How to Achieve Your Greatest Purpose with Mike Koenigs: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Light that spark fire nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Latinx Empower. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives and we'll be breaking down how to achieve your greatest purpose. To drop these value bonds, I brought to Mike Koenigs in the EO Fire Studios. Mike helps experts build empires. As a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and judge on entrepreneur.com's elevator pitch, he's also a 13-time bestselling author and is passionate about helping his clients build their platforms and amplify their message.

0:37and today we'll talk about how achieving your greatest purpose is how you want to go out and what impact you want to create that gives you the ultimate level of satisfaction in your life on your nation and how to go deep with your true purpose and what you want to achieve on a transformational level and oh so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Mike and our sponsors. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lands is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Matt and Nathan are leading AI creators in your guiding light in the AI and technology frontier.

1:11AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented. The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts. Michael, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. This is the big thing that usually doesn't happen until you've been through the grind for decades, but it is go narrow and deep, not wide and shallow. And what I mean by that is a lot of people believe that when I talk to young entrepreneurs, they're like, I want to reach millions and I want to get out to all these.

1:58And so they're like, know what you want. After you've been through the grind, you've built a business, you've had lots of employees, you've dealt with the government, you've dealt with regulations and all the complexities, what you want is lifestyle. And wide and shallow is generally not compatible with a high quality lifestyle. So I'm a big believer in going narrow and deep and creating transformations for maybe 10 people or 20 people instead of millions. Niche, you're flipping face off, Fire Nation. Why would you do anything else? If you've been listening to entrepreneurs on fire for any amount of time.

2:34Let's do this. And Michael's been a friend for years and years and years now. We used to live very close to each other in San Diego. We used to co-host some pretty awesome parties together after Social Media Marketing World. I almost got him to come move out to Puerto Rico so that this guy could keep the money that he makes. But he insists upon staying in California, so there's nothing I can do for him. But life is good because he's got the great attitude about everything that he does. And today, as I mentioned during the intro, we're talking about achieving your greatest purpose, Fire Nation.

3:07So Mike, tell me this. What do you mean when you say achieve your greatest purpose? What does that even mean? Well, I think if I were going to borrow Dan Sullivan's language, which is whatever your unique ability is. It's where unique ability is combined with your rocking chair perspective. In other words, if you are towards the tail end of your life and you're looking back at what matters most to you, the people, the experiences, the relationships, and you designed your life through that lens and wanted to achieve not only your ultimate purpose, but also combine your greatest gifts, money weren't an object, fame, celebrity, and status weren't an object, what would that look like?

3:58And I've had the good fortune of working with a ton of billionaires, uber successful, ultra affluent individuals over the past few years. And what happens to most of them over the course of their life is they achieve, they achieve, they make lots of money. And then at some point, usually in their 50s or 60s, they're like, I'm not happy. I don't feel valued. I don't feel like I've got depth and connection. And it's hard for me to be honest because I'm afraid I might be abandoned, that my best clients might leave or my employees or whatever it is. And they start really realizing how insecure they feel.

4:39And they're hitting the end of their traditional career. And they're like, what am I going to do when I'm done with the game or the game is done with me? And so achieving your greatest purpose is how do you want to go out and what impact do you really want to create that gives you the greatest level of satisfaction in your life? And I've been fascinated with that thought process, especially given the fact I spent a lot more time with older, wiser business owners and entrepreneurs. And Fire Nation, if you're not looking to achieve that, your version of your greatest purpose, then what are you doing?

5:17I mean, it's a question that's kind of rhetorical to you, Fire Nation, because you want to be listening to podcasts like this, educating yourself in this manner, hearing Michael Koenig's words right now, if you weren't on that path already. But it's just a head scratcher for me to think of all the millions of people in this world that will never get on this path. But let's go through the stages of purpose. I know you've broken it down into three different stages. What is that all about? All right. So think of it like this. Our first stage, or what I often call our doing stages. Imagine when you get paid to do something.

