In this informal monologue, host Mike Michalowicz introduces a segment called “Night of Theater” where he highlights two classic films as sources of entrepreneurial insight. He first praises Miracle on 34th Street, focusing on a scene where Santa, working as a store Santa, honestly directs customers to a cheaper competitor. The store manager initially fires Santa for losing sales, but later realizes that honesty drives customer loyalty and higher revenue. Michalowicz extracts the lesson that entrepreneurs should always do right by the customer, even when it doesn’t directly benefit their own product. He then references It’s a Wonderful Life, urging listeners to send holiday greetings to everyone, especially to the broader community, as a reminder of the importance of connection and goodwill during the season. The talk is peppered with sponsor acknowledgments and a light‑hearted, self‑deprecating delivery style.
Chapters
Welcome to Honor Roll. And now, here's your host, Mike Michalowicz. Welcome to Night of Theater, because this evening we're going to talk about the greatest movie line ever for entrepreneurs. But first, sponsor time, the people that pay for all this stuff. Thank you to American Express, Dex, Digital, Provendis Group, and my boys at Skype for being sponsors. And by the way, Nextiva, you too are awesome. So the most important movie you can ever see. I'm just turning to different accents here because quite frankly, I have no control over accents and I suck at it and I just kind of flop around. So it. Whatever. So, best movie ever. Miracle on 34th Street. Stick that in your corn cob pipe and start smoking that one. Why? Because there's a scene where Santa Claus is at the Macy's or the Gimbels. I don't know where he is, but he's at the store where Santa is hired to be Santa. If you're stoned watching that movie, it's a total mind mess. People are coming in to buy stuff, and they asked Santa, hey, where do I get the hot new toy? And he says, store across the street has it for a little bit less. Go there. So they go to the store across the street, and the manager of this store comes to Santa and goes, what the? What? He didn't say, what the? It's an old movie. He said, what the. Hey, ha. And Santa's like, it's a better price. And he's like, santa, you're fired for doing this. We're losing customers. But then the next day, the manager is aghast because people come flocking back to the store because this is the honest store that tells the truth of where to get stuff. And they get more business than ever. That's the business lesson. Do right for the customer. Even if you are not the solution. You'll have your own little miracle on 34th street or 5th street or the boulevard or whatever street you're on. To be honest, there is another movie that perhaps has a more impactful and prolific message for us. It's a Wonderful Life. If you haven't seen that, like, what planet are you from? And the lesson is this. During the holidays, always, always send greetings to everyone, particularly buildings. Merry Christmas, Mowgli Hol. Merry Christmas.
