Serial Entrepreneur Club – EP50: Mike Alden

[00:00:00] We are going to be talking today all about creating a brand and we have the bestselling author Mike Alden, who’s going to be joining us in a minute here.

We often think of ourselves as an entrepreneur, just our business. We don’t often think of ourselves as a brand and today we’re really going to hit that. And we’re going to understand what it takes to brand ourselves. So welcome to the serial entrepreneur club, where we try to figure out what it is that serial entrepreneurs do over and over again, to start scale exit repeat.

Hey, Mike, welcome to the show. We’re very excited to have you on here. I just want to let everybody here know that Mike Alden is a best selling author. His website is Mike alden.com and you can check him out there. He’s done a number of books.

He’s also a serial entrepreneur. So if anyone’s cracked the code of what does it take to eat [00:01:00] startup to succeed? He is one of those individuals and Michelle is going to be our lead moderator. Take it away. Excellent. Mike, it’s a real pleasure to have you here actually on our 50th episode. So it’s a big day for us, a big episode, and we feel honored that you’re joining us. So let’s just jump right into it, Mike. Let’s do it. Wow. Geez. I didn’t realize it was the 50th.

I don’t know. Maybe we should have picked somebody else. No. You’re perfect. Absolutely. Perfect. So first a little message here to the audience. We’re going to quickly move to questions and we’re going to even open up the floor to folks that want to, tell Mike their ideas about branding themselves or writing a book or a podcast so that he can give you some feedback as well as your, as well as you can ask Mike, any [00:02:00] questions you like about his topic, which is branding.

I’ll just start off here with a question, I’m curious about, branding yourself as an author and entrepreneur. How is that different from branding yourself as a company? Yeah. That’s a great question. And I’ve done both, and I’ve actually struggled with the latter of branding, a company I’ve we talked about this before, I’ve generated hundreds of millions of dollars.

My companies have sold products all over the world and we’ve sold a lot of different types of products from books. Obviously, we’ll talk a lot about that to dietary supplements, to, to widgets and kind of core courses and everything in between and in the name of my primary company is called blue vase marketing, and a lot of these products and services, though.

What that you see, if you’ve ever watched television over the past 13 years, Probably seen me on television promoting one of these, one of these products, but it was under the banner of really the product itself. So it was really difficult for us to brand the business of [00:03:00] blue vase marketing, the branding of marketing for us has always been for more of on a business to business scenario as far as myself individually also struggle with that throughout the years because having been on television throughout the years, I was literally on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all over the world for years.

And we know that television is a dying meeting and the same with radio, but I’m not facing. Because I paid for that time. And so it’s all like I would walk into a store or somewhere and people would recognize me. That happened a couple of times, but it was very rare, but I was building businesses.

We talked about this, a little while ago in, in businesses that, again have generated all this money and sold all these different products. But I also, as an entrepreneur, wanted to let the world know who I was. I wasn’t just an infomercial guy. You hear the word infomercial still has a bit of a negative connotation to it, but I always tell people, I say, look, love them or hate them.

Barack Obama was actually elected as a result of an infomercial. People don’t realize that he did[00:04:00] eight 30 minute national infomercials and that really put them over the top. So the power of direct response marketing is what we’re really talking about is a very powerful medium. And now.

All that stuff that I’ve been talking about as far as television or even radio, it’s all happening. It’s just on a different medium now. You look at guys like Ty Lopez. Who’s just an amazing marketer in just a brand builder, this guy. Has been doing infomercials on Snapchat, right?

It’s the same thing. You look at guys like grant Cardone, who I’ve connected with as a result of my podcast on my book. So we can talk a little bit about that. These guys are just doing infomercials. That’s all we’re really talking about. They’re just doing it in a different format, in a different media.

But for me, and for, I think many entrepreneurs, the power of a book is something that that you can take with you forever. Your legacy will always be there. There will always be. There’ll always be somewhere to find that book. And I still believe today, even though we’re reading a little bit differently and we’re consuming our media a [00:05:00] little bit differently, I believe that if you have a story, if you have a skill set, writing a book and getting it to the masses is one of the greatest ways to build your personal brand.

But it sounds if you write. They won’t just come. It sounds and again, I got introduced to Mike through Mike all shore here on stage as well, but because I signed a publishing deal with Forbes advantage and we’re launching the book start scale, exit repeat. So my question to you who Mike is we’re doing, we’re putting a lot of work into this and I’m telling you it’s a multi-year project, which is likely to conclude over the next six months.

But that’s not enough, is it like, what are the other things that I need to do? Or anyone in this audience needs to do to make this successful? Yeah. It’s it, my good friend, Larry Bernays is popped in the room too, and he’s been really instrumental and a lot of my success in the publishing space.

And because of the connections that he’s introduced me to, and, You [00:06:00] talked about the preparation, and I’m a pretty simple guy, right? I’ve been a simple guy, my whole life. I am a lawyer by trade, but I was talking about this a little bit earlier when I was in law school.

I, I had to read every word and I had to put in the work. And, but what you just talk and you just mentioned it’s been a multi-year process and nothing. Worth anything happens overnight. And Noah, nobody likes the non-sexy stuff. Nobody likes the behind the scenes preparation that you need to do in order to be in order to be successful.

We live in this world where we want to pop a pill and we want immediate results. We live in this instant gratification world of likes and hearts and all these things that that, that hit us with that dopamine rush, because that’s just the world we’re living in. But the successful people like yourself and the successful people that are on stage and the people that are in the audience that people that have done real stuff recognize, and they understand that you need to put in not only the work, but the preparation, it’s not a Bulletproof answer [00:07:00] to you to success, but everything that I’ve ever done in which I’ve been successful at, I’ve put in all the.

Those hours where nobody’s looking right where nobody really cares. And I’m not telling anybody about it either. Go back to law school. When I was in law school, I went to law school nights while I was working. And for four years, cause you go to, if you go to law school nights, it’s four, not three for four years.

I didn’t talk to anybody except my fellow law students colleagues and also maybe the people that I worked with, my friends, I barely even talked to my relatives because I knew that I needed to put in the work. And so you had talked again about the preparation and the time involved.

There’s a lot of sacrifice involved. This stuff might sound like somewhat cliche-ish to some people, but it’s real. And you know what? I don’t care what anybody tells you. Nobody likes to do. I don’t like having to sit in meetings and go over numbers with my accounting staff or sitting in meetings with my CIO and going over code because I don’t understand it.

I don’t like thinking [00:08:00] about how exactly a funnel works and going over the certain steps that you need to go over in order for a funnel to actually work properly. But I also know in order for it to really be successful, I do need to understand it on a certain level. So to answer your question and this better than anybody you do have to put in that work and you have to be consistent.

