Peaceful Profits Podcast Ep. 82 - Can AI Build Your Business For You?
Synopsis:
In this engaging episode of the Peaceful Profits Podcast, Chanelle interviews Mike Connolly—a direct response copywriter and marketing strategist who helps high-value service providers simplify their message and scale their business with strategic campaigns.
Mike shares how he rebuilt his career after a bankruptcy in 2009, discovering his gift for copywriting through real-world application, relentless practice, and deep research. He discusses what makes effective copy, how to develop campaigns that move prospects to action, and how AI tools like ChatGPT can be used wisely—as apprentices, not replacements. You'll also hear Mike’s journey through the Peaceful Profits program, the clarity it brought to his business model, and how writing his book helped him finally package his knowledge into a scalable system.
This episode is a must-listen for copywriters, service providers, and entrepreneurs curious about combining timeless marketing principles with modern tools like AI—without sacrificing integrity or results.
Transcript:
Peaceful Profits Review: Can AI Build Your Business For You?
[00:00:00] Chanelle: Hello, Peaceful Profits Nation. Welcome to the podcast. I'm your host, Chanelle Nielson, and I'm joined today by Mike Connolly. Mike, welcome to the show.
[00:00:08] Mike: Mike Connolly Thanks, Chanelle. It's great being here.
[00:00:10] Chanelle: Yeah. So I am excited for today's episode. Let me start by telling you a little bit about Mike. So Mike Connelly's business is dedicated to devising and developing direct marketing strategies and systems that help high value service providers 10 X their impact and income.
[00:00:28] Chanelle: He does this with deep [00:00:30] strategic research and planning, and then crafting messages that clearly communicate the value his clients can provide. He says, if I have a secret sauce at all, it is. It seems to be a unique ability to create effective sales and marketing messages that break down communication barriers between high value service providers and the people they can help.
[00:00:49] Chanelle: And that is something that so many people need. So I love that you are in that space. Now, Mike has a secret accomplishment that we're going to start off with. Mike [00:01:00] was the former Colorado State Fiddle champion. So congratulations on that achievement. Let's start there. Tell us about that.
[00:01:11] Mike: Yeah there's a little bit of a story there.
[00:01:14] Mike: So becoming a state champion fiddler entails showing up at the state fair and getting up on a stage and playing your fiddle. And it turns out that day there was all grand total of about three of us and they award first, second, and third, take [00:01:30] first, but I think it just goes to show, the old Maxim, I think Woody Allen said it best of 80 percent of success is showing up.
[00:01:37] Mike: Something like that,
[00:01:38] Chanelle: yeah. It's amazing that you even play the fiddle and yes, showing up. So that's so great. That's so cool. I wish we had time for a little fiddle demonstration on the podcast. We'll have to
[00:01:50] Mike: do that. I don't think so. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, maybe
[00:01:54] Chanelle: after a drink or two. Yes. Yes.
[00:01:56] Chanelle: So you Are no longer full time fiddling [00:02:00] if ever you were, but full, you've moved into this business. So let's talk about how did you get started doing what you're doing now?
[00:02:07] Mike: Sure. Yeah. So in 2009, my real estate investing business. Crashed and burned. I lost pretty much everything. Fortunately the day I closed my business in a chapter 11 bankruptcy a longtime friend and mastermind partner invited me to run the marketing for his health insurance agency and which I gladly accepted at the [00:02:30] time needing work and starting from scratch basically.
[00:02:33] Mike: So the job entailed writing copy. And managing about a half a dozen email campaigns and things all going out to about a half a dozen different brands. And so we had just all kinds of stuff going on at once. It was I imagine anyway, I've never been an air traffic controller, but I imagine it's saying, hair trying to figure out how to make all this stuff happen without, anything getting tangled up anyway.
[00:02:56] Mike: So it gave me a chance to really cut my teeth on [00:03:00] both copywriting and marketing automation. And the time we were using this software platform called infusion stock, which they now call keep. And so at any rate I did that for a while. And then I eventually, I hung out my shingle to help other small business owners with their copywriting and their marketing automation.
[00:03:18] Mike: And eventually the folks at infusion soft took notice and they invited me to become one of their partners or consultants and which I Accepted. It was pretty cool, opportunity. And also around that [00:03:30] time they were hosting these three day events called implementation accelerators.
[00:03:35] Mike: And that's where if you owned a small business, you and your team would fly out to Infusionsoft headquarters for three days and, you'd have a chance to shut off all your distractions and just focus on getting one marketing campaign built and Infusionsoft would supply all the vendors, like graphic designers.
