Making First Class Relationships in Business with Mike Zeller

Welcome to True Grit and Grace, a podcast designed to empower you to claim your resilience and thrive through life's challenges. I am Amberly Lago, a mindset coach, fitness expert and bestselling author. Each week, I'll dive deep with the world's brightest thought leaders and elite performers to share tangible tools and practical advice to inspire you to keep your eyes on the prize and forge ahead. So get ready to conquer your fears, heal any trauma, lead with your heart, and elevate your life with grit and grace.

Hey there, and welcome back to the True Grit and Grace Podcast. Today on the show, I've got Mike Zeller with us. He is known as the top entrepreneur mentor to coaches and e-commerce entrepreneurs. Mike has had a hand in starting and owning 16+ businesses across multiple industries, including technology, real estate, fashion, digital marketing, high-level entrepreneur masterminds, and coaching. And his businesses have generated over 9 figures in total sales. I can't wait to talk to you about that. And if y'all, if you're a high achiever, you are in the right place because Mike helps you align your purpose with both your business that you want to build and the life that you want to live. He's got a new book that I can't wait to talk about. He's got a new book coming out. It's called The Genius Within. He's been featured in so many different articles including Forbes, Thrive Global, Fox News, Huffington Post, and so much more. Mike, welcome to the show.

Amberly, excited to be here. You rock and just love your energy and joy and humility and story and can't wait to dive in and connect further today.

Oh, well, thank you. I've been looking forward to having you on the show. We originally met on Clubhouse of all places where you have thousands of followers and you have people that are begging you to be on their panels because you speak a lot about, you know, getting rid of limiting beliefs and getting unstuck. And I want to get into that. But when I heard your story and heard what you've been through, this is all about struggles to success. And you have made millions in your business, but you've also lost millions too. You've, you've gone through quite a bit. So I would love to know just how you got to be where you are today because you have gone through so much. And sometimes it looks kind of easy if you're looking at Instagram or you hear your bio, but it's like, okay, well, how did you become so successful?

Yeah, they say, uh, you know, it's like, uh, most, most great success stories are like, you know, 13-year overnight success stories. Um, and I could definitely qualify. You know, originally I got involved in the entrepreneurship game as, uh, while I was actually in seminary. I got my master's in Christian leadership and moved to Nashville to help start a church targeted towards artists and creatives. But along the way, got involved in real estate and investing in real estate, started buying more real estate and realized I love the marketplace. I love the game of business and I was meant for that. And, but then I especially came to realize I love the people, the leaders, the people that are bold enough, creative enough, courageous enough, foolish enough to get in the game of entrepreneurship.

I like how you said foolish enough.

Yeah, yeah, I was reading the stat. 80% of businesses don't make it past, I think it's 2 years. And then the first, like, I think 18 months of an entrepreneur's journey, they take a minimal paycheck that they would have made far more money in a job than they would in their own business. And that's just the nature of the game. In my 30s, I was doing very well with real estate, but I also found my soul drying up. I was like, hey, if this is all I'm gonna do, yeah, I'll be worth millions of dollars by the time I'm 40 and I'll be doing very, very well. Wouldn't have to work again. Like I really had a path to not work by the age of 40, but I'll be bored and my soul will like be craving for more. And so I started to, you know, like entrepreneurs do, I started disrupting that and tearing some of that down and started a bunch of businesses a few years later. And by the end of it, by 2015, 2016, I'd started 16, about 15, 16 businesses, e-com, fashion, automotive, real estate, had 55 employees at one point. We were doing about $30 million a year in revenue and all my different ventures and had some trials and tribulations along the way. So.

Well, what was your biggest— I know you said you lost millions. And as an entrepreneur, I mean, I know I've definitely tried, I haven't lost millions. Well, except for my accident, I had millions of dollars worth of medical bills. So does that, I don't know if that counts. But I definitely have spent thousands on products that didn't work, mostly like invested in things to build courses or ClickFunnels and like thousands. And I'm like, okay, that time and money just didn't work out.

Oh yeah.

What is one of the biggest mistakes that you made that you learned from that really kind of moved you to where you were in a better place not to make those mistakes but make, you know, better decisions in the future?

