The Mike Project and Stacking the Bricks | Multithreaded Income Episode 15

And yeah, it's just a good time. So having Mike on the podcast was inevitable because He has done so much that he is just, he just doesn't talk about publicly very, very often because he is killing it and he would never say that to you that he is killing it in so many ways. I actually think in the podcast, he was so good about going, yeah, well, I had this success and I had that success and it's all right. So, but I'm on to this new thing and he's just such a humble guy. I love him to death.

I want to start the conversation actually talking about Mike and I think Mike made a comment. In the episode that he calls everything he does project Mike and so if he's working on a project, it's working towards project Mike and I, I kind of like that concept and he used a term in describing project Mike called stacking the bricks and. Sean, Chad, have, have you ever heard the term stack in the bricks,

There are always get rich eventually, if you do the proper things and stacking the bricks is kind of that process of you do little things that eventually build the wall that becomes your, your product or the, the thing that you're most known for. So. If I'm building a product for selling coaching and knowledge for starting a side business, one of my bricks might be starting a podcast and another brick might be starting a YouTube channel.

Another one might be starting to write articles on things that my. Listeners and my readers, my followers, my community would care about that's a brick and then you eventually go and start adding other bricks. Well, let me add a coaching program where I can work with people directly and teach them the things that I know and help them in whatever ways a brick.

Actually, before that might be start a challenge, so do a challenge series where you just get people engaged and see what's in their heads. Uh, there's other parts of 35 by 500 that include like the sales safari where you go off into your communities and find out what their pain points are and then you try to figure out how you can address those pain points in various ways. And I know what you're probably out there thinking. What is 30 by 500 mean?

And the concept there, if I'm saying this correctly, I believe I am, is that can you find 500 people to pay you 30 a month? And that if you were able to do that, that'd be. 15, 000 reoccurring revenue every month. And that's a livable wage for most people out there, I would assume. And you can just grow from there. So that's kind of the idea of stacking the bricks. Uh, John, does, does that make more sense?

almost intentional about kind of stepping back sometimes and looking at all the different things I'm doing that are the different threads of, you know, income or just even non income threads, threads of education and continuous learning.

He mentioned that how side projects to him are kind of like continuing education in this uncredentialed job of software engineer, you know, where in some other careers they have to actually do continue education, we have to make the choice to do continuing education. And it's all part.

Of this larger project that we're working on that could eventually become the next thread, the next big project, you know, all the things that you've maybe done independently, starting to see those maybe a line, something you've learned from it, something that you're now finding that could be just one degree of separation from the other and just. The, the next set of income that you're looking to go and achieve.

And I've heard it many times said to me, I've said it probably many times, how everything we do, we, we, it's not win or fail, it's win or learn. Right. And so many times you hear, I think that word failures, it's just, it's just has such a negative connotation, obviously, but, you know, people are like fail fast, fail fast. I'm like, learn fast, go test fast. That's what you're really doing.

You're really, you're performing other tests to see, figure out what would be successful and what would not be. And even with our show here, right. With the multi threaded income podcast, we're, we're learning some new things. We're doing we're literally right now. Like we're on squad cast, right? First time using this all together, using Descript to as a tool to, uh, chop together videos and create YouTube shorts using YouTube.

Brand new first time I've ever done YouTube shorts, we're doing a lot of this stuff ourselves, which we'll get probably into some DIY stuff later on here and talk a little bit about that and bootstrapping things, but it's all coming together. It's all adding up to me personally and project Sean, and as well as you all. And your different overall projects that you're working on

And we just wrapped up a challenge, and, and one of the days, uh, we were actually talking about some mindset, uh, items. And one of the tasks or items that was in there was around, uh, this concept of, you know, minding the gap. And just the idea is, when you're focused on where you want to be, and how you're frustrated that you're not there yet, um, you know, it doesn't actually serve you well.

Instead, if you look back at all the things that you've done, From where you started out to where you are today, that can actually build a momentum. In fact, I actually created a, just, uh, was thinking about that. Obviously since the challenge, I created a, um, a post now I'm just going to read here just because it's, it's, it's post on Twitter or X now.

So it's super short, which is, you know, if you're working towards a long term goal and it's taken longer than expected, well, don't dwell on the gap. of where you are and where you want to be. Instead, think about where you started out and how far you've come and then use that momentum to close the gap. Now, there's anything that's just really a good mindset to be in is figuring out, you know, how far you've come and be happy with yourself. You know, if everything doesn't go away, go okay.

Every time you, you know, got out the gate and you're trying to start something new, that's all right. As Sean was just saying, we're building skill sets. You're learning something. And if you have a skill set, You are marketable, right? You can provide value to somebody by building up your skill set. And if you can provide value to somebody, well, that's how you can get compensated.

So I think that's kind of my, my big thing is if you, if you can provide value to somebody, you can get compensated. And the way you provide value is by building up your skill set.