So many of my salespeople, I love this. When they come, they say, Hey Mike, listen I followed the script that you wrote. I said yeah, we wrote that 15 years ago. It still works. And I’ll never forget, actually it was a guy. It was actually my father who came to me and my dad, he said, he comes to my office, says, Mike, I followed that script.

I follow that map. And I S I sold more than I’ve ever sold ever. And I just got a smile, but I was also irritated. Cause the one who my dad Intuit is just yeah, the system works because I put in the work and now you’re putting in the work. So if you put in the work consistently over time, because it’s not just about putting in the work to, today or tomorrow or the next day, it’s consistent.

Most people, especially salespeople are [00:09:00] consistently inconsistent. And by the way, I’m as real as it gets, as you can probably tell from my voice, I’m inconsistent a lot too, but I’m also self aware of the fact that, Hey man, you know what? You screwed up yesterday. You didn’t do what you needed to do in order to maintain, your consistency.

So you got to go back to it and let’s start from where we were yesterday and consistently build upon that. So it’s doing the work it’s preparing and it’s about being consistent, especially when you don’t want.

Wow. I love what you’re saying. So here’s a question you’re making me think, I’m drawing some analogies here to branding as a company and branding yourself, which you’ve talked about and explained to us. So it’s you’re our brand assets as entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs. You talked about, your experience, what you’re good at your knowledge, what else would we consider our brand assets when we’re really sitting down and thinking about the direction that [00:10:00] we should go with our book or a podcast and just our overall personal brand strategy.

Yeah. I think it’s authenticity is really the key thing that a lot of us are lacking. So many of us want to be something else. So many of us are aspire to, to achieve certain things. And we’re trying to be the thing that we’re really not, but we’re trying to get there. So we try to act like we’re already there and that is so transparent.

Through, for me it is, I can just tell right away when someone who’s acting, , they’re just faking it until they make it right. So I think really, if you truly want to build your brand, if you want to cut through all the clutter, that’s out there. See the thing is here’s the greatest thing about, so there’s a good and bad about social media.

You open up. You get some followers, your post, you do some things and anybody can do it, anybody can do it. And that’s a great thing. The barrier of entry is zero. We meant you and I were talking about this before we got up before we got on this call. That’s also a bad thing because a lot of people see the success of others and they see the, the [00:11:00] Instagram videos and the Snapchats and now tech talks and everything else, and they want to be something that they’re not.

And so they try to act like they are. So I always say let’s put in the preparation, let’s put in the work so you can get there and then you can post about it. So truly in, you have to think about your own authenticity and, look, I talk about this in my books, the easiest person to lie to is yourself.

And it’s really easy to do by posting things on Instagram or Snapchat or Facebook or whatever, and believe your own bullshit. So you start to believe it. And then you think it’s reality. You want, it’s really not because you’re not doing the things that are necessary in order to be successful. I had mentioned my friend, Larry Benet.

I think he’s still here. I, I was at an event that he put on years ago and Harvey McKay spoke in in, in Harvey’s written, I don’t know, like 30 books and super successful guy and just just just the dynamo and he’s, and he says, look, there is no pill powder or a potion that is [00:12:00] going to change the way you’re going to become successful.

The technology is changing. It might make things a little bit easier, but at the end of the day, you have to do the work. And again, back to what I said before, I don’t necessarily like doing it, but if you want to be authentic, you need to put in the work of your own authenticity. You also need to be self-aware.

Yeah, I just got off the phone. I was just a few minutes ago. I was on the phone with my therapist. People don’t tell the people. And so people talking about now, oh, maybe mental health. It’s a thing now because a COVID, I’ve been going to a therapist my entire life to check myself because I need to make sure that I’m self aware of really who I am and what I’m trying to do.

And the thing is about that is I am self-aware. I know who I am. I know what I’m doing. I know that I’m not even close to our, want to be, but I am me. So if you really want to connect with people, if you want to grow your business, if you want to grow your brand, you need to first stop lying to yourself, be authentic with yourself.

[00:13:00] And then that authenticity, it will come through. Not only here on this medium, but wherever you are. Yeah. And I think that’s true for clubhouse too, is when anyone comes on stage, if they. I’ve seen it with the with some of the big corporations who come on and they’re so scripted and it’s just, it doesn’t work, but you come on here and you’re authentic.

You’re real. You’re you are yourself. It makes a big difference. Now you do the hard work. You’re authentic. The book is done going bad, not being selfish here, but I’m using it as the example, start scale, exit, repeat the book that’s going to launch later this year, we’ve done all the hard work. We believe it’s a great, we believe it’s a masterpiece here at startup club.

What’s next? What are the actual specific things we can do to promote that book and the whole messaging behind it? Yeah. My first book ask more, get more, which was written in 2014 and Greenleaf is who was my publisher [00:14:00] as a marketer and an entrepreneur over $200 million marketing products.

And and I feel like I’m a pretty good entrepreneur. I’ve lost big throughout the years. And, for those of, my story, I’ve lost millions. I’ve lost mailings in a day sometimes. And w when I think of. You know your question and what’s next in what you really need to do is I love what you said to me earlier.

See, most people, most authors, right? They think that masterpiece that you just mentioned is just going to be because it is no, that’s not really the case. Like my first book ask more, get more. Look, it was written in, in 2014 it did big things. The title in and of itself is a sexy title.

I always tell people, look, if you take my book, you put her on your kitchen table, you put her in your, you put on a coffee table. It’s not going to do anything for you unless you read it and implement it. The title of that book ask more, get more. just speaks for itself. So what do you need to do?

It goes back to my first kind of principles of thinking of putting together a plan and executing on that plan consistently so [00:15:00] that you can get the word out. Here’s the little dirty secret about the publishing space. And this is why I’ve been helping authors now because I’ve spent millions.

Marketing my own books. And I wish I had most of it back because I did ridiculous things. I wrapped NASCAR’s with my books and by the way, my first race was the Daytona 500, not some little side thing. And I did it like dozens of times, I sponsored a guy in the world series of poker.

I’ve done the Hudson book deals I’ve been in, my books, they’re sold all over the world for a reason. A lot of that stuff though, was mistakes that I made. But as it relates to a book. It’s somewhat translates to most products is putting in that work and also marketing it in a way that’s going to yield results.

As a direct response marketer, every time I spend a dollar, I need to see to come back and it needs to be even more than that to comes back to me. And I’m like losing a little bit of money. And so when you think about your plan, your product, your marketing, you also [00:16:00] need to think about what’s my.

Like, how am I going to do this? Because the whole idea of something going viral, I know that tick talk, people get excited and you got some video that, you know, that, that pops my question to a lot of these people who say, oh, I had a video that went viral, or I have, X amount of followers on on, on Instagram.

