Mike Koenigs | When AI Becomes Your Creative Collaborator

What if your next breakthrough wasn’t about doing more—but about telling your story more authentically, with the right tools by your side?

In this rich and energizing conversation, I sit down with visionary entrepreneur Mike Koenigs, joining us from his creative sanctuary in Baja. Mike is a pioneer in the digital marketing world, an early adopter of emerging tech, and someone who's helped countless entrepreneurs find their unique voice and scale with purpose.

We explore how artificial intelligence—tools like ChatGPT—isn't just a trend, but a game-changer in how we create, communicate, and connect. Mike breaks down how storytelling, creativity, and technology can come together to shape a business that not only succeeds but deeply resonates.

Whether you're a solopreneur, building momentum, or already playing at the seven-figure level, this episode is packed with wisdom on staying relevant, building strong teams, and aligning your message with your mission. We also reflect on the deeper personal transformation required to grow a business that’s not just profitable—but meaningful.

We Also Discuss:
● Why storytelling cuts through noise and builds true connection
● Using AI as your creative partner, not your replacement
● How consistency in creating content builds trust and momentum 
● Why your team should support your genius, not distract from it 
● Surrounding yourself with mentors and peer communities that stretch you

[0:00:00] Welcome to the Radical Responsibility Podcast
[0:04:41] Exploring how AI tools are transforming creativity and authentic audience connection
[0:10:58] The Six Ms - Mindset, Market, Model, Message, Media, Multiplier
[0:21:05] Fusing technology and creativity to compose music with AI as a creative collaborator
[0:26:06] Your authentic story is what will draw people to you even in this age of AI
[0:34:43] Unpacking Mike’s “Holy Trinity” for meaningful and sustainable success
[0:42:28] Creating more freedom by building a team aligned with your vision
[0:51:33] Reinventing yourself through service, purpose, and inner evolution

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
My greatest fear was of being poor and going backwards.
And my dad grew up very poor on a farm
in Iowa. My mom, who just passed a week ago,
grew up in absolute chaos. My grandfather was an alcoholic
and my grandmother was bipolar and schizophrenic. Like I didn't
come from anything, and I watched my dad work his

(00:23):
butt off for us four kids. But he was so disciplined.
He got up every day at the same time, and
he was motivated to serve. He's a barber. So I think,
I really believe that the greatest motivator is that of service,
and service delivers freedom. And so I wake up every
day and it's like, what is a shortcut I can
create and share with someone that will deliver freedom too

(00:46):
and freedom from.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Welcome to the Radical Responsibility Podcast. I'm doctor Fleet Mala,
and I'm excited to guide you on a journey of
authentic transformation. In each episode, I'll you insights from leading
experts to explore trauma recovery, mindfulness practices, positive psychology, and
innovative breakthroughs in health, wellness, and life optimization. This is

(01:11):
a space for real conversations that inspire meaningful change. Helping
you find alignment with the person you are always meant
to be. Let's get started. What if transformation isn't just
about thinking differently, but feeling differently. Science shows us that

(01:31):
true change happens when we align not just our minds,
but also the neural networks in our hearts and guts.
This heart mind connection is the key to deeper healing, resilience,
and expanded awareness. That's why I created the Heart Mind
all access, membership, and community, a space designed to help
you rewire your nervous system, cultivate heart intelligence, and live

(01:54):
with greater clarity and purpose. With over one thousand hours
of transformational teachings specifically curated to meet your needs, You'll
learn from world renowned meditation teachers, neuroscientists, and experts in neuroplasticity,
all sharing powerful tools to help you shift your mindset
and heartset, regulate your emotions, and unlock your full potential.

(02:19):
You'll also gain unlimited access to every summit and course
we've ever produced, a treasure Trouble Wisdom worth over ten
thousand dollars in growing plus live gatherings and an inspiring
global community to support your journey. If you're ready to
step into a more heart centered, connected and conscious life.
I invite you to join us. Clip the link to

(02:39):
learn more and start your journey today. Have you ever
wondered how artificial intelligence might not just streamline your business,
but actually expand your creativity and deepen your impact. I
had a chance to sit down with the one and
only Mike Kennigs, serial entrepreneur, tech visionary, and one of
the sharpest minds in digital marketing today. Mike's been ahead

(03:03):
of the curve for decades, and in this conversation he
shares our AI tools like chat, GBT and others are
radically transforming the entrepreneurial landscape, from storytelling and content creation
to building freedom based business models. We explored what it
really means to scaled integrity, how to use AI as
a true creative partner rather than just another shortcut, and

(03:26):
the powerful mindset shift required to keep reinventing yourself in
a rapidly evolving world. Whether you're a solopreneur crafting your
first offer, or seasoned entrepreneur ready to grow your team
and make a greater impact, this episode is packed with insights, strategies,
and soulful wisdom you don't want to miss let's dive in.

(03:47):
My name is doctor Fleet Maull, your co host for
this session, and I'm thrilled to be here today with
Mike Kanaggs. Welcome, Mike.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
It is so nice to be here. We have so
much in common and I'm just super excited that we've
have this opportunity to get to know each other.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
So we mentioned, you know, navigating rapidly evolving marketing trends.
I mean, things are changing so quickly. AI is changing everything.
I mean, even just at the grassroots consumer level. We've
all seen chatchybees show up in our lives personally and professionally,
and how that's beginning to change everything so rapidly. So
there's a lot going on, and I wonder if you

(04:23):
could just launch in and start talking about this rapidly
changing landscape and how you navigate and teach people to navigate.
I'm sure there are some tried and true marketing principles
that still work and are through lines, but then there's
all kinds of different technologies and maybe even the messaging
is changing. So let's hear what you have to say
about all that.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
All right, Well, I'm going to begin the same way
I start a presentation. So a couple months ago, I
was on my friend Richard Rossy stage speaking to several
thousand high school students, and I'm like, how am I
going to connect and relate with them? And I did
something for you, so be before we met, I did