You, there's little wins, you get kind of like, uh, minimizing those, you know, like not realizing like the, the awesome thing you did, I kept finding Kevin constantly like, hold on, you just, you just, uh, just glaze past something like really awesome that a lot of people would be pretty stoked about, you know? And I know sometimes I might do that where I'm like, Oh, it wasn't really that much I made on that project.

Uh, or I, I, I'm even guilty of that where maybe I should be a little more grateful and like kind of celebrate a little bit more of some of the. Some of the wins, even if it's anything more than zero, right. Where I was able to get someone, some stranger stranger money. You mentioned many times, Kevin, in the past that was able to buy something that I did and really compensate me for a skill that I have and produce something for them, a value

Yeah, well, I totally messed this thing up and it, you know, and we just deflect actually accepting. You know, um, praise basically. And so when you do that, it's like a subconscious thing that you think that what you've done, that you, what you just accomplished, wasn't all that great. And it doesn't actually serve you well. So actually, uh, receiving the compliment can be good again.

I'm working on this cause I'm not good at it at all, but you receive the compliment, you know, actually do accept it. And then if there's something that you're still thinking in your mind, but, but man, this went bad and I didn't do this right, and this thing wasn't, wasn't good, and you're wanting feedback on that, then that's fine.

You still accept the compliment, but then turn around and say, okay, but I would like to know this, you know, when I said this, I didn't feel like that came across well, again, I'm not fishing for a compliment here. I don't need this, but I am looking for feedback. What do you think about this? And, and that'll actually give that person the opportunity to give you valid feedback.

Especially if they just told you you did a good job, and if there's something you can improve on, you'll typically learn something from that. So, yeah, that's something I've been personally working on a lot, is just kind of shutting off somebody's compliment instead of accepting it. And actually, because that will build up momentum to continue to move forward and not think about all these failures, quote unquote, that, you know, we've had.

But actually, uh, building towards successes, building up our toolbox, our skill set, you know, our project of our name. If you will project Mike.

If I'm a business selling a service to another business businesses. Like spending money. If it solves a problem, they like to spend money. B to C, which is business to consumer or business to customer. You are dealing with individual people. And most individual people I know are stingy as heck with their money, or at least, you know, at least for the stuff I'm selling. If it's An ad hoc item in Walmart, they might be willing to drop the money on it.

No problem, but it's harder to sell directly to consumers than it is to, to businesses. And he also threw around some buzzwords like DIY and DFY and Chad, I know that was one of the items that you kind of went, I want, I want to talk more about that. So I'm going to give you the opportunity now. And you said there was some stuff missing from, from Mike's

The done, you know, do it yourself things are around products and one during the challenge and all the stuff is fresh in my head since we just ran a challenge and one, I think on the very first day we talked about all kinds of different business types that you had and personality types and, um, you know, how you'd go about, you know, kind of matching things up together and the do it yourself approach It's a lot with the products because the idea is you're making a product and then

somebody's going to buy that product and go do something with that product. They're doing it themselves versus most services Um or more of a done for you approach dfy, which is hey.

Oh, you need an e commerce system Well, let me go and actually spin up an e commerce system Whether i'm building myself my own set you up on spot shopify set up a wordpress Google commerce like whatever the case is i'm going to go and do this thing for you So at the end result you just give me money and then you have an e commerce site It's done for you, and then you can have, uh, other things that are more like in the middle is a done with you and the done with you, um, could be like a

coaching program, for example, which is. You want help trading something or creating some milestone in your life or doing whatever the case is. And I'm going to come along beside you and actually coach you through that. So I'm actually doing this with you to begin with, showing you the skillsets you need. And then ultimately you're going to do it yourself, but it's a, it's more of like a transitional period. So it's not all just done for you. Hey, and I was listening to.

Alex Ramosi over the weekend, um, uh, a popular guy, super successful, lots of businesses, and he's with acquisition. com. He actually acquires a lot of businesses and things. What Alex was saying in this, uh, commentary I was listening to was the fact of. You know, when he, when he buys these companies, he does these acquisitions, um, he actually will bring in agencies and while he's doing everything, he'll actually say, okay, I need this agency. I'm going to pay this agency.

Uh, certain amount of money, not just to do it for me, but to actually teach me what it is that they're doing. So maybe it's a editing. So let's say we want to bring in somebody to edit our videos. Then if you instead of just getting an agency to, I want you to hire you from here till the end of time to edit our videos, it's, I want to build the skillset of editing the video. So I'm going to hire this agency that does the editing for us.

And but during the process, I'm not going to pay them more, but it's a six months in the game to teach me everything they know. Or for example, what if you were trying to start your own development agency and you had a project, you know, so Sean, I know you're actually working on a project right now and you have them bringing in, you know, some contractors to help you with this.

So an approach that could have been taken is actually hire a development agency to do it, but pay them a little bit more with. I want to understand your processes. How do you go about hiring people? How do you go about building up your own stuff so that I can turn around and do the same thing and build my own development agency, basically.

