295 I Just Interviewed a 9-Figure Entrepreneur, Investor & Author: Here's What He Shared!
Mike Fata
Co- Founder of Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods and host of the Mentor Podcast
Today, we are chatting with an epic Canadian Entrepreneur who is VERY well known in the Health Space, named Mike Fata.
Mike co-founded the major Canadian Food Brand, Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods in 1998 and he helped guide the sale of the company for $419 million dollars in 2019. Since then, Mike has celebrated and supported other business ventures as an entrepreneur, investor, advisor and mentor.
Mike is the Chief Executive Officer of Fata & Associates, a best selling author, a keynote speaker, host of Founder to Mentor podcast, 9-Figure Growth Coach, Global Growth Advisor of Mid-Day Squares, Chairman of the Board of Nuts for Cheese and investor/advisor to a portfolio of companies.
In this episode, Mike and I chat about...
Mike’s health story
Why SEO is a key driver of growth in today’s competitive landscape
How did his belief that a product that was not selling on the shelves of a local health food stores was going to become massive
The importance of building a community at trade shows
Why did he decide to start building a personal brand
Tips on building confidence on social media
His health routine
AND SO MUCH MORE…
To connect with Mike:
Buy His New Book —-> Grow
Access the transcript for this episode:
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You're listening to the visionary life podcast. I'm your host, Kelsey Reidl.
Each week, I'll bring you conversations with the most visionary humans on this earth, in hopes that you'll be able to absorb their wisdom, avoid their failures and feel less alone on the roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship.
This season, I'll be chatting with creative thinkers, masterful marketers, brick and mortar shop owners, brand builders and people just like you who have a story to share or a vision that inspires. If I can share one quick secret with you before we get into the episode. It's that we all have a little bit of visionary inside of us, you know, that spark that nudges us to pursue our full potential in this lifetime, but perhaps somewhere along the line, it got covered up. I'm here to tell you that it's never too late to explore that inner voice and access the brilliance deep down inside of you. It's in you. It's in all of us. Let's dive in. Hey, visionaries.
Welcome back to the show today is a pretty cool episode because of chatting with Mike Fattah, who is a nine figure entrepreneur like what? Try to comprehend that in your head for a second, especially if you're still someone who's like trying to hit five figures, six figures, seven figures, eight figures, I mean, nine figure we're gonna learn a lot from this guy.
He's also an investor. He's an author of the brand new book called Grow, which is 12 unconventional lessons for becoming an unstoppable entrepreneur. He's also a mentor, and he's building a portfolio of world class companies. So you might know of the company called Manitoba harvest. I've been eating their hemp seeds and using their hemp products for probably a decade at least. Well, Mike is actually a co founder of Manitoba harvest. And this was way before hemp oil and hemp seeds were cool. And what's crazy, is that Mike actually has quite the health story where he actually tipped the scale at 300 pounds when he was younger, he was struggling to find energy, he dropped out of high school, he was not healthy. And then everything changed for him. And he is such a big advocate of taking care of your health, if you want to become an unstoppable entrepreneur.
So this is such a cool conversation, we really dive into it all we talk about his 25 year journey as an entrepreneur and his start point with Manitoba harvest and what it took to get people to take a chance on a brand new health food product, especially getting one customer at a time, we dive into the importance of building community and why LinkedIn is basically the same as a trade show. We go deep on that. And we share tips for people who lack confidence showing up online or who are hesitant to build a personal brand, or who find themselves creeping and consuming a lot of content, but they're not actually creating and connecting.
So we definitely go deep on that. We are also going to chat about the role that continuous improvement plays in his life, how he builds his best day ever some of the most important parts of his routine and how he structures his calendar. You definitely want to learn this kind of stuff from a nine figure entrepreneurs. So if you want to connect with Mike, he has a newsletter. He has a podcast, his book is out. We're gonna link all of that in the show notes. And if you tune into this episode, please share about it either on LinkedIn that's where Mike is most most active, or you can tag me on Instagram. Alright, so let's get into this episode with Mike Fattah. Hey visionaries I'm going to quickly interrupt this episode to share something crazy. Did you know that 70% of all online experiences begin with a search engine. That's right. Every day millions of people log on to search engines like Google to find solutions, answers and content that meets their search intent. Whether they're searching for a gas station near them, a pair of women's Jean overalls or a nutritionist for weight loss search engines have become an integral part of our daily lives. But with so many businesses competing for visibility online, it can be tough to stand out from the crowd, especially if you don't have an SEO or a search engine optimization strategy.
