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Entrepreneurship and Faith with Clayton Carmack

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Rey Treviño III [00:00:00] The road of an entrepreneur is not an easy one. It is a path that some say a higher calling has asked them to do. We talked to one industry expert as an entrepreneur on ways to serve that higher power and help others on this episode of The Crude Truth.

Narrator [00:00:19] In 1901, at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont, the future of Texas changed dramatically as, like a fountain of fortune, thousands of barrels of oil burst from the earth towards the sky. Soon Detroit would be cranking out Model Ts by the millions and America was on the move, thanks to the black gold being produced in Texas. Now more than a century later, the vehicles are different, but nothing else has truly change. Sure, there may be many other alternative energy sources, like wind and solar and electric. But let’s be honest, America depends on oil and entrepreneurs, and if the USA is truly going to be independent, it has to know the crude truth.

Narrator [00:01:02] This episode is brought to you by LFS Chemistry. We are committed to being good stewards of the environment. We are providing the tools so you can be too. Nape Expo, where deals happen. Air Compressor Solutions. When everything is on the line, Air Compressed Solutions is the dependable choice to keep commercial business powered up. Sandstone Group. Exec Crue. Elevate your network, elevate your knowledge. Texas Star Alliance, Pecos Country Operating, fueling our future.

Rey Treviño III [00:01:37] Well, thank you as always for tuning in to another episode of The Crude Truth. We are just steamrolling 2025 and just making it awesome. I hope you guys are as well. Today, I bring on somebody that I’ve actually been trying to get on the show now for over a year. As you can tell in my teaser, an entrepreneur, somebody that has had several business exits, successful business ethics, an individual that definitely when he starts a new venture, it’s really serving God and how he can help others in that role. Our guest today is a guy that is a mentor and a coach when it comes to entrepreneurs because. It wouldn’t be helpful to actually have somebody that’s already been there, done that, because all entrepreneurs are first time entrepreneurs at one point. My guest today is Clayton Carmack. Clayton, how are you? Good man, how’re you?

Clayton Carmack [00:02:33] Thanks for inviting me, man.

Rey Treviño III [00:02:34] No, thank you so much for coming on. What a great pre-production discussion we’ve already been having, and I hope we can continue that. How are you doing?

Clayton Carmack [00:02:45] I’m doing great. It’s been a whole change in my life, even the last year or so going from owning a very large, you know, helical pile insulation company to now I’m just looking to to help business owners around the country in multiple different ways. So never thought a million years that God will put me in this path. But this is the path I’m on and I’m here to serve them and do these things to help. Business owners. Well, yeah.

Rey Treviño III [00:03:10] When you say that, you’re really diminishing what you’re doing. You are really helping business owners thrive in what they do and giving them a better path or actually maybe not a better half, but making the road smoother on that.

Clayton Carmack [00:03:29] Yeah, I kind of look at it as you try to avoid or minimize pitfalls. Yes. Because again, I think entrepreneurs have to make those mistakes. They have to go through things. But how painful can that mistake be, right? And having that guidance and so many multitude of ways, whether it’s hiring or firing, whether how to get like funds for or borrowing money to help insurance. All those things in between are huge deals. That can make or break your business or make or break, you know, hiring that guy or that gal, they can make your business better. So there’s retention tools. There’s, there’s ways to maximize your profit. There’s all these different things. I look at where a lot of times you kind of, you’re in the business of doing the business. You’re a technician, but are you a businessman in your business? And I think sometimes that gets kind of lost in the shuffle.

Rey Treviño III [00:04:18] Speaking of getting lost in the shuffle, for those out there that don’t know you, Clayton, tell the people out there who you are and how we got to right here, in a way. Yeah. Not just specifically how we got here to the second, but let’s talk about your background and how were here.