(05:01):
a little preparation and I made something for you today.
So I want you to just listen to this. And
this is the way that you connect with people as
you first of all, had got to connect with their hearts,
and once their minds follow, so do their behaviors. And
so I used a tool to make a song for
you today. I made two songs for you. So just
listen to the first part of this. This is called

(05:23):
Suno and I use chat GPT with just your notes
to create a song in the style of Johnny Cash
from a prison sail man full race fleet found wisdom
man that lonely place.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Fourteen years behind those walls of steel, teaching others how
to heal. I feel two men.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
So that was made in twenty seconds. And there's a
second song as well, in a different style.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
That's amazing, and I'm blown away and very very very
very touched. So my heart's open to whatever's next. And
I personally appreciate it very much, very touch, but it
is literally amazing that you can create that through Chad
GBT in twenty seconds yep.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
And then I'll show you something else I made with
another tool that was just released called Sora, which is
the chat GPT people. So I basically told it to
create a visual and this is pathsive transformation. So it
was just a prompt that was made and it just
it's this little visual and there's another one and each

(06:37):
one of them is twenty seconds long. So the whole
point is you can create completely synthetic videos in minutes music.
I also created some images, so this is there's a
variety of them. This is a tool called a diogram,
so supposed to represent you and I at communicating, marketing

(06:57):
and healing work. And if we move forward here, these
are some different styles that created. Let me see if
I can go back. There is another one that's supposed
to look like us sitting in a conference situation with
us teaching together, although it didn't do a good job
of our faces. But the whole thing is completely synthetic
visuals audios even another video about our journey together. So

(07:23):
the bottom line here Fleet is what has changed is
you and I can sit down and talk about anything
and have AI take some notes, and then we can
make it real. We can make videos, we can make audios,
we can make music, we can write books in real time.
And I think this is the greatest moment in human

(07:45):
history because we can collaborate with a tool that can
keep up with our imaginations. We can manifest virtually anything
and connect with any audience in any language in real time.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
It's really amazing. And you know, I remember when I
don't know when it was an then, but mind mapping
tools first became available, and you know, being able to
do that, and this is on a whole nother level
of being able to partner in a very creative way,
so absolutely amazing. I think in our audience we have
a lot of probably solorepreneurs getting started or aspiring entrepreneurs.
We probably have, you know, some entrepreneurs with small teams

(08:18):
that are trying to go from six figures to seven,
maybe even some folks going from seven to eight figures.
And often, you know, the entrepreneurs wearing a lot of
hats in the beginning, sometimes wearing all the hats to
begin with, and certainly wearing the marketing hat for quite
a long time, and it can just seem overwhelming, you know,
between just really getting to understand marketing at a deep level,

(08:39):
even classic traditional marketing understanding that at a deep level.
But then there's all the shiny balls and all the
tools and all the gadgets and all the tricks, and
that can get very confusing, and we can get focused
on that instead of our core message. And now with AI,
it seems like, okay, possibly just more overwhelmed. How does
the entrepreneur get beyond that, get to the core and

(08:59):
start actually communicating with their audience in an effective way.
Surely you're going to want to use all these tools,
but what's the pathway?

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Yes, well, the answer is to make AI your creative collaborator.
And let's actually do a little experiment together. Okay, because
nothing beats real live demonstration. So let's pretend for a
moment and you helped me out here, but we're going
to create a little marketing plan and maybe write the
first part of a book idea for someone who might

(09:31):
be a coach, a healer, they could be in the nutrition,
the personal growth business. But let's create a scenario, tell
me a story, about a perfect person who's sitting in
your audience right now, and tell me about them.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, so, you know, I think this is ditlopreneur who's
got vision and inspiration and really wants to make a
difference and is passionate about life. And at the same
time they're dealing with all the stresses of modern life
and then some lot of uncertainty they may perceive the
current economic and political landscape and world things is just

(10:06):
anxiety provoking and harder and never to stay focused on
their passion and maybe even staying aligned enough with their
purpose to feel is what I'm doing purposeful enough that
it makes sense for me to dedicate my energy to
it and try to enroll other people in my vision
when there's all this stuff going on in the world
and who am I to offer anything anyway? And in

(10:27):
the meantime, I'm trying to do it all with my
family and you know, and the kids and my spouse
and manage my life, and it just gets overwhelming and
I need some kind of more personal tools to take
care of myself. But I also need a north star
to keep me on track with my purpose of my
vision so I can be successful.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Great great, So I'm going to help create a container
for that. And the answer to everything is discipline and
structure is what leads us to the other side when
all this other stuff is out there affecting us. So
one of my books is called to Your Next Act,
and I introduced something called the six ms. And here's
what the six are in order. So it's mindset, which

(11:06):
is what our non negotiable core values are. I believe
that like attracts like, and you have to establish a
presence of heart and feeling and also say here is
who I am at my core and what I will
and will not do, and if you violate that, you
will attract really wrong clients and customers in your world.

(11:27):
So mindset is the first Next is the market. Market
would be who specifically is your perfect audience. So in
that container, what you just described to me as a
heavy feeler who is service minded, service oriented, and they're
going to attract the same people who are seeking purpose
and structure and clarity and happiness and also a way

(11:47):
to express themselves. And again I always say, let's the
way out of this is to create. We are creators
who are created by a creator. So honoring that is
a very important part. So again our perfect mind market
is a healing audience. The third is the model, which
is how you get paid. So let's just pretend for
the sake of this conversation that this individual has got

(12:10):
one on one workshops or coaching or advising, and then
they also have group coaching and advising, and they most
likely have to establish them as an authority and an
expert so they can at least be recognized. You know,
first of all, you got to get noticed and you
got to establish it, right, So there's three ways of
making money. We'll say is get the book out there
so that you can get paid doing what you do.

(12:32):
And then there's the message, which are what are the
words you say to communicate to that market in a
way that opens their hearts so their behaviors follow, which
also means they're willing to make an investment of value.
And then there's the next is the media. Now, I'm
a big believer. I've written a lot of books. I've
helped a lot of people write books and video podcasts.