5:50Now you could be flipping burgers, working in a gas station or whatever that may happen to be. It's task oriented where really you are a meat puppet. You're just doing something for the money. And also you're trying to just cover your basic needs, your Maslow's hierarchy and needs in the grand scheme of things. And the next level is where you are at your knowing phase and you are maybe getting paid for knowing something. That could be a white collar job. But then you go through your next phase in life where you're at your being phase. And that is where you're paid for who you are, not what you know, not what you do.

6:33And I think there's a fourth level to this. So this is different than the stages, but the fourth level is being a full human expression, not just a human being, meaning to express yourself, where you're being rewarded for your expressions in life. Now, what does that mean in terms of the first, second, and third stages? So first stage is the basic needs, the Maslow's. The second stage is the experiences you're providing. And the third stage has to do with true transformation, your true purpose in life, where you've done the work, you know who you are, you know your greatest value, your unique abilities, or what we call your superpowers, and you've found a way to provide huge transformative value.

7:17But here's the big kicker. The highest state is when you help other people find their purpose, and you help them identify and help them achieve and be in that state all the time. So that is really usually the final stage of most people's lives is helping people identify, find, and live inside their purpose. So this is powerful stuff. And I'm going to ask you a question that may make you kind of stretch into your memory bank. So take a couple seconds if you need to think about it. But I want to get to your being stage. Do you remember, Michael, the moment that you could step back and really identify that you were getting paid for who you are, not specifically for what you do?

8:02Like, was there a moment that you kind of can remember looking back and saying, you know what, that is the moment that I entered this being stage? I do. It wasn't that long ago, honestly. So I'm 55 right now, and I've been a serial entrepreneur for 35 years. I started working full time when I was 16. So I went through all the phases of just covering my basics, you know, making money and then being paid to know when I was developing software. And later on, I started a digital marketing agency. And somewhere along the line, with all those software companies, writing lots of books and being on stage and kind of chasing fame and status, about three years ago, I couldn't get up out of bed.

8:47I was depressed. I was anxious. And in this, I felt unworthy to experience these feelings because on paper and on the surface, I had it all. I had a place on the beach. That's where I am right now. I'm looking out at the ocean, the Pacific Ocean, plenty of money in the bank, had experienced plenty of celebrity, worked with a lot of people, achieve, achieve, achieve. but I felt empty inside. I felt broken and I lost my courage, my confidence. And I went on a very, very deep dark night of the soul. I got a lot of support. I talked to a lot of people. I kind of got spiritually reawakened and I decided to just get rid of everything.

9:30So I liquidated my businesses. I sold everything. I got rid of my big studio and all the gear inside it and went on a quest. And at the end of it, I realized that what gave me the greatest satisfaction wasn't all that stuff, but in fact, going narrow and deep, being able to have deep, meaningful relationships and only work with people I loved and help them find their purpose and their meaning in life. And really what happened and the reason it occurred is because I started having deep, meaningful conversations with business owners and founders and telling them what I had gone through. And they opened up to me and said, that's exactly what I'm going through.

10:11I'm depressed. I'm lonely. I don't feel valued. And again, on the surface, man, they've got millions or hundreds of millions in the bank. They've got big businesses. They're really successful. They're putting on a happy face every day. But deep inside, they've outgrown who they are, what they do, why they do it, who they do it for. And they feel trapped. So it's a deep success trap. And I managed to get to the other side and reinvent myself completely. And if I would have told myself 20 years ago what I'm doing right now, I'd be like, what? Really? What about, what about, what about? And, you know, it was because part of it was driven by, I was comparing myself to others.

