Ep. 002 - Michelle McCullough - Join the 40

Join the 40 Under 40 | Interviews with today's most successful, young business professionals.

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Michelle McCullough joined the 40 under 40 list in 2013 at the age of 33. Michelle started her first business at 19 and has been the Managing Director for Startup Princess since 2009. Her greatest passion is speaking on leadership and peak performance and she loves working with one-on-one clients in marketing and personal development.

Interview Notes

• :58 – A little more about Michelle, loves sugar cereals! #savethegluten. Married with two kids and grateful for the technology that allows her to do so much from home.
• 2:09 – Her current professional efforts include: Running two podcasts – “Make It Happen” (Marketing and Motivation) that has been running for 3.5 years. The other is “The Living Room“, a faith based podcast. Traveling and speaking a significant part of her business.
• 3:32 – How does she balance all of her competing priorities? She is religious about time management. She plans weekly and Michelle “batches time”…if she’s doing podcasts, she does 4 or 5 at once. If she’s doing videos, she does multiple at the same time. She views her time as a pie and divides out her time based on what the various needs require. Still finds time for play, fun and family.
• 5:04 – Michelle was on Utah Valley Business Q’s 40 Under 40 in 2012
• 5:56 – Reasons Michelle made the 40 Under 40 list: Didn’t know the process was happening, but she was very active helping business owners across the country via Startup Princess and assumes that played a big part.
• 7:02 – The best business advice Michelle has ever received: She learned the hard way to fail faster. She has made 100 mistakes and knows all of the ways not to build a business. Your mistake is an event, not a person. Failure in one part of your business does not mean that the entire business is going to die or that you need to quit.
• 9:30 – One of Michelle’s biggest professional successes: Being on the 40 Under 40 was a big win, but Michelle started her first business when she was 19 and that experience has been one of her most impactful opportunities. Her first business continues to exist, but it was low key and helped make her other business ventures successful.
• 11:16 – What does Michelle hope to accomplish still? She doesn’t want to do more, she wants the quality of her efforts to improve. She loves speaking and watching her audience get a new idea, gain inspiration and wants to find all the ways to improve the quality of her work.
• 12:57 – When she’s not working Michelle is taking care of her kids and getting them to their events. If there weren’t any other responsibilities, she would be reading or traveling. She particularly loves 80’s movies.

Lightning Round

• 14:50 – Michelle felt shocked and surprised, happy, elated and grateful all at the same time. At our core’s we want to be recognized, but when it comes we are grateful.
• 15:16 – A book that’s had a significant impact on Michelle: How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen. She’s given it away more times than anything else.
• 15:41 – Michelle gets energy from getting 8 hours of sleep at night. Even though it sounds silly, she considers sleep to be one of her biggest success principles. It allows her to take care of all of her responsibilities.
• 16:24 – She needs “Every single app in the land.” Google Docs keeps her organized and connected. She uses a lot of social media apps and WordSwag to create memes and quotes.
• 17:17 – If Michelle were starting her career over – she would have involved people sooner. Hired an assistant faster, hired a coach faster, involved a support system faster. Stop doing what you can pay someone else to do so she could pay attention to revenue generating activities.

Conclusion

• 18:08 – Want to contact Michelle? Find her on Twitter @speakmichelle and Linkedin. Interested in her free Make It Happen Toolkit? Get it for free on her website and receive the three tools she used to keep her life organized and tackle the goals she sets.
• 19:14 – Her Final Piece of Advice – She cut out a magazine cover and put it on her vision board. When she was put on the “40 Under 40” she realized the cover she cut out was the “40 Under 40” issue. Vision + Action = Success. We are deserving and we have to do our part to make it happen.