Mike Michalowicz – How the author of Profit First stays lean by licensing his ideas [Greatest Hits]

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
How old were you when you realized you were the son of a president?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:02)
I don't think anyone's ever asked me that before.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:05)
FX's Love Story, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bissette. I didn't think I could love someone like this until you. From executive producer Ryan Murphy.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:14)
It's not a question of if I want to spend the rest of my life with you. It's if I'm cut out to be Mrs. JFK Jr. FX's Love Story, John F.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:23)
Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bissette. Watch now on FX Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:30)
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**SPEAKER_4** (1:00)
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**Mike Michalowicz** (1:29)
When we teach, we have to steep ourselves in that knowledge so effectively and know it so intimately that we can actually repackage it so it's consumable. The best authors aren't the masters at it, they are the biggest students of it.

**Jay Clouse** (1:56)
Hello, my friend, welcome back to another episode of Creator Science. Today, I'm talking to a man who's had a major impact on my business, and his name is Mike Michalowicz. Mike is the author of Profit First, which is used by hundreds of thousands of companies across the globe to drive profit. Creator Science is one of those companies. Profit First has been huge in helping me develop very sound financials in this business. Mike is also the author of Clockwork, a powerful method to make any business run on automatic. Mike, read that if you're trying to get yourself out of the day-to-day, and seven other books as well. With more than 500,000 book sales, all of Mike's books have had the same goal, to help small business owners and eliminate what he calls entrepreneurial poverty. Simon Sinek once called Mike the top contender for the patron saint of entrepreneurs. This conversation is divided into halves. The first half explores Mike's unique model as an author. For each book, Mike writes, he partners with a third party to license the frameworks from that book and serve as the done-for-you service provider to implement the ideas. This is super uncommon and part of the reason he's been able to be so prolific while also running a very lean team. So we dig into how that works and what he would do differently if he was starting over today. And then the second half of the conversation is all about writing books. Mike has published nine books since 2008, including seven in the last eight years. So we dig into how he determines what ideas to turn into books and how to write them so quickly. We even dive into his thoughts on publishing traditional versus self-publishing, which I know is always a hot topic. I'd love to hear what you think about this episode. You can tag me at Jay Clouse on whatever platform you enjoy the most. But now let's talk with Mike.
So, you've written nine books that I could count to this point, and you've run several different types of businesses. At the starting point here, how would you describe your business model today?

**Mike Michalowicz** (3:57)
I'll give you kind of the esoteric theoretical, and then I'll give you the kind of structure. So, I would say it's modeled around what brings me joy, and everyone else involved, they have to speak for themselves. I sense is they're in a space of joy, and I think that's the ultimate organization, is are people doing what makes people happy, and I'm one of the people. The technical structure is this. I love to create content, particularly contrarian beliefs. So, my model is I'll look at something and say, what's the intended outcome we have? I want to start a business and make tons of money. Okay. What's the actual outcome we have? I started a business, I'm working my ass off, I don't have a penny in my own name.