Meet Mike — the man who built his business around his life

A Generator Hub member since 2016, Mike helps marketing agencies land more clients through subscription software and his YouTube channel, Sell Your Service.

But for Mike, success isn't just about business growth. It's about building a business that gives him the freedom to enjoy life outside work too. We asked him to tell us about it, in his own words:

A tale of two halves

"A running joke during my wedding was that no one quite understands what I do. I get that impression in the office too: how can I spend so few days actually doing work while apparently having a job? The truth is, over the summer I took a complete break from work and basically just did a ton of gardening — for myself, my family, and my friends.

The reason I was able to do that is how I've set up my business. It's kind of a tale of two halves. On one side there's an extremely granular, technical look at traffic trends, lead conversions, and building AI agents. On the other side, I'm more concerned with working as few hours as possible and giving my team the best life I can.

Very basically, I help marketing agencies land more clients. I've been doing this since 2016. My main way of getting in front of those businesses is on YouTube — Sell Your Service.

The way I make money is by selling software to those marketing agencies who watch my YouTube channel. The beauty of it is that it's a recurring-revenue subscription product, and all of the delivery and operations are taken care of by somebody else.

A business that fits around life

This meant that over the summer, when I needed to take a break, I was able to grow tomatoes from a tomato sandwich, grow onions the size of cantaloupes, and watch aphids and flies eat all of my sweet corn.

I think what I've rediscovered is that I want a business that allows me to do that stuff — rather than finding time to run my business. Most of my day is spent coming up with the best YouTube ideas I can, working on thumbnails, or scripting."

The team behind it

"In my team we have:

• Clarence, our editor, who does the majority of our YouTube work and is fantastic.
• Jha, who essentially runs the operations and admin for the business.
• Sheila, who works with our clients and does a little bit of coaching and accountability inside our community.

We're looking to hire someone to take care of thumbnails and scripting, as I feel most of my job should be filming YouTube videos. Recently we've been working on figuring out how to get as broad an audience as possible on YouTube while narrowing them down and qualifying them to buy our software.

Realistically, I'm only doing all this so I can learn how to grow Delicata Zeppelin squashes (which are phenomenal fried and put in a ciabatta sandwich) and Vivagrande tomatoes — which are so sweet they almost taste like a peach or tropical fruit."

Most of you know Coco better than me

"Most of you will know my dog more than you'll know me — Coco. She recently had her 9th birthday. She's been coming to the office ever since she was a puppy and, as far as she's concerned, she takes me to the office.

Coco absolutely loves people, so any time you want to have a cuddle or give someone some attention, I've usually got some snacks lying around."

A privilege since 2016

"I just want to say what a privilege it is to have worked at Generator Hub since 2016. Everyone here is so friendly, welcoming and open-minded. It's an absolute privilege to have found somewhere like this to work.

If you ever want to talk about my elaborate coffee routine, CrossFit or my world records — just say hello!"