I had never heard of Michael Cheney when I first encountered his training. This is how the person behind the program eventually became someone I chose to learn from.

I Had Never Heard of Michael Cheney

Despite my years around online business, Michael Cheney meant absolutely nothing to me when I first encountered his training.

His reputation didn't attract me. I wasn't following his social channels. Nobody had spent years convincing me he was someone I should learn from. In fact, if you had mentioned his name to me beforehand, I would have met it with a blank stare.

I encountered the training first. Only afterward did I become interested in the person behind it.

That gives us the central thread for this entire article: I discovered the training first; my opinion of the person behind it developed afterward.

1. How Michael Cheney Entered My World

When I first stumbled across Michael’s training, I was looking for clarity. Like many people exploring online business, I had grown weary of overly complex strategies that promised the world but delivered endless confusion.

I wasn't looking for a guru. I was looking for a straightforward, practical approach to affiliate marketing that made sense for where I was in life.

What attracted me enough to investigate was the material's sheer simplicity of framing. I didn't enter with sky-high expectations—years of seeing online marketing promotions teach you to maintain a healthy level of skepticism. But something about the pragmatic, grounded nature of the introductory material convinced me to give the training a chance.

At that stage, I knew nothing about Michael's credentials or history. I was evaluating the work strictly on its merits.

2. So, Who Was Michael Cheney?

Once I began working through the training and seeing how well-structured it was, I naturally grew curious about the person behind it. Who was this guy?

I started doing my own homework, and what I discovered surprised me.

The person I had never heard of was certainly not new to online marketing.

Michael is a British internet marketer who had already spent more than two decades working in the industry. During that time, he had been involved in affiliate marketing, created numerous online marketing programs, and spent many years teaching others what he had learned.

What interested me most was the length of that experience. Michael's career had taken him through enormous changes in how online business works — from the early days of websites and email marketing to social media, video, paid traffic, and, more recently, AI.

Millionaire Apprentice wasn't where his story began. It was the latest chapter in a much longer career.

The more I learned about Michael's background, the more I realized that while he was completely new to me, he certainly wasn't new to the world of online marketing.

3. A Career That Predates Millionaire Apprentice

Understanding Michael’s history made it clear that Millionaire Apprentice wasn't a program that popped up overnight to catch a trend.

Looking back over his career reveals a steady progression of programs—such as Commission Machine, 7 Figure Franchise, and Partner & Profit. But rather than focusing on a catalog of past product launches, the key takeaway is longevity.

Michael has navigated the industry through massive structural shifts:

• The early days of search and simple HTML sites
• The rise of email marketing and complex sales funnels
• The explosion of social media, video platforms, and smartphones
• The transition to paid traffic strategies and now AI integration

Tactics come and go, algorithms change, and buzzwords fade. The fact that Michael has remained active, relevant, and consistently teaching through all these industry shifts provided meaningful context as I evaluated his approach.

4. The People I Discovered Around Michael

As I learned more about Michael's background, I also began to discover the professional relationships he had developed over the years in online marketing.

One name that stood out was Richard Legg.

Richard had been involved in online marketing for many years himself, and what interested me wasn't simply that he spoke positively about Michael. There was a documented professional relationship between the two that had developed over a considerable period.

That gave me another piece of Michael's story.

I wasn't looking for celebrity endorsements or famous names to convince me that I'd made the right choice. I was trying to understand more about the person whose training I had begun following.

Discovering that Michael had established professional relationships with other people who had also spent many years working in the industry helped provide some of that context.

It was another part of understanding who Michael Cheney was — and the professional world he had been part of long before I'd ever heard his name.

5. Experiencing Michael’s Teaching for Myself

Learning about Michael’s background gave me some context, but ultimately that wasn’t what shaped my opinion of him.

That came from experiencing his teaching for myself.

I found his explanations straightforward to follow. There was a logical progression to the training, and his approach suited the way I wanted to learn.

That distinction is important. I’m not suggesting that one person’s teaching style will suit everybody. What I can say is that Michael’s approach worked for me, and my experience with that initial training gave me enough confidence to continue further.

As I progressed, I became more involved in Michael’s wider training environment.

6. Becoming Part of the Private Millionaire Apprentice Community

Inside the private community was a structured classroom containing different levels of training and additional resources, including done-for-you websites.

But for me, one of the most valuable aspects of becoming part of that environment was the opportunity for greater interaction.

7. Meeting Michael Through the Live Community

My contact with Michael wasn’t across a desk or at an internet marketing conference. Like many professional relationships today, we met face-to-face through live Zoom sessions.

These weren’t simply prerecorded lessons or webinars where everyone sat silently and listened.

Members of our group could discuss where they were with their training, raise any problems or challenges they were experiencing, and ask questions about what they were trying to accomplish.

We discussed current marketing topics, different promotional strategies and events, and the practical issues that arise when you start putting what you’ve learned into practice.

Importantly, it wasn’t entirely one-way communication either.

Members could contribute their own thoughts and experiences to the discussion. I appreciated that because I wasn’t looking to accept everything somebody told me. I wanted to understand it, think about it, and contribute from my own experience where I could.

Michael wasn’t the only person available to help us.

Other training advisers within the program provided guidance on website development, Facebook strategy, what and how to promote, and how to begin building an audience.

There was also the ongoing community chat, which meant the interaction wasn’t limited solely to the scheduled Zoom sessions.

Over time, this allowed me to experience Michael in a way beyond simply watching him deliver training on a screen. I could listen to how he approached questions, how he responded when somebody encountered a problem, and how he discussed what was happening in online marketing at the time.

8. When a Teacher Gradually Became a Mentor

I can’t point to one particular Zoom meeting or lesson and say, “That was the moment Michael became my mentor.”

It didn’t happen like that.

My opinion developed gradually.

I had started not knowing who Michael Cheney was. I experienced some of his training, learned more about his background, chose to continue further, became part of the private community, and then had repeated opportunities to interact with him and his wider training team.

Over time, I stopped thinking of Michael simply as the person whose training I had purchased.

I began to regard him as someone whose experience and perspective I valued — someone I could continue learning from.

That’s what mentorship means to me.

It doesn’t mean handing responsibility for your success to somebody else. A mentor can provide knowledge, direction, experience, and perspective, but they cannot do the work for you.

The responsibility to learn, apply what you are taught, and make your own decisions still belongs to you.

And perhaps that’s one of the reasons my relationship with Michael’s training has remained positive. I never expected him to build my business for me.

I wanted someone experienced whom I could continue learning from.

9. Why I'm Telling You About Michael

Here on Senior Entrepreneur Hub, transparency is paramount. If I am going to introduce my readers to a training program or business framework, you deserve to know the background of the person behind it.

My positive experience isn't an instruction for you to unthinkingly follow my path.

• My role is to explain my decision and share the context behind it.
• Your role is to evaluate the information, assess your goals, and make an informed choice.

Learn about the person. Understand what they teach. Decide whether their teaching style aligns with how you like to operate, and always remember that no mentor can guarantee your personal outcomes.

Final Thoughts — From Someone I'd Never Heard Of to Someone I Chose to Learn From

When I first encountered Michael Cheney's training, I didn't know who he was.

Over time, through direct experience, research into his background, participation in his community, and interaction with him personally through live Zoom sessions, that changed. The person whose name once meant nothing to me gradually became someone I chose to continue learning from.

That is why I wanted to introduce Michael, the person, before diving deeper into the specifics of his work. If you're going to evaluate a program like Millionaire Apprentice, knowing something about the person behind it is an important place to start.