How To Start A Construction Business For Less Than $5,000 - Clifton Muckenfuss - Building Raving Fans

SPEAKER_00 0:25

What is up, Sebastian? Blessed to be here, man. Yeah, I'm blessed to have you here, man. Thanks for taking some time out of your day to hang out with me here at the Beyond the Story podcast. I love telling people a story. You and I connected uh through the master state. We're in the same mastermind, uh, Apex. Um, if you're not in a mastermind, get in one. I even wrote about it in the book, uh, Think and Grow Rich, talked about masterminds. Anyway, that's not what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about what your story is and what I want to, I love going back to the beginning of the story where this whole thing began. I know you've had a uh a good amount of success and uh been able to build a pretty uh good quality of life and as of recent had some new opportunities that have spawned out of uh new new relationships uh and opportunities. But let's go back to the beginning of the story, where this whole thing began.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Yeah, man. Uh yeah, and think and grow rich. If if you know if you haven't read that book, then you've been sleeping under a rock, uh, especially if you're in business. But uh yeah, man. So again, thanks, Sebastian, for having me on the podcast today, man. So uh my story kind of you know starts in in uh rural South Carolina, kind of a little farming town, right? So uh grew up in my uh maternal grandparents' home. Uh my mom was there. My parents split when I was two. Uh, they were both very heavily involved in my life then as they are now. Uh, but you know, growing up in a very small town, I'm an only child, um, you know, I just longed to like really fit in, right? I was, I felt like I was missing something. So I wanted to be the life of the party. I wanted people to uh accept me. And so I did everything I could um to sort of you know grow uh a friend, a network of friends. And so went to went to you know, elementary school, high school, all of that, graduated high school, went to, because that was what I was programmed to believe. You had to go to high school, obviously, otherwise you're truant, then you get arrested. And I'm not interested in that at that point in my life. We'll we'll get to that in a moment. But um, then you you gotta go to college, you got to get a degree if you want to uh quote amount to anything, right? That was how I was programmed as a kid. And so, okay, cool. So I graduated high school, went to Clemson, and uh, you know, high school to college is much different. At the time, you know, college is like this new world, which for me was a whole new world to fit in with a lot of people, right? And so I joined a fraternity, you know, early on at Clemson. And uh, but but unfortunately I made some decisions, uh, fell into the fell into the wrong crowd, right? You know, I didn't heed the advice of my grandparents and my parents that, you know, hey, who you are associated with is who you will become, right? So in college, uh fell into the wrong crowd, uh, you know, started selling drugs. Um, you know, it was kind of the the party lifestyle. Um, but it really kind of uh meshed with my mindset of I want to be liked. And in college, the majority of people there were, you know, wanting to have a good time. I was at the center of that. Unfortunately, uh patterns of of poor decision making led me to getting arrested, I think, five times while I was in college. Um, so minor in possession, minor in possession, uh, disorderly conduct, disorderly conduct. And the worst one was uh aggravated assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. Uh at that point, um I had stood before this judge a couple of times. He pretty much knew me by name. And how I knew I was destined for a sales career is because I convinced that judge on that day that I was facing 10 not to send me to jail. And at the end of that court hearing, I got um uh basically I had to pay restitution, 10 grand, and I got anger management classes, and I was free to go. Because I explained to him that, you know, I had my whole life ahead of me, I was getting ready to graduate, and that uh I basically just asked for his grace, his mercy to be, you know, to spare me. And he did. And so you would think at that point that I would have woken up a little bit. Uh, fast forward, I graduated college, went down, moved down to Atlanta, Georgia. And uh back in 2000, if you remember, that was during the dot-com era and became known as dot bomb, right? Uh, everything in Silicon Valley and the IT sector was just there was just so much money on the street that it just imploded. Well, I was a product of that. Uh, so I got spit out in the IT world in 2000. And so I immediately went back to what I was good at prior. That's sales skills I learned selling drugs. So I fell right back into that, and I did that for a period of time. And so it got to a point where the people I was hanging out with, um, yeah, just again, a bad crowd. I was working and I got a DUI one night. So that's like the seventh time I've been arrested. Thankfully, I didn't have any drugs on me at the time, or otherwise I probably would be in prison. Um, anyway, fast forward, I looked at what was going on around me and I said, you know, I'm either going to be dead or I'm gonna be in prison. So I need to make a change. Moved up to Washington, D.C., worked in the parking industry for a while for a few years, made some great