Rural Business Opportunities

Episode 925: Rural Business Opportunities, with Cliff Callis

Rural business opportunities are something that Cliff Callis and his team are focusing on. Time to learn more about rural business opportunities.

As founder and President of Callis, a full-service ad agency located in Missouri in the heart of the Midwest, Cliff offers his agency’s clients more than 30 years of experience and expertise in marketing, advertising, and public relations.

Cliff has shared his marketing expertise speaking at events, as a contributing author to books and through his agency’s OUTthink thought leadership series. Cliff grew up in the retail business, working alongside his father and brother, where he first learned about the customer experience.

Cliff has been integral in leading the agency through the digital revolution. Callis specializes in the development of strategic and creative solutions with a focus on digital marketing and leveraging digital strategies with proven traditional approaches to get results. Today, he focuses his efforts on client, employee and public relations, rural business opportunities, and working with clients to help grow their business.

He is also President of the Board of Directors of the Center for Human Services, a nationally acclaimed not-for-profit organization that serves those with disabilities. Cliff and his family reside outside Sedalia, Missouri, where he enjoys outdoor sports, travel, and the inspiration of life’s experiences.

What you will learn from this episode about rural business opportunities:

• How Cliff founded his advertising agency, Callis, and why he chose to set up his business in the rural Midwest
• How Cliff and his team at Callis decided to niche down and focus on advertising for rural American business clients
• Why shifting their focus to rural businesses was a “scary” transition, and how positioning Callis as experts in rural business opportunities has benefited the company
• Why specializing in businesses wanting to market to rural America has brought new, unexpected business to Callis
• What key daily habits, routines, and rituals help Cliff get into the right mindset and prepare himself for his day
• Why Cliff believes that listening and people skills are vital components of his success, and why being able to communicate with a diverse audience is key
• Cliff shares the story of an important lesson he learned from a mentor in his career and why he feels passionate about his role as a mentor to his team
• Why Cliff meets with his direct reports once a week to work with them and provide mentorship and feedback, and why doing so is more than worth the time spent
• Why bringing in a mentor who understood the advertising agency environment was a key change that made a tremendous impact on Cliff and his business
• How rural business opportunities has transformed Callis into what it is today

Resources:

• Website: www.ecallis.com
• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cliffcallis/
• Enhance rural business opportunities by teaching leaders when to rebuild their website

Additional Resources:

• Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
• Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
• Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
• Mix rural business opportunities with 8 proven ways of money making

 

 

Rural Business Opportunities: Full Episode Transcript

 

Get ready to find your recipe for success from America’s top business owners here at Onward Nation with your host, Stephen Woessner.

 

Good morning. I am Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation, where I interviewed today’s top business owners so we can learn their recipe for success, how they built and how they scaled their business. You know, if you’ve been listening to the show for a while now, you know that my team at Predictive ROI, where we consistently rebuild and add to and scale our free resources section on PredictiveROI.com.

 

So you can now download free practical and tactical guides for everything from how to create your ideal client avatar, how to land your dream clients, and even our new business to business podcasting for profit secrets e-book plus other success strategies that we’ve compiled from our very generous guests and their brilliant insights. 

 

So just go to PredictiveROI.com/Resources and everything requested and we will send it right to your inbox. 

 

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Rural Business Opportunities: Cliff Callis’ Introduction

 

Before we welcome today’s very special guest, Cliff Callis. Let me share some additional context on Onward Nation about why, when Cliff said yes, that’s why I knew that this was a conversation that you had to hear. Cliff is the founder and president of Callis, which is an advertising agency located in Missouri, and they have made some, you know, and we’re not trying to make light of this.

 

I mean, they have made some bold, very bold and courageous decisions in the type of clients they are attracting and that they want to serve. Okay, so here’s what I mean by that. So his agency made the strategic decision to niche down to focus on a lean in, to be helpful to clients who were looking to sell through, to rural America.