(12:53):
Whether you like it or not, this is not a
political statement. Just helped get a certain individual elected to
president in the United States of America. It was the
podcast channel is the most highly valuable concentrated source of
getting and creating awareness because long format is our current future,
even though we live in a short attention span world.

(13:15):
And then finally our multipliers. So in order, and I'm
going to do a real practical example here and we're
going to make something. Okay, but the framework helps us
so mindset, market model, message, media multiplier and AI can
help us with that. And you can have a conversation
with AI. So what do you say we make something
that's good. Okay, I'm going to begin and again I'm

(13:39):
going to show my screen and I'm going to do
this step by step because we're actually actually going to
make something real and to me, we have to deliver
a transformation. That's the purpose of our meeting here today
is to create massive value and create deep connectional thoughtful connection.
Now I could just click on this and have a
conversation with AI, but I'm going to talk to it

(14:00):
and just create the words so it'll be like this.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
Hi.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
I am a solo entrepreneur who coaches and advises women
who are in transition and men who are in transition
and want to find clarity and more purpose in their lives.
I want to create a marketing plan that I can execute,

(14:25):
even though I'm not particularly technical, to share and get
my message out to the world. Period. New paragraph. My
name is Alice Norman, and I have a degree in
psychology and a background in healing, yoga and meditation. And

(14:46):
I want you to give me a detailed marketing plan
of something that I can start doing right now. Okay,
So again, it was just a conversation. I can just
talk to this and when I get a response, it's
going to come back with something. Now what I love
to do is, as soon as it's done, I'm going
to brainstorm some book ideas. Okay, here you can see

(15:07):
it's already. To find your ideal audience where they are online,
develop a core message, okay, choose some marketing channels. It's
telling us what to do, what hashtags to use? All right,
sample video content, three ways to find clarity after divorce,
how meditation can okay, build your email list. So anyway,

(15:27):
it's giving us a plan, and if I don't like something,
I can tell it to refine it. So any comment
so far before we actually let's come up with some
book titles and subtitles.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
Well, you know I was a business consultant for many years,
and you know what we're It takes done this before
you'd get together a team. You get to an off site,
you do all kinds of brainstorming, you have all kinds
of meetings to generate all kinds of stuff. Then you
try to refine it into something and all that you
just did it in thirty seconds totally.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
Now let's make it real though. So I have two tools,
and what we're going to do again, we're just brainstorming
out loud. So if I just did a conversation where
I just describe myself, grab my bio and I uploaded
it and Eric, it builds something even more complex. But
what I'm going to do is, I'm going to say,
I want you to come up with twenty five really

(16:14):
creative book titles and subtitles that are modeled after New
York Times and USA Today best selling books period show
them to me. Again. I'm just having a conversation with
the thing that's helping me collaborate. And after it comes
up with the twenty five titles and subtitles, and what
you and I'll do is pick one we like and

(16:35):
we're going to actually make a visual of that book.
In a bookstore. Okay, So here's the second act blueprint,
how to rewrite your life and thrive in the face
of change, unstuck, breaking free from the fog, and finding
your true purpose chaos to calm and again, if I
don't like something, I'll say, hey, I really like number
seven and number eight, number ten, But which one of
these is standing out to you right now?

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Let's work with second act blueprint.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
Great, So I'm going to take this and I'm going
to go to a I can say, I want you
to create an image of a book cover based on
the first title and subtitle, create appropriate images and have
it setting in a bookstore on a stand. Okay, let's see,

(17:23):
and I'll just put the subtitle in here so it's
not confused. Because I live in the world of ten
minute increments, so I allow myself to create and innovate
and iterate for ten minutes at a time. I treat
my time as though it's worth thirty thousand dollars per hour.
So look at that, there's a book on a stand

(17:46):
inside a bookstore, just like that. Okay, pretty cool, huh.
And then I could say, now give me three more versions.
I could even go so far as to say, who
do you think will really resonate with our audience musically,
like a style of lyrics or writing that would motivate them.

(18:08):
And by the way, look at all these book covers
just popped up already. There's another one. Okay, so there
it is second act blueprint, not bad, not bad. Right,
here's another one okay, and we can keep on tweaking.
But again, I try to do it in ten minute increments,
so I don't go down too far of a rabbit hole.
But I stay inspired. We got to keep our dopamine levels. Hi,

(18:29):
if we're entrepreneurs, this.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
Is basically getting you know, this is building confidence for
the entrepreneur that while there it is I can do it,
I can imagine this. This is not just you know,
wishful thinking. There's my book. I can do this right,
so totally it helps you build a lot of momentum
and confidence. Here.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yes again I can Now we can make a song.
Now we can make a launch video, we could make
a video script. There's all sorts of things we can do.
And I could even say, now I want you to
create ten chapters based pon this book title and subtitle
and theme and build on top of some of the

(19:06):
most successful best selling books that are relevant to this
topic and idea. Then I could basically start brainstorming with it,
talking to it to have it. Let's see, I don't
want it's interrupting me. He's trying to show me some stuff. Okay,
here we go chapter the wake up Call summary, Explore
the pivotal moments, and then it can start. There we

(19:27):
go inspire success, the power, letting go. What a book
Michael Singer, Mapping your blueprint? Okay, building your tribe, mastering
the Air of resilience, Okay, want to make a song?

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Sure?

Speaker 1 (19:41):
Okay, So now I can say, oh, yeah, First of all,
who's thematically someone who would resonate with your audience? Do
you think a lyricist?

Speaker 2 (19:49):
Well, I think it's probably for this book. I'm thinking
that it's something kind of anthem like maybe Beyonce something
like that, But probably you know, something that's kind of
big at the like that's inspiring, motivating, and that's sense
a limitless possibility kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
Now here's one of my shortcuts. By the way, I've
been using a tool I call otter in the background
that's transcribing this conversation. So I just copy what you
just said, and I'll go back to chat GPT and
I'll say, now I want you to write and create
lyrics for a song. So I just grab your notes

(20:25):
and it doesn't have to be perfect. It's conversational. We're
just talking to a thing that's helping us create. So
it's creating anthem lyrics, Rise and rewrite. I've been down
in the dust, chasing shadows in the night, felt the
weight of the world trying to dim my light. But
this heart beat strong. It's a drum that won't stop knowing,
climbing higher, reaching the top. Every scar is the story,
every fall is a flight. The stars are my witness.

