Michael Kawula - Self Employed King

BigValueBigBusiness.com
Michael Kawula
SelfEmployedKing.com
James: Alright, welcome back my friends to yet another edition of the Big Value Big Business
podcast. I am your host James Lynch. I am really big, big time super excited about my very
special guest today. His name is Michael Kawula. Michael comes to us from
selfemployedking.com where he helps ordinary, small businesses become extraordinarily
successful businesses using the very same strategies that have helped him build a $20,000 a
week local cleaning business and also he draws in his experience in selling over $10M in his
online business. So without further ado, I'd like to say hello to Michael Kawula and get the real
inside scoop. Michael, how are you doing today sir?
Michael: I am doing awesome today. How about yourself?
James: I am doing great, great. Thank you very much. I appreciate you coming on and man I
wanna just thank you for taking your time and I'm really excited to get down to some of the key
components that you know, you have used yourself and helped others to be successful both in
the online and in the offline business world. So does this sound like a plan sir?
Michael: We are ready to go.
James: Awesome. Can we get just a little history from you? I’d like to just find out like who
Michael Kawula is, was, where you came from and little bit about the journey that brought you
here to where you are today.
Michael: Once upon a time, way way back, you know it’s funny, I was always an entrepreneur
and it started at a young age. I remember I bought my first stock at 9 years old and that was
ToysRUs, ticker toy. I did that from savings from shoveling snow to typical lemonade stand, I
had a super duper lemonade stand. I sold the morning newspaper, bagels, coffee. I had a
regular crowd and I put it next to the bus stop. So I always had a tremendous amount of
business coming in from it. It was pretty cool.
James: Cool.

Michael: But so, you know I had that spirit and in high school, I started a business that you
know basically what we we’re doing is down to Jersey shore my family had a home and I used
to always hang out at the Marina and everybody was always complaining. On Sundays, oh we
gonna wash down our boats or on Fridays when they were coming down we gotta run to the
store to get the food and everything to load up the boat before they go out for the weekend. So
what I did was started a business and back then e-mail wasn’t as big and all the technology we
have today.
So people actually faxed me their orders or what they wanted and we would fill up the boat on
Fridays and on Sundays when they come back, I had a team of people who would clean up the
boats for them. It was a pretty cool business.
James: How old were you when you did this?
Michael: 17. I couldn’t even buy the booze that the people wanted to put on the boat. I had to
get somebody to do it for me. But I was making good money so I was able to kinda give me
them a vig and get them to go doing it. So it was pretty cool but then I moved on to multilevel
marketing company called Cutco so the thing is a pair of scissors that you can cut a penny with.
But you know it taught me a lot. It was funny too because when I started and I just got into
college, I thought I’m a terrible sales guy. I’m not gonna be good at this and I remember them
giving me like the ratios in the beginning of what a typical person would do the first couple of
months.
So I said to myself if I’m and you know, I had this low self-esteem, I’m like, I’m a terrible sales
person so I’m not gonna be that good so I need to make sure that I really set myself up to do
well. So what I did was ended up going into a very heavy Jewish community called Monsey New
York and there were a lot of folks who practiced and they were Kosher. So whenever they
bought something, they would always buy two. One would be a Kosher set and one would be a
non-Kosher set so I was selling these knives that were like $700, $800 and ended up, I was
pretty good at selling. I didn’t think I was but, you know I ended up doing really well but I was
also doubling all my sales because they always have to buy two.
So, you know it was cool and you know pretty soon I got to be like, you know, they offer you
the opportunity of opening up your own office and all of the stuff. But, you know, long story
short my mom at that time had said this isn’t a real job, this network marketing doesn’t work.
So I was, well okay but I was making good money. So I went and applied for a job at an
insurance agency in my town, Allstate Insurance and the guy was looking to kind of semi-retire
and he said, hey you know, I'll pay for you to go get your license and if you go get your license
you can kind of help me out here in the office and you know I like to golf during the day, blah,
blah, blah.

