--- title: 298 - The Founder’s Shift from Hustle to Leverage with Michael Fritzius description: Michael Fritzius explains how founders can replace hustle with leverage, use podcast guesting intentionally, and build systems that grow without them. image: https://pod.allies4me.com/hubfs/Podcast/Episodes/Michael-Fritzius-LnL-R5.jpg --- [![Allies4me](https://pod.allies4me.com/hubfs/raw_assets/public/Allies4me_May2022/images/logo.svg "Allies4me")](https://allies4me.com/) Menu - [Home](https://allies4me.com/) - [Grow](https://allies4me.com/grow/) - [Financial Advisors](https://allies4me.com/grow/financial-advisors/) - [Foundations Courses](https://hub.allies4me.com/courses/course-signup/) - [Podcast](https://allies4me.com/podcast/) - [Have Craig Speak at Your Event](https://hub.allies4me.com/lp/speak/) - [Be a Guest](https://pod.allies4me.com/podcast-guest/) - [Get Started](https://allies4me.com/get-started/) - [Have Craig Speak at Your Event](https://hub.allies4me.com/lp/speak/) - [Community](https://allies4me.com/about/community/) - [Downloads](https://allies4me.com/downloads/) ## 298 - The Founder’s Shift from Hustle to Leverage with Michael Fritzius November 5, 2026 by [Craig Andrews](https://pod.allies4me.com/podcast/author/craig-andrews) Hard work can build character—and still fail to move a business forward. Michael Fritzius learned how easily founders can mistake difficulty, long hours, and constant activity for progress. His sharper question is whether the work produces the result the business actually needs. That distinction reshaped how Michael thinks about podcast guesting. More appearances do not automatically mean more opportunity: one entrepreneur he spoke with had appeared on 103 shows, but only 20 produced business. Instead of chasing volume, Michael argues for choosing the right conversations, understanding the audience, and making lead generation intentional. The same lesson challenged an assumption he carried out of corporate life—that a serious entrepreneur must put in at least 50 hours a week. Michael explains why metrics matter more than hours and why founders should do more of what works, eliminate what does not, and stop treating exhaustion as proof of value. That shift became personal when financial pressure forced Michael to question both his business and his identity as an entrepreneur. After a difficult conversation with his wife and a night of prayer, he brought years of experience in technology, psychology, and podcasting together to create the Huddle. What emerged was a platform where hosts and guests can connect, referrals can drive growth, and Michael no longer has to be the bottleneck—a model he describes as a true legacy. Want to learn more about Michael Fritzius's work? Check out his website at [https://huddle.podcastify.me](https://huddle.podcastify.me). Connect with Michael Fritzius on LinkedIn at [https://linkedin.com/in/theofficialfritz](https://linkedin.com/in/theofficialfritz). Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at [https://podcast.allies4me.com/podcast-guest/](https://podcast.allies4me.com/podcast-guest/). Want to learn more about Craig Andrews' work at allies4me? Check out his website at [https://allies4me.com/](https://allies4me.com/). ## Key Points with Timestamps - **6:09 — Hardship became preparation**: Michael reframes cancer and hardship as preparation that strengthened his faith and resilience. - **12:10 — Turn fear into an informed decision**: When risk feels frightening, gather enough information to replace reflexive fear with an informed choice. - **21:07 — Podcast guesting should drive intentional lead generation**: Visibility alone is not the goal; podcast guesting should be designed around fit, leads, and intentional outcomes. - **21:45 — Reject the inherited 50-hour founder myth**: Hours are a poor scoreboard: founders should measure what works and reduce effort that does not produce results. - **25:24 — One hundred appearances can hide eighty wasted hours**: A 103-show campaign produced business from only 20 appearances, illustrating the cost of volume without audience fit. - **31:58 — Hard work can miss the business result**: Difficult work can deliver a dopamine hit while draining energy from the few actions that actually move the business. - **35:43 — Build a platform that grows without the founder**: The Huddle became a referral-driven platform that can connect people and grow without Michael remaining the bottleneck. - **39:04 — The Huddle matches hosts and guests with low friction**: The Huddle combines AI-assisted host/guest matching with a pitch-free community built for efficient, relevant connections. ## Transcript ### 00:00:00.570 — Craig Andrews (cold open) I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. ### 00:00:11.020 — Craig Andrews (cold open) When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. ### 00:00:15.120 — Craig Andrews (cold open) My team kept running the business without me. ### 00:00:19.880 — Craig Andrews (cold open) Freelancers reached out to my team and said we will do whatever it takes as long as Craig's in the hospital. ### 00:00:26.800 — Craig Andrews (cold open) I consider that the greatest accomplishment in my career. ### 00:00:30.880 — Craig Andrews (show intro) My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders in Legacy podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. ### 00:00:39.880 — Craig Andrews (show intro) At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on this show. ### 00:00:52.210 — Craig Andrews Today, I want to welcome Michael Fritchews, a done sound like it looks or a done look like it sounds. ### 00:00:59.480 — Craig Andrews Anyway, he is the founder of Podcastify Me. ### 00:01:03.320 — Craig Andrews He's also a faith-driven entrepreneur who ever came in cancer, reshaping his identity and resilience. ### 00:01:10.720 — Craig Andrews Now he helps business owners build systems that drive revenue through podcast guesting and freedom-based business models. ### 00:01:20.890 — Craig Andrews His background is in mental health, personal growth, faith and entrepreneurship aligns with holistic family leadership and balancing professional life with family values. ### 00:01:35.240 — Craig Andrews Michael, welcome. ### 00:01:36.240 — Craig Andrews Thanks ### 00:01:36.790 — Michael Fritzius for having me, man. ### 00:01:37.800 — Michael Fritzius It's good to have you. ### 00:01:38.800 — Michael Fritzius Good to catch up with you some ### 00:01:40.350 — Craig Andrews more. ### 00:01:40.840 — Craig Andrews Well, I want folks to be able to find you. ### 00:01:43.460 — Craig Andrews So when I looked at your name, I thought Fritchews, it's like F-R-I-T-Z-I-U-S. ### 00:01:49.290 — Craig Andrews Yep, ### 00:01:49.780 — Michael Fritzius that's ### 00:01:50.570 — Craig Andrews Fritchews. ### 00:01:52.200 — Michael Fritzius Fritchews. ### 00:01:53.200 — Michael Fritzius Yeah. ### 00:01:54.200 — Michael Fritzius And it doesn't sound like it looks. ### 00:01:56.460 — Michael Fritzius And usually when people say Fritchews, the SEO on that is better. ### 00:02:01.600 — Michael Fritzius And I know who you're talking to. ### 00:02:03.640 — Michael Fritzius It's like, who else are they going to be talking to this guy with an I chart for the last name? ### 00:02:07.840 — Michael Fritzius Yeah. ### 00:02:08.840 — Craig Andrews I answered it both. ### 00:02:09.840 — Craig Andrews Yeah. ### 00:02:10.840 — Craig Andrews What's the origin of that name? ### 00:02:12.200 — Craig Andrews Dude, ### 00:02:12.760 — Michael Fritzius I wish I knew. ### 00:02:13.840 — Michael Fritzius I don't know. ### 00:02:14.840 — Michael Fritzius I've heard people say, "Oh, it sounds German because of the Frits part and then the I-U-S." ### 00:02:19.480 — Michael Fritzius They're like, "Oh, that's kind of Greek. ### 00:02:20.680 — Michael Fritzius That's like a Baltic, Balkans." ### 00:02:22.880 — Michael Fritzius Like, I don't know. ### 00:02:24.680 — Michael Fritzius I'm just... ### 00:02:25.680 — Michael Fritzius I tell people I think it's a typo from Ellis Island. ### 