343 How Mike Fata lost 100lbs and built a $100M business
Mike Fata
A nine-figure entrepreneur and co-founder of Manitoba Harvest
Today we're diving into the inspiring journey of CPG founder and mentor Mike Fata, a nine-figure entrepreneur and co-founder of Manitoba Harvest.
In this episode, we explore Mike's personal brand strategy (he's CRUSHING on LinkedIn), treating platforms like Instagram as dynamic trade shows, and the importance of building genuine community connections.
Mike shares invaluable insights on engaging with content, the necessity of continuous self-improvement, and optimizing your schedule for high-ROI activities in business and in life.
We also delve into Mike’s inspiring personal health journey—shedding 100 lbs of weight and championing the benefits of healthy lifestyles as entrepreneurs who often neglect themselves in pursuit of business growth (at all costs).
We also discuss his strategic networking approach, prioritizing collaboration over competition, and the importance of fostering a "minimum viable community" for significant sales impact.
Episode Time Stamps:
[00:00] Mike Fata’s health journey and how his passion drove dietary change
[12:38] Success through authenticity, storytelling and community building
[13:28] Build community, and friendships will help secure business foundation.
[19:13] Sharing experiences will build community and personal brand.
[30:01] Calendar time blocking has replaced traditional lists.
[35:24] Unconventional lessons Mike learned that allow him to gain personal and entrepreneurial growth.
To connect with Mike:
Access the transcript for this episode:
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You're listening to the Visionary Life Podcast. I'm your host, Kelsey Reidl.
Each week I'll bring you conversations with the most visionary humans on this earth in hopes that you'll be able to absorb their wisdom, avoid their failures, and feel less alone on the rollercoaster ride that is entrepreneurship.
This season I'll be chatting with creative thinkers, masterful marketers, brick and mortar shop owners, brand builders, and people just like you who have a story to share or a vision that inspires. If I can share one quick secret with you before we get into the episode, it's that we all have a little bit of visionary inside of us. You know, that spark that nudges us to pursue our full potential in this lifetime. But perhaps somewhere along the line, it got covered up. I'm here to tell you that it's never too late to explore that inner voice and access the brilliance deep down inside of you.It's in you. It's in all of us. Let's dive in.
Hey visionaries. Welcome back to the show. Today is a pretty cool episode because of chatting with Mike Fatah who is a nine figure entrepreneur.
Like what?
Try to comprehend that in your head for a second, especially if you're still someone who's like trying to hit five figures, six figures, seven figures, eight figures, I mean nine figure. We're going to learn a lot from this guy. He's also an investor. He's an author of the brand new book called Grow, which is 12 unconventional lessons for becoming an unstoppable entrepreneur. He's also a mentor and he's building a portfolio of world class companies.
So you might know of the company called Manitoba Harvest. I've been eating their hemp seeds and using their hemp products for probably a decade at least. Well, Mike is actually a co founder of Manitoba Harvest and this was way before hemp oil and hemp seeds were cool.And what's crazy is that Mike actually has quite the health story where he actually tipped the scale at £300. When he was younger, he was struggling to find energy, he dropped out of high school, he was not healthy. And then everything changed for him and he is such a big advocate of taking care of your health if you want to become an unstoppable entrepreneur. So this is such a cool conversation. We really dive into it all. We talk about his 25 year journey as an entrepreneur and his start point with Manitoba Harvest and what it took to get people to take a chance on a brand new health food product, especially getting one customer at a time. We dive into the importance of building community and why LinkedIn is basically the same as a trade show. We go deep on that and we share tips for people who lack confidence showing up online, or who are hesitant to build a personal brand, or who find themselves creeping and consuming a lot of content, but they're not actually creating and connecting.
So we definitely go deep on that. We are also going to chat about the role that Continuous Improvement plays in his life, how he builds his best day ever, some of the most important parts of his routine, and how he structures his calendar. You definitely want to learn this kind of stuff from a nine figure entrepreneur. So if you want to connect with Mike, he has a newsletter, he has a podcast, his book is out. We're going to link all of that in the show notes. And if you tune into this episode, please share about it either on LinkedIn. That's where Mike is most active, or you can tag me on Instagram. All right, so let's get into this episode with Mike Fattah.
