We recently connected with Michael Breus and have shared our conversation below.
Michael , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear stories from your time in school/training/etc.
When I first was getting my degree, I was really interested in Sports Psychology. I have taken several courses and really thought this was going to be my career. I applied for the top Sports Psychology Program at the time, but was denied entry. As it was a top program, most of the admitted candidates were from Ivy League Schools ( Harvard etc). I went to the University of Georgia ( Go DAWGS), it’s a top 20 program, but not Harvard. Fortunately for me, the clinical psychology program was looking for a student, to do their residency in the Sleep Laboratory. I had worked my way through grad school in the department of electrophysiology, so I actually knew how to run all the machines at the sleep lab. So I figured I would sell my self as a “Sleep Person” and then just transfer when I got there! I arrived and went to our first meeting where I asked the Director, what were the procedures for transfer? He said he was expecting me to do this, and said I was required to be in the Sleep Lab for 6 months so I could get my funding ( basically get rent $$), but I could go to any other department after that. So I figured, “How tough could this be?” I remember entering the lab and honestly by the 3rd day I had completely fallen in love with Clinical Sleep Medicine. In traditional Clinical Psychology, it can take months, even years to see any advancement, with sleep, it usually takes less than a week! I love being that effective in peoples lives, it’s really an honor.
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 am a Clinical Psychologist, who is medically board certified in Clinical Sleep Disorders. I am one of 168 people who have passed the Medical Boards in Sleep, without going to medical school. I have been an actively practicing Sleep Specialist for 25 years. Back in 2006 I began developing an online presence at www.thesleepdoctor.com. I spent 15 years as the Sleep Expert for WebMD, and through them began to learn more about the power of Public Relations. I worked with several groups and over time was able to become a regular, on shows like Dr Oz ( 40 appearances), Rachel Ray ( 14 appearances), GMA ( 15 appearances), the Today Show ( 10 appearances), and get involved in public education through my interviews. I do 200+ interviews each year about sleep. The website has developed over time. Initially it was only content about sleep, now we have been able to monetize the site by offering Sleep -Related services ( we sell sleep studies, with a doctors consult, we sell CPAP machines in our Sleep Shop, and we do over 100 Mattress Reviews where consumers can learn how to buy a bed and what to look for). I have also been fortunate and written 5 non-fiction and 1 fiction books. My most popular one was The Power of When, which helps people learn about their chronotype (www.chronoquiz.com) and how to better schedule their lives. My newest book will be released March 2025 ( Sleep, Drink, Breathe: The DNA of Wellness) and in March of 2024 my first ever Fiction Book- The Sleeper ( a real science fiction thriller) was released as well. Looking ahead I see myself continuing to see patients in my private practice, working with companies to help with either branding or specifically sleep products, and maybe writing a few more books.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
After graduation, I was looking in the APA paper and saw a job listing, so I applied, since it was in my area: Sleep Lab Director, Atlanta GA. I remember going to the interview and thinking if they just offer me 30k, I can afford Health Insurance! I was crossing my fingers with my girlfriend at the time (now wife). I went in and really crushed the interview. They offered me 60k, full benefits, 2 weeks off, and 2 weeks for medical conferences, but there was one catch: I had to take, and pass the sleep medicine boards at the end of my 1st year. I explained that I was a PhD and that was a MD test, and that I had not gone to medical school. My boss informed me that there was 1 year left where a non-MD could take the exam, and they wanted someone in the practice who was board certified in Sleep Medicine.
I went home and told my girlfriend “60 grand!!!!” we were so excited, and at the end of the conversation I told her of the one stipulation. She asked me “Are you going to do it?” and I said “are you crazy? who takes the medical boards without going to medical school? I will just have to look for a new job in a year.” She said to me ” I think you could do it.” And that’s all it took.
So I called the Board and asked if they had a reading list for the exam, which they did. So after a full day seeing patients ( 30), and reading sleep studies (10), I would go to the library and study. There were 14 text books I needed to learn. I taught myself pediatrics, neurology, neurochemistry, and neurophysiology, general medicine, and a few other things. Since I was new to medicine, I decided every time I read a paragraph I would ask myself, “What would a good test question be for this ?” and then I would create a notecard for each one. At the end of the year of studying, I had about 6000 note cards and it would take me 7-8 hours to go through them all. At the time the Sleep Medicine Boards were the most difficult in all of medicine. There were two parts, there was a 50% failure rate on part one, and then 50% of people failed part 2. So the pass rate was about 25%. I was building a home, planning a wedding, and taking the boards all at the same time. And guess what, it worked! I not only was given a contact for the next year but worked for 8 years with the practice. The next year the Board closed the exam to MDs only, so now I have amazing marketing for me and my brand and almost no competition!
Conversations about M&A are often focused on multibillion dollar transactions – but M&A can be an important part of a small or medium business owner’s journey. We’d love to hear about your experience with selling businesses.
I was very fortunate, I was approached and sold my business in 2021. This was not something I was planning on doing. I was perfectly happy doing what I was doing: writing books, writing blogs, seeing patients, and doing endorsement deals with products I really used and liked.
Lesson #1: Answer cold emails. I received an email that basically said ” Are you interested in selling www.thesleepdoctor.com. I get these more often than I thought I would, so my assistant and I developed a template basically saying, we are accepting offers 7 figures and higher, to keep people away who were not serious. It turns out this group was serious.
Lesson #2: Move quickly if possible. Within 1 year of selling my website, the value became significantly different. As ChatGPT had not burst onto the scene yet for those of use who create original content.
Lesson #3: Be humble, when someone cones in and says they can run your business better, they may be correct. There are 2 reasons why a group buys a company: 1- they have an asset that they are not monetizing or utilizing, 2- they don’t know how to run their business. I had both. Lets face it Im a doctor, and while I was doing ok ( aprox 1M revenue per year), I needed a lot of help to really get this going.
Lesson #4: Have your business set up in a way that is favorable for taxes if you sell. When I was approached, I was not ready, and we did the deal in 4 months so I ended up with LOTS of tax consequences.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theslepdoctor.com
- Instagram: @thesleepdoctor
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thesleepdoctor/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSleepDoctor