These suggested interview questions and short versions of the answers should help you understand more about Start Dreaming Again. Mike is capable of tailoring the length of his answers as desired and has a history in radio. This means he can help hit a specific duration in a live interview. For interview requests feel free to contact us. Mike’s schedule is usually flexible and he can make time for your interview even in the early morning or late evening.
General Interview Questions
- What is Start Dreaming Again about?
- Briefly: You know how some wealthy people seem like they don’t have to work? They play golf at 2pm but you work. They go to Hawaii but you only stare at a screensaver of Hawaii. Start Dreaming Again is about the two secrets to wealth that they know but you were never taught.
- Why do people need to read your book?
- Briefly: Folks need to read Start Dreaming Again because no one ever told them how to actually get out of the grind and enjoy financial independence even at a young age. All of the advice we ever received came from people who were in the grind, and yet for some reason we thought that the advice would get us OUT of the grind. Basically, they need to read it because they’ve taken financial advice from broke people all their lives.
- Does the book tell someone everything that they need to know to succeed?
- Briefly: Absolutely not! If it did, no one would be able to fit it on their lap. Instead, the book opens the door to what the reader has never known before and shows them how to step through and acts as a map to the signs that will point them along their way.
- How does the book help people figure out their own unique path?
- Briefly: Start Dreaming Again includes all of the fundamental changes that people will have to make in their income and within themselves in order to gain financial independence. It shows them how to start those changes, which behaviors need to change, and what actions they need to take to make sure that they stay on track. Then it also shows them what they need to do to maintain that track to success.
- What kinds of changes should the book inspire readers to make?
- Briefly: For starters, readers have to change their mindset. The best thinking you know how to do brought you to here and now. It won’t take you any further. (If it could, it would have!) So it starts by showing readers how to think like the rich and successful do, how they should be seeing their behavior change as a result, and then moves on. Leadership skills are an essential for financial independence, so it talks about those. Then it shows how anyone, in any situation, can slowly put these two secrets to work for them.
The two secrets of financial independence
- Why can’t readers get ahead without using the two secrets?
- Briefly: In general, everyone (whether a doctor, lawyer, janitor, or receptionist) gains money the same way: trading time for money. They work for an hour and get paid for an hour. Then they work for a week and get paid for a week. They do a job, get paid one time for it, and then have to do more to get paid more. The problem is that, realistically, you can only work so many hours. Even if your hourly rate goes up the amount you can make is still limited.
- What do the two secrets do differently?
- Briefly: The two secrets allow you to remove the amount of money you make from the amount of time you spend. Suddenly, a whole world of potential opens up if you are paid while you sleep, while you’re on vacation, while you’re playing with your family, or even after you’re dead. It sounds amazing, but makes sense once you understand what the alternatives to a traditional job are.
- What would the two secrets to financial independence give readers that they don’t already have?
- Briefly: Hope. Everyone who loved us taught us to stick to the 40/40/40 plan: work 40+ hours per week for 40+ years to retire on 40% or less of what we couldn’t live on in the first place. This book shows readers a better way. After all, jobs are designed to NOT make you financially independent!
- What do you mean when you say that jobs are designed to keep you from getting rich?
- Briefly: Think of it this way: if your job was supposed to make you rich, why would your boss hire you to do it instead of doing it himself? Jobs pay you enough that they convince you staying is easier than leaving. In the mean time, you work just hard enough to convince your boss it’s easier to keep you than replace you.
- The old saying is, “It takes money to make money.” Do the two secrets require already having wealth?
- Briefly: Historically, yes. At least for the most part, true access to the two secrets required that you had a special skill or already had money. Nowadays, though, technology has made them accessible to absolutely anyone. While the traditional methods of employing the two secrets still exist, in many cases newer methods supercede them.
- What does it take to use the two secrets in Start Dreaming Again?
- Briefly: It takes a heck of a lot of work! To have anything great requires great sacrifice. The price of success must be paid in full and up front. Fortunately, the book shows you exactly how to become driven to succeed, even if you’re a natural slacker, like me.
- Are the two secrets in Start Dreaming Again related to the Law of Attraction that was made famous by the book and movie titled “The Secret”?
- Briefly: Nope! In fact, I can’t personally stand the way that “The Secret” describes the Law of Attraction. My book deals with the Law of Attraction itself, but from purely psychological principles that make the Law of Attraction easier to understand and use.
About the author
- What inspired you to write the book?
- Briefly: I try to spend as much time as possible with people more successful than me. When I asked them what it took for them to get ahead they didn’t talk about their position or paycheck. They talked about how they were paid. I got so excited that I firehosed just about anyone near me about the neat stuff I was learning. Incidentally, that’s a great way to find yourself alone at a party! So I started the book as a way to vent the urge to share. Now I can just let folks read my book.
- What qualifies you to write this book?
- Briefly: Frankly, it’s not what qualifies me so much as my sources. The introduction even starts, “If I were you, I would never take financial advice from me.” Fundamentally, the information in my book isn’t new and it isn’t mine. It’s old and well-documented, but historically not known to the public as a whole.
- What other businesses do you own?
- Briefly: I own three other businesses in addition to my books. I own an entertainment business, a business for a line of props I invented, and an international utility company. (Guess which one uses the two secrets most effectively!)
- Are any other books on the horizon?
- Briefly: Yes! I have a book on business-to-business networking about half done. It’s more of a labor of love than Start Dreaming Again was, but we’ll see if it gets done faster!
Have an interview question not listed above? Feel free to ask!