Mike Koenigs: Media Man

Mike Koenigs is a serial entrepreneur, bestselling author, entertainer, and marketing wiz. Today on the EO Podcast, Mike dives into how he got into the tech business, marketing, and entertaining, and what drives him to make an impact in the world. Tune-in to learn how Mike interviews celebrities, where he finds his inspiration, and why he is no longer driven by fear.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:00 – Mike’s Background 01:04 – Mike is a serial entrepreneur, 13-time best-selling author, speaker, online personality, entertainer, 2009 Marketer of the Year winner, an entrepreneur filmmaker, product-creator, and a holder of a patent in cross-channel marketing technology 01:36 – He’s built and sold 2 businesses to publicly traded companies and he’s a philanthropist; he has raised over $2.4 million for the Just Like My Child Foundation and Girl Power Project 01:57 – Mike’s products simplify marketing for 50,000 customers in over 120 countries; his companies and products have grossed over $40 million and he’s produced 8 consecutive multi-million dollar product launches 02:14 – He’s been featured through various outlets and have interviewed, consulted, and advised celebrity clients 02:50 – His latest company is called You Everywhere Now and it helps entrepreneurs become business celebrity influencers 03:05 – He became an entrepreneur at 16 and a developer at 18 06:20 – Mike’s experiences while interviewing celebrities 06:26 – Tony Robbins: He’s a force of nature and is endlessly fascinating and fascinated; Mike’s wife says to be fascinating you have to be fascinated and ask good questions 07:27 – Celebrities often don’t have their own audience, they often don’t own their own presence; they don’t know direct response marketing, pitching, management 08:08 – Mike was impressed by Paula Abdul’s willingness to reinvent herself but was astounded by how often celebrities are stuck and prevented from doing things 09:50 – Celebrities work hard to hurdle obstacles and get their 10,000 hours in 09:57 – Dave Asprey also works hard and his company has evolved quickly; Mike invested in the friends and family round 10:30 – Mike’s thoughts on Tim Ferriss’ success 11:00 – In 2004(ish) Mike created the first information product ever created called “Everything You Should Know About Publishing, Publicity, Promotion, and Building a Platform” with Arielle Ford 11:27 – The product is her “brain dump” in one place, Tim had bought it and emailed Mike; he didn’t see it until after the book came out 11:44 – Tim is a “surgeon:” he surgically determined who he wanted to speak with, who owned relationships with them, and targeted the influencers that owned the media 12:30 – Tim’s first podcast was horrible but was willing to listen, get advice, and listen to the masters 12:51 – Tim has said that he wanted to influence the biggest influencers in the world and by focusing on one target audience who influences influencers, he’d have his market 12:30 – Now Tim can get anyone on his podcast and leverages the platform for his books; he is strategic, smart, and open about his depression 14:50 – “Tribe of Mentors” is Tim’s most recent book 15:17 – Mike’s formula for interviewing 15:23 – Time compression, wisdom compression, knowledge compression; he learns about the person by speed-reading their content 15:55 – He models great interviewers; the best interviewers do lots of research, ask heart-driven questions, and make the interviewee look good 16:40 – The goal is to get the interviewee to feel safe and authentic while still being entertaining 16:55 – He has a structured plan with a list of good questions here 17:48 – Cal Fussman on interviewing: “Start with the heart and move to the head.” 18:12 – To reach Mike send him an email at [email protected] 19:23 – What Mike attributes to his repeated success 19:40 – He’s terrified of failure; he didn’t recognize and understand his feelings and what drives him for a long time 20:02 – Backstory and psychology 20:15 – His father was a barber, grew up poor on a farm in Iowa, was the youngest boy, and was expected to take on the family farm 20:48 – He joined the army, had epilepsy, his father’s father was an alcoholic and his mother was bipolar 21:26 – Mike is the oldest of 4, they lived in Minnesota, his father had multiple jobs while he was growing up, and his parents thought technology was evil 22:11 – Mike knew he wanted to work with technology but the most common phrase in the house was “we can’t afford it” 23:03 – They always got everywhere “late and last,” so he knew when he grew up he wanted to be “rich, warm, and first” 23:30 –Mike learned to code early on, started consulting, and worked as soon as he could 24:09 – Mike partnered with someone who created films, he wrote video games, he learned more tech skills, and started the first interactive ad agency in the world called Digital Café in 1989 25:05 – They made video games for ad agencies “Chex Quest,” and made movie promos, websites, CD-ROMS, and