Michal Stawicki

Audra: And I think a lot of us have had jobs, sometimes in and out from being an entrepreneur, but we still end up going back to what kind of tugs at us that we’re supposed to be doing on this planet. So That’s interesting. Okay, so keep going. Sorry, . No

Michal: problem at all. I didn’t feel very entrepreneurial at all really

I felt thinking of, come on, I should start a company. I figure out I should because Yeah. there is, sailing in the corporate world and so if I wanted to earn the kind of money I wanted, yeah, there is. Nothing else but working for yourself. But I had no clue what to do. however, I believed Jim Rohn when he said income seldom exceeds personal development.

So I just focused on my personal development. Good. started reading, listening, watching, [00:04:00] and, I read Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and there is this personal mission statement concept. so to start with the end in mind. So I started working on that and figure it out. Yeah. I want to be a writer, an author.

So I like, it really surprised me that was my childhood dream as a teenager. I read two books a day. Yeah. I was inventing story in my head and yeah, why not? And, but then I just forgot about that dream. So I tried this and that Fiction in Polish started a few blogs. Everything failed.

Yeah. But one friend encouraged me to write a book, an ebook about personal statement, which I created like a few most to that. and I explored my options, decided to self-publish, on Amazon, wrote the book in 50 days. Nice. And published. It was [00:05:00] very small book, like under 10,000 words, but it serves the purpose.

You will create your personal initial statement. And people started buying this, like something I wrote. They, spend a hard earned, money on that. I was hooked and I decided to be that Was it an author. Yeah. And thatthat was it. That’s awesome. That was 2013 and

Audra: 13. Okay. Yes.

Michal: The next five years, like in 17, I scaled down my day job to half time.

wrote about a dozen books and published and also started exploring different things like, habit coaching kind, my certified habit coach and coached at me. and I in 2017, when I quit my job, I already started service for other authors to, to run Amazon ads for the books. And right now, like fast forward, here we are.

Michal: I quit my day job last month.

Audra: Yeah. Congratulations. [00:06:00]

Michal: My book advertising business is like half of High Income and the other half is coaching and book royalties are like maybe 10% of. overall everything else, because I’m not focusing on them very much. And I’m into business coaching right now.

Okay. Pick I just January? Yeah. I finished, training accredit by International Coaching Federation. And I’ve had a few coaches, since then and the stories are amazing. I love working one on one.

Audra: Okay. So, uh, I got so many questions. I’m not even sure where to start, . a couple things.

So you kept your day job all this time while you were developing this new revenue stream or new opportunity as being a published author.

Michal: Yes. And it was my choice and necessity. 50 50. Yeah. So at the beginning it was necessity because of course I was starting out and, [00:07:00] my side hustle didn’t provide as much as my of salary.

and that’s common. Like I remember listening on some podcast. The podcast was exactly for people who are just dying to quit their day job and start their own business. But the guy was telling that we see those Chinese stories of I quit my day job and next month I made five, six figures. And they happen, but the most common reliable path is exactly what I did, which is gradually move from, full-time to part-time to nothing.

Michal: And I actually regret, I clung to my, day job for so long, but it was the choice of my wife. She. Receives, entrepreneurship as a risky, which it is absolutely like day has more stable, which kind of is, unless there is some trauma in the world. I have my own experience of being laid off in 2009 [00:08:00] because in Poland, the crisis was like a little bit delight. but so I, I don’t think it’s so safe at all, especially if something else is happening outside.

that’s a good point to bring up. There’s such great marketing out there and social media has become such a big part of that, that I think it gives people the wrong idea of what this entrepreneur journey actually looks like.

Audra: Yes. Many people, have the desire to start something else, to be their own boss, to not be tied to a desk or a job or just the passion to do their own thing. But there’s a layup that has to happen. And if you have a family, you need their buy in and support regards if they’re involved or not.

Because if not, that just adds another layer of stress to this whole evolution. And it’s hard. And I think people need to understand that this is what reality. we’ve all done that. I’ve personally, because I’ve had an agency, a digital agency since [00:09:00] 2009, I still take on clients as I’m trying to pivot out of service work and start the marketplace that I’ve built called Zindo and Company Marketplace.