Okay, so what is search engine optimization? Well, if I'm gonna go for the formal definition, it is simply the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine. SEO is a key driver of growth and success in today's competitive landscape. After all, people are going to Google and if you're not on page one, they're likely not finding your website. To put it simply a good SEO strategy helps people find you on the internet. So Here's a personal story. At present, when I collect all of the information regarding how people find me and how they end up hiring me as their private marketing coach 50% of my annual business revenue can actually be tied back to people finding me through Google.
That is why I created every day SEO, this is a 30 day live course that I'm going to be beginning at the end of July that you can take part in where I'm teaching you everyday business owners how to improve your online visibility through SEO, we are going to simplify the ins and outs of search engines. I'm going to teach you proven strategies to help you rank higher, and I'm going to help you attract more traffic to your website. Because what is the point of having that beautiful website, or what's the point in building a site right now, if you're not going to bring eyeballs to it, I want you to grow your business and SEO is an important way to do that. So if you're tired of being buried on page 933 of Google search results, and you want to start getting noticed, it is time to enroll in everyday SEO head to Kelsey rydell.com/seo. Or click the link in my bio, this is a total steal at this price. It will not stay this price forever. Kelsey rydell.com/s e o And just one last thing, visionaries this course actually starts on Thursday, July 27 2023. So as you were listening to this, it might be coming up, it may have already started, you're not too late. So go ahead and head to Kelsey rydell.com/seo.
This course will be taught live over zoom and our digital classroom for four Thursdays in a row. And that will be from one until 2pm Eastern time. Don't worry if you can't attend all of the sessions are recorded. And even if you've missed the first one, I would still highly suggest you slide on into this course. Again, Kelsey rydell.com/seo starts Thursday, July 27. Mike, welcome to the visionary life podcast. I don't know how I originally found you on LinkedIn. But as soon as I started reading your content, I was like, wow, he shares a ton of value. And you know, when you're reading through a post, and you're like, every time I get a good nugget of wisdom, and I know you're very involved in the natural health food space, and that was my start of my career path. So a lot of intersections and the people that we know.
But I'm excited to sit down with you today not only to talk about your incredible book, which I just finished reading, congrats on that, by the way, but also just to talk about your journey as an entrepreneur, the lessons you've learned and to just crack open a little bit into maybe some topics you've never talked about before. So welcome to the show. Yeah,thank you. Thanks for having me.
You are so welcome. So let's rewind a little bit you've been a 25 year entrepreneur started your journey at Manitoba harvest but one thing I found that was kind of funny in doing some research and digging on you was that you actually were on a health journey where you were doing a no fat diet, and then you kind of got into the healthy fat industry. So can you just rewind take us back to that time in your life of finding out about hemp products and like what prompted you to begin a career in getting involved in Manitoba harvest?
Yeah, well, I was I weighed 300 pounds when I was 18 years old, from eating too much fast food and then I finally decided I was going to do something about it and that doing something about it led me to the no fat diet because in the mid 1990s No fat diet was very popular Dr. Nathan Pritikin and I started reading about no fat and became started working out and eating a low fat diet and sort of losing weight and so I started evangelizing it telling people all fats bad for you look there's all this research and and and then I learned the hard way that your body needs essential fatty acids and it wasn't until I kind of hit rock bottom of not eating fat for a very long time and and that led me to learning about all the different types of good fats healthy fats and hempseed being one of those and then i i literally switched and maybe it was in a matter of months going from telling people you don't want to eat fat fats bad to like Oh, I was wrong, you know you need essential fatty acids and and here's a great source of it. And so that's what led to founding Manitoba harvest and becoming really passionate about hemp from the nutritional value.
Was it legal for firms to grow hemp when you first kind of found the product like was this a common products that you were seeing on shelves or were you guys first to market or nearly first to market?
Yeah, I mean, we were one of the first and so no, it was just it was just in the final stages of of Health Canada, legalizing hemp in Canada so I started researching hemp in 1996 and 97 And we got, we got him commercially legal to sell in 1998 was the first year and so right right at the but, you know, the two other co founders mentor was had been lobbying the government to legalize hemp for six or seven years before that. So it's really at the final stage.
