June 7, 2025 • 24 mins
Clay Hicks shares his entrepreneurial journey from losing everything to creating the global H7 Network, a relationship-focused business networking platform operating in 22 countries worldwide. Through personal stories and strategic insights, Clay reveals how prioritizing relationships over immediate outcomes creates more predictable business success while addressing the unique challenges entrepreneurs face.
• Founded H7 Network 17 years ago after experiencing significant professional and personal losses
• Developed his relationship-focused philosophy: "When you focus on relationships and not the outcome, the outcome becomes more predictable"
• Started entrepreneurial ventures at age 12 with his own landscaping business
• Currently owns six different businesses with H7 Network being his primary focus
• Expanded H7 Network from members in five states to 22 countries since the pandemic
• Created the H7Network blog featuring "Networking 101" content about relationship building processes
• Shares strategies for developing trusted relationships that create predictable business opportunities
• Views H7 Network as "a vehicle for my purpose in life" rather than just a business
Clay Hicks
- Tel: +1 937-671-6238
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claytonrhicks/
- Website: https://www.h7network.com/
- Email: claytonrhicks@gmail.com
Tune in next week for part two as we continue our conversation with Clay about the H7 Network and the power of relationship-based networking.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Voiceover (00:03):
Tales from the wild, stories from the heart.
A journey into the mind andsoul of fired up business
professionals, where they sharetheir vision for the future and
hear from a different non-profitorganization every month as
they create awareness of theirgoals and their needs.
Dive into a world of untamedpassion as we join our host,
(00:27):
Shireen Botha, for this month'sepisode of Friends from Wild
Places.
Shireen Botha (00:36):
So awesome.
Welcome back listeners.
You are listening to Shireenfrom Friends from Wild Places.
I am your virtual boutiquebookkeeper and QuickBooks
advisor.
If you are thinking aboutgetting a personal or virtual
assistant to handle yourbusiness books and you think
(00:57):
that might be a smart move, well, think again.
It's a classic case of jack ofall trades but a master of none.
While they may juggle manytasks, they lack the specialized
knowledge needed to do that.
Accurate bookkeeping.
Outsource your bookkeeping to askilled professional with
experience in your industry isthe way to go.
(01:19):
Gain peace of mind, knowingyour finances are handled
accurately and in compliancewith local tax laws.
Invest today.
Don't settle for less.
If you want to know more, gocheck me out at www.
shireensbookkeeping.
com and allow me to keep yourbooks clean so you don't have to
(01:42):
Welcome back again.
You are listening to Friendsfrom Wild Places.
I am Shireen.
My co-host is Tanya.
Tanya, would you like to sharewith the listeners a little bit
about our subscription and ourextra content?
Tanya Scotece (02:00):
Sure.
So good morning, good afternoonor good evening listeners.
My name is Tanya Scotece,co-host of Friends from Wild
Places, and we have asubscription for as little as $5
a month.
You can get kind of behind thescenes, up to date information,
unedited raw material, rightfrom the heart, and if you have
(02:20):
a topic that you would likeShireen and I to dive a little
bit deeper into, please reachout to us.
We can be reached at alldifferent forms of platforms.
Shireen will go over that in alittle while and we put out a
featured guest each month and Iwill turn it over to you this
morning, Shireen, to introduceour special guest, Clay Hicks.
Shireen Botha (02:40):
That's awesome.
Welcome, clay Hicks.
Yes, this is Clay Hicks.
This is our guest for ourseries for the next few podcasts
.
We're very excited.
He is an innovator andentrepreneur with a magnetic
passion for developingprofessional, trusted
relationships.
Ever word-of-mouth marketingplatform in the formal business
(03:04):
networking organization world,as the master field behind the
transformative H7 networkfounded in 2008, clay stands as
a cornerstone for empowering theunderrepresented, the dreamers,
the doers, the relentlessentrepreneurs, the sales mavens
(03:24):
striving to rewrite theirdestinies while working
alongside other professionalsthat support their word of mouth
marketing efforts.
Imagine a world where yourbusiness relationships transcend
borders, where support andcommunity are not just words but
actions.
Yes, please.
This is a world Clay envisionedand brought to life through the
(03:47):
H7 network.
It's more than a platform.
It is a movement, a globalphenomenon, where business ties
are forged in the most profoundways, fostering not just growth
but strong connections.
Welcome, clay, it's so good tohave you on the show.
Clayton Hicks (04:05):
Thank you guys for having me Really appreciate
it.
Thank you.
Shireen Botha (04:09):
Awesome, awesome.
Yes, we have had a fewdifferent networking businesses
Tanya and I can share with you.
They've been lovely people.
We've tried to get BNI themastermind behind BNI on, but
unfortunately we haven't had theopportunity to do that.
But we've had other masternetworkers, like AmSpirit.
(04:35):
He's been on.
So what we really want to dotoday is put out a couple of
differences, you know, betweenthe platforms that are out there
.
So I'm excited to give thelisteners another option,
something else to look at whenit comes to networking their
(04:55):
business, networking themselvesand marketing themselves and
getting themselves out there andto build that network that's so
important to scale and growyour business.
And we've been talking a coupleof my business partners and
referral partners.