I’m doing both just like you, even with as much experience as I have, because you still need revenue coming in, especially if you’re self-funding this and you want to be able to build something else in that until it replaces that income. Why would you let it go? That would just be, like I said, another level of stress that you don’t need to have.

Yes, you have to give up something. Yes, there’s some sacrifices that are made and maybe you don’t have as much social time, or maybe you don’t have as much free time or there’s some kind of Sacrifices we have to make at that level. But what’s it worth to you? So I don’t see ’em as sacrifices.

I just see ’em as what I’m willing to do to get to where I’m going. Some people can’t do it. Some people like us will put the time in and make it happen. [00:10:00]

Michal: Like Jim Rohn said, there are two prices to play. It’s either the price of discipline or the price of regret,Yeah. I also chose that the price of discipline, ,

Audra: the price of discipline or the price of regret.

Jim Rohn, I think the generation today did not come up on his stuff, but it is still so relevant. even going back to Napoleon Hill stuff and some of the old copywriters and marketers of that era. Still very relevant. We delivered in a different way, but it’s still very relevant. People would, advance themselves a lot faster if they went back and studied some of the old guys for sure.

Audra: Yeah.

Michal: Yeah. Okay. and I recommend Jim Rohn, like full, I remember several revenues mentioning, in my book that, okay, this guy is definitely Jim. Rohn fan .

Audra: Yeah. Yeah, that’s good. Okay, so you’ve left your day job, you’re doing, [00:11:00] publishing books and coaching, helping other authors publish books. Where do you find is your biggest struggle making this transition into, coaching?

Did you feel like you needed to go get certified, or did you feel like you knew enough about being a published author that you could have just launched coaching?

it’s not exactly coaching. authors like they are not my target audience. Okay. I’m at, so entrepreneurs in online space because they are insulated lonely, and they can get the most value because if you are stuck in your head, you doesn’t know what stops you.

Michal: And then this external, input can really be a game changer. So this is my target audience and, what I’m finding difficult is really that I have this comfort question. I have my business, I have few habit coaching customers with I, with whom I’m working for years. And, and this is something [00:12:00] new, something uncomfortable.

I love providing coaching, being one-on-one, and. And talking with people, but the whole, environment around that, you need to create this, landing page and market yourself and maybe do content marketing and then have those initial calls and so on. And it’s not something I’m comfortable with.

So it’s not that I’m consciously avoiding it, but I’m avoiding it in the end. In the end, it’s, I still have bills to pay and I’m looking at,the bills and then how much revenue I got. And it’s so much easier to go after this next customer for book advertising than to go after, coaching

Audra: client.

Yeah, too, it’s a different price point, right? Different price point, different mindset, different audience, and also a different competition. your book advertising is probably much more [00:13:00] affordable, what you’re charging versus a one-on-one coaching. that puts you into a completely different audience.

And the coaching space is very saturated right now. Everybody in their brother is doing coaching, which makes it even more competitive. So yes, you have to be an extrovert and out there and loud and, content like creating content like in nauseam to be able to keep up with what’s going on there. I think that there’s better options though.

Not everybody wants to be a guru, but they can still add value to their coaching clients. And I think that business owners that take the path of coaching, see one side or the other. There where you’re at, where I can add value, but I just don’t wanna be a look at me, coach.

Or you’re that coach and it’s finding your own voice in your marketing for your audience. It’s almost like, you know how alligators creep up and then they attack kind of thing. We’re like that. So you have [00:14:00] that a type personality, and there’s nothing wrong with it. we’re just different.

We’re just wired different. So if you look at where you’re trying to go as a coach and that’s what you have to do, there will always be a disconnect. You’ll never figure out a system because you can’t force yourself to be something that you’re not. So don’t even try anymore. Let yourself off the hook.

I’m never gonna be that guy. I’m never gonna be the one that hops on and tells you, I’m going into a restaurant and I’m eating this and I just bought this. And some of us are just not that way and we’re never going to be, and that’s okay. So what we gotta do is you gotta find other successful coaches that are doing it more your style.

And yes, it’s different and it’s a little bit harder because again, people have come to expect that just because they’re loud doesn’t mean they’re successful. They’re just loud. Doesn’t mean they’re getting their clients the results. So what does it go back to? It goes back to connection, results, pricing, your process.