So the name of this podcast is visionary life and visionaries often see the future before it has happened. Were you guys certain that like hemp was going to become a thing? How did you have belief that a product that was not really selling on the shelves of local health food stores? How did you know like, we got to get this in people's hands and it's gonna sell well, where where did that belief come from?
I think it was really about the passion like I had, I had learned that I could change my health by mostly what my diet right most of what I put in my mouth and and when I went from not eating fat to eating hemp seed and hemp seed oil, I just started feeling great. And I thought that that same thing could be true for others. So I didn't have you know, I dropped out of high school, so I never had a business background, I didn't crunch the numbers and see how big the company could be or didn't have any understanding of that I just was passionate about the product myself personally, and thought, let me let's, let's see if other people are are in the same mindset and, and more specifically, people that had been duped into thinking that the no fat diet was was going to be good. So I if there was anything, I had a vision that the world was going to change from the no fat diet to the right fat diet. And that did happen, you know, part because of the work that we did, it meant barbs with him foods, but you know, flax and chia and all these other great essential fatty acid rich foods got more popular and the stigma of of SAT being bad disappeared after, you know, a half a decade or maybe 10 years of of those products coming to market.
So what I'm hearing you say is like, having a personal story, and having a passion is a huge success factor. Yeah, I want to say that for
sure. Yeah. And I think the it's really important, you know, we talk a lot about product market fit. But I think the founder product fit in the founder market fit is really, really critical. And I had that given because I had my health journey. And I was super passionate about health and, and so I was just going to attract other people that ultimately became our customers, but we're interested in the same thing. And so I think it is really important for founders to create something that they want in their own life first and be super passionate about it and so that they can wear the brand on their sleeve and tell all their family and friends and and you know, stand up on chairs and shout it up to the world. I think that's it's critical, especially if you're creating something new and you're not trying to, you know, invent a me too product that is already out there in the marketplace.
So once you guys created your first set of products, and you're like, Okay, now we need to get it into people's hands. I'm curious, do you remember what some of those key visibility moments were? I know, you describe a few in the book, but some of those moments when you started to share that passion, share that story. And you realized it was starting to catch on what were some of those pivotal moments for you?
Yeah, I mean, the first big one was the the Winnipeg wellness show. So it was our first consumer show that we did. It was my first time having a table full of product and being able to get in front of a couple 1000 People went through that show on the on the weekend. And so I told them, you know, just straight up my personal story, hey, I used to be scared of fat I lost lost over 100 pounds, I learned about essential fatty acids. And then we got, we started making this hemp oil product. I love it, try it, you know, and, and so being able to be in front of and ended up selling a couple of 100 bottles of hemp oil that weekend. But seeing the reaction on people's face of saying, Oh, I thought that was bad. And like playing through some of the same things I was thinking about. I knew that, that there was a certain amount of people that would be our customers, and we just had to go in and find more of them.
Mm hmm. And I think it's interesting because for a lot of people when they're about to go to their first trade show, or they're kind of getting visible with their business for the first time, they have all this impostor syndrome and anxiety around, okay, everything needs to be perfect. And we need to have all the right marketing materials and resources.
But it sounds like what you did was you just showed up, you talked to everybody who was in front of you, you built community from where you were rooted. And you share that personal story of like, this is how it has transformed my life. And you basically just like infected all of the retailers around to say I want to try this. Let's give it a shot. Is that kind of how you guide small businesses to begin these days or do you feel like times have changed with the rise of Social media and digital marketing and online presence,ya know very much so I talked about it in the book because I think building community and building friendships is the best way to, to create your foundation and in your business. So when going to trade shows, it's just as much as you know, your your customers can be all the other vendors that are that are selling their products. So what's the best thing you could do as a founder going go and connect with other founders and tell them your story and make friends with them because they're not only in the same business, similar business, but they probably have the similar lifestyle, especially in the natural products industry, you know, people are interested in their in their health and, and what they eat. And so that's, that's some of the easiest customers that you're going to acquire. And then what I've learned is when you start doing laps of these different trade shows, you see the same people and so now you have a community that's built in, and they're also sharing your healthy message. So when we, you know, we had other booths that would would, would share our hemp food products, if they were making if they were selling salad greens, they put our hemp oil as a dressing on top of it, you know, and, and so you really should I think about it as your minimum viable community.
