Meet Pat Murray

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Pat Murray. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Pat below.

Hi Pat, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

I’ve been able to discover what my purpose is by finding out what isn’t my purpose. What are we supposed to do for work? What’s the point? It’s easy to say the purpose of our careers is to make a living, to bring home some money to get by. But most folks, including myself, are spending over a third of our lives either at work or thinking about work. That’s a daunting percentage of a short time on Earth! All of that time to simply just make a living? I reached a point where I wanted to switch from making a living to making a life. If I’m going to spend that much time and energy doing something, I want it to be something that I actually enjoy, that I get inspired by. I was in a career that was killing my spirit and eating up all of my precious time. Even so, it was difficult to make a switch because I wasn’t sure what I actually wanted to do or if a switch would actually fix the problem of being unhappy with my work. All that I knew was that THIS wasn’t working. I left my career with a seemingly half-baked plan to be my own boss and do something creative. If I had to spend a third of my life working, then I wanted to work on something that was mine. From an outside perspective it seemed nuts but for me and those close to me it made perfect sense- I had to try something new. Honestly, I think in my case there has been a degree of luck. The first thing I tried after taking this leap is the thing that I’ve stuck with and been able to grow. I knew that I enjoyed working with my hands and creating décor for my own home and had been doing it as a hobby for a few years. I witnessed others doing it as a job so figured I’d give it a shot, at least as a side hustle until I found something that made me actual money. Well. it turns out that if you do something that you enjoy you tend to do it well! The business took on a life of its own in a short period of time and I found myself in awe of where I had arrived. I had found a purpose in business, I was doing something I enjoyed and all it took was a drastic leap of faith.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I own and operate Murray’s Modernized Furnishings LLC, a premier cabinet and furniture refinishing/painting company in Yavapai County, AZ! As I mentioned before, when I first began my journey into entrepreneurship , I did not expect that this would be the avenue I’d continue on with and actually find success in. I started with the simple idea of making-over outdated and/or damaged furniture, as I had enjoyed the process before and figured I could make a few bucks with it while I was figuring out my life. After posting the first set of “before and after” pictures on Facebook, I received an overwhelming response from my community and five orders of work to be done for new clients! I didn’t see the potential of an actual business in this realm immediately, but my wife did. She encouraged me to lean into this path and just see what happens. And that’s what I’ve been able to do: Simply take the next indicated action and go from there. I knew from the onset of my enterprise that most new businesses fail, and I’ve made sure to keep an open mind about the direction of my future. I’ve maintained a willingness to pivot if and when the signs were there and not let my ego demand that I go down with a sinking ship. After a handful of months, the writing on the wall was there, and it was red: I wasn’t making enough money to support my growing family! Sure, I was enjoying what I was doing, but I also needed to find a way to get by as well! That’s when the idea of also refinishing and painting cabinets came about and opportunities arose almost immediately. I was provided with the intuition and the opportunity to shift the business and expand my offerings, and again, all I had to do was leap. I’ve been able to hone my skills, please my clients, invest more into the business and the results have been able to speak for themselves! By offering furniture and cabinetry refinishing, my business potential and number of people I could help doubled! I believe that by continuing to keep an open mind and having the willingness to switch gears when necessary will give me, as an individual, the ability to survive and thrive even when the going gets tough. It’s been a joy to help people rejuvenate their homes by making over their entire kitchens at a fraction of the price of replacing all of their cabinets. It’s been exciting diving deep into the cabinet refinishing process and continuing to learn how to achieve the best possible finish in a short period of time. As the referrals continue and the business grows, I will soon be taking on employees to be able to help as many people as I can in getting their dream decor achieved with the customer service and quality all customers deserve.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I’ve already touched on how vital open-mindedness has been for me, as well as having the humility necessary to pivot when things aren’t quite working out. I’d love to share a few more concepts and skills from my own experience that have helped me drastically. The first thing that I’d like to discuss is my belief that outstanding customer service is king. In my experience, there is a difference between a transaction and an actual experience. People are much more likely to recommend a positive experience rather than a simple transaction of goods or services. In this day and age, paying for a service that you really feel good about and trusting the people you hire for a job can be hard to come by. In many cases, companies won’t even answer the phone or call you back. I believe that building lasting relationships with clients and treating them with honesty, dignity, and respect pays for itself tenfold. Not only does it positively impact my business by helping me build a favorable reputation within the community, it also simply makes me feel good about myself! And God forbid, if anything were to go slightly wrong on a job, I believe that a client will be much more forgiving and understanding with my company if I’ve built a relationship with them based on honesty, fairness, integrity, and trust. The customer service piece is so astonishingly simple yet so incredibly important. It’s a true joy for me to go above and beyond customer expectations and to see their eyes light up with the final product.
Second, I believe it is absolutely imperative that I have fun in whatever I’m doing. When I left my career prior to starting this business, I vowed to not take myself so seriously anymore and to have fun with whatever I decided to do. If a person is having fun and enjoying what they do, whatever it may be, they will naturally excel at it and have a genuine curiosity on how to improve. I stumbled across a field that I genuinely enjoy working in, but of course, I still have tough days just like everyone else, whether it be from a difficult task or simply being in a tough head space. I actually have a tattoo on my leg in the shape of a tombstone that reads “don’t forget to have fun” because for me, it is a practice to not take myself so seriously with the short time that I have on Earth. I must shift my perspective when I make mistakes into one of lightheartedness and growth rather than doom and gloom. I make silly videos documenting my work which I have a blast doing and that prospective clients have admitted to enjoying as well. Life is too short to be miserable and I mustn’t forget that. I have to keep the childlike curiosity alive and rest when it’s needed.
Lastly, I’d advise someone taking on a new venture to take it slow and steady. Let’s be honest, when we start a new project, we naturally don’t have all of the answers – At least I didn’t! For me, my mistakes are my greatest teachers, and I’d rather make a lot of mistakes early on while I’m still small, than attempt to take on the world and implode during a period that’s intended to be for trial and error. I was able to refine my craft through my time consuming mistakes early on and gradually take on more responsibility and challenging tasks when it seemed appropriate. In the same vein of taking it slow, I made a conscious decision early on in my process to not attempt to grow my business simply for the sake of growth. That is an ego-fulfilling proposition, and growth does not necessarily equal good business. This is very important. I’ve seen many business try to grow in an egoic fashion hoping that profit will closely follow, and inevitably collapse due to a weak foundation. I don’t mean to convey that growth is bad, as it’s a natural part of a successful business and will occur organically in time. However, I’ve experienced that the quality of my business and an honest profit is achieved by good business practices, management techniques, and time. Ideally, in the beginning, we’re building a strong foundation based off of principles and hard earned experience for a long and prosperous future to come.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

