Mike Koenigs | When AI Becomes Your Creative Collaborator

My greatest fear was of being poor and going backwards. And my dad grew up very poor on a farm in Iowa. My mom, who just passed a week ago, grew up in absolute chaos. My grandfather was an alcoholic and my grandmother was bipolar and schizophrenic. Like I didn't come from anything. And I watched my dad work his butt off for us four kids. But he was so disciplined. He got up every day at the same time and he was motivated to serve. He's a barber, so. So I think I really believe that the greatest motivator is that of service. And service delivers freedom. And so I wake up every day and it's like, what is a shortcut? I can create and share with someone that will deliver freedom to and freedom from.

Welcome to the Radical responsibility podcast. I'm Dr. Fleet Mahler and I'm excited to guide you on a journey of authentic transformation. In each episode, I'll bring you insights from leading experts to explore trauma recovery, mindfulness practices, positive psychology, and innovative breakthroughs in health, wellness and life optimization. This is a space for real conversations that inspire meaningful change, helping you find alignment with the person you were always meant to be. Let's get started. What if transformation isn't just about thinking differently but but feeling differently? Science shows us that true change happens when we align not just our minds, but also the neural networks in our hearts and guts. This heart mind connection is the key to deeper healing, resilience and expanded awareness. That's why I created the Heart Mind All Access, Membership and Community. A space designed to help you rewire your nervous system, cultivate heart intelligence, and live with greater clarity and purpose with over 1000 hours of transformational teachings specifically curated to meet your needs. You'll learn from world renowned meditation teachers, neuroscientists and experts in neuroplasticity, all sharing powerful tools to help you shift your mindset and heartset, regulate your emotions and unlock your full potential. You'll also gain unlimited access to every summit and course we've ever produced, a treasure trove of Wisdom worth over $10,000 and growing, plus live gatherings and an inspiring global community to support your journey. If you're ready to step into a more heart centered, connected and conscious life, I invite you to join us. Click the link to learn more and start your journey today. Have you ever wondered how artificial intelligence might not just streamline your business, but actually expand your creativity and deepen your impact? I had a chance to sit down with the one and only Mike Kenigs and serial entrepreneur, tech visionary and one of the sharpest minds in digital marketing today. Mike's been ahead of the curve for decades, and in this conversation he shares how AI tools like ChatGPT and others are radically transforming the entrepreneurial landscape. From storytelling and content creation to building freedom based business models. We explored what it really means to scale with integrity, how to use AI as a true creative partner rather than just another shortcut, and the powerful mindset shift required to keep reinventing yourself in a rapidly evolving world. Whether you're a solopreneur crafting your first offer, or a seasoned entrepreneur ready to grow your team and make a greater impact, this episode is packed with insights, strategies, and soulful wisdom you don't want to miss. Let's dive in. My name is Dr. Fleetmall, your co host for this session. And and I'm thrilled to be here today with Mike Koenigs. Welcome, Mike.

It is so nice to be here. We have so much in common and I'm just super excited that we've had this opportunity to get to know each other.

So we mentioned, you know, navigating rapidly evolving marketing trends. I mean, things are changing so quickly. AI is changing everything. I mean, even just at the grassroots consumer level, we've all seen ChatGPT show up in our lives personally and professionally, and how that's beginning to change everything so rapidly. So there's a lot going on and I wonder if you could just launch in and start talking about this rapidly changing landscape and how you navigate and teach people to navigate. I'm sure there are some tried and true marketing principles that still work and are through lines, but then there's all kinds of different technologies and maybe even the messaging is changing. So let's hear what you have to say about all that.

All right, well, I'm going to begin the same way I start a presentation. So a couple months ago, I was on my friend Richard Rossi's stage speaking to several thousand high school students. And I'm like, how am I going to connect and relate with them? And I did something for you. So before we met, I did a little preparation and I made something for you today. So I want you to just listen to this. And this is the way that you connect with people is you first of all have got to connect with their hearts and once their minds follow, so do their behaviors. And so I used a tool to make a song for you today. I made two songs for you. So just listen to the first part of this. This is called Suno, and I use ChatGPT with just your notes to create a Song in the style of Johnny Cash. From a prison cell to Mindful Grace, Fleet found wisdom in that lonely place 14 years behind those walls of Steel Seal, Teaching others how to heal and feel. So that was made in 20 seconds. And there's a second song as well in a different style.

That's amazing and I'm blown away and very, very, very, very touched. So my heart's open to whatever's next and I personally appreciate it very much. Very touched. But it is literally amazing that you can create that to through ChatGPT in 20 seconds.

Yep. And then I'll show you something else I made with another tool that was just released called Sora, which is the ChatGPT people. So I basically told it to create a visual, and this is paths of transformation. So it was just a prompt that was made and it just. It's this little visual and there's another one, and each one of them is 20 seconds long. So the whole point is you can create completely synthetic videos in minutes. Music. I also created some images. So this is. There's a variety of them. This is a tool called Ideogram, so supposed to represent you and I communicating, marketing and healing work. And if we move forward here, these are some different styles it created. Let me see if I can go back. There was another one that's supposed to look like us sitting in a conference situation with us teaching together, although it didn't do a good job of our faces. But the whole thing is completely synthetic. Visuals, audios, even another video about our journey together. So the bottom line here, Fleet, is what has changed is you and I can sit down and talk about anything and have AI take some notes, and then we can make it real. We can make videos, we can make audios, we can make music, we can write books. Books in real time. And I think this is the greatest moment in human history because we can collaborate with a tool that can keep up with our imaginations. We can manifest virtually anything and connect with any audience in any language in real time.

