Elevating Small Businesses: A Conversation with Clifton Muckenfuss

Step into the world of small business excellence with Clifton Muckenfuss, the visionary behind Building Raving Fans. In this episode, we delve into Clifton's journey, both in business and personal life, exploring his passion for coaching and transforming businesses into client experience superheroes. Discover how Building Raving Fans offers a unique solution, seamlessly blending technology with personalized gifting experiences to cultivate emotional connections with your brand. Learn how their innovative approach fosters long-term relationships, turning customers into loyal advocates for life. Tune in for insights and inspiration on how to elevate your small business to new heights in the Relationship Economy™️

Transcript

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What's up guys, Chris Bowen here today with Love, Love the Podcast. I am joined by Clifton Muckenfus. I apologize if I just butchered that, but Clifton, why don't you introduce yourself, man, and just tell us what you're all about. Absolutely, Chris. Hey, listen, I've been called, with the last name Muckenfuss, I've been called on a lot of things. So it's totally okay. But as I was sharing with you off air, and I'll share with you listeners now. So I've been an entrepreneur for 17 years, going on 17 years. Wealth of experience in sales, leadership, marketing, client experience. I have founded and co-founded several. home service and service-based companies. I've grown them, scaled them, exited them, closed them. And so in 2021, I took all of those years of experience, those lessons, and I exited my construction company while simultaneously creating a business, building raving fans, which we'll probably get into, which is a done for you relationship marketing company, much different than what most people think about when they hear marketing. Most people hear direct response or think direct response and SEO and all of that, but a much different marketing strategy. And so that's kind of my business background, husband, father, you know, I've got a son, Chase, a son, Cody, daughter, Cameron, beautiful wife, Maryann, and above all of that. follower of Jesus and that's something that I'm super proud of. And that kind of flows through me on a daily basis, how I live my life, how I lead my family, how I lead my companies. Yeah, I think that's extremely important. I think that people that, you know, are fathers, husbands, Jesus followers, make kind of the best business owners in my opinion. Not only do they have a reason to get up every morning in their family, but they also have a set of morals and ethics that are uncompromisable in my opinion, a lot of times, um, when they have that kind of background. And so I, hey, I love it, man. That's awesome. Um, my background, we talked a little bit, uh, very similar, uh, home service based background construction background. And so I just wanted to have you on today, man, cause I love what you guys are about at win rate. I've learned a little bit about, uh, what you guys, what you're doing, uh, with your marketing company and stuff like that. And so this is just all about leveling up in business and leveling up in your personal life. And so what better person to have on here than a business coach? You know, What better way to level up your business than to have a business coach on here? So I'm excited to learn more. I'm super excited. And, you know, you know, my, my goal is just one person. Hopefully there's thousands or tens of thousands or maybe millions that this podcast reaches, but it is successful. If only one person takes action from the content and changes his or her life. That's exactly right. And so one thing you guys preach kind of at win rate that I'm a big fan of is the 1% better, 1% better every day. And I think that so many business owners kind of lose track of that, that they don't have to make giant gains in their life or in their business in order to be successful, that it's really not a, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. And if you just get that little bit 1% better every day. you're going to be making vast, vast improvements. So. You're exactly right, Chris. And as someone, I'm a runner. So the marathon analogy is so true. And if I think about marathoning and running and ultra races, you don't just start by running an ultra race or running a marathon. You start off with maybe a half mile to a mile to five to 13. So, you know, that's what I think. burns out so many entrepreneurs is because they're hoping to start and immediately get to the end like that. And that's just not what life or business is all about. No. doesn't work like that. I mean, so I have a background in wrestling. I grew up wrestling, wrestled in high school, and you know, in wrestling, you have a six minute match. It's very much so a sprint. And so I've always kind of had that mindset of what can I do right out of the gate to really hit it hard and to just go at it? And I really had to try to change my mindset when it came to business of, okay, I gotta slow down. I gotta put these systems in place before I can hit the ground running. And I think that's what a mistake a lot of people make. And that's where a business like yours is so important in that it helps people put their systems in place. Yeah, absolutely. If you want to, you know, and I believe also that simple scales, right? Too many entrepreneurs, high performers, they just, they kind of, if something is easy, it's like they look at it and they're like, well, that can't work. It's too easy. Like we want to over complicate things, right? But simple scales. And to your point, I cannot underscore the importance of systems enough. You know, I shared recently on a podcast where I asked someone this, I said, you know, how much do you love your team members, your employees? How much do you love them? And they said, oh, absolutely I love them. And I said, okay, is your business systematized? And they said, no, man, we don't really have any SOPs, no process is documented. And I said, okay, well that actually, proves to me that you don't love them. And the person in the account was a little bit taken aback and you know, what do you mean? Well, if you truly love your people, everything will be documented. Exactly, because