Look, I have almost 17,000 followers on Instagram. They’re not very active. I’m not actually that active on Instagram. Those people won’t necessarily in heaven early, necessarily translated into sales for me, for my books. But I do say to you to answer your question, if you are going to market, you need to say to yourself, how am I going to allocate resources?

I E K. In order to yield the results. And when you think about all the different mediums that are out there, marketing, again, we mentioned them all are Snapchat and Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Google ads. The email campaigns SMS, text messaging, there are so many different things as a direct response marketer, I say, test and [00:17:00] measure early.

So you can figure out what exactly works, as someone who has done this over and over again and failed, most of the times I’ve developed a system and I’m not promoting it because, but I’ve developed a system that just works, but it cost me millions of dollars to figure it out.

So the dirty secret that I was trying to get to is that, and I, and I, and no disrespect to anybody, but most people don’t care. People don’t care about your book launch, but they’re not really, they really don’t. And I, and by the way, how do I know this? Because it happened to me.

My own family members, you know how hard it is to get your parents to buy a book. My dad and my mom bought my first book and all they did was turn to the index and look for mom and dad so that they could so that they could, see what I wrote about them. But when I asked them to buy the book in an effort to help me try and hit these lists, that I will I’ve always, achieved.

It was really difficult to do so it’s thinking about how am I going to allocate the resources and to expand on it a little bit more if you don’t mind it’s and this is a [00:18:00] ghost to the very essence of my first book, ask more, get more. And I know there’s been other books out there and there’s books before that.

And look, every book that’s ever been written, we’re all just expanding off of really. We are probably one of the first books ever written, which was really the Bible, right? It’s all our own version of what we all already know. But you have to ask, see you when you write your book, you wrote.

I would say maybe just over halfway done, maybe 60% of the way there that other 40% is way harder than actually writing the book, because now you need to figure out how am I going to sell this book? So you have a great medium here calling, right? You have almost 900,000, almost a million people here.

So you have this built in audience that I think is going to really just blow your book out of the water. And by the way, Forbes and Adam Woody is great, who Michael Ashley introduced me to, a lot of people don’t have this. And so you need to put in all that stuff, all that work way in advance all of my books, by the way, I’ve had a six month run-up meaning when the book was available, [00:19:00] ready for sale, we marketed for six months, not two weeks not a month, six months.

And that’s what it allowed me to continue to build my brand as an author. And then when you have success with books, then other big things and other great things. We got a lot of work to do. Yeah. I love to just jump in. This is Michael chiller. First of all, Michael Alden is the real deal and is very dear friend of mine.

When he said he was speaking to his therapist earlier, we were talking earlier for a moment. I thought he was talking about archives, but, and then I’m the therapist. What I do want to say is I was fortunate enough to have Michael as a friend and to say, this is a marathon, not a sprint. I created a book, wrote a book during the pandemic.

It became a bestseller on Amazon in four different categories because of Michael. Now, although this is a journey, not a sprint. I can say there is a [00:20:00] shortcut and smart people learn from their own mistakes. Smarter people learn from the mistakes about. You heard Michael talk about the millions that he lost time that he lost and all the things that he’s done in his whole life.

Those were learning lessons that you don’t have to experience all yourself. You can call a person like Mike or who he referred me to, who saved me time, money, energy, and effort. And allow me to sprint during this long run to get to the finish line faster. And the ultimate finish line was becoming a bestseller.

So if you do want to short a stole like I said, it’s so long run and it was extremely hard work morning, noon, and night writing this book and then getting it to number one. But if you’re committed to doing the work and you want to get the best advice you limit the number of mistakes you make connect with someone who’s done it before.

Who’s going through all the trials and tribulations. And that way you won’t have to at least as much. And you’ll get to the finish line with less bruises and [00:21:00] bumps and cuts. Everything else that goes on. So I just want to say Michael, thank you for everything you’ve done. And I would encourage everyone to follow up and follow Michael’s advice and he’ll give you connections and tell you who you should go to.

So you don’t, like I said, go through the the rigors that you would necessarily not necessarily go through, if you did it all yourself, I’m out. Great. Thank you so much, Mike and Michael, and to Mike’s point, and also, so you don’t lose a whole lot of money that was badly spent. So on that note, we have some members of the club who want to talk to Michael.

So Jeff, the entertainer what is your question first for my. Just the, before we asked it, I’m just, I’m not gonna answer this question. I’m sorry.

This is why I freaking love Mike all then. Okay. So literally those who don’t know me, I’m Jeff Deon to your Taner always trying to entertainer. I branded my name is Jeff. The entrepreneur, because what Mike was saying about authenticity. Which is why I love Mike. Cause he saw that he’s the [00:22:00] best guy to be around.

And it literally was his book. I actually was going through my highlights today, blueprint for business. I actually just started reading, ask more, get more I got to get up to. That was one of the best books I’ve ever read. And I wish I had it before. I just started the entrepreneur journey. The stories might spend through are just unbelievable.

Actually I do have a question for Mike. With that said I think always all the time John C. Maxwell, I was at a conference with him and he basically, they asked him, why do you write so many books? And he said, do you know what to get to people that I might never talk to her main ever reach. And Mike, I totally sympathize with you. I think certain things, I wrote a little, a lead generation book on Instagram and the family and everybody didn’t buy it. When my brother came with his book, I bought it right away. I always try and buy so many books just support him. And I buy him to read them my question actually for you Mike, because you’re legendary in the marketing space, in so many different levels.

What’s one of the most. Painful stories that you, the kind of came over to, came through. Cause like you come on here and you just talk about stuff. Maybe not just ad spend just you personally because like you’ve overcome so much. I think you’re one of the strongest guys. I know, [00:23:00] everything that I’ve been through.

Yeah. I lost my brother. I’m going to build a business and it’s sad and stuff. We all lose people. You’ve been through everything and you come back stronger than anybody. So what’s one of those things that kind of just inspires me. What, one of the moments there in your life personally?

Yeah. Personally, Yeah. Look, it’s the way I grew up, the first line of my first book ask more, get more it’s the first thing I say is, thank God I was born poor. People have heard me say this before and my mom doesn’t like how I start out with it, but I’ll give you the answer to her in a second to why my mom doesn’t like it, but my mom’s HIV positive.

My stepfather died of aids. My father was addicted to cocaine. I grew up with, in jail for life, for murder. My stepmother just recently died of an overdose. Another brother of mine died over an overdose. Both of my grandparents were hardcore alcoholics. I have a cousin who did five years. Another brother did time in prison.

