Mike Michalowicz's Blog, page 24

Meet Team Michalowicz

Once upon a time it was just me in my basement. It was a little dark, kinda lonely, and the hustle was really real. 

Slowly over the years I have built a team that’s dedicated to fellow entrepreneurs and business owners. My team gets jazzed up about empowering via knowledge sharing, giving free resources, and what I hope is inspiring material for you in your business journey.

Because my team has grown, so have my leadership skills. I went from doing everything, to determining how to delegate tasks that felt precious to me, and as if I was the only one that could, or should, complete them. Once I found one amazing team member, others followed so that today, we have a Clockworked business with employees who are All In. Priceless.

Here’s the team that takes my systems and runs with them to optimize your experience as a business owner. And, instead of giving you our biographies, we thought it’d be fun to hear about some experiences that make us who are.

Kelsey – President, World Traveler, Singer of 80’s songs you forgot about

Worst job ever:  Customer service rep. at Vermont Teddy Bear Company. Nothing against the company but just the volume of calls and being the receptacle for people’s complaints.Favorite trip I’ve ever taken: I simply cannot choose a favorite. I love them all, but I will say my trip to Panama as it was my first solo trip and it made me re envision my life and myself, I suppose. Dream adventure: Oh gosh. I’m kind of a dweeb when it comes to adventures. If you mean in the sense of activities, I will say whitewater rafting, but the mild version. Favorite hobby: Reading.

Yours truly:

Worst job ever: My worst job was working for the company that acquired mine. I had no direction. Just “be billable.” My job was to fill in the blank – whatever the company needed at the time.But my grossest job, if you want that, was reconditioning jukeboxes. I loved the job… but it was gross. I would dismantle a jukebox from the 60s or 70s that was at a bar. Then clean it out. The interior of the box was covered with tar from smoke and would use degreasers to get it off. This black tar would just drip out. It was so gross. I knew I would never smoke after seeing that. I was 13 when I started that job, and did it all the way until college.Favorite trip I’ve ever taken: My favorite trip with my family was to Camp Kennebago in Maine. We saw moose. We went for hikes. We boated in a beautiful lake. The views were awe inspiring. And the stories… my god do we have such great stories from that tip.Dream adventure: I want to fly a glider airplane. I just need to devote the time to it… and need to ensure it’s safe. So for now, it is a one day thing.

Amy – Project Manager – Book Derivatives, Office Manager, Supplier of all snacks

Worst job ever: Office Manager for a surgeon with a mood disorder, who changed up his desired office procedures daily. It wasn’t any fun trying to protect my staff from his irrational behavior and belittling ways.Favorite trip I’ve ever taken: European tour of France, The Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland with my husband and sons.An adventure I want to try: I’d love to try out living my life in a tropical location by the water or in a quaint town in Europe for a year or so!Favorite hobby: Decorating. When I’m in a creative mode, I easily forget everything else I ought to be doing (including eating, and that’s saying something for a girl with the nickname Biggie Snacks! Ahem.).

Jenna – Content Creation, Copywriter, hater of abbreviated words and needless capitalizations

Worst job ever: I can’t say one job was the “worst”, because any experience has led me to where I am now and I couldn’t be happier. I will say, when I was nineteen I walked out on a boss that was pretty crummy to his employees. Now, I was living at home and had that luxury – and I found a new job that afternoon.Best trip – My cousins and I hopped on  a tour bus with senior citizens in Italy – and could hardly keep up with them. Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Capri, Amalfi, Pompeii, Vesuvius. I’d go back in a heartbeat!Adventure I’d like to try: Living completely off the grid in the woods.Favorite hobby – Hikes with my son and puppers.

Corde – Project Manager, Fix This Next, Cliffy Clavin of trivia

Worst job ever: Was not the “worst” but the most tedious – I thoroughly cleaned a local hair salon and did their towels on Sunday mornings every week. It killed any plans I wanted to have for the day as it took me close to 5 hours to complete.Favorite trip I’ve ever taken: One of my favorites was when I went to England and Scotland with my brother well before I was married in the mid 90’s.An adventure you want to try: See the Northern Lights / The Aurora Borealis in person.Favorite hobby:  JUST started needlepoint!