Hey Visionary. I want to interrupt this episode to share a little bit more about one on one coaching. I work with clients who want to stay on top of the latest marketing trends, who want to bring more ease into their marketing funnel or just build a marketing funnel in the first place because maybe you don't have one yet and ultimately take the effort and overwhelm out of your marketing plan. I know your energy is limited and you just want someone to tell you what to do. Should you be on thread? Should you be creating on TikTok? How do you grow an email list? What does SEO mean? Anyways, this is why I offer private one on one business and marketing coaching for business owners like you who need help with their marketing strategy. You can head to Kelseyreild.com/privatecoaching to learn exactly what it's going to look like if we decide to work together. And I'm excited because I can give you the precise strategies that will take your business to the next level this year. So if you want to learn more Kelseyreidl.com/privatecoaching of course it is a bit more of an investment than any of my other courses or offerings, but my private clients are seeing crazy results.
Christina landed a six figure consulting contract. Emily signed six clients in one day. Barb had a Black Friday sale that generated a lot of money. And these are all based on the strategies that we've implemented. So Kelsey Ridle.com private coaching. You can learn all about it. You can see all of the amazing, amazing visionary businesses that I've worked with and supported over the last decade. And I can't wait to see your application come through.
Kelseyreidl.com PrivateCoaching now back to the episode.Mike, welcome to the Visionary Life podcast. I don't know how I originally found you on LinkedIn, but as soon as I started reading your content, I was like, wow, he shares a ton of value. And you know when you're reading through a post and you're like, every time I get a good nugget of wisdom and I know your very involved in the natural health food space and that was my start of my career path. So a lot of intersections in the people that we know. But I'm excited to sit down with you today, not only to talk about your incredible book, which I just finished reading. Congrats on that by the way. But also just to talk about your journey as an entrepreneur, the lessons you've learned, and to just crack open a little bit into maybe some topics you've never talked about before. So welcome to the show.
Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having me.
You are so welcome. So let's rewind a little bit. You've been a 25 year entrepreneur, started your journey at Manitoba Harvest. But one thing I found that was kind of funny in doing some research and digging on you was that you actually were on a health journey where you were doing a no fat diet and then you kind of got into the healthy fat industry. So can you just rewind, take us back to that time in your life of finding out about hemp products and like, what prompted you to begin a career in getting involved in Manitoba Harvest?
Yeah, well, I was, I weighed 300 pounds when I was 18 years old from eating too much fast food. And then I finally decided I was going to do something about it. And that doing something about it led me to the no fat diet. Because in the mid-1990s, no fat diet was very popular. Dr. Nathan Pritikin and, and I started reading about no fat and became, started working out and eating a no fat diet and started losing weight. And so I started evangelizing it, telling people, oh, fat's bad for you. Look, there's all this research and, and, and then I learned the hard way that your body needs essential fatty acids.
And it wasn't until I kind of hit rock bottom of not eating fat for a very long time. And, and that led me to learning about all the different types of good fats, healthy fats and hemp seed being one of those. And then I, I literally switched and Maybe it was in a matter of months going from telling people you don't want to eat fat to like, oh, I was wrong. You know, you need essential fatty acids and, and here's a great source of it. And so that's what led to founding Manitoba Harvest and becoming just really passionate about hemp from the nutritional value.
Was it legal for farms to grow hemp when you first kind of found the product? Like, was this a common product that you were seeing on shelves or were you guys first to market or nearly first to market?
Yeah, I mean, we were one of the first. And so, no, it was just, it was just in the final stages of Health Canada legalizing hemp in Canada. So I started researching hemp in 1996, 97, and we got hemp commercially legal to sell in 1998 was the first year. And so, right, right at the. But, you know, the two other co founders, Mantuarius, had been lobbying the government to legalize hemp for six or seven years before that. So it was really at the final stage.
So the name of this podcast is Visionary Life, and visionaries often see the future before it has happened. Were you guys certain that, like, hemp was going to become a thing? How did you have belief that a product that was not really selling on the shelves of local health food stores? How did you know, like, we gotta get this in people's hands and it's gonna sell well? Where, where did that belief come from?
I think it was really about the passion. Like, I, I had, I had learned that I could change my health by mostly what my diet, right? Mostly what I put in my mouth. And, and when I went from not eating fat to eating hemp seed and hemp seed oil, I just started feeling great. And, and I thought that that same thing could be true for others. So I didn't have a, you know, I, I dropped out of high school, so I never had a business background. I didn't crunch the numbers and see how big the company could be or have any understanding of that. I just was passionate about the product myself personally and thought, let me, let's. Let's see if, if other people are, are, are in the same mindset.