And, I remember what it was like standing in the separate line and elementary school, middle school and high school, because my lunch was subsidized by the state. They made you stand in a separate line. You had to [00:24:00] hand this little card. And I still to this day, remember what that feels like.

I remember what it was like to have the salvation army. Subsidizing Christmas and Thanksgiving. I remember what it was like waking up in the morning. And my mom asking me to go outside to warm up the car and I would go outside and and the car wasn’t there. And it wasn’t because it was stolen because it was repossessed.

And so all those things, when people talk about adversity and going through difficult times in life, we all have those stories. And it really, it’s a decision that you have to make for yourself and whether or not you’re going to be a product of your environment, or you’re going to use that to your advantage.

So many people can just lean on that experience and look, when I was 17, I was shot at point blank, like within two feet. And my, I don’t even think Michael Austin knows that I had a guy pointed a gun at my head and pulled the trigger. And so you think about the. Those times in life and those difficult times in life.

And you look back and say, man, I’m glad I made it through and thank [00:25:00] God I made it through. And so when you go through that shit, and I’m looking at a book called shift and we hear the stories all the time. It’s a decision that you have to make. When my brother Dominic died of an overdose, I just knew it was some point.

It was a matter of if it was when and people would say, Hey, Mike, you need to talk to him. You need to get through to him. You need to do all this stuff. And I did, but at some point in my life, I needed to make a decision that I wasn’t going to be that kid. When my, when I was 14 years old, my father took me for a long walk on the beach.

I was 14. Okay. And you can just imagine what my life was like and the things that I did when I was a kid and he takes me out for a long walk on the beach and he says, look, if you are going to be a criminal, if you’re going to do the bad things that you continue to do at 14. And again, I can, you can just only imagine the things I did.

He said, let’s do it. And I said, what do you mean? He goes, if you really want to go this road, I can introduce you to gangsters. I can introduce you to fellow drug dealers. And if that’s the w if that’s what you really want to do, you [00:26:00] need to be prepared that you’re going to prison, that you’re going to get shot in, that you might not make it through.

And I had people tell me, that I’ll never make it through, my, my guidance counselor, when I finally turned my life around at 15, my senior year in high school, I was class president and captain of the football team. And I had virtually straight A’s my senior year. And I was trying to make something in my life and my guidance counselor, his name is Mr.

Sheriff. And I thank him for this. He said, Mike college isn’t for everybody. And I felt like saying, fuck you, man. But it was such a gift because people talk about the fuel and the difficulties that they go through. If you really think about where you’re at today, And all the things that you went through.

Cause we all have our own version of just what I just told you. And you use it to your advantage. You’ve probably seen some of my posts on Instagram. I put a chip on my shoulder. Like I have a chip on my shoulder. I’m still that kid from the projects. I still have something to prove that for me, it was some of the most difficult [00:27:00] things that I’ve ever gone through.

And I got, I’ve lost million. I lost a million dollars in one day. And like I had merchant accounts shut down. I had bank accounts, frozen and I’m a good person. I’ve run businesses for a long time. I have employees. And the, and I remember saying to myself, when that happened to me that one day I couldn’t believe it.

And I’m like, man, like why is this happening to me? And when you’re going through that, I don’t care what anybody says. It’s virtually impossible to see the silver lining or to see the positive thing. But I will tell you this, that if you can get through. Winston Churchill talks about, if you’re going to go through hell, you might as well go all the way through.

If you can get through it and come out the other side, you can take all that stuff and use it to your advantage. I never thought that all of these negative things that happen to us in our lives can be used to build who we are and then use those things in a positive way to help or even create a brand.[00:28:00]

I find that fascinating. I never connected that before, until you said. Yeah. That’s what kind of, I don’t know if my phone, the whole time you’re talking to Mike, man. I, and I love that. Like you inspire me man. And so I, when I put on I’m going to be put on an event, probably sometime in October, I was talking to a guy changing lives.

Mike will be speaking at it. My goal is to blow up people like Mike, as much as they are. Mike introduced me to a bunch of publishers. I’m having a book come out and it’s getting written right now as my life goes on. But is there anybody here, this little dinging in the background or is this just my phone?

Just messing everyday. Do you hear this? Just you just drive me nuts. Mike, tell him his whole story. And I have this thing. It’s one of those tile things, because I lose stuff all the time. So someone got me titled for Christmas and it’s going off. But Mike your story is so inspiring what we’ve been through and yeah, Colin, a hundred percent how I built my brand was, and literally just tell them, I think it was at my last, I went to a first MLM thing and the guy said, we have to tell our old story to new people every day.

And ever since then it was right after I lost [00:29:00] my brother to drugs, that all I was shelled to know where I was going. And I decided I was going to build a coffee shop, music studio in honor of him just like Gary V. I watched a lot of Gary V and now he branded, Hey, I’m going to buy the jets one day. I was like, let me do it that way.

The present day, what it’s been. And since then, I failed a lot and a software. I put thousands in everything, but it led me to a point now that now I own a consulting firm, I guess they know a little bit about marketing. I don’t even know. I just know a lot of connections, which is Michael is talking about, and I don’t want to see people fail.

And I really do truly care with my soul. And Mike has that and that’s why it would be me and Mike, wouldn’t be doing a lot of great things together. And I saw him in the room and I was like, I’m trying not to go in clubhouse. And I’m like, no, for Mike all, then, man, anytime you need anything to do.

And I, Mike, I’m forgotten about the podcast. We’re going to have you on. I just I’m negotiating my editors right now. Like a harsh entrepreneur. They’re a, they upped their prices. I said, Hey, you guys, you can charge more, but not me, but you’re charging me more. So we might have to go somewhere else. So Jeff, this is for you and Mike, both of you.

And I noticed that you talked about, you have a podcast, you’re writing a book. It’d be nice [00:30:00] to know the name of that book. Just to, I don’t know if you have it or not in your head yet. Oh, recession seems like getting rich in recession. I like it. I love it. And now, so it seems you don’t just do one thing.

It seems like you create these multiple channels and I’m hoping Jeff, you can talk about that. And Mike, you can also follow up. Yeah, really quick. So in marketing, I think Mike will agree everything on a vertical, right from top to bottom becomes the same. And then as long as you can carry with your same brand message was I wasn’t for years, I was just like, Hey, I’m figuring out I’m Jeff, the entrepreneur, if you look at my Instagram, it was literally, I took pride in the fact that I was all over the place.

I took pride in the fact that I didn’t know what I was doing and I was going to figure it out. Nobody was worried. He was like followed the journey. Now that I figured out a few things in a sense it’s really the beginning from just really just a. Really, and this is life. This is us on clubhouse and everybody here, just everybody reaching out, being generally interested in somebody else.

