Get Past the Shame of Failure – It’s Part of the Journey with Mike Zeller

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weddell. And before we get started, if you want to know exactly how to win again and again, go to Wydell on winning.com webinar now to watch something I've put together for you. Now let's get going into this episode.

Of Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm talking with Mike Zeller. He, he's founded 12 companies. He's helped launch over 100 new startup businesses, made over 300 million in sales. He's on the Forbes Coaches Council. And so Mike, a lot of great achievements at an early age in your life and proud dad of a, what'd you say, seven month old girl.

Yeah, she's wonderful.

Congratulations, Zahir. And so as, as a fellow dad, let me just say your real education is just getting ready to begin or has just begun. That's why they come, they come to give you an education about life that you had no idea. Now when you go out, talk about how do you become, how do you found 12 companies, how do you become get on the Forbes Coaches Council. You know you're starting out, you know you have your degrees, you start out in business. How did you start out and not just stall out with one company or one position?

You know, partly I've tried enough things and I'm still innovating and creating new things. But I try and test and I recognize that the win is not in an individual specific outcome for that one project, that one business, but it's in the learning and the growth and becoming a master. Tom Brady didn't say, hey, you know what, I played a perfect game. Now I'm hanging up. He's like, I'm coming back because I enjoy the game, the competition, the challenge, the growth that happens, the pursuit of mastery. And so I'm also uniquely wired. I'm a creator on the Wealth Dynamics, which is one of the personality tests that I highly recommend for anyone in entrepreneurship or leadership. But my unique pathway is to create. And that means I'm going to have bigger highs and lower lows. I'm going to have some big flops and some big, big wins as well. And I have, and so that's a piece because a non creator, like a lord or a mechanic, like how many companies did Andrew Carnegie really start? He started US Steel, basically, that's what he's known for. Rockefeller started, you know, Standard Oil because they were locked in on one thing, they were building an empire. I'm more like Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, you know, having different things that I keep creating and innovating in and testing. So just appreciating who you are. It's like the quest in life is not to become someone else, but it's become the most true version of yourself. And that's how I'm wired. And then how do you get Forbes Coaches Council?

What does that even mean?

You got to do seven figures in revenue and then you have to apply and then they do an interview and if they accept you, then you're in and then you write for it and all that.

And so how did you get make the transition to where you're starting? You're not just running your own business, but you're starting to coach other entrepreneurs? Because I'm sure that's an enviable situation. Because in a teacher student situation, the teacher always is learning more than the student. And I'm sure it puts you in a catbird seat for a whole lot of learning while you are coaching these other people on the way up. So how do you make. How did you make the jump to where people looked at you as a coach and paid you for it?

Yeah, I had a lot of, A lot of people start reaching out to me in 2015 and 2016. I was getting some press, different things, and people were just reaching out. People I knew in my Facebook network and other friends. Hey, Mike, can I pick your brain? I got this business idea, blah, blah, blah, and go to coffee, lunch, etc. And then soon enough, six months later, I'm like, dude, I'm spending like half my week doing free mentoring. And my other businesses started suffering. And I was like, all right, I got to figure out a way to justify my, you know, this investment. I loved it. And people were having great results when they took action, I was like. But I was also frustrated that people weren't sometimes taking action. It was because it was free advice, not paid advice. We take paid advice more seriously. And so I started charging a thousand bucks a phone call because I was making a thousand bucks an hour in my other ventures. So that's, that's where I really started. And then I just started doing one on one.

Primarily when you talk about your Facebook, was it by this point you probably were not writing for Forbes already?

No, no.

And so what was it just success in your other businesses and.

Yeah, yeah. And, and so that. That gave some headway. My real estate business, car dealership, had a men's fashion line, sustainable fashion line, marketing agency. So I had a bunch of different things happening at the same time. And. But it was, yeah, it was like I was doing multiple different things and getting, getting some attention for that. And, and, and you know, that one thing leads to another and soon enough. But also knew my long term path was to help mentor others and help others avoid the stupid mistakes that I had committed.

What was the big biggest thing that you belly flopped on, you know, and how did you let that happen to you?

Yeah, yeah, I would say, you know, my men's clothing line, there was wins and nothing. I don't think anything's ever really a total flop or a total win. But the men's clothing line, like we had a successful Kickstarter, so that's a big win identity. Breaking through that, launching a clothing line, learning about apparel, E. Com. But you know what? I ended up losing 250 to $300,000 on that venture, total of my own money. And it was, I couldn't, I got over invested in very expensive product. My T shirts did really well. If I had stuck to T shirts, man, I would have done really, really well. But you know, that's a learning lesson. I spent about $100,000 on some inventory for premium denim that did not sell. And when it didn't sell very well, now I was kind of stuck. And then I just kind of like had a couple cascading things that just went wrong and I was too reactive. And what does that mean?

What does that mean? Too reactive?

Yeah, you know, I didn't take some time away to strategically. I didn't take enough time away to strategically look at all the things that were happening, all the things that were. All the plates I was juggling and I could have paused, I could have recalibrated. I could have said, hey, how do I get through this inventory real quick? Instead, I think I felt frustrated. I didn't have everything dialed in and I needed more support in different ways, but I didn't get quite the right formula for the business.

And in that business, were you following a successful role model or just generally seat of the pants?

I mean, I was always reading and studying. I read a book a week typically. And then I was part of Tony Robbins platinum partner program at the time. So I was reading and studying all the time, learning all the time. But there was definitely some, some mistakes and some things where I was just improvising on my feet.