Clayton Carmack [00:04:35] Yeah, I would say, kind of started off, I was a kid that grew up overseas. My father was in the oil and gas industry. I’m actually a fourth generation oil and gasoline. It’s in my blood. And I grew up over seas, graduated high school overseas, came back to the States. And, you know, I kind of struggled. It took me eight years to graduate. And I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Got to a point to where I joined the army in the middle of my college career. I was able to finish that and as soon as I kind of finished my, uh, and I, and during the army, I was in the reserves, um, and I did do a deployment overseas. Um, but when I came back and I graduated, I also finished my, my reserve time and I jumped right in the oil and gas industry and it was incredible for me and, and my first job in the only gas industry, a real job was working for Conoco Phillips as a company man and they sent me to school, you know, 26 years old, didn’t know anything. They sent me into school and I was able to. A pastor course is like a seven-month long course. And in 2006, 2007 timeframe, I jumped in the Olin Gasfield as a company man. Yeah. And I’m like thinking, okay, I’m 26. I’ll be 56 when I retire. I’ll I’ll here for 30 years. And then a year and a half later, 09 hit and I got laid off. And I told myself, I will never work for a large company again. And I haven’t since. Wow. Well, up until just recently, but for 15 years, I said, I want to do it by myself. And so, you know, I did go back to oil and gas industry, but as a consultant. And then about 10 years ago, I started a service company. And I did that for 10 years and it was very successful. Basically started it with nothing. I had 35 grand in my pocket. And as a drilling consultant, made some money through it in the business. And, you now, four years later, we were making over 10 million a year. Wow. They were able to expand. I started in North Dakota, expanded to West Texas. Came to Houston and just last year I ended up selling my half the company to my brother-in-law and now he’s running the company. I wanted to go out and do something different. And my passion has kind of changed from, well, all the things I learned and failed, you know, from 2020 and that debacle and how terrible it was for small business owners. Right. At the time we were doing just $10 million in 19 and it dropped down to $3 million. I had 30 employees, went down to four employees and I was able to make it through but there was so many heartache and pitfalls. That I did previously that I wish I had known, but I learned the hard way. And so I got to the point where I sold and I said, now I wanna do something that serve other people. I wanna serve the business owners. There’s so many mistakes I’ve made and with the information I have now, I wanna help those, whether you’re one year in, you’re five years in, you’re doing your first million, you do your first five million. There’s these goals and steps you have to take, but it gets tougher along the way. And I feel like there’s so much entrepreneurs that are probably between that one and $10 million range. That how do you get over the next edge? How do you do the next thing? So that’s truly my passion now is to help those that way.

Rey Treviño III [00:07:34] Yeah, you know, that’s one thing people don’t know. It’s like, you that one million to two million is hard, that two million to seven is hard. And then from seven to 10 is hard and then I think 13 is, I don’t want to call them hurdles but there are these steps and these layers that you just have to always be working on and figuring out how to get there because what worked for the first one is probably not going to work for the next one.

Clayton Carmack [00:07:59] Is that, is that true? 100% correct. I would say we ran the same business model from one to 3 million, and then three to six was different, and then seven to 10 was different. Um, we, uh, we did about 12 and a half million in 2023. And it was another model where I was getting to the next level. I’m like, I don’t know if I can do this level. I have to change again. And I think each, each revenue level is almost like changing your company, even from within the guys. I got you there and I can, the guys get to the next step, right? So can you hire the next guy? Do you stay with the same guys? Will they bring you down? The answer is yes. Yes. And yes, like you have to change with everything. I looked at even the model pre-COVID and post-COVID. Holy cow, it totally changed, right? You had to be very slim and we were more like a district-centric model. We had multiple offices around the country. Post-COVI, we went to one model and went nomadic. Let’s get rid of some places, get rid us some managers, let’s get smaller. Rent equipment, stuff like that and go that model. And that’s the only way that I had to change and survive that way.

Rey Treviño III [00:09:05] You know, I liked what you said a minute ago about, you know, the people that got you here may not be the people I get to the next level. Um, and it’s not a slight on them by any means. Uh, I, every now and then I like to watch this group. Well, it’s a goofy show called, uh, Rexam about a soccer team, uh. And you’re up that, uh what Rob, like many and Ryan Reynolds. Right? Yeah. And so I think for three years in a row, they’ve actually gone up every level or like they’ve gone up a level in soccer every time. I think they’re like one away from the Premier League now, maybe two, I don’t know for sure. But it was one episode where it was like, there will be nobody on this team at one point that was at the beginning. It’s like, because, hey, they got us here, but then we got to find the people that are going to get us here. And it’s so slight on anybody, but it’s like hey, you want to grow, you wanna thrive. And that’s something that you have to do. And I think a lot of companies don’t see that. And, or they don’t want to do it because, you know, old Stan over there has just been here and he’s so loyal. And it like, man, you got to either find him a good spot to hang out, or, you know, be ready for the weight to just. Bring you down. And it doesn’t mean it’s in a way of negativity or anything, but maybe financially, right?

Clayton Carmack [00:10:27] Absolutely couldn’t agree more. So for me, it was, um, you know, can you make those switch moves or you’re going to be stuck in the past and you know you may have a revenue plan and goal to do this, but sometimes those guys or those processes will slow you down. You have to make changes. So I think the company can make the most changes as quickly as possible. If they want to have that growth level is fine. If you want to stay at the same revenue level and the same clients and do this that that’s fine too. There’s pros and cons of both sides, but. For me, I was always a hungry entrepreneur that wanted to try new and bigger things and just expand my, my potential, you know.