So I was like, okay. Well, within like a couple of months after getting my license I've gotten into
a couple of like this, you know big referral groups and you know in the mornings I would stand
out at home depot and hand out business cards and talk to other contractors and, you know, I
built this guy's business up, really big that he came back in and started working fulltime again
because he was making more money than he ever did before.
James: Wow.
Michael: But again I graduated college and my mom had said you know, you're not going to
work in the local town at an insurance agency. Everybody in our town goes and works in
Manhattan. So I went and, you know, I should have stayed there I mean because it was
awesome and this guy was making a boat load of money and I could have probably taken over
the office who knows but I went and got a job in the city and became a stockbroker. And you
know, stayed in the financed community until right around age 30 and then, you know, I
remember the day exactly, it was 9-10-2001, the day before 9/11.
And I found out I was having my first child. And my wife and I decided at that time that, you
know, that entrepreneurial bug was always in me that I would, you know, break away from that
job that you know, I was very addicted to that paycheck like I'm sure we all are. You know, that
consistent money coming in and I was making you know, high six figures so it was good. But,
you know, we decided at that time that I was going to head out and start my own business. And
that's when it all started. So you know, I just turned 30 and you know I bought my first franchise
and since then I've owned two franchises, started an online business and you have sold them
and now focused on Self-Employed King where I help small business increase their sales. So it's
a lot of fun. It's been a heck of a journey.
James: Wow and I usually start out in most folks don’t start up being the huge entrepreneur
that you were in your teens. And as you go well, you know, was there a time when you are
working for the man and decided that you didn’t want to do that and you wanted to turn to the
more of the entrepreneurial spirit that was deep inside. How did you manage to cover that up
for all that time? You know what I mean, you did such a -- so many killer things and then you
know, you went and finished college and with the advice of your mom, you went and got a "real
job" in the city.
How did you -- I mean, you must, you did well. I mean you're making, you know, high six
figures. But how did you keep that down there like the entrepreneurial spirit? How did you
keep that at bay for so long?
Michael: You know, if you ever saw the movie Boiler Room, you know, that was my first job, on
Wall Street. So it was, you know, it was crazy, crazy. You were making 500 cold-calls a day. But
at the end of the day, I ended up doing really well the first few months into it but I did not feel

good with really with the stocks that we were pitching, they were garbage. So I left the
company, went and worked, became a wholesaler, you know, for a mutual fund company. And
at that time they were looking to start an e-wholesaling desk. Basically where we could, you
know, get these brokers out there who are selling mutual funds to take a look at our mutual
funds a little bit more.
So one of them maybe just bought a small amount of our mutual fund, maybe 100 bucks or
whatever, next thing you know we would be on the phone with them and talking to them and
getting them to do millions of dollars in business with us. And what was neat was this was a
new thing at that time. And I, you know, I was able to kind of come in and help them build up
this department and, you know, our department did a billion dollars the year that I left. It was,
you know, from doing nothing to growing to doing over a billion dollars in sales.
It was huge. So it was that excitement however with that said, you know, the whole time, you
know, I was like a guinea pig because, you know, I did well. So anytime, you know, that the
company wants to try something I was the guy they would go to. And, you know, it sometimes
it would work and other times, you know, we were doing great and next thing I remember was
one project we did a hundred millions dollars and it was awesome. And they decided out of
nowhere to just, you know, close them and the idea and focus on something else.
And it was, you know, there was no rationale behind it but it was a corporate BS and you know,
and we just decided you know, I did at least. I can't deal with this anymore, the mental you
know, of giving your heart, showing up like, you know, average person would be there eight
o'clock in the morning, not Mike Kawula, I'm a workaholic, I've be there like, you know, six
o'clock in the morning and, you know, I wouldn’t leave at six o'clock and eight like everybody
else id be, there late that was just who I was to be treated like that consistently where, you
know, you're just like well, you know, I made the money, but I was a number at the end of the
day.
At the end of the day, you know, yeah, we don’t want to do this anymore but let's do this. And
it's like, what, are you insane but, you know, they’ve got shareholders to make happy and stuff
like that and I understood that. But they are just, I give people credit because some people look
at me and say, you know, God, entrepreneurship is crazy. And I look at them and say, I think
what you are doing is crazy because I can't do that. You know, I'm just -- I'm not built for that.
James: Yeah I know you did answer my question whether you knew it or not. It was -- they took
advantage of your entrepreneurial spirit and you placed the trail for that industry basically.
Michael: It was fun, yeah. I mean our department was awesome. We had great times but it
was, you know, it was new, it was exciting.

James: Yeah.
Michael: So yeah, I could take my entrepreneurial drive and put 100% into it but, you know,
just that the mind games, I wouldn’t be able to handle that.
James: Yeah, and you know, obviously you did the right thing. So then you went out and you
bought some franchises, maybe a cleaning franchise that seems to get what I'm reading or,
where did you go from there.
Michael: Well my first franchise actually, I was so addicted to that paycheck that what I ended
up doing was, I knew I mentally I needed income still coming in. I couldn’t just quit, even
though we had savings, I I couldn’t do it. So what I ended up doing was going and working for a
company, it was an internet company at the time and, you know, they had a sales department
that was made up of all these tech guys. That understood the product but, oh my God, they
would go into these meetings, you know, into these marketing departments and pitch the
product.
But they were so techie that they were never closing any business. So I would go in and kind of
dumbed it down because I'm not that techie, but you know, I knew what they needed which,
you know, to answer to their bosses. So, you know, I went in there and I was -- what I was able
to do is work much less and create my own schedule. So I started looking at all these
businesses, I looked at a car wash, or batting cage facility, a bagel shop, I mean, I was looking at
everything. And I had so many problems trying to buy a business. That I ended up, you know,
looking at franchising and I found this franchise that you could walk people through a
methodical process and basically help them buy a franchise. So it's a franchise helping people
buy franchises.
James: I love it, love it.
Michael: And I figured, you know, let me buy this because it was only around that just was
under $50,000 but I figured if I help enough people, I could learn about all the different models
out there. And I knew I was an okay sales guy. So I said you know, I make my money back. I can
do this, you know, part time, build up the business but I was fortunate because, you know, I
cold-called three outplacement firms In the New York area, some big ones and I got myself into
them that I was able to go and deal with people that just got let go from corporate America
who had big severance packages and didn’t want to go back in the corporate America so I
ended up getting a lot of business which was cool.
But, you know, it was one of those things that you were trading time for, you know, for money
basically. It's -- you know, I had to be working in a -- and if I want to walk away, I wouldn’t be
able to because you know, you couldn’t annuitize that type business. So, you know, I kept