Do you have a good [00:15:00] program? It, does it get people results? If it gets people results? Where are your testimonials? don’t let the tech overwhelm you. that’s actually an easier thing to work through because it’s just tech.

Michal: I’m not overwhelmed by tech. I’m

Audra: from it. Okay. That’s right. That’s right.

You’re an engineer. That should be the easy part. but build the system. What I would suggest is find a coach maybe in a different industry, that you respect the way they go about it. Now, you still gotta put content out, but maybe you batch create it. Maybe you sit down one day a week, you have your wife or a friend or have a photographer come over and you just create some content.

reach out to a friend and have ’em interview you, and then take that content and chop it up into shorts or chop it up into Instagram reels. anytime you think of something, maybe it’s just audio. If you’re not comfortable doing the video, maybe you just record some audio on your phone and then you put some kind of b-roll to it.

there are [00:16:00] workarounds without having to be the center of attention like some coaches do. You’ll attract your audience, and if coaching is the way you wanna go, I would stay the course. I wouldn’t pivot from it. I would just find ways to be more effective. you’re a writer, so take some of your books that you’ve written ’em and chop ’em down into blog content, so you get more SEO result, or use one of the SEO tools that will help you get better ranking based on keywords.

unfortunately, it’s still a game, right? When it comes to ranking in Google. You still gotta play the ranking game by keywords and meta tags and titles and all that kind of good stuff. But I wouldn’t pivot from your path. Just stop

Michal: comparing. I’m not gonna pivot. I’m just a bit like disappointed with myself because I know I love it.

I know, I love it. I know I provide value. Okay. Just so hard to get there that I avoid this. Yeah. I’m trying to, find the shortcut, of [00:17:00] course that there’s no shortcuts. Yeah.

Audra: so how else, Okay, so let me ask you, so how else do you connect to people? How do you get clients right now? Is that all word of mouth or local?

Michal: Word of mouth. And, also, like pure customers, which help I, like a few people already told me, you should reach out to your book advertising customers and tell them you are coaching and yes, I should do that. Because that may be another low hanging fruit. They’re already working with you. Yes. And quite a few of them have their own businesses, so it’ll make sense for them to get business coaching.

or they know me so they can refer me. and I had a few coaches right now from the online community of online entrepreneurs, Smart Passive Income Pro. but those are barter. But again, it’s I feel like on a coaching call and I am a coach. Cause when I talk then I hear myself and. I dig out [00:18:00] the ideas I had, so now they’re suddenly making sense. Yeah. I just need to be active in that community and go to person. Not just for business advice. but yeah, this is a decent guy. So if someone in my circle needs coaching, of course I would recommend Michal.

and that’s what I do naturally. Okay. Being in the community, being helpful. There’s zero pressure. It’s like on this, interview, like showing up and just, dedicating my time Sure. And talking right now for my experience, it’s absolutely easy for me. zero, zero effort. Actually, what I, am not scared, but I don’t like doing is connecting with podcast host and pitching myself and so on.

Michal: But the podcast interview itself, It’s a breeze. It’s really a pleasure. so you’re not alone in that. many business owners feel that way, especially because of what we’re seeing and what that does is sets up a false expectation that’s what we need to be successful. But it’s not [00:19:00] true.

Audra: I think it’s important to realize that is somebody else’s idea. And yes, it may take us longer. We may have to go a little bit a different route does not mean that we won’t be successful. you’re doing the right things. What I would suggest too is pick one day a week where you’re gonna sit down and you’re gonna do outreach.

The other thing that we do is it’s a piece that stresses us out every single day. And then we get back on social media and we look at what others are doing, and then we knock ourself down because of it. You can’t do that. It is not good. Maybe try this for a week.

When you go on social media, you’re there to promote, You’re a promoter only, which means adding value, posting content, or doing some kind of outreach that it, I don’t have,

Michal: I don’t have troubles with social media I spend on them. no. half an hour a week. Okay. My VA post most things. Okay. And I think I’m past the comparison trap.