Rey Treviño III [00:11:03] You know, as you talk about expanding and your potential and always want to try new things, you are now really a mentor and a coach to other entrepreneurs. And we kind of talked about it in my teaser a little bit is that there’s a lot of things that entrepreneurs can do that they don’t know how to do or they don’t know that’s available to them. Is that correct?

Clayton Carmack [00:11:26] It is, I looked at myself and go, okay, I’m new at learning this business and growing this level. Like first time I did five minutes, first time I did 5 million.

Rey Treviño III [00:11:35] Right.

Clayton Carmack [00:11:36] And so I’m not thinking about, okay, well, how do I find cheaper health insurance? How do I a way to not guarantee $2 million worth of equipment when I can maybe grow my corporate credit and have the corporate credit be the one that’s buying the equipment? Yes, it takes time. Yes, It takes money. But when you look at the example, I’ll give the perfect example is 2020. We were getting to the point where we’re doing $10 million. I had 2 million plus in yellow iron. And then all the jobs went. Well, I owe this money, I personally guarantee it. They’re coming after me. I couldn’t make a bill. I could pay a bill for three, six months. And it was like, how the heck am I gonna get out of this? Well, personally guaranteed it. Had I spent the time and built my corporate credit and took my name off the business and do these things and say no to personal guarantees. Of course, every banker wants you to personally guarantee things, right? They wanna pierce that veil, the limit of liability and say, I want you. If you fail, that’s okay, I got your house. Well, man, there are other ways and other business owners do it all the time, but I feel like the sub $20 million entrepreneur is like, I’m just going to do it. I keep doing it the same way. I don’t need to borrow money. I don’t t need all these things. Okay. Yeah. But don’t personally guarantee your life away. Don’t do it because things can happen, but also you give yourself options when you don’t person again, when you already leverage to, to everything you have, how can you grow up to the next level? How can you get the next option? Next opportunity because you’re done. So for me, I did not realize that I was growing my business. And so I tell people like, build your corporate credit, do these things. That’s just one of the examples I learned the hard way. And I really tell that story over and over and over again, you know, so they can see it. But a lot of times you’re in the thick of things, you’re a technician. They don’t think about that side of it. They just don’t. So I’m to use me. I’m the, I’m, the biggest testimony I know. So use myself as an example and go, this is what I went through, this is how I felt. Did I get depressed? Did I think I’m gonna have to sell my house and I think that I was gonna go bankrupt? Yes. Was I close? Yes. Did I work my butt off and make it through it? Barely, but sometimes people don’t. And I hear the horror stories too, just as much. And had they made this one little different turn and the thing that maybe could have saved their house, SBA loans that they personally guaranteed their home. Oh my god. You know these people lose their home first before they liquidate their business. You hear these stories over and over again. Wow. Because the banks, you know, they want it.

Rey Treviño III [00:14:06] You know, how can people reach out to you for those type of questions about building corporate cap, building corporate credit? Yeah, how could people reach up to that?

Clayton Carmack [00:14:14] Yeah. So, I teamed up with a guy named Tyler Clifton and he is the CEO of Harvard’s Business Solutions. So I’m also a coach and mentor of these things. And so that’s what I do is I show them different ways how to do things, you know, build their credit. We got a slew of vendors, lenders rather, 1,100 lenders on our team that see you build your corporate credit. So we’re trying to get to the point where we move you, your social security number from the business. Make it really an LLC again. Limited liability. But that’s how you do it. So typically, when you get a point, I think, where you’re doing over 2 million, right? That’s when you’re you’re probably expenses are probably 50 to 100 grand a month, right? Maybe a little more. And it’s like, if a bank were to lend you $250,000, which they will Right?

Rey Treviño III [00:14:59] Right, right.

Clayton Carmack [00:15:00] Well, that’s the price of your house. Right? Right. Nothing over $250,000 the bank will lend you. So when you start getting to a point where you spend more than you do in a maybe a month or a quarter, the bank can’t help you anymore. And so you have this huge gap between where the bank and stop helping you around two to $3 million. So you get to about $20 million when any equity firm will even look at you and touch you. Oh, wow. Unless you have some angel investor, which came out of the blue that wants to invest money and you only have $5 million like good luck. You’re still gonna be personally guaranteeing things. I got to a point where even I did 12 million, I was still personally guarantee things. Well, I mean, my expenses overhead was quarter million dollars a month. How, you need help if you wanna grow, right? You’re only gonna grow as fast as your personal credit will allow you to. Well, that’s not real business. So I wanna teach that stuff and it’s simple.

Rey Treviño III [00:15:50] Okay.