[00:03:53] Mike: Crew web developers, automation specialists, and copywriters. And being that I, [00:04:00] had a little bit of a knack for writing copy they began flying me down to these accelerators, along with all other vendors, they would fly, a lot of other vendors down for that too. And we were doing this on a regular basis and These three day events were pretty amazing.
[00:04:15] Mike: And what I learned there was how to write copy really quickly because you would be assigned like six businesses to help them launch a campaign in three days, not as you can imagine, but it's pretty intense. [00:04:30] And Anyways just writing all kinds of copy emails, landing pages, videos, and all this and it was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun.
[00:04:38] Mike: And of course, sometimes folks that I would meet at these events, they would then go on to hire me, to write copy for them and stuff, and I eventually got to a point where I felt like, It would be professional malpractice to not get some training in this thing, this craft of copywriting.
[00:04:55] Mike: And so I went to I studied with American Writers and Artists has a program [00:05:00] called Circle of Success. And it's basically their whole sort of kielbasa of all the trainings that they have. And what that then enabled me to do was I started working with some of the bigger players companies like Agora and Stansberry and the financial research, arena and but honestly, my Kind of my favorite clients to work with are small business owners.
[00:05:22] Mike: I really, tend to resonate with folks that like Dan Kennedy and Russell Brunson, digital marketer those guys. [00:05:30] And so that's, that's what I'm doing today. Mainly, focused on that.
[00:05:34] Chanelle: That is such a cool journey. And I appreciate the fact that it started from a low point, right?
[00:05:42] Chanelle: 2009 it was real estate was a rough place to be in, in that time frame. And bankruptcy never easy. And yet this started this whole new career for you. And so now working with small business owners. When they [00:06:00] come to you, what are they looking for specifically? What is it that they're experiencing that leads them to want to work with you?
[00:06:09] Mike: Yeah. I think a lot of it is being part of a community. Folks who follow, for instance, Dan Kennedy there's an affinity there. So if they know that I'm somebody who also understands, the Dan's principles and philosophies and things like that. And here's somebody who understands copywriting and [00:06:30] directing.
[00:06:31] Mike: Response marketing. And I think they relate to that. The reasons why they come, I think are, there's a few things that I've thought of. One is they may not feel totally confident in how to get their messaging out or in some cases they, they're, they feel pretty confident, but they don't have the time, their business is growing and they're smart enough to realize that, at some point.
[00:06:58] Mike: It's better to leverage, people [00:07:00] who are specializing in their unique ability, to do this other thing. And then you can focus on your, your unique ability. So I think that's probably, those are probably some of the main reasons that the people reach out to me to to help out with their campaigns.
[00:07:15] Chanelle: Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. So then they reach out to get help. And how do you help them?
[00:07:20] Mike: First thing is research. So one of the, one of the first steps, once we get started is they'll get a long [00:07:30] questionnaire. It starts from a very basic template that I use, but it's always, like it'll be catered to, there will be questions on there that will cater exactly to their business.
[00:07:41] Mike: So every business has its own unique, capabilities, its own characteristics, its own limitations. And then, so that questionnaire is really just like a starting point and from there, that gives me enough information to say, okay, I got a sense of where we want to go, where [00:08:00] competition is where our strong suits are, what our weaknesses are that we, need to take into account.
[00:08:07] Mike: And then I will go out and do, of course, Google is your friend in a lot of this. Research, but also sometimes, just talking to different people who ideally are prospects for a client. So that we can get a real sense of their mindset and, what their pain points are and stuff like that.
[00:08:23] Mike: So the research is the first phase and honestly, that's really where that's really where [00:08:30] the whole foundation of what comes next happens. You got to understand who your, your market is, who your ideal client is. And then from there, it's just a matter of, okay, how do we design? A system design an experience or a journey for your ideal client to find you.
[00:08:49] Mike: Let's say they find you on Facebook and then, what's the next step. And then what's the next step to where they become a client. And then ultimately, I encourage people to think about. [00:09:00] Getting a client as that's just the first step in a journey, really, ultimately what you want to do is turn those folks into evangelistic ambassadors, as Dan Kennedy calls them, right?
[00:09:11] Mike: Who are, it's now you're starting the whole cycle again, so that, they are referring people to you. And now there's another client coming in the door and so forth. So anyway that's the gist of the process is starting with the research, and then crafting a campaign that will give, take people on this [00:09:30] journey.
