Mike Cardona

Hidden Levers AI

Empowering creative solopreneurs to save time and money by optimizing and streamlining their operations for maximum efficiency.

Digital Architect | Automation Alchemist | Writer

CS Insider

Help build our automation infrastructure, systems and processes, and work alongside Brandon Cestrone to create a community-driven newsletter for Customer Success professionals all around the globe. 

Key Contributions
• Overhauled website, implemented. SEO data, Google Analytics, Email Marketing and automation campaigns. Manage initiative had held full redesign of the website with findings from customer segmentation and competitive research.

Business Operations | Digital Marketing Manager

Technically

Growth and Operations

Technically breaks down software engineering in simple language so you can impress your boss. Join 40K+ people getting more technical.

Growth and Operations

Digital Ops | Automation Alchemist

Online Elite Goods

Founder

Shane Co.

Collaborated closely with management and team members to enhance sales and customer support experiences while assisting in the onboarding of over 8 employees.

Key Contributions
• Played a crucial role in designing streamlined workflows, resulting in a 17% increase in customer feedback.
• Delivered exceptional performance, generating $1.7M in sales and earning the Salesperson of the Year award in 2016, followed by a promotion from Sales Representative to Client Account Manager.

Sales Support Representative | Client Account Manager

Central Payment

Addressed 60+ tech support calls and resolved 40+ support tickets daily, providing comprehensive assistance to a diverse clientele.

Key Contributions
• Surpassed monthly target by 155%, ranking in the top 2 among 15 team members for new account activations.
• Enhanced productivity by 22% and elevated customer satisfaction scores to 100% in under eight months through the development and implementation of innovative systems.

Technical Support Specialist

Optum

• Devised a system that lowered ACH by 30%, ranking 1st among 18 team members for relevant call metrics.
• Handled 60+ customer support calls daily, addressed inquiries via email and phone, resolved billing issues, and delivered consistent customer resolutions.
• Continually ranked within the top three on the team for customer satisfaction, thanks to outstanding problem-solving skills and exceptional customer service.

Customer Support | Intake Coordinator

Helping busy solo entrepreneurs save 30+ hours per month | Automate the tasks you hate, so you can spend more time doing what you love | Automation Alchemist 🧪

Are you working around the clock to keep your business afloat? From marketing to writing, accounting to customer service, you're juggling it all. It's exhausting.

You're not alone. This is a common struggle for solo-entrepreneurs and digital creators. The demands of your business often sideline the need for strategic focus and direction, leading to a vicious cycle of low-value tasks.

Don't blame yourself. When you're in the thick of running a business, finding time for growth planning can feel like a luxury. But what if it didn't have to be?

Imagine having:

• Simple but powerful automations.
• Streamlined workflows and systems.
• Time dedicated to strategic growth planning.

This is the promise of Hidden Levers. As a fellow solopreneur, I've walked in your shoes. Nine years ago, I was where you are now.

Today, I'm on a mission to help creative solopreneurs like you:

• Grow a profitable business without burning out.
• Do the work you love and enjoy.
• Achieve time-freedom.

Every Tuesday, I share actionable frameworks, resources, and tips that leverage AI/Tech tools so you can reclaim your time and do the work you enjoy—all in five minutes or less.

Ready to redefine your solopreneur journey? Click here: https://bit.ly/3PhJ8Vi

___

Follow me as well for content on:

• AI
• Zapier
• Airtable
• Systems
• No-Code
• Automation
• Solopreneurship

Operations | Automation Alchemist | Writer

Hobbzi

Digital Strategy Director

Plentē Agency

Telling client stories that forge relationships and solve problems.

Director of Digital Strategy

Light & Line Creative

Whether it's a product, a service, or a piece of software, everything comes down to the story you tell...How does YOUR offering make THEIR life better?

I help you answer that question...over and over and over again in the simplest, most compelling way possible.

The result? Sales, conversations, conversions, relationships, and brand ambassadors that LOVE how you've made their life better!

Owner

𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝗮 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺?

I have, more times than I can count. 