looking and looking and eventually I saw that the cleaning business kind of matched my goals
and objectives which was, you know, build it up, put managers in a place and you know at that
time I thought I'd be able to kind of step away from it and let managers run it. But three years
into it, when I started doing that I learned that it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.
James: To let other people run it?
Michael: Yeah, it was…
James: Yeah.
Michael: You know, I started it in 2005 and then 2008 I started an online company and, you
know, I kind of stepped away a little bit, it was, you know, into the online a lot more and you
know, I'm still in the same office but I was down the hall and you know, kind of behind closed
doors all day and what I noticed is in three years, I built it up to a seven-figure business. But as I
stepped away, each year like 2009, 2010, 2011, the sales started to drop and the quality of my
company, the name that I had in the local -- you know, in the local area at the Jersey shore,
wasn’t the same as it was when I had started it because, you know, at the end of the day, it's,
you know, no disrespect I loved all my cleaners and everything like that.
But you know, it's a high turnover business. I went through 250 plus W2's a year. You know, it
was just, you know, that some of folks that you got in there were rotten apples that, you know,
would cause a lot of headaches for you as an owner and managers just would never give it the
same 100% as you would as an owner. So, you know, it's just, you know, where our sales start
to drop and, you know, in 2011 I decided to put it up on the market and sell it. Well it was still
worth a lot and, you know, kind of focused more in my online company at that time because we
had just gotten ranked by Inc Magazine things were going good.
James: The online company had just gotten ranked by Ink?
Michael: Yeah, we were ranked the 144th fastest growing company.
James: Wow, was that your current -- the…
Michael: No, this was a company called Discount Cleaning Products. And basically in 2008 when
the economy was sucking wind, all the other franchisees that I was, you know, always talking
with were complaining that, you know, prices were going up for supplies but, you know, like
everything and but the business was drying up. So, you know, because people are being let go
and you know, cleaning is more of a disposable type product that if you don’t have the money,
you're not going to do it.
James: Sure, sure.

Michael: Actually, you clean yourself. So, you know, all these guys were complaining. So I said
hey, let me ask you this. If I was able to get the price back down for you, would you guarantee
that you would shop through me? They said yes so I ended up getting to do what I always do,
pick up the phone, started cold-call and went to some, you know, conferences, made some
relationships and struck up a deal with Hoover Orec Vacuum and all of the big brands out there
that, you know, if I bought in large quantity but I was able to convince them to drop-ship for me
that they would, you know, keep a price that was attractive to everybody.
And, you know, I started the business. And, you know, I started out in the beginning just
cleaning companies, going to churches, hospitals, hotels and next thing you know, everybody is
saying, well can you get me office supplies? So I ended up going to the people that Staples buy
from which is a company called the United Stationeries. And, you know, when you get a
product in the mail from Staples, it's actually not coming from Staples, most of the time it's
coming from United Stationeries. So I was, you know, right away able to order I guess it was
close to hundred thousand different office supplies. I was able to now offer to my customers
and the business just blew up. So, 2011, you know, we got ranked by Ink Magazine and, you
know, in 2012, it was ranked 144th fastest growing company which was awesome.
James: Wow and it's amazing how you took one opportunity and piggy backed another
opportunity on each one where you started with franchises and showing people how to
purchase a franchise. You had a paid education where you could look at all the franchises, learn
the ins and outs, what's good, what's bad and then you moved from there, you purchased your
franchise, the franchise resonated with you and you built it up to this huge business.
Unfortunately, you couldn’t let is self-sustain itself with management but even with all that
going on, you are able to carve out another niche for yourself with the supplies and break
records in the, you know, and make a name for yourself. That's fantastic.
Michael: Yeah, it was pretty cool.
James: Absolute fantastic, yeah.
Michael: But trust me there was a lot of headaches and a lot of, you know, it was a
rollercoaster, I mean up and down and we had our account -- I had literally almost went out of
business in 2000 right before 2010 because we were growing so fast. And I was naïve and this
was all new to me. So yeah, I'm one of those people that believes in, you know, imperfect
action beats perfect inaction.
James: Sure.
Michael: So flip the switch, just figure it out…

