No matter how good of a job we do, it's not our customer's job to remember us. It's our job to make sure they can't forget us. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to Gathering the King's podcast. I'm your host, Chaz Wolfe. Today, we welcome Clifton Muckenfus to the King stage. He's a vision He's a business coach, a consultant, and the founder of building raving fans, where, of course, he teaches owners how to serve their clients so well to where they become you guessed it. Raving fans.
This episode is a huge one for any business owner looking to increase their client retention. Here's what we talk about. Number 1, What are raving fans? A person that is so obsessive about your product or service Chaz they can't wait to share it anybody that owe us. And what most business owners get wrong? Entrepreneurs are so focused on how can I get people into the machine to then spit it out a result, receive compensation, and now let's rinse and repeat that? Number 2. Oh, it's fine.
Is the worst customer feedback that you could ever get. There's a four letter word that if a patron says to you, it is alarming. Fine. Fine is really bad. Yeah. And number 3, the problem with digital marketing industry. In the digital marketing space, I mean, I I work with contractors every day. If I work with 20 of them, 19 of them have Chaz a bad experience. Don't worry. We still love you guys. Subscribe if you haven't already and like this video, comment down below.
Tell me the most full thing that you do for your clients to go above and beyond. Enjoy the show. Clifton, my brother. Welcome to the King stage. How are you today, man? Man Chaz the same way I start every one of these conversations. I'm somewhere between exceptional and fantastic. Is is on that scale. So now you I used drew me right in with curiosity here. Where on the scale is fantastic and exceptional or was one above the other? How many dots are in between? Come on. Give me the scale.
It it it's a it's a very, very arrow. Yeah. There you go. And I and I believe the exceptional, it it just kinda inches above. Yeah. But there's not a lot of gap. And so I feel like when I when I answer that question, it forces me to stay in positive state of mind. 100%. And that's how I live my life, man. So somewhere between exceptional and fantastic. What do you think? I mean, we're gonna get into this. You you have an incredible In fact, let me just offer the opportunity here.
Tell us what kind of business or businesses that you have currently now and and how you help entrepreneurs and then and then I'll go back to my curiosity. Sure, Chaz. I appreciate that. So we were talking a little bit off air. You know, I I owned I started cofounded a residential construction company in 2010, which was not my 1st venture entrepreneurship, but it was really the the one that I think kind of paved the way to where I'm at now.
But I exited that company in 2021, And when I was preparing to exit, I took all of the strategies and and the the things that we were doing in side our company to grow it to a 60 to 62 percent repeat and referral business. And I said, look. I'm gonna create a company that can now take those strategies and offer it to other small businesses so that they can create raving fans, create those customer for life, create those brand ambassadors. And so in June of 21, I launched building raving fans.
And and along the way, we'll talk about this too. I'm sure, but one of my core values is my first core value is give. Give more than I receive. And in alignment with the core value to give, I was just giving away value to business owners because I wanted people to win. Yeah. I was actually giving stuff to my competition And people are like, dude, you're crazy. And and here's what I I found out pretty early on is that most people don't take action on anything.
Yeah. Literally. And so I was giving away stuff and, I knew they weren't gonna take action, but I started helping people just literally for free. And I had someone tell me that they could pay me And immediately, a light bulb kinda went off. I can get yeah. Oh, wait a minute. This was before this was before the current day where everybody with a heartbeat is is a business coach and a a guru and a ninja and whatever. Right?
Exactly. But so I was just doing it for free, man, because I wanted people to win. And so through that process, I got hooked up with, Mike Claudio. I'm not sure if you know Mike. He, founded a company win rate consulting, I became a a business coach on his team. And then shortly thereafter, got an opportunity to join the leadership team over there. And now I'm the director of coaching at win rate consulting. And so building raving fans is is something I'm just passionate about.
Business coaching and consulting is really what I believe god put me on this planet to do. Yeah. I love that. There is there is a thing of, a coach's heart probably pretty similar to the father's heart, and we can kinda get into some of Chaz. But there there are things that work inside of a business. And someone can even be successful doing those things, but to to have the ability to teach or to make them clear to others is a whole different skill set.