 

Cliff and his team know how to help their clients market and sell products to customers in rural America because they live there, they breathe it every single day. They are entrenched in the market, and they’ve committed themselves to learning more about it each and every day. So let’s take that deeper. So if you bumped into Cliff or one of his teammates from Callis, let’s say you bumped into them on the trade show floor and you said, hey, Cliff, I’ve heard a little bit about you, but why did you decide to focus on rural America?

 

Well, here’s what you would hear Cliff say. Well, in rural America, we’re grateful for our farmers and ranchers. We stand by our military, our law enforcement, and our patriots. We support our teachers, our health care workers, our construction laborers. We track with our hunters. We cast with our fishermen, and we rode the country roads with our neighbors. We also love the great outdoors.

 

We believe in all the hard working folks and families that make our country great. Now that is a very clear point of view Onward Nation. Now, here’s what’s important from that point of view. It doesn’t matter if you agree or disagree with Cliff’s point of view. Cliff isn’t here to sell you or hope you become one of California’s next clients Onward Nation.

 

What matters is that Cliff’s prospects and clients absolutely do connect with the point of view of his agency, and they do that in spades. So the reason I’m so excited that Cliff said yes to this conversation is because I think he will be helpful in illustrating the lesson around that decision. It’s not an easy decision, but it is a decision.

 

Why you Onward Nation should niche down in your business too, and why you should proudly plant the flag of who you serve and why. And because you are courageous enough to turn away the prospects who you know will not be the right fit for your team. That is exactly what Cliff and his team have had the courage to do.

 

And if you have that same courage, you’ll begin selling from a position of authority. So without further ado, welcome to Onward Nation, Cliff. 

 

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Rural Business Opportunities: Cliff’s Path and Journey

 

Excited to be here today. And, appreciate the opportunity to visit with you, Stephen. And with the people that follow you. Oh, my goodness. I’m very excited for this conversation, obviously.

 

And just because I think it’s going to be a great illustration of the bold moves that you and your team have taken within your agency. Yes, it’s not easy, but yes, it’s also important. So we’ll dive into that in just a second here. Before we do that though, Cliff, actually, take us behind the curtain here for a minute or two.

 

Tell us more about you. Tell us more about you, your path, your journey, and then we’ll dive in with the questions. Well, I appreciate that. I grew up in Missouri, and actually grew up in the retail business. My family owned a small group of retail stores, kind of small department stores. Specialty stores. When I grew up, my brother says I used to fold sweaters in my sleep and try to sell them to our customers.

 

But, you know, I grew up in the retail business and, went away to college, focused on business and communications and economics, did a little radio, Missouri Valley College, where I attended school, had a small radio station. And so I thought I might get into radio. But after college, my dad asked me to come back and go to work with him and my brother.

 

And so I did. And one of the things that I always did, once I came back was, our stores advertising and marketing and, probably always liked it the most. And I could have stayed in the retail, career, the rest of my life. But retail was changing. It wasn’t as fun or as lucrative as it used to be.

 

And quite frankly, I was the middle child. I was a little bit of a black sheep. And, I decided at one point that I wanted to do my own thing. And so, I looked around and said, so what’s been done here? I want to stay here. And, it really wasn’t an advertising agency at the time.

 

There were small ones or bigger ones that were coming in from out of town. And so, I basically just started and, and took it from there. That was almost 33 years ago. Wow. And, it’s been an up and down journey. It’s been an exciting ride. A lot of change. I mean, basically, our business went through the digital revolution.

 

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Rural Business Opportunities: How The Pursuit of Rural Businesses Started

 

We started out doing everything manually, and today everything’s done digitally. And it’s been fun and it’s been exciting. And so, you know, I grew up in the country, on a family farm, and that has always been a part of my life. I love the outdoors. And, so it is, growing that part of our business and focusing on that business has kind of been a natural evolution for me and for our agency.

 

Yeah. Because It has felt like whatever word you want to use, my guess is it feels authentic. But it feels true to who you are. Like it speaks to your DNA, right? It really does. And you know, the ironic thing about it is it didn’t start out that way. You know, starting out, we had a contract with the local cable company back when local cable advertising insertion was just getting started, and we handled all the creative production and sales for that.

