Episode 4 – Clay Hicks – Ready, Fire, Aim!

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:09] Speaker B: The podcast for those who find themselves immersed in adversity and choose to write their story instead of having others write it for them. I'm Drew Duraney and I'm your host. So, Clay, welcome. My friends. So glad you can come on the show. [00:00:25] Speaker A: Sure. Thanks for having me. [00:00:27] Speaker B: Absolutely. So I've been promoting this as there's more to Clay Hicks than what he does professionally. And I know you have a Wonderful Network, an H7 franchisor. You are, and you're all around 45 states, including many, many different countries. And I just know because of that information, you're amazing in definitely the business capacity. We want to learn a little bit about Clay the person. And, you know, we're all about talking with great men like yourself who've gone through stuff in life and come through stronger and how they did it to really give inspiration and hope to other men who are in challenging situations. So, Clay, if you can just tell. Just tell me a little bit about your journey and your defining moment that has got you to where you are now. [00:01:20] Speaker A: So thanks for having me, by the way. [00:01:23] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. [00:01:25] Speaker A: So my story goes back pretty far, 21 years, when I started my first business and my very quick rise to growth and then very fast fall. So I tell the story on occasion, not very often. I've been on a show, they asked me questions. It's worse when there's alcohol involved. It was pretty rough back then. But really my story started with my desire to. To do something different with my life when I was 21, 22. And then I started my first business when I was 23. And at the time, I was working at a steel mill here in the Dayton area called AK Steel, which a pretty big organization. And I was a laborer. I didn't finish college. I had. My first biological daughter was born, took a job, did the thing, did the thing. And so I started my first business and I figured out I could sell. Figured out I could sell, didn't know I could sell. [00:02:41] Speaker B: Right. [00:02:41] Speaker A: But I'm one of those that way too often is ready, fire. Aim. I've done it so much and said it that way so much, I forgot that it's ready, aim. Fire. My journey. And so I grew my business very quickly and really was kind of addicted to making money. The love of money, like I needed to make money. And a family at the time, young family at the time, and my now ex, you know, didn't work and things and all that stuff was good, but said this desire to do something better with my life and make money More money. Because, you know, at 22 years old with no college degree, 65, 000 a year apparently was not good enough. So anyway, was that you saying it. [00:03:40] Speaker B: Wasn'T good enough or other people saying it wasn't good enough? [00:03:46] Speaker A: On this. I'm in this group. I get to be totally transparent. That was my desire to please. My ex's desire not to have to do much in order to have the things that she wanted. Is that her responsibility? No, but it was my choice. Right, Right. So I'm not like skating on that. But yeah, I felt like it was never enough. So I just kept driving and driving and driving. So I had this business, and I blew it up while I worked at the mill. And so my first full year in business, I made $120,000 now. Right. So I'm like, this is good. [00:04:25] Speaker B: And we're talking back in before 2008. You're talking about earlier, about 2004. Wow. [00:04:34] Speaker A: I had landed these contracts with cutting grass. I mean, I was very. I'm. I'm good with people, you know what I mean? And so I didn't even know that I could sell until that time. So I did. And, you know, by the. So I basically, after one full season, was able to actually leave the mill. And so I left the mill and I stayed in my landscaping business. And then I started a real estate business. Okay. And I even went as far as got the Trump University paid for it. [00:05:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:11] Speaker A: A big dividends, by the way. For me, it did. But anyway, that's how I learned about real estate, was that was where my start was. And so that was also my demise. That was the beginning of the end. So when I had my lawn care business and then I got into real estate because I was worried about what my guys were going to do, I started pulling the trigger. Right. Forcing things to happen. [00:05:36] Speaker B: Okay. [00:05:37] Speaker A: So I ended up in four months, buying eight houses, working on them, fixing them to flip them. I had a couple rentals, and we had a land, my landscaping company. And it still wasn't enough. It just wasn't