Clayton Carmack [00:15:50] Huh. It really is. You know, just like when you build your corporate, you know, your personal credit, right? You remember your first credit card. Oh, yeah. 18 years old, you’re in college, you wanted the free frisbee or t-shirt, right. So you applied for the Discover credit of $500 and you went out and you bought rollerblades. Okay, this is my story. Okay. You know, this was 1998 and I had to get me a new pair of roller blades and an acoustic. I’m building credit. It’s just a decision to make with your dumb kid. But the same thing when in corporate credit, you can’t just get it overnight. It takes a year to build it, build it up, show that you’re a reliable business and then lenders will actually lend you money without personally guaranteeing it. And so it takes time and there’s no like switch like this to get corporate credit. It takes time just like your personal credit. So there are some differences, there’s some similarities, but I coach and teach that and I sell that product to a lot of my entrepreneurs that are around that two to $15 million. And that’s where a lot of people kind of get stuck.

Rey Treviño III [00:16:48] You know, when you’re talking about just small business entrepreneurs, another thing that you’ve gotten into that I think is something that is groundbreaking and a game changer is health insurance. Obamacare is being rolled back again, supposedly. However, that’s not what this episode is about. What this episode is about is actually. The necessary evil that is health insurance and how with small businesses, we don’t normally have opportunities to have good insurance rates. However, because of where you’re at, you’re able to help out the small businesses and they are able to have our insurance, good premiums and things like that. Is that correct?

Clayton Carmack [00:17:37] Absolutely. So, you know, in my quest, after I sold my last business, was I really wanted to serve God. And I asked God, what are those God-given skills he gave me? And it was, I was successful and I failed, and I was successful and failed multiple times in my 10 years of owning a business. And, I came across this insurance thing and I’m like, oh man, I hate health insurance. And will still tell you to this day I hate health insurance, it’s such a There’s so much corruption, all of it, it’s a- It’s a joke and it feels like, well, I have to pay for it. I have to do it. So I said, no way I’m going to get into this. But another friend of mine, his name is Pete Vanderveen, and he’s the director of growth. And I got into this health insurance, I started learning about it and learning about I’m like, this is a great model. This makes sense. Like, they’re actually doing something that’s like, not about like growing your profit margin like crazy. These insurance companies, these pharmaceutical companies are just, they are just putting the screws to us. You know, I look at the example of when I was a journal consultant in 2009. I bought my health insurance and I have four kids at the time. My insurance was just under $500 a month. You still have four. Kids. I still do. Okay. You saw four kids. That’s okay. I misspoke there. But I had four kids when they were much younger, they were much younger. Had the four kids, I still do. But that insurance policy was just under 500 bucks a month, I fast forwarded to just, I mean, nine months ago, 10 months ago, I was paying 2850 a month you’re telling me the health insurance got up. 550% in 15 years. Golly. Cause that’s what it’s done. It’s more than my home and my car payment.

Rey Treviño III [00:19:18] You know, I see a lot more insurance people at the club these days. No, man, you ain’t kidding.

