Michael Moore is the Founder and CEO of M3 Networks, a full-service IT support powerhouse serving small to medium-sized businesses in the Dallas and Fort Worth areas. With over a decade of experience, Michael has successfully transformed his one-person consulting operation into a thriving business, earning recognition for his innovative approaches, including a highly effective strategy for garnering five-star Google reviews. Michael’s entrepreneurial spirit emerged early, and he has navigated his business through challenges like the 2008 downturn and COVID-19, transforming obstacles into success through strategic marketing, a strong workplace culture, and a focus on client satisfaction.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- [02:11] Michael Moore shares stories from his childhood entrepreneurship
- [03:46] How did Michael’s grandfather spark his interest in technology?
- [07:13] The setback that shaped Michael’s leadership style and approach to managing employees
- [10:43] The importance of clear communication and self-belief in sales and marketing
- [12:29] Starting M3 Networks and the leap of faith that fueled its growth
- [15:26] Embracing sales and marketing to catalyze business growth
- [18:41] How to share new ideas and strategies with the team
- [20:41] Michael’s innovative strategy for generating five-star Google reviews
- [31:56] Effective techniques for managing stress and mental health
- [36:13] Proactively transitioning M3 Networks to remote work before COVID-19’s impact
- [41:33] The importance of cybersecurity and the growing awareness among businesses to protect themselves
In this episode…
When faced with a rapidly changing business environment, many entrepreneurs struggle with how to adapt quickly and effectively. Moreover, transforming a solo consulting gig into a thriving business is no easy feat, and mastering the art of earning five-star reviews online is even harder. Curious about the secrets behind achieving such success?
Michael Moore reveals how he navigated these challenges by taking decisive action and implementing strategic solutions. He recognized the need for robust marketing and sales strategies to scale his business beyond a solo operation, ensuring consistent growth. By focusing on client satisfaction and creating a system to generate five-star Google reviews, Michael not only built a strong reputation but also fostered a positive workplace culture that empowered his team to excel.
Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Michael Moore, Founder and CEO of M3 Networks, about building a thriving tech business. Michael discusses the need for strategic marketing to grow beyond a solo operation, the importance of building a strong workplace culture, how he effectively generated five-star Google reviews that strengthened his company’s reputation, and the critical role of cybersecurity in today’s digital landscape.
Resources Mentioned In This Episode
Special Mentions
- Sean Magennis on LinkedIn
- Stephen Taylor on LinkedIn
- Mark Moses on Linkedin
- “Sean Magennis | President & COO of YPO on the Smart Business Revolution Podcast”
- Make Big Happen: How To Live, Work, and Give Big by Mark Moses
Quotable Moments:
- “I love to do or build things or sell things; I enjoyed the exchange of that, which was my first interest in making money.”
- “I’ve learned that for me; I take paper notes… highlight two or three impactful nuggets that are better than flooding with 40 new ideas.”
- “Every time we get to the 100 mark with Google reviews, we have a party… it’s culturally about our core values service first.”
- “Life is a big, long story; there’s going to be really good stuff that happens and really bad stuff that happens.”
- “Just because you got in a car accident doesn’t mean you stop wearing a seat belt. With cybersecurity, it’s the same — maintain consistent discipline.”
Action Steps:
- Collaborate with peers: Drawing from Michael’s relationship with Steven Taylor, seek mentorship and support from contemporaries in your industry to foster mutual growth.
- Embrace a growth mindset: Follow Michael’s lead by consistently searching for new opportunities to expand your knowledge and capabilities in your field.
- Prioritize client satisfaction: Implement Michael’s strategy for collecting five-star reviews to bolster your company’s online reputation and client trust.
- Face adversity head-on: Michael’s management of personal mental health challenges highlights the importance of addressing issues directly to maintain clarity and direction in both personal and professional life.
- Celebrate achievements: Create a company culture that celebrates milestones like Michael’s Google review parties, which encourage teamwork and recognize employee contributions.
Sponsor: Rise25
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We’ll distribute each episode across more than 11 unique channels, including iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. We’ll also create a copy for each episode and promote your show across social media.
Cofounders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as being the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90x, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, Rx Bars, YPO, EO, Lending Tree, Freshdesk, and many more.
The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.
Podcast production has a lot of moving parts and is a big commitment on our end; we only want to work with people who are committed to their business and to cultivating amazing relationships.
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Contact us now at [email protected] or book a call at rise25.com/bookcall.
Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.
Episode Transcript
John Corcoran 0:00
All right, today we’re talking about how to turn a one person consulting operation into a full fledged business, and how to become a master of getting five star reviews online. Got some great strategies for you on that as well. My guest today is Michael Moore. I’ll tell you more about him in a second, so stay tuned.
Intro 0:20
Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where we feature top entrepreneurs, business leaders and thought leaders, and ask them how they built key relationships to get where they are today. Now, let’s get started with the show. All right.