For it, it’s something that you like about them, like calling, you were just like that. And then all the way to the end of really just nurturing the relationship. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, it’s your [00:31:00] life. You get to pick people you want up with you. And when you have everything in a straight line, on it, then it plugs in the same level.

And you just realize once you get really clear on where you want to be. But also the people that you want to bring up with you and help then it all falls into place, which I’ve learned time and time again, everything it almost becomes when it starts becoming boring and doing the work.

That’s when you knew you’re doing something right. When you’re showing up like, oh no this is how you tell your story again. Oh, now I’m being a subject matter expert. And then as crazy entrepreneurs and marketers, then we go challenge yourself with something new, whether it’s, the metaverse or NFTs or anything like that.

But at the same time, if you just stay in a very lane, and this was one thing I had a very tough time doing, and I think there’s any entrepreneur, just have, one avatar, one product in one offer, and then once you do that, then the other ones get built in.

So it started with the podcast. That’s why I think Mike, and what he does is amazingly good podcasts or books. That’s the best thing and branding and you can do right. Then I think podcasts is better because you could do a connections right away. You could have Mike on, I can have you Kala, or you can have people on and you can repurpose that content [00:32:00] everywhere you go, that can then lead into book.

You could write a book on, my podcasts and now you have two ideas right in there and what I’ve learned from it. And then that could be a lead funnel. I love marketing. If you tell, I could go on all day about it, but go ahead, Mike.

Yeah. I used to struggle with Answering the question, what do you do? And I always would lead in I’m a lawyer by trade. Wanted everybody to know that I’m a lawyer. And, but, but I have a vodka line. I own a clothing brand called wicked happy. I had a daily fantasy sports company.

I’m on television, it just goes on and on. And I finally just realized wait a minute. I’m an entrepreneur. This is what I do. So for me, a true entrepreneur, I look, I, like many classic entrepreneurs, I was that kid that. That mowed lawns in the summer and and delivered newspapers throughout the entire year.

And on hot days, I, I had lemonade stands and, and, when it came time to do the school, fundraisers, I was, I had no problem going door to door and selling a bunch of, a bunch of things. So I could, so I could be on that leader board.

And so I think Gary B Jeff had mentioned it [00:33:00] earlier, Gary V talks a lot about this as well. I don’t think entrepreneurship is for everybody, but I think everybody should have some level of entrepreneurship within them, especially if you want to help an organization grow the stuff about entrepreneurship, the real struggle that we talk about and the things that you go through.

I just don’t think it’s for everybody because it’s it can be really dark and it can be really lonely, but. The game essentially of business and entrepreneurship is something that, that appeals to me. And so I do love growing businesses, but the things, again, that a lot of people don’t talk about is, the failures, and, some people do, but for the most part, people love to share the successes.

And that’s the, one of the biggest challenges that I can mentioned earlier with social media, as we see the quote successes, and most of it isn’t really. And I know that everybody knows that and then, but it develops, we all develop NVI do you know, you look at stuff and you’re like, whoa, whoa, like how did that happen?

Or is that even real? And so you trying you’re trying to get there, but what you really need to understand is that if [00:34:00] you want to be an entrepreneur you have to figure out a way to, to be successful again in your own world and not someone else’s world. And by the way, the definition of success is it is a fluid term.

So many of us, again, want the cars, the watches, and all that other stuff on the big houses, I’ve had all that stuff and have a lot of that stuff. It doesn’t make you successful. What makes you successful is what you want to be. So if you want. That stuff. That’s your own version of success.

It might not necessarily be my own version of success. So when you see guys like Ty Lopez and grant Cardone when the cars and the boats and the, in the, and all this other stuff and the jets that’s success to them. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s success to you.

And it also doesn’t mean it’s success to the world. So when people are struggling with entrepreneurship and also being successful, I say you define success, how you want to be. And when you get there, then that’s success.

That’s great advice, Mike. I really love how you’re talking about using. [00:35:00] You know that the troubles that you had or the conflict that you had to motivate you? I think if we want to get Mike to do something, we’ll tell him he can’t. So that’s fantastic that you were able to use that to empower yourself.

That’s really what you did. So on that, let’s get to our next guest here. Professor, we’d love to hear your question for Mike. Thank you very much. Mike is a great work you’re doing for our communities of writers and communicators. I just wanted to find out from you in terms of heating any of the list, are there specific bottlenecks that really stands in the way, or is it the pre launch campaign that determines whether you’re going to do.

The w the WSJ list or the [00:36:00] New York times bestseller list, what in your own experience is the ultimate settle steps that you need to take to hit the lists record time. Thank you. Sure. Yeah. Great question. In fact, I’m a marketing book right now called you can’t fall off the floor by Jamie Prickett.

It’s the number one nonfiction book on Amazon right now. It was the number one book in the world on Barnes and noble all week. And it’s in hundreds of categories. It’s beating, William Barr’s book and who’s on a massive media campaign. And it’s a great question. And there’s a lot involved, I tell people it’s like a military operation that does take planning, execution and consistency over time.

But you asked your first question was, is there a bottleneck? And I’ll tell you a bottleneck that’s happening right now. The bottleneck is within the printing and the shipping of books. I did a book for a former us ambassador. One of the most connected people that I had done a book for knows everybody presidents, the whole thing.

And she had 5,000 pre-orders, which is a pretty decent number. And not one physical book shipped, [00:37:00] even though the books were actually sitting on the warehouse, not one shipped and she was district. Because her goal was to hit wall street and USA today. My focus has always been on the digital side of things because I’ve been through that even before COVID with my last book, a blueprint of business, it was launched right around the time when there was the hurricane that destroyed Puerto Rico.

And the government actually commandeered trucks that shipped books for Amazon and Ingram. And there was a scenario where we didn’t think my books were actually going to make it to the proper warehouses to be shipped. And, I was freaked out about that. Cause I had probably spent 700,000.

Actually, I know that’s what I spent on that book to promote it. And so the biggest bottleneck right now is the physical books. And so I say to people, if you’re going to market a book right now make sure you have a digital play. And I like to do the 99 cent offers people do it. And they think that it’s just going to just again, happen because the book is inexpensive.

It goes back to what we were talking [00:38:00] about earlier, you got to put in the work, you have to spend the money, you have to spend, putting the marketing dollars. So right now, again, the biggest bottleneck is shipping and also printing look, Amazon, right? Has a print on demand platform, Barnes and noble.

Does they all do right print on demand. Those words would mean that. Once purchased would print on demand, you would think. But right now, even Amazon’s system, which is one of the greatest companies in the world is having trouble printing on demand. When you’re getting ready to launch your book now or in the future, make sure that you have a strong digital plan in place.

