Pat Mancuso is the CEO of Mancuso Consulting Group and a highly recognized thought leader dedicated to helping CEOs, business owners, and entrepreneurs maximize their potential through coaching and consulting. After over 30 years working with company owners, leaders, and sales teams, Pat has over 25,000 hours of coaching and consulting experience. As a serial entrepreneur who has launched multiple successful companies, Pat understands how to sustainably scale a business. He helps businesses improve their leadership and performance through a proprietary system, RSTMM® - Recruit, Select, Train, Manage, and Motivate, enabling companies select, train, manage, and motivate the right people in the right positions.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Pat Mancuso‘s transition to his new podcast
- How Mancuso Consulting Group helps business owners
- Why Pat got involved in the consulting business
- What is asset protection?
- The value of getting to know potential business partners
- Understanding the cost of a bad hire
In this episode…
Living a fulfilling life while working towards your business goals is possible with the right guidance, strategies, and hacks. With an experienced guide, you can navigate the complexities of business ownership and master the art of wealth creation. How do you bridge the gap between financial prosperity and personal freedom?
Entrepreneurial leader Pat Mancuso shares his experience and interactions with over 15,000 entrepreneurs, CEOs, and business leaders over the years. Pat explains that for both business and personal success, you must understand where you are, where you want to be, and how to get there. With proven techniques for time management, effective prioritization, and cultivating a growth mindset, you can pave the way for sustainable success in both your professional and personal endeavors.
In this episode of the Destination Business Freedom podcast, we flip the scripts as Rise25’s Chad Franzen interviews Pat Mancuso, the CEO of Mancuso Consulting Group, to discuss how to strike the perfect balance between business success and personal fulfillment. Pat talks about his transition to his new podcast, his experience in the consulting business, and why getting into a business partnership is a pivotal decision.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
- Pat Mancuso on LinkedIn | Website
- Mancuso Consulting Group
- The Mancuso Method’s email: pat@themancusomethod.com
- The Mancuso Method’s contact number: 651-503-7355
- Chad Franzen on LinkedIn
- Rise25
- Destination Business Freedom podcast
Sponsor for this episode...
This episode is brought to you by the Mancuso Consulting Group, a go-to resource for entrepreneurs, CEOs, and business owners dedicated to personal and business growth.
Our team of experts has coached, consulted, and trained over 15,000 entrepreneurs, C-suite leaders, and business owners in areas of sales, leadership, organizational development, and personal growth. Additionally, Pat Mancuso has launched multiple multimillion-dollar business ventures, giving him a firsthand understanding of entrepreneurs' daily challenges.
At the Mancuso Consulting Group, we are committed to exploring innovative ways to help businesses and leaders grow their people and improve their bottom lines.
To learn how the Mancuso Consulting Group can help you unlock your full potential, visit www.themancusomethod.com, email us at pat@themancusomethod.com, or call 651-503-7355.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:02
Welcome to Destination Business Freedom, hosted by Pat Mancuso. Join us as we explore success strategies and hacks from leading entrepreneurs, helping you bridge the gap between financial success and personal freedom. Your journey starts here
Pat Mancuso 0:16
Hi, my name is Pat Mancuso, and welcome to Destination Business Freedom. We're very excited that you're here. Today, we're going to be talking about the entrepreneurial journey and my belief as to the things that business owners need to know that can help them get to that destination. So Chad, welcome to the call today.
Chad Franzen 0:45
Hey, thanks so much, Pat. Great to be here. Before we get started, I will let everybody know that this episode is brought to you by Mancuso Consulting Group, a go-to resource for entrepreneurs, CEOs and business owners dedicated to personal and business growth. Their team of experts has coached, consulted and trained over 15,000 entrepreneurs, C suite leaders and business owners in areas of sales, leadership, organizational development and personal growth.
Additionally, Pat Mancuso has successfully launched multiple multimillion dollar business ventures, giving him a first hand understanding of entrepreneurs daily challenges. As the Mancuso Consulting Group they are committed to exploring innovative ways to help businesses and leaders grow their people and improve their bottom lines.
To learn how the Mancuso Consulting Group can help you reach your greatest potential visit www.themancusomethod.com, or email them at pat@themancusomethod.com or call 651-503-7355. Hey, Pat, thanks so much for having me today. How are you?