And so, unfortunately, in today's world of, you know, everybody's a guru and coaches and, you know, one guy thinks he does one little thing and he thinks he can, you know, help everybody else, which is true for that one little thing, but I love I love what you've done around just the holistic approach of going look like there's a lot of things that can work here, but raving fans.
This one particular thing is what I'm most excited about because we can talk business on all the different elements for for for weeks or hours, I mean, years. And so this this concept of of building raving fans, even some of the similar language that I've used over the years. And so I love what you're doing, and I wanna get into it deep. Before we do that, I wanna know, like, You were building the construction company. What what made you want to exit? Was that always the plan?
What were you building inside of it? To exit. Was that was that always the plan? I came home one day, and my wife, we were building our starter home, our first home together. And I came home and I said, hey. I'm gonna go start this construction company. And she's like, you've never mentioned anything to me about construction. And I said, you're right. I don't know anything about it. She said, interesting. What are you gonna do? I said, we're gonna do siding, roofing, windows, And she goes, okay.
Interesting. I said, let's pray let's pray about it. And she looked at me, Chaz, and this is this is the statement I want your listeners to to really pay attention to. Because if you've ever had this happen to you, you'll know exactly how I feel or I felt when this happened. She looked at me and she goes, I don't know, but I believe in you. Oh. It actually gives me chills now, man.
Because up until that point, my entire childhood through multiple arrests, I'd never given anybody a reason to really believe me, ever. In fact, I didn't even believe in myself. I mean, we're talking about multiple arrests of all kinds of things. Aggravated assault only through the grace and love and mercy of god that you and I are talking. I mean, I was facing prison time for aggravated assault, sold massive amounts of drugs, consumed massive amounts.
And but, anyway, getting back to that moment when she said Chaz, So that moment, I said, cool. I don't care what it takes. I'm not letting this lady down. That's right. Or that unborn baby inside. Yeah. That's cool. There's there is a special, you know, not only just a a feeling of that moment, there's real power that got transferred from her to you. And actually pretty similar to what we get to do with this show. Right?
I said before we hit the record button that I wanna transfer courage, you know, to the listener. And and that's what in essence Chaz you've done, but it's what your wife did for you in that moment. I've had that feeling and it's so interesting too because what we're really talking about is the mastermind principle. This is Napoleon Hill at at at his best talking about 2 or more minds coming into harmony working unto the definite chief aim. And the achievement of that.
And so what your wife did in that moment was to come into harmony and then breathe courage into you. And and I don't think there's anything more powerful than that. I have business partners. Obviously, I run a mastermind group. I get extreme inspiration and courage from the other people that are doing amazing things. A part of Gavin and the Kings. But there is nobody that can breathe into me like Julie Wolfe, Missus Wolf, those moments are powerful. What do you think was the catalyst for that?
Like, is that just how she is? She's just she was just born amazing? Or had you built a little bit of trust with her? Like, what was the pretense of that for her to be able to go, you know what? I don't care, but you is what I care about. It's it's it's interesting because, you know, we had been together for really a short period of time and and and the and the season of my life. We were actually just reflecting on this just the other day because she mentioned sidebar.
She mentioned that Morgan Walling got arrested for acting a fool. And and I said, gosh. Think about that. She goes, think about what you're doing. Yeah. In years thirties. And I said, I don't wanna think about it. So I didn't and in fact, what took us to Raleigh was I got arrested in in in Florida. And so that's what forced us out of out of, Florida is to kinda get away from some of that. I was like, look, I kinda reached this moment that I don't get out of here.
Some something's bad is gonna happen, but, you know, now we're gonna be celebrating in July 17 years of marriage. And over those 17 years to answer your question, I think she was born that way. I know that god had her picked out for me, and he knew exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it, and he knew who was going to be the person. And that's her. She's completely opposite of me. Like, there's there's there's not enough space in the world, I think, for 2,000,000.
We we try both feel that way with entrepreneurs. Yeah. You know, And so so she she's a very selfless, very humble, very giving, very just loving person. And I think that I don't know if she could just see the pain that I was in or where I was at or what, but I believe it was just who she is. Yeah. That's cool.
And I think just for, I mean, in some encouragement to the listener, whether you're the husband or the wife listening, I think that we each have this power to be able to give you know, to the other spouse. And so whether it's, you know, we've got, you know, Queens that are running the business or kings that are running the business, it doesn't really matter.
