From Rock Bottom to Running Six Businesses: Clay's Entrepreneurial Journey

Clay shares his remarkable journey of losing everything and rebuilding multiple successful businesses, revealing how facing your biggest fears can become your greatest source of resilience and confidence.

• Building business resilience through adversity and learning to count on yourself
• Clay's six interconnected businesses spanning networking, women's entrepreneurship, speaking, publishing, and real estate 
• The philosophy behind H7 Network's abundance mindset versus traditional networking groups' scarcity approach
• How developing five trusted champion relationships creates predictable business growth
• Key differences between networking organizations: membership requirements, meeting structure, and community access
• Implementing "Operation Less Clay" to overcome scaling challenges through strategic delegation
• Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: "do it anyway" despite family skepticism

Clay Hicks

• Tel: +1 937-671-6238
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claytonrhicks/
• Website: https://www.h7network.com/
• Email: claytonrhicks@gmail.com

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Transcript

Facing Fear and Finding Resilience

Voiceover 0:03

Tales from the wild , stories from the heart . A journey into the mind and soul of fired up business professionals , where they share their vision for the future and hear from a different non-profit organization every month as they create awareness of their goals and their needs . Dive into a world of untamed passion as we join our host , Shireen Botha , for this month's episode of Friends from Wild Places .

Tanya Scotece 0:37

I think I resonate with you as far as like it's like you haven't lived until you lost it , because I think you know most people , let's say just the majority of the masses . If people are just you know , let's speak for the states . You know , born and raised in the States , average , you know . Maybe you know middle income people just going about their business , they're comfortable , they don't know anything but that and the fear for most people is losing everything . So most people go into life with fear , right .

Tanya Scotece 1:03

So when you face that fear head on and it's coming right at you and you're done and it's like wait , but I'm still here , like I'm not deceased . I'm like I'm still here to come through the fire and rebuild , and it's kind of like so , when you've faced one of your worst fears , or the worst fear for most people , it kind of shatters you and it does make you like , just like you're still here , you're invincible , you know well , it gives you a different level of confidence , for sure .

Clay Hicks 1:33

You know that you can , that you can actually count on yourself . You know that that's . That's a big deal too . Uh , people have a hard time counting on just anybody else , including themselves all the time . It's popular , you know .

Tanya Scotece 1:53

Yeah , yeah , it's almost like if you hit rock bottom and it's like if that was your worst fear and you survived it . So even if you quote unquote fail again in the modern world , it's not really fit . You know what I mean . It's like , okay , so we're here , we're back here , we've already been here once , like . So you know , and I this is my feeling , clay I'm from the death care industry .

Tanya Scotece 2:13

Okay , so it's like we come in with nothing , you go out with nothing . So it's kind of like along your journey , whether you make millions or not or whatever , it's like it , literally at the end of the day , you know , yes , you can . You know , legacy for your family . I'm not disputing that fact , I'm just saying that we ourselves , as individual humans , come in with and yeah , so it's kind of like what happens in between those two spaces . You know , that's up to you . So if you don't mind , clay , can you just go over ? I just want to ask all the business that you have currently , what fields are they in , like , what type of businesses ? Just to kind of give us an overview .

Clay's Business Empire Overview

Clay Hicks 2:51

They're a little connected and then disconnected .

Tanya Scotece 2:55

So I have H7 .

Clay Hicks 2:58

Then I have a white label version of H7 . This white label version , you only know it by powered by H7 . So a company could have its own title , okay , and so that exists . Then there's Evolve Women's Collective . That's an entrepreneurial development for women , okay , and then so that's three . And then we have my CRH brand , which is where I speak and write .