Erin – “The Doc” Master scheduler and in house fixer of pants

Worst job ever: CVS CashierFavorite trip I’ve ever taken: Camping road trip in the Baja PeninsulaAn adventure you want to try: Visit Turkish mosques to look at mosaicsFavorite hobby: Sewing

Adayla – Project Manager, Instigator of adventures

Worst Job Ever: Not actually my worst job ever, I loved it so much! HOWEVER, when I worked in wildlife rehab I HATED working with wild vultures, because their defense mechanism was vomiting on you. Being covered in vulture vomit for a 10 hour day was the most uncomfortable and horrid experience ever. Also the stench…Favorite I’ve ever taken: I went to Belize! I was in the jungle, tracking jaguars and doing all sorts of other awesome wildlife research.An adventure I want to try: I spend ALL of my free time from work rock climbing. I want to do a multi-pitch climb on Mt. Mizugaki in Japan.Favorite Hobby: This is a hard one… just kidding… rock climbing is my personality.

Stay tuned for more meet the team posts!

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The First Simple Steps to the Mindset (and Year) of Your Dreams

Resolutions. Goals. I know you want to crush them all. Great!

But. The root of what you want to experience must come from within. And you can’t see that clearly, let alone take action, unless you get centered. Now is the perfect time to clear your mind and energy, and make way for all you’re about to receive this year. This will require a mindset shift. Or ten. Depends on who you are, I suppose.

When I first started out I hustled. I used to grind my gears. After years of hard lessons I know now that my business won’t succeed because of me working harder, but smarter. And to do that, I need to show up as the best me. The same goes for you. 

You before business.

The entrepreneurial mind does not shut off and feels steps ahead of where we are in the present moment. The mindful entrepreneur has a growth mindset. Consider a few of these areas to focus on:

A mindset of gratitude – When I take a moment to meditate on what I’m grateful for, my energy tends to be more positive and lean into those areas.Remember your purpose – While the ho hum tasks are flying around, keep an eye on why you started your business in the first place. Keep commitments – It’s easy to say, “Yes!”. You’re likely a go-getter. At the same time, it’s difficult to fulfill commitments if you overextend yourself. And over extension leads to stress, and potentially a halfa#$ service.Celebrate the small wins – You don’t have to land a huge deal every day. The grind, while often monotonous, is all part of the journey.Avoid fear – Past challenges and what you may view and failures are not going to dictate your path going forward, no ma’am! If something didn’t go how you hoped in 2022, remember, everything can be figured out. Perhaps there’s another new, fresh approach to something that feels as though it was a stumbling block in the past. Clean it up – Create a workspace that you love. Clear your desk. Declutter. Get organized. Add a dream board or art that represents your purpose and what you’re working toward. (We also play music, have a diffuser, incense, good coffee…and someone, and I’m not mentioning names here, is a pretty good prankster.)Audit – Exciting, right? But, if you audit your systems, you will find redundancies and linchpins that you can eliminate, therefore leading to more efficiency, simplicity, time – and voila! Joy.Create good working relationships – My team has told me they love working together. It reflects in how they interact. It’s truly one of the huge ingredients in the secret sauce. And, serve each other at work – help each other out. It will come back to you. You’ll learn from your colleagues’ systems and responsibilities too. Do your R&D – On you! Never stop researching and developing yourself personally and professionally. This has been a huge key for my team, and me. Make sure you’re doing something (a hobby, travel, exercise, reading, in your personal life to balance out your work life.Take pause – In conversation, decision making, during a stressful moment, or even a wonderful one, taking pause will allow you to not only be deeply present, but also assist you in making more thought out decisions.

Try to create some moments to get centered, reset our minds and get laser focused on where we want to put forth our energy. 

You don’t have to be an entrepreneur. You get to be an entrepreneur. Accept the ride. Stay healthy. Keep a clear mind. Celebrate your wins.

Wishing you health, wealth, love and happiness. (This is my morning mantra.)

-Mike

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How Gratitude Elevates Your Business



This time of year we all tend to take stock of our lives and business. It’s so important to take a moment to appreciate the good that’s happening around you. I was chatting with a fellow entrepreneur about this recently and she said something that really stuck with me: There’s a difference between being grateful, and having gratitude.

Grateful

When you’re grateful, it’s a reaction and a moment of saying thank you, usually for a singular thing. How we are feeling fulfilled from all the great things in life. Being appreciative of the good things and the wins. 