James: MVP, minimum viable product.
Michael: And go with it, right baby?
James: Right, right.
Michael: So that's what it's all about but, you know, we were growing so fast and what ended
up happening was, you know, once a month when I would have to pay all my vendors and the
credit card, I would move the money out of Paypal. So I would keep it the whole month and
what ended up happening is, two weeks, three weeks until a month, they had about $200,000
in change sitting on my Paypal account, you know, I went to log in, I was locked out.
James: Okay, is it, oh…
Michael: That day and I'm like, they froze my account.
James: Oh…
Michael: Oh yeah.
James: So many people, I hear that happening too, my goodness.
Michael: And here is the thing, here is what, you know, and I don’t know if you’ve ever heard
what they make you do when they freeze your account?
James: No.
Michael: Well, they make you actually print out every invoice and you have to -- you can't mail
it to them, they want you to fax to them. Well, I needed the funds because, I was just, you
know, an idiot I waited to the last minute. I didn’t know that this could happen. So I needed the
money and they said no, you have to fax it. Well, they wanted every PO that I had for the last
that matched up with pretty much all of the Paypal things for the last 30 days. Well, that was
over 4000 pieces of paper.
James: Oh my goodness.
Michael: Okay. So me and my assistant are in my office, I had the cleaning people at night
helping me out that week and we faxed everything that I remember and that Monday when I
called the rep which everybody out there listening, if you are starting a business and you're
doing okay, you have your own individual Paypal rep. Most people don’t know it until
something, until, you know, the SHIT hits the fan, you have your own rep. When I called my rep
that I just found out that I had and, you know, starts speaking to them, they're like, oh no, the
fax didn’t come through.

I mean, do you know what that was like? That's all night faxing that many pieces of paper, you
know, it just -- it doesn’t happen. I'm like, this doesn’t make sense. I had to do it again and, you
know, eventually what ended up happening is I had to tap some of my cash resources and, you
know, pay up my vendors and the credit card but it took a while and after that I learned that,
you know, stay in touch with Paypal and, you know, move your funds as fast as you can, you
know, don’t leave too much sitting in there and, you know, that was just one of the many
things, you know.
I tried so many things. I thought I was good, so good that I tried warehousing. And, you know, I
had a warehouse and stocked it up with stuff and we had, you know, probably around six
figures going in and out of this warehouse every two weeks. But, I had never run a warehouse.
We knew nothing about inventory management, new nothing about when our freight truck
comes in and deliveries that you should check what, you know, they deliver. So, you know, we
were just paying out Hoover and, you know, paying all of our manufacturers that were shipping
stuff to us but we were never auditing what was delivering. And, you know, long story short,
eventually we figured out that we were paying for stuff that was never delivered at that time.
James: Oh no.
Michael: And other times things were damaged and we were responsible because we signed
off forward and, you know, you just learn all the stuff. And, you know, we were doing good but,
you know, I learned a lot. I bought a container stuff from China once just thinking, you know,
hey I sold a little bit of stuff. I did good, I was like let me go buy it myself. I went direct to China,
bam, bataboom, get it here in the US, get a cease desist… from As Seen on TV that I'm not
allowed to sell this, life, you know, hey I wanted to quit. But, you know, I went home, I thought
about it, I did, you know, did some mind set stuff that I do and, you know, the next day I came
back and I had all my cleaners and then we stripped in the boxes and sold the parts and we
made even more, go “F” yourself to them. You know, you just have to think of it.
James: Fantastic. Fantastic. No and I was going to ask you like usually and I try to have some
kind of flow to the conversation. It's when I don’t know what to say next. So, and I usually, you
know, we heard all the good stuff and I called out all the good stuff in about this, so tell us
about the challenges you had. So that is, you took care of that for sure but how do you turn
that around? That's freaking awesome, yeah, like yeah okay we'll break it down, we sell the
parts and, you know, we will make even more.
Michael: That time, and that week alone was probably one of my worst week. My cleaning
company had just had a -- I was contacted by the state because a customer was missing
$10,000. You know, as an owner, I had to go in New Jersey when over $5000 is stolen from
somebody, you have to do a lie detector and it's done by the state police. Well, if anybody has

