Making First Class Relationships in Business with Mike Zeller

Welcome to True Grit and Grace, a podcast designed to empower you to claim your resilience and thrive through life's challenges. I am Amberly Lago, a mindset coach, fitness expert and bestselling author. Each week, I'll dive deep with the world's brightest thought leaders and elite performers to share tangible tools and practical advice to inspire you to keep your eyes on the prize and forge ahead. So get ready to conquer your fears, heal any trauma, lead with your heart, and elevate your life with grit and grace.

Hey there and welcome back to the True Grit and Grace podcast. Today on the show, I've got Mike Zeller with us. He is known as the top entrepreneur, mentor to coaches and e commerce entrepreneurs. Mike has had a hand in starting and owning 16 plus businesses across multiple industries, including technology, real estate, fashion, digital marketing, high level entrepreneur masterminds and coaching. And his businesses have generated over nine figures in total sales. I can't wait to talk to you about that. And if y', all, if you're a high achiever, you are in the right place because Mike helps you align your purpose with both your business that you want to build and the life that you want to live. He's got a new book that I can't wait to talk about. He's got a new book coming out. It's called the Genius Within. He's been featured and so many different articles including Forbes, Thrive Global, Fox News, Huffington Post, and so much more. Mike, welcome to the show.

Amberly, excited to be here. You rock and just love your energy and joy and humility and story and can't wait to dive in and connect further today.

Oh, well, thank you. I've been looking forward to having you on the show. We originally met on Clubhouse, of all places where you have thousands of followers and you have people that are begging you to be on their panels because you speak a lot about, you know, getting rid of limiting beliefs and getting unstuck. And I want to get into that. But when I heard your story and heard what you've been through, this is all about struggles to success. And you have made millions in your business, but you've also lost millions too. You've, you've gone through quite a bit. So I would love to know just how you got to be where you are today because you have gone through so much and sometimes it looks kind of easy if you're looking at Instagram or you hear your bio, but it's like, okay, well, how did you become so successful?

Yeah, they say, you know, it's like most, most great success stories are like, you know, 13 year overnight success stories. And I could definitely qualify. You know, originally I got involved in the entrepreneurship game as while I was actually in seminary, I got my MA Master's in Christian leadership and moved to Nashville, helped start a church targeted towards artists and creatives. But along the way got involved in real estate, investing real estate, started buying more real estate and realized I love the marketplace, I love the game of business, and I was meant for that. But then I especially came to realize I love the people, the leaders, the people that are bold enough, creative enough, courageous enough, foolish enough to get in the game of entrepreneurship.

I like how you said foolish enough.

Yeah, I was reading the stat. 80% of businesses don't make it past, I think it's two years and then the first like I think 18 months or entrepreneurs journey, they take a minimal paycheck that they would have made far more money in a job than they would in their own business. And that's just the nature of the game. In my 30s, I was doing very well with real estate, but I also found my soul drying up. I was like, hey, if this is all I'm going to do, yeah, I'll be worth millions of dollars by the time I'm 40 and I'll be doing very, very well. Wouldn't have to work again. Like I really had a path to not work by the age of 40. But I'll be bored and my soul will be craving for more. And so I started to, you know, like entrepreneurs do. I started disrupting that and tearing some of that down and started a bunch of businesses a few years later. And by the end of it, by 2015, 2016, I'd started 16, about 1516 businesses. E com, fashion, automotive, real estate, had 55 employees at one point. We were doing about 30 million a year in revenue and in all my different ventures and had some trials and tribulations along the way. So.

Well, what was your biggest? I know you said you lost millions and as an entrepreneur, I mean, I know I've definitely tried. Haven't lost millions. Well, except for my accident. I had millions of dollars worth of medical bills. So does that. I don't know if that counts, but I definitely have spent thousands on products that didn't work. Mostly like invested in things to build courses or click funnels and like thousands. And I'm like, okay, that time and money just didn't work out. What is one of the biggest mistakes that you made that you learned from that really kind of moved you to where you were in a better place not to make those mistakes, but make better decisions in the future.