Yeah. So funny you asked that. 2 things come to mind. First, your gifting or your area of genius is part of the reason you're successful in any area. Like, so part of my gifting, I'm really freaking fantastic at the business design, architecting themes, the culture, architecting out a whole business model. And I'm terrific at the start. I'm phenomenal at getting things off the ground, catalyzing momentum and movement and progress. But I suck. I'm horrible at managing the details. I'm horrible as it scales and grows. I don't want to deal with the legal, the tax, the operations. I want to just boom, innovate, create, and then hand off the final 20%. I'm good at the first. So I got myself in trouble because I had so many different businesses. And then I had a couple that were cash cows. Then one of them I sold out of. And then the other one in 2018, my business partner and I had a split. My team, it was my real estate team. And they ultimately, because of the split, they wanted to work with me, not necessarily with my other partner. We ended up splitting apart and I lost my cash cow business. It was going to be most of my income that year and I was working 5 to 10 hours a week in that business and it was floating some of the other businesses as I was building them up in maturity. And so what I was good at was starting things. What I was bad at was managing things and I hadn't chosen the right business partners. Not necessarily I'd chosen good people, I just hadn't chosen the complementary— let's say they were not complementary to my zone of genius.

And I think that's so important to really find someone. I always say, work on your strengths and hire your weaknesses.

Yeah.

And so I always, I always go for people, I'm like, I'm terrible at the administrative kind of stuff or the details. Like, it drives me insane to be in MailChimp or sitting at my computer all day figuring things out. I'm like you in that I like to create and do. I love to be with people and I like the creative part and the launch of something, but I'm the same. So how did you learn to pick a better partner or pick better people to work with? Or not that necessarily that they're better people, but matched better for you and for what your strengths and weaknesses are?

Yeah, good question. So I started paying attention. First, I think it begins with getting really clear on who you are. Socrates said, to know thyself is the beginning of all wisdom. And King David wrote, it's better to have self-control than to conquer a city. And so when we look at the very best leaders, actually the founder of Visa, as in Visa credit cards, he became a researcher on leadership when he retired from Visa. And he found that the very best leaders in the world spent more than 50% of their time leading themselves. So I was like, all right, so I led myself into situations that I didn't have the right partners. So I started distilling it down. I like, I have unique talents around starting things. I needed partners that were brilliant, equally brilliant at operations and looking around. Or if I'm brilliant at designing an offer but I don't have a massive audience, I don't have a massive audience on social media and that I'm okay with that. You know, eventually my audience is growing and it's growing fairly fast right now, but I know if I designed the right offer that's complimentary, I understand that side of the game, then we can hit home runs. So looking at—

Well, back to the, the, I just have to say something really quick about the audience on social media, everything in perspective, right? Because to me, you've got a great size audience and you've got a big audience on Clubhouse and you've got a huge audience on LinkedIn, but everything's in perspective, right? Because I remember when I first started out on Instagram that having 10,000 followers was like your goal. That was like, that's a lot. Now it's like you need 10 million followers to, I feel like, or at least 1 million.

Yeah.

And so I feel like it's in perspective. But I started looking at people's engagement more than I do the numbers because I learned a lot of times the numbers aren't real.

Yeah, yeah, it's true. I mean, Instagram is one of the hardest ones, I think. Um, uh, yeah, it's— you're right. And it's email list. I've noticed massive value in email lists, like with our challenge. We did this whole money mindset challenge on Abundant U called the Abundant U Challenge, and I partnered with MentorBox. MentorBox has half a million emails. Um, it's one of Tai Lopez's companies, and Guess what? We got 70% of our registrations from MentorBox.

Wow.

You know, so next round I'm like, all right, the people with massive Instagram audiences, we didn't get as much, but the people with big email lists. So now this next round we're going to do, have about 4 or 5 people with massive email lists. And that's how we're going to probably close the deal.

Collaborate with, so collaborate with people with massive email lists.

Yeah.

Well, I have just— and I'm doing a mastermind right now, and I'm— I was talking to everybody in the group about building your email list because some of the people in the mastermind don't have an email list yet. And I mean, I've been working on mine for a few years and it's still not where I want it to be. I'm still working on it. And I'm like, I've created different things. I've created download. I try to always provide value and I try to never like overload people's inboxes with junk. Like I try to always provide value, value, value. What has been one of the most successful things that you've done to build your email list?