enough. So by the time my first full year out of the mill, being an entrepreneur, I made over 200 grand. Okay. So that showed that I was capable but not competent. [00:06:11] Speaker B: Okay. All right. [00:06:14] Speaker A: So. Yeah. So always wanting more and pushing that envelope. In the middle of 2000, well, at the beginning of 2005, six. Sorry. I started to lose it all. And so just as fast as I made it, I lost it. And so I lost all eight houses. I lost my businesses, shut them down. Sold the equipment, shut everything down, had to shift gears, went into sales. That caused a separation for my ex wife and I. She asked me to leave and take the girls with her with me. So I became a single parent. And that was my defining moment. Wow. [00:07:06] Speaker B: Absolutely. The, the. And then you really realize the responsibility that your actions actually caused. What I see that as being the clarity now. What did you do next to move forward and have your daughters really emulate their father? [00:07:28] Speaker A: Ask that question again. Say that again. Sorry. [00:07:30] Speaker B: What'd you do to move forward? How did you move forward? What? Because you, you now, you had to. Your two young ladies you were going to be raising who are going to watch how dad handles this. [00:07:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:43] Speaker B: How'd you do it? [00:07:45] Speaker A: So they were seven and two. [00:07:46] Speaker B: Okay. [00:07:48] Speaker A: Because I was in the real estate industry, I was able to get a job for a real estate investor. Got a job. And the moment we walked out into our apartment, I was working there and had to be at work at 7 and I got off at 5. [00:08:03] Speaker B: Okay. [00:08:04] Speaker A: And it was an hour each way. Okay. So I. So I showed them resiliency. [00:08:10] Speaker B: Right. [00:08:13] Speaker A: I got up, I did the work, I did the thing. I didn't have time to play around. I got home at 6. It was bath time, it was food time. It was all the stuff. And you know, frozen food, of course, because I had no idea what the hell I was doing. [00:08:27] Speaker B: You got to do. Yeah. [00:08:29] Speaker A: And so there was a series of events that continued to happen after that. Okay. And it happened for approximately four months. So I got the job. I lost the job. Not, not anything that I necessarily did. He basically removed all the staff. All the staff. [00:08:51] Speaker B: Okay. [00:08:52] Speaker A: So by Thanksgiving, I no longer had a job, or November 15th to be exact. No longer had a job. I did not pay my November rent because I had a suspicion something was wrong. So I just waited a second. [00:09:09] Speaker B: Okay. [00:09:09] Speaker A: I find out the next week that I've lost my job and the girls are still there and I have to do something. At the time, there was a lot of different things going on. One, for example, was I had to pay my ex wife to babysit my kids for me during the week. [00:09:31] Speaker B: It must have been difficult for you. [00:09:33] Speaker A: Yeah. And those were the exact words. Okay. So that's, that's no fluff. That's really what happened. So I went ahead and try to get back into real estate very quickly. Found some partners down in Cincinnati, found the deals, sell the deals, Was a wholesaler in real estate very quickly. And a story is really, really dark for the month of December. I mean, I'm. I couldn't pay my rent the first week of December. I had a relationship with the property owner, and it was a huge apartment complex. And I told him that I promised I would pay. Just please be patient with me. They didn't make me pay, so I owe November. Oh, December. I asked my partner, this is the 1st of December. I asked my partner, can I borrow enough money to pay my rent? And he says, we'll sell this house, and you can. And I said, all right, all right. So we found this house down in Kentucky, and it was listed on MLS for 215. We negotiated down to 185, and I sold that thing in 24 hours for the same thing they had it listed on the MLS for. [00:10:45] Speaker B: That's unbelievable as you resolve and your resilience there, man. [00:10:50] Speaker A: So to make matters worse, my partner was like, you didn't sell. I need a document signed. So I'm like, okay, all right, all right. And he said, I'm not giving you enough to pay your rent. You need to take care of your kids. You need to eat all that stuff. So you have to work that out between your apartment complex and you. So maybe just enough to buy groceries and do the thing you need to do. And I'm like, all right, fine. So I got it all done, and my parents had to buy Christmas. It was really bad, and. Because it just had to keep holding on and waiting and so January 5th rolls around. We close on the deal. I make plenty of money. I