got acquired by a billion-dollar ad agency 25:50 – They were acquired before the crash, what they built couldn’t be replicated so it was difficult 26:40 - His introduction into direct response marketing 26:45 – He developed software that did content distribution, got into mobile marketing, patented technology in that realm 27:08 – His drive was the fear of not having enough and running out; now his drivers are his 15 year old son and wife 27:45 – His wife’s non-profit: Just Like My Child Foundation 27:58 – His wife’s parents are holocaust survivors, she is a victim of abuse, she created a system to help girls in Africa; he is driven to raise money and make a difference 28:36 – Mike loves his customers and likes who they are and what they’re doing; “The universal language of peace is business and entrepreneurship” 29:12 – Connection between Mike’s success and his relationship with his father 29:30 – Story: His father apologized for not supporting and understanding what Mike wanted to do 30:40 – Mike does what he does because it’s honorable and responsible, he is no longer operating out of fear or a need to impress 31:07 – Tony Robbin’s quote: “The cause of human suffering: Loss, Less, Never,” and this is what drives humanity 32:10 – His fear was driven by “loss, less, never” 32:40 – The Mike Koenig’s Show and his studio 33:11 – When he sold his businesses he built his studio to start his own TV show 34:40 – He had no idea how much work and how many people it required 35:00 – They put the show on hold and he built the core of You Everywhere Now; the show elevated his brand, status, taught him a lot, and was fun 36:54 – Mike’s presence, preparation, and copy 37:48 – He practices, models others, and has bullets on a prompter 38:10 – The secret: Charisma, energy, and fall in love with who is on the other side 38:40 – He practices a lot, speaks a lot, and has failed a lot; Be enthusiastic and know your audience 40:23 – Make your life a great show that you’d want to watch: Alter Ego 40:47 – We are characters/actors 41:40 – Mike’s perspective on selfie-videos: Done vs. Perfect 41:50 – Whatever works best; as long as necessary but as short as possible 42:10 – If they are authentic, real, and present, that is what is important 43:03 – Dave Asprey on authenticity 44:00 – Practice 44:02 – A book as the best way to get your message out 44:30 – Books represents royalty, fame, fortune, wealth, and prestige 45:00 – Amazon search and value 45:53 – Mike’s bestselling books and his program 46:05 – How to get on the New York Times bestseller list 46:30 – How to get #1 Bestseller on all of Amazon; their goal is to be a category bestseller 47:02 – Amazon as the best partner and distributor; they produced software that searches and monitors book categories and the numbers needed to reach #1 47:45 – They give categories and can guarantee people become #1 in those categories; Once you are #1 you are #1 for the rest of your life and can leverage that 48:42 – Mike’s book and masterclass for the system: Publish & Profit 49:08 – The Publish and Profit Model 49:45 – Positioning yourself as a celebrity influencer is key; the system is a digital follow-along or a 3-day live event with step-by-step guidance and templates 50:10 – The book becomes a bestseller before it is written, he shares strategies and systems to get the content in a framework to create the book 52:50 – Mike is a cancer survivor: His book “Cancerpreneur” 54:00 – He was going through business and personal struggles and found that he had a large tumor that needed to be cut out 55:36 – He learned a lot about himself; he went through “soul-cleaning,” and “inflamed emotions” 56:15 – He feels responsible for helping others through their cancer journey; he made a Facebook live video to commit to have “Cancerpreneur” completed in 2 days 57:00 – The book was spoken to a friend going through cancer 57:55 – com and Dean Jackson’s 9-word email 58:10 – The 9-word email “Are you still interested in ...?” 58:43 – Mike doesn’t do business cards, instead he takes a picture with them texts it to them, follows up, and sends them an email to work together 59:10 – He began streamlining the process and closing deals; it became a 10-minute speech that he gave at Genius Network 59:50 – It’s a book filled with scripts to close deals using your phone; he deconstructs his own offers for readers to use themselves

Key Points:

To be a successful speaker you must be enthusiastic and know your audience. Share your message by whatever means works best; practice and be authentic, present, and real. A book is the best way to get your message out and gain credibility – and it doesn’t have to be a long, painful process.

Resources Mentioned:

Entrepreneur's Organization – The EO Network Mike’s Company – You Everywhere Now Tim Ferriss’ most recent book – Tribe of Mentors Interview Questions Resource - here Program and Book – Publish & Profit Mike’s latest book – Cancerpreneur Money Phone – Video and class here Genius Network