And, and more specifically, people that had been duped into thinking that the no fat diet was, was going to be good. So I, if there was anything, I had a vision that the world was going to change from the no fat diet to the right fat diet. And that did happen, you know, part because of the work that we did at Mantobar's with Hemp foods, but, you know, flax and chia and all these other great essential fatty acid rich foods got more popular and the, the stigma of, of fat being bad disappeared after, you know, a half a decade or maybe 10 years of those products coming to market.
So what I'm hearing you say is like having a personal story and having a passion is a huge success factor. Would you say that for sure?
Yeah. And I think the, it's really important. You know, we talk a lot about product market fit, but I think the founder product fit and the founder market fit is, is really, really critical. And I had that given because I had my health journey and I was super passionate about health. And, and so I was just going to attract other people that ultimately became our customers, but were interested in the same thing. And so I think it is really important for founders to create something that they want in their own life first and be super passionate about that. They can wear the brand on their sleeve and tell all their family and friends and stand up on chairs and shout it to the world. I think it's critical, especially if you're creating something new and you're not trying to invent a me too product that is already out there in the marketplace.
So once you guys created your first set of products and you're like, okay, now we need to get it into people's hands. I'm curious, do you remember what some of those key visibility moments were? I know you describe a few in the book, but some of those moments when you started to share that passion, share that story, and you realized it was starting to catch on, what were some of those pivotal moments for you?
Yeah, I mean, the first big one was the Winnipeg Wellness Show. So it was our first consumer show that we did. It was my first time having a table full of product and being able to get in front of a couple thousand people went through that show on the, on the weekend. And so I told them, you know, just straight up my personal story. Hey, I used to be scared of fat. I lost, I lost over 100 pounds. I learned about essential fatty acids. And then we got, we started making this hemp oil product.
I love it. Try it. You know, and, and so being able to be in front of, and ended up selling a couple hundred bottles of hemp oil that weekend. But seeing the reaction on people's face of saying, oh, I thought fat was bad, and like playing through some of the same things I was thinking about, I knew that, that there was a certain amount of people that would be our customers and we Just had to go and, and find more of them.
And I think it's interesting because for a lot of people, when they're about to go to their first trade show or they're kind of getting visible with their business for the first time, they have all this imposter syndrome and anxiety around. Okay, everything needs to be perfect and we need to have all the right marketing materials and resources. But it sounds like what you did was you just showed up, you talked to everybody who was in front of built community from where you were rooted, and you shared that personal story of like, this is how it has transformed my life. And you basically just like infected all of the retailers around to say, I want to try this. Let's give it a shot. Is that kind of how you guide small businesses to begin these days, or do you feel like times have changed with the rise of social media and digital marketing and online presence?
Yeah, no, very much so. And I talk about it in the book because I think building community and building friendships is the best way to, to create your foundation in your business. So going to trade shows, it's just as much as, you know, your customers can be all the other vendors that are, that are selling their products. So what's the best thing you could do as a founder? Going, going, go and connect with other founders and tell them your story and make friends with them. Because they're not only in the same business, similar business, but they probably have this similar lifestyle, especially in the natural products industry, you people are interested in their, in their health and, and what they eat. And so that, that's, that's some of the easiest customers that you're going to acquire. And, and then what I've learned is when you start doing laps of these different trade shows, you see the same people and so now you have a community that's built in and they're also sharing your healthy message. So when we, you know, we had other booths that would, would, would share our hemp food product, if they were making, if they were selling salad greens, they'd put our hemp oil as a dressing on top of it, you know, and, and, and so you really should, I think about it as your minimum viable community.
When you're launching a new business, you need to have your minimum viable community, which, that is a different size for what, depending on what type of business you're launching. But if you're in the consumer packaged goods business, you need your first thousand customers, and then you need your first 10,000 customers, and probably 10,000 customers will equal your first Million dollars in sales if you can get there. And so what's the most efficient way of creating your minimum viable community? And I'm a big believer you can do it one by one. Yeah. Nowadays we can use tools like social media and digital marketing to expand the reach, but nothing is. Nothing replaces the. Shake someone's hand, look them in the eye, tell them your story, make them feel something, and then not only are they likely to be a customer, but more of a customer for life. And they'll be someone that shares your message with their friends and their family.I know. It's like, I feel like we've really gotten into this mentality of like, I just need to sit in my office with my door closed and be on my laptop all day when really so much of the growth happens when we get out into the world and we talk to people and we experience physical interaction and are moving about our days. So it's a good reminder to like, get out and to not ignore your industry peers. Right. Because I remember being at trade shows and being like, I just have to stay in my booth and there's no time to socialize with everybody else. But what I was missing was that those people were going to be our biggest advocates. They were going to be our strategic partners, we were going to run giveaways together, we were going to do collaborative recipes. And it's so much easier to get your product into the hands of other people when you exchange audiences versus, like trying to bring people to your business all of the time.