(20:47):
Tonight's tonight. Okay, so there we go. Now we've got
lyrics and I'm going to just copy this and I'm
going to go to this little tool called Suno. I
click on crete and this is where I created that
first song. So I'm going to just paste them in
here like that. Yeah, there's one thing, and I'll just
call this write and rewrite. It's got a title. Now,

(21:07):
there's one thing you can't do is you can't knock
off a real person. So we're going to have to
give it a style. So we'll do because we can't
say Beyonce choke on that.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
So before you did that one in the Statle of
Johnny Katz, So how did you say that?

Speaker 1 (21:24):
I said cash style country. Sometimes a word can get through.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
Well it could be a you know style of modern
female pop something like that, or modern female pop with
you know, R and B hip hop influences.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yep, Okay, here we go. So let's get inspired. So
we hit create and in about twenty seconds, it's going
to write and compose. It's going to create a synthetic singer,
it's going to create a whole band, all the music,
it's going to mix it. And I've had some people go,
oh my god, what's going to happen? All the musicians.
And here's where I say is I couldn't create this.

(22:02):
You probably couldn't create this. What if I can sit
here and I can collaborate with real artists and real
musicians and say this is kind of what I'm thinking about.
So let's hear the first one. I've been down in
the dust, chasing shadows in the night. In the night,

(22:22):
it's not the way of the world, shawna Tilla, but
this heart beats Sean it's a drawn of all stuff
now all time in high rich.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
That's all. Let's got a story refas.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
All right, you get daddy, Let's hear just the first
part of the second. What do you think of that?

Speaker 2 (22:49):
It's amazing? And now is that actually a synthesized voice.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
It's not Sam one hundred percent synthetic. You own it.
We can download this, we can make a music video
from it. In fact, we could if you want to
make a music video. So so let's do the second one.
I've been down in the dust, chees some shadows in

(23:15):
the night, so the weight of the world try.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
And said, dim my right, but this heartbeat strong.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
It's a droum that won't stop. Okay, you get the idea,
And then in the background he said version of the
style twenty ten Rey guy with tuba. You know, it's
like I just did some jazz music. I was with
my brother. He was telling me a story about he's
in a Bible study group with a guy who said
his fourteen year old daughter is very independent, not at
all good at it. So I made a song for

(23:45):
him based on that theme. But I'll just play the
first part of it because it's pretty funny. She's got
her own keys to the castle, but she always loses
them in the hassle. Dennis burning, but she calls it gourmet.

(24:09):
She's a mess, but she laughs it away. Anyway, let's
hear what the reggae says and move on. Here we go.
All now, who can't get inspired when you've got a

(24:35):
tool like this?

Speaker 2 (24:36):
Right, It's amazing.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
Really, it's just mind blowing. It's mind blowing.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
My next question, Mike is, so, I mean, there's so
many directions you could go with these tools, right, and
you could even have a conversation with AI or whatever
in general chat TBT about how to use it and
all the I mean, you could just get in this hole. So,
but to what extent is the accessibility of these tools
going to both raise the bar and maybe flatten the

(25:04):
bell curve a little bit in terms of marketing? And also,
you know, create a certain deafness or numbness or something
because of the overwhelm that it'll just become like people
you know, recognize, Oh that's AI marketing. Been there, done,
that's seen that. So again, I mean, this is already
an issue in marketing, But how do we go back

(25:24):
and using whatever tools whatever you use to really create
and craft a message that's going to stand out. Because
even in our world with Heartmind Institute, you know, we're
involved in personal development and healing trauma and mindfulnance of meditation,
and now we're involved in entrepreneurship as well, and you know,

(25:45):
it's a very competitive field and with all these tools,
there's you know, so many people are ending the marketing place,
and there's so many offers out there, and we just came,
you know, through the end of the year with all
the offers going on, and it's really hard to get
your message to stand out.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
Yes, Seth Godin wrote a book years ago called the
Purple Cow, and You've got to be a Purple Cow.
And the answer to the question is simply this. There
is only one you with your transformational journey and story,
and there's a whole multitude, we'll call it, an infinite
audience who wants to hear your authentic story and transformation

(26:23):
and they will resonate with that and want the same
for themselves. And only you have that story. And then
as you are successful doing what you do, you've got
to capture those transformations and tell those stories. So in
every one of my books, I'll just give you my
secret to how I do this, and here's the way
I imagine all the time. Number One, you are always

(26:44):
performing and on stage, and your objective is to tell
a transformational story as though it's a ted talk in
front of one hundred or five hundred or a thousand
of your perfect fit audience. The only person in that
audience their name is you, and you're telling stories about them,
not you. It's never about you, even though you are
a vessel of transformation leading them on a hero's journey

(27:07):
to the other side. And you have to realize that
everyone will be like, well I've already heard that before. Well,
guess what I just watched. There's a guy follow on YouTube.
His name is Rick Biatto. He deconstructs music. He's about
sixty years old and he's been a professional producer for
many years, and he interviews some of the greatest musicians
who've ever lived, like all the Police, for example, Pat Metheny,

(27:30):
great jazz musicians. And he was showing a clip of
a video with a guy named Theo Vaughn, who I
had never heard of him until a while ago. He's
a comedian and he interviewed mister Beast who is the
most recognizable top YouTube channel guy in the world. And
he said, just like Prince. He actually said, he said specifically,

(27:50):
you got to be a purple cow. And he goes
like Prince and mister Beasts looked at him and goes,
who mister Beasts had never heard of Prince before? My goodness, okay.
And the point is everyone's like, you know what, here's
the reality. There's nothing new, and nobody's special. It's whoever
says it with the most clarity and heart in a
media format. Right. That was the fifth step is I

