Mike Baker

Full transcript: Mike Baker on London Real

1:09 This is London Real, I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Awesome Mike Baker, recent graduate of the Broadcast Yourself accelerator. Welcome. Thank you. Tell us about you. Where are you from, what do you do? So, born and raised in Detroit and grew up there. Joined the army at 17, did 12 years, you know, I can be.

1:32 And then I decided to come back home, raise a family, so we call Metro Detroit home still. But I really feel like I’m a citizen of the world, and what I’m trying to do now is just to help everyone I meet to live an awesome life, to go for the gusto, to fulfill their purpose. Okay, and why start broadcasting yourself now?

1:55 So, broadcasting yourself now, as you know, I believe is the next communication wave. Back in the day was newspapers, and then radio, and then TV, and I believe that the internet broadcasting is the next way to reach more people. So to have the biggest impact, to stand out from my quote/unquote competitors, I wanted to embrace this avenue, or this media, and no one to do it better than to join forces with you.

2:19 Yeah. Why us? How’d you know London Real, and why pull the trigger? But I think it was a tipping point. You know, I think I’ve been preparing to do this for about 10 years now, and testing my content and my delivery and all of the features and functions. And honestly, I can remember it clear as a day. I was on the road driving to another appointment and got on this webinar that you were hosting, and you did it. You said, “Oh my goodness, we’ve got Awesome Mike,” and you acknowledge me as Awesome Mike. That was my signal. Let’s label. What more do I need to hear?

2:49 You’re very intuitive, aren’t you? I don’t know, I’m learning. And you know, I think that I have really, really become comfortable with myself and all my flaws, so that I’m open to these things now. I’m not so fixated, and “Now that can’t be right, that can’t,” that again. So I try to be a little bit more open to ideas. Intuitive, I don’t know, maybe that’s a compliment. I think, thank you. Definitely.

3:12 All right, so you pull the trigger, and I still remember that call, and you pull trigger, you jump in, and that first week I drop you in, you know, 150 people all around the world. I mean, you couldn’t get a more diverse group of people in one way, and the other way they’re very similar. Accountability doc, live calls, I’m asking you to upload video. What’s that like for you?

3:28 Well, I’ll tell you, kudos to you, because a lot of people talk about it. There is so much content on the internet now, you’re very lucky if you can come up with an original idea, and normally it’s because you took a few pieces and you melted it together. But the one thing that you have done is you have this step-by-step. It’s not, “Hey, you could do this or you could try that.” No, it’s, “Do this, do it by Friday, or you don’t get the gold medal.”

3:53 And if you don’t get the gold medal, you’ve let your teammates down, which I can’t do. I’m gonna guilt the guy on a team, guy, army guy. Right. Yeah, so that caused me to have to gut it out and not procrastinate anymore, to actually do the thing, not think about another thing I could do. That’s why that accountability doc works so well, and that’s what, that was the environment to jump into that has made all the difference.

4:17 Okay, because without it you might have found reasons to not do things. Yeah, I would have wasted, no, ten years of looking at every piece of video content and becoming a master on this coaching model or this content delivery mechanism, and it’s endless, it’s endless. So it’s more important to do something than to do the right thing. Amen to that.

4:33 All right, what did you struggle with the most on the course? What was the hardest thing for you? Well, okay, launch day. You know, it’s like a big deal. I put myself out there, and I’m a well-respected business professional, two decades I’ve been doing this. I say Awesome Mike and people kind of snicker or whatever. And so it was hard for me to say, “Hey, are you really Awesome Mike or are you a fraud?” And the resistance that I faced to really put myself out there as Awesome Mike in the light was one of my greatest accomplishments, because I did it.

5:05 Now the downside was I did it, big launch, blah, and crickets. Crickets. Nobody cares, nobody cared. They were like, “Oh yeah, oh, that’s awesome,” I good throw about, they’re worried about themselves. So now I keep putting more out there in Walker, and I am attracting my crowd. In fact, Brian, it’s interesting, the name is not all, everyone, Mike, are all alike; it’s Awesome Mike. So my son is my thousand true fans, a concept that you taught us. I’m not kind of awe everyone, I’m just gonna awesome, that’s why I’m Awesome Mike. I got it.