So I think it's really important what you share to. And I think you even say something along the lines of like, what we need in business isn't war. Like, you're not showing up to an event being like, I have to win and conquer all. It's like, there is enough to go around and if I can just befriend everybody, I'm going to be, you know, way ahead of somebody who comes in with their head down with this laser focus goal that is strictly centered around themselves. Yeah.
And people are that that whole business as an art of war, like, hey, some people believe in it and some very successful people believe in it. I just don't. And, and, and, and even more specifically for our industry, I think the natural products industry, like some people actually think, like, hey, I'm in the hemp food business and you're in the cold brew coffee business and some somehow we're competing for customers. No way. I, I even thought, you know, even we're in the hemp food business and Other brands that were in the hemp food business that we're not. It's not competing for customers. We're, we're, we're, we're, we're more of Coop knows about hemp foods. And so together, we're both beating the drum to bring awareness and attention to it.
So, yeah, I just, I think it's, it's, it's a lot more fun and friendly just to build community than it is thinking, like, you have to tear down your neighbor's tower so that you build your tower up.Yeah. And I will refer people in your book. You have a really good chapter, just sharing personal stories of how you've done that and why it's important. And I think we could always use reminders like, get out there. Like, stop feeling like you have to do this alone in your office. I think that's a really good chapter for our listeners to refer to and, you know, to kind of piggyback on that, too. As you've gone through your journey, now, you're actually building community by building out your personal brand and sharing personal stories and anecdotes. And you write a newsletter, you have a podcast.
We're going to talk about your book. Why did you decide to start devoting time and energy to building a personal brand? Why didn't you want to stay behind the scenes and kind of continue just working and not opening up about the lessons learned and the personal stories? What was the motive there?
Yeah, you know, it was a real. I've always had a personal brand, but my personal brand was in person and at trade shows. What I, what I did, what I wasn't doing was I wasn't on social media. So before three years ago, I wasn't on social media. And it was really the pandemic that was a change for me. Our trade, our biggest trade show, Natural Products Expo west, was canceled. And I thought to myself, when I was sitting at home locked down, like everybody, how am I going to connect with my friends and see what they're doing and see what they're up to and new products that are being created and all these things that I'm personally passionate about? And I thought, oh, I should just go online. And I had a LinkedIn account, but I never, I never posted anything there.
I thought about it as a more of a digital Rolodex for business cards. And so I just put myself out there. Like, I, I went through this, like, what feeling of I wanted to be helpful and what was the way I could be helpful? I have this community was Sharing some of my thought leadership, some of the things that I've learned. And, and then what I learned from sharing was it was very therapeutic for me. So as much as I, I, I give back and it's a selfless act, it's selfish because it makes me feel good. And, and so there's a good, there's a good balance there for me. And now after, you know, three years of sharing my story, sharing some of my lessons, the, I have, I have, you know, 50,000 people overall in my social digital community, which if I look back to being a 25 year entrepreneur, which I didn't have social media then when I started out in business, but I tell all founders now, you need to create your personal brand. You need to tell people not only like about your business, but why are you doing it, what are you passionate about, what are you scared about? What are some of the things that you're overcoming some of the obstacles personally in your, in your growth path because people are interested in that and, and it'll bring more attention to you and your business as well.
People are so curious. People love to consume content and creep on people. And so to be someone who is showing up and creating like you're adding so much value and not a lot of people are willing to go there. I'm curious, for somebody who hasn't yet gained the confidence to start sharing a personal brand, maybe they're behind the scenes of their product. Do you have any advice like what helped you to step into. Okay, I do have something worthwhile to share. Any tips for building that confidence?
Yeah, I mean, well, I went to, I went to therapy for, for years before I got on, on social media. So what I learned, what I, what I learned from therapy was I have these ideas in my head of things that I wanted to do or things that I wanted to say, but I was scared. And as soon as those words came out of my mouth in a, in an office setting with a therapist, it, it, it, it diffused them. It didn't feel like it was in my head of like, oh, I can't tell people that, you know, I, I grew up poor. I can, I dropped out of school because then they'll think less of me and I want to hold this like, Persona of, of I'm the best me that I possibly can. Well then I, you know, I just learned that sharing my weaknesses is my superpower. When people started to say, oh, you know, good on you for, for sharing, I wish I could share some of those things. I'm like, well, you can.