Clay Hicks 3:28

I've authored four books now , two of which are bestsellers . The other two I didn't actually try to get bestseller status , they're just there but anyway . And then I do presentations , and I speak on the Connect , serve and Ask methodology , which I like , leaving a week and a half for another presentation . And then I'm into real estate as well . So my wife and I have our own real estate business with her mom , and then the last is ARC Capital Investments , and what we do is we buy real estate in vacation areas and turn them into short-term rentals . But I'm like the CMO in both of those real estate businesses , so I handle just marketing strictly . And in CRH , I mean , I have a bunch of training due to come out this summer , but it's not here yet , so it's just speaking , if that makes sense um h7 is humming , and so is ball .

Tanya Scotece 4:34

So what a , what a , what a wide variety , but connected right , that's the , that's the theme , it's like it's still connected , even though completely , uh , different , um arenas . So amazing , fascinating that's amazing clay .

Shireen Botha 4:48

I think that's so cool . What is uh ? Can you mention one of the big seller books that you've written to the listeners ?

Clay Hicks 4:54

yeah , so . So yeah , we just um , it's a crack cracking the code , best business lesson I ever learned , and so my story is actually in there . I told a little brief piece of the story that I've just shared about how I started H7 . But anyway , that's in there . There's nine other members that are in there with us and everybody's sharing a story about the best lessons they've learned in business , and so that one is the most newest one .

Shireen Botha 5:25

That's so cool , and if we wanted to purchase it , we can get it on Amazon or any of the platforms that sell books , right ?

Clay Hicks 5:33

100% . Yeah , my other one that is a bestseller , sales Fusion . That's also on Amazon . They're on my author's page . But then I have two books that I've held tightly for H7 Network members only so far as the CRH brand comes out , then you'll see those books able to be coming out and all that good stuff for the public .

Shireen Botha 5:56

So working on that stuff behind the scenes now my goodness , you've got so many things going on in play . I love that . I think that's really really cool .

Networking Approaches and Preferences

Shireen Botha 6:05

So many things going on and play I love that , I think that's really really cool . Um , the other thing that I'm just thinking to myself , you know , being a business owner , uh , we wear so many different hats , right , and one of the hats that I hate wearing .

Shireen Botha 6:16

I hate it with a passion but , but I know it was necessary for my business . So I've learned and and I've done a lot of different courses to help me in that department that I'm not good at , so I can do it , but it doesn't mean I enjoy doing it . And that is the marketing and sales side of my business . Yeah , and I find out of all the different ways one can market and sell themselves . I find networking , where you meet other people and find your referral partners , people that are going to kind of like be your sales team in a way is is my go-to kind of . I feel more comfortable in that .

Shireen Botha 7:06

I don't enjoy the tele sales , that all the other forms of different ways you can sell and market your business . It's just I don't enjoy it . So I lean towards leaning towards the mic here , so I don't go , my voice doesn't disappear , but I lean towards the , the networking businesses and um and so on . The networking businesses , there is a few out there , as you know . Yeah , yeah , there's bni , there's amspirit , um , and now , you know , there's h7 . So if we could talk about the , you know what makes H7 different to the other networking businesses out there .

Clay Hicks 7:52

Yeah , before we go too far , I just want you to know like I'm friends with Frank I mean , we were just together last week .

Tanya Scotece 7:58

We love Frank , we love Frank .

Clay Hicks 8:00

So Frank and I are now collaborating , which is super exciting . I love collaborating with other networking groups , so I would collaborate with approximately 16 other groups . Oh gosh , yeah , so yeah and . I have relationships with those CEOs . And you know , and we talk about helping each other and we do help each other and we do different stuff . And Frank and I have've really he's only like two hours from me , an hour , and a half , okay , okay so I've known for about .

Clay Hicks 8:30

Uh , we first did a round table like in 2010 . That's when we first met oh my gosh yeah great guy .

Shireen Botha 8:38

We really , really love him . Of him , yeah , um are you on same terms with um Ivan Meisner or no ?

Clay Hicks 8:48

so I , uh , I want to meet him okay so you also yeah well so well , so there's a , so I'm one degree of separation from him right now okay .