10:54I was trying to achieve what I thought success meant. And I wasn't honoring who I was deep inside on a soul level. So much to be taken away here, Fire Nation. And I love how you use the phrase that you want on a quest. I mean, that's to me actually something that a lot of us need to do is go on these quests. It's like this adventure and, you know, finding yourself, finding your purpose, finding that meaning and talking with people who have gone through similar things can be super valuable. Now, let's talk about commingling expertise. How could we, for example, combine our abilities with somebody else's to create a new kind of value in the marketplace?

11:32Because I'm sure at one point when you were kind of at your lowest of low that you were talking about, you're like, well, I don't have as a standalone my area of expertise to stand upon here. But hey, if I can combine what I know, which is a lot, with what somebody else knows, we can maybe provide something new, special, unique, even niche in the marketplace that can add a lot of value. So what does that look like? Visualize it like this. If you're going to write one and one or one plus one, a lot of people will say, yeah, that's two. But I look at it and say, how can I create a one, one equals 11 opportunity?

12:07So again, I'm going to go back to my friend Dan Sullivan And he and Dr. Ben Hardy wrote a book called Who Not How a while ago. And there's an idea that Dan started floating around and the idea of creating a free zone. And a free zone is when you do a collaboration with a non-competitor with the intent of creating 10x, 100x or 1000x opportunity. So how can you, if you get deep and think about and really meditate on your deepest purpose, your greatest purpose, and what it is you want to achieve on a transformational level, you know, this is like your moonshot plus. So it's your moonshot plus soul, plus your deepest desire.

12:57And then you find a right fit who to collaborate with, who can give you these additional capabilities. and ultimately that's the new value you're creating in the marketplace. So ask yourself, not how do I do something, but who is missing in my network or my business to make my dreams come true where we can make one plus one equal 11 or create 100x or 1 ,000x impact. Fire Nation, I hope you're getting value from these value bombs. We'll be talking about how you might be leaving millions on the table about turning your experience into systems and products that can generate revenue and so much more when we get back from thanking our sponsors.

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14:21Add to all this re-imagined marketing and content hubs with new ways to create breakthrough content, updated features to generate better leads, and support to help uplevel your marketing and revenue forecast. And you've got HubSpot's all-on-one customer platform. Get ready for growth without the growing pains. Visit hubspot.com slash spotlight to see all the updates. So, Mike, we're back and just looking around, I mean, millions of people are leaving literally millions on the table. How can we identify where and when we're doing this as individuals? I'll give you an exercise, and this is, again, a transformational exercise idea that won't sound that amazing until you think about it and you actually do it.

15:06But here's the basic idea. If you went through – and first of all, this is not a beginner startup entrepreneur activity. In other words, if you don't have a business, you wouldn't have this, although you could do it for or with someone as a collaborator and provide massive value. But the basic idea is if you look through and let's say you had, I don't know, thousands of customers. And if I went to you, John, and you've got an amazing business, you've really figured it out. But if you wanted to go to the next level, I guarantee you there are people out there that value you at such a level that they would pay you an enormous sum of money for your ongoing advice and your support beyond what they'd get in, say, a mastermind.

15:46and um and so what i always say is take a look at your database and do a reverse sort and you organize it and sort it by how much someone is invested in your products and services over time and then you value them on a level uh what i call uh it's a it's a formula i use i call it the six but the first of the six is mindset. So these are your values that you hold dear that you have and that are required if you're going to work with someone. So they're the non-negotiables. And you look at those people and you say, and pick out the top three or five or 10 of those and answer these questions. You know, what kind of transformations have I provided them?

16:33and then actually talk to them. And you have a conversation. It's four questions. The first is a future-paced question, meaning if you and I were to meet three years from today, what would have happened both personally and professionally for you to feel happy with your progress? And it causes them to think into the future. But I tweak this a little bit and say, if you and I started working today and I help you achieve your greatest vision, your greatest goals, your greatest mission, both personally and professionally. And if we were to sit down three years from today, what would have happened personally and professionally for you to feel satisfied with your progress?