ever done a lie detector, it's not like what it is on TV. You have to sit there for three hours. I'm
an antsy person, for me to sit down for three hours, virtually impossible.
And all of my cleaners ended up passing with flying colors and the homeowner wouldn’t take
the test themselves so everybody thought it was insurance fraud but, you know, it's just like
that happened, this happened, you know, it was -- you know, it's that entrepreneur, you know,
things just happen. You got…
James: Sure.
Michael: I always tell people as an entrepreneur you have to be comfortable with being
uncomfortable. If you can’t, then you know, that you're going to have problems being
successful. Well if you can just learn to be uncomfortable with, you know, or be comfortable
with being uncomfortable, you're going to do okay.
James: Yeah, living on the edge, well, outside the comfort zone, a lot of guys that I talked to,
it's -- that's where they make the biggest strides as you just got to live outside the box just a bit
and get out of your comfort zone. It's the only time when you're stretching yourself.
Michael: Definitely.
James: Wow, so tell us when you turn the corner. You’ve hinted about some online businesses
that you have. I mean you’ve got some great success going on with the selfemployedking.com
and you're helping so many people find their way, a small business, small, medium, large
business alike. So tell us when you turn the corner from say the franchise working, managing
folks to actually being online and helping people get their, reach their own dreams.
Michael: Well, you know, before Self-Employed King, it was again 2011 when I just decided I'm
done. You know, the service level business is phenomenal. I will tell you most people don’t
realize but the service industry, I actually at that time was making more money in the service
industry than I was doing five million dollars plus online that year. So, you know, but people just
don’t get that. So a million dollars in a service business versus five million dollars in 2000, at the
end of 2010 and beginning 2011, my online company was growing, we were doubling and
doubling, it was good. But you still made more in the service business but the headaches are
just, you know, incredible.
James: These people in process.
Michael: Yeah.
James: There are so many moving parts.

Michael: You know, and that's just not who I was and, you know, when I made that decision to
sell, I had the online company. I have to say it was doing really well. In 2012, I started, you
know, blogging, I guess kind of like a lot of folks do, 2013 and just kind of like sharing, you
know, basic growth principles. Yeah, again, I'm an online guy right now but I believe in a lot of
offline strategies to grow a business, huge with networking, I believe folks should be out there,
striking partnerships as much as possible. You know, also I started sharing ideas and they were
resonating with everyday small business owners, you know, next thing you know I was talking
to people and doing kind of what we're doing right, just jumping on a call and, you know, things
were going good.
And, but I wasn’t charging for it. I was doing a lot of mentoring in New York City at startups and
just trying to kind of give back to everybody and I enjoyed it. And 2013, I had a partner in my
online company and he and I sat down. I flew down to Atlanta and I was looking to take the
business in a different direction. I really want to kind of make it to make it what I wanted and
had to be doing at least $50,000,000. And we needed to make some changes and my partner
didn’t want to, he also didn’t want to sell the company.
So we struck a deal where he was able to kind of buy me out of it and you know, I could focus
on this which is the Self-Employed King and, still tweaking with models all the time. I do a lot of
coaching right now. It's long term not, you know, the business that the Self-Employed King will
be. I have a mastermind group where folks kind of, you know, pay a monthly membership and
then we turn, you know, I do coaching to a group. So everybody benefits. I've got technical
support in there for folks. So that's more of the model more of the direction I'm taking the
business long term.
But, you know, I enjoy everyday just, you know, dealing with my customers and helping them
out with different, you know, strategies or systems. I mean, a lot of times I think people are
doing the right things in the business but they just -- you know, that they're kind of
disorganized. They don’t have a system in place to kind of measure what they are doing and
kind of focus more on the things that are going well and you know, get rid of those things that
aren’t doing as well and that what I do with folks right now.
James: So it's safe to say it's mostly small business owners and the like that you're helping out?
Michael: Yeah, most of them are I mean I have some so tech startups but, you know, a lot of
them to the ones I work with I have capital in the company, you know, and I'm the adviser of
them but it's, yeah I enjoy working with everyday entrepreneurs, you know, just folks that I
work with some internet entrepreneurs who, you know, just looking at ways to monetize their
businesses to, you know, our local cross-fit gym that, you know, just needed some help and,

you know, I'm able to help and it's fun, it's awesome actually because it just comes natural to
me.
And, you know, I get passion and joy out of it. So, you know, and that's kind of the direction I'm
trying to focus on, is making sure everything that I do is truly enjoyable because from a mindset
standpoint, you know, I don’t want to stress my life anymore. I've got young children and I want
to enjoy my time with them.
James: God bless you. I absolutely -- I love that. That's a great story and a great segue. Tell me
if you were to give my listeners again consists of small business owners, maybe consultants that
you speak with and try to help small business kind of get online. What would be, it's a noisy,
noisy world out there. Highly social and getting more and more social and where networking is
important everyday. What would be the number one takeaway you'd advice my folks to kind of
focus on to try to bring their business to the next level being it an online business?
Michael: The first thing I would do would be to shut off your computer and go sit somewhere,
in the mountains, go sit on the beach, go do something away from your computer and think
about people who are already speaking to whoever it is that you want to do business with. And
find a way that you can strike up a mutual beneficial way of partnering with these folks. So
that's the way to build a business rapidly, trying to do it and like what you said is a noisy
environment right now online and so much noise being thrown left and right.
And there is a lot of good stuff too. I don’t want to call -- you know what I mean, it's good noise
that it's, you know, it's like being in a, you know, at the game and your team is winning and
you're hearing lots of stuff it's great and it's a lot of fun but step away from the computer
because you need to form partnerships, you need to join, you know, people come joint
ventures, whatever. Just think of something that is mutually beneficial in a way that you can
work with somebody because in my opinion, that's one of the fastest ways that you can grow
business, number one.
Number two, you need to be building a list, an email list and they, you know, sharing good
quality stuff with those folks on a regular basis not consistently pitching whatever it is that you
sell or have. You know, provide value to them and systematize your online presence. You know,
don’t -- it's hard, you know what I mean like, because whoever you follow on Facebook or
Twitter or whatever, if you followed them for, you obviously like them for some reason, right?
So if you sit down and look at your newsfeed, you're going to be sucked into it especially with
the way people write copies now, today, right? I mean…
James: Yeah absolutely.