It's really amazing. And I remember when, I don't know when it was invented, but mind mapping tools first became available and being able to do that, and this is on a whole nother level of being able to partner in a very creative way. So absolutely amazing. I think in our audience we have a lot of probably solopreneurs getting started or aspiring entrepreneurs. We probably have, you know, some entrepreneurs with small teams that are trying to go from six figures to seven, maybe even some folks going from seven to eight figures and often you know, the entrepreneur is wearing a lot of hats in the beginning, sometimes wearing all the hats to begin with, and certainly wearing the marketing hat for quite a long time. And it can just seem overwhelming, you know, between just really getting to understand marketing at a deep level, even classic traditional marketing, understanding that at a deep level. But then there's all the shiny balls and all the tools and all the gadgets and all the tricks and that can get very confusing and we can get focused on that instead of our core message. And now with AI, it seems like, okay, possibly just more overwhelmed. How does the entrepreneur get beyond that, get to the core and start actually communicating with their audience in an effective way? Surely you're going to want to use all these tools, but what's the pathway?

Yes. Well, the answer is to make AI your creative collaborator and let's actually do a little experiment together. Okay. Because nothing beats real live demonstrations. So let's pretend for a moment and you help me out here. But we're going to create a little marketing plan and maybe write the first part of a book idea for someone who might be a coach, a healer. They could be in the nutrition, the personal growth business. But let's create a scenario. Tell me a story about a perfect person who's sitting in your audience right now and tell me about them.

Yeah. So, you know, I think this is solopreneur, who's got vision and inspiration and really wants to make a difference and is passionate about life. And at the same time they're dealing with all the stresses of modern life and then some, a lot of uncertainty. They may perceive the current economic and political landscape and world things as just anxiety provoking and harder than ever to stay focused on their passion and maybe even staying aligned enough with their purpose to feel. Is what I'm doing purposeful enough that it makes sense for me to dedicate my energy to it and try to enroll other people in my vision when there's all this stuff going on in the world and who am I to offer anything anyway? And in the meantime, I'm trying to do it all with my family and, you know, and the kids and my spouse and manage my life. And it just gets overwhelming and I need some kind of more personal tools to take care of myself. But I also need a North Star to keep me on track with my purpose and my vision so I can be successful.

Great, great. So I'm going to help create a container for that. And the answer to everything is discipline and structure is what leads us to the other side. When all this other stuff is out there affecting. So one of my books is called you'd Next act. And I introduced something I call the six M's and here's what the six are in order. So it's mindset, which is what our non negotiable core values are. I believe that like attracts like and you have to establish a presence of heart and feeling and also say here is who I am at my core and what I will and will not do. And if you violate that, you will attract replacement really wrong clients and customers in your world. So mindset is the first. Next is the market. Market would be who specifically is your perfect audience. So in that container, what you just described to me as a heavy feeler who is service minded, service oriented. And they're going to attract the same people who are seeking purpose and structure and clarity and happiness and also a way to express themselves. And again, I always say let's the way out of this is to create. We are creators who are created by a creator. So honoring that is a very important part. So again, our perfect market is a healing audience. The third is the model, which is how you get paid. So let's just pretend for the sake of this conversation that this individual has got one on one workshops or coaching or advising. And then they also have group coaching and advising. And they most likely have to establish them as an authority and an expert so they can at least be recognized. You know, first of all, you gotta get noticed and you gotta establish it right. So there's three ways of making money. We'll say is get the book out there so that you can get paid doing what you do. And then there's the message which are what are the words you say to communicate to that market in a way that opens their hearts so their behaviors follow, which also means they're willing to make an investment of value. And then there's the next is the media. Now I'm a big believer. I've written a lot of books, I've helped a lot of people write books and video podcasts. Whether you like it or not. This is not a political statement, just helped get a certain individual elected to president in the United States of America. It was the podcast channel is the most highly valuable, concentrated source of getting and creating awareness. Because long format is our current future, even though we live in a short attention span world. And then finally our multiplier. So in order, and I'm going to do a real practical example here and we're going to make something. Okay. But the framework helps us so mindset, market model, message, media multiplier. And I can help us with that and you can have a conversation with AI. So what do you say we make something?

Let's do it.

Okay, I'm going to begin, and again, I'm going to show my screen and I'm going to do this step by step because we're actually going to make something real. And to me, we have to deliver a transformation. That's the purpose of our meeting here today, is to create massive value and create deep connection, thoughtful connection. Now, I could just click on this and have a conversation with the AI, but I'm going to actually talk to it and just create the words so it'll be like this. Hi, I am a solo entrepreneur and who coaches and advises women who are in transition and men who are in transition and want to find clarity and more purpose in their lives. I want to create a marketing plan that I can execute, even though I'm not particularly technical, to share and get my message out to the world, period. New paragraph. My name is is Alice Norman and I have a degree in psychology and a background in healing, yoga and meditation. And I want you to give me a detailed marketing plan of something that I can start doing right now. Okay, so again, it was just a conversation. I can just talk to this and when I get a response, it's going to come back with something. Now what I love to do is as soon as it's done, I'm going to brainstorm some book ideas. Okay. Here you can see it's already defined your ideal audience, where they are online. Develop a core message. Okay. Choose marketing channels. It's telling us what to do, what hashtags to use. All right. Sample video content. Three ways to find clarity after divorce, how meditation can. Okay, build your email list. So anyway, it's giving us a plan and if I don't like something, I can tell it to refine it. So any comments so far before we actually, let's come up with some book titles and subtitles?

