Mistakes That Will Kill Your Business and Ruin Your Life (Feat. Clint Arthur)

Today we talk to Clint Arthur. You have a business, and you have a goal. But you're stuck. You feel like you're spinning your wheels, and nothing is working the way it should. And then someone tells you about how to create authority with your business.

It sounds great—so simple! All you have to do is take pictures with celebrities and post them on Instagram, and voila! You'll be an authority in no time!

You get started right away, taking pictures of yourself with more and more famous people. But after a while, even that isn't enough—you need bigger names, and more famous faces if you want to really establish your authority as an expert in your field. So you start going after politicians, movie stars… anyone who might be able to help make your name known around town.

Show Notes

So, you want to be an entrepreneur. You want to start your own business and make your own way in this world. You want to build something, create something, and make a difference.

Well, that's great! But before you do any of that—before you even think about getting started on your business—you need to establish yourself as an authority. If people don't know you're an authority, how will they trust you with their money? How will they believe that what you're selling them is worth spending their hard-earned cash on?

The answer is simple: by proving it with things like photographs of celebrities or other influencers. Just take a picture with someone famous (preferably someone who's successful in the same industry as your business), and then post it to social media with a caption like "Just got back from lunch with governor." Boom—now everyone knows that they can trust you as an expert in your field!

https://clinttt.com/

https://creativeentrepreneurship.net
https://greybugphotography.com

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Creators & Guests

Guest

Clint Arthur

𝙲𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚝 𝙰𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚞𝚛, Celebrity Entrepreneur® Author “Wisdom Of The Men” w/ BONUS vids of Dr Oz, Martha Stewart, Suzanne Somers, Ice T, Caitlyn Jenner, Dog The Bounty Hunter…!

What is Creative Entrepreneurship™?

TCE Media Productions LLC is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs reach their full potential. Creative Entrepreneurship focuses on creating content that will inspire, educate, and coach people.

Abel Garza 0:00
Hey guys, Welcome to Creative Entrepreneurship a podcast dedicated to helping entrepreneurs build their business based on successes and failures of other entrepreneurs. Today, we have an amazing guest treat, we're talking about mistakes that will kill your business, and ruin your life. Please help me welcome Clint Arthur, how you doing today?

Clint Arthur 0:15
Hey, I'm excited to be with you and to share this vital information for any entrepreneur, especially if you're starting out or you're still trying to really hit your stride and thrive as an entrepreneur. And even for a lot of established entrepreneurs, unless you really get this, you're not going to be able to get the juice that you really want out of your entrepreneurial career. I'm 100% certain about it. And I'm happy to share this with your audience.

Abel Garza 0:42
Awesome. Awesome. Well, I'm glad to have you on the show. You have a breadth of wisdom that I'm really excited to pick your brain on. You've written a couple of books, you've been doing this for 22 years now. Why don't we start out by giving me a little bit of information as to who you are, what you do and how you've been helping people?

Clint Arthur 0:59
Well, I always wanted to be special when I grew up, because my parents were arguing all the time. And I thought it was my fault. When I was a little kid, you know, you think everything's your fault. And I was kind of right. The scheme that I came up with to become special enough to stop them from arguing was I was gonna go to the Wharton Business School, the best business school in the world. You know, all the titans of industry would send their kids there. And that would make me special, and helped me to become rich and successful. Well, I graduated from Wharton with a 4.0 and entrepreneurship. And I come home to get the attaboys and hugs and kisses and what happens my parents get into the biggest argument of all time, my dad stormed out of the house slams the front door and I turned my mom I go Mom, the way he resents you all these years if you've been cheating on Dad, I'm thinking to myself, holy cow, where did that question come from? I never even thought that question even once in my whole life. And then I'm thinking, holy cow, what kind of a rude son of a gun asked his own mom a question like that. And then I'm thinking, How come she ain't answering the question. And she goes, he's not your real father. Your real father was a doctor at the fertility clinic we went to for six years trying to have you and you look just like that guy. Not only did I know who I was anymore, I sure as heck didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up anymore. I call up the investment bank on the 87th floor of Number One World Trade Center. Mr. Vice President, thank you for the offer. I decided I don't want to be an investment banker anymore, after all. And what did I do? Naturally, I ran out to Hollywood, started going on auditions writing screenplays. Nice. It was an entrepreneurial venture. See, I was creating something out of nothing through my own creativity, I was selling myself. And what I didn't realize was the biggest mistake that will destroy your career as an entrepreneur, put you out of business, ruin your personal life it I got kicked out I had a one year old baby when I was kicked out of the house. This is going to happen to you unless you get this see I chased the Hollywood dream for 13 years.