life is fragile, life is short, life is unpredictable. And I can walk across the street after this podcast and I can get run over by a car. And if my business is not systematized, in other words, can't run without me, How much do I truly love and value the people that work for me? Because if it's not documented, who's gonna pick up the pieces and continue to move the business forward? Well, that's exactly right. And even in simpler terms, if something happens to you, does your spouse have access to anything? Can they find your passwords? Can they find your usernames? How do they get into the bank account? I mean, my wife's the one who handles our personal finances, but I know where to find everything. You have to have those systems in place, whether it's your personal life or your business, that if something happens to somebody, things have to move on. Does it... That's very unfortunate and nobody wants that to happen. But realistically, if you have a successful business in the last generation, it's going to happen at some point. It doesn't have to be somebody like they get hit by a bus or something, but people quit. People quit. Yeah. I'll share this quick story. I have a client, he's one of my relationship marketing clients and they reached out to me last week and they said, hey, we need to remove this person from our gifting clients because he passed away suddenly, he had a heart attack. Mid-50s and left behind several children and all that. So life is unpredictable. So we circumvent the fact. of unpredictability with predictability through systems. absolutely. Is that what you would say is the biggest flaw or the biggest issue in most people's businesses is that they don't have those systems in place? So I think there's a couple of things that really plague business. One is no clear mission, right? And so why are we doing what we're doing on a daily basis? Like if we're solving a problem in the market, awesome. Let's talk about it. But too many business owners right now are business owners because, let's face it, they may have worked in the trades, they got upset with their GC or got upset with who they were working for and they just said, you know what, I'm going to go start a business. They don't really have a reason why. So they don't have a clear mission. And if you don't have a clear mission, Chris, you can't get your team bought in and all rowing in the same direction because nobody knows where we're going. Right? Yeah, that's huge. an unclear mission is something that I think plagues a lot of businesses. I think poor leadership is something, people just because you're a good worker doesn't mean you're a good leader. That is so true. I think that a lot of people that are managers, they're managers, they're not leaders. And even then using the word manager is, you know, maybe not the best description either, because they don't understand how to manage different people in different ways. I think that everybody needs to be managed a little bit different, but the big difference between a leader and a manager is a leader helps guide people. to their own success versus a manager is just, they're just managing. They're not continually moving forward in the same way. Yeah. And I think the, probably the third, besides the obvious, which is cash, cash flow and financial management, that's what we're giving. But definitely unclear mission, lack of leadership or poor leadership. And I believe an understanding of, and again, this is gonna be a little bit of a plug here, but a failure to understand the importance of nurturing relationships with clients. You know, career. lead than someone you've already worked with and have a good relationship with. Referrals are where it's at. You know, it's you're exactly right. And that's how I grew my own business, my own construction company to a 60 to 62 percent on average repeat referral rate is because and that's an industry where it's usually around 15 percent is the ceiling. And the reason why is because I think that entrepreneurs and businesses get too caught up in the next deal. Right. Okay, we met with this person, we closed this sale, we fulfilled this product or this scope of work. Now we gotta go chase the next one, we gotta move on. And I believe, Chris, that it's much more fun and it's easier to sell to friends than it is to try to convince a complete stranger to buy something from you. Hey, I'm a relationships guy. So I totally get that. I totally agree with you 110% in that regard of when you treat people a certain way and you nurture those relationships, it makes the sale just so much easier. And it makes the process along the way easier. And it makes getting to that finish line that much easier. Because you have a relationship. Yeah, exactly. So. we're on the same side of the table. We're on the same team. We're after the same thing. And we're just having a very friendly conversation. So again, unclear mission, lack of leadership, and the failure to understand the power of relationships. So if you were working with somebody one-on-one, how would you help them kind of find their mission? What's a good starting point? I don't want you to give away all the good secrets, but what's a good starting point for somebody? Yeah, absolutely. So let's first start with the person. All right. What does the individual owner want from his or her life? What is the vision that he has or she has for their life? What is their ideal life look like, including their health and fitness? What is their ideal team and company and career look like? And think about what do they want to be known for personally? Let's face it, Chris, a business is an extension of the person that has been given stewardship over the business, right? So let's focus internally first on what we want, what we want to be known for. And then once we get clear on that, we can figure out for our business, okay, it solves this problem. Now, how does it align with what we want the vision for our own life to be? And there's some formulae, some formulas that I walk people through as well. You know, the X and the Y and the Z formula that. the short narrowed down version of what it takes to create that kind of that mission in life or the mission for your company. And yeah, I think that's huge is finding out where you want to be in your personal life. Because if you