Yeah, so funny you asked. Two things come to mind. First, your gifting or your area of genius is part of the reason you're successful in any area. So part of my gifting. I'm really freaking fantastic at the business design, architecting themes, the culture, architecting out a whole business model. And I'm terrific at the start. I'm phenomenal at getting things off the ground, catalyzing momentum and movement and progress. But I suck. I'm horrible at managing the details. I'm horrible as it scales and grows. I don't want to deal with the legal, the tax, the operations. I want to just boom, innovate, create, and then hand off the final 20%. I'm good at the first. So I. I got myself in trouble because I had so many different businesses. And then I had a couple that were cash cows. Then one of them I sold out of, and then the other one, in 2018, my business partner and I had a split. My team, it was my real estate team, and they ultimately, because of the split, they wanted to work with me, not necessarily with my other part. We ended up splitting apart and I lost my cash cow business. It was going to be most of my income that year, and I was working five to ten hours a week in that business, and it was floating some of the other businesses as I was building them up in maturity. And so what I was good at was starting things. What I was bad at was managing things. And I hadn't chosen the right business partners. Not necessarily. I'd chosen good people. I just hadn't chosen the complimentary. Let's say they were not complimentary to my zone of genius.

And I think that's so important to really find someone. I always say, work on your strengths and hire your weaknesses.

Yeah.

And so I always, I always go for people. I'm like, I'm terrible at the. The administrative kind of stuff or the details. Like it drives me insane to be in mailchimp or sitting at my computer all day figuring things out. I'm like you and that. I like to create and do. I love to be with people and I like the creative part and the launch of something, but I'm the same. So how did you learn to pick a better partner or pick better people to work with or. Not that necessarily that they're better people, but matched better for you and for what your strengths and weaknesses are?

Yeah, good question. So I started paying attention first. I think it Begins with getting really clear on who you are. Socrates said, to know thyself is the beginning of all wisdom. And King David wrote, it's better have self control than to conquer a city. And so when we look at the very best leaders, actually the founder of Visas and Visa credit cards, he became a researcher on leadership when he retired from Visa, and he found that the very best leaders in the world spent more than 50% of their time leading themselves. So I was like, all right. So I led myself into situations that I didn't have the right partners. So I started distilling it down. Like, I have unique talents around starting things. I needed partners that were brilliant, equally brilliant in operations and looking around, or if I'm brilliant at designing an offer. But I don't have a massive audience. I don't have a massive audience on social media, and I'm okay with that. You know, eventually my audience is growing, and it's growing fairly fast right now. But I know if I design the right offer that's complimentary, I understand that side of the game, then we can hit home runs.

So looking back to the. I just have to say something really quick about the audience on social media. Everything in perspective, right? Because to me, you've got a great size audience and you've got a big audience on Clubhouse, and you've got a huge audience on LinkedIn, but everything's in perspective, right? I remember when I first started out on Instagram that having 10,000 followers was like your goal. That was like, that's.

That's a lot.

Now it's like you need 10 million followers to feel like. Or at least 1 million. And so I feel like it's in perspective. But I started looking at people's engagement more than I do the numbers, because I learned a lot of times the numbers aren't real.

Yeah, yeah, it's true. I mean, Instagram is one of the hardest ones, I think. Yeah, you're right. And it's email list. I've noticed massive value in email list. Like with our challenge, we did this whole money mindset challenge on Abundant U called the Abundant U Challenge. And I partnered with Mentor Box. Mentor Box has half a million emails. It's one of Tai Lopez's company. And guess What? We got 70% of our registrations from Mentor Box.

Wow.

You know, so next round, I'm like, all right, the. The people with massive Instagram audiences, we didn't get as much, but the people with big email list. So now this next round, we're going to do have about four or five people with massive email list. And that's how we're going to probably close.

Collaborate with. So collaborate with people with massive email lists. Yeah, well, I have just. And I'm doing a mastermind right now and I've was talking to everybody in the group about building your email list because some of the people in the mastermind don't have an email list yet. And I mean, I've been working on mine for a few years and it's still not where I want it to be. I'm still working on it and I'm like, I've created different things. I've created download. I try to always provide value and I try to never like overload people's inboxes with junk. I try to always provide value, value, value. What has been one of the most successful things that you've done to build your email list?

