Hey guys! It's When I Grow Up Wednesday again, and today we're hearing from Mike Lee Hoàng, a small business owner here in Oklahoma City. He is one of those people who epitomizes the word hustle. It seems like he is always working hard on new project! So let's find out more about Mike now.

As a child, I wanted to be a ______ when I grew up. An engineer. Why? Because my parents are Asian, I thought I would do something smart, and I liked legos. When I was a freshmen in college, I met some business owners who told me about the freedom, income potential and lifestyle you could obtain in business for yourself. After that, I knew that was my calling!

How close (or far) is your current career from that dream? Completely opposite. I think as children, a lot of us are brainwashed by thinking that the only way to be successful is to get good grades and get a good job.

What is your official job title? Business owner.

Ok, now what does that really mean? I run KM Marketing. We're like an eHarmony for online marketing services. When our clients are lost in what to do with their website or social media, we give them direction and connect them with the local company that's the best fit.

What is a typical day like? Every day is a little different, and that’s how I like it! I usually have a meeting at 7am (I’m trying that whole ‘early bird gets the worm thing’). Throughout the day is typically filled with meetings with clients, a networking or community event, maybe a board meeting and in-between people can usually find me at a local coffee shop catching up on emails, doing research, servicing clients.

How did you end up in this career? I got fired from a digital marketing job for being late to a meeting (I prefer saying I was running on ‘Asian time’). I learned pretty quickly I made a bad employee, so I started my own business! However, since then, being on time to meetings has been a priority of mine.

What kind of education or training did you complete for this career? “Started from the bottom now we here!” I have bachelors degree in Communication, but most of my experience started from working in marketing, reading books, reading online publications, and actually doing the work and learning through experience. Once you do a good job will smaller clients, you start building your business systems, and you start having more and more confidence in your expertise to work with more and larger clients.

What advice would you give to someone who wants a similar career? Follow your dreams, but be smart about it. Work hard. Seek out mentors. Become an expert. Have a plan.

Do you have any other career dreams? What do you want to be when you grow up? I feel like God’s called me to be successful at business, to use my resources and platform to impact people’s lives through public speaking and giving to non-profits. What does that look like exactly? I’m not 100%, but the journey has been great! “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter and it is the glory of kings to search it out.”

Any last thoughts or encouragement for others trying to decide what they want to do “when they grow up”? Do what you love. Everyone is uniquely designed with a specific set of strengths for a specific purpose. There are things that you are naturally better at than anyone else and things you enjoy doing. Figure out what that is and how to make money with it. I don’t think you will ever truly be fulfilled in life until you do what you were designed to do.

And with that brilliant piece of advice, I'd like to thank Mike for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer my questions! I love learning about careers, but I will always have a place in my heart for small business owners/entrepreneurs.