The Cliffhanger of Running a Sub-Business

I'm excited to bring you an episode from the Pivot podcast vault today—this is a conversation with a longtime friendtor, Mike Michalowicz, that stuck in my mind long after we recorded on February 5, 2020. The episode launched on March 20, 2020, and the last group gathering I attended was Mike's in-person Fix This Next workshop at his office in New Jersey on Friday, March 13. Boy was the world about to get weird!

Mike explains how to identify and serve the Queen Bee Role in your business, the cliffhanger phrase that freed up even more of his time to write and speak, his unique approach to IP licensing, “guinea pigging” new book ideas, how to stop keeping up with the EntrepreJoneses, and the secret to how he has been so prolific in publishing 8+ books in the last 15 years.

More About Mike Michalowicz: Mike is the creator of Profit First, which is used by hundreds of thousands of companies across the globe to drive profit. Today, Mike leads two new multi-million-dollar ventures as he tests his latest business research for his books. He is a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal and a business makeover specialist on MSNBC. Mike is a popular main-stage keynote speaker on innovative entrepreneurial topics; and is the author of Get Different, Fix This Next, Clockwork, Profit First, Surge, The Pumpkin Plan, and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur.

🌟 3 Key Takeaways

• Identify the Queen Bee Role (QBR): The core function in your business that is the biggest determinant of your company’s health and success—it’s “thrive factor”—where the uniqueness of your offering meets the best talents of you and/or your staff. “When this function is at full throttle, the business thrives, and when it is slowed or stopped, the entire business suffers.”
• There is an order you should follow when solving problems in your business, following what Mike calls the Business Hierarchy of Needs (sometimes oscillating between stages). You must address sales and cash flow first, followed by profit, order, impact, and finally legacy. If you try to optimize or improve things outside of this order, you may be missing the biggest problems hindering your progress.
• Try Mike’s “guinea pigging” approach for new IP: Test ideas through workshops for your target audience before developing them further into a book, course, or broader program. You can make these free or low cost to learn as much as possible from your users.

📝 Permission: Stop trying to keep up with the EntrepreJoneses!

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Identify or clarify the Queen Bee Role in your business as it relates to your personal purpose as the owner. For example, the QBR in Mike’s business is thought leadership, and his personal mission is “eradicating entrepreneurial poverty” through his books and speaking (which also help serve the company’s QBR).

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• Mike on the web: Mike Michalowicz, Twitter: @MikeMichalowicz, IG: @mikemichalowicz
• Run Like Clockwork business and programs
• Podcast: AJ Harper – Write a Book that Changes Lives (Including Your Own)

📚 Books Mentioned

• All books written by Mike Michalowicz, including Fix This Next and Clockwork (Revised and Expanded Edition)
• Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
• Write a Must-Read: Craft a Book That Changes Lives — Including Your Own by AJ Harper
• Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One

🎧 Related Episodes

• 032: Courageous Marketing With Mike Michalowicz
• 103: How to Land a Literary Agent and Publisher with David Moldawer (Part One)
• 105: “Don’t write the wrong book!” with David Moldawer (Part Two)
• 140: How to License Your IP (Intellectual Property)

☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask

📝 Check out full show notes from this episode and share it with a friend: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/185

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