It's really a game of experimentation. And when I look at, for example, Donald Miller, if you go to Donald Miller's website building a story brand or storybrain.com, i don't know what it is. He has the same exact email. I'm sorry, same exact exit intent email pop up opt in that he's had for four years because he's found one that worked and then just, you just hammer it. You just don't give up on it. You keep doing it, doing it, doing it until it stops working. Right now mine, one of mine is secretsofclubhouse.com and when clubhouse was catching traction, like I'm going to create that. Boom, create that. And I get emails or opt ins every day for that. Another one I'm working on right now that I think is going to be killer. I'll probably add 100,000 emails to it in the next six months because it's going to be called the five disciplines of abundance. And I'll probably make that into a book. But I'm going to do a nice attractive PDF and then hit on those lists that we were talking about earlier where through the collaborations and partnerships, you create a great offer for those lists like Mentor Box. I'll probably pop that in, get that in there, featured in their email and then some others. And now without hardly any ad spend, I think I'll get close to 100,000 emails from that.

That's amazing. Now what, what system do you use to send out your emails?

I use ActiveCampaign. It's just.

Oh, okay. I do too.

Yeah, it's in clickfunnels. I use clickfunnels. And there's Other softwares that are a little bit easier, but ClickFunnels works great overall and the marketing community is super strong.

Okay. Yeah. I always like to get to know what works because there's a lot of different things out there. I remember when I was designing my first course, I was like, okay, do I use Kajabi? Do I use this thing over here? Do I use this person's software? It's a lot. So I like to learn from people who have had a lot of success what they use and stick to that. So that's good to know. So really creating something of value and it can be as simple as a PDF. Believe it or not, the thing that has gotten me the most email signups to my newsletter is a simple downloadable gratitude journal, like three page gratitude journal that, that's been. Well, speaking of your PDF, I want to know about Clubhouse because you have, you're like a legend on Clubhouse. I see you. I like, you've got tons of followers there. What are some of the secrets of your success on Clubhouse for building your audience for, you know, getting asked to be, you know, speak on panels and just get. Do you have a club on Clubhouse?

You know, I started one and then I was like, you know what? I don't have the. I really decided to partner up with other people that I was already friends that had built friendships with and just help them grow their clubs and then I have access to their clubs.

Smart.

Yeah, I'm really one of the massive shortcuts to anything in life is looking, looking across the aisle, looking around you and saying, hey, who else is going the direction I want to go and how can we get there faster together? And so I, that's how I've approached Clubhouse. Clubhouse. I just popped on in January, really end of December and January and started. I created some of my own rooms, but I would pop up and ask to speak and ask to speak and ask to speak and add value, like contribute and speak into people's lives. And unfortunately I've reached, you know, you've been through a lot in life. You can speak with authority on grit, you can speak with authority on fitness, on mindset. Right. Like I can speak with authority on mindset, business, online marketing, you know, other things because I've been through it. I just now Clubhouse, you get on the right stages, you're going to get hundreds and thousands of followers even and occasionally you'll hit a home run. I had one room where we had that I was the host of. We had Tiffany Haddish joined and we had 5,000 people in the room within 10 minutes.

Wow. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. You can meet a lot of different people. In Clubhouse. I was on a panel with Tori Spelling, and then I was on a panel with MC Hammer, which was crazy because that was the first music video I ever danced in was with MC Hammer. And I'm like, who would have thought, like 30 years later I'd be on an app talking with him, you know, it's just crazy. So, yeah, add value. Add value, I think. And that's what you do there. Ask to speak up and go on a panel, like, raise your hand, get up there. And I love the thing that you say is. And I see this in you. You're such a great collaborator and you're like, who can I see that I can partner with? And we can get there faster. And that's what I love about masterminds.

Yeah, me too.

I mean, how long have you been holding your own Mastermind now?

Since 2017 was my first. First. I think it was. 17. Yeah, 2017. So five year. I mean, but actually really two years before that, 2015, I started hosting a free one in Nashville and loved it. And people grew so much. I grew so much. I got tons of business from it. I think it's one of the best things in the world, you know, as us, as community, we need community. As entrepreneurs, I grow a ton just from my members. Learning from them and they learn from me, but. And vice versa. So it's the reason Napoleon Hill wrote about it and think and grow rich over and over. Right?

It's so true. Yeah. And now tell people who might be listening that they're like, what? I've heard of a mastermind. What the heck is a mastermind? Can you explain what that is?