 

That cable company in the rural Missouri market. And so that’s how we kind of got started. So we started work with lots of different kinds of businesses, many retail in nature. And I think it really helped me and our team at the time, to really learn how to do advertising and do it and do it well and do it right.

 

And over that time, you know, we would have a, what I would call a rural America client from time to time. But our focus clearly was not there at that time. Well, and I’m quite well, I shouldn’t make assumptions here, but I guess I will make one here in the form of the question.

 

My guess is you didn’t wake up one day and say, okay, this is it. We’re now focused on rural America. This is probably a progression of time. And then and then ultimately there was a decision. But walk us through that and how this really progressed, how it really kind of came to the forefront of.

 

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Rural Business Opportunities: Profiling The Client Base

 

Yeah, I think we need a niche down here. Well, back in 1994, a series of bullets, which is a bullet manufacturer, and we became partners in helping them market their products. We became their advertising agency, and they had moved here from California, and they opened the door for us to a wonderful industry of outdoor sports and hunting and fishing that we had never seen before on the national level.

 

And so we started walking that road and we eventually took on another one and another one and another one. And that grew to be a significant part of our business. Almost 80% in outdoor sports. Oh, wow. So we were already sort of niching there. And it was a great business. And yet we had these other clients that didn’t fit into that niche that we really liked.

 

They were good people. They were good companies. Some were good friends. And so we decided, you know, we don’t want to walk away from this. We like these other kinds of businesses too. And, so back about three years ago, the outdoor sports industry kind of went into a decline and we started looking at, well, what are some other things that we can do to leverage our experience and expertise?

 

And so we started profiling the rest of our client base. And the one thing that was just clearly head above shoulder and shoulders above, was this commonality of serving a rural America market. And so we said, wow, you know, why didn’t we think of this 30 years ago? But we didn’t, and it was kind of like, you know, I think a lot of marketing is very common sense.

 

I mean, sure, you use a lot of data today and analytics, but a lot of it comes down to, you know, what does the customer want and why? And the whole psychology of why people do what they do. But it was a very common sense decision for us to say, look, this is who we are.

 

We have all these great clients that have this commonality, this common thread that runs through them. That’s where our focus is going to be. And it was very scary to move ahead and say, you know, this is who we are. And what it’s going to mean is there’s going to be some opportunities come down the road and people are going to come to our website, which they do many times now before we ever even know they’re looking at us and they’re going to look at us and they’re going to say, you know what?

 

That’s not the agency for us. And we finally got to the point where we said, you know what? That’s okay, because we want to do business with these kinds of companies, these kinds of people, because we’re good at it. We understand it, and we like it. Okay. So is that why you use the word scary? A minute or two ago?

 

Because, yes, you might be turning some business away, but you’re also attracting the right type of business. Is that why that was a scary shift? It was, you know, I like doing business with lots of different kinds of business. I enjoy the newness. I enjoyed learning about different businesses and how they operate in the unique characteristics of different industries and different marketplaces.

 

I think it’s one of the neat things about having a smaller agency is you get to do a variety of different things with a variety of different kinds of people. But to put your mark in the sand and say, you know what? This is who we are. And this is who we’re going to be.

 

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Rural Business Opportunities: Diversifying Clients Throughout Rural America

 

It was just a little scary. Yeah. And so. Okay, so let me give that back to you and see if I’m tracking with you, by saying, okay, we’re going to be the experts in selling through to rural America, that’s still that that doesn’t take away the opportunity for being able to work with different clients.

 

It’s just the commonality that those clients have is they want to be able to sell through to rural America. So it might be outdoor sports, or it might be a new truck line, or it might be an agricultural product or something like that. As long as that end market is rural America, you can still have some diversification of the client base.

 

Am I following you? Absolutely, absolutely. And in fact, you know, we have a very diverse mix of clients, health care, financial, energy, and outdoor sports. But that common thread is that they all market to rural America. Yeah. And so that is such a powerful lesson, Onward Nation, that I wanted to make sure that you heard in Cliff’s words.