Clayton Carmack [00:19:23] And so I’m like, this is such a farce. And so, I started looking into it and I, I’m like, how is this different? And, and when I found out how different it was, not only did I want to share it to all my colleagues and friends, but I called the company up myself and talked to the president and said, you’re going to give me a franchise and I’m going to sell this. And like, what? I’m, like, yes, because their model is they help like smaller franchises or I say small, they’re huge franchises, but in a of like revenue, like Chick-fil-A, right? They may do two or three million dollars a year, but you have employees that they’re 18, 19 year old kids, right, but not everyone needs health insurance, but a line manager might, right. They might be 21 years old, but you want to keep that person on because you’re a great person. So it’s a retention tool. Right. Right. So the owner of that Chick-Fil-A or Jimmy Johns, whatever it is, will want to get insurance. Well, I said, wait a minute, we need this for the construction world. So I showed him my network where I have, you know, 6,500 followers on LinkedIn, which isn’t a lot by any means, but I have great colleagues and friends and I know. Dozens, not hundreds of entrepreneurs where I know this could really help them. So I said, let me take this to the construction world. Let me, let’s find a way for them to benefit from it. And so we married the idea together. So they’re like, okay, we’ll give you this first franchise. And I took it and I’m like, this, this is it guys. And, and I’ll tell you that it’s so, it’s so revolutionary that I think there will probably be other copycatters. But, and, and basically what it is, is we know the story. Like you gone in, right? Maybe you twisted an ankle, maybe you hurt your shoulder, and you go in and like, you go on and three months later you get a bill. Like, how is this bill $4,000? That’s because the insurance and the hospital have been fighting back and forth and they’ve been adding more money to it, adding more to it. And then, and of course the doctor hasn’t been paid for three months either the whole time, right? So he wants to get paid. So he’s putting more money in because he hasn’t even been paid for three month. That’s the system. I mean, there’s, I had a bill that was nine months. I mean matter of fact, you know, right before I left my last company, you know, I, I have a panic attack. I thought it was a heart attack. You know, it’s like, it was coming to an end and I, and I knew my life was changing and I had to panic attack, I went in and, you know, of course it was nothing. It was, but they did the EKG and the, they checked the blood and it was just a panic effect. Honestly, I got a panic. You know, whatever. But I got the bill nine months later and it was 3,100 bucks. The total bill was 16 grand. Insurance covered 13 grand. And I’m going to pay 3,200 bucks nine months. And so I use that model. I’m like, I don’t ever want to do that again. So this insurance company, what they do is they pay the hospital and doctors within 48 to 72 hours. So that game of like. Well, come on in, I’m gonna give you a service, but I won’t tell you what it cost. Wink, wink. Well, how much do you think it might cost? We don’t know yet until you get the bill. I know in that mess though. What is this crap? Tell me there’s an industry in the world where you go in and say, what’s the price? Don’t know, tell you nine months. And they get away with it. So that’s the part I hate about it. And they remove that stuff. So those costs are gone. You can get the right amount of value. Little things like zero co-pay. You know, I hate paying $25. I already pay $2,800 a month. Why am I paying another $25 a month to walk in the door? Like, what is the deal? What’s the deal with that? So all these things I looked at, I’m like, I need to teach all these great leaders in the construction world in only gas. And everyone else I meet this model so they can use it as a great tool for retention. When you look at companies, I look at this way. These smaller companies are doing less than 20 million. They don’t have PTO. They don’t have… 401Ks, they don’t do all these other stuff, right? The only other tool for compensation is what? Insurance. So use that as a tool. And I teach them like, I can help you just like, maybe when a new employee, you only pay $200 a month. Yeah. And then you pay all of it, or you pay just the employee. So I’ve done all the different ways. So I teach him not only to get this insurance, but then how to use it as a tools. Yeah. Moving forward. So that’s what I look at. I don’t look at it just as a salesman, but a coach of how to it as retention tool.

Rey Treviño III [00:23:21] Use the things you got to get the things you want.

Clayton Carmack [00:23:24] Absolutely. I love it. Absolutely. So that’s why I got into it. And again, I got a lot of things going on and, and I do have a full time employer and I work my butt off now. I, I, instead of putting all my eggs in that one basket, like I was telling you, yeah, pre-production, it was just like, I put everything in it. I think it’s what business owners do is they sacrifice everything, their family, their mental health, their, their physical health.

Rey Treviño III [00:23:46] Physical. Yeah

Clayton Carmack [00:23:47] for a business, but I want to make sure that I take care of my physical health. I wanted to make sure that I put my couple A’s in different baskets, because I don’t want to be in that position again, where I felt hopeless.

Rey Treviño III [00:23:58] You know, that’s so interesting that you say about putting all your eggs in one basket. We do our best. Sometimes you get tunnel vision and you don’t even know what you’re doing in the sense of putting your eggs into one basket, and we had to have a meeting about that ourselves as a family. We were like, all right, where are the other investments at? And they’re like, oh, we haven’t done any, and I think we did some back in January or February. Yeah, I guess last time I was like, well, I’m very good. And I mean, don’t get me wrong, I definitely believe in what I do. However, you have to have a little bit more in some, or you have have to other things. And I think that this health insurance that you’re working on with other smaller companies, 15, 20 people, maybe 3 million a year in revenue is huge because how many businesses across America are actually that size?

Clayton Carmack [00:24:50] I mean, I come across it to where I would say, man, and I’m dealing with like, whether it’s a sign company, maybe that’s like a franchise or these new handyman companies that are popping up around the country, they’re kind of like, you know, Wall Street’s kind of getting into, you know, like, how do we do stuff that builds roofs and stuff like that? And so these franchise owners that, that probably do maybe 600,000 to 1.2 million or a little more, like they barely have enough money to pay insurance for themselves, let alone their employees. And so that’s how I look at it, where there’s so many people in that level. And insurance is designed for employees over 50. That’s the problem. Like you don’t have any leverage, you don’t have any control of like the change in the price until you have over 50 employees. But sub that, like there’s no one taking care of that market, but how many, like I said, I’ll ask you the question. How many companies you know that are sub 50 employees? Tons. Tons, tons. Tons!

Rey Treviño III [00:25:43] And with all the new people that are here in America that came in over the last four years, that’s even more people that need health insurance.

