We recently connected with Michael Huh and have shared our conversation below.

Michael, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

Growing up, I was always a risk taker. Playing basketball, if we were down by 2, I would want to shoot the 3 to win instead of the 2 for the tie. Playing golf, I’m always taking the risky shots because I want to see if I can pull it off. I’ve always been wired a little differently. The idea of working a regular job is awful to me. And I have worked regular jobs before, but I never felt fullfilled nor truly passionate about working those jobs. I’ve been fired before and looking back at it now, I’m very thankful of those times because it let me know that working a regular job just wasn’t for me.

Being an entrepreneur is my passion. It’s not easy by any means, it’s very risky, a lot of sleepless nights, a ton of pressure, and a lot of instability especially starting out. It’s not for everyone. Most people like the security of a regular job, a regular salary, and I totally understand it. But for me, I love the risk/reward that comes with being a business owner.

Michael, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I grew up in Austin Texas and then did my high school years in Green Bay Wisconsin. Growing up, I was all about sports especially basketball. Back then, there were a lot of stereotypes in basketball. They see this asian kid at the playground trying to hoop and everyone always thought I couldn’t play. I loved it. It gave me so much motivation to prove them wrong. It made me work hard to get better and better. Those experiences taught me the value of hard work. I learned early on that if I wanted something, if I wanted to achieve something, I had to put in the work.

After graduating college, I started working for Goodwill Industries as an Employment Specialist where I helped people with disabilities find work. And although what I did was impactful and it was helping people, I was struggling to make ends meet with the salary. I remember my paychecks coming in every 2 weeks and after paying all my bills, I barely had anything left. So I knew I had to make a change. I wasn’t going to live my life like that. I would study and read about all these successful people and learn what they did to reach success. I knew that if they could do it so could I. I just had to be willing to put in the work, but to also take risks and make a change.

See where most people fail is by being in this “comfortably miserable” state. I have so many friends who always tell me how much they hate their job, how miserable they are, but they never do anything to change it. They are comfortably miserable. They are too afraid to take a risk, to make a change.

I was going to make sure I would never be comfortably miserable. I’ve always had a passion for technology and startups, I would hear about all these successful startups and how the founders started it in a garage or with an idea on a napkin. Back then, I had so many ideas. So many “this is the next billion dollar idea”. Most of them were garbage but you have to go through that to find the right idea. I finally came up with the idea for an app for golfers. A way for golfers to connect with golfers who would match their playing style and skills, and for golf courses to connect with golfers. I put everything into this idea. Started with nothing, not knowing anything about building an app, starting a company, etc…But I just started. I started learning and trying things and making connections. I found some amazing people to join my team and they helped make more connections. It was an incredible journey filled with many ups and downs, but it ultimately did not work. We ran out of money and I was burned out. Over a year of 12 to 16 hour days. I was ready for something new.

During this time, I learned everything about digital marketing, digital branding, content marketing, building websites and social media. I figured I could use these skills to help some local businesses and figure out what I wanted to do next. I was quickly running out of money and I knew I had to find paying customers. I was lucky enough to have made a lot of great connections and through these connections I found 2 local businesses that gave me a chance. And as they started doing really well, I decided that my next company would be a digital marketing agency. So Mobyle was born.

Since then, we have grown 10 fold. We work with clients all over the country and a few overseas. I wanted us to make a huge difference in our clients and their businesses. I’m so proud of the passion we put into each and every project. We always go above and beyond whenever we can. We handle each campaign as it is our own business. We love forming close relationships with clients and seeing their businesses transform.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Being resilient as a business owner is a must. You have to expect many ups and downs. Things aren’t always going to go the way you want them to. You have to have very thick skin and you can’t take things too personal.

Starting out, there have been plenty of times when people told me that I would never be able to compete with the big digital agencies out there. The market is too saturated. You’ll never make it. You won’t find clients. And there are plenty of times when things didn’t go my way, and it seemed like what they said was right.

But I always had grit. I never cared about what others thought. And I love proving people wrong. I’m never scared of hard work. I’ll outwork anyone. And if you have that same mindset and work ethic, you won’t have any problems being resilient and doing whatever it takes to succeed.

Have you ever had to pivot?

In life and in business, it’s all about pivoting. Like that Friends episode where Ross and Rachel are trying to move that couch and Ross keeps yelling “Pivot”

If you’re not willing to pivot, you will fail. That’s both in life and in business. I’ve had so many times when I had to pivot. As a basketall player, I always thought that driving to the hole and getting banged around was fun, but after injury after injury, I had to pivot and become more of an outside shooter. My first startup, we had to pivot so many times. Pivot with investors, pivot with features, pivot with partners, advisors, and ultimately pivot to shut it down.

And with Mobyle, we’ve had to pivot a lot as well. Team members that didn’t work out and we had to part ways, those are always tough pivots. Trying different marketing growth campaigns and partnerships. You always have to be ready and willing to pivot. And I’m super stubborn and hard headed so that is always hard for me.

But learning how to pivot and listening to others has been very vital in the success of my business. You never want to be the smartest person in the room. If you are, you are in the wrong room. Always surround yourself with smarter people and listen to their input. Know when to pivot and when to stand your ground. No matter the business, that is always going to play an important part in the growth and success of your business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gomobyle.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michael.huh3/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhuh3/