I was trying REALLY hard not to roll my eyes at my Mom.    

That’s something teenagers do and at 29 years old, I was clearly far too mature to roll my eyes at my progenitor!    

We’d been co-hosting a podcast for nearly four years now, and as our producer, she lined up all the guests for us. Today, she was telling me about this guest she was ecstatic to have lined up. She raved about what a big deal he was, how lucky we were to have him booked because he's so busy, etc, etc. 

I wanted nothing to do with it.  

I’d heard about this Mike Michalowicz guy from a few colleagues who raved about his book, Profit First. Unfortunately, the first person to rave about that book to me was not someone I had a lot of respect for as a business owner. After 10 years in business, this person was still struggling to make ends meet and trying to solve the same problems they were trying to solve when I met them four years earlier. I was bound and determined I was not going to be in the same situation they were. So everytime they gave me suggestions on how to run my budding business, I ran the otherdirection!    

So when I found out Mike was coming on our podcast, I was far from thrilled.    

However! He was already booked, and Mom was SO excited that I just couldn’t burst her bubble. So I dutifully ordered a copy of his book to read prior to the interview.  

I stalled on reading the book until the weekend before the interview and as I read, my anger mounted.  

Not at my mom. At myself. I couldn’t believe it took me this long to read the book. 

I have NEVER been a numbers girl (I flunked math twice in grade school and had to take remedial math in college!). I actively avoided doing anything remotely financial related except tracking revenue in the business, and while reading that book, I started to understand why I was having the trouble I was having.  

But not just why I was having those troubles. I also saw how to fix them.  

I became an instant Mike-Junkie! I hired him to come and speak at multiple events, paying more money for him as a speaker than I had ever dreamed I’d pay. I bought every single book he put out, and they have been really, really good! Great stuff that I use regularly in how I manage my business.   

But in all that time, I’ve never felt there was a book that came close to Profit First on the impact it has on small businessowners. Profit First is seminal. It radically changes the scene in regard to managing money as a small business and it’s such a drastic difference to the commonly held & taught methods for managing a business that, while Clockwork & Fix This Next and Pumpkin Plan have been really good, it’s not struck quite the same endlessly resonant chord with me as Profit First did.   

Then I got my hands on Get Different, the latest book in the Michalowicz line-up. And for the first time, I’m hard pressed to decide if Profit First or Get Different is more important to the future of small businesses.    

His DAD method for determining if marketing will work is pure brilliance. It’s easy to understand, and easy to implement. I had marketing ideas brewing in my brain before the end of the second chapter! Good ideas. Great ideas! Ideas I took to the team and watched them bubble over with enthusiasm about implementing! To give you an idea of how important that is, on our last event debrief, one of my team members had no problem telling "I love you Steph, but that is a terrible idea. You're usually much better at this!" While condescendingly patting my arm (and laughing geninely with the whole group!). It was a terrible idea! Ha! 

It also makes me respect and value more when they get psyched about the ideas I bring that really resonate with them!     

In classic, Mike Michalowicz fashion, he has taken time to understand how the Entrepreneur’s mind words and present the concepts in a way that works for us, but ALSO understands the pitfalls we’re about to fall into, warns us about them, and then provides a ladder to climb out when we fall in anyhow because…that’s how we do things! Ha!    

Do yourself a favor, get a copy.  

Marketing will never be the same.   

And that’s kind of the point!    

(Btw.... Yes! That is an affiliate link - but I get NOTHING from your purchase, other than fulfilling a promise to Mike to help get this book in as many entrepreneurial hands as possible and we can track the total number I make happen through that link!)