The Mike Murphy Show

Episode Summary: A personal-branding episode — Mike goes behind the scenes with his own origin story, from a childhood injury and discovering the Grateful Dead to the winding cross-country path that led to building Mike Murphy LLC. What You'll Learn Mike's origin story: childhood, a broken femur at 13, and discovering the Grateful Dead The core principles behind his in-progress book: learning, creating, and moving forward How introversion and a love of teaching coexist as a deliberate "push and pull" The winding path through Portland, Missoula, Durango, Denver, and Naples that led to Mike Murphy LLC This episode is the facts, the highlights, and the turning points — history, profile, and resume all rolled into one. In January 2017, Mike promised to write a book by year's end and didn't. This episode starts it: an introduction to One Man Band: Create the Life You Want, covering who he is and the paths he took to get here. Requirements to create the life you want: you have to start, and you have to work hard. Core Principles of the Book Learning — feed your brain and stay sharp. Creating — find your voice and uniqueness by doing and practicing what genuinely interests and excites you, then getting really good at it. Moving forward — "You only lose what you cling to" (Buddha). Stop dwelling on the past and focus on the good things ahead. Origin Story Born in Syracuse, NY in November 1969 — a Scorpio, the youngest of three. His father spends winters in Florida; his mother died in 2006. Early school days: shy, uncomfortable with attention — winning "best all-around student" in 4th grade was closer to a nightmare than an honor, given the walk down the aisle in front of the whole school. A surprise birthday party would still be a worst-case scenario; receiving gifts has never been comfortable, closer to the Hobbit tradition of giving rather than receiving on your own birthday. Pulling From Opposite Sides Not wanting the spotlight, yet recording a podcast and writing a chapter all about himself — that contradiction has always been there. Starting the podcast and putting himself in videos was far outside the comfort zone, but necessary for what he wanted: happiness and the freedom to make a living doing what he wants. The shyness isn't rooted in insecurity or fear — Gary Vaynerchuk's framing of "push and pull," drawing from opposite extremes, helped put language to something Mike had always done but couldn't describe. A lone wolf and introvert who's spent his whole career in the service industry; shy but a natural teacher and leader more than a follower. Adaptability is the throughline — like a raft following the smoothest line down a river. Fear of being knocked down was never going to be the reason this fails. Turning Points A broken femur at 13 meant 6 weeks in traction and 8 weeks in a full body cast, followed by a year of therapy — any NBA dreams ended there. During that period came… Read the complete show notes and resources on mikemurphy.ai. Support the show Subscribe To Weekly Newsletter: AI Unplugged Connect With Me 🌐 Website 📧 Newsletter 🎥 YouTube 🐦 X 💼 LinkedIn Comments, Questions & Feedback: [email protected]