don't know where you want to be, you know, how you don't know how to get there. If you don't know where you want to be, you don't know how to get there. So how do you draw a map if there is no finish line? You know, and it doesn't have to be a very... you know, precise defined vision in my opinion, or finish line, you know, but you have to have an idea of where you want to be. You know, what do you want for yourself? What do you want for your family? What do you want for your employees? You're exactly right, Chris. And I'm glad you brought that up. Without a plan, you'll go pretty much anywhere, including nowhere. And what we do in a coaching capacity is we help people create those plans. But again, you've got to know where it is that you want to go. Because surely you wouldn't get into a vehicle and stare at a GPS and expect to arrive at a unknown destination. So once we, well, yeah, if you just started driving, you'd end up somewhere, including somewhere you probably didn't wanna be, right? So what we do is we work with the owner or the leaders. Where exactly do you wanna be to go? And then we kind of reverse engineer and put together a plan to help them make those progressionary steps or take those progressionary steps to get to that end result. Yeah, absolutely. And then to touch on something else you talked about a little bit earlier is helping one of the biggest issues that you see is managing cashflow. And I think that's a huge one as well. I don't know if that's something you guys kind of touch on or not, or if you leave that for kind of the, the CFOs and stuff like that. But I think that is a huge problem in everyone's business. I mean, that's a very hard thing to manage, especially when you get these companies that are doing, you know, uh, over that million dollar mark. I feel like, you know, when you're below that million dollar mark, things are a lot simpler. And the moment you go above that, it gets, you know, more and more complicated the higher you go. And I just, I think that's a struggle for, nearly all business owners. that for a moment. You know, I believe Chris, that in all businesses, you need to staff your weaknesses. So whatever you're good at, so I walk clients and hopefully some of my clients are listening to this and they're gonna, this is gonna be like, yes, Clifton, I remember this. Is I take all my clients through an exercise that I created when I found myself in my own company, just. overwhelmed, frustrated, and just seemingly kind of running around in circles. And I'm like, what is going on here? And I created this exercise. It's called the time task good at enjoy exercise. Okay. And essentially what it is, is an extension of a time audit or a time study. Whereas we track all of the activities that we do for a period of seven to 10 days. and we figure out everything we're doing and then we tally up the time spent on those activities. Then we actually go through a self-rating exercise. Okay, so let's say for example, at the end of the study, we spent 20 hours on sales, 10 hours on marketing, and five hours on invoicing and bookkeeping related tasks, okay? Now we look at those activities and we're like, okay, well. Am I good at sales? Do I enjoy sales? Am I good at marketing? Do I enjoy marketing? Am I good at the bookkeeping activities and do I enjoy them? And based on this matrix that we complete, we figure out, okay, well, do we need to continue to invest our time in this activity because we're good at it and we enjoy it? Or do we need to look at the design? who compliments that? Exactly, or do we need to delegate it? Is there someone better served on our team that could do it? Or do we need to look at outsourcing? And so financial management above most things is usually an activity that needs to be either delegated or outsourced. And you're right. You hit that million dollar mark, I would absolutely, and it truthfully, if you're doing construction and you're doing job costing and all of that, I would say sooner than a million. Yeah. I would too. But definitely outsourcing or bringing someone in-house that can do that bookkeeping, that can do that real-time reporting. I really don't think you need a fractional CFO or a CFO until you're probably eight figures. Yeah, yeah, once you cross that $10 million markets, you know, you're at a whole different ballgame at that point and a whole different complexity level. I would absolutely agree with that. And I love what you had to say there, man. I bet that's extremely eyeopening to a lot of business owners when they do that and they really see real time how much time you spend on stuff. And then I also bet it's eyeopening to the fact that how much time they spend not working on their business and doing, you know. playing on Facebook, playing on their phones, doing things that they shouldn't be doing in the middle of the day. I think a lot of us. doing things that are not driving the business forward, right, which is why we start with, where do we want to go? Because then we know, we say, okay, well, this activity has not moved me closer to that. It actually moves me further away. So let's get away from it. No, that's awesome. I love that. And then, so let's talk about your business as well. So let's talk about kind of your marketing company. What is, what do you guys primarily do? What's your role with that? Yeah, absolutely. So again, in 2021, when I was preparing to exit my construction company, I mentioned earlier, Chris, you know, 60, 62% repeat referral rate in a construction company. So what we did is I took the programs and the systems that we were utilizing inside of our own company. And in 2021, I created. my own business, my own company to take those systems, those processes, those programs, and now offer them to other businesses to take advantage of so that they can then increase their repeat business, increase their referrals, increase their online reviews, lower their lead costs, increase their closing rates, increase retention, decrease attrition, and ultimately drive profit to their bottom line because when you have a profitable business, You enjoy your business. When you focus on top line and not bottom line, you oftentimes find yourself frustrated. And so our company that I created is Building Raving Fans, which is the mission of that is to leverage technology