Serial Entrepreneur, 17-Time #1 Bestselling Author, Speaker, Interactive Online Personality & Influencer
Ironically, surviving cancer didn’t save me. Six years later, as I’m waking up, I hear something in me say, “My soul hurts”.
I moved out to California in 2001, one month after 9/11, followed my passions, took giant risks, worked hard and created a lot of wealth. I far exceeded the expectations most had for a boy growing up in a 763 person town in Minnesota from a fairly chaotic, lower middle-class family. Beyond my business success,
I was blessed with a wonderful wife and an amazing son, and we had luxuries including a second home on the beach in La Jolla.
Yet, something was deeply wrong. Prior to recognizing that my soul hurt, I knew I was increasingly depressed and full of anxiety, but after hearing myself declare it, I knew I needed a transformation. I just didn’t know what was broken.
MIKE IS A 15-TIME
#1 BEST SELLING AUTHOR
REINVENTION
My first move was to quit what I didn’t love. I got really honest with myself and concluded I didn’t really love what I was doing. I had outgrown who I was, what I was doing, WHY I was doing it and who I was doing it for. So in the face of tremendous fear, I quit everything in the span of six months. Shut down my syndicated TV show. Ended four successful programs. Wrapped it up with all my clients. Let go of most of my team. And sold the business. I’ll say this: Quitting isn’t for sissies! Now I was staring into the abyss of white space and ambiguity. But I also felt like I stepped out of a self-made prison.
For the first time in decades, I wasn’t “busy.” I gave most of my new found time to my wife and son. After more than three decades of working too much, I leaned into the riches of enjoying time with my family. I fell back in love with my wife of 18 years.
Next, I took up deep transformational work. DEEP. On the outside it looked like a morning gratitude run along the shores of La Jolla Shores. A cold swim into the ocean, Wim Hoff Breathing. Meditations on ambiguity. But on the inside, I was learning entirely new ways to relate to life and tap into my own limitlessness.
I did one other thing. After a while, I added one business back into my life. Advising business owners I love who have businesses I love or can fall in love with.
FINALLY A HUMAN BEING.
And then it happened.
I woke up one morning and realized I was very much a new person. My body was healthy and in the best shape of my life. I was loving a new closeness with my wife and son. Life was exciting and adventurous again. I had incredible clients and money was abundant. And what felt most profound, was that I was no longer “busy.” I was now, “being.”
From this clear, creative and much happier place, I could finally see why my soul had hurt so badly. I’d been living out of alignment with my soul purpose. I’d been living in chaos and overwhelm. And I’d been coping and compromising. Caught in a loop of fear of not being enough, not having enough, running out and old traumas that had lived inside me since I was a young boy. The chaos monster was finally gone.
Today, my joy and pleasure is to help others align to their own deepest Soul Purpose and vision, to put their families and people they love most at the highest priority, to reinvent themselves, to overcome their biggest fears and challenges and to experience themselves as being truly wealthy, being able to live a life without compromise, without coping, living in limitless potential with clarity, confidence and for just BEING. No one’s soul should hurt.
CANCER
In June 2012, at age 45, I was diagnosed with stage 3A cancer and went through major surgery, four months of intravenous chemotherapy and 33 radiation treatments combined with oral chemotherapy.
I’m very, very grateful to be alive and started feeling “normal” after two years.
The great news is I received a “clear” from my incredible doctors – my body is healthy and I feel as healthy today as I did when I was in my 30’s with minimal side effects.
There isn’t a background of cancer in my family. At age 45, I was very young to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Trust me, cancer isn’t fun but colorectal cancer is particularly not fun.
I believe mine was caused by a combination of an unhealthy, unmanaged diet, an incredibly stressful 30 years of hard work running multiple businesses but more importantly: unmanaged emotions.
Ultimately, cancer was my greatest mentor and teacher. Most people say they like “post-cancer” Mike much more than pre-cancer Mike. I like him better too. Five years after my diagnosis and treatment, I wrote the book, “Cancerpreneur” to help other entrepreneurs thrive and survive through a cancer treatment and diagnosis with their marriage, family and business intact.
TIMELINE OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Over the course of the past 15 years, my companies have grossed over $55,000,000 in
revenues and provided services to over 54,000 customers in 121 countries.
This is a timeline:
'90
STARTED DIGITAL CAFE
One of the world’s first interactive digital marketing agencies. We served companies including BMW, General Mills, Sony, Columbia / Tristar, 20th Century Fox, Carlson Companies, AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, 3M, Domino's Pizza and dozens of other large brands.
'99
SOLD DIGITAL CAFE TO CAMPBELL MITHUN ESTY
A subsidiary of the publicly-traded Interpublic Group (IPG), my 1st exit to a publicly-traded company.