It's really a game of experimentation. And when I look at, for example, Donald Miller, if you go to Donald Miller's website, Building a StoryBrand or storybrand.com, I don't know what it is. He has the same exact email. I'm sorry, same exact exit intent email pop-up opt-in that he's had for 4 years because he's found one that worked. And then you just, you just hammer it. You just don't give up on it. You keep doing it, doing it, doing it until it stops working. Um, right now mine, one of mine is secretsofclubhouse.com. And when Clubhouse was catching traction, like, I'm gonna create that. Boom, created that. And I get emails or opt-ins every day for that. Another one I'm working on right now that I think is going to be killer, I'll, I'll probably add 100,000 emails to it in the next 6 months because of this. It's going to be called, uh, The 5 Disciplines of Abundance, and I'll probably make that into a book, but I'm going to, um, do a nice attractive PDF and then hit on those lists that we were talking about earlier, where through the collaborations and partnerships you create a great offer for those lists like MentorBox. I'll probably pop that in, get that in there featured in their email. And then some others. And now, without hardly any ad spend, I think I'll get close to 100,000 emails from that.

That's amazing. Now, what, what system do you use to send out your emails?

I use ActiveCampaign. It's just—

Okay, I do too.

Yeah, it's okay. And ClickFunnels, I use ClickFunnels. And there's other softwares that are a little bit easier, but ClickFunnels works great overall, and, and the marketing community is super strong.

Okay. Yeah, I always like to get to know what, what works because there's, there's a lot of different things out there. I remember when I was designing my first course, I was like, okay, do I use Kajabi? Do I use this thing over here? Do I use this person's, you know, software? It's a lot. So I like to learn from people who have had a lot of success what they use and Stick to that. So that's good to know. So really creating something of value, and it can be as simple as a PDF. Believe it or not, the thing that has gotten me the most email signups to my newsletter is a simple downloadable gratitude journal.

Hmm.

Like a 3-page gratitude journal. That's been— well, speaking of your PDF, I want to know about Clubhouse because you have, you're like a legend on Clubhouse. I see you there. I like— you've got tons of followers there. Um, what are some of the secrets of your success on Clubhouse for building your audience, for, you know, getting asked to be, you know, speak on panels and just get— do you have a club on Clubhouse?

You know, I started one and then I was like, you know what, I don't have the— I really decided to partner up with other people that I was already friends with, that I built friendships with. And just help them grow their clubs, and then I have access to their clubs.

Smart.

Yeah, I'm really— one of the massive shortcuts to anything in life is looking across the aisle, looking around you and saying, hey, who else is going the direction I want to go, and how can we get there faster together? And so that's how I've approached Clubhouse. Clubhouse I just popped on in January, really end of December and January and started. I created some of my own rooms, but I would pop up and ask to speak and ask to speak and ask to speak and add value, like contribute and speak into people's lives. And fortunately, I've reached, you know, you've been through a lot in life. You can speak with authority on grit. You can speak with authority on fitness, on mindset, right?

Yeah.

Like I can speak with authority on mindset, business, online marketing, you know, other things because I've been through it. I just— now Clubhouse, you get on the right stages, you're gonna get hundreds and thousands of followers even. And occasionally you'll hit a home run. I had one room where we had— that I was the host of, we had Tiffany Haddish join and we had 5,000 people in the room within 10 minutes.

Wow. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. You can meet a lot of different people in Clubhouse. I was on a panel with Tori Spelling, and then I was on a panel with MC Hammer, which was crazy because that was the first music video I ever danced in, was with MC Hammer.

I love it.

And I'm like, who would have thought, like, 30 years later I'd be on an app talking with him? You know, it's just crazy. So yeah, add value, add value, I think. And that's what you do there. Ask to speak up and go on a panel. Like raise your hand, get up there. And I love the thing that you say is, and I see this in you, you're such a great collaborator. And you're like, who can I see that I can partner with and we can get there faster? And that's what I love about masterminds.

Yeah. Me too.

I mean how long have you been holding your own mastermind now?

Since 2017 was my first, I think it was '17. Yeah, 2017. So 5 years, I mean, but actually really 2 years before that, 2015, I started hosting a free one in Nashville and loved it. And people grew so much. I grew so much. I got tons of business from it. I think it's one of the best things in the world. You know, as us as community, we need community as entrepreneurs. I grow a ton just from my members. Learning from them and they learn from me, but, and vice versa. So there's a reason Napoleon Hill wrote about it in Think and Grow Rich over and over, right?

It's so true. Yeah. And now tell people who might be listening that they're like, what? I've heard of a mastermind. What the heck is a mastermind? Can you explain what that is?