Abel Garza 3:13
So I mean, you're finding yourself and so in this process, you know, you find your perseverance you find who you are as a person. And is is that how you've developed the idea of you know, what can kill a business? I mean, what is it that that really focused the direction that you're going in right now with helping people and enlightening them with how not of what not to do with their business?

Clint Arthur 3:41
I got out of taxi driving and got into the gourmet food business selling gourmet butter to the top chefs and restaurants in Las Vegas. And I came up with this crazy idea for Iron Chef America. Remember that TV show? Yeah, absolutely. I was the judge of battle butter on Iron Chef America. I created the idea of battle butter. I pitched it to the producers. I convinced them to make me the judge. They transform me into a celebrity butter experts. There were many years when I was really deep in the butter business. Every top restaurant in Vegas was selling was serving my butter me, Clint, Clint Arthur five star butter company what was the five star Motor Company me? My business card was a picture of me as the judge of battle butter it said Iron Chef America butter expert Clint Arthur. And unless you get this, you are always going to be struggling. You will never get the premium pricing. You will never get the best clients you will never get the best deals and contracts. You must be a celeb Pretty in the eyes of your customers and prospects, they have to look up to you and admire you and think that you're somebody special. Because if they don't think You're Somebody Special, and especially if they don't know your story, they are going to look at you as just one more of a long list of possible vendors that they could choose, depending on who's got the best price, who's going to give them the best terms, who's going to give them the best perks or cash envelopes under the table. But when you're a celebrity in the eyes of customers or prospects, everything changes for you. And people ask me, you know, do you regret the 13 years that you spent chasing the Hollywood dream banging your head up against a brick wall, just getting a bloody skull? And I say no, because it taught me the most important lesson in business. I could have been the best actor and writer in Hollywood. But who's gonna get the job? Me or Tom Cruise? Tom Cruise, obviously. Why? Because he's a better actor than me. No, not if I'm the best actor because he's somebody. When I went on the Today Show, I wrote a book about my things that I learned at the Wharton Business School that helped me to become successful after I stopped trying to be a movie star and a screenwriter. And it was called what they teach you at the Wharton Business School. And I started, I self published it on Amazon. And the first year I sold eight copies. I'm looking at this book on my shelf in my office, literally collecting dust on the shelf. And I said to myself, if that book is not good enough, I don't know what is going to be good enough. It's about the best business school in the world. I got to figure out how to sell books. I sought out a mentor. See, I've always placed the high priority on learning and knowledge and self improvement. And investing in mentors is key. And I sought out this mentor Jack Canfield, he published a little book called Chicken Soup for the Soul. So Jack, how to sell half a billion chicken soup books. And he says you got to become somebody special. You got to go on TV, you got to be on the radio, you got to do interviews and magazines, you got to be somebody special. And I focused on television and getting on television. And my 57 television appearance was on The Today Show and Brooke Shields was the person they hired to interview me make it a hired anybody. They could have hired a million Columbia Journalism School graduates, who would have interviewed Clint Arthur for free just to get the chance to be on the Today Show. But they paid her a lot of money. Why? Because she's Brooke Shields. She's somebody.

And you know, I know, I know, you're thinking well, yeah, Clint, you know, this, I could see how that would work for Brooke Shields or for Hollywood movie stars. Hey, man, he worked in the butter business. I got clients in every different kind of industry, it works for my client who's a window and Roofing Repair experts, it works for my client, who was a balloon decorator and sitting paid getting paid $400 To do a balloon installation, she gets $5,000 To do a balloon installation. It works for doctors it works for especially if you're a consultant advisor, or any kind of expert at all. But you know, the big mistake is is that entrepreneurs think that people are buying your product, and they're not buying your product, they are buying your confidence that your solution is going to provide them with the relief from the pain that they are in. That's what they're buying. And if you are a celebrity in their eyes, if you're using the celebrity entrepreneurship techniques that I've talked about in celebrity entrepreneurship, another book of mine on Amazon, then those techniques that you deploy on them in your marketing will enable them to believe in you and your solution and have confidence that your high priced answer to their question is exactly what they need to buy.