Okay. At the beginning it was really, nagging me. [00:20:00] Yeah. But, in the end, I just need to be the best version of myself. Unfortunately, the current version of myself, is not yet there. So it’s crazy gap

Audra: with you. The gap is what that you’re not doing what you think you need to do.

Michal: What I think I need not, it’s really my number one Gallup talent is responsibility. Yeah. So I feel geek right now. I’m not coaching. Okay. And I’m not coaching because I didn’t do this prep work. Yeah. Nobody can now recommend me because the prepper is not done. I don’t have the first testimonial on my webpage and so on.

So I, Yeah, I feel geek. I’m not coaching and I’m not coaching because I’m avoiding the

Audra: right. So everybody’s like this though. So give yourself a little bit of grace and maybe task yourself. You’re an IT guy, you’re a [00:21:00] task guy, you’re a project management kind of organized dude. What you’ve gotta do is make these things that you’re not doing, remove the emotion from it. Add ’em to your list as a task and only look at it as a task.

You’ve gotta remove the emotion because you’ve made these things that you have to get done emotional. It’s blocking you. It’s not about emotion. You need a testimony on a webpage, period. Take one at it. Don’t think past that. Don’t think, it’s not good enough. It’s not fast enough. It’s not long enough.

It’s doesn’t have a good enough picture. Nobody’s gonna read it. Stop all that mind chatter. Go back to, I just need a testimony on the page. Okay, that task is done. What’s the next task? And make

Michal: it, You are 100% right because , like I created the draft of my web page and it was like pulling my teeth with my bare hands, but I did it and I did exactly like this.

I took the book and marketing [00:22:00] made simple. Follow the process. Okay, finish it. It’s out there with English mistakes and so on, but it’s there. So now I’m collecting feedback, which is another phase. I’m, not so good at. but yeah, exactly what you said remove the emotions and do the thing.

Break things down into, and manage pieces because this is really, what removes the overwhelm. And now, okay, I just need to ask my coach for a testimonial. And before that I need to figure out what kind of testimonial I want. so

Audra: maybe that’s, or maybe just let it be organic. Maybe just reach out and say I’m building a website or I’m working on the final details of my website.

I would love if you would write something up about our time together and the results. Cuz remember, coaching’s all about results. We don’t care about anything else. and the results I’ve been able to get you so far, If you could email back with a [00:23:00] picture and how to get ahold of you that would be awesome.

That’s it. Simple email like that. If they’ll do it, then great. If they don’t, then you follow up in a week or two and say, If you’re too busy, I’m happy to write something. And then you edit it to make it a little bit easier done. Move on to what’s next. These little tiny things. and again, you’re not the only one.

I consult with companies that are doing millions a year. We all have blocks like this. Is it testimonial? Is it launching a new product? Is it, building a different list? there’s always something that gets us stuck, but if we don’t find ways to, deflate it.

So it’s not this big monster hanging over our shoulder every single day, waking up, Okay, today I’m gonna do it. Today I’m gonna do it because it’s so big we can’t so chunk it down. So work it backwards. You’re an engineer, right? So I’ll normally say, Okay, I need to get social media [00:24:00] out on a consistent basis.

What does that look like? I’ll pick a platform. this is what I’ll do for clients. We’ll say, Okay, I’m gonna audit your social media. We’re gonna find out where your clients are, what kind of content they’re posting, how often they’re posting, what kind of engagement they’re getting, and then, because it was this big for them, I gotta post to social media and I’m not doing it consistently.

I just broke it down into tiny little tasks. Okay, you’re gonna start on Twitter. You need to post five times a day. This is the kind of content you need. You need five email, outreach, direct messages, and this is how you’re gonna handle engagement. This is how you’re gonna schedule it. It’s done, The content’s done for the week.

So I’ve taken this thing that was so scary, we just broke it down to just 10 tasks on Twitter. They can do that. That’s super easy to manage. And little by little we add more to it and more to it off each platform. And then they got a system built and [00:25:00] now it’s tasks, There’s nothing emotional about it, and they’re able to grow it from there.

Michal: Yeah. Or when you were advising. Right Now I get my own light bulb like this, what I’m doing for my, customers in book advertising space. Okay. Cause starting on Amazon, we had, it’s really overwhelming. I have a system, so I just tell them, Okay, do this, do that, do exactly this, so five steps and they are done.

