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MY STORY

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I coach entrepreneurs and expats to engineer success in their health, their relationships and communication, their mindset and habits. 

I was born and raised on the balmy tropical island of Papua New Guinea and, since then, have lived and traveled all over the world.

 

Currently, my family and I live in the beautiful city of Hangzhou, China.

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Michael Bauman headshot

Chapter 1: Hopeless...

Things were not always this rosy...

 

Six years ago, I sat in my car with tears streaming down my face.

 

I felt worthless and alone.

 

It was my first foray into the world of entrepreneurship, and I had just had another door slammed in my face as I feebly attempted to sell my personal training and nutrition coaching services. 

 

My thoughts inevitably turned to my wife back home, pregnant with our first kid, and the weight of my failure and inadequacy overwhelmed me.

 

We were on food stamps, and I couldn’t provide enough to pay my bills, let alone give my family the life that I wanted for them.

 

I tried to fill this emptiness with more work, more hustle.

 

But no matter what I did, it never seemed to be enough.

 

I never seemed to be enough. 

 

Chapter 2: The Spark...

In the middle of this dark period of my life, I stumbled across Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why.

 

There is a section where he gets the opportunity to attend the Gathering of the Titans at MIT, where multimillionaire entrepreneurs challenge each other, develop, and grow.

 

One presenter asked the group, “How many of you have achieved your financial goals?”

 

80% of the room put their hands up, most of them not having to work another day in their life. 

 

The presenter followed it up with this question,

 

“How many of you FEEL like a success?”

 

80% of the people with their hands raised put them back down! 

Chapter 3: The Realization...

I realized that instead of asking ourselves, "What is success?"

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We should be asking,

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“How can I FEEL like a success in every area of my life?”

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I have found in my work with entrepreneurs and expats that so often...

 

The feeling of success is so intertwined with "feeling enough" that they can almost be used interchangeably. 

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How can I feel like I have accomplished enough? 

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How can I feel like I have enough money?

 

Or my business has grown enough?

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How can I feel like I have gotten enough done?

 

Or contributed enough? Made enough of an impact?

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How can I feel enough as a spouse/partner or parent?

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This was the...

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Chapter 4: Origin of Success Engineering

How can we engineer success in every area of our lives so that we can truly feel like a success and not just look like one on the outside? 

 

With this realization, my family and I began the slow process of pulling ourselves out of that dark, hopeless place.

 

Over the next couple of years, I dove into everything from cutting-edge neuroscience to ancient philosophy, behavioral psychology and happiness research to better understand how we can define and engineer success in every area of our lives.

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Success Engineering Podcast

Host of Success Engineering podcast.

 

I have interviewed 100+ highly successful people.

 

Multi-millionaire entrepreneurs:

  1. Mark Verstegen S3E19 (Founder of EXOS, NFL Performance Director)

  2. Peter Sage S6E10 (Founded over 27 businesses, most over 7 Figures)

  3. Carl Gould S5E13 (Founder of 7 Stage Advisors - largest business mentoring company in the world)

 

Best-selling authors:

  1. Daniel Pink S7E10 (5x International Best-seller of Drive, To Sell is Human, etc.,)

  2. Jessica Joelle Alexander S4E5 (Author of Danish Way of Parenting)

  3. Erik Seversen S4E23 (13x Amazon Best-seller author)

 

Co-editors of the World Happiness Report:

  1. John Helliwell S7E7

  2. Lara Aknin S7E8

  3. Lord Richard Layard S7E9

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Actors and Broadway Directors

  1. Richard Schiff S3E17 (Dr. Glassman - The Good Doctor, Toby Ziegler - West Wing)

  2. Jeff Calhoun S3E11 (Broadway Director of Newsies, Bonnie and Clyde, etc.,)

  3. Marilu Henner S4E1 (Elaine Nardo - Taxi, Flavia Brent - Noises Off)

 

Elite special force operators:

  1. Dr. Kirk Parsley S5E14 (Sleep Doctor)

  2. Marc Polymeropoulus S4E17 (Former Director of the CIA for Eurasia)

  3. Rob Lively S3E22 (Command Sergeant Major of Elite Spec. Ops Unit)

 

To hear how they define success and how they have created it in their lives, including all the doubts, loneliness, fears, and anxieties they worked through along the way. 

Writing and Public Speaking

  • I am a contributing author to #1 Amazon International Best-seller: Peak Performance Mindset Tools for Entrepreneurs

  • I am a TEDx Speaker

  • I am a Senior Executive Contributor to Brainz Magazine

  • I have presented and led workshops for Business Accelerators and Entrepreneur Groups all over the world

Certifications and Qualifications

  • I am Tony Robbins Certified Coach​

  • I am a Precision Nutrition Level 1 + 2 Certified Coach

  • I worked as a health coach with WebMD

  • I used to be a personal trainer and Assistant Department Head of my gym facility

I would love to share with you some of the insights, frameworks, and mental models multi-millionaire entrepreneurs, neuroscientists, and elite special force operators, use to define and engineer their success...

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Every week I send out actionable emails summarizing the top mental models, first principles, and skill acquisition frameworks used by elite performers to help you engineer success in every area of your life!

 

Sign up here 👇🏼

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