Gratitude

Gratitude is a chosen state of being, and an appreciation for all things, good and bad. It’s an acknowledgement that everything has value, including the struggles, challenges and traumas we face – and we will! 

We won’t hold every situation as a positive in our lives. But, we can choose to feel an overall sense of gratitude for our journeys in their entirety. As we go through these journeys there are going to be ups and my goodness, there will be downs. I want to invite you to be in a state of gratitude for any circumstance. Maybe you won’t feel too grateful for it, but I wonder if you can be in a state of gratitude regardless of the situation. I truly believe it will elevate your business and entire life experience. 

The things we’re grateful for and the things we have an attitude of gratitude about – those are the areas that will naturally become nurtured just through that mindset and energy of appreciation. As I’m sure you’ve heard, where your energy and focus goes, there is growth. In light of that, assess what you can appreciate more in your life and business, and watch them flourish.

I have immense gratitude for you, your support, and allowing me to be on this small business journey with you. Serving you and watching your successes is something I treasure. 

Wishing you tremendous success, and things for you to feel grateful and gratitude for.

-Mike

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Business Thrives With Reciprocity

Smile at someone. They smile back. Reciprocity.

It is a law that has been around forever and the most successful entrepreneurs have always embraced it. The formula to reciprocity is simple. You get what you give.

 

In Life

Don’t believe me? Try these simple experiments in reciprocity:

Give a huge, genuine smile to the next person that walks by. They smile back. The law of reciprocity.

Give your spare change to a homeless person. Your heart fills. The law of reciprocity.

Give the bird to the guy who cut you off. He curses you out. The law of reciprocity.

 

In Business

I understand those prior examples were simple, but it goes further. Reciprocity applies to business too:

Genuinely help others to become wealthy and you will become wealthy.

Do whatever you can to help your colleagues and they will do the same for you.

Be fanatically loyal to your clients and they will be fanatically loyal to your firm.

Give without an expectation of return and you will receive without an expectation of return.

 

Give a smile.  You will get a smile.

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Small Business Shout Outs

Comment here to pay it forward and shout out your favorite small business!

We’re focusing on reciprocity and giving in December (and always, we hope). I thought it’d be a kindness to shout out some small businesses and garner some attention for them – for the holidays or the future.

I asked around the office, and or team members are shouting out these awesome small businesses:

Me first! My favorite: One small business near and dear to my heart is Woodlawn Refills, owned by Erin Chazotte, who happens to be my master scheduler. My wife and I became loyal customers a while ago and haven’t looked back. Erin has been actively pursuing a green lifestyle since her teen years, and has the worn-out canvas grocery tote to prove it. Now as a homeowner and mother of 2, she has seen her landfill and recycling bins expanding, giving her eco-guilt. Woodlawn Refills is a business built from passion for the environment and a curiosity for what the future can look like. Erin has inspired all of us here in the office and beyond how now is the time to create the “new normal”. We’re shifting habits in our office and own homes to reverse environmental impact, and passing that to the next generation. Erin says it best,  “A disposable culture is not a sustainable culture.” Learn more about Woodlawn Refills here.

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The Truth About Entrepreneurship



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The Edison Collective – Overcoming Challenges and Scaling Your Business



 

There are a few spots left for my own mastermind group, The Edison Collective. When we meet, we discuss our individual challenges, share knowledge, and create systems to implement and apply to your specific problem that very day. The Edison Collective isn’t a mere meeting to download or dump best practices or “tips & tricks”. It’s a small, exclusive group of fellow business owners who have similar shared experiences. We offer a confidential atmosphere, where owners and leaders share and develop strategies to make challenges into opportunities that scale that very day.

It’s like business coaching. But way better.

If you know you’d benefit from working in person with the group and me, apply here. Your business, and peace of mind, will thank you.

 

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Repurposing Content for Impact – And Efficiency in Your Business

 



I used to think that if I shared one thing one time, the entire world would hear it. 

Needlessly, I’ve worried that I’m repeating myself, prompting an eye roll from readers and audiences. I’m learning that just because you have said it before, doesn’t mean you should never say it again.

This is a recent lesson I learned. A few weeks ago I hosted a workshop to teach small business owners how to navigate through a recession. I’ve been talking about recessions, and a recession response and how to manage it for quite a while now. The content I shared with the workshop had a few repeats of what I’ve shared in other forums in the past. 