And then I’m taking over and running that. yeah. So in the end part of having the business, because everybody could do that really, Yeah. Amazon allows everybody to, to create, advertising account and advertising on their own books. So everybody can do that. But very, if you are, So that’s why I have a business, because this is overwhelming and I’m finding this.

Audra: So, I would say, I’ve helped [00:26:00] thousands of people over the last 13 years, 14 years that I’ve been doing this from brand new companies to very large companies. The overwhelm, just the overwhelm, how we win as coaches or consultants or advisors, whatever you wanna call it, is we’ve found a way to take that overwhelm out and simplify it for them.

And that’s really all it is. It’s separating that emotion, turning it into a task, and allowing the task to do the job. And once you disconnect that anxiety and fear and overwhelm from the task itself, it’s pretty easy to do. But until you do that, it’s super challenging. And I get it. I run into those blocks myself, even though I know all I need to do is create a system for it and I’ll get through it.

It’s not always easy to see what’s on the other side of that and getting through that stinking fear and self-doubt and imposter syndrome and everything else is a lot

I think the worst thing with me is that I’m past [00:27:00] self doubt and imposter syndrome. So it’s also subconscious. Yeah. Like I finding my way, myself on , which is author marketplace replying to request.

Michal: Yeah. but it’s my coaching day. I should pursue my coach because we have a session to do and my friend who is doing web graphics for me and for that coaching webpage and so on. this, Procrastination by being productive, right? I am. And I need to pay bills. Yeah, of course.

I, I need to, Yeah. So it’s a good thing, but coaching is just better thing and my subconscious is tricking me. it’s like not negative self-talk, just okay, like we will take care of it later. There is no urgency. Yes, of course there is no urgency. But in the end, right

Audra: now, let me correct that though.

It’s actually not your subconscious mind that’s not doing it. It’s your [00:28:00] ego that’s not doing it. If you move the ego out of the way and let your subconscious mind is the one that keeps making you feel bad for not getting it done. So what you need to do is take that ego, cuz the ego is where fear and disappointment and overwhelm comes from.

The ego, the front facing of you is what’s stopping you. You need to move that aside and allow your subconscious mind to come out and drive for a while. So you’ve actually got those two backwards. There’s a good book. you can study any of Eckert Tolle stuff because Eckert Tolle wrote the book The New Earth and he’s got a few others in this space where he talks about separating the conscious and the subconscious mind.

Michal: It’s like first person who recommends that book to me. So am I. Yeah.

Audra: So this is how the New Earth works. First time I picked it up, cuz it came out many years [00:29:00] ago, first time I picked it up, I couldn’t get past the first chapter. I was like, What? You know what? I just, I couldn’t connect to it, put it back on the shelf, waited a couple years, picked it back up.

still couldn’t get through it. I was just like, This makes no sense to me. and I have a degree in psychology and I’m behavioral science and I’m a master practitioner in nlp, so I thought for sure I could connect to it. Could not picked it up. A third time, maybe a year or so later, I finally was able to sit down and say, Oh my gosh.

Audra: And it just took me like two days to get through the book. And I’ve read it a few times since then. So I’ve given it out over the years to friends. Sometimes they can get through it, sometimes they can’t. So it just depends on where you are. If you can get through it, great. If you can’t, that’s okay. That means you’re not there right now.

But once you get into it, what it allows you to do is almost separate the two. It helped me get better at saying, Okay, this thing is trying to drive and it’s not getting me the results [00:30:00] because all the garbage is there. I need to move it aside and let my inner self drive because that’s where the power is, all that.

Oh, you should have did it. You know you need to do it. Why aren’t you doing it all? That is my inner voice telling me, Shut up and let me get the work done, . So when you figure out how to balance that and allow your subconscious mind to take over when fear is trying to drive, you can get a lot done and is an amazing, tool that will serve you really well.

This inner self says Audra, it’s time to compartmentalize. Something bad just happened. You’re gonna park that over there cuz you have work to get done. And it has allowed me to be ridiculously successful by doing that. But it takes practice and you’re gonna have to put some work in and learn how to, separate the two.