money, made some great friends, was able to pour into some young people, right? Help them sort of uh manage valet parking accounts and things like that, but I was still making bad decisions, still selling drugs, still using them. And so uh, you know, God has a has a has a sense of humor. He allowed me to continue to do that stuff, and and there's no reason you and I should be talking right now. That let's face that. But he has a pretty interesting sense of humor. So, what I mean by that is is is my roommate at the time was also a girl I was dating, uh, and also one of my best friends. And so one morning I woke up and and that young lady says, you know what? All you do is work, all you do is this, all you do is that, I'm leaving. And I'm thinking, there's no way. So a week or so goes by, and there was a moving truck at our apartment one Saturday morning, and she took off. And so, of course, I'm young. What do you do, Sebastian? I chased her, right? She moved to Florida, I chased her to Florida, but where God has a sense of humor is a couple weeks after moving to Florida, I broke up with her, and her three roommates said, Cool, you're not welcome at our home anymore. Get out. I'm in a new city, I know about three people, and so one of the three people I knew had some friends that were actually moving from a condo to from Orlando, Florida to the Boca area. And they said, Hey man, you can go stay in this condo. It's got no furniture, it's got nothing. And I literally lived on the floor, not knowing anybody, didn't know what I was gonna do, and I was in a new town. So again, I went from making good money, having a good time, to now no job, no friends, nothing, sleeping on the floor. So God does have a sense of humor. He kind of humbled me uh in that experience. Anyway, one of those people that I that I knew and met then, Mike Sheets, who's a dear friend of mine, um, he and I started working together in the mortgage business. We went out one night, and in the size of about, I don't know, a thousand square feet, in walks this lady. Didn't know it at the time, but she would then become my wife. And so uh at that point in time, if you think about it, I'd just gotten out of a relationship. I just met this young lady, and one of the first questions I asked her, Sebastian, was Hey, where do you live? I'm gonna come cook you dinner one night. And she's like, Yeah, you're a freak. I'm definitely not telling you where I live. Um, but I somehow managed to get that information, went and cooked her dinner one night. And as I'm finishing up dinner, Sebastian, she says to me, I'm in love with you. I kind of looked at her and I'm like, peace, I'm out, I'm not interested. And so the the funny story behind that is that now, 16 years later, and three beautiful children, we just celebrated 14 years of marriage. So again, God has that sense of humor, but he also has a purpose uh and and by design for for everybody's life. So, you know, up until that point, my life was just filled with quote, good time, bad decisions, multiple arrests. Um, and so she was really brought into my life to sort of get me grounded. And it wasn't until I had my first child, or she had my first child, uh, Chase, that I really started to buckle down. Right. I kind of bounced around uh from career to career, job to job. And um, you know, in 2010, I sat down at a brewery with a childhood best friend and another guy. And I came to that meeting with a post-it note business plan that says, hey, let's we're gonna start this construction company. All right. Now, 2010. What was going on in 2010? Not much, not a whole lot, right? Prior to that, everything was on fire and just coming out of the quote, Great Recession. So we sit down and we're talking about, hey, let's start this construction company. I looked at both of those guys and I said, you know what? I need $1,500 from you, $1,500 from you. I'm gonna put in $1,500 and on $4,500, we're gonna start a construction company. And my one buddy looks at me and goes, Yeah, I'm out. Mike, cool, get him another round. Cool, I now need $1,750 from you. We're going from $4,500 to $3,500 seed money. Let's go get it. And so here's the thing. Cool, we had a business name, we had a small plan, we had no customers, we had no marketing budget, we had nothing. And truth be told, and I'm not ashamed to admit this, I didn't know anything about construction. I still can't even read a tape measure, bro.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Me neither.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Yeah, but here's here's what I am good at. I'm good at uh getting to know people, loving on people, uncovering what motivates them, uncovering what causes them pain, being empathetic, and then providing a pain-relieving solution for them. In this case, it was home improvements. Right? So I remember our first customer, Ellen Farrell, she gave me a chance. I don't know how I convinced her to say, let me reside your home, but she gave us a chance. And so by loving on her and doing a great job and really focusing on client experience, man, we did about 70 projects in her neighborhood over the course of the next five to six years. And so went from zero dollars in revenue to just at a million dollars in less than two years.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

With 3,500 bucks.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

With 3,500 bucks.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

What did you spend the for $3,500 on?

