Special Guest Expert - Mike Mahony: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

Special Guest Expert - Mike Mahony: this mp4 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Brian Kelly:
So here's the big question. How are entrepreneurs like us who have been hustling and struggling to make it to success, who seem to make it one step forward only to fall two steps back? Work dedicated. Determined and driven. We finally break through and win. That is the question. And this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Brian Kelly. This. Body. Hello everyone and welcome, welcome, welcome to The Mind Body Business Show. We have yet another fantastic episode lined up for you. My friend and buddy Mike Mahony is in the house. Well, the virtual house. He is in the green room. He is scratching at the glass saying, Brian, let me in. I'm ready, I'm ready, let's go. And I will let him in very, very soon. Before we do that, real quick, The Mind Body Business Show is a show that I had put together with you in mind. Who are you? Well, the entrepreneur, the business person that's looking for that next strategy, that next tip, that next idea that can and will catapult your business. And so I bring on guests like Mike Mahony, who are exceedingly very successful at what they do. And I bring them on to ask them the hard questions about what has gotten them to this level of success that they are at now. And in so doing, so many people like yourselves who are watching and listening get those golden nuggets that they can then implement into their own business going forward. In fact, I'm the host of the show and I implement many. I'm I kid you not. Many of the ideas, strategies and information that I get on the show from the guests who appear. So you're in a good spot. And so The Mind Body Business Show is about what I call the three pillars of success. And it came from studying over about a period of ten years or so, I, I focused and concentrated solely on successful people. What made them tick. And I found that these three factors kept bubbling to the top and then ultimately became part of the name of this very show, mind from The Mind Body Business Show.

Brian Kelly:
It stands for mindset. Now, each of these individuals who I study to a person had developed and honed a very positive, very powerful. And here's the most important aspect of it which might shock you. And flexible mindset and body. Body is quite simple. It's literally to a person, these individuals, they took care of themselves physically, through exercise and nutritionally by what they took into their body, either food or liquid or actually both. And then business. Business is multi multifaceted. And what I found that these individuals had mastered, there were various skill sets that one must master to achieve in a thriving, successful scaling and growing business. And by skill sets. What do I mean? I mean skill sets like marketing, sales, team building, systematizing, leadership. I could keep going for quite some time, and you might be thinking by now, well, Brian, you just said we have to master each of those skill sets and I hope you did hear that. Yeah. And that means that's going to take quite a while, a long time. If you had to master every single one of them on your own. Now the key is, is to leverage always. It's always about leverage. And all you really need to do is focus on just one of the of those skill sets. And in fact, it's one of those that I rattle off just a moment ago, if you just focused on the skill set of leadership, of honing and becoming a better leader, then all of the other skill sets can then be leveraged. You can bring in others who have mastered or in the deep in the process of mastering those skill sets, and thereby you don't have to spend the personal time doing it yourself. And of course, you want to. You want to master as much as you possibly can, but you just want to do it in a very short period of time. But that's that's a great godsend to know that if you just master one, you can focus on it. Even if you don't have a team, just consider leading yourself as if you were one of your team and developing that culture that you know that people will thrive in.

Brian Kelly:
There's many books on leadership. I'm not going to go down that avenue just right here, right now. And there are many, many books on that. And so definitely, in fact, speaking of books, we're going to be talking about that right about now. And that is because to a person, in addition to all of these wonderful attributes, mind, body and business, they are also the successful people are also very avid readers of books. And so with that, I want to segway very briefly into a segment I affectionately call bookmarks.

Announcer:
Bookmarks. Born to read. Bookmarks. Ready. Steady. Read. Bookmarks. Brought to you by reach your peak. Library.com.

Brian Kelly:
Yes. There you see it. Reach your peak. Library.com. And a real quick word of advice before we move on. And yes, Mike Mahony is coming on right after this segment. And that is, please, as you are watching and listening, especially when Mike comes on, you are going to be hearing about resources. It could be websites, it could be books, it could be all kinds of different things. It happens every single show. And instead of succumbing to that itch or that urge to go off and click away and investigate these resources while the show is going on, while you're listening, while you're watching, instead implore upon you to please write it down and then visit it after the show is over. Now, why do I say that? I say this because of experience of speaking on stage. In the beginning of my speaking career, I would notice when I'm getting to a very important part. It's my presentation. I know what I'm talking about. I know where the juicy parts are. Sometimes I would see someone get up and leave the room. They had to take care of that all important text, or go to the restroom or whatever the case may be. And I started realizing, oh, I better let people know ahead of time that here's the deal. The magic happens in the room, and the same holds true here. Even in a virtual space, the magic in the room means focus on Mike Mahony and what he's saying during the show. I would hate for you to take your focus away. And Mike mentioned that one golden nugget that could literally catapult your business to the next level. I would hate for that to happen for you. So if you wouldn't mind, it's just advice. I'm going to be taking notes myself. I'm running the entire show. I'm asking the questions, I am switching the scenes, I'm doing everything and I'm still writing notes. So I implore upon you to do the same and then visit everything after the fact so you can start practicing right now. Write down Reach Your Peak library.com. It is a website that I had my team develop and put together again with you in mind.

Brian Kelly:
And I'm not kidding. Why did this is because I myself did not begin reading voraciously until about 12 years ago. That was at the age of 47. I'll pause there. I'll let you all do the math. And now you know where I'm at. And that's cool. And so I put this together because what this is, is a collection of the books I have personally read. I ingest all of my materials now through audible. That's what really became a godsend for me, because I didn't realize I didn't like reading written words. It would really fatigue my eyes and I just didn't enjoy it. Listening. Oh my gosh, I love that. And I could speed it up and all that. And so I've gone through many books. Not every book I've ever read is in this list because I've personally vet these books. The ones you see here are ones that had a profound effect on me, either in my business life or my personal life, or even both sometimes. So they're in here in no rhyme nor reason. There is no alphabetizing nothing, not even by subject. You'll see a bunch of Grant Cardone books all clumped together. That's because I read them all about the same time. I was just eating those up. Those were awesome. And so this this site is not here to, you know, for the purpose of making money. If you find a book on this list that you that really jumps out at you, you look at the cover, you read the title, you read the words about what it's about. You want to get it, get it wherever you enjoy getting and consuming your books, like if Barnes and Noble, if it's a brick and mortar, if it's somewhere. If you want to go directly to Amazon Online, all these buttons go to Amazon directly and you can get whatever flavor of book you want, whether it's hard copy, e-book, audible, if they're available, you just click the button and you'll see that. So that is it. Reading is extremely important, and I didn't realize that until later in life how incredibly important it was. And I'm so happy I did.