When you're launching a new business, you need to have your minimum viable community, which that is a different size for depending on what type of business you're launching. But if you're in the consumer packaged goods business, you need your first 1000 customers, and then you need your first 10,000 customers and probably 10,000 Customers will equal your first million dollars in sales if you can get there. And so what's the most efficient way of creating your your minimum viable community, and I'm a big believer, you can do it one by one. Yeah, nowadays, we can use tools like social media and digital marketing to expand the reach. But nothing is nothing replaces the shake someone's hand, look them in the eye, tell them your story, make them feel something. And then not only are they likely to be a customer, but more of a customer for life. And there'll be someone that shares your message with their friends and their family.Mm hmm. I know, it's like, I feel like we've really gotten into this mentality of like, I just need to sit in my office with my door closed and be on my laptop all day, when really, so much of the growth happens when we get out into the world.
And we talk to people and we experience physical interaction and are moving about our days. So it's a good reminder to like get out and to not ignore your industry peers, right, because I remember being at trade shows and being like, I just have to stay in my booth. And there's no time to socialize with everybody else. But what I was missing was that those people were going to be our biggest advocates, they were going to be our strategic partners, we were going to run giveaways together, we were going to do collaborative recipes. And it's so much easier to get your product into the hands of other people when you exchange audiences versus like trying to bring people to your business all of the time. So I think it's really important what you share to, and I think you even say something along the lines of like, what we need in business isn't war, like you're not showing up to an event being like, I have to win and conquer all it's like, there is enough to go around. And if I can just befriend everybody, I'm going to be you know, way ahead of somebody who comes in with their head down with this laser focus goal that is strictly centered around themselves.And people are that whole business is an art of war, like, hey, some people believe in it. And some very successful people believe in it. I just don't. And even more specifically for our industry. I think the natural products industry, like some people actually think, Hey, I'm in the hemp food business and you're in the cold brew coffee businesses, some somehow are competing for customers. No way I even thought, you know, even we're in the hemp food business and other brands that were in the hemp food business, that we're not It's not competing for customers, we're we're more of coopetition because no one knows about hemp foods. And so together, we're both beating the drum to bring awareness and attention to it. So yeah, I just I think it's a lot more fun and friendly just to build community than it is thinking like you have to tear down your neighbor's tower so that you build your tower up.
Yeah, and I will refer people in your book, you have a really good chapter, just sharing personal stories of how you've done that and why it's important. And I think we could always use reminders, like, get out there, like stop feeling like you have to do this alone in your office. I think that's a really good chapter for our listeners to refer to. And, you know, to kind of piggyback on that, too, as you've gone through your journey. Now you're actually building community by building out your personal brand and sharing personal stories and anecdotes and you write a newsletter, you have a podcast, we're going to talk about your book. Why did you decide to start devoting time and energy to building a personal brand? Why didn't you want to stay behind the scenes and kind of continue just working and not Oh, opening up about the lessons learned and the personal stories. What was the motive there?
Yeah, you know, I, it was a really, I've always had a personal brand. But my personal brand was in person at trade shows what I what I, what I wasn't doing was I wasn't on social media. So before three years ago, I wasn't on social media. And it was really the pandemic that was a changer for me our trade, our biggest trade show Natural Products Expo West was canceled. And I thought to myself, when I was sitting at home locked down, like everybody, how am I going to connect with my friends and, and and see what they're doing and see what they're up to, and new products that are being created and all these things that I'm personally passionate about.
And I thought I should just go online and I had a LinkedIn account. But I never, I never posted anything there. I thought about it as a more of a digital Rolodex for business cards. And so I just put myself out there like I, I went through this, like, feeling of I wanted to be helpful, and what was the way I could be helpful I have this community was sharing some of my thought leadership, some of the things that I've learned. And and then what I learned from sharing was, it was very therapeutic for me. So as much as I, I give back, and it's a selfless act. It's selfish, because it makes me feel good. And, and so there's a good, there's a good balance there for me.
And now, after three years of sharing my story, sharing some of my lessons, the, you know, the 50,000 people overall in my social digital community, which, if I look back to being a 25 year entrepreneur, which didn't have social media, then when I started out in business, but I tell all founders, now you need to create your personal brand, you need to tell people not only like about your business, but why are you doing it? What are you passionate about? What are you scared about? What are some of the things that you're overcoming some of the obstacles personally in your in your growth path? Because people are interested in that and and, and it'll bring more attention to you and your business as well.Mm hmm. People are so curious. People love to consume content, and creep on people. And so to be someone who is showing up and creating like, you're adding so much value, and not a lot of people are willing to go there. I'm curious for somebody who hasn't yet gained the confidence to start sharing a personal brand, maybe their behind the scenes of their product. Do you have any advice? Like what helped you to step into? Okay, I do have something worthwhile to share any tips for building that confidence?