John Corcoran 0:37
Welcome everyone. John Corcoran here, I’m the host of this show, coming from Bozeman, Montana, where I’m on vacation with my family at the moment, but this is an interview that I’ve been trying to line up for about seven or eight months now, so I’m really excited about it. And of course, if you listen to my episodes every week, I get to talk to smart CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs from all kinds of companies we’ve had like Netflix, Kinkos, YPO, EO activation, Blizzard, LendingTree, go check out the archives. Lots of great episodes in there. And of course, this episode was brought to you by Rise25, our company where we help B2B businesses get clients, referrals and strategic partnerships with podcast and content marketing. And you can learn more at Rise25.com or email us at [email protected] All right. And quick shout out to past guests on this show, Sean Magennis of Tiger, 21 who was a guest on the show and is a good friend, and I’m just a big fan of everything that he does.
And he’s someone who plays in the life of our guest here today, who is Michael Moore. He’s the Founder and CEO of M3 Networks, and they provide full service IT support to a variety of different businesses, small and medium sized businesses, mostly around the Dallas and Fort Worth areas. And he’s got quite a journey. We’re going to hear all about it. But first of all, Michael, I love to hear how people were as a kid. I remember when you and I first connected, you said that in elementary school you made friendship bracelets. I believe it was that you sold in school. Yes, you did tell me that, and baseball cards were another thing that you got involved in as well. So take us back to young Michael and selling friendship ratios and baseball cards.
Michael Moore 2:11
Well, young Michael was very mischievous, so if I was in a classroom, I was trying to find a way to get out of the classroom, and that might be climbing the walls in the bathroom or making my fellow students laugh, but one of the things I found is I love to do or build things or sell things, and I’d literally bring baseball cards to school and other people valued like, oh, look, I’ve got a Pete Rose card, or I’ve got, you know, a Rickey Henderson card or Mark McGuire card, or whatever it was, but I was like, I’ve got this card. I’ll trade you this card for that card.
I really enjoyed the exchange of that, and it was my first interest in, like, how can I make money? How can I exchange this thing for that thing? And the same thing with friendship bracelets. But really, the friendship bracelet angle was, even at an early age. It got me interacting with girls. Hey, look, I may not be what you consider cute at this time, but I have something of value for you. Do you want a friendship bracelet? I’ve spent all night making these, and they created a lot of good conversations. And I remember with friends, we would trade baseball cards for hours, and I was always trying to, I don’t know, I guess, win the transaction and have fun in that way.
John Corcoran 3:27
I actually taught myself how to juggle thinking that that would be a way to connect with girls at a young age. I don’t know what I was thinking when I was nine, or something like that. All right, so, and were you also the type that was like filling around with computers. Is that how you eventually got into IT services?
Michael Moore 3:46
Yeah, for sure. So my grandfather, John Moore took me to the Infomart, which is a place in Dallas, big building where they’ve got hosting of internet devices and all sorts of things and data centers and all that now, but back then, they would host little computer conferences on the weekend, like, what is C Plus Plus and what is a boxed video game? Because this is back, you know, late 80s, early 90s. And he piqued an interest in me that has existed still to this day. And I remember my first love in computers was not breaking them down and taking them apart and doing things like that or modifying them. It was really how can I hack this game so that I can win that competitive aptitude existed even in that space.
So I remember the first little game that I played on a computer was called hardball, and I taught myself, I think it was like basic dos commands at like, 10 years old, so that I could change the scoring system of the game, and so that I could make the pitcher throw faster, so like the pitch. Would throw in that game 90 miles an hour, and it made him throw through computer code, like 140 miles an hour, and he would strike out everyone. So that was an interest that my grandfather piqued in me.
And then he encouraged me, I remember, he bought me my first computer, which was like a 386 and you know, it just, whether it be Windows or just any of the graphics or sounds or taking things apart, I had an interest in it at a really, really young age.
John Corcoran 5:30
And how did you combine the interest in, like, selling and selling baseball cards, selling friendship bracelets, making money, and then also the it were you? Were you one of these guys who figured out you could design websites for people, and started doing that in high school a little bit.
Michael Moore 5:47
I remember there was a time where there was somebody who my parents were very focused on. We have to have dinner tonight, every single night together as a family in the family dining room. That was just like, we’re going to do that seven days a week. And I remember very specifically being so pissed off that there was something broken on the computer, and I wanted to fix it, but they hired a computer guy, and he repaired it remotely, using, like, an early version of like, PC anywhere or something. And I remember thinking I could fix, like, four things at once, remotely, I wouldn’t have to sit in front of them. So that was the first iteration of that thought.
And then when I went off to college, I would talk to different people, whether it be professors or different people that I, you know, worked with at Best Buy, because that was one of my first jobs. I work at Best Buy. And anyway, Hey, can I help you with your computer or things like that? And I happen to live with a couple roommates that worked with me at Best Buy, and we were part of the computer repair team, and we took that kind of knowledge and that desire to have that hobby at home, and we downloaded hacking tools, and would use those hacking tools to break into different things, usually just each other’s computers, and it was just a lot of knowledge building at that early and mischievous age.