[00:09:30] Mike: The one other thing I would add to that is the way that the messaging happens is, I like to think of, Michelangelo when he created the David and La Pieta and all this. People asked him how did you do this? And, the response he gave was I just carved away everything that wasn't the David, but what really goes behind that statement is that he, I don't know if people generally know this, but he took [00:10:00] huge risks early on. He would actually go out and find cadavers and take them apart and just feel, what the tendons felt like and how the muscles were constructed and what happened when, different movements happened and that, like the penalty for doing that during that time was death, he was really taking a risk.
[00:10:22] Mike: So point being. I do think that you need to deeply understand who your prospect, who your market is [00:10:30] in order to create the right kind of messaging and put it out there in a way that they'll respond and say, yeah, you know what? Dang this is for me. So that's. There you go. That in, in a long nutshell that's the process we worked on it that way.
[00:10:44] Chanelle: I love it. And I love that example you just shared. I had recently read that about Michelangelo and I think that it speaks so, it just gets across this idea. That we look at the David and we say, Oh, wow, that's amazing. But you don't see [00:11:00] all of the things that came before. And I love that this is such an important part of your process.
[00:11:05] Chanelle: You talked earlier about being able to really quickly get out copy after a while of doing this. That came from. So much work putting in the time putting in the hours, and now you're creating, helping people on the other end. But it starts with research. It starts with, the thing.
[00:11:25] Chanelle: No one wants to think about the cadavers, right? That hard, hopefully not that. That [00:11:30] gross, but
[00:11:30] Mike: not quite. Yeah, we have it a little easier,
[00:11:32] Chanelle: right? Yeah, but it's still it's not the fun part. It's not the polished end product part. It's the really digging in and the difficult part. And so I love that is a part of what you do.
[00:11:45] Chanelle: So I'd love to hear an example of what this looks like. Can you give us an example or a case study of someone that you've helped?
[00:11:53] Mike: Yeah, sure. My let's see. So one example is Doing one of the accelerators I was working in [00:12:00] kind of a small room and one of the, they have these sort of lead managers, the people who help, the infusion, the accelerator client is the folks that are flying in with their business.
[00:12:11] Mike: Came to the door and he was like somebody who you just wrote some copy for is in tears. And I'm going like, Oh, this doesn't sound good. And she wants to talk to you. And I was like, okay yeah, bring her in, she comes to the door and she's there's actually tears of joy, which was a relief.
[00:12:27] Mike: And what she said was and this [00:12:30] kind of really struck me. She said, you wrote in just a few sentences what I've been trying to say for four years. And I, I enjoy making a living at this, but it's that kind of, it's it's so meaningful to hear, somebody feel that way.
[00:12:47] Mike: And so anyway, yeah, so that's, I guess that would be one example of, hitting that message, hitting that sort of sweet spot. Maybe another example here that is a little bit more concrete is, One of the [00:13:00] things that I'm doing now is I'm actually using the copywriting and marketing skills that I have in a business of my own, actually a past year.
[00:13:11] Mike: So started getting back into the real estate. Investing business, probably a crazy time to do that. But one of the things that I find there is I feel like, from the marketing end, I have this, I have a little bit of an unfair advantage. And that has been borne out by when we put together a An [00:13:30] online campaign to generate leads Facebook and Google.
[00:13:34] Mike: There's these sort of standard practices that I hired an agency to do, the technical stuff, right? Managing the bids and all that stuff. That's not my Belovic at all. But what we found is that whereas in, in that industry, leads typically cost somewhere around 150, 180 up to 250 or more dollars per lead, what we were finding It was our leads are in the 70 to 80 [00:14:00] range.
[00:14:00] Mike: And I think the reason for that is again, I just took that same approach of okay so what is the psychology of the person who is going to respond to this? What are they feeling at this moment? What's the one thing that they would say, that something I want to find out more about.
[00:14:16] Mike: And I think, given that's probably why, knock wood, we're, we're getting results like that.
[00:14:23] Chanelle: Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. And I think it speaks to the power, both of those examples, the [00:14:30] power that, copywriting, it just the power of words to move people to action.
[00:14:36] Chanelle: That's ultimately what you're doing with copywriting is you are moving them enough that they take whatever next step you're asking them to take. And so that's a really powerful form of writing. It's, it has to go deep enough that people feel it. And then right because they need to do something. So I love those two examples that you shared.
[00:14:59] Chanelle: So [00:15:00] nowadays, people who are in the copywriting space, I hear a lot of fear and a lot of talk about AI. It's something that people are concerned about, right? But let's talk a little bit about, you being in that space. How is that impacting you and your clients and content creation?
[00:15:20] Mike: Yeah, what a great question.