(28:15):
believe in podcasts. I think it's the best way to
reach people. And if you want the next layer of intimacy,
that's online and basically free, it's webinars, it's doing zooms.
But then you gotta get in front of real people
and learn how to speak. And I'll tell people all
the time it's like, well I don't want to these
start complaining about how they don't want to be public
and they don't want to be this. It's sort of like, look,

(28:35):
you probably haven't even helped you much less ten people
or one hundred people. You don't have to worry about
getting famous. It's really hard but if you can touch
one and then ten and then one hundred with your
story of transformation and lead that group, that individual with
clarity and confidence. You mentioned that earlier. The whole point
of doing what we're doing today is to create some

(28:56):
confidence and say I can tell my story and I
don't need a giant team. Now there are no excuses
to not get your message out to the world. It's
easier than ever before, and most people do nothing. That's
the reality. Will you be the one or the few
who is the courage to tell your story and not
make it about you because none of this is about you.
It's about the healing transformation you share and you give.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
To others, maybe extend this out over the path of entrepreneurship.
So it sounds like you're saying that, at least initially,
I mean, we absolutely have to be willing to tell
our story, to connect with our story, to figure out
who our ideal audiences for that story, and learn really
to communicate who we are and what our story is,
what our own path of transformation has been as authentically

(29:40):
as we possibly can, and just get so. We got
to be a performer. We've got to be willing to
become a performer. You know, I've always won. I've probably
heard Tony Robbins tell his origin story sixty times at
least was personally. I mean, he's told the thousands of times,
but I mean and every time he can tell it
with passion, with clarity, And I said, I need to

(30:01):
get tired of that story, you know. So we have
to somehow figure out how to do that. And then
as you're scaling a business, you also have to somehow
download that into a business that you're not the one
in there creating all the marketing copy for the rest
of your life. Right, you have to somehow go from
being this solopreneur that can create an audience and get

(30:22):
it going, and then how do you move that forward
then without just wrapping yourself to being this content machine personally?

Speaker 1 (30:30):
Yeah, that is a great question, and you'll notice that
Tony Robbins. So I've worked with Tony. I went to
my first Tony event in nineteen ninety five changed my
life and I was one of the people in the
audience and I looked up and I said, I'm going
to work with that guy someday. And it took twelve
years and then I was in Tony's house, helping him
start doing videos because he needed help with marketing, believe

(30:51):
it or not. And you think, oh, he's a marketing master,
but he hadn't mastered the online world. And so I'm
not trying to make this about me. The whole point
is your job as a founder is to innovate and
create and inspire all the time. And when you get
past the little hump of doing it once, it becomes

(31:11):
infectious and inspiring. And just today I was, you know,
three hundred yards from me, not even that two hundred
I was on the beach with my wife and a
turtle just popped out of the sand because it's tortuga
season here in the Baha, and he popped out and
started walking to you know, getting to the ocean. Of
course he has to, you know, that's how they build
their strength. And there's hundreds of them every day and

(31:35):
I can, I will. I just didn't do it today.
I could have made a little video about that. I
did make a video about it with my wife, but
I didn't make it about the turtle specifically. But it's
like you'll see stories everywhere that are relatable, but just
starting once. So the answer to your question is scaling
is hard, and I could go down that pathway, but
at the end of the day, I think the first

(31:56):
thing you have to do is establish yourself as an
authority and then have a my mechanism. My shortcut is
I work in a studio. Just like you've got your
nice camera, your microphone sounds good, you should work in
your studio and make something every day and repurpose and
reuse it. So it's going to be a piece for
a speech, it's going to be a piece for a book,

(32:18):
and you can perform it as content and have AI
support you. But getting out of that, it all comes
down to sales and the pathway to freedom. And I
just went through this, so I will raise my hand
and say I am a hypocrite. I need help with
this all the time too. On the way here of
the flight here, I worked with chet GPT and I

(32:39):
built an upgraded compensation plan for my whole team, incentivizing
them to think like marketers. And they're all rewarded when
they help push the needle of sales and rewarded. So
we think like a team. But I think at the
end of the day, you've got to find ways to
inspire people to support your sales efforts, share your message

(33:02):
and multiply it. And we've got incentivized sales, whether that's
with partners. And again we can spend tons of time
in any direction you want to go. Here, I hope
that rambling is useful.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
No, absolutely, So let's come back a little bit. So
when we have to establish ourselves as an authority in
some and it could be a micro niche and sometimes
the smaller the niche the better. We've all heard, greater
the better, yep. And then to you know, to crap
the message that's going to stand out and to get
marketing copy and marketing funnels and offers that are going

(33:34):
to actually convert has a lot to do with storytelling
and messaging and of course most of us have probably
heard of but getting really clear about who your ideal
customer is, your avatar so you can communicate their message
with clarity. But I wonder if you could talk a
little bit about the storytelling aspect. What kind of marketing
messages today are converting. And you know, you talked about

(33:57):
a way to build authority and build audience and so
for through the podcast world, which is long form. But
then when you think of marketing messages. You think of email,
and you think of Facebook or other types of advertising.
Then you google TikTok whatever it is, and it's really
short attention span stuff. It's images trying to get somebody
to click, try to get somebody to come through. So
how do we engage the customer and get them to

(34:18):
scroll beyond the first couple of lines and then have
it be someone I mean not just that they get that,
oh that was fun reading it, but no, that they
actually push on the button and respond to the call
of the action and convert in some way.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
Yes. Yes, So I'm going to tell you a little
story and this is the first answer, and then I'm
going to give you a how to do it without
having to have a big, expensive team. All right, So
I always like to start with that, once upon a
time there was someone just like you, his name was
Fleet Mall, who had the same or you listening or

(34:51):
watching to us right now, who had the exact same
challenges you're having, which is you've got to find a
way to authentic share your true purpose in your mission
in life and be inspired every day, and you need
to make money. You want to be loved and liked
and adored and respected, and you've got to make your

(35:14):
health first. Now at the end of the day, I
call it the Holy Trinity, which is get paid, get laid,
live forever, and the combination the Holy Trinity is a
better life. Every single product is somehow leading you to
money and opportunity, or being more loved, being adored. It's