pay off all three of my months of rent. My credit card or my debit card has never not worked again. [00:11:37] Speaker B: That's unbelievable. Unbelievable resolve. And how did. How did that turn things around for you? How did that make you feel internally about yourself? [00:11:48] Speaker A: Well, I learned very quickly what I'm capable of. But what I actually learned was I cannot do this by myself. So I profess my faith. I got right with the Lord. I learned that I wasn't. I didn't need to do all this by myself, but I knew it was going to be an uphill battle, so I needed a really solid friend. And my relationship with him has never been as low of a point as it was back then. It's only always gotten better. [00:12:19] Speaker B: It's hard to ask for help. We men don't often do it. Why do you think you didn't ask for help when you were younger? [00:12:27] Speaker A: To be honest, man, I. You know, the way I was raised, I. I grew up in. It was not middle class. It was whatever. Like, the next class that I'm Sorry. My parents were, like, impoverished. Like, they just made just enough money to pay bills and stuff. And so I helped my parents financially. So I had a. I had a job in a factory when I was 14. I had a paper out when I was 9. I worked in the factory full time in the summer, and then I worked on the weekends doing stuff that was completely illegal by OSHA regulations, but they let me do it. And so I always helped my parents. I didn't get a lot in my. [00:13:06] Speaker B: Don't. [00:13:07] Speaker A: I mean, my parents helped me, so don't. Don't be wrong. [00:13:09] Speaker B: But. Yeah, of course. [00:13:10] Speaker A: But, like, my dad messed up my fafsa, so I had to pay for college in full, or, you know, I had to pay for college without. With a loan and stuff, and I didn't get the help I needed and all that stuff. So I just. I just was used to, like. I like to say breaking the rock is one of these things that really stick with me. [00:13:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:32] Speaker A: I'm one that. That has a tendency to break the rock, like Moses did. Right. So. [00:13:38] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:13:39] Speaker A: And then he was sent out anyway. The point is, is that I didn't wait patiently. I had a problem with patience and youthfulness and immaturity, and why would I ask for help from anybody? And it was a long time before I actually got help or asked for help. After that moment in my life that defined me. It was just between me and him. [00:13:59] Speaker B: I'll tell you, you have a solid foundation of work ethic, obviously, and now the strong faith, and you're gonna go nowhere but up, my friend. So if you were to have some advice for the younger Clay, knowing what you know now, what kind of advice would you give him about life? [00:14:32] Speaker A: Trust in the process. You know, it's above you. Quit trying to be the one that does it all. Quit trying to be the one that always makes it happen. You know, really trust in the process. Because I always pulled the trigger too fast. [00:14:46] Speaker B: Right. [00:14:47] Speaker A: That was always my case. So, like, whatever I had was never enough. And so had I trusted in the process and been more disciplined with the opportunities and been more grateful for what I actually had? [00:15:05] Speaker B: Basically, ready, aim, fire. Not ready, fire. So. So I want to get into your business. Your business. So let's. The first thing. What kind of business advice would you give young Clay? Business advice. Then we'll talk about age 7 and how you're blowing up life right now. [00:15:22] Speaker A: Yeah. So think about it more before you do. It would probably be the advice that I would give. Like, think about all of the potential outcomes because back then, I had a really bad habit of not thinking through all the way. What could happen by doing this, what could happen by doing that? Okay, so just take more time to reflect on your choices, where you made mistakes, fix those kinds of things. Because back then, I mean, some people might say, like, my motor is ridiculous, so it just goes and goes and goes. [00:15:59] Speaker B: Right. [00:16:00] Speaker A: Except now I'm a Harley Davidson. [00:16:03] Speaker B: Okay. [00:16:04] Speaker A: Okay. I would advise the person riding the dirt bike with no brakes on it and half broke down most of the time to concentrate on having. Being able to drive a Harley, you know, just to make it fun. But, yes, I mean, that's kind of like. I just. I just kept going, but I didn't really think about all the consequences and all of my actions and what would cause it. And it was when I became that single parent, that defining moment. [00:16:32] Speaker B: Right. [00:16:33] Speaker A: Not be that same person anymore