Well, you know, I was a business consultant for many years, and you know what would have taken the numbers before? You'd get together a team. You get to an off site, you do all kinds of brainstorming. You'd have all kinds of meetings, you generate all kinds of stuff, then you try to refine it into something else and all that. You just did it in 30 seconds.

Totally. Now let's make it real, though. So I have two tools and what we're going to do again, we're just brainstorming out loud. So if I just did a conversation where I just described myself, grab my bio and I uploaded in here, it builds something even more complex. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to say I want you to come up with 25 really creative book titles and subtitles that are modeled after New York Times and USA Today best selling books, period. Show them to me again. I'm just having a conversation with the thing that's helping me collaborate. And after it comes up with the 25 titles and subtitles and what you and I will do is pick one we like and we're gonna actually make a visual of that book in a bookstore. Okay, so here's the second act blueprint. How to rewrite your life and thrive in the face of change. Unstuck, breaking free from the fog and finding your true purpose. Chaos to calm. And again, if I don't like something, I'll say, hey, I really like number seven and number eight and number ten. But which one of these is standing out to you right now?

Let's work with second act blueprint.

Okay, great. So I'm going to take this and I'm going to go to. I can say I want you to create an image of a book cover based on the first title and subtitle, create appropriate images and have it setting in a bookstore on a stand. Okay, let's see. And I'll just put the subtitle in here so it's not confused. Because I live in the world of 10 minute increments. So I allow myself to create and innovate and iterate for 10 minutes at a time. I treat my time as though it's worth $30,000 per hour. So look at that. There's a book on a stand inside a bookstore just like that. Wow. Okay. Pretty cool, huh? And then I could say, now give me three more versions. I could even go so far as to say, who do you think will really resonate with our audience musically? Like a style of lyrics or writing that would motivate them. And by the way, look at all these book covers. Just popped up already. There's another one. Okay, so there it is. Second act blueprint. Not bad. Not bad, right? Here's another one. Okay. And we can keep on tweaking, but again, I try to do it in 10 minute increments so I don't go down too far of a rabbit hole. But I stay inspired. We gotta keep our dopamine levels high if we're entrepreneurs.

This is basically getting, you know, this is Building confidence for the entrepreneur that wow, there it is. I can do it. I can imagine this. This is not just, you know, wishful thinking. There's my book. I can do this. Right, so totally helps you build a lot of momentum and confidence here.

Yes, again, I can. Now we can make a song. Now we can make a launch video. We could make a video script. There's all sorts of things we can do. And I could even say, now I want you to create 10 chapters based upon this book title and subtitle and theme and build on top of some of the most successful best selling books that are relevant to this topic and idea. Then I could basically start brainstorming with it, talking to it, to have it here. Let's see. I don't want it's interrupting me. He's trying to show me some stuff. Okay, here we go. Chapter the Wake Up Call summary. Explore the pivotal moments and then I can start. There we go. Inspired. Defining Success. The Power. Letting Go. What a book. Michael Singer. Mapping youg Blueprint. Okay. Building youg Tribe. Mastering the Art of Resilience. Okay. Wanna make a song?

Sure.

Okay, so now I can say. Oh, yeah. First of all, who's thematically someone who would resonate with your audience, do you think? A lyricist?

Well, I think it's probably for this book. I'm thinking it's something kind of anthem like maybe Beyonce, something like that. But probably, you know, something that's kind of big anthem like, that's inspiring, motivating and a sense of limitless possibility kind of thing.

Now here's one of my shortcuts, by the way. I've been using a tool I call Otter in the Background that's transcribing this conversation. So I just copy what you just said and I'll go back to ChatGPT and I'll say, now I want you to write and create lyrics for a song. So I just grab your notes and it doesn't have to be perfect. It's conversational. We're just talking to a thing that's helping us create. So it's creating anthem lyrics. Rise and rewrite. I've been down in the dust Chasing shadows in the night Felt the weight of the world Trying to dim my light but this heartbeat's strong It's a drum that won't stop knowing Climbing higher Reaching the top Every scar is a story Every fall is a flight the stars are my witness Tonight's tonight. Okay, so there we go. Now we've got lyrics and I'm going to just copy this And I'm going to go to this little tool called suno. I click on create and this is where I created that first song. So I'm going to just paste them in here like that. Now there's one thing, and I'll just call this Write and Rewrite. It's got a title. Now there's one thing you can't do is you can't knock off a real person. So we're going to have to give it a style. So we'll do. Because we can't say Beyonce. I'll choke on that.

So before you did that one in the style of Johnny Cat. So how did you say that?

I said cash style, country. Sometimes a word can get through.