(35:35):
being bigger and better and standing out and improving your
health or longevity. I don't care. If it's a car,
you bought it for status and learning how that structure.
It's called the Hero's Journey A Hero with a Thousand
Faces by Joseph Campbell. That's the short answer. And there's

(35:55):
a tool that I use, which is again I tell
people all the time, it is really easy to reach
out and get on one podcast or be able to
share a nugget in ten minutes something you learned, and
it better be a transformation, better be something valuable. Opportunity
and money, being more attractive, or health and longevity. It's
one of the three, and you're in the business of

(36:17):
all of them. And tell it in ten minutes and
make sure it's recorded, or perform it to your cat.
I don't care. And what you can do is there's
a tool. So first of all, any questions, and I
hope I'm answering your question because I'm going to show
you a tool that basically does this for you.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
Well, you know, I'm really the Holy Trinity idea. Right, So, money, opportunity, authority, celebrity, health,
and longevity you encapsulate is paid lay to live forever.
So you know, I get that people care about a
redemption story of some kind, right and you know this
person was really suffering. They transformed their life, you know,
they figured out how to cure themselves with cancer whatever

(36:55):
it might be. You know, some kind of I mean
obviously that's health and well that's longevity related. But you
know the idea of a redemption story, But what about
success stories? You know, the idea of actually, you know,
having people care about your pathway and transformation into success
of some kind, whether it's great or well healthful well being.

(37:15):
You know, is there a difference there?

Speaker 1 (37:17):
Yeah, So here's the framework that I use. I'm going
to show you an examples that. Okay, I'll show you
a real life example of how we capture this, and
I've got I was trying to decide which of ten
of them to use but I'm going to use a
story with a doctor friend of mine. Let me see. Okay,
I'm gonna ask you, do you want a money one?
Do you want a lifestyle one?

Speaker 2 (37:40):
I think to me though, the most challenging from my
mindset around selling is probably the money and the lifestyle,
or you know, some combination thereof.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
Okay, I'm going to show one of my favorite stories.
This is a client of ours, Jim and Jamie Shields,
and I'm going to walk you through their deck. Now
I tell stories with pictures, and this is Jim and
Jamie and you'll see here Jim and Jamie feels passive income, active, freedom, leverage,
build the rent, real estate, to buy back your time

(38:09):
and create a legendary family life. Now the framework is
the hero's journey. So we start out with adventure and
this guy is going to be presenting in front of
usually higher income they call them Henry's high earners. Not
rich yet is the business type? Okay, So there they are.
There's Jim and Jamie with their kids. They're all about

(38:30):
service and contribution. They have a home in Costa Rica.
Here in the middle you can see they're working with
kids on the street. They build homes. They adopted a
baby girl who had some brain issues. You can see
she's wearing a little helmet here as they're sworn in adopting.
And they wrote a book earlier called the Family Board Meeting.
You have eighteen summers to create lasting connections with your children.

(38:53):
So creating a legendary family life is his number one focus.
And you can live here someday today when you have
income producing real estate. So he's got a great stories.
The grandson of an immigrant, poor Irish and there's his father.
He gave his dad a kidney, so at this point
our heart strings are touched. And his dad always had

(39:13):
a dream that one day someday they'd all go on
this big family vacation together and they'd live, you know,
do things together. And it never happened. Well, here's where
we show. He's making over forty thousand dollars a month
in passive income from income producing real estate. And this
is his business. Okay. Now, if we would have started
out and he would have talked about buying a single

(39:35):
family or duplex or a quad, you'd be like, who cares,
there's a zillion you. But we started with Look, I've
got a really effective way to buy a home that
starts making you money right away, and then you learn,
as you know, we'd establish credibility, which is the next
part after we open up your heart. There's five steps

(39:57):
to get in there. He's got the passive income principles,
invest in these properties, roll the equity refinance, and we
just teach how to get there. So then we share
all the principles. But we started out with the story
of transformation, and then we teach. And by the way,
this is the book, it's the ten steps the principles.

(40:20):
So what I've found is every single person who's ever
lived who has a success story or transformation, and sometimes
they haven't even figured out what it is. They got
there with the journey. And every one of these is
a step. Everyone's a little video, everyone's a chapter in
a book, everyone's a little it can be a podcast.

(40:40):
You're just performing a story, just like Tony does. And
ultimately you know it's also bringing the family together too.
But you know what I do for a real job
in the background, that's all I do is build stories.
You know, we create businesses by telling stories. And after
doing it for myself for all lot long time, I
realized I love building and creating businesses. I hate running them,

(41:04):
don't like it at all.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
So I mean that was an incredibly powerful walkthrough. I mean,
just in real time, because this is the sense of
exactly what you're talking about. And so I like to
talk a little bit about I'm trying to measure the
amount of time we have here today to share with you,
and I want to hit a number of different areas.
So you touched on you know, when we have to
start building a team right as we're moving beyond the
solopreneur or even you know, maybe we have a team,

(41:27):
but we're still the CEO and the chief of marketing
and so forth, and head of sales, and so we're
starting to go beyond that a little bit, and we
need to start expanding our marketing team. And you talked
about compensation structures and folks getting everybody motivated and aligned,
But what about just those first steps, you know, I mean,
it seems like unavoidable. If we're going to be a founder, CEO, entrepreneur,

(41:49):
we have to learn enough marketing and to be in
the spirit of marketing and have our company infused with
good marketing. But I don't know that we need to
become somebody who could go hire us out as head
of marketing. But at some point we're going to have
to bring some of those folks into our team. We're
going to either have to train them up or we're
going to have to make the step of hiring somebody

(42:10):
with some skills. So what does that pathway look like
for the entrepreneur who's maybe you know, let's say he's
maybe he's gotten across seven figures on his own and
with a small team, and now he's going to try
to grow the thing, And it can be pretty scary
making those bists.