Great question. So masterminds are really multiple different layers. Obviously there's virtual only ones and then there's in-person ones. I prefer the in-person ones. But virtual are great too. And I host both. But a mastermind is where 2 or more people gather together consistently, repetitively to connect and support one another because a rising tide lifts all boats. And so Napoleon Hill studied 500 of the world's most successful people commissioned by Andrew Carnegie in the early 1900s. And he found that they had 13 core traits or characteristics. And one of them was the regular occurrence of masterminding. Henry Ford masterminded with like Thomas Edison and multiple other guys of that era. And same thing, you know, you look at every civil rights movement, was it masterminding what's happening? Women's movement, masterminding. Revolutionary War, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, all those guys, Thomas Jefferson, it's a mastermind. Socrates, Jesus and the 12 disciples. Masterminds have existed throughout history. C.S. Lewis and Tolkien. Spielberg and who's the other guy they would collaborate? James Cameron and George Lucas masterminding. So it happens all over the place and it's just the reality of we sharpen each other, we open up doors for one another when we're in high-level groups that push us. And the goal, one of my goals is to be the youngest and the dumbest in more rooms because too often I was the smartest and I don't want to be. I want to be younger and dumber more often.

Yeah.

Thank you for saying that because some people feel like, oh, I don't want to do that because, you know, I had someone that was joining my mastermind and she goes, I just, I don't think that I'm qualified enough to be around those caliber of people that you have in your group. And I'm like, no, that is exactly the room in the group that you want to be in. You want to be. I'm like, I want to be in the room with the most successful and the smartest people. And I'm never afraid to ask questions. I love to ask questions because I love to learn. And so I love masterminds too. And I learn from everyone in the mastermind. And it's great because we can, in a mastermind, we've, I've got some people that were, you know, they're a little, weren't sure how to do a Reels on Instagram. And something as simple as that.

I don't know how to do a Reels.

Or building a website. Yeah. Well, I have a 13-year-old. So she kind of helps me out a little bit with everything.

Yeah, that's good. I have my team helping me on that because I'm not gonna figure out Reels or TikTok.

Well, you just had another baby. Now, how many kids do you have?

One.

One? I thought you just had one.

Yeah.

Your newest baby girl, who is just precious.

Oh, thank you.

Oh my God, is she like a couple of months old now?

She's 2 weeks, a little over 2 weeks. She's like—

oh, I thought she was like 2 months because you took a couple of months Off of Clubhouse.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow, you look like so rested to have a 2-week-old.

We're, we're doing pretty well. She's— we're— I mean, we did a ton, uh, to my wife's credit and our credit. We— she did it like— we do Emotion Code sessions, if you're familiar with that, releasing toxic emotions and energy. Like, so my wife's— I got her on it like 2 years ago just because she comes from a lot of trauma from childhood and all that, and just some abuse and things like that in the background. And so we released a lot of that and, and, um, and just were very intentional and conscious around foods, rest, and positive energy. Did a lot of— we did hypnobabies, going into a state of hypnosis during birth and things like that. She's peaceful. She sleeps pretty well. I'm getting 6 to 7.5 hours, not straight, pretty good, consistent. And my mother-in-law is graciously here. this week helping, uh, as well as we went for child care because it's a shortage right now.

So it's tough. We actually had dinner plans with some friends and we said, well, we don't have a babysitter. And she's like, you don't have a babysitter? And I'm like, no, we haven't.

I was like, we—

it's our anniversary coming up and we don't even have a babysitter for our anniversary. You know, it's tough with just finding someone during COVID but To have a new baby born, you know, with these times is like just so hopeful. I don't know. I saw, it's just beautiful. I saw your picture on Instagram and I was like, oh, how sweet. And I love that, you know, you're so successful and you say how important it is to be in the right mindset, but emotionally be, you know, grounded and stable as well and eat properly and sleep. That's so important because I think there's this—

Yeah.

time where it's— people are moving, well, I hope moving past the age of just grind, grind, grind until you just grind yourself into the ground, you know, or you hit a wall or get burnt out. So are there some practices that you do daily or weekly to help you stay kind of grounded and mentally sane with all the businesses that you run?

Yeah, definitely. I mean, Fortunately, I mainly coach right now as I've kind of sold out or closed other businesses or I still have equity in 3 other early-stage companies. But one of the things I do right now, I have a great morning routine. I, you know, the 4 energy quadrants, physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional. I learned about it through the powerful engagement of a top sports psychologist, wrote the book Powerful Engagement. And it's about rhythms. It's like rhythms of exertion. Like, you know, from your time as an athlete, you have exertion where you're just giving it your all and you just want to deplete yourself and push your limits. But if you don't have renewal, guess what? You just stop the cycle. And it's called this oscillating rhythms. The Russians in the mid-1950s discovered and popularized a lot of that because they were very successful in the Olympics. And us as Americans were like, hey, how did the Russians come out of nowhere? And just, you know, it was America versus the USSR. And, and it was because they were training the athletes to exert and renew, exert and renew. So in work, we should do the same because we're human beings, not machines. So I take a little quick break around lunch. Where I unplug from work. I might read ESPN. I might, you know, play a little bit for 30 minutes. I have a full day off on Saturday, you know, is my Sabbath. I take start-stop times. I make sure my foods are really good. I make sure I get good workouts in, do some meditation in the morning. I'm drinking matcha latte. That's just delicious and kind of puts me in the right mindset and, and, and feeding my mind spiritually before I open my emails. I don't want to be a yo-yo, a human yo-yo to responding to everyone's text messages and phone calls and Instagram. So my phone's in airplane mode a lot, but especially overnight and in the morning.