5:43 All right, so the launch wasn’t kind of what you wanted from your media peer group, but you’re starting to build that new tribe. And interestingly enough, it’s different people. If you said, “Okay, look at all your contacts, who’s gonna be on your ship, who’s gonna be your fan?” I would have to debate. No, those guys are like, whatever. You know, those are the ones that will come back in a couple of years and say, “Hey, I saw that interview you did with, you know, this person. Yeah, I’ve been doing this for two years, thanks,” right, “you know, for your help in the beginning.”

6:06 But it’s people that I didn’t think would have been in my tribe that are now pushing me: “Hey Mike, we should talk to so-and-so, they’d be great on your show.” “Hey, we’re gonna be this conference, let’s hook up there and do one on location.” It’s so exciting. It’s such a gift that you’ve given me and all these people with this program, to be able to make those connections, to be able to actually reach people that want to hear, are something, sort of trying to force it on people that we think should hear it.

6:32 Yeah. Tell me about your show. What’s it called, what have been some of the highlights? So my show is called The Awesome Wholesaler Experience. And quickly, wholesaler is the industry jargon for a field, territory sales rep for the insurance and investment business. So there’s a wholesaler for Fidelity; there’s one for every investment company that you can think of. That field territory sales rep is a lonely person, is a hurting. There’s no school; you don’t go to university to become a wholesaler.

6:56 So I am nurturing them. I am sharing with them my dreams, my goals, by introducing them to interesting people that have a nugget or two that they can take and put into their blueprint, which I use the word AWESOME as an acronym: activity, whoo, emotional, language, systems, omnipresent and such. So give them a blueprint that they can hold on to and really try to have an awesome career, an awesome lifestyle, as opposed to a mediocre or a less than the other one. That’s my audience.

7:27 Okay, love it. And what have been some of the highlights? So the highlights: one of my recent episodes, I interviewed, actually, she’s a financial advisor, she’s a mother of three under six, and she’s married to one of us. She’s married to a wholesaler. And it was epic to hear her talk about what the reunion, when her husband comes home from the road, what that’s really like from her side of the story, and to hear what she feels about happy hour.

7:51 Initially she said, “I don’t get to, Mike, I don’t get to go to menu, because I’m working and I got the kids wherever.” And I said, I said, “Know it,” and she got it. And just then it was like terrifying in a moment, and then we used it as a tool. And you know, you do jiu-jitsu. I’ve defeated happy hour by replacing the drinks and the entertainment with jiu-jitsu. So there’s ways you can do it. But that was a big highlight. Gave him wholesalers feedback from a place they wouldn’t get. Their wife was not gonna tell him, they can’t hear it, but somebody else’s wife, and that media was really special.

8:15 That’s powerful. I’m so glad you interviewed her. That’s the next level, you know, because you could have just stuck to guys in the field, don’t you? That’s really, really smart. I like that. Kids would be great next. That’s fantastic. Tell me about the community. What is it like with these people in the group? How have you found them helpful to you, and then what’s it like meeting all of them here in London?

8:38 So the Broadcast Yourself community is a special one. And you know, you did your Ironman, and the words that you use when you biked up to this pack: you were in this pack of people and you thought you’re doing, who you thought you were pushing yourself, and then you said, “You know, I’ve got more here, I’ve got more,” and you left that pack. Well, I have left my pack, high-performing wholesalers, high-performing finance. I’ve left them to join a new pack, and they are here.

9:08 They are broadcasters from different industries, from different geographic locations around the globe: Sydney, Australia, obviously the UK, the States. So I’ve left my pack and I’m pushing myself now. I’m challenging myself to be all I can be, which I learned back in the army at 17. Yeah, very nice.

9:25 What are the next twelve months look like? What do you want to be doing, broadcast-wise, business-wise? What does that look like? So it looks like two shows a week, two shows a week, and continuing to escalate my game to become a better broadcaster, so that my message doesn’t get ruined by a clerk or by something that’s superficial. And then to really just touch more and more wholesalers, to provide them with a beacon of hope, with an inspiration, with the formulaic model they can plug into, so that they can have a great career, a great life.

