Your Questions For Mike Answered| Behind The Mike Exclusive Interview

All right.

So, uh, thank you listeners for joining in. Jeremy and I are lamenting about Wi-Fi connections and internet speeds, but there's something exciting to share. I'm gonna share insights into my new book, how the process is in writing a book, what the book content is, stuff like that. So, uh, Jeremy's gonna interview me. You're gonna get some insights. Before we kick this off, if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you subscribe, hit that notification bell. If you're listening through a podcatcher, make sure you subscribe to your podcatcher so you don't miss a single episode of Mike Up in Your Business. Jay Shlone, how you doing?

Good. You just, uh, you just released your book.

Wow.

When this airs, you, your book will have been released.

Oh, that's right. That's right. Cause we're recording this about a few weeks or earlier. That's right.

So, so how, how are you feeling now that your book is, uh, fake released? Cause we're fake Yeah, well, I do have—

look at this. Um, you haven't been to the physical office up here, but, uh, these have come in. So this is not a galley copy, which is traditionally produced. This is a special print run that Penguin did because galley copies are so hard to come by. Um, but I'll tell you, once you receive something like this, there's a relief, there's a completion to the task. But there's also this weird feeling. When I first said, I'm going to start writing this book, I was all jacked up. I'm like, this is going to be awesome. I can't wait. This is going to be a game changer. I'm writing and I'm writing. And at a certain point, and it happens with every book, I remember distinctly with Prop First, I'm like, this is the worst book ever. I suck. I'm dirt. And then at a certain point it's like, well, this is the best of me. Let's see what happens. So there's this super high expectation. Then there's this reverse for me where I think I'm scum. And then at the final end, I'm like, well, this is the best I knew at the moment. So let's see how the world responds. I really feel Get Different is my best writing, my best work ever. I do this collaboratively with AJ. So I write all the concepts, I write it, she then cleans it up. It goes back and forth, back and forth. I love it. And the other thing too is there's been some early feedback. So some people have gotten the book. And, uh, have emailed me because they got this copy. We sent it out to some, some people have pre-ordered it and the feedback has been good. And the, what I mean by good is not like, oh Mike, it's a great book, I love it. That's wonderful. But when I say good feedback, it's, they say, oh, I saw this line in here and changed my perspective on marketing. Oh my gosh, I have a responsibility to market. That feedback's been very helpful. So I'm excited but nervous.

All right, well, here I'm gonna— so we get a lot of questions from people directed towards you, and, um, I think a big curiosity is around the writing process itself, and people want to kind of know a little bit more about you from, you know, from the author side of things. So if you haven't, uh, go to gogetdifferent.com, grab the book, uh, just released. Uh, but now I wanna ask you some, some questions. I hope, I hope you enjoy these. I think that, I think these are gonna be entertaining. Okay. So as far as your writing process goes, uh, how do you come up with the ideas for, uh, your books? Are there any like creativity exercises that you, that you do? Or it's just like you wake up and you're like, okay, this is what I need to do for my next book.

Yeah. So there's one thing I, I maybe you notice every morning, um, every weekday morning, 6:00 AM, I start a sprint writing. So this morning I was writing again and there's other authors that show up. Recently, during the summer months, it kind of slows down. So recently, a few occasions it was just me by myself. Other times there's this guy Josh and Damon show. But what I do is I go into it and I'm like, ooh, what am I going to discover today? That's— I don't go in saying this is what I'm gonna write about as much as what am I gonna discover? And that's been like a game changer. So I'll start writing a concept, but then I'll start doing some research and then it's like, oh, so today I literally was researching hydraulic spade machines. These are machines that can go in and pull trees out without damaging a tree and move it. Because I'm, I'm already writing my next, next book. I'm always writing. I'm not in season when I'm in season when the manuscript is due. It's 4 hours a day of writing. When I'm off season, it's an hour, maybe 2 max a day of writing. And, um, it's really exciting. So I was researching out this, I discovered what a, um, a skid steer was. I didn't know what that was. That's how you could make it basically a mini bulldozer. And so, um, just what am I going to learn today? The discovery and the creativity comes out of interviews. Um, and reading, um, and the news and those different outlets. So it's actually not during the writing process that I'm getting creative. I'm just expelling what I've discovered. I love doing interviews. That's probably my favorite. Like when we do these podcast interviews or something, I take notes and I'm scrolling down stuff and someone will say something like, oh my gosh, that is really an interesting angle. So I was just interviewing Jonathan Fields, for example, on, um, his new book called Sparked. And he talks about this concept called spark. He calls spark types. And what he said that was different than I've heard before, like Myers-Briggs and so forth, is there's something that drives us. There's also something that drains us, and they kind of work like a yin and yang, and you have to be aware of both, uh, and how they work collectively. It's like, oh, that does an interesting thing. So I wrote down that idea. I'm like, I'm gonna interview this guy further for when I write a book, not about that concept, but it's gonna touch on What gets employees fully engaged? What gets people loving their job and so excited that they're there? I wanted to really figure that out and write a book about that. And so it was from that discovery now that I'm curious about this, and that's where the, um, creativity comes from.