Brian Kelly:
And speaking of being happy about doing things, one thing I'm really excited about and happy for is that there's a guy named Mike Mahony who agreed to be on this show, and I cannot wait to bring him on. So let's do that right now, shall we? Here we go.

Announcer:
It's time for the guest expert. Spotlight. Savvy. Skillful. Professional. Adept. Trained. Big league. Qualified.

Brian Kelly:
And there he is, ladies and gentlemen. It is the one. It is the only, Mike Mahony. Hoo hoo hoo hoo! Welcome to the show, Mike. How are you doing, buddy? I'm doing real good. Nice to see you. Yes, it's been a while. I mean, not a horrible long while, but we do talk now and then, you know, it was. It just occurred to me right before we went on live. I don't even remember how we met. Do you?

Mike Mahony:
No, don't. It's so.

Brian Kelly:
Funny. And honestly, it doesn't matter. But the cool thing is, we did meet, and I've enjoyed talking with you, getting to know you. I mean, you're a you're a technology expert. I love the fact that you have that tech background because we can talk geek and you actually understand me, and it's pretty awesome. It's like Trekkies talking clean Klingon or something. I have no idea what they're saying. Yeah, right. It's nice to to be here with you. Thank you for coming on, spending your time gracing our stage. And we're going to have a lot of fun. And before we jump in, I'm going to ask you some great questions, because they're great questions only because your answers will be great, not because of the questions. Do you mind if I give you a professionally sounding introduction that you so richly deserve? Would that be all right? Go for.

Mike Mahony:
It.

Brian Kelly:
Go for it. Thank you. Mike Mahony is not just a seasoned technologist with over 35 years in the field, but also a dynamic entrepreneur. Alongside his wife, Victoria, he proudly owns and operates not one, not two, six thriving businesses. His vast experience spans two decades as a chief technology officer for various esteemed companies, where he harnessed technology to drive innovation and growth. Oh, this is right down my alley. When he's not immersed in the tech world or overseeing his businesses, Mike can be found deeply engrossed in a book. Huh? Sharpening his strategic mind over a game of chess. Oh, even better. And spending quality time with his beloved animals. A passionate animal lover, Mike has a particular soft spot for dogs whose loyalty and spirit resonate with his own approach to business and life. With a blend of of tech expertise, entrepreneurial spirit and a heart full of compassion, Mike continues to inspire and lead in both the tech realm and beyond. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, the one, the only Mike Mahony. Welcome to the show. Oh, so awesome to have you here.

Mike Mahony:
That's an amazing intro.

Brian Kelly:
Yes, it was written very well. I wonder who did that. That's really good. Yeah. Mike. My god, six companies. I mean, some people a lot. Most people can't even build one that is, that reaches what they would call a success, a level of success that's self-sustaining. So kudos. That's that's pretty huge accomplishment. And it's very important that people heard that in the beginning, that they know that you have the chops, you and your wife, that you aren't just someone kicking the tires. You're not just faking it till you make it. You made it and you have made it, and you're continuing to make it and grow. And I'm curious, you know, the life of an entrepreneur is not anything similar to the life of, say, a corporate employee, because the whole job of an entrepreneur is to solve problems, to solve issues which are always there every single day, sometimes way too many. And for you, I'm curious. This is always makes me curious. I love asking this question to open the show, and that is when you get up in the morning and you know, you probably have a list of things that you're ready to do, and some of them you're like, oh, these are arduous. I don't want to take care of those. When you get up in the morning, you see those ahead of you. What keeps you driven? What keeps you going forward? What keeps you motivated? What is going on in your big, beautiful brain as you wake up and enter into a new day?

Mike Mahony:
Well, I have four kids and I've always preached working hard to them. And so I just want to be an example and, you know, show them that you can if you put your mind to something, that you can do it. And, you know, business is no different. I mean, we you mentioned that we have six businesses and, you know, they obviously all started one at a time, but we've always treated them like they're a bigger business. So like I come from a corporate background as a, as a CTO for two decades. And so just the way we handled, you know, KPIs and stuff like that in, in corporate world, we immediately applied that to small business. And it makes like a reproducible way to start another business and another business and another business. And then of course, you know, you know, you're the automation expert. Without automation, we wouldn't be able to run six businesses. It's just not even possible. So yeah, just wake up in the morning and just, you know, want to be that example to my kids and show them that hard work does pay off. And being consistent, you know, getting up day after day and doing that same thing, eventually you hit it, you know, and you hit on the right thing and the rest is easy after that, really. And you just keep it going.

Brian Kelly:
I love it. But getting there was that easy.