We've been talking about thegrowth mindset, which is
(05:18):
actually so important, and Ithink if a lot of entrepreneurs
and business owners could justbreak out of the old mindset and
get into that growth mindset, Ifeel like a lot of business
owners will see quite a a bigchange in their business and how
they run their business.
So, right before we get intothe deep darks and glorious and
(05:43):
the happies of um h7, I do havea interesting topic that I know
the listeners know that tanyaand I are quite the enthusiasts
when it comes to true crime.
It's no, it's no.
Yeah, we love true crime.
Um, tanya has a background inforensics, it's just, you know,
(06:05):
we enjoy watching YouTube andsome of the criminal channels
there, and right now I've beenwatching Karen Reid.
I don't know how much you areaware of this case.
It's quite a recent one, yeah,since it just happened, I think
in 2022, which is quite recent.
So basically, listeners, quicklowdown if you don't know, karen
(06:28):
Reid is on trial for allegedmurder of her boyfriend, boston
police officer, john O'Keefe, inJanuary 2022.
She is charged withsecond-degree murder,
manslaughter while intoxicatedand leaving the scene of a fatal
accident.
The prosecution alleges sheintentionally struck Akif with
(06:48):
her SUV after a night ofdrinking.
Reid denies the charges andclaims she is being framed by
law enforcement.
The first trial ended in amistrial and a second trial is
currently underway.
She says that they decided togo from the bar to a party that
(07:08):
was happening at one of Akif'scolleagues' friends' places and
when they arrived there, therewasn't anybody there, no kind of
sign of some kind of a party.
So apparently they discussed itand he was going to go inside
to check if there actually was aparty going on and apparently
(07:29):
he went into the house and theynever came out, according to her
, and she was upset and angryand she was like, oh, I'm going
home and she just went home.
So lots of interesting brightsides, lots of different stories
here, but nevertheless, I thinkthe biggest question that I
wanted to ask you twointeresting both sides, lots of
different stories here, butnevertheless I think the biggest
question that I wanted to askyou two was do you think Karen
(07:51):
is innocent or do you thinkshe's guilty?
So, clay, what do you think?
Clayton Hicks (07:57):
So, based on what I understand about the story, I
believe that she's guilty.
Shireen Botha (08:04):
Why do you think that?
Because I believe that she'sguilty.
Hmm, why do you think that?
Clayton Hicks (08:08):
because there's from what I've read, there's
some discrepancies.
It's already been to a mistrialand I think at this time, from
what I understand so far, Ibelieve that they don't have the
evidence though.
So that's where I'm going toend.
Shireen Botha (08:33):
No, no, you're definitely on that side and I
can understand why.
Tanya what about yourself?
Tanya Scotece (08:40):
You know I've been following this pretty
diligently Not the first one,the second one, that's obviously
ongoing and so at the end ofthe day, you know, did she?
Did it intentionally happen?
So I based it on the on theautopsy findings his body.
You know, there's very oddsituations around there the dog
(09:05):
rehoming the dog If you see theautopsy photographs that were
shown, the fact that shesupposedly ran him over with her
SUV, left the scene and thenall of these folks, as far as
that, were there, the snowplowperson to see.
Did you see the body?
Didn't you see the body?
There's a six foot one man orso on the front lawn and nobody
saw him.
(09:25):
I don't know.
To me there's so muchdiscrepancies on the prosecution
side Whether or not it happened, I don't know.
I'm really leaning towards.
I mean, I know there's a lot ofconspiracy theories out there
and especially when you see thevideo with Brian Higgins
returning to the policedepartment at 1.30 in the
(09:47):
morning, supposedly to move thecars, and he's on video there
was no cars moved and he's backand forth in the hallway on the
phone.
Claims not to be on the phone.
So I'm going to lead with it.
It's not that I'm saying thatshe didn't do it, but I just
think the prosecution has somany inconsistencies.
So if you had to ask me, youknow, is she going to get
(10:08):
convicted?
I'm going to say no, just basedon all of the inconsistencies.
Clayton Hicks (10:13):
But we'll see yeah, I agree with that, that's.
You said it much better than Itold you, but uh, that that's
where I'm.
You more or less said what Iwas saying or suggesting.
Shireen Botha (10:24):
I agree, I think it is.
It's so strange.
I mean, at first I thought tomyself oh my gosh, you know it
sounds, she's definitely guilty,there's no ways about it.
But then I was really the moreinto the story I got, the more
was like wait, hold on what,what?
This is just getting moretwisted and more interesting as
(10:44):
we go along.
Um, so I'm now leaning in theopposite direction than how I
started out, but it's going tobe so interesting how, you know,
this all turns out.
So I'm glued to the screen.
I'm glued, we'll see Awesome.
So yes, let's go on to thequote of the day.
(11:05):
We have a very special quotefrom Clay Hicks.
When you focus on relationshipsand not the outcome, the
outcome becomes more predictable.
Now, clay, was that you thatsaid that, or did you get
someone else and then take thaton as your favorite quote?
Clayton Hicks (11:26):
no, that's, that's mine, that's mine gosh,
that's amazing.
Tanya Scotece (11:30):
That's amazing folks.
Clayton Hicks (11:32):
Yeah, I wrote a.