Well, it could be, you know, style of modern female pop, something like that. Or modern female pop with, you know, R B, hip hop influences.

Yep. Okay, here we go. So let's get inspired. So we hit create. And in about 20 seconds, it's going to write and compose. It's going to create a synthetic singer. It's going to create a whole band. All the music, it's going to mix it. And I've had some people go, oh my God, what's going to happen? All the musicians. And here's what I say is I couldn't create this. You probably couldn't create this. What if I can sit here and I can collaborate with real artists and real musicians and say, this is kind of what I'm thinking about. So let's hear the first one.

I've been down in the dust Chasing shadows in the night in the night Felt the weight of the world Trying to dim by light but this heartbeat strong It's a drum that won't stop Now I'm climbing higher Reaching the top.

Top.

Every scars a story Every falls.

Of Right, you get the idea. Let's hear just the first part of the second. What do you think of that?

It's amazing. And now, is that actually a synthesized voice? It's not.

Sample 100% synthetic. You own it. We can download this. We can make a music video from it. In fact, we could if you want to make a music video. So let's do the second one.

I've been down in the dust Chasing shadows in the night Felt the weight of the world Trying to dim my light but this heartbeat strong It's a drum that won't stop.

Okay, you get the idea. And then in the background I said version of the style 2010 Ray guy with tuba. You know, it's like I just did some jazz music. I was with my brother, he was telling me a story about he's in a Bible study group with a guy who said his 14 year old daughter is very independent and not at all good at it. So I made a song for him based on that theme. But I'll just play the first part of it because it's pretty funny. She's got her own keys to the castle but she always loses them in the hassle Dinner's burning but she calls it gourmet She's a mess but she laughs it away Anyway let's hear what the reggae says and move on. Here we go.

All right.

Now, who can't get inspired when you've got a tool like this, right?

It's amazing, really amazing.

It's just mind blowing. It's mind blowing.

My next question, Mike, is so, I mean, there's so many directions you could go with these tools, right? And you could even have a conversation with AI or whatever engine or chatgpt about how to use it and all the, I mean, you could just get in this hole. So. But to what extent is the accessibility of these tools going to both raise the bar and maybe flatten the bell curve a little bit in terms of marketing and also, you know, create a certain deafness or numbness or something because of the overwhelm that it'll just become like people, you know, recognize, oh, that's AI marketing. Been there, done that, seen that. So again, I mean, this is already an issue in marketing, but how do we go back and using whatever tools, whatever you have, to really create and craft a message that's going to stand out? Because even in our world with Heart Mind Institute, you know, we're involved in personal development and healing trauma and mindfulness and meditation. And now we're involved in entrepreneurship as well. And you know, it's a very competitive field and with all these tools there's, you know, so many people are entering the marketing place and there's so many offers out there. And we just came, you know, through the end of the year with all the offers going on and it's really hard to get your message to stand out.

Yes. Seth Godin wrote a book years ago called the Purple Cow and you gotta be a purple cow. And the answer to the question is simply this. There is only one you with your transformational journey and story. And there's a whole multitude, we'll call it an infinite audience who wants to hear your authenticity, story and transformation. And they will resonate with that and want the same for themselves. And only you have that story. And then as you are successful doing what you do, you've got to capture those transformations and tell those stories. So in every one of my books, I'll just give you my secret to how I do this. And here's the way I imagine all the time. Number one, you are always performing and on stage, and your objective is to tell a transformational story as though it's a TED talk in front of 100 or 500 or 1000 of your perfect fit audience. The only person in that audience, their name is you. And you're telling stories about them, not you. It's never about you. Even though you are a vessel of transformation, leading them on a hero's journey to the other side. And you have to realize that everyone will be like, well, I've already heard that before. Well, guess what? I just watched. There's a guy I follow on YouTube. His name is Rick Beato. He deconstructs music. He's about 60 years old, and he's been a professional producer for many years. And he interviews some of the greatest musicians who've ever lived, like all the police, for example, Pat Metheny, great jazz musicians. And he was showing a clip of a video with a guy named Theo Vaughn, who I had never heard of him until a while ago. He's a comedian and he interviewed Mr. Beast, who is the most recognizable, top YouTube channel guy in the world. And he said, just like Prince, he actually said. He said, specifically, you gotta be a purple cow. And he goes like, Prince. And Mr. Beast looked at him and goes, who? Mr. Beast had never heard of Prince before.

Oh, my goodness.

Okay. And the point is, everyone's like, you know what? Here's the reality. There's nothing new and nobody's special. It's whoever says it with the most clarity and heart in a media format. Right? That was the fifth step is I believe in podcasts. I think it's the best way to reach people. And if you want the next layer of intimacy that's online and basically free, it's webinars, it's doing zooms. But then you gotta get in front of real people and learn how to speak. And I'll tell people all the time, it's like, well, I don't wanna. These start complaining about how they don't wanna be public and they don't wanna be this. It's sort of like, look, you probably haven't even helped you, much less 10 people or a hundred people. You don't have to worry about getting famous. It's really Hard. But if you can touch 1 and then 10 and then 100 with your story of transformation and lead that group, that individual, with clarity and confidence. You mentioned that earlier. The whole point of doing what we're doing today is to create some confidence and say, I can tell my story and I don't need a giant team now. There are no excuses to not get your message out to the world. It's easier than ever before. And most people do nothing. That's the reality. Will you be the one or the few who has the courage to tell your story and not make it about you? Because none of this is about you. It's about the healing transformation you share.

