In this promotional interview, Speaker A introduces Mike Michalowicz, founder of Obsidian Launch, a firm that helps businesses become niche industry leaders. Speaker B shares entrepreneurial insights: the critical importance of being the first in a market, the idea that "best" is defined by the consumer’s perception, and a newly coined term "moach"—a hybrid of mentor and coach that blends industry expertise with hands‑on guidance. He illustrates the 5% difference principle with a story about a New Jersey farmer who grew a massive pumpkin by tweaking only a small fraction of standard practices, linking it to the discipline of bootstrapping. Finally, he explains the power of exclusivity and scarcity, promising to reveal a "shrimp bowl" anecdote that demonstrates how limited availability can drive desire and urgency in sales.
Mike Michalis is the founder of Obsidian Launch, a company that partners with businesses to make them niche industry leaders.
All the winnings go to the number one guy. There's nothing that goes to the losers. You gotta be first or you're done. At least that's what I thought. The best isn't the best in the world, it's the best in the consumer's vision of the world. I think you should look for a moach. This is a word I just termed in my head, but a moach is where you take the best parts of a mentor, someone that's in the industry, maybe a competitor. A coach often isn't from your industry, but they'll be with you every step of the way. If you just look for a mentor, they're gonna help philanthropically, but they have other things to do too. I read a newspaper. And on the back side was a story and it says, "New Jersey farmer grows half-ton pumpkin." In there, the journalist interviewed the farmer and said, "How do you grow such an extraordinary pumpkin?" And his first words were, "It's only 5% different than what the other guys do." Which coincidentally is the 5% of things that wildly, colossally successful entrepreneurs do. Freaking bootstrap. Because it forces discipline. It means you have to form a good, strong, solid business on the few pennies you have. Tendency going on here. It's called the power of exclusivity or limitation. When something is exclusive, it becomes more desirous. You'll probably believe the shrimp bowl effect I'm about to share.
The shrimp goes away like this.
There's always one left because if you eat that one, you're a pig, right? There's always, there's always that one left. Something is limited in its availability, we consume it and desire it more. You know, a sale has to be summed up very strongly in the last 30 seconds. They had their opportunity.