17:14So again, it's future focus, but it's involving the two of us collaborating. The next question is, what's preventing you from experiencing that right now? Or why don't you have it today? The next one is what kind of opportunities would you like to take advantage of? Things you'd like to accomplish or do, but you don't have the know-how, the capabilities, the resources to get there. And the third is what do you believe your superpowers are, your unique abilities? What is it that makes you hyper valuable or how would someone introduce you at a party, a business party? And so inside of that, people will tell you remarkable things about themselves, their desires, their needs, and what and why they haven't achieved that, which is effectively they're designing an offer for you.

18:06And the secret, the answer to answer the question is you literally take an aggregate of all those conversations and you design an offer that's 10 times or 25 times higher than anything you've ever offered before. So if you're selling a$5 ,000 product, you make it$50 ,000 or$100 ,000. And the bottom line is every business owner I've ever done this with in their business or as an individual, when we do this, we literally uncover millions or tens of millions of dollars in opportunities that we can collaborate on and create together. And so that is one of the key techniques, and it can help you evolve to developing software products in addition to services that require no staff at all to deliver on and earn seven figures a year easily.

19:06I mean, Fire Nation, what are your superpowers? I mean, as Mike's going through this, like questions to ask other people and unlock these things, you need to have these answers answered for yourself as well. Like you need to have these questions specifically in your knowledge bank. And then when Mike's giving you these questions, like learn from these. These are things that he's used over the years to create the world and the life and the business that he's created. You can use these questions to unlock more knowledge from within. But now the key thing, and this is where I think, Mike, a lot of people do struggle, is taking that knowledge they're getting from themselves, asking themselves these questions and potentially even unlocking it with their clients by asking them those questions, is taking that knowledge and then turning that experience into systems and products that are unique and special that can actually generate revenue on an ongoing, consistent basis.

19:56So can you talk about that step? I've done this now for several years and I intuitively was doing it for decades, but I didn't realize that there was a system. There was some process behind the madness. But it comes down to answering six questions or going through six steps. And when I do this professionally with people, it usually takes two to three days to uncover their unique ability, their greatest purpose, and then turn it into a combination of a platform, a product, and the messaging to get people to raise their hands and enroll. So here are the six steps. I'll go through them briefly. So the first one I already described, which is mindset.

20:42The second is your market, which is who you want to sell to. And that's not uncommon. It's like, who is your perfect customer that you want to be a hero to? And I think that's the most important psychology. It hyper-personalizes it. And the next, the third is model. In other words, how do you make money? What's your offer? What is it that they are going to receive? And what benefits, results, and outcomes will they receive for that? The fourth M is message. In other words, what is the story, the transformational journey that that individual, your ideal customer, your prospect needs to hear with the fewest number of words in the shortest period of time to raise their hand and say, John Lee Dumas, I love that story.

21:28I want to be just like that. How do we start working together right now? right? And then after message is media. In other words, what channel do they need to hear, read, see, or consume? What do they trust the most? Some people, it's a podcast. Some people, it's a YouTube video. Some people, it's a book. But it's taking that message and packaging it. And then the sixth is the multiplier. And multipliers are simply tactics or strategies that you employ and combine all of these five Ms into to amplify, multiply, get that message out there, attract your right fit and get them to want you more than anything and see you as a category of one.

22:12In other words, the only one of your type that's incomparable or incomparable. Incomparable or incomparable. I just love how Mike breaks it down with these steps, with these stages, he always makes it so clear on what this process is all about. But still, with all of that being said, one way that I see people fail over and over again is they fail at their own story. So talk about taking our own credibility, our own prestige, and creating the right story that moves people, that moves the world, that moves our own message forward. All right. So it's two words, conversion collateral. And I didn't invent that phrase.