Mike Mahony:
Um, no. I mean, there's like anybody else, there's been failures along the way. Um, even like, one of the things that inspired us is, you know, I'm, I'm on my second marriage, and, uh, when we first got married, she couldn't work. She came from Canada so she could not work. And so what we what we did was we started a technology business, which is still there today. It's called your virtual CTO. And she just managed the clients for me. And so, you know, I couldn't pay her anything. But, I mean, what does it matter? Um, all money at the same place. But it was great. I mean, we did that. And then once she was able to work, she started a virtual assistant agency. And, you know, it just grew from there. But there's been failures along the way, you know, things where we, you know, stumble a little bit. Um, we we had a, we have a podcast network that we run that was a disaster. At first, it was really hard to get people to sign up to be on the network, pay us for it, etcetera. It was just really difficult and you just learn from those mistakes. I think I always think that that saying that you hear, you know, that the road to success is paved with failures. And it's true. I mean, you you learn from the mistakes that you make. You pick yourself up and you brush yourself off and you move right on to the next thing.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah, I've heard saying like, you know, learn to fail fast because the faster you get through the failures, the quicker you're going to learn how not to do things and get to that point of success. And that's I think that's one of the main driving forces that keep most people from actually completing their journey as an entrepreneur that give up because their ego tells them I'm a failure. Well, I'm not doing that anymore. That felt crappy. Well, no, you need to do it again and again and again and again and again and keep going. And yeah, it takes it does take thick skin and not everyone is born with it and that too can be developed. I know I wasn't born with it and I had to develop that, get rid of my ego as much as possible. That was tough and it still is. Sometimes on days I'll notice, oh my ego, I, I hear you get off, get off my shoulder, get out of here. And I love how you opened up with that. Your kids are what drive you. And that's a form of accountability, isn't it? You know, you're thinking of. They're watching me. I better be a good example to them, because who am I to tell them to work hard if I myself don't? And that's beautiful. Another form of accountability I've heard others say as well, are hiring coaches and similar. But I think the key to all of it is accountability. That really helps keep us in line going forward. I thought that was very powerful. And then I love how you took something you learned and acquired from your corporate life and applied it directly to your entrepreneurial life. I've done the same thing. It's like, you know, a lot of people go corporate and yeah, there's a lot of air to it for sure. There are also a lot of things. There's a reason these corporations are up and thriving. It's because they have implemented some things that are phenomenal for their business to survive. And yeah, when you take away the best pieces and implement them in your own business, there's absolutely nothing wrong with doing that. There's everything right with doing that because you're taking a proven concept, strategy or approach and implementing it and helping your company do the same.

Brian Kelly:
So that's phenomenal. I love everything you said because you weren't trashing corporate. You just said, yeah, I used what I learned from there, and I started doing this and you were a CTO. I'm like, My God, that's awesome. For a couple decades, um, podcast network and the learning you've had. Yeah. And that's the issue. A lot of people, it's it's not always it's never easy in the very, very beginning. And you have to have thick skin. You have to have that stick to itiveness. That's why I wanted to find out what kept you rolling. And yeah, kids will do that. Your own kids will definitely be a great motivator. That's a great, great. Um, that's the first person that's ever answered that question that way. That's what I love about this show. So many great, great people and great. Yeah, well, you know, cause.

Mike Mahony:
People always ask what your why is. And I mean, that's the easiest. Why possible is my children you know, and I want I want them to be as motivated to do well in life as I am. And there's one couple of ways you can do that. You can twist their arm, you can nag at them all the time, or you can be an example and think being an example is the best way, because it gives them their own free will to do what they need to do their way. That fits for them. But they're looking at that example going, yeah, I if he can do that, I can do that. I mean, let's think about it. You know, they're obviously genetically related to me. So it's not like they can say, oh, I'm not smart enough or I'm not agile enough or this or that, you can do it, you can do it. You just have to put your mind to it. And I always say, you know, to me a big thing is consistency. And, you know, you mentioned earlier like people giving up and think that's the truth. They think you just have to be consistent. You started something. Keep banging away until you until you break through. And it will happen if you if you're consistent with with your efforts.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. And. I'm curious what your thought is on this is like, you know, keep banging away, but for how long? When do you know enough is enough? When do you say, I can't do this anymore? I just I should. It's not going to happen. I need to move on. I mean, what how many times did Edison fail in his invention, right? It was ungodly number of times, and he just kept going. But what is your personal philosophy on that? How long do you keep at a certain idea before you realize or say to yourself, that's it, I'm just going to go do something different that that one's not going to take off.

Mike Mahony:
That's a great question. I mean, it comes down to a lot of different things. I think part of it is experience. Just knowing that, you know, we've tried this, we've tried that, we've tried the other thing, it's not working. It's time to move on from this. But the key there is trying those things. And you you look at a situation and like we had a situation a while back where we had a membership site that we were running and it was pretty weak. It didn't it didn't go very well. Messaging was poor. There was, you know, we had we created some confusion with the name, things that we didn't think of when we were building the business. And over time I'm watching this thing and I'm saying, you know, we're putting in all this money and all this effort trying to make this thing a success, and it's just not going to ever be a success. So after all, after maybe, you know, two, three months of trying, we sat down. We had a heart to heart, you know, like a come to Jesus moment. And we said, you know what, need to shut this thing down. It's not worth the effort. And interestingly, the way I know that it's the right thing to do is it's like a weight lifted off your shoulder. You don't, you know, when you. I feel like if you end something too soon, there's regret. There was no regret with that. It was just like, okay, thank God that's gone. But, you know, I mean, we're gluttons for punishment at the beginning of the year. We're we're kind of relaunching that in a completely different package, you know, with things we've learned over the past two years. And I think, you know, give it one more shot. I don't think we'll let it run as long this time if it's not working, but we'll give it a try, you know? And that's the thing. There's one one more time after one more time. And that's how I end up with six businesses, is you try something and then he either works or it doesn't work. So, you know, if it works great, you keep it going.

Brian Kelly:
That's fantastic. And yeah, I remember I started a fitness business and ran it for several years, and that moment came to me from other people telling me that, you know, whenever you talk about fitness, I don't hear the passion. But every time you talk about automation in some way, shape or form, you light up. And I was like, wow. And I had three different people tell me in three different, complete different times during a two month span. And I finally said, they're right. I literally shut the entire thing down. I had a website, I had recorded videos, I did live workouts. I had a lot into it. I shut it down in that one day, gone the website, deleted it, and I felt liberated. And I knew it was the right decision. So I get what you're saying. It's. And yeah, it took a while. I was passionate about fitness, just not as passionate as I was about automation. And oh my God, I love that stuff. It is. It just moves me. I love it, I love it, it is so fun. And so what do you think about that? How important is it for one to enjoy what they're doing, to turn it into a business or to or to go seek out starting a business? How important is it to enjoy what entail? You know, what that business entails in building, growing and developing? Is it important at all to you to to be happy or passionate with what you're doing every day in the business, or does it matter to you?