And by the way, it’s also a lot less expensive for you as the author to do.

Sorry about that. It’s a lot, it’s a lot less expensive to do it on the digital side. Because of just because of shipping because of print costs, a lot of these book deals. And I work with, some of the biggest publishers in the world and all [00:39:00] different types from, from the smaller, kind of independence to the largers Argile ones.

And also I love the hybrid ones. A lot of times these book deals that people get, the author has to pay for the printing of the books and that’s where it can get really expensive. And it’s more than just printing the books. It’s also warehousing the books. And the biggest bottleneck right now is physical books and printing.

Yeah. Professor was talking about getting on the best-selling lists. Are there any tips or tricks you can teach us? Yeah, so a lot of books in a really short period of time. So that’s what it’s about. Going out in the first week to really get you on the list. And that continues to boost you, is that yeah.

Professor, you brought up another term as well as the pre-sales. So pre-sales are critical. You only have one opportunity at your publication date. You only have, so it doesn’t change once it’s, once you hit your publication date then it’s forever gone. And so pre-sales are important now there.[00:40:00]

There are a lot of different things going on with the presale world. If you’re a self-published author and you’re on like Amazon KDP doesn’t allow authors because of their print on demand system, doesn’t allow physical books to be pre-ordered. So there’s a bottleneck and a challenge there that in and of itself.

But they do allow the digital, so if you’re going to just do it on KDP and then maybe you’re going to, maybe you’re going to use Barnes and noble system as well. So you have to think about that. Pre-orders are important. My books, like my last book, blueprints of business, I actually hit wall street in USA today, before my book was even published.

How is that possible? How is that possible? Because they look at the numbers. What happens is Amazon and Barnes and noble and Books-A-Million. And some of these other retailers, once they have the books in their warehouse, they ship just before your publication date, because they want to get the books out of their warehouse.

They don’t necessarily care about your publication date. A lot of these lists all of them they count the books when they’re shipped. And yeah, if you’re going to market a book and in an effort to hit wall street [00:41:00] USA today, or even the New York times presales are critical.

And that’s why I talked about earlier a six month run-up. So we knew with my books that we had X amount of books sold. I think my last one, we had 19,000 books pre sold. And so we knew that when we went into, our publication week that we had a really good shot. Now I didn’t hit the New York times with any of my books because the New York times, as well as a curated list.

So it’s not just about numbers. It’s there are all these different factors, is it a, is it actually a good book? I There’s a lot of horrible books that make the list For New York times as well, if you’re not famous, if you’re not writing a book about Trump or some political issue that’s going on right now it’s really difficult to get on New York times.

Wall street journal is also a somewhat of a curated list as well. So they’re not just going to put some book out there that just came out of the blue and sold a bunch of copies. They will look at things like, what is your social media look like? Okay. So if you’re, if you plan on really doing, you’re trying to make a run, make sure your social media is up to par and make sure it looks good.

Make sure you’re posting content [00:42:00] consistently. Make sure it’s not just Instagram. Make sure you are on LinkedIn and make sure you are on on, on Facebook makes you are on Twitter. And another thing too, when you think about success as an author, as far as selling books, don’t rely on. On your followers.

There was an article about two months ago in the New York times about Billie Eilish and her book. And I think she has 60 million followers. And then they looked at others like Justin Timberlake and their books were colossal failures. Their followers did not translate into sales and people say, oh they’re musicians.

They’re not going to buy the book. You would assume that they would at least buy, that at least 1% of the followers would at least buy the book or 3%, which would just be a pretty big number. Then you, then they go on and on about followers don’t necessarily need to don’t necessarily translate into sales.

So you need to also think about how can I induce people to buy the book, what can I do? And it goes back to, again, what I had said earlier, it’s. It’s consistently asking to the point where it’s almost annoying. If you really want to be a wall street USA today, [00:43:00] New York times bestselling author, you can’t be bashful.

You have to be relentless. You have to be again to the point where they do. They’re just going to unsubscribe or unfollow you. I Grant Cardone talks about that. And in the 10 X book you just need to just keep pushing. Because as I said earlier, nobody cares. Nobody cares as much as you do.

So if you want that and you want to level up and you want to build your brand, which again, for me, You know, Jeff, the entrepreneur talked about, podcasting is a great connection tool and it has been an amazing connection tool for me, but I was on grant Cardone’s show power players back in 2015 or 14.

I forget what it was as a result of the success of my book. Ask more, get more when you traveled all over the country and flew all over the country, went to the Hudson news is it was my book, Tony Robbins’ book, grant Cardone’s book and Ryan Blair’s book. And I’m really good friends with Ryan Blair.

Now, as a result of that I can text grant and he’ll respond. We’re not besties, but he reached out to me as a result of that. And it’s putting all those kinds of [00:44:00] pieces in play and you have to sell a lot of books. When I say a lot, I’m talking thousands, and thousands of books in a one-week period.

Very difficult to do. One of the things that I use as a kind of a, I have a bunch of use cases, but Kevin Harrington, who was a good friend of mine, he’s been on this app a bunch he’s literally created the infomercially. So billions of dollars worth of stuff. He’s responsible for some of the biggest brands.

He was on shark tank. He’s connected with everybody. And Kevin launched his book with mark Tim, who was one of the top resellers on Amazon. And they have a decent publisher hay house. And the book did nothing a week. One, he hired me, we sold 13,000 copies and we got them to number two on wall street.

And we got them on USA today. I’m not selling you on me. But what I’m saying is that selling a book is really hard. Wow. So you said a number 13,000 call and told us he’s writing a book and I think there are other Jeff, the entrepreneur, I believe you said you’re writing a book. How many books would they [00:45:00] have to.

Approximately to get on the best seller list. So the term bestseller is somewhat of a bastardized term. Everybody’s a bestseller these days, right? I can be there’s a, there was a, there was an article years ago where this guy took a picture of his foot, put it on the cover and then published it on Amazon became a best seller making like podiatry or something.

So becoming a bestseller on Amazon is a bit of a joke. That’s easy. Like the book I’m talking about right now, it’s called you can’t fall off the floor with Jamie Prickett. It’s the number one book in nonfiction. It has been all week and we hit as high as number 23 on Amazon overall against all books and the books that I market.

I’ve, I got Kevin Harrington to number three on Amazon, against all books. And so the number really depends on what is happening during that particular week. If there are other, some other big books that are coming out that are, that have huge marketing campaigns behind them.

But as far as like wall street in USA today, if you’re. If you’re north of 6,000, you’re going to be in a pretty good position to, to be on these, to be on [00:46:00] those two lists, New York times, you’re looking, 10, 12,000 minimum to be there. But again, it’s all the preparation that columns talking about, like all the work you’re putting in.