Hey, listen, there's a lot of information online, but there aren't a lot of people who have actually done something. In my case, I've actually built a successful business, has accrued over $5 billion in assets under management and has done well even during trying times. Now, if you want to know exactly how I've done this, go to Whiteellumwinning.com webinar Now, I've compressed a decade of learning into five short weeks. Just for those of you who want to give yourself an incredible advantage and are tired of waiting and watching others move up.

And the thing like you say, when you work and you try things, you never really completely lose because you're picking up contacts, you're picking up skills, you're picking up. You're learning to recognize red flags earlier that when you coming up. One of the reasons many entrepreneurs historically have averaged two bankruptcies before 40. Yeah, because you didn't. Nobody told you to recognize, you know, certain red flags. And then once you learn how to recognize them, you know, and most of the time you find out it's not because these people took the lessons that came back and, you know, did it 10 times bigger. But the thing is you could if you just. There's just no place you can go and learn all that. You couldn't remember them all. You know, all the things you got to watch out for. It's too many things like raising a kid. You got to watch out this, make sure you do that. There's a. It's like I'm just going to get in and do the best I can and, you know, keep moving forward and try and do more right things and wrong. And then when I do something really wrong, never do it again, you know. But how did that inform you going.

Forward after that first season, after some bigger failures, you know, we kind of lick our wounds and we have some or I frankly, I had some shame and some. My tail was tucked between my legs for a while, but I realized, hey, I can't stay here. I'm not going to provide for my family. I still have gifts to offer the world and that this is. I also had some pre framing because I recognize I already had a healthy regard and appreciation for failures. And I knew like from John Maxwell's book Failing Forward and Other Friends, that failing is part of the journey. But when you get stung by it as a high achieving type, man, it didn't really sting for the moment. And I was like, all right, I gotta create an alter ego. I don't remember how I came up with it because I hadn't really heard of Todd Herman's great book called Alter Ego at the time. But I said, I'm gonna, I'm gonna. I knew the power of identities from Tony Robbins. I was like, you Know what? This, this version of me that has shown up in a weak, dispirited way. I'm gonna call him weak Willy. And then the other one is Magic Mike. Because I had a client say to me, mike, you create magic in my life is what she said. And I like, I like that one. I'm gonna do that. So. And then I just started declaring every day. And even this morning, I drove down to Chattanooga for a consulting gig and I was like, at 6am played, I am Magic Mike. I have it on my audio playlist in two minutes of affirmations. I'm a powerful force for good. I'm a wealth magnet. I'm a loving and doting father and uncle. And boom, boom, boom, I'm a prosperous author. Etc, Etc. With three beautiful homes and three of our favorite cities across the world.

So where are those homes?

Well, I don't have them yet. They're, they're. I don't have them yet because I'm still in the build phase.

Okay.

Yeah. Nashville, Los Angeles, Florence, Italy. Those are where they're gonna be.

Have you ever been to Florence?

Oh, yeah, we got married in Florence. We love it. Where in Florence, we had, we rented a villa right up in the hills, looking down upon the city still.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Those are some spectacular views, aren't they?

No doubt.

Vineyards up there and all of that. Yeah. So great vantage points. Well, congratulations on that. Congratulations on all you've been doing. Thanks for sharing so much. And by the way, your website is.

What, Mike Zeller.com and then you can get a free copy of my book genius within book.com or text the word, or text the word genius u with the letter u to 474747 and you'll get a free six step guide to find your genius. But again, geniuswithinbook.com and mikezeller.com and then social media, the Mike Zeller on all, all the platforms except for any new ones that have been invented that I'm not aware of. But that's who I am and where I'm at. And then my last word. Larry, is that what's next? Yeah.

Just if you had a chance to.

Give a final word to people in 2020. I talked with this guy named Dee Hawk. He's the founder of Visa, as in Visa debit and credit cards. And one of the true pioneers in the banking and finance industry in the 60s and 70s. And he was 98 years old at the time and he's still alive today. But after he retired from Visa, he started writing for Harvard Business Review. And he started researching the very best leaders in the world and what they did differently than ordinary leaders. He found that the very best leaders in the world spent more than 50% of their leadership energy on leading themselves. So what does that mean? How do we find? How do we figure out our unique path? I think this is where my book, my process, because I've been on this quest and continuous quest to improve and refine and expand. Man, our lives are littered with clues. The problem is they've been scattered. So my quest is to help organize, synthesize, and interpret all the clues about your life to help you find your deepest area of genius and help myself as well. So. Because if we lead ourselves into our deepest area of genius and we master ourselves, King David wrote in the Bible, Proverbs 16:32, it's better to have self control than to conquer a city. Socrates said, to know thyself is the beginning of all wisdom. So let's begin there, knowing ourselves, appreciating ourselves, owning our greatness. And the world becomes our playground.

Wow, you knocked it out of the park there at the end there.

Thanks, Larry.

Yeah, fantastic. I'm just too curious. What was behind getting married in Florence? What prompted that?

You know, one of my best friends, he was our best man. He's a professor at Cambridge of entrepreneurship. And he said, mike, if you get married in your hometown, all the people from your past come, but if you do a destination wedding, the people from your future come. Wow. And we love Florence, Italy as well. So that's my favorite city in Europe. It's the birthplace of the Renaissance. It's one of the most unique cities in the world. Easy to get around once you're in the city. So it's pretty amazing.

All right, well, thanks so very much for sharing a lot of fun. Wish you the best.

If you enjoyed what you've heard and are dead serious about finding out for yourself exactly how this works in the real world, I've taken the most valuable business lessons I've learned over 40 years and put them into something for you to watch. Go to whiteellawinning.com webinar now you in order to move up as fast as possible, I'm Larry Wydell, and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, Go.