Oh yeah, I have a, I guess it's It's a bedtime reminder on my phone, so it automatically goes into like airplane mode or silent mode. I don't get any calls or anything, um, after a certain time. And my husband would be like, you have got to turn that off your phone, I've been calling you and calling you. And I'm like, sorry, you know. So I finally turned that off, but it really does help. I needed that reminder actually as like my phone starts blinking, the lights go on and off, the flashlight, when it's time for me to start winding down and go to bed and like stop looking at my phone. Because I looked and I spend, you know, sometimes up to 14 hours online. It's crazy.

Yeah.

And, you know, but I do coaching online. I do everything online. But, um, so I love to hear that you have this ritual and how important it is to take a break. Because it— there, there are seasons where, yeah, you have to push a little bit harder. Like you right now, you've got a new book coming out.

Mm-hmm.

And I know how much effort goes into that. But I think the more that you can talk to people who've done it before you, which I didn't really do when I wrote my book, that was a big mistake. I didn't know what I was doing. And I was just like, yeah, I'm gonna write a book. And so I want to know, how long did it take? First of all, your book, what's it called? Yes, I just gave the short title, but read the subtitle for us too.

You got it. Oh, and before I forget, one last little rhythm of renewal that I think you'll like is every year my wife and I travel to one of the world's 50 most beautiful cities and live there for at least a month.

Oh, before we get into your book, I did want to ask you about that because I wasn't sure at first when I saw that about you. I was like, does he live in a different place for a month at a time, but you just go for a month and you live somewhere else for a month.

Yeah.

Is that right?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh, I am just trying to get my husband to go away to the Four Seasons down the street for our anniversary next week. He's got to listen to this podcast episode because that's amazing. I'm sure you feel like a new person after doing that.

Yeah. Now I'll still work for a good chunk of that, but it's like just the fact I'm in— like, we'll usually go to Europe. And all right, so like last year we were in Florence for 3 weeks, Ireland for 6 weeks, we were in Charleston for a month. So we really did like 3 trips last year, but we were renewed. And it's like that spirit of adventure and play and discovery that excites us, that renews our soul. And that's in the midst of COVID and pandemic, right? It's just a must whether, you know, the years of 2018 and 2019 were like financially it was really lean because I lost my cash cow business. We still did it. We just did it on more of a budget. And you can still, you can do it on almost any financial means. And so, but it just creates, you look at a lot of great discoveries and a lot of just the joy of life when we spread out adventure instead of waiting until we're retired or something like that. And Americans, we're kind of addicted to work, and, and I can be addicted to work in some regards of— I like my work, it's purpose, it's mission. But man, you discover so much and the world becomes this beautiful playground. So that's—

And it sparks creativity, I feel like. And I like that you say that you can do it on any, any budget, and really just about any budget, because I went backpacking across Europe for a month when I was maybe 21 or 22 years old. And I had $1,200. And that was like, that included my plane ticket there and a Eurail pass. I mean, we were living in hostels and backpacking and sleeping on trains. But it was epic. I loved it. I mean, I got mugged in Florence. When you mentioned Florence, I'll be like, oh yeah. They didn't get my money though.

Good, good.

They didn't get it. But what was your favorite place to to go visit or go live for a month?

Uh, so far it's Florence. I mean, we've been to—

Really?

Yeah, because once you're in that little, uh, center inner city, that small and old city of the inner— it's like amazing. Just walk around, life quality, the food is exceptional, the fashion, the weather's generally pretty good.

Just don't be at the train station overnight and get locked out of the train station. Gets a little sketchy.