Now, if you sell those, if you hit that number of books, then you should be in a pretty good position. Great. So we didn’t really touch too much on podcasts. We actually are launching a podcast here at serial entrepreneur. Love to get your advice on, what are the top three things that we can do to be successful in the launch of a podcast?

Yeah. One of the first things is starting, Jeff, the entrepreneur who, I like to, Pressure him a little bit. And he says, he’s going to start a podcast. And he’s been talking about writing this book for a year and a half. I think he laughed, it is what it is.

So the first thing is starting, the barrier of entry, we had this little pre-call before, and I’m sitting in an actual sound studio and that was built for a sound studio years ago. Not necessarily as a podcast room. And I had a mentor of mine. Hey, Mike, we should start doing a [00:47:00] podcast.

I think it is now. I think it was going on nine years ago. I’m like who am I going to interview? And he said start with local entrepreneurial. Start there. And then just go, I think a lot of people get caught up in the technology and I am far from, I can one, I can barely swing a hammer.

I’m not very tech savvy, but I think people get caught up in, okay, do I need a microphone? What kind of microphone? How do I upload it? All of these things, how do I record it? Look, if you zoom is free. Okay. I do a lot of my podcasts via zoom. I had Tim story on my podcast, by the way, my podcast is called the Alden report.

I’d love for you guys to check it out. Subscribe. And I had Tim story, all Tim’s story, the guys, just the guy’s a legend. Okay. I would normally do it right here in the studio, but my daughter had a soccer game and I was like, I don’t miss my daughter’s athletic events. And I wasn’t going to miss this with him.

So I brought. My laptop with me and I brought a headset with me. So the audio quality wasn’t perfect. And I was dry. The goal was I was going to drive to the soccer field and I was going to do it right from there. I got caught in [00:48:00] traffic and the challenge was, is now I was running up against the time that Tim was supposed to be on.

So I pull over on the side of the highway, essentially in Quincy, Massachusetts with my laptop and my headset. And I interviewed Tim story in my car. And Tim says, Mike, I’ve been on Oprah. I’ve been on Ellen. I’ve been interviewed by Larry King. You’re the first person that’s ever interviewed me in their car.

And it’s on YouTube, my YouTube channel. Isn’t that strong w we do really well on all the different the streaming services. So it’s first, it’s starting. Don’t worry about the audio quality. You can have a great podcast with just the headphones that come with your iPhone. It’s that simple?

It starting there, it goes back to also the simplicity now. So the other part I would say is the content, right? Whatever you want to talk. Talk about it, and be authentic would that, it’s the content that matters. It’s not the production quality. One of my biggest infomercials, I shot in Gloucester, Massachusetts in a [00:49:00] basement for $6,000.

I’m like orange, the other guy’s pale. You can see the backdrop, we have what they call jump cuts, which is something that like, you can, it looks like all of a sudden he was just pasted there. The whole thing from a cinematography standpoint is just horrible, but that infomercial for 6,000 generated $150 million because of the content.

So when you’re thinking about your podcasts, let’s think about, the content and then back to my kind of original statements of asking, reaching out. Like I personally reach out to people asking them to come on my podcast and I don’t care if you’re famous. One of my, one of my podcasts that I enjoyed the most was I interviewed my boss.

For 35 years, this guy has been cutting hair and he’s, he’s has a lot to say and he’s been in business for a long time. So don’t also necessarily try to get that big, person on, they will come and I’ve had, Nolan Buschnell on, I’ve had Les brown on I’ve had Brad Lee on I’ve had Forbes Riley on and it goes on and on, but it started out [00:50:00] with a local entrepreneur in my hometown who had a coffee shop.

So just start. Yeah, Mike that’s great stuff. Mike has been on my podcast show. I’ve done it blessed to be on his podcast show. I couldn’t agree more. And I’m going to give a, another shortcut to the listeners and that is, I’ve had some amazing guests on my show. And I was telling Mike a story about this guy, who is Mike?

What was it called? The longest seven yards? There’s the movie. Oh with Chris Norton. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Chris Norton who I, yeah, so I had Chris on my podcast. I saw, I, I saw a YouTube video of his, and then you reached out to me and you’re like, and then you just reach out to him.

Yeah. So what I did was I called Mike, I said, Mike, I saw this great movie. You got to see it. I cried the whole way through the movie. It’s Chris Norton. He had 300 million views on his social media who has that. That’s like a whole country. And I said, Mike, you got to see the movie. He says, Mike, I had him on my podcast show.

So Mike made an introduction and sure enough that he, cause Mike is, has such a great reputation. Chris took my [00:51:00] call and we set it up and he was on my show and what an honor that was. But anyway, that’s another way to get started, call people up that, that know people and say, would you mind making a recommendation?

Can I use your name? And that will again, ease some of the pressure and get you to the front of the line.

Excellent. Yes, we’ve actually done 50 podcasts here. We actually use clubhouse as the mechanism to record and build the content. It’s been a really efficient way for us to do that. However, I don’t believe it’s built it and they will come. So is there anything other to really get the word out that you would suggest that on the top of your list, Mike?

Yeah. Yeah. It does come down to, when you look at some of these Successful podcasts. They are putting marketing dollars behind it. Some of the bigger ones, the, you got famous people like Joe Rogan, that’s a little bit different, you got guys like Lewis, Howes who, who really leveraged, celebrity and he’s out in LA and he’s done a great job with that podcast, the school of [00:52:00] greatness.

So if you can get a big name, of course, but no one you’re just not going to be, you’re not going to be able to start there, but one of the mistakes that I’ve made throughout the years is once you have somebody on the podcast you need to ask them. To make sure that they promote it for you as well.

And so you do that by, one sending them the, the actual podcast itself. The other thing that I do that really helps with promoting the podcast is I give them the full file and say, you can do whatever you want with it. I’m a lawyer, I respect intellectual property more than most, but at the same time, if they cut it up and they put it out there and they do some, one minute clips that’s just going to promote me and just promote the podcast.

It don’t necessarily be scared about giving your intellectual property out to them in an effort to continue to grow your brand. So when you do have somebody that’s on ask them to promote it because that’s, especially if you have somebody that’s big Greg Cardone has been on my podcast twice and Bradley, and some of these other guys with some big names, big followings, make sure that you ask them and almost insist that you ask that.

And [00:53:00] I’ll tell you what I know we’re getting towards the end of the hour. I’m going to give a tip. For those that are still here. And if you do start a podcast, this is something that I’ve done. And Jeff, the entrepreneur and Mike talked a little bit about this, about connecting. Okay. The podcast for me has been one of the greatest connection tools short of clubhouse.