Great question. So masterminds are really multiple different layers. Obviously there's virtual only ones and there's in person ones. I prefer the in person ones, but virtual are great too, and I host both. But a mastermind is where two or more people gather together consistently, repetitively to connect and support one another. Because the rising tide lifts all boats. Napoleon Hill studied 500 of the world's most successful people commissioned by Andrew Carnegie in the early 1900s. And he found that they had 13 core traits or characteristics. And one of them was the regular occurrence of masterminding. Henry Ford mastermind with like Thomas Edison and. And multiple other guys of that era. And same thing. You know, you look at every civil rights movement, was it masterminding was happening, women's movement, masterminding, Revolutionary War George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, all those guys. Thomas Jefferson, It's a mastermind. Socrates, Jesus and the 12 disciples. Masterminds have existed throughout history. CS Lewis and Tolkien, Spielberg and who's the other guy they would collaborate? James Cameron and George Lucas masterminding. So it happens all over the place and it's just the reality of we sharpen each other. We open up doors for one another when we're in high level groups that push us. And the goal, one of my goals is to be the youngest and the dumbest in more rooms because too often I was the smartest. I want to be younger and dumber more often than not.

Yeah.

Thank you for saying that because some people feel like, oh, I don't want to do that because you know, I had someone that was joining my mastermind and she goes, I just, I don't think that I'm qualified enough to be around those caliber of people that you have in your group. And I'm like, no, that is exactly the room in the group that you want to be in. You want to. I'm like, I want to be in the room with the most successful and the smartest people. And, and I'm never afraid to ask questions. I love to ask questions because I love to learn and so I love masterminds too and I learn from everyone in the mastermind and it's great because we can. In a mastermind we've. I've got some people that were, you know, they're little, weren't sure how to do a reels on Instagram and something as simple as that.

I don't know how to do a.

Building a website. Yeah, well I have a 13 year old so she kind of helps me out a little bit with everything.

Yeah, that's good. I have my team helping me on that because I'm not going to figure out reels or TikTok.

Well, you just had another baby now. How many kids do you have?

One.

One? I thought you just had one.

Yeah.

Your newest baby girl who is just precious.

Thank you.

Oh my God. Is she like a couple of months old now?

She's two weeks.

A little over two weeks. She's like, oh, I thought she was like two months because you took a couple of months off of clubhouse.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wow, you look like so rested to have a two week old.

We're doing pretty well. She's, we're. I mean we did a ton. To my wife's credit and our credit, we. She did like, we do emotion code sessions if you're familiar with that releasing toxic emotions and energy. Like some. My wife's. I got her on it like two years ago just because she comes from a lot of trauma from childhood and all that and just some abuse and things like that in the background. And so we released a lot of that and just were very intentional and conscious around foods, rest and positive energy. We did hypno babies going in a state of hypnosis during birth and things like that. She's peaceful, she sleeps pretty well. I'm getting six to seven and a half hours. Not straight, pretty good, consistent. And my mother in law is graciously here this week helping as well as we went for childcare because it's a shortage right now.

It's tough. We actually had dinner plans with some friends and we said, well we don't have a babysitter. And she's like, you don't have a babysitter? And I'm like, no, we haven't. I was like, we. It's our anniversary coming up and we don't even have a babysitter for our anniversary. You know, it's tough with just finding someone during COVID but it to have a new baby born, you know, with these times is like just so hopeful. I don't know. I saw. It's just beautiful. I saw your picture on Instagram and I was like, oh, how sweet. And I love that, you know, you're so successful and you say how important it is to be in the right mindset but emotional emotionally be, you know, grounded and stable as well and eat properly and sleep. That's so important because I think there's this time where it's. People are moving well I hope moving past the age of just grind, grind, grind until you just grind yourself into the ground, you know, or you hit a wall or get burned out. So are there some practices that you do daily or weekly to help you stay kind of grounded and mentally sane with all the businesses that you run?

Yeah, definitely. I mean fortunately I mainly coach right now as I've kind of sold out or closed other businesses or I still have equity in three other early stage companies. But one of the things I do right now have a great morning routine. I, you know this the four energy quadrants, physical, mental, spiritual and emotional. I learned about it through the powerful engagement. Top sports psychologist wrote the book Powerful Engagement. And it's about rhythms. It's like rhythms of exertion. Like you know, from your time as an athlete, you have exertion where you're just giving it your all and you just Want to deplete yourself and push your limits, but if you don't have renewal, guess what, you just. You stop the cycle. And it's called this oscillating rhythms. The Russians in the mid-1950s discovered and popularized a lot of that because they were very successful in the Olympics. And us as Americans were like, hey, how did the Russians come out of nowhere and just, you know, is America versus the USSR and it was because they were training the athletes. Exert and renew. Exert and renew. So in work, we should do the same because we're human beings, not machines. So I take a little quick break around lunch where I unplug from work. I might read ESPN. I might, you know, play a little bit for 30 minutes. I have a full day off on Saturday, you know, is my Sabbath. I take start, stop at times. I make sure my foods are really good. I make sure I get good workouts in, do some meditation. In the morning, I'm drinking matcha latte. That's just delicious and kind of puts me in the right mindset and feeding my mind spiritually before I open my emails. I don't want to be a yo yo, a human yo yo to responding to everyone's text messages and phone calls and Instagram. So my phone's in airplane mode a lot, but especially overnight and in the morning.

