Clate Mask –  CEO & Co-Founder of Infusionsoft; The Realities of the Small Business Journey; Mindset; Dealing with emotions once you’re drained; relationships and your surrounding environments 

Special Guest Host: Adam Toren of YoungEntrepreneur.com & TorenBrothers.com

Segment 1: (Length :05:00) – General Updates; Introduction to Clate Mask and his background to becoming the CEO and Co-Founder of Infusionsoft.com; Defining small business success and the journey.

Clate’s finer points:

“Entrepreneurs have a certain view of what it’s going to be like when they get to a certain point, but really it’s not about getting to a certain plateau. It’s really about being able to do what you love doing and be able to afford the lifestyle that you want to have and spend your time and money the way that you want to.“

“Far too often the business begins to own and control the business owner instead of the other way around and that’s a really tough, dark place to be when you’re just getting owned by the business. To me, success is where you get that flipped and you really do own and control and drive the business in a way where you’re product and impact is bringing you satisfaction.”

“Success is really when you’re growing sales, saving time and having the business and the life that you want.”

“It’s not this sacred destination. It really is a journey.”

Segment 2: (Length :07:00) – Talking with Clate Mask; the realities of the small business journey; Clate’s most satisfying moments in business.

Clate’s finer points:

“There’s nothing better than coming to ICON year after year and hearing the success stories.”

“When I hear people come up to me saying, ‘you’ve changed my life’ . . . when they talk about how it’s changed their life . . . to me, automation is the game changer as it applies to sales and marketing.”

“It’s awesome raising capital, getting to cash flow positive as a company, being named a great place to work and employees love working at Infusionsoft, but there’s nothing that tops the very personal, very real stories of how we change people’s lives.”

Segment 3: (Length :07:00) – Dealing with your emotions once you’re drained.

Clate’s finer points:

“The life and death struggle you experience in the beginning is why we wrote Conquer the Chaos, and I’ll tell you how to manage your emotions is that it really is emotional capital. How do you build your emotional capital?”

“You can’t wait until you’re totally drained and you’re to the point where you’re throwing up your hands and quitting the business; this isn’t working. So you’ve got to work on it constantly.”

“There are three things I recommend. Working on your mind and the positive thinking is one. How do you feed the positivity because when you’re starting your business, there’s so much negativity around you; your friends, your family and the people that supposedly care about you and love you and want you to be successful, but they are always beating on you to go get a real job.”

“I recommend cultivating the positive things your customers tell you and read them over and over. The positive feedback is one of the best things. Feed your thoughts the right way. If you don’t get inside of your head in the right way, then you’ll be inside of your head in a way that screws you up for sure.”

“I started reading about positive thinking and I started getting into that. So I understand where people are really critical of it and think it’s a bunch of bull, but it’s not. It is actually what you have to do to get through those first couple years.”

“My number one book is “The Power of Positive Thinking“, a classic by Norman Vincent Peale, and it just helps you think the right way. The key thing that people don’t realize is that your thoughts turn into your words and your words have everything to do with your actions.”

Segment 4: (Length :07:00) – Relationships and your surrounding environments. 

“I talk about how relationships suffer in entrepreneurship, but sometimes they need to suffer. Sometimes you’ve got the wrong relationships around you. There starts to be a gap between you and individuals because they are very negative people; very critical, very cynical.”

“We’re just not big into cynicism and if you surround yourself with cynical people, you’re in trouble. Cynics don’t create anything great. They don’t contribute to the world in positive ways and they’re going to hold you back from contributing.”

“So sometimes the relationships should suffer, but other times we have great people around us and we get so consumed by the business that we don’t spend our time in those relationships.’

“The reality is sometimes we have to talk about the business with those people and they help us; they help us get out of our minds in some of the things we’re working through. So having great people around us is critical.”

“There’s no way we could have gotten through without the support of my wife and parents, constantly telling me you can do it. That’s critical. You’ve got to have that.”

Segment 5: (Length :03:00) – Hustler Thought of the Day:

“Keep Focused, Plan & Improve Your Odds:

 Most small businesses don’t make it. I’m lucky that ours did. Even though it took a toll on my relationships, almost wiped me out financially and practically crushed me mentally and emotionally, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Don’t be afraid of the challenges as you start and grow your small business. Instead, plan, anticipate and prepare. Make sure to remember that every day you make it increases the likelihood that you’ll survive“

– Clate Mask – From The Ugly Truth About Small Business

Clate’s finer points:

“It was about two years into the business. We were really really struggling . . . and I was just at that point where I didn’t know if I could keep taking my family through this. I was a bit delusional. I had four kids and wasn’t bringing home any money and my wife was at wits end . . . I remember very distinctly sitting in our office realizing, everyday we survive is actually making us stronger, it’s making us better and it’s preparing us for the future.”

“It was very clear to me . . . I could feel it in a very visceral way. That was the point I realized that all of the stuff you go through just makes you stronger . . . Until you’ve lived it and you see it and feel it, you know that actually adversity is the stuff that makes you better and preparing you for something bigger.”

“Then you get excited because you realize it’s all designed for something bigger and better that’s coming. You’ve got to just keep pushing, keep driving and get to that point.”

GENERAL NOTES:

Clate Mask – CEO & Co-Founder of Infusionsoft.com

• Clate is the CEO and Co-Founder of Infusionsoft, which revolutionizes the way small businesses grow through sales and marketing automation.

• His passion for small business success stems from his personal experience taking Infusionsoft from a struggling startup to an eight-time Inc. 500/5000 winner.

• Under Clate’s leadership, Infusionsoft has landed four rounds of venture capital including a $55 million Series D led by Bain Capital Ventures with contributions from prior investors, Signal Peak Ventures and Goldman Sachs.

• He was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, a Top 100 Small Business Influencer by Small Business Trends, one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2013 by Goldman Sachs, and Business Leader of the Year by the Arizona Technology Council.

• Clate is a national speaker on entrepreneurship and small business success, and co-author of the New York Times bestseller Conquer the Chaos: How to Grow a Successful Small Business Without Going Crazy.

• Clate has a BA in Economics from Arizona State University, as well as an MBA and a JD from Brigham Young University.