Speaker 1 (42:24):
First of all, you need an executive assistant or an
assistant to do what I call your monkey business, your
daily monkey business. Keep track of emails, scheduling appointments, you know,
follow up, follow through all that. And you know, I
have a specific target that I look for, which is
stay at home mom with kids who are over toddler age. Okay,

(42:46):
so they want freedom and family is important to them,
and flexibility, and you can also reward them by any
time they're setting appointments that lead to sales. The second
person you need as a commission only salesperson, and they's
someone who they're enthusiastic personal growth seekers. They're always interested

(43:09):
in their own growth and motivated by your message. So
I happen to find someone who did that. And then
from there the expansion is you need an operator. Now
i have my chief of staff. Her name is Abby,
and she's like the wheels that keep all everything together
all the time. And then from there, now I've got

(43:30):
a copywriter. Even though there's GPT, someone's got to be
doing this. I've got someone doing my social media. But
I just incrementally. You can start part time, but incentivize
them based upon performance. And I told you on the
way here, I created with GPT's help because I'm a
terrible operator. I hate it, but it's necessary. And I

(43:51):
created an upgraded compensation plan, which I really I mean,
I've run plenty of businesses, but if I had to
sit down with someone and consult with that, I'd be like,
I don't know what to do. And when I run
into challenges. Now I ask chat GPT and Perplexity is
another great AI tool, So I think in short, the

(44:11):
other biggest best thing I can recommend is you have
to join business masterminds. You have to be coachable all
the time. I've been with Dan Sullivan for thirteen years now.
I do a podcast with him. It forces intimacy. I
do a podcast with Kay Hendrix, who wrote The Big Leap.
You know, be around older, wiser people and hire people

(44:35):
who are team minded, who want to be part of
a family.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
I think that's really you know, getting to where you
start and you are laying in the steps right there.
So I think that's really important. And you know, you've
covered a lot of the tools we can be using.
You've shared just a lot of principles in here of
power to be a creator. And it still seems like,
you know, we have to be that creator at the
center of the machine. You know, we've got it, like
you said, you know, they have a studio, the tools,

(45:01):
and you know, maybe every morning when your brain is
on fire and at its best, you know, spend an
hour or two creating content, create, and then it sounds
like you're building a team to help deliver that.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
That's right, they are all the multipliers.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
Is there a point at some point when you can
bring more creators into a company.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
So.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
My creative director's names Elliott. He lives in Malaga, Spain.
He's sixty two years old and he's I've had six
creative directors over the past forty some years, and he's
brilliant and he can interpret my vision and make it
real in a way that AI can't. And also getting

(45:43):
together and joining masterminds. I can't recommend it enough because
I have mastermind partners. I'm in a ton of WhatsApp groups.
Anytime I'm stumped, I post an ask. I'm like, I'm
looking for who. Dan Sullivan had that book Who Not How,
which is a masterpiece. Every problem you've ever had can
be solved by it. Who And in the meantime, you

(46:04):
can talk to AI right now for free.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
So you know, I love the example you use of
that young couple, you know, and you told their story
of transformation and they're looking you know, they're dedicating to
helping other people. They adopted a child with some cerebral
brain issues. And you know, there are obviously people who
want to serve. They're focused on family, that's their goal.
And then so how do we have the freedom to
do that? Right? And I think most entrepreneurs, most of

(46:28):
the people in our audience, if you're what are you
really looking for? I think a lot of us are
looking for freedom for something right. Freedom to enjoy our life,
freedom to have more time dedicated to family, freedom to
lead a healthier lifestyle, freedom to not be trapped in
a livelihood where I'm just slogging away trading hours for dollars.

(46:48):
You know, I think that's what entrepreneurs are looking for.
And so what I hear your messaging is, you know,
we have so many tools available to us today to
create that freedom, and it really accelerated and leverage way
if we focus on the end goal. Because it's just
as easy to get yourself trapped in the complexity, you know,
and yoke yourself to something that's just you know, going

(47:11):
to wear your ouse. So how do you keep your
yourself focused on that north star of I'm in business
to create freedom for myself, financial security and wealth ton
abundance for my family, And how do I you know,
because it seems so daunting. The reason most people don't
become entreneurs is it just seems totally scary and adopting
and insecure and uncertainty, right, so it takes kind of

(47:32):
crazy people like us to do it in the first place.
But then how do you stay focused on the original goal,
which was freedom?

Speaker 1 (47:39):
Yes, freedom from and freedom too. How well are you, brother?
So here's what I do every single day. I'm hyper
disciplined despite the fact that I grew up I had
crippling ADHD. I still do. And my greatest fear was
of being poor and going backwards. And my dad grew
up very poor on a farm and eye my mom,

(48:01):
who just passed a week ago, grew up in absolute chaos.
My grandfather was an alcoholic and my grandmother was bipolar
and schizophrenic. Like I didn't come from anything, and I
watched my dad work his butt off for us four
kids and so, but he was so disciplined. He got

(48:22):
up every day at the same time, and he was
motivated to serve. He's a barber. He touched people for
a living. So I think I really believe that the
greatest motivator is that of service, and service delivers freedom.
And so I wake up every day and it's like,
what is a shortcut I can create and share with

(48:44):
someone that will deliver freedom too, and freedom from that
is what drives me to write. Is like writing a
book seem like an impossible task, and oh, he needs
one client, and you got to learn how to close.
You got to learn how to close deals and a
copywriting in salesmanship like that is an unavoidable skill set

(49:05):
that you can who out. But you know your best
salesperson is going to be you. And believe it or not,
the moment you cried to get your mother's milk or
some bottle, you became a salesperson. We're born to be.
We wouldn't none of us would be here if we
weren't good at selling. It's just getting past the illusion
that I can't do that and I'm not like that.