Clayton Carmack [00:25:51] I don’t care. That’s funny. I’m sorry. But I don t care if you’re a hot truck driver and you’re a solopreneur, that’s doing, you know, maybe a quarter million. They’re making good money. Or maybe like a welder that just says, I’m going to break off and buy my own truck and do it myself. You see dozens of a month that do that. They still need to get their own separate insurance policy or they play the game. I’ll just not get health insurance and just throw the dice and hope I don’t t get hurt in the next 10 years.

Rey Treviño III [00:26:17] Well, you know what? I like to live on the edge a little bit too. Yeah? It’s always fun. Like that much on the edges? I see my son out there playing soccer and I’m like, no, no I’m okay. I’m Okay over here.

Clayton Carmack [00:26:29] Yeah, but I think, I think it’s at a point where the value of it it is and where the price is, there’s such a monster’s gap. There’s a great opportunity. And I looked at it and I saw the opportunity never in a million years. What I ever thought about getting in this never, but it’s such a good opportunity that I think I just combine and help people. And can I make a buck from it? Sure. Absolutely. But that’s what we’re all trying to do is make a buck on something. But, but, I just feel so excited about this because it’s so revolutionary.

Rey Treviño III [00:26:57] Well, let’s, you know, you’re saying helping others and I don’t know if I, I didn’t know where to put this because I know you’ve got so many great things going on. And like all my guests always tell, hey, you don’t want to get, you know, the important stuff out at the beginning but everything we’re talking about today I think is important. And this one, maybe I’m saving the best for now but it’s like, you talked about it’s like, hey, I’m here to serve. Um, and if I get something out of it down the road, great. But if not, I am a, okay. You said that our pre-production meeting. I think in my opinion, Clayton, that’s what sets everything you’re doing apart. It’s like, hey, look, I just, let me share with you because nowadays sharing means it’s gonna cost you something. But you’re sitting here going, hey, let share with certain things. Now again, I know we’re all trying to make a dollar still, but it’s like I have my experience. Come ask me questions. Let’s see what we can do. And so I want to kind of touch on that for a minute about you know, where this where this came from this like man I just need to help and serve others. I know so many wonderful people Inside and out that are just that same way and you know where did this come from?

Clayton Carmack [00:28:16] Um, you know, I kind of grew up agnostic. I told you earlier that I grew up overseas. And so I think, you know, for the most part, I think my parents were Christian, but I never really believed that. And then growing overseas and I grew up in Indonesia and it’s a predominantly Muslim country. But there’s also it’s lived in an international community where there was religions and races and you name it, not even Americans were the majority of this, of this high school I went to. Um And so I really looked at it and go, wow, I mean, who’s right? Who’s wrong? And so, I grew up with a very agnostic point of view. Um, and then, you know, I joined the military, told you about that. And I did go, I got deployed to Iraq and, you know, there was a terrible incident there where my squad leader was actually killed in battle. He was shot in the neck and died. And I knew his wife and I knew his two kids and it breaks my heart even thinking about it. And, and that point on, I hated God. And I would tell God I hated him. So this was like when I was 24, and I hated God. Man, it was his fault. It made me feel worse as a person. Like I couldn’t even look his wife in the eye anymore. Like I would see her sometimes. I just wanted to cry, but I couldn’t do anything, right? It was just a helpless feeling.

Rey Treviño III [00:29:33] Wow.

Clayton Carmack [00:29:34] And it was about four years later, you know, I, I’m just, just getting married to my, my wife. And, and I told her, I kind of feel empty and she’s like, well, do you want to start going to church? And I said, sure, I’ll, I will do anything right now. I mean, I still had my, my hate relationship with God, but I was willing to try anything. Cause I just felt empty. And then I started going to church and I had an epiphany and the epiphony was, man, if you hate God so much, he’s real. And that’s the crew truth. And I was like, Whoa, boom. He is real. There’s no way you can’t hate something that doesn’t exist. Wow. And so then I went on this path and I was like, I’m going to find something. And, and I would start to search and I was a young trying to be a Christian. And when I started my business with my previous company, I went to North Dakota and I, this was, you know, probably a couple of years later. And I next door to a Christian and, you know, it’s February and it’s snow and ice and they’re trying to break the ice off my freaking driveway. And he comes out, let me help you. Like, who’s this guy? Like, I don’t know this guy, but he served me, not even thinking twice, helped me break up all the ice. And, and he’s like, if you ever want to talk, just come in, just come by and say hi. Okay. Next day I went in there. Here’s me, you know? Like I’m going to go do that. And we had a talk and he told me he’s Christian. Have I thought about it? I said, yeah, I have, but I don’t even know what to do. And so we started doing Bible study.