Pat Mancuso 1:45
Chad, I'm very excited about our conversation today.
Chad Franzen 1:48
Absolutely. Hey, same here. So I know this is not your first time podcasting or being on a podcast, you've had one before. Tell me about those prior podcasts that you've had and how this one looks and kind of how that transition took place? Well,
Pat Mancuso 2:01
Chad, you know, as an entrepreneur, and my journey has been long and wide and far and highs and lows. We launched the Success Ascent podcast in 2020, right after COVID. And that was an amazing journey. We interviewed small to medium sized business owners, and even some massive business owners.
And we're really getting into their journey of success as a business owner, as an entrepreneur and as a leader. And what I've discovered since then, is that it's the same group of individuals that we talk to, and we talk about, and we talk about how we can help. But what I've discovered is this is that most small to medium sized business owners get into their business, because they either don't want to have a boss again, they don't want to have somebody telling them what to do they want more financial freedom, or they want to build wealth so that at some point, they can exit and join, enjoy that life that they really want to have.
And what I've discovered and I discovered this for me first is that many times those decisions along the way that they're making, are being made in a silo. And so when we thought about how we could spread this message, and we thought about the podcast in relaunching, and if you may, I decided I wanted to transition the name of it to really be in alignment with what we're doing today.
So when we did that, Destination Business Freedom is all about how we help that small to medium sized business owner, that entrepreneur no matter what stage of this journey they're at, to really get clarity on what it is they need to do in that journey to get to that. I call it the end address. Think about Chad, if you were to jump in your car, and I'm in Minnesota today and and you know if I let's say I was going to go to Florida, and I got in the car, and I pulled up the GPS and I just didn't put an address in there.
I may or may not get to Florida, I may get there in 12 days when it would normally take me a day and a half or two days. And yep, most business owners when they start a business and let's use an example of a, let's say a landscape company and you've got a guy who or a gal who says I want to start my own company.
So they buy some equipment and they start you know, mowing lawns maybe and you know, snow blowing we had snow plow or snow today in Minnesota but they start you know, plowing and all of a sudden they've got five employees or 10 employees and they really never thought about what is it that I want to scale? What is it that I want to build so that at some point I can exit because it is really about what do they want to have after they're done.
And so what I've discovered is there's huge gaps. And we call it the gap between their financial freedom, you know, between their finances and their freedom. And so that's really what was the premise of relaunching the podcast in retitling, it is to really give more clarity in education, and specifically, the tools and the resources.
And the people have learned so much in the last four years of this journey, where there is so much that I didn't know and I had some great people around me. And so this question, I created this question in this journey. And well, I'm sure we'll talk more about this because what you don't know is costing you commas and zeros. And that really describes that gap between finances and freedom. And that was really the premise of the new podcast and the relaunch of the podcast in the new title.
Chad Franzen 6:05
Okay, wow, that's that sounds very, very interesting. I look forward to checking out checking out some of your episodes. Hey, tell me a little bit more about what you guys do at the Mancuso Consulting Group?
Pat Mancuso 6:18
So it's a great question. And you know what I would say, first and foremost, Chad is there's not one answer. And what I mean by that is, what we first have to define is where is that business owner right now? And, you know, when you think about that, you have to think about a number of areas.
So where's that business owner financially? Where is that business owner in terms of leadership? Where is that business owner in terms of marketing in terms of sales? Where is that business owner in terms of balance, or counterbalance? Where is that business owner in terms of tax or tax planning, or estate planning trust, there's so many things. And so what we do is we first identify where that business owner is at.
Because if we can't define where they're at, we have no idea how we can help them get to that destination, then what we do is, let's jump to the end of the destination. I don't know. And people may not know exactly when they're going to exit that business. But I'll tell you what they do know or they need to know is they need to know when they exit it. What's the life they want to live in terms of? Do they want to live on $100,000 A year or $50,000? A year $200,000 A year? And how long are they going to plan on living and people go? Well, I can't determine how long I'm going to live? Well, you don't have to determine the exact number.
But you do have to determine an approximate number. Because think about this. There were two stories recently that kind of validate this, this premise, the pain of this premise. So my wife has a stylist for her hair. And that stylist has been at a shop for a long period of time. And stylists typically move from shop to shop owner to owner and this particular stylist has been at the shop for probably 20 years. And my wife came home and shared with me that the stylist was leaving. And my first response was leaving, like leaving to go where and why.