 

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Rural Business Opportunities: Getting In Touch with The Right Clients

 

So this is not taking away revenue opportunities from you. Instead what it is, is making you even more valuable to the clients who want that common thread of expertise. So how have you seen or how have you seen that play out, Cliff, in either client meetings, prospect meetings, you know, now that you have made that shift, how is that benefiting you?

 

Well, we’re starting to hear from people that have gone to our website, read about us, and contacted us because we have this expertise. It’s really been powerful. And in fact, we got an RFP just this last week, from a healthcare organization who happens to be local, located in rural America, and contacted us and they were looking for a specialty type of marketing, which we have in our toolbelt.

 

And so we contacted them and had this nice conversation about what their needs were and their background, what they were looking for in an agency and an agency partner. And I had this little hesitation in my mind that I wanted to speak my piece and be totally transparent. And so I said, you know, I think we could do a great job with you.

 

We may not be the best agency for you, but I think we could do a great job and we’re very interested. And they came back and said, you know what? We were on your website, we saw that you focus on rural America, and that’s where our audience is. Oh, wow. And so it was kind of like, wow, that is cool.

 

That’s really why we do what we do. Well, congratulations. And the reason why I say that is because, you know, three years ago probably felt like a risky decision and a bold decision and one that took a lot of courage to make. Now, you’re three years into that decision. And, if I’m understanding the timeline correctly, and now you’re really seen and have seen the fruit of that type of decision.

 

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Rural Business Opportunities: Acquiring A Higher Level of Confidence

 

So well done, my friend. Well, thank you, I appreciate that. And, you know, the exciting thing for me personally is when we talk to somebody now, we have a higher level of confidence thinking that, yes, we are absolutely the best marketing partner for you. Or you know what, there’s probably other people that might be better served. And we’re going to save your time and our time and just let you pursue them.

 

And when we go after one, now that we feel like we’re the best, most qualified agency for everybody gets more excited. And our win, loss record goes up because we all believe that we truly are the best partner. So, Onward Nation again, I get the fact that this is a scary decision. And in one that should not be taken lightly.

 

Pounding the stake in the dirt. It’s bold and it’s so hard to kind of get our head space into that, especially if the business is, you know, there are cash flow issues and we need every single project that is walking in the door. I totally understand that. And so when you get to keep the lights on, I understand.

 

But then being able to like once the business has a little bit of stability, being able to think strategically like Cliff and his team did. Wow, that’s a powerful lesson Claire. Thank you for sharing that with us. Well, I appreciate the opportunity. It’s been exciting and I hope we’re on a long road to where we want to get to.

 

Well, so let’s shift our attention, you know, back to back to you as a business owner. And, kind of set point of view aside for a second. And again, thanks for the great sharing on that point. So let’s think about you and walk us through habits. You know, I love to talk about daily habits.

 

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Rural Business Opportunities: Daily Habits for Success

 

I think we can really, really learn some great lessons, from people who have, you know, a daily habit or two. So Cliff, is there a daily habit or two that you have been practicing over time that you believe has really contributed to your success over the years? I think there is. I’m an early to bed, early to rise kind of guy.

 

I love the morning. It’s quiet, it’s peaceful. I get up, usually before anyone else in my house, sometimes well ahead of anybody else. It’s dark. Take the dog outside. And then I’m a big planner, and so I’ll reflect. I’ll think. I’ll read. I’ll plan my day and look at the days ahead and what I’ve got coming and what I need to be focusing on.

 

I try to exercise every day. And usually, is when I find my time with God and it’s all worked out very well. I would miss it tremendously if I didn’t start every day that way. Yeah. And here I’ll make another assumption. My guess is, you know, because we all live at a frenetic pace from time to time or all the time that when you miss that routine, like you miss that habit in the morning just because of chaos in your schedule, that you probably feel that through the rest of your day.

 

Am I correct in that? I think so, I mean, it’s more subtle, I think, than that. But certainly I look forward to that each morning. And will do, even if I’m traveling and out on the road, I’ll do what I can to follow that same routine that doesn’t always work because of travel, or you’re up late at night or your schedule is off.