Clay Hicks 9:00

I just gotta ask and I know that's

H7 vs BNI: Networking Philosophy Differences

Clay Hicks 9:03

all I got to do , I just haven't done it but I'd like to meet him because there's specific things that he did in his career that set the tone for , of course , networking and the foundation of it . And then I came in and I broke it , invented , and so when I did that , I yeah , I want to meet him . Like , oh , I I just think a conversation , uh would be really cool . Like you know , I I'm not college educated , I don't have the background that most people do and I have a unique journey , uh , doing thousands of one-to-ones , like just a whole different design that h7 has . It's the complete opposite of b I love that , love that , love that .

Shireen Botha 9:51

There's no , yeah , there's no one way of doing things and I think people can forget that . You know , it's one specific thing . It's not the alpha and omega . You can get to the end in different ways and and that's true for so many parts of life in general , but let's talk about the differences . You want to talk about some of the differences . That's that makes H7 stick out of the crowd .

Clay Hicks 10:20

Yeah , yeah . So I have no challenge or inability to share , because , because H7 is a unicorn , it really is . It's such a unicorn , it's like a brand new version of whatever was going on before , because of the pathway that we've taken , which makes it easier for us to collaborate with everybody else . I mean easy to do that , and so who would have thought but yeah , whenever you're ready , whichever . Do you want me to compare it to BNI ? That's probably the easiest .

Shireen Botha 10:53

Right , go ahead .

Clay Hicks 10:55

Yeah , because I want to do it that way , because of course I love Frank and everything but and I appreciate Donnie at SCN and all my relationships , but I think it would just be easier to do it with BNI , because they kind of somewhat compete with BNI and that's a very general statement , but raw statement , so let's just compare them , can you do ?

Tanya Scotece 11:18

a comparison , though , clay , just for our listeners , just because some folks out there may not be familiar with specifically BNI . So if you could just do you know like an overview and then compare yeah .

Clay Hicks 11:30

All right , so BNI has been around since 1984 . Okay , h7 has been around since 2008 . Uh , ivan meisner , uh began bni after being in la tip . I started h7 after being in some no-name networking group anyway , not a big deal . So BNI is is has been around the longest , the most successful , the most most impact to date .

Clay Hicks 11:59

They obviously are franchised , so they're not corporate , they're all franchised and so that most people don't know that , but they are . And then you know , bni is where you will have a group that you meet with on a weekly basis for 90 minutes , where you'll have a chance to deliver a 60-second commercial talk about what you're looking for , as well , as there'll be presenters each week like the members can present about their businesses and their formalities . There's also a leadership that they have that is more like a board of directors kind of is a great way to think of it . They have a president , vice president , so on and so forth . They have been on the move recently buying back some of their franchises . I've just recognized that over the last few years from the pandemic , actually , I hope that helps .

Clay Hicks 13:00

They have a very specific motto called Giver's Gain that they use , and so does that help . Tanya , just to give a little bit of background about B&I , does that help ?

Tanya Scotece 13:10

Yes , yes , For the listeners that are not familiar with it . Yes .

Clay Hicks 13:13

Yeah , great , all right . So now let's get into doing a comparison . So it begins with the actual vision of the communities , the mindset of the community period , like at the very top , at its core . We're absolutely different , absolutely different . Starting with mindset . We abundance mindset .

Clay Hicks 13:42

You know you can be in the room with your competition and BNI that's a no-no , they don't want that . Okay , so that alone . The strategic metric that B&I would use versus ours theirs is going to be based on dollars , roi investment 10 times . Whatever it is , it's all about the money . They track it . We don't . They track the dollars . They ask you for the dollars , all that stuff . We do not .