But even for Like, Julie's not necessarily in our businesses every single day, but that same affirmation of, I believe, in you, or I'm thankful for you or I see you, there's a lot of power in that on a regular basis, even with the things that she's doing. And so I just wanna encourage listener. This is this is this is real stuff. This is not fluff. This is not just like urge, wu, this is, like, this stuff actually works. Absolutely.
And and and a basic human need is to feel loved and appreciated. Yeah. Yep. There's no better way to do that than to express gratitude. Yeah. Which is why our company building raving fans exist. So small business owners can express gratitude to satisfy the basic human need to feel loved and appreciate Yeah. Yeah. I love the transition here. Let's use it. Like, let's talk about what is a raving fan.
Let's talk let's define that so that way we can work backwards and talk about how you help entrepreneurs build these. Yeah, Chaz. I believe there's there's internal and external raving fans, but let's first categorize what a raving fan is. A raving fan think it think about what fan is short for fanatic. Right. So if you imagine running into you're from, I think you said Kansas City. Yep. That's right. So imagine running into Arrowhead. That's right. What's going on? A bunch of fanatics.
Bunch of fanatics. Right? And so a raving fan is a person that is so obsessive about you, your people, your culture, your product or service, or your experience Chaz they can't wait to share it with their friends their family, their coworkers, their neighbors, or frankly anybody that'll listen. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. And so that's what we help business owners create. And it's external meaning your clients. It's internal meaning your employees or your team members. Yeah. That's right.
Yeah. I love how you've attached a gratitude to this end result of this fanatic who wants to talk to you or talk to others about you, rather, or the experience.
You know, there there's there's some people that talk about the client journey or raving fans, but I really do feel like this is something that most business owners maybe have tickle their ear on, but they haven't really gone deep, you know, and really drawn out the client journey and really every single touch point and identifying what those things are and how do we move the needle with the client or the employee in each one of those scenarios. Talk about that.
How is this is this a a 30 day process or more of a lifelong scenario, give us what the the land looks like. I think Chaz business changes, it's going to be evergreen. And you said a word that I use often, which is every single touch point. Yeah. So what we will do is we will meet with a client and their department leaders if they have teams. And we're going to identify every single touch point from inbound through fulfillment and after before, during, and after. Okay? What does it look like?
What's currently happening in our business? But then we base it and bump it up against a decision is what do our customers want? Then whatever the gap is, we assign it or we create an initiative to fill the gap, then we assign it to a member on the team with a deadline, and then we roll it out. So to answer your question is typically about a, I think, about a 60 to 90 day full implementation.
And the tactical there is First off, most likely, most business owners that I talk to, even rather successful ones, none of this is on paper. And and there are certain companies that I have that are still, what I would call an infancy stage where this is this is mapped, but not in detail on paper. And so we're still in the process of building those things. I know how to do this.
And so even for someone like myself who knows how to do this, who has done this, who has helped other people with this. It's still a thing where it's like, it's it's real work to put it down.
Yes. And so I I say that to say out loud that I appreciate the the value that you bring to entrepreneurs because there's a lot of things going on in the world of an entrepreneur and sitting down and mapping out their client journey being detailed enough to create touch points and then identify a gap and then assign it to a team member that may or may not be the right person or may not be even on the team. It might be them.
What's the thing that most entrepreneurs are failing at when it comes to building raving fans. Before you get a hold of them, what's the number one thing that they're doing, Rob? I believe that most entrepreneurs, Chaz, are too focused on the next opportunity. I believe that entrepreneurs are so focused on how can I get people into the machine to then spit it out a result, receive compensation, and now let's rinse and repeat that? And because that's what most businesses is all about.
And so that's one of the biggest objections I get when I'm talking to business owners because they're so used to meeting with a marketing agency who says, okay. Based on your market, based on what you do, based on the population, if you give me $5000 a month, we should be able to produce this number of leads. So you put something in and you pull something out. That's just the mindset that most business owners have.