Many people kind of want toknow what it means and it's so
versatile.
Okay, so it's extremelyversatile.
I did write a blog about it, Idid explain it, whatever, but
it's and I always try to put thehyperlinks in every message I
send or whatever, so people canlearn more about it.
I put the hyperlinks in everymessage I send or whatever, so
(11:55):
people can learn more about it.
But essentially, most people areentrepreneurs anyway, are
focused on the business, likethey have to grow the business,
and so, from a strategicstandpoint the quote comes from
a strategic standpoint where, ifyou do focus on the
relationships Okay, so, like,what I mean is is like, focus on
relationship with your prospect, focus on relationship with
(12:18):
your center of influence, you'retrying to create a trusted
relationship with any trustedrelationship.
If you focus on therelationship, that I'm just
suggesting that because if you,if you look, if you look too far
around the corner and you'relike, oh well, if me and Tanya
do business together, I'm goingto make a ton of money, blah,
blah, blah, if that's yourattitude, then you're missing
(12:39):
the strategic component where,hey, me and Tanya can work
together and we can both benefitand both do better because we
value the relationship that wehave.
So that's where that comes from, I love it, I love it, I love
it.
Shireen Botha (12:55):
That's amazing, clay.
Thank you very much for sharingthat.
So that is the quote of the daylisteners.
So I'm excited to get reallyinto this.
But first, clay, please justtell us and the listeners a
little bit about your background, who you are.
Clayton Hicks (13:10):
Yeah, sure.
So I'm an entrepreneur, I'm aman of faith and I'm a family
man.
Okay, so we'll talk about myfamily first.
So I have five children my wifeand I do and none of them are
children anymore, they're 19 orolder.
We have two grandchildren andwe adore our family.
(13:34):
You know, adore our family.
So I love spending time withour family, things like that,
doing stuff, my family I was anonly child growing up, you know.
So, like having a big familywas always something I dreamed
of, and so to have that is a bigdeal, you know, it's just a big
deal for me.
I'm very, very grateful man offaith, I lean into my
(13:57):
relationship with him forsuccess in my life and in
business, and he's brought methrough a lot.
Brought me through a lot as anentrepreneur.
We all deal with a lot ofdifferent stuff, lots of hills
and valleys, and when 27, Idecided I no longer wanted to do
that by myself anymore.
So that's where that came from.
(14:17):
And so that's a little bit by myfeet as an entrepreneur.
I love being an entrepreneur.
I love it.
Shireen Botha (14:24):
I love the impact .
Clayton Hicks (14:25):
it makes the opportunity for impact.
I technically own sixbusinesses right now.
That's not going to shrink.
So I just love business and I'mnot a, you know, I'm not the
CEO of all those companieseither, you know.
So just want to kind of clarifythat and so so I have great
(14:45):
partners that run business withus, but H7 is my main career.
That's what, that's whatbrought me here.
You know I started that thelongest, the longest ago.
So I've had that for 17 yearsand I've gone through a lot of
hills and valleys with H7, withmarkets and COVID and all this
(15:05):
stuff.
You know, and you know, to beable I'm really proud to say
that like you know, when thepandemic was happening, you know
we had groups, members in fivestates of America and five years
later, you know we have membersin 22 countries.
You know, like that's a, that'sa, that's a big deal.
(15:27):
And so I value my relationshipsinside the community, community
, because just of that alonethere's a number of
relationships that I'm sothankful to have, because it's a
little bit by myself.
Tanya Scotece (15:40):
Wow, wow.
I have a question, clay.
So are you born and raised inOhio?
Just a little bit about yourbackground.
Clayton Hicks (15:47):
Yes, ma'am, I actually live up the street from
where I grew up too.
I've lived in this town.
I'm 47.
I've lived in this town all buteight years of my life and in
those eight years I lived 10minutes away once and 20 minutes
away the next time.
I actually own my parents'house.
My dad stays there, he pays thebills and stuff and we use it
(16:09):
as a transition house and allkinds of stuff for our family
and stuff.
It's a really cool opportunity.
Tanya Scotece (16:14):
But I dreamed.
Wow, so you manifested it.
You manifested just into areality.
Clayton Hicks (16:21):
That's wild 16 years old.
This, where my house is, was afarm and they started, they
broke ground when I was 16.
I'm like oh man, those are nicehouses.
I didn't grow up with much youknow, have one question.
Tanya Scotece (16:41):
So it's so funny because Shireen and I have been
doing the podcasts monthly sincethe pandemic.
We actually met during thepandemic and I'm always
fascinated by entrepreneursbecause for me it is like the
farthest thing from my radar andI just always admire.
So I just got to ask you rightoff the bat what was your first
(17:01):
business that you either youknow, maybe as a child, like you
know, did you have lemonadestands?
You know, like, what did you do?
Like what was the firstbusiness that you actually can
remember having?
Clayton Hicks (17:11):
Okay, well, I did have a lemonade stand.
I did sell lemonade.
Yes, I did.
It's rare that I talk aboutthat, though.
The big one was when I was 12and I had my own landscaping
business.
Like, I cut grass and stuff,and I remember in the local
grocery store I had my firstpiece of marketing, so I had to,
I had to draw it, I had to drawit on a piece of paper, right,
(17:35):
and then my mom took it to getit copied, copied, paid 10 cents
a black and white copy, orwhatever.