and not have a choice. [00:16:37] Speaker B: Absolutely. And I believe that if you hadn't gone through everything you've gone through, you wouldn't be as successful as you are right now. Would you say that? [00:16:44] Speaker A: 100%. [00:16:45] Speaker B: Now, tell us a little about age 7, when you started in 2008, and where you are now. Give us a little quick glimpse of that. [00:16:53] Speaker A: Yeah, so when I started it so long ago, like, why I started it and why I still do it is two different things. Just totally two different things. I mean, we're getting ready to celebrate 15 years. You really. It really shouldn't be the same reasons. Right. At this point, I'm learning it should not be the same reason. [00:17:11] Speaker B: Right. [00:17:12] Speaker A: So when I started it back then, I had been in a networking group previous, and I was very successful at it. Okay. Just remember, my credit, my debit card always worked at this point in my life. [00:17:23] Speaker B: Right, right, right. [00:17:24] Speaker A: So. So when I went out to network, the options were pretty limited. You know, there was chambers, and this is my own chambers in my own backyard. And there was bni. Okay. And for me, BNI just was too rigid. No offense. [00:17:41] Speaker B: It's just. [00:17:42] Speaker A: I just couldn't take that. I needed levels of flexibility and moving and mobility and being able to meet people and things. And then in the chambers, I did not feel like I belonged. I felt like an outcast because I didn't have, you know, the insurance business downtown in the community, you know, and all the parades and the floats and all the stuff. I just didn't have all that I had. I was in real estate, and I was a flipper, and I was a general contract and all the stuff at that time. And I Just felt deeply alone. Like, how am I gonna. This is right after my mom passed. [00:18:18] Speaker B: Okay. [00:18:19] Speaker A: And so this you're talking about four or five months after my mom passed that I started age seven at the time where I was at single parent, I was also now taking care of my dad, and no mom, no brothers, no siblings. I'm the only child I needed to, like, figure this all out. [00:18:40] Speaker B: Right. [00:18:40] Speaker A: And so I thought the most natural course was I literally said, I want to start my own group. And so I did. [00:18:52] Speaker B: And so, absolutely. [00:18:54] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's why I started it. [00:18:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:56] Speaker A: Which is not as great as why I still do it. So when I got married in 2014, now I have a family of seven. [00:19:08] Speaker B: Wow. [00:19:09] Speaker A: So my wife has three biological children. So now I got three bonus children, plus my two biological children. And I needed to do something more. [00:19:19] Speaker B: Right. Like thinking about probably a different more from the more you were doing when you were younger, right? A different more. [00:19:28] Speaker A: Yeah. So I didn't have the same pressure because I had been through that pressure before. That was nothing. This was nothing. But I had to re. Like, realign myself in the directions I was going to go. My wife challenged me. She said, this is how it went down. It's July 14, and I'm like, going through these crossroads. Do I expand age 7, do I do another job? Do I get another gig? [00:19:55] Speaker B: Right. [00:19:56] Speaker A: And pray about it? And he says, advance, you know, keep going. Right. More or less. So I go and I'm talking to my wife, and I'm like, I don't know what I should do. Like, how do I make this work? And she's like, do you ever meet with the visitors when they visit? And I said, sure, when they ask. [00:20:17] Speaker B: Right? [00:20:18] Speaker A: So, I mean, at that point, we were only in Cincinnati and some of Dayton, and so it was very manageable. And we grew by 20 members a month. So I didn't think anything of it. Like, I thought, well, this is great, you know? So she asked me this question, and I'm like, well, no. She's like, well, why don't you? And I said, I don't know, but I'm going to start now. [00:20:39] Speaker B: That's great. [00:20:40] Speaker A: So that was the moment in time where I became extremely intentional because now I wanted to understand what I didn't know. Now I'm going in this new journey, this new journey of. Of my new purpose in life became to lift people up, to unite them. And the newest point is take no credit like that. Okay. So back then, it was just lift people up. So I'm like, I'm just gonna have a great one to one. I'm gonna try to help them in some way and I'm gonna do it. And so four years later to that month, I had completed 3,001 to ones. 3,001 hour, one to ones plus drive time. [00:21:22] Speaker