And work in NLP is also super helpful. But until we explore how to use that to our advantage, this thing causes us all [00:31:00] kinds of crap. That’s not necessarily true. Thank you. , so you’re gonna have to read that book and circle back and tell me how it worked out for you. And if not, there’s lots of other work out there that talks about this.

Byron Katie has a lot of really good work about our mind making up stories that

Michal: aren’t really true. Yeah. I’m absolutely, agreeing with you. And I know right now the one thing that helps me the most is getting coached. And I have access to my coaching tribe from the school. It training good. I can barter with them, which is like win-win.

Not only I got coached, but also I get some, hours for my accreditation and it’s a bit of my, like social nature. I’m just discovering because I’m introvert. but this is really what works for me. I’m having the other person like on this call Yeah. Talking my thoughts out and then you correct [00:32:00] me or you just point out different ideas, look at it from different perspective.

This is BS . Yeah. and I then when I’m like in this, dynamic relation, I can see it when I’m stuck and this is what I really offer. Like I had a coaching called this morning. And it’s been six sessions and my coach is like summarizing and nice. What’s going on and Exactly. It was what I think the, the majority value from coaching goes not from the coach, but from the fact that we are creating the space to sit down, reflect even to articulate our bs.

So then we can look at it from the outside and third person, Yes, it’s Bs. Come on. What I’m doing here. And even if this programming is really like I beat my program for four decades. Yeah. It’s not so easy to [00:33:00] dismantle it, but every coaching session for me is okay, now I have this push.

Michal: So I do another part and another part and maybe next week I will have another coaching call and do. Yeah. So

Audra: yeah, Or maybe just, sit down with a pad of paper and a cup of coffee or a glass of wine or whatever it is that makes you happy and just say, Okay, these are the open items I have.

Now how do I turn them into tasks? That’s it. What do I need to do? Is there research that needs to be done? Is there technology that needs to be built? Is there a copy that needs to be written? are there images that need to be created? And then just task it out. Find somebody on Fiverr. If you’re not good with images, use one of the free sites.

The technology, depending on what you’re built on, there’s tons of free tools. each one of these just break ’em down into tasks, and then as that record starts to play in your mind, you have to interrupt that pattern. Otherwise it keeps playing. So when you start to fill that overwhelm, you [00:34:00] need to say, wait a second.

Wait a second. I’m not playing that record again. I’m gonna park this right now and I’m gonna come back and revisit it when I know what the tasks are because I’m not gonna let it keep overwhelming, me or keep controlling what I think about. Cause it is. We’ve built up these neurotransmitters that are playing this record over again.

I can’t get clients cuz I’m not out there. I’m not out there cuz I’m not comfortable with it cuz I’m an introvert and I’ll talk to six months from now and you’re gonna be telling me the same thing. So today we’re gonna decide to do something different, right? Something we’re going see if tasks work.

If it doesn’t, then we try something else. But the point is the skills that got us here are not the skills that’ll get us to what’s next. And until we stop, because we go on autopilot so much, and I say this, I do the same thing and I have to interrupt myself and everybody

Michal: goes on autopilot. This is how we arrive.

Audra: It’s terrible. It’s terrible. So when you’re trying to grow, it’s is terrible. I’ll, sometimes I’ll [00:35:00] find myself spinning and I’ll get up and I’ll go outside and go for a walk, even if it’s only for 10 minutes because I gotta break that. And then when I come back I’m like, Oh yeah, okay. What was I trying to do?

I have a clear mind, set some tasks, get some stuff done. But otherwise you just spin outta control and then the day’s gone, you wake up and it’s like, Oh my God, this stay is still here. It didn’t solve itself overnight. It’s not going to. So we’ve got to get outside. We’ve got to, like you said, you’re coaching, giving people another perspective.

You’ve gotta do the same thing for yourself. Even the more you know, the more you need the coach, that’s two steps ahead of you. And it doesn’t matter where you’re at. If you’re making a dollar or 10 million, you still need access to what’s next. Otherwise, we stop growing and we struggle for nothing for it.

Just, it’s not necessary. You are speaking

Michal: my mind. this is my message to so entrepreneurs. Cause I’ve seen that, like I [00:36:00] grew by leap and bounce in the last decade. Good. Mostly because I was interacting with others. never, I was stuck in my own head. Yeah. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work.