Yep. Whereas I say, let's focus on all of the key relationships with the people that already know you, already like you, already trust you, and then how can we stay top of mind with them? Because Chaz, I I had an interesting, experience in my own company. We had done some work for for a couple. And we had done their roof and their deck and their siding. And they gave us a referral of one of their neighbors. So I was gonna run the appointment.
So I turned down Lynnfield Court and I look over at that home and Something stood out to me, Chaz, and I'm like, something looks different about that house. And so I called them. Hey. I wanna thank you for the referral. I'm going to meet with Lucy right down the Street. Hey, by the way, did you get your windows replaced? And at that moment, it was kind of this, oh my gosh, Clifton. Do you do windows? And it was at that moment, I said I failed. Yep. And so I went and ran the appointment.
We landed that deal. I went back to my office. I shared the story with my team. And I said, here's what I just realized. No matter how good of a job we do, It's not our customer's job to remember us. It's our job to make sure they can't forget us. Yeah. And so that's why we have to continually, we meaning business owners continually stay top of mind. And so what I'm having to do is work on the mindset of the entrepreneur. Right. And say, listen.
If we can focus on the key relationships, and they refer people to us like them, those referrals are gonna buy at a higher rate. They're gonna close at a higher rate with less objections. Our average client value is gonna be higher? Oh, by the way, the whole process drives down your marketing costs. Yep. And so that gap is profit for the entrepreneur. Yeah. Yeah. There's a there's a bunch of value here.
Even for the high volume businesses, I've got a client Chaz his list has gotta be a 100, 150,000 contacts paid leads. Over the course of the last, like, 4 or 5 years. And just like and and a lot of the conversation is marketing is not working. Marketing is not working. It's like, bro. If I had your list, do you even realize? You know? And so there there's power obviously in being able who reach into the marketplace and pull in a brand new name. There's major power there. Right?
There's predictability there. You can the machine. I don't think either one of us are saying don't go do that. But No. Why would you put all that effort into spending money on this person, this lead that comes through. And then and even if you get a chance to service them, never talk to them again. Yes. Because this is what happens. It happens every day. And, I mean, I coach business owners all across the country. And and it happens. We're working on the mindset first. Here's what I believe.
It's much easier and much more fun to sell something to a friend, then it is trying to convince a complete stranger to buy something from you that they may not even know they need or want. And so that's what I try to impart, you know, on our building raving fans clients is let's let's go tell the people that have already come through your process. Let's go tell them and express gratitude to them.
Like, I believe if you've got the power and the ability to make someone's day, you absolutely should. Yeah. I love that. And that's and that's a life principle. Yeah. Not only business. Hey, Kings and Queens. Jazz Wolf. I wanna talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort. We, meaning myself and my team, into this podcast into the content that goes out every single day.
And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, We want it to be able to reach other business owners too. So we would love if you would like, comment, share, leave a review, post, share again, all of the things on social media, on all the different platforms, or even on the podcast mediums of Apple and spot we would love to be able to get our content into more hands, more entrepreneurs so they can grow their business as quick as possible.
Together, we are building a community of like minded entrepreneurs who are committed to growing their businesses to new heights. So let's do this. Let's have each other grow. Yeah. Yeah. You're you're seeing, and as fun too because you've just humanized the entire business process. You've just said, yes. It's a marketing tactic. Yes. It's a lead. Yes. It's a sales process. Yes. It's a deal. Yes, it's money in the bank. But what more than that is that this is a a human that has a need.
They saw potentially a solution to their problem. They created a they filled out their information on a form. They were vulnerable enough to say, hey. I need help with something. They connected with another human, and then human, the entrepreneur now has an opportunity to connect to another human, start building a relationship based on trust and How can I help solve this problem if I can even solve this problem? And once I do get a chance to solve the problem, then what what leads after that?
Like, this relationship can go to a lot of different ways. Whether that's them hiring you again or referring, there's obviously a soul spiderweb of things that can happen. What do you think the entrepreneur right now who let's say, okay, we've we've addressed the worst. Like, the guy that right now is not doing any of this. Okay. You we just address that. Thank you. What about the guy or gal who's listening? I'm like, man, I feel like I do some of these things well, but I know I can get better.