Mike Mahony:
I mean. At this point, I don't think it's possible to be passionate about it. Every day I have days I wake up and I'm just like, oh gosh, I have to deal with that today. I'm not in the mood today for that. Um, but you do it. But as far as starting the business, yeah, you have to be passionate about it because you're going to put in massive time and massive effort and nobody will. I don't I honestly don't think, um, that you would do it if you weren't passionate about it. You just give up right away. I mean, why bother? Um, but I think over time, though, like, I'll be honest. I mean, I have six businesses going, and there are days where I see on my calendar that there's a meeting about one of them. And I'm thinking to myself, not in the mood to deal with that today, but you just, you know, do it. Um, so passion is really, really important. I think having, you know, I've heard I actually heard had this conversation with somebody about three weeks ago who had bought a franchise. I don't even know what they bought. And they and I said, I never knew you were even into that. And they said, I'm not. So how's that going for you? I hate it. Well, yeah, not a good idea. And now they have this big investment and they have a business they have to run that they despise. But see, they thought that they could just hire people and have those people run the business. But I kept thinking to myself, you didn't realize that you were going to have, like, peak in there once in a while and see what was going on and making sure your money's okay and everything's going the way you want. It's just funny how people don't see that. But I think passion is it may not be the number one thing that you have to have, but you've got to have it and be able to maintain it.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. Totally agree. Because you know, when, like you said, when you get up in the morning, those not every day is perfect and they're far from. But there are the fun moments too. And that's the reason you started the business to begin with typically. And those are the times to look forward to. And then as possible, outsource the tasks that are arduous and no fun and you're not good at like bookkeeping would be mine and organizational skills. That's another one of mine. And and, you know, manual outreach to others on social media. I was like, I don't want to spend my time doing that. So I have a team doing that. And, you know, you pick and choose, but there are things you definitely need to be checking in on yourself personally, like you said, like going, doing certain meetings, talking to certain individuals, growing the business still needs to be there, and if the passion is there, it can continue to thrive. It's not good luck. Like you said. Great example, the franchisee owner. Like as soon as you said that, I was like, oh man.

Mike Mahony:
Can't imagine investing. Can you imagine investing like 200 or $300,000 into something that you hate? Yeah, I felt really bad. I felt really bad hearing that.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah, it's like it kind of you feel bad for them and you cringe and like, um, well, I know somebody that's like in the coaching industry that may have been able to help them before they made that decision. Uh, somebody named, I think, Mike Mahony. Uh, and on that note, this is a perfect time to segue into your you have six businesses. I think we're concentrating on top tier coaching services today. Yeah, that's my main focus.

Mike Mahony:
At the moment.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. And what I'd love to do is, is kind of ask you what that's all about. Like who is your target market? Who are you coaching? Um, what are the actual coaching services provided? As much detail as you feel like giving and then what? My favorite part always is if you have a success story or two you'd like to share, I'm sure everyone else would love to hear it just as much as I would. So if you don't mind, I'd love to have you take it away and I'll pull up your website and just let people gaze at that as you're explaining what it's all about. Sure, sure. Fantastic. Thank you so much.

Mike Mahony:
So I work with tech executives. Anybody from director level to a C level tech executive who has a has a team that they're managing and their business needs to be making about a half a million a year or more. Um. I helped them with three pillars basically hiring and retaining staff, mastering communication. Because we all know tech people speak a different language and they confuse other people. And that's one of the things I work with them on. And then cutting their work hours down to a more reasonable level. I mean, I have a I actually have a crusade going right now against what I call crunch culture. And at least twice a week on my LinkedIn, you'll see me ranting about crunch culture and why it needs to go away. But I help them. I help them in various ways. I mean, we we assess their their leadership style, we assess their staff and if they have any leaders in there. But the main thing I teach them is just if you hire the right people, if you empower those people to do their job and you stay out of the way, that part becomes really easy and you suddenly start to see your hours reducing. I mean, I actually came up with the my, my program is called the decentralized A-Team, and I came up with it myself. When I was a CTO, I was working 105 hours a week, every single week, 15 hour days, every day. I had young kids that I wasn't seeing. I mean, and interestingly, I was listening to sports talk radio and they were talking about the Dodgers manager and how he should be fired, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then one guy had little like words of wisdom and he said, no, you know, the manager, his job is to make sure the players are ready, but then the players have to do the job. The manager can't play the job, play the game for the players. And I thought, you know, maybe my players on my team aren't ready. Maybe I haven't made them ready. And so through an iterative process, I came up with this program that just works. I cut my hours down to 45 within about three months and never looked back.

Mike Mahony:
Life changed quite a bit, as you can imagine. I mean 60 extra hours in your pocket every week to do what you want and you know, for not for everybody. It's not always about working less, it's mostly about working smarter in the end. And that's what we that's what we find out. I mean, I actually helped a guy. His the biggest success story. He during the pandemic, he was part of a company that his dad was running and they they were running Mitsubishi dealerships throughout Asia. And he was they were having this huge issue where, um, projects were stalling. And it was right at the tail end of the pandemic that we met. And in talking to them, it turned out that like their staff was feeling beat up, they were making them work all these long hours, but they weren't giving them bonuses or compensating them. It was it was a really bad situation. And so we worked together with the team to like, empower them to do their jobs the way they wanted to do their jobs. And we focused instead of focusing on like, did you work eight hours? Yesterday we focused on did you accomplish what you were supposed to accomplish? So we worked on, you know, making sure that their productivity was good, that they were actually following up and doing their job, and they turned that business around rather quickly just from that. And this was just their tech team. I actually made it. I gave them some advice to go through and do the same thing with their administrative staff, like their accounting and operations staff, and they've done that. But that guy, he turned that business around, um, rapidly. And it's just, you know, I feel like if someone is willing to listen, I have a lot of things that I can that I can bring to the surface for them. I mean, I've been I've been a CTO for two decades. I was a software developer for 5 or 10 years before that, and then I had a short stint as a paralegal. So, I mean, I've seen all different sides of of business. And one of the things that I try to teach my tech executives is I'll get them to assess, like, how much do you really know, like, deeply know about your business that you're in.