Abel Garza 9:00
That's funny, because we were just talking about that. As far as being a celebrity and being able to paint the butt of Madonna, for example, putting it on a canvas, her signing it and then selling it, you know, and it's just knowing that she is in her celebrity status is able to be able to sell something like that. How would you be able to create that perspective as a celebrity and establish that value? Because I think for for common people, for people who, you know, are not involved with celebrities or don't have the network or the relationships that they've established around the community of Hollywood? How would we begin as nascent entrepreneurs to even establish that when we start, you know, networking and working with people who have high profile jobs or, you know, they're in the industry and they and they provide some sort of value to that aspect? What is your first step in in getting that person racked up from for nation entrepreneurs?

Clint Arthur 10:02
Well, first of all, you got to understand that if everybody's doing something, then that's not going to help you to become a celebrity. So you think posting pictures of your dog or your kids on Facebook or Instagram or making YouTube videos is going to help you to be a celebrity. That's not. You may become famous on YouTube, but no one's gonna know who you are. Because that's not a celebrity thing to do. celebrities do celebrity things. Now, let me ask you a question. Do you think Tony Robbins is a celebrity? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Right. Everybody knows who Tony Robbins is. Right? Yep. Everybody. Okay, listen, watch this video. Unless anybody here know who Tony Robbins is. Do you know Do you know who he is? Do you know who Tony Robbins is? No. How about you? Nobody. Okay, I show you countless videos like that bank tellers, pharmacy clerks, baristas at Starbucks. They don't know who Tony Robbins is. You and I know who he is. Why? Because he's marketing to you and me. Because we are aspirational. Most people are just avoiding pain. Only entrepreneurs are on our aspirational, wanting to be more, do more and have more. So he markets to you and me because we are the kind of clients that he wants. Absolutely. He is what I call a celebrity entrepreneur. And you must understand that you are never going to be Madonna or Kim Kardashian, or Kanye West or Donald Trump. You are never going to be famous. Tony Robbins is not famous. If Tony Robbins isn't famous. You were never going to be famous. And I am not famous I'm if you Google me, you Google Clint Arthur, you'll see five pages of solid Google results that are all me, the first person to have a Google result for the name Clint Arthur, it's his obituary, you got to die to compete with me to get on Google. But I'm one 1000 as famous as Tony Robbins. But because I'm a celebrity entrepreneur, and I know how to deploy celebrity marketing assets on my target market, I've been able to make millions of dollars as an author, a speaker, a coach, a consultant, and advisor and expert in helping people to do exactly what I'm talking about. And you don't have to be even a fraction of as famous as Tony Robbins, only your target market has to think so. So the first thing you need to understand is, you're not trying to be famous, you're just trying to develop some certain marketing assets. Now, the best and easiest ones to get is, let's see, let's take a real estate agent. This is a very easy example of how this can work for anybody, but especially for a real estate agent. You need a selfie photo with the mayor of your town.

Abel Garza 12:57
Nice. I like that. That's so

Clint Arthur 12:58
easy. Go to a luncheon where they're speaking at the Rotary Club or whatever and get the picture. Then get one with the congressman, then get one with the senator. And you know, well, you know, I'm not into politics is not about politics. I've met five presidents, the United States, George Bush, Jimmy Carter, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Bill Clinton. I'm a celebrity selfie slut, I don't care about their politics, I only care to people recognize their face. Because like it or not, people buy people and when they see you hanging out with famous people, they assume that you are at least kind of famous. And you know what, the more you do this, the more kind of famous you actually become.

Abel Garza 13:50
Yeah, I think your new book should be selfie slug. That's just what that's just me. You know?