00:02:28.280 — Michael Fritzius Maybe the guy was in a hurry. ### 00:02:30.080 — Michael Fritzius And he just smashed. ### 00:02:31.080 — Michael Fritzius And then it's like, "Just come on. ### 00:02:32.080 — Michael Fritzius Get get in." ### 00:02:33.080 — Michael Fritzius So I don't know. ### 00:02:34.080 — Michael Fritzius Maybe my last name is actually Smith. ### 00:02:35.400 — Michael Fritzius I have no idea. ### 00:02:36.920 — Michael Fritzius I should probably spit in a tube and send it off and find out more about that. ### 00:02:40.080 — Michael Fritzius What do you think? ### 00:02:41.080 — Craig Andrews Hey. ### 00:02:42.080 — Craig Andrews It could be interesting. ### 00:02:43.190 — Craig Andrews I used to work for a guy who arguably had no vowels in his name. ### 00:02:48.880 — Craig Andrews Oh, yeah? ### 00:02:49.880 — Michael Fritzius And... ### 00:02:50.880 — Michael Fritzius Was it Bosnian? ### 00:02:51.880 — Craig Andrews What happened? ### 00:02:52.880 — Craig Andrews I'm sure I remember it was pronounced "grib" but it was G-R-Z-Y-B. ### 00:02:57.040 — Craig Andrews Yeah. ### 00:02:58.040 — Craig Andrews And, you know, the... ### 00:03:02.280 — Craig Andrews But people would always ask me and they were like, and before they were meeting with them, they were like, "How do you pronounce his ### 00:03:07.970 — Michael Fritzius name?" ### 00:03:08.480 — Michael Fritzius Yeah. ### 00:03:09.480 — Michael Fritzius Yeah. ### 00:03:10.480 — Michael Fritzius And you just said, "I don't." ### 00:03:12.280 — Craig Andrews Like, "I call him Joe." ### 00:03:17.360 — Craig Andrews So anyway, you know, and honestly, I don't know much about this intentionally. ### 00:03:22.340 — Craig Andrews I like to come into this a little bit cold, but apparently you had a bout with cancer. ### 00:03:28.640 — Michael Fritzius Yeah. ### 00:03:29.640 — Michael Fritzius And ### 00:03:29.820 — Craig Andrews what... ### 00:03:30.640 — Craig Andrews What happened? ### 00:03:31.640 — Craig Andrews Well, I had ### 00:03:33.730 — Michael Fritzius cancer and then I got better. ### 00:03:39.280 — Michael Fritzius Next question. ### 00:03:40.280 — Michael Fritzius I'm joking. ### 00:03:41.450 — Michael Fritzius So I, back in 2012, July 2012, so it's been just over, wow, 16 years, man, time flies. ### 00:03:51.440 — Michael Fritzius I found a lump and it was testicular and ended up getting an appointment with the doctor, the GP, and he just managed to slot me in, check things out and said, "Well, we're gonna send you off for an ultrasound." ### 00:04:11.960 — Michael Fritzius And I got that taken care of and then he called me that same day and they said, "Yeah." ### 00:04:16.000 — Michael Fritzius They looked and it is a tumor. ### 00:04:18.080 — Michael Fritzius So I'm gonna refer you to a urologist, we're gonna have to talk about surgery, talk about treatment options or whatever, but that's where I ended up going and fortunately it was one of those things. ### 00:04:30.880 — Michael Fritzius It was just a, like, wow, we just had an opening, wow, we just had an open, I mean, it happened fast because that type of cancer actually does grow very fast, probably tripled in size in just a week and so got it removed and, you know, it was just the one side but ### 00:04:50.560 — Michael Fritzius that really took me to a dark place. ### 00:04:56.320 — Michael Fritzius It's like, you know, when part of you rebels against you and you get cancer, it's like you can't go anywhere and get away from it. ### 00:05:05.380 — Michael Fritzius And I never did have to have any chemo or radiation or any treatments or anything like that. ### 00:05:09.600 — Michael Fritzius It was just outpatient surgery but that was my first real honest to God test of my faith, of my metal and it just really took me to a dark spot. ### 00:05:22.000 — Michael Fritzius I was upset at God and I would yell my prayers thinking, "You even aware of what's going on down here? ### 00:05:30.910 — Michael Fritzius Like, are you seeing this? ### 00:05:32.720 — Michael Fritzius Are you seeing what's happening?" ### 00:05:35.040 — Michael Fritzius And he was and looking back, it's been 16 years but there's been so much growth since then. ### 00:05:45.240 — Michael Fritzius There are so many things that have come through that are harder than that even. ### 00:05:49.080 — Michael Fritzius The stress levels are just incredible and I used to say, "Well, we just, it's not cancer." ### 00:05:55.650 — Michael Fritzius All the stuff that I've gone through after that have been even harder to handle mentally, physically, spiritually. ### 00:06:05.280 — Michael Fritzius And it's like, wow, I thought that was the hardest thing ever. ### 00:06:09.560 — Michael Fritzius It was really a stepping stone preparing me to handle even harder things and to know and feel and trust that I'm going to come out a lot stronger than I was when I went in and to enjoy it even. ### 00:06:25.760 — Michael Fritzius I'm like, "Am I turning into a masochist? ### 00:06:26.400 — Michael Fritzius What's going on here?" ### 00:06:27.280 — Michael Fritzius But no, it's just you pray to see God's hand work in your life and then that is what happens and it's ### 00:06:35.100 — Craig Andrews okay. ### 00:06:36.980 — Craig Andrews Describe dark. ### 00:06:37.980 — Craig Andrews I mean, I know I've been in that while I was in the hospital when I woke up from my coma. ### 00:06:45.520 — Craig Andrews There was one morning that I went very, very dark but I don't know how I'd describe it to other people, the feeling, but what was, I mean, for me, just very briefly, I was in 24-hour pain. ### 00:07:05.200 — Craig Andrews I couldn't walk. ### 00:07:06.280 — Craig Andrews I couldn't do anything for myself. ### 00:07:10.110 — Craig Andrews I think at that point I couldn't even use a bed pan and I just realized, "You know what, tomorrow's going to be like this also and the day after this is going to be like this also." ### 00:07:20.840 — Craig Andrews I started spiraling down, ### 00:07:24.160 — Michael Fritzius very, very ### 00:07:26.130 — Craig Andrews dark place. ### 00:07:28.560 — Craig Andrews Would dark look like ### 00:07:30.930 — Michael Fritzius for you? ### 00:07:32.200 — Michael Fritzius Dark looked lonely for me and I was still in corporate back then. ### 00:07:39.700 — Michael Fritzius I'd go to work and put in my 60 hours a week of W2 employee work and have a good face. ### 00:07:48.670 — Michael Fritzius I was only out of work for two weeks as I recovered and I was still pretty alley when I got back there. ### 00:07:53.800 — Michael Fritzius I'd front, I'd put on a game face and people were like, "Yeah, it's Fritz. ### 00:07:57.570 — Michael Fritzius He's the machine, man. ### 00:07:58.800 — Michael Fritzius He's back in the office. ### 00:08:00.040 — Michael Fritzius Yeah, man, bro, yeah." ### 00:08:01.760 — Michael Fritzius Then I'd go home and I would just go back to the bedroom and leave the light off and curl up in the fetal position on the bed and wait for dinner and just be and just exist. ### 00:08:16.480 — Michael Fritzius I felt like God didn't know what he was doing. ### 00:08:19.960 — Michael Fritzius I felt like I was just left out. ### 00:08:23.000 — Michael Fritzius I was left behind, discarded. ### 00:08:27.790 — Michael Fritzius I'm sure I had some suicidal thoughts but it wasn't anything that I was going to act on but I just felt cast aside. ### 00:08:34.800 — Michael Fritzius I just felt like, "Dude, I'm only 32 years old and this is how I'm going to check out. ### 00:08:45.280 — Michael Fritzius What is going on here? ### 00:08:47.480 — Michael Fritzius Can't you hear something that happens to old people, not guys like me?" ### 00:08:53.680 — Michael Fritzius Just being upset, not having any control of my emotions and it's just all over the place? ### 00:09:00.660 — Michael Fritzius I didn't know anything about emotional intelligence back then. ### 00:09:04.400 — Michael Fritzius I was ### 00:09:04.660 — Craig Andrews pissed. ### 00:09:05.360 — Craig Andrews Were