Yeah, I mean, well, I went to, I went to therapy for four years before I got on on social media. So what I learned what I what I learned from therapy was, I had these ideas in my head of things that I wanted to do, or things that I wanted to say, but I was scared. And as soon as those words came out of my mouth, in a, in an office setting with a therapist, it diffused them and it didn't feel like it was in my head of like, well, I can't tell people that, you know, I grew up poor, I can't tell people that I dropped out of school, because then they'll think less of me and I want to hold this like persona of the best me that I possibly can. Well, then I you know, I just learned that sharing my weaknesses is my superpower, when people started to say, oh, you know, good on you for sharing, I wish I could share some of those things. I'm like, Well, you can and it just, you have to just rip the band aid off and start. It's never, it's never easy. When you start something new. I kind of liken it to like going to the gym, the first time I went to the gym, I couldn't even lift the barbell, I was crying and I was scared I was 100 pounds overweight, but you gotta go there and just start doing the reps. So you know, you don't have to, you don't have to go and be super creative. Just document what what's going on in your life. As an entrepreneur, you're going through obstacles every single day, Hey, I didn't know how to write a business plan and and today, I learned how to write it. And here's three things that I learned about it, you know, something like that, which is not that complex to share, because it's actually going on in your life as an entrepreneur can be super helpful for someone else that's maybe a couple steps or a couple of years behind you in their journey. And then it's helpful to if you're really serious about it is to put a system together, obviously. And so there's some great courses on simple courses about how you, you know what you want to share. So you're not just kind of going ad hoc. What I do tell founders and entrepreneurs is like, don't just show up to social media without a plan and and try to think that you're going to do it at the end of the day after you're doing all the other things because it is it is like business and maybe more specifically, LinkedIn. I think about it as a 24/7 trade show. Like how do you show up to a trade show you show up there with a plan like you've made yourself, you dressed up your booth so you dress up your profile and clearly communicate to people what you're, what you're, who you are and what you're trying to do. And then And then think about it. Hey, I'm going to post
Three times a week. And I'm going to do that in the morning before I get busy with all the other things that I'm going to be doing. And put a little storyboard of what you're going to be sharing. Like, if you have a chocolate bar company, sure, you could talk about your chocolate bars. But you also again, want to talk about like your journey as an entrepreneur and like what you've learned and, and you went and traveled to a trade show and who you met and things that people are are interested in. But it gives you that it gives you that plan and the and a system to work off of so you're not just doing it ad hoc. Mm hmm. I think that'ssuch an important tip. Because, like you're saying, with a trade show, hours and hours, and you know, months go into planning the booth and who's going to be there and what they're wearing and how you're going to greet everybody and give them samples when they walk by, well, your Instagram or your LinkedIn or your website, that's just your digital home on the internet, or like you called it like your digital trade show or your 24/7 trade show. So it's like, hey, when you're posting on LinkedIn, like, what's the conversation type? Are you using emojis? Are you adding a photo? What's the energy that you're coming to this post with? Because all of that is probably translating. So don't just show up and be like, Well, my coach told me I had to follow this script. So I'm just gonna push post on this, like, that's not the energy you would bring to a real life event. So why do we accept that in the online space or feel like it's okay to be robotic or less of ourselves, or to not show the full spectrum of our brand, like people want to feel the product, touch it, turn it over? And like, we need to give them that opportunity? Even if it's as simple as putting out content on the internet.
Yeah, and I think even step one, I totally agree. And step one, even before putting out content, I'd say putting out content. And I'll just again, I'll talk LinkedIn, and maybe more specifically, consumer packaged goods go that's a bit space for sure. But putting out content on LinkedIn is like having a booth at the trade show. Okay, your setup and some things you talk about, you're dressed up, you're sharing a certain message. But when you're a new entrepreneur, before you have a booth at a trade show, you can just go to the trade show. And what do you do when you go to the trade show you connect with people and you build community? So go on instead of if you're not ready to post or maybe you're posting like one time a week? Because that's that's the amount of space that you have. But you can go on to LinkedIn every day and go and connect with people in your community. And what do you do you say, you say hi, you, you you congratulate them on a new product or an award that they want or things that they're sharing? Right? You You have conversations and people always say to me, you're so authentic online, and I'm like, well, it's you're getting the same me as you get if I'm if I'm in person, right? I'm not trying to be someone else in person or online. It's just you're gonna get me and, and but those those things of just actually showing up and jumping into the conversation are just as important as sharing your thought leadership or sharing your posts.