So it's kind of like reverse engineering, like you, there's something that fascinates you that you think can relate to entrepreneurship and then you reverse engineer it.

So I have, um, I use OneNote. Do you know what OneNote is? Do you ever hear of Evernote? Okay.

I think so.

Same. Yeah. So OneNote, it's just OneNote is Microsoft's collection platform, like Evernote, and I'm always putting notes in there. So that sparked idea that Jonathan Field shared. I put it in, in a book tentatively titled All In that I'm working on, and I insert these things. I have maybe 30 different topics that I'm just collecting information on. The topics come about from entrepreneurs themselves. So when I'm like traveling, speaking, or have a call with an entrepreneur, I'll ask 'em like, you know, tell me about the challenges you're facing. And I'm looking to listen for a common thread. So the next, next book, so this book Get Different comes out, or it came out already, September 21st, depending on when you listen. The next book is Clockwork revised and expanded. That's, I'm in full writing mode for that. The next, next book is tentatively titled All In, and that's what I'm, I'm I'm writing about an hour a day, just trying to accumulate stuff. And how these topics come about is I'll interview entrepreneurs, I'll meet them in events, I'll grab a beer with someone. I'm like, tell me about the problems you're facing. And I listen for a common thread. A really common thread is, I wish my employees would act more like me. I wish my employees would own, take ownership in this business. And to them, it wasn't passively a job. I go, that's an interesting thing that people want that. And I hear it consistently now. I wonder if that can be solved. And so that's what I've been now actively applying research to. The other thing too is like that concept has been pinging around in my mind for a while. So I've been collecting ideas. We, for the last 2 years, been testing stuff. You've gone on a 4-week vacation yourself. The automaton randomizer wheel, that's part of potentially All-In. The one-on-one meetings you do with Kelsey. So we're experimenting with stuff. Uh, actively too. And then once I get the deal with Penguin, if Penguin wants the deal, um, then I'll start full core writing. And, uh, that will take about a year to write it. So that's kind of the jumping around, but that's kind of the process. Cool.

Yeah, no, that's good.

That's amazing.

All right.

Amazing.

All right, here's, here's a good question for you. Are your books like children? Do you have a favorite one?

So my books are not like children. I can't have a favorite, but my books, I do have a favorite one. So, um, I do have a favorite child at times. I gotta admit that too. That's—

that was the whole joke. I didn't know if you're gonna get it. You actually had— you've said that before, and like, so I just thought that was really hilarious.

So I was just wondering. No, I do have a favorite. And you know, any parents that I don't have a favorite, like, that's bullshit. Like Like, you know, it's like saying every year of your marriage is every year your favorite year. No, like, it's impossible. The favorite means there's got to be a preference. And, um, of course we love our kids for different purposes, but there's just one that's like— a favorite could be defined on friendship or respect. You know, I've, I've won that. I respect what that person's accomplished, and one I like to hang out with more. Like, those are different favorites. Yeah, with a book, with a book, um My favorite book is The Pumpkin Plan. Like, interesting. Yeah. So The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur was my first writing experience and I, I just expressed who I was as I was. Pumpkin Plan, I was a better writer, a far better writer, and still expressed myself the way I was unabated. So it's just, to me, I go through it and I, I sometimes laugh out loud at some of those lines. I totally forgot I wrote. I'm like, that is, I think that's funny. Or that's really helpful or insightful. I do, I am proud of every single book I've written though. So like Get Different has some like real good, real good lines in my opinion. Profit First, I love the impact it's having, but, but Pumpkin Plan has a special place in my heart. And this is the craziest thing. Pumpkin Plan is approaching its 10-year anniversary next year. It is selling its highest volume this year, and last year it was at its highest volume for that year. And Every year is actually getting more momentum. It's not at Profit First levels, but it's the, it's like the engine that could, it's, it's getting closer and closer. It's unbelievable how much receptivity there is to the Pumpkin Plan and how many more people I'm hearing in the wild saying, oh my gosh, I read your book, the Pumpkin Plan. I'm like, really? That's my favorite.