(49:27):
And that is an identity, that is your ego getting
in the way of your salvation. So I think that's
the mindset. And remember we started out with mindsets at
the very beginning of this and the only way to
maintain that mindset is to be in masterminds with other
founders and people just like us. To be to get
in a coaching program, I don't care what it is,

(49:47):
get a business coach who can hold you to a
higher standard. And what I find I do is I create,
Like that little exercise I did with you. I sat
on a plane a week ago with a six year
old girl who had lost her father three years before,
and she was watching me play with Ai, and she
said do you do AI? And I said, yeah, how

(50:08):
about you? You know, and her mom was sitting right there,
and we ended up creating a song and an animation
and a video and turned out she lived in San
Diego with me. But I walked away going wow, you know,
just imagine, you know, a sixteen year old girl, What
a beautiful thing. So again I just lived inside her brain.
I think compassion and empathy are the secrets to keeping

(50:32):
your drive.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
I got one last question for you. We're about out
of time here. In some ways you're talking about embedding ourselves,
but doing it from a place of authenticity, like discovering
our own real hero's journey and then finding a way
to really communicate that to the world in a really
authentic way. And our journey is always changing, and the
marketplace is always changing, and our business challenges are always changing.

(50:53):
And you know what was working, you know, last year,
last month, maybe not working anymore. That funnel was doing
great and suddenly it dies, right, So it's just quality
of having to needing to be willing to reinvent ourselves continually.
I always think of Madonna, who I think every five
years reinvented herself and would be back on a charge,
everybody said, or she's gone, she'd be back on a charge, right,

(51:14):
Just amazing at reinventing herself. And I wonder if you
could talk about that spirit of continually being willing to
reinvent yourself, to reinvent your company, to reinvent your marketing,
and just start fresh and go for it. And given
the creative tools that we have today, it seems easier,
but it still takes a certain spirit, a certain mindset
to do that.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
It does. So after I'll give you a short personal
story and I'll answer your question. But the story, i'll
answer the question, which is after I sold my fifth company.
And the real reason I sold all my companies is
because I outgrew them, and I also they outgrew me,
and I felt trapped so and I was fortunate enough

(51:52):
that I had created enough value that I could sell them,
which is a miracle in itself. But I was in
a dark place, like serious anxiety. On paper, my life
looked great from the outside. Inside I was in turmoil.
I couldn't sleep, I was having anxiety attacks, depressed for
the first time in my life, like genuinely, I was
looking for a truck to run into me. It was

(52:13):
that kind of like Hugh and something just eched. And
I asked Dan Sullivan for his advice, and he said,
do something. Sit down and talk to five or eight
entrepreneurs and do something called the doss with them, which
is a tool he created and it's dangerous opportunities and strengths.

(52:33):
He said, do a doss with them. Ask him these questions,
and he said, what you will do next will emerge
just from having those conversations. So it comes from a
place of service. Inside of that, I created my next business,
which I'm doing now. We call it the Superpower Accelerator.
All I do is reinvent founders. And I wrote a

(52:54):
book called Your Next Act, which was my own journey
step by step where I came up with the six ams.
So I think the power to reinvent comes from a
deep Sometimes it's a pain, sometimes it's a passion. Sometimes
it's absolute fear and some your traumas, but it's a
healing exercise that the universe. You don't get to decide that.

(53:16):
The universe decides it for you, and you get to
conspire with the universe or it's going to conspire against
you and I invent my next product. One of my
first clients was someone who heard me tell my story
that I just told you, and they're like, I'm exactly there.
I can't talk to anyone. This guy said, I'm worth
fifty million dollars and I'm suicidal. What's wrong with me?

(53:38):
I was like, oh, you just cried? You just he said,
can you hug me? I was like, turned into an
opportunity and turned into a business.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
Wow. Well, this has been absolutely illuminating. One of my
most interesting and creative, spontaneous interviews I've ever done for one.
So it's so exciting. I'm looking forward and we're gonna
have to have you on all our summits. So this
has been really illuminating, exciting, and there's so much juice
in here for everyone in our audience. So I really
encourage people to check out your work. Where can they

(54:07):
find out more about, oh, your work, what you're currently doing,
and so forth.

Speaker 1 (54:11):
Sure, well, I have some tools that will help them
now in their path. Because every time I have a problem,
I try to solve it for me, and then someone
else says, hey, I got that problem too, and I
turn it into a book. You know, It's like tell
a transformational journey. So I have a couple gifts and
I made links for you. Oh here, I'll start with
the first one. This is my book, The AI Accelerator.

(54:33):
So if you'll love the idea of working with AI,
even if you're a ranked beginner, just go to my name,
it's Mike Kaniggs dot com slash ai Fleet and you'll
get this book for free, and then videos demonstrating step
by step how to use it and some of my
best speeches. And then this is my book Your Next Act,
which is at Mike Kaniggs dot com slash y n

(54:56):
A fleet which is your Next Act Fleet, and they're
on the unload page. There's a place where you can
get my other two books. Well, I've got a whole bunch,
but the relevant ones. One's called referral Party, which we
didn't even talk about. But if you want to grow
your business with no marketing, it's doing what are called
referral parties where you just meet with someone, you ask
them what they're offering with the opportunity maybe I can

(55:19):
connect you with someone who will be a perfect client,
and they invariably say, well what are you doing? Can
I help you too? And it becomes a referral party exchange.
And the last one's called Punch the Elephant. It's my
book on how to sell high ticket products and services
with a phone conversation or a zoom. And you don't

(55:39):
even if you don't like to sell. It's how to
sell anything to anyone, even if you hate to sell.
That's the subtitle. So that's what I got for your fleet.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
Well, that's absolutely wonderful. And we're gonna have all those
links right there. You all just look right down. You
see all those links right now. And this has been amazing, Mike,
And that's such a joy, and.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
Well, it is a pleasure. The answer for you is
always yes. How's that?

Speaker 2 (55:58):
That sounds pretty good to me? And enjoy that beautiful
place where you are. I'm sure you are so all
the best. Thank you, my brother, Thank you, thank you
for joining me on the Radical Responsibility Podcast. Remember, real
change happens when we commit to our growth, face our
challenges with compassion, and stay open to transformation. If you
found this episode helpful, I encourage you to subscribe and

(56:21):
help us spread the message of healing and personal empowerment.
Stay grounded, stay present, and stay true to you. Take
care