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Yeah, so we got some business cards, we got some magnets for a 1991 four-panel van with no heat, no air conditioning, and a leaking gas tank.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Um that sucks.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

It does suck driving around in the middle of uh summertime and and and a hard day's work and you got to go fill up the gas tank, but you really didn't fill it up. And what's funny about that, man, is like I didn't know that when I bought it. Yeah, right. But I put like 60 bucks of gas in it one day, and I you know returned the gas handle, and I got into the van and I'm like, shit, that was just full. Now it's at half. And I get out and there's gas all over the all over the lot, parking lot. I'm like, okay, cool. So our threshold is 30 bucks, half a tank, and we're good. Um, but uh, but anyway, so we spent spent that first 3,500 bucks on some uh some magnets for that van, some business cards. We got a generic website, and uh, and that was pretty much it, man. Right? And I think actually at the time we did sign up for Angie's list for like a hundred bucks. Um, let me let me back up for a minute. This is this is what's awesome. So before I started that company, I worked in the in the yellow pages industry, I sold yellow pages. One of the promotions that ATT was running at the time was a free ad in the phone book for a new business. Construction company, new business. So like gave us a free ad in the phone book. That's uh that generated a lead, got us into a neighborhood, then Miss Ferrell gave us a job, and then boom, right? Um, so here's the thing though. So over the next eight years, we grew that business from you know, me and a partner to a team of 12. And we had about between all of our crews and all of our subs, there were probably about 30 to 40 people uh working for us, multi-seven figure business. Um, it was a great business. Um, but here here's the thing, and you can probably relate to this or you definitely can can can visualize this, but just like in in marriages, when one person starts to level up, right? When one person starts to be committed to personal development and and wanting more, what happens? A divide. Yeah, right. And and you want to try to bring those people along with you, but they have to make a decision. Do they want to come along or not? And so in this business, me and my business partner started going in different directions. And so it got to a point that it was very evident to me that we were so far apart that it was going to be very hard to bridge that gap. And so I approached him and I said, you know, I think it's time. I think it's time for me to execute my rights underneath our you know shareholders' agreement. Um, let's get the business valued. Uh, I can either buy you, you can buy me, or we can put it on the open market. And so over the over the course of um, you know, eight months or so, uh, we went through some negotiations, but I sold that business uh last November. Um, but I have to tell you and your audience something really quickly. So I'm gonna back up to 2019 because this is in very important details. In 2019, my wife and I, who love to vacation and love to travel, she says to me, I want to go rent a catamaran in the islands in the summer of 2019. I said, Okay, cool. This was 18. She told me this. Well, in 19, what happened? Hurricane Irma wiped out the BVIs, right? So we said, okay, our plans are off. 2020, we'll do it. What happened in 2020? Freaking world shut down. So we couldn't do it. So in 2020, as the divide between me and my partner is is growing, my wife and I made a commitment. They said, we said, you know, we're not gonna go on vacation and rent one, we're gonna freaking buy one. And so we wrote that goal down in 2021 that we would buy a four-bedroom catamaran and we would go live on it in the Virgin Islands. Now, the reason why that's important, and I think your listeners can you know pull something from this, is because I speak gratitude into the universe every single day. One of the things I say every single day, Sebastian, Lord, I am grateful for the opportunities of which I do not know yet exist, but the ones that I know you will place before me today to use my talents to make an impact in this world. Every day I say that. And guess what happened over the course of 2021? Opportunity after opportunity after opportunity came into existence for me. Sold the business, sold the house, great time to sell real estate. And a year later, to the exact date that my wife put a post on Facebook that says, All I want to do is sell everything I own and move to the islands. And one year to the exact date later, in 2022, January 14th, I closed on that boat in front of about 60 people at a sales boot camp that we were hosting for win rate consulting. And man, we closed on that boat, and um, you know, that was kind of the start of a coaching career, um, coaching and consulting small business owners across the US, across uh Canada. I had the pleasure of doing that from the Virgin Islands, bro.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Yeah, I remember seeing the post. Like, what is this guy doing? I need to meet him.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