Rey Treviño III [00:31:08] Wow!

Clayton Carmack [00:31:09] For two years, and two years later on the 4th of July, me and my wife got baptized right in his driveway in a horse trough, and I’ve been a Christian ever since.

Rey Treviño III [00:31:18] Oh my god.

Clayton Carmack [00:31:19] And that was eight years ago now. And, you know, I’m still kind of learning. So I committed myself to Christ, but it wasn’t until about four years ago. You know, I’m in this business. I’m an entrepreneur. I’ve got to do the hard work. I’ve gotta do this. It’s up to me. I, me. That’s all you’re hearing, right? And was I praying to God and asking for guidance? And so I came up with this group and the group’s called C12. And the C12 is this organization that once a month you get together, C for Christian, 12 for disciples, right? And there are 12 Christian CEOs and you have a coach and a mentor and the idea is how do you combine your faith and your business together? Cause I always kept them secular. Because I don’t want to offend anybody. And I was like, this is what I need. Yeah. And I started diving in, like. I’ve been doing business all wrong. Why am I not praying for my guys and praying for profits? It’s okay. So you can pay people yourself and your vendors and your employees. And I was like, I have been doing it all wrong, so when I started realizing that I started praying to God, like, how do I do things to honor you, God? How do I get into a business that makes sense? And then fast forward to a year ago, man, I’m losing my business. Yeah. And I’m like, I have to exit. I’m starting, you know, basically, you know, me and my brother-in-law does not get along. And I said, okay, well, I’m going to sell my shares. And I’m like, God, didn’t you give me these skill sets to run this business? Didn’t you do this for me? And he said, well you prayed that you wanted me to honor God. Well, that means I’m taking you from your business. And that’s the truth. And so I sold and I was like, well I’m just going to put my faith in him. I started doing the credit building and the health insurance and started another job with this company right here, DFI Piling. And I was, like, I want to do it all. But it wasn’t till about three months ago. And I read, uh, John 15, one, and I’m going to paraphrase here. Cause I’m not really good.

Rey Treviño III [00:33:19] Let’s do it!

Clayton Carmack [00:33:20] Oh, you wanna- Let’s pull up! I’ll show you what

Rey Treviño III [00:33:22] let’s see what it is. Okay,.

Clayton Carmack [00:33:24] Let’s pull it up.

Rey Treviño III [00:33:25] Go to Biblegateway.co or whatever it is Okay, lets do it

Clayton Carmack [00:33:29] I now have to turn my phone on. I actually turned it on. Oh, okay, I got you. What was it? John what? John 15 one.

Rey Treviño III [00:33:34] Yeah, I got you, hold on. We’re gonna go NIV John 15.1.

Clayton Carmack [00:33:40] Do you want to read it or all read it?

Rey Treviño III [00:33:41] I’ll do it the vine and the branches. Yeah, go for it. All right, John 15 1 Uh, I am the true vine and my father is a gardener Okay, 15 2 he cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit While every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will even be more fruitful You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you Remain in me as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in.

Clayton Carmack [00:34:25] Ooh, so a lot to unpackage here. But let me get to the point where it says, okay, I cut off the vines that don’t produce fruit. What does that mean? Bad habits. Bad habits, right. My habit was probably, I thought my ego was more important than God. Maybe, you know, things like that. Like the egotistical part of maybe an entrepreneur. Like it was about me and I had to work harder and it wasn’t the skill sets that God gave me, it was just those things that I believed in. And just, and maybe not doing things in honor of God. Okay. But then I believe that God gave me the skillsets to where I’m at. Yeah. Okay, but if he pruned the fruit off, you know, the vines that produce fruit, I keep producing, so he cut my business away from me. But then so I could produce more fruit later.

Rey Treviño III [00:35:17] But then that also goes back to what we were talking about earlier about like this got you here, but it may not get you.

Clayton Carmack [00:35:23] Right? So he had to, you have to be pruned in order to grow even more and be more fruitful. So I’m like, I’m just believing in what he’s telling me, reading the words every day. I pray every day and, and I was like, and it took me six months and God didn’t give me that passage for the first six months because I wasn’t ready, but he gave it to me about three months And I’m like, I got it. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for pruning me. So I can produce more fruit. Brother, it made me feel so good that I was on the right path. And it’s okay to be prone. We need to be pruned to get better.

