Creator Science

#236: Mike Michalowicz – How the author of Profit First stays lean by licensing his ideas

Jan 7, 2025

In this discussion, Mike Michalowicz, bestselling author of Profit First and Clockwork, reveals his innovative licensing model that allows him to stay lean while delivering impactful frameworks. He dives into how partnerships enhance creativity and ensure practical implementation of his ideas. Moreover, Mike shares insights on his prolific writing journey, including the secrets behind quickly turning concepts into bestselling books while emphasizing the importance of continuous learning and rewriting in the authorship process.

57:30

Creator website

Episode guests

Mike Michalowicz

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Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Mike Michalowicz emphasizes the importance of building business models around joy to enhance engagement and productivity among team members.

His unique licensing model allows third-party providers to implement his concepts, enabling him to maintain a lean operation while broadening his brand's reach.

Michalowicz advocates for a collaborative author team structure that prioritizes flexibility and effective communication to boost creativity and project success.

Deep dives

Impactful Business Models

Mike Michalowicz emphasizes the significance of understanding one's business model and ensuring joy in work for everyone involved. He believes that finding happiness in what you do is paramount, suggesting that creating a business around joy leads to better engagement and productivity. Michalowicz identifies a common gap between the desired outcomes of starting a business and the reality of entrepreneurial struggles, suggesting that often it's not a mindset issue but rather flawed systems that need adjustment. By addressing these gaps and refining systems, business owners can achieve their intended outcomes while remaining true to their core values.

Intro

3min

Building Joyful Business Models

19min

Finding Perfect Partnerships for Creative Success

5min

Navigating Licensing and Publishing Dynamics

14min

The Power of Learning and Experience in Authorship

5min

Crafting Compelling Writing Frameworks

6min

The Power of Rewriting: Advice for Aspiring Authors

2min

Mike Michalowicz is the author of Profit First, which is used by hundreds of thousands of companies across the globe to drive profit – Creator Science is one of those companies. Profit First has helped me develop sound financials for my business.

He’s also the author of Clockwork, a powerful method to make any business run on automatic, and seven other books as well.

With more than 500,000 book sales, all of Mike’s books have the same goal – to help small business owners and eliminate what he calls “entrepreneurial poverty.” Simon Sinek has called Mike “…the top contender for the patron saint of entrepreneurs.”

This conversation is divided into halves:

The first half explores Mike’s unique model as an author. For each book Mike writes, he partners with a third party to license the frameworks from his books and serve as the done-for-you service provider. This is super uncommon and part of why he’s been so prolific while running a very lean team. So we dig into how that works (and what he’d do differently if he were starting over today).

The second half of the conversation is all about writing books. Mike has published nine books since 2008 – including 7 in the last 8 years. So we dig into how he determines what ideas to turn into books and how to write them so quickly.

Full transcript and show notes

Mike's Website / Twitter / Instagram / YouTube / LinkedIn

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RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE

→ #176: April Dunford – How self-publishing a book exploded her client service business.

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