Oh, yeah, I have a. I guess it's. It's a bedtime reminder on my phone, so it automatically goes into, like, airplane mode or silent mode. I don't get any calls or anything after a certain time. And my husband would be like, you have got to turn that off your phone. I've been calling you and calling you, and I'm like, sorry, you know, so I finally turned that off. But it really does help. I needed that reminder, actually, as, like, my phone starts blinking. The lights go on and off the flashlight when it's time for me to start winding down and go to bed and, like, stop looking at my phone. Because I looked. And I spend you know, sometimes up to 14 hours on line. It's crazy. And, you know, but I do coaching online. I do everything online. But so I love to hear that you have this ritual and how important it is to take a break because there are seasons where, yeah, you have to push a little bit harder. Like, you right now you've got a new book coming out. And I know how much effort goes into that, but I think the more that you can talk to people who've done it before you, which I didn't really do when I Wrote my book. That was a big mistake. I didn't know what I was doing, and I was just like, yeah, I'm going to write a book. And so I want to know, how long did it take? First of all, your book, what's it called? Yes, I just gave the short title, but read the subtitle for us, too.

You got it. And before I forget, one last little rhythm of renewal that I think you'll like is every year, my wife and I traveled one of the world's 50 most beautiful cities and live there for at least a month. Oh.

Before we get into your book, I did want to ask you about that, because I wasn't sure at first when I saw that about you, I was like, does he live in a different place for a month at a time, but you just go for a month and you live somewhere else for a month?

Yeah, that.

Right.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. I am just trying to get my husband to go away to the Four Seasons down the street for anniversary next week. He's got to listen to this podcast episode because that's amazing. I'm sure you feel like a new person after doing that.

Yeah. Now, I'll still work for a good chunk of that, but it's like, just the fact I'm in, like, we'll usually go to Europe and. All right, so, like, last year, we were in Florence for three weeks. Ireland for six weeks. We were in Charleston for a month. So we really did, like, three trips last year, but we were renewed. And it's like that spirit of adventure and play and discovery that excites us, that renews our soul. And that's in the midst of COVID and pandemic. Right. It's just a must. Whether, you know, the years of 2018 and 2019 were, like, financially, it was really lean because I lost my cash cow business. We still did it. We just did it on more of a budget. And you can still. You can do it on almost any financial means. And so. But it just creates. You look at a lot of great discoveries and a lot of just the joy of life when we spread out adventure instead of waiting until we're retired or something like that. And Americans were kind of addicted to work, and I can be addicted to work in some regards of. I like my work. It's purpose, it's mission. But, man, you discover so much, and the world becomes this beautiful playground. So that's.

And it sparks creativity, I feel like. And I like that you say that you can do it on any. Any budget. And really just about any budget, because I went backpacking across Europe for a month when I was maybe 21 or 22 years old, and I had twelve hundred dollars and that was like. That included my plane ticket there and a Ural pass. I mean, we were living in hostels and backpacking and sleeping on trains, but it was epic. I loved it. I mean, I got mugged in Florence. When you mentioned Florence, I'll be like, oh, yeah, they didn't get my money, though. They didn't get it. But what was your favorite place to. To go visit or go live for a month?

So far, it's Florence. I mean, we've been to.

Really?

Yeah. Because once you're in that little inner city, that small and old city of then it's like amazing. Just walk around. Life quality. The food is exceptional. The fashion. The weather's generally pretty good.

Just don't be at the train station overnight and get locked out of the train station. Gets a little sketchy.

Yeah, yeah. Single, pretty girls. That's probably not a great spot, but yeah.