Clint Arthur 13:55
That's actually actually a good title. Because I mean, I have made that is I'm writing that down. Thank you. I like that. I like that.

Abel Garza 14:04
Selfie slug. Yeah. So I mean, that is a fantastic idea. I mean, that is definitely very doable, especially in the in the, in the industry that I'm in right now. Because we're always in I'm in the photography industry. And so you know, we get the opportunity to go in and look and be in events and then and rub elbows with, you know, people that that coordinated the entire event. And so that's definitely a doable part for us as photographers and being able to, I guess be the selfie sled as you as we talked about. You mentioned that there are some mistakes as as a as an entrepreneur that we make, what are some of those mistakes that you can just pinpoint for me Hey,

Clint Arthur 14:48
man, this is the big mistake is thinking that you're selling a product you're not selling the product you're selling you especially you, especially you a photographer, you know, you look the beauty is in The eye of the beholder, they're either gonna like your pictures or not. But the reason they're gonna hire you is you, they're gonna hire you thinking that, hey, is this guy going to show up? Does this guy have have experience dealing with pressure? Can he deliver? Is he going to flake on me is he going to screw up the prints, there's a lot of things. And all of that comes down to confidence in you. So they're not buying the pictures that buying you. And when they see all these pictures of you, with local celebrities, with CEOs, and other ones, CEOs of corporations in the local area, then, but here's the real beauty of it, Abel, is that when you start taking these pictures of you with these powerful people, quote, unquote, he's going to change your own perception of you, you're going to start thinking more of you. And where does the first sale have to occur? It has to occur right here in between your ears. And the more you think of yourself, the more you're going to believe in what you offer, the more you're going to be able to justify in your own heart and soul and mind, your higher fees and prices. Because you feel like you deserve it. Everything I've ever gotten in my life was because I felt like I deserved it. And unless you deserve it, you don't get it. Unless you feel you deserve it, you don't get it. So when you are building up your own impression of yourself by seeing, you know, you're gonna be looking at these pictures, I use it in magazines, okay, here I am with the Rolling Stones. I said, Sir, make what's the most important thing you ever learned. He said, You can't always get what you want. But if you try, sometimes you might find you get a lead. And I know it's just a line from the song. And I know, believe me, I understand that your audience, listening to this podcast, didn't come here wanting to become a celebrity. In fact, I hear a lot of times, oh, I'm not interested in being a celebrity. My ego doesn't need that. This isn't about ego. Do this is about survival. This is about economic success. This is about personal success. This is about not having your baby's mama tell you to get the heck out of the house. And not come back. This is about not having visitation with your kid one night a week. Okay, it's about success. And unless you get this, I didn't get this when I was in Hollywood, I thought I could be discovered. Nobody wants to discover anybody you know what they want, especially today, when everybody's got a lot of money. Because there's inflation. There's a reason why people The reason there's inflation is there's a lot of money, especially when everybody has a lot of money, they don't care about saving money, what they care about, is getting what they want. And they would rather pay some high priced celebrity expert, who they believe is going to deliver, then try to save a few bucks and end up looking like a schmuck because they paid money and the job didn't turn out good.

Abel Garza 18:16
Now, what do you find are some of the biggest challenges for some somebody like myself getting started? And and wanting to implement these strategies? What do you find that many of your of your many of the people that that you've helped struggle with?