 

But, it’s certainly something that I try to take with me wherever I go. Yeah, I love that.

 

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Rural Business Opportunities: Critical Skills of a Successful Business Owner

 

So let’s now shift our attention toward, toward skills. You’ve obviously been doing this now for decades. I think if I heard the timeline correctly, Callis has been around for almost three decades. Is that right? Correct. We’re January 1st to be 33, 33 years.

 

Oh, my gosh, that is an amazing track record. Well, you know, I got started and got started in grade school and I’ve been going ever since. That’s not exactly correct, but I was pretty young when I got going. Well, so over that period of time, obviously you’ve been a business owner now for 33 years, but you’ve worked with many, as well as your clients, too.

 

So, looking back on that body of work and expertise, what do you think are some of the most critical skills that you think business owners today really need to master in order to be successful, especially as we’ve just stepped into 2020? I think people skills are probably the most important, certainly listening is maybe at the top of the list.

 

It’s something that I take pride in doing, and it’s not something that necessarily comes naturally to a lot of people. And, you know, God gave us two years and one mouth so that we could listen twice as much as we can talk. And, we really really kind of preach that to our employees, so that they take on that same skill set.

 

But, you know, in business today, today, yesterday. I don’t think it has changed in this regard. You deal with a lot of different kinds of people and the ability to be able to relate to them, to communicate with them, to understand them, when they are so diverse is a pretty important life skill. Yeah. Especially as we, you know, we talk about, multi-generational workforce.

 

We talk about diversity in the workforce. We talk about important things like inclusion and in all of them, the national conversation that we’re finally starting to have. And so whether we’re thinking about that from a cultural perspective within our own business, your agency, or we’re thinking about that from the perspective of, you know, collaborating with our clients, teams, and all of that becomes so critically important, doesn’t it?

 

It really does. You know, empathy is an incredible skill that people in business and especially people in our business need to understand and perfect, because you have to be able to understand who it is you’re talking to, who it is your marketing to, if you’re going to have any success getting your message across. Indeed.

 

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Rural Business Opportunities: Most Influential Lesson From a Mentor

 

So in this, you know, brief time that we’ve been having this conversation, you have really been, really a mentor here. I mean, you’re providing great mentorship to our audience, to me, and I’m certainly grateful for that. So now let me kind of flip that script, if you will, kind of turn the tables on you and ask you to share with us what would you consider to be Cliff, the most influential lesson that you ever learned from one of your mentors?

 

And then how that lesson is still paying dividends today and has really helped you become the business owner that you are today? So I had a boss who then became a partner in a different business. And he was quite the character, and he had all these different cliches that he had created, that I had never, ever heard anybody use before.

 

But one of them that he did use a lot, and I don’t know that he created it. That is under-promise and overdeliver. And the lesson I learned there that he taught me is that, you know, we as business people, have the opportunity to determine whether or not the customer’s going to be satisfied and happy with the service we provide.

 

You know, we set the expectation. And so if we don’t meet that expectation, it’s nobody’s fault but ours. Right. But the way that you set the table and the way that you set that expectation gives you every opportunity in the world to over deliver and to bring projects in early and for less money at it and at a quality that, maybe surpasses the expectation that somebody has for what they’re going to get.

 

So that’s the lesson that really has served us well. And again, you know, I’m very fortunate where I’m at today and that I get to be a mentor to the folks that work in our agency. And it’s a privilege that I don’t take lightly. And so I try to deliver messages like this one so that they will take it and carry it forward.

 

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Rural Business Opportunities: The Mentorship Process

 

So take us some, take us inside that mentorship sort of recipe or process, because I can kind of feel that. And the way that you just said that this mentorship as a topic is something indeed that is important to you. So when you’re thinking about being a mentor for your team, your teammates within the agency.

 

So how do you go about doing that? Like what’s the rhythm to that? How do you execute that? So how are you instilling mentorship or how are you going about mentorship with your team? Well, I do it a variety of different ways. Certainly you cannot replace just time. And so, we have one-on-one sessions at every level in our organization.