My weather has the saying, isolation is the enemy of excellence. And that’s spot

Audra: on. It is spot on. And too, I find that if I get stuck, I just need to go help somebody if I get out my own way and then go give. It typically will clear things for me. It’s when we get in our own head and our own ego and thinking about our own story and our own winning, but mainly focusing on what we haven’t got done yet as an entrepreneur.

that’s when you need to either get outta your head and help somebody else or say, You know what, This is part of the journey. I need to be present. I need to stop looking at what I don’t have or what I haven’t accomplished, and focus on how well I have done. Slow down for a second. Look backwards.

Audra: You’ve quit your full [00:37:00] time job of many years. That is such an achievement. Slow down for a second and embrace that and say, You know what? Good job. Give yourself a high five. Have some gratitude of, I’ve actually done this. Millions and millions of people wish they could be in the situation that you’re in.

So some of it’s just slowing down and having gratitude for what you’ve gotten done. There’s always gonna be more. We always find more, but that can also set up a feeling of failure where we’re currently at, because we keep seeing all that in front of us. Slow down, be present, and just, you know what?

I’ve gotten a lot done. This is part of my journey in the middle here, and I know what I need to do and I know how I’m going to actually implement it to keep me moving forward. So task it. That’s where the engineer side of your brain’s gotta take over and that ego or that other part has gotta be parked.

Michal: Thank you. [00:38:00] I’m extremely grateful right now for all. advice and seed on someone. Notes. Oh, good. From this call. Thank you very much.

I hope others will take it away too, right? I think the big takeaways from this conversation is it’s a journey to get through this and it’s not always fun and sometimes it’s messy and lonely and scary.

Audra: But if you try to remove as much emotion as you can, or, I don’t wanna even say remove it, I wanna say compartmentalize it. . Cause the work still has to get done. emotion is what keeps us going and pushes us through. So I don’t want you to get rid of it, but there’s a time and a place for it, and sometimes it needs to be sat down and left in the chair so, the subconscious mind can get the work.

And focus on doing that. But also the other thing on that, because there’s always going to be so many more tasks to do, you gotta set some milestones for yourself. Otherwise, once you start achieving [00:39:00] these goals, like you just did it of feel let down and it’s okay, so what? I quit my job. I still got 800 other things to do.

But it is a big deal. So allow yourself to celebrate that success. Not a lot of people can do that yet, so maybe it’s, I want three new clients at $200 a month in the next 90 days. And then you focus on achieving that set some 60, 90 day goals for yourself until you get some of the stuff off your plate.

In the next 30 days, I’m gonna have my landing page finished. I’m gonna have three testimonials. And I’m gonna have, something else done and then set that for your goal. And that’s what you focus on for the next 30 days. You still do your work, you still get everything else done, but you’ve gotta start knocking some of these other things off your plate.

Otherwise, at the end of the year, I’m gonna reach out and you’re gonna say, No, I haven’t quite finished the landing page. And I got a couple testimonials, but I haven’t done anything with them and I don’t wanna have that conversation. Yes [00:40:00] ma’am.

that’s really all it is, right? yes. Yeah. But it’s like that for all of us. Again, I gotta have somebody push me. I have a very good friend that knows me very well. We’ve been friends for 15 years and they’ll say, Audra, you were working on this two weeks ago. Why isn’t it finished?

Audra: What has got you blocked that you’re preventing yourself from getting it done? And makes me talk through what that obstacle is. I have

Michal: a daily accountability partner. He’s doing this for me. That’s why I was able to make some leaps and bounces in the last year and some, Yeah. I actually recommend also to my, so entrepreneurs coaches, find someone to be in the team.

Like you push them and they push you so you can get things done, or at least articulate your excuses.

Audra: Typically, what I find is just one little tiny block. you know how a river’s flowing and sometimes some rocks will get stuck in the path and the water gets damned up.

If you just move that [00:41:00] one little rock that’s in the path, it flows again, Everything gets going again. And that’s all it is. Either somebody that’s afraid of their tech so they don’t make any decisions, right? They go out, they research a hundred different software and then don’t select one because they’re so overwhelmed of choosing the wrong tool.