Yeah, I can imagine. Yeah, single pretty girls, uh, that's probably not a great spot. But, uh, yeah, but we—

I was just gonna say, I've just— it— you're just taking me back to that moment. I'd been locked out of the train station all night. We finally get on the train and there's this, you know, guy that comes up. And I had been— I had a knife and I had held it in my pocket all night because there were people kind of circling us sketchy, kind of like they were wanted. Our backpacks. So I didn't sleep all night. I was just up on guard with my knife in case anybody came near me. I mean, it was bad. So I get on the train and I had had it. I'm like, oh, finally, maybe we can sleep a little bit. And this guy comes up and he comes, he's like, give me your money. And it was just reflex. I pulled out my knife and I was like, you're not getting my money. And he took off running. And I'm thinking, he's thinking, Oh my God, that American girl was crazy. But I kept my money. So you took me back to that moment in Florence.

Pretty badass.

So I'll have to go back there and revisit and look at the fashion and have a cappuccino.

And yeah, if you go back, well, we got married in Florence and I've been there 7 times, I think now.

Wow.

It's so— I mean, I've lived in London. Been to Paris probably 4 or 5 times, Barcelona another 4 or 5 times. It's like, uh, Berlin, Vienna, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, uh, Florence is the best. You know, I've been to 30+ countries. Florence is my favorite city in the world. And now my wife, same for her.

So—

Oh, and how long have y'all been married?

Well, we got married in 2018, so Yeah, right, right, right when I was melting down business-wise, we got married.

So, well, you have done— you've done some amazing things. And before we talk about your book a little bit, I wanted to just say where I saw that you gave cars or donated to give cars to single moms.

Yeah, we, uh, we had a socially minded car dealership. So it was a twofold goal. One, first create the best car buying experience in the city, if not the country, which we did. I feel like it was called Providence Auto Group. And it was like CarMax except better value and better price points with similar quality car. And then secondly, every car we sold helped us give away a car to a single mother or someone in need. And during my time of owning part of the company, I was a partner with 2 other guys and we gave away 31 cars worth about $300,000 worth of value.

Wow.

And mostly to single mothers, and most of them had never had a driver's license.

Wow.

And because they never thought it would be possible to own a car. So imagine you're a 24-year-old mom taking the bus in Nashville, hour and a half this way, an hour and a half that way, and it's now your commute time instead of being 2 hours plus a day is now 20 minutes, 30 minutes. Changes their life, changes their economic capacity. So That was one of my, one of my prouder entrepreneurial achievements thus far.

That just really touched my heart because I was a single mom for a long time and really just— and I didn't have a car for a while. And so when I read that, I was like, oh my goodness, that just really touched my heart. You've done some really incredible things, some adventurous things, and, you know, some things I really Some, you've done some very admirable things that may, that inspired me, like all the books that you have read. And I have a stack, if you could see my office over here, like almost to the ceiling of books that are my next, it's my reading list. And I'm like, and a stack in my bedroom. There's so much that I want to read. Um, I end up spending some time on Audible. I love Audible because I can, but I don't think it's the same. I like highlighting in books.

Yeah.

But you've read like 1,500+ books. Is that what inspired you to write your own book?

You know, good question. I knew I had this sense maybe that I was going to write someday. But frankly, I just felt like it was, it was something that needed to be said. And in the sense of one of the greatest questions that we ask as human beings is like, what on earth am I here for? What's my purpose? And then secondarily is coaching a lot of entrepreneurs, hundreds of entrepreneurs last few years. We ask, all right, so can I actually make money from my purpose or my passion or how? Right? And so, and then losing a lot of money as well where I made a lot of money but also lost a lot of money playing out of position. You know, I was in the wrong lane. I was like, hey, I got to help some other entrepreneurs not make the same boneheaded mistakes I made of stretching themselves or playing too long. Like, we can all play out a position for a little bit on grit and determination and discipline. But frankly, if you suck at something or you're just not wired to think and act that way— like, I'm wired to create. I'm not wired to manage. If I manage for too long, I can— I know all the principles of management. I've read the books.

I know them.

But if I stay in that lane too long, I'm I'm gonna burn the ship down. And not purposely, just because of— I'm— it's like a rooster is meant to crow in the morning, you know. If you ask a fish, judge a fish by its intelligence based on how it can ride a bicycle, you know, you're gonna be— it's pretty dumb.

