EP 58: Mike Michalowicz on Authorship as a Vocation and Why Your Book Isn’t Just a Glorified Business Card

2021-06-17

A lot of us are scared to share our best stuff because then we think people won’t hire us or pay us for it. But why would we want to hide our best stuff behind a paywall? Yes, some of your audience will take your expertise and go the DIY route. But if you use your ideas to build your platform, know that some of the people watching will want more from you. And they’ll pay you for it. That’s the top advice from today’s guest. I’m delighted to have the one and only Mike Michalowicz on the show. Mike is going to share some behind the scenes stories about his rise to fame as an author and entrepreneur, and some of the things that did and didn’t wo...

A lot of us are scared to share our best stuff because then we think people won’t hire us or pay us for it. But why would we want to hide our best stuff behind a paywall?

Yes, some of your audience will take your expertise and go the DIY route. But if you use your ideas to build your platform, know that some of the people watching will want more from you. And they’ll pay you for it.

That’s the top advice from today’s guest. I’m delighted to have the one and only Mike Michalowicz on the show. Mike is going to share some behind the scenes stories about his rise to fame as an author and entrepreneur, and some of the things that did and didn’t work along the way.

You probably know Mike as the author of six, soon to be seven, incredibly influential books for entrepreneurs including Profit First, The Pumpkin Plan, Fix This Next, Clockwork, Surge, and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. His next book, Get Different, is out in September and available for preorder now.

But what you may not know is where he got all these crazy ideas. Before we wrote his first book, by his 35th birthday Mike founded and sold two multi-million dollar companies. Confident that he had the formula to success, he became a small business angel investor…and proceeded to lose his entire fortune.

That’s when he started all over again, driven to find better ways to grow healthy, strong companies. Since then Mike has devoted his life to the research and delivery of innovative, impactful entrepreneurial strategies to you.

Tune into this episode to hear:

Two audience segments who will buy your book, and why sharing ALL of your expertise matters to both of them
Mike’s licensing model of collaborating with experts to write books and create service offerings that allows everyone to do what they’re best at
A look inside publishing today, from self-publishing, whether you really need an agent, to success on the backlist and expanded editions of older books
Why marketing best practices quickly become invisible as they’re used more and more widely
Two pieces of tactical advice Mike gave Pia when she was about to release her book that she still swears by