I remember taking breaks from my cubicle, running to the nearest bathroom stall, locking myself in, and silently screaming into my hands because I felt like I couldn't take ONE MORE SECOND.

𝗜 𝗳𝗲𝗹𝘁 𝗦𝗧𝗨𝗖𝗞 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻.

I hated my life and hated the exciting dreams I somehow kept dreaming for myself.

They felt almost like God mocking me...even though I know He wasn't. 

I was a dark place!

But, my pops "didn't raise no quitter" and 𝙄 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙢𝙮 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙪𝙣 𝘼𝙒𝘼𝙔.

I fought through the dark seasons, leaned into the pain, and learned to 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙐𝙍𝙋𝙊𝙎𝙀 behind these things.

I learned to rip away the messy junk and find the beauty and powerful motivation, the story, inside me that kept feeding me dreams and that helped me survive my darkest seasons.

In short, I learned how to get unstuck. From a dead-end career, from my lack of confidence, from burnout...and to create a truly incredible life and living that's EXACTLY what I dreamt of.

Now, I live my dream life and get to help others become UNSTUCK. 

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐜𝐤, 𝐚𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐭, 𝐨𝐫 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧 "𝐈 𝐇𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐀 𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐁𝐔𝐓 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐇𝐎𝐖," 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮!

𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘁 𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱!

Michael Henson 🏔️

I wake up negative, deficient, and anti-social.

Every. Single. Morning.

Thank God for my Bible, Earl Nightingale, and a killer cup of coffee.

These are the inputs that help me rewire before the world gets a say.

If you're a brand, your customers wake up the same way.

Guarded. Skeptical. Overwhelmed by info. Exhausted by noise.

They don’t need more hype or another features list.

They need hope...a resolution to their current emotional state.

Remember:

Good marketing doesn’t push itself.

It acknowledges pain and delivers relief.

Meet them where they are.

That’s how skepticism turns into sales.

Marketing Psychologist | Decoding what makes people click, crave, and convert. (And convert again.)

Business owners, decision makers, and leaders, you don’t need another marketing data point. 

You need actionable insights that move the needle. 

Seems like we’ve built ourselves this “bubble” of data and pursued more and more of it as though data will provide the answers we’ve been looking for…

But it doesn’t. 

The result is a whole bunch of leaders slogging their way through mounds of data and a permanent state of overwhelming “analysis paralysis,” rather than the clarity we though big data would bring. 

Here’s what big data doesn’t want you to know…

95% of purchase decisions are based on emotion rather than logic. 

Think about how your offer makes people feel emotionally, meet them there with your messaging, and you’ll win. 

Agree?

Meta’s new Andromeda algorithm is a creative guzzler.

It doesn’t want one ad. It wants twenty.

Sounds insane, right?

Here’s why that’s actually genius 👇

Meta finally stopped optimizing for marketers.

Now it optimizes for psychology.

When your creative’s good, Meta reads it like a mind map:
• Who it’s for
• What pain it hits
• What promise it makes

Then it matches that emotional data against 52,000+ user signals.

The result?
👌 Better targeting.
👌 Cheaper clicks.
👌 Happier customers.

Good creative isn’t just eye-candy anymore.

It’s data.

Feed the algo emotions, not just assets.

That’s how you win.

Your shiny tech stack won’t fix a broken funnel.

Brands obsess over tools, trends, and tactics.

↣ ↣ Snazzy websites. Flashy ads. New platforms.

Smart brands obsess over messaging.

↣ ↣ The dirty work that captures attention, builds trust, and drives conversion.

Messaging is Luka in this video...

Crawling on the floor, doing the work that makes the highlight possible.

Everything else is fun.

Flashy and exhilarating even.

But worthless without a Luka on the floor putting in work.

The difference?
☝️ Fun builds awareness.
✌️ Fundamentals build revenue.

What’s your biggest funnel challenge?

Your customer insights have never been sharper, and your message has never been flatter.


These days, we have data that tells us:
✴️ She’s a single mom under 35.
✴️ Drives a Toyota.
✴️ Lives 3.2 miles from a shopping center.
✴️ She buys brand-name Lunchables for her son.