You get it copied, copy, pay 10cents a black and white copy or
whatever.
And I took them.
And I took them in differentbusinesses and stores and they
let me put the tape on it andput it up there.
And yeah, I was 12 years old.
Tanya Scotece (17:51):
There's no question in my mind that it's
definitely like a genetic.
So you know we're going to getinto your story and everything.
But I'm just always fascinatedhow you know it's.
It's a different mindset andand you know like a little bit
about my background like Idefinitely like hard worker,
accountable, love to be a leaderin my field, but the
entrepreneurial side is just asno interest at all, like zero,
(18:15):
and so I'm always justfascinated.
You said, like you own multiplebusinesses.
I mean that's just wow's justwow, amazing.
So all right, I'll turn it backto Shireen it is funny.
Shireen Botha (18:25):
I mean, I'm a I'm a business owner now, but I'm.
I wasn't like you, clay, Iwasn't selling lemonade, trying
to come up as a little youngentrepreneur slash business
owner when I was seven and thisis late in life where it came
about and I decided to to do myown thing and start a business.
Uh, if you had spoken to me 10years ago, um, and you said to
(18:51):
me why don't you start abusiness?
Should we not be like no man?
Are you mad?
That's too much effort, don'teven want to think about it.
But now I'm saying to myselfwhy didn't I do this earlier?
What was I waiting for, youknow?
So that's very exciting.
Clayton Hicks (19:08):
I think a lot of people are just waiting on
belief in themselves that's sotrue.
Shireen Botha (19:14):
Um clay, before we move on, just because you
mentioned that you had a blog.
I know we're going to put a lotof your information in the show
notes so that the listeners canseriously reach out to you, and
all of that.
But what, where?
What is your blog?
Clayton Hicks (19:30):
it's uh, it's h7networkblog, okay, and so the
blog is broken into two sectionsor two main categories.
One One, our events, so thinkPR.
Like I said, it's events thatwe're putting on, or we just
finished up our anthology,series became bestsellers, all
that good stuff.
And then the other part is whatwe call Networking 101.
(19:54):
And inside of Networking 101, Ihave so much content that is
around the relationship buildingprocess.
That's the core of everythingthat I discuss.
The relationship buildingprocess includes the actual
development of the relationship,the sustainment of it and all
that comes with that.
(20:15):
And so the communication, theagendas, the templates, the
things that make a relationshipat least a networking
relationship or referral partneror what we call champion
relationship that you can createmore and more opportunities for
yourselves more predictably.
Shireen Botha (20:33):
Nice, nice.
I love that Education.
You've got to better yourselfas an entrepreneur, as a
business owner.
You always got to continuegrowing.
You don't know everything.
There's always something thatyou can improve on.
Um, and the other thing that Iwanted to ask you is you know,
being a business owner and anentrepreneur, your first thing
(20:54):
is people either create orinvent a product, or they go
into the service industries.
They sell their services, theycontract.
Whatever the case may be, youdecided to start a networking
business, which is very much apeople kind of relationship.
(21:18):
It's very specific betweenentrepreneur to entrepreneur,
business owner to business owner.
Um, what?
How did you come to thatbusiness idea?
Clayton Hicks (21:31):
well.
So I had had a back in 07, Ihad had a lot of success.
Actually, I'm gonna go.
I'm gonna go a little bitdeeper, okay, so back in 07 I
was a single parent raising mytwo little girls.
I had full custody, the wholeshebang, and so at that time I
(21:51):
had just recently losteverything, including the
marriage.
So in my early 20s I was wildlysuccessfully fast and then lost
it all.
Okay, as an entrepreneur and mywife hates it when I say this,
but you ain't really lived youlost everything at least a
couple times, at least once.
(22:11):
You know, you got to really gothrough that to appreciate life,
you know.
And so at that time it was kindof a dark time, it was scary,
it was all these things, and Iwas alone.
My mom died like it was justbad dark time.
It was scary, it was all thesethings, and I was alone.
My mom died Like it was justbad.
I didn't have any siblings.
So who am I going to talk toabout business?
By the way, entrepreneurs liketrue entrepreneurs man, it's
really difficult to talk toregular job.
(22:33):
You know people in your family.
They all do certain things andit's hard to describe.
And it's hard to describe andit's hard to relate.
So those things are tough andso I needed to find a.
I needed to find people to workwith I mean, that's really what
it came down to.
And I found a networking group.
It did very well.
After seven months it shut down, kept the money, the whole
(22:55):
shebang.
They want to make more moneyand while some of the people
I've met along the way moremoney, well, some of the people
I've met along the way you know,for the next six or seven
months I was like on thisjourney trying to figure out
what to do next.
And so I went to thisnetworking group and again there
was some kind of hitch to it,like it was tied to an MLM or it
(23:17):
was tied to something else, andthe person putting it on really
didn't take the businessserious around the networking.
And so I got really frustratedand I went to that meeting and I
get frustrated.
I talked to my guy, my closefriend, or used to be very close
friend, larry.
I said do you think I couldstart up a networking group?