And you give to others, maybe extend this out over the path of entrepreneurship. So it sounds like you're saying that at least initially. I mean, we absolutely have to be willing to tell our story, to connect with our story, to figure out who our ideal audience is for that story and learn, really to communicate who we are and what our story is, what our own path of transformation has been as authentically as we possibly can. And just get. So we gotta be a performer. We gotta be willing to become a performer. You know, I've always won. I've. I've probably heard Tony Robbins tell his origin story 60 times, at least. Personally. I mean, he's told it thousands of times, but, I mean, and every time he can tell it with passion, with clarity. It's a compelling way. And I say I need to get tired of that story, you know, so we have to somehow figure out how to do that. And then as you're scaling a business, you also have to somehow download that into a business that you're not the one in there creating all the marketing copy for the rest of your life. Right. You have to somehow go from being this solopreneur that can create an audience and get it going. And then how do you move that forward then without just strapping yourself to being this content machine personally?

Yeah, that is a great question. And you'll notice that Tony Robbins. So I've worked with Tony. I went to my first Tony event in 1995, changed my life. And I was one of the people in the audience. And I looked up and I said, I'm going to work with that guy someday. And it took about 12 years. And then I was in Tony's house helping him start doing videos because he needed help with marketing, believe it or not. And you'd think, oh, he's a marketing master. But he hadn't mastered the online world. And so I'M not trying to make this about me. The whole point is your job as a founder is to innovate and create and inspire all the time. And when you get past the little hump of doing it once, it becomes infectious and inspiring. And just today I was, you know, 300 yards from me, not even that 200. I was on the beach with my wife and a turtle just popped out of the sand. Cause it's Tortuga season here in the Baja and. And he popped out and started walking to, you know, getting to the ocean. Of course he has to. You know, that's how they build their strength. And there's hundreds of them every day. And I can, I will. I just didn't do it today. I could have made a little video about that. I did make a video about it with my wife, but I didn't make it about the turtle specifically. But it's like you'll see stories everywhere that are relatable, but it just starting once. So the answer to your question is scaling is hard and I could go down that pathway, but at the end of the day, I think the first thing you have to do is establish yourself as an authority and then have a my mechanism. My shortcut is I work in a studio. Just like you've got your nice camera, your microphone sounds good. You should work in your studio and make something every day and repurpose and reuse it. So it's going to be a piece for a speech, it's going to be a piece for a book, and you can perform it as content and have AI support you. But getting out of that, that it all comes down to sales and the pathway to freedom. And I just went through this. So I will raise my hand and say, I am a hypocrite. I need help with this all the time too. On the way here, the flight here, I worked with ChatGPT and I built an upgraded compensation plan for my whole team, incentivizing them to think like marketers. And they're all rewarded when they help push the needle of sales and rewarded. So we think like a team. But I think at the end of the day, you've gotta find ways to inspire people to support your sales efforts, share your message and multiply it. And we've gotta incentivize sales, whether that's with partners. And again, we can spend tons of time in any direction you wanna go here. I hope that rambling is useful.

No, absolutely. So let's come back a little bit. So we have to establish ourselves as an authority in Some and it could be a micro nich and sometimes the smaller the niche, the better. We've all heard that.

The tighter the better.

Yep. And then to, you know, to craft a message that's going to stand out and to get marketing copy and marketing funnels and offers that are going to actually convert has a lot to do with storytelling and messaging. And of course, most of us have probably heard of a guiding really clear about who your ideal customer is, your avatar, so you can communicate that message with clarity. But I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the storytelling aspect. What kind of marketing messages today are converting. And you know, you talked about a way to build authority and build audience and so forth through the podcast world, which is long form. But then when you think of marketing messages, you think of email and you think of Facebook or other types of advertising menu, Google, TikTok, whatever it is. And it's really short attention span stuff. It's images trying to get somebody to click, try to get somebody to come through. So how do we engage the customer and get them to scroll beyond the first couple lines and then have it be someone? I mean not just to get. Oh, that was fun reading it. But no, that they actually push on the button and respond to the call to action and convert in some way.

Yes, yes. So I'm going to tell you a little story and this is the first answer and then I'm going to give you a how to do it without having to have a big expensive team. All right? So I always like to start with that. Once upon a time, there was someone just like you, his name was Fleet Mall, who had the same or you listening or watching to us right now, who had the exact same challenges you're having, which is you've got to find a way to authentically share your true purpose and your mission in life and be inspired every day. And you need to make money. You want to be loved and liked and adored and respected and you've got to make your health first at the end of the day. I call it the Holy Trinity, which is get paid, get laid, live forever. And the combination. The Holy Trinity is a better life. Every single product is somehow leading you to money and opportunity or being more loved, being adored. It's being bigger and better and standing out and improving your health or longevity. Every I don't care if it's a car, you bought it for status and learning how that structure. It's called the Hero's journey. Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. That's the short answer and there's a tool that I use, which is, again, I tell people all the time it is really easy to reach out and get on one podcast or be able to share a nugget in 10 minutes. Something you learned, and it better be a transformation, better be something valuable. Opportunity and money being more attractive, or health and longevity. It's one of the three, and you're in the business of all of them. And tell it in 10 minutes and make sure it's recorded or perform it to your cat. I don't care. And what you can do is there's a tool. So first of all, any questions, And I hope I'm answering your question, because I'm going to show you a tool that basically does this for you.