B: Okay. [00:21:24] Speaker A: It changed everything. Yeah, it changed everything about the direction, the purpose, the influence, everything. I looked back in that four years and we had expanded from just Cincinnati, Dayton to Columbus, Indianapolis, Charlotte, North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, Texas, all out of this one singular meeting. And by word of mouth. [00:21:52] Speaker B: Unbelievable. [00:21:54] Speaker A: So that began this new process of understanding and reflecting on, like, what are the talents that I have? What are the things that I've learned? What are the tech. So that's when connect, serve and ask was born. [00:22:05] Speaker B: Okay. [00:22:07] Speaker A: And so that set me on this new journey. And then of course, covet happened and stuff, but. Right, but that. So why I still do it today is because H7 is a vehicle for me to live out my purpose. [00:22:19] Speaker B: I love that. And you said the word intentional, and I think that that is. That's crucial. 95% of our brain activity is unconscious. There's only 5% of our connectivity is conscious. And many of we men are not, you know, really don't focus on why we're doing what we're doing. And that intentional piece, Clay, is phenomenal. So I could talk to you all day, my friend. How. How can people find you? Find H7. Tell us a little about how to reach you and what else you have coming up that the audience might want, might be interested in. [00:22:57] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah, so you can find [email protected] we have virtual meetings for the B2B professional. We're opening up another metro areas where there'll also be some level of in person things going on. Go to a7network.com. Find a meeting is the tab you can find that I highly recommend you stay on that home page and you click on receive an invitation to join us, to visit us. [00:23:27] Speaker B: Okay. [00:23:28] Speaker A: Because what's new is called the championship that we developed. [00:23:31] Speaker B: Okay, Tell us about that. [00:23:33] Speaker A: The championship is where we. So we're. We're imitation only. Right? [00:23:42] Speaker B: Right. [00:23:42] Speaker A: And so this whole time, 14 years, this invitation has been coming out of my mouth or somebody on the staff. [00:23:49] Speaker B: Okay. [00:23:50] Speaker A: Now we're going to empower the members to invite the people that they would like to have come into the organization. [00:23:55] Speaker B: Okay. [00:23:56] Speaker A: And so the championship is where we all, at the same time, in unison, start to become champions in the world. All the members at the same time. And so we'll be making that announcement at the Christmas parties. It'll be on the website. All this stuff to make the entire organization insulated from visitors just popping in. [00:24:18] Speaker B: Okay. [00:24:19] Speaker A: Because they found us on meetup.com or something. [00:24:21] Speaker B: Got it. [00:24:22] Speaker A: Yep. [00:24:22] Speaker B: Heard that a lot in other areas. Yeah. [00:24:25] Speaker A: Yeah. And so the championship is coming out in a week. [00:24:31] Speaker B: Congratulations. And we'll be pulling for you on your website. I also see a tab that says podcast. Can you tell me about that? [00:24:40] Speaker A: So, yeah, over the summer, we started a podcast. We are on a break right now as we realign things, and then we'll be bringing it back out. But it's on Intentional being intentional in business and in your networking. Because my. My intentionality is a little bit freakish. Like, that's. That's kind of an understatement. [00:25:04] Speaker B: Well, if you can teach us a little down the road. I know January 5th, you're going to be speaking to the Our Men Supporting Men Collaboration Tribe on Intentional Being intentional. And we could all learn to be a little better at being intentional. So, Clay, I want to thank you for coming, man. And I am so grateful that. That I've met you and that we're friends and we're going to move forward and then help change the world. So thanks again for coming on, my friend. And I'm always there to support you. [00:25:33] Speaker A: My pleasure, man. I like the beer, by the way. [00:25:35] Speaker B: Thank you. Well, you know what? You're my mentor now, so not quite hanging off the chin yet, so. All right, my friend. You take care. [00:25:47] Speaker A: Thanks. [00:25:51] Speaker B: Thank. Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and give us a review to help others find it. If you find yourself immersed in adversity and would like to find support from other men in times of struggle, please become a member of my Men's Supporting Men Collaboration Tribe by emailing [email protected] expressing your interest, and I'll get in touch with you. Speak to you soon.