I had the honor of interviewing my amazing client and friend, Rick Mulready! In this interview, I ask Rick #allthethings about what his business and life look like behind the scenes as a 7-Figure/Year business owner. No matter where you are in your business right now, you’re going to learn so much from Rick’s insight into the mindset, habits, thoughts, and actions that have led to his success.
I’ve learned a lot from Rick through having him as a client (I redesigned his brand and website last year!), and fun fact… his podcast was one of the first I discovered when I first started my business years ago. So, this interview is very special for me!
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Meet Rick
Rick Mulready is the host of The Art of Online Business podcast and an industry-leading expert in teaching online experts how to optimize their online business to take them to the next level.
He has a not-so-secret superpower of simplifying Facebook and Instagram ads, teaching thousands of online entrepreneurs all over the world how to create consistent leads and sales with ads.
He’s built a 7-figure business as an online expert and course creator from the ground up using Facebook and Instagram ads and shows other online experts how to do the same without getting sucked into endless guessing games or unnecessary overwhelm.
Before starting his business, he spent 12 years in corporate Internet advertising, working with the likes of AOL, Yahoo!, Funny or Die and Vibrant Media where he sold and managed online ad campaigns for some of the largest brands in the world.
How Rick makes money in his business and how that has evolved over the years
Rick talks about how his business has grown and evolved over the years from being the “Facebook Ads Guy” to having a ton of offers to now focusing on coaching and helping people optimize their businesses. He has two main offers right now where the Accelerator Coaching Program And Mastermind and Offer To Optimize as well as his podcast, The Art Of Online Business.
What a “typical” workday looks like
Rick talks about this concept of managing your energy and understanding your “magic time”. This is an important concept for introverts like Rick, especially those who spend so much of their day coaching or talking to other people.
This concept helps you identify when in your day you have the most clarity and your brain is functioning best. For most people including Rick, this time is the morning. He says he is very protective of his mornings and schedules any revenue-producing activities during that time.
Calendar scheduling strategies for success
Rick tells us that he schedules his week to have certain days that are dedicated to certain kinds of activities. For example, Mondays are meeting days, Tuesdays are content days and Fridays are catch-all days.
He says that he initially didn’t like to put things on his calendar because he felt like he was bound and obligated to them and that didn’t feel like the freedom he was after. BUT what he has actually found is that he has more freedom when things go on the calendar because you are accounting for everything that is important.
Rick says he uses some of Michael Hyatt’s ideas to design his days with his own spin on them, organizing tasks in Google calendar. He has different calendars for different things, including an ideal calendar that shows the blocked-off times for different tasks based on energy level.
Why mindset matters SO MUCH
Mindset is so important and is something Rick talks a lot about in his business. He says he is fascinated by the way this works. He says, “Mindset is 80% the success of your online business.”
He sees mindset issues with his Accelerator students a ton. People will say that because a specific kind of marketing strategy, like ads, for example, didn’t bring in a ton of money in a couple of days that this “didn’t work” or that people don’t want what they have to offer. Rick says, instead, their mindset should be focusing on testing strategies out and playing the long game. If it doesn’t work, that is totally normal. It is easy to fall into the mindset of thinking you are a failure and don’t know what you are doing when things don’t go the way you planned. But you get to choose if you listen to those stories that your mind is telling you or not.
Rick says that another place this shows up is in data. He reminds us that the numbers don’t lie. A lot of people are not actually tracking their numbers in their business. But once they start tracking them, it is easy to let those numbers and make judgments about what the numbers mean about you.
Tune in to the full episode to hear Rick explain further how mindset can make or break you as a business owner and his personal experiences with both.
How to better track your business data
Rick reminds us that as business owners, you should be tracking your numbers. When you start tracking your numbers, it is important to remember that this data is neutral. It is just numbers. Be careful what meaning you are assigning to your data about yourself.
That being said, you do want to pay attention to your numbers to know what is working and what is not. This is what Rick calls becoming the “Optimized CEO”. This is where you take a step back and evaluate your metrics from a neutral perspective and make data-driven decisions, not fear-based or emotional decisions.
The business metrics Rick suggests watching closely are things like revenue, gross and net profit margin, and cash forecast. In addition to these, he mentioned watching the things that are important to YOUR business. Your business’ vital signs. These are things that indicate that your business is growing.
Listen to the full episode to hear some great examples of what those can look like!
Dealing with feelings of comparison
Rick says that he absolutely still runs into feelings of comparison. He says the difference between when he first started his business and now is that he knows how to deal with those thoughts much better now.
This is another mindset issue, but now he takes the approach of “Who am I NOT to be teaching things and helping people” instead of looking at others in the industry and feeling like he can’t do it because he isn’t them.
Being able to catch the comparison syndrome and put it into perspective is key. Rick says that the reality is this never ends. You just learn to deal with it in a different way.
Another tip that Rick gives for combatting comparison is to not look at what other people are doing. A lot of people have trouble with shiny object syndrome and a good way to avoid that is to stay in your lane.
Creating the business that is right for you
Rick talks about running after the goal of being a 7-figure business. He hit that goal and says it was amazing but also came at a cost. There were a lot of things that suffered in his life during that time. He says he was chasing after goals because that was all he was seeing around him that defined success.
Now, his encouragement is to define success for yourself and create the business that is right for you. That may be a revenue goal or only working 4 days a week. You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing to be successful.
Check out the full interview to hear Rick talk more about this and explain his iceberg metaphor and what he thinks is a huge disservice to entrepreneurs.
I hope you have loved this interview with Rick Mulready! Rick has been one of my favorite clients to work with and I have enjoyed learning so much from him and how he runs his business and manages his team. We talked through so many other topics and questions so be sure to listen to the full interview to hear all of his wisdom!
Episodes Mentioned:
#438 | Behind the Scenes: My Newly Redesigned RickMulready.com with Elizabeth McCravy
Links Mentioned:
Listen to the Breakthrough Brand Podcast
Connect with Elizabeth on Instagram
Connect with Rick on Instagram
Listen to The Art Of Online Business Podcast with Rick Mulready
Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business By Gino Wickman
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less By Greg Mckeown
Conversations With God: An Uncommon Dialogue by Hodder & Stoughton