And ultimately what happened was the business owner 35 years. So picture, she's owned this stylish shop for 35 years and was closing because she wasn't able to make a profit. Now this particular individual was in their 60s. And think about that they had to close the shop, which means they didn't sell it, which means they have no value exiting that shop. Other than maybe they own the real estate, but they didn't because I know this particular shop where that person has worked their entire life.
And yet is exiting without what they might have thought they were exiting with. Which means now their rest of their life might look different. Well, no , so that's a great example. Another quick one, and then I'd love to hear your question is, same week, I was talking to another consultant friend of mine and he mentioned the company. It was a $4 million construction company and better business for 20 years, I think about this 4 million top line revenue and then the closing doors because they weren't making enough money to stay open.
And you know, if you think about a 4 million top line, company, construction company, they probably have a lot of equipment, they have a lot of you know, they're probably in debt. And yet did that business owner really achieve what they wanted to achieve? And the answer is likely no And so for me, that pains me, it absolutely pains me because they didn't have the best they didn't have. Let me say it this way, it pains me because I know they had great intentions. But their intentions weren't executed based upon what their goals are. And it's likely their goals weren't really clear. And my goal, my personal goal is to do everything I can to not let that happen to small to medium sized business owners that are open to the conversation.
Chad Franzen 10:33
Do most people who come to you appear to be on the same track as the hair salon owner? Or is there a video, you know, a variation in terms of where they are?
Pat Mancuso 10:45
You know, it's a great question, Chad, and businesses are all over the board. You have, you have businesses that run multi million dollars worth of revenue through their companies, and they don't have clean financials, they don't understand their margins. They don't understand what they should do when costs go up. You know, one of the things sometimes that is shocking to me, in fact, I was having this conversation with one of our consulting clients, just last week, they were looking at acquiring another business. And this is a true story.
And this is the part of my business that I love. They're looking to acquire a new business. And because I'm their consultant, and because I've got a massive background, I can look at things that maybe they would have to go to somebody else to look at. Well, in my case, I'm their consultant, and I've got a certain level of experience and expertise, because not only have I started businesses, I've sold businesses, I've helped other businesses scale.
So it's not like I'm telling somebody to do something or sharing something with them that I haven't done before. So as this client brought me the financials for this business that they were looking at acquiring, we started drilling down to, you know, determine was this a smart acquisition, remember, and I just want to segue a little bit, the reason that this individual is looking at businesses to acquire is because we started talking to them about what does their exit look like?
And because there's a number of ways to get to that end destination, including business acquisitions, that's where this conversation started. So I want to make that point. It's a subtle point. But it's important. If let's say my business is a million today, and I want to go to 10 million, because I want to exit at 30 million, there's a number of ways to get to that 10 million. And so in this case, one of their acquisitions, one of their strategies was acquisition.
So as we're looking at the financials, I asked the following question, I said, Well, what is the revenue per client that's being charged? How many clients does this company have? And what's the revenue per client that's being charged? And the response was about $450? In my next question, I already knew the answer. But I needed them to respond because they needed to own it. I said, What's your cost? Or what's your revenue per client, and they said, 390.
Now, if you just stop and think about that for a second, here's a company they're going to acquire. And their revenue per customer is 450. And their personal revenue per customer is 390. So then, my question to this particular client was, are you providing the same level of service, less service or more service in your mind than the company that you're looking to acquire? And of course, their response was, is it the same or more? And so then we started strategizing around, what if they raise their prices? And Chad, you can probably imagine when you tell a business owner, or ask them or share with them or open their mind to what you thought about raising their prices, what do you think happens when you ask that question? What's their initial response?
Chad Franzen 14:00
Nobody's gonna want to buy it?
Pat Mancuso 14:02
No, yeah, nobody's wanting to buy. And what was interesting is we did an analysis then, and showed them that if they raise their prices to that 450, and even if, and again, these are scenarios, but even if they lost 15% of their existing clients, that said, No, we're not willing to pay those prices, they actually would move forward in terms of their revenue. And so it's that type of thinking that only comes from understanding where you're at right now, understanding where you want to go, and also understanding all the ways you can get there.