you on some meds that were maybe contributing to ### 00:09:07.890 — Michael Fritzius that? ### 00:09:08.400 — Michael Fritzius No, no meds. ### 00:09:09.480 — Michael Fritzius It was all me, baby. ### 00:09:12.040 — Michael Fritzius I was just making it up as I go along. ### 00:09:14.360 — Michael Fritzius Nobody taught me about this stuff. ### 00:09:15.900 — Michael Fritzius Nobody taught me about emotional control. ### 00:09:17.600 — Michael Fritzius They didn't teach about how to funnel your emotions into something constructive or how to talk about it. ### 00:09:26.250 — Michael Fritzius I was just reactive and I was just scared all the time, all the time. ### 00:09:32.870 — Michael Fritzius That was just the dark place that I was in. ### 00:09:34.780 — Michael Fritzius It was depression. ### 00:09:36.080 — Michael Fritzius I can't get away from this. ### 00:09:37.520 — Michael Fritzius This was put on me. ### 00:09:39.840 — Michael Fritzius I didn't do anything wrong. ### 00:09:41.270 — Michael Fritzius What did I do to deserve this? ### 00:09:42.840 — Michael Fritzius What the heck is going on? ### 00:09:45.600 — Michael Fritzius Thoughts like that? ### 00:09:46.720 — Michael Fritzius Just being upset. ### 00:09:48.810 — Michael Fritzius I've come a long way since then. ### 00:09:50.920 — Michael Fritzius Now, I can actively see situations where, "Okay, yeah, this is happening for me. ### 00:09:58.480 — Michael Fritzius This isn't actually terrible. ### 00:09:59.760 — Michael Fritzius I can feel joy as I'm going through different things because I know it's for me. ### 00:10:03.720 — Michael Fritzius It's going to refine me. ### 00:10:04.520 — Michael Fritzius It's going to strengthen me. ### 00:10:05.880 — Michael Fritzius It's going to make me sharper, better, stronger, faster, smarter, whatever it is. ### 00:10:10.920 — Michael Fritzius I'm genuinely excited about who am I going to be when I come out the other side because I'm just going to be improving. ### 00:10:18.050 — Michael Fritzius I'm going to be better in some capacity." ### 00:10:21.300 — Michael Fritzius That was my first real, boom, warning shot. ### 00:10:26.320 — Craig Andrews Wow. ### 00:10:29.640 — Craig Andrews I liked your perspective about how going through that, that was a training ground to get ready for what was ### 00:10:38.990 — Michael Fritzius next. ### 00:10:41.290 — Craig Andrews What was next? ### 00:10:43.810 — Michael Fritzius Well, what was next was I needed to get out of the job that I was in and no fault on them, nothing wrong with the place. ### 00:10:53.050 — Michael Fritzius I was emotionally immature. ### 00:10:54.740 — Michael Fritzius I realized that now. ### 00:10:56.360 — Michael Fritzius I realized that many years ago. ### 00:10:59.560 — Michael Fritzius I just needed to get out of there. ### 00:11:02.960 — Michael Fritzius What it led me to was a contracting position. ### 00:11:07.220 — Michael Fritzius It was the same kind of work, but as a contractor. ### 00:11:12.930 — Michael Fritzius Oh, my goodness. ### 00:11:14.100 — Michael Fritzius Super scary. ### 00:11:14.960 — Michael Fritzius Contractors can get fired anytime. ### 00:11:17.080 — Michael Fritzius Guys, guess what? ### 00:11:18.260 — Michael Fritzius A W2 employee can get fired anytime. ### 00:11:20.230 — Michael Fritzius It's not like a tenured professorship. ### 00:11:22.380 — Michael Fritzius You can get let go. ### 00:11:23.400 — Michael Fritzius I've seen it happen. ### 00:11:25.490 — Michael Fritzius I've had it happen multiple times. ### 00:11:29.340 — Michael Fritzius I've gotten fired. ### 00:11:31.630 — Michael Fritzius That was where I started stepping out, getting more independent, taking more risk, and that was also the first time I started thinking, "Huh, what if I started a business?" ### 00:11:43.570 — Michael Fritzius The boss that I had at that time, the one for the contracting position, he was like, "Oh, Michael, you shouldn't do that." ### 00:11:51.480 — Michael Fritzius He was an Indian guy. ### 00:11:52.320 — Michael Fritzius "Michael, you shouldn't do that. ### 00:11:53.710 — Michael Fritzius It is too much headache and there's so much tax and stuff." ### 00:11:57.060 — Michael Fritzius He had all kinds of reasons why I shouldn't ever start a business, and Shrinivas, bro, if you're listening, I'm so glad I didn't listen to you, man. ### 00:12:06.600 — Michael Fritzius That was the worst advice, but I mean, that's exactly what I needed to hear because the more that I stepped out in faith, the more that I was willing to take, what seemed like scary risk. ### 00:12:16.920 — Michael Fritzius But it wasn't actually. ### 00:12:18.080 — Michael Fritzius It was just, "Oh, my brain doesn't have enough information, doesn't have enough data." ### 00:12:22.680 — Michael Fritzius Turn on the cortisol machine, "Okay, well, get some more data. ### 00:12:26.280 — Michael Fritzius If something is causing you to feel stress, get more information so that you have more data to work with so that you can make an informed decision." ### 00:12:36.400 — Michael Fritzius I went from that to do more of a consulting role, and then that's when I decided I was going to start my LLC. ### 00:12:46.520 — Michael Fritzius I got the Secretary of State website. ### 00:12:48.680 — Michael Fritzius It was all filled out. ### 00:12:50.400 — Michael Fritzius I'm like, "What if I filled in a form wrong and the government comes and kicks in my door and charges me $10,000 because I didn't know a thing." ### 00:13:00.390 — Michael Fritzius Soon after, I had kind of hesitated and stuff. ### 00:13:04.920 — Michael Fritzius I was kind of calling around and I'm saying, "Hey, I'm thinking about doing this. ### 00:13:08.200 — Michael Fritzius I'm thinking about, well, the second person I called was my old boss at the place I was at then. ### 00:13:16.320 — Michael Fritzius I was on contract for about a year and a half." ### 00:13:18.920 — Michael Fritzius He's like, "Oh, my goodness. ### 00:13:20.050 — Michael Fritzius We absolutely need that kind of help. ### 00:13:21.580 — Michael Fritzius When can you start?" ### 00:13:22.160 — Michael Fritzius I'm like, "Well, a couple of weeks. ### 00:13:24.120 — Michael Fritzius I'm still engaged here at this place. ### 00:13:26.820 — Michael Fritzius Well, I got my notice not long after that." ### 00:13:30.760 — Michael Fritzius The boss invited me into the office and said, "Hey, it's not personal, but we're actually winding down this sector of the whole business." ### 00:13:39.320 — Michael Fritzius The writing was on the wall. ### 00:13:41.250 — Michael Fritzius We had six testers on that side of the house. ### 00:13:44.200 — Michael Fritzius I was the last one. ### 00:13:46.230 — Michael Fritzius I really should have seen it coming, Craig. ### 00:13:50.920 — Michael Fritzius They said, "We want to give you like a month's notice. ### 00:13:52.640 — Michael Fritzius We're not going to just give you a box and be like, "Here's a box in the security guard. ### 00:13:56.600 — Michael Fritzius Have fun. ### 00:13:57.300 — Michael Fritzius You got five minutes. ### 00:13:58.710 — Michael Fritzius We like you, Fritz." ### 00:14:00.240 — Michael Fritzius They let me stay for a month and get things tied up, do the knowledge, transfer, and stuff like that. ### 00:14:07.000 — Michael Fritzius I already had my first client lined up. ### 00:14:11.360 — Michael Fritzius That was my first honest-to-god client that I had. ### 00:14:15.080 — Michael Fritzius It worked great. ### 00:14:16.920 — Michael Fritzius It worked ### 00:14:17.370 — Craig Andrews great. ### 00:14:17.840 — Michael Fritzius That's ### 00:14:19.450 — Craig Andrews awesome. ### 00:14:22.160 — Craig Andrews What was that doing? ### 00:14:23.800 — Craig Andrews Was that podcasting? ### 00:14:26.240 — Craig Andrews No, ### 00:14:26.640 — Michael Fritzius man. ### 00:14:27.240 — Michael Fritzius I didn't get into podcasting until middle of 2019. ### 00:14:32.440 — Michael Fritzius I used to be in the software space. ### 00:14:35.090 — Michael