And it just, you have to just rip the band aid off and start. It's never, it's never easy when you start something new. Um, I kind of liken it to, like, going to the gym. The first time I went to the gym, I couldn't even lift the barbell. I was crying and I was scared. I was a hundred pounds overweight. But you got to go there and just start doing the reps so, you know, you don't have to, you don't have to go and be super creative. Just document what, what's going on in your life as an entrepreneur.
You're going through obstacles every single day. Hey, I didn't know how to write a business plan and, and today I learned how to write it. And here's three things that I learned about it. You know, something like that, which is not that complex to share because it's actually going on as an entrepreneur can be super helpful for someone else that's maybe a couple steps or a couple of years behind you in their journey. And then it's helpful to, if you're really serious about it, is to put a system together, obviously. And so there's some great courses on simple courses about how you. What you want to share. So you're not just kind of going ad hoc.
What I do tell founders and entrepreneurs is like, don't just show up to social media without a plan and try to think that you're going to do it at the end of the day after you're doing all the other things, because it is, it is like business and maybe even more specifically LinkedIn. I think about it as a 24, 7 trade show. Like, how do you show up to a trade show? You show up there with a plan, like you've made yourself. You dressed up your booth, so you dress up your profile and clearly communicate to people what you're. What you're, who you are and what you're trying to do. And then, and then think about it. Hey, I'm going to post three times a week and, and I'm going to do that in the morning before I get busy with all the other things that I'm going to be doing. And, and put a little storyboard of what you're going to be sharing.
Like, if you have a chocolate bar company, sure, you could talk about your chocolate bars, but you also, again, want to talk about, like, your journey as an entrepreneur and like what you've learned and, and you went and traveled to a trade show and who you met and things that people are interested in, but it gives you that, it gives you that plan and the, and a system to work off of. So you're not just doing it ad hoc.
Mm. I think that's such an important tip because like you're saying with a trade show, hours and hours and, you know, months go into planning the booth and who's going to be there and what they're wearing and how you're going to greet everybody and give them samples when they walk by. Well, your Instagram or your LinkedIn or your website, that's just your digital home on the Internet. Or like you called it, like your digital trade show or your 247 trade show. So it's like, hey, when you're posting on LinkedIn, like, what's the conversation type? Are you using emojis? Are you adding a photo? What's the energy that you're coming to this post with? Because all of that is probably translating. So to just show up and be like, well, my coach told me I had to follow this script, so I'm just going to push post on this. Like, that's not the energy you would bring to a real life event. So why do we accept that in the online space or feel like it's okay to be robotic or less of ourselves or to not show the full spectrum of our brand? Like, people want to feel the product, touch it, turn it over and like, we need to give them that opportunity.
Even if it's as simple as putting out content on the Internet.
Yeah. And I think even step one, I totally agree. And step one, even before putting out content, I would say putting out content and I'll just, again, I'll talk LinkedIn and maybe more specifically consumer packaged goods, because that's a bit space we're in. But putting out content on LinkedIn is like having a booth at the trade show. You're set up and some things you talk about, you're dressed up, you're sharing a certain message. But when you're a new entrepreneur, before you have a booth at a trade show, you can just go to the trade show. And what do you do when you go to the trade show? You connect with people and you build community. So go on.
Instead of, if you're not ready to post or maybe you're posting like one time a week because that's, that's the amount of space that you have. But you can go on to LinkedIn every day and go and connect with people in your community. And what do you do? You say, you say, hi, you, you, you congratulate them on a new product or an award that they won or things that they're sharing. Right. You, you have conversations and people always say to me, you're so authentic online. And I'm like, well, you're, you're getting the same me as you get if I'm, if, if, if I'm in person. Right. I'm not trying to be someone else in person or online.
It's just, you're going to get me. And, and, but those, those things of just actually showing up and jumping into the conversation are just as important as sharing your thought leadership or sharing your posts.
That's probably going to be the most actionable takeaway that I want people to hear is that when you're spending time at the trade show or scrolling Instagram, scrolling LinkedIn on TikTok, don't just consume all the content, actually engage with it. Show up. And honestly, as I'm thinking back, I'm like, I think you comment on a lot of the founders that I already follow, so that probably led me to your content. So this is actually a strategy. Right. If you show up at everybody's booth and make a comment, wow, congrats on the new product, or, you know, wonderful that you reached one year in business, you're actually marketing yourself. Obviously not doing it like, strategically, but it's important to engage when you're just.