What's usually that part in their client journey that's broken or falling apart where you can kinda just go, this is probably it right here. Yeah. I think it's I think it's the post fulfillment follow-up. Okay. Right? Like, we've come in. We filled out the form. We've gone through the process. We've committed. We've now had a transaction happen Yeah. In construction. Maybe that's a roof replaced, windows replaced, whatever.
I just think that most people, again, stop right there, but it's the greatest opportunity because at a heightened level of excitement for having a roof replaced, windows replaced, whatever it is done. That's the perfect time. To get something else from them. Not in a not in a bad way or a negative way. Yep. But you've just delivered assuming you've delivered an exceptional an experience. But if we've delivered on our promise Yeah. I'm expecting you to do something for me.
And that and that expectation is not you just paying your invoice. I'm expecting you to give me a a 5 star Google review. I'm expecting you to give me a video testimonial. I'm expecting you to introduce to two or three people that might benefit from a conversation for with me or a member of my team. Yeah. But I think people are just scared Yeah. And and so I'm glad you said that because it is fear, or it's an aloofness of, like, There we go.
We're we're over, and then now I'll go back to the machine again. But, inside of 2 of my businesses, I I've owned some edible arrangements franchises for over a decade, and that client experience. Obviously, we're we're get to partner with them and sending them sending someone else joy on their behalf. Right? So it's actually a really cool opportunity, but all throughout the years, you know, when I asked someone, like, hey.
We, like, that person, this list right here, they just ordered last week. Let's give them a call, make sure everything went smooth, if there's anything else we can do to to bless them or or help them facilitate anything else. And the hesitation or the fear or the scarcity in that moment is, but what if something went wrong? Right? Right? Same. We we we really try to take our experience to the next level. We in fact, it's remodel with kings because the experience is different.
That's literally our tagline. Okay. And so but inside of that, there's been some projects where it didn't go right. Sub didn't do something right or this, that, or the other. And and so that that it creates, like, a a fear or a little bit of a gun shyness to that person who, even if we knocked out of the park, is like, yeah. But I'm now nervous to ask for that because what if something went wrong? Fill in the blanks for us. Yeah. Absolutely. And I would say to that great. Exactly.
I want to know about it. Yeah. Why wouldn't you wanna know about it? Exactly. I wanna know about it because if in fact Chaz is the case, I wanna make sure that we don't have a broken process, or we absent a process, do we need to hold someone accountable? Think about this, Chaz, when you go to a restaurant, this I worked in this restaurant back in the, like, 2000s and The owner of that little Italian Tracteria, awesome lady. She would make a point.
Every single person that left that restaurant, how was your experience tonight? And the four letter word, I will never forget this. She said there's a four letter word that if a patron says to you, it is alarming. Fine. Fine. It was fine. It was fine. Fine is really bad. And it's the same thing that I equate it to Chaz when I'm doing speeches to groups of people and delivering from stage about Wow client experiences. I usually say, who in here would be happy with a satisfied customer?
Some hands go up because, of course, people are like, oh, satisfied. Yeah. Yeah. To which I reply. How about to those of you that raised your hands? If I said that a satisfied customer is actually a liability Wolfe you believe me? Mhmm. Because a satisfied customer is not a raving fan. A satisfied customer, Chaz, is not going to be a brand ambassador investor or an advocate for you. Right. So someone who says, well, everything was fine. And I've actually even called homeowners out about this.
Mhmm. And I tell them the story of the Italian restaurant. Yeah. You know, I learned a long time ago that when someone says something is fine, they're not actually being truthful. So please share with me exactly what's on your heart. Yeah. Because if it's something that I can control and I can help you Wolfe. Right. I'm gonna do that. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. And so I want to know the information.
Yeah. In that moment, really, the power is in not just the knowing, but then what you said Chaz they'd be able to take the next steps, not only for that client, but then to be able to go back into the this and reassess and realign so that it doesn't happen again. We just even had a scenario just we're in the middle of it currently. Mistake that our team didn't make, but one of our subcontractors made. And it has eroded trust with the homeowners. Not necessarily with us, but we're the GC.
And so, yes, it's us. And, I had to have a really honest conversation with this homeowner, and I I gave him space. I was like, no. No. No. I I know there's other things that you wanna say. I need to hear them. Right? And through that, it was like, okay. Great. So here's here's the moves that we can make. And here's the kind of the process that we have to follow and And and I told him even then. I was like, even in this moment now, my, a 100% goal is at the end of this.
