Michael is all about helping people make their businesses more awesome with a particular focus in the franchisee industry. If you’re going facing some challenges or simply want to amplify you business Michael hopes to help you make your business more awesome.

In this episode we discuss the idea of work life integration, following your passion, getting kick ass with rituals and routines and an overall how to guide to to starting out on your journey. 

“Getting comfortable being uncomfortable.”

What does living life with passion and purpose mean?

For Michael it is all about travel. He loves to see new places and take his family on new experiences. If he can help people along the way improve their businesses that would be great also.

Summary

However the gold of this interview is that Michael is an entrepreneur who is really just at the beginning of his journey to success. He is all about work-life integration, which is not to be confused with work-life balance and doing the things in life that matter and that is to follow his passions.

In this very real conversation Michael shares his thoughts, ideas, and struggles that he has faced and is facing along this journey. For anyone at the start of there journey or looking to take a leap to follow their passion I am sure you will get a heap of great take-outs in this episode.

We discuss his journey to discovering this passion to podcast and how that came about. We look into why a job in sales can be beneficial for anyone as the teachings and experiences gained can be huge such as becoming a master at overcoming rejection. We discuss why writing good content, getting good at videos and becoming a good speaker is critical moving forward.

“Get up early and take a cold shower.”

Michael still has his day job, a loving wife and two beautiful children but he his chasing his passion around all this and to do this he has found more time in his day. For many of us this is how we must begin our own journey towards a life of passion and purpose. His realisation was that a common habit of the successful was that they all get up early. He decided to give it a go and try it for 6 months to test it. He says the results are phenomenal.

Getting up early has allowed him to find another couple of hours each day in which he has implemented some good healthy habits to kick start the day. These morning rituals have helped him focus for the day and also allow him to get the most important tasks done first thing. Having completed this task, the why task, which for him is writing, he seems much more productive and satisfied each and every day.

“Do something that scares the shit our of you everyday.”

He shares his struggles on his journey with us including finding the balance between work and life and how by simply being aware of this and being present he can find balance. His greatest strength is building rapport with people, networking, and maintaining good relationships, he shares his tips on this also. Just do something different every day and if there are two options pick the one that scares the shit out of you.

This is a very relevant interview with a man that his living the journey to finding his why and living life with more passion and purpose. The conversation is real, he is still human, and Michael shares his very real “how to” guide for anyone starting out or just beginning their journey.

Have a listen and please leave your comments and thoughts on this show and any thing else that you think we could improve on. This is a show for you so the more feedback I get the better is can tailor it. Enjoy the show! Peace, passion and purpose.

His Moment of Realisation

His background was not always in the franchisee world yet while growing up he helped his father run and improve businesses in which he found great enjoyment in doing. After graduating at university with a banking and finance degree in 2008 the world economy collapsed the industry his degree applied to was not looking so lucrative any longer. Perhaps a blessing in disguise as I think his passion laid elsewhere.  

Instead after University Michael got a job in a government role, which was not right for him but he did get in connection with people that worked with start-ups, he became interested in this field. After making the decision to leave this government role to try more things in efforts to discovering his passion Michael was approached by a start up owner to work for them, he took this opportunity and it is here he still works today.

From there he went into sales with this company and grew his knowledge in this field. With a desire to get more knowledge and having hit his self created glass ceiling he flew to the UK to have more professional and life experiences and that he did.

After his time there he came back to rejoin the Zuus workforce helping Franchisees to improve their businesses and it was this passion and desire to help more franchisee owners that pushed Michael to decide to start his podcast Franchisee Connect. This was really a big aha moment for Michael and he shares how it came about in this interview.

Michael is a man on a mission to live a great, more passionate filled life and is all about work-life integration, travelling and helping business owners have more awesome businesses.

Key Take Outs

·      Opportunities will present themselves. It is evident that Michael has passion and a pleasing attitude towards life and I believe it is this that has allowed opportunities to show up in his life. Allows be present and show up all the time with the 110% attitude.

·      Get Fired. I don’t know if this is really a key take-out but hey sometimes it probably wouldn’t hurt if you really don’t like what you are doing. Perhaps even just for fun.

·      Sales and cold calling experience. I think everyone can benefit from some time in sales and making those cold hard sales calls. It helps us build a tolerance to rejections as discussed below.

·      Confront rejection. It’s easy for us to avoid rejection as we all have a tendency to take things personally. One of the four agreements that Author Don Miguel Ruiz shares is just that, don’t take things personally. It is in fear that many of us avoid asking, this fear of rejection.

·      Get good at writing content and speaking and videos. Michael shares the view that by mastering these skills you will be very relevant and advanced in the future. The online digital age is thriving and many of the successful online entrepreneurs and businesses are realising the power of quality, content, speaking and videos to get their message heard.

·      Listen, learn and implement. The key message is common and that is to take action. Don’t learn something or tell yourself it would be good to do something and then take no action. Write down five things right now that you have through about doing and then do one thing on that list right now.

·      Work life integration. This doesn’t mean to have live a separate life and segment it from work but rather integrate them. This to me is gold! I truly believe the future for many  of us will be one that we can do what we love while still being our authentic self and not neglecting important other areas of our life like family and health.

·      Take a different path. Try Different Things. Michael feels that this is one way he has helped become greater and networking with others and building solid relationships but can apply to all areas of our lives and that is simply to try new things and take the path that scares the shit out of you. In doing this you walk outside you comfort zone and from there true growth happens. Trying many things is also key to discovering your why; don’t stop trying things until something clicks.

·      Don’t be the jack-of-all-trades. Along the way you have to realise that you cannot do it all and in fact its best not to do it all. Focus on your strengths and your value and have others fill the gaps. As to the afore mentioned quote, it is better to go one inch wide and one mile deep that it is to go one mile wide and one inch deep.

Routines & Rituals

·      Get up early; he started by waking at 4:30am rather than 7am.  

·      Exercise first thing. Get the blood flowing, work the right hormones and happy chemicals in doing so.

·      Writing with Pu-erh tea. This is something he loves to do.

·      Meditation.

·      Cold Showers.

·      High Protein breakfast.

·      More recently weight training.

What advice would you give to your 20-year-old self?

Seek to become a person of value and not a person of success. Again taken from Albert Einstein’s quote but certainly one that has helped him on his journey and is what he believes finding your hidden why is all about.

His interpretation of success

Success for Michael means having money. He believes money buys time and buys experiences. So with money he can live a life that brings him greater happiness and that is to travel and have new experiences.

Quick round questions

Favourite Food

Pizza, he loves it!

Favourite book(s)

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek

Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy

Quote

“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” Albert Einstein

How to Find Michael and other Links

How to find out more about Michael and certainly learn useful tips for the franchise operations you can go to the link below.

http://www.franchiseeconnect.com

Connect with him on Twitter

@Michaelpullman

What is Pu-erh Tea?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pu-erh_tea