Fritzius I was a combination software developer and a software tester, and I could automate the testing. ### 00:14:42.690 — Michael Fritzius In that space, it's a little bit of a unicorn like, "Oh, my goodness. ### 00:14:48.290 — Michael Fritzius He knows how to code and test and talk to people. ### 00:14:51.920 — Michael Fritzius Let's throw gold bullion in his face." ### 00:14:55.480 — Michael Fritzius There are very few people that can play both sides and liaise between any layer of person that you'd run into in a corporation. ### 00:15:03.880 — Michael Fritzius I have to talk with the developers, talk with the QA people, talk with the business analysts, talk with the project managers, talk with the C-suite, talk with the product owners, all these different people. ### 00:15:15.640 — Michael Fritzius They all have different layers of communications. ### 00:15:18.780 — Michael Fritzius I had to code switch, talk into different people so that I could make sure that communication was happening. ### 00:15:24.400 — Michael Fritzius Didn't realize it at the time, though, Craig. ### 00:15:26.840 — Michael Fritzius That was preparing me for the podcasting world. ### 00:15:28.780 — Michael Fritzius I don't know if you know this. ### 00:15:30.050 — Michael Fritzius A lot of podcast hosts have to talk to people. ### 00:15:32.770 — Michael Fritzius Have you noticed that? ### 00:15:34.310 — Michael Fritzius You ever see that? ### 00:15:35.640 — Michael Fritzius It's kind of a recurring theme. ### 00:15:37.320 — Michael Fritzius Let me ### 00:15:37.880 — Craig Andrews tell you one of the first podcasts, I guessed ### 00:15:41.950 — Michael Fritzius it on. ### 00:15:42.520 — Michael Fritzius I ### 00:15:42.910 — Craig Andrews show up. ### 00:15:45.960 — Craig Andrews There's no warm-up. ### 00:15:48.050 — Craig Andrews It's like, "Okay, we're starting." ### 00:15:50.950 — Craig Andrews He hits record. ### 00:15:52.400 — Craig Andrews He goes through a list of questions he asks me. ### 00:15:55.140 — Craig Andrews I answer the question one after another. ### 00:15:58.640 — Craig Andrews After I answer the last question, the Zoom session just ends. ### 00:16:03.960 — Craig Andrews I'm like, "You went wrong." ### 00:16:07.040 — Craig Andrews I messaged him and I said, "Hey, I think we got cut off. ### 00:16:11.390 — Craig Andrews I'm sorry. ### 00:16:12.090 — Craig Andrews I don't know if it was on my end." ### 00:16:13.890 — Craig Andrews He replied back, "No, we didn't get cut off. ### 00:16:16.750 — Craig Andrews It was over." ### 00:16:17.660 — Craig Andrews It was the one oldest thing. ### 00:16:19.480 — Craig Andrews That ### 00:16:19.650 — Michael Fritzius was awkward. ### 00:16:20.220 — Michael Fritzius You're not going to do that to me today, are you? ### 00:16:22.040 — Michael Fritzius Are you ### 00:16:22.360 — Craig Andrews going to give me some long ways? ### 00:16:23.920 — Craig Andrews It depends how ### 00:16:24.150 — Michael Fritzius things go. ### 00:16:24.350 — Michael Fritzius We'll see. ### 00:16:24.600 — Michael Fritzius It ### 00:16:25.090 — Craig Andrews ends ### 00:16:26.090 — Michael Fritzius up being done. ### 00:16:27.160 — Michael Fritzius I got what I needed. ### 00:16:27.960 — Michael Fritzius I was firmly in the software space. ### 00:16:32.520 — Michael Fritzius Huge nerd. ### 00:16:34.190 — Michael Fritzius Huge nerd. ### 00:16:35.870 — Michael Fritzius I wear that title proudly. ### 00:16:37.640 — Michael Fritzius That's what I was doing. ### 00:16:39.100 — Michael Fritzius I didn't get into the podcasting scene until July 2019, man. ### 00:16:45.880 — Craig Andrews Tell me a little bit about what you've been doing in podcasting. ### 00:16:50.760 — Craig Andrews Well, ### 00:16:51.320 — Michael Fritzius when I launched that tech company in 2015, that was officially, it was October 2015, I believe, and between then and when I shut it down in 2021, near the end of its lifespan, what I was doing was stapling on all kinds of doodads and googaws. ### 00:17:15.710 — Michael Fritzius Wow, we do social media and software dev and app dev and marketing and SEO and websites and podcasting and it was just a mess. ### 00:17:24.920 — Michael Fritzius Folks, if you're watching this, if the ship is sinking, don't add more cargo. ### 00:17:31.740 — Michael Fritzius Follow me for more live hacks, right? ### 00:17:34.040 — Michael Fritzius And the podcasting piece actually started getting attention because what I would do is I would go to BNI meetings and I'd go to these online networking groups and Fritz got 30 seconds, tell us what you do. ### 00:17:48.000 — Michael Fritzius And I'm like rattle off all the things because who knows? ### 00:17:52.200 — Michael Fritzius Maybe something will appeal. ### 00:17:54.040 — Michael Fritzius Well, people started gravitating toward me on the podcasting stuff. ### 00:17:57.900 — Michael Fritzius Oh, you do podcasting? ### 00:17:58.990 — Michael Fritzius I've always wanted to start a podcast. ### 00:18:00.700 — Michael Fritzius Can you help me do that? ### 00:18:01.720 — Michael Fritzius Yeah, yeah, probably. ### 00:18:03.670 — Michael Fritzius Let's talk about it. ### 00:18:05.320 — Michael Fritzius And I would help them launch their podcast and soon after that, in 2021, when I finally shut down that previous business, Arch DevOps, I had been talking with a good friend of mine, Mark, he's here with me in St. ### 00:18:20.480 — Michael Fritzius Louis and he owns a software dev company too. ### 00:18:24.060 — Michael Fritzius And I said, Mark, I said, you know, sometimes I wonder what it would be like to just take a piece of the company out and spin it up into its own thing. ### 00:18:34.280 — Michael Fritzius Like, if what if I took the podcasting piece out and I called it podcast to find me, as soon as I said that, as soon as I said that, Craig, there was a heaviness that came over the table. ### 00:18:48.040 — Michael Fritzius We were at a Panera drinking coffees together. ### 00:18:50.780 — Michael Fritzius We both felt it. ### 00:18:51.860 — Michael Fritzius And we both looked at each other. ### 00:18:53.880 — Michael Fritzius And we're like, uh, and I said, hang on, let me check something real quick. ### 00:18:58.680 — Michael Fritzius So I whipped out my phone and I went to namecheap.com and I put in podcastify.me and I'm like, oh, the domain's available. ### 00:19:05.930 — Michael Fritzius I said, Mark, don't take this from me. ### 00:19:08.160 — Michael Fritzius Just let me have it. ### 00:19:09.320 — Michael Fritzius He's like, I'm going to buy the thing from you. ### 00:19:11.940 — Michael Fritzius Just go get it. ### 00:19:12.730 — Michael Fritzius Just get the thing. ### 00:19:13.750 — Michael Fritzius It's 15 bucks a year. ### 00:19:15.040 — Michael Fritzius Go get it. ### 00:19:15.720 — Michael Fritzius So I did. ### 00:19:17.150 — Michael Fritzius And I mean, we were almost done with our drinks anyway. ### 00:19:19.400 — Michael Fritzius And I zipped home as quick as I could. ### 00:19:22.280 — Michael Fritzius I got home in like record time. ### 00:19:23.480 — Michael Fritzius I think it normally takes 22 minutes. ### 00:19:25.240 — Michael Fritzius I got home in like 17. ### 00:19:26.520 — Michael Fritzius I'm pretty sure I drove through some people's yards on the way home. ### 00:19:30.060 — Michael Fritzius And I popped open the browser and I bought the domain. ### 00:19:32.700 — Michael Fritzius I sent him a screenshot. ### 00:19:33.590 — Michael Fritzius I said, boom, baby. ### 00:19:34.390 — Michael Fritzius He's like, I love it. ### 00:19:35.320 — Michael Fritzius So every once in a while, we get together and I'm like, bark, I didn't want any of this success. ### 00:19:39.080 — Michael Fritzius It's all your fault. ### 00:19:40.440 — Michael Fritzius And he's like, I'm not sorry. ### 00:19:42.370 — Michael Fritzius But that's what really kicked into gear for the podcasting space was producing the episodes. ### 00:19:50.160 — Michael Fritzius And then later, much later, years later, we'll say four years later, I