'03
PRODUCED “EVERYTHING YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT PUBLISHING, PUBLICITY, PROMOTION AND BUILDING A PLATFORM”
A big-ticket information product with the legendary Arielle Ford – long-time publicist for Deepak Chopra and responsible for placing some of the biggest authors on Oprah. Arielle represented 11 NY Times Bestselling Authors including Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Neal Donald Walsh, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Debbie Ford, Louise Hay, Don Miguel Ruiz, Gary Zukav, Dean Ornish, Joan Borysenko, Jorge Cruise and Lynne Twist.
The course helped thousands of people start and build their author platforms – and one of our earliest customers was Tim Ferriss before he published “The Four Hour Work Week.”
'04
PRODUCED “THE INTERNET INFOMERCIAL TOOLKIT”
An information product that adapted the television infomercial formula for the Internet, one year before YouTube was launched. It positioned me as one of the world's leading online video marketing experts and started my speaking career.
'05
LAUNCHED TRAFFIC GEYSER
(The same year YouTube began), The first “push button marketing” SaaS (Software as Service) automated content distribution and marketing platform. The system distributed and syndicated videos to over 200 video and social media platforms and produced multiple top 10 search engine ratings for content within 20 minutes.
'07
LAUNCHED “FIREPOWER BUSINESS BUILDER BLUEPRINT”
A “business in a box” system that taught entrepreneurs how to start their own social media marketing agencies to close $2,000 and larger deals using Traffic Geyser as it’s primary tool. The product generated $1.6mm in sales in one week.
'08
LAUNCHED INSTANT CUSTOMER
The world’s first mobile marketing system. It provided SaaS (Software as Service) interactive mobile text, voicemail, voice recognition, email, podcasting and marketing platform with built-in lead capture pages, lead scoring and personality marketing tools. I filed and was awarded a patent for the platform.
'09
LAUNCHED MAIN STREET MARKETING MACHINES
A “Business in a Box” system that showed entrepreneurs how to start their own social media, video and mobile text marketing agency and earn $5,000 and more in as little as 24 hours. The product earned $9.1mm in revenue in one week, the largest online marketing launch in history for 5 straight years. We also generated $3.1mm in sales during an 8-hour live streaming event.
The system combined training plus Traffic Geyser and Instant Customer tools and systems.
'10
LAUNCHED MAIN STREET FUSION
The follow-up program to Main Street Marketing Machines. It added more advanced features and training. The course generated $7.1mm in revenue in one week, and sold over $1mm from stage at one event, another industry record.
'11
LAUNCHED “MAKE, MARKET, LAUNCH IT”
A step-by-step system that taught entrepreneurs how to productize their knowledge, wisdom, expertise and create their own big-ticket information courses.
'12
CANCER DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT
During that time, I wrote and published my first book in 30 days from the hospital bed.
90 days later, created and launched “Publish and Profit”, a course designed to help anyone write, publish, promote and profit from writing a book and become a bestselling author. Over the course of 5 years, the system was used to launch over 1,800 best-selling books and authors, helping business owners and entrepreneurs create their own expert, authority and celebrity status with a book.
The product also became a live event that helped professionals become bestselling authors in only three days.
'13
LAUNCHED “THE TOP GUN CONSULTING TOOLKIT”
An updated “Business in a Box” system for starting big-ticket coaching, consulting or advising business. This was our 10th multimillion-dollar launch in a row.
'14
SOLD INSTANT CUSTOMER AND TRAFFIC GEYSER
To a publicly-traded company, my 2nd exit to a publicly-traded company.
Created Webcast Profit Toolkit, an information product for producing automated webinars, live, interactive, online live-streaming, webcasts and online TV shows.
'14
LAUNCHED THE MIKE KOENIGS SHOW AND PODCAST
The show was syndicated on television within 4 months of release. The show was produced in my $1mm 8-set, 8 camera automated television studio in San Diego.
Started “You Everywhere Now“, a company dedicated to helping business owners, entrepreneurs, VP and C-level executives how to become thought-leaders, authorities and celebrity influencers.
'16
YOU EVERYWHERE NOW PRODUCT SUITE
Created and launched six information products and live events including an updated “Publish and Profit“, “Speak and Profit“, “Consult and Profit“, “Create and Profit“, “Celebrity Bootcamp” and the Publish and Profit Certification Program.
The product suite and associated events and coaching programs represented the first of its kind for professional development.
It helped take business owners, entrepreneurs and service professionals from “unknown” to known experts and authorities and increased their celebrity status as bestselling authors and professional “TED-style” speakers. The systems also enabled them to productize their knowledge, become high-paid coaches, consultants and advisors, increase their sales skills, get media trained, and launch a new business in record time.
Customer Success
Those are some of the comments and feedback I receive from happy customers who walk up to me at the airport, attend my events or send emails. They’ve read my books, attended events, invested in my courses or joined my mastermind or coaching program.