(23:40):
I kind of think I can, I thinkI want to, and he's like, yeah,
you should.
And so I collected him anddeveloped relationships with
four other people and the ideawas hatched and it was born and
I've been doing it ever since.
But why I still do it has a lotto do with my unique journey of
(24:02):
one-to-ones and how I built allthese relationships.
So age seven is now a vehiclefor my purpose in life, so
everything's just kind ofevolved from that
Tanya Scotece (24:12):
tune in next week for part two from friends from
wild places
Voiceover (24:18):
You've been listening to friends from wild Places
with Shireen Botha.
Be sure to subscribe to thepodcast from the links to catch
every episode and unleash yourpassion.
Tales from the wild, stories from the heart.
A journey into the mind andsoul of fired up business
professionals, where they sharetheir vision for the future and
hear from a different non-profitorganization every month as
they create awareness of theirgoals and their needs.
Dive into a world of untamedpassion as we join our host,
(00:27):
Shireen Botha, for this month'sepisode of Friends from Wild
Places.
Shireen Botha (00:36):
So awesome.
Welcome back listeners.
You are listening to Shireenfrom Friends from Wild Places.
I am your virtual boutiquebookkeeper and QuickBooks
advisor.
If you are thinking aboutgetting a personal or virtual
assistant to handle yourbusiness books and you think
(00:57):
that might be a smart move, well, think again.
It's a classic case of jack ofall trades but a master of none.
While they may juggle manytasks, they lack the specialized
knowledge needed to do that.
Accurate bookkeeping.
Outsource your bookkeeping to askilled professional with
experience in your industry isthe way to go.
(01:19):
Gain peace of mind, knowingyour finances are handled
accurately and in compliancewith local tax laws.
Invest today.
Don't settle for less.
If you want to know more, gocheck me out at www.
shireensbookkeeping.
com and allow me to keep yourbooks clean so you don't have to
(01:42):
Welcome back again.
You are listening to Friendsfrom Wild Places.
I am Shireen.
My co-host is Tanya.
Tanya, would you like to sharewith the listeners a little bit
about our subscription and ourextra content?
Tanya Scotece (02:00):
Sure.
So good morning, good afternoonor good evening listeners.
My name is Tanya Scotece,co-host of Friends from Wild
Places, and we have asubscription for as little as $5
a month.
You can get kind of behind thescenes, up to date information,
unedited raw material, rightfrom the heart, and if you have
(02:20):
a topic that you would likeShireen and I to dive a little
bit deeper into, please reachout to us.
We can be reached at alldifferent forms of platforms.
Shireen will go over that in alittle while and we put out a
featured guest each month and Iwill turn it over to you this
morning, Shireen, to introduceour special guest, Clay Hicks.
Shireen Botha (02:40):
That's awesome.
Welcome, clay Hicks.
Yes, this is Clay Hicks.
This is our guest for ourseries for the next few podcasts
.
We're very excited.
He is an innovator andentrepreneur with a magnetic
passion for developingprofessional, trusted
relationships.
Ever word-of-mouth marketingplatform in the formal business
(03:04):
networking organization world,as the master field behind the
transformative H7 networkfounded in 2008, clay stands as
a cornerstone for empowering theunderrepresented, the dreamers,
the doers, the relentlessentrepreneurs, the sales mavens
(03:24):
striving to rewrite theirdestinies while working
alongside other professionalsthat support their word of mouth
marketing efforts.
Imagine a world where yourbusiness relationships transcend
borders, where support andcommunity are not just words but
actions.
Yes, please.
This is a world Clay envisionedand brought to life through the
(03:47):
H7 network.
It's more than a platform.
It is a movement, a globalphenomenon, where business ties
are forged in the most profoundways, fostering not just growth
but strong connections.
Welcome, clay, it's so good tohave you on the show.
Clayton Hicks (04:05):
Thank you guys for having me Really appreciate
it.
Thank you.
Shireen Botha (04:09):
Awesome, awesome.
Yes, we have had a fewdifferent networking businesses
Tanya and I can share with you.
They've been lovely people.
We've tried to get BNI themastermind behind BNI on, but
unfortunately we haven't had theopportunity to do that.
But we've had other masternetworkers, like AmSpirit.
(04:35):
He's been on.
So what we really want to dotoday is put out a couple of
differences, you know, betweenthe platforms that are out there
.
So I'm excited to give thelisteners another option,
something else to look at whenit comes to networking their
(04:55):
business, networking themselvesand marketing themselves and
getting themselves out there andto build that network that's so
important to scale and growyour business.
And we've been talking a coupleof my business partners and
referral partners.
We've been talking about thegrowth mindset, which is
(05:18):
actually so important, and Ithink if a lot of entrepreneurs
and business owners could justbreak out of the old mindset and
get into that growth mindset, Ifeel like a lot of business
owners will see quite a a bigchange in their business and how
they run their business.
So, right before we get intothe deep darks and glorious and
(05:43):
the happies of um h7, I do havea interesting topic that I know
the listeners know that tanyaand I are quite the enthusiasts
when it comes to true crime.
It's no, it's no.
Yeah, we love true crime.
Um, tanya has a background inforensics, it's just, you know,
(06:05):
we enjoy watching YouTube andsome of the criminal channels
there, and right now I've beenwatching Karen Reid.