Michael: There are some copywriters out there so you're hearing the magic secret to double
your business in six months.
James: Yup.
Michael: Okay, click all the way, click on this and this and next thing you know, you know, two
hours just went by.
James: Down the hole.
Michael: God, you're never getting that back.
James: Right.
Michael: Step away from your computer, you get on the phone, get even if you are online
person, you should be networking on a regular basis. I mean, I have met some great people in
New York, I'm moving to Florida, I've been going down and meeting with people and just
networking and, you know, we can all help one another and we can do a better job of it when
we do what you and I are doing right now, talking. You know, person to person versus, you
know, back and forth. And then if you're going to use online, use it more for engagement.
I have a video on my site that shows people how to get social media done in 15 minutes a day
and I really believe you can and spend the rest of your day engaging with people, those
relationships and find a way to get them on the phone or, you know, an email so you guys can
start talking back and forth, you’re going to grow your business that way and not going to grow
and trying to compete with everybody online.
James: It's the same Mike because you and I met, I believe we started the social media, we
started and we moved to your blog and left a comment and you checked me out, I checked you
out and let's get on the Skype call and just talk and here we are.
Michael: Exactly right, and, you know, I mean, you're -- now I know you and I can -- we have a
relationship and, you know, we'll grow from here and that's the way things go. It's a noisy
environment and you said it the best way there. It's very noisy. So try to find a way to build, I
think, you and I were talking before this, I told you everyday I get emails from people to say
thanks, blah, blah, blah. Last week, you know, I got another email and this was last night but
somebody had sent me something and I love the story, it's called helpareporterout.com.
James: Yes.
Michael: However, so it's phenomenal. I recommend it to everybody. So last week, you know, I
did this huge blog on it, it got a lot of publicity but this one lady had this question, you know,
and she asked me a question on Twitter or engaged and, yeah, whatever, you know. So I ended

up saying listen, let's get on a call. And let me spend 10 minutes with you and I will get you
comfortable with this because you want to give up on it. Well, she ended up telling me, she
sent this long email last night, thank you, blah, blah, blah, boodaboom. She got into -- what site
was it? Monster.com. She's an HR coach. She ended up getting into Monster.com, what a
powerful link to have and what a way now for people to actually come back and see her.
Because she was already to give up on it but what I do, I engaged with her, I didn’t get anything
back. I don’t need anything from her.
James: Sure.
Michael: Yeah but I just, you know, I built a relationship and, you know, I can use that maybe as
a testimonial. So yeah, I got something back I guess but, you know, I don’t know but she said,
you know, what can I do for you? And that's what, you know, give to people, build
relationships. We're all online people today but try to get offline and talk to these people.
James: Yeah and you probably just told to pay it forward.
Michael: Exactly.
James: Just, that's the kind of guy you are.
Michael: Yup.
James: How did she get -- what was -- she got her link on Monster so she is actually there for
folks to reference?
Michael: Yeah, Monsters blog.
James: Oh at the blog, oh…
Michael: She's on there.
James: As it gets…
Michael: Monster.com has a blog.
James: Yeah.
Michael: And so she is -- yeah, so she on there’s which is -- what a powerful link there, back to
years exactly.
James: Wow, that's cred -- that's definitely credibility.
Michael: Yeah.