Chad Franzen 14:42
So how did you do it? What made you decide, you know, as I mentioned in your intro, you've launched multiple multimillion dollar businesses, what made you decide to get into this consulting business?
Pat Mancuso 14:57
Well,you know it Chad, I bet in consulting firm Long time, both in terms of companies, individuals, entrepreneurs, what what's really got us passionate now is in what we've discovered that small to medium sized business owners are missing and those who have come from, we scaled over the last two years got into relationship with about 800 business owners that we've provided a service to them a financial service.
And so we've had an opportunity to talk with those business owners to understand more in depth about their business. And what we've discovered is they may have a resource for let's say, a CPA, but the CPA is not talking to the consultant. They may have an attorney, but the attorney is not talking to the CPA. And the best example, I can give this, the best example again, these are real life examples, I always try to protect the guilty and or the innocent, because you never want to make anybody wrong, because nobody is wrong.
They just may not have the right people around them. So we have a client we did business with, and we started talking with them. And they said, Hey, we really think we need some better CPA advice. Do you have any resources? They said? Absolutely, we do. And what we do chat is there are things that we do internally like organizational development, accounting, and a number of other things. And yet, we also then have amazing relationships. And so I said to the individual, I said, Well, why do you think that you need a new accountant? Like what's causing that to be a conversation? Well, we just think we're paying too much in taxes.
And then I said, like, we started talking about their structure. And there's no judgment and what I'm about to say, but logically, most business owners hearing this would go well, that what I'm about to tell you is like no brainer. They own a business, a multimillion, they own a multimillion dollar business, along with a building that's worth multi-millions in that building is in their personal name. Now, Chad, in any or every scenario under the sun, that is not the right decision, because that building houses their business, which means they're personally liable, if something happens within that business to one of their people, they're potentially personally liable.
Their business, that building should not be in their personal name in 98% of the cases, and in this case, it was in that 98%. And yet they thought that advice was twofold. First , there's tax advantages, the way that real estate is addressed in terms of their business operations in terms of them personally, but it's also a huge liability. So the CPA wasn't talking to the attorney. And because of that there wasn't that cohesiveness of how do you actually protect those assets and protect you personally, you know, earlier today, I was on a call with two individuals we're going to be interviewing on the podcast and future sessions.
And we're going through things because our business is scaling, both in terms of our consulting business, and we're in a business acquisition mode. So we've acquired some businesses recently, and we're talking about strategies that honestly, I have never heard of that do asset protection. That's another thing that many business owners don't understand is asset protection. When you run a business, you have liability. Most business owners, I believe 99.9% of them have the best of intentions when they're running their business.
But there's also things that can happen in a business, that although there was no wrong or maybe there wasn't an intention, somebody is going to come after you. Well, you've got to protect your business assets, if you're not protected, that opens you up to liability. So it's just these experiences and I've been blessed to have a lot of opportunities to go through some amazing, successful businesses, but also experience some things that maybe I didn't have the right advice or the right people around me.
And it goes back to what our vision is that I don't. I don't remember what the exact percentage is Chad, but the numbers are staggering. It's like well over 50% I think it might be 75% of business owners small to medium sized business owners fail. That wasn't their goal. When they started their business. That wasn't their goal when they signed a loan agreement, or they put their house on the line or signed a personal guarantee. And I'm not going to be able to drop that number down to zero but I'm gonna do everything I can in the future moving forward as we've been doing over the years to really help those small to medium sized business owners achieve what their goals were
Chad Franzen 20:00
I'm guessing a lot of entrepreneurs have a great idea for a business. But you know, no matter how great that idea is, if you don't know how to run the business, then then you could be in trouble. What's the what's, you know, you talked about some of the lessons that you've learned, what's a lesson that you learned that you would only have like, you couldn't learn an entrepreneurship class in school? You, you just had to do it?
Pat Mancuso 20:21
How much time do we have? I would tell you, there's, there's a number of them. Let me start with the big ones. Okay. So I experienced this, from a not positive perspective, and I learned and yet, the not positive perspective has given me a tonne of perspective where I'm at today. So think about many business owners, where you have more than one entrepreneur. So you know, there's many stories of hugely successful companies, and companies that get started around a campfire.