I was just gonna say. I just. It. You're just taking me back to that moment. I'd been locked out of the train station all night. We finally get on the train and there's this, you know, guy that comes up, and I had been. I had a knife and I had held it in my pocket all night because there were people kind of circling a sketchy. Kind of like they were wanted or backpacks. So I didn't sleep all night. I was just up on guard with my knife in case anybody came near me. I mean, it was bad. So I get on the train and I had had it. I'm like, oh, finally, maybe we can sleep a little bit. And this guy comes up and he comes. He's like, give me your money. And it was just reflex. I pulled out my knife and I was like, you're not getting my money. And he took off running. And I'm thinking. He's thinking, oh, my God, that American girl was crazy. But I kept my money. So you took me back to that moment in Florence.

Pretty badass.

So I'll have to go back there and revisit and look at the fashion and have a cappuccino and.

Yeah, if you go back. Well, we got married in Florence, and I've been there seven times, I think now.

Wow.

It's so. I mean, I've lived in London, been to Paris probably four or five times. Barcelona another four or five times. It's like Berlin, Vienna, Copenhagen, Amsterdam. Florence is the best I've been at 30 plus countries. Florence is my favorite city in the world. And now my wife. Same for her. So.

Oh, and how long have y' all been married?

We got married in 2018, so. Yeah, right, right, right. When I was melting down business wise, we got married.

Well, you have done. You've done some amazing things. And before we talk about your book a little bit, I wanted to just say where I saw that you gave cars or donated to give cars to single moms.

Yeah, we. We had a socially minded car dealership. So it was a twofold goal. One, first, create the best car buying experience in the city, if not the country, which we did. I feel like it was called Providence Auto Group and it was like carmax, except better value and better price points, but similar quality car. And secondly, every car we sold helped us give away a car to a single mother or someone in need. And during my time of owning part of the company, I was a partner with two other guys and we gave away 31 cars worth about $300,000 worth of value and mostly to single mothers. And most of them had never had a driver's license because they never thought it would be possible to own a car. So imagine you're a 24 year old mom taking the bus in Nashville. Hour and a half this way, an hour and a half that way, and it's now your commute time instead of being 2 hours plus a day is now 20 minutes, 30 minutes. Changes their life, changes their economic capacity. So that was one of my prouder entrepreneurial achievements thus far.

That just really touched my heart because I was a single mom for a long time and really just. And I didn't have a car for a while. And so when I read that, I was like, oh my goodness, that just really touched my heart. You've done some really incredible things, some adventurous things. And, you know, some things I realized some. You've done some very admirable things that inspired me. Like all the books that you have read. And I have a stack. If you could see my office over here, like almost to the ceiling of books that are my next. It's my reading list and I'm like, and a stack in my bedroom. There's so much that I want to read. I end up spending some time on Audible. I love Audible because I can, but I don't think it's the same. I like highlighting in books. But you've read like 1500 plus books. Is that what inspired you to write your own book?

You know, good question. I knew I had this sense, maybe, that I was going to write someday, but frankly, I just felt like it was. It was something that needed to be said. And in the sense of one of the greatest questions we ask as human beings is like, what on earth am I here for? What's my purpose? And then secondarily, is coaching a lot of entrepreneurs, hundreds of entrepreneurs, last few years, we ask, all right, so can I actually make money from my purpose or my passion or how? Right. And so. And then losing a lot of money as well, where I made a lot of money, but also lost a lot of money playing out of position. You know, I was in the wrong lane. I was like, hey, I gotta help some other entrepreneurs not make the same boneheaded mistakes I made of stretching themselves or playing too long. Like, we can all play out a position for a little bit on grit and determination and discipline. Frankly, if you suck at something or you're just not wired to think and act that way. Like, I'm wired to create. I'm not wired to manage. If I manage for too long, I know all the principles of management. I've read the books. I know. But if I stay in that lane too long, I'm. I'm going to burn the ship down. And not purposely just because of I'm. It's like a rooster is meant to crow in the morning. You know, if you ask a fish, judge a fish by its intelligence based on how it can ride a bicycle, you know you're going to be. It's pretty dumb.

Well, I think that it causes a lot of anxiety and depression and stress. And when you are doing that, when you're not, like, really aligned with what you are meant to do with your business in your life. And I think that when you can align your business in your life and what you do, it all just works so much. It flows and it's fun and you enjoy life more. And I understand that. Yeah, there are times when it's been extra work for me, and that grit does come into play. And it's like I need the grit to get through this and anything. I mean, even in podcasting, I love. I love talking to you. I could talk to you all day. I know we're running out of time, but, I mean, I love this part of it, the editing and all that. Thank goodness I have a producer or I probably wouldn't have a podcast, because I don't know if I could do that, all of that. But I think a lot of people. I just got. I had a friend of mine send Me, I report that my podcast was in the top 1%. Now, that's out of a lot of podcasts. That's because so many people start a podcast and they don't go through with it. There's so many podcasts out there. I've just been consistent. I've been like, every week, no matter what, I'm getting the next episode out there. You know what I mean? And so I love that. I think we need a book out there that shows people how to do that, how to tap into their purpose and how to make money at it too.