Not only do you have a beautiful project and you're elated with it, but that you say to me, you know what, Chaz? I don't know how you did it. But in that moment, I was super frustrated, but yet here we are, I'm I'm satisfied. I'm about to leave you a 5 star review. And I don't know how you did it, but well done. Yeah. And he he kinda smirked at that going like, I don't know if you're gonna get that. I go, well, I understand. And in this moment, I haven't earned it. Give me the opportunity.
Yes. Right. I haven't earned it yet. I said, but Yeah. You know where I'm going with this. So just know that I'm coming full forces to be able to to be able to earn that. It everything that's within my control, obviously. Sure. Sure. What do you think is the kickback, the pushback. When you're talking to an entrepreneur, that's maybe not in this like mind. What what typically do you hear? Like, oh, I don't need to do that or like, what's what's the pushback that you get from some entrepreneurs?
Yeah. I think the the biggest pushback is it's new, newer. Sure. Right? Because not a lot of people are very vocal about relationship and referral marketing. Here's why. Because not a lot of people have figured it out. Yeah. It's relationships. Like, any and everybody can go start a digital marketing agency. That's right. And and listen to the listeners here and to you, Chaz. I'm in no way throwing stones at marketing agencies.
I've got dear friends that own some of them, but what I'm simply there's in all industries, not everybody is in full Yeah. That's right. And it seems like in the in the digital marketing space, I mean, I I work with contractors every day. Yep. If I work with 20 of them, 19 of them have have had a bad experience. Right. Yeah. And so I think that that's That's part of it. The kickback is, I mean, yeah, I care about relationships, but, like, what, like, what is that?
Yeah. It's through the education. So really, when when experience. Yep. And so I wanna know what they're currently doing. I offer them advice for free. Hey, man. You could probably do this. You could add this here. You could add this automation. You could add this. Try it. If it works, report back. Right. But here's how we can help you bridge some of those gaps. And here's what relationship marketing can do for your business. Again, before I actually invested in it, guess what?
I was just like them. And so when I say, hey, I can I I when I can look at a business owner and say, I've walked in your shoes? That's that's a true story. Because I had never heard of it. But then something pretty cool happened. I mean, we launched internal nutty, the referral squirrel program where we were sending out stuffed animals of squirrels with, you know, bandanas on them with our logo and gift cards and all of that. Yeah. But here's what happened.
We didn't see results immediately, but then our referral rate continued to climb continued to climb. And again, for the last 4 to 5 years, I was there 60 to 62% repeat referral. Google reviews went from 3 in the 1st, like, 5 or 6 years in business. To over a 100. And so it was pretty easy to determine, the return on Yeah. And we spent less than 1% of top line on true direct response. Yeah. It's cool.
What do you think, you know, an entrepreneur would say, again, knowing that night of the 20 have had a bad experience with the social media or digital marketing agency is that do you think that that client experience kind of maybe reflects some of the brokenness that we're talking about here, the the transactional kind of spit in, spit out. And it's funny too because as entrepreneurs, we think that that transaction is just gonna help us. Right?
But and so we're drawn to the very thing that you're saying that most of us have had a bad experience with. Isn't that crazy? It it it absolutely is. And and and so I think that what happens in the in the digital marketing space is any and everybody can do it. It's almost like business coaching. Yeah. I mean, true fleet. Yeah. But you're you're starting to see you're starting to see that industry. Oh, yeah. You know? Oh, yeah. Kind of kind of physicalizes. Cream always rises.
You're exactly right. But, yeah, in in that space, I think that it's, you know, overpromised. They underdeliver, but it's almost like I hate to say this, like, the insurance industry. And I and I bring that up because I just had a conversation with a client yesterday. Most insurance agents out, like, they over deliver upfront get a, you know, group of policies, then you hear from them during renewal season. Hey, your renewals coming.
And you don't hear them, you don't hear from them throughout the entire process. Yeah. I mean, I got insurance on a Catamaran. I used to live on a Catamaran, and I got insurance on a on a boat. So that's a, you know, $600,000 boat. The agent up front was phenomenal. Anything that I needed after I paid for that policy up front, which was like $12 almost It's like pulling teeth.