 

So my direct reports and I have one-on-one sessions every week. We allocate an hour. Sometimes we use it, sometimes we don’t. And we talk about things that are important to them. Things are working on things you’re struggling with, things they need to do better. Observations that I’ve made over the past few days or a couple of weeks, if we, you know, happen to miss a session and we just talk and, they all find it very valuable, and then they take that same skill that they’re learning and they do it with their direct reports.

 

So that’s been very valuable for us. And then, I’m kind of a walkabout guy. I like to walk around the agency and see what people are working on and ask questions and make compliments and give some encouragement when needed. And then in lesson, I’m sorry, and when we have meetings, I look for opportunities to just teach, you know, if it’s a project that’s being discussed and I happen to be in the meeting and there’s an opportunity to drop a nugget in, you know, I look at it as a learning opportunity for them, and thank goodness they value it.

 

And I think I really appreciate it. The fact that I do that, they may just be humoring me, but I like to believe that they find value in those nuggets that I’ve learned over the years. 

 

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Rural Business Opportunities: Scheduling One-On-One Sessions for Your Team

 

Okay. I love the once a week rhythm with your direct reports. I think that’s awesome. My guess is, some Onward Nation business owners that probably hit them like, a ton of bricks.

 

And some of them might be thinking, holy bananas. Seriously? Once a week? Wow. There’s a lot of time. Like, how can you afford the time? So I would love for you to answer that, because my guess is you make the time because of how valuable it is. But I think it’s going to be even more impactful hearing that in your own words, your reasoning for once a week.

 

Well, I just think that, you know, there’s so much happening on a day-to-day basis. There’s so much to do and it’s easy to get bogged down. It’s maybe not the right phrase, but inundated with the day to day operational side of our business. And so every week gives all of them an opportunity to have to think about those bigger picture items that there may be the challenge we’re struggling with, excited about that they want to get an opinion about, or they want to get feedback about.

 

It gives them the opportunity. They know they can count on it. And I really look forward to just sitting and listening and asking questions and helping them work through things that are going on in their life that maybe be a little bit more bigger picture than just the day-to-day part of our business. Okay. So why is that important?

 

Well, again, I think that it helps them to develop as a person. It helps them to be more productive employees. It helps them to better understand the bigger picture and how they fit into it. Yeah. And it helps them better serve our clients that ultimately is what it comes down to. 

 

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Rural Business Opportunities: Growing Your Teammates to Have Productive Lives

 

Yeah, it is, but isn’t it fascinating though, like when we think about, you know, I know this might sound a little bit silly Onward Nation, but hang with me for a second.

 

Like, somehow when we think about being great parents, we think about being hands on, we think about being involved. We think about, you know, course correcting, we think about teaching, we think about that. And so I’m not. I’m certainly not trying to suggest that you treat your, you know, teammates as kids or anything like that.

 

But when we invest and we pour everything we can into our kids and help them grow into the young adults and adults that they’re going to lead very productive lives and all of that. But then we don’t spend as much time one-on-one with our teammates and then wonder when things are askew.

 

And my guess is that Cliff is like during those sessions that I wonder so so be litmus test here. Validate this. Like that’s a good opportunity for you to find some early warning signs and some course correcting needs to be done as well. Whether it’s a problem with that person might be struggling with something, maybe a heads up on a client, does that come up in those sessions too?

 

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. It’s an open forum to talk about anything that’s on their mind or my mind about them, their life, their work, performance and the things that they’re involved in here. Yeah. That’s awesome. That is awesome. 

 

Let’s chat about magic reset buttons. I mean, wouldn’t it be lovely if we had one? I know that it doesn’t exist, but so if you were to imagine that on your desk, you know, you had that red magic reset button as it relates to starting your agency starting callus.

 

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Rural Business Opportunities: Understanding The Ad Agency Business

 

So what would you do differently, like their systems or their strategy? What are some of the things that you would put in place sooner rather than later, and why? I think the thing that stands out the most to me is that I would have brought on a mentor earlier that had real ad agency experience. You know, I was in business before I had worked or managed other kinds of businesses.