[00:15:21] Mike: Yeah, so I, I'm not a believer that it's this great, fantastic, thing that's gonna enable us all to just kick our heels up and [00:15:30] not have to work anymore and get paid for it at the same time. But it's not the antichrist either, I think there's a lot of paranoia out there.
[00:15:37] Mike: Much like any other technology that's come along, heck just you, when you're driving your car, you put it on 55 and it goes for you. And now some cars, you can take your hands off the wheel, right? You still have to be there and present and drive the car and it's, I think it's very similar in my experience anyway with using, like chat and some of these other forms of AI.
[00:15:58] Mike: And by the way, [00:16:00] this is nothing new. We've been used, I don't know, I've been using tools for, Gosh, a good five or more years that are out there. That so there's a company called CoSchedule that has a headline analyzer. There's a lot of them out there. You can Google them.
[00:16:14] Mike: Hemingway is another app. There's another one called Readable. These are all just algorithms that help you refine Your content and your messaging. So the way that I work with it is I I've observed and seeing other, people who [00:16:30] work with it really is that it's you need to be, to give you an example.
[00:16:35] Mike: A professional dog trainer to this is, I know this sounds funny, but a dog trainer who really understands who the, the dog that he's working with, or she has this ability to do amazing things because they have the capability to lead. The psychology of this animal in a certain direction.
[00:16:58] Mike: So I think [00:17:00] of AI that way is, by using the right prompts and asking questions and develop, you can develop a conversation. You can say, okay that was good chat. Now, how would you do this more conversationally, for instance, stuff like that. Anyways.
[00:17:14] Mike: So I think it's. I think it's very helpful tools. It's pretty amazing, pretty surprising, pretty dumb sometimes but if you look at it as like an apprentice or a sparring partner, let's say, and work back and forth with it. I think ultimately [00:17:30] that's the key. And you gotta have the foundational understanding to be able to lead it.
[00:17:36] Mike: That's really key. I think. Yeah. Good point. I think that's so good and hopefully reassuring for people to hear. Let's switch gears here. I'd love to talk about what led you to Peaceful Profits. What brought you here in the first place?
[00:17:51] Mike: Yeah. I was working with a client at the time who we had just so he was in the the reverse mortgage business, which as you can imagine [00:18:00] is it's a little bit complex and involves trust.
[00:18:04] Mike: And I just written a a consumer information guide for him to help. bridge that gap to where, people like, he was spending a lot of time over and over again, explaining all these little facets of how the thing works, building trust, helping them understand this complex product.
[00:18:22] Mike: So this guide was very helpful, honestly, I also felt, and he and I had talked about it was that having a book. Would [00:18:30] be just super helpful in his business as a trust building device, and also as a way to pre educate people so that by the time they're talking to him, they already understand so much of what he offers right around that time.
[00:18:45] Mike: I saw the Facebook ad, right? For the one book million, it's just that's exactly what I'm looking for this client. And so that kind of led me, that was my gateway drug into the whole peaceful world, which has been great. And now [00:19:00] seeing it as. Quite honestly, it's I feel like I've got to do this myself first to show my clients and I have several clients who I'm thinking, boy, this would be exactly what they need, so at any rate, that's, that kind of was really how I encountered it at first.
[00:19:16] Chanelle: That's awesome. And then it led to you coming here and working on your own book. So tell us about your book.
[00:19:24] Mike: Yeah, so while it is a work in progress I'm still thinking about the [00:19:30] title. It's either going to be something along the lines of a seven figure sales funnel or three pillars of profit.
[00:19:36] Mike: It's hard for me to think of hooks without getting all copyrighty, but at any rate Yeah, so the, the process of creating this book has been an amazing experience for me of clarifying my thinking about how my business works what I can offer, how to do it, most effectively and how to put it in a way that, that people can understand.
[00:19:59] Mike: Yeah, I would [00:20:00] say, at this point I'm committed to getting this thing done. It's the first major book that I'll have out there and it's been a long time coming, but yeah, it's been a real eye opener for me in terms of just clarifying my thinking and making.
[00:20:14] Mike: Just making the connections there that people I hope can understand.
[00:20:19] Chanelle: Yeah, that's awesome. That's something that I hear a lot on this end of the podcast, that when people come into Peaceful Profits, they get a lot of clarity. And so I'd love to [00:20:30] go next level on that. What does that clarity do for you or do in your business?
[00:20:38] Mike: Yeah I guess for me, like it is understanding how what I do fits into a package, if you want to say that a so the way that I have worked with clients in the past is I will look at everything that they could possibly benefit from what I do. And I'll say, okay, so [00:21:00] here's this, and then let's do this and let's do this.