James: Yeah. Hey let me switch gears for a second. I kind heard you say, it's almost like you're
reading my mind here but I heard you say something about, you know, I'm at home, you know,
I got my head straight. I did some mindset kind of stuff. I always ask and I'm so interested to
hear what you do that kind of particular rituals for productivity accountability maybe just to
keep your head straight and keep you moving in the right direction. How do you feed your
mind?
Michael: Well once a morning, I stand upside down and no I don’t but it's the first thing…
James: I was writing it down.
Michael: The very first thing I do everyday, like all of us is I turn on my phone when I roll over
from bed and I have no alarm. I'm just a morning person but I look at my phone and I have an
email that's sent to me every morning at five o'clock and in it is affirmations and whether
you're for or against affirmations indifferent, it's -- I've got motivational videos in this email and
it's sent everyday same email just comes to me. It's a huge thing. So if I feel like watching a
video or if I feel like reading affirmations, if I feel like reading inspiration quotes, the very first
thing everyday I start is 10 minutes of just reading through and saying, hmm, that's pretty cool
and it's huge and I keep adding to it.
So it's the same email and set -- you know, find something that's you, it could be inspirational
pictures, it could be whatever. But always start your day off positive, you have to and always
before you go to bed, think about what went wrong because we all have garbage in our lives,
there is no doubt about it but here is the thing, I don’t know if you want to know if you want to
know my favorite but I'm going to give it to you anyway.
James: Sure.
Michael: The Power of the Subconscious Mind by Dr. Joseph Murphy and here is the thing,
during the day, you have conscious thoughts. Your conscious thoughts feed your subconscious
mind. Now, when you go to bed at night, your conscious mind shuts down but your
subconscious is very wide awake and it's going and going and going and your subconscious
mind is the thing that creates the realities that we have in our life scientifically proven. So, if
you go to bed and say, I had a crappy day or this happened or that happened. And you're
feeding your mind with, you know, money issues which is a top, you know, common thing for
everybody in the beginning, right, when you're starting off as an entrepreneur you got money
issue.
So now you're like shit, how am I going to make money, so that's first. How am I going to make
money and now you're feeding your mind with that if you're like, you know, Secret of a
Millionaire Mindset, same thing, he talks about it too. You cannot feed your mind that way. So

try to be grateful and think about the things that went well in that day just two or three things.
Maybe you keep a gratitude journal whatever it is but…
James: Sure.
Michael: Think about it, feed your mind, go to bed, wake in the morning, feed it with some
good stuff. Then when I turn on my computer, first thing that I do is I go to -- and I can share it
with you if you'd like, it's a -- you know, I created interest on Facebook and I go into this thing
and I just look at it and in there, it's just all positive pictures that starts scrolling by. You know,
some of them, you know, affirmations, some of them are, you know, that they're just all these
different things but I read through them and I look at these things and my day starts off very
positive. So within 30 minutes of the day, I have all this good stuff and some of it I'll share also
on social media because I'm getting that done.
But then I go right into my social media for the day and I get it done within 15 and 20 minutes
max. So it's pretty cool, but, that when you say mindset, you’ve got to be feeding your mind
with good stuff. We're all going to have that garbage in it, it just happens it's reality but very
important that you start your day off right and end your day right.
James: So you have an hour workout, a mental workout?
Michael: It's not a combined hour but it's starting my day…
James: Yeah, yeah.
Michael: Ending my day and then I do a step away and do working out. I eat right, I mean, a
year ago most, a year April, I started the paleo diet, cut sugar out of my life. I feel better than
ever and I didn’t need it because the weight, because I'm skinny but I needed it because of that
entrepreneurial ADD that we all have. You know, my mind is moving so fast all the time that
now I'm actually able to concentrate a lot better and I do feel a lot of better too.
James: Fantastic, so physical and mental working out. Yeah, I love those and I'm definitely a
student, you're speaking the right language. I'm definitely a student of the, just subconscious
and I so believe in that. And I'm going to ask you again, there are so many books on the Power
of the Subconscious Mind but you said Joseph Murphy?
Michael: Dr. Joseph Murphy, The Power of the Subconscious Mind. You know, I'm sure you’ve
read T Harvs book also, he equates to some of that same stuff I don’t go get it at the library and
don’t download out in Kindle, Power of Subconscious Mind, actually buy it because it's kind of
like a Bible in a sense that its broken down into -- did you ever read the book Rework?
James: I have not.

Michael: Okay, it's awesome. It's from 37 Signals but, you know, every chapter is only like two
or three pages. Well that's the same thing with the Power of the Subconscious Mind. So let's
say you have real estate problems, you can go to like the real estate section and just two or
three things that it teaches you what to say to your mind before you go to bed and it walks you
through this process. So if you're having money problems, if you're having relationship
problems, whatever it is, you turn to that chapter and you read what you should tell your mind
before you go to bed. And the **** stuff works, I’m telling you buddy it works, Power of the
Subconscious Mind by Dr. Joseph Murphy.
James: Got it, got it, got it, I love it. Thank you so much for that. One other thing we talked
about networking and masterminds. What is your preferred -- where does Mike go for his
inspiration from other -- where do you network at your level? Who do you listen to, what do --
with that?
Michael: Okay. So a lot of what I do with networking is actually with people outside of my
business. So although I do, you know, a fair amount inside of my, you know, with the online
world and, you know, entrepreneurs, I tried to also go to different things. I'm a big proponent
of MeetUp.com. So I go to MeetUp.com. I go to, you know, I am a mentor at leanstartup. So,
you know, I go and I mentor for the weekends there which is pretty cool. But, I'll go to these
things, I go to, you know, look for some co-working spaces maybe, also because a lot of co-
working spaces have very cool networking events and they're free, also.
So, but I go to these things. I go to, you know, MeetUp.com and I try to say, hmm, this looks
pretty cool. And I go and, you know, just walk up to people and start talking to them and, you
know, I always ask people, you know, who is perfect referral? You know, if I could refer you the
best person in the world, who would that be that would make your life better or your business
better. And, you know, by hearing that, then enough times, I can help people.
James: And yet, and you're not saying, hey, what are you -- hey, who are you, what do you do,
what can you do for me?
Michael: Exactly.
James: You're saying, hey, nice to meet you. If I were to bring you the most perfect customer,
the perfect prospect, what would that person look like?
Michael: That's it.
James: Oh that's fantastic how you flip that and just -- you're giving rather than just going to
these things and taking. I love that.
Michael: Because you know what they're always going to ask and ask.