Mike Mahony:
Most of them don't know much about it. And I teach them, make it a point to get to know what it is that your company is doing and why they're doing it. Don't just worry about your little world, because it it. By seeing that, like I mentioned earlier, I took a lot of things I learned from the corporate world to grow my business, and I also used it in my department when I was a CTO. Just it's just a I'm in a department within a corporation is just a microcosm of the bigger corporation. It's, you know, it's like you're the CEO of your department, right? And you have to act that way. And, you know, when you look at it, how many CEOs do everything? None of them, at least they shouldn't be. And that's unfortunately most middle managers, they're micro managers. They they look over your shoulder and you know what that was due. That's due in ten minutes. Is it going to be done? Well, why don't you wait ten minutes and find out and then. Then complain. You know, it's just an interesting it's just an interesting situation. But the coaching business to me, we talked about passion before. It's a huge passion of mine and it's why I've been focused on it for like the last 12 months, just really heavily. I've always been doing I've been doing coaching for, gosh, about six, seven years now, but I've really focused on it in the last year with content and videos going out and things of that nature. I have a show like this that I do that's wrapped around that, that technology arena, and it's just you, you need that passion. And I'm so passionate about it because I like to help people change their lives. And one of the things like, they ask you for an elevator pitch, I can give you real short elevator pitch. My job is to get tech executives a new lifestyle. That's really what my job is, and I love my job because of that.

Brian Kelly:
So much, so many words of wisdom through that whole example. I mean, I love how you say, you know, empower them and get out of the way. Stay out of the way. And I've been through situations myself where you get micromanaged and they don't just tell you when to get something done, but also sometimes exactly how to do it. I'm like, you're just a robot turning a crank and you have no say or creativity. And I hated that. And then, in fact, I have a I work with a VR agency that just started demanding that their Vas report on their time down to every task and how long they estimate the task will take. At the beginning of the day, every single task. How long is each one going to take? And then at the end report on how long it actually did take. And I said, no, I hate that. That's terrible. They're thinking about time, just like you said. They're thinking about time, not the result, not the end goal. Now they're looking they're thinking someone's looking over my shoulder. And if I don't put down the right thing, they're going to smack me around, like virtually, of course. But it's like, you don't need that added pressure. You need less pressure, not more. And so I just, I just I rarely give instruction beyond just the bare bone minimum. I want to see how they create what I've asked them to create. I want to see their genius come out. I don't want to see it look like the way I would do it, because I don't like the way it would come out. And I've learned that over the years. Sometimes I think I just want to come out the way I want to do it. And then I learned over the years after I gave it away, to give it other people to do it. It's like, wow, they kicked butt. They did way better than I ever could. And that's the ego thing once again. So you're you're you're singing a great song here with no micromanaging. Get out of the way. Empower them, give them the ability to spread their wings and use their gifts, you know, for.

Brian Kelly:
And it makes them feel like they're not only just a part of the company, but kind of they have this type of ownership in their one position, right? Not financial ownership, but an ownership of I get to to call the shots on how I'm going to get this done for Mike today. Right. It's just it's so empowering. That's a great word. Empower. You said that. And I was like, I wrote that down. See, I am taking notes just like I implored of everyone to do good. You kidding? Yes. And I'm getting writer's cramp with Mike Mahony because this guy is amazing. And this is awesome. I'm learning more about you now, Mike, than I knew before. And this is fantastic. I didn't know you had six businesses originally and that you had all of this. I don't know if the right word is credo, but back background and knowledge and experience, that is pretty remarkable. And I'm very pleased that you came on this show to help others to navigate these waters called entrepreneurship and business ownership and top tier coaching services. Real quick before we go too far from it for everyone listening on audio podcasts only. It is. The website is top tier coaching services.com. Top tier tier coaching services.com. And what's the best entry point for them? Is it book a call? I see that right on the very beginning of the of the page. Yeah.

Mike Mahony:
Yeah they can they can do that or they can email me at hello at top tier coaching services.com as well.

Brian Kelly:
Right. Oh well that is fantastic. And uh well good. Thank you for that. And thank you for what you're doing. I mean, you have a podcasting network. You've got a membership site coming back up again. I mean, it's like this is awesome. And so and then we both use a certain tool that we both love. Uh, that allows for a lot of this stuff to happen.

Mike Mahony:
You're not wrong about that. It manages the business so well.

Brian Kelly:
What is what are your you mentioned the importance of automation there for a moment when you say that for people who aren't aren't savvy yet, what kind of things are you automating in your business that helps take the load off of you and even your staff to do other things and work more efficiently? What do you use automation for specifically?

Mike Mahony:
Well, like like for the podcast network, there's multiple shows that take guests, and so there's a guest application on the site and they'll apply for whichever show they want to be on. They fill out the information when they submit it. It goes into my project management tool, which is Clickup. And then I have a, you know, a stage that I can change it from review to approved or declined. And depending on which one I choose, they get an email. They'll either get an email saying, here's the booking link, go ahead and book you've been approved, or hey, we're sorry it wasn't a good fit. Um, honestly, we're really picky on some of these shows, so that's a lot of the case. But it takes care of it. You don't have to have that, um, booking coordinator who takes care of all of it for you. It's just done. And then once then they get their booking link and then they book into the show, and it actually creates a task for me to kind of review their, their bio and whatever they've turned in or whoever the host of the show is to review their bio. And then of course, they go into an automation that reminds them that the show appearance is coming up, sends them a text message a little bit before, sends them an email a little bit before it's really reduced. No shows to next to nothing. Then another thing I do in there is we're kind of nice about it. You know, on some of our shows we have a no show field and I just set it. If they don't show up, I set it to one and they're allowed to rebook. But if if they don't show again the automation when it sees that, it'll just reject them instantly. They don't even they don't even get accepted. I don't even have to I don't have to do anything. And these are things that like people say to me, well, how much time did it really take you to send an email? Five minutes. Yeah, but take five minutes times hundreds of people. The time starts to add up really, really fast. I mean, I can remember when I was a software developer and I did a lot of web pages and I'd say, you know, you got five clicks to get to this.

Mike Mahony:
Why can't we make it to why can't we make it one? Why do people care? It's only 10s to click it. Yeah, try that a thousand times a day. Like forget it. You're going to save these people hours if you do it the right way. And so I mean, that's that's just one of many automations that we use. I mean, I even have things in place where, um, for my code, I do for my coaching business, AI cold outreach to, to CTOs. And when they respond, um, there's certain keywords I look for and I'll send them an email back. You know, it's it's a time saver in so many ways. And it's what enables me to not be working hundreds of hours a week. I mean, what kind of what kind of business coach who helps people cut their hours would I be if I was working 100 hours a week?