22:56It actually came from a friend, a client of mine, and he was listening to what I was telling some stories one day in a couple of case studies, some people we had worked with. and he said, it's conversion collateral. That's what everyone needs. And I'm like, okay, what's that mean? He goes, if you think about everything that you create, ultimately it comes down to, we are all storytelling machines. Tony Robbins says we are meaning making machines. So we take everything that's out in the world. We've got our needs or desires. We're always pursuing them. And we're waiting for the right thing with the right answer to deliver us to whatever the salvation is we seek.

23:34And that could be make more money. I be more attractive, get more attention, have higher status, more credibility, more prestige. It could be to live forever. It could be to extend our lifespan. So as I don't remember who invented this originally, but the way I heard it described is get paid, get laid, live forever. All products at the end of the day are about making money, achieving higher social status or about extending your quality of life or improving your lifestyle. And you can put anything in that, whether it's a car or jewelry or a book, you know, that's what it is. So in order to do that, it has to be packaged in a way that's attractive to that individual you want to be a hero to.

24:19And so, for example, one of the things that we created is a brochure. And our framing, our story that we open up with is you're leaving money on the table. and I'm actually changing it to achieving your greatest purpose because I've been finding that the more people I talk to, that's really what they want. It's like I want to experience more value in my life. So we've got a brochure, we've got a video, we've got a funnel, and all these things point to that direction. But every business, it doesn't matter where you're in, ultimately you need conversion collateral. How do you pack and combine targeting the right mindset to the right market, to the right solution, the model, to the right message, what's the story, and in the right medium.

25:07So a brochure, a video, those are some of the best. I think a book is one of the best ways to get your message out there. You've written multiple books. You've been incredibly successful. And I know for a fact that it attracts a lot of right fit people into your universe, right? Big time. In a way, I'm not saying anything that's all that different, But I've found a way to package it uniquely and provide an experience, a service that provides a different outcome and a different result than most people are used to. And instead of usually taking three months or three years or forever or never to do, we actually get most of this done in three days.

25:50So we've figured out a way to package it in a way. And that's what my unique value proposition has been, is it's like one place to get it all. And it took me 35 years to figure out what that means and how to do it and how to put together the right who's to do more than I'm capable of. You know, it's like I don't do this all myself. I think it's kind of impossible for one person to do. And why would you want to do it by yourself, Fire Nation? I mean, it's just a better world when we're doing it together. It's that power of teamwork, which, you know, honestly can make the dream work. So think about that and think about all of these M's that Michael dropped on top of you going down that process.

26:29Every single one is a critical step. So take the stage, share with us your final takeaway, Mike. What is it you really want to make sure Fire Nation gets from all the genius you share with us here today? Give us any call to action of how we can connect more with you, what you have going on, and then we'll say goodbye. Well, I think the biggest takeaway I have is, you know, as I'm approaching a period in my life when my son's leaving for college, I've been married 20 years. In a lot of ways, I've got the life I always dreamed of. It certainly is when I was younger. And what I can tell you is a lot of what I pursued didn't make me happy.

27:13It left me empty inside because I don't think I did all the deep, meaningful, hard work on the journey. And after meeting so many incredibly successful people who pursue a dream, they don't honor who they have evolved into and they continue pursuing the same values that they used to think were important. And one day they wake up and they're like, I'm at the there I thought was important, but it's not satisfying. It's not whole. What I've been chasing really isn't what my soul's desired. and when they really do the work, they really listen, they really pay attention to what matters and they realize, man, I missed a lot of football games and soccer games and those irreplaceable moments with my children and my wife.

28:06There's something bigger and all this stuff isn't what the game's all about. So, you know, being poor sucks, but it also sucks if, you know, One day you wake up and you got$50 million hard in the bank. And you're at the end of your life. You're 70 years old and you're like, God, I just wish I had my first wife. I wish my kids actually liked me. I'm a big fat tub. I am unhealthy. And I've spent the last 15 years being unhealthy, being an addict. And they have the moment, right? And so my message to business owners and entrepreneurs is you really can have it all. And playing the long game is so much more satisfying.