[00:21:02] Mike: And it's a very sort of Ad hoc process, right? So one of the things that, you know, having a book out there and giving people a next step that they can, first of all, they can get a quick win from the book, but then also realize that, gee, there's a lot more to this.
[00:21:22] Mike: How can I take the next step with Mike, right? Mike me in this case. And it's helped me formulate, [00:21:30] okay, if I create a system or a framework that I can easily replicate over and over again, Then that only that not only I think helps my clients on a deeper level because we're able to produce a better benefit for them on a repeated basis.
[00:21:47] Mike: And really, that it's that repetition where you're able to get better and better, Michael Jordan, practicing those jump shots, when everybody else has gone home type of effect and having something that is [00:22:00] repeatable. Which is what I've, been, I don't know if I say forced to do, but the book has led me to create something that is more repeatable.
[00:22:10] Mike: And I think, and that's probably one of the biggest impacts of several, that the book has really helped me with.
[00:22:15] Chanelle: Yeah, and that's a huge one. What that does for you and the way you speak about your business, what that does for clients who go through the process is so powerful.
[00:22:23] Chanelle: So thank you for sharing that. I would love to ask, having being on this and [00:22:30] having seen some success in your business, what advice would you give to other? Business owners who would like to be where you are.
[00:22:38] Mike: First of all, I feel very humbled to be here. And I guess, that's normal.
[00:22:43] Mike: Everybody has their own version of imposter syndrome, but at any rate I'm totally honored to be here, If I was to share anything, if I could do two, maybe real quick, one, one would be if you, so there's this whole idea of if you want more, do more. And I think [00:23:00] back on One of, what I was doing before I had the real estate business was for 20 years, I was selling building insulation to local contractors for the biggest insulation contractor in the Denver area.
[00:23:12] Mike: And I had just started working for the company and the owner of the company who I'd heard about and admired a lot. Introduced himself to me and he, I think he had heard that I had this idea about, yeah, I was going to go out and impress people with my sales ability. And he looked at me, said, it's just a numbers game.[00:23:30]
[00:23:30] Mike: And it took me like years to get what that concept was about. But really, I think no matter what you do like quantity begets quality, right? So I guess if I was to share any thought with everyone or with someone who, wants to get somewhere, it's really that whole idea of it does take a lot to get to where you want to go, and the more that you focus on that, the better the chances you'll get to where you want to go.
[00:23:58] Mike: One quick thing, somebody, [00:24:00] if you want to do something right away, like today I was just thinking about this before we had our interview here today. Chanelle was one of the great copywriters. Some people say greatest of all time, Gary Bensavanga. This is the little exercise I learned from him.
[00:24:15] Mike: I'll just pass this along because it might be helpful is if you're writing a piece of copy, if you're creating some content just imagine the person who's on the receiving end of that. And like the Them just feeling really [00:24:30] excited. You can see them light up or you can hear them say, Oh my gosh, this is exactly what I'm looking for.
[00:24:35] Mike: Or just the feeling in their body, they're just tingling, so if you imagine that, then that is the point at which, you know, okay. Done the work is done all this hard work that I put into this thing. Now, I think I got it to the point where it's where it needs to be.
[00:24:52] Chanelle: That's good. And glad that there are experts like you to help because I think that is such a skill [00:25:00] that you've developed to be able to get to that emotional place to where you can, imagine that person feeling the way that you want to feel and get them there through your writing.
[00:25:12] Chanelle: So that is just such an important work that you do. And you share with us. Where can people find you learn more about you and what you're up to?
[00:25:22] Mike: Sure. So you can find me on LinkedIn. And I think it's Michael J Connolly on LinkedIn, by the way. And [00:25:30] there's a, I do have a website at funnelhacker.
[00:25:32] Mike: com, pretty much the way it sounds. And on that website, there's a I think there's a drop down to where you can book a 15 minute. Get to know you, interview type thing. And I'd be happy to chat with folks. I always love, hearing from small business owners and if there's anything I can do to help, I'm happy to point out different options that we have for helping.
[00:25:52] Chanelle: Perfect. All right. We will share those links. Thank you so much for being here for the things that you've taught us. It's been awesome to see [00:26:00] the things that you have learned and thank you for sharing your journey with us. I appreciate it.
[00:26:05] Mike: Thank you. It's been great.
[00:26:06] Chanelle: Yeah. Thanks everyone for listening.
[00:26:09] Chanelle: You can get more and take the same journey that Michael has taken by going to PeacefulProfits.com/call. And we'll see you all next time. Bye.