You know what's funny is if you would've named it Pumpkin Spice, Pumpkin Spice Plan, it'd be through the roof right now.

I know, right?

That way. Yeah.

So there was a Business Week, this is true, a Business Week article When the book launched 10 years ago, there was a Businessweek article saying it's fall, it's the pumpkin season. And the book was launched late summer, early fall. And they said, look at all the different pumpkin things. And they talked about pumpkin mochiladas, whatever those drinks are, like all these different pumpkin spice, all stuff. And they put the Pumpkin Plan in there as a book. And that was their proof that everything's gone pumpkin. It was kind of funny.

Oh, that's so funny.

It didn't help sell books. I thought it would. I was like, oh my God, Businessweek, this is gonna crank out sales. Nothing.

Um, which one do you think is the most impactful or you get the most praise for? Would you say Profit First?

Profit First. And it's like, it's a 10 to 1. Um, I bet you right now, I always like to check because it just blows my mind. I bet you within the last 10 minutes we got an email about it. Um, last 30 minutes, 2 emails came in of someone who's read Profit First. Angela Isaac and, and, and Lean Brew. Oh, and Simon Rothschild. All happened like boom, boom, boom. So those 3 people— actually, Simon Rothschild, I'm sorry, email me about, uh, Get Different. He says, I'm reading your book on Get Different. Um, so, but Pumpkin Plan is literally every hour, 3, 4 emails of people that have read the book saying, this has changed my life, or they're implementing and sharing their story.

First, you mean, right?

Probably first I say this book. Yeah, then probably first. So, um, so much so that we now— Adela, my daughter, is helping navigate these emails. At the end of the day, she's like, hey dad, you got 60 emails. Um, most people are asking this, some have that. And I tell her, okay, respond to this group this way. I used to do it all myself. It would— it's, it's literally for one person, it's about 2 hours a day of just managing emails. So I, I now have a, that, that summary method to review it. And I would say about 20% of them because of the story they told, because the circumstances, because of where they're located. So, you know, we get stuff from all over the world, dude. It's unbelievable talking to someone from Russia and China, Japan, um, Belgium, Mexico, all within like an hour. Like, yeah, some of those people I respond to in person with a video just to say, hey, listen, thank you for reaching out. And, uh, also I'm interested in, in putting a favorable opinion out there about the US just because we were involved in a lot of things. So I want them, you know, I want some other countries to realize that we are caring people too and reach out. So sometimes the folks that are not from the US get favorable attention just to know that we're here and we care just as much about them.

Yeah. You know, one thing that sticks with me is I've seen some of these testimonials from people who write in. For Profit First, and there was one where the woman said that they were in the red $100,000, and then by the end of a year, a fiscal year, they were in the black $100,000.

Is that unbelievable? It's unbelievable.

Unreal. Like, that shift is just crazy to me. I think that's so awesome that people are using it to the degree where they're having that kind of you know, changes in their business.

Unreal. There's this one that reminds me, there's this one dude, I've never shared this before and I'm saving this for some future reveal. You and I'll do something about it. He's been emailing me for 2 years now, once a month to report his status. He went into this with, I think, with $1.5 million. He's from Australia, $1.5 million Australian in debt, which is basically the same in the US. And every month he He says, he goes, you're my accountability partner. Even if I never hear back from you every month, I'm telling you my number. And so I responded. He's at $700,000 and literally is coincidental. Checked in this morning, $750,000 of debt. It's massive. And I have the whole email thread. It's just this huge thread. And he, and he, the guy could be a year away now. It's relentless. And the next profit he has after that is going to be a massive celebration. I'm almost feeling You and I gotta hop on a plane and get down to Australia. Or maybe— oh yeah, yeah, I mean, it's not a bad idea just to appear.