Yeah, yeah. And what I've found is like, I've worked with a lot of people that were in transitions. Like one of my current clients, his net worth is over $10 million. Then another. Others are like less than 100,000 or whatever, right? But he's in a season of transition when he's asking, like, we all, until we breathe our last breath, we want to be. We want to make purpose and meaning in our lives. So I've found there's four key quadrants that if you assemble the clues, if you, like, gather the clues, think of. It's like you're just putting all the clues on the table and then looking for the patterns. So the first one is like, what are your unique talents? So I have people go through five different personality tests, including the Wealth Dynamics, Strings Finder, Colby Disc Profile, Myers Briggs, Even Enneagram. Many, many people are more familiar with that. And the second thing, take inventory of your key relationships. Like, when I did that, I was like, oh, I have this cluster. Why do I. I've never even written a book at the time. Why do I have all these bestselling authors as friends or massively successful E commerce business owners? That's clues. So those are two clusters, right? The third cluster is entertainers and athletes. Ah, there's something there. I haven't created something in that marketplace yet, but it's coming. And then I'm ended up marrying a poet and a novelist and a writer, right. And a musician. So, like, all those things are then the third thing, after you go through your key relationships and see what. What patterns are emerging. The people that naturally bring you life versus the people that bring you death. Like, we have those people who are like, man, I can't go to another party with us. That group of people, I'm going to just put a gun to my head. I do, right?

I'm just laughing because, yeah, my husband said pretty much that same thing the other day.

But then these other people did I want a vacation with these people. I want to be around more than you know.

Yeah.

And then, and then, then the third thing, you put that together with your key, your defining life experiences and in your life experiences are like, oh, those are your messes. And they say your messes become your message. But also those clues of like, oh, something was stirred when I was experiencing this. Or like that seed was planted. Oh, I remember loving this as a kid. Maybe it was painting or maybe it was that like I've had even. I had a girl I dated one time, 12 years ago or so I helped her get back, get into art. She, she was a corporate like VP type girl and her soul was dying. But I was like, hey, what did you love as a kid? Art and painting. Now she's a very successful artist.

That's amazing. And that's something that I always say too is. And that I thought about what did I love as a kid? And my most joyous moments were at the Dairy Queen when I was maybe 6, 7 years old. And every Friday night I'd get on the table and dance to the jukebox after the football games. And those were the best moments.

I thought you were gonna talk about your Dairy Queen blizzards. I love my Dairy Queen lizards.

Dairy. Well, I had one of those too, every Friday night. But no, I mean they didn't have blizzards back then. Those weren't invented then. We just had old fashioned milkshakes back then. But, but yeah. And I thought, well, what is it about that? And it's because I love seeing people joyous. I love when I can see people, the light come on in them and they smile and I love being around people that way. And so I'm like, that's probably why my favorite thing to do now is to go speak at conferences. Because I get to connect with people, I get to hug them, I get to, I go down in the audience and like, I'd rather be there. You know, I hang out there. Yeah. So it's so much fun. I'm starting to do in person events again. I'm so happy about that. Yeah. Yeah. But it sounds like you traveled a lot. Did you write your book on your travels through Covid or when did you write it?

Good question. So you know, I wrote it actually mostly November of last year because my wife was like going to. She was like, rough first trimester. We were going to bed at like 9:30 at night and I'm like, well, I guess I might as well just get up super early and take some nootropics. And crush my writing this book idea that I had. And so I would write three or four hours a morning before like 8am or before 9am and wrote most of the book then. And then just took me a while to edit and polish and all those things.

Yeah, that's amazing. And it does take time and discipline to, you know, decide and then actually do it because so many people say, I want to write a book, I want to write a book. And I'm like, no, you just have to set aside the time and actually start writing. And so when is it coming out?

It's coming out here in about four weeks.

Four weeks. That's gonna be right around the corner. You have pre orders for it right now.