Well, I think that it causes a lot of anxiety and depression and stress When you are doing that, when you're not like really aligned with what you are meant to do with your business and your life. And I think that when you can align your business and your life and what you do, it all just works so much. It flows. And it's fun. And you enjoy life more. And I understand that, yeah, there are times when it's been extra work for me and that grit does come into play. And it's like, I need the grit to get through this. And anything, I mean, even in, in podcasting, I love, I love talking to you. I could talk to you all day. I know we're running out of time, but I mean, I love this part of it. The editing and all that, thank goodness I have a producer, or I probably wouldn't have a podcast because I don't know if I could do that, all of that. But I think a lot of people— I just got, I had a friend of mine send me a report that my podcast was in the top 1%. Now, that's out of a lot of podcasts. That's because so many people start a podcast and they don't go through with it. There are so many podcasts out there. I've just been consistent. I've been like, every week, no matter what, I'm getting the next episode out there. You know what I mean? And so I love that. I think we need a book out there that shows people how to do that, how to tap into their purpose, how and how to make money at it too.

Yeah, yeah. And what I've found is, is like I've worked with a lot of people that were in transitions. Like one of my current clients, his net worth is over $10 million, and then another, others are like less than $100,000 or whatever, right? And but he's in a season of transition when he's asking, like we all, until we breathe our last breath, we want to be We want to make purpose and meaning in our lives. So I've found there's 4 key quadrants that if you assemble the clues, if you like gather the clues, think of it, it's like you're just putting all the clues on the table and then looking for the patterns. So the first one is like, what are your unique talents? So I have people go through 5 different personality tests, including the Wealth Dynamics, StrengthsFinder, Kolbe, DiSC profile, Myers-Briggs. Even Enneagram, many, many people are more familiar with that. And the second thing, take inventory of your key relationships. Like when I did that, I was like, oh, I have this cluster.

I have—

why do I— I've never even written a book at the time. Why do I have all these bestselling authors as friends or massively successful e-commerce business owners? That's clues. So those are 2 clusters, right? The 3rd cluster is entertainers and athletes. Ah, there's something there. I haven't created something in that marketplace yet, but it's coming. And then I ended up marrying a poet and a novelist and a writer, right? And a musician. So like all those things are— then the third thing, after you go through your key relationships and see what patterns emerge and the people that naturally bring you life versus the people that bring you death. Like we have those people where we're like, man, I can't go to another party with that group of people. I'm going to just put a gun to my head. I do, right?

I'm just laughing because, yeah, my husband said pretty much that same thing the other day.

But then these other people, dude, I want a vacation with these people. I want to be around more.

Yes.

You know?

Yeah.

And then, and then, then the third thing, you put that together with your key, your defining life experiences. And, and your life experiences are like, oh, Those are your messes. You know, they say your messes become your message. But also those clues of like, oh, something was stirred when I experienced this, or like that seed was planted. Oh, I remember loving this as a kid. Maybe it was painting or maybe it was that— like I've had even— I had a girl I dated one time 12 years ago or so. I helped her get back, get into art. She loved— she was a corporate, like VP type girl. And her soul was dying. But I was like, hey, what did you love as a kid? Art and painting. Now she's a very successful artist.

And that's amazing. And that's something that I always say too, is— and, and that I thought about, what did I love as a kid? And my most joyous moments were at the Dairy Queen when I was maybe 6, 7 years old. And every Friday night I'd get on the table and dance to the jukebox after the football games. And those were the best moments.

I thought you were going to talk about your Dairy Queen Blizzards. I love my Dairy Queen Blizzards.

Dairy— well, I had one of those too every Friday night. But no, I mean, they didn't have Blizzards back then. Those weren't invented then. We just had old-fashioned milkshakes back then. But, but yeah, and I, I thought, well, what is it about that? And it's because I love seeing people joyous. I love when I can see people, the light come on in them and they smile. And I love being around people that way. And so I'm like, that's probably why my favorite thing to do now is to go speak at conferences because I get to connect with people. I get to hug them. I get to, I go down in the audience and like I'd rather be there. You know, I hang out there. Yeah. So it's so much fun. I'm starting to do in-person events again. I'm so happy about that.

Oh, that's great.

Yeah, yeah. Um, but it sounds like you traveled a lot. Did you write your book on your travels through COVID, or when did you write it?

Good question. So, um, you know, uh, I wrote it actually mostly November of last year because my wife was like going to— she was like rough first trimester. We were going to bed at like 9:30 at night, and I'm like, well, I guess I might as well just get up super early and take some nootropics and, uh, and crush my writing this book idea that I had. And so I would write 3 or 4 hours a morning before like 8 AM or before 9 AM and, and, uh, wrote most of the book then. And then just took me a while to edit and polish and all those things.

So yeah. That's amazing. And it does take time and discipline to, you know, decide and then actually do it because so many people say, I want to write a book, I want to write a book. And I'm like, no, you just have to set aside the time And actually start writing. And so when is it coming out?