That'd be cool. Okay, um, excuse me. Question number 3: what have you learned about writing books and/or publishing since you first wrote The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur? Like, if you had to pick one, one thing that you would say had been your biggest lesson from the experience?

It's kind of a few insights. So the biggest lesson is, in today's standard, it is more profitable to self-publish. There is no question about it. There's only one exception, is if you're with a mainstream publisher, we're with Penguin, if the advance is so substantial that it offsets all the gains you can make self-publishing. So it's a time and money thing, that's the only difference. So I'll give an extreme example. If Penguin says, hey Mike, here's $1 billion for your next book. Uh, Penguin, you got the deal. If they say, here's $0 for your next book, I'm going self-publish because there's more money in that. So somewhere in that range between $0 and $1 billion is a dollar number. And you know, we kind of keep it confidential in-house. We'll probably talk about it at the retreat, but we got the number, the exact number that was the break-even point. And I just forwarded it to Penguin. I said, this is what it's gotta be. And I talked with Adrian. He's the president. He's called the publisher, which is kind of weird. There's a publisher at the publisher. So it's like a president at the White House, but it's publisher of the publisher. So he's the president effectively. And he says, you got the deal. But it was to the penny. And if it was a penny less, we would've gone self-pub. So that's interesting that self-publishing is a better model for profitability. I think the other lesson though is, um, mainstream publishing. When I joined the industry, now this goes back 10 years ago when I got my first book out through Penguin, it would— a decade ago it was different. They would still take upstarts. I had published my first book, Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. They wouldn't take a brand new author. I had to prove out, uh, through Toilet Paper Entrepreneur sales that I had potential and they bought the next book. I also, I'm the only author that I know of with Penguin that is agent-free. There's probably others, but I'm the only one. And you know, the, who shares, uh, my imprint publisher, Simon Sinek. I bumped into him at Portfolio. Uh, Seth Godin. Um, there's a Ryan Holiday. We're, we're at the same publisher. And you know, these are, these are, those names are like 10 steps ahead of me. Those are big names. They all have agents and I'm the anomaly. And I think it's given me special exposure to work directly with Adrian, who's the president, other people there. And I do really atypical things. I can come with a marketing idea and bring it to the table without an agent interfering. There's no delays. It's given me some advantages. Publishing models change a lot though. It's really hard, I think, to get a deal without a publisher. It's really hard, really hard to get a deal unless you have a major platform already. If you got to prove you can sell tens of thousands of books every year, ideally hundreds of thousands of books to get in front of them now. And it wasn't that way 10 years ago. So I think I was lucky, lucky timing for me. And it served us. One thing some people don't know is 15% of the royalties go to an agent if you have an agent. So, you know, Profit First, if it brought in a check for $200,000 or something, We get $200,000 to our business to pay everyone's salaries here and run the operation. Everyone else gets $30,000 taken out of that. That's like, that's a salary for someone. So you don't get to, you get, you know, that, that's substantial. And that happens every time a check comes out if you have an agent. So I think we're, we're in a lucky position. But I would suggest someone entering the market now, do a self-pub, do a vanity press, or they call 'em hybrid press, same thing. Do a hybrid press. You're probably gonna make more money that way, honestly. And it's gonna be faster to market.

So really, if someone's getting into writing now, in order to work with a major publisher, they have to already have an audience. Yeah, like they have, they have to have a platform.

Yeah, you know what's in it? So they, there's a couple of things. So have a platform. So if you can, If I can reach out to 50,000 people and all 50,000 people are gonna buy my book because I said, hey, my book's available, that's a big deal. Publishers want that. The second thing is prestige. So if you have, like, you, you graduated from Harvard and you're a doctor, doctor, doctor of Harvard, you got every doctor's degree at Harvard, that credentials, um, is believed that'll move more books. The other thing is a big story. So the example I like to use is that guy, uh, Sully, the airport— so the pilot Sully, when the day before he landed the plane in the Hudson, he couldn't sell a book if his life depended on it. The day after, he could get a million-dollar book deal. So there's certain stories or events that are so significant that people want to tie into. Um, so do you have a platform? Do you have prestige? Do you have a unique story? If you know all three of those, you're gonna hit out of the park, but you gotta at least have one.