9:52 I’ve lived this for two decades. I’ve had great successes and great downfalls, disasters, but I can help them to learn from my experiences, and with it, for them, revenue-wise, sky’s the limit. And I really believe that my goal is not monetary basis, not to have this house, this car, this watch, this; I have all of those things. Mine is, in Grant Cardone, our bro, said it loud and clear. He said to me, “Mike, it’s to live to fulfill your potential.”

10:22 And my father taught me this when I was a youngster, and I don’t know what his intention was on, and I want to say his honor ball, but he would always ask me, if I didn’t win the gold medal, Taekwondo fighter or whatever it was, he would say to me, “That the best that you can do?” So I want to be the best that I can. I want to be all that I can be, next 12 months, next 12 years, next 150 years.

10:38 Tell me about you. If we went out on the street and bumped into Awesome Mike who didn’t take this course, how’s that guy different? Huh. He’s reactive. He says “Awesome Mike” looking for a response, looking for a reaction. “How are you?” “I’m not just Mike, I’m Awesome Mike.” And I look at you and I say, “Do you doubt me, so I can argue that? Or do you think I’m funny, so I can do that?”

11:03 Now I don’t do things to get a reaction. I do things, I would meet you because I want to meet you. I would say, “Smart, smart sock.” You have their field artillery, for my brothers out there, red legs. I would say that now because I want to, irregardless of your action. Has helped me to be okay with myself and to do things intentionally, because I want them, but not in search of a reaction or a lack of reaction.

11:27 That’s powerful place to be. It feels great, and it’s like a new birth, it’s like a new door that I’ve opened up so that I can really stretch it. I couldn’t do without the podcast, because no one would hear, and you said it to us a thousand times: if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it. Yeah, you need that feedback. But if you keep broadcasting and being you twice a week, you’ll become even more centered, more centered, more centered, because you know you can’t fake it for an hour with someone else.

12:00 You know, you’re gonna end up being more yourself, and so it’s a weird kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, you know, go through. Like you said, the broadcaster makes you a better person and vice versa. So someone’s watching and thinking about pulling the trigger, say they’re driving their car, but they’re not sure. What would you say? Well, I got, just, everyone’s individual. For me, for me, well, it’s actually, it’s like a gambler.

12:25 I think if you’re a gambler and you’re only gonna gamble a dollar, it’s no big deal, you can laugh it off. But if you’re gonna gamble $5,000, $10,000, you must need that commitment to make it happen. When I signed that dotted line, when I put my credit card out there, where my mouth was, it caused me to at least get my money back, at least do that, and everything else from there was gravy.

12:49 Now, for me, for some reason it’s little wildfire, and I think there, we go through life and we have to put ourselves in these areas where we can learn, we can experience things from different people. This course, because I paid the money, I knew I had to at least get that back, and then that was the beginning. It’s tremendous, it’s priceless. If you gave it away for free, nobody would do it, then we would, nobody would do it. And you have higher-level programs for those that want that, because maybe someone doesn’t want to be, you know, they’re not at first base, they want an even higher level: “I really want more access to you.” So you provide them those opportunities. That makes all the difference.

13:22 Mike, I know we’re gonna keep seeing you because you’re on our Business Accelerator, and I’m just pumped that you’re part of this family. I’m pumped to see you, you know, this is the Awesome Mike I thought I met first of all, but you’re telling me that a guy hadn’t developed, and so now this is the guy that I expected to, and this is the guy that is awesome, you know. And I have my first call, man, I know, I know you can do this, but then you did it, you know what I mean? And it’s like unfulfilled potential, but you know you have this, you know you can give like literally 10x more.

13:54 And a little nod to Grant. And I can see you making it happen now. So look, the next 12 months we’ll be watching you. You’ve got a great team to keep you accountable. Let’s go, just, like, break down those walls and do beautiful things. All right, I’m on fire. Awesome Mike in the house. Look, I’m gonna really say it’s about the journey, so let’s keep crushing it. All right, well, be the man.