Well, you know, I'm really this holy trinity idea, right? So money, opportunity, authority, celebrity, health, and longevity, you encapsulate as paid, laid, live forever. So, you know, I get that people care about a redemption story of some kind, right? And, you know, this person was really suffering. They transformed their life. You know, they figured out how to cure themselves of cancer, whatever it might be, you know, some kind of. I mean, obviously that's health and, well, that's longevity related. But, you know, the idea of a redemption story. But what about success stories? You know, the idea of actually, you know, having people care about your pathway and transformation into success of some kind, whether it's greater wealth, health and well being, you know, is there a difference there?

Yeah. So here's the framework that I use. I'm going to show you an example. Is that. Okay, I'll show you a real life example of how we capture this. And I've got. I was trying to decide which of 10 of them to use, but I'm gonna use a story with a doctor friend of mine. Let me see. Okay, I'm gonna ask you, do you want a money one? Do you want a lifestyle one?

I think to me, though, the most challenging for my mindset around selling is probably the money and the lifestyle or, you know, some combination thereof.

Okay, I'm gonna show one of my favorite stories. This is a client of ours, Jim and Jamie Shiels. And I'm going to walk you through their deck. Now, I tell stories with pictures. And this is Jim and Jamie. And you'll see here Jim and Jamie Shiels, Passive Income, act of Freedom, Leverage, Build to rent Real estate to buy back your time and create a legendary family life. Now, the framework is the hero's journey. So we start out with adventure. And this guy is going to be presenting in front of usually higher income. They call them Henry's high earners. Not rich yet is the business type. Okay, so there they are. There's Jim and Jamie with their kids. They're all about service and contribution. They have a home in Costa Rica here in the middle. You can see they're working with kids on the street. They build homes. They adopted a baby girl who had some brain issues. You can see she's wearing a little helmet here. As they're sworn in adopting and they wrote a book earlier called the family board meeting. You have 18 summers to create lasting connections with your children. So creating a legendary family life is his number one focus. And you can live your someday today when you have income producing real estate. So he's got a great story. He's the grandson of an immigrant, poor Irish. There's his father. He gave his dad a kidney. So at this point, our heartstrings are touched. And his dad always had a dream that one day someday they'd all go on this big family vacation together and they'd live, you know, do things together. And it never happened. Well, here's where we show. He's making over $40,000 a month in passive income from income producing real estate. And this is his business. Okay, now if we would have started out and he would have talked about buying a single family or duplex or a quad, you'd be like, who cares? There's a zillion of you. But we started with, look, I've got a really effective way to buy a home that starts making you money right away. And then you learn, as you know, we establish credibility, which is the next part after we open up your heart. There's five steps to getting there. He's got the passive income principles. Invest in these properties, roll the equity, refinance, and we just teach how to get there. So then we show the principles. But we started out with the story of transformation, and then we teach. And by the way, this is the book. It's the ten steps, the Principles. So what I've found is every single person who's ever lived who has a success story or transformation, and sometimes they haven't even figured out what it is they got there with a journey. And every one of these is a step. Everyone's a little video, everyone's a chapter in a book. Everyone's a little. It can be a podcast. You're just performing a story, just like Tony does. And ultimately, you know, it's also bringing the family together too. But you know what I do for a real Job in the background. That's all I do is build stories. We create businesses by telling stories. And after doing it for myself for a long time, I realized I love building and creating businesses. I hate running them, don't like it at all.

So that was an incredibly powerful walkthrough. I mean, just in real time gives us a sense of exactly what you're talking about. And so I'd like to talk a little bit about, I'm trying to measure the amount of time we have here today to share with you and I want to hit a number of different areas. So you touched on, you know, when we have to start building a team. Right as we're moving beyond the solopreneur or even, you know, maybe we have a team, but we're still the CEO and the chief of marketing and so forth and head of sales. And so we're starting to go beyond that a little bit and we need to start expanding our marketing team. And you talked about compensation structures and forth, getting everybody motivated and aligned. But what about just those first steps? You know, I mean it seems like unavoidable. If we're going to be a founder, CEO, entrepreneur, we have to learn enough marketing and to be in the spirit of marketing and have our company infused with good marketing. But I don't know that we need to become somebody who could go hire ourselves out as head of marketing. But, but at some point we're gonna have to bring some of those folks into our team. We're gonna either have to train em up or we're gonna have to make the step of hiring somebody with some skills. So what does that pathway look like for the entrepreneur who's maybe, you know, let's say he's, maybe he's gotten across seven figures on his own and with a small team and now he's gonna try to grow the thing and it can be pretty scary making those investments.