And there's two, you know, individuals and they're there, and maybe they're having a cocktail, and they come up with this great idea. And they get into business together. Now, they may know each other, and they may actually know each other from the industry. But they truly have not done due diligence on each other. And here's what I specifically mean, and are related to our company.
I need to know who the individual is I need that I'm getting into business with I need to know behaviorally who they are, I need to know where their behavioral strengths are not personality, there's a distinctive difference between personality and behavior, I need to understand what their track record is, I need to understand where they succeeded, where they failed, what their journey is, what did they learn. In other words, I need to look at it like as if I'm getting into a business relationship with my CEO, but they're an investor, which means there's a different level of getting into business, you have an ownership level, because you're an investor in the company, and then you have a leadership level, because you're performing tasks and accompany each and every day.
If there was one thing I can tell individuals, and there's two parts to this, if you're gonna get into business with somebody in a in a business relationship, where you're signing agreements, you're signing loans, you're, you know, responsible for cash calls, you absolutely need to do more due diligence, because you won't pay the price in the interim. In fact, I always say this to business owners, you won't pay the price, when things are good, you'll pay the price when the things are challenging.
And I can tell you from experience, we're coach, we're consulting a company today that we met them, there were three partners, by the end of our two, three days with them, although it didn't get executed at that moment, shortly after that, because we couldn't execute it in the room. Shortly after that, there were two owners. And the reason being is that the third owner came together entrepreneurially in this journey, and there was no way that they should have had that individual as an entrepreneur in that journey.
And they saw it, but again, they're in the middle of it. So the thing that I would say first and foremost is who you get into business with matters. And then the second thing and it's again, an extension of that, who you hire matters. And most people in particular in leadership roles, Jad, most people don't have a formal process that is based upon behavior that's based upon producing candidates, and taking the best candidate for the role or the opportunity. And it's not just hiring the best candidate. It's what happens after you hire it, what it's what happens after that 90 days.
And, you know, story after story after story. One example I use in conversations with people as I was in an event about quite a long time ago, and there was an individual in the room and in there were sharing kind of their battle wounds their scar wounds and, and they said, You know, I had this employee and I just, you know, it was just such an uncomfortable deal to let them go. And so I went about nine months where I was basically hoping they would leave the organization.
Now, they ultimately left the organization after nine months, and this individual share in the room was, and I'm so glad that they left on their own. And as a business consultant, I'm thinking, Oh, my goodness, if that were my client, and that were I was consulting that client, they would understand how much that costs that organization in terms of how much damage did that individual do in nine months to the culture how much damage that individual do to to clients, how much damage did that individual do in terms of operationally In other words, what I'm saying is when you have the wrong people in the wrong seats, and you maybe even have them on the wrong bus, business owners, entrepreneurs, small to medium size, they underestimate the cost of that bad hire, or they underestimate the cost of what it does to the organization.
When they don't take action, they always know at the point they need to take action, you can ask that we do organizational assessments with organizations and we'll get the CEO back in the room after we do the organizational assessment. And we'll point things out to them. And then I'll say to them, so is this new to you? Or is this something you've known for a while? Yeah, Pat, you're right. It's something we have known for a while. I go, Well, how long have you known it? And they'll say, three years? And I say what do you think it's costing you per year. And they'll give me a number and I multiply it by 10. Because they have no understanding of the true impact of what that cost of a bad hire, or be the cost of keeping somebody in the organization around that's not performing?
Chad Franzen 25:48
Wow, hey, let's get before we wrap things up, let's get back into your, your, what's your kind of your motto about the zeros on the commas? Tell me tell me what that is again, and explain it to me a little bit and how it came about.
Pat Mancuso 26:22
So when I have to give credit where credit is due where it came about in the conversation of us, I'll use the rebranding of what we were in who we are. And, you know, I've got a very large network and in over 40 years, that network is a lot in real estate. But the last 10 years, it's been outside of real estate a little bit, but still inside of real estate.
And if you ask that network, you know, what do I do, you might get two or three answers. And so when we really started focusing on this journey, and where did we want to go? What did the end destination look like? Who were ideal customers, we decided that we needed to get some expertise in this. In other words, we hired a marketing and branding company. And it wasn't really clear this, this company wasn't just about creating logos, the team over at BrandFace and I'll give them a plug, they're actually going to be on our podcasts here. In the future.
