Mike Rhodes

The internet café that flooded after three days

Twenty odd years ago, I moved from the UK to Queenstown, New Zealand. It's an expensive place, so I worked three jobs — hotel shifts, a computer store, and an internet café. At that last job, I kept seeing opportunities my employer wouldn't take. So I quit and started my own.

I found a space—a former newspaper office. Impressed the landlord Rex enough to get it. Then I had six days to build everything. I assembled 15 computers in my tiny apartment. Built all the furniture from recycled timber and painted the space with friends helping. Six days, start to finish.

Monday morning, we opened with free internet access. Despite continuous rain, crowds showed up. Tuesday, our first proper day “trading”, we hit profitability. I was exhausted and utterly thrilled.

Wednesday morning, the kae was rising & starting to flood the streets. By 9.30am flood water was lapping at the door, ignoring our sandbags, coming up through the floor. Friends evacuated the equipment—one took all 15 computers and monitors, I pulled up the carpet and moved the desks. The front desk stayed; too big, too heavy. And just like that it was full of water.

So I joined the neighbours sandbagging other shops. That evening a local bar announced free beer for anyone who could reach it. I paddled a kayak through the water to get there, then paddled to check on my shop. By evening, almost a meter of water filled the space.

No insurance. BIG mistake! But Rex (bless him) covered my repairs through his policy. Five weeks later, we reopened just before Christmas. The tourist season was disrupted but the business survived.

The business grew & seventeen months later, I sold it (in 4 days!) and moved to Sydney. Looking back now, that flood taught me what matters: resilience, community, and showing up when everything breaks.

134 Monday mornings

From 2007 to 2023, I built WebSavvy—a Google Ads agency that grew to rank in Google's top 18 globally. Seventeen years of great clients, strong revenue, a very talented team. I had a general manager running operations, so the day-to-day didn't require my constant presence. By most measures, it was working.

Then I did the math. My daughter was heading into her final years of primary school. I calculated I had roughly 134 Monday mornings left before she'd stop wanting to walk to school holding my hand. My parents in the UK were now in their 80s. Time wasn't infinite anymore.

And while this was rattling around in my head I got early access to GPT-4. OMG! The future had arrived! I knew then wanted to build AI tools that helped agencies navigate this transition, and take a break from running an agency myself.

So in 2023, I sold WebSavvy.
The decision came down to two things: family time I couldn't get back, and a technology shift I couldn't ignore.

What I'm building now

For the past two years, I've been doing just that - building AI tools specifically for Google Ads professionals. Not theoretical AI - practical tools that work in real businesses today. Scripts that make Performance Max less of a black box. Agents that analyze account performance and surface insights. A community where people learn to build their own AI solutions.

I have three main projects: the AdsToAI community (€799/year membership where Google Ads professionals learn AI together), 8020agent.com (a free Google Ads reporting tool I launched in July 2025), and 8020brain which will be an AI-powered business operating system.

My core belief: the most powerful AI tools don't come from technical experts alone—they come from people who understand their industry deeply and learn enough AI to build solutions themselves. I've spent my career translating between the geeks and the boardroom. AI proficiency is becoming as essential as spreadsheet skills were in the 1990s. The marketers who integrate AI into their toolkit now won't replace human expertise—they'll become significantly more effective.

Teaching and speaking

I genuinely love teaching. There's something deeply satisfying about taking something complicated—AI agents, Google Ads Scripts, automation workflows—and turning it into an ‘aha! moment’ for someone. Whether I'm delivering a conference keynote to 2000 people, running a hands-on workshop for 20, or coaching a bootcamp cohort through their first AI build, the goal stays the same: give people practical skills they can use in real businesses straight away.

I'm available for speaking engagements, custom training, and workshops. January is always blocked out—that's family vacation time, non-negotiable. Everything else is flexible. I'm based in Melbourne (UTC+10/11).