But, our fancy reports and mountains of insights don’t tell us why.

Reality?

She buys them because she never had them growing up, and she can’t stand the thought of her son being made fun of for bringing off-brand snacks to school.**

📉 If all we focus on is that she’s a single mom under 35, we make ads about saving time.
📉 She drives a Toyota, we assume reliability is most important.
📉 She lives near a shopping center, we push convenience.

So we build a campaign about “quick, easy meals for busy moms on the go.”

And we completely miss the point.

She’s not buying convenience, she’s buying protection.

Not packaging, peace of mind.

It’s not about the Lunchables…It’s about belonging.

If we really understood her, our messaging wouldn’t talk about price or prep time.

We would focus on confidence. Not hers, her son’s. 

That he walks into school proud, and sits down to lunch confidently…without the anxiety she grew up feeling at the school lunch table. 

It would talk about her care as a mother because she’s giving him something she never had.

The focus would be love, not logic.

We’ve spent decades spending more on our tech stacks, diving deeper into consumer privacy, and chasing better data, and we got it.

We can segment by income, car model, zip code, and even shopping radius.

But the pendulum has swung so far toward “big data” that we’ve lost touch with what it’s telling us.

Lead your messaging with empathy and emotion, not features. 

If you’re unsure what emotional drivers are causing your customers to purchase, perform tests around it, have conversations with your customers, and do some deeper, emotional market research.

The answers are there for you, you just have to dive deeper than the data.

Agree? 




**Not actual customer data, this is a thought exercise on social media, you silly goose. Don’t miss the point!

Living for the next dollar, metric, or milestone…

It’s a miserable existence. 

Sure, maybe you get to buy cool stuff. 

Maybe your four walls are cooler than a bunch of other people’s four walls. 

Maybe you have multiple four walls…congrats. 

Without a purpose, all the accomplishment in the world simply buys monuments to materialism. 

Your grandkids might remember you. 

Their kids might remember stories about you. 

And then…🤷‍♂️

Somber? Yes. 

Then again, I just left the funeral of a 36 year old friend of mine and it has me introspective. 

What purpose is my life built upon?

At the end, I hope my friends and family that remain can say, “He loved God, he served Him with everything he had, he helped a bunch of people, he gave away a ton of money, and he loved his wife, daughter, family, and friends more fiercely than anyone else.”

Beyond those things, I’m not sure the point. 

Much love, LinkedIn fam!

Keep crushing it and make the “most best” of every single day.

We're all going to die.

So don't prioritize the wrong things.

Building something great and impacting your sphere (family, friends, community, region, world) is one of the highest callings in the world, but even that isn't worth everything.

I received word today that a friend I used to be very close to is gone forever. 

I've *almost* texted him about 10 times in the past 6 weeks or so but was too busy, too distracted, and too "whatever."

It never happened. And now it never can.

Not looking for sympathy or pity...just sharing a reminder...

Work hard. Grow. Become MORE.

But don't take the "free, invaluable" for granted.

We place such high value on expensive things and undervalue what we don't "pay for."

So, relationships, health, our strength, intellect, inspiration, creativity, and who we are, take a back seat to something we can assign a monetary value to.

Try not to make that mistake today. 

Connect with a friend.
Text that person you've been thinking about.
Visit that spot you've been dreaming of.
Find some rest and peace today.

Much love...🫶

Had a client email this week that sent me spiraling.

You know the kind, three sentences and some PTSD.

They move on and you question your entire agency.

For a moment, everything felt fragile.

My confidence. My progress. My peace.

I looked at my wife and said,

“How do I stay positive if…?”

Here’s what I remembered:
☮️ Positivity isn’t a mood. It’s maintenance.

We don’t wait to feel better.

We choose to think better.

That’s how we find clarity when the noise gets loud.

How do you stay grounded when your world trembles?

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Mike Cardona

Michael Henson 🏔️

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The Battle

Mike Cardona

Michael Henson 🏔️

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Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Michael Henson 🏔️'s LinkedIn Performance

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