Yes. First of all, you need an executive assistant or an assistant to do what I call your monkey business, your daily monkey business. Keep track of emails, scheduling appointments, follow up, follow through, all that. And I have a specific target that I look for which is stay at home mom with kids who are over toddler age. Okay. So they want freedom and family is important to them and flexibility. And you can also reward them by any time they're setting appointments that lead to sales. The second person you need is a commission only salesperson. And they're someone who, they're enthusiastic, personal growth seekers. They're always interested in their own growth and motivated by your message. So I happened to find someone who did that. And then from there the expansion is you need an operator. Now I have my chief of staff, her name is Abby and she's like the wheels that keep everything together all the time. And then from there, now I've got a copywriter. Even though there's GPT, someone's gotta be doing this. I've got someone doing my social media, but I just incrementally, you can start part time, but incentivize them based upon performance. And I told you on the way here, I created with GPT's help because I'm a terrible operator, I hate it, but it's necessary. And I created an upgraded compensation plan which I really, I mean, I've run plenty of businesses, but if I had to sit down with someone and consult with that, I'd be like, I don't know what to do. And when I run into challenges Now, I ask ChatGPT and Perplexity is another great AI tool. So I think, in short, the other biggest, best thing I can recommend is you have to join business masterminds. You have to be coachable all the time. I've been with dan Sullivan for 13 years now. I do a podcast with him. It forces intimacy. I do a podcast with Gay Hendricks, who wrote the Big Leap. You know, be around older, wiser people and hire people who are team minded, who want to be part of a family.

I think that's really, you know, getting to where you start and you are laying in the steps right there. Right. So I think that's really important. And you know, you've covered a lot of the tools we can be using. You've shared just a lot of principles in here of how to be a creator. And it still seems like, you know, we have to be that creator at the center of the machine. We've got it. Like you said, have a studio, have the tools, and maybe every morning when your brain is on fire and at its best, spend an hour or two creating content, create. And then it sounds like you're building the team to help deliver that.

That's right. They're all the multipliers.

Is there a point at some point when you can bring more creators into a company?

Yes. So my creative director's name's Elliot. He lives in malaga, Spain. He's 62 years old. I've had six creative directors over the past 40 some years. And he's brilliant and he can interpret my vision and make it real in a way that AI can't. And also getting together and joining masterminds. I can't recommend it enough because I have mastermind partners. I'm in a ton of WhatsApp groups. Anytime I'm stumped, I post and ask. I'm like, I'm looking for a who. Dan Sullivan had that book who, not how, which is a masterpiece. Every problem you've ever had can be solved by a who. And in the meantime, you can talk to AI right now for free.

So, you know, I love the example you used of that young couple, you know, and you told their story of transformation. And they're looking, you know, they're dedicating to helping other people. They adopted a child with some cerebral brain issues. And, you know, they're obviously people who want to serve. They're focused on family. That's their goal. And then, so how do we have the freedom to do that? Right? And I think most entrepreneurs, most of the people in our audience, if you're. What are you really looking for? I think a lot of us are looking for freedom for something, right? Freedom to enjoy our life, freedom to have more time dedicated to family, freedom to lead a healthier lifestyle, freedom to not be trapped in a livelihood where I'm just slogging away, trading hours for dollars. I think that's what entrepreneurs are looking for. And so what I hear your messaging is we have so many tools available to us today to create that freedom in a really accelerated and leveraged way if we focus on the end goal. Because it's just as easy to get yourself trapped in the complexity, you know, and yoke yourself to something that's just, you know, going to wear you out. So how do you keep your yourself focused on that? North Star of I'm in business to create freedom for myself, financial security and wealth and abundance for my family. And how do I, you know, because it seems so daunting. The reason most people don't become entrepreneurs is it just seems totally scary and daunting and insecure and uncertainty. Right? So it takes kind of crazy people like us to do it in the first place. But then how do you stay focused on the original goal, which was freedom?

Yes. Freedom from. And freedom to. Hallelujah, brother. So here's what I do every single day. I'm hyper disciplined. Despite the fact that I grew up, I had crippling adhd, I still do. And my greatest fear was of being poor and going backwards. And my dad grew up very poor on a farm in Iowa. My mom, who just passed a week ago, grew up in absolute chaos. My grandfather was an alcoholic and my grandmother was bipolar and schizophrenic. Like I didn't come from anything. And I watched my dad work his butt off for us four kids and so. But he was so disciplined. He got up every day at the same time and he was motivated to serve. He's a barber. He touched people for a living. So I think I really believe that the greatest motivator is that of service. And service delivers freedom. And so I wake up every day and it's like, what is a shortcut? I can create and share with someone that will deliver. Freedom to and freedom from that is what drives me to write. Writing a book seemed like an impossible task. And all you need is one client. And you gotta learn how to close. You gotta learn how to close deals. And copywriting and salesmanship like that is an unavoidable skill set that you can hoo out. But you know your best salesperson is gonna be you. And believe it or not, the moment you cried to get your mother's milk or some bottle, you became a salesperson. We're born to be. None of us would be here if we weren't good at selling. It's just getting past the illusion that I can't do that. And I' like that. And that is an identity that is your ego getting in the way of your salvation. So I think that's the mindset. And remember, we started out with mindsets at the very beginning of this. And the only way to maintain that mindset is to be in masterminds with other founders and people just like us. To get in a coaching program, I don't care what it is, get a business coach who can hold you to a higher standard. And what I find I do is I create. Like that little exercise I did with you. I sat on a plane a week ago with a 16 year old girl who had lost her father three years before. And she was watching me play with AI and she said, do you do AI? And I said, yeah, how about you? You know, and her mom was sitting right there and we ended up creating a song and an animation and a video and turned out she lived in San Diego with me. But I walked away going, wow, you know, just imagine, you know, a 16 year old girl. What a beautiful thing. So again, I just lived inside her brain. I think compassion and empathy are the secrets to keeping your drive.