But it is normally just that one little pebble that’s got them tripped up and once you release that, they’re able to go full speed ahead again. yeah, it’s super, super valuable to find that I not, and these podcasts aren’t made to sell anything but. I do wanna share though that Zindolabs is that community.

If if people listening to this podcast don’t have somebody or can’t afford a coach right now, go into Zindolabs and share what you’re struggling with, somebody will respond to it and give you some feedback so you can keep going. That’s all it typically is I’m stuck here, I need somebody to talk through it, and then I’m back at the race again.

I’m back into the marathon, but I need somebody to just [00:42:00] push me or help me talk through why I’ve mentally got stuck here.

All right. what else? What else you got? We’ll wrap up here in just a second. Any last words you wanna share?

Michal: you were talking, Yeah. Yeah. That what resonated with me was, and that’s just one little pebble and sometimes we have no clue, Most of the time we have no clue what’s, my second Gallup strength is context. So I look back and extrapolate forward. So I’m like, when I look to the future, I see just darkness, wall of darkness. That’s nothing I can, I, I can take light from the past and extrapolate, have those small, lights out there.

But I’m not the visionary type. Yeah. I don’t see the bright future ahead of, but yes, you’re right. So many times in my, it was like one breakthrough and it was a breakthrough after a breakthrough. Like my covers were absolutely terrible because [00:43:00] I’m not, an aesthetic person and I tried to dictate, the cover designer what to do and so they were terrible.

When I got connected in Altos Group, one guy just took pity of me. He, okay, He did those covers in Canva in like 20 minutes, four covers, and suddenly I started selling from like a copy a day to three copies a day just because of that. And other thing, like another guy in that group reach out to me because he was starting marketing business for authors.

Michal: So he offered to help me with the next Okay. I, and that book became my first best seller. And the same with Amazon ads? Yeah. I just heard they don’t work. But a guy who I respected, I, I saw his, ads. So I was, okay, if Derek is advertising maybe onto something, I reach out to him.

He gave me access to his free course on advertising and bam, I [00:44:00] started selling from 200 books one month to thousand and more, six months later of the same books, just because of advertising. and the same is with coaching. Like I got this coaching training because my supervisor told me, Okay, we have the budget, you should go, it’s cut for you.

I was like, Okay, if you say so, but it was cut for me, because of the training, I discovered how great I am one on one. And now when I work with people, I say over and over again, it’s not an accident. if everybody gets the results, that means okay, I’m doing something right. So I’m good for that. but it, and it was always like behind the horizon.

I couldn’t see those things coming. I just was blind to them or they are just too far away. It’s like that, and this is firmly my personal philosophy. That’s why it’s been a decade and I’m still going. , there is no guarantee of success, but the guarantee of failure is stopped trying. So I [00:45:00] never stopped trying.

Audra: Good, good. So one word of advice, when you look forward and you only see dark, it’s scary to keep walking because you don’t, you can’t. Is there ground below you? Are there walls beside you? Is there something up there? What you wanna do is do what you just did, reflect backwards. I may not know what’s in front of me, but I know what I’ve been able to reproduce time and time again.

So, it doesn’t matter what’s in front of me, I don’t need to see it. It’s okay for it to be dark because I have plenty of light shining behind me, and if I ever need to turn around and go back, I can, because it’s all there and black and white. The results are the results. And it’s okay to let it go, that it’s black.

So what? You’ve got plenty of light behind you that will keep pushing you forward. Don’t worry about what’s there. Keep on the path and what feels right, and the energy and the things that take you forward.

Michal: Talking about, Gallup talents, my last talent from top five is fate. That’s why I’m going into darkness.

Yeah. So we are all [00:46:00] wired in this unique way to make us the whole, so it works for me.

Audra: Good. This has been a lot of fun and I hope that everybody that’s listening understands the middle is messy and sometimes it’s challenging, but we don’t give up and we lean on others that are in the same place that we are, or even a couple steps ahead to make sure that we stay the course.

We find ways to get around our obstacles and we keep, living the future and the path that we’re supposed to be on. So Michal, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it.

Michal: I’m so glad for being here. Thank you for all the awesome advice.

Audra: All right, until next time. Thank you.