to enhance human connection, right? So we take, it's a relationship marketing company, all right, because again, we believe that referrals and repeat business and relationships are what help build business long-term. And if we can help other companies create what I believe are called customers for life, man, business can be so much fun. And so what we've done is we've taken all of those systems, those processes, and it's through Surprise and Delight gifting programs, it's through handwritten mail, it's through digital referral reward programs. those little things in life that people don't tend to do anymore, that make a lasting impression. I love it. why? Because it's simple. And simple must not work. Well, I can tell you our clients that understand the power of relationships that we've partnered with are seeing massive results. And so I'm just super excited about, you know, how that's kind of changing the game for small business. That's awesome man. Yeah I'm a huge fan of the whole kiss methodology keep it simple stupid. I agree with you I think simple is best simple is repeatable and I think that's the biggest thing that people forget is that simple is repeatable and in business having it be repeatable is one of the biggest things that you can possibly do and the best things that you can do for your business. Yeah, I want to touch on something as well. I had a conversation with someone recently and they expressed their desire to eventually sell their company. Right, a lot of people have different desires when they go into business. Some want to, you know, it'd be a generational business where they're passing it down. Others want to grow and scale and flip. And so I was having a conversation with this gentleman and he said, you know, I might want to sell my company. I said, okay, perfect. Let's talk about that for a moment. And you know, when you're going through the value of your business, up to 65% of your business's value can come from intangible assets. Those intangible assets are what? your online reputation, your website, your online reviews, the number of or percentage of your business that comes from referrals and repeat business and all of that. And so if you want to sell your company at some point, Chris, or your listeners, if you're listening to this, you got to figure out ways how you can increase the value of those intangible assets. And so that's what we try to help people understand as well. No, I love that. I think that's something that so many people don't think about. You know, they think about, you know, the vehicles, they think about the computers, you know, all the assets the business owns, but you're absolutely right. A lot of those things that, you know, aren't actual assets, that are those intangible assets, are just as big. You know, it can really increase the value of a business, especially, you know, if you go online and somebody has, you know, 500 five-star Google reviews. and the next closest person has 50, that's a huge benefit. That is a huge benefit. So... And the other thing about that is they know that if you've got that great online reputation, they meaning, you know, either a private equity firm or a buyer, they know that you're going to organically generate leads. And then if you've got systems in place to also generate leads from your people that are already referring you, it just makes that business much more attractive because let's face it, most people, when they buy a business, they don't buy the business to become an operator. Yes, correct. Right? And so that's a huge plus, like you said, 500 Google reviews versus the next one I'm having 50. Yeah. And a cool little tidbit that I heard, I was at the Blue Color Ballers event recently in Dallas. And Todd Price was kind of talking about. private equity and how they have a, they only want to grow by 40% through acquisition. They want the other 60% to be organic growth, even in private equity. And I realized, you know, how big that is to be able, when you get to that point, to continue to grow organically and have some of that organic growth. And those are the steps that you have to do. And then, you know, some of the things that you have to have in place to be able to do that. So I think that's, that's really cool. So, and then one last question for you, as a business owner who's exited multiple businesses, what is the number one tip that you would give somebody who's looking to exit their business? Be patient. Be patient when you're trying to sell your company because here's the thing, it's a long process and you also have to be very humble. Because again, imagine standing before a stranger and having to take all your clothes off. Would you be proud of what they see? And so I'm saying that and your listeners are probably painting this picture like, oh gosh, no, but that's essentially what happens. It is, you're giving people a view behind the scenes of everything. they strip everything away. And they dive into it. And all of the stuff that you're so emotionally attached to, they look at it and they like, okay, well, that's a deduct, that's a deduct, that's a deduct, okay, well, that'll be an add back, and that's an add back. So that's what happens, right? But be patient and understand that, we're all on our own journey. and we're all exactly where we're supposed to be, where God wants us to be. And so be patient and enjoy the process. And even if that sale falls through, be grateful for the opportunity and the lessons that you've learned through that. And some of maybe the weaknesses or blind spots that are revealed, and then take those lessons and then go make improvements so the next time it'll be much easier. Yeah, you're ready. makes it so much easier. Once you've been through the process once you know what to look for you know what you need to do and it just makes the second time that much easier. So well Clifton thank you so much for joining us today man really appreciate it. For those that are interested in contacting you what's the best method for them too. Absolutely. So on Facebook at Clifton Muckinfoose website, buil You can also find me on LinkedIn and Instagram at your small biz coach. And that's it. Awesome, man. I love it. Thank you so much for your time today, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Appreciate it, Chris. God bless.