What are you struggling with at the moment? A business issue? A design issue? A personal issue? Whatever the matter, rather than struggle alone, seek out advice from someone who can help you resolve it. You will learn something new, gain a new perspective, and be able to return to a more balanced, productive state of mind.

In this episode, Gail talks with Mike Agugliaro, founder of FuDog Group, an online firm focused on accelerating personal growth and mind growth. After starting, growing and selling several businesses, Mike decided to draw upon his own life and growth experiences to pursue his aim of helping others to remove suffering and to have life, business and wealth by design.

A self-made entrepreneur, Mike told Gail that he discovered early on that the way to resolve issues he was confronting, either personal or in his business, was to formulate a question about that issue and then ask it of someone smarter about the subject than he was. Be persistent and seek out the best experts you can find. Don’t let yourself get distracted by other matters until you get the issue resolved.

“If you ask the right question of the right people, the life that you desire is not that far away,” he said. Learn from someone else and get back to happiness as quickly as possible.

Gail asked Mike what his definition of success was. He replied that for him success is not what you achieve or acquire, rather it is a mental state. “Success is getting to the point of no matter what you want or what you desire, you can sit in a state of grace and be excited to be alive.”

From his years of experience coaching people, Mike said he has found two major reasons why people are struggling needlessly. Often, most of their pain and suffering is either old trauma, guilt and shame that they are still living with. They need to work toward letting go and living in the present. Also, a lot of people are struggling in their mind because they see only the downside when things go wrong. They should consider the upside of the downside. What is the opportunity being presented to them?

During the wide-ranging conversation, Mike and Gail also talked about the difference between knowledge and wisdom, what to consider when selling a business, and the importance of maintaining balance in your life in all things. For those insights and more, listen to the entire podcast.

If you’re listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s12e8-shownotes

Mentioned in This Podcast

To learn more about Mike and the services offered by the FuDog Group, go to the firm’s website at fudoggroup.com.

Mike mentioned his book, Mind Power: The 17 Secrets Of Using Your Thoughts To Powerfully Accelerate Every Area Of Life. It’s available from online booksellers.

Mike also recommended two books: Three Feet from Gold: Turn Your Obstacles into Opportunities! Think and Grow Rich by Sharon L. Lechter and Greg S. Reid. Acres of Diamonds by Russell Conwell. Both are available from online booksellers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R1HM5dE1xc

Episode Transcript

Note: Transcript is created automatically and may contain errors.

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Mike, welcome to the Creative Genius podcast. I’ve been looking to our conversation for quite a while and you are up on the East Coast and hopefully safe from all the hurricane issues that are going on. Yeah, very safe and excited to be here, Gail. Well, it’s our pleasure. So thanks for being here. I was thinking back, you and I met, my gosh, 2015. I know it was in a mastermind group. It’s been a while. And I was just thinking about how

when I met you, you were just so quiet. You’re very intent, you’re thoughtful. That’s the memory of my meeting with you. And what I’ve come to find out is how brilliant you are at business. And I’d love for you to share a little bit about your journey and how you got into doing what you’re doing. And we’ll get into your current business, but I’d like to start way back at the beginning. Well, it’s interesting. I don’t hear anybody really tell me Mike is, was so quiet and stuff, but I guess.

As a, I am a natural introvert. So now thinking back, I don’t like big rooms, a lot of people, and I normally sit and observe. But yeah, look, I’ve been on my own since I’m 15 years old. I always say I’m a survivor of a really tough parent divorce. And I ended up in a vocational school because back then it’s like you’re either.

fit for college or they’re like, just felt like I was going down a conveyor belt and it was like college, no, you might, you’re probably a plumber or an electrician. And so I went to a trade school and I became an electrician by trade. And then I ended up in the world, you know, I had a mortgage by time I was 19 years old. That was, think it was, you know, it’s funny about interest rates today. talk about back then in 1989,

I had a mortgage, it was 18 % interest. And I’m thinking people are freaking out over seven, 8%. I’m like, I was 18 % in nine years. I think I paid off $1,000 on this thing. And I started working for people. And I thought my boss was an idiot. And I figured I could do better than him. I’ll just start my own electrical company to find out.

I was an idiot just like my boss. You think you know, but you don’t know any better. And I struggled. So everybody listening, I understand struggle. I struggled for about 10, 12 years. I couldn’t hire people. I didn’t understand customers. Seems like nobody had money and everybody complained about the price. And one day I had a couple turning points, Gail. One was my son was being born. He’s 25 now, so this goes back.

ago and I remember going home my wife was at the hospital with my son and I remember putting together one of those rocking like gliding chairs so my wife could do the breastfeeding thing and stuff and I remember probably about 11 o’clock at night gal I sat in it and I built it I just broke down crying I was like I’m gonna be just like my dad I’m gonna work myself I’m never gonna be around for anything

And that was one of my big turning points that something had to change. And I don’t know how it came about, but the enlightenment was there must be somebody that figured it out. Just like there must be someone that figured it out and I have to go pay them and learn from it. So to give people a faster track here, the next 10 years of my life, I built a

plumbing HVAC electrical company in New Jersey from under a million dollars to $32 million in a 10 year period. I had 200 employees, 165 trucks fixing people’s stuff. I sold that in 2017. And then in 2014, I wanted to make a stand. I wanted to change the world. And all my friends were struggling and there’s nothing worse than getting around family or friends, gal.

And they’re like, how’s everything going? And I’m like, oh, I’m great. I’m making a lot of money and I don’t have a mortgage. And I’m like, how about you? And they’re like, horrible. Life stinks. And I was like, I gotta change this. So in 2014, I built a coaching company called CEO Warrior. I started, I coached over a thousand business owners. I had over 20,000 trades people come through my training.

And I sold that company in 2020. So that gives you a little bit, not where we are today, but that gives you a little bit of background for people. I understand growing, I understand struggles, I understand lawsuits, I understand the economy recession of 2008 and Y2K and pandemics. I get all of this. So in all of these situations, here you are, you’ve struggled, you’ve gone through all these difficult challenges.

And obviously, you were smart enough to get coaching, smart enough to get help, and then you started your own coaching business and of course built that to a very successful and profitable business as well. I think it’s really interesting because you have walked the walk, you’ve done all the things that you teach, which is awesome. And I remember recently, and I can’t remember the whole story, but you had posted something not too long ago, which I picked up.

I it was so humorous about how somebody asked if you were certified as a coach and then you proceeded to tell them, well, yeah, I’ve built a company, I had the company of 200 and I don’t know exactly how you said it, but it was so funny. And I was thinking to myself, oh my gosh, you know, here’s the perfect example of someone who has learned, who has gone out and has sought the resources and has changed his way of doing things so that he can succeed.

What do you think is different about your approach versus a lot of people’s approach? I’ll give you two things that I think are very, and it’s funny to say that about the story because the other story I was in Wells Fargo years ago and the woman like first, she’s just like, I’m bothering her. This tattoo guy ...