Clubhouse has been the greatest connection tool. I think I’ve seen in the past, 15 years when you have a guest on the podcast, depending on how you do it. A lot of times, it’s, my start with a DM on Instagram or DM on Twitter or Facebook or what have you. And then, you bring them to a Calendly link or zoom link or whatever it is, right.

You might not have all of their contact information. When you’re done with the podcast I always like to have a little bit of a recap with them and I ask them instantly, Hey, what’s your cell phone number? I want to send you a text. I do this with everybody. And I only had one person pause, and I won’t say who they were, but so I’ve had some big names on my podcast.

And again, I’m not necessarily friends with those people, but I have their cell phone [00:54:00] number and I can text them because if you ask them that question really quickly, they’re just going to give it to you. And why would you want to do that? You’re building your network and people talk about that. My next book, by the way is titled connection capital.

And so if you’re going to spend that time with them, and why would you want the cell phone for the most immediate thing? Why would you want the, why do you want their number? You’re not just going to send them a text late at night saying, Hey, what’s up? Let’s be friends. When that podcast is available, then you text it to them.

Now you have a conversation with them, then you can follow up with it, then you can follow through with it. And if you send it to again, like a Bradley or somebody who’s also has some other great connections. Like what Michael officer just said, Hey man, loved having you on. You killed it, man. We just created some magic.

Is there anybody else. That you think would be a good fit for the podcast. That’s why you’d want their number, not to just send them a text message late at night, or just try to, send them a message, just for the sake of doing it, but it’s to continue to grow that network and also build, your relationship with them.

That’s the first time I’ve said that publicly, by the way. So [00:55:00] I love that’s really great advice. And for me, I also think it’s a good way to share opportunities that might be of interest to them as well. So as to really, give, share that’s the way to do that.

Excellent. So we have our last person on the stage, Connor, but first I want to mention. That we have a phenomenal website that we’ve spent the past year building. We have, gosh, probably a couple of hundred sessions recorded blogs, transcripts, you name it as well as links to our podcasts, which is the serial entrepreneur club, which is on all major podcast networks now.

And this is our 50th episode. So as Mike said on asking you, please go follow our podcasts and join our email list on startup dot. We publish content. That’s purely for learning for [00:56:00] entrepreneurs and startups. You don’t have to be the person that is leading the startup. You could be one that is aspiring entrepreneur, or maybe you work for an entrepreneur, but there’s tons and tons of really useful information.

And we really want people to get exposure to it and it’s all free. So go to WW startup.club to join our email list or follow our podcast, which is serial entrepreneur club. Okay. Connor, over to you for the last question for. Perfect. Thank you so much. So I’m a sustainability professional and I’ll be creating our online course shortly parts of that.

We’ll be interviewing experts and including those 15 minute interviews in the course. So I guess my question is I’d love to create a podcast as well, but I’d just love to get your insight of, is it then duplication, if I’m then creating a podcast with that content and it’s then free for everyone, and [00:57:00] then maybe it devalues the course because people are maybe thinking as I thought I’d only get that premium content inside the course if I pay.

So that’s probably my first question then just to follow up, what is the number one tech you’d recommend for podcast I’m starting. Yeah. I think that’s a tricky question and I think it really comes down to a matter of what you want to do and how you want to be perceived in your program. Go back to Gary V who talks about, he gives, he gave out his 48 page marketing deck years ago and says, here’s my plan.

This is what I do. And just gave it away for free. And, and so a lot of people will be like why would you do that? You can charge for that. So I think really the best practice would be to add in things into your course that are exclusive to your course and not out there necessarily are available for free.

And when you’re doing your podcast about sustainability you can maybe think about some things that you want to be a part of the paid program because yeah, I think people might feel like, man, I can get that stuff, get that stuff for free. So I would be definitely cognizant [00:58:00] of what your your customers will perceive when you do push that out there.

So that would be. My my take on that. And then the other thing as far as the tech I don’t have the answer for you. I, I think you looking at the RO caster, I think it’s called a, is a really good device that people use to record. I think that’s what it’s called.

I think it’s 500 bucks. So you can get like a whole package or maybe me maybe like upwards of 700, but honestly, to get started look, zoom is free for the most part. So you can just do zoom. And then if you really wanted to spend a little bit of money, you can just get a microphone, like for 150 bucks or the USB plugin.

And then as far as uploading it, I got a team over here that does it. I know there, there are some platforms that people don’t like and as it relates to the proprietary nature of your intellectual property I don’t know the exact ones that, that people don’t like, but, once you do record it, you can upload it to these platforms that will then distribute it to, to everything.

And I would actually literally just start with zoom for now. And [00:59:00] then, and if you want to get a row caster, I think that’s what they’re called. You can get one of those and just, get the decent audio quality. Again, I think people get caught up in that. And by the way, if you are doing sustainability check out there’s a company called change is simple actually in Beverly, Massachusetts.

And the guy’s last name is Belmonte. You might want to interview him. He’s been doing that for a long time. Amazing. Thank you so much. Super appreciate that. Thanks Mike. Thank you. And Michelle, what’s the platform we use to distribute startup club or SRE serial entrepreneur club. Michelle, hold on.

It’s Libsyn. It’s like a lib syn. It’s a aggregator so that you can basically list on all the different podcast platforms. I believe there’s several of those. It just makes it a little bit easier. That’s awesome. All right we’re going to, we’re going to have to close the show here. We went eight minutes.

What in it, what a great show Mike all-in [01:00:00] and Jeff, the entrepreneur and Mike Olsher, we really appreciate you coming on to this episode. Next week we have bobbin and he is a serial entrepreneur. He’s launched multiple unicorns and he is a billionaire himself. I’ve known him for about 15, 20 years.

And sometimes in business as entrepreneurs we, we have been competitors and we have also worked together on projects. And I can’t tell you how much, how excited I am to have him come on to our show. Next Friday at two o’clock Bhavin Turakhia, and the title of the show is how to create a unicorn and this show.

And a lot of the shows that we’ve done are a basis for the book that I’m working on start scale, exit repeat. So it’s very interesting to hear that when Jeff talked about, reusing some of the contents and the interviews, et cetera, for his [01:01:00] podcast inside his book, that’s what we’re doing here as well.

We’re trying to crack that code. What is it that serial entrepreneurs do over and over again? What is that secret sauce? What did Mike Alden do over and over again? And Babin Turk guy and Mike Auster and all of the serial entrepreneurs who come on this show, we’re trying to crack that code. And if we do, we believe we can help a lot of startups launch their businesses successfully.

Thank you very much. We’ll see you next week. Thank you so much, Mike. Thank you everyone for attending. Thanks for having me.