Uh, it's coming out here in about 4 weeks.

4 weeks? That's gonna be right around the corner. You have pre-orders for it right now, right?

We, we're finishing up the, the page for that. Don't have it quite ready, but we do have, um, I have a 6 Steps to Finding Your Genius, uh, download so you guys can get that. And it breaks down 6 of the core components which Cover the first 3, your unique talents, key relationships. The 3rd one, your key life experiences. The 4th is your values and passions. So those are the first 4. And then we go through things like finding your $10,000 an hour activity, other things, your life and death exercise that helps you just inventory your life. Like, hey, what brings me life? What brings me death?

So that's awesome. Wait, what? Where can people find that?

I've got the link. I'll, I'll give you, send you the link. And I don't remember the exact Okay.

If you're listening, because I've got my pen in my hand right now, I'm, I'm asking because I want that for myself. But you know what, for you listening, if you're tuning into the show today, I'm going to have that link for you in the show notes. So you'll be able to get the link so we can all download that because I really want to take a look at that.

And I forgot, I do have a text opt-in that's pretty easy. If you text to 474747, text the word genius, U, as in the letter U, Genius U, you'll get the link to the downloads as well.

Okay, that's easy. And I will have that if you're like out exercising or hiking or driving, don't worry, that will be in the show notes too. So you guys can get that. And I can't wait to read your book. I'm so happy for you. Now, are you going to do any book signings or those? Because I know it was really rough for people who— I mean, I feel so grateful that I got to do a book tour all over the US. And so many authors that their books came out during COVID and they didn't get to do that. Are you going to be doing a book tour at all?

I haven't finalized. I'm doing a podcast tour, that's for sure. And so, you know, the full— with the book, the full title is The Genius Within: Your Natural Pathway for Impact, Fulfillment, and Prosperity. And so, you know, we'll be doing a big Big podcast promo, uh, round and potentially at least a mini tour, but I've got it pretty packed, uh, next few months anyhow. So I don't know, I don't know how, how active I'll be on, uh, going to physical bookstores.

Um, but yeah, it's so much fun. And you know what I did? You sell out at your very first book signing and then you can do any store anywhere you go. So now when I travel Yeah. I always ask if I'm gonna be in Dallas. I'm like, hey, I have a book, uh, I could come to your store and do a little signing. I sold out at all these other places. And sure enough, they— everywhere I went, they, they set it up for me. We just, you know, ordered a certain amount of books, and, and it was fun.

So amazing. Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, yeah, do that. But come to LA. Come, you know, I love LA. Come see me and, um, I'll be at the book signing. I'll get my book signed. You're so awesome and you share so much. I love all that you share just about collaborating and adding value. And you're just such an amazing person and I'm so glad we got to talk more. I mean, it's been fun on Clubhouse, but I'm glad I got to spend a little more time with you. And I, I can't wait for people to hear this and for them to read your book. So thank you. And again, tell people where they can follow you on Instagram. And you're also on LinkedIn.

Yes. So guys, Instagram is @themikezeller. That's my Instagram handle. LinkedIn, Michael Zeller. Facebook, Michael Zeller. TikTok, I think it's Michael Zeller as well. But I have like 2 videos on, so I don't know what you're gonna see on TikTok. But also the book, I promise you guys this, you go through that book and you do the exercise, exercises I have in there, you will have the greatest accumulation of clues about who on earth you are and what on earth you're meant to do than you will have ever had in your life. And without fail, I've seen that happen 100% of the time when someone goes through the exercises. And that affects the rest of your life, your marriage, relationships, business, career. That's why I'm so passionate about it. There's nothing more important in many regards to figuring out alignment. And like we were talking about earlier, I want to help people step into aligned abundance, not hustle and grind your soul to death for abundance, but aligned abundance where you can make a big dent in the universe but also find great fulfillment. So that's, that's what I live for and would be honored to serve any of you guys and would be honored to Celebrate. If you guys buy the book, I'll certainly shout it out and just tag me on one of the platforms and would be honored.

Yeah. In fact, y'all, if you— there was one of the, you know, moments in here that inspired you, take a screenshot and tag us both, Amberly Lago Motivation and The Mike Zeller on Instagram. And so we can see it and say thank you or share it ourselves. I always like to share when I see somebody has tagged me. So Thank you so much. And yeah, hopefully you get to LA soon on a book tour. I'd like to see you.

I would love to.

Thanks.

Thanks so much for joining us this week on True Grit and Grace Podcast. If you like it, please rate it or share it with your friends.

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