 

And so I thought I knew business and I thought I knew people, and I thought I knew how to make them happy and what kinds of products and services they might be interested in. But I didn’t understand the advertising agency business. Okay. And so I took it upon myself to read books. And, you know, we’ve all read Ogilvy or Gartner or any number of the old line advertising agency owners and founders and successful entrepreneurs.

 

And that was all good. And that all was helpful. But, back about 15 years ago, maybe not quite that long, I finally broke down and I went to a workshop, with a mentor, potential mentor, that had been pitching me the idea for years, and I just said, no, I don’t need it. 

 

I went and it changed my life. It blew my mind. And when I came back, it blew everybody’s mind at the agency. Yeah, it was just so new to me. Some of the best practices, some of the formulas to manage your business. Some of the ways to look at problems and challenges and opportunities.

 

And it just changed my mind, from an ad agency, ownership and ownership position. It was just something really cool. And so I think looking back, wow, I wish I had done that at the beginning or much earlier in my career. It sounds like seeking out the right mentor advice, collaborative opportunities, learning opportunities. It sounds like it.

 

It not only shortened the learning curve, it sounded like it really took away some of the obstacles or trapdoor, some of the barriers that maybe you didn’t even know were there, but really shined a light. It accelerated the path. Would that be a fair statement? I think so, I mean, it opened my eyes to things that I had never even thought about.

 

Wow. And and it just accelerated our ability to become a better, more successful, more profitable business and to learn that really, this is about me and about my business and what it can do for me and my family and and to not be selfish about that and to understand that this business is, has the opportunity to be whatever we want it to be.

 

And now I have these new learning principles and new systems and new ways of doing things to help it get better and better and better. I love it. It’s been such a great conversation, Cliff. And again, I was so grateful when you said yes. I know how compressed your schedule is. And so thank you very, very much for not only saying yes, but thank you for coming on to the show and being so generous and being so transparent and willing to teach, just like you do within the agency and being able to share lessons with Onward Nation business owners.

 

I know that, again, how compressed your schedule is. So I know that time is quickly running out before we go, before we close out and say goodbye. Any final advice that you like to share? Anything you think we might have missed? And then? And then please tell us the best way to connect with you, my friend.

 

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Rural Business Opportunities: Final Advice from Cliff

 

Well, I appreciate it. Steve, you’re very easy to talk to. And, you make some of the things that I say that I think are okay sound pretty good, and I appreciate your enhancement of my thoughts. I do, you know, we’re this business and most every business is very relationship oriented.

 

And sure, technology is driving so many things, so many parts of businesses with data and analytics and the use of marketing technology. It started to look at artificial intelligence and how that impacts things. But really it all comes back to people. People are always going to be an important part of the equation. And so relationships and developing those people skills are really going to be vital going forward.

 

And so I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve always enjoyed your program and what you’re doing. Very impressed with it. And, I’m honored and flattered to be with you today. Thank you sir, I appreciate the kind words. 

 

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Rural Business Opportunities: How to Connect with Cliff

 

Of course. And best way for Onward Nation to connect with you, Cliff. My email address is [email protected].

 

That’s easy a list com you probably wondering what the e means and, I’ve said that it means electric and energetic and enlightening. But the truth of the matter is, I was a little slow getting my domain. And plain old callous was already gone. So at the time we took e callous, and it has served as well.

 

That is awesome. Well, Onward Nation, no matter how many notes you took or how often you go back and re-listen to Cliff’s words of wisdom, which I sure hope that you do. The key is to take everything that you so generously shared with you, take it and apply it into your business right away and accelerate your results.

 

And Cliff, we all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day. And again, I am grateful that you said yes to come on to the show to be our mentor and guide, to help us move our businesses onward to that next level. Thank you so much, Cliff. Thank you Stephen. Appreciate it. 

 

This episode is complete. So head over to OnwardNation.com for show notes and more food to fuel your ambition. Continue to find your recipe for success here at Onward Nation.

 

Learn how to up your game even further on rural business opportunities