Mm hmm. That's probably going to be the most actionable takeaway that I want people to hear is that when you're spending time at the trade show, or scrolling Instagram, scrolling LinkedIn on tick tock, don't just consume all the content, actually engage with it show up. And honestly, as I'm thinking back, I'm like, I think you comment on a lot of the founders that I already follow. So that probably led me to your content. So this is actually a strategy right? If you show up at everybody's booth and make a comment, wow, congrats on the new product or, you know, wonderful that you reached one year in business, you're actually marketing yourself, obviously not doing it like strategically, but it's important to engage when you're just passively scrolling.
And hey, I'm, I'm a natural introvert. The extroverted part of me is been more trained in business and as an entrepreneur, but I use that example again, because you wouldn't go to a show and just walk by, strategically you shouldn't do this anyway. Just walk by people's booths at a trade show and not say anything to them, you know, like, just just be a creeper. It's awkward. Yeah, you want to be like, come up and just say something simple. And those whole action of putting in reps like so you are congratulating people, you're saying, Hi, you're giving them a high five, you're, you're giving him some flowers, all those things, it'll become natural for you to do that. It'll become more of an extroverted part of yourself, even if you are an introvert. And we all need that in business, that's sales and marketing, that those are foundational for sales and marketing is to like, have connections with people make them feel something and truly understand who you are, what you share.
Yeah, and I think it's great that you say like, I'm naturally an introvert. And I know that's something you're passionate about, and that you write about in the book is continuous improvement, and that being a value of yours. So even though you identified more so as an introvert, it's like no, but I can become better at just responding to people engaging, making conversation bringing flowers remember their birthday, by getting a little bit better each and every day. So can you share a little bit about your philosophy of why continuous improvement is something that you're actively working on in all areas of your life? Why is this taking up time in your calendar?
I mean, it started with my health changes in my lifestyle changes, you know, losing losing over 100 pounds and realizing, Oh, it doesn't matter where you start from you can you can get good at whatever you focus on. But when we were in business at Manitoba harvest, and we started to become a larger company, and and we were focused on, you know, because we were manufacturers, we were focused on the principles of continuous improvement and lean manufacturing, I learned that there's a system and a process for that, okay, how am I doing today, and what's working and what's not working, getting some of those insights for yourself, putting a little plan together of like, what's the next steps, and then going in executing that. And then, and then checking and readjusting, again, that's continuous improvement. And we can all do that, like if you can, if you can do five push ups, I guarantee you, you can get to 25 Push ups, and it's five today and six tomorrow, or the next day. And like by next week, you're doing eight and a month from now you're doing 12, and then a year from now you're doing 25 And it's effortless, right? It's just putting in the reps, but you have to put a little bit of system and process to it to so again, that is not You're not just winging it. And that and that's, that's the basis of continuous improvement.
So is your system and process daily that you're asking these questions? Or do you have like, say a monthly date with yourself? That's kind of like, okay, I'm gonna audit my life audit my relationship audit my health? Or is this just like now something that very naturally happens? Because you've been doing it for 20? some odd years?
Yeah, it's natural. Now for me, but I when I was starting out, it's really, you know, writing lists, writing goals, I ended up changing a number of years ago, like a decade ago, from ticking my my goals and tasks on a list and time time blocking them and putting them right into my calendar. If I'm going to work an hour on a on a creative campaign, I'm going to have it in my calendar, if I'm going to be working out that day. If I'm if I'm taking my girlfriend on a date, all of it's going to be in the calendar, and then I can look at my calendar for the week and for the month and and optimize it like Well, how am I continuously improving some of these things that are that are normal routines for for me? And and so then, you know, I just use the calendar for that natural reflection at the end of the week, look at the past week, what worked, what didn't work? How do I want to improve? It's what I think what are some of the things you're going to cut out, which I'm a big fan and of you're allowed to change, just because you're doing something right now, doesn't mean you need to do that forever. If you've given a meaningful tried and you know, that doesn't fit into your plan to your lifestyle, like cut that out so that you get more time back to focus on the things that you really do want to get excellent debt.