Or if I didn't want to build my own development agency, bring in developers and train them in such a way that they can be I would say profitable, but more like productive is the word I was looking for. So they'd be extremely productive as soon as they get into the door hitting the ground running. So it's all about, uh, leveraging somebody else's talents up front.

So it's almost like a done for you, but by the time it's all done, sit and done, you'll do it yourself because it really wasn't a done for you. It was a done with you.

I'm going to have to go find someone else. What if this person is not around anymore? What if something happens to them? They're not available because of another contract they're working on. So, yeah, that's one, one way to either learn it myself or another way is to make sure they're building some architectural diagrams and document documentation along with that. Getting access to the source control as much as I can to try and alleviate that risk a little bit to make it easier.

But, but Buckby, it was interesting. I've heard this twice now. We've heard this. We have heard this really twice now from two really successful entrepreneurs out there with Buckby and also, uh, Brett Fisher. The next concept of this Venn diagram. They both use that term and I think they then both kind of transition is saying the word framework as well. When they go into assessing new business ideas or new projects and such.

And so it's cool to see how they, they each have like kind of figured out over time, the things that are really important to learning about what would be a successful project or engagement. So the one that stood out to me the most was the whole B2C versus B2B and how both of them, uh, been a little more successful in the B2B realm, at least initially I know it's consulting. I know they've done some stuff with Docker and Heroku.

And it's kind of like, okay, maybe some independent developers are doing some of that stuff as well. But I also know there's a lot of big businesses that are really doing a lot of work and maybe where those engineers work for that are probably benefiting from a lot of material that they're both producing and I see this a lot and just.

The, the industry I'm in as well, uh, currently I do a lot in the auto industry and it's a lot with other dealerships, um, or OEM manufacturers, these big, large enterprises that have had success with consumers directly are now needing to streamline their processes, automate. So we have an opportunity as engineers, obviously not only be hired directly as employees, B2B fashion, and it's, it's neat how Buck B realized like.

The more, more successful I'll probably be is going to be somewhat tied in the relation of how close it is to a B2B versus a B2C, right? And something for everybody, everybody really to be mindful and listening. I've tried a lot of B2C products, um, and have not been as successful. Uh, content creation. We're doing that here. We're trying to teach engineers, right? Things about starting their own business. It's difficult. Like there's so many people paying a lot of money.

To get into your ears and get in front of you with advertisements. And for one of us or anyone listening that right now, that much might just be independent. It's going to, it's very difficult to get in front of that consumer directly with all that competition you have. And it also kind of makes me realize the, the, I guess, low amount, low volume of things that people actually buy. You mentioned earlier, Kevin, like how stringent someone might be with their money, with their finances.

I mean, yes, engineers, but we're guilty of it as well. You know, I have to be really mindful of the things I buy. I don't probably buy a lot of things for myself, to be honest, outside of the things I need, um, with my, you know, house car, and maybe there's a few little things I buy. So really the opportunities for B2C, you know, the, the large enterprise companies, right. I've taken and scooped up a lot of those.

And now it's kind of like, we're kind of getting that secondhand trying to get an, our own cut of that right through some of this B2B stuff we're trying to do. And you could be more successful in getting, getting a client or a project that way. And then maybe from there you can start to find ways then to merge from B2B into B2C or start to tap into a little bit of that revenue that's in that similar industry or only in one degree of separation.

And in a lot of cases they did, but the tools available were not as polished as Photoshop. So it took me more time to, to accomplish the result. Whereas I could have just paid for Photoshop and have the job done for me. So I went the free route, took longer. And it was more painful. And as I got into my first professional gigs, it was still kind of the same way. I'm like, well, if the business provides it to me, awesome. If not, I'll still try to use these free open source approaches.

And then when I started my business and I had regular money came in and I. I actually don't remember when it was, but it was very long time ago. I went, I'm just gonna pay for Photoshop and I'm just gonna pay for Premiere. I'm gonna pay for the tools that I know do the job very well, very easily. They have the good experiences, and now the fees I pay for those tools are drops in the bucket compared to, I guess, the amount of time I would have spent trying to use the free open source tools.

So I know someone out there is going to say, well, the free open source tools have gotten so much better and you're right, but they're still not nearly as good as the Adobe products. And I don't, we're not here to talk about that, but there's just kind of an analogy is when I moved from a consumer mindset to a business mindset, it was much easier for me to spend money on the things that solved my problems.

And I say this as my Adobe renewals coming up and I got the email and went and they're raising the price again. My first thought was, well, do I really need these tools? But the handful of times throughout the year where I use the tools and they do exactly what I need them to do, they pay for themselves. So I think that's a good analogy for the mindset and of consumers, the businesses. Well, gentlemen, it's been fun chatting about Mike's interview.

I think there were a lot of good tidbits and we, we should. Like transition the show just to talk about each individual thing for half an hour. So one episode creates 10 hours worth of content. We're not going to do that yet, but it's a good idea, but thank you guys for hanging out with me and thanks everyone for listening and we'll see you all next time.