Clint Arthur 18:34
Number one thinking that you? Who am I who am I to think that I can become a celebrity. That's number one, you got to get over that. And number two is thinking that you're going to invent this yourself, you could figure this stuff out. Eventually, eventually, you could do yourself a favor, get celebrity entrepreneurship, listen to wisdom of the men on Audible, just crack off at Audible credit on Amazon, listen to the audio of that, listen to how it's actually done, then you don't have to reinvent the wheel. And if you just do the simple things that I tell you to do. It's not going to happen overnight. This is not a get rich quick scheme. I've been doing this now for like 10 years. And for the last seven, I've been making seven figures a year because I figured it out and how to make it work. And if you do this and believe it and keep taking. Here's the other thing. There's a great story. I heard Jay Conrad Levinson, guerilla marketing. You know what I'm talking about her? Yes, he tells a story about when he was working in an advertising agency, and his account was Marlboro cigarettes and they repositioned Mark Marlboro cigarettes from a woman's brand to being for men, cowboys. And he said To the chairman of Philip Morris. This is going to take time you got to be patient. And when I interviewed Nigel Farage, do you know who that is? He created Brexit. He invented Brexit. When the United Kingdom Britain left the European Union. It was because Nigel Farage toiled as a first as a minister of Parliament and then as leader of the Brexit party in England, to extricate Britain from the European Union. And it took 27 years and I said, Nigel, what's the most important thing you ever learned? And he said, patience. And this is very important with celebrity entrepreneurship, because this is a long term marketing strategy for entrepreneurs, and especially authors, speakers, coaches and other experts who sell your services. You have to be patient. So the first year they spent $6 million on advertising for Marlboro cigarettes. It started out as the number 32 brand in America. And at the end of the first year, after $6 billion, it was the number 32 brand in America, it hadn't budge. And he thought he was gonna get fired. And the chairman of Philip Morris said, You guys said it was going to take time. Let's keep going. At the end of the second year, it was the number one brand cigarette and it has remained the number one brand cigarette in the world for decades, because of the marketing. And you must, this is such a key thing. You got to keep putting one foot in front of the other. The longest journey begins with the first step and it continues. You're going up the hill and it seems like you'll never get to the top of the mountain but if you keep drop drop dropping in the bucket, you keep adding celebrity pictures first you got your little mayor and some CEO of a minor Corporation then you get a congressman then you get to Senator then you get the CEO of Lucent technology, you know name brand CEOs, right pop culture, this is how it works. And you keep working your way up and using your other techniques which should include having a best selling book and and being a speaker.

Abel Garza 22:15
So you're looking at ways to corroborate I love the build up by the way, I love the way that you were able to, you know, start this process and then using the type of selfies to create the or I should say to corroborate your the perspective of your business or yourself or your brand. I think that's just it's it's, it's amazing.

Clint Arthur 22:39
I said, Oprah what's the most important thing you ever learned? She said, You are responsible for your own success. Nobody's going to do this for you. You can't even pays. Nobody knows how to do this except me. I invented celebrity entrepreneurship. I studied. When you read the book, you'll see who I studied. I studied the king of Hollywood. You ever hear of Arnold Colson? You ever hear of him? No. You never heard of him. He produced a movie called Porky's was the number five box office hit of 1982. His next movie was platoon. You ever hear that one? Yeah. Best Picture 1987. Then he did, falling down with Michael Douglas, the fugitive with Harrison Ford, the devil's advocate with Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves seven with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman eraser with Arnold Schwarzenegger, this guy became the king of Hollywood and you never heard of him. He produced 29 moot studio feature films and you never heard of him $3 billion in box office. But you know, who did hear of him. Every top agent in Hollywood knew who he was, every top movie star knew who he was, you just heard the ones he worked with. They only work with the best. And they only pay the most. This is celebrity entrepreneurship. He was one of my guiding instrumental figures in my life. And I only recognized it looking back on his career and my career when I went to his funeral in 2018.

Abel Garza 24:05
Oh, I see. Man. That's amazing that you're able to, I mean, I shouldn't know all this, because it's part of my it's part of my industry, you know, looking at the producers, and then in the movies, and it's all part of that. It's it's phenomenal. I think we've provided I think we've gotten a lot of information. I mean, we definitely got and we definitely got to pick up this book. This is something that I think that we're definitely going to have to look at. In fact, we I think we should even further analyze it later. And do a pickup on this one so that we can see if there's anybody out there who has utilized this book and found success with it and or found that the techniques in this book have really helped them you know, I know I'm sure you have success stories, no doubt. So it's just one of those things that if you look at it From the perspective of the nascent entrepreneur, it doesn't seem overwhelming the way you explain it seems like something that it could just be like a step by step process. You can look at it from a growing perspective, like you're growing your business, you're growing your brand, and you're building the celebrity, the corroborating of your information and your brand. And taking it to the next level. We're getting close to the end of the podcast. I know we got a lot of information, but we definitely got some seeds that we can work with and and get further into it by getting your book and and looking further into to your the techniques that you provide. What are some of the, I guess, what are some words of wisdom or some rules that you live by?