Brian Kelly:
Very true. And that's that's another important aspect. So when folks are looking for someone to help coach them, you are the kind of person they should be coming to because you don't just talk the talk, you're walking the walk and you're cognizant of it. Just seeing it right now, a lot of people don't care. And, you know, I remember, my gosh, I've worked with so many people, some actually friends where part of their business was website design. And I'd go to their website. I'm like, good lord, dude, was that built in the 70s? When did that come out? I mean, was the internet even up when this was designed? This was it's like you got to be a product of the product and. And you got to, you know, carry that torch. Otherwise, it's like a dog sensing fear. You can just tell.

Mike Mahony:
Yeah. No, it's it's true. I mean, you have to. It's like we talked about earlier about, you know, what motivates me to get up in the morning? I mean, you you have to you have to set forth the same what you're trying to teach people when they look at you, they have to see you doing that, too. Is it? You know, if I told people like a big one that, you know, for a long time that morning formula, you know, was floating around for people and they make it all the standardized stuff. I kind of teach something like that, but I don't teach it exactly the way that they do. I teach it the way that I do it. And one of those things is like they tell you, oh, you should get up in the morning, and the first thing you should do is exercise. Well, what if you're not a person who likes to exercise first thing in the morning? You got to do that where it fits, but you still have to do it. And that's the key. Like, I've had clients ask me, how many workouts did you get in this week? And you know, you could lie, but why would you lie? Just be honest. You know, this week was a tough week. I had four instead of seven that they they appreciate that because it also shows them, by the same token, that you're going to have weeks where you're not going to do quite as well at those things. And that, I think is a really important factor to remember because you're never going to be perfect. It's just not going to happen. And so if you slip a little bit and maybe next week you like, I'll be honest, like this week have not have not gone to the gym once because it's just been a busy, busy launch week for stuff starting in the beginning of November. Am. I used to beat myself up about that stuff, but now I realize that it's the consistent behavior that you develop that matters, not the fact that you took a week off here or there. And as long as you get back to it, all is good. So yeah, that's.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. And kicking ourselves for not being perfect also impacts our daily work. Like, you know, if you did continue to kick yourself then it would take you even longer to achieve the task. So you could go back to work out and feel better about not missing it again. And it's like, yeah, I think we are oftentimes our own worst enemy. And there are times I used to do this in the fitness, in the fitness business, it's very similar, where I'd say, okay, give me ten push ups and they would do say 4 or 5 and then get up in their heads down and go, what are you doing? I'm upset. Why? Oh, I didn't do all ten. It's like, and did you try to do everything you could to go another rep? Yes. Then instead of kicking yourself in the butt for the reps you did not do, reach around and pat yourself on the back for those that you did do and you put everything you had into it. It's not about reaching the perfection mark. It's about just keep persevering. Go again. I coached youth sports that way with basketball and kids. They'd shoot a layup, but if they were jumping off the proper foot and had the proper technique that I coached them and they missed every single time, I would say, great job. You're going to get it. Don't worry about it. Not yell at them for failure because failure is, you know, it's it's defined by whoever is saying it's failure at that moment. It's like that was success. You know junior good job. Way to go. That was your sport. And you'll get there.

Mike Mahony:
Your sports analogy is reminds me of when my youngest son is the only one of my kids who played baseball. I was a big baseball player when I was younger, played all through high school, and so I managed his team and. With him. I taught him the strike zone. That kid never struck out, ever. And just praise him. I mean, he could go up there and walk 100 times or ground out. Didn't scream and yell at him about. I was pat him on the back and one day had these two assistant coaches who were like the typical baseball dad, you know, oh, why did you swing at that pitch? You know, that kind of stuff. And I heard one of them say to the other one, you know, we need to be more like Mike. He never has arguments with his kid. They he constantly praises his kid. His kids. He comes out here. We could lose 20 to nothing. His kid's smiling because he knows he's not going to get chewed out by his dad later. And I think that's I think that's really important to recognize people's effort heading in the direction of the goal that they have. Um, it's why you take baby steps, right? You don't you don't. If you have 100, 100 pounds to lose. It's funny. You've done personal training and so have I. And I had a lady call me once in November, say, my birthday's in February and I'd like to lose 100 pounds. Not going to happen. That's good. That's just not going to happen. You don't jump from point A to point B, just boom. It takes time, you know? And people, people like that have never been encouraged for oh you lost 5 pounds last week. That's awesome. You know instead it's you only lost 5 pounds. What could you have done better. Not a good attitude. And I think that's the same in business. You know, you try an idea, it either works or it doesn't work. Um, but there's also that part in between where it kind of worked. Praise yourself for that. You did good. And you and you've gotten. I used to have clients tell me they weren't getting results, and I'd say everybody gets results. You're either producing good ones or bad ones, but you're producing results. So yeah, that's a very true.

Brian Kelly:
Very true. Yeah. My gosh. Uh, you know, and here's the other thing is, like, we're not saying that you just praise and it's all flower petals and swinging hammocks and an umbrella drink with your people because there are times where discipline is necessary. But that only comes to me. My philosophy is only if I see them not trying hard, if they're not putting forth the effort, that's it. Not not about the result. You know, after a while you should see results. You will see results, especially if you're doing positive reinforcement along the way versus negative. Yeah. That I'll never forget basketball. Back to that. I had an adult. I was a young guy. I was in my early 20s going to college, and I worked for Parks and Rec. I loved I did the sports thing all the way through to and I coached as well in through adulthood as well. But as a young man, I'm coaching these kids, doing the positive reinforcement. The other side of the court, half court outside near a beach. This man, like 40 plus years old, is just lighting these kids up, just getting into them verbally, you know, and they're the same age. They're like nine, ten years old. They're young, impressionable. And I just I was upset with this guy, you know? I didn't know what to do. But, you know, here I'm I'm watching one of my kids not put forth the effort. I actually sent them on a lap, but I didn't yell at them. I said, all right, you know what to do. You got to run like I don't see the effort. Just take off. I'll tell you when to stop and then we'll get back. I was like, and the other guys down there yelling. And the other thing it does when you do that, your peers are watching. You know, if you're a leader and you're berating somebody in front of their peers, that is the absolute worst thing you could ever do. I saw this happen in the corporate world. A friend of mine who I didn't know had this kind of style, literally berating and just yelling, and they had a huddle of everybody that worked for him in, in the same spot right there. And he's just I'm like, dude, take him to the office, close the door and be quiet about it. But if you got to do it, then just man. So there's all these cool things about leadership that I've learned what not to do. Is it just as important to learn what not to do as it is? What to do? Do you think, Mike?