Mm, okay, cool.

Mainstream.

Yeah. All right, question 4. Um, what types of issues can GetDifferent help a business owner with? Um, or like, what types of scenarios are they struggling with that GetDifferent will help?

Real soon, it's lead flow. It's lead flow. So when I was doing live speaking gigs, I still do, but this year I'll probably only do like 15 or 20. A normal year would be like 50. So it slowed down a lot. But back then, and even today, I ask people, what's your primary lead source? And people say, oh, it's, it's word of mouth. And there's like, you know, we pat our chest like, my clients refer me clients. That is wonderful because it's recognition of the quality work you do because people are referring you, but you're at the whim of your customer to market you. We really need to control the throttle. If you want to grow a business, you have to be able to say, we are going to get more prospects now and this is how we're going to do it. Like you have to be able to control that. And most small businesses not in that in control. Most businesses are like, we don't have enough leads, we gotta just turn things up. And it goes into vapor. So Get Different is a very actionable strategy to find marketing that works specifically for you. It's not about outrageous. Some people hear Get Different, like, and you look at the COVID too, you're like, oh, is this about being outrageous? No, it's just be, it's about being different than what your market does. So you get noticed. This book cover was made this way because it is inconsistent with most book covers in the business space, not because it's outrageous or different, uh, because it is different, not because it's outrageous. And that's our job as small business owners is to market so we can control lead flow and do it in a unique way so it guarantees attention.

Hmm, cool. Very succinct.

That was better, right?

Like, like you wrote a book.

I saw you do this. Time's ticking, bro.

It's almost like you are an author or you write this stuff or something. I don't know, it's crazy. Um, okay, and then the last question, uh, I know you kind of touched on this a little bit, but for an aspiring author out there, uh, other than self-publishing, what would you say is the best piece of advice you can give regarding, uh, either the writing process or, or getting into the industry?

Yeah, I'll talk about the writing process, perhaps it's not even really the process, but it's, it's specifically when it comes to nonfiction, the space that I'm familiar with, write narrow and deep, not broad. A lot of books come out saying how to grow a small business, how to start a small business. And I'll tell you that appeals to very few. You think it'd appeal to everyone cuz that's what everyone's doing. It's too broad and you can't touch on anything. Profit First, Profit First isn't even an accounting system, right? So accounting's narrower. Profit First is only cash management. and it's about doing it in a very special way at banks. It is so narrow, but it's deep on that subject. It is, I believe the, I, I've made it the authoritative subject on cash management through a bank. And every detail's in there. What happens is if you go really deep on a narrow subject, there's a community that says, gosh, I'm not profitable enough. What do I need to do? Oh, let's book profit first. Let me explore it. There's two types of consumers. The DIYers who say, I've read this, I can do this on my own. If you give them everything you know. They can do it on their own successfully. They will tell everyone they know, I did my own with this book. So now they are your best marketing force. The other group is the explorers. These are people that say, I gotta be profitable. They read the book and say, I get this. I still wanna do myself, but now I found my guy. It's this guy Mike who wrote Profit First. He's the authority. I'm gonna go to him and see if he can do it for me. And that's how Profit First Professionals came about. Um, so that's my tip for any authors in the nonfiction space. Is write about the subject, you know, write really deeply about it and, and provide every answer in there. Don't make this a glorified business card. Don't make this a teaser. Make it everything you know, and it'll perform a million times more successfully than any other book.

That's cool. Yeah. And, and you know, the other thing about Profit First that, I mean, I, I've, I haven't found a way to articulate this until now. I think it's popular because it challenges the status quo.

Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Like, you know, like you're almost like rebelling against the traditional system and it's like, no, I'm going to do it this way, you know, because it's true, accountants don't— they don't learn that methodology.