I got one last question for you. We're about out of time here. In some ways you're talking about embedding ourselves, but doing it from a place of authenticity, like Discovering our own real hero's journey and then finding a way to really communicate that to the world in a really authentic way. And our journey's always changing, and the marketplace is always changing, and our business challenges are always changing. And, you know, what was working, you know, last year, last month, maybe not working anymore. That funnel was doing great, and suddenly it dies, right? So there's this quality of having to. Needing to be willing to reinvent ourselves continually. I always think of Madonna, who I think every five years reinvented herself, would be back on her charts. Everybody said, she's gone. She'd be back on her charts. Amazing at reinventing herself. And I wonder if you could talk about that spirit of continually being willing to reinvent yourself, to reinvent your company, to reinvent your marketing, and just start fresh and go for it. And given the creative tools that we have today, it seems easier, but it still takes a certain spirit, a certain mindset to do that.

It does. So after, I'll give you a short personal story, and I'll answer your question. But the story will answer the question, which is, after I sold my fifth company, and the real reason I sold all my companies is because I outgrew them. And I also. They outgrew me. And I felt trapped. So. And I was fortunate enough that I had created enough value that I could sell them, which is a miracle in itself. But I was in a dark place, like serious anxiety. On paper, my life looked great from the outside. Inside, I was in turmoil. I couldn't sleep. I was having anxiety attacks. Depressed for the first time in my life. Like, genuinely, I was looking for a truck to run into me. It was that kind of like, ugh. And something just ached. And I asked Dan Sullivan for his advice, and he said, do something. Sit down and talk to five or eight entrepreneurs and do something called the DOS with them, which is a tool he created. And it's dangerous opportunities and strengths. He said, do a DOS with them. Ask them these questions. And he said, what you will do next will emerge just from having those conversations. So it comes from a place of service. Inside of that. I created my next business, which I'm doing now. We call it the Superpower Accelerator. All I do is reinvent founders, and I wrote a book called you'd Next act, which was my own journey, step by step, where I came up with the six M's. And so I think the power to reinvent comes from a deep. Sometimes it's a pain, sometimes it's a passion, sometimes it's absolute fear. And Some your traumas, but it's a healing exercise that the universe, you don't get to decide it, the universe decides it for you. And you get to conspire with the universe or it's going to conspire against you. And I invent my next product. One of my first clients was someone who heard me tell my story that I just told you. And they're like, I'm exactly there. I can't talk to anyone. This guy said, I'm worth $50 million and I'm suicidal. What's wrong with me? I was like, oh. And he just cried. He said, can you hug me? I was like, turned into an opportunity and turned into a business.

Wow. Well, this has been absolutely illuminating. One of my most interesting and creative spontaneous interviews I've ever done for Walmart summits is so exciting. I'm looking forward and we're going to have to have you on all our summits. So this has been really illuminating, exciting, and there's so much juice in here for everyone in our audience. So I really encourage people to check out your work. Where can they find out more about your work and what you're currently doing and so forth?

Sure. Well, I have some tools that will help them now in their path because every time I have a problem, I try to solve it for me and then someone else says, hey, I got that problem too. And I turn it into a book. You know, it's like tele transformational journey. So I have a couple GIFs and I made links for you. Oh, here, I'll start with the first one. This is my book, the AI accelerator. So if you love the idea of working with AI, even if you're a ranked beginner, just go to my name, it's Mike Koenigs.com Aifleet and you'll get this book for free. And then videos demonstrating step by step how to use it and some of my best speeches. And then this is my book, you, next act, which is@mikekoenings.com ynafleet which is yournextact fleet. And there on the download page, there's a place where you can get my other two books. Well, I've got a whole bunch, but the relevant ones. One's called referral party, which we didn't even talk about. But if you want to grow your business with no marketing, it's doing what are called referral parties, where you just meet with someone, you ask them what they're offering. With the opportunity, maybe I can connect you with someone who will be a perfect client and they invariably say, well, what are you doing? Can I help you too? And it becomes a referral party exchange. And the last one's called Punch the Elephant. It's my book on how to sell high ticket products and services with a phone conversation or a zoom. And you don't, even if you don't like to sell, it's how to sell anything to anyone, even if you hate to sell. That's the subtitle. So that's what I got for you, Fleet.

Well, that's absolutely wonderful. And we're going to have all those links right? There you go. You all just look right down, you see all those links right now. And this is been amazing, Mike, and.

Such a joy and well, it is a pleasure. The answer for you is always yes. How's that?

That sounds pretty good to me. And enjoy that beautiful place where you are. I'm sure you are so all the best.

Thank you, my brother.

Thank you. Thank you for joining me on the radical responsibility podcast. Remember, real change happens when we commit to our growth, face our challenges with compassion, and stay open to transformation. If you found this episode helpful, I encourage you to subscribe and help us spread the message of healing and personal empowerment. Stay grounded, stay present and stay true to you. Take care. Of.