We were finishing up the page for that. Don't have it quite ready. But we do have. I have a six steps to finding your genius download so you guys can get that. And breaks down six of the core components which cover the first three, your unique talents, key relationships. The third one, your key life experiences. The fourth is your values and passions. So those are the first four. And then we go through things like finding your $10,000 an hour activity, other things, your life and death exercise that helps you just inventory your life. Like, hey, what brings me life? What brings me death?

So awesome. Wait, where can people find that?

I've got the link. I'll give you, send you the link. I don't remember the exact.

Okay, if you're listening because I've got my pen in my hand right now. I'm. I'm asking because I want that for myself. But you know what? For you listening, if you're tuning into the show today, I'm going to have that link for you in the show notes so you'll be able to get the link so we can all download that. Because I really want to take a look at that.

And I forgot I do have a text opt in. That's pretty easy. If you text to 474747, text the word genius as in the letter U. Genius U. You'll get the link to the downloads as well.

Okay, that's easy. And I will have that if you're like out exercising or hiking or driving. Don't worry, that will be in the show notes too. So you guys can get that. And I can't wait to read your book. I'm so happy for you. Now are you going to do any book signings or those? Because I know it was really rough for people who. I mean, I feel so grateful that I got to do A book tour all over the US and so many authors that their books came out during COVID and they didn't get to do that. Are you going to be doing a book tour at all?

I haven't finalized. I'm doing a podcast tour, that's for sure. And so, you know, the full with the book, the full title is the Genius within your Natural Pathway for Impact, Fulfillment and Prosperity. And so, you know, we'll be doing a big, big podcast promo around and potentially at least a mini tour. But I've got it pretty packed next few months anyhow, so I don't know, I don't know how. How active I'll be on going to physical bookstores.

But yeah, it's so much fun. And you know what I did? You sell out at your very first book signing and then you can do any store, anywhere you go. So now when I travel, yeah, I always ask if I'm going to be in Dallas. I'm like, hey, I have a book. I could come to your store and do a little signing. I sold out at all these other places and sure enough, they. Everywhere I went, they set it up for me. We just, you know, ordered a certain amount of books and it was fun.

Amazing.

Great idea.

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, do that. But come to la. Come, you know, I love la. Come see me and I'll be at the book signing. I'll get my book signed. You're so awesome and you share so much. I love all that you share. Just about collaborating and adding value and you're just such an amazing person. And I'm so glad we got to talk more. I mean, it's been fun on Clubhouse, but I'm glad I got to spend a little more time with you. And I can't wait for people to hear this and for them to read your book. So thank you. And again, tell people where they can follow you on Instagram. And you're also on LinkedIn.

Yes. So, guys, Instagram is the Mike Zeller. That's my Instagram handle. LinkedIn. Michael Zeller, Facebook, Michael Zeller TikTok. I think it's Michael Zeller as well. But I have like two videos on. So I don't know what you're going to see on TikTok, but also the book. Promise you guys this. You go through that book and you do the exercise exercises that have in there, you will have the greatest accumulation of clues about who on earth you are and what on earth you're meant to do than you will have ever had in your life. And without fail. I've seen that happen 100% of the time when someone goes through exercises and that affects the rest of your life. Your marriage, relationships, business, career. That's why I'm so passionate about it. There's nothing more important in many regards to figuring out alignment. And like we were talking about earlier, I want to help people step into aligned abundance. Not hustle and grind your soul to death for abundance, but aligned abundance where you can make a big dent in the universe but also find great fulfillment. So that's, that's what I live for and would be honored to serve any of you guys and would be honored to celebrate. If you guys buy the book, I'll certainly shout it out and just tag me on one of the platforms and would be honored.

Yeah, in fact y', all, if you there was one of the, you know, moments in here that inspired you. Take a screenshot and tag us both Amberly Lagomotivation and the Mike Zeller on Instagram and so we can see it and say thank you or share it ourselves. I always like to share when I see somebody has tagged me. So thank you so much. And yeah, hopefully you get to LA soon on a book tour. I'd like to see you.

I would love to.

Thanks.

Thanks so much for joining us this week on True Britain Grace Podcast. If you like it, please rate it or share it with your friends. That would help too. If you're not yet on the newsletter list, come over to Amberly Lago.com and jump on it. While you're there, you can grab a free downloadable gratitude journal and you might just want to check out my book or even check out my monthly motivational membership. Thanks again for tuning in and we'll

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