Passively scrolling and hey, I'm, I'm, I'm a natural introvert. The, the, the extroverted part of me has been more trained in business and as an entrepreneur, but I use that example again because you wouldn't go to a show and just walk by. Well, strategically, you shouldn't do this anyway. Just walk by people's booths at a trade show and not say anything to them. You know, like, just, just be a creeper. It's awkward. Yeah. You want to be able to come up and just say something simple.
And those whole action of putting in reps, like, so you are congratulating people, you are saying hi, you're giving them a high five. You're, you're giving them some flowers, all those things, it'll become natural for you to do that. It'll become more of an extroverted part of yourself. Even if you are an introvert. And we all need that in business. That, that and marketing, that those are foundational for sales and marketing is to like, have connections with people, make them feel something and truly understand who you are, what you share.
Yeah.
And I think it's great that you say, like, I'm naturally an Introvert. And I know that something you're passionate about and that you write about in the book is continuous improvement and that being a value of yours. So even though you identified more so as an introvert, it's like, no, but I can become better at just responding to people, engaging, making conversation, bringing flowers, remember their birthday by getting a little bit better each and every day. So can you share a little bit about your philosophy of why continuous improvement is something that you're actively working on in all areas of your life? Why is this taking up time in your calendar?
I mean, it started with my health changes and my lifestyle changes, you know, losing, losing over 100 pounds and realizing, oh, it doesn't matter where you start from, you can get good at whatever you focus on. But when we were in business at Mantable Harvest and we started to become a larger company and we were focused on, because we were manufacturers, we were focused on the principles of continuous improvement and lean manufacturing, I learned that there's a system and a process for that. Okay, how am I doing today and what's working and what's not working, getting some of those insights for yourself, putting a little plan together of like, what's the next steps? And then going and executing that and then, and then checking and readjusting. Again, that's continuous improvement. And we can all do that. Like, if you can, if you can do five push ups, I guarantee you you can get to 25 push ups. And if it's five today and six tomorrow or the next day and like by next week you're doing eight and a month from now you're doing 12, and then a year from now you're doing 25. And it's effortless, right? It's just putting in reps.
But you have to put a little bit of system and, and, and process to it to so again that it's not, you're not just winging it and that, and that's, that's the basis of continuous improvement.
So is your system and process daily that you're asking these questions, or do you have like, say a monthly date with yourself that's kind of like, okay, I'm going to audit my life, audit my relationship, audit my health. Or is this just like now something that very naturally happens because you've been doing it for 20 some odd years?
Yeah, it's, it's natural now for me. But I, when I was starting out, it's really, you know, writing lists, writing goals. I ended up changing a number of years ago, like a decade ago from taking My goals and tasks on a list and time, time blocking them so putting them right into my calendar. If I'm going to work an hour on a creative campaign, I'm going to have it in my calendar. If I'm going to be working out that day, if I'm, if I'm taking my girlfriend on a date, all of it's going to be in the calendar. And then I can look at my calendar for the week and for the month and optimize it. Like how am I continuously improving some of these things that are normal routines for me? And so then I just use the calendar for that natural reflection at the end of the week. Look at the past week, what worked, what didn't work, how do I want to improve it? What are some of the things you're going to cut out, which I'm a big fan of.
You're allowed to change. Just because you're doing something right now doesn't mean you need to do that forever. If you've given a meaningful try it and you know that doesn't fit into your plan to your lifestyle like cut that out so that you get more time back to focus on the things that you really do want to get excellent at.
So you have your hands in a lot of different things right now. I can imagine like you know, from most people's perspective you are quite busy. What are some of the first things that you look to schedule in your calendar that are kind of like those big return on investment activities? Like what are those, those main things each day that you're like non negotiable that goes in first. Everything else moves around it.
My, my health routine. So I have a pretty, pretty involved health routine of, of working out and doing weight training and cardio and, and, and sweating in a sauna and doing ice baths and meditating. And I, it, I, I'm well aware that those make me my most functional self. And so those have to come first and, and, and come first thing in the morning. So, so I'm usually doing that routine before I schedule anything else. And so I have a time block. I think the time block in my calendar right now is 7am to 10am and it's family and health is, is the block and, and, and because I need, I'm, I'm a, I'm a single dad as well. I need to get my family and, and, and kids rolling and all that.
