Building a business is a delicacy.
It also tries to kill you.
Real lessons for owners who build things, from someone who's choked on most of them.
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The Book
Choking on Oysters
*The delicacy of entrepreneurship, and how it tries to kill you*
By Michael K Chism II
Twenty-two lessons about the ones that go down sideways. The partner who was never a villain, the payroll Friday nobody saw coming, the customer who tried to end you, the bill that comes due in a currency you weren't tracking. Not a memoir. Not a mountain-cover book. Just the mechanism underneath the wreckage, so you can see it coming before it's lodged in your throat.
The Show
A call-in show for people running real businesses — trades, service, logistics, and everything unglamorous that actually pays the bills. Owners bring the problem they're stuck on, and we work it out loud. No hype. No hustle-culture nonsense. Just the honest version.
First episodes coming soon.
Who's Behind This
Michael K Chism II started out delivering pizzas and worked his way through manual labor, asphalt, heavy equipment, and septic — the trades where the feedback is immediate and the excuses don't survive contact with the customer. He started his first business at twenty and has spent the twenty years since building more of them: trades, logistics and transport, products on the shelves of major retailers, often while being a military spouse. He's seen things go as wrong as they can go. He'd order the oysters again.
Author of Choking on Oysters. Host of Call It Success.
Talk to Us
Whether you're looking to book a speaking engagement, want to be a guest on the show, or have feedback on the book, we're here to listen.