Yeah, right. Uh so it was absolutely amazing. Um, you know, our kids learned to free dive, they taught themselves how to spear fish, grab lobsters by hand, all that kind of stuff, man. It was just truly uh remarkable. And and here's what I want to the listeners to pull from this is this was not easy. This was not a vacation. And if I had to explain myself to one person again about the decisions that I was gonna make, I was gonna lose it. But what I realized is that everybody that kept asking me why, don't you think this is a bad idea? What are you doing? Are you crazy? I realized one thing. I realized because me chasing my dreams made them realize that they had given up on theirs. And so um, you know, so we lived on that boat in the Virgin Islands uh for five months. But you know what? My passion for helping people started to burn brighter. And so working with Mike Claudio and the and the WinRate team, uh again, Lord, I'm thankful for the opportunities that I don't that I don't know yet exist, but the ones I know you will place before me today, every day. Came about an opportunity for me to take on a director of coaching role uh at WinRate Consulting to help uh Mike continue to chase his dreams and his mission uh to really grow the greatest uh one-on-one personalized coaching business for contractors and home services companies. And guess what? We are well on our freaking way.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Love it, dude. Love it. Well, everyone loves a uh a good comeback and a good story unfolding. And that's, I mean, this is uh you you exemplify that by saying, hey, listen, I was on a path that wasn't serving me and I got on the right path. I like I I'm a venture to believe that maybe that lovely lady that you've been married to for 16 years had a little tiny part of it. I wouldn't know because I'm a single guy, but I'm told that women can get uh have a good positive impact on our lives for the for for the better. So, well, uh it's very encouraging to to to hear your story and learn more about it. I know we had an opportunity to chat for just a little bit at uh MDM in Dallas um Apex event uh over the summer here. And I was like, what's up with this boat? What's up with the islands? Like it's parked in Fort Lauderdale, and I'm working with uh Windrate Consulting, stole my company last year, and life's incredible. And I thought, you know, well, we got to unpack that story one of these days here on the show. So I'm glad we finally got an opportunity uh to sit down and and do it. I can I can hear the momentum in your voice. So it sounds like you're in a real, real good, healthy space and uh uh a space where you're excited to uh to figure out what's next. But I love that bold prayer. Um asking God to provide those opportunities that you don't know what they are yet. I have no idea. I I asked something similar to it. I said bring them the the people that the the people that are are uh are meant for me or finding me uh and they're being sent to me. And I just ask I I ask God to continue to expand my platform and uh um and uh whatever he wants to do, he's gonna do anyway. But that's every day I'm conscious about that. I ask, I'm grateful for the platform, and I ask that he continues to expand it because with more um more reach, uh more impact can be done and more lives can be changed. Because we think just because we figured it out, look, we've had a series of life events that we've been able to figure out that most do, but unfortunately, that's not uh the norm. Well, Cliff, dude, you the man, and I'm so glad we got a chance to connect here, bro. Thanks for for carving some time out uh and uh and getting us on the calendar here to get you on the show. I I appreciate you. I look forward to uh to spending some time on that boat of yours next time you're down here in Fort Lauderdale, or if you twist my arm and convince me to come down to the islands next time you're down there. Um that's not gonna be a tough sale at all.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

Yeah, man. Hey, I I greatly appreciate you extending the invitation, having me on today, man. And again, if uh if your listeners can just extract one or two little nuggets in there to help them improve their life, uh, man, mission accomplished.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Absolutely. It only takes one, right? Only one, brother. Clifton, I appreciate you, my brother. I'll have to have you back on the show sometime. Thanks again for your time, man. Absolutely, man. God bless. Likewise, my brother. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story podcast. I'm sure to appreciate it. Evidence already. Make sure you subscribe to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Signing off from the podcast at LaunchLab.com studios at the end of the day.