Yeah. And so, again, I believe that too many people are just focused on transactional selling versus relationship based selling. And I've always sold based on relationships. Yeah. And in fact, if I can't solve your problem and I don't actually believe that I would enjoy working with you, I'm gonna walk away from the deal to begin with. And I've walked away from nice projects. Oh, yeah. Where there wasn't value alignment. Totally.
There's there's a superpower in that, and someone might be listening going, well, I just need the I just need the next deal to survive. And and I understand Chaz. But there is power in being able to say, no. This is a this is not an alignment. And I've turned down projects this year. I've turned down large You know, clients who wanna be part of our group, it's just like, no. This is not a value alignment.
I have to protect what I've already built, which is part of those relationships you're talking about. Let's define. I mean, you you've used the relationship marketing. We've talked, you know, client journey. You've talked, fun stuff like sending them you know, cool things or or staying top of mind. What does it mean to build a relationship with a client? Because someone might be hearing relationship going Like, do I need to, like, like, sit down with him and, like, sing kumbaya?
What what is this? Yeah. A re a relationship is is really the existence of feelings between 1 or more people. Okay. Right? And and I'm not suggesting that you have to be best friends with these people, but it goes back to, like, our our tagline is merging technology with hue to enhance human connect man, it's about the way people deserve to be treated and how they deserve to feel. And so establishing that relationship is simply checking in with them. Like, my dad taught me something.
God rest his soul. He passed away last year, from Brancant but, you know, he told me something jazz. I'll never forget. He says, you know what, Simon? When somebody comes to mind, when you think about someone, God place them there for a reason and you must reach out to tell them. Yeah. Don't wait. Don't wait. Don't wait. And so I every single day, man, I send unexpected text messages and videos to people. They're never expecting me, but they come to my mind at various points. I'll let them know.
I appreciate them. So business is the same way. You've got to establish those relationships of just Hey. I appreciate you. And guess what? It doesn't only matter for the people that did a 6 figure project with you. Person that warped their tail off to save $2 to do a repair, they deserve the same level of gratitude. And so that's what we talk about. Just being nice to people Yeah.
And being great I wanna share something also you mentioned about walking away from the project about the value alignment. Yeah. You know, I believe Chaz that God has success intended for every single one of us. Peace is in every one of us, and he has success designed and intended for every single one of us.
But we continue to chase after things and people that he's trying to take away from us that project that we should have walked away from or that relationship that we should have walked away from, but we keep chasing after them and we keep getting met with resistance. And so if you take on a project or if you do something that doesn't feel right that doesn't, you know, match the the values is not going to go well.
Yeah. It is what I believe the probability of something going bad far exceeds the upside of it going well. And that's another thing I I talked to entrepreneurs about Chaz is like, hey. I know you I got a client right now. He's in one of our group programs. Like, man, if I don't if I don't sell a job, I'm I'm I'm gonna be out of business in a week. Hey, man. Keep doing the critical actions that you need to do every single day and trust the process. Yeah. And guess what?
So the $45,000 job just sold another job. And so you just you you gotta stay in alignment with your values because if not, you're living out of Integra. And I do not believe that people are going to be rewarded if they continue to live out of integrity. Yeah. It's interesting, you know, when we chase we don't know that we're chasing necessarily, but if you're if your values are not defined or really just you as an individual, whether it's company values or personal values.
If there's nothing to compare what I'm in alignment with, then I'm okay with everything. I just accept whatever comes to me. And it it's it's interesting the way that you describe that because it's not like you know, things that aren't supposed to be mine go somewhere else. Sometimes they get put right in front of me because it's like, what are you gonna do?
And if I take that project in this example, the one that I was supposed to have, I now don't have the capacity or I don't have the bandwidth or I whatever. I'm in chaos because I chose the wrong thing. And so inside of that is decision making and being able to make good decisions comes from, well, where am I headed? And I don't know. You're big on core values. We haven't had time to get into that, but you've mentioned values. Really identifying where am I going?