Clay Hicks 14:15

Ours is a strategic strategy which is five trusted champion relationships . Okay , so we don't track the dollars , but we track the relationships , because we know and have proven and time-t tested that if a member has five trusted champion relationships , they write their own check , they do whatever they need to do . I proved it by starting H7 with five people already 17 years ago . So that's a little bit about that . When you get into more of the blocking and tackling the structure of things , I shared that B&I has a board , h7 is ran by a collaborative team Alpha team is what it's called , and they go through a team building experience all the way until they become that team that we have engineered for them to be able to do that . And so , where the board and BNI they're not like , they run the meetings and facilitate the group . Ours facilitates the group , but also they work collectively with their team in a very predictable way to create referrals for each other and introductions for each other and grow their business and it's our own proprietary intellectual property that they follow through with . Then you get into the meeting itself . Those are 90-minute meetings you are required to attend in B&I . In H7 , 60-minute meetings not required . Costs will vary based on where B&I may be , but it's usually around $1,000 or a little bit more . H7 across the country $599 a year , so $400 less , let's see . In BNI you have one required training that comes with your membership , called MSP , and which they show you how to operate the B&I meeting for themselves . That's what that is more or less . In H7 , we have five hours of word-of-mouth marketing training that supports a member being able to create those trusted champion relationships as fast as possible , be able to grow their business more predictably using our tools and resources available to them and with the cost .

Clay Hicks 16:34

In B&I you get one group , one group . Whatever group you go to , that's your group In H7 , you belong to the entire community . You go to means that you wish to go to when you wish to go to them . Bni and this is it for the last one here . Bni has lots and lots of requirements . H7 has one , one requirement that everybody take their Connect , serve and Ask training . And we ask them to do that because it is our culture maker and is our difference maker in this world Around our meeting styles that are focused around . When you attend the meeting , the objective is that you walk away with a meaningful connection to your ask every single time , and we are the only groups that do that powerful , powerful clay .

Tanya Scotece 17:23

And can you just clarify when you say the five , you know that what is that referring to ? Is it five individual people ? Is it five ? What does five mean like ? Is it just five grand ? Like what is ? Can you just dive a little deeper in that five ?

Clay Hicks 17:36

yeah , yeah . So five a lot of numbers .

Tanya Scotece 17:38

Oh my god , we got seven , we got five . I'm trying to keep track . So what's the five

The Power of Five Trusted Champions

Tanya Scotece 17:44

?

Clay Hicks 17:44

just fyi , tanya , we use numbers a lot . Okay , so five trusted . So five individual trusted champion relationships . Okay , which means that Tanya would be one of my trusted champion relationships in this scenario , and then Shireen would be , and so now I have two , so five trusted champion relationships . So the training supports them in being able to develop those trustee relationships faster to get to champion status . Because champion status in that relationship means that we're meeting once a month for the sole purposes of opening up doors for each other , with introductions and referrals and bam . That's what we do and it creates results .

Tanya Scotece 18:34

It's more results . So what is the ? I mean , if you have to put an average , because we're on numbers , what's the average size group of your of these groups ? I mean , are they 20 , 30 , 10 like five , like how many you're supposed to have ?

Clay Hicks 18:43

well , also , I forgot to say this one thing h7 , the , is the b2b community . I was referring to the b2b over zoom I I was referring to . I forgot to say that BNI that's uh , that's a big difference as well . So B2B and um , so so what's your question ? I think I messed it up . What was your question again ?

Tanya Scotece 19:03

Just so how many people like are in each respect . I mean , I know you said it's not like just one group , but like this initial group , so to speak how many people are we talking Um ?

Clay Hicks 19:14

So an average group meeting size is 11 to 20 . But pure B2B , pure B2B . So when you're in that room with 10 other people and you're a consultant , you're not in there with , say , a mortgage broker . You're in there with 10 other people that could potentially help you .

Tanya Scotece 19:36

Very interesting . I want to learn more about it . Is there one in Florida ? You got one in Florida .

Clay Hicks 19:41

Yeah , we're opening up , okay .

Tanya Scotece 19:43

All right , well , keep my number handy .