started having people come into me and they were like, Fritz, I don't want to start a show. ### 00:19:59.330 — Michael Fritzius That's too much effort. ### 00:20:00.370 — Michael Fritzius That's too much lift. ### 00:20:01.310 — Michael Fritzius Even if you guys are helping, I really want to get booked on shows. ### 00:20:04.990 — Michael Fritzius And I said, now we don't do that here. ### 00:20:07.360 — Michael Fritzius We just do the production side of things. ### 00:20:09.000 — Michael Fritzius Well, my coach at the time was like, well, why don't you do that? ### 00:20:09.000 — Michael Fritzius I said, eh, I don't really want the stigma. ### 00:20:17.960 — Michael Fritzius He said, what are you talking about? ### 00:20:19.320 — Michael Fritzius I said, there are so many booking agencies out there where it's like a handful of VAs that are based out of India or Pakistan or whatever. ### 00:20:29.110 — Michael Fritzius And they just shoehorn you on whatever show. ### 00:20:31.240 — Michael Fritzius They're trying to fit a quarter. ### 00:20:32.630 — Michael Fritzius They're trying to get out. ### 00:20:33.270 — Michael Fritzius It's like, Oh, they're paying for eight a month. ### 00:20:34.520 — Michael Fritzius I got to get them on eight. ### 00:20:35.690 — Michael Fritzius And he's like, well, then don't do that. ### 00:20:37.910 — Michael Fritzius He's like, you can do it the way that you know is the best way to do it. ### 00:20:41.340 — Michael Fritzius You don't have to operate that way. ### 00:20:42.930 — Michael Fritzius And there was something about the way he said that where I said, you're right, I could do it my way. ### 00:20:50.600 — Michael Fritzius What is my way? ### 00:20:51.950 — Michael Fritzius How would I actually solve the problem? ### 00:20:54.170 — Michael Fritzius What's the real problem that people have when they start saying they want to guest on shows? ### 00:20:59.860 — Michael Fritzius And I started really digging deep into the psychology of why people want to get on shows in the first place. ### 00:21:05.380 — Michael Fritzius What is the actual problem they're trying to solve? ### 00:21:07.800 — Michael Fritzius They think it's visibility. ### 00:21:09.840 — Michael Fritzius It's actually lead gen. ### 00:21:11.580 — Michael Fritzius They want to generate more leads. ### 00:21:14.030 — Michael Fritzius They're hoping that getting on a bunch of shows will result in more leads. ### 00:21:18.230 — Michael Fritzius And sometimes, yeah, they accidentally get business. ### 00:21:21.120 — Michael Fritzius How do we make that more intentional? ### 00:21:23.000 — Michael Fritzius And in this journey, I've had to learn a lot about where I spend my own time, how I coach people on where to spend their time and to really get over the fear of, well, if I'm not pounding out at least 50 hours a week in my business, I'm somehow entrepreneur wrong. ### 00:21:43.320 — Michael Fritzius I'm doing something wrong. ### 00:21:45.240 — Michael Fritzius I think that's a big fat line. ### 00:21:47.720 — Michael Fritzius I think that's a carryover from corporate mindset because I've been on both sides of the coin. ### 00:21:52.410 — Michael Fritzius I know what it feels like. ### 00:21:54.400 — Michael Fritzius I know it feels wrong to not spend that much time. ### 00:21:58.190 — Michael Fritzius But what if you can get all of your necessary stuff done in two hours a day or five hours a week? ### 00:22:06.780 — Michael Fritzius There's nothing wrong with that. ### 00:22:08.340 — Michael Fritzius Measure, get the metrics. ### 00:22:09.860 — Michael Fritzius What's effective? ### 00:22:10.970 — Michael Fritzius What's working and what's not? ### 00:22:13.000 — Michael Fritzius Do more of the former do less of the latter. ### 00:22:15.560 — Michael Fritzius Problem solved. ### 00:22:16.610 — Michael Fritzius It's just we got to unthink and unlearn so many things. ### 00:22:20.090 — Michael Fritzius Man, it's been a crazy journey. ### 00:22:22.440 — Michael Fritzius It's been a crazy journey. ### 00:22:23.720 — Michael Fritzius I've loved it, but it is freaking hard. ### 00:22:26.030 — Michael Fritzius Anybody that tells you all business is easy. ### 00:22:28.600 — Michael Fritzius No, it's not. ### 00:22:29.000 — Michael Fritzius Maybe if you're a trust fund, baby, yes, that you can just throw millions of dollars or something and be like, "Hey, problem solved." ### 00:22:34.810 — Michael Fritzius But it's like, if you're going commando and doing it yourself, it's hard, but it's all up here. ### 00:22:39.370 — Michael Fritzius It's all in your head. ### 00:22:41.000 — Michael Fritzius Conquer this thing, and yes, you will have a successful business. ### 00:22:43.760 — Michael Fritzius I just learned that fairly recently. ### 00:22:45.400 — Michael Fritzius It took a while. ### 00:22:46.760 — Michael Fritzius It took 45 years to learn that, Craig. ### 00:22:48.660 — Michael Fritzius I'm kind of a slow learner. ### 00:22:49.880 — Michael Fritzius Well, ### 00:22:50.610 — Craig Andrews I won't come back to that, but I get pitched every day to come on the podcast. ### 00:23:01.570 — Craig Andrews And what folks don't realize is you're pitching the wrong person. ### 00:23:05.720 — Craig Andrews I don't review it. ### 00:23:10.840 — Craig Andrews Every now and then, I'll have something I'll catch my eye. ### 00:23:15.240 — Craig Andrews But I was in a networking meeting, and I was looking for a very specific type of guest for my fiduciary alchemy podcast. ### 00:23:24.680 — Craig Andrews And somebody shouted out, "Can I be on?" ### 00:23:27.800 — Craig Andrews Or he sent me a message or something like, "Can I come on your podcast?" ### 00:23:31.960 — Craig Andrews And at this point, I didn't know what he did, but I just like, sure, we have a requirement that you have a minimum of 200 AUM, which is assets under management. ### 00:23:43.880 — Craig Andrews And that's like, that immediately eliminates anybody. ### 00:23:47.880 — Craig Andrews It's not a financial advisor, and it eliminates a significant number of financial advisors. ### 00:23:54.130 — Craig Andrews And the pitch comes through, the guy who's not even a financial advisor, he's not even the financial space. ### 00:24:01.640 — Craig Andrews He was a ### 00:24:02.300 — Michael Fritzius LinkedIn coach. ### 00:24:04.070 — Michael Fritzius And ### 00:24:04.400 — Craig Andrews probably not a good ### 00:24:06.170 — Michael Fritzius fit. ### 00:24:06.920 — Craig Andrews And the person he should have been pitching to, Elena, sends me a message saying, "Did you invite this person? ### 00:24:17.920 — Craig Andrews This doesn't look good." ### 00:24:19.180 — Craig Andrews I'm like, "No, that's not a fit. ### 00:24:22.080 — Craig Andrews Let them know what our requirements are and thank him for his interest." ### 00:24:27.210 — Michael Fritzius He comes back ### 00:24:28.050 — Craig Andrews another time like, "Hey, I can add all this value." ### 00:24:31.640 — Craig Andrews Well, he's trying to drum up business for his LinkedIn coaching. ### 00:24:34.590 — Craig Andrews He doesn't even know who our audience is. ### 00:24:36.680 — Michael Fritzius And ### 00:24:37.800 — Craig Andrews like, dude, if you took the time to look in and figure out what the podcast is about, you would discover you're not going to find what you're looking for in our audience. ### 00:24:49.180 — Craig Andrews It's a different audience. ### 00:24:50.440 — Michael Fritzius Yep. ### 00:24:50.920 — Michael Fritzius It is. ### 00:24:52.600 — Michael Fritzius Well, that's kind of an example of what I was talking about, where everybody's like, if I could just get on a ton of podcasts, if I could just get on a hundred podcasts a year, you might get some business. ### 00:25:02.390 — Michael Fritzius I was talking with a guy just the other day, and he was trying to understand more about how I'm doing what I'm doing, because I'm not a huge fan of podcast tours anymore. ### 00:25:19.030 — Michael Fritzius I used to be. ### 00:25:20.110 — Michael Fritzius I used to