What they did was they took me through an entire process to really go step by step fundamentally, of you know, who is my ideal client? How do I want to serve them? What is that ch-- What are the challenges with that client, and we went through everything that now we have in terms of our marketing assets, and in terms of who we are and the messaging we want to have. And that conversation that what you don't know is costing you commas and zeros. That came out of a conversation with that team and they understood what I wanted to accomplish.
They understood as business owners what a business owners experience and and what it is Chad is this, it's that I will give you an example, a lot of business owners don't know about a tax strategy that they can take advantage of that could put up to $15,000 back on their balance sheet back on their bottom line every year. And I'll say it, and of course, there's things that need to be followed to take advantage of the tax credit, you need to, you know, cross your t's dot your i's.
So let's be clear, I'm not giving you tax advice. But I am sharing with you there is a strategy out there that can be taken advantage of. So when I talk to business owners, I'll say to them, let me ask you a question. And there's no judgment on this question. I say let me ask you a question. When was the last time and I can always fill in the blank. In this case, I'll use the example in the tax credit I was speaking about. When was the last time your accountant or CPA called you? You did not call them? They called you with a tax rate tax saving strategy, or a tax deduction to help you add more money to your bottom line. And Chad, what do you think the percentage is of the answer? Never ask that question to small to medium sized business owners. Mike, my accountant never calls me.
Chad Franzen 29:30
I'd say
Pat Mancuso 29:31
what do you think?
Chad Franzen 29:32
More than 50%?
Pat Mancuso 29:34
A Chad 98%
Chad Franzen 29:36
Oh my goodness,
Pat Mancuso 29:37
I virtually have no one to tell me. Well, yeah, they called me now they, you know, they'll say well, I called them because I was talking to so and so and so and so I read something I heard something. You know, for me, that's not acceptable. We're going to bring things they can decide what they want to do with them. But we're always going to make sure there's only two Ways to get to that destination: add revenue to the top line and add more money to the bottom line.
There's a lot of ways to do it. But the goal is that our clients are going to be able to get to that destination sooner than they had ever imagined. Because they actually define it. They're going to get there with more freedom. Because when you ask most business owners talk to me about the balance you have in your life, you'll hear things like well, I work 80 hours a week, I look at that, and I go, well, they could be working 40 hours a week without laying awake at night wondering how they're gonna meet payroll, without all the liability, making more money, having more retirement, more savings, they could go work for a company.
I mean, you know, the unemployment rate or the you know, the job opening rates are crazy right now, there are companies that are paying way more than they used to, for people so so it's really that that that journey if you may that that what don't you know, that's costing you commas and zeros, and almost every day, and I say this humbly, almost every day, the circles that I run in the things that I read the things that I research, there is something I'm learning each and every day, that's going to help people close that gap and what they don't know. And so we're pretty excited about all the things we can offer people.
Chad Franzen 31:22
Yeah, absolutely. I can tell people that any entrepreneur, no matter where they are, could benefit greatly from visiting the Mancuso Consulting Group. And also by listening to this podcast, last question for you, what are you most excited about as you transition into this new podcast?
Pat Mancuso 31:38
Oh, you know, the impact that we're going to have, I think that's the biggest thing for me is the impact that we're going to have. I'm also very excited about working with the Rise25 team, I, again, a little plug, but this is how business is done. I was introduced to Jeremy and John and the team over there and I, I'm excited about the impact that we're going to have because of what they know. And I'm not having to recreate the wheel.
And so we've already lined up some amazing guests. And we're really excited about what they're going to be able to deliver. And whether somebody does business with us or not. That's really not what our focus is on the podcast. I want to deliver information to people so that when they get to that end destination, it's exactly what they wanted. And if we can help through the vision and the mission of the podcast to do that, whether they ever do business with us. That's okay. And that's what our goal is.
Chad Franzen 32:42
Okay, well, that sounds great. Can't wait to hear it, Pat. Hey, thanks so much for having me today. It's been great to talk to you.
Pat Mancuso 32:48
I love it. Chad. Thanks so much.
Outro 32:50
Thank you for joining Destination Business Freedom with Pat Mancuso. May the insights and strategies shared guide you towards financial prosperity and personal freedom. Continue to navigate boldly. Until next time, keep transforming challenges into achievements. Farewell and stay the course.
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