Mm hmm. So you have your hands in a lot of different things right now I can imagine like, you know, from most people's perspective, you are quite busy. What are some of the first things that you look to schedule in your calendar that are kind of like those big return on investment activities? Like what are those main things each day that you're like non negotiable that goes in first, everything else moves around it,
my my health routine. So I have a pretty, pretty involved health routine of working out and doing weight training and cardio and sweating in a sauna and doing ice baths and meditating. And I am well aware that those make me my most functional self. And so those have to come first and come first thing in the morning. So I'm usually doing that routine before I schedule anything else. And so I have a time block. Um, I think the time block in my calendar right now is 7am. To 10am. And it's family and health is is the block and and because I need a single dad as well, I need to get my family and kids rolling and all that but that I don't I don't allow I'm not perfect. So but I generally don't allow other things to go into those slots. And if someone wants to meet really early morning with me, I'll be like, well, let's meet at 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock and try to try to get my mind and my body straight first before I jump into all the tasks in the day. And then and then from there just on an organization standpoint, because I am am an investor I have a portfolio companies. I'm an advisor, I do create content, whether it's my newsletter, or podcast or book, and I, I organize those so that I'm not context switching. As you know, we all wear a lot of hats. But it's the amount of times that you switch those hats of how effective you are and actually the tasks that you're doing. And I've learned that and so I tried to organize my days even. And I did this in business for a number of years, like organize the party. On Tuesdays, I'd work on marketing and most of my marketing activities I'd go on Tuesday in sales as sales I focus on Wednesday and so on. So these are some of the just things that I've learned to be more effective in in my role, but it all starts with being the best me that I can be.
Absolutely and before I Let you go on that topic. I'm curious because I know you are kind of a health, like you're a bit more savvy than maybe most and you found what works for you. Is there anything that you're currently trying or experimenting with as it comes to your health? That is exciting you or something new or innovative? Or what's like the best part of your health routine that you're like, This has made the biggest difference lately?
Yeah, so it's been 25 years of health routine, and I'm a guinea pig on myself. So I've constantly, you know, I'd say my diet is, is is, is the most important but the the newest, I'd say it's still new, because it's been probably a year and a half, two years is is is thermotherapy like ice baths. I started with cold showers, but now doing doing cold therapy, I've just, it's, it's taught me so much about myself, it makes me feel physically good. And there's a whole bunch of science on why that works. But the mental process of maybe 200 250 ice baths I've done in over that time, never want to do it. Never super excited about it. I know how good it feels afterwards. And so that whole mental, getting over that mental hurdle, which we all face by by dwelling on things, and I know I should be working on this task in life or in business and not wanting to do it. It's also taught me like, just just turn the mind off and jump in and start doing it. And, and that usually, that's helped me in so many other aspects of my life as well.
Mm hmm. Absolutely. I love hearing that. And also a big fan of the cold plunge. And you're right, like, if you can just get yourself to walk right into that freezing cold water versus like, I'll do it in an hour, I'll do it in an hour. It's just like, do the hard thing. It's gonna suck, but you're gonna feel so good on the other side. And it's the perfect physical representation of that. So it's really cool. So Mike, I'd love to hear just a little bit if somebody hasn't read your book yet, can you just tell us about the book where people can get it, and then anywhere where we can connect with you in the digital space?
Yeah, I have a copy here too. Oh, we
got the hard copy Darren.
Grow 12 unconventional lessons for becoming an unstoppable entrepreneur, which I can tell you, you don't need to be an entrepreneur to get the benefit of the book, entrepreneurs are going to get the extra benefit, but it's really about becoming your best self. And then aligning your passions with your work and then building community and really setting up a good foundation for business. It's available in Amazon and all the online resellers I just recorded and launched the audio book copy last week or two weeks ago, and so on on Audible and on Apple and kind of everywhere that you get audiobooks as well. And which was a whole new venture for me narrating my own book, that must have been interesting. It's challenging, I can tell you that, like did I write that? Is that me? Yeah. No, it sounds like me. It is it is a task to, to record hours after hours and be focused in that kind of space. But I think the product turned out well, and and so I'd encourage you to go and get a copy of the book, I don't think you'll be disappointed and love to hear your feedback on on social media. So connect with me and and let me know what you think.
Absolutely. And we'll link everything in the show notes. And we thank you for your time today. We wish you all the best on your health journey and in your business journey. So thank you, Mike, for coming on the pod and we will talk to you soon.
Thanks again for having me.
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