think, "Wow, if you can get on a hundred a year, that's awesome." ### 00:25:24.280 — Michael Fritzius I now see that as probably a waste of time. ### 00:25:26.800 — Michael Fritzius I said, "How many podcasts have you been on?" ### 00:25:28.930 — Michael Fritzius Let's just ask that question. ### 00:25:30.290 — Michael Fritzius He says, "I've been," he said, "I wanted to get on a hundred. ### 00:25:33.140 — Michael Fritzius I've actually been on 103." ### 00:25:34.870 — Michael Fritzius And I said, "Awesome. ### 00:25:36.040 — Michael Fritzius That's a good achievement. ### 00:25:37.560 — Michael Fritzius Now, how many of those actually resulted in business?" ### 00:25:40.240 — Michael Fritzius He said, "20." ### 00:25:41.310 — Michael Fritzius Now, I'm sure, Craig, you've heard of the Pareto principle, but I was like, "What the heck, dude?" ### 00:25:48.050 — Michael Fritzius That's like a word problem in a math book. ### 00:25:51.630 — Michael Fritzius You couldn't get a better example of that. ### 00:25:54.040 — Michael Fritzius You were on a hundred shows, and literally, 20 percent of those resulted in 80 percent of the output, 20 percent of those resulted in business. ### 00:26:05.400 — Michael Fritzius I'm sure that you have gotten business from other things, but what if you could just focus on that 20 percent? ### 00:26:11.850 — Michael Fritzius You would have saved, assuming every podcast you've been on is an hour. ### 00:26:16.200 — Michael Fritzius You would have saved 80 hours. ### 00:26:19.430 — Michael Fritzius That's two full-time employee weeks. ### 00:26:22.760 — Michael Fritzius What could you have done with that time, dude? ### 00:26:25.620 — Michael Fritzius What could you do with 80 hours? ### 00:26:30.100 — Michael Fritzius There's a lot of myths, and there's a lot of, I'll say, superstition around podcasting, because people have seen it work for others, and they think, "Oh, if I just get on the show, that must work." ### 00:26:45.320 — Michael Fritzius Well, it might work once in a while. ### 00:26:47.080 — Michael Fritzius You might find one show that has one client that's in there, and it's like, "Oh, my goodness, where have you been all my life?" ### 00:26:52.370 — Michael Fritzius Well, I got here as fast as I could. ### 00:26:53.920 — Michael Fritzius Traffic on 270 was terrible. ### 00:26:55.560 — Michael Fritzius Sorry, but that's not the norm, but people keep thinking it's the norm, and they keep wasting more and more time. ### 00:27:03.330 — Michael Fritzius It's nuts, man. ### 00:27:04.460 — Michael Fritzius It's nuts. ### 00:27:05.320 — Michael Fritzius It's a heavy lift being a visionary, dude. ### 00:27:08.280 — Michael Fritzius Yeah. ### 00:27:09.960 — Craig Andrews I think there's a lot of reasons to be on podcasts. ### 00:27:17.800 — Craig Andrews One of the things I've told people, I said, "If you're still working out what you do, ### 00:27:27.740 — Craig Andrews go get booked on 30 podcasts and explain to 30 different people what you do." ### 00:27:31.480 — Craig Andrews At the end of 30, if the way you're explaining it is the same one, episode number 30, that was number one, you just wasted your time. ### 00:27:40.540 — Craig Andrews Use that time to evolve and look at see the human feedback and see what resonates, see when they have their aha moments, and obviously provide some value for their audience. ### 00:27:52.280 — Craig Andrews I use that because I remember when I first started doing the podcast tour, it seemed like it took about 30 episodes before I finally realized what I really needed to say. ### 00:28:04.840 — Craig Andrews But then after that, be really targeted about where you go. ### 00:28:11.560 — Michael Fritzius Yeah. ### 00:28:12.760 — Michael Fritzius Well, what was your, you know, that 30 span time? ### 00:28:15.520 — Michael Fritzius Do you remember back that far? ### 00:28:17.320 — Michael Fritzius Be like, "Okay, episode one, this is what I tell people, and now episode 30, what changed for you?" ### 00:28:22.680 — Michael Fritzius I'm going to interview you, bud. ### 00:28:24.800 — Michael Fritzius I'm coming in your house and interviewing you ### 00:28:27.140 — Craig Andrews now. ### 00:28:27.500 — Craig Andrews Well, I remember, so I was, I was promoting a book called Make Sales Magical. ### 00:28:34.250 — Craig Andrews It's about how to make a first-time offer, and the, and you know, I would talk about the different elements that went into it. ### 00:28:45.080 — Craig Andrews And I remember when I would explain, you know, one of the points I had to make was, ### 00:28:53.460 — Craig Andrews look, you're going to look at this, and you're going to say, "Oh, I got it. ### 00:28:55.880 — Craig Andrews You're going to come up with something, and it's not going to work." ### 00:28:58.820 — Craig Andrews And we're talking specifically for high ticket complex services. ### 00:29:02.800 — Craig Andrews And I was trying different ways of saying, "Hey, looks, this is really hard. ### 00:29:07.800 — Craig Andrews You have to pay attention to the details," which of course is true, but not entertaining. ### 00:29:13.000 — Craig Andrews And I remember one time I just said, I made my first first-time offer, and it failed. ### 00:29:21.730 — Craig Andrews Then I made my second offer, and it failed. ### 00:29:25.400 — Craig Andrews My third offer failed a little bit less. ### 00:29:30.120 — Michael Fritzius Yeah. ### 00:29:31.240 — Michael Fritzius And just like ### 00:29:32.230 — Craig Andrews you, your face lit up. ### 00:29:34.120 — Craig Andrews Yeah, you just started, for those that are listening, you know, Michael's face just lit up. ### 00:29:40.120 — Craig Andrews But the, the host would laugh. ### 00:29:43.680 — Craig Andrews I was like, "Oh, let me try that again." ### 00:29:46.560 — Craig Andrews Next episode, I tried that again. ### 00:29:48.840 — Craig Andrews It took me almost 30 episodes to get to that point. ### 00:29:52.370 — Michael Fritzius Yeah. ### 00:29:53.000 — Michael Fritzius So let's ### 00:29:53.950 — Craig Andrews suck the less. ### 00:29:55.880 — Michael Fritzius It's suck the less, and you're like, "All right, now we got something. ### 00:30:00.450 — Michael Fritzius Excellent." ### 00:30:01.560 — Craig Andrews Yeah. ### 00:30:02.150 — Craig Andrews Very ### 00:30:02.490 — Michael Fritzius cool. ### 00:30:03.160 — Michael Fritzius But ### 00:30:03.720 — Craig Andrews anyway, wow, I know we could talk for hours. ### 00:30:11.240 — Craig Andrews I want to capture, I want to capture this thing that you were talking about. ### 00:30:15.780 — Craig Andrews Because I think, and I'll admit, even myself, it's like part of entrepreneurship is embracing the suck, putting in the hours, doing the hard work until things get going. ### 00:30:30.200 — Craig Andrews Now, absolutely, you know, to say, "Hey, you know, at some point you need to start building a scalable organization, an organization that runs without you." ### 00:30:39.790 — Craig Andrews But ### 00:30:42.690 — Craig Andrews you've had an interesting journey there. ### 00:30:44.620 — Craig Andrews And I want to make sure we capture that before we run out of time. ### 00:30:48.080 — Craig Andrews Before ### 00:30:48.520 — Michael Fritzius you just shut the zoom off on me. ### 00:30:50.600 — Craig Andrews Yeah, before I hit, you know, and ### 00:30:52.760 — Michael Fritzius bonk. ### 00:30:53.160 — Michael Fritzius Or I moved out in ### 00:30:54.140 — Craig Andrews the country, the internet's a little sketchy. ### 00:30:57.330 — Craig Andrews It may go any second ### 00:30:58.550 — Michael Fritzius now. ### 00:30:59.080 — Michael Fritzius Yeah. ### 00:30:59.530 — Michael Fritzius Oh, man. ### 00:30:59.930 — Michael Fritzius I'll have to talk 2X. ### 00:31:01.000 — Michael Fritzius Well, ### 00:31:07.240 — Michael Fritzius here's what I've learned is the human brain is very effective at giving you false signals. ### 00:31:18.840 — Michael Fritzius It doesn't mean to, but it's a pattern recognition system. ### 00:31:23.480 — Michael Fritzius It's