understanding sales and and the importance is
that that we need to think more about people than we think about
the money. Because here's the bottom line
is if we think about the people, the money will come people.
If you show genuine care, you do things above and beyond the, the
ordinary, what they expect from any other business type person
and you do something that goes beyond that, that's remembered.
And again, they'll want to do business with you.
And, and so, you know, I just had it, you know, those few
stories and everybody got a, you got an outline.
Just look those over. This is just a reminder sheet of
how you can get to know someone and, and, and spend some time,
you know, just praying over them.
You can use it to pray over them if they tell you something.
I mean, I can't tell you how many times, you know, we showed
interest in somebody and then they really opened up their
heart and we were able to minister and talk to him about
this is what the Bible says about your situation.
And I do believe that if I'm not mistaken, that you want to see
this result happen in this situation you're going through.
So can we pray with you? And, you know, and I've never
had any said, ah, you ain't praying for me.
You know, never, I have never experienced somebody that was
just, you know, hostile against showing that I care about your
situation, you know, and I think I have something that might
help. And so, you know, and, and and
I'm, I'm here to help you if you want it, you know, and it may
not be a bumper sticker or decal or a sign, but I may have
something else that you need. And everybody needs Jesus,
right. So that's what we've got.
We've got to focus on. All right, let's pray.
Hey, Father, we thank you and praise you that as tonight as we
talk about the thing that is the most important to you is the
lives of people. I'm appreciative of the the the
opportunities and the things and looking forward to more and more
of it as we're building the church, we're growing and the
ministry itself. And I thank you that we're able
to see the importance of people that that's what you came and
died for. When it's all said and done,
that's all you're going to have up there with you as people.
And that's who we're going to be around is people.
So Father God, let us take that same heart that you have is, is
to see where people are and see how we can be a blessing and the
things that you've blessed us with that we can, we can show
them and share with them that we might be a light to their life.
And Father, we want to thank you in advance for helping us grow
this church and the businesses involved and that we can
continue to see your, your harvest to us and, and, and the
things that you want to see come to pass in our life individually
and corporately. And so, father, we just blessed
the, the those that attended tonight.
We thank you for your blessings on their house, their bills are
paid, their income needs are met.
And in Jesus name, everything you said that we could have, we
have in Jesus name, Amen. Amen.