But that I don't, I don't allow, I'm not perfect so, but I generally don't allow other things to Go into those slots and if someone wants to meet, meet really early morning with me. I'll be like, well let's meet at 10:00 or 11:00 and try to try to get my mind and my body straight first before I jump into all the tasks in the day and then, and then from there just on an organization standpoint, because I am, I am an investor. I have a portfolio of companies, I'm an advisor. I do create content, whether it's my newsletter or podcast or book. And I organize those so that I'm not, not context switching. As you know, we all wear a lot of hats, but it's the amount of times that you switch those hats of how effective you are and actually the tasks that you're doing. And I've learned that. And so I try to organize my days even.
And I did this in business for a number of years, like organize the part or on Tuesdays I'd work on marketing and most of my marketing activities I'd go on Tuesday and sale as sales. I'd focus on Wednesday and so on. So these are some of the just things that I've learned to be more effective in my role. But it all starts with being the best me that it can be.
Absolutely. And before I let you go on that topic, I'm curious because I know you are kind of a health like you're a bit more savvy than maybe most and you found what works for you. Is there anything that you're currently trying or experimenting with as it comes to your health that is exciting you or something new or innovative or what's like the best part of your health routine that you're like this has made the biggest difference lately.
Yeah. So it's been 25 years of health routine and I'm a guinea pig on myself. So I've constantly, you know, I'd say my diet is, is, is, is the most important but the, the newest. I'd say it's still new because it's been probably a year and a half, two years. Is, is, is, is thermotherapy like ice baths. I, it started with cold showers, but now doing, doing cold therapy. I've just, it's, it's taught me so much about myself. It makes me feel physically good and there's a whole bunch of science on why that works.
But the mental process of I think maybe 200, 250 ice baths I've done in over that time, never want to do it, never super excited about it. I know how good it feels afterwards. And so that whole mental getting over that mental hurdle which we all face by dwelling on things. And I know I should be working on this task in life or in business and not wanting to do it, it's also taught me, like, just turn the mind off and jump in and start doing it. And that usually that's helped me in so many other aspects of my life as well.
Absolutely. I love hearing that. And also a big fan of the cold plunge. And you're right. Like, if you can just get yourself to walk right into that freezing cold water versus, like, I'll do it in an hour. I'll do it in an hour. It's just like, do the hard thing. It's gonna suck, but you're gonna feel so good on the other side.
And it's the perfect physical representation of that. So it's really cool. So, Mike, I'd love to hear just a little bit, if somebody hasn't read your book yet, can you just tell us about the book where people can get it and then anywhere where we can connect with in the digital space?
Yep. And I have a copy here too.
Oh, you got the hard copy. Darn.
Grow 12 unconventional lessons for Becoming an Unstoppable Entrepreneur. Which I could tell you, you don't need to be an entrepreneur to get the benefit of the book. Entrepreneurs are going to get the extra benefit, but it's really about becoming your best self and then aligning your passions with your work and then building community and really setting up a good foundation for business. It's available in Amazon and all the online resellers. I just recorded and launched the audio book copy last week or two weeks ago and so on Audible and on Apple and kind of everywhere that you get audiobooks as well. And which was a whole new venture for me, narrating my own book.
That must have been interesting.
It's challenging. I can tell you that.
You're like, did I write that? Is that me?
Yeah. No, it sounds like me. No. It is a task to record hours after hours and be focused in that kind of space. But I think the product turned out well and so I'd encourage you to go and get a copy of the book. I don't think you'll be disappointed and love to hear your feedback on social media. So connect with me and let me know what you think.
Absolutely. And we'll link everything in the show notes. And we thank you for your time today. We wish you all the best on your health journey and in your business journey. So thank you, Mike, for for coming on the pod and we will talk to you soon.
Yeah, thanks again for having me.
Hey visionary. I want to quickly interrupt this episode to ask you if you've been curious what it's like to work with a private business and marketing coach. If you're a business owner and you feel like your marketing plan is all over the place, you haven't figured out your search engine optimization or your SEO strategy, you have no idea what your social media marketing plan is and you are not doing so well. On the self express content front. I call these the marketing trio. It's the three S's SEO, social media, self express, content, and by dialing in all three of these pillars, you too can get more visible, generate more income and increase your lead generation where you're actually turning your followers into paid clients and you're constantly bringing new people in at the top of the funnel. If you're not familiar with my work, I am a private business and marketing coach and I have spent the last 13 years working working in the marketing industry, many of those years doing consulting with clients like you who want to finally get more visible and get in front of their dream clients. So when we work together, you have me for four months as your marketing partner.