very, very good at understanding, "Oh, we found a pattern." ### 00:31:27.410 — Michael Fritzius And that's great because now that means I don't have to consume as many calories thinking. ### 00:31:33.360 — Michael Fritzius It doesn't want to think all the time. ### 00:31:37.310 — Michael Fritzius And I learned something very suddenly is it is very difficult to get into the hustle porn space where you're doing a lot of hard things for the sake of doing hard things. ### 00:31:58.140 — Michael Fritzius Yes, it builds character, but it also takes energy from what you need to be focusing on. ### 00:32:06.360 — Michael Fritzius You can fall into the trap of getting a fat dopamine hit for accomplishing a hard thing, but that hard thing does not move the needle in your business. ### 00:32:17.500 — Michael Fritzius It could be, "Hey, I posted on LinkedIn consistently for 90 days. ### 00:32:21.660 — Michael Fritzius I did like a 75 hard version of social media. ### 00:32:25.080 — Michael Fritzius Good job." ### 00:32:25.960 — Michael Fritzius Did you get any leads? ### 00:32:27.560 — Michael Fritzius No. ### 00:32:28.040 — Michael Fritzius Did you get any clients? ### 00:32:30.050 — Michael Fritzius Obviously, if you didn't get any leads, you didn't get any clients. ### 00:32:32.040 — Michael Fritzius No. ### 00:32:32.210 — Michael Fritzius Okay. ### 00:32:32.450 — Michael Fritzius Well, that's a problem, fam, because you felt like you accomplished something, but it didn't really go anywhere. ### 00:32:38.280 — Michael Fritzius And I had to get on the mat with myself and say, "Fritz, where are you spending your time? ### 00:32:44.680 — Michael Fritzius Don't focus on the things that feel good to do. ### 00:32:49.070 — Michael Fritzius Some of the stuff is going to suck. ### 00:32:51.060 — Michael Fritzius You're not going to want to do it, but it's going to be the things that move the needle in your business. ### 00:32:56.380 — Michael Fritzius What are those things?" ### 00:32:57.640 — Michael Fritzius And this is me operating as a solopreneur. ### 00:33:01.590 — Michael Fritzius And I realized, okay, I don't really need to do a whole lot in order to get a result. ### 00:33:08.120 — Michael Fritzius I have to have an offer. ### 00:33:09.800 — Michael Fritzius Do I have that? ### 00:33:10.920 — Michael Fritzius Yes. ### 00:33:11.480 — Michael Fritzius I have to get leads. ### 00:33:12.840 — Michael Fritzius Do I have that? ### 00:33:13.800 — Michael Fritzius Yes. ### 00:33:14.340 — Michael Fritzius Do you have the sales calls getting booked? ### 00:33:17.810 — Michael Fritzius Yes. ### 00:33:18.350 — Michael Fritzius Okay. ### 00:33:18.990 — Michael Fritzius Well, what's a problem? ### 00:33:21.720 — Michael Fritzius How do you get more of that right? ### 00:33:24.550 — Michael Fritzius And three months ago, almost four months ago, there was another dark moment I got. ### 00:33:31.960 — Michael Fritzius I just really was at the end of my rope. ### 00:33:36.810 — Michael Fritzius And I'm just saying this one guy to another, I had a really, really hard conversation with my wife. ### 00:33:44.280 — Michael Fritzius I told her I'm like, I'm tired of being friggin broke. ### 00:33:47.640 — Michael Fritzius And I'm really hating how this marriage is making me feel. ### 00:33:51.720 — Michael Fritzius And I was pacing around the house. ### 00:33:56.190 — Michael Fritzius The entrepreneur, you get up at three in the morning, local time, and pacing around, I can't sleep. ### 00:34:02.890 — Michael Fritzius And I eventually just came and got Charlotte. ### 00:34:04.660 — Michael Fritzius I woke her up. ### 00:34:05.230 — Michael Fritzius I'm like, "Babe, I need to talk and we need to pray." ### 00:34:08.440 — Michael Fritzius And we just sat down and had it out. ### 00:34:10.920 — Michael Fritzius And I said, you know, at the end of the conversation, we were up for probably an hour. ### 00:34:16.260 — Michael Fritzius And at the end of the conversation, I just had to dig deep and pray and say, God, if you want me to get a job, I need you to make it okay. ### 00:34:26.860 — Michael Fritzius I need to feel that in my heart, like right now, that if that's what you want me to do, then I have to do it. ### 00:34:35.120 — Michael Fritzius Because I kind of put this entrepreneur life on a pedestal and turn it into an idol, honestly. ### 00:34:42.440 — Michael Fritzius I kid you not, Craig, the next day, the next day is when all of the stuff that I had been learning about building a platform, all of the stuff that I've learned about behavioral engineering and psychology and technology and stacks and everything. ### 00:35:00.760 — Michael Fritzius My whole brain was just on fire. ### 00:35:02.800 — Michael Fritzius And I said, I need to get to a Panera and just dedicate time and focus and read and pray and breathe and just plan and just dig in and get some stuff done and then go home when it's done. ### 00:35:17.080 — Michael Fritzius I need a distraction for you, play like my desk is massive. ### 00:35:19.630 — Michael Fritzius You can't see it right now, but I just can't work in a big capacity here because there's too much crap in my eye space. ### 00:35:28.470 — Michael Fritzius And in a very short amount of time is when this whole huddle thing came together and when I got done and I stepped back and I looked at it and I said, oh, shoot, I just built an exitable business. ### 00:35:46.280 — Michael Fritzius Like, Craig, I'm not the one that's bringing people in. ### 00:35:50.110 — Michael Fritzius The platform sells itself. ### 00:35:51.910 — Michael Fritzius People sign up. ### 00:35:52.980 — Michael Fritzius I'm not asking them to buy. ### 00:35:54.840 — Michael Fritzius I'm not even having sales calls. ### 00:35:57.450 — Michael Fritzius I'm not worried about lead gen anymore because I've got people that are on the platform that are referring other people into the platform. ### 00:36:05.480 — Michael Fritzius I look at the emails every once in a while and I'm almost seeing strangers get introduced to other strangers. ### 00:36:13.160 — Michael Fritzius Like, I know you and I know Elena, but I've got hosts coming in that I've never met. ### 00:36:19.800 — Michael Fritzius I don't even know what that dude looks like and he's getting introduced to some other guy that I never met in my life. ### 00:36:25.320 — Michael Fritzius Hope they have fun together, but now I'm just the facilitator. ### 00:36:29.880 — Michael Fritzius And so when I look back at how I used to operate with, I'm a solopreneur. ### 00:36:34.370 — Michael Fritzius I'm an entrepreneur. ### 00:36:35.910 — Michael Fritzius I'm a multipreneur, you know, how do I have how do I build a team? ### 00:36:39.430 — Michael Fritzius How do I have this guy does sales and this guy does social media and this guy's AI and now I'm looking at it and I'm thinking, I don't need to spend more than two hours a day on really, I wouldn't even say building the business. ### 00:36:53.660 — Michael Fritzius The business is built. ### 00:36:55.160 — Michael Fritzius I'm just putting little strategic tweaks here and there. ### 00:36:58.840 — Michael Fritzius I'm putting easy to provide feedback. ### 00:37:03.080 — Michael Fritzius Like, hey, what would you like to see? ### 00:37:04.870 — Michael Fritzius Let me know. ### 00:37:05.480 — Michael Fritzius I pipe all that information directly into AI. ### 00:37:07.720 — Michael Fritzius We plan together. ### 00:37:08.750 — Michael Fritzius I have two build sessions a week, one on Tuesday, one on Thursday. ### 00:37:12.360 — Michael Fritzius Tomorrow's the big day. ### 00:37:13.460 — Michael Fritzius And so I no longer have to be the one that's constantly push, push, push, push, push. ### 00:37:19.020 — Michael Fritzius And it's so weird. ### 00:37:20.360 — Michael Fritzius Like, I've built something that grows on its own. ### 00:37:24.650 — Michael Fritzius That's really a legacy. ### 00:37:26.270 — Michael Fritzius It's it's crazy. ### 00:37:27.400 — Michael Fritzius And I've spent like more than a decade, maybe