#007: Mike Michalowicz — Break Free from the Starving Artist Mindset and Manage Your Money with Confidence

May 7, 2022

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Can creativity and money go hand in hand? How can we guarantee that we pay ourselves a profit no matter how much we earn? In this episode we talk to Mike Michalowicz about his Profit First method that helps creatives manage their money better, pay themselves well, and make a profit. We also talk about guerilla marketing strategies, connecting with your readership and how to build your confidence.

Mike is the author and creator of Profit First, a methodology used by hundreds of thousands of companies across the globe to drive profit. Profit First is a perennial global Top 20 Book, in the category of Personal & Business Finance (Publishers Weekly) and has transformed readers’ lives. Mike is the author of Fix This Next, Clockwork, Surge, The Pumpkin Plan and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. Simon Sinek calls Mike Michalowicz “the patron saint of entrepreneurs.”

SHOW NOTES

[05:26] On being considered as the patron saint of entrepreneurs by ‘Start With Why’ author, Simon Sinek, and how Mike built a relationship with him

[08:31] Mike shares how he lost everything and how it became his purpose to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty and pursue his dream of becoming an author

[11:37] How journaling became an outlet for Mike to address his depression and a source for ideas for his book

[14:30] Mike's dream of being an author and how to qualify the naysayers

[16:40] Mike shares how he went from having 20,000 copies of his books and zero sales to selling a hundred thousand copies using guerrilla tactics

[18:46] Mike shares his ultimate hack for freelancers, writers, creatives to be permanently profitable

[24:43] On doing different and why we should overcome our fear of rejection and being an outsider

[25:56] What does it mean to pay yourself first? And why it became Mike's ethos for his book Profit First

[32:48] Other key tenants of the Profit First system, including what he calls the five foundational accounts

[37:52] On why it's our responsibility to share our work and ask people to consume what we have

[42:34] Life's mission as the ultimate motivator, and how we can use our pain to help you reach your goals

[47:01] Mike shares how he uses pain and pleasure to manage his finances, and the difference between denial and delay

[49:34] Mike's battle with self-doubt, why reaching out to your followers—no matter how small—is important, and the recipe for confidence

QUOTES FROM MIKE

“So many authors, poets, writers are simply just trying to scratch by, to survive and therefore they can't give their best. There's this constant worry. They're going to sleep, not thinking about their next great creation. They're going to sleep saying, “Holy shit, how am I going to eat tomorrow?” To give our best, we must make sure that we're satisfied that we're served and protected. And that's what profitability does. It allows you to protect yourself. So our clients, our readers thirst for that. So you have to be profitable. The technique to do this is the pay yourself first principle. Apply it to your business. Every time you have income coming in from the work you sell, you subtract a predetermined percentage of that money as profit, hide it from yourself and then run your work off the remainder. And what this does is it starts accumulating profit...”

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