James: How about you?
Michael: Exactly, right? So and I'm actually, you know, I guess maybe call me an idiot but, you
know, I'm humble and as I've gotten older and what have you, I just -- you know, I don’t -- you
know, I don’t like to get before I give and give. That's just me. So, well, you know, I like to make
sure that I can give a lot. If somebody gives something to me, they'd better watch out because
they're getting 10 times more back. You know, that's just the way but fun.
James: Fantastic and I've been looking at and I've got to get out there to these meet ups and
there’s tons of after hours stuff out there that I have to put some links actually in the show
notes for the show in addition to, you know, everything else you talked about, of the meet up
groups and just meeting like-minded entrepreneurs and talking with them and just not for
anything else, not looking for clients but just to get another person's perspective on just the
whole state of the way things are going right now just to talk.
Michael: Yeah, 100% and guess what…
James: Face to face.
Michael: Face to face, belly to belly and a lot of times talk to your competitors because there is
always ways that you can build with one another. I mean if you are -- let's say if you do web
design, well go and talk to the bigger web designers out there, and you know what I get, I bet
you if you were to position yourself correctly, you could get some of their overflow work. You
know, so if you're new in the business, you know, you'll get that business. And as you grow then
you can help somebody else new starting out.
I mean it's just network with the people in your business but definitely also step away and try to
network with people outside of your industry because you meet great people and that's the
way you also expand because, you know, who -- James Rohn says it that your net worth is your
network and it's true.
James: Yup, yup, yeah you're the average sum of the five people you hang with or something
like that.
Michael: And that's true too. I mean, 100%.
James: Yeah, yeah, totally, totally, totally. Hey listen, what as we just wrap things up, tell us
about any current projects you have going on and, you know, how we can find you like what are
you concentrating right now?
Michael: Well, I'm building up my mastermind group basically that's at the
SelfEmployedKing.com, it's called the Self Employed Kingdom. And that's really my focus. I do a

lot of coaching right now one on one but I'm trying to give more towards the mastermind
where I can, you know, kind of to a huge amount of people in there and everybody can kind of
gain from that knowledge all together. Yeah, I charge a monthly membership, it's $39, it's cheap
but I've got my tech team in there so they can help people out and they answer the technical
support folks questions, you know, if they have WordPress problems or what have you.
I'm building a backend system. If people want to work done for themselves, that's really a big
focus of mine. I have partnered with some, I'm a big proponent of partnering. I know I have said
it a lot but reaching out to people like who have, you know, business licenses where they have
people underneath them working kind of like multilevel networking and I work with some MLM
people but I support all of their folks and I have these backend systems then that they can get
the technical support. So, you know, I have a membership fee coming in but then I have that
backend fee also coming in for the bigger work that they need done.
So, that's really my focus and, you know, enjoying my time with my family and moving to
Florida in June, so pretty pumped.
James: Fantastic, fantastic. Okay, give us the digits, I see your phone number here, I see
SelfEmployedKing.com, tell us how we can find you on Facebook, Twitter and how my folks can
say hello to Michael Kawula.
Michael: Well, definitely visit my site, SelfEmployedKing.com. I write a killer blog post once a
week, that's not mine but it's information I share from folks I interview. So I interview 50 to 100
folks a week about a topic and then I put it together and put it up on my site and that it's
always awesome, awesome. Check it out, but my phone number is right on my website, why, I
know a lot of folks will, you know, for whatever reason don’t do that, call me, text me, have a
question, this is the people business, everything in life. So, I want folks to reach out. You can
email me at Mike@SelfEmployedKing.com and if you visit my website, everything is right there,
my Twitter, I'm huge with Twitter, I love it, I Tweet constantly, good content and, you know, if
you’ve got a question or whatever, if something resonated with you here, ping me, ask me a
question, I'm happy to help.
James: Michael Kawula, you’ve been a gentleman, a scholar and wealth of information. Thank
you so much for coming on the podcast today sir.
Michael: You are awesome yourself sir and I look forward to building our relationship with one
another. It's really been awesome getting to know you.
James: Absolutely, same here sir. I look forward to it. And we'll talk to you again soon.
Michael: Take care.

Michael Kawula - Self Employed King

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