Mike Mahony:
I actually think it's more important to learn what not to do, because the what to do sort of comes naturally to people when they're put in the role. Um, but it's the not to do stuff that no one teaches them. No one. You know, when someone when someone brings when you get hired to a new job, do they say to you, all right, well, you shouldn't do this. And don't touch this over here. No they don't. What they do is they say, all right, well, when you come in, then you're going to want to do this and you're going to want to do this. And then this is where this file is and that's where that is. That's great. That's all helpful. But it'd also be helpful to know the things I shouldn't touch. Um, maybe who's the wrong person to ask in the accounting department about why a bill didn't get paid? Because there are wrong. There's the right person in the wrong person. And I think that the the what not to do is just a key because it keeps you out of trouble. That's really the main thing. It keeps you out of trouble by knowing what not to do. And that's the funny thing, is, what's that saying? None of us know what we don't know. And it's it's true. I mean, if you don't know something, you might not realize you don't know it. And going in with too much cockiness into any role, be it a coach, be it a entrepreneur, someone working in the corporate world, you're going to get spanked for that at some point.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. Very, very true. All right. There is one question I love asking. It's one of my favorites, Mike. And no, it's not it's not the last one. We're not there yet. We're coming to it. This is by far and away my favorite topic. And what it is about is it's how one goes about building their business. And it's often the first department that gets cut when cutbacks are made. It's in the marketing department, which blows my mind that they're they're cutting off their own left and right arms when they do that. But the thing is, what I've learned over the years is what used to work, say, ten years ago doesn't always necessarily work today, this type of marketing approach. And then even then, what's working now? Ten years from now may not work at all in ten years, but. What's important is what is working now, not what used to and what might, but what is working now. And I'm always just so curious about this, Mike, for you and your business, because it's different for different people. What works right now, if you were to put hang your hat on just one marketing technique, strategy approach, whatever you want to call it, that is the best your go to. Is it referral marketing? Is it cold outreach? Is it telephone calls? Whatever it happens to be? If you were to pinpoint the best that's working for you phenomenally well right now, what would you say that is?

Mike Mahony:
It's a combination of outreach, cold outreach and content, but storytelling content. So, you know, you don't just, you know, oh, look, this is 68% of these people failed at this. You don't do that. You you tell a story about why it fails and, you know, maybe find I actually have a post. It may have already come out this week about, um, how working too much will actually be detrimental to you. And I use Breaking Bad and Walter White in that one episode where he crawled into the crawl space to get his money and his money was gone, and he just like, had this broke down into maniacal laughter. Well, that's because he was stressed out by all the things he was trying, all the balls he was juggling. You know, he's a dad. He's a he's a husband. He's this high school teacher and he's a drug kingpin. Like, he's like juggling all these things in the air. And I mean, I can't I can only imagine, like, being that big of a drug kingpin. He not only has to worry about the law, but he has to worry about the other criminals killing him. And he just broke down. And it's just use that as an example and it pulls people in. And then when you. What I find then is if I reach out to somebody via DM, they'll say, oh, you know, that's like that post you wrote that makes sense. I resonated with that. Um, those are the two things that work the best for me for like my both my coaching and my technology business. Those things just work the best. Um, other businesses, I mean, they just sort of reminds me of my old cousin who said she's long since deceased. Um, she used to be a really good cook, and you'd say, oh, the food is so good. You cooked it so well. And she'd say, oh, I do nothing. I put it in the oven. It cook itself. Well, that's how some of our other businesses are. They just sort of run themselves. You know, we, we kind of corral them where they need to go and they just keep going. But other other businesses, you have to be really intentional about what you're doing. And I've learned over time, especially as I've gotten older, that telling stories is something we all naturally do. I mean, we've been doing it here during this time that we've been together, you know, and it's how you get people to understand what your message is. So that's been a key.

Brian Kelly:
It's spot on. Storytelling is universally the best way to communicate, bar none. I mean, speaking from stage, writing in copy on email, writing on a website because people lean in and they will retain the information far better if it's wrapped around a story than if it's just a bunch of bullet points on a slide on PowerPoint where it's just a bunch of stats and figures. No, you got to tie it to a story that's meaningful, that evokes emotion of some kind. When it's charged with emotion, then it's supremely powerful. And I think you've got that all nailed down, Mike. Phenomenal. So cold reach and storytelling. That's that's actually refreshing to hear that, you know, because of the storytelling aspect of it. And so thank you for sharing that, by the way. I mean, you didn't have to share that. And you did. And that was testimony to you how you operate, how you love to help people. So thank you for that. Greatly appreciated. So we're getting down to that bewitching hour, you know, and I did mention, oh, I didn't mention it, but it was a little tucked away ticker rolling on the bottom that I just pulled up again. And that is for everyone who watches live, who hangs on with us till the end. Every single show. I give away a five night stay at a five star luxury resort, compliments of Ritscher Peak, and it is a phenomenal, phenomenal prize. And you don't want to miss that. It's coming up here in just a second. I'm going to show you how you can enter a win. Again, you must be watching live. So if you're listening to this on a podcast that's not live, if you're watching this on a recorded video, of course that is not live. You must be watching at the moment we are speaking right now and then we will consider you for winning. It's a random draw and we know because all the entries come in right after the show is over, and I cannot wait to see who is the winner of that. If you're not watching this live, how do you do that? How do you know? And we're going to go live.