Like, if I'm making this decision, am I doing this yes or no, whatever this is, project, saying yes to this employee, like, whatever decision I'm making, it's gotta be butted up against. What do I want? And if that's clear, then it's like, well, this does it does this help get there. If it does, it doesn't. Right? The the the client that says, yeah. Well, everything's gonna be great, but but at the second you The second you mess up, my my husband's attorney general.
It's like, I don't know if we're a good fit, you know, not to say that we're gonna mess up on purpose, but this doesn't sound you want us to do a good job. Yeah. And it sounds like it sounds like that's something you've used before. That's like, wait a second.
So that's a pretty obvious one, but but what I'm saying is that even in the nuances of those moments, if you're clear, then it's like, oh, no. This is an easy no. This oh, no. It doesn't matter how big the project is or how much money or how much whatever flash is. This is an easy no because I already know that by saying yes, that means I'm gonna have to say no to the actual thing that I want. Right? Exactly.
And and, you know, here's here's something that when I'm when I'm basing or when I'm making decisions when it's, you know, business, life, maybe financial, those types of decisions. I really kind of I I use 33 things to to to measure them by. Right, first is values. Do they align with my core values? Right? If not, I I can't do it. Because of what I just talked about. Number 2 is legacy. If I make this decision, will my children and my wife be proud of me for making the decision. Right?
And then mission doesn't help me advance the mission. So values legacy mission. That's how I make my decisions in life. In business, financial transportation, travel, all of it. I love it. And it's it's worked really well for me. Over the last, you know, 5 years. It hasn't always been perfect, man. I mentioned that earlier. Yep. There's My overnight success took 17 years. Let's put that out there. Yeah. And it's in the making for that, right, to the overnight success, 17 years in the making.
I wanna I wanna ask you one last question here as we kinda end up. It's so interesting because you have just this road of experience. The almost the the negative appearance of this troubled person and then, you know, successful business, obviously, a marriage that has been fruitful, but now being able to see the results of using all of that good, bad, indifferent in other businesses, if you could roll back the clock and you talk to the younger Clifton, what would you whisper in that guy's ear?
Yeah. Don't listen to what other people tell you that you can't do. Because for so long, I was always worried about the opinions of other people, even my family, What I've realized is that the more people that tell you you're crazy and that you can't and that they won't means you're on to something. But for so long, I didn't know that. I didn't appreciate that. So if I could go back I would tell the eighteen year old, the sixteen year old, the thirteen year old.
Hey. Don't listen to what other people say. It's amazing. Powerful words. You're a powerful person, though. We're gonna put all of your contact in the show notes, but give us just real quick. Someone listening right now Where can they go to find you or interact with you on social? Get more Clifton. Yeah. Absolutely. So on Facebook at Clifton Muckin'Fuchs on Instagram, your small biz coach. Also on linkedin@cliftonmuckinfuse. And then, of course, you can check check out building ravingfans.com.
Cliftonmuckinboost.com, and I'll also leave your your your listeners with this one thing. So going on about 3 years now, I've been sending out, daily motivational, inspirational, encouraging text messages and emails. Every Monday through Friday from 8 about 8 o'clock in the morning. I've done it religiously for almost 3 years. So you know, I'm not trying to put you in a funnel. I'm not trying to sell you anything. I'm trying to help you in your day.
Yeah. And so if you were to go visit a daily dose of motivation dotcom. We're on a mission to impact and inspire millions. Perfect. We'll put that in the show notes as well. Easy to, drop in there from the listener's perspective. Clifton, you've done amazing things. You've helped a lot of people. You even on this show drop some amazing wisdom for us to be able to take away. If the listeners are interested in upping their game, building raving fans, or being just a better business owner.
They know how to reach you. Thank you for being here, brother. Blessings to you, your family. All the hands that you're touching and all the businesses. Thank you so much. Thank you, Chaz. It's been a pleasure. Thank you for listening to gathering the Kings today. I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away.
More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself. What I have realized, not only in my own journey, from multiple businesses in multiple different industries and now interviewing over 2 or 300 other very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is Chaz it's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the Kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs.
In fact, we are putting together 1 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done. We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, Chaz it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy.
So if that relates and resonates with you, and you know that you need people around you, sharp, qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gatheringthekings.com. Want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit. To 1000 kings. Talk soon.