Maybe I said it before, but it was new to them. Their circumstances were unique to them, and so in this four hour workshop, we were able to buckle down and build strategies around their individual needs.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. If you have a powerful offering you know will serve others, get it out there on as many platforms as you can. Share it over and over again. 

When creating content, consider what’s been well received in the past. It’s not about being lazy and repackaging for convenience, it’s about efficiency. When you repurpose content, remember the purpose portion and make sure you’re serving well.

Repetition gets the message out. Sometimes hearing it in different ways helps people get more out of what you’re communicating. It all depends on how it lands with them at that moment. And, it opens up more opportunities for questions leading to a deeper understanding that they can apply to their business. 

Repeat away!

Wishing you health and wealth. (And yes, I’m repeating myself there.)

-Mike

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How Mastermind Groups Saved My Business

 



Want to know one of the best ways to get ahead of your competition?

 

Hang out with them. 

 

I’m not talking about stealing intellectual property. I am talking about meeting like minded business owners in a respected space that offers solutions to complex challenges and innovative strategies to scale your business. 

 

Sounds dreamy, right?

 

Enter mastermind groups. You know I love ‘em. So much so that I regularly attend masterminds with authors who I admire. I also created my own mastermind for small business owners. 

 

Don Miller, who I’m with in the above video, is a world famous author and speaker. He’s someone I’ve admired for years, and a while back I had the opportunity to attend a mastermind retreat with him and other fellow authors. (Footage here isn’t from the retreat. Let’s face it, what happens at the retreat stays at the…well, you know.) These days, I consider Don a friend and someone to learn from.

 

Before I learned of mastermind groups I used to wonder where in the world small business owners went to have some open, honest and dialogue. I had worked with business and speaking coaches, but where were my fellow business owners? Were they enduring the same challenges as I was?

 

Yup. 

 

I found out for sure when I attended my first mastermind meeting. I didn’t know what I was walking into. Various scenarios ran through my mind. Maybe it was like a support group for entrepreneurs. Or a twelve step program. Or maybe an intervention secretly arranged by my loved ones for workaholics. Fight Club?

There was nothing to fear, and everything to gain – for my business and my sanity.

Small groups, more attention

Mastermind groups are usually under fifteen attendees. This allows each member to have a turn hashing out what they’re dealing with. And, each member is vetted to ensure the group is a good fit for them.

Affordable coaching

If you don’t have a business coach, how do you really know if you’re on track? Ends up, masterminds are the most affordable business coaching platforms out there. Each individual attendee benefits. When one member speaks, the group listens intently, and then validates, makes suggestions, even empathizes. You get the perspective of each member, too, so it’s as if you’ve hired twelve or so coaches.

Share small business challenges and successes

Have you ever felt as though your challenges were only happening to you, or that others couldn’t possibly compute your excitement about successes along the way? In a mastermind, you’ll be reminded that even though you’re the one at the helm of your ship, there are other captains out there on the horizon, just like you. 

Collaboration & Generosity

I love that every time I’ve attended a mastermind, each attendee has left with an actionable plan to implement that very day. I’m talking about a new blueprint and a map to take steps to scale. Tangible stuff. Applicable, real deal material. That’s so incredibly unique. Usually, the competition would never share their secret recipes, but there is a generosity that comes naturally in the mastermind setting. There’s a feeling that we’re in it together, and that’s a big relief.

Create new opportunities through growing your networkI have met some amazing humans both attending and hosting mastermind groups. Some of them, I’ve even partnered up with in order to create streams of passive income. Deep friendships have been created and we’re all constantly making new connections that potentially grow our business.

As a result of masterminds, I’ve built and sold two companies and created two other current businesses. Time is precious, and even with that I am sure to attend and host masterminds several times a year.  This is my friendly suggestion to find and register for a mastermind, or even start your own. 

Wishing you health and wealth.

-Mike

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The Mindful Entrepreneur – Take Pause



There’s one practice I’ve implemented in my business and personal life that’s helped get me grounded and enhanced my communication and strategizing skills.

Taking pause. 

The entrepreneurial mind does not shut off and feels steps ahead of where we are in the present moment. The mindful entrepreneur has a growth mindset. 

This week, I invite you to simply take pause. Listen more. Talk less. Inhale deeply. Pause before responding or making decisions. You will feel more at ease, and you’ll open yourself up to opportunities that couldn’t get past your racing mind before. 

 

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