John Corcoran 7:13
And you were, I guess we’d call it kind of a gradual entrepreneur, because you were working for another company, and then you formed an LLC. You had kind of a company on the side, but it was kind of like a side moonlight hustle, until the economic downturn, or, I think around 2009 2008 something like that. Is that right?
Michael Moore 7:33
Well, I don’t think I talked to you about my first lesson, big lesson in entrepreneurship, which was, I was working for somebody in 2002 and I was like what I believed, and I was what 2223 years old, what I believed is the that was the second employee there, besides the founder, and I developed the logo and our tagline, and I had key relationships With all of our customers. But I was a young, 23 year old who didn’t really know what he was doing, besides, he wanted to help people, and I was helping this entrepreneur that I worked with, and I was like, Man, I really, I’m part owner in this thing. And one day he just kind of got annoyed with me. I’m sure it was quite annoying at that time. And he said, I’m gonna, I’m gonna go ahead and let you go. So I had fully believed at that time that I was part owner in a business, and then I wasn’t. I was just jobless, and then I went, when I got a job and worked in jobs for a little while.
John Corcoran 8:36
And pause on that. What was that like for you? That setback, after feeling this sense of ownership for this company that you had helped to start, almost like a co founder, and then realizing, oh my gosh, I’m an employee. I’m dispensable, he got rid of me.
Michael Moore 8:51
Well, It taught me a lot of lessons that I’ve put into practice and how to treat my employees today. And just a simple example, that is when he let me go. We met for lunch at Saltgrass Steakhouse, and we never met at Saltgrass Steakhouse. Those are completely out of character. And I was like, wow, he’s buying me a nice lunch. He’s given me an Attaboy. This is really coming out of left field. I’m gonna get some praise. I might even get a bonus.
John Corcoran 9:18
That’s what I totally believe your mind was in a completely different place.
Michael Moore 9:21
Yeah, and then when we sat down for lunch and we were starting to order the salad, he goes, Hey, I don’t see your computer. Well, no, I didn’t, I didn’t bring in lunch. I could just take notes or whatever you want to say, boss. He said, Could you go to your car and get your computer and make sure you bring it in? And then he took that computer and moved it to him and, like, put it under his chair. Like, was I going to then run out the building with the computer? And I remember feeling like, whoa, you don’t trust me, and you’re about to tell me something. I actually, at that moment, said, Hey, you’re not here to give me an attaboy, huh? Like, what’s going on?
Yeah, and I’m sure in my 23 year old maturity, I didn’t handle it so well. It was written all over my face at that moment. And I just said immediately, like, make sure that you’re buying lunch, because it sounds like I’m about to be out of a job. And then he went right into it. He’s like, I just, I just don’t know if you’re the right fit. And what it’s created in me, in my own entrepreneurial journey, is, is, and not to say that I’ve never done it, but your job as a boss is to not surprise these people. If somebody’s not doing well or they are doing well, like, Don’t surprise them. Coming out of left field and being like, you’re doing great, you’re doing you’re great, you’re fired. Like, don’t surprise them, that’s not helpful.
John Corcoran 10:43
Yeah, yeah. That’s that kind of a breakdown in communication and communicating expectations and what you want out of the employee in the first place, right?
Michael Moore 10:52
And you know, there’s just, there’s a lot of moving parts in the business, and we all get busy and stuff like that, but people need to know where they stand. Just in general, like, hey, you know, I think that you’re doing a great job, but some people can tell that you don’t believe in yourself. That might be very simple feedback and that, you know, the ultimate like, I’m glad that you see that in me. What’s a way or strategy that I can, you know, impact my own self belief, because these kinds of things like confidence are very important, especially in things like sales and marketing.
So I left that job, not of my own will. I had a lot of pride in it, and it was actually a crazy time, because I was actually living in the house that also was our office. He’d got a rental house in Allen, Texas, and we put one bedroom as my bedroom, one bedroom as our conference room, and one bedroom was where we set up all the computers, the US.
John Corcoran 12:01
You lost both your job and your housing at the same time at the same minute.
Michael Moore 12:05
And I was like, What do I need to do? And he’s like, we just need to get out. So I, like, literally had to move all my stuff out that day. Wow, it wasn’t a great experience, and I certainly was surprised by it.
John Corcoran 12:19
So then you end up, I believe, moonlighting for a number of years and then eventually working for another company, and then there was another layoff in 2008.
Michael Moore 12:29
Yeah. So I worked a lot of different IT jobs. I felt like, okay, maybe entrepreneurial stuff isn’t for me. Worked as an IT help desk person, worked as a network engineer, then worked my way up to IT director. And I had, I was working for an oil and gas company at the time that had one client, one big client, and we had about 200 employees. So I started an LLC in 2008 which is the company I now own. And I didn’t really have the confidence to step out of that really well paying job, until 2010 and I stepped out. In 2010 we started to acquire some clients, and it was within six months of me stepping out on faith alone that that complete company laid off all 200 employees. So it was just that the timing was right for me and that, I mean, ultimately they don’t. They only had one client, so the writing was on the wall when they lost that client, it was an oil and gas company. So oil and gas is kind of a boom or bust.