I don't know how much you areaware of this case.
It's quite a recent one, yeah,since it just happened, I think
in 2022, which is quite recent.
So basically, listeners, quicklowdown if you don't know, karen
(06:28):
Reid is on trial for allegedmurder of her boyfriend, boston
police officer, john O'Keefe, inJanuary 2022.
She is charged withsecond-degree murder,
manslaughter while intoxicatedand leaving the scene of a fatal
accident.
The prosecution alleges sheintentionally struck Akif with
(06:48):
her SUV after a night ofdrinking.
Reid denies the charges andclaims she is being framed by
law enforcement.
The first trial ended in amistrial and a second trial is
currently underway.
She says that they decided togo from the bar to a party that
(07:08):
was happening at one of Akif'scolleagues' friends' places and
when they arrived there, therewasn't anybody there, no kind of
sign of some kind of a party.
So apparently they discussed itand he was going to go inside
to check if there actually was aparty going on and apparently
(07:29):
he went into the house and theynever came out, according to her
, and she was upset and angryand she was like, oh, I'm going
home and she just went home.
So lots of interesting brightsides, lots of different stories
here, but nevertheless, I thinkthe biggest question that I
wanted to ask you twointeresting both sides, lots of
different stories here, butnevertheless I think the biggest
question that I wanted to askyou two was do you think Karen
(07:51):
is innocent or do you thinkshe's guilty?
So, clay, what do you think?
Clayton Hicks (07:57):
So, based on what I understand about the story, I
believe that she's guilty.
Shireen Botha (08:04):
Why do you think that?
Because I believe that she'sguilty.
Hmm, why do you think that?
Clayton Hicks (08:08):
because there's from what I've read, there's
some discrepancies.
It's already been to a mistrialand I think at this time, from
what I understand so far, Ibelieve that they don't have the
evidence though.
So that's where I'm going toend.
Shireen Botha (08:33):
No, no, you're definitely on that side and I
can understand why.
Tanya what about yourself?
Tanya Scotece (08:40):
You know I've been following this pretty
diligently Not the first one,the second one, that's obviously
ongoing and so at the end ofthe day, you know, did she?
Did it intentionally happen?
So I based it on the on theautopsy findings his body.
You know, there's very oddsituations around there the dog
(09:05):
rehoming the dog If you see theautopsy photographs that were
shown, the fact that shesupposedly ran him over with her
SUV, left the scene and thenall of these folks, as far as
that, were there, the snowplowperson to see.
Did you see the body?
Didn't you see the body?
There's a six foot one man orso on the front lawn and nobody
saw him.
(09:25):
I don't know.
To me there's so muchdiscrepancies on the prosecution
side Whether or not it happened, I don't know.
I'm really leaning towards.
I mean, I know there's a lot ofconspiracy theories out there
and especially when you see thevideo with Brian Higgins
returning to the policedepartment at 1.30 in the
(09:47):
morning, supposedly to move thecars, and he's on video there
was no cars moved and he's backand forth in the hallway on the
phone.
Claims not to be on the phone.
So I'm going to lead with it.
It's not that I'm saying thatshe didn't do it, but I just
think the prosecution has somany inconsistencies.
So if you had to ask me, youknow, is she going to get
(10:08):
convicted?
I'm going to say no, just basedon all of the inconsistencies.
Clayton Hicks (10:13):
But we'll see yeah, I agree with that, that's.
You said it much better than Itold you, but uh, that that's
where I'm.
You more or less said what Iwas saying or suggesting.
Shireen Botha (10:24):
I agree, I think it is.
It's so strange.
I mean, at first I thought tomyself oh my gosh, you know it
sounds, she's definitely guilty,there's no ways about it.
But then I was really the moreinto the story I got, the more
was like wait, hold on what,what?
This is just getting moretwisted and more interesting as
(10:44):
we go along.
Um, so I'm now leaning in theopposite direction than how I
started out, but it's going tobe so interesting how, you know,
this all turns out.
So I'm glued to the screen.
I'm glued, we'll see Awesome.
So yes, let's go on to thequote of the day.
(11:05):
We have a very special quotefrom Clay Hicks.
When you focus on relationshipsand not the outcome, the
outcome becomes more predictable.
Now, clay, was that you thatsaid that, or did you get
someone else and then take thaton as your favorite quote?
Clayton Hicks (11:26):
no, that's, that's mine, that's mine gosh,
that's amazing.
Tanya Scotece (11:30):
That's amazing folks.
Clayton Hicks (11:32):
Yeah, I wrote a.
Many people kind of want toknow what it means and it's so
versatile.
Okay, so it's extremelyversatile.
I did write a blog about it, Idid explain it, whatever, but
it's and I always try to put thehyperlinks in every message I
send or whatever, so people canlearn more about it.
I put the hyperlinks in everymessage I send or whatever, so
(11:55):
people can learn more about it.
But essentially, most people areentrepreneurs anyway, are
focused on the business, likethey have to grow the business,
and so, from a strategicstandpoint the quote comes from
a strategic standpoint where, ifyou do focus on the
relationships Okay, so, like,what I mean is is like, focus on
relationship with your prospect, focus on relationship with
(12:18):
your center of influence, you'retrying to create a trusted
relationship with any trustedrelationship.