Yeah, right. The schooling says profit last and there's always complexity. There's a concept called Occam's razor, and Occam's razor is about the belief that something when there's a challenge, the more simple the solution, that's something that's more likely to work. And so every book I work on is like, hmm, what's the established belief and how complex is it? Like, marketing is a great example. Marketing is so complex. I'm like, okay. And so when I wrote Get Different, I'm like, oh, there's— I figured out there's 3 elements: DAD, differentiate, attract, direct. When I check those 3 boxes off on my marketing piece, the potential for success amplifies by a multiple. And, uh, that's what I try to do in every book. And, uh, you're right. It causes controversy, which is a good thing, cuz that means attention. So Profit First for sure, um, caused a little bit of a, some people's hair stand on the back of their neck in the industry and still does. And, uh, they're helping draw more attention to it. And, and I'm so blessed it just continues to serve people and, and sell, you know.

And you know what, honestly, having the acronyms It helps, uh, being able to remember certain things about what you're, you know. So I, I really think that that's like a huge benefit to a lot of the stuff that you, that you write.

Yeah, you know, it's funny. So yeah, when doing stuff, it's a lot of techniques like that. So the title of Profit First and Get Different are very deliberate. Profit First is the whole solution once you understand it, but once you understand the title, you understand the solution. Take your profit first, pay yourself first. Get Different is like, you must— it's necessary for your marketing to be different. So once you understand just the basics, the title is enough to argue the book. So you're staging your audience, your readers to say, oh, Profit First. Oh, I've read it. And here's what you do. Or Profit First. Oh, I've heard of it. And here's what you do. And my intention is with Get Different to be the same. The framework like DAD, you know, direct, attract, differentiate. That's a mnemonic technique. You know, you go to anyone, say, hey, name like 3 or 4 of the Great Lakes. And it's like, uh, uh, Superior. But when you say, uh, name the 5 Great Lakes, it's HOMES is the acronym. It's like, oh, Huron, Ontario, um, what's M? Michigan, Erie, Superior. Yeah, I struggle. It's much easier to remember as a mnemonic technique. Oh, I almost missed Michigan. Sorry about that, Michigan.

That's cool. I, uh, I actually never heard that one before. So that, that's cool too. Yeah, I like that.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Cool. Well, those were all—

those are all my interview questions.

Thank you.

So is there anything else you'd like to add before we wrap this?

Yeah. So I just want to invite all of our listeners during the week of September 21st. So it depends when you're listening. September 21st, 2021 is the launch. If you go to mikemikalowicz.com or if you prefer, it's easier, mikemotorbike.com slash— oh no, no, no. I'm giving the wrong website. Take it back. You can do that, but go to Go Get Different. That's what I meant to say. Go Get Different is the website specifically for this book. But during September 21st, for about a week, if you go to gogetdifferent.com/multi, M-U-L-T-I slash, if you put multi after Go Get Different, we're doing a, a special offer. And I think the bonuses are really cool. An opportunity to travel with me. Um, if you buy a certain volume of books, so you can go, uh, pre-stage, pre-speech backstage. I have an event coming up. There's gonna be 4,000 people there. Wouldn't that be fun to be together at that leading up to and afterwards and hanging out for a beer? There's other prizes that, like, lost content, stuff that got deleted from this book that the editor cut, but I think it's really racy, cool stuff that could serve you. That's available as bonuses if you go to gogetdifferent.com/multi. Now, if you're listening in October, November, The book is still available. Go to gogetdifferent.com. There's always one bonus waiting for you and it's these free resources. We have 100 marketing tips that you can implement in your business right now that cost nothing or near nothing and they're different. So you can start experimenting and seeing results by going to gogetdifferent.com. And I'd be honored if you get the book. It's a big deal to me and I hope it serves you in a big way.

And also, um, I think a week after the book launches, we're gonna run another, uh, fun campaign. Um, I don't know if I should give any secret information on that yet. Maybe just stay tuned on that.

Stay tuned. Yeah, stay tuned.

Cool.

There's something happening in October. There's a couple cool things going on, uh, after the fact, so you're not going to miss an opportunity. But I want you to grab the opportunity if it is right now. So gogetdifferent.com/multi. That's it.

Awesome. All right, well, time to wrap up another episode of Behind the Book.

Thanks, Sloan. Hey, and I just My listening friends, I invite you to please do subscribe. That way you don't miss a single episode. I hope you get rich content out of every single one. Plus, honestly, you're of great service to us. Subscribing expands the word, spreads the word through the algorithms of the internet, YouTube, and so forth, and your podcatcher. And thank you for considering doing that. All right, let's roll, bruh.