Clint Arthur 25:48
When I was on the Today Show, Brooke Shields says You talk a lot about getting comfortable outside of your comfort zone. I said yeah, when life begins where your comfort zone ends, and she said, Oh, that sounds scary. And I said when it's scary, is when it's great. And that's one of the things I love about going on TV. It's because I never said that before. I never said either one of those things before I was on TV. But when you're on TV, you're like live in the moment, and stuff comes out of you. And if you've done enough TV, you could speak from an authentic place. And the real wisdom comes out. And both of those things are real wisdom, you need to get uncomfortable. And this whole idea of positioning yourself as a celebrity in your mind and in the eyes of your customers or prospects is going to be uncomfortable many times for you. And that's what you need to be you need to be uncomfortable. And then you're going to do stuff that is going to be scary going up to a President of the United States and getting a selfie for a lot of people that's scary. Going up to major movie stars or celebrities is intimidating a lot of times, but that's what you got to do. And when it's scary is when it's really really great. That's when you're when you're really going to feel alive. And what's going to happen for you see, when I was after I got out of taxi driving and I was you know building houses and selling butter. I was I got into this men self help campfire was like 18 naked guys dancing around a campfire and I'm one of them. And I see this guy jumped over the campfire, I noticed he was very hairy. And then I saw the shaman on the other side of the crackling yellow and orange flames pointing at me. You don't know it yet. But you're already dead. What are you talking about, man? Eight years ago, I was a cab driver. Now I'm a millionaire. I'm the most successful guy on this team. You're already dead and you just don't know it. And I didn't know what he was talking about. I would wake up for months out of a sound sleep. I'm already dead. What does he mean? And it came to be New Year's Day of 2009. And I woke up and asked myself a question inspired by the shaman. I said, Well, I don't understand what that guy means I'm already dead. But what if this was going to be the last year of your life? What would I want to accomplish if this was going to be the last year of my life. And I lived all out. I bought this Rolex that year, I lost 40 pounds. My wife and I were on the rocks, we got into counseling, we saved our marriage. And that was the year I started writing my book and wrote my first best selling book, what they teach you at the Wharton Business School. That's the year I came alive. And if you do this stuff that I'm talking about in celebrity entrepreneurship, and you get out of your comfort zone and you push yourself and you stop holding yourself back from fear and procrastination. That's how you come alive.

Abel Garza 28:57
Man, that is intense. And in fact, I was just thinking about that the other day, I need to overcome my fear get over yourself. And looking at that. I said, Okay, what if I was only live? Like, what if I knew I was only going to live for the next year or eight months or so? And I said, What would I do? So everything that you're talking about? I am sure that hundreds of 1000s Millions of people have thought about that, or hadn't even been in the situation where they even think that that's going to happen like yourself, and completely revolutionize and change the way they look at life and change the way they approach things. And just looking at that it's so motivational. I'm so glad that you're able to give us your wisdom and just give us some knowledge and some some perspective. How can our listeners get a hold of you?

Clint Arthur 29:49
Go to clint.com Clint with three T's dot com Why three T's clients, what kind of clients is that Clint Eastwood only has one T. Well one of my clients was a name ology. As scientists she invented the science of names what does your name mean? She called it name ology. And she said to me, Clint, I wish you could have an extra T at the end of your name because the T's always end up on top like Trump. And and I tried to get Clint with two T's dot com but that was taken so I got Clint with three T's dot com. And it's an easy way to remember where to find claims Arthur, Clint dot Clint with three T's dot com

Abel Garza 30:25
Awesome. Awesome. Well, there you go, guys. Clint Arthur was a pleasure having you on the show today. You're an inspiration to me and our listeners and I'm so glad to have had you on the show. Alright guys, be sure to check out creative entrepreneurship.net Creative entrepreneurship.net Also check out TCE podcast out there for all over social media. Be sure to subscribe there. We're on local stock comm all that information is going to be in the show notes as well. Be sure to check out his celebrity entrepreneurship. Until next week. keep on keepin on.

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