If you focus on therelationship, that I'm just
suggesting that because if you,if you look, if you look too far
around the corner and you'relike, oh well, if me and Tanya
do business together, I'm goingto make a ton of money, blah,
blah, blah, if that's yourattitude, then you're missing
(12:39):
the strategic component where,hey, me and Tanya can work
together and we can both benefitand both do better because we
value the relationship that wehave.
So that's where that comes from, I love it, I love it, I love
it.
Shireen Botha (12:55):
That's amazing, clay.
Thank you very much for sharingthat.
So that is the quote of the daylisteners.
So I'm excited to get reallyinto this.
But first, clay, please justtell us and the listeners a
little bit about your background, who you are.
Clayton Hicks (13:10):
Yeah, sure.
So I'm an entrepreneur, I'm aman of faith and I'm a family
man.
Okay, so we'll talk about myfamily first.
So I have five children my wifeand I do and none of them are
children anymore, they're 19 orolder.
We have two grandchildren andwe adore our family.
(13:34):
You know, adore our family.
So I love spending time withour family, things like that,
doing stuff, my family I was anonly child growing up, you know.
So, like having a big familywas always something I dreamed
of, and so to have that is a bigdeal, you know, it's just a big
deal for me.
I'm very, very grateful man offaith, I lean into my
(13:57):
relationship with him forsuccess in my life and in
business, and he's brought methrough a lot.
Brought me through a lot as anentrepreneur.
We all deal with a lot ofdifferent stuff, lots of hills
and valleys, and when 27, Idecided I no longer wanted to do
that by myself anymore.
So that's where that came from.
(14:17):
And so that's a little bit by myfeet as an entrepreneur.
I love being an entrepreneur.
I love it.
Shireen Botha (14:24):
I love the impact .
Clayton Hicks (14:25):
it makes the opportunity for impact.
I technically own sixbusinesses right now.
That's not going to shrink.
So I just love business and I'mnot a, you know, I'm not the
CEO of all those companieseither, you know.
So just want to kind of clarifythat and so so I have great
(14:45):
partners that run business withus, but H7 is my main career.
That's what, that's whatbrought me here.
You know I started that thelongest, the longest ago.
So I've had that for 17 yearsand I've gone through a lot of
hills and valleys with H7, withmarkets and COVID and all this
(15:05):
stuff.
You know, and you know, to beable I'm really proud to say
that like you know, when thepandemic was happening, you know
we had groups, members in fivestates of America and five years
later, you know we have membersin 22 countries.
You know, like that's a, that'sa, that's a big deal.
(15:27):
And so I value my relationshipsinside the community, community
, because just of that alonethere's a number of
relationships that I'm sothankful to have, because it's a
little bit by myself.
Tanya Scotece (15:40):
Wow, wow.
I have a question, clay.
So are you born and raised inOhio?
Just a little bit about yourbackground.
Clayton Hicks (15:47):
Yes, ma'am, I actually live up the street from
where I grew up too.
I've lived in this town.
I'm 47.
I've lived in this town all buteight years of my life and in
those eight years I lived 10minutes away once and 20 minutes
away the next time.
I actually own my parents'house.
My dad stays there, he pays thebills and stuff and we use it
(16:09):
as a transition house and allkinds of stuff for our family
and stuff.
It's a really cool opportunity.
Tanya Scotece (16:14):
But I dreamed.
Wow, so you manifested it.
You manifested just into areality.
Clayton Hicks (16:21):
That's wild 16 years old.
This, where my house is, was afarm and they started, they
broke ground when I was 16.
I'm like oh man, those are nicehouses.
I didn't grow up with much youknow, have one question.
Tanya Scotece (16:41):
So it's so funny because Shireen and I have been
doing the podcasts monthly sincethe pandemic.
We actually met during thepandemic and I'm always
fascinated by entrepreneursbecause for me it is like the
farthest thing from my radar andI just always admire.
So I just got to ask you rightoff the bat what was your first
(17:01):
business that you either youknow, maybe as a child, like you
know, did you have lemonadestands?
You know, like, what did you do?
Like what was the firstbusiness that you actually can
remember having?
Clayton Hicks (17:11):
Okay, well, I did have a lemonade stand.
I did sell lemonade.
Yes, I did.
It's rare that I talk aboutthat, though.
The big one was when I was 12and I had my own landscaping
business.
Like, I cut grass and stuff,and I remember in the local
grocery store I had my firstpiece of marketing, so I had to,
I had to draw it, I had to drawit on a piece of paper, right,
(17:35):
and then my mom took it to getit copied, copied, paid 10 cents
a black and white copy, orwhatever.
You get it copied, copy, pay 10cents a black and white copy or
whatever.
And I took them.
And I took them in differentbusinesses and stores and they
let me put the tape on it andput it up there.
And yeah, I was 12 years old.
Tanya Scotece (17:51):
There's no question in my mind that it's
definitely like a genetic.
So you know we're going to getinto your story and everything.
But I'm just always fascinatedhow you know it's.