Brian Kelly:
You can go to TheMindBodyBusinessShow.com, TheMindBodyBusinessShow.com, and you'll see throughout the page there are, there are buttons that say where and how to watch. Click on any one of those. It will drop you immediately to an opt-in form. That's going to give you a gift of, I think it's a $100 hotel discount card just for opting in, and we're not even going to sell you anything. We're just going to announce to you automatically five minutes before the very next show airs. You're going to get the link. All you have to do is click it and you can be here with us communicating, chatting, commenting, asking Mike questions. That would be awesome too. And that's how you get on here live. So be sure to do that. Go to TheMindBodyBusinessShow.com. And yeah we don't we don't pitch or sell things to you there. We just announce the next live show. So Mike, before we end the show though, there's one other thing we're going to do and that's ask the final question, which is my second favorite is probably I think it's tied for my favorite because it's a question I had asked for years. On occasion I would ask this question, but the answers I was receiving were so profound and so diverse and so amazing. I decided, you know what? I think I'm going to close every single show out with it because it's that much of a heavy hitting question and answer combo, and I cannot wait to bring that beautiful thing upon you, because I know there's every single person that's been on this show has knocked it out of the park, and you will be no different. It's a guarantee, I guarantee it, I will, I'll guarantee it right now. And so nothing to live up to. You don't have to worry about. It's just going to come out naturally knowing who you are. Mike, you're you're you're just a gifted, warm hearted individual that I'm. So I'm so blessed to be able to know you. So before we do that, I am going to now share with everyone how they can win that five night stay at a five star luxury resort.

Brian Kelly:
This is not where you get whisked away to the basement, and they put you on a chair and do water drip torture and sell you on a timeshare. Nothing like that. It is a bona fide vacation. Stay at any hotel or resort of your choosing. There are many to choose from. You'll see that whenever you win and you get to choose. And these are amazing destinations all over the world, all over the world. So with that, who wants to win? Raise your hand. Let me know. All right. I can't see you, so I'm just going to give you the information. And so when you see this, I'm going to give you a URL that you're going to go to to enter to win. Don't go there. Now write it down. Remember we talked about at the beginning please for yourself because you do not want to miss Mike's answer to the amazing final question. You don't want to miss it, I guarantee you that. So write this down when you see it on the screen. Here we go. We're going to pull it up here in just a moment. There we are to enter write this down R.I.P stands for Reach Your Peak. Dot com forward slash vacation report. Forward slash vacation. And yes, I have not been mentioning this for some time, but yes, hint hint wink wink. Mike. Even guest experts can enter to win. It is a fully randomized draw and so I have had past guest experts. Actually win is pretty awesome and I love giving this prize away because it just brings a smile on everyone's face. So write that down. Report for slash vacation. The moment we go off the air, you'll have plenty of time. Go ahead, head on over there and enter to win. We have people monitoring for the entries and a winner will be chosen by the end of the night. Oh, I can't wait for that. All right, Mike, here we go. We're at the end. Here. The drumroll. So this last question, there are a couple things about it. Number one, there is no such thing.

Brian Kelly:
As a wrong answer. It's impossible. It's not a quiz. It's not a test. It's. It's in fact, just the opposite is the truth. And that is the only correct answer. Will be yours because it's unique to you. That's why I love this question. It is the most amazing question on the planet. And so with all that buildup and hype, are you ready? I'm ready. Of course you are. You are. Mike Mahony, you are built to be ready. This is phenomenal. All right, here we go. Mike Mahony. How do you. Define. Success.

Mike Mahony:
Wow, that's a great question. How do you define success? Well, I think it's, um. Finding your way to the place in your life that you wanted to be at. So what do I mean by that? So we all have our goals and aspirations, and of course they change from when you're younger to when you're older. But once you've kind of settled in on what that is, it's just getting yourself there. And once and once you've done it, I'd say, I'd say that you're successful. It's it's whatever. In the end, success is whatever makes you happy. Um, it doesn't have to be money or fame or any of that. It's just whatever makes you happy. And as long as you're happy, then I'd call that a success.

Brian Kelly:
Mhm. And as advertised an absolutely perfect answer by Mr. Mike Mahony there. So there's a couple of cool things and we'll we'll call it a night Mike. And that is no two people to date have answered that the same way. Makes sense. Amazing to me. The other really cool thing that every single person does have in common is not one of them said that success had something to do with primarily making money. Not one. Not a single person. And I that's why I love having successful entrepreneurs on the show, that there's not that scarcity component where that is more in their, you know, purview and their focus in the beginning. And this is showing what you could achieve, not you, Mike, but you out there. As you get more successful, you're thinking less about the monetary gain, and you're thinking more about how you're helping others mean and and how you're getting to that spot where you're happy. Like you mentioned, Mike, finding your way to be in a place in life where you want to be at. That made total sense to me. And that's your definition of success. It's not money and fame is money involved in there. Probably. But it's not the focus that you you brought out. That's what I just absolutely love about that question. It brings out what I call the essence of someone. And every essence that has come out so far has just been beautiful and perfect, and yours is no different. Mike, thank you so much. It makes me think.

Mike Mahony:
It makes me think, Brian of like, Mother Teresa, you know, not a rich person, but a very successful person. She had her goals. She she accomplished them. She was helping so many people. You know, I think that's what success is really about. I think that's amazing.

Brian Kelly:
Boom, boom, I love it. All right, well, ladies and gentlemen, it's a wrap. This is the amazing Mike Mahony. He's the creator of the centralized team and toptiercoachingservices. Yes com. Don't forget to visit that site, book a call with him and learn from one of the masters in the industry of how to create, build and scale not just one, but now six thriving businesses. Sounds like a seventh is on the way, unless it's a spinoff of another, but this is the guy you want to talk to, so be sure to go to top tier coaching. Services. I'll get it.com and book that call. And you you can see in here. Look I've talked to him many times off of the show. He is exactly the way he is now. He's just friendly, he's inviting, and he will just be there to help you get the results you're looking for, that's all. If that's what you want, then Mike Sherman and I have a feeling that that's what you want. Thank you for that. All right. On behalf of the amazing Mike Mahony. Sorry. On behalf of the amazing Mike Mahony, let me get it right. I am your host, Brian Kelly of The Mind Body Business Show. Cannot wait to see you again on our next episode. Until then, please do two things. Number one, go out and continue to crush it and serve more people. And number two, above all else, please everyone be blessed. That is it for us. Take care. We'll see you next time. Goodbye for now, thank you for tuning in to The Mind Body Business Show podcast at www.TheMindBodyBusiness Show.com My name is Brian Kelly.

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