I'm going to do a full audit of your business, put you on a private project management software with me, and then based on your innate skill sets, based on your strength, based on where you are curious and where your dream clients are paying attention, we're going to build out a custom marketing strategy. We're going to track it, we are going to optimize it, and by the end of the four months you have a plan that works and you're seeing results. It's truly incredible. Christina Crook just landed a $100,000 consulting contract after implementing just one of my marketing strategies. Emily Fraser signed multiple new clients in one day after just one month of working with me. And now she is having consistent five figure months. And Natasha, she started leveraging her email list In December and 30 days later in January, she pulled in $25,000 from one single email that we created. So these results are possible for you too, but don't sign up yet.
Just head to Kelseyreidl.com and check out how we can work together. Learn all about it it, make sure you feel informed and if you'd like to book a discovery call with me, just fill out the application on my website. We can get on the phone and see if it's a good fit for you. So anyways, I don't want to interrupt this episode anymore. I cannot wait to work with you to support you and getting you more visible. And let's get back into the show. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Visionary Life. I love bringing you these conversations on a weekly basis.
So it it would mean so much to me if you could help me out by rating and reviewing the show on either itunes or Spotify. It just takes a second. And if you don't want to rate the show, you could also just take a screenshot of the episode and share it on your social media platform of choice. Tagging me at Kelsey Rydal. I'll catch you in the next episode. Hey visionaries. I want to quickly interrupt this episode to talk about masterminds and why they are so powerful. So let me start with a quick story.
I used to have such a scarce mindset around investing in my business. I thought that spending money on courses or professional development or retreats, I thought that was an expense against my business. And yes, technically it is. But when you really look at it, it's an investment in the growth of your business. And something that I'm super proud of is that I now have a dedicated budget and I recommend this to all my clients too. For me, it's about 10 to 20% of my take home profits that I am allowed and willing. And I am giving myself permission to invest in personal growth, professional development, joining masterminds, going to conferences, taking courses. So this means that if my business was earning say 100,000 a year, I would invest 10 to 20 thousand dollars into professional development.
I know that sounds like a lot. For example, today my business earns a quarter of a million dollars. So this year I am looking to spend a little over $30,000 in things like going to retreats or joining masterminds or becoming part of professional networks where I know the up level is imminent. So this is why you've seen me go to places like Park City, Utah and spend seven days with high level entrepreneurs just dreaming and thinking. Because I had the budget set aside and I thought, you know what? I need to get in the room with people who can see beyond my current limitations. This is why I recently purchased a course on Google Ads and I wanted to up level my knowledge and how I could support my clients even better in this area of digital marketing. And each year I also choose one mastermind to invest in. So I just invested well over five figures into joining a three month mastermind.
And the reason I tell you all of this is because I truly see a trend that those business owners who are willing to reinvest, join groups and not be afraid to get in the room with new people every single month, or at least every single year. Those business owners who are afraid to do so, their businesses stall. They feel lonely, they stagnate in their ideation and they're constantly trying to do everything themselves rather than finding a group of people who can support them and help them rise up much, much more quickly. So this is where masterminds come in. One of my favorite quotes is from Napoleon Hill. He says mastermind groups multiply the mental powers of all participants. So one plus one does not equal two in these groups. And I could go on and on, but basically what I'm trying to say is business masterminds are the perfect way to uplevel your business.
So if you don't already know, my co facilitator Emily and I launched Wave the mastermind about 12 months ago and we are so excited to be rolling out fresh new programming. We have brand new content coming at you. Guest speakers like Stu McLaren who is a membership expert. We have someone who's talked to us about how to become predictably lucky. We talk about business finances. We talk about how to make sales fun and easeful. There is so much juice coming up and I don't want you to miss out. So if you're a driven female entrepreneur, find me on Instagram and DM me the word mastermind so that I can invite you to a free session.
0:09 - 44:03
No strings attached. I just want you to get a vibe for what happens inside of these groups. So again, you can DM me. I'm at Kelsey Ridle on Instagram. Just send me the word mastermind and I'll send you an invite. Or head to Kelseyreidl.com mastermind. You can learn all of the details, see what's going on and you can apply for a free discovery call. So again, Kelseyreidl.com mastermind or DM me the word Mastermind on Insta.
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