It's a different mindset andand you know like a little bit
about my background like Idefinitely like hard worker,
accountable, love to be a leaderin my field, but the
entrepreneurial side is just asno interest at all, like zero,
(18:15):
and so I'm always justfascinated.
You said, like you own multiplebusinesses.
I mean that's just wow's justwow, amazing.
So all right, I'll turn it backto Shireen it is funny.
Shireen Botha (18:25):
I mean, I'm a I'm a business owner now, but I'm.
I wasn't like you, clay, Iwasn't selling lemonade, trying
to come up as a little youngentrepreneur slash business
owner when I was seven and thisis late in life where it came
about and I decided to to do myown thing and start a business.
Uh, if you had spoken to me 10years ago, um, and you said to
(18:51):
me why don't you start abusiness?
Should we not be like no man?
Are you mad?
That's too much effort, don'teven want to think about it.
But now I'm saying to myselfwhy didn't I do this earlier?
What was I waiting for, youknow?
So that's very exciting.
Clayton Hicks (19:08):
I think a lot of people are just waiting on
belief in themselves that's sotrue.
Shireen Botha (19:14):
Um clay, before we move on, just because you
mentioned that you had a blog.
I know we're going to put a lotof your information in the show
notes so that the listeners canseriously reach out to you, and
all of that.
But what, where?
What is your blog?
Clayton Hicks (19:30):
it's uh, it's h7networkblog, okay, and so the
blog is broken into two sectionsor two main categories.
One One, our events, so thinkPR.
Like I said, it's events thatwe're putting on, or we just
finished up our anthology,series became bestsellers, all
that good stuff.
And then the other part is whatwe call Networking 101.
(19:54):
And inside of Networking 101, Ihave so much content that is
around the relationship buildingprocess.
That's the core of everythingthat I discuss.
The relationship buildingprocess includes the actual
development of the relationship,the sustainment of it and all
that comes with that.
(20:15):
And so the communication, theagendas, the templates, the
things that make a relationshipat least a networking
relationship or referral partneror what we call champion
relationship that you can createmore and more opportunities for
yourselves more predictably.
Shireen Botha (20:33):
Nice, nice.
I love that Education.
You've got to better yourselfas an entrepreneur, as a
business owner.
You always got to continuegrowing.
You don't know everything.
There's always something thatyou can improve on.
Um, and the other thing that Iwanted to ask you is you know,
being a business owner and anentrepreneur, your first thing
(20:54):
is people either create orinvent a product, or they go
into the service industries.
They sell their services, theycontract.
Whatever the case may be, youdecided to start a networking
business, which is very much apeople kind of relationship.
(21:18):
It's very specific betweenentrepreneur to entrepreneur,
business owner to business owner.
Um, what?
How did you come to thatbusiness idea?
Clayton Hicks (21:31):
well.
So I had had a back in 07, Ihad had a lot of success.
Actually, I'm gonna go.
I'm gonna go a little bitdeeper, okay, so back in 07 I
was a single parent raising mytwo little girls.
I had full custody, the wholeshebang, and so at that time I
(21:51):
had just recently losteverything, including the
marriage.
So in my early 20s I was wildlysuccessfully fast and then lost
it all.
Okay, as an entrepreneur and mywife hates it when I say this,
but you ain't really lived youlost everything at least a
couple times, at least once.
(22:11):
You know, you got to really gothrough that to appreciate life,
you know.
And so at that time it was kindof a dark time, it was scary,
it was all these things, and Iwas alone.
My mom died like it was justbad dark time.
It was scary, it was all thesethings, and I was alone.
My mom died Like it was justbad.
I didn't have any siblings.
So who am I going to talk toabout business?
By the way, entrepreneurs liketrue entrepreneurs man, it's
really difficult to talk toregular job.
(22:33):
You know people in your family.
They all do certain things andit's hard to describe.
And it's hard to describe andit's hard to relate.
So those things are tough andso I needed to find a.
I needed to find people to workwith I mean, that's really what
it came down to.
And I found a networking group.
It did very well.
After seven months it shut down, kept the money, the whole
(22:55):
shebang.
They want to make more moneyand while some of the people
I've met along the way moremoney, well, some of the people
I've met along the way you know,for the next six or seven
months I was like on thisjourney trying to figure out
what to do next.
And so I went to thisnetworking group and again there
was some kind of hitch to it,like it was tied to an MLM or it
(23:17):
was tied to something else, andthe person putting it on really
didn't take the businessserious around the networking.
And so I got really frustratedand I went to that meeting and I
get frustrated.
I talked to my guy, my closefriend, or used to be very close
friend, larry.
I said do you think I couldstart up a networking group?
(23:40):
I kind of think I can, I thinkI want to, and he's like, yeah,
you should.
And so I collected him anddeveloped relationships with
four other people and the ideawas hatched and it was born and
I've been doing it ever since.
But why I still do it has a lotto do with my unique journey of
(24:02):
one-to-ones and how I built allthese relationships.
So age seven is now a vehiclefor my purpose in life, so
everything's just kind ofevolved from that
Tanya Scotece (24:12):
tune in next week for part two from friends from
wild places
Voiceover (24:18):
You've been listening to friends from wild Places
with Shireen Botha.
Be sure to subscribe to thepodcast from the links to catch
every episode and unleash yourpassion.
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