it's going to be my time. ### 00:37:31.480 — Michael Fritzius One of these days, more than day, my ship will come, bro, it's here. ### 00:37:34.920 — Michael Fritzius And that change is that transformation. ### 00:37:37.890 — Michael Fritzius This is the thing that we were talking about before we hit record. ### 00:37:41.020 — Michael Fritzius That transformation can happen literally instantly. ### 00:37:46.120 — Michael Fritzius Your whole view of business, how to operate can change like that. ### 00:37:53.320 — Michael Fritzius And it feels so weird. ### 00:37:54.920 — Michael Fritzius It's like cheat by cheat. ### 00:37:56.760 — Michael Fritzius No, you've arrived at a new level. ### 00:38:00.280 — Michael Fritzius Suddenly you've been elevated. ### 00:38:02.150 — Michael Fritzius Operate there. ### 00:38:03.110 — Michael Fritzius Now, don't go back to old habits. ### 00:38:06.050 — Michael Fritzius But man, it's so weird. ### 00:38:07.420 — Michael Fritzius It's so weird. ### 00:38:08.400 — Michael Fritzius It's weird talking about this. ### 00:38:10.360 — Michael Fritzius It's like, who do I think I am? ### 00:38:12.280 — Michael Fritzius I'm a platform owner. ### 00:38:13.450 — Michael Fritzius Mark Zuckerberg's a platform owner. ### 00:38:15.390 — Michael Fritzius Elon Musk is a platform owner. ### 00:38:17.020 — Michael Fritzius Politics aside, like these are the guys that I'm looking at. ### 00:38:19.580 — Michael Fritzius And I'm like, well, how do they do their day? ### 00:38:21.560 — Michael Fritzius I asked chat GPT and I'm like, hey, how do these guys operate? ### 00:38:25.080 — Michael Fritzius What are their habits? ### 00:38:25.960 — Michael Fritzius You know, how do they how do they do the do? ### 00:38:28.360 — Michael Fritzius And it listed out all the things I'm looking at that. ### 00:38:31.410 — Michael Fritzius And I'm like, huh, I'm already doing 85% of that. ### 00:38:34.200 — Michael Fritzius What? ### 00:38:34.630 — Michael Fritzius I'm just some dude in St. ### 00:38:36.070 — Michael Fritzius Louis who used a podcast out of the backseat of his truck. ### 00:38:38.990 — Michael Fritzius And now I'm operating like these guys. ### 00:38:41.500 — Michael Fritzius What? ### 00:38:42.680 — Michael Fritzius But it doesn't feel that weird. ### 00:38:44.450 — Michael Fritzius It feels like there's old identity sticking to me. ### 00:38:47.250 — Michael Fritzius That's like, hey, man, remember the late night coding binges at two in the morning? ### 00:38:51.290 — Michael Fritzius Man, those were the days. ### 00:38:52.680 — Michael Fritzius That always were the days. ### 00:38:53.640 — Michael Fritzius Yeah, I don't want to go back to those days. ### 00:38:57.360 — Craig Andrews So let me before we wrap up, let's make sure everybody knows what the huddle is. ### 00:39:01.640 — Craig Andrews Can you explain ### 00:39:02.200 — Michael Fritzius that? ### 00:39:02.810 — Michael Fritzius Yeah, sure. ### 00:39:03.940 — Michael Fritzius So the huddle is two things. ### 00:39:06.090 — Michael Fritzius One, it's a matching platform. ### 00:39:09.640 — Michael Fritzius So if you want to guest on shows or if you are a podcast host looking for guests, it's a platform that uses AI to make it very, very simple for you both to say, yes, I absolutely would love to be on this show. ### 00:39:26.520 — Michael Fritzius I've had people say, oh, you've made bumble. ### 00:39:28.400 — Michael Fritzius You've made Tinder for podcasting. ### 00:39:29.960 — Michael Fritzius Yeah, I guess. ### 00:39:31.010 — Michael Fritzius I mean, that makes it simple to explain. ### 00:39:33.550 — Michael Fritzius People know they get the concept of swipe left swipe right. ### 00:39:37.290 — Michael Fritzius They understand that. ### 00:39:38.710 — Michael Fritzius The other part, the second part is a weekly call. ### 00:39:42.440 — Michael Fritzius It happens on Mondays at 11 a.m. ### 00:39:44.170 — Michael Fritzius Central. ### 00:39:44.680 — Michael Fritzius And it's for business owners. ### 00:39:46.120 — Michael Fritzius You don't have to have 400 AU. ### 00:39:48.570 — Michael Fritzius I don't even know what that acronym was. ### 00:39:51.240 — Michael Fritzius Assets under management. ### 00:39:52.280 — Michael Fritzius AUM. ### 00:39:52.610 — Michael Fritzius There ### 00:39:52.890 — Craig Andrews we go. ### 00:39:54.210 — Michael Fritzius See, I remember. ### 00:39:55.270 — Michael Fritzius Yeah, if you're a business owner and you guest on shows or you host a show, you're welcome. ### 00:40:00.440 — Michael Fritzius And I would love to share how to leverage each one of those conversations into referrals. ### 00:40:06.010 — Michael Fritzius That's what I talked about to teach people. ### 00:40:07.910 — Michael Fritzius But you meet a lot of cool folks on that call. ### 00:40:10.200 — Michael Fritzius But that's really what the huddle is. ### 00:40:11.920 — Michael Fritzius It's a community. ### 00:40:12.890 — Michael Fritzius It's a place to gather, a place to grow. ### 00:40:15.350 — Michael Fritzius But it's a very noise free, pitchless environment. ### 00:40:19.200 — Michael Fritzius It's not another social media platform. ### 00:40:21.500 — Michael Fritzius It's just, hey, show up, read a few angles, say yes or no or maybe and move on with your day. ### 00:40:27.220 — Michael Fritzius It takes like five minutes ### 00:40:28.710 — Craig Andrews a week. ### 00:40:29.240 — Craig Andrews Wow. ### 00:40:29.640 — Craig Andrews Yeah. ### 00:40:30.200 — Craig Andrews Well, how come folks reach you? ### 00:40:31.480 — Craig Andrews Yeah, they ### 00:40:32.200 — Michael Fritzius can reach me a bet. ### 00:40:33.450 — Michael Fritzius Well, honestly, best way is don't try to reach me. ### 00:40:36.680 — Michael Fritzius Just hop in the huddle. ### 00:40:38.710 — Michael Fritzius This address here, podcastify.me/huddle. ### 00:40:43.680 — Michael Fritzius And if you want to put that in the show notes too, that'd be awesome. ### 00:40:46.360 — Michael Fritzius That's the best way. ### 00:40:47.480 — Michael Fritzius And that's another example of, you know, old identity, old Fritz. ### 00:40:51.430 — Michael Fritzius Like, yeah, here's my calendar link. ### 00:40:53.160 — Michael Fritzius Like, I hardly have one on ones. ### 00:40:54.870 — Michael Fritzius And this is an exception, obviously. ### 00:40:57.400 — Michael Fritzius But I hardly have one on ones because I don't want to be the bottleneck. ### 00:41:01.010 — Michael Fritzius I don't want people to have to go through me or have to get to know me. ### 00:41:04.040 — Michael Fritzius Just come to the platform, try it out. ### 00:41:06.170 — Michael Fritzius You can meet lots of people without ever having to talk to me. ### 00:41:09.650 — Michael Fritzius I love talking to people though, but I don't want to slow you down. ### 00:41:12.570 — Michael Fritzius I'll just hop on the platform. ### 00:41:14.770 — Craig Andrews Yeah. ### 00:41:15.160 — Michael Fritzius Yeah. ### 00:41:15.400 — Michael Fritzius Well, very cool. ### 00:41:16.370 — Craig Andrews Well, thanks for sharing all that. ### 00:41:18.190 — Craig Andrews That was so awesome. ### 00:41:19.400 — Craig Andrews And thanks for coming on leaders and legacies. ### 00:41:21.240 — Michael Fritzius Thank you. ### 00:41:21.760 — Michael Fritzius I appreciate it. ### 00:41:22.520 — Michael Fritzius It was fun. ### 00:41:23.160 — Craig Andrews (outro) This is Craig Andrews. ### 00:41:28.550 — Craig Andrews (outro) I want to thank you for listening to the leaders and legacies podcast. ### 00:41:35.800 — Craig Andrews (outro) We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. ### 00:41:40.520 — Craig Andrews (outro) If that's you, please go to alliesforme.com/guest and sign up there. ### 00:41:49.070 — Craig Andrews (outro) If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this episode on social media. ### 00:41:54.060 — Craig Andrews (outro) Just do a quick screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend or post 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