There’s an old phrase that says, “shoemaker stick to thy last!” My interpretation of this idiom is that it is better to do one thing very well rather than all things poorly. In other words, stick with what you’re good at and do what you know best. Now this doesn’t mean to not try to learn and improve upon different facets of your business, but I also ought to know my strengths and weaknesses, and stick to what makes sense for the company. I use this concept in a few different aspects of my business, including the choice of services we offer and also my personal role in the business.
First, I’ve found it important to only offer services that I specialize in and do them incredibly well, rather than take on jobs outside of my scope and possibly let clients down. For example, if you went to a pizza place and asked for Kung Pow Chicken, they likely wouldn’t want to bother making the Kung Pow for you. Not because they aren’t necessarily capable of making it, but it would probably take a long time to make, and it wouldn’t end up tasting nearly as good as if you bought from a place that specializes in Chinese food. I’ve been asked to build and fix different things for people that I know I’m capable of completing but have turned it down. Why? The same reason the pizza place doesn’t cook Chinese food: It’s not their specialty. I’d rather focus my attention on being known as the best cabinet and furniture refinisher in the area than being known as a company that does a vast variety of mediocre work. Again, this doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t expand my services when it makes sense for the company, but I ought to be careful not to spread myself too thin.
Now, how does this concept relate to my own role in the company and what I personally do? I think its normal for a business owner to want to do everything for the business, however I must ask myself what actually makes the most sense. There’s a lot that goes into running a business, and as I’ve progressed, I’ve learned that I shouldn’t spend countless hours on something I’m simply not good at when I have the ability to ask for help. An example for me is taxes and advanced bookkeeping. Now, I’m a bright guy. I know I have the capacity to learn all of this stuff, but how can I best utilize my time in reference to my strengths? I personally believe that as a business owner, I should have a basic understanding of the concepts in all of the areas of my business to keep a pulse on it and to know what’s going on behind the scenes. Yet often there is a way to assign some of the work that is inherently difficult for me to a qualified party, in order to make the most progress and optimize my time. I could spend weeks trying to get my taxes right, or I could spend a little money on a CPA to take care of it, and then spend the free time I now have to benefit the business in ways that I am actually good at. My company is still relatively young, so I tend to cover most aspects of the business, however as time goes on, and I continue to solidify my direction and grow my expertise, I intend to hire folks who can handle parts of the business better than I ever could. I think this is what makes companies great: Bringing people in and allowing them to shine, so the business can take on a life of its own, rather than having an egotistical death grip on it. I have years of business management experience, and I am excited to shift gears in the near future and change my own role in the business. People are what make businesses great.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://murrays-modernized.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murraysmodernized/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094498537883
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/murrays-modernized-furnishings-prescott-valley

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