Shireen Botha 19:47

Yes , yes , we were chatting after the podcast because I went to go and visit one of yours in LA , but anyway , we're digressing here . Listeners , I apologize , but before we carry on , I do want to jump in here with a little Buzzsprout ad . You all know that Friends from Wild Places uses Buzzsprout , uses Buzzsprout . It's a fantastic platform when it comes to just starting your own podcast and being just really a great , easy way to work on one platform , but yet it spaghettis out to all the live stream platforms out there that people use to listen to their podcasts . So Friends From Wild Places is a place to share stories from other business owners and entrepreneurs . It's a safe place , as you know , to show support for each other . We feature non-profits every month to try and make a difference or give a helpline to someone in need .

Shireen Botha 20:50

So basically , do you have a message you want to share with the world , or maybe you just think it'll be fun to have your own talk show ? Podcasting is a easy , inexpensive and fun way to expand your reach online . So to start your own podcast , please follow the link in the show notes and this lets Buzzsprout know that we sent you and it really does help support the show and also subscribe . It's only five dollars . Only five dollars . That really supports myself and Tanya . We do this for fun . But if it means anything to you what we're doing and you really find it helpful , then please think about maybe subscribing . But Buzzsprout is definitely the way to go . If you're thinking of starting your own podcast , all right back to you , clay . So , talking about the different methods that each networking business uses , why do you think yours is the winner ?

Clay Hicks 21:56

That's a good question . You know , I've never been asked that question .

Entrepreneurial Advice and Overcoming Struggles

Clay Hicks 22:04

Why do I think Because it puts more power in the individual member's hand . That's really the best way to answer that . They're in age seven , you don't have to worry about . Oh , I have a client so I can't go to the meeting . No , your client's first . Oh , family , yeah , family first . You're not going to get a letter in the mail . We're not going to hawk you because you've missed a couple of meetings or whatever .

Shireen Botha 22:35

I love that . Yeah , I like that answer . Thank you , Claire . So if you could give a piece of advice to someone that would like to start their own business , what would that piece of advice be ?

Clay Hicks 22:47

Number one do it anyway , Do it anyway Not to worry . We already know your family's not going to like it , your family's not going to connect with it . It's already there . Just do it . If you've been thinking about it as long as it wasn't like you thought about this morning , don't do it . I'm not telling you to do that . I'm telling the people who have been thinking about it for a while , not the one who just thought , ooh , I want to be one . So I would say to do it .

Clay Hicks 23:19

That would be number one Number two is find yourself some trusted relationships as fast as you humanly can , as fast as you can find the people that you can potentially rely on as a relationship to help you get going .

Shireen Botha 23:43

I like that . Thank you . What would be one of the biggest struggles that you've faced being a business owner or entrepreneur , and how did you overcome it ?

Clay Hicks 23:56

Oh my gosh , I've had so many different . Uh , yeah , okay , I got one .

Tanya Scotece 23:59

I got a recent one for you , I got a reasonable for you .

Clay Hicks 24:01

So , um a year ago , somebody tells me that , uh , I I'm never going to be able to scale this business as the person who sells it and sells everything you know I'm the .

Clay Hicks 24:15

I'm the opposite to be able to scale this business as the person who sells it . It sells everything . You know I'm the opposite of Shereen All marketing , all sales , leadership over the time , over time . But anyway , yeah , so I would .

Clay Hicks 24:32

Essentially , I needed to make such a massive change to where I was bringing in , delegating more and more of our services to other people , and I called it Operation Less Clay , and it wasn't me being arrogant either , it was like being truthful , like logical , get out of the way . Clay , more or less , is what it was . So I had to put a plan in place for me to eliminate myself , which was quite fun , and so I was able to do it right on time . It was amazing how it landed . And then , all of a sudden , I've got , you know , less clay , more strategy where I live , the place I live , set the BHAG for five , five years , set it for three , set the strategies for one , and we went to work , and I've grown so many steps forward since just December and been through the slammer , more or less so I've just I've uh very , though , for what happened .

Shireen Botha 25:38

Tune in next week for part three of Friends from Wild Places .

Voiceover 25:40

You've been listening to Friends from Wild Places with Shireen Botha . Be sure to subscribe to the podcast from the links to catch every episode and unleash your passion .