Rey Treviño III [00:36:01] As we record today, I’m just sitting here thinking, I want to point out, Clayton, I told you I was excited that you were here. And this could be the exact reason why. Because you have to prune and you got to get rid of bad habits. You do. And wow, man, and what a journey you’ve been on and what an example you have led. Whether you want it to or not, right? Like, you know, and it goes back to what I say and I tell people this and I don’t think I’ve ever said it on camera that, you do these random acts of kindness and that’s what you’re doing. And I believe that a random act of kindness is when it’s something that doesn’t make you feel good because if it makes you feel a good, that means you got something out of it and it’s almost like it was selfish, not selfless. That’s right. But that being said, You’re doing it also by just living this and you’re on this journey right now. And what an amazing, and I’m gonna say a beautiful journey you are on. You are now helping businesses grow and allowing them to see the ways that they need to just prove and that it’s okay to be successful. God and Jesus always talks about, hey, be successful, be profitable, go and be bountiful, be fruitful, just like that talks about in that. For those out there, again, that wanna reach out to you, how do they get in contact?

Clayton Carmack [00:37:41] Yeah, multiple ways. Um, you know, I’m on LinkedIn, um, and I love, I probably on it too much, but, but anyone that DM me is there, I’d love to talk to him. I put my phone number on there. Um I got, you know again, whether it’s, um with, with the reef health benefits or whether it was Harvest, like I could put my number, like my personal phone number. I don’t care. Like I don’t care what part of life you’re in good or bad. I have no problem reaching out and talking to people. It’s, it’s something I want to do, whether you know I’ve got a little small podcast and it’s called Small Business University. And because I want to take the education of what I’ve learned, kingdom focus and give it to entrepreneurs and leaders. And that’s the purpose of my podcast. What’s the name of it again? Small Business University. Small Business. Well, I’ve got seven of them, but I’m going to get back on it. Wait a minute. No, no. The average podcast only goes for two episodes. So you’re already above that. Well, that’s good, but I don’t want to stop. And I like to do the one-on-ones, which I like, because I feel like I can. There was another one I was going to say that I was watching this, uh, this guy talk, he was a, is a biblical one. And he’s like, you know, the trees that bear these fruits don’t eat their own fruits and that model is my skill sets, not for me, it’s for others, that tree build grows fruit for someone else to eat.

Rey Treviño III [00:39:01] Luca Michael Jordan, he set the path for everybody else. His skill set wasn’t for him, it was for everybody.

Clayton Carmack [00:39:09] Right. And so, ultimately, who do I serve? I serve my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And I know that everything I do, from my family, to myself, to my business, I’m going to do that way. And I’m never going to be served wrong. I won’t be. I can’t be! Will there be valleys? Yeah, but still, seer to God, still look at them. I’ve been in the valley multiple times. And I think if you’re not on Trenor and you’ve never been in a valley, well, you’re the luckiest guy in the world. But let’s talk about the things that suck. Let’s talk about the issues. Let’s quit, quit lying to yourself and say the truth. And it sucks. It’s hard. Well, you’re not alone. God wants to hear those things, talk to them about it. Be around godly men like that. That’s what I do. And it’s, it’s steered me in the right way. So the path that I thought I was going to be on forever, like before, I thought it was going be ConocoPhillips and be a 30 year employee. God said, no, no. I thought he was going have this business forever and retire and give it to my kids, God said no. I don’t get to choose a path. It’s God’s path. It’s god’s path I believe it. Amen. Amen. Yeah. Amen. I mean, Clayton, I can’t- But I’ll tell you what’s done for me. This stress of knowing that it’s on God’s shoulders, not mine. That panic that I had, I’m not worried about it anymore. Because the stress is on. Boy, I feel a lot better as a human being. Relieving that stress to him. He gets to bear that, bear that not me. It’s tough, I still have some praying and I still gotta do all these things to make it work, but that’s what I do now. To me, I’m better.

Rey Treviño III [00:40:53] Wow, I cannot thank you enough Clayton. Thank you for saying what you’ve just said. Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve said it before, I believe in our Lord Jesus Christ that the God sent his son Jesus here to die for our sins and for all of us to believe. Didn’t know that we’d get into this today. That is amazing Clayton. I cannot thank you enough For those out there that are looking to connect with Clayton reach out to them reach out me Get out there hug your loved ones Commit to Christ And so everybody that truly knows me they know that I still got more to do as well but thank you as always and Really kind of sum up though if you’re looking to get capital and grow your business. If you’re looking to provide more services for your employees, if you’re looking to be part of a group, get with Clayton and to all everybody out there, thank you as always for tuning into another episode of The Group Truth. We’ll see you soon.

Narrator [00:41:54] Again, The Crude Truth would like to thank today’s sponsors, LFS Chemistry, NAPE Expo, Air Compressor Solutions, Sandstone Group, Exec Crue, Texas Star Alliance, Pecos Country operating, and Real News Communication Network.

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