Page 36 - BusinessWest February 17, 2025

Mychal Connolly’s son, Mychal Connolly Jr. (left), has been influencing young people through his Realistic CEO enterprise.
One course was called the “100 Grand Plan,” which, as that name suggests, explains how to make one’s first $100,000. Among the keys to doing so, and one that is often overlooked, is marketing.
These efforts led to the creation of the Launch and Stand Out Agency, which is where Connolly learned about non-traditional advertising — including mobile, digital billboards, which became the basis of his current business, Stand Out Truck, which will celebrate five years in business on March 9.
That’s right. He started a very public-facing business on March 9, 2000.
“I never got to run my year-one business plan,” he recalled. “My year-one business plan was to completely figure out the owner-operator model. But on
March 13, the world shut down.”
Which meant 2020, dominated by COVID, was a time of navigating
challenges, pivoting, and putting into action all the lessons he had learned about business and marketing from the Kittredges and Sortinos of the world. He made sure he started out with enough capital to withstand some very soft months, and he found some creative avenues for his traveling billboard, like graduation messages for students whose ceremonies had been canceled.
Since that start, the company has steadily built a base of hundreds of clients, from local businesses to large, national brands, and even, in one case, President Biden, when he was pitching what would become the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. And Connolly is planning to expand as well, possibly with a third truck and a larger team.
Meanwhile, he continues to mentor young people, most notably his son, Mychal Connolly Jr., — known to most as Mikey — who has been busy building his own first enterprise, Realistic CEO.
In short, Connolly Sr. has not only been an example of entrepreneurship, he’s helping others follow that path as well, benefiting not only their own careers and families, but the region’s economy. That’s the impact of an unconventional, charismatic, inspiring Difference Maker.
Realistic Plans
It’s also, as noted, the impact of a father on his oldest son’s entrepreneurial
dreams.
The two of them co-authored a motivational book titled I Am a CEO.
Realistic CEO after a high-school teacher told Mikey during a class project that his goal of becoming a CEO was, well, unrealistic. The book, illustrated by local artist DeAndra Roy, aims to inspire people to chase their dreams, no matter the odds.
Mikey also launched the Realistic CEO Podcast, a platform where
he interviews successful business owners, CEOs, founders, presidents, executives, and community leaders. Coincidentally, two of his early guests were members of the Difference Makers class of 2025 — John Doleva and Dan Moriarty.
As he prepares to study communication and journalism in college, Mikey’s honing his skills in those fields through real-world experience, while teaching others what he learns about becoming a CEO.
“It’s definitely exciting,” he said. “A teacher who started following me on Instagram said she bought the book and she read to her class. Then she posted that one of her students already wants to start a nail-salon business. I thought it was kind of cool that, simply by reading my story, the teacher was able to see the vision of her student wanting to start her own nail salon.”
Connolly loves seeing his son work for his dreams — which currently involves a goal of distributing 500,000 copies of the book over the next five years and taking his inspirational message to young people on a much wider stage than Western Mass. — and knowing he can provide an example of successful entrepreneurship from his own life.
“When I think back to Stinky Cakes and all the things I wish I knew then, I’m able to tell him,” he said. “But I say to him, ‘dude, I can open doors for you, but I’m never walking through the door for you.’”
One recent initiative is a one-for-one program where anytime someone purchases a copy, Mikey donates one to a kid in a low- to moderate-income community or book desert.
“So his business model is that, after he does the 500,000 copies and makes an impact in so many communities, he’s going to be booked to speak all around the world on how to create an impact as a youth,” Connolly said. “And he really wants to make an impact. He wants to be an example. He wants young people — and older people — around the country to look at him and go, ‘man, you know what, you’re right, I can do this right now. And it doesn’t matter if someone says it’s unrealistic — I have a plan, and I can do this, just like the kid in the book.’”
Family support is important to Connolly, who often talks about the influence of his wife, Adrienne, in his life.
“A lot of people see the wins, and they go, ‘oh, man, Myke’s doing great.’ But in business, sometimes it’s days, weeks, months where everything’s going wrong. And in those times, she’s the glue. From Stinky Cakes to the agency to Stand Up Truck, when it’s going wrong, she’s the glue. She’s the reason I’m able to do a lot of what I do.”
That said, the successes are real.
“I’m very good at marketing, and we get some massive clients. To be able
to serve them with my business, it’s a great thing,” he told BusinessWest. “I’ve built a pretty strong team of designers, writers, videographers, all these pieces that you need to run a successful marketing campaign.”
He stressed that his Launch and Stand Out Agency performs the necessary work in the background so his clients can shine up front.
“My son is one of my clients at the agency, and a big reason for so much of what he’s doing out there is because of the Launch and Stand Out Agency. He’s the rock star, and we quietly do the work behind the scenes from a marketing and advertising standpoint.”
One thing his famous mentors — Kittredge, Sortino, and Klein — taught Connolly is that marketing is, at its heart, a simple thing. So he keeps it simple when delivering lessons through Marketing and Cupcakes, his long-time entrepreneurship networking and mentorship program.
“I love entrepreneurship, man. I believe in entrepreneurs. Like, I believe in people,” he said, before adding, “I believe in kind people. And, like I always tell people, in a world of 8 billion, you’d be hard-pressed to find 1 billion just straight evil people. I think the majority of people in the world are really good people. And I love serving people.”
“Just because you have nice clothes and nice jewelry, that don’t make you a king. The king is a servant — the biggest servant in the community. And I believe in serving.”
“My son is one of my clients at the agency, and a big reason for so much of what he’s doing out there is because of the